terms of our justice system. >> from trump tv to the halls of congress. >> if he kicked everybody off mueller's team who was anti-trump, i don't think there would be anybody left. >> tonight the mounting offensive on the american justice system to try to stop robert mueller and save donald trump. >> are you aware of him openly aligning themselves with political bias against the trump administration? >> then, more trouble for the president's son. >> there wasn't really follow-up because there's nothing there to follow up. >> reports tonight there was follow-up to the infamous trump tower meeting. and a surprise republican resignation from congress, as senator al franken takes his parting shot. >> i of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact

that i am leaving, while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the oval office. >> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. the closer special counsel robert mueller gets to the president, the harder they are working to discredit the investigation and the fbi, indeed the very notion of politically independent law enforcement. in the wake of michael flynn's guilty plea requiring him to cooperate with the russia investigation, and news that mueller subpoenaed the president's bank for financial records, republicans appear to be laying the groundwork for a political purge at the fbi. they're seizing on reports that an agent was removed last summer after the justice department's inspector general began examining whether that agent had sent text messages that expressed anti-trump political views.

that agent, peter strzok also worked on the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail server. evidence that both probes were politically tainted. now, never mind that we don't actually know what was in those text messages or whether they were in effect inappropriate, and never mind that strzok were removed from the mueller probe an never mind that all the charges in the russia probe were made after his removal. never mind that flynn and george papadopoulos both pleaded guilty to the charges against them. peter strzok had nothing to do with them admitting to having broken the law. never mind that robert mueller is a lifelong registered republican. never mind the person who proceeded him at the helm was likewise a registered republican. an never mind the fact that the fbi agents, like all americans, do hold private political views, which do not disqualify them from carrying out their duty in faith. never mind all of that. the president's allies at trump tv are now using the peter strzok story to launch an

all-out assault on mueller, his team and the whole fbi. >> mueller's probe is a total political sham. it's a witch hunt. it needs to be shut down immediately, if we believe in the rule of law and our constitution. >> mueller has been using the fbi as a political weapon, and the fbi has become america's secret police. secret surveillance, wiretapping, intimidation, harassment and threats. it's like the old kgb that comes for you in the dark of the night banging through your door. >> by the way, this is not a game. this is not hyperbole you're using here. >> no. >> no. there is definitely no hyperbole in that statement. as he often does, the president took his own cues on this story straight from watching trump tv tweeting the fbi's reputation is in tatters and tagging fox & friends. but this has now migrated to the halls of congress where lawmakers allied with the president are trying to wield it against the fbi and the mueller investigation.

yesterday a group of right-wing congressmen demanded a new review of the clinton e-mail probe and the member of mueller's team. >> we'll also investigate the unprecedented bias against president trump that exists when we allow people who hate the president to participate in the investigations against him. >> senators chuck grassley and ron johnson, chairman of the judiciary and homeland security committees sent a letter to the justice department's inspector general demanding more information on peter strzok. today the director of the fbi, christopher wray, defended the integrity of the fbi that he leads. >> if you kicked everybody who was off mueller's team who was anti-trump, i doubt there would be anybody left. >> i have some serious doubts about the integrity of some of the highest levels of the fbi. >> i think the problem that you have, i think you're walking into a contemptive congress. >> did bob mueller recruit

people to his probe that had a bias against the president? >> at one point louis gomer went through individual officials' names to check their opinions about the president focusing on andrew mccabe whose wife has been active in democratic politics. >> are you aware of any of the following people openly aligning themselves with the political bias expressed by mccabe or openly speaking against this administration. first, carl gatis. >> i'm going to quarrel a little bit with the premise of your question about deputy director mccabe. but as far as assistant director gattis. he's a complete professional and to include -- >> have you ever heard him align himself with political bias against the trump administration? >> no. >> josh skule? >> no. >> larisa menser. >> i actually don't know who that is. >> all right. thank you. fair enough.

brian parman. >> no. >> all right, thank you. once mueller releases its findings, it's that same committee where impeachment proceedings would have to begin. eric swalwell is a member of the intelligence committee. what did you make of that hearing? >> i sat through that hearing and i can assure the american people that the impeachment proceedings against hillary clinton have begun. we've started today in the house judiciary committee. >> you say that jokingly, but i want to play this quote from your colleague, congressman farenthold from texas, who is facing some calls to resign in the face of sexual harassment allegations but he had this to say about the clinton administration. take a listen. >> i just want to reiterate something that i hear regularly from my constituents in south texas, and that's a concern we have a special counsel investigating the trump administration but it seems like no one is addressing the clinton administration.

>> no one is addressing the clinton administration. so is this just grandstanding or is this dangerous? >> it's the land of misfit toys is what it is. but it's dangerous for our democracy because nothing gives our enemies more comfort an aid than to watch my colleagues undermine the work that the fbi does, particularly as we know that russia intends to attack us again as the intelligence community assessment reported. so they see more divisiveness and discord in congress and a real eagerness to look backward rather than forward. that's a problem for the job we have to do. >> it also seems to me there is a pretty concerted effort to lay the groundwork to essentially remove mueller or end his investigation. is that a concern of yours? >> it's a big concern of mine, and there's bipartisan concern in congress that there's not enough guardrails in place to protect bob mueller as he continues to progress in his investigation. i think the best thing we can do to counter the president's tweets and his undermining of

the investigation is to assure the public that even if the president were to fire him, that he would stay in place. we could do that in congress today. >> what do you say to someone who says, wait a second, though, if there are agents who have it out for the president, if the shoe were on the other foot and we knew that there were agents who had it out for democrat politician that we're investigating, that's a serious worry and the fbi has a lot of power and law enforcement has a lot of power and has to be wielded responsibly. >> they sure do. i'm the son of a police officer and brother of two police officers. they all have strong -- i think bob mueller demonstrated good judgment by getting rid of this agent. whether it was affecting his work or not, the perception of any impropriety would affect the investigation. and so i don't understand the concern if he actually got rid of the agent. if the agent was still there, i would understand why so much concern was expressed. >> there is also the house intel

republicans threatening to hold the fbi in contempt because they are also trying to sift through records at the fbi and the doj. i wonder like how far do you see your colleagues taking this? >> it is a very perverse theory that they have, which is that somehow the hillary clinton campaign concerned about donald trump's ties to russia hired the steele dossier folks who informed the fbi and then the fbi based their investigation on the hillary clinton opposition research and that's how we are where we are today. it really is wild considering how many people as you pointed out have already pled guilty to lying about russian contacts. but i think it's just an effort to parrot the white house's narrative that this is a russian hoax and to not be up front with the american people that we were attacked by russia in this last election and that we have done really nothing to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> do you think that your colleagues that we saw up there, are these concerns honest or is this bad faith? meaning do they actually believe this sort of increasingly

conspiratorial thinking that's spinning out from various media outlets the president likes to view or is this essentially just a cynical attempt to throw up dust in advance of whatever mueller's findings are? >> no, i think these are obstructive attempts to stop bob mueller and his team from finding out who was responsible, and also from the house intelligence committee to put out its report as to what the vulnerabilities were and how this -- and chris, again, this can happen to the republicans. another country who doesn't like republicans can go after them and that's what's so maddening is we would never want either party to benefit from another country's preference and we should find unity. >> thanks for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. on the republican campaign against law enforcement, let's bring in sam seder. let me start with you. having served in that building

at doj, there's sort of a fundamental principle here which is if you work at doj, with the fbi, you're working with republicans and democrats and career people with all sorts of opinions. what would it mean to have a congress essentially going through trying to veto out people whose political opinions they don't like? >> i mean, look, when you go and you're employed at the justice department, you obviously -- everyone has personal views. what the expectation is, is that you'll put them aside to independently investigate based on the law and the facts. certainly special counsel bob mueller, who has some of the utmost integrity, was received with praise when he was first named to head up this investigation by republicans and democrats, he has a long reputation for that integrity, is expected to put aside any personal views, his agents are as well. and so to see this kind of vindictive attack on the part of republicans recently, some members of congress, it just suggests that they're in kind of

a desperate panicked state and seeking to impugn the integrity of people conducting an investigation where they don't like where they think the facts and the law may lead. >> there's an irony here, sam, which is i think one of the things that should be commending -- commended about the mueller investigation, it hasn't leaked at all. no one knew who george papadopoulos was until he pleaded guilty. you compare that to the fbi office, particularly field office in new york in the run-up to the election itself and there was a lot of stuff coming out about hillary clinton that was very damaging and struck me as like fairly unprofessional. here's rudy giuliani on tv sort of talking about what's coming from -- for hillary clinton. take a look. >> i had expected this for the last honestly to tell you the truth, i thought it was going to be three or four weeks ago. i did nothing to get it out. i had no role in it. did i hear about it? you're darn right i heard about it. and i can't even repeat the language. >> this is him reacting to the reopening of an investigation.

>> well, he also predicted things that were coming too in clips earlier than that. i mean, look, there may very well be or had been a problem in the new york fbi office. there were people who were associated with it in the past who had close associations with donald trump. wayne barrett came out with a piece that just days before the election, days before he passed away that talked about jim cosell, i believe it was, who was the former head of the new york fbi office who giuliani had cited at various times. also was one of the biggest recipients, his charity was one of the biggest recipients are donald trump skipping one of those debates in 2016. but let me just broaden out for one second. the idea of the republican party attacking an institution as they see as a threat to them electorally is completely modus operandi for the republican party. we can point to science, we can

point to the media, we can point to studies at treasury that disappear because they show trickle-down economics don't work, on and on and on. the only difference at this point is just the lines that they're will to cross just keep getting further depending on what is necessary at that moment. >> vanita, i think that's the concern i have here is that it does feel like sometimes we're hurtling toward a constitutional crisis moment. all that holds this together, and the rule of law sort of managing to win out in the end are a bunch of institutional norms that kind of hold it together. do you worry as someone who worked in that building that we're seeing those being degraded? >> i worry as a resident of the united states who believes in our constitution that these institutions are being degraded. look, i think all of these actions, the attack on the press when he -- when the president doesn't like what the press is

putting out, the attack on federal judges when he doesn't like opinions that federal judges are issuing. now the attack on an investigation. he is the subject of an investigation, and as president of the united states to be critiquing an institution like the justice department, like the fbi that has a strong history of independence, you know, all of this is deeply worrisome. it is pointing to a fundamental disrespect for the rule of law and for our democratic institutions. and i agree, i think the line keeps getting further and further. and if there is any move to try to fire mueller, to try to pardon any of the subjects of this investigation should it lead to indictments, then we are absolutely at a point of a constitutional crisis. as a civil rights lawyer, all of the laws that we have on the books, those are germane to the well-being of our communities and our country. all of these kind of moves and gestures, they are deeply troubling. and we've been experiencing them frankly since the campaign, but

they are getting much more intensified and at this point doing this kind of vindictive campaign against special counsel mueller i think is getting so close to the line that i think it is time for members of congress to step up and figure out are they going to protect the integrity of our democracy or are they not. >> yeah, i mean i think at one point the line has to be drawn. and there needs to be continual pressure. i mean, look, there's a lot of never trumpers out there, with all due respect, who claim that they have problems with the president and they want certain issues to be sidelined and whatnot. those people have one point of influence and that is with the republican leadership. and you see the constant fallback just take what's going on with roy moore. i mean, you know, this is all the same modus operandi. the line keeps getting pushed down. in this area we're talking about institutions that are

fundamental to the rule of law in this country. >> to the way it functions. >> but it really is just a function of what is in their way at any given time. >> all right, great to have both of you with me tonight. tonight, new e-mails raise big questions about what happened in the wake of this infamous trump tower meeting. senator richard blumenthal on the latest trouble for donald trump jr. in two minutes.

tonight there's new information about a central issue in the russia investigation. that now infamous june 9th, 2016 meeting at trump tower. that was the meeting donald trump jr. took after being promised dirt on hillary clinton courtesy of the russian government. trump junior insisted nothing came of the meeting. he never got the dirt he was promised and just kind of moved on. >> there wasn't really follow-up because there was nothing to follow up. as we were walking out, he said listen, i'm sorry for that. >> did you ever have any contact with goldstone again? >> casual, how's it going, something like that. >> but tonight we now know there were in fact follow-up e-mails

uncovered by congressional investigators. cnn reporting that an e-mail from rob goldstone to senior trump aide dan scavino reveals a previously undisclosed topic discussed at the time meeting. it encouraged candidate trump to create a page on the russian social networking site vk telling him that don and paul were onboard with the idea. donald trump jr.'s eight-hour session with the house intel committee yesterday he was asked about these follow-up e-mails an said he was not aware of them or could not recall their contents. other e-mails are eye opening. according to cnn, in one e-mail goldstone forwarded a cnn story on russia's hacking of dnc e-mails to ike kaveladze describing the news as eerily weird given what they had discussed five days earlier. on the day they broke the story,

cnn reports that george kaveladze e-mailed his father asking why donald trump jr. was admitting, quote, collusion. senator richard blumenthal of connecticut is a member of the senate judiciary committee and has requested senator chuck grassley subpoena donald trump jr. to compel him to give testimony and documents on a number of unanswered questions. first, senator, your reaction to the fact that we now know that there was some kind of follow-up after the meeting. that this big meeting happens that has all these participants that are very close to the candidate. it's promising some big christmas gift of dirt on hillary clinton and the idea that no one ever said anything afterwards is always a little hard to believe. what's your reaction to this news? >> this news is profoundly important because it directly contradicts the interviews and the other statements made by donald trump jr. that there was no follow-up, that these meetings were really only supposed to be about russian

adoption. clearly they were designed to get dirt on hillary clinton. and the other profoundly important question is why donald trump, the father, the president, also indicated in statements that were reported that his son should say it was only about russian adoption, when in fact there were additional follow-up indications. >> i want to play for you congressman adam schiff's reaction to a moment that happened in that closed session in which donald trump jr. appeared to attempt to invent a novel form of attorney/client privilege. take a listen. >> he acknowledged having discussed the june 9th meeting and the e-mails that went into establishing that meeting after those e-mails became public. he acknowledged discussing that matter with his father but refused to answer questions about that discussion on the basis of a claim of attorney/client privilege. in my view, there is no attorney/client privilege that

protects a discussion between father and son. >> you're a lawyer yourself. do you agree with your colleague, adam schiff? >> i agree totally. this claim of attorney/client privilege is absolutely bogus and disingenuous. the attorney/client privilege is a serious one. it can be invoked and it's designed to protect people seeking legal advice from their attorney. it is not designed to protect a son seeking advice from his father about how to mislead the american people. you and i are having a discussion right now. there may be some lawyers listening to us. our conversation is not protected simply because there's some lawyers listening to our conversation. and as much as we may sort of smile about this absolutely absurd claim, it is a profoundly serious defiance of both the rule of law and the purpose of congress. >> well, then what can you do

about it? >> what should be done about it and what i've asked senator grassley, chairman of the judiciary, to do is to subpoena donald trump jr., along with jared kushner and others, including k.t. mcfarland, who may have knowledge of this collusion with russia, so that they will be compelled to tell the truth. and donald trump, if he's subpoenaed, will have to testify before the judiciary committee in the open under oath. if he invokes this claim of privilege, he should be instructed to answer it, because there is no privilege. and if he continues to refuse, he should be held in contempt of congress and there are penalties for being held in contempt, which can be done when there's a vote of the committee and by the senate. >> given what we saw in the house judiciary committee today with republican members going after fbi director wray, are you confident that your colleagues in the senate, republican colleagues, will hold the line if the president moves against the mueller investigation?

>> that's a great question, chris. i'm increasingly apprehensive about my colleagues in the senate. but they have assured me, and members of their leadership have assured me that they will protect the special counsel if he continues his investigation responsibly and diligently as he has done. but i also believe that the judiciary committee should move forward with legislation that will protect the special counsel by making any firing or any political interference impossible against him by providing court protection for him. >> all right, senator richard blumenthal, thank you. >> thank you. still to come, a surprise resignation by a veteran republican in the house today, and senator al franken's parting shot at the president and roy moore as he announced his resignation today as well. o seve ulcerative colitis or crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough,

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all republicans believe in something called starve the beast. they want to slash what are called entitlement programs, which are mostly social security and medicare, and they don't think they can get the political support to do it unless they have a deficit that is so large that they have no choice. >> that was bruce bartlett on this very program who worked under president george h.w. bush in a senior economic policy position laying out the republican game plan on cutting social security and medicare. now, republicans have not even finished part one yet, that would be the passage of a tax plan that will balloon the deficit by $1 trillion, benefiting billionaire heirs and corporations. like the $47 billion benefit apple could potentially reap.

that's right, this republican bill could give one company a reduced tax liability that's nearly the gdp of the entire country of croatia. but while ramming through a huge tax cut for the wealthiest americans, house speaker paul ryan is already planning step two and that is how to slash programs that benefit the poor and the middle class. >> we're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit. frankly, it's the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt so we spend more of our time on the health care entitlements because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking. >> if there's a way donald trump contrasted himself with his fellow republicans on the trail on that crowded primary field, it was on his repeated promises not to cut social security and medicare. >> you've been paying into social security and medicare, by the way, because medicare does work. with both you have tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. we're going to take care of that, okay. but we're not going to cut your social security and we're not cutting your medicare.

>> so all the american people need now is for donald trump to keep his word. hey julie, i know today's critical, but i really need...

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congressman franks, can you confirm that you're going to be resigning? >> i'm going to let you take a look at the statement that should be up if not now, it should be up very soon. >> can you tell us on camera? >> i'm going to let the statement speak for itself, folks. >> you can't tell us off camera? we'll put the cameras away. >> i'm going to stick with the statement. >> breaking news tonight. republican congressman trent

franks you just saw there of arizona will resign from congress at the end of january. franks recently learned the house ethics committee was investigating, and i'm taking this from the statement here, conversations he had with female staffers. the congressman's statement acknowledged, quote, discussion of surrogacy with two previous female subordinates, but included few other details of the conversations. speaker paul ryan said he urged congressman franks to resign after learning what he described as, quote, credible claims of misconduct. presumably we'll learn a little bit more. now, this comes on the same day that democratic senator al frank enannounced he would step down after allegations of groping from half a dozen women. franken made clear today that he had some reluctance in departing, that he was keenly aware of our broader cultural moment. >> today i am announcing that in the coming weeks i will be

resigning as a member of the united states senate. i of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the oval office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. >> jess mcintosh was al franken's spokesperson from 2007 to 2010 on the first campaign and then in the senate office. when she left, franken called her among my most trusted advisers. she was a senior advisor in the hillary clinton presidential campaign. you and i have been talking a lot through this whole thing. what was your reaction today? >> i founding it interesting to watch other people's reactions because i'm watching people who i know agree with each other on 100% of everything be diametrically opposed except for

the fact that this is sad. i come from a different perspective, obviously. i've known al for more than a decade. i have spent more time with him than most of my blood relatives. he's my friend. i'm proud of the work that we did together. i'm proud of the work he did in the senate. and i think he did the right thing. >> you do? >> i do. he listened to women. >> why? >> he listens to women. and that's what has to happen in this moment right now. even if it doesn't feel comfortable. i think that was the right thing to do. i was really heartened that he just assumed in his speech that he was going to be succeeded by a woman. i think if we use this moment to not just talk about men and their conduct but to make space for more women's voices at the platforms that men have traditionally enjoyed, i think that's how we make sure that this is not just a painful, traumatic, important watershed moment but something that changes the culture forever.

like that's how we're going to get the systemic thing addressed. >> since you worked with him i want to ask you. there's -- one of the things that's happened post weinstein is this notion of the open secret. >> yeah. >> and it's clear that there are certain men who have subsequently been outed with allegations who a lot of people know about. >> yeah. >> but no one reported it. >> right. >> was al franken one of those people? >> no. you know, i had been working with him -- i've taken thousands of those photos of him with constituents. i've never seen any of the behavior described. he's always been 100% respectful to me and the women i've seen him interact with. >> so this must have been really surprising to you? >> yeah, it really was. i think it was to him too. if you had asked him a month ago whether this was -- you know, we've had conversations about this cultural moment. the idea that he would somehow find himself at the center of one of those conversations i think never occurred to anyone who knew him. >> you said you thought he

should resign ultimately. is it a just outcome? >> so that's -- i think that he made the right choice today. like he went to the senate because he wanted to do good. but being a senator is not -- was not the be all, end all ambition for him. it was about doing good for people. i think today he listened to the stories of the women who were talking about his conduct. he listened to his female colleagues calling for him to resign. and i think he made the calculation that it was better to do good by talking about this broader cultural context. it can't just be about harvey weinsteins. we cannot set the bar there. and i don't want to say that i'm calling for a bright line for all kinds of punishment because i believe that this is a nuanced conversation that we have to have. but one side of the aisle is doing the work. as uncomfortable as it is, one side of the aisle is having that conversation. and i thought it was really important in his speech that he talked about what's going on on the other side of the aisle. >> a lot of -- there was a lot of -- there was a piece about

today making this point and others have about the asymmetry that appeared to be developing. democrats say we take this seriously and you had conyers and franken. these are two very large figures in the democratic party, both resigning in the same week, while blake farenthold hangs out in congress, roy moore runs, donald trump is president. trent franks' resignation today seemed to complicate the picture a little bit, that it wasn't going to just be that one party was going to deal with this and the other party was like, all right. >> well, i'm hopeful that that's the case. one thing that i want to say about today is that democrats need to make this counting. like if we are going to call our ranks. if this is the principle that we are setting today, we need to replace these guys with bold, progressive women and we need to hold the other side to the same principle. we have to talk about the fact that it's been 425 days since donald trump admitted to being a sexual predator, and he's still there. >> jess mcintosh, thank you. >> thanks. still ahead, when does a republican reckoning happen in the wake of the me too movement. the growing calls for

accountability at the white house coming up. and a truly divine thing one, thing two, next.

thing one tonight, perhaps you remember this moment from a couple of years ago. a county clerk's release from jail to the 1982 classic "eye of the tiger." >> would you please help me welcome to the stage, kim davis. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> that kim davis was arrested, you might remember, in 2015 for

refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples who of course have the right to get married thanks to that supreme court decision that year. for religious liberty folks kim davis embodied the resistance by standing up to same-sex couples like david ermold and his now husband, david moore. >> i'm not being disrespectful to you. >> you absolutely have disrespected us. >> you're telling us that we don't deserve the same rights that you have. would you do this to an interracial couple? >> a man and woman, no. we are not issuing a marriage license today. >> based on what? why are you not issuing marriage licenses today? >> because i'm not. >> under whose authority are you not issuing licenses? >> under god's authority. >> two years later, one of those men returned to kim davis's office. he already has his marriage license. this time he wants her job, and

when kim davis decided to run for re-election for county clerk in kentucky, she probably did not expect her opponent to be a man she denied a marriage license to two years ago to wed his partner and now his husband. that's david ermold sitting across from kim davis yesterday. since she's the current clerk, she had to register him as a candidate to take her job. the associated press reported davis made sure he had all of his paperwork and signatures to file for office. softly humming the old hymn "jesus paid it all" as her fingers clacked across the keyboard. she stood and shook his hand saying may the best candidate win. >> i simply told you all i'm willing to face my consequences as you all will face your consequences when it comes time for judgment.

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we fight for what we want. even for the things that were once a given. going to college... buying a home... and not being in debt for it for the rest of our lives. but we're only as strong as our community. who inspires and pushes us to go further than we could ever go alone. sofi. get there sooner. do you remember the humiliation visited upon james o'keefe last week?

o'keefe deployed a woman to lie about having been impregnated as a teenager by roy moore in an effort to discredit moore's very real accusers, but the scam was exposed by "the washington post" which discovered inconsistencies in the woman's story and her ties to o'keefe. >> i'm going to have a few things to say here. >> second question. >> yeah. >> are you working with roy moore? >> okay -- >> are you working with steve bannon? >> i'm going to ask -- >> are you working with the republican party? your employee -- she's your employee? if you're not going to answer that, i'll assume she's your employee. >> most people would probably be drummed out of their profession after such a public humiliation or disappear in shame. but what looked to all decent people like an unforgivable disgrace increased o'keefe's standing in the conservative movement. last night at the trump international hotel in washington, o'keefe was given an award. he was presented with the so-called impact award by ginny

thomas, conservative activist and wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas, whose alleged treatment of anita hill brought the phrase sexual harassment into the public sphere. so you have the wife giving an award to a guy who disgracefully schemed to discredit alleged victims down in alabama. for conservatism, i guess. when we come back, how the white house responded confronted with the fact while al franken is stepping down for alleged sexual harassment, a president who bragged about sexual assault is still in office. that's next.

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tomorrow evening president trump will hold a campaign rally 20 miles from roy moore's home state. the same media market as mobile that could allow trump to reach alabama voters without having to travel to the state and specifically rally for more. of course, a man who faces credible allegations of molesting a 14-year-old girl and sexual assaulting a 16-year-old and who the president has non-the less endorsed. trump has reportedly privately decided the allegations against moore are bunk. that moore's accusers are lying, which is the same thing trump says about the dozen plus women that claim that trump sexually harassed them. that's not good enough for most. a new poll finds 70% of americans believe congress should investigate while 25% do not. the white house today sarah

sanders was asked in their poll -- political careers. >> franken announced resignation said quote that he's aware that there is some irony in the fact that i'm leaving while a man who is bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the oval office and a man that repeatedly prayed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party end quote. what's the white house response to that? >> look, the president addressed comments back during the campaign. we feel strongly that the people of this country also address that when they elected donald trump to be president and i've addressed it several times from here and have nothing new to add. >> msnbc contributor, senior editor at business insider. there was a lot of people today looking at how this is all shaking out and saying that there is a sort of partisan divide and that's been complicated by trent frank's announce the he's resigning.

but what do you think -- the people that you work with for grass roots of the democratic party, where are they on what is happening in this moment in terms of political reverberations? >> women have a voice in this moment. we saw it starting both women's march until today. before this, women could speak out or wouldn't speak out because there was no retribution for men who did these things, powerful men in particular. there has been a movement that has continued to what we're seeing in the last couple weeks. look, you know, as we saw with franken today, he did the right thing. it was clearly difficult for him to do that but you can't deny the stark difference between democrats and republicans. trying they threw their own under the bus and did something wrong and democrats and we can't find 33 republicans and do the same about roy moore and they think they are not happening.

>> but republicans not senate, there is remarkable collapse of support still saying that they are not going to support financially even though the rnc is controlled by the president is and you saw, i mean, establishment republicans try to keep donald trump away from the republican nomination and this is before the harassment and you've seen efforts from the top down in both parties to impose and paul ryan say specifically announcing that he asked -- >> asked. >> not just that he was doing at the request of the speaker. the representative from pennsylvania that resigned a few months ago. there is a sex scandal, harassment scandal. there -- >> there is also abortion scandal, which is i think -- >> but there was also misbehavior in the office. so i think inside the legislative branch, there are efforts by legislative leaders on the republican side to control them. the problem is they don't

control the president. they have given up trying to control the president. >> or the rnc. i want to bring in tim miller who last month donated to doug jones, the first democrat. tim, i feel your group of never trump republicans who see moore as this sort of profound moral line in the sand for the party. >> yeah, absolutely, and look, i hear josh's point paul ryan did a nice job with franks and others. when it comes to donald trump, there is this ceiling and republicans refuse to rebuke him and it goes back to the convention, leaves mike lee alone and jeff flake alone as the only republican who supported doug jones and it's because they are scared of donald trump. they are scared of the voters and that is a big difference between our party and democrats and my donation to jones was an attempt to encourage more republicans to say no, this is a line. there are times to support a democrat and when the candidate is a child molester thanks seems to be a clear one. >> this seems to where it comes

down to -- >> alleged. >> the alabama race as this sort of very stark moral test. >> it is. we have a personal who is essentially accused of being a pedophile and that will represent the republican party if he wins next tuesday. that's a problem. let's not forget what's his name, blake who spent 85,000 of taxpayers' money for sexual harassment issue and only one republican asked him to resign. >> there is a second in the last hour. i actually do wonder whether you're going -- the fact that it was barbara was the first one and blake has been chilling. like he -- >> right. for awhile. >> yeah. the weird thing with ferrethold, there was a ruling clearing him in the case where they paid out a settlement, which i find odd but that ruling was issued and that's something republican haves been pointing to, there was a process here and it cleared ferrethold. if taxpayers have to pay an

$85,000 settlement, people are skeptical. >> what does it mean sort of more broadly to have roy moore in the senate? people are thinking about tuesday and not fully grasping what it means. this guy had in my opinion a lot of -- no business in the u.s. senate before the allegations. >> exactly. >> yeah, you know, john mccormick made this argument, too. donald trump is not capable of looking past what his interests are at that moment, but if you look as conservatives out a year or two years, having this man whose an alleged child molester is the avatar for the pro-life cause is extremely damaging and the idea they will unseed him i think is just unbelievable when you look back at past examples of this. >> all right. thanks to you-all. >> thank you. >> before we go, amazing news for all your audio files, there is an "all in with chris hayes" pod cast.

listen for free wherever you get your pod cast. that's "all in" for this evening. tonight, what the white house says about donald trump jr. invoking privilege. and the effort under way on the political right to attack and take down robert mueller before his work is done. al franken on his way out of the senate, reminding everyone the president's been accused of worse. and just hours after that, the arizona republican who says he's leaving congress because of conversations with female staffers. and the new polling numbers just out on the president's approval. and what he managed to get wrong about a solemn day in american history. "the 11th hour" gets under way now. good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 322 of the trump administration. and while the white house spent the day largely on defense in the russia investigation, the conservative wing of the republican party and associated media is on offense.