elections, and we don't want foreign interference. >> ellen weintraub gets tonight's last word and nothing could be more appropriate. thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. >> thank you, lawrence. >> that is tonight's last word. "the 11th hour with brian williams" starts now. the breaking news tonight, "new york times" on the board with another exclusive. there may be a second whistle-blower about to emerge from inside the intelligence community with potentially more evidence of trump's use of foreign policy toward his own political gain. the democrats made it rain over parts of washington late today, dropping subpoenas on white house chief of staff mulvany, vice president pence, secretary of state pompeo. in political news, mitt romney being hailed as a profile in courage because he dared speak out against the president. and it turns out bernie sanders suffered a heart attack, emerging today, having kept the press in the dark, saying he cannot wait to get back out there on the trail. all of it as another week comes

to a close and "the 11th hour" gets underway on this friday night. good evening once again. just as day 988 of the trump administration was coming to a close, the democrats subpoenaed the white house in their impeachment inquiry. and then late tonight, "the new york times" dropped another one. a story that says we may hear from a second whistleblower from inside the intelligence community on the topic of trump and ukraine. the president won't like that. michael schmidt and adam goldman write, the official has more direct information than the the first whistle-blower whose complaint that mr. trump was using his power to get ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. the second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistleblower. this as democrats ramp up their impeachment inquiry as we

watch. oversight committee chairman elijah cummings along with the chairs of intel and foreign affairs subpoenaed the white house for documents related to the president's dealings with ukraine. tonight, they write, quote, we deeply regret that president trump has put us and the nation in this position. but his actions have left us no choice but to issue this subpoena. democrats gave acting chief of staff mick mulvaney until october 18 to hand over documents. also today, house democrats asked that mike pence turn over any documents that he might have about the president's attempts to get ukraine to investigate the bidens. this as nbc news is reporting, weeks before the whistle-blower's complaint became public, quote, the cia's top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the justice department about the whistle-blower's allegations that president donald trump abused his office in pressuring the ukrainian president. u.s. officials familiar with the matter tell nbc news.

and "the wall street journal" spoke to republican senator ron johnson of wisconsin who said he was told by an american democrat -- diplomat back in august that release of the military aid to ukraine that was approved by congress, let's not forget, was contingent on an investigation that trump wanted. "the journal" reports it this way. quote, alarmed by that information, senator johnson said he raised the issue with mr. trump the next day, august 31st n a phone call days before the senator was to meet with ukraine's president. in the call, mr. trump flatly rejected the notion that he directed aides to make military aid to ukraine contingent on a new probe by kiev. mr. johnson said. earlier today before departing for maryland, the president talked about the senate kind of as his ace in the hole. >> we have a great relationship in the senate. i have a 95% approval rating in the republican party. i believe the senate and i haven't spoken to that many senators. but i believe the senators look

at this as a hoax, a witch hunt, a disgrace. so i think in the senate, i think they feel that the republican party has been treated very, very badly. >> not all senate republicans are backing the president. mitt romney posted this today and we, quote, by all appearances, the president's brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling. of course, note the difference between a tweet and a vote on the senate floor. they're extraordinary. of course, many are still processing those text messages from former special envoy to ukraine, kurt volker, that he provided the lawmakers that could spell real trouble for the president the more and more we read through them. peter baker of the "new york times" sums up the importance of those text messages this way. the portrait that emerged from the texts on mr. volker's own testimony depicted a team scrambling to satisfy a deeply suspicious president and his relentless personal lawyer mr.

giuliani who saw the united states relationship with ukraine as predicated on its willingness to look into former vice president joe biden and other democrats. as we keep saying, it's a lot. here to lead off the discussion, on a friday night, susan page, washington bureau chief for "usa today," john allen, nbc news national political reporter, former u.s. attorney, barbara mcquade, and the aforementioned peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the "new york times." peter, i hate to begin on a friday night with a process question, but i must. what will happen to everything underway if indeed a second whistleblower comes up and has to be processed and spoken to and heard from on the hill and perhaps has even more pointed evidence than the first? >> well, it's very interesting because this would serve to validate to some sentence the first whistleblower as a witness to what happened. the president, of course, has spent a lot of time trying to

discredit the whistle-blower saying his information is only second hand, hearsay. never mind that actually most of the things in the whistleblower complaint that we've now all seen has been actually verified by the white house itself and the rough transcript they release of the phone call with president zelensky. other information has been released. but having a second whistle-blower, a second person saying yeah this troubled me and here's the information i have about what we learned at the time. i think it would embolden the democrats to keep pushing forward. they're already moving at a breakneck speed. they only have one witness, kurt volker, but look how much they've gotten out of that one moment of testimony. at this point, you know, there's a pretty good lesson that a clinton administration person said me the other day. he says when you get caught up in one of these presidential scandals, the facts tend to get worse, not better. >> so susan, this was about a phone call using plain

language that people could get. well, look what's happened in the last 48 hours. this is as dense and complicated as portions of the mueller report. we see the president's strategy kind of say something patently outrageous and then today double down on it still. >> such a contrast to the whole two-year experience with the mueller investigation and its report. one difference is the president, president trump spent two or three years saying no collusion with russia, no collusion, no obstruction. and although some disagreed that was what the mueller report concluded, it pretty much carried the day. now we have the president basically saying, yeah, i colluded, yes, i spoke to ukraine, i was right to do so, i was talking about corruption. this is what has propelled this

story with such velocity. we haven't even hit the two-week mark yet on the ukraine story, and yet we're at that point where president's impeachment seems increasingly likely. he said that himself to reporters at the white house. that he thinks the democrats have the vote to impeach him. although, as you used the clip earlier that showed him counting on the republican controlled senate to keep him if office. >> yeah, exactly that. hey, barb, what does it take for a cia in-house lawyer to refer a criminal complaint up the ladder to doj? >> i have to believe that this cia general counsel was very alarmed by what she saw to take such serious steps as to alert the department of justice that a crime may have occurred by the president of the united states. i think that if i were in those shoes, looking at that, it would take a very, very high level of allegedly, purportedly criminal behavior before i would make that call. so it suggests to me that she had very serious concerns about these allegations.

>> john allen. critique for us the democrats, the job they have done thus far. >> well, brian, i think you've got to take this in parts. i mean, as far as bringing forward this complaint, i think they've done a pretty good job in making sure that the public is getting the basic news. it is not that difficult to understand what is going on here. in part because the president and the white house released the rough transcript that shows the president combining these two things. basically saying, if you want the money, ukraine, i would also like the see this investigation into joe biden. it is not a situation where you've got necessarily the greatest stars out front. but it is a situation where they have done a lot of this behind closed doors and you don't have 35 lawmakers giving five-minute question periods like you've had in some of the previous hearings.

so to that extent, they are letting the facts get out there first. they are letting this pick up its own steam. they are letting the administration and the president sorts of stumble over themselves, and to that degree, i think they've done what they need to do. >> susan page, back to your last mention of republicans in the senate. and i took pains a few minutes ago to point out tweeting is the cheap seats. anybody can say anything on twitter. but casting a vote on the senate floor and really standing up for your convictions is something else. susan, let's say some of these republicans in dicey races come back after this recess, after some dicey town hall meetings. are we going to see them go to their leader with some of kind of situational courage breaking out and saying, boss, i don't know if i can be with you. this isn't selling across the land. >> situational courage sounds like an oxymoron to me.

perhaps others can judge that. i don't actually see signs of that. it's always possible. we don't know how this will unfold. but so far i think until republican voters abandon president trump, republican-elected officials by and large are not going to abandon president trump. they are already not offering what seems like very robust defense of what president trump is alleged to have done. but they are attacking his attackers. or in some cases, trying to avoid saying anything at all. >> peter baker, i read from our friends at "time" magazine. this is about secretary of state mike pompeo. nearly two dozen officials told time in recent days, pompeo has become increasingly loud and bullying and appears frequently distracted and impatient during state department policy meetings. what is that about? >> look, here's under a lot of pressure, obviously. he had to admit that he was on that telephone call with president zelensky even though he hadn't admitted to it earlier.

that raised a lot of questions. what was the secretary of state doing on that call? why hadn't he acknowledged it earlier? what was his role in supervising or coordinating with rudy giuliani or state department officials working with rudy giuliani, including kurt volker, gordon sondland and so on. these are all questions that remain unanswered. you can naj congress, at least the house democrats will want to ask him about that. they've already clashed about the requests for testimony and documents. he said they were trying to brutalize state department employees but they have made clear, they don't plan to accept no for an answer. so there is a real collision here between executive and legislative branch with mike pompeo right there in the middle of it. >> hey,ba last night on this broadcast we quoted a superb legal thinker named barbara mcquade. i want to read it back to you. this habit of committing crimes in plain sight is intriguing. trump is practically daring us

to call him out for soliciting foreign influence into our election, which is a crime. i accept the dare. this is a crime. barb, you've always been careful to keep politics out of law. but as a matter of law and tactics, what do you think the democrats could do that you don't see them doing right now? >> i think they need to stay on course. one of the things, a mistake they made with regard to the mueller report, the mueller investigation, moving so very slowly. i think lost all momentum in terms of calling witnesses and subpoenaing records and allowing the trump administration to stonewall and refusing to comply with the subpoenas. i think keeping the pressure on, demanding witnesses, demanding dmgts, and not taking "no" for an answer when they get stonewalled, go to court and demand those things because just as we saw in u.s. versus nixon, any sort of privilege will yield when we're looking at criminal investigations. so i think they need to be relentless to get to the facts here. >> john, by our unofficial

count, rudy giuliani is 5 for 5 if you're counting his appearances over five week nights on various fox news evening shows. tonight was his fifth. we've prepared for you a modest sampler of this week in rudy. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> they bought joe biden's office. wake up, democrats. i prosecuted corruption. democrats and republicans. i can smell this. why do you think they're silencing me? because i'm not making any points? >> take a little valium. calm down. little babies, calm down. >> we call them witch hunter? >> the anonymous whistle-blower. >> the whistleblower. >> i keep thinking witch hunt. >> do you have any more attacks? >> i do. i also have video recordings. go look at my tweets. >> are you getting a feeling all of this is becoming a blur to the american people? >> no, no. >> i think americans in general can't follow most of this. >> of course they can. >> i can follow it. >> i want to give you another

example of what we can do with this lawsuit. >> he's unbelievable. >> what's your mission? >> to disrupt the world. >> all right, rudy. great to see you. thanks. >> they are such phonies. >> john allen, you can start basically anywhere. what is going on here? what are we seeing and how long will it go on? >> well, rudolph giuliani is clearly flailing. he's in the midst of what you would say is a massive scheme between elements of the federal government and the president's personal lawyer to get a foreign government to involve itself in an american election. he's talking about corruption by joe biden. joe biden is not in office. if the president was interested in getting rid of corruption in the american government, it is an odd place to start with somebody who doesn't actually hold an office. jewelry's rudolph giuliani has been traveling the world, cooperating with the state department. we've got reports of him dropping off dossiers at the state department, potentially. he goes on television talking

about how he's being silenced which is a very odd place to talk about being silenced. i'm not sure what he's trying to do other than rally support to himself in a public relations sense. i know the yankees were on television tonight. it might be time to take in some television instead of going on. >> he did go to the yankee game tonight. i hasten to add along with alan dershowitz there in his usual seat. hey, peter, of what we know that's going to happen next week, anything you can share with us? obviously at this pace you want to get a good laugh out of the guy upstairs telling your plans for tomorrow. it was just yesterday, after all, the president invited china to look into joe biden. >> yeah. brian, i can't tell you what's going to happen an hour from now. one of the things we learned so far, the velocity of this particular matter has been so extraordinary. even for the trump era. just when you think you've got your hands on it, something else

comes up. i think next week one of the things people will look for will be testimony by masha yovanovitch, the ambassador to ukraine who was ousted by the trump administration. the president called her bad news in his phone call with the president of ukraine. doesn't seem to know much about her except he said he was told bad things about her. he can't name her but he was told she was anti-trump and that was enough to get her removed. she's a career public servant, a career diplomat, well-respected by people in the russia community, worked for presidents in both parties. it will be interesting to see what she had to say. fore stalling rudy giuliani's mission to ukraine to put pressure on the government there, we don't know. we would like to hear her say it. she'll do it with closed doors. with kurt volker, we'll get some information pretty quick will after she's done. >> our thanks to the front four. as we bring this week to a close. much obliged.

coming up for us, this latest case against the president started with a phone call. something everyone could understand. as we said, it's gotten suddenly complex. tonight we have something of an explainer. joe biden appears before a tiny back drop and calls trump a coward. or as we call it, this week in political news, as "the 11th hour" just getting underway on a friday night. yeah, that's half the fun of a new house. seeing what people left behind in the attic. well, saving on homeowners insurance with geico's help was pretty fun too. ahhhh, it's a tiny dancer. they left a ton of stuff up here. welp, enjoy your house. nope. no thank you. geico could help you save on homeowners and renters insurance. it's been a long time since andrew dusted off his dancing shoes. luckily denture breath will be the least of his worries. because he uses polident 4 in 1 cleaning system

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has more on the saga of the currenty overwhelmed trump administration. with the report of theirs headlined, in months before trump call, ukraine officials sweated white house pressure. on the subject of delaying that military aid, quote, some ukrainian officials surmised that there may have been a technical budgetary reason. others thought it could be that the u.s. is halting foreign aid in general, and some thought it was a personal decision of mr. trump. text messages the house intel committee released late last night indicated the latter was the case. in texts with the aforementioned kurt volker, our former point man with ukraine about trying to set up that meeting between trump and the president of ukraine, our u.s. ambassador to

the eu, gordon sondland writes, quote, i think potus really wants the deliverable, noting that a meeting without some sort of concession from ukraine would be unlikely. that meeting did not take place. the acting u.s. ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor, career diplomat, raised his concerns about that to sondland. he questioned the reasons for the aid. he asked, are we now saying that security assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? for more, we welcome to the broadcast p.j. crowley serving as assistant secretary for public affairs and spokesman there under then-secretary of state hillary clinton. also happens to be the author of "red line: american foreign policy in a time of fractured politics and failing state." mr. crowley, thank you ever so much for coming. on you know the phrase, if you see something, say something.

had you been on that trip, would you have said something? >> of course. what we have here is among other things a process failure. you talk about the process to peter at the beginning of the show. national security policy depends on a reliable process where a president is presented with options that have potential benefits and pitfalls. in this particular case, you have -- what prized me about the text most of all is this is not a whimsical comment by the president on a call with the president of ukraine. this was in fact the white house policy. they were trying to leverage military aid to ukraine in return for a political favor. and there are plenty of meetings leading up to the call and plenty of action in the aftermath that tried to get what the president wanted. >> i don't mean for this question to sound trite, but how does it feel to you to see all this, an unsavory side of a

place you proudly worked in for a long time, aired in public in this way? >> well, i mean, if you want to see the glass as half full, then you're looking at people like bill taylor, marie yovanovitch, who were trying to serve national interest. potentially entirely empty, if you see the glass as potentially entirely empty, you're seeing a president who, every president wants to get re-elected, but presidents normally get elected by advancing the national interests. in this case, mr. trump has turned this upside down and he's converted foreign policy in the service of his re-election campaign. that's very distressing. and i think we'll see as you indicated, more voices expressing their concerns about this. >> secretary pompeo has accused the democrats of bullying his people. do you think that is masking a deep-down fear that his people and in this case, meaning a lot of career folks who are loyal to

the united states and not any current state department or president, are going to go before congress and tell the truth? >> well, i think this is the height of hypocrisy. on the one hand, you say trump/pompeo says i won't let congress bully my people. on the other hand we now know he was on the call where the president of the united states trashes his own ambassador to the president of ukraine. and evidently, the president, the secretary of state offered no objection. a year ago, there was an op ed in the "new york times" where a white house insider was saying, there are adults in the room who are trying to create boundaries and to how far the president can stray. a year later, i think what we're seeing is that there are no adults in the room. and the fact that a potentially illegal activity can become the policy of the united states of america through some sort of

process i think just tells us how not only has the process broken down. but now the president of the united states cannot differentiate the national interests from his personal interests. >> exactly why we asked for you on this broadcast to hear you say that. thank you for stopping by "the 11th hour" this evening. coming up for us, robert mueller warned us about it and the new threat to our elections is indeed here. we'll talk about that with an expert after this. ert) even a "not-so-handy monster." (johnson) what is going on in here! i can't hear myself think! (grover) what does it look like, sir? i am here to help you with your water heater. (johnson) oh! [sighs defeatedly] (grover) do not worry sir. i also fix cars! [johnson groans] (bert) grover is a monster of many talents! (burke) and we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

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our committee issued a report saying that russian active measures are growing with frequency and intensity. these groups pose a significant threat to the united states and our allies in upcoming elections. would you agree with that? >> yes. in fact, one of the other areas we have to look at are many more countries are developing the capability to replicate what the russians have done. >> "the new york times" reports that indeed iranian hackers have targeted the trump re-election campaign. quote, microsoft said hackers with apparent backing from iran's government had made more than 2,700 attempts to identify the email accounts of current and former united states government officials, journalists covering political campaigns, and accounts associated with the presidential

campaign. it was not clear what information if any had been taken in the attack on the trump campaign. tonight the campaign says it has no indication that any infrastructure was hit. with us, the man to see on these matters, malcolm nance, veteran of naval intelligence, special ops and homeland security with 25 years working in intelligence. his fourthcoming book, one of many relevant to this discussion is "the plot to betray america: how team trump embraced our enemies, compromised our security, and how we can fix it." malcolm, what is the lesson in this? >> the lesson in this is that the 2016 election opened the flood gates for all types of non-state and state actors to try to influence the united states elections. and with the president and many of his followers not believing that there is an intrinsic cyber

threat in this world that will attempt to influence our electoral process, everyone is going to try it. >> so a sublesson of that, i'm guessing, in a democracy, when we have a boisterous debate on this or any other network, and moscow mitch is a name that is hatched because of the senate majority leader's unwillingness for the longest time to get funding approved to harden our elections, people can hear us when we say that. people can see our coverage in a free society. as they say, a malign actor would be foolish not to try it. >> you know, ten years ago the united states had a mind-set in which the defense of the nation on all sides was paramount. and that no one would ever be allowed to come after the united states on any platform anywhere in the world, even if we weren't

the greatest in cyber hygiene. that has since changed. as you said, the world can hear us. when the world believes the united states will no longer defend itself, you know, malignant players such as iran, north korea, china, could be anybody as far as zimbabwe, understand that's america's information sphere can be weaponized against itself and that you can go after individuals or organizations or entire countries and have the ability to change their mindset. or to act their mindset. so apparently iran is touching base on this and are trying to get the basic steps to rude men mentally hack certain people or individuals around a campaign and perhaps influence it or carry out a false flag operation, making it look like someone else is trying to influence it. >> dan coats once said, i'll paraphrase, what kept him up was

the rumored russian ability to turn off the power in new england in the middle of winter. tell the folks watching tonight at the risk of scaring them to death before bed on a friday evening, how bad could it get? what could someone do? >> it could get very bad. and you know, granted, this report in the "new york times" was about very rudimentary things, right, about spear fishing, people clicking on the wrong link and downloading malware into their computer. but that's the first step in going after turning off a hydro electric plant or shorting a substation and plunging people into darkness. these are infrastructure attacks which are very hard to do because we have such a large civilian infrastructure not protected at a governmental level the way many other countries around the world are. when you turn off power, you kill people. respirators go off until the batteries come on.

or until generators come. it can be very difficult. people lose their air conditioning. so these are the sorts of things that are the far end of the black operations and cyber warfare. iran, for example, destroyed every computer in the saudi arabian oil company a few years ago, using malicious malware and knocking down their systems. that was not as bad as if they say, shut off wichita, kansas, from having any electricity. all of these are within the realm of that. if we are not defending ourselves, our opponents will figure out ways to use it. >> what is your 60-second answer to the question, can our election integrity be saved? >> i would love to answer that in a positive, brian. from our election integrity can be saved if we start to believe that wave problem. 40% of this nation do not

believe at all that there was an attempt to corrupt the american election, which influenced the election of donald trump. if you don't believe you're under attack, even though bullets are flying around you, then you will not take precautions and this nation will perpetually in danger. the american experiment will remain in danger if we don't take precautions. and that starts with belief. >> malcolm najs, thank you for joining us on a friday night. we appreciate it very much. coming up for us as we continue, as some republicans speak out, we have two reporters taking to, talking to sources, forgive me, on the inside of gop strategy sessions. we'll talk about that when we come back. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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he's the definition of corruption. he's indicted himself by his own statements. this is not about me, it's not about my son. there's not a shred of evidence. this guy like all bullies is a coward. he does not want to run against me. >> after the story had spooled out for one week, that's the most forceful response we have heard yet from presidential candidate joe biden. his campaign has been plagued by trump's accusations of conflict of interest. straight-up malfeasance relating to joe biden, his son's dealings in ukraine when biden was vice president. claims that we want to be sure to point out are unsubstantiated. the "washington post" reporting this week and we quote. some of joe biden's supporters are voicing growing concern that his campaign is not prepared to weather the dual political rip currents suddenly reshaping the 2020 race. an onslaught of attacks on his family from president trump.

and a tightened contest for the democratic nomination. with us to talk about it tonight, we welcome back to the broadcast, the political report he for the "washington post," author of the payment's morning news letter power up. and melanie is with us. she covers congress for politico. welcome to you both. jackie, you can't argue trump got to tell biden's story this week. he just took it over. and that was the response five days deep into the story with trump arguing corruption. straight-up corruption every day. you talk to democrats and they whisper the same thing. it feels like stronger together part deux. corporate campaign a dread inaugurate, about as nimble as a battleship. what are you hearing? >> that's exactly right. my colleague who has been following the biden campaign closely wrote that piece that you just excerpted.

where advisers expressed concern that the biden campaign is not equipped to handle the amount of disinformation that the trump campaign has been pushing out. not just on twitter. not just from the president's mouth but on a big ad buy around the country. along with republican allies, conservative radio and a lot of these conspiracy theories and disinformation that is being peddled on the right-wing media that has been breaking into the mainstream media. and a lot of democrats are concerned that biden has waited too long to come out forcefully. you know, at the same time, the democrats also you know, this has raised questions for them about whether or not biden has sort of, these allegations of improprieties plague him. michael bennett came out and said last week that at the end of the day, you know, he doesn't believe that vice presidents or people who are serving in office

should have foreign interests. and so it sort of raised this question. there might not be any impropriety. these allegations are baseless that the president has been pushing forward, but there is the appearance of impropriety. i've spoken with people who spoke with the president recently and the president believes that regardless that this has triggered an impeachment inquiry for him, he believes that it has finished joe biden's campaign and going to plague him a la hillary clinton for the rest of the 2020 primary. >> tough words but it's tough out there generally. hey, melanie, annie at "the new york times" wrote this piece last june, but it bears repeating a bit. late at night, using his old personal cell phone number, president trump has been calling former advisers who have not heard from him in years. eager to discuss his standing in the polls against top democrats in the field, especially joe biden whom he describes as too old and not as popular as people think. mr. biden seems to have gotten into the president's head.

at least for now. melanie, is there still evidence of a certain amount of obsession, good or bad? >> yes, absolutely. he's been in these calls with foreign leaders as recently as this summer bringing up the bidens and asking them to investigate. and what i think is really crucial to point out is that today the president has really tried to frame this debate as, he is just trying to root out corruption. he said it had nothing to do with politics. he doesn't even view joe biden as a rival. he said i don't even think he has a shot. i think someone else will get the democratic nomination, so there can't possibly be impropriety here because he doesn't view biden as a political rival, but that's absolutely nonsense. joe biden has obviously consumed his thoughts and at times there is reporting that he thinks biden could be the biggest threat to his candidacy. i think the one thing joe biden can do is try to make that argument to voters and say he views me as the biggest threat. and i think that's part of biden's argument to voters right now. the electability question of,

i'm the best one to beat the president in the general election. >> both of our guests have agreed to stay with us. as we just fit in a break here. coming up, some good news for the sanders camp after a difficult week. more on that when we continue. a! at the end of a long day, it's the last thing i want to do. well i switched to swiffer wet jet and its awesome. it's an all-in-one so it's ready to go when i am. the cleaning solution actually breaks down dirt and grime. and the pad absorbs it deep inside. so, it prevents streaks and haze better than my old mop. plus, it's safe to use on all my floors, even wood. glad i got that off my chest and the day off my floor. try wet jet with a moneyback guarantee itso chantix can help you quitd slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking

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i'm in las vegas. i just got out of hospital and i'm feeling so much better. i just want to thank all of you for the love and warm wishes that you sent to me. see you soon on the campaign trail. >> thank you all so much. it really made a difference. >> so here's the state of play. bernie sanders' doctor confirming the senator suffered a heart attack earlier this week while campaigning in las vegas. actually, after keeping the mideast in the dark for three days, the campaign in its press

release tried to call it a myocardial infarction. but that's a heart attack. bernie sanders is 78 years old. and after first asking to sit down during a campaign event the other night for q & a, that was very rare. he was then taken to the hospital with chest pains. doctors quickly inserted two stents to clear up the blockage. he was released today. plans to return home to vermont soon, says he'll be at the democratic debate later this month. meanwhile, senator elizabeth warren who has been surging in the polls, also surging in fundraising. she announced today she raked in almost $25 million. that puts her just behind sanders and ahead of joe biden. jackie, i don't know if you have recent reporting since his release from the hospital. this puts the biden campaign -- i'm sorry, in a tough spot. >> it's a really positive thing

he's out of the hospital. >> absolutely. >> and the campaign, the best. but, you know, this could be problematic especially with the polls tightening. but there's a group of 70-year-old candidates, bernie sanders, president trump, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren is 75 years old as well. that being said, we saw republicans weaponize health problems in the past election in 2016 after secretary clint collapsed on the trail at one point in the general, i believe it was, during a 9/11 remembrance event. conspiracy theories on the internet went wild. this could be a problem for senator sanders. he has kept up a grueling somewhere -- schedule for someone his age. with somebody like him, never takes a day off. but when you look at elizabeth warren, who is creeping up in fundraising and in the polls and

finally surpassing sanders in the polls, you wonder if voters will look at the two of them, who are ideologically pretty similar and make the calculus maybe we're better off with someone a bit younger. we have seen the way the president is going to attack sanders for this health problem. it wouldn't be a surprise if we saw it on twitter crop up over the week. >> that's true. melanie, let's continue to talk about these democrats. first of all, our executive producer is obsessed with the vinyl back drop banner behind biden today. they did make $15 million in the last quarter. call joe's house of vinyl and ask for the ten-foot version, that's almost not enough to complete the picture right there. go big or go home. anyway, hopefully there will be a conference call and a staff meeting on the biden campaign about that particular backdrop.

i'm saying all that in jest, obviously. the biden campaign and not to pound this home, has within their grasp the ability to get better at all of the kind of weak points the democrats have been whispering and shouting about this week. rapid reaction, get out in front of your own family story, and tell it when you're being accused of corruption by the leader of the free world for five straight days. all of it, they should have the professionals around to remedy that. >> right. and this also comes as warren is rising in the polls, and she posted a massive fund-raising haul in the third quarter. so this is not looking good for biden. it's raising serious questions about whether he will be equipped to balance now a general election battle as he tries to combat these onslaught of gop attacks when it comes to

the ukraine scandal. and he has to keep his eye on the prize, which is the primary debate. the challenge will be trying to strike the balance, not having the fund-raising is obviously a huge problem for him. that's why some of his allies are considering launching a super pac that can defend biden. and meanwhile, the dnc is not lifting a finger to defend -- help biden with some of these attacks related to ukraine, partly because they don't want to be seen as violating their pledge to stay neutral in the primary. but you have the gop with a massive war chest. trump has $125 million that he just raked in. this is a problem for the biden campaign. >> thank you for joining us on a friday night after your hard work for joining us on this broadcast. jacky al mainny and melanie zanona. thank you for putting up with my version of the plague. coming up, a rare history lesson front of the white house today when we continue. [ applause ] thank you.

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>> african-americans built this nation. you built this nation. you're just starting to get real credit for that. okay? i don't know if you know that. you're just starting -- you built the nation. we all built it, but you were a such a massive part of it, bigger than you were given credit for. >> the president's comments, no doubt a great relief to museums, and african-american history departments and colleges and universities across our country, especially meaningful given that the people's house was built in part by slave labor, often called america's original sin. that is our broadcast for this friday night and for this week. thank you so much for being here with us. have a good weekend and good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york.

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