means hugs, not bullets. he wants to address the socio long-term economic issues that cause this, but in the short term, people keep dying over criticism of the security policies that keep growing as of now. thank you for joining me. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. a new committee and a new chapter in the trump impeachment inquiry. he has lawyers who claim the process is unfair to him. and lisa page says the president's twitters and rally

attacks never interrupted her work. now she speaks out. the president this morning says he is imposing new steel tariffs on brazil and argentina. >> our steel companies will be very happy and our farmers will be very happy. >> i don't know why the president did what he did this morning or what the justification was. do any of you? you're breaking news. >> we begin the hour with the president claim, quote, case over as the impeachment inquiry now enters a dramatic new phase. a report due tomorrow by the house intelligence committee, and then wednesday the first i am impeachment hearing by the judiciary committee. he claims new evidence of his exoneration. >> the ukranian president came out and said very strongly that president trump did absolutely nothing wrong. that should be case over. he just came out a little while ago and he said president trump

did absolutely nothing wrong, and that should end everything. >> now, in that interview with "time" and several other publications, the ukranian president, zelensky, said, look, i never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo. that's not my thing. but he does assert his american counterpart put ukraine at risk by stalling military aid. quote, i don't want us to look like beggars, he said in that interview, but you have to understand we're at war. if you're our strategic partner, then you can't go blocking anything for us. i think that's just about fairness. it's not about a quid pro quo, it just goes without saying. here with me to share the reporting and insights, cnn's dana bash, michael scherer with the "new york times," jackie canesis with "the daily beast."

he picks a piece of it that works for him and he ignores the rest, which does not. >> yeah, it's classic. it's classic trump. because he wants to get ahead of it, he wants to set the narrative, he wants to take whatever it is that he can to channel it on his twitter feed, channel it on another cable outlet, channel that takes what he says and uses it as gospel for the people who want to believe everything he says. and the way you laid it out is exactly right. first of all, let's just take a step back and remember who this guy is. the leader of ukraine has been dancing on the head of a pin since he took office. he's got to be careful not to make the united states angry and that the commander in chief happens to be donald trump. he is so in the spotlight right now, he's got to be careful, but he was trying to protect himself and protect the integrity of his actions. >> it doesn't hurt to remind

people that even when zelensky did say there was no quid pro quo, i didn't feel pressured and some other instances, it's impossible to not feel pressure when you are a country at a disadvantage that needs the united states to help you fend off russia. so it's not fair standing no matter what he says. >> it's baked in. you are the weaker party in the conversation, you are the needy party in the conversation. so this is happening. the president again trying to cherry pick but smartly politically to make his case to his base. as we head into the week, today, this evening, house committee members can see the drafted report based on the public hearings and based on the work of the committee. then on tuesday they will vote on that report. that will be done in private. they send it over to the judiciary committee which holds its first public impeachment hearing on wednesday, and by friday the white house has a deadline. the president has declined to send his lawyers to the first

hearing. he has a deadline on friday to decide about sending them to the second hearing. listen to them about why i won't play. >>. >> the whole thing is a hoax. everybody knows it. >> the president uses the word hoax. his team used the question of fairness, which i think is a different conversation. we sit here at noon on monday in the east. the hearing is scheduled on wednesday. this is about impeaching a president of the united states. drop the names, drop the party label, it's employ impeachi iabe president of the united states, and the democrats haven't said who the witnesses will be. >> the first clip you played, the president is getting to the substance of the argument, the question of whether he actually did anything wrong. in a sense the debate has moved past that. the republicans tried that for several weeks during the intel committee hearing. what the republican party and frankly the white house has shifted to is this idea of fairness, is this idea of are

the democrats perverting what is a constitutional process by sort of forcing it down the throat of the american people without giving due process to the sitting american president, without giving him the right to defend himself. the president wants to make that argument, too, but he still can't quite let go of the idea of wanting to defend himself on the substance as well. >> i think it's easier for them to make that process argument when they're on the outside. it's easier to shout from the outside that this is a hoax, and they're not involving us in that process when they're not involved at all. i think the president understands that although he can't focus his message on the process, he is sort of saying that in the substance. >> he didn't sit for an interview but he did a take-home test, so there's certainly some precedent for that, and maybe they'll use that when it comes to the senate trial. >> there are some republicans,

one mcclintock, who says take a lawyer to the table. >> i think it would be to the president's advantage to have his attorneys there. that is his right. but i can also understand how he is upset at the illegitimate process we saw unfold in the intelligence committee. >> so you think they should bring in lawyers. >> i think it's a disadvantage, yes. >> it's an interesting debate. again, the first hearing is supposed to be constitutional experts as democrats try to make the case that they believe th they've met the bar for impeaching a president. so on one hand the president might not be critical there in that you're not arguing the facts, you're arguing the standard, more or less. but on the other hand, can the president say this is an illegitimate process, or when it comes to the facts, do they need to come in and contest it? >> if you look at recent history, the president's lawyers, president clinton's lawyers, spent a lot of -- were very active in the senate trial and did right by him in the

arguments that they were making for him, and it's hard to imagine not having that in a trump impeachment trial. >> but in the house judiciary, he does have at least a tr tri fecta of people who are on that panels. you have ratcliffe, i believe, and these are people that are going to argue for him, argue on the process and probably about fairness as well. so he'll be relying on that. >> we could call them the three amigos but that's taken. >> many times over. next we continue the conversation. do democrats face a hard sell on impeachment? applebee's new sizzlin' entrées. now starting at $9.99.

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more now on the impeachment inquiry's big move to the judiciary committee this week. house speaker nancy pelosi understands the high stakes but while at a climate summit overseas in spain today, she declined to discuss them. >> we aren't here to talk about impeachment or the president of the united states. we're here to talk about -- i have a rule of kodels when we travel abroad. we don't talk about the president in a negative way, and we save that for home. >> kodel is congressional delegation, for those of you who might not speak like washington. for some white house democrats,

they're finding the impeachment a controversial cell in their districts. the republicans make no secret, their strategy is to stir things up and to test the discipline of the committee chairman, jerry nadler. >> they're a bunch of brawlers sometimes on the judicial committee, so it should get pretty hot and under the collar as we go along. i don't think things have been done the way they've been done in the past, mike, and so it causes some rancor, and it should be pretty -- much more feisty, i would say, than the intel committee was. >> it is factual, things are as fair or more fair to the republicans and president trump than they were to president nixon or president clinton. you can read about it, you don't have to believe me. but to the members of this committee, the president has more loyal supporters. he has more aggressive and more theatrical, frankly, and part of this is politics.

>> it is, and even doug collins is someone the president wanted to give a promotion to. he wanted the governor of georgia to promote to fill the vacant senate seat there. so he's got many supporters, even the ones who aren't as feisty are the ranking member on the committee. >> to your point about collins, discipline is required of both parties as we go forward here. the president's loyalists have been successful, even going to debunked theories. democrats have to keep their own discipline, which is why i want you to listen to this question put to doug collins here asked by a retired democratic senator. this is a fair question to a republican, but it's about the democrats. >> evan said yesterday they should look for an offramp and an offramp would be censure. do you recommend that, too? >> no, i do not. what did he do to get censured?

that would be like saying, we want the democrats to like us again. you don't go after somebody who has viciously gone after you for no reason. this president has done nothing wrong. >> that is both parties in the political dilemma. democrats might need to talk private about do we need an offramp? you don't talk about it publicly heading into a critical week for your party. the president did nothing wrong by a ranking member on his committee. so it is okay to uphold military aid on a country to your personal attorney who has no standing in the country for personal gain. >> doug collins is a rabid house republican. there are people of his ilk in the senate, but there are also different kinds of republicans in the senate, some of whom have said very publicly, yeah, but. yes, what he did was troubling

but it's not impeachable. so there could be more fertile ground for censure in the senate, which is probably why the former senator, evan bye -- >> cautious indiana moderate. >> -- cautious indiana moderate, which there aren't a lot of them left, threw that out there. i can't imagine he did it at the behest of the democratic leader, but it is a different place, and we can't get there before we see what happens in the house, but it's an important thing to remember about the tone and t tenor of the republicans. that's a lot of faith for democrats to put on republicans who in the past have hinted maybe going back to supreme court battles. it was a completely different animal. there are thoughts that, okay, this person might vote against it, this person might. so that's a lot of trust to put in the other side when the political -- >> i'm just throwing it out

there as an option. >> of course. >> one piece of evidence is it's not going to happen unless the democrats really present a new and damning case and somehow get public opinion to change. the republican sample in this poll, this republican president was better, trump or lincoln? you're speechless. >> what that speaks to, i think, is the intensity with which the republican base, the trump base, is, you know, behind the president, behind president trump. so whether it's, you know, doug collins and the republicans in the house or the republicans in the senate, they go into this knowing full well the intensity with which that base still, despite everything that's been revealed in mueller and in ukraine, they're not straying from this president, and so that gives them a whole lot more confidence than you had in the previous, you know, impeachment efforts which were much more

splintered. >> i'm not going to take issue with anyone who supports the president, but i would suggest reading a little history. >> it does govern how these members are acting. >> especially heading into an election where he is the head of your party. and you see what he does to people who criticizes him. if you're a republican right now based on every piece of data that you see, the safest place, no matter what you think, whether you think rudy giuliani should have done this, whether the president is wrong, the safest place is to stay right there. >> and we've seen people like ted tillis, they're trying to walk this very tight rope in terms of being somewhat critical but not too critical of the president, and we'll continue to see that, i'm sure, in the coming weeks. >> we're also seeing it from republicans who are hiring, someone like a will hurd, even though he's stepping away. it doesn't mean he's done with

republicans forever. >> at least some of those voters are going to be in your republican party. sto up next, the president preparing to meet with world leaders at nato. impeachment not far from his mind. post this... and be there like this. so we give you that. and right now, buy a samsung galaxy s10 or note 10... and get one free. when we were looking he wanted someone super quiet. yeah, and he wanted someone to help out with chores. so, we got jean-pierre. but one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with renters insurance. ♪ yeah, geico did make it easy to switch and save.

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. president trump aboard air force i on his way to london to

attend the nato summit. he criticized the impeachment hearings while on the world stage, and he also poked fun at some of those with whom he will be doing business while across the atlantic. >> the democrats decided when i'm going to nato -- this was set up a year ago -- that when i'm going to nato, this is one of the most important journeys we make as president. now we're going to london and it will be nato and we're meeting with a lot of countries, and they're going to have to -- >> he meets with angela merkel and the french president macron as well as the queen. nick, this is labeled a leaders meeting not a nato summit as is tradition. is there a reason for that? >> reporter: john, my understanding is there is a reason, and that is that nato has sort of taken a view, if you will, on president trump's past performance at the g-7 meeting,

the world leaders meeting, back in 2018 where he famously didn't sign the communique at the end of that summit, and the thinking is if this is a summit, as these annual big meetings of nato generally are, then therefore there would be a communique. but if it is troublesome to get that communique because the language doesn't fit what president trump wants, that will be a bigger issue in and of itself. so avoid the confrontation over language and content of a communique and call this a leaders meeting. that's my understanding, john. >> and, nick, just from the london perspective, it's a bigger meeting. the president often raises burden sharing. he calls it dues. he doesn't often use the correct language. but the president was a big supporter? johnson is about to be on the ballot again, and the takeaway from the uk is, please stay away, sir? >> yeah. we know when president trump has

arrived here in the past, he's taken licks, if you will, at some of the opposition, and in particular the mayor of london. he's been very favorable toward boris johnson, but we are in that election period. the general election is next week. the polls are narrowing. it looks like johnson is doing well, but the labor party is pulling back some ground. the key campaign issue is that boris johnson wants to sell out britain's prized national service, any proximity of president trump will be used by boris johnson against the opposition. >> nic robertson in london, thank you for the reporting. the president put up a keep off the grass sign, and this president runs pretty quickly to the grass. listen to boris johnson talking about this. remember, boris johnson and trump aligned on some issues, not all issues, but the new

guys. >> we have very close relationships and friendships with the united states at every level of government, but what we don't do traditionally is nubbing our allies and friends. we don't get involved with each other's election campaign. >> do we expect discipline or should we put up one of those countdown clocks until trump says something? >> i think that might be wise. look, the truth is that he not only has the prospect of directly saying something that would cause boris johnson grief, actually talking about the election or something that could, as nic said, help the opposition. but simply the dynamics between the other world leaders that are going to be gathered there, president trump always clashes with them over a lot of things, but nato in particular because he is so obsessed with the funding of nato issues. and all of that can't help

johnson's attempts to sort of portray himself as the right person at this moment to help kind of carry britain through the brexit drama, which is, after all, a drama that involves all these other world leaders. so president trump kind of royaliroyal i -- roiling all that up isn't going to help him. >> not to get down the trump rabbit hole, if people like boris johnson understand trump like they now should, they'll bait him into understanding and therefore hurt boris johnson. it's very hard for president trump, as we know, when he is attacked or criticized by a leader, particularly while he's there, to hold his tongue. >> it's a fascinating moment. i remember being around president clinton during the impeachment, and the president's whole goal is to be president. look like you're doing business with america and say, why are people back home trying to impeach me? i'm trying to do my work on the public stage. you heard the president

complaining about the, quote, unquote, burden sharing. the way he's done it has inif you are -- infuriated everybody. but nato members have met the 2% target spending, bulgaria, uk, lithuania, but the president still casts it as they need to do more as opposed to, hey, we're making progress here. again, you can criticize the tactics, the bullying, but this laz been has been a success. >> but the president has not been very good at pushing success stories. i can't say all success stories, but particularly when there are other distractions at play. now, he's been better at it in the last, i don't know, this morning? but this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we'll see how the next couple days go. you're absolutely right. in a lot of ways this is a promise that's been made and a promise the president has kept.

>> angela merkel and the president always had a hot, testy relationship and with president macron. macron is trying to assert himself as the leader of france and he said last month, what we are currently experiencing is the brain death of nato. ump stands europe stands on the edge of a precipice and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as geopolitical power. otherwise we will no longer be in control of our destiny. macron decided, not in my interest. >> but what he's saying is aligned with what the president wants, which is foreign policy. they're not saying different things here. he's saying america has retreated, which is something the president campaigned on. he campaigned on a very isolationist foreign policy

which he has, to a certain degree, enforced. >> we'll watch it play out on the world stage. i'm interested in the keep off the grass sign myself. before we go to break, we come back to a visit to the white house. the first lady melania trump showing off the christmas decorations. it's a patriotic theme for 2019. when it comes to using data, everyone is different.

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top of the hour. political radar today, a big move in the supreme court. this dispute over the new york city gone law that limits where licensed handgun owners can take a locked and loaded handgun. cnn was in the room for argumen arguments. a giant issue. take us inside the room. >> reporter: this case is important because the big question is whether the new conservative majority of this court is poised to broaden gun rights. but the case has an unusual issue, and that's the fact that the new york gun law at issue was changed after the supreme court agreed to hear the case. so the four liberal justices

during oral arguments, they seized on that. they want the court to dismiss this case and not issue a broad ruling. but clearly, chief justice roberts and john kavanaugh, their votes will be very important here. in fact, justice brett kavanaugh didn't even ask a question. so the case now will continue. they'll go on. critically, what it's about is this new york regulation that tells where licensed gun owners can take their handguns. it was immediately challenged by people who said that it was too restrictive, it was unconstitutional. they brought the case to the supreme court, but then the law was changed. so now new york city wants to dismiss the case, get rid of it, but others, including the trump administration, they want this court to issue a broad ruling and expand gun rights, john. >> fascinating case to watch. we'll wait for the decision.

ariane on the road. appreciate it very much. the president says, quote, he's very happy with how u.s.-china trade talks are going right now. but beijing anything but happy with the president right now. time is running out to cut a deal before new tariffs kick in. >> reporter: john, just 13 days now until new tariffs on chinese-made goods and no discernible progress in the trade deal between the u.s. and china. talks appear to have stalled. china is not happy that the president signed a bill supporting pro-democracy protests in hong kong. there are no high-level talks on the calendar right now and chinese state media wants all tariffs removed, not just those new tariffs planned for december 15th. remember, those tariffs, that list is going to hit home here. iphones, video games, toys, those are products popular during the holiday season. now, a chinese deal isn't the

only trump trade deal on hold. it has been, john, exactly one year since the administration agreed to a revised nafta, but the deal still needs approval by congress. earlier this month house speaker nancy pelosi said it may not happen this year. the holdup, sources say, are those are over labor standards. he tweeted this morning that the u.s. will restore steel and aluminum tariffs on brazil and argentina, citing mass distribution. an american consumer that spent strong over the weekend seems to be in a good position and the jobs market is still so strong, so the president doesn't think his trade wars are hurting the american economy. john? >> an interesting bet by the president.

the past would no doubt be a victory heading into the election, but it also could be a chance for democrats to prove they can get some business done during impeachment. speaker nancy pelosi reporting today she hopes to pass the ncaa, but only after democrats get their concerns addressed. >> we are hoping to come to conclusion on a u.s.-mechanixico u.s.-mexico-canada trade agreement. we still have issues that relate to enforcement, because if you don't have enforcement, you just have a nice conversation and a list of nice things, but you do not have a fair deal for workers in any of the countries. >> this is fascinating for the speaker because she is a free trader. she wants to get this done. for the foreign and national economy, she wants to work closely. robert lighthizer has had a very close relationship with house democrats trying to figure this out. the question is will they. >> it's a delicate line for her politically, because on the one

hand, there are many of her members who really want something substantive as an accomplishment going into the election year. this could be one of those things they could tout. on the other hand, it would be handing the president of the united states a huge victory, a real win that not only would the president be able to tout, but i think it would frustrate many of pelosi's own members who don't particularly want to be in the position of running against republican candidates who can go out on the stump and talk about it. it's a delicate thing for her. my sense is there will be some kind of handshake agreement if there isn't a vote before the end of the year, and then perhaps come back after the holidays and vote. >> it would obviously be a trump victory, but democrats want to have some accomplishment. the question is whether many in the caucus would see this as an accomplishment. the fact this is even still on life support given everything else going on, that it is a possibility, maybe not a probability, that they could pass this says something. >> there are three pretty

important economies to the neighborhood. if they can figure out the deals, the country first thing. up next, foreign worker lisa page breaks the silence on the president's anger. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit!

one of president trump's favorite targets, lisa page, is defending herself after two years of silence. that defense coming in a new

interview with "the daily beast." page in a new account tweeted this, i'm done being quiet. president trump has regularly criticized and rid kuiculed the former fbi lawyer after conversations between the two of them were made public two years ago. page decided to come forward after this at a recent trump rally. >> i love you, peter. i love you, lisa. lisa! lisa! oh, god, i love you, lisa. and if she doesn't win, lisa, we've got an insurance policy, lisa. >> i'm trying to process that. this is one of the things she said to "the daily beast." the president of the united states is calling me names to the entire world. it's sickening. it's also very intimidating because he's still the president of the united states, and when the president accuses you of

treason, even though i know i have committed nothing close to treaso sr treason, he's still somebody in a position to actually do something about that. one of the questions for the inspector general was to address the texting between peter strobe and lisa page. >> this piece by molly johnson goes to lisa page, and what you referenced, she doesn't think she did anything wrong. she thinks the report coming out on december 29th will exonerate her, but she also says it doesn't really matter th, that president has this megaphone and he will continue to make her life difficult no matter what

this report says about if she did anything wrong. she knows what the boundaries were when she was texting and she said, i, of anyone, would understand that i didn't do anything wrong. i still don't think i did anything wrong here. >> she said she had a personal opinion that she shared with a man with whom she was having a relationship in her text messages, but she said she was able to put lher blinders on an do her job. in terms of the ig report, she said, while it would be nice for the ig to report publicly that my actions had no bearing on the russia investigations, i don't kid myself that the fact will matter very much for a lot of people. the president has a very loud megaphone. a lot of the reporting so far based on sources of what the i gir g is going to say, is yes, judgment calls and that's

reprehensible, however, carter page was warranted. there was no illegal bias in the representation. that's not what the president wants to hear. >> the president's own white house has said that he believes his base believes more so than what lisa page has to say, that's why i think it's interesting she has chosen to speak out at this time even though she knows no matter what she says there will be a significant push of the american population who will never believe her. >> it's also a reminder that, on both sides of the aisle, people who are used as pinatas are human beings. and the fact that she came out as a human being and as somebody who talks very, very specifically about what it's like to walk down the street and see somebody wearing a hat and wondering if people recognize her and she looks the other way. as horrible as the times are, these are human beings.

>> an interesting decision to come forward. up next for us, a little bit of a lightning round. before we go to break, the hosts of the political campaign. >> i'm just chilling in cedar rapids listening to "ave maria." >> i'm just chilling in cedar rapids. galaxy s10 or note 10...g and get one free. he borrowed billions donald trump failed as a businessman. and left a trail of bankruptcy and broken promises. he hasn't changed. i started a tiny investment business, and over 27 years, grew it successfully to 36 billion dollars. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message. i'm running for president because unlike other candidates, i can go head to head with donald trump on the economy, and expose him fo what he is: a fraud and a failure.

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let's close today with a quick look at the 2020 campaign including some subtraction.

montana governor steve bullock and sestak now ending their campaigns. that leaves 16 competing for the democratic nomination. only six, though, have qualified for this month's debate. while we're getting closer to the caucus in iowa, we're also getting closer to the end of the year deadlines. congressman sestak, no offense, was always a long, long, long shot. former governor of a trump state who said, look, i can win where trump wins. it's become a washington-centric campaign, if you will. with the exception of pete buttigieg. >> he got off to a late start. he refused to start until the legislature was done in his state, and that basically did him in. it didn't allow him to get traction, particularly in this cycle with so many candidates.

you had so start early in order to get any recognition. >> some democrats, when we had 24, said they were hoping several of these guys would drop out and run for senate. they would get some experience and be better. bullock dropped out and they wanted him to run for senate, he said no. senator o'rourke dropped out and they asked him to run for senate. he said no. and hicken looper ran against gardner. >> if you've been a snoenator, u can transfer money from your senate campaign over to your campaign which you can't do as governor. >> brian kemp wants to name a candidate for senate not named doug collins. he wants to name a woman.

he believes it's better for the suburbs. matt gates, a florida congressman, says, you all begged for donald trump support. now you're directly acting in contradiction to his request. and you think attacking clothing of the president's defenders in congress is your best play. you're not good at that. if you read the top part of this, it says, inquiring minds want to know if you prefer front jorts, pleated jorts or cargo jords with room to put all of your legos, pokemon cards and jellybeans. oh, and mind your own business. we don't know you and we don't care what you think. >> the president really did push hard for kemp. that being said, he's the governor of the state and this is his decision, and i suppose trump will fall in line if he makes the decision that we

heard. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." come back. we'll see you at this time tomorrow. don't go away, brianna keilar starts right now. have a great afternoon. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn washington's headquarters. underway right now, it's a controversial week for a presidency in peril. why the white house is refusing to participate in a key impeachment hearing. as the republicans run out of actions on president ukraine, they call it a conspiracy world instead. one of the president's punching bags speaks out for the first time. why lisa page said his quote was a, fake, orgasm stunt at his rally. cracks widen within the