welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. the president says he wants his impeachment trial right away, but he will have to wait. exactly how long is unclear because of a standoff between the house speaker nancy pelosi and the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. plus, more than three-quarters of americans feel confident about the state of the u.s. economy. that's a near 22-year high and it's good news for any president seeking reelection. the the 2020 democrats stage their final 2019 debate. >> have you seen the debate, and if so, what did you think? >> i didn't watch the debate. i was actually making calls to

iowa voters last night, and heard a lot of frustration from folks that there was more talk about wine caves than there were about gun violence or reproductive rights. >> we begin right there with that final democratic debate of 2019, a night of crackling and intense exchanges over health care, experience, and yes, wine caves as they relate to the role of money in american politics. a night with bernie sanders and joe biden in the middle, because the most familiar faces in this race have been the most resilient in the national polls. a night that closed this six-year series in the sprint to iowa. both were seen as a specific issue and a broader debate of how far left can the democrats can without handing president trump over for a second term? >> i've handed in the biden care plan the alternative.

if you want to have medicare for reducing significantly the price of drugs, reductions, et cetera. put your hand down for a minute, bernie, okay? >> just waving here, joe. saying hello. >> i know. it covers everybody, it's realistic, and most important it lets you choose what you want. >> the average worker in america, that family makes 60,000 a year. that family is now paying $12,000 a year for health care, 20% of their income, on the medicare for all. that family will be paying $1200 a year. >> both elizabeth warren and pete buttigieg see early state opportunities to shake up the race. each clearly sees the other as in the way. >> the mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine. billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the united states.

>> mr. mayor, your response. >> you know, according to forbes magazine, i'm literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire. your presidential campaign right now, as we speak, is funded in part by money you transferred, having raised it at those exact same big ticket fundraisers you now denounce. >> cnn's jeff zeleny was at the showdown. he joins us now. jeff, what's your takeaway? >> reporter: once the fireworks ended between pete buttigieg and elizabeth warren, we saw something happen at center of the stage. joe biden emerged as the strongest candidate last night, showed how he was still a resilient frontrunner. he had a bounce in his step, a smile on that stage. he was more at ease than we've seen him throughout this campaign. i think when you saw him there with bernie sanders saying, just a minute, bernie, it showed, yes, they're friends, but it also showed that his position on

medicare for all in the center of this debate is where a lot of democrats are at this point. so when you take all of this, a year of campaigning, these six debates away, the party was moving to the left. now it's much more to the center. that's where the conversation was. so joe biden a very good night. pete buttigieg held his own throughout the back and forth. this election will likely not be decided on a wine cave, but i think most strikelingstriking, klobuchar. she had the second most amount of time, more time than in any other debate. she challenged the mayor on his experience. she called him a local official. we'll see how iowa voters assess that. but i think those were the dynamics at play. it was not one of elizabeth warren's strongest points of the evening at all, but now, as you said, the six-week sprint begins. virtually all of the candidates will be heading to iowa and other states this weekend. i'll be here with joe biden. he'll be here in central los

angeles shortly talking to reporters. certainly he feels good as this year is ending. but, john, the bigger question on the economy last night, as you said. democrats did not really have an answer for anything bright in the economy, and that is going to be a challenge for them going forward. we should remind everyone, there is another candidate in this race. that's donald j. trump, and right now in head-to-head polling, he's competitive, if not winning. john? >> jeff zeleny for us on the day after the big debate. here in the studio, jewel's pace with the associated press, karoun demirjian. biden has been leading. not by a lot, but he has been resilient. everyone thought biden was going to collapse. bernie sanders is there. he might have trouble growing, but he has a solid, solid base. in 45, 46 days, iowa votes,

which could change everything. could upend the national polls when somebody wins somewhere. but it was interesting to watch last night. i was most struck by the idea that warren and buttigieg clearly think if a fresh face is going to emerge, not a biden, not a sanders, it would be one of them and they're in each other's way. >> absolutely. i am so ready for votes. that is what we need in this race. i think we learned a couple things about the field and where the candidates think things are right now. certainly from both warren and klobuchar from different ends of this party, they see pete but buttigieg as a blockade to their own path, both in the moderate lane and that fresh lane, as you say. i think you saw a real comfort from joe biden and bernie sanders about their positions. these are two candidates, two politicians who have been around for a really long time. they're not going to change their stripes. they each have a theory of the case. they are waiting to test that theory in front of voters, but i do think both of them looked confident. they are assured about where they are and they think voters

are going to follow them. >> to your biden point, it's interesting the vote came liter -- the debate came literally the day after they decided to impeach. hunter biden and joe biden's name come up a lot in the impeachment. he has consistently been viewed by democratic voters as the strongest candidate against trump, but you do have to wonder, will it get under his skin? will it get into voters' minds? joe biden found a way last night to connect two dots. he brought up the attacks on him and his son in connection with his appeal that, i can actually get things done. >> i refuse to accept the notion, as some on this stage do, that we can never, never get to a place where we have cooperation again. if that's the case, we're dead as a country. we need to be able to reach consensus. if anyone has reason to be angry with the republicans and not want to cooperate, it's me, the way they've attacked me, my son and my family.

but the fact is, we have to be able to get things done. >> he has had mixed reaction. from beginning to end last night, it was his most solid, con sit tens t consistent, coherent performance. >> he has this nostalgia, you could say, about bipartisanship. it's a nostalgia that not all members of the democratic party feel strongly about. i thought last night he made it a stronger case about why he believes if you don't have bipartisanship, it is a risk for the country. >> you have a showdown between biden and mcconnell. mcconnell held up a show for over a year.

biden makes a case. amy klobuchar, she's been struggling, but, for a long period in this race. struggling but making a lot of progress in iowa that you say, wait a minute. iowa always gives us some sort of surprise. amy klobuchar, like warren, decided pete buttigieg is in the way. >> in the last debate, mayor, you basically mocked the hundred years of experience on the stage. and i have not denigrated your experience as a local official. i have been one. i just think you should respect our experience -- >> you actually did denigrate my experience, senator, and it was before the break and i was going to let it go because we have bigger fish to fry here. but you implied that -- >> i don't think anything is more important than picking a president of the united states. >> we're getting closer. you get closer to the votes and races get more chippy.

>> i think with klobuchar, what we've seen is her get steadily better in these debates. we have one more before voters in iowa head for the polls. she's back in iowa before the swing. she's still only around 4%. like you said, there are surprises, but can you get from 4% to the winner or second place, i don't know. >> she's the second choice for a lot of candidates. when you look at the state polling in iowa, consistently it's buttigieg voters, klobuchar, sometimes it's warren, klobuchar, biden, klobuchar. so she sees opportunity if in the next six weeks she can take those second choice numbers for her and turn them into first numbers. she has one thing going in her favor. we've seen this cycle after cycle. there is always someone who peaks late and just at the right time. they hit the moment where most voters, not only in iowa but around the country, are really starting to tune in in a serious way and look at these candidates as not just people on the debate stage or people they see in an

ad but people who would go up against the incumbent and could become president of the united states. >> she's trying to make the case iowa gave us barack obama to the left of hillary clinton. iowa gave us john kerry in 2004. okay, that was a bit of a surprise. john kerry came out of nowhere, slowly crept back in, wins iowa, goes and wins in rhode island and then it's over. >> a lot of iowa, too, is about organization and grassroots support. you look at candidates like amy klobuchar and pete buttigieg, they have very good staffs. i think it's difficult to be competitive when you don't have that major grassroots. >> she was bragging saying she raised some money. there is a guy named michael bloomberg who has spent more than a million dollars. he says iowa and south carolina will leave a muddle and it will

show bernie sanders is weak and it will show biden nor klobuchar are strong enough to take the center lane. this is klobuchar trying to say, oh, no, i'm ready. >> if the president claims that he is so innocent, then why doesn't he have all the president's men testify? if you want to cross a river over some troubled waters, you build a bridge, you don't blow one up. and i think we should build on the affordable care act. this primary comes down to some simple questions. who has the best ideas, the best experience, mostly who can beat donald trump and how will she do it? >> i've said this several times in the past where cory booker didn't make the cut for last night's debate. we'll come back to that later in the program. but cory booker has turned in strong performances and the numbers don't move. i think last night was her best, but two or three times in a row klobuchar has come to play that

somehow she needs to blow up the dynamic. >> that's the point julie was making, too. even as she looks stronger as these debates go, is that enough to catapult her above others? we made the point that biden was in that spot, too. people are putting her in the number 2 spot in terms of where her rankings are. it depends on the ground game, it depends on the ability to translate that into a good night on the debate stage and good face-to-face interactions and hoping others have bad nights so you can break through. >> now comes the fun. 45 days until iowa votes. get out and see it on the ground. next up for us, the impeachment impasse starring the two most distant leaders in congress. so skin looks like this

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serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. welcome back to the impasse. the speaker nancy pelosi and the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell trying to dare the other to blink first. nancy pelosi's refusal to send the articles of impeachment over to the senate right away is probably mitch mcconnell's last piece of fight in this case. nancy pelosi wants to make sure that they play fair, because she says he has no intention of being an impartial juror. now the leaders, stuck.

>> as of today, however, we remain at an impasse. we have the curious situation where democrats rushed to impeachment following weeks of pronouncements about the urgency of the situation. urgent situation. but prosecutors appear to have developed cold feet. >> now speaker pelosi waves off the cold feet charge. she prefers words like careful and cautious. meanwhile, the president, not happy. he wants a trial asap, says his friend senator lindsey graham. >> i just left president trump. he's mad as hell that they would do this to him and now deny him his day in court. the reason they're denying him his day in court is because they know their case sucks. >> the democrats at some point are going to have to understand. i know speaker pelosi wants to know what the rules are before she delivers managers, before

she delivers articles of impeachment, but they have to understand before they do, that will be the republican talking point. they're afraid their case is weak. >> it's a piece of leverage that she has but it's not a great piece of leverage. it can be turned around so quickly to say, if you were confident in your case, you would send it to the senate and say go ahead. there are also no prescribed constitutional rules for how they have to do this, and the congressman's definition of a fair trial is very different than represethe republican's den in terms of witnesses. pelosi will have to decide if eventually she's going to say, okay, go ahead and do this, because it's too much blowback politically. >> it will happen and it will happen in january somehow. you were part of the interview with the speaker yesterday as congress finished its business getting ready to go.

pelosi told "politico," waving her hand dismissively when asked if she was too afraid to hand over the articles of impeachment for trump. shetsd, you should know right away, i'm never afraid and i'm rarely surprised. she seemed much more relaxed the last couple days. understanding, you're impeaching the president. does she think she has an equal hand or upper hand here? >> you could definitely feel that this weight had been lifted off her shoulders. she was much more at ease than i've seen her in a long time. she's very comfortable, she's very confident going into next year. i mean, she knew when she got the speakership back a year ago she was going to have to deal with this one way or another. she resisted impeachment but knew this would come to a head somehow. now she's gotten it to the

senate over some speed bumps along the way, and it's in mcconnell's hands in some way. they're nearing 2018 levels, and she said, it means one thing. you're going to lose, and if you win, you're going to serve under a house minority, under me, under a democratic president. you may want to spend more time with your family. >> she's very disciplined, mcconnell is very disciplined. they're choosing their words either trying to get into the other person's skin or into the other party's psyche, if you will, because nobody knows how the impeachment politics will play out in 2020. the "wall street journal" editorial board siding with the president, saying this. mr. mcconnell may attempt to let mrs. pelosi delay naming managers for as long as she wants, figuring that she'll look increasingly cynical to the public. mr. mcconnell should put mrs.

pelosi on public notice that she has a certain period of time, perhaps until the end of the year, to name house managers. if she still refuses, he should declare that the senate will appoint managers to make the house impeachment case for the democrats. these are the most powerful, disciplined people in a staredown. >> i have a question for you that covers congress a lot more. looking at this through the lens of 2020, there seems to be an uncomfortable timeline in that iowa is going to start voting february 23rd. there are leading candidates running for the presidency who need to be at that senate trial. the longer this delays, is that not putting them in a strange -- is she unaware of that or does she care at this point? she's certainly aware. >> there are different schools of thought that if they go through these two weeks of no school into january, there will be that cloud hanging over them, and the other side of the coin is it's not a terrible thing for

the gop if this takes a long time to come over because then they get the benefit of that. >> except for the fact that mcconnell is also getting pressure from the white house. this is not just spin and rhetoric. trump wants this trial and he wants it now because he thinks this is good for him. he wants to be acquitted, he wants his team to make the case for him, so mcconnell is going to have to deal with that for a while. >> he will forever be impeached. >> right. >> he wants the forever be acquitted part next to it as soon as possible. but mcconnell is not going to rush too much. >> mcconnell is not going to let him do the sort of trial that he wants. actually, mcconnell will be faster about it because he doesn't want the whistleblower to come in, he doesn't want hunter biden to come in, and the president wants to wage that the bidens are a terrible fight in the 2020 campaign. >> democrats don't want that, but they'll let him have a piece of it if they'll give them john bolton and mick mulvaney, then you have the drug deal and quid pro quo, get over it.

>> that's probably not something the gop will agree to. again, you're stuck, and as long as you're stuck -- there is one other thing for pelosi that just seems odd because this whole time she's been saying we need to get impeachment behind us and talk about issues the voters care about. the more this stays here, the more the focus is on impeachment and not on health care and the other stuff they care about. >> which tells you she's got something she's trying to figure out, and when she figures it out, she'll have until the end of january. up next for us, signs of a strong economy. good news for a president heading into a reelection year. x balances skin's microbiome. so skin looks like this and you feel like this. aveeno® skin relief. get skin healthy™ our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition... for strength and energy! whoo-hoo! great-tasting ensure. with nine grams of protein and twenty-seven vitamins and minerals. ensure, for strength and energy.

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some new data on the economy today and some new numbers on the politics of the economy that should bring a big smile to the president's face. the government reports gross domestic product. that's the broadest snapshot of overall economic performance, grew at a 2.1% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. it's not the gangbuster reported growth that president trump promised in 2016, but it is proof that congress continues to expand as we approach the election year. and that is good news for an incumbent president, any incumbent president. here's more. voter confidence in the economy is at a level not seen in nearly 20 years. look at these numbers. 76% of americans now rate economic conditions in the country as good. you have to go back to february of 2001 to find a higher degree of optimism.

this is -- it's like a parallel universe in the sense that we have impeachment front and center. we'll start the election year with a senate trial. and yet if you look at these economic numbers whether you're name is donald trump or bill clinton or george w. bush or anybody, any incoming president would be doing handstands with, number one, the basic economic numbers, and number two, voter kfr confidence, that's it. people vote their lives. if you're that confident about the economy, are you going to pick a new president? >> you source out the news from his twitter, which is, why would you get rid of me if the economy is so good? there was a question along those lines to the candidates last night, and i do think this poses a bit of a challenge for democrats where they have to be careful to not appear overly partisan on this question. the economy objectively is better.

yes, trump has inherited an eco on the rise, but it has gotten better on his watch. republicans will try democrats will argue that the structural angle still remains questionable. trump said it would be 4 or 5% if you elected him. that was unrealistic at the time. he didn't meet that, but he still has a growing economy. his unemployment rate, 3.5%, the trump approval on economy, 54%. you want to replace trump? here's how some tried to make the case things might be good but they're not great. >> the middle class is getting killed. the middle class is getting crushed. >> the biggest problem in our economy is simple. people are not getting paid enough. >> gdp and corporate profits are at record highs in america today. also at record highs, depression, financial insecurity, student loan debt.

>> when you see a government that works great for the wealthy and the well connected and for no one else, that is corruption, pure and simple. >> trump goes around saying the economy is doing great. you know what real inflation accounted for wages last year? 1.1%. that ain't great. >> it is going to be -- they want to make it about the character of the president more than the economic numbers, but they're going to have to have a competing in this case argument. one of the reasons trump is president, a lot of people would tell you, is that in these key battleground states last time, hillary clinton didn't. >> i would say partly what's going on right now, to a democratic primary electorate, there is an argument to be made that, sure, the economy is growing at a macro level but it's growing at an uneven level. to the primary, that makes sense. the difficulty they'll have is transmitting that message to the

growing electorate. the economy was doing well at midterms. we saw republicans with a number of losses in the house in part because there were other factors the democrats could run on. >> the noise did matter. the specifics of the health care issue and the noise, tweeting all the time, attacking people, being callous, being rude. look at the elections from our new cnn poll in the battleground states. biden versus trump, 47-47. warren verse trump, 46-48. sanders versus trump, 45-49. buttigieg versus trump, 43-48. the incumbent president is competitive, if not leading, in all those states heading into what is going to be -- here it comes. >> if you look at the vote in the house on impeachment, all of the republicans hung with trump, one of the worrisome signs for democrats is that's a sign of what's to come in the general

election, that all the republican voters, the independents who sided with him last time hang with him. we've seen people hang with this president through an awful lot. there is no reason to believe that couldn't happen again a year from now. >> republicans, this is why they've stayed loyal to him for so long despite him doing things they don't agree with and can't defend in ukraine. even attacking john dingell or ukraine, they don't speak out on these things generally. like you said, people vote by looking at their bank account more than anything. things are going pretty well, and the real question for him and republicans is can he not step on his own message, as you pointed out. all they want to talk about is the economy, and all he seems to tweet about is everything else. up next for us, when the president says he believes ukraine did it, not russia, people ask, where did he get it? one person close to the president says, quote, putin told me.

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click, call or visit a store today. topping our political radar today, president trump signed a

spending package to keep the budget. he'll also sign a bill giving people federal leave. and he believes ukraine interfered in 2016, according to some, because "putin told me." trump grew more insistent that ukraine had grown to defeat him in the 2016 election. secretary esper did not mention any country specifically, but he says the dod understands the threat. >> the critical thing is we preserve the integrity of our

democratic process and that our elections are free from outside influence. and i'm confident we're doing everything we can right now to ensure that going into 2020. >> still ahead for us, the democratic national committee has new debate criteria for 2020. and some of the candidates are not happy. dewar's distillery, all our whiskies are aged, blended and aged again. it's the reason our whisky is so extraordinarily smooth. dewar's. double aged for extra smoothness. ♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪♪ we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home.

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committee not giving in. the dnc today raising the bar yet again for presidential candidates to qualify for the first primary debate of the actual election year in 2020. to participate, candidates will need to hit 5% in at least four approved national or early state polls, or 7% in two early state polls. candidates also then must woo at least 225,000 unique voters and the minimum of a thousand voters per state in at least 20 different states. the thresholds have angered many candidates, especially candidates of color. both those who have made the cut and those who have not. >> the question is, why am i the lone candidate of color on this stage? fewer than 5% of americans donate to political campaigns. do you know what you need to donate to political campaigns? disposable income. >> it's frustrating. so you see an iowa here, wall-to-wall steyer and

bloomberg ads, but i'm not a billionaire. >> cory booker did not make it. says he's not a billionaire. he says it's a shame the dnc are trying to dictate choices to people on the ground. now you have candidates mad at their own party. the party chairman would say, look, we have to beat donald trump. if we're going to beat donald trump, you have to prove that you can get support in the polls and you can get fundraising. who is right? >> i think you could argue both sides have a case to be made. i mean, when you talk to supporters of, say, cory booker, julian castro, the candidates themselves, they feel like the dnc has now become the first primary in essence. the responsibility of the first voters went to iowa, so why are you wi innowing down the voters? >> michael bennet campaign, a

senator from colorado. we had a governor from montana. a number of people who, on paper, credible candidates, have not been able to meet these criteria. are the dnc right to say, the voters don't like you? that's part of politics, or -- >> what's been happening for a year, some of these candidates, cory booker, julian castro, they've been out to south carolina, to iowa, they've been talking to voters and they have not shown up on the polls. booker and castro have had, castro in particular, some real standout debate moments which have not transferred to the donation. i think if you acan argue that you have a credible case and you can mebeat donald trump, and you've had comparable debates on the debates stage, maybe it would be competitive. >> is there anything you want to

ask forgiveness for or do you want to give a gift to anybody? i'm going to back out of this one as the man at the table, because a lot of people took note that the only candidates who talked about forgiveness were the two women. >> i will ask for forgiveness. i know that sometimes i get really worked up. and sometimes i get a little hot. i don't really mean to. >> i would ask for forgiveness any time any of you get mad at me. i can be blunt, but i am doing this because i think it is so important to pick the right candidate here. >> why? i mean this. i mean this. we went through -- look, we went through this and i've taken my fair share of heat on twitter, among other people in the business, too, after the 2016 campaign. but why does a woman candidate need to apologize for being passionate about what they believe in and sometimes mixing it up in a fight?

fights get contentious. >> you could see it that way or you could see this as kind of a life lesson on a debate stage, too. i'm sorry, you can. we're talking about a presidential campaign, but in life, in relationships, all kinds of things, women tend to be better at wanting to make peace, wanting to be self-reflective, and men tend to be more, i haven't done anything wrong, i'm sorry if you got hurt or whatever. so this is like in a way a refreshing little outtake on everything else that isn't this debate, isn't this race to take sides like that. i don't think they would have run out on the stage to pop j z apologize, anyway, but given the case can you be humble? the women said yes, and the men did not take that question. >> shockingly, none of them

said, obama was right. obama said women make better leaders. that's what he said. the men didn't jump in on that one. when we come back, an influential evangelical magazine said the president has lost and should be removed. the president responded to that just ahead. so skin looks like ts and you feel like this. aveeno® skin relief. get skin healthy™ hi dad. no. edon't try to get up. hi, i'm julie, a right at home caregiver. and if i'd been caring for tom's dad, i would have noticed some dizziness that could lead to balance issues. that's because i'm trained to report any changes in behavior, no matter how small, so tom could have peace of mind. we'll be right there. we have to go. hey, tom. you should try right at home. they're great for us. the right care. right at home.

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which they called for president trump to be removed from office. he said, t they said, the president of the united states attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president's political opponents. that is not only a violation of the constitution, more importantly, it is profoundly wrong. the president then said, a far lefrt magazine, or very progressive, as some would cal y it. i would argue the margins are going to matter. you see the president making appeals to african-americans, to latinos, to women, the constituents of which he struggles with the most. he's not going to change them, but if he can change the radicals a little bit in georgia, there goes the extreme. if he loses a little evangelical

support, what happens? >> that's a state he swung the last time that he has to keep in his column if he wants to win. there's always kind of been this question around where the religious community sides with donald trump. the evangelical community tends to swing more towards the gop, and yet trump has kind of been labeled by some spiritual leaders as a newcomer to the fold or the faith or what have you. his actions, especially when it has to do with women and stormy daniels type stuff, there are things out there that if you want to say, wait a second, that's not morally upstanding, you can do that as a religious voter. that split hasn't happened yet. but if that fracture starts to take place, that could be extremely problematic for him, especially if it takes place among women in the suburbs. that hasn't broken yet, but if it does, that could spell electoral vote problems. >> this is mark galley who is editor in chief. the president calls him far left. the editor says, not fair.

>> it's factually inaccurate that we're far left. we're pretty centrist. we rarely comment on politics unless we feel it rises to the level of some national concern that is really important. this would be a case. we wrote editorials about clinton during his impeachment process, we wrote editorials about nixon during his. this strikes me as rising to that level and i need to comment. >> he says they're centrist. they have written editorials in the past. there is one right after the president's election we could show you here where many evangelicals voted for trump, and many have advised him he's an image of god. so he's taken issue with certain specifics, but that's not outside the box. we've heard that from evangelicals who strongly support the president to tone it down. >> one of the evangelicals who

sharply insulted trump, it made the headlines and everyone moved on. they're sticking with him and i don't know if there's anything he can do. while weaver be've been on , nancy pelosi invited to "state of the union" on february 4th. brianna keilar starts right now. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. underway right now, he's mad as hell and making demands. why president trump wants his day in court before the senate. an evangelical christian magazine says the president needs to be removed, and now he's responded. despite all of this with 76% of americans saying the economy is good, is the president closer to or further from reelection after this week? plus a new report raises the question about whether vladimir putin is literally the trump whisperer. and the wife of an american