i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. this week history was made when donald trump became the third u.s. president to be impeached. joining an exclusive club. where house speaker nancy pelosi is delaying articles of impeachment over to the senate, there's an academic debate on whether president trump was actually impeached. noah feldman has written this. if the house does not communicate its impeachment to the senate, it has not actually impeached the president. if the articles are not transmitted, trump could say he was not truly impeached at all. one of those who disagrees is law professor jonathan turley, the sole scholar invited by the republicans to testify against impeachment. meanwhile, a standoff continues

between nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell. this standoff is the latest example of dysfunction in d.c. but none of that dysfunction is upsetting wellness on wall street. raising an interesting question of what the markets know that the politicians don't. or vice versa. the night the house put trump inin the history books, this was the president's reaction at a campaign rally. >> it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. >> that's somewhat nonchalant public reaction from the president could be due in part to the fact that the impeachment chaos erupting in washington is not impacting the economy. on thursday, the dow jones closed at record highs ending the day at 28,376 points. in the three years trump has been elected, the dow gained more than 10,000 points. on thursday the house passed the united states mexico canada

agreement that would replace nafta with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 385-41. economic numbers released on friday solidify a strong performance with growth of gdp at 2.1%, bolstered by a strong job market. the unemployment rate sits at 3.5% tied with a 49-year low. third quarter growth in consumer spending was stronger than expected at 3.2%. voters are paying attention to the current strong economic numbers. according to the latest cnn poll, 76% rated economic conditions as very or somewhat good. nine points higher than this same time last year. that economic approval rating is the highest in nearly 20 years, even if the president's overall job approval rate remains under water. the latest gallup polling found the president's approval rating is inching up. disorder in d.c., wellness on wall street is the bottom line.

how can both be true? what explains the confidence exhibited in so many economic metrics against a back drop of an impeached president? joining me now is the chief economist at moody's analytics, mark zandi. explain this disconnect because i can't follow it. >> michael, i think investors, global investors understand that the president will keep his job. he will be impeached but not convicted by the senate so nothing changes the status quo. investors are okay with the status quo, particularly after the president called a truce on his trade war. that would have been a problem if he escalated the war. he didn't do it. he stood down. so i think investors are comfortable with how things are going. nothing will change because of this impeachment. >> when i reference wellness on wall street, i'm really using wall street as a metaphore for the economy at large. as one who follows day-to-day everything that is going on in

dc, i find is remarkable that there is this dysfunctional or chaotic picture that emerges from the nation's capitol in contrast to all these metrics, seemingly doing very, very well. why is one not tied to the other? >> well, i mean, it may appear chaotic. as you pointed out, congress and the administration seem to be getting stuff done. things that need to get done. you mentioned the usmca, the update to the nafta agreement. they agreed to that it's going to become law. more importantly probably for the economy is the budget. they passed a big spending bill, 1$1.4 trillion. a lot of things could have gone off the rails there, it didn't. they passed it. they kept the government open and it will stay open now through next september. so, you know, when push comes to s shove, if these guys need to get something done, they get it done. it feels chaotic. a lot going on on cnn.

but, you know, in the bowels of government the wheels are still turning. if there were to be a senate trial, i say were because that's in doubt, might that disrupt some of the indicators that i spelled out at the outset? >> sure. depends on what is going on and what kind of testimony we're getting, how long it's delayed, why it's delayed. if investors start to think -- if they attach any probability whatsoever to the fact that the president may actually lose his job, that he gets convicted by the senate and will leave, then i think you'll see it show up in the stock market. at that point stock investors will be asking lots of questions about what's next and what does that mean for economic policy. so that will be a problem for investors. barring that, no. i don't think the impeachment will have an impact. >> mark, i want to make sure i'm presenting it straight. are there signs of trouble relative to the economy that you

see that i've not articulated? >> no. the only thing i point out is the economy is growing slowly. you know, it's growing around 2%. that is the bare minimum growth you need to generate enough jobs to keep unemployment low. so if anything else goes off script, of course, you know, i can come up with lots of things that could go off script here and growth slows a little bit, unemployment will starts to rise. once unemployment starts to rise, recession risks rise with it considerably. there's no cushion here. everything has got to stick to script otherwise we'll be back worrying about recession soon. >> final question, is there anything to be read into this data as to how these economic indicators look at the 2020 outcome? >> well, you know, i don't think it's going to be much of a tailwind or headwind for the president. what matters is what the

president is doieconomy is doing in pen, michigan, wisconsin, maybe minnesota, virginia. that's how the election will be determined and how the economy is performing in those states matters. the economy is not performing as well in those states as it is the rest of the nation. the trade war has done damage to manufacturing in those states, agriculture. so i don't think the economy will be the tailwind to the president's reelection that i think he thinks it will be. >> mark zandi, thank you. appreciate your expertise. >> any time. thank you. what are your thoughts? tweet me @smerconish. i'll read some responses throughout the program. this from facebook, in the mind of the public, he's been impeached. people still think nixon was impeached. that's true. nixon wasn't impeached. the aforementioned law professors, they disagree as to whether richard nixon would have been regarded as impeached take

that circumstance and he left office before the articles were transmitted to the senate. it's an academic debate but one with real significance this time. in this able of identity politics, there are staunch advocates for every conceivable demographic group except the white working class. find out why it's in the best interest of progressives to be the champions of the white working class. plus a prominent evangelical magazine demanded president trump be removed from office leaving the president to tweet no president has ever done what i have done for evangelicals or religion itself. will any of this undermine evangelical support for trump? that is today's survey question at smerconish.com. will evangelicals abandon president trump? and just wanted to tip my hat to

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why might it be in the best interest of progressives to champion the cause of working class whites? on the night donald trump was elected, my next guest began writing an essay on that subject that would be published in the harvard business review and it morphed into a book called "white working class: overcoming cluelessness in america." it's author, joe williams is a professor at hastings college of law and joined me earlier. professor, why does a self-described silver spooner care about working class whites? >> well, really for two reasons. i have studied social inequality and thought about it my entire life. and social inequality just

offends me, all types. race, gender, class, you name it. but the other thing is really two words, the electoral college. working class whites have outsized power in the electoral college. therefore outsized power to choose our next president. >> you seem to be arguing it's a wakeup call of sort fors for progressives saying unless we address the plight of working class whites we will have a racialized economic populism in this country. explain. >> we will, indeed. the -- we all know about the hollowing out of the middle class, and people in the middle class know as well they are extremely angry about it. many of them are interpreting this through the lens of race, it's because they're white people. i think it's through the lens of class. it's because they're working class people.

working class people of all races are not being well served by this economy and they're understandably furious. >> it seems like every other demographic group has individuals rooting them on. yet that's not the case for working class whites per se. is that a matter of political incorrectness? >> you know, people say isn't this too much political correctness? i say it's too little. i would never be sitting before you if it was not for the political correctness of creating opportunities for women but you can't focus on every disenfranchised group except for working class whites and expect them not to notice. they also are suffering from very concrete forms of social disadvantage, many of them shared, by the way, by people of working class color. this should be at the center of the presidential debate. >> expressed as a fraction, what

part of america lacks a college degree? >> three-fourths. now, some of them -- those people have some college. some of those people went to college and didn't finish, so now they're paying back college loans on a high school graduate's salary. but we need to make this economy work not only for people to go -- who go to college, but also very importantly for people who are not college grads. >> this really is an explanation. i mentioned at the outset you began this essay, it's morphed into a successful book. but it is an explanation as to why president trump was successful in being elected in 2016 and may be re-elected in 2020. >> you know, if people don't start focusing on, you know -- people are focused on the mind meld of who makes me feel like i'm my best version of myself. i'm actually focused on the math because that's what it takes to

win an election. and the problem with the mind meld is that there's a real culture gap between kind of the top 16% and the broad middle classes. they just don't share a lot of the same cultural values. so what may make me feel like my best self may be really alienating to many of the people who progressives need to have voting for their candidates in order to win. >> thank you, professor. >> thanks, michael. always a pleasure. let's see what you're saying on my smerconish twitter and facebook pages. this comes from facebook. the tragedy is that we cannot address the problems of all working class people regardless of race. william, i recommend you read the book, she explains with more time afforded better than i can here exactly why it's the white working class that need to be paid attention to by progressives. the pitch that she makes as a

progressive is, hey, unless you want to continue to have racialized populism, economic populism, we better get these folks on our side and as their plight or we'll never advance our progressive agenda. that's her argument in a nutshell. up ahead, i talk to sports casting legend bob costas about the fight between the nba and china, whether tom brady or colin kaepernick will be playing next year and why olympic bombing hero richard jewel once sought out costas. this year more and more homeless are sleeping in america's treats. thanks to a new court decision cities can't ban them if they have no place else to go. what's the future of america's skid rows? and an evangelical magazine has come out in favor of removing president trump. how will this affect the 80% plus of white evangelicals who voted for him in 2016, my hunch is not so much. that is this week's survey

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. it's not often that an

evangelical evangelical publication makes national headlines, but that's what happened this week when "christianny today" published trump should be removed from office. it's time to say what we said 20 years ago when a president's character was revealed for what it was. joining me now is peter weoner, a never trumper. he served in the administrations of reagan and both bushes. he's a contributing writer of the atlantic and author of "the death of politics: how to heal our frayed republic after trump." peter, you were the first person i thought of when i read this. i remember you being here with me on cnn saying evangelicals love donald trump because they regard him as a guy who will bring a gun to a cultural knife fight. is this going to change anything? >> yes and no. i don't think it will change many votes. the white evangelical community is pretty much aligned with donald trump. on the other hand, there are millions of evangelicals who are

queazy and uneasy with him as president, even people who vote for him that have moral qualms about him. this is an institutional response. christianity today is a flagship publication of the evangelical world. i think that they view their role here as speaking truth to power. martin luther king jr. said the purpose of the church wasn't to be the servant or the master of the state, but to be the conscious of the state. i think that this is christianity, today's effort, to be a conscious of the state. >> here's part of the editorial. trump's evangelical supporters have pointed to his supreme court nominees, his defense of religious liberty and his stewardship of the economy among other things as achievements that justify their support of the president, none of the president's positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.

peter, i've often made the argument here that i think more than perhaps anything else, it's the impact that the president is having on the judiciary, the pace of his appointments, the fact that he is appointing conservatives with good credentials in most instances to those life long positions. >> yeah. look, that's true. i actually support his judicial appointments. you can hold two concepts at the same time. you can believe that trump's policies advance causes that you care about. you can also say that the man is an utter moral wreck and that he's corrupt. that's the case if you're a conservative christian. the indictment of the evangelical world is they can't say the latter. they are not willing to speak truth to power. they go quiet when he does moral transgressions. it's the opposite, they will defend him regardless of what he does. they will attack those who call him out. so i think that really is the

indictment. the other thing i wanted to say, in that tweet that donald trump sent out, he said no president has ever done as much for the evangelical community. >> yeah. put that on the screen. sure. >> yeah. first, i don't agree with it on the grounds that donald trump means that there's -- there's george h.w. bush, ronald reagan, he says it's not even close. think about the premise of that. donald trump sees this only through the prism of power. that's not what christianity fundamentally is about. and it's also about a certain biblical ethic, a christian ethic. i would argue there's no president we ever had who embodies more of an anti-christian ethic than donald trump. if you read through what the fruits of the spirit are in glacians that paul talks about, those are not qualities you associate with donald trump. i understand political leaders have a different role and a different task, but if that

person embodies certain qualities, certain ethic that is at odds with the biblical ethic, this idea that because you're going to challenge the johnson amendment, that somehow advances the conservative cause, that's wrong. the damage what's being done to the christian witness in america because of this unholy alliance between white evangelicals and donald trump is enormous. it will take a lot to undue the damage. i think what christianity today did is to begin to undo some of that damage and repair some of that damage. >> a final -- a final thought. but there's this cognitive dissidence because whatever his personal failings might be, he's the hired gun. he's getting the job done for the evangelical community. bottom line, is that going to change? >> no. for most of them it won't. most people can't live easily with cognitive dissidence. when it happens, the things that essentially make you feel that you are at odds with your own

convictions, with your own integrity, you have to push those aside. you have to bury those. you have to pretend that what's causing the cognitive dissidence is -- you have to mitigate those feelings. you have to convince yourself that you're pushing causes that -- that are vastly more important. so, no, i don't think it's going to change. i do think what's going to happen, when this eventually plays out and with time and distance people will see the enormous damage, the enormous wreckage this has caused. i don't think, michael, that any of the so-called new atheists could have done as much to damage christian witness as many people in the white evangelical world have done because what they've done is show a degree of hypocrisy, lack of moral seriousness, and they have embraced a person of enormous cruelty. when you do that, there is a cost to watching world. >> peter, thank you so much for

being here. >> you bet. more social media reaction. this comes from facebook, i think. i most certainly am reading a different bible than those evangelicals. can anyone name one of jesus teachings that trump follows? the numbers are staggering, by the way. 25% of the country, evangelical christian. they supported the president 80 plus percent in 2016. his approval rating is like 75% right now as compared to 42% for the rest of the country. i don't know that they need to regard him as one of them and to lead the kind of life they would like him to lead as long as he's getting the job done on things like the courts, support for the annexation of the west bank, moving the embassy in israel. one more from twitter if i have time. here it is. evangelicals unflinching support of trump is the best recruitment tool atheism has had in many

decades. enough said. i want to remind to you answer the survey question. all of you go to smerconish.com. will evangelicals abandon president trump? i think peter was suggesting not. still to come, homeless people can still sleep on the streets because the supreme court chose not to hear a case on that matter. so what does this mean for places like los angeles where i visited skid row earlier this year? and after a bomb went off at the 1996 olympics in atlanta killing one and injuring over 100, a security guard was wrongly accused of the crime it ruined his life. now there's a new movie out about the controversy. i'll talk to bob costas about his memorable encounter with the real richard jewell. >> there is a bomb in centennial park. you have 30 minutes. >> did he do it? richard jewell is an innocent man. >> he's a hero.

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. the nation was fixated on impeachment this week, the supreme court made a decision that will impact cities in the western united states. on monday, the nation's highest court declined to review city of boise versus martin. that's a case that dealt with whether cities could issue citations for sleeping and camping in public in an attempt to cut down on homeless encampments. this means the 9th circuit court

of appeals decision will stand. that ruling in september of last year said the cruel and unusual punishments clause of theth amendment precluded the enforcement of a statute prohibiting sleeping outside against homeless individuals with no access to alternative shelter. in october i spoke with the mayor of boise where this case began. he stressed the need for city governments to be able to issue citations. >> we have to be able to cite people that are camping so that we don't have camps forming that are unsafe, unsanitary. we have to have that tool to keep the camps from forming. this is not an academic exercise. we had a camp form about five years ago, about 120 people. it was unsafe. we had a homicide in the camp. we know what happens if we are not allowed to do this. we simply want to maintain the status quo, which is working quite well.

while we go to work on building more housing and more services for the homeless. >> on monday, outgoing mayor dave beader released a statement saying the decision by the supreme court to not review the case was disappointing adding without the ability to enforce this ordinance much of what we accomplished in terms of providing terminate supportive housing and other services for those experiencing homelessness could be jeopardized. i saw it firsthand when i went to skid row in los angeles where almost 8,000 homeless people live. the city and county of los angeles submitted briefs in support of the supreme court taking up the appeal of the 9th circuit decision. they were among about 20 briefs submitted. but with this decision by the court to not review the appeal, officials in those cities say they're now looking for different ways to combat the risks and dangers that come with homeless encampments. while the nation was fixated on impeachment, this development is

part of what i've said is the president's more lasting impact -- his judicial appointments. in the 9th circuit alone of the 29 active seats in that court the president appointed ten of them, changing what that been famously liberal, albeit not in time to impact the homeless case. the three 9th circuit judges that heard the case were all nominated by democratic presidents. but what boise illustrates is the power that appellate courts have as the final word on a that j majority of federal matters. president trump is on pace to far surpass the number of appointments made by president obama and trump's picks on average are ten years younger than those appointed by his predecess predecessor. so they'll be making law for a lot longer than donald trump will be president regardless of who wins in 2020. still to come, at the 1996 olympics in atlanta, a security guard saw something, a backpack with three pipebombs, and said

something, saving hundreds of lives. but as director clint eastwood's new movie reminds us, richard jewell then became a suspect and it ruined his life. i'm about to talk to bob costas about his role in this story. >> you have any way of knowing why they would consider you a suspect? >> no, i have no idea. >> did you do it? >> no, sir, i didn't do it.

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clint eastwood's new movie, "richard jewell," tells the story of the atlanta security guard who went from hero to suspect in connection with an explosion that killed one and injured 111. jewell was never arrested and in 2005 another man pled guilty to the bombing. bob costas was nbc's olympic host in 1996. one year later he was calling the national league baseball playoffs in atlanta when he was told he had a visitor outside the booth. richard jewell. bob costas joins me now. why had richard jewell come to see you one year later?

>> as you recall, as some others may and as the movie lays out, at the time the fbi felt that richard jewell fit the profile of someone who might have been the bomber. that was reported by much of the media. they were not necessarily taking the initiative to indict richard jewell, they were reporting what the fbi was putting out there. and it turns out that he was completely innocent. that he was a hero. there was a fatality, there were hundreds of injuries, but it would have been worse without his action. but since this took place during the olympics, with the entire country and much of the world watching, this wasn't an isolated thing that happened somewhere outside the spotlight, this was a big deal. much of the country assumed that richard jewell was the bomber. his reputation was harmed forever. there are still people who when you mention richard jewell's name, they don't make the distinction. he's the guy, the bombing in atlanta. while all this was going on, i

raised -- i didn't think i did anything terribly spectacular, i simply said what if he isn't the guy? what if they don't charge him? what if they don't arrest him? where does he go to get his reputation back? if they're not right about this, if they're not willing to stand behind it and prove it, something terribly wrong has happened here. that's all i said. i didn't think it was that out of the ordinary. apparently there weren't that many people who took that stance. >> was he watching? had he heard that? >> either he was watching or he heard about it obviously the audience for the olympics is very large. fast forward a year. and i'm doing the game in atlanta during the playoffs. and the stage manager taps me on the shoulder and says, bob, richard jewell is outside the broadcast booth. he wants to come in and speak to you. i had no idea what he wanted to say. i said sure, bring him in at the next half inning. he comes in, he was exactly as you would think. unassuming, i shoushy, kind of g

at the floor, very differential. kept calling me mr. costas. he said i just came to say thank you for being fair to me and my mother wants to thank you as well. >> wow. >> and if you see the film or you recall what the relationship was, he lived at home with his mom, a man in his early 30s living at home with his mom. there was something i found touching and poignant and genuine about this. he was guileless and sincere. i said to him, not being able to think of anything else in the moment, would you like to stay and watch the rest of the game from the broadcast booth? most baseball fans would say sure. no, no, i would just be in the way. i just wanted to say thank you. we shook hands. he left. that was the one and only time i saw and spoke to him. >> the '96 olympics, that's the same year during the opening ceremonies, china comes in, you make a comment about human rights or lack of human rights, you draw this really strong rebuke from beijing. now fast forward to the year about to end wer dhere darrell y

sends out a tweet about the hong kong protesters, and all hell breaks loose. >> it's the same china playbook. they do not recognize the prerogatives of a free society where free speech is respected, and they expect that you will apologize. they threaten to take actions that will hurt you commercially, which is much more possible now because we're much more fully invested in that economy. what i said, as the chinese came in during the opening ceremony -- i want to emphasize, impressions to the contrary, i have never talked about issues like this unless they were pertinent to something that was happening in sports, and during something like an opening ceremony. >> people say stick to sports, costas. >> when i'm doing play by play of a baseball game, it's the game. >> right. >> i was always on pregame, halftime, a portion anchoring

the olympics or during the opening ceremony. if this was bulgaria, this doesn't have as much pertinence. it was china. what i said was here is china, more than 1 billion people, an economy growing at some 10% a year. every nation including the united states wants in on that market, but of course there are overarching concerns about human rights and other issues. then i also noted they wanted to host an olympics, they were in the mix for 2000, which went to sydney, australia. they had not yet been granted the 2008 olympics in beijing. there will be a winter olympics in 2022 in beijing. i noted the ioc had some of the same concerns. then i also said something to the effect, if there's any nation that has the means and the motivation to replicate the old soviet union eastern block sports machine you're looking at that nation. >> was it extemporaneous or did you map out what you intended to

say as they came in. >> i never script it out, but you have bullet points, things you think you might want to mention. a lot of what you do during a play by play situation is spontaneo spontaneous. something like that, you have time to prepare. i wanted to make points but i didn't have the exact words scripted. this is the early days of the internet, the word gets out. in chinese language newspapers in the united states i'm being, you know, harshly criticized to put it mildly. they're demanding an apology. there were demonstrations outside 30 rock. now the owe olymplir olympics a. it's mid-august, i'm on vacation someplace, i get a call and they say they are demanding a sincere public apology in prime time. and i say, i'm not going to do that. you can't quote me, do whatever you want. nbc put out some sort of boiler plate statements. i don't think it was from the hierarchy of nbc, it was from a lower level, the pr department

put out one of those we're sorry if anyone was offended statements. >> a non-apology apology? >> yeah. social media isn't what it is now and it died down. but it was the same playbook from china. >> end of year final question. who is more likely to be playing in the nfl next season as a quarterback? tom brady or colin kaepernick? >> tom brady. it's possible that tom brady retires after this season. it's possible. >> you told me once that you thought colin kaepernick was being black balled. it would seem like that was confirmed in the last couple of months. >> when i was on your show in 2017, he had played the preceding season. it was clear that he was good enough to start for some teams and certainly be a backup for many teams. it was clear he was being black balled. more time has gone by. it's unclear how he measures up in the eyes of scouts. it's also clear, even if you completely support mhis positio,

i recognize his issue and i recognize his intentions are i don't think he's a perfect messenger, we've talked about that before. without getting into that, even if you're a 100% kaepernick supporter, i think what he said after the makeshift workout, it's clear that he would intend to use this as an ongoing political platform, and it's also clear that his value as a player is not worth it to nfl teams any longer, if it ever was, to put up with the, quote, distraction. we know that football people hate distractions. and in their eyes, he would be one. >> okay. recording you as a brady vote. >> yeah. could tom retire after this year? he could. but if i were to guess, i'd say he plays on. >> merry christmas, happy holidays. thanks for coming back. >> always great to see you. >> thank you. still to come, your best and worst tweets and facebook comments, and we'll give you the final results of the survey

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click, call or visit a store today. time to see how you responded to the survey question at smerconish.com. will evangelicals abandon president trump? here's the result. no, say 72% with more than 8,000

votes having been cast. i'll leave it up, so keep voting. here's some more of what you thought this week. what do we have, katherine? smerconish, why after all that you just said about the economy and unemployment do you not support trump? greenguy, who said i'm here to support trump or not to support trump? confusion raeigns as to whether i'm here to carry his water or to do him in. i'm here to present all the data so you make up your own mind and presenting is fairly. that's what i seek to do every saturday that i'm here. here's some more from social media. what have we got? disorder in d.c., wellness on wall street, euphoria on main street. i'm just totally taken with the disconnect between the two. the images that come out of washington in the context of an impeachment battle and then each of these economic metrics. when i say wall street, i'm using that in a global sense to talk about the economy. it's like one and the other are

not intersecting, which i find fascinating. join me for my american life in columns tour, pittsburgh, manchester, soldout shows in st. louis and raleigh. thank you for watching. have a very merry christmas and a happy new year. i'll see you back here next year. can bestrugg there's an easier way. try mr. clean magic eraser. just wet, squeeze and erase tough messes like bathtub soap scum... and caked-on grease from oven doors. now mr. clean magic eraser comes in disposable sheets. they're perfect for icky messes on stovetops... in microwaves... and all over the house. for an amazing clean, try mr. clean magic eraser, and mr. clean magic eraser sheets.

that will makeout washington insiders very uncomfortable: term limits. you and i both know we need term limits, that congress shouldn't be a lifetime appointment. but members of congress, and the corporations who've bought our democracy hate term limits. too bad. i'm tom steyer and i approve this message because the only way we get universal healthcare, address climate change and make our economy more fair is to change business as usual in washington.

president trump is officially now on christmas vacation at his mar-a-lago resort in south florida. we now know his team is in full prep mode for the anticipated senate impeachment trial in the new year. good morning, everyone, i'm amara walker in for christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell, good to be with you. the president had a volatile week in washington. he did accept an invitation by nancy pelosi to deliver the state of the union address in february. before arriving in florida the president narrowly avoided a government shutdown by spending a