this sunday all the president's investigations. michael cohen sentenced to prison, and implicating president trump in illegal tabloid hush money payoffs. >> he directed me to make the payments and to become involved in these matters. >> i don't think and i have to check, i don't think they paid any money to that tabloid. >> this as new investigations emerge involving donations to mr. trump's inaugural committee and to the trump investigatioon. we have a "wall street journal" poll on the investigation and on the president's honesty. >> plus, obamacare strk . a texas judge rules for republicans that the individual mandate without a tax is unconstitutional and the law must go. >> big ruling. great ruling for our country.

we'll be able to get great health care. >> democrats vow to appeal and the case appears headed to the supreme court. my guest this morning, senate minority leader chuck schumer of new york and roy blunt of missouri and democratic congressman adam schiff of california. also, that white house showdown over a government shutdown. it's trump versus pelosi and schumer. >> i will shut down the government, absolutely. >> we disagree. we disagree. >> i am proud to shut down the government for border security. >> is this a preview of the battles to come? joining me for insight and analysis are "washington post" columnist eugene robinson, katy tur, host of msnbc live and david brody and eliana johnson. national political porter for politico. welcome to sunday, it's ""meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in

washington, the longest running television show in history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning, as if we needed another reminder. this week illustrated how not normal the trump presidency has become. president trump's lawyer sentenced to prison. his chief of staff, second one, mind you is out. a are y a routine photo op was a taunting schoolyard smack down. look at the president's investigations among the targets, the trump campaign, the trump transition team, the trump inauguration committee, the trump family, the trump organization and the trump charitable foundation, trump associates and finally, president trump himself. essentially everything he's touched his adult life is under investigation. all of this may be taking a toll on the president. we have a poll out this morning on the russia investigation, 62% say president trump has not been honest and truthful. that's a growing number in our poll and across the board, democrats, independents and

republicans. 34% say he's been honest and truthful. 45% want to see the investigation continue. 34%, familiar number there would like to see it end. there are the entire law has to go. republicans have sought to kill the affordable care act since the pastisage but the ruling cos as obamacare is now more popular than ever and helped democrats flip 40 house seats in november. so looking ahead. multiple investigations, a new fight over health care, trade war with china, possible recession, and we haven't even mentioned the chances of a government shutdown at the end of this week. happy holidays, everyone.

joining me now is the senate democratic lead er chuck schumer of new york. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be back, chuck. >> let's start with the health care ruling. the assumption is there will be appeals. how do you appeal this law? do you appeal the specific argument about the mandate or the entire ruling or is it on severibility? >> first, it's an awful ruling. it undoes preexisting conditions. it jeopardizes the tens of millions getting good health care in the exchange but goes way beyond that. it would knockout funding for treatment of opioids and raise drug prices and close the doughnut hole so seniors would pay more for drug prices and eliminate maternal care and women's health. it's an awful, awful ruling. we're going to fight this tooth and nail and the first thing we're going to do when we get urge, put a vote on the floor, urging an intervention in the case.

the judge, a lot of this depends on congressional intent and if a majority of the house and majority of the senate say that this case should be overturned, it will have a tremendous effect on the appeal. on the peel. the first stop is the courts. it's an awful, awful decision and puts a lot of our republicans in a box because they sort of were once -- you know, two faced on the one haf- they said they want to preserve preexisting conditions and preserve health care. on the other hand, donald trump and a large number of republicans brought this court suit, so there will be a good number of republicans that will really have to make a decision whether to join us in this intervention or face very severe consequences. >> are you open to finding a compromise with republicans? let's say your prospects don't look as good in the courts as you might think they do. do you try to work with them to bring a penalty back on the

mandate if that's what it takes? do you work with them to figure out a plan that eliminates the mandate? where are you on this? >> well, legislation when it comes to health care as we have seen is very difficult and the president and a large number of republicans are actually for cutting back on health care. that's what they have done for two years. we have a divided house and senate. i think the courts have to be the first and best way to go. >> let me ask you this about the courts, by the way. brian fallon, somebody that used to work for you tweeted the following. he said the judge that rule in favor of gutting obamacare was confirmed by voice vote. remember that the next time democrats cut a deal with mcconnell and defend it by saying they were non-controversial nominees. this judge by the way confirmed in 2007 when democrats were in control of the united states senate. do you regret the way you guys voice voted this judge? >> you never know how a judge will vote ten years later, but this was an awful, awful decision and it has to be

overturned. there is also, you know, an element, i don't know how you deal with this but forum shopping. the republicans chose this court and this bench because they thought they might get this way out of the main stream ruling from this judge whose done it before. >> you brushed off this judge issue very quickly. look, that was part of a deal. you were part of cutting back in '07. was that a bad deal? >> no, there was no deal i don't think on this judge. he was a nominee to the district court. no one brought up anything, no one knew how he would rule in the future and, you know, it's an awful ruling. let's make no mistake about it. >> some progresses and senators in your caucus are going to say okay, here we go again with the affordable care about and it was a flawed enterprise anyway. here is what adam green, founder of progressive change campaign writes. he says democrats need to put a bright north star in the sky for 2020 voters to make clear that

we're moving toward medicare for all as a big part of a 2020 electoral strategy. it seems pretty clear the presidential nominee, whoever it is will support medicare for all. do you think it's time for democrats to push this? >> look, democrats are for universal access to health care, from one end of the party to the other. we want more people covered, everyone covered. we want better health care at a lower cost. people have different views as to how to get there. many are for medicare for all. some are for medicare buy in and some are over 55, some are medicaid buy in, some are public option. we have to do a lot more on health care. it will be a major issue in 2020 and i believe democrats will get the best health care for the most people. >> where are you? do you think you should spend proposal? >> we have to undo the decision. we have a republican president and senate. they spent a lot of time sabotaging health care. that's the first job. after that, democrats, as we did in 2018 rather successfully will

make health care a major, probably the major issue in the upcoming campaigns and as we act in congress and we're going to force the republican colleagues now that this decision has sort of lifted up their hypocrisy to choose a side. are you for the american people, working people for more and better health care or are you going to continue to cut it? same with trump. same with president trump. >> i know you're careful putting your view here now that you're the leader of the senate conference there, are you going to support medicare for all, senator schumer? >> look, as i said, there are lots of different roots. i'll support the plan that passes and the cheapest health care for all americans. >> i want to move onto the issue that may lead to a government shutdown, it's immigration.

i want to play something you said in 2009 on the senate floor. take a listen. >> people who enter the united states without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people that enter the u.s. legally. >> i apologize, you said that at georgetown. >> some people at georgetown would think it's better to say it there. >> that is so true. senator schumer, do you still believe in that principle? >> of course. no democrat believes there is no difference between legal and illegal immigration. we democrats were for a path to citizen ship, however, not amnesty, a very difficult path to citizen ship. in 2013, every single democrat

voted for it. a bunch of republicans led by john mccain voted for it and it was thwarted in the house. we want to create a path to citizen ship for those illegally but we don't think they are the same. >> is there any way you budget all on your number on boarder security on the 1.6? we know you don't want to give them the five. is there any middle ground that you would be willing to inch over to that you think could get 60 votes in the senate? >> president trump should understand there are not the votes for the wall in the house or the senate, he is not going to get the wall in any form. even the house, which is majority republican, they don't have the votes for his $5 billion wall plan. in fact, ryan, afraid of what's going to happen sent all the house home until wednesday night, a day and a half, two days before the shut down and they certainly don't have the they certainly don't have the votes in the senate. now, we democrats, leader pelosi and i offered the president two options as to how to avoid the shutdown and we should not let a

temper tantrum, threats push us in the direction of doing something that everybody even our republicans colleagues know is wrong. leader mcconnell said we shouldn't shut down the government. chairman shelby said we shouldn't shut down the government. >> i understand that. >> and they should join us in one of these two propels, which would get more than enough votes pass and avoid a shutdown. if the president wants to debate the wall next year, he can. he shouldn't use innocent workers as hostage for his temper tantrum to sort of throw a bone to his base. >> what you're saying is there is no wiggle room here. it's those two options or that's it. >> those two options are the kinds of things republicans supported in the past and when you talk to them privately, even publicly, a c.r. is much preferable to a shutdown. they have to have the guts to tell president trump he's off on the deep end here and all he's going to get with his temper tantrum is a shutdown. he'll not get a wall.

>> before i go, i want to ask you about the prospects of impeachment. we learned the president directed michael cohen to commit felonies. at what point do you believe the house democrats, you are on the house judiciary committee in 1998. you're very familiar with this. at what point are house democrats obligated? nobody says that means you vote for impeachment but are they obligated to start one? >> i'll give you my view. we should make sure that mr. mueller is unimpeded, that he finishes his investigation and

we should make sure that that report is public and then make a decision on the totality. as you know, impeachment has a lot of different ramifications. we certainly think no president is above the law, but i think it's wise to wait for the report, more and more people are believing in mueller. fewer and fewer people as your survey showed believe the president. let's get the report and let's read it. let it go public and then let us decide. >> is it an asset or liability to have the first name of senator if you run for president in 2020? running. let 1,000 flowers bloom. let everyone run and see the best. democrats will be guided who can best beat trump because he's such a danger to the nation, to the middle class, to the working

close people of america. i think at the end of the day, there will be more unity than people think. >> sounds like you think electability should be first and foremost. >> the voters will believe that. >> fair enough. senator schumer, thanks for your time. >> chuck, good to see you. can i make a plug? go giants. go giants. >> okay, as you fight for your non-play-off spot. >> you never know, you never know. >> okay. i'll have to check that math. fair enough. joining me now from the other side of the isle is republican senator roy blunt of missouri who sits on the intelligence committee. welcome back to "meet the press", sir. >> good to be with you. >> let me start with something senator schumer said he would ask the united states senate to do, to ask for a sense of the senate and the house on this lawsuit that says it needs to be congress needs to intervene with this lawsuit and stop it. would you support that? >> what he was saying is the congress should tell the circuit court what to do. i can't recall a similar time anything like that happened and he said on health care, it's hard to get anything done when you ask him what kind of legislative things we want to do on health care. that's clearly not going to happen. that's not what we ought to be doing this week, and senator schumer knows it. >> didn't this federal judge act like a legislator and he decided on his own what the law is going to be? he said well, i've decided that

congress said this is a zero tax, i've decided it's no longer a tax. that's the definition of a judge writing legislation. >> that doesn't mean that legislators can act like judges just because -- >> so you acknowledge, the judge probably over stepped his bounds here? >> i think the thing to remember about the judge's ruling is it has to immediate impact. nothing changes yesterday. nothing changes tomorrow. this will have to go through a circuit court process. who knows if the circuit court would uphold it or not. that will either be quickly dismissed, which is one option or a long period of time before the circuit court deals with it. this will be another area where this health care will be used as a political issue way beyond the ramifications of one district judge making a ruling that has no immediate impact.

>> well, let me tell you what the president said. the president said, this was great news for america. that was his point. do you agree with him? >> i think it's basically for america, it means we'll continue to debate this. health care clearly matters to people. some of -- what we had with obamacare, as you've called it today was a poorly thought out plan, really poorly implemented to start with that had lots of negative impact on lots of families who have insurance they don't need with deductibles they can't afford. >> if that is true, why have you failed to have an alternative?

you've had eight years. >> we had lots of alternatives when obamacare passed. letting people up to age 26 stay on their parents' insurance wasn independent bill. it was four pages and probably insured more people than any other single part of the affordable care act did. there were lots of ideas but the other side didn't want to listen to those ideas. >> your party can't unite on any idea, though. if you had one, wouldn't you have more leverage at the table? >> i wouldn't say we couldn't unite on any idea, but this is a very difficult issue and closely divided senate. 49 senators including me voted to do something last year that couple republican senators couldn't agree with. trying to get -- this is why the committee process matters. the one thing i think we would be able to unite on is medicare for all would wind up meaning medicare for none. if democrats want to take that view to the american people and seniors, particularly people covered by medicare understand the ramifications of that, there is no way that will happen and no way voters will let it happen. >> was this lawsuit necessary? >> you know, i'm not in the job of questioning what state attorney generals decide they want to do. >> you have a future colleague

in the senate, josh holly who filed this lawsuit. it was probably the biggest political negative he faced, the health care issue. he had to do a lot of answering of charges on that. in hindsight, was this a mistake? >> he won the election. if anything had impact on voters, i don't know. i do know the court case -- >> you don't seem enthusiastic about the lawsuit. you do seem, you know, take it or leave it. >> you have to -- when you challenge something like the affordable care about, an attorney general in texas doesn't have the obligation to come up with what the alternatives are. josh holly and i have a different obligation than the attorney generals and we continue to look for more options, more choices, more access to insurance that really meets people's needs, things like the associated health plans

that allow people in small businesses to ban together. that's going to have a real impact on people that can get out of the individual market, which is always more expensive and more difficult to navigate than insurance at work. a lot more people will have insurance at work because of the associated health plans that the administration put out there and they are already beginning to work. >> are you at a point, though, the expectation now is the affordable care act is the new baseline and whatever you do, you can't eliminate any benefit that that already has? >> i think you can create more options. i think for the individual marketplace for any foreseeable future, the affordable care act is going to be there. it's going to have the boundaries of the affordable care act but that's not served individuals for families as well as other things. we have a real opportunity here to look at this democrat congress, republican senate, republican president trying to find solutions to some of these problehaha now been arou f >> if it temporarily halted this lawsuit, would you support putting a one cent tax, if you will, on the mandate in order to pass this? >> chuck, i think the tax was always a stretch. the obama administration said it's not a tax, it's not a tax until the way the court would uphold it, maybe it is a tax and

the court upheld it on that basis coming up with a one cent gimmick wouldn't have appeal to me. >> you were the head of the inaugural committee as far as congress is concerned not to say you're part of the actual campaign aspect of raising money but there is this investigation and the amount of money that was raised, let me put what the head of bush's inaugural committee in 2005 said about trump's committee, they had a third of the staff and a quarter of the events and raised twice as much obvious question, where did it go? i don't know.

loion,whid you say boy, howing. come that part of the inauguration, it was a great opportunity. what happens at the capital is under the control of the congress. the funding, congressional funding, taxpayer money and our government is never more vulnerable at any time than when you've got everybody outside in the middle of the winter on tons of plywood and lumber and there is a lot to think about. i would say the two or three times that i interacted with that committee, normally with tom barrick to make sure what happened at the capitol was up to us, not them. i have no idea what they did. during that particular period, my time was very consumed by being sure if we had to get everybody off that platform for some emergency, we could get them off there quickly. >> you voted for all four articles of impeachment for bill clinton. two that passed were lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice.

do you regret those votes? >> not as much as i'm sure he regrets lying to the grand jury. >> do you regret the impeachment process? >> you know, i looked at ken star's book. i think all of us looking back at that would not want to rush to anything that has all of the ramifications that impeachment has. if i was given advice to my friends in the house, most of the chairmen i would have served with, my advice would be legislate, don't investigate if you want to be rewarded with the continued opportunity to be in control of the house of representatives. >> roy blunt, republican from missouri. thanks for coming on. good to see you, sir. when we come back, the two big stories of the day, the trump investigations and future and politics of health care. the panel is next. ♪ ignition sequence starts.

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welcome back. we have eugene robinson and nbc news correspondentaty k tur and david brody, analyst. here is what donald trump, president trump tweeted out after the ruling, as i predicted all along, obamacare has been struck down as an unconstitutional disaster. now congress must pass a strong law that provides great health care and protecting preexisting conditions. mitch and nancy, get it done. it's the visual of mcconnell and pelosi somehow rewriting the health care law with donald trump as president. what does that look like? >> i think that's a vision that nobody in this town can conjure right now and donald trump may be the only republican cheering this decision, which is somewhat fascinating. looking at conservative legal scholars and conservatives at large, there is nobody who seems to be happy about this ruling and to think it's reasoni ang tx

of zero dollars, which republicans in the house, they did away with the individual mandate by just saying the tax on it is zero dollars but before october went into law, you heard conservatives say once you pass an entitlement, you can't take it away and the feeling several years in is that it's too hard to take away because it's increased in popularity. >> sounds like republicans hope this gets tossed. >> yeah, they are like rooting for the circuit court to throw it out like next week, right? they want this out of the way because as long as this is sort of pending and it does seem to be a weird and i'm not a lawyer, i can't call it ridiculous, reasoning, the decision but seems rulme. it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. i read commentary by scholars scratching their heads. but this is awful pfor republicans because they t to step up, right?

and they are going to have to say if push comes to shove, we have to do something about prepre existipr preexisting conditions because if they don't, they will get blown out. >> looking at the timeline how this would get appealed if it doesn't get overturned, it has to go to the supreme court which would mean there is a pert whos talk about the timeline would be in 2020, which would make ate perfect political issue for democrats. so the idea that maybe this is not going to be a topic come 2020 in the next election is i think a bit of wishful thinking for republicans and democrats will use that. >> i'm old enough to remember when the 2012 supreme court decision was going to be the be all end all of that presidential election. >> here comes john roberts again potentially on obamacare. part two. to potentially save the democrats again. i think that will be interesting to watch. look, i think it's an

opportunity for potential reset here. look, obamacare was passed in terms of just a full partisan vote. so we know this. so here we are, for example, they do need to start from scratch if you will. it does give republicans and democrats a chance to do it the right way or the way both parties said all along, it needs to be bipartisan. maybe this is a chance high in the sky but gives republicans a reset. >> let me remind people, i'll put uptop issues, it was health care and it wasn't that close. it was health care and immigration economy almost had to be combined to get over health care. >> that's the context here. we have to step back and look at the context. our health care system is crazy. it is crazy. >> conas a ruwe have some of th medicine in the world and laser surgery and everything else but it is still the case, even after the affordable care about that

catastrophic illness can bring financial ruin to a family. that we just don't have the protections and the access that the rest of the industrialized world has. >> let me shift here. this comes, it was sort of like what else are you going to put on washington disfunction? we had new investigation this week, katy tur. we had michael cohen now basically charged that the president directed him to commit crimes and the federal government backing him up on this. now you throw health care into this atmosphere but this atmosphere, as crazy as it is in the trump era, it's like we stepped it up a notch. >> lawmakers will tell you they can walk and chew gum at the same time, in the past two years. >> they have to do the soft shoe. >> not a lot has gotten done even though congress has been controlled by republicans from top to bottom. they certainly didn't get health care. they didn't try even to broach

infrastructure so when you throw in the house being led by democrats now and all the investigations that are going to pop up with them, it's going to be d in these nextwo years. politically speaking, that might be a benefit in a backwards way to donald trump because he can go out and tell his voters, hey, listen, nothing is getting done because democrats are trying to obstruct at every corner and he'll have democrats that maybe will not be working with him but then again, he did run on being a deal maker. he ran on getting things done. >> look, i want to put up maybe we know why he had a hard time finding chief of staff. it's amazing four people went out of way to publicly pull themselves out of contention. no, no, no, i did not want to be the full time chief of staff. all of them, which is something we know the president hates, the perception that nobody wants to work for him. he settles on nick and what

happens, we find out immediately? nick once trashed president trump. let me show you this clip. >> yes, i'm supporting donald trump. i'm doing so as enthousiasticaly as i can but the choice on the other side is just as bad. >> that's his chief of staff. >> i think mike pence may be the only person in washington that would say donald trump is a good person. certainly not the odd man out on that. i can't think of a time in washington where there has been so much uncertainty. uncertainty when there will be a government shutdown six days from now and what the trade policy is and whether there will be a trade war with china and uncertainty what the mull eller investigation is going to change and has an acting chief of staff. this is a president that probably needs a chief of staff more than any president in recent history but won't let somebody do the job and so we're really at sort of fascinating

juncti place in america can politics, have no idea what the next six months to a year will bring. >> that's why we all want to have the acting title these days when it comes to washington. the acting panel will be coming back in a bit but when we come back, the man that will be heading up the intelligence committee's investigation in the democratic controlled house. ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and martermarading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪ but allstate actually helps you drive safely...

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turning now to the investigations of the trump administration. we asked people whether they support democrats providing more oversight by opening up new investigations of president trump and his administration. overall 55% said yes while 42%

said no. take a look at the party break down. it won't surprise you it was by a margin of 88 to 10 that democrats said yes. among republicans it was flipped. 18% said yes while 81% were opposed. independents looked like the mix of the two. joining me now is the man who will lead the house intelligence committee in the next congress. it's adam schiff of california. let me start with an interview. the headline was adam schiff's plans to obhe red line. if mueller goes into my personal businesses before the campaign, that would be a red line. that is too much. the implication being mee him o practice? that you are going to obliterate

the red line. >> obliterate was not my choice of words. is there any entanglement that might influence u.s. policy against our national interest? what we saw in the michael cohen revelation, some of the michael cohen revelations that the president while he was denying dealings with russia, his business was pursuing in multimillion dollar deal in moscow, hiding it from the country. that is deeply compromising. the president has wanted to draw a red line and say you daent look at my business. if the business is can't ignore that. the president should not be in a position to say you can't investigate certain things. that's what i mean. if mueller is not looking into this and i don't know whether he needs to because

otherwise we are being derlict with our security. >> what policies do you fear might have been influenced by financial dealings with the president? >> unquestionably the u.s. response to the russian hacking of our election has been influenced by something. whether it's been influenced by the president being concerned that his effort to build the trump tower deal would come out. the russians knew about it. they were on the other end of the transaction. whether that was the motivation or whether there is other motivation or whether it is donald trump reacting to the question that has been raised about his legitimacy because of the taint of the election i to find out. >> does saudi arabia fit into that in your mind? is that something you plan on investigating? >>o it if the saudis were funneling money into the inauguruation committee or the saudi

investment in the trump businesses, buying hotel rooms, the deals that trump talked about during the campaign that made him love the saudis so much, if that is warping u.s. policy or affecting the president's unwillingness to criticize the crown prince over the murder of khashoggi. some of this may be the purview of our committee or other committees. we will be working to ensure we don't step on each other's toes. >> what do you believe the deutsche bank financial records will show you? why them? what will their records show. >> the concern about deutsche bank is they have a history of laundering russian money. they paid hundreds of millions of dollars of fines to the state of new york because they were laundering russian money. this apparently was the one bank that was willing to do business with the trump organization. now, is that a coincidence? what do we make of what the

president's sons have reported of saying not having to deal with u.s. banks because they get all the cash they needed from russia? if this is a form of compromise it needs to be exposed. >> y >> gina haspel has given a briefing. what you have learned, we heard bob corker essentially said if a jury heard what i heard the crown prince would be convicted in 30 minutes. is that a fair read of what you learned in your briefing? >> i don't think there is any question that the crown prince was aware and knowing and would have had to approve of an operation like this. so what concerns me is when i eear people like the secreta literally true but are deeply misleading. these are important issues as

they affect the policy of the united states. policy makers need to make decisions on the best intelligence. i think you saw that by that senators are convinced that the crown prince's role in this. >> should we intervene in saudi politics and basically push the king to dump the crown prince? >> what we ought to do -- here is where we need to rely on our intelligence agencies. we need to go through a menu of the responses here, everything from using sanctions against the crown prince to suspending arms sales to suspending any support of the war in yemen. what will the saudi reaction rol who comes next? what does that mean? >> you are in a go slow approach. >> my feeling is you use the best intelligence. you don't ignore it or discount it. you use it to guide your decision making. and there are still a need to

have a relationship with the kingdom. you ought to be governed by the facts. >> the last time you were here you talked about looking at transcripts of people who gave interviews to the house intelligence committee. have you found instances that you think are questionable? have you referred it to mr. mueller? >> we have found testimony that we find deeply concerning and it would include mr. stone among that group. >> roger stone, the one you believed lied to congress. >> i believe there is ample reason to be concerned about his truthfulness. i think that with respect to mr. stone and perhaps others that the special counsel is in a better position to determine the truth and that we ought to provide it to special counsel. >> do you have a theory as to why michael flynn's lawyers are attacking the fbi? >> i do. there are several witnesses who are trying to have it both ways in some degree. you've got manafort who was clearly double dealing trying to

get a cooperation agreement with the government and trying to get a pardon. papadopoulos pleads guilty, admits guilt, gets sentenced but seems to make a public case for a pardon. i think to a lesser degree the same situation with flynn. >> you don't know what it is? >> the theory is they want to cooperate and get the investment from the government. >> thanks for coming on. >> thanks for coming on. when we come back, is it ♪ our mission is to make offshore wind one of the principal new to get involvedenergy.g in a first-of-its-kind project.

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think. if the gift giver is a trump voter there is a decent chance that present is something from nerf. what is the big gift among independents? it's hot wheels. 42% of indies are buying the toy cars this year way more than republicans or democrats. what would the holiday season be without barbie? only about a quarter of democrats and republicans are buying the iconic doll this year. when it comes to toys, there is one gift that nearly every group agrees on because they have red and blue bricks. legos. they all plan to buy legos this time of year. if your house is anything like mine these days we all know the older kids are hoping for some video games stuffed in stockings this year. the most popular games for

democrats and republicans are call of duty and fortnite. republicans lean towards mlb the show. the holidays are a special time of year for children. here is one more area where red and blue america agrees. majorities of republicans and democrats said they want toprovide their children with things they didn't get to have as a child. i'm one of those. and majorities of both parties admit that they plan to indulge their children with the little extras, the ones they proebl don't need to be getting. there you have it, a note of happy political agreement in time for the holidays. the new year and the new congress will bring plenty to disagree about. when we come back, guess which democrat moved into the top three in the latest poll. oming up to you

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end game, brought to you by boeing, continuing our mission to connect, protect, explore and inspire. >> back now with end game. we have the first filed presidential candidate this week from our big list of 34. what did we get overnight? the first des moines register poll told us who the top two tiers of democrats are. tier one biden at 32, bernie sanders at 19. be beto. there is a noticeable second tier. harris at five. booker at 4. they tested a dozen other candidates that didn't get up to three. what do you make of obviously the headline is beto o'rourke in

double digits. >> it tells you the extent to which he broke through into the national consciousness with that incredible run in texas. it shows he is going to be a factor in this. he's someone that potentially democrats could fall in love with. democrats fall in love and republicans fall in line. >> beto o'rourke had a town hall on friday. sounded like a presidential candidate to me. take a listen. >> i want us to be big and to be bold and not to succumb to the smallness and pettiness and divisiveness that defines so much of the national conversation today. that is what we are up against right now. it is more than just one person. it is all of us making this decisiont al and to our prom has said donald trump better take the isguy seriously. >> because he is a really good

messenger. there is a lot of folks -- joe biden, i guess on paper he would be pretty good in terms of getting back some of the blue collar democrats that trump had won. i think that is interesting to watch. he is getting up there in age. beyond that, he has been known to be somewhat of a gaff machine. i think that is a problem. i think beto o'rourke -- the smart money is on him because of the messaging and put it all together. they need energy but at the same time kind of morphing into an optimistic message. i think if it is beto o'rourke and trump it is anger versus optimism. anger comes with fear. a lot of folks vote when they are fearful. look at health care. trump will play up on immigration. >> what is it going to look like in 2008 where democrats wanted to get inspired and have hope again after eight years of

president bush. they have be inspire, play it safe or get angry. >> chuck schumer once played it safe. he wants somebody who can win. >> he wants somebody that can stand up to donald trump. so far joe biden is proven to be somebody who can stand up to donald trump and who can get down in the gutter with him when need be but not get dirty in the same way that donald trump has. >> when i look at the top four candidates i see two who could potentially eat into the trump base. i can tell you that folks on the trump campaign are worried about the candidates and those are joe biden and bernie sanders. the other two, elizabeth warren and beto o'rourke would have to really juice minority turnout. i think beto o'rourke one surprising thing while he did overperform democrats in texas, he did notrfor on minority black turnout. think there are going to be he moves forward.

>> looking deep into our dive in our poll, joe biden and bernie sanders' favorable ratings are much better when you look at it than other democrats. there is a bunch of independent men that really like bernie and biden and nobody else. it's an interesting challenge for democrats. >> call it a gender ga it may be approaching that. so they are formidable figures. i wonder if this will be another bernie year or a biden year. i think they are looking for -- >> i wonder if year for a white man. there are progressive liberal voters who will say not nowhe g? th they need to nominate an african-american or some sort of minority in order to push the

party forward? >> i think what donald trump does best is brand. my point is that beto o'rourke is a clean slate for donald trump. joe biden is not, bernie sanders is not. watch out for beto o'rourke. >> quite a panel. appreciate everybody on tv watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday it's "meet the press." you can see more end game in post game on the "meet the press" twitter account.

credibility crisis. the latest nbc polls find that almost 2/3 of americans say they do not believe president trump is being truthful in the russia investigation. a wild coast to coast weather wallop over the weekend and our bill karins has your travel forecast for a busy preholiday week ahead. to an nbc news special report from the border, where democratic lawmakers are hoping to pressure the trumpe wake of california fires a group of people banded together to care for displaced pets and animals. and weekend box office. "early today" starts right