>> that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. i'll see you tomorrow morning on "today." "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >> right now on andrea mitchell report, torn apart. tornadoes ripping through the deep south killing at least 23 people in alabama and leaving a devastated community to pick up the pieces. it only lasted a minute, two minutes at the most. >> and i just stood there in disbelief. everything was wiped out. like, was there nothing left. >> it feels not real. it really does. turning up the heat. house democrats ramp up their investigations sending document requests to 81 trump associates and entities today as the embattled president lashes out before an adoring crowd this

weekend. >> they're trying to take you out with bull [ bleep ], okay? with bull [ bleep ]. [ cheers and applause ] >> and a dozen democrats, one more hopeful officially declared today as even more get ready to announce. >> i'm john hickenlooper. i'm running for president because we're facing a crisis that threatens everything we stand for. ♪ ♪ and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where house democrats are flooding the trump zone with requests for documents. a dramatic expansion of their investigations into the president, his family, his business associates and of course, the campaign. judiciary chairman jerry nadler clearly working off leads for michael cohen's testimony is expanding his list demanding that 81 individuals and entities deliver documents dating back to 2015. in just one example, nbc news

has obtained a copy of the committee's request to former trump associate sam nunberg seeking any documents related to a range of critical topics including trump tower moscow, the june 2016 trump tower meeting. russia sanctions and wikileaks. white house press secretary sarah sanders has responded saying the counsel's office and relevant white house officials review it and respond at the appropriate time. will they also claim executive privilege for white house officials? joining me now nbc white house correspondent, kristin welker and nbc intelligence and supporter ken delaney. we've seen the response from sarah sanders. >> obviously, they've been braced for this and gearing up, expanding the white house counsel's office. any hint as to how they're going to respond? >> andry a you'ea, you're absol right. they've been bracing for this since the midterm elections because we knew if democrats

would take over the house which is what happened that they would be doing exactly this. so they have been preparing for this moment. the question becomes what will they do? i think there's no doubt that they're going to try to claim executive privilege on some of this information. we've seen that in the past and so it will be surprising if they didn't take this course moving forward, but the question is, of course, that covers the folks in the white house. what about the people outside of the white house? for his part, we've seen the strategy so far from president trump to escalate his attacks over the weekend on twitter calling this presidential harassment and then lashing out during that cpac conference that you talked about, andrea, in really sharp terms essentially again reiterating that there was no collusion and firing out at democrats trying to cast them as the ones who have crossed the line legally. so this is what we're going to see from his president and he does have a couple of events today so we're hoping to be able to ask him about this, and look, i think it's notable.

you do have some democrats talking about the "i" word impeachment that top democrats including jerry nadler who is a chairman and the committee saying it's too early. we are not able to go there yet. it will be interesting to see what the president's reaction is to that debate within the democratic party, andrea. >> they don't have to call it impeachment, but when you look at the scale and depth of these requests if they get these documents that does constitute what could be a preliminary investigation that is tantamount to setting the stage for potential impeachment. ken, how do they figure out the lanes between adam schiff and the intelligence committee. they don't want to duplicate, do they? but it does seem that there is a let of russia involved in these documents. >> there sure is, andrea, and i've been asking that question of my hill sources today and what i've been told is the judiciary sees their mandate as going after corruption, abuse of

power and obstruction of justice where they're looking at russian influence on the campaign and potential russian influence on the president or the associates, but the issue of corruption judiciary officials say encompasses the russia scandal and everything associated with almost any alleged misconduct we've seen involving trump. so these requests encompass everything from the national rifle association to the national enquirer. many white house officials and ancillary figures. remember peter smith now deceased who is alleged to have sought to pay hackers to look for hillary clinton's emails and obscure angles, house judiciary is ramping up to investigate. they will discuss impeachment. i asked one staffer and if he says that the president obstructed justice, implying that they're not ready to use

the impeachment word and obviously, andrea, this is laying the ground for a potential impeachment inquiry down the road. >> they are looking at obstruction issues. kristen, one of the questions that michael cohen was asked was what was your left conversation with the president and he said it was after the raid at his hotel apartment and his other house and when asked what did you talk about? he said that is under investigation by the southern district of new york. it seems as though there is a potential pardon dangle being asked about. >> reporter: and we spent a lot of time in that moment, andrea, trying to determine if president trump was essentially offering a pardon for michael cohen. remember the language that he used right after his offices were raided. you heard the president defend michael cohen in very stark terms and then several days, if not weeks later his tone changed very sharply and of course, in the wake of that he called him

everything from a liar to a rat so that is certainly under investigation as well, andrea. >> kristen welker and ken delaney, thank you both for starting us off. >> hawaii senator hirono joins me now. thank you very much for being here. great to have you on set. >> look, the house is obviously where the action is. the democratic-controlled house because under the republicans no subpoenas were issued. adam schiff has long contained about devin nunes when he was chair of intelligence and the judiciary chair. the senate is a very different story, but as a democrat looking at this and someone on the judiciary on the senate side, are they going too far? are they getting into the realm where we're going to give the president a lot of ammunition to play the victim? >> i know all of the relevant chairs of the committee that are seeking information on different parts of the entire trump operation and so i'm glad that

they're there because finally we have a checks and balance in place at least on the house side so i'm glad because there is a lot to investigate relating to russia and everything related to the trump tower in russia. you know, if you look at president trump of wanting two things essentially to protect himself and money, there is a lot of -- there are a lot of places that you can investigate. >> is there any coordination between house judiciary and senate democratic judiciary? >> i don't know that there is but we do talk to each other. it's not that we're stumbling over each other and as you say there is so much to investigate and the depth and the scope of everything that i think can be looked at in terms of the trump operation and there's room for a lot of committees to do what they need to do and don't forget that the committees have different jurisdictions and different members of all these different committees want to ask certain questions, and i think

they should because for the last two years under the republican-controlled house nothing much happened except making all kinds of excuses in protecting this president. >> do you think nancy pelosi and the house leadership is correct to defer any talk of impeachment and try to hold off those in the party including some freshmen who are demanding it? >> i think we should go very deliberately in terms of the investigations, but as trump has wanted to say, everything is on the table. we'll see what happens, and i don't think these chairmen are going to be willy-nilly talking about impeachment because the last thing we'd like to did is make trump a martyr. he'd love that, i'm sure. >> yesterday at the cpac convention the president attacked you directly. >> except he couldn't say my name. maybe he can't pronounce it. >> why is that? he seemed to be combining

comments that you made in the hallway during the brett kavanaugh hearings about men and comments of the green new deal in one sort of -- >> in an incoherent way, frankly. >> let's play it. >> under the green new deal which somebody described as a high school term paper written by a poor student. the crazy female senator from the state of ohio, the state of hawaii, right? she's, like -- she's like a crazed person. what she said about men is so bad. what she said about men is so bad, but she's standing in the hallway and she didn't know too much about the plan because she can't understand that plan which probably makes her smart, actually. >> i -- i'm really trying to figure this out. i remember during the brett kavanaugh hearing when you said the men should start listen, correct? >> well, basically i said they

should shut up, step up and do the right thing. >> okay. >> that seems to scare the president immensely. >> and more recently about the green new deal you were saying i think you were joking, tell me what you were saying -- >> generally trying to get rid of air travel. i said well that's going to make it hard for hawaii, but what the green new deal stands for is a recognition that climate change is happening, not sticking our head in the sand. so what's really crazy is trump and all his minions and his ilk who think that global warming and climate change is not happening and they'd rather stick their heads in the sand. they know zero in terms of what they would propose and all they can do is mock and attack and i think that is a crazy position because they are denying the science behind climate change. >> and in fact, starting a new panel to even examine whether it's real. you are either the crazy female

senator from the state of ohio or the state of hawaii. [ laughter ] >> which is it? >> when the president goes off-script which he is proud to do because that seems to really sharpen his base he gets it found, but i found his criticism of me and the green new deal totally incoherent, but that's also par for the course. we talked about impeachment earlier and i said that we don't need to make the president a martyr so we should proceed with caution. what's going to happen is that i hope that it's the voters that will finally figure out that this is not the person who is protecting our security interests or anything else for that matter. what he cares about is himself and money. that's not the kind of president we want and when the election happens, i hope they could be voted out. that's how we're going to see the end of trump, but i think all of the damage that he's caused by evoking people's fears and animosities toward

immigrants, toward women and our lgbtq communities, all of that, that's not going to go away any time soon so we'll have to work all together to bring the country back together because he is very busy and continues to tear this country apart. >> senator mazie hirono, thank you very much, from hawaii. >> although i like ohio, too, by the way. >> and we also are following terrible news. the latest on the tragedy in alabama. rescue teams now sifting through the devastation in a desperate search for missing residents after the tornadoes. at least 23 people killed and there are fears that number could increase throughout the day. nbc's tammy leitner is in eastern alabama and joins me now. tammy, tell us what you're seeing. i can't ilage inwhat it is like there. >> reporter: andrea, i can tell you that the residents in this neighborhood feel very lucky to be alive. the woman who lived in this house behind me normally would have been home during the middle of the afternoon, but yesterday she happened to stay late at

work and that may have saved her life. not a whole lot left of this house. two tornadoes touched down in lee county yesterday afternoon. residents in this neighborhood had less than an hour to prepare for those tornadoes and they basically took cover wherever they could. those tornadoes hit this neighborhood hard, about six houses completely destroyed in this neighborhood. they took cover wherever they could. the woman in this house who you're about to meet sherita thomas and her 6-year-old daughter. you told me that you and your daughter took cover in the bathtub. >> yes. >> reporter: and what was it like when that tornado approached? >> well, i heard a loud whistling sound coming from my room and i grabbed my daughter by the arm and we ran into the bathtub and we barely missed it. so right when the tornado hit we were in the bathtub and after

that it was just a lot of shaking and she said she couldn't breathe and my ears started to pop and then five minutes just shaking and everything. >> now the house next to you is completely flattened. >> completely gone. leveled. >> your house is still standing and the roof is gone and there's a lot of damage, but you and your daughter are still here today. >> yes. i think if it hit us the way it hit next door we wouldn't be here. i'm fortunate that it hit us the way it did. >> reporter: very, very lucky. everyone in this community of 4900 people are very lucky. they have a place to go. they have family to stay with and right now that's the big concern for a lot of people. temperatures have dropped. it's very cold. a lot of people have lost their homes in the neighboring community, beauregard 20 miles away. andrea, the search is still going on. as you mentioned, a lot of people dead, a lot of people injured and rescue crews about 150 people still going home to home, building to building searching for injured, and

searching for people that are still missing. andrea? >> tammy, it's just extraordinary and i keep thinking of the little girl and the terror that she must have been feeling with her mom in the bathtub and thank god they're safe, but obviously the aftershocks and aftereffects are profound. thank you. thank you so much for what you're doing down there. >> and coming up here, unplugged. the president letting loose on everything from the mueller investigation to democrats in the longest speech of his presidency. we'll take a closer look coming up. stay with us on msnbc. g up stay with us on msnbc. (vo) we're carvana,

the company who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand new way for you to sell your car. whether it's a few years old or dinosaur old, we want to buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions,

and our techno-wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car and say hello to the new way... at carvana. when did you see the sign? when i needed to create a better visitor experience. improve our workflow. attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah! now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com.

if you tell a joke, if you are sarcastic, if you're having fun with the audience, if you're on live television with millions of people and 25,000 people in an arena and if you say something like, rushsia, please if you can, get us hillary clinton's emails. please, russia, please! so everybody's having a good time. i'm laughing. we're all having fun and then that fake cnn and others say he asked russia to go get the emails. horrible. >> president trump now claiming that infamous moment in july 2016 was a joke, but at the time he made it clear to katie tur he

was not kidding around. >> it would be interesting to see, i will tell you this, russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. i think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. let's see if that happens. that will be next. >> do you have any qualms about asking a foreign government, russia, china, anybody to interfere, to hack into a system of anybody's in this country -- >> look, here's the problem -- >> you just called for it a moment ago, mr. president. you said the russians -- >> he has no respect. >> you said i welcome them to find those 30,000 emails. >> i'd like to have them released. >> does that not give you pause? >> no. >> no it gives me no pause. joining me now msnbc political analyst robert costa, washington post national political reporter and moderator of "washington week" on pbs and jeff mason

correspondent just back from vietnam and you have a story to tell, as well. to both of you, this was the longest speech of his presidency on saturday. he clearly wanted to unload. he unloaded on a lot of people and let's play some of the highlight, highlights or low lights. take your pick. >> everyone in this great country right now because of our great, new economy is doing well except, of course, for the never trumpers, but they are on mouth to mouth resuscitation. right now we have people in congress that hate our country. i flew to a lovely place called iraq we flew at night and there are practically no lights and these are little pin spots. i said think of this. we spent $ 7 trillion in the middle east and we can't land a

plane with the lights on. >> this is how i got elected by being off script. >> robert costa, first of all, we all know about landing in conflict zones and all of us who have traveled with presidents and secretaries of state have done this where they turn off the lights. in fact, they often do a whole evasion thing. what was he talking about? >> he was being critical of intervention in iraq and afghanistan. plus this is a critique he's made at times even though he originally voiced support for the war and it references also the never trump movement where mostly a group of hawkish republicans. they are struggling to get traction, he is right. when he is appearing before cpac he has the republican party in his grip. his approval ratings at 46% among republicans in the latest washington post poll. he's at 75% among republicans and gop-leaning independents and he's asserting himself ahead of

a possible 2020 primary challenge and people are still moving around and governor larry hogan of maryland heading to iowa today. >> the nbc wall street journal poll and 88% republican support and white voters overall, 54% and jeff mason, he's actually not badly positioned, and 46% overall approval is the highest level he's had in our poll. >> he's not badly positioned at all and certainly that will be giving republicans pause if there are any republicans considering doing primary challenge and it should give democrats pause, as well. i mean, this is an election that democrats and talk about 2020, of course, absolutely want to win, but it's not going to be a cake walk. president trump still has a lot of support out there and that's why i think you see -- i know from talking to them a lot of republican senators have been so reluctant to criticize him. we now have a fourth senator, rand paul joining the group. so if this group sticks you'll

have at least four senators which means that the senate will join the house next week when time runs out and they have to have a floor vote whether mitch mcconnell wants it or not under the resolution. they'd have to at least vote on this and it would be his first veto and the president said 100% he'd be vetoing this and this is the resolution that would stop him from declaring the emergency. >> it would also be a political test for president trump. he warned last week in a television interview that any republican who breaks from him on the national emergency will be in political danger. will he actually support primary challenges against someone running in 2020 against senator tillis in north carolina. a trump ally and a congressman in that state. the president though, does not have a lot of infrastructure around him to contest some of these republicans in primary and steve bannon, for example, he's falling away in terms of his primary efforts in 2018 and before that. >> and jeff, let me return to north korea for a moment because

you were one of the two poolers. you and jeff linear, our colleague at vap who were kicked out of the pool for asking a question at the second photo opportunity for asking a question about michael cohen. the president was tweeting about michael cohen from the summit and he opened himself up, arguably, to a question about the news of the day. >> he did and there were actually four reporters who were excluded and john and i were the two who would ask questions and so it was hard not to conclude that we had been left out of the following spray because we had asked those questions. i'd asked a couple about north korea including one that i don't think the president loved. i asked him if he was pulling back from his demand that north korea would go for full denuclearization and john asked about cohen and then they decided afterwards because of sensitivities that we would not be in the next forum. >> and let me just lay this down here. in previous administration, republican and democratic when

meeting in a totalitarian state with totalitarian leaders, the white house or the state department has always advocated for freedom of the press, for first amendment rights, for the press corps to get questions to be permitted in and this administration doesn't seem to either raise the issue of human rights. they certainly didn't talk about the gulag and the millions of people killed by kim jong-un at the summit to say nothing of the otto warmbier issue which we'll be dealing with later and they don't advocate. i was in sudan and got dragged out of a photo-op and condoleezza rice was there meeting with the leader of sudan and she refused to leave without getting an apology on behalf of that country to me and the president corps. >> yeah. >> for what they did to us. >> and that is exactly what happens, but this is different. >> well, and as you're saying f there's ever a time to really showcase the freedom of the press it's when you're meeting

with a leader like that. it's worth noting, andrea. the next day the pool was there and we got to ask questions of kim jong-un and one of the questions i asked him was about human rights. >> jeff mason, always on duty. thank you so much. our colleague, robert costa, thanks to you, as well. coming up, split screen, president trump suggesting the cohen hearing contributed to the collapse of the failed north korea nuclear summit. you're watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. ell reports on msnbc (gasp) (singsong) budget meeting! sweet. if you compare last quarter to this quarter... various: mmm. it's no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. their medicare options... before they're on medicare. come on in. you're turning 65 soon?

yep. and you're retiring at 67? that's the plan! well, you've come to the right place. it's also a great time to learn about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. here's why... medicare part b doesn't pay for everything. only about 80% of your medical costs. this part is up to you... yeah, everyone's a little surprised to learn that one. a medicare supplement plan helps pay for some of what medicare doesn't. that could help cut down on those out-of-your-pocket medical costs. call unitedhealthcare insurance company now or visit aarpmedicaresupplement.com for your free decision guide about the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. selected for meeting their high standards of quality and service. this type of plan lets you say "yes" to any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. there are no networks or referrals to worry about.

do you accept medicare patients? i sure do! see? you're able to stick with him. like to travel? this kind of plan goes with you anywhere you travel in the country. so go ahead, spend winter somewhere warm. if you're turning 65 soon or over 65 and planning to retire, find out more about the plans that live up to their name. thumbs up to that! remember, the time to prepare is before you go on medicare! don't wait. get started today. to learn more about the range of aarp medicare supplement plans and their rates, call or go online today to request your free decision guide. oh, and happy birthday... or retirement... in advance. your free decision guide. since i'm a truck driver, sometimes i'm gone for, like, three weeks at a time. even if i'm 3,000 miles away, i'm connected with my boys. just pull on over, see my son's game,

and i'm having a ball. (vo) there for you when it matters most. get a free samsung galaxy when you switch. only on verizon.

president trump on twitter is now trying to blame the house democrats' open hearing with michael cohen for his failure to reach an agreement with kim jong-un last week. the president tweeting for the democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar and fraudster at the same time as the very important nuclear summit with north korea is perhaps a new low in american politics and may have contributed to the walk. never done when a president is overseas. shame, exclamation points. joining me now is ben rhodes the former deputy national security adviser in the obama white house and now an nbc political contributor. for one thing, ben, by our count in eight of the president's 11

foreign trips so far there have been breaking developments on the russia front, mueller's appointment and the like. so it's very hard to find the time when nothing is happening here and that hearing had been scheduled before the vietnam summit. >> yeah. andrea, look, this is nonsense. it's not like without that hearing that north korea would have accepted trump's proposal. you know, andrea, how much work has to go into these summits. you covered the iran negotiations where huge teams of people worked for many weeks before we put the secretary of state in the room with the iranians and the fact of the matter is this summit failed because they did not do that preparation. they did not do the work to tee up a deal that could be reached in vietnam and if you don't do the homework you fail the test and that's what happened here. >> i also wanted to play the complete absence of conversation about human rights with kim jong-un, the warm embrace, the friend moniker, the love letters and all of that leading up to

it, and also what he had to say about otto warmbier. this is what he had to say at cpac trying to explain himself. >> otto warmbier whose parents i've gotten to know who is incredible and i'm in such a horrible position because in one way i have to negotiate. in the other way, i love mr. and mrs. warmbier and i love otto, and it's a very, very delicate balance. >> and this was his way of trying to explain what he had said in hanoi about otto warmbier when he was asked about it at that news conference. >> yeah, and look, i don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen. it just wasn't to his advantage to allow that to happen. those prisons are rough. they're rough places and bad things happened, but i really don't believe that he was -- i don't believe he knew about it. so -- i mean, the fact that he

said publicly that he does not believe that kim jong-un would have known about an american student being held for 17 months in his own prisons and held beyond the point where he was clearly healthy when he was taken and tortured and near death when he was finally released and died a day or so later, finally the warmbiers who had been innovated to the state of the union issued a statement saying we have been respectful during the summit process. now we must speak out. kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son otto. kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and unhumanity. no excuses or lavish praise can change that. your response? >> first of all, anybody who knows anything about north korea knows that no country in the world is more of a one-man, one-rule system. nothing goes on in that country,

particularly as something as high profile as the detention of an american citizen without kim jong-un knowing about it. that's the one point. the second point, you don't need to lavish praise with someone you negotiate with. >> we negotiate with the cubans and call them great friends and you could be tough in those negotiations and trump said that's when he's going to do and instead he's cozying up to kim just like dictators around the world and he hasn't gotten anything in return and you don't need to do that and the last thing that's important is why don't you take kim jong-un on his word for anything. they'll try to lie and cheat about their nuclear program and if we're just taking everything that this dictator says at face value whether it's otto warmbier or the locations of their nuclear missile programs and we'll be taken to the cleaners in these negotiations. so he's explaining himself out of a horrible thing that he said that compounded the pain that this family has felt and he's also revealing that he doesn't really know how to engage in the

high-stakes negotiations. >> it echos what he did with vladimir putin in helsinki. one more thing now, on saturday afternoon the pentagon confirmed a story that was first broken by courtney kuby on nbc on friday which is that they decided to cancel the joint exercises and not just suspend them, the joint exercise w exercises with south korea. is this a big concession? a little concession? what's the impact on it? >> this is high on the list that the north koreans wanted and we're giving it away without giving anything in return and the fact of the matter is, andrea, this is not just about north korea. the chinese did not like the exercises. the russians did not like the exercises and they don't like the idea of the united states being very active militarily in northeast asia, and so what we're doing is signaling not just to the north koreans that we'll make concessions to nothing in concern and we're signaling for the entire region that they're pulling back from the commitments to south korea

and japan and we're doing so without getting concessions from north korea. it's a big deal. >> ben rhodes, a big deal indeed. thank you so much. good to see you. >> thanks, andrea. >> coming up, 2020, a 12th candidate jumping into the democratic race. how would he stack up against the president? stay with us right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. only on msnbc let's see, aleve is proven better on pain

than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain.

you wi ultimately i'm running for president because i believe that not only can i beat donald trump i can bring people together on the other side and actually get stuff done. >> john hickenlooper, the former two-term colorado governor officially launching a 2020 campaign. he's the second governor after washington state's jay inslee joined friday. a rapidly expanding field of democratic candidates still waiting in the wings, joe biden, beto o'rourke, congressman swallow among other contenders. joining us is mark lucas, and nbc news senior political editor and anita dunn, former white house communications director for the obama administration. welcome all. first you, anita, size up this field because you've got people in, you know, from all wings of the party. bernie over the weekend a very -- a very big rollout in brooklyn and then on bloody sunday at the commemoration, 54

years after the horrific event in the civil rights movement. you had hillary clinton for the first time with bernie and also speaking in church and cory booker, a couple of the other leading democratic lights and of course, john lewis there. how do you see this field right now? >> you know, andrea, it's interesting because it's still very early even though it feels very late. precisely because there are so many candidates who have gotten in extremely early. i find it interesting that so many of the senators and the washington-based candidates feel they need to get in. part of that is a reflection of the competition they feel amongst themselves i think in the senate to get in. now you're seeing a second wave of candidates and the governors and there's also steve bullock from montana who is seriously looking at it and additional people, as well. this is good for the democratic party and it's good because four years ago we didn't have a large field and it was a naturally

constricted field and i think it cost us the ability for us to have the kind of robust dialogue around the future of the party that we really needed to have. there was no question at this time that debate will happen and i think it's healthy. other people talked about the lack of strength and all you have to do is look at the talent and the field and there's a lot there. >> i was thinking four years ago it was march -- maybe march 8th, i think, that the first new york times story on hillary clinton's emails came out. she was the presumptive nominee and not declared yet, and she took eight days to respond and we know the rest is history, but so at this stage in 2015 and not an active democratic field and an active republican field and we sort of knew what we thought was the shape of the democratic nomination. >> andrea, looking back then you never want to be a front-runner for any race and this is true for any of the candidates is we get a month out and i can

remember howard dean going before the iowa caucus and he did not want to be the front-runner and hillary clinton probably a month or two before the iowa contest in 2008 was the front-runner in that race so lesson learned and never be the front-runner and what i find what anita was talking about about the debate in our own nbc wall street journal poll we had democratic primary voters who have 55% that they have bolder ideas and even if it costs more and even if it's hard to implement and become law versus 42% who said no, let's have less bold ideas and make sure that this can pass and not be all that expensive and there is energy on the boldness front, but also the warning they don't want to go too far when it comes to socialism which is the worst characteristic for any quality that we have in our poll. >> boldness, but not a democratic socialist and an older person and there is a bias against older people so how does that affect joe biden? two counts against him. my own indications that he is

going to jump in and try to wait until april and try to wait as long as he can. >> well, he has the luxury of being able to wait which many other candidates, the senators that anita was talking about, the governors that i've just seen coming in or about to come in don't have, but i think that we're going to have to have a very serious discussion about age and what role age should play as we think about who is suitable to be president. bernie sanders said the other day that he didn't think people should be judged by the dakota a character and the content of the skin color and the constitution makes a judgement about the age that's too young and i wonder what the founding fathers would have thought about the notion of a late '70s in age candidate. i think that's a legitimate conversation to have and voters are expressing views on that and i think we're going to hear more of it. in our poll, mark and anita, there is a definite bias among

democratic voters against having someone who is too old and that would mean bernie, elizabeth warren and they're talking about their 70s. >> i think voters at this point have definite preferences, but then they actually look at candidates and what we've seen over the years in all of these elections is that if a candidate comes in with a compelling message and performs well, holds up under the scrutiny, is able to show the resilience that people really want to see particularly this year when a huge part of what democrats want is to beat donald trump then i think age will be a factor and i think all of the candidates were old to recognize that, but it won't be the only factor. at the impressive amount that bernie has been able to raise online in small donations, he is just lapping the field on that and this is one of his big strengths and people do forget and he ended up outracing hillary clinton in the democratic field and he has the ability to continue to raise a

whole lot of money and i'm interested and we saw kamala harris come in second in the money race. is there someone else, what could joe biden and beto o'rourke and his potential fund-raising. >> joe biden, i'm told, has a whole fund-raising apparatus ready to go. >> he's run twis before and one would think and he's got many years in politics. that is one of the many advantages that he brings to the table when he comes to the table, if and when. >> i think it's more when than if. bruce marcus, mark murray, anita dunn, always great to see you all. coming up, what democratic investigators want to know about the president's sons. we'll bring you new details. stay with us. new details. stay with us with fidelity wealth management you get straightforward advice,

tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. to help you grow and protect your wealth. if you want to know why people you have to start by asking... could listening to audible help you find the secret to a stronger relationship? sometimes it doesn't take anything at all for us... just say "alexa, give me my free audible book," and your first pick is on us. (client's voice) remember that degree you got in taxation? (danny) of course you don't because you didn't! your job isn't understanding tax code... it's understanding why that... will get him a body like that... move! ...that. your job isn't doing hard work... here. ...it's making her do hard work... ...and getting paid for it. (vo) snap and sort your expenses to save over $4,600 at tax time.

(danny) jody... ...it's time to get yours! (vo) quickbooks. backing you. to severe rheumatoid arthritis was intense. my mom's pain from moderate i wondered if she could do the stuff she does for us... ...which is kind of, a lot. and if that pain... could mean something worse? joint pain could mean joint damage. enbrel helps relieve joint pain... and helps stop irreversible joint damage. enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including... infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, nervous system, and blood disorders, and allergic reactions have occurred. tell your doctor if you've been some place where fungal infections are common... or if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. since enbrel... my mom's back to being... my mom. visit enbrel.com... and use the joint damage simulator to see how joint damage could progress.

ask about embrel. enbrel.com fda approved for over 19 years.

and just moments ago, speaking at the white house, president trump said he plans to cooperate with the house judiciary committee's investigation. take a look. chairman jerry -- chairman jerry nadler released that list of more than 80 people he wants to get documents from. all of those people and entities are connected to president trump and his administration. joining me now is frank frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director in the counter intelligence division and msnbc national security analyst, and elliott williams, from the judicialery committee who lobbies for law works advocating the importance of the special counsel. frank, first to you.

this widespread document request, tell me what you read from the people who were involved, who were targeted by this, including eric and don junior. >> so, this is clearly going to be very broad and also very deep. and it's going to touch on a number of topics that get very close to the president. it's the umbrella topic really, the theme here is abuse of power. and there's plenty of evidence power has been abused, used wrongly. i think we're in for some fighting here. i think the president -- >> let me just -- frank, let me just interrupt for a second because we're going to listen to the president and get back to you. >> i cooperate all the time with everybody. you know, the beautiful thing -- it's all a hoax. you learn about that as you grow older. it's a political hoax. there's no collusion. [ applause ]

>> and that was the president, a photo opportunity with the north dakota. frank, pick up your thoughts. >> well, we now have the president's voice saying he's cooperating, comma, but it's a hoax. really, read that as i have no intention to cooperate. i have intention to fight, and i think we're going to hear the term executive privilege bandied about increasingly as documents are subpoenaed and the white house claims that somehow they're privileged or that the people being subpoenaed to testify are asked to testify about things that are privileged. so that's a theme we're going to keep hearing. and the other thing we're going to see is attacks on members of that committee personally. they should hunker down and get ready to hear some awful accusations against them about being biased and hunting for witches. >> elliott, you were a staffer on the house democratic side, i think. are they overreaching?

the document request? >> senate democratic side, senate staffers take that distinction very seriously. this all comes down to does the public think they're over reaching. you notice in the letter, the way chairman nadler is talking about it, he's talking about a search for truth or a quest for truth. it is if it's about laying a predicate for impeaching the president, if it's about laying the pred kwat for arresting the president, the public won't be behind it. anything congress does is inherently a political process. we elect them, but as long as it's framed as an exercise of their legitimate oversight responsibility, the constitutional duty to oversee the president, the public can get behind it. i don't think they're overreaching. this is not uncommon to send out 60 document requests to all individuals connected to an organization you're investigating, be that a business, a cabinet department or even the white house. >> and, frank, very brieflily, this is just the first step. if they say no, then do we move to subpoenas?

>> yeah, i think that's very likely, andrea. the other thing that has to be carefully thought through is the coordination with the southern district of new york and/or mueller or other jurisdictions. this gets complicated and i'm sure the committee is going so make sure they don't screw up anything that's pending prosecutorially right now. >> another thing that happened at cpac by the way, was him mocking his former attorney general jeff sessions for recusing, and imitating him with a southern accent. just the point that you made, frank, about going after the committee, he's going after his own former cabinet people as well. >> well, here's the thing. it's the work of a defendant that's desperate. if if they can't attack on facts, they attack ad hominem on the people, that's a sign the fact are not on their side. >> thanks. we have to leave it there. we'll be right back. eave it the. we'll be right back. can i get a..? thank you. book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee.

but how do i know if i'm i'm getting a good deal? i tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if i'm getting a great price. this is how car buying was always meant to be. this is truecar. with a $500,000 life insurance policy. how much do you think it cost him? $100 a month? $75? $50? actually, duncan got his $500,000 for under $28 a month.

less than a dollar a day. his secret? selectquote. in just minutes, a selectquote agent will comparison shop nearly a dozen highly-rated life insurance companies, and give you a choice of your five best rates. duncan's wife cassie got a $750,000 policy for under $22 a month. give your family the security it needs at a price you can afford.

but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

and here is ali velshi for "velshi & ruhle." >> have yourself an exleapt afternoon. stephanie is off tonight. let's get smarter. >> the house judiciary committee released a massive request for documents that could set the table for future proceedings against this president. >> i counted 81 individuals and entities that are receiving letters and requests today. >> we've seen abuses of power, obstruction of justice, threats to the mueller investigation,