sometimes, right a base candidate usually has a better shot in a primary in a republican that's not always the case on the democratic side. are you surprised to see consolidation this early that does it for our hour. >> i think one thing that's my thanks to ashley parker, striking, it's becoming a three-person race. two of those three people are heidi przybyla, matt miller and the most liberal candidates in the field. ron klain. i think that's bad news if i thank you for watching, "mtp" were on the democratic side. there are more than enough liberal votes to go around for with my friend, chuck todd, two candidates i think i'd be mindful of the starts now fact that there's a threshold. if you don't top 15% in any given state, you get nothing. >> if you believe our polling if it's tuesday, we've got and wanted to extrapolate it brand new nbc news/wall street out, only two candidates got journal poll numbers of the 2020 north of 15. >> but sanders is right there democratic race. guess what, it looks like voters and he has superior organization so he's going to be above 15 are starting to choose a side. we'll tell you who's up, who's he's also going to overperform in caucus states, which there way down and who's winning the are still a handful of those enthusiasm race. left so sanders i think will be in plus, obstruction over the top conversation all the way to the convention. obstruction. >> we show, we're putting up the democrats first foray into here, this is the democratic primary by race. i want to get into that in a impeachment and their investigation gets heated very minute if we can pop that back, i want

quickly. >> did you meet alone with the to show it go back to race we had among president on that date >> congressman, i'd like you to whites and blacks, it is refresh my memory by providing a literally an even race among copy of the report. whites, white democratic voters. >> i request that the clock be there it is, as you can see warren and biden a one-point stopped while this charade is sorted out. race >> welcome to tuesday. among african-american voters it it is "meet the press daily. is a blowout as you can see on good evening, i'm chuck todd here in washington there. let me put up full screen 2, it's choosing time for democrats, apparently. we begin with big news hot off guys we have a lot of poll graphics the presses right here the at this is the combined first and nbc news these are the brand new numbers second choice. out right now. carol lee, eugene scott, the 5:00 p.m. from our latest nbc news here to me is twofold news/"wall street journal" poll there's two people who moved of democratic primary voters double digits. this is all taken after the most elizabeth warren double digits recent democratic debate up kamala harris, double digits as you can see, there's some separation at the top of the down >> well, that's one of the field with biden and warren both rising, although warren arguably remarkable thing about the poll, has a bit more momentum and how much harris is fading. not only is she fading in this we'll have more on that in a moment the sanders candidacy is stuck poll but we don't see her as much on the campaign trail basically in neutral, but here's she's not out there to the the biggest movement in our extent that some of the other candidates are poll it isn't the rise of biden and and so it's interesting and it warren, it's the fall of kamala will be interesting to see harris his support is plummeting to the point that andrew yang's whether or not she can try to

unlikely candidacy has caught pull something out hers in the polls. you know, how she performs in the third fund-raising quarter but like i said, the big story will be significant. is less about who's losing and but she's really faded into the more of the separation we're starting to see at the top when you combine the first and background as elizabeth warren second choices of democrats, has had this surge. it's a two-person race, warren >> absolutely. i was speaking with voters who and biden. both are rising. attended the rally last night in the separation is also very new york notable. warren appears to have more half of them had no plans to momentum when you look at it attend, they just saw a crowd from this perspective. and wanted to go see what was biden still remains a front-runner but enthusiasm over warren's happening. >> they're in new york candidacy is up nine points since june those numbers mirror what we're >> exactly >> but all of them who went, who seeing on the trail, with warren grabbing some of the big crowds, weren't planning to go, left liking what they heard including 20,000, according to her campaign, and her largest i think that's the reputation that warren has right now. rally so far, which was last >> let me put that up. night in new york city but biden's candidacy appears to democrats and enthusiasm, it be more durable than some might just points to what you show want to believe, and today the here full screen 3, guys. trump campaign blasted out a warren is up 9 points on the video stringing together biden's flubs on the trail, which shows enthusiasm scale you that at this point the sanders is up 3 points candidate they likely fear the no movement for joe biden, most in a general isn't warren, stephanie cutter it's biden this is the conundrum of these so joining me to break down what numbers. on one hand i look at this and these new numbers mean for the

campaign ahead, carol lee, national political reporter i'm like hart/mondale, right here at nbc news, eugene scott, stephanie cutter, and gore/bradley on the other hand there was obama/clinton. >> yes republican strategist brad todd. none of those races mirror each i probably could not have been other. >> that's right. >> every candidate is chosen for picked better people to have for particular point in time and this and guess what, we did, we knew against whoever the incumbent what we were doing is, who is best to beat that i'm going to start with our two person partisans here you know, i think that warren is no offense reporter friends of running a really good campaign mine stephanie, you have been involved in quite a few i think she's clear on her democratic primaries. >> mm-hmm. message. >> you've seen what we've shown i think that she owns the ideas so far of these numbers and in this race across the board. there's different ways we can and she's out working a lot of put these numbers in, but your first reaction here. people you see time after time in these you can see equal movement on first choice events she's until the last hand warren larger movement, but only two candidates really moving up, is shaked, the last picture is discounting andrew yang for a taken. and that matters in these minute. >> i think the race is consolidating. this is a natural time for it to states. >> is there a point where that do it. >> is it it seems early to some people. isn't good time use of the >> it seems early, but we're candidate? >> however, you know, she is -- running against an incumbent president that the democratic she is methodical in how she's base is intent on defeating, and approaching this campaign, from

her message to her policies to that's where the source of the her campaign apparatus and how energy is. and there is a real feeling that she approaches these events. we need to consolidate and put and that adds up over time. the best person forward. it doesn't mean we're all going >> this poll measured a lot of to agree on who that is but enthusiasm for elizabeth warren and that doesn't begin to that's where i think the race is account the enthusiasm among consolidating down republican operatives for 20 plus candidates, not everybody is going to get above elizabeth warren to be the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5% nominee. >> let me ask you this bernie sanders seem to have this everybody is realizing maybe core of support and it's among a that candidate is not going to make it and they're starting to small group of people, but it's throw their support to those wh deep very similar to what ron paul looked like in 2012 i would argue. do those people ever move? because i don't know if the bernie people will ever move i'm just curious -- >> i don't think they'll move and i don't think he'll move i think he stays in the race all the way to milwaukee. >> just like paul didn't move. >> i think his delegates will stick with him no matter what. losing validates them because they are convinced the system is rigged against him so you have to factor him all the way. >> now i want to show you the following split screen, which is the primary by ideology because

it does split things up. this is full screen 4, guys. among those, about half of the democratic electorate calls themselves liberal, half identifies as moderate or conservative, as you can see 44%, so a little less than half. there's your choice if you will. it helps show you this argument we've all been making, carol lee, which is simply you have half the party that wants big, bold ideas, half the party that is looking for control-alt-delete, we need a reset. >> right and how do they square that in the end? and i think one of the questions is if you do end up with someone like joe biden, then how do you bring that sort of energy, how do you motivate, is donald trump enough to motivate the folks who are looking for bigger, bolder plans. and then if you wind up with

someone like elizabeth warren, if the trump folks -- she's gaining their attention. she's had their attention in the past but clearly the enthusiasm has sparked their interest but they have a whole playbook for how to run against elizabeth warren and see joe biden as tougher at least on paper. >> yeah, i think it's a reminder of what the main conversation is right now on the left, and it's about the future direction of the democratic party in terms of values and world view. that actually is something apart from whether or not trump can be beaten, but what is it that people on the left want to put forward in terms of the direction of america we know that in many ways, biden and warren are offering two very different agendas. >> warren has become the toast of the democratic field as she's moved further left going left is the fuel that pushes her up in the polls there's a price to be paid for that at some point. >> is there a ceiling to that? >> look, warren realizes where she is in the race you could see it in her language yesterday when she said don't vote for a candidate you don't believe in just because you're

scared and that sort of frames the race but the numbers, chuck, as you were laying out at the beginning of this segment don't show biden dropping they show a pretty sustainable race for him. >> he's moving up too, not as fast and not as loudly. >> that's all part of the race consolidation, so we really do need to see where we are in a couple of months one number that i think is important is the african-american number, because that is -- that's core to our base, that's core to us winning the presidency, but that's where a lot of this enthusiasm will come from. >> brad, you're not the only republican operative that i've talked to that is very enthusiastic about the rise of elizabeth warren i know plenty of democratic operatives that were excited about the rise of donald trump. >> sure. >> the ronald reagan stuff has been chronicled over the years why are you so sure about this. >> i think she creates a republican landslide, i just don't know which election it's

in. >> you're not sure it's 2020 you're not going to sit here and say for sure it's 2020. >> i think that her policy prescription for america is so far out from where swing voters are, and i think she will have -- she's going to be completely unable to tack back to the center because she's gone so far left. that's not a thing you can say about joe biden at this point. he's still moving to the left but he's not so far back he couldn't tack back elizabeth warren has literally left the dock out of sight you can't see it from here anymore. and so i think that that gives republicans a big opportunity down ballot, it gives us a big opportunity in states that maybe aren't on the map yet. >> do you buy this or do you think they're -- >> i think that there are -- there is data to back some of that up. the conversation around medicare for all, that is extremely popular on the left. it is not popular in the middle of the country and there are a number of proposals like that. it's a question of whether democrats are going to put their arms around that and pick the enthusiasm, the big, bold ideas.

and if that generates enough turnout for us or if we pick who we think is best to beat donald trump. >> eugene, i hope making a "washington post" person break down a "new york times" idea but alex burns says warren has her own populism in some ways if biden is the one arguing a third argument between the two populist arguments i want to play the biden sound, guys, here that we found from august 20th. and ask yourself -- i want you guys to decide ask yourself is the democratic primary electorate want this take a listen. >> if we defeat donald trump and don't give him another four years, you're going to see, as we say in southern delaware, an alder call you're going to see people all of a sudden seeing the lord. i'm not promising you there will be a newfound, you know, kumbaya

moment where everybody loves each other, but what's broken is our politics, not the system >> i mean that's not elizabeth warren or donald trump. >> right absolutely that is part of biden's argument, that he can fix the politics in terms of bipartisanship and get people coming together, working on issues in ways that they used to the challenge many people are saying is when was this time it certainly wasn't during the obama/biden -- >> we haven't seen it in a long time if it happened. >> we haven't. and for many voters, they aren't convinced that biden is the one that can get things to this place that no one else does. >> it's so obama it's like we heard this before the fever will break after this election and this election and then it will change. you know, it just -- did you see the hearings today it doesn't look like anything will be changing. >> the hearings today.

i'll pause it here for those hearings today we'll talk about that after the break. this was a great little -- put this in the time capsule and take a look at it in six months. stick around up ahead, those hearings house democrats versus corey lewandowski. the judiciary committee's self-described impeachment investigation into president trump is starting to back up so far it's been quite a day we'll head over to capitol hill for the latest, next (classical music playing throughout) you've i like working.areer. what if my retirement plan is i don't want to retire? then let's not create a retirement plan.

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glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. welcome back right now the house judiciary committee is holding its first hearing as part of its impeachment investigation. they began by questioning former trump campaign chairman corey lewandowski. if democrats thought this hearing would help lay out in clear language why the president should be impeached, well, things did not go quite as they were expecting >> there's no conspiracy or collusion between the trump campaign and any foreign governments either on my watch or afterwards.

the investigation was populated by many trump haters i'm trying to adhere to the white house's request i answer questions that are provided in the mueller report only. i don't know the answer to that. i'll be happy to answer your conversation or you can have a conversation with yourself i don't believe there was a question again, i can't discuss any private conversation i may have had with the president i'm respecting the executive branch privilege of confidentiality. >> one person we know was tuning into today's hearing was president trump who tweeted early on, such a beautiful opening statement by corey lewandowski. thank you, corey let me bring in geoff bennett covering this from capitol hill. carol, eugene, stephanie and brad are back. geoff, it's still going on if you had to tell somebody who did not watch this hearing what was it about and what was accomplished, what would you say? >> reporter: you know, chuck, it depends on what matters more

does the sideshow matter more or the substance of what democrats think they gleaned, what they extracted from corey lewandowski matter more? for the sideshow, democrats could make the argument should have been better prepared for the blizzard of obstructions that corey lewandowski tried to throw in their way in part because he tweeted well before he even stepped foot into this hearing room, basically the same talking points we've heard from president trump, about how the mueller report showed no obstruction, no collusion. that's not entirely true but there was no denying that corey lewandowski would enter this hearing room with an agenda as one of donald trump's loyal foot soldiers. on the substance of the thing, though, you hear democrats make a couple of points one, they say that, yes, under questioning mainly from hank johnson, from steve cohen, from some of the members who went well after the chairman of this committee that corey lewandowski did admit that robert mueller and his team of investigators got it right when it comes to this specific obstruction question, how the president

leaned on corey lewandowski to convey a message to the former a.g. that he wanted him to curtail the russia investigation and talk about it in less than flattering ways. i will say this about everything that we've seen transpire today and i should mention this hearing has about 90 minutes yet to go. we have not yet seen this new framework that this committee voted into fruition last week. we've not yet seen that where we'll have a half hour from the committee staffers from the democratic side and half hour from the committee staffers on the republican side putting specific questions to corey lewandowski so that might put some points on the board for democrats. but i talked to a staffer and said you agreed to this new approach why not have the committee staffers do the questioning first? his response was, well, you're assuming that this whole thing was about getting answers from corey lewandowski. i then replied, well, what was the point? the point this staffer says was to show, was to demonstrate the ways in which this administration is trying to

obstruction congress that, democrats say, is an impeachable offense. it was article 3 of the nixon impeachment. and so that is one of the things that i think democrats will talk about leaving from this multi-hour hearing today, chuck. >> geoff, you did a noble job trying to explain what was accomplished there stick around eugene, it's the decision to do this in the public square with somebody who right now is thinking about running for the united states senate and clearly at least saw this as an opportunity to establish his credentials as a republican primary candidate. midway through the hearing, corey lewandowski tweeted the following. stand with cory.com. so democrats thought -- it seems to me if they wanted -- if they had something serious to do, you do this without cameras. what geoff is reporting is they thought this somehow was going to be a spectacle that would somehow create -- i'm just surprised they thought that.

>> yeah. i also don't know what they were hoping to get accomplished in that area. i think people on the left already know how they feel about corey lewandowski. i can't imagine there was anything more they could have accomplished that would have made that worse in a way that was really effective what it did do is provide an opportunity for corey to remind people that he is hoping to remain in politics supporters of trump who may be in new hampshire, to let them know that he will bow be a smaller version of that and it just boosts his profile and pleases the president. >> is this an in-kind contribution >> he was able to say, i've already talked to you behind closed doors x number of times, i spent x number of hours with robert mueller. >> compared to others, he's been cooperative. >> and all of that feeds into the president's narrative that they're just trying to find something. they didn't find something through all of this time and now they keep digging for it and so it almost flipped on them

they seemed incredibly disorganized in terms of the questioning as well. >> it's like they were shocked that corey was going to play a political game right back at them it doesn't matter -- >> which makes no sense. >> the guy is a professional political operative. he's not going to go in there laying down, stephanie. >> you know, maybe there is some strategy that we're not aware of, laying the groundwork for obstruction which could protect them in a legal battle, who knows. but corey said something today that i think is going to register with a lot of people. he said you'd be better off -- i think the american people wanting you to spend time on the priorities that they care about rather than this political theater. and i'm ad libbing his words. >> i guess he really is running for, isn't he. >> the majority of the american people are focused on what's before them in their lives and, you know, whether or not corey lewandowski was asked by

the president and whether he's obstructing congress is not right before them. and i think most democrats know that however, we know that there is a push from the left to hold this president accountable and they need to take that serious low. >> there was a similar sort of phenom naenon on the right whert seemed like congress would do things that was all about their base hold a hearing, create some -- trump up some -- make a bigger deal out of a charge because cable television really has fired them up on it and it always looked odd to a lot of people but you would defending it as good politics. for jerry nadler, this is probably still good politics. >> for 235 members of congress, maybe 90 are in districts that could go either way. almost none of them are house democrats on the judiciary committee. his constituency are the members of this committee and come from pretty left districts. >> no, he's in trouble for not impeaching yet there's no doubt.

>> they have clearly stopped trying to help democrats win elections and started trying to make themselves feel better. that's what the impeachment process is. >> except there are plenty of democrats in those districts that flipped democrat in 2018 who want to proceed with an impeachment inquiry. the question is what they saw today, is that what they had in mind so -- it will be an interesting caucus discussion. >> i think it's a great conversation for republicans most of the house freshmen who flipped districts are being quiet. republicans would be happy if every freshman democrat would come out for impeachment. >> i know this is good republican primary politics for corey. can you win a general election being sort of like trump's protector in a swing state >> corey has -- this is one snapshot of corey, one moment for corey. he's got a lot of things out there and i'm sure people -- >> he has an early lead in the primary numbers.

>> yeah, but there is potentially for him outside of a primary a little bit of a downside of being tethered so closely. >> are you working for him for any reason >> no. >> is this a -- do you think there's a fine line to walk here on how close you associate yourself with trump in a swing state? >> president trump's most narrow loss anywhere in the country was in new hampshire new hampshire is a fundamentally independent-minded state and i think the trick to which you are anti-washington, i think is always a good trait in new hampshire. it's sort of a fiery place the question is would corey be better off if he was seen as abandoning the president i think we know the answer to that so -- >> geoff bennett, man, good luck with the next 90 minutes let us know. >> reporter: thanks, brother, appreciate that. >> appreciate it carol, eugene, stephanie and brad, stick around. coming up, if it's tuesday, someone is voting somewhere. we've got the very latest on a very close election, which is

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public service anymore, he just doesn't want to be in congress he is the 16th house republican to announce his retirement this term. turning now from decision 2020 to decision 5779, apologies to jon stewart, we have breaking news out of israel where the polls closed just a couple of hours ago. the votes are being counted as we speak and the early exit polls appear to show what we expected, a head heat. the exit polls appear to show bibi netanyahu either tied or slightly behind his main rival, benny gantz. more importantly for both of them, neither netanyahu's right wing party, coalition parties or gantz's more kcentrist party seemed to win enough to tip it one way or another do is something of a do-over election it's the second time israelis have gone to the polls in six months because netanyahu failed to form a coalition after the april elections.

so he dissolved parliament and triggered today's vote rather than give anyone else a chance to form a coalition government we'll see what happens with this one. we'll see who the president allows to form a government first, netanyahu or gantz. we shall see but we won't get any official election results now until tomorrow at the very earliest. but who knows, it could take a day or two and if not weeks before we know how this gridlock has broken in israel we'll be right back with more "meet the press daily" and the political gridlock right here in our neck of the woods. ght?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

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well, now that we have your attention, i hope, which is part of the point, welcome back as part of nbc's special focus on the climate in crisis, we're going to take a look today at how the smallest state in the country is leading one of the

biggest fights on the issue of who pays for this climate change issue. rhode island is suing 21 oil and gas companies for damages related to climate change. you know the names, chevron, shell, exxon, bp, all of them are included in this lawsuit now, the lawsuit claims that not only did those companies contribute to climate change, which has eroded infrastructure and damaged portions of the local environment, but that it did it knowing about the climate change risks and they did it anyway and that is the crux of rhode island's public nuisance legal argument you can call it a first of its kind lawsuit filed by a state. earlier this summer a federal judge decided the suit should stay in the state court. they thought the federal courts would be a bit friendlier to them i'm joined by sheldon whitehouse who has been champions fights like this to deal with climate change and he was a former attorney general of the state so he knows a lot about how these

lawsuits work. senator, welcome to the show i'm glad we'll take a few minutes to talk about this. >> thank you, chuck. good to be with you. >> before the climate, a couple other quick questions. day. one has to do with iran. are you more confident today in the united states government claims of iran's culpability in the saudi attack >> no. i think that's still being looked into. >> what is it that we need to know more of that we don't what are you waiting to hear -- who are you waiting to hear from before you're confident iran is the culprit? >> i think what the administration needs to do is put together a presentation that they can make, for instance, to the u.n. to draw international condemnation to iran if they are in fact behind this. so things like figuring out what the launch site is, figuring out what the piece of equipment was, tracing where the piece of equipment came from. there's a lot of work that we

are told still needs to be done. >> all right let me move to -- very quickly on that, do you think -- do you think you're going to get those answers in a timely manner are you confident of that? or are you nervous you're not? >> no, i think the military and the intelligence agencies are going to very much want to figure that out and that they'll share that information as it comes in >> gotcha. i just -- i just wanted to get from your tone whether you were a little leery of what you were hearing or you're simply waiting for the facts to come -- to be surfaced >> the latter. >> exactly let me talk about this the public nuisance lawsuit, why do you believe this is an effective way to move forward in the battle to basically figure out, a, how to combat climate change and most importantly how do we pay for it >> well, at the very get-go, the most important thing about lawsuits on climate is they require the defendants, the oil

industry, to at some point turn up and tell the truth. in depositions under oath and ultimately perhaps in trial testimony. and they're not very comfortable telling the truth. they much prefer talking in legislative arenas and in regulatory arenas where they can sp spin things and make stuff up. certainly they lie through their teeth in the public arena and here in congress so getting them in a situation where they're under oath is important. also being able to get into their files is important discovery matters because they will have said things to each other and internally that rebut their public statements. many is the case that has been settled once really bad internal emails turn up so discovery and truth telling are really important the public nuisance doctrine is also really important because it is designed to address things like this. it's been around for centuries

and the supreme court has specifically said that this is state business so it would be hard for the supreme court action even the roberts court to go in and stomp on a state public nuisance victory. >> you know, it's interesting, oklahoma, i believe, the opioids lawsuit is sort of a similar -- it's a similar case against the pharmaceutical companies. >> correct and there was a big -- there was a big lead paint public nuisance case in california that was upheld in a very thorough decision by the california supreme court. that probably is a better road map for this case than the oklahoma one, but together they provide quite a good road map, particularly to the extent that the public nuisance looks at the misleading and false behavior of the industry, not just the harm. >> is there any reason that would make this case better if you had other states join it, or is it better to be state by state this way >> i think it helps when you

have other states join to the extent that the strategy of the adversaries is to do the defense blizzard strategy and just try to blow you out and file so many papers and bomb you with so much discovery that you get overwhelmed. it's good to be able to share the work but i think that it's important to proceed, you know, california has set i think a reasonably good example on lead paint it wouldn't surprise me if over time other states joined in and we were able to share the load a little bit better. >> well, speaking of sharing the load, part of the, i think, challenge for states in dealing with the climate issue, in dealing with climate mitigation is the last time i checked mother nature doesn't respect state lines. they don't respect nation borders, right and i guess at what point does the state of rhode island say

there's only so much we can do and if the federal government doesn't do this, you know what, i guess we have to sue the federal government >> well, there are people suing the federal government already there's the julianna case taking part out in oregon which is the test case for that it's not brought by a state, it's brought by individual plaintiffs, but i think that's the case there a state has particularly strong standing to deal with public nuisance because there's a big body of law that says that public officials representing the public, representing a state have particular standing to pursue public nuisance claims. so i think the state of rhode island has done the right thing to pursue the miscreants and to do so using public nuisance theory it doesn't mean that you can't have a backstop argument

involving the federal government, but i think they're in the stronger lane legally by doing it the way that they did. >> gotcha. do we look at this like the tobacco cases -- >> yep. >> -- and assume the money that comes from this -- so this short-circuits the argument of the carbon tax, doesn't it >> not really. >> let's not worry about the carbon -- no go ahead. >> not really. there's not enough money in these companies to make up what a carbon tax would do to shift the economy towards green energy this is much more about trying to make sure that the people who did the evil deeds are the ones who are paying for repairing the harms, rebuilding the highways, paying people who have lost property, businesses that have lost their shorefront businesses, to make sure that the people who are being harmed by what the oil companies did are being compensated by the oil companies. but in terms of this being a thing that shifts the economy towards a green energy economy

and solves the climate problem at large, i think it's hard to expect rhode island's little suit to do that. >> one other piece of business on your day job as a united states senator day job is not the right word, on some of your duties as a senator. >> fair enough. >> you tweeted i'm confidence kavanaugh lied, he was under oath of his intent was to deceive. the lies were material, that's perjury. but you have not called for the impeachment. what do you do what do you do about kavanaugh >> i think the important first step -- i'm a prosecutor, right, so you think about starting your investigation, gathering your evidence, and you don't go to a jury with an ask for a verdict until you have done all your homework leading up to that. to me the opening bid is to have the house judiciary committee, because the senate judiciary committee won't do it, look at the fbi investigation of the sexual misconduct allegations against kavanaugh. i think what you'll find is if

you put that investigation next to a real fbi investigation, the differences are numerous and i think the key is likely to be the so-called tip line that the investigators ran for -- effectively for the white house in the kavanaugh investigation i don't think they did a real tip line, i don't think they looked at what came in, i don't think they ever followed up on a lead in my experience it was a very weird thing as a former united states attorney to watch the fbi affirmatively turning away and deflecting and repelling information. the fbi is a machine for the collection of information and fending it off was weird >> well, we will find out what the house judiciary committee will do, if they will open an investigation. senator sheldon whitehouse, thanks for coming on and sharing your views appreciate it. all this week nbc news and msnbc will be doing our best to confront climate change in a special series we're calling climate in crisis.

on thursday chris hayes and ali velshi will be hosting a program. we'll be right back. usic pl rou) panera's new warm grain bowls are full of good. rou) full of flavor, color, full of- woo! full of good. so you can be too. try our new warm grain bowls today. panera. food as it should be. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun?

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♪ ♪ award winning interface. ♪ ♪ award winning design. ♪ ♪ award winning engine. ♪ ♪ the volvo xc90. our most awarded luxury suv. ♪ ♪ welcome back a sad day for those of us who cover washington because we lost two truly great journalists, a trail blazing woman and a newsman from the golden age of broadcasting first there's veteran journalist

cokie roberts who died from complications to breast cancer she began her career when nearly all political reporters were men. she became a mentor to many women in this business roberts is best known for her work at npr and abc news where she was a congressional correspondent, political commentator and go anchor of "this week." among her many, many awards for excellence in journalism, she won three emmys and an edward r. murrah award she wrote six, count 'em, six "new york times" best-sellers. you could say politics was in her blood. she was the only member of her family who did not run for congress her parents both served. she felt it was her duty to educate people about the government and how to be good voters and good citizens boy, did she do that so, so well cokie roberts was 75 years old. today we also learned of the passing of political correspondent sander vanocre

he was white house correspondent right here at nbc news from 1957 to 1971 and he later worked for abc news, pbs and "the washington post. he was on the front lines of the biggest stories in the 1960s he may be best remembered as a moderator of the 1960 kennedy/nixon debate and for his coverage of the 1968 presidential campaign of robert f. kennedy whom he interviewed just two hours before his assassination. sander vanocur was 91 years old. ] every box has a mission: to protect everything inside from everything outside. that is where the true glory lies. when what's inside matters, [ doorbell rings ] ...count on boxes.

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welcome back i'm going to do a lightning round. sorry, guys, about our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. here's the easiest way to look at this. in july, our very first one, warren and biden together had 45% of the vote and the rest of the field, eugene, had 45% of the vote now combined warren/biden is 56, the rest of the field is 41. okay, that's probably the best way to see this. i want to make this two and a half minutes about everybody not named warren and biden how does harris and buttigieg in particular turn this around? >> i think when we look at warren and biden right now, we see the person who is winning with black voters and we see the person who's making the biggest gains with black voters. for buttigieg and harris, one of

the things they can focus on is how do they find a way to make their message resonate with black voters >> yes, i think that they also just need to kind of stand out in a way that you see elizabeth warren stands out in terms of she staked out this ground where her policies are and she's got energy they just haven't really managed to sort of harness any of that it feels like i would focus on black voters but also just generally enthusiasm >> what would you be saying? >> well, i think that the other number in the poll is -- tell me, chuck, and i know you will if i don't have this right >> oh, no. >> i don't mean it that way but you know the numbers better than i do only 9% have made their final decision. >> that's it 9% 9% yell it. only 9% say they are certain who they're voting for. >> so the race is consolidating, that's a fact by the numbers you just showed us, but there is still a lot of room for

movement if i were harris or buttigieg, i would find a state, locate there, get my numbers up and drive it from there. >> brad, let me ask it this way. at this point in time as my pollsters reminded me, ben carson was in second place and in three months we know where that went. if you have had a moment and you lose it, in our politics today can you get a second moment? >> well, you can, but i think the bigger lesson here is don't make the ted cruz mistake. ted cruz coddled donald trump in the primaries in 2015. he avoided criticizing him because he thought i want him in the end. >> he wanted the one-on-one. >> that's right. >> he wasn't alone marco rubio thought the same thing and jeb bush thought the same thing. >> the moral of any primary is like a nascar race, you've got to catch the fastest car if i were any of the other id s candidates, i would realize i have to stop elizabeth warren and my path to the front-runner spot goes through her. >> so do you go after warren or

biden right now? who do you chase, eugene >> i would imagine many of these campaigns are trying to figure out ways to pick op voters from both how do you do that with the same message, because they're speaking to two very different groups. >> and without alienating voters. >> indeed. >> warren is -- the trump campaign is going after biden. biden is his own worst enemy in some ways. >> right now he's doing warrenes work for her. >> yes. >> that's the best thing warren has is that. the question is who's going to do biden's work for him on warren thank you all. that's all we have for tonight we'll be back tomorrow with "meet the press daily. "the beat with ari melber" starts now >> great to have you what a big day in washington, sir. we're going to get into it talk to you soon, chuck. we begin with the fallout from the democrats first impeachment probe hearing with a trump witness. house democrats calling their

first official witness in this impeachment probe of potential obstruction of justice by the president of the united states, donald trump, marking today as kind of an inflection point in the battle over accountability for what democrats say are trump's crimes in office there were fireworks as corey lewandowski seized on this star turn today to battle, filibuster and at times openly taunt house democrats at this hearing.