all right. that is our show for today and thank you for watching. "a.m. joy" is will be back next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. and my friend philip is taking over. >> good day today. it is high noon in the east and 9:00 out west and welcome the "weekends with alex witt." i'm philip mena. and there is a walkback from mick mulvaney and what does it mean this week? and the president is canceling plans to host the g-7 summit at the doral resort and what changed his mind and sending them home. president trump says he is going to get hundreds of troops out of syria, and where they are headed next is igniting controversy. and breaking news that the trump administration is defending the president on three fronts -- ukraine, syria and

doral. first on ukraine. there are seven scheduled depositions including the revealing testimony from the acting ambassador to ukraine bill taylor. the investigators want to know whether he has information for a possible prid pro quo. and he said it is crazy to help with assistance of a political campaign. and the white house chief of staff is insisting that he did not admit there was a prid quo pro. >> what puts the issue to bed is that the aid flowed. and once we were able to satisfy ourselves that corruption, and that they were doing better with it, there is not a quid pro quo. >> but you were asked by jonathan if there was a quid pro quo and you said it happens all of the time. my language never said that. >> but back to the tape

thursday. >> did he also mention to me in the past that the e-mails related to the dnc server, absolutely, and that what we did to hold up the money and the look back to 2016 is part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation. >> withholding the money? >> yes. >> what you described is a quid pro quo. >> we do that all of the time with foreign policy and i have news for everybody, get over it foreign policy. >> and the second white house defense is about the president's decision to withdraw troops from syria after he vowed to bring the troops back there from home, they are instead going to iraq. >> and eventually, clearly, the quickest way to get them out of danger was to get them into iraq. >> and now the president believes that we have accomplished a significant part of the mission and he wants the folks to come home, and beginning to work on it. >> and plus, this is the sharp criticism from the former republican supporting the

impeachment inquiry justin amash, former congressman. >> he is moving the troops back from iraq and moving ther troops into saudi arabia and he is using the forces almost as mercenaries, the paid mercenaries who are going to g in and as long as saudi arabia pays us money, it is good to go. >> and the third white house defense comes after the president abruptly withdraws the g-7 decision, and announcing that his doral resort will not host the summit at all. >> if we had made the decision thursd thursday, we would not have had the decision. but he was surprised at the pushback, and he considers himself in the hospitality business and he took the opportunity to take the biggest leaders from around the world and put on a absolute best show and take care of folks. he is in the hotel business or at least he was. >> and kelly o'donnell is at the white house, and kelly a lot to get to, and start with the

president reversing course on using his own resort for the g-7 summit and not often that we see him back down. >> it is unusual and it happened suddenly and it happened without any facts changing. it was long known that the president using his own trump family-owned property for an international summit was going to raise controversy and it was going to draw some criticism and that is known all along, but the chief of staff said that the president did not expect it to be so loud and so fierce and to include republicans and backing away are the that. a a -- away from that. and the president let it out on twitter saying that he thought that he was doing something good for the country. he goes on to talk about the attributes of the miami area properties and the things that he felt that it would be good to host an international event, and then he said that, of course, that this is the fault of irrational hostility from the media and the democrats and so ultimately, he came up with the

stunning headline that he would not hold the g-7 summit the group of seven nations at his own property next year. it is a rotating leadership position in g-7 and the u.s. is next up, and president trump had said first in france couple of months ago that he was interested in having doral host it for all of the reasons that he has outlined about the facilities and the brand loyalty and the pride that he had in the property, ignoring the constant questions being raised about the potential for the president personally or his family to be enriched by it, because those nations when they come to attend an event like that, they have to pay for fees associated with their accommodations and the facilities and all of that, and the president insisted that he would take no profit, but that is not good enough. the criticism and the cry for him to change that was loud, and so the president did in some ways unexpected and reversed the decision. the white house said they will

be telling us when they are ready, and they had looked at ten locations in the country, and so there are runners-up options and he said maybe on twitter camp david which president obama had done and he does not normally follow the obama playbook, but we will see what happens with that. >> that is a quick reversal, and we want to talk about mulvaney's attempt to clarify his remarks. >> well, one of the quirks of this is that it is the news conference where mulvaney was announcing the doral choice where it was reversed and he got into a lot of trouble answering questions about the ukraine call and it is an intense back and forth on thursday where he would not accept the terminology quid pro quo, and that is part of the motivation to have the white house to withhold aid to ukraine because they wanted them to do more investigation of the corruption and that would include things like the 2016

national democratic committee server and the bidens. in today in trying to explain it in a tortured interview, it was difficult for mick mulvaney, certainly, because he does not want to have acknowledged that there is a quid pro quo and he tried to explain it with chris wallace. >> i flinch a little bit, because that is what people are saying what i said, and this is what i said and i will say it again and hopefully people will listen this time. there were two reasons that we held up the aid and we have talked about it at length. the first is the rampant corruption in ukraine and the president was concerned about whether or not other nations, and specifically the european nations were helping with foreign aid with ukraine and i mentioned in the past that the president had mentioned to me the dnc server and he had mentioned it to other people publicly and mentioned it to president zelensky in the phone call, but it is not connected to the aid. >> and this is what triggered the democrats and speaker pelosi

to initiate the impeachment inquiry, did the president with hold authorized military support for ukraine because of his own political agenda, and that is the heart of the case, and mick mulvaney was trying to explain his way out of the difficult situation, and people can judge what did he say whaand what did mean. >> thank you, kelly o'donnell at the white house. and now, joining us is charlie savage, national correspondent for "the new york times" and msnbc contributor, and i will start with you with mulvaney saying that he had admitted quid pro quo, and what would you say about it? >> well, he said that he didn't use the words, but what he meant, and he didn't say nit latin, but in english, and everybody can see the tape, the and he got over the skis there, and now he is trying to have a

do-over, but the tape tells the tale. i think that i do believe him when he says that trump did not anticipate or was surprised by the level of pushback by this, and the president trump who says that he can go to kill someone in the middle of fifth avenue and the supporters would let him get away with it, and that is the experience, and so what was interesting about this moment was the trump fatigue that was starting to put some cracks in the armor where you had normal cheerleadersapologies for "the new york times" editorial, and you have to do something. and that was a article of impeachment in the emollients clause, and he has backed down. >> and what do you believe, has he tamped down enough of the firestorm following the press briefing? >> it is hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. i talked to republicans including frances rooney, a florida republican who just

announced his retirement and he said it is not an etch-a-sketch, and it is hard for the republicans to defend the president on capitol hill. they have put their eggs in the no quid pro quo basket and there is no arrangement to withhold the aid. so i don't know how the republicans are going to respond to this, but they said, well, either he walked back the comments or we haven't seen the comment, but at some point, they are going to be asked to vote on the articles of impeachment, and they will have to make a decision, so a lot of the republicans are in a very tough spot between the g-7 announcement which was reversed and the quid pro quo admission from mick mulvaney. >> and also, melanie, the president was surprised for the pushback to choose his own resort to host it, but he ended up backing down and are you surprised the h ed thd that he ? >> yes, because it is a retreat for the president, but he was facing a ton of backlash from the party and not the democratic criticism, but it is the republicans coming to him and

saying why would you do this now? it is a huge problem and not the mention that the democrats were preparing to bring up a bill this week on the floor that would have opposed the decision, and there is a very real possibility that the president would have faced huge defections on, that and keep in mind that he has faced a huge rebuke on the floor this week over syria, and the president was not ready to handle that again this week. >> and charlie, the doral reversal here is going to cap a series of letdowns, and the washington post is saying that president trump has been weakened on every front whether it is foreign policy and the standings among the republicans or the federal courts ruling against him and this all coming from the backdrop of the impeachment inquiry, and how problematic for someone whose main concern is to show strength? >> well, that is true, and his political m.o. is to project himself as the strong man and the winner and the guy who is holding strong. so whenever he retreats, it is enormous problem for his strategy in putting forth the

p.r. image as the guy who always wins. so, you know, the one thing in there that is striking to me in that litany was the court ruling, and the appealing court saying that congress does have a right to look at the financial records with a subpoena. i mean, that was obvious that was coming, and a lot of the lawsuits have been lingering over subpoenas in congress and he has put over sweeping id yoe swe sin -- idiosyncrasies of why he has been avoiding this, and it would be have been difficult to sustain it, and it is a short term gain, and this is the price for it. >> and melanie, we mentioned the grow growing look at republicans and now looking at a republican who is now retiring the and is this

why he spoke so critically, because he is leaving office? >> it seems like it. on friday, he said that he might be hinting retirement and he is frustrated by the job. he has been in it for two terms now, and the major tell is that he is willing to criticize the president so candidly. and when we asked him, are you concerned about the wrath of the president, and he went after mitt romney, and he said what is the worst? i have go back to my old job and now we know that he is going back to the old job and it is speaking to the problem of the gop, those running for re-election are deeply worried about the criticism in the president, and he is widely popular among the base, and so it seems that as of right now, the only people who are willing to stand up to him are those who are retiring. >> and we saw it with, coer with former senator jeff flake who got very vocal to the end. melanie and charlie stay with us. now, the breaking news of the mark esper's announcement that he is not bringing the troops

home from syria, and now instead, they will be sent to iraq. and the president is still tweeting as recently as two hours ago that he is bringing the soldiers home, and then an hour ago changing it to ending endless wars. and so this is how it was summed up on "meet the press" by a trump official. >> there are people who support the president, and who believes the things that he says, but it is pretty clear that he is not bringing home the troops. >> he has sent 14,000 american troops to the region since may, and so he can't tell the political rallies that he is getting the troops out of endless wars when he is sending 14 times the amount back into the region. >> nbc's erin mclaughlin from turkey across the border of the area of the cease-fire, and is there a time line on the troop withdrawal? >> well, at the moment, philip n

wh what is seen as a positive step forward as abrokered by the unid states, and we have heard from a spokesperson who said that all sdf fighters have withdrawn from the city just behind me. there are no more fighters in that city. in addition to that, according to our sources, a humanitarian convoy successfully made its way inside of the city today to the hospital, and evacuated the wounded including wounded kurdish fighters and this is significant considering what the sdf spokesperson was saying this morning. he said if today went well, then the sdf would proceed in evacuating a 75-mile stretch of area between here and tall a

abiad. and the president of turkey saying that he wants the kurdish fighters to withdraw from a much broader stretch of land than what the sdf has agreed to. so how all of this is going to play out going forward is an open question, but for now, the cease-fire appears to be holding. philip. >> all right. erin mclaughlin, thank you for joining me. melanie and charlie are back with us here. and charlie, you are following the syrian story, and what is the decision to move the u.s. troops to iraq? >> well, it is underscores that this rationale of bringing people home is not what is going on here. what is going on is that erdogan has won a in getting the united states to stop supporting its kurdish allies who did the brunt of the fighting against the islamic state, and erdogan is going to succeed in the plan which is to ethnically cleanse

the kurds out from northern syria of the turkish border as phase one and the plan as we understand it is to round up a couple of million arab kurdish refugees and dump them into the zone to create a buffer between the syrian kurds and his country, and this is the type of thing that doesn't feel like a 21st century solution to the geopolitical issues, but a throwback and that is what erdogan has succeeded in doing, and convincing president trump to doing. >> melanie, what do you make of this? >> well, li will tell you that the republicans have been pressing the trump administration of the answer to how you prevent the resurgence of isis and in fact, i reported that secretary of defense mark esper went to capitol hill and had a closed door meetings with the republicans where he struggled to answer the questions and he did not give them a satisfying response so this step of sending the troops

to iraq is a potential way to help combat isis and might at least throw a bone to the republicans, but at the same time, there is a lot of frustration and fury over the initial decision to pull the troops from syria. >> all right. melanie and charlie, appreciate your perspectives. the fairness factor coming up next. the republicans are decrying the impeachment inquiry as secretive and unconstitutional and we will talk about that with a member of the congressional committee questioning witnesses joining us next. and growing suspicions of why rudy giuliani may have far more difficulty explaining the actions on behalf of the president. with the freestyle libre 14 day system just scan the sensor with your reader, iphone or android and manage your diabetes. with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose levels any time, without fingersticks. ask your doctor to write a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks.

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so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. welcome to "a.m. joy" and it is one of the morning where we have a ton of news. >> biggest fallout from the latest departure from the white house. >> do you think that we would tolerate this if it were children coming from canada or eastern europe? >> i think that things would be very different.

>> how do democrats navigate the impending mess before them in the disagreements over this? dis? i frankly wish that the state department lawyers were permitted in the room to hear testimony from state department officials, and this is deeply unfair for officers who serve underneath me, and i cannot comment, because i have not been permitted to have a lawyer present or to see the recordings or the transcripts of what was said. >> new, today, secretary of state mike pompeo expressing frustration over the depositions of the impeachment inquiry. and it is coming after a week of testimony from state department official, and joining me is eleanor holmes norton and a democratic member of the oversight and reform committee, and congresswoman, thank you for joining me. we heard secretary pompeo say that the way that the depositions are being held is

deeply unfair, and what is your reaction to that? >> the way in which the depositions are being held is what i would call, and i think that all objective observers would call regular order, and we are in the investigation phase. during the investigation phase, normally the other side would not normally have anything, and certainly not a part of it, and yet the republicans are sitting in as i have been on the depositions, and moreover, they have been able to ask questions. now, of course, this is not public. when the u.s. attorney is investigating for example whether a crime has been committed, you don't get to know about that until he decides whether to go forward. this is only an inquiry. we have not come forward with articles of impeachment. this is the investigation stage, and there is nothing for the republicans to complain about, because they have as much access as i have had as a democrat access to these witnesses.

>> and so this week, we saw plenty of revelations, including explosive testimony from fiona hill and gordon sondland and what impact do these hearings have on the inquiry, and enough evidence already to draw up the articles of impeachment? >> well, if you are looking at everything from the mueller report up to and including this week, you would find more than enough the go forward and yet the democrats are doing the right thing in proceeding in regular fashion, slow as it goes. now, it was pretty explosive testimony, and i cannot go into the details, but particularly, i think that the press should note that now that we are hearing from state department officials as opposed to appointees and we did hear from an official this week who has not contradicted

what the state officials are say and that is a real break of the state department officials coming forward to say exactly what they witnessed. all of this is important, because remember what we are investigating. we are investigating whether there was an attempt by the president to find as much as he could in the way of so-called dirt on the president's son and vice president's son for that matter and the vice president as political matter. all of this is fodder for that very important issue. that is the issue that democrats have decided with all of the others that we could be working on from the mueller report on to hone in on that one, because that is where we have the most evidence. >> you speak of the testimony upcoming from the state department official which is going to be another busy week of the committee and several depositions scheduled and do you

know how many of the officials are expected to actually appear before you, and what do you want to know from them? >> well, so far, the state department officials have not hung back, but what we have got, and what are we are getting now to be frank with you is just icing on the cake. and it turns the out that when they are under oath, most are not willing to lie to members of congre congress. so what i expect is more of what we have heard in the past two weeks where the state department officials have begun to come forward and whether from appointed officials or the state department officials, and this is essentially more evidence that the president was essentially seeking a quid pro quo and if i could say something about that. a quid pro quo as a person who

has practiced law does not mean that you ask for something specific, but it means that there is enough evidence for the jury to believe that there was a quid pro quo. and i believe that is what you are going to be hearing this week, and what we have been hearing all week. >> you said that there is icing on the cake, then you believe that the cake is baked and ready to go. >> i do. >> congresswoman eleanor holmes norton, thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> after 53 hours of testimony so far, the impeachment inquiry is intensifying and key testimony coming and it could impact washington. we will tell you more when we come back. come back. ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we need someone to lean on ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we needed somebody to lean on ♪

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we have breaking news from georgia about a deadly training accident at ft. stewart. three soldiers killed and three injured this morning and few details other than the soldiers were riding in a tank at the time of the accident. the names are withheld pending the notification of the families and the accident is under investigation. >> congress is wrapping up the impeachment inquiry into president trump with seven depositions scheduled this week. so far, house investigators have heard 53 hours of closed door

testimony from six witnesses and one person we know who was mentioned in the hearing is the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani, and nbc news is reporting that diplomat george kent said that giuliani asked to grant a visa to ousted victor showkin. joining us is barbara quaid, msnbc contributor. >> thank you for having me. >> with all of the depositions, and a what the officials said under oath, what big questions do you have under this week? >> well, as you know, rudy giuliani's role is continuing to grow and we have what was revealed in the depositions and the associations and one thing that george kent testified about that is recently revealed is that rudy giuliani attempted to secure a visa for the ousted prosecutor in ukraine from the state department. now, why on earth would he want to do that? we don't know. it'd be worthwhile to find out more about that, but victor showkin was the person who was

not pursuing corruption prosecutions vigorously enough, and it is part of rudy giuliani's conspiracy theory that he is the one who was going to be investigating whether the bidens were involved in any corruption, so was it that he wanted to get him here to the united states so that he could pursue this theory? was this a quid pro quo for fabricating such a theory? i think that keeping an eye on what that is all about is interesting as well as rudy giuliani's role in this and the role of other state department officials. >> the acting ambassador to ukraine bill taylor is testifying tuesday. back in september he texted the ambassador to eu gordon sondland and a couple of things that raised flags. as i said on the phone, i think it is crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. and so if you were in that room, what would you ask him? >> i think that bill taylor is critically important, because he is state department official and someone who is respected as a professional and he is the one involved in the conversations

with gordon sondland who is simply a high-dollar trump donor who ends up as the ambassador to the eu. it seems based on that conversation that he is trying to put out there what they were discussing in phone calls and to document it, and sometimes people call it memorializing a conversation and others say papering a conversation and it means that i know that there is something funny going on here and i want documentation about this later, and so what was causing him to be so alarmed? did he believe that there was a quid pro quo going on, and you know, the text messages are pretty good evidence, but what was going on behind the scenes is even more important, and so, giving the context can be important to what bill taylor is able to do here. >> and we learn this week that rudy giuliani is under scrutiny from the office he once ran the southern district of new york, and they are examining his bank records a wnd this visa request, and how much trouble is rudy giuliani in? >> well, a lot of legal trouble

and the idea that he is not hiring a lawyer is foolish. there san old adage that a person who represents himself has a fool for a client and it is doubly true for rudy giuliani. the indictment for associates of campaign finance violations and the fact that he was paid $500,000 from the very same associates suggests some link there between those charges and his own conduct. i think that he also has to be worried about being involved with president trump in a bribery scheme or extortion scheme, and president trump can't be charged with a crime, but there is no prohibition on charging a sitting attorney to the president for a crime. so, i don't think that he is going to be able to hide behind a attorney/client transaction, as simply providing legal advice. >> thank you, barbara mcquade. >> now, as the president is pulling troops out of syria, there is a concern about the resurgence of isis and does

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for this president, it is all about money and money and money, and from my point of view, it is pity that the kurds have only paid in blood. >> fawaz giving his analysis of president trump's decision to withdraw the troops from syria. joining me now is janine

geovanne from yale university, and she is award winning war correspondent and book author "the morning they came after us." and thank you for coming to join us. you worked in that theatre well, and what is the greatest concern in this conflict? >> for me the greatest concern is humanitarian, and with the people villages and the winter is coming and what about the refugees that president erdogan and trump have proposed to go into the safe area. if this happens that means that we are going to be bringing 1 million mainly arab refugees into kurdish land. that is clearly a violation of the international law and humanitarian law. it is ethnic cleansing and ethnic engineering and one way of looking at it is that it is similar to what israel does when it annexes palestinian land to move in the jewish settlers. this is kurdish land.

the other issue that i am very concerned about is russia. russia entered the game in 2015. controlling the skies for president bashar al assad and they were the bombers and the ones who bombed the hospitals, schools, civilians and in aleppo and in homs and in currently idlib as well as the iranians who controlled the ground. and now with trump pulling out, and with him saying that this is not going to be our game anymore, and we are handing the ball over to president putin. this means that he is going to have control of syria, and bash shar al assad is a puppet, and he always has been, and it is a proxy war. and so the whole, the configuration of who is running what in syria is going to be decided by outside forces, not by the syrian people. my other worry is the kurds.

we have abandoned them for a century. during the 2017 referendum when they were trying to establish whether or not the people wanted their own country, there was a great sense that soon they would have something and so they came to our aid meaning the fight against the islamic state with faith that we would reward their loyalty and losses, because they lost 11,000 men fighting against isis. this abandonment and this betrayal will have repercussions throughout the region for years and years to come. >> i wanted to talk about that, because you were there in the height of the civil war. >> yes. >> what are the kurds going through right now? >> i think that first of all, like, let's talk about the civilians. there is chaos, of course. when people are forced to flee, and i have seen it in numerous conflicts of wars that i have reported. what you do is that you grab the children and your documents if you are lucky, if you have time,

and you run. now, on the road right now, people don't know which direction to run n because the fighting is in, it is chaotic, and war is chaotic, and when people say to me, what is it like in a war zone i say it is not as controlled as you will see in the films. it is very chaotic and people don't know where to go and worried about the water shortages because some of the water facilities were hit which would involve up to 400,000 people that would suffer from water shortages, and we are worried about getting safe passage from humanitarian trucks to come in, and also, winter. winter is approaching, and if people are outside, and if they are intense, it is very, very cold in that region. -- if they are in tents, it is very, very cold in that region. and so i remember an expression, we have no friends but the mountains. and there was a time briefly when they were fighting for the

u.s. and for our allies against isis when it is almost a sense of okay, now, we are finally going to get what we deserve. we are going to get some political backing, some backing so that we could have our own state. remember, the kurds are di diaspora through iran and iraq and it also sends a terrible message about the american disloyalty and quite frankly lying. it is a straight forward lie even to tell the kurds shortly before president trump announced that we would be pulling out our soldiers, telling them to blow up the trenches, to fill in their basically they would not have to fight and then to leave them to the turkish onslaught, and turkey has the third largest

army in europe. the third largest army, and imagine facing that and the immense feeling of betrayal. it is not a good scenario. >> and janine, i know it is impossible question and we cannot put the genie back into the bottle, but in your expertise and estimation, what is the best resolution to this as we stand today? >> well, philip, i would first say protection of the civilians, and that is always my first concern. we have to make sure that the civilians who are on the road right now are going to be looked after, and taken care of and that they can go back to their homes. the second thing that i'd say is that we have to concentrate on ending the syrian war. we forget that this kurdish episode, there is a separate thing going on which is bashar al assad's assault against his own people which started in 2011 and right now 3 million people in idlib which is the last holdout of the syrian opposit n opposition. we need to think of a political

solution that will end the war, that will bring back the millions of refugees who are in lebanon, and where now we have demonstrations of course, and who are in iraq, and who are in turkey and who are in jordan. we need to bring them home, but we need to bring them home sa safely. they cannot go to syria where they will be persecuted again because they were disdents or family members who were fighting. so the first step is to end the syrian war and transitional justice. that is so important. people who have had grievous human rights abuse, and assad's torture and killing and the prisons and the rape and the abuse, and they need to see somewhere down the line that justice is going to be served. unless we have that, we will have ongoing conflict forever. we need to ensure that the people who perpetuated such hideous crimes against humanity

will one day face justice. this is the most important thing for me. >> we appreciate your expertise in this very complicated and si. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. the power of aoc, enough to recharge the sanders' campaign. that is next. 300 miles an hour, that's where i feel normal. having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected. learn more at retire your risk dot org. itso chantix can help you quitd slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away

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do you think that tulsi gabbard is a russian as snet. >> these questions are on the absurd. these allegations are not constructive in any way. we have to get back to the work of donald trump. >> do you think gabbard is an asset? >> i think statements like that ought to be backed by as sets. >> cory booker and pete buttigieg remarking to remarks by hillary clinton that sparked controversy. clinton referred to congresswoman and 2020 contender gabbard as a russian as certificate. gabbard fired back at clinton claiming she's behind a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. joining me is founder and chair of the progressive group southpaw michigan and democratic

national committee super delegate and senior fellow at the university of virginia's miller center and republican strategist susan del percio, msnbc political analyst. chris, what do you make of this controversy? do you think clinton went too far here? should she be weighing in at all about what's going on with the 2020 candidates? >> i think this is sort of an interesting fight that i think clinton and gabbard. clinton understands she probably would have been president in 2016 if there was not a third-party vote there. what she's staking out is trying it say, look, if there is a third-party candidate that is not a legitimate candidate and that only helps donald trump win, and i think, frankly, from gabbard's standpoint this fight helps her as well because it gives much-needed attention to her, showing her tweets that would otherwise not be shown. i would say to congresswoman gabbard, picking a fight with hillary clinton, who 66 million people voted her, would not do

much to help her or expand her base of support. >> i will pay for you what clinton former spokesperson said on our air this morning. >> she's not just saying something negative about tulsi. she's saying what happened in 2016 is going to happen again in 2020. she's not president. she's not running for president. she can calls balls and strikes as she sees it. she's very concerned about these two things. tulsi gabbard on a good day is at 1%. the polls. the other 99% of democrats sit around and say, what is with her? why won't she criticize assad? she called hillary more bad names in a tweet yesterday than assad. >> what do you think, is that fair? >> to me, it's just a lot of noise, frankly, that the democrats don't need at this point. i'm not sure it helps anyone on the democratic side when hillary clinton gets involved unless she's raising money for the dnc. that's very helpful and something she does well. but as far as going after congresswoman gabbard, i just

don't understand, this is a woman who served our military. yes, there's a lot of issues i would take up with her and i certainly couldn't support someone with her positions. but it's just not worthy of hillary clinton. and she doesn't need to relive 2016. we need to look at 2020. >> abdul, isn't there political impact, these are marks on the race as democrats are trying to decide whether to defend gabbard against that russian asset claim. >> i'll be honest with you. i think this is cynical politics at its worst. i think hillary clinton is trying to stay relevant. she's promoting a book and this is a great way to do that. people don't really pay attention to what she says. she's a fading political star. i think when it comes to tulsi, there are questionable things she does. i question anyone who calls her a progressive given she's carried water for people like assad, endorsed by white nationalists, she won't speak up about some of the inhumane things happening in india under someone she wants to cozy up to in modi. these are questions we ought to ask about her but i agree with

your other guest. she's polling around 1%. she's trying to be relevant. these are two people playing off one another to stay relevant in politics that have passed them by. >> let's take a closer look at the money fueling the democratic campaigns. yesterday we looked at the cash on hand for six of the 2020 candidates at the close of the third quarter. now let's look at the entire field here. the first ten are right there. you can see bernie sanders is leading. joe biden is is there in fifth place with roughly $9 million ahead of andrew yang who had a third quarter fund-raising surge. here's where the rest of the field stands. what stands out to you about these numbers we're seeing? >> well, look, at this point in the race i think the two best metrics of how well a campaign are doing are poll numbers and fund-raising. obviously, the vice president's fund-raising is not what it really should be in terms of cash on hand right now he's got less money on hand for a national race than mark kelly does for a senate race in

arizona. that being said, i think a lot of these numbers, i would take them with a big grain of salt. having a lot of money helps if you're using it in effective ways to building up an organization. but if you're wasting on consultants or, you know, private jets, that's not a great use of money. i would also go back and look at a previous race. i went back and looked at the 2007-08 republican race. at this point the leader with cash on hand was rudy giuliani who had ten times as much cash on hand as john mccain and we know how that race turned out. >> as we think about the impact of those financial numbers, i want to ask you about a new article from "the new york times" titled, trump campaign floods web with ads raking in cash as democrats struggle. it reads while the trump campaign has put its digital operation firmly at the center the president's re-election effort, democrats are struggling to internalize the lessons of the 2016 race and to adapt to a political landscape shaped by social media. do you agree with that? how do you see this playing out? >> well, the fact is the trump campaign is now running a real

campaign. they weren't in 2016. they really didn't know what they were doing, frankly. they now have a full operation. they went after every republican state committee and our individual states and now it's this advertising campaign, social media advertising campaign, which has been really quite impressive from the amount of money spent on it and the money raised off of it. so, that does matter. i think when you look at the democrats, this always happens with the party who's out of power. you have a primary so people are trying to figure out, you know, where to give money, so right after that, it should help. but the dnc needs raise money. >> thank you so much for joining me. >> thank you. president trump facing criticism on all fronts, even from his own party. so, how does a leader obsess with projecting strength deal with a moment of weakness? ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪

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good day from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's been a busy morning on the sunday talk shows. issuing surrounding donald trump surrounding the conversation. we have a lot to go over this hour. the impeachment inquiry, the president's foreign policy and the battle for the white house. so we begin now at the white house and nbc's hans nichols.

hans, i want to start with you and i want to start with mick mulvaney, acting chief of staff insisting he did not admit to quid pro quo with the ukraine aide. what more is he saying about that? >> reporter: he is acknowledging he misspoke or didn't speak very clearly. at the same time he's carving out this space saying it's still possible to tie some sort of request to foreign aid, although he's insisting he diplomat do it in this case. the general take from mulvaney, this seemed to be a clean-up effort, he's saying the reasons they were asking ukraine to pursue this corruption is because, a, they were concerned about corruption, and, b, they were concerned about the european partners not doing their fair share. that's why they withheld the funds. listen to how he put it when he was pressed on the quid pro quo question. >> my language never said quid pro quo. let's get to the heart of the matter. what was i talking about? things that was legitimate for the president to do. number one, it's legitimate for the president to want to know what's going on with the ongoing

investigation into the server. it's legitimate to tie the aide to corruption. it's tie the aide to aid. can i see how people took it the wrong way? absolutely. i never said it was a quid pro quo, because there isn't. >> reporter: in that interview he also said it wasn't the perfect press conference. you are seeing mulvaney take an active role defending the president, thursday with the briefing, on the sunday shows today. he hosted moderate members of congress up at camp david as they want to make sure republicans stay close to this president. guys? >> hans, another breaking story i want to talk with you about. the president reversing course now saying he will not use his own resort to host the g-7 summit. what prompted that change of heart? >> reporter: we don't know. all we know is the president is publicly blaming democrats saying he was treated unfairly on this. it happened late last night. the president after so much preview of this and so much hype this is the perfect venue, you

even had mick mulvaney in that initial press conference on thursday, he went to the podium to announce the fact they were going to be going to doral, the president's golf course, and also disparaged camp david. when the president put oat tweets, changing course on this, saying very clearly the g-7 would not be held at one of his own properties, he said we'll have to look at camp david as well, even though mick mulvaney had been trashing camp david and questioning its fitness for a summit of this sort. >> hans, thank you. joining me now, john harwood, cnbc's editor-at-large and olivia nutsii. what is your reaction to what mulvaney said on quid pro quo? >> it's ridiculous. he kept trying to justify it by saying it's legitimate to look into the dnc server.

no, it's ludicrous. that's a conspiracy theory whose intent is to absolve russia of what it did in 2016, which is hack our election, interfere with our election, to try to help president trump. they're trying to absolve russia. you might as well say, well, we want an investigation into whether president obama was really born in kenya. no, it's ridiculous. it's disproven. so, that's not really a clarification of any value from mick mulvaney. >> olivia, mulvaney said unequivocally he did not offer his resignation nor did the president discuss it with him and there are reports mulvaney is on thin ice. what are you hearing about this? do you think he'll be able to weather the storm? >> nobody is ever able to weather the storm for they long in this white house. i think it's something that's been demonstrated again and again. when there are enough stories over a long enough period of time you're on thin ice, whether or not it was true to begin with, it ultimately becomes true.

so, i think mulvaney, every chief of staff like those before him, it's a waiting game. if not now, down the line he will eventually find himself either having to resign or being fired by the president. >> john, what about the president's reversal about doral. it's not every day we see him back down like this. what do you think prompted it? >> well, it was naked self-dealing. and when you accumulate things that people can see in plain sight, sometimes it's too much even for republicans. remember the president said famous famously, i could shoot somebody on fifth avenue and not lose any support. we had the ukraine policy, which is now lay out in plain sight, bang. we had syria, a second decision that he's had to try to reverse and mitigate. nobody can defend it, bang. and then you had, i'm putting the g-7 at my own resort which lines his own pockets, bang. you shoot three people in a row

on fifth avenue it's hard for anybody to look the other way. >> olivia, what's your take on this? >> well, you know, i can't -- i don't think we can overstate how important it is that not only did some republicans come out to say he shouldn't do this and also the editorial of the new york post, the president's favorite paper, and now something he reads regularly. he gets it in the white house. he looks at it. even they came out and said he shouldn't do this. i think that might be enough that they were the only deciding factor, but with all of this criticism, i think normally he would just try to dismiss it, say it's democrats, it's the left, it's the media. i think even the new york post, someone who -- a paper that has historically been pretty sympathetic to himle and some republicans coming out, i guess it was enough, apparently, for him to say, maybe i should reconsider. >> on that issue, i want to play something else mulvaney said about whether support for the president is eroding among

republican lawmakers. >> is there any concern that the president is losing the support of republicans in congress? >> no, the president's extraordinarily popular back home. more popular in the swing districts now that impeachment has started. they have to go home eventually as well. no. do i understand there are certain folks, especially the neoconservative wing of the party who are upset about the syria decision? i absolutely do. the president knew that was going to happen. elections have consequences on foreign policy, that's where we started this conversation. and thankfully they do. >> the president is relying on republican voters to pressure lawmakers not to support impeachment. how effective do you think that will be? >> well, it's effective as long as he keeps the republican voter defections below critical mass. at the moment, more republican voters are defecting from the president than members of congress are. we've seen in polls recently, in the fox news poll last week, that 13% of republicans say

right now they think the president should be impeached and removed from office. another 4% say he should be impeached and not removed. that's 17%. that's substantial. other surveys have shown up to 30% of republicans say they're open to the impeachment inquiry. if you start getting those numbers significantly higher than that, a couple of republican operatives have told me, if you get 30% of republican voters saying the president should be impeached and removed from office, all of a sudden the cost benefit analysis of those legislators defending him will change. >> olivia, you wrote a piece on what republican insiders think about impeachment. what are some of the key takeaways from that? >> i think the key takeaway is there is trump fatigue even within the right wing bubble. much the same way people on the left, people in the media seem to feel like they are constantly having the president deal with one scandal, one crisis another after another. there is that same feeling in the right wing, even among

people who ares on sentenceably the president's supporters and defenders. there really seems to be a feeling of, oh, god, this again, when will it end? not that that means that anyone that i spoke to anyway wants to come out publicly and change their position publicly. but privately there are murmurs, as there typically are with donald trump, that republicans feel differently. i think to jon's point, 54%, i think, in the latest poll support impeachment. i think politicians are inherent creatures. public opinion, if it turns further toward impeachment, they'll have to turn, too. there's a lot of talk about how republicans are so loyal to donald trump. they are loyal to their own interests. it's not just republicans, it's politicians in general. and i don't think it will be surprising if when public opinion, if it does turn, they will turn as well. >> history does show us that. >> let me add one point to that. that is for these republicans who are staying silent, a lot of

them understand what's going on. they don't think trump is a good president. they think he's done wrong. but the optimum solution for them is for him to be defeated in 2020. then there's a democratic president they can yell at. that will be better for republicans in 2022. also if trump can be defeated without them having to break with him, that will not impede their own electoral prospects. they're kind of hoping this will go away until the election. the question is whether the heat gets so substantial that they can't look away anymore and that's the drama we're seeing play out. >> john harwood and olivia and hans nichols. joe biden speaking to the united federation of teachers in new york city today. as his campaign continues to lead the democratic field in the polls. "the new york times" national polling average showing biden with 27% support, but elizabeth warren right behind him there with 25%. warren faced several attacks at

this week's democratic debate. now her opponents are still taking aim at her today on the sunday talk shows. >> a distinction without a difference whether you're paying money -- isn't that the same argument elizabeth warren is making? >> first of all, i'm willing to say it out loud. secondly, the problem isn't just how she talks about it. the problem is the multitrillion dollar hole. >> i don't think any one person on that stage has a monday opol good ideas. that seems to be what she said through these debates. >> live team coverage on the campaign trail. shaquille brewster is live in new york city where joe biden is at a teacher union day event and josh letterman is live in indianola, iowa, where elizabeth warren is holding a town hall later today. shaq, first to you. what is the former vice president saying today? >> reporter: well, he's promising his support for both teachers and unions. this was a very friendly crowd that vice president biden was speaking to.

he actually just left the stage. you see the room starting to clear out a little bit. of course, he was speaking to his support to both teachers and unions. his wife, dr. jill biden, is also a teacher. he had a lot of ant he can dotes about being in the home and the focus on teachers and education from the household and he also talked about his support for the union. i want to toss to this quick bite from vice president biden because he also expressed support for chicago teachers. they're currently striking right now. listen to what he said about that strike right now. >> no educator wants to go on strike. that's the last thing you want to do. teachers striking in chicago right now. you know, everyone would much rather be in the classroom, for real. for real. [ applause ] you wonder while they're not there, what's happening to that child? >> reporter: and vice president biden talked about his time in law school being a substitute

teacher. he really got personal in the speech. you could tell the crowd accepted what he had to say. i will say vice president biden, you mentioned the polling average, he's building the lead that he lost at one point, he's building that right back up. we're seeing a shift somewhat in his campaigning style. this week he'll be going to iowa and south carolina, a stop in north carolina. he's breaking away from more events like these, the cattle call events and do more retail political events having interactions with the voters. we'll see what that does to his polling and stance in this race. back to you. >> two hours from now, elizabeth warren will be holding her first of two town halls in iowa today. nbc's josh letterman is live in indianola. josh, what can we expect there? >> reporter: well, elizabeth warren fresh off her debate as new front-runner in the race, one of two front-runners alongside joe biden. trying to show in indianola when

it comes to ground game and strength on the ground, she owns iowa. it is true when it comes to operation size, she does have one of the strongest operations alongside pete buttigieg. we have fresh numbers just today from the elizabeth warren campaign on that. in addition to the 19 offices she has across iowa, elizabeth warren now has more than 100 staffers on the ground here in iowa. with that new-found front-runner status comes a new target on her back from her rivals. we saw in the debate those questions about how she's going to pay for her health care plan. that's been continuing. as you showed in those clips a few minutes ago, both pete buttigieg and amy klobuchar taking swipes at elizabeth warren today. when elizabeth warren speaks in a couple of hours at simpson college, you can see the folks lining up behind me, we expect she may get fresh questions about that from voters on the ground here in iowa. >> our thanks to josh and shaq, two of our most intrepid road warriors on the campaign trail. thanks, guys.

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new today the white house again defending the president's decision to withdrawal troops from northern syria. the defense secretary announced those troops will not be returning home as the president promised. instead, the troops will go to

iraq. here is the acting chief of staff. >> eventually, i think -- >> eventually? >> the quickest way to get them out of danger was to get them into iraq. it's nonsense about how the president supposedly green lighted this invasion. nothing could be further from the truth. >> let's discuss with one of the house democrats with national security experience, who also supports the impeachment inquiry. congressman nettles, a democrat, a member of the navy and armed services committee. thank you for joining me. is mick mulvaney right when he says the safest way to withdrawal troops from syria is to deploy them to iraq? >> this just shows how out of touch the president is with his own administration. you have to wonder if he really knows what's going on. he's telling us he's taking the troops out of syria to bring them back home but the plan all along was to put them into iraq. that was something that the secretary of defense, the acting secretary of defense, discussed with us today -- i'm sorry,

earlier this week at the house armed services committee, about how those troops weren't really going home. they were going to iraq. >> well, what's your reaction to mulvaney's claim that the president didn't really give the green light to turkey to invade syria? >> well, i think you can see on a bipartisan basis that everybody is upset with the administration's position on this. pretty much by removing those troops from the border, from the syrian/turkish border, he pretty much green light the turkey army to come into syria and really set forth this whole process that just made syria a lot more volatile than it already had been. our u.s. troops there, were there protecting, keeping some stability there in this horrible situation going on there, the fighting between the sdf, the syrian forces, and right now by

removing those troops out of there, it's put it into a more volatile situation. turkey now has an established buffer there, a 20-mile buffer we pretty much gave them. okay, you're fine to have. turkey has said they have gotten everything out they wanted out of the situation to supposedly cease-fire the vice president and secretary of state went over there to negotiate. russia and assad syrian forces have moved over into the sdf occupied territory. so the russians and syrians got what they wanted. the only people that are dissatisfied are the kurdish forces that were our allies we were fighting with to defeat isis. they are the only ones put in a situation where, you know, i feel that eventually the assad and syrian forces with the backing of russia are going to turn on them eventually. and go after them. i wa >> i want to play for you something secretary of state mike pompeo said this morning

pointing to the cease-fire deal the administration reached with turkey, which both sides in the conflict have accused each other of violating. >> can you assure the kurdish people and the president's allies in congress that you will not be party to ethnic cleansing? >> in that turkish-controlled space there wouldn't be attacks on minorities, this was about getting a cease-fire, a secure area and that this, in fact, will save lives. >> congressman, are you satisfied with that response? what can you do about it in congress? >> no, i'm not satisfied at all with that response. we know the turks don't want the kurds on the turkish border there. they wanted to remove them from the part that was their land, where they have been living. they moved them out of this area. the kurds are not happy about that. they had to turn to our enemies, you know, the russians, the iranians, and the assad-backed syrian forces and now we're in a situation where they have moved into the former sdf-occupied

territory. now if there's going to be any ethnic cleansing, the turks don't need to do it. now they have the assad forces that are going to be able to go after the kurds and wipe them out with the backing of russia and iran. this has created a more volatile situation. it really is not the -- what america -- it's not what i would have done. when i was serving in the united states navy, we worked with our allies, we supported our allies. we didn't turn our backs on them. we didn't stap them in the back as kurds are saying we did. . created a more volatile situation. the president created this situation and now he's trying to claim victory by saying he solved it. you can't claim victory by trying to end something you went out there and did. >> california congressman cisneros. thank you for your time today, sir. >> thank you very much. more now on breaking news from syria. new video showing u.s. troops today leaving a kurdish-held town hours after defense

secretary esper said u.s. forces are redeploying to iraq to battle isis. the cease-fire ends in 48 hours. richard engel spoke to the top kurdish commander about what comes next. richard? >> reporter: well, the commander told me he fully expects the violence is going to resume because the kurdish forces here, led by the commander i spoke to and the turkish government, which brokered a deal with the united states, don't agree on the terms. they're talking about two different things. turkey says unless the kurds pull out of a very large area, they're going to restart the violence. but the kurdish commander says it's a much smaller area he's talking about so they're set up to resume a collision course. while this is happening, there is ethnic cleansing under way. that is a very, very big word but the only word we are hearing right now. already a quarter of a million people have been forced to leave their homes and the kurdish

commander thinks once the turks restart this offensive, the rest of them are going to be forced out. as u.s. troops here in northern syria prepare to leave this area, apparently heading now to western iraq, they will continue to have one mission. president trump said, time and time again that he defeated isis, that he completely destroyed isis. well, the new mission now, as these troops leave here and go to iraq is to continue the fight against isis. so, apparently they weren't as defeated as the president always says they were. >> richard, thank you. the perils of president trump's so-called season of weakness, next. akness, next

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you've again said a few seconds ago that i said there was a quid pro quo. never used that language because there is not a quid pro quo. >> you were asked by jonathan carl, was there a quid pro quo and you said, it happens all the time. >> my language never said quid pro quo. i never said there was a quid pro quo because there isn't. >> acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney trying to

clean up his comments from that explosive briefing on thursday. mulvaney now insisting he never said there was a quid pro quo on ukraine. joining me is msnbc contributor victoria de francesco-soto, bill press, host of the bill press pod and political columnist amy holmes, speechwriter for bill frist. what did you make of how mulvaney tried to navigate the contradiction in his own comments? >> ridiculous. lots of luck. the problem is, you just played it, we've got it on tape. i was not in the briefing room but i watched it on television. jonathan karl said, in other words, that was a quid pro quo? and mulvaney said, yeah, get over it because we do it all the time. he may not have lipped the words, quid pro quo, but he clearly said it was a quid pro quo. i just think maybe this title, acting chief of staff, may soon be changed to ex or former chief

of staff. he let the cat out of the bag. i think the people are conducting the impeachment inquiry, they can close the books right now. mulvaney just admitted everything. >> here's another reminder. we'll take a quick look back on what mulvaney actually said in that broiefing room and then i'l get your pb on the other side. >> he also mentioned to me in the past the corruption that related to the dnc server, absolutely, no question about that. but that's it. that's why we held up the money. >> let's be clear. what you just described it a quid pro quo, funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happen as well? >> we do -- we do that all the time with foreign policy. >> amy, is the white house hoping this will all just get lost in translation with all these attempts to walk back the remarks? >> let's face it. let's get down to brass tacks. mr. mulvaney stepped in it. he knows it. the white house knows it.

and everyone listening heard it. the basic fact from reporting, the president does not want a war room. he does not want a coordinated strategy. he wants to be in charge himself, shoot from the hip, tweet, make public statements without consulting with republicans on capitol hill or even his own staff. so, it's really not so surprising that all these wires get crossed because donald trump isn't trying to keep them straight. >> it was odd mulvaney would step out on his own, as it was, and this is the result. victoria, how do you think this is going to play with voters, particularly with trump supporters? >> so, i know we've been talking about how this has been a terrible week for president trump. he seems weak, self-inflicted wounds from syria to mick mulvaney. i'm going to do something a little different and give a dispatch from trump country, from red texas, where president trump just had a rally here a couple of days ago to a packed americanairlines arena.

20,000 people pulsating trump love. yes, all this chaos is going on, but there's still a very hard core support for president trump. his approval rating is pretty much the same. it's in the low 40s. i know that a majority of americans want him impeached but there's still that strong 40-plus of supporters of trump. and i think in a way maybe this chaos helps distract from the impeachment process. i think what i want the viewers to come away with is, while there's all this drama in, you know, the east coast, the corridor, the beltway, out in trump country there's still a lot of love and support and he knows that and he draws from it. >> the state of support juxtaposed with this washington post new article with the headline that says, trump's season of weakness, a president who prizes strength stretches key state.

criticism from republicans, polls that are flashing warning signs for him and much more. so do you think that president trump is at the weakest point of his presidency right now or is it something -- does he still have the support from his base? >> well, look, no president wants to be in the cross-hairs of an impeachment inquiry that is probably going to lead to filing articles of impeachment and democrats in the house voting on those articles. that's not a position any president wants to be in. but i think it's interesting that the president announced earlier this week that the g-7 would be meeting at the trump doral resort and then just a few days later he changed course. he actually listened to his critics. i know my friend, bill press, is probably not going to want to give him credit for that. but unlike the caricature of donald trump being this tyrant who won't listen to anyone, we just saw last night actually on twitter from president trump that he's willing to make a

change. now, i would also add to that i'm sure a lot of republicans on capitol hill would like to know the magic formula to get that done. >> bill, what are the lessons here for what democrats should expect as they push forward with the impeachment inquiry and likely start lining up witnesses for public testimony? >> i just think every day donald trump is giving them more ammunition for articles of impeachment. not only the phone call, not only the quid pro quo but the obstruction of justice. but i think the lesson here is a lesson not so much for democrats as it is for donald trump himself and for donald trump's supporters. i mean, if you read that article, if we just look at what we've seen in the last week or so, donald trump lost in the courts on his financial records, right? he had only one senator, ron paul, who agreed with him on syria, mitch mcconnell wrote an op-ed saying this was a bad decision. he had to redo this -- his decision on the doral because he got so much criticism. the vote in the house of

representatives was 354-60 against donald trump with 129 republicans voting against him. so, i think the lesson here is that he -- he's not at his strength right now. and the more he's perceived to be weak, the more republicans are going to be willing to break with him when it comes to a vote on articles of impeachment. that's the problem for donald trump. >> amy, we've been following the refusal of some republicans to defend president trump on doral and syria. how do you think they're processing what "the washington post" called season of weakness? what do you think it means for them? >> i think bill is right there are democrat -- i'm sorry, republicans who will see this as an opportunity to sort of step up and be more critical of the president. but these are the republicans who have always had this position. mitt romney, ben sasse. ben sasse during the 2016 elections said he'd rather go to a dumpster fire than president trump rally. and president trump won in 2016.

i think for a lot of republican voters, particularly trump supporters, these are the same characters, the same faces from the republican party who are critical of the president that they don't necessarily respect their assessment of the president. >> victoria, we just saw a major cave by president trump about hosting the g-7 at his resort, doral. he added to a sense this season could translate into new tubts for democrats. do you think the democrats are doing enough to leverage this moment? >> look, i think we need to look at the bigger time horizon. we are 13 months away from the election. that is an eternity. so much can happen. so, to say the president is at this weakest moment, look at the doral issue, look at syria, yes, this is not good for the president. for right now there's a long time until november of 2020. i think that can easily be turned around. i think we also need to view impeachment separately from the

election. so let's say the impeachment -- articles of impeachment are invoked. it's probably going to get acquitted in the senate. we still have another nine months of campaign. for me the bottom line is, there's a ton of time. even though this is the weak point, he may have lost the battle but there's still a war to forge for a another couple of months. >> he'll take full advantage of our very short attention spans, in other words. >> his issues could be in the rearview mirror very quickly. >> bill, final word. >> yes, i think what we're seeing is the emperor wears no clothes with donald trump. he talkses tough and everything, but where is the repeal of obamacare? where is the damn wall? where's the infrastructure? i mean, what has he accomplished? yeah, he can get 20,000 people in an arena. bernie sanders got 26,000 yesterday in new york. so, so what? what has he accomplished? nada. >> thank you all for joining me today. appreciate it. how to boost voter turnout in the black community?

the answer, focus on the issues. nbc reporter janelle ross explains next. ♪ a wealth of information. a wealth of perspective. ♪ a wealth of opportunities. that's the clarity you get from fidelity wealth management. 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. ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we need someone to lean on ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we needed somebody to lean on ♪ ♪ ♪

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why did you say in that briefing that president trump had ordered a quid pro quo -- >> that's not what i said. that's what people said i said. >> you said, that happens all the time. >> and reporters will use their language all the time, so if my language never said quid pro quo. >> the evidence and testimony being collected by congress is

also establishing the president is meeting with president zelensky was mur sunt on him meeting those political investigations? were you aware of that? did you approve? >> i haven't seen the evidence you assert is being accumulated. i wish there could. >> is there enough evidence for you as a jurors to vote to impeach? >> the president extorted zelensky. >> did the united states betray the kurdses? >> i think we have abandoned our syrian/kurdish partners. this is a very sudden exit. and this does not end in endless war. >> you don't wait until after withdrawing the troops to make a plan to go pressure turkey to ease up and then call for a cease-fire. >> but if you don't like a deal president trump cut, what are you going to do? >> make a better deal. >> president trump. >> no, what president trump does is wake up in the morning, have a phone call or maybe a tweet and completely change years or even decades of u.s. policy. >> some of the headlines facing the trump white house as the race for 2020 heats up.

and the race to reach a crucial democratic voting bloc is becoming more critical, boosting the participation of black voters. it's critical for anyone that wants to make it to the white house. nbc news is highlighting a profound way to mobilize african-americans. joining me now to discuss this is janelle ross, she wrote about it for nbc blk. thank you for joining me. you follow the black voters matter fund. tell me about that. what's different about it? what's significant about it? >> i think there are a number of organizations working specifically on mobilizing black voters. what's interesting about this group and its approach is that it literally makes use of, i think, something many people often think of as sort of a political darkgar, inserting certain issues into races. this particular group is after, going around the country to key states, michigan being one example where i followed them. what they're trying to do is both re-engage people in the democratic process, essentially

restore people's faith their participation matters at all and then secondarily, really make it clear to individual candidates that you have to take a specific decision, in effect, make a commitment of sorts in order to secure those votes. the sort of traditional go to some key places and some cookouts and health fairs and ask people for their vote, ask people to register, is not going to be sufficient. >> it's not going to be enough. i want to read something you wrote for nbc news here. quote, black citizens' concerns are often ignored and treated like the fallout of character flaws rather than policy failures. what did you mean by that? >> i think in particular, i spent some time with this organization in a couple of cities in michigan. one city, pontiac and nearby flint, which many people are familiar with flint. and i think some of its most obvious challenges. i think even on the ground in flint you see some of this reflected, this sort of pattern.

obviously, this is a city that effectively had a -- you know, it's water became a major problem. nevertheless, it still is a major problem. nevertheless, and as a result, at least by some people's thinking, you have almost three-quarters of students who are no longer testing proficient in reading in this city. and you have some of the same ordinary conversations that happen around test scores and student performance as if there wasn't something that happened in that city that gets at, frankly, why so many students might be not performing well. and along those lines there are people in this town that are passionate about this issue, working on this issue. i met a woman who was a former school teacher who has put together a group of school teachers who have created effectively tutoring programs across the city to try to work

with kids, but if there were a -- like a recognition that this is a large and structural problem, a program like that might need and merit some kind of public support, public dollars, as opposed to the volunteer effort of a group of 20 former school teachers. >> what kind of job do you think the democrats running for president are doing reaching out to black voters? >> i think -- you know, obviously, each of the campaigns would say they are certainly committed to reaching out. >> of course. >> of courting those votes, they would say. i think in terms of making very specific policy commitments, we have seen, certainly, i think this cycle, julian castro was early out of the gate with some programs regarding policing and police reform. i think that each of the candidates can point to some very specific sort of policy commitments they've made. now, that being said, whether we've gotten to the point of those issues are regarded as central to the campaign, whether those are things raised on the

debate stage and discussed in any detail, i don't think we've seen that yet. >> what do you think the biggest issue, if you could identify one to the black voter? i know there are so many, but is there one we can identify as being the critical issue here? >> it's hard to say there's one critical issue, but i think one thing that might be on a lot of people's minds at this moment is police accountability. obviously, anyone who's been paying attention to the headlines in the last week can understand why. but what is, perhaps, more noteworthy is the sense that progress that had been made in the justice department or its efforts to oversee police departments and, perhaps, serve as some sort of check on what was happening in local communities, that the justice department has stepped away from that kind of work, that it was a conscious decision made. i think there are a lot of people looking for specific commitments from candidates about what, if anything, they would want to do to reverse that process. >> i appreciate the conversation. >> thank you. coming up, it is a hug from

a hero that may have prevented a real tragedy. that's next.

as the impeachment inquiry

intensifies, here are the numbers to know. 53. that's the number of hours of closed door testimony from six witnesses, seven more to come next week. as of this morning, seven democrats still have yet to openly support the impeachment inquiry. in a new poll, 54% of americans support the inquiry. 40.7%, that is president trump . that's down two points from last quarter. to a hug from a hero who prevented tragedy. video shows him stopping a high school student carrying a firearm. nbc's sam brock brings us this remarkable story. >> reporter: the ingreed entdiee a recipe for disaster. >> possibly an active shooter. >> reporter: this story doesn't end in tragedy. it ends with a heartfelt hug. >> obviously, he broke down. i wanted to let him know i was there for him.

>> reporter: in may, this 18-year-old brought a shotgun to his high school, concealed under a garment bag. minutes later, the sports coach, also a security guard, went to check on him, not knowing he was armed. >> in a fraction of second, i analyzed fast. i saw the look in his eyes, looked at the gun. >> reporter: the student tried to discharge the weapon on himself before lowe wrestled it away, handing it to a teacher and this hug that seemed to go on for minutes. the boy tightening his arms and the coach, his resolve. public reaction to this gesture pouring in. what a compassionate hero. this coach has courage. in another tweet, kindness speaks volumes. he reached a plea agreement with no time behind bars but mandatory mental health treatment. as for the coach who saved the day? he played wide receiver in college, a position known for quick moves and strong instin s

instincts. on this day he summoned both to save a life. >> i told him i was there to save him. i was there for a reason. that this is a life worth living. >> that was nbc's sam brock. probation for that student will include mental health and substance abuse treatment. that does it for me. still ahead, reversing course and why president trump abruptly dropped his plan to hold next year's guilt d 7 s7 s his south florida resort. 7 summ his south florida resort one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good! frustrated that everyday activities cause wrinkles and there's nothing you can do about it? now there's a solution! downy wrinkleguard is a fabric conditioner that helps protect you from wrinkles all day. just pour the dye free liquid into the rinse dispenser.

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welcome. it's one of those mornings. we are watching a ton of news. >> new developments in the fallout around the big departure from the white house. >> do you think we would tolerate this if this was children coming from canada or from eastern europe? >> i think things will be very different. >> how do democrats navigate the