for our former president and it worked out for him. here in the u.s. tonight that's our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquaters in new york. c news headquaters in new york. now a criminal investigation, attorney general bill barr probe into the origins of the trump/russia investigation has taken a new turn. >> plus thousands turn out to pay their respects for long-time congressman elijah cummings, the first african-american lawmaker in history to lie in state in the capitol. today his funeral will take place in west baltimore. >> wildfires rage across the state of california. tens of thousands of people have had to evacuate their homes, as high winds fan the flames in northern and southern part of the state.

good morning, everybody. it is friday, october 25th. i'm yasmin vossoughian. ayman mohyeldin has the day off. we begin with this. nbc news has confirmed that an investigation into the origins of the russia probe closely overseen by attorney general bill barr has changed from an administrative review into a criminal investigation. the news was first reported by "the new york times," the review is being conducted by connecticut u.s. attorney john durham. according to the times, this move gives durham the power to subpoena witness testimony and documents, convene a grand jury, and to file criminal charges. as the times note, the opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that president trump is using the justice department to go after his perceived enemies. at this point, it is not clear what potential crime durham is investigating, and a d.o.j. spokesperson declined to comment on this. federal investigators need only a quote reasonable indication that a crime has been committed to open an investigation, a much

lower standard than the probable cause required to obtain search warrants. however, quote, there must be an objective factual basis for initiating the investigation. a mere hunch is insufficient, according to the d.o.j. guidelines. the administrative review of the russia probe began back in may after attorney general barr said he had conversations that led him to believe that the fbi had acted improperly. it is not clear when the change to a criminal investigation actually occurred. house intel committee chair adam schiff and jerry nadler responded with a joint statement, in part this, these reports if true raise profound new concerns that the department of justice under attorney general bill barr has lost its independence and become a vehicle for president trump's political revenge. i want to talk more about this, joining me on the set, mbss in legal analyst danny cevallos. talk to us about the legal implications of all of this, escalating the inquiry from an

administrative review to a criminal investigation. >> what happens when the investigators have to investigate the investigators themselves. and that's what is happening in this situation. on the one hand, this could be viewed as just a move to increase the investigative power, to issue subpoenas, to obtain documents, and even convene grand juries. but on the other hand, as you just said, in order to transfer this into a criminal investigation, there needs to be some indication of criminal wrong doing. at this point, we have no idea who that may be, or what that may be, yet we can guess, but this may be leading towards criminal grand jury indictments sometime in the future. >> is it incumbent upon the attorney general to reveal the reasons as to why it has escalated to a criminal investigation? >> not necessarily. as somebody who has dealt with the department of justice, they will not reveal the goals, the

missions of an investigation, normally until they have to. sometimes you only find out that an investigation is concluded when you have an indictment and then even then there may be a superseding indictment because the investigation continues. >> but what about the criticisms that we are hearing, at least from "the new york times" and people like adam schiff which i just read which is the attorney general is now working as basically the president's personal attorney versus working as an independent counsel as the attorney general? >> that may be, and again, it is interesting that you bring that up, because among the heads of agencies, the attorney general of the united states is unique in that as an attorney, he's expected to exercise independent judgment, to operate independently of the president. where as it could be said that some other heads of agencies are a little more subservient to the president than the attorney general is supposed to be. so given that the attorney general is supposed to be specially independent, this is something that is going to raise a lot of concern. look, this criminal

investigation may be of some high level decisions that were made. on the other hand, it may not be. so we shouldn't jump to conclusions yet. >> there was a lot of work done by intelligence officials, involved in the russia investigation. could this put them in a vulnerable position in the investigation, officials from the cia, officials from the fbi, if they're found to have committed wrongdoings? >> it is possible, but what i see, the direction that i see this going, is that even if there was some wrongdoing, you're going to see a lot of, i was ordered to do it, or i was following the directives of somebody above me. that's where i predict we're going to see a lot of this investigation going. and where you may see some defenses going, if, and that's a big if, there are ever any indictments or other criminal responsibilities alleged. >> danny cevallos, thank you very much. appreciate it. president trump has continued his attacks on the whistle-blower whose complaints sparked the house impeachment inquiry. in a tweet last night, trump

questioned the whistle-blower's credibility. and asked why the inspector general would allow this to happen, calling it a quote giant scam. a letter obtained by nbc news by michael horowitz and other inspectors general, across the government, repudiates the opinion by the d.o.j.'s office of legal counsel. which said that the whistle-blower's complaint did not have to be turned over to the intelligence committees, because it was not a quote urgent concern as defined by law. in the letter backing the argument made by congressional democrats, the justice department had no right to substitute its judgment for that of the inspector general of the intelligence community, in order that the complaint be withheld. the ig's write, quote, this, the opinion could seriously impair whistle-blowering and deter individuals in the intelligence community and throughout the government from reporting government waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct. and the latest salvo against news coverage, president trump deems unfair, the white house plans to instruct federal

agencies to not renew their subscriptions to "the new york times" and the "washington post" publication, the president regularly berates. white house secretary stephanie grisham said in a statement this, not reviewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost savings. hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be saved. but as many "washington post" reporters pointed out on twitter, the post offers a free digital subscription to anyone with a dot gov or dot el email address and president trump said he would take the action on monday, saying he has received the worst media coverage besides abraham lincoln. >> they gave pulitzer prizes to people that got it wrong. okay? all these people, from "the new york times", which is a fake newspaper. we don't even want it in the white house anymore. we will probably terminate that, and the "washington post," they're fake. so when i won, they actually apologized to their subscribers, because they were losing

thousands and thousands of subscribers. "the new york times" wrote an apology. nothing else. you know, they are saying well it wasn't really an apology. it was. because they covered me so badly. and what i said, sort of interesting, i think, i hope, i said i hope, the good news i will be covered fairly again and you know what happened, i got covered worse. i got cored worse. but that's okay. who was covered worse than me, they say, abraham lincoln. i've heard the one person, he used to be five or six, and now down to one, honest abe lincoln. they say they he got the worst press of anybody and i say i dispute it. >> a white house official told the officials that the print newspapers were not delivered to the white house yesterday. and dozens gathered at the capitol to honor elijah coupling, the first african-american lawmaker in history to lie in state in the capitol. members of congress from both sides of the aisle said their goodbyes during a memorial service yesterday, ahead of a funeral service to be held later

this morning. >> elijah was truly a master of the house. he respected its history, and in it, he helped shape america's future. >> he also had a passion for justice. justice for those who were underserved, justice for those who were undercut. and justice for those who are underestimated. >> for me, i was privileged enough to be able to call him a dear friend. some had classified it as an unexpected friendship. but for those of us that know elijah, it's not unexpected or surprising. he's defined by the character of his heart, the honesty of his dialogue, and the man that, the man that we will miss. >> his casket rested in the

national statutory hall for the service and was directly in front of the house chamg ber where he served for 23 years. >> former president es barack obama and bill clinton along with former secretary of state hillary clinton, and house speaker nancy pelosi are among those who will speak at his funeral this morning in baltimore. joining me now, reporter for the "washington post," eugene scott, eugene despite the deep divisions in washington right now, with all that is going on, there was an overwhelming amount of support across the aisle, both republicans and democrats, as we just saw there, honoring the life of congressman cummings. talk us through that. >> indeed. representative cummings was known for his ability to lead other lawmakers in bipartisanship. you heard mark meadows speak. he had very positive interactions, to many people's surprises, with trey gowdy, something the former lawmaker actually wrote about in the

"washington post." and this is in part because many of the issues he championed most, he recognized that constituents in his urban baltimore area had the same concerns and desire for governments to fix some of the problems that americans in rural more conservative areas valued. issues related to health care afford ability and concerns about housing, and even issues related to drugs and opioid epidemics and even police violence. these aren't always topics that people realize that people on the right and on the left pay attention to, and cummings was very aware of that and sought to work with people in congress who knew that. >> it is interesting, since the loss of senator john mccain i think there were many times where many of us said now is a time where senator john mccain's voice is needed and even in the last ten year, eugene scott, since we've lost, ten days, eugene scott, since we've lost

congressma cummings, the same continues, with congressman cummings' voice, having lost him. >> that is true, specifically when we look at this moment of impeachment, a terribly polarizing time, and people are having a very difficult time in congress finding common ground and an ability to even have a conversation where they agree on the facts and respect one another. so we see people looking to those elder states men and women who were able to find common ground when trying to pursue policy. and to many americans, the number of those individuals appears to be dwindling. >> he had a very sobering and honest voice. i want to switch gears here, while i do have you, what do you make of the inspector general's letter, slamming the department of justice's opinion that the whistle-blower's complaint was not a quote urgent concern? >> it reinforces the concern many people on the left and quite frankly some conservatives have had about the justice department, that it is not as

independent from the trump administration as we have expected this government agency to be in the past. very often, the perception is that bill barr joined the president's bidding, in places and in areas where he is expected to remain more objective. and this appears to be based on this letter one of latest examples of that. >> eugene scott, thank you. i will talk to you again in a little bit. stay close. still ahead, congressman tim ryan ends his 2020 presidential run. this, as we get new polling about the state of the race in iowa. >> plus, bill karins is here with a check on the fast-moving wildfires tearing across the state of california this morning. those stories and much, much more when we come back.

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wnba. congressman tim ryan is the latest 2020 democratic hopeful to drop out of the presidential race. in a video posted to twitter

yesterday, ryan said he entered this race to give a voice to the forgotten communities in america. >> i'm announcing today that i am withdrawing from the presidential campaign. after seven long months of hard work, i will be returning home to my family and friends and community in ohio to run for re-election for my congressional seat. i got into this race in april, to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country. the workers who have been left behind, the businesses who have been left behind, the people who need health care, or aren't getting a quality education, or saddled by tremendous debt. i wanted to give voice to the forgotten communities that have been left behind by globalization and automation. and i'm proud of this campaign, because i believe we've done that. we've given voice to the forgotten communities and the forgotten people in the united states. >> the ryan campaign had been having difficulty fundraising, only raising $425,000 in the last quarter.

ryan had also been polling at less than 1% throughout the year, and fail told qualify for the last two debates. we will hear much more from congressman ryan when he joins "morning joe" later on this morning. also, senator elizabeth warren continues to lead the democratic primary field in iowa, while south bend mayor pete buttigieg has now surged to second place according to a new iowa state university civics poll. warren is in first place, at 28%, up four points while buttigieg is at 20% has seen a seven point jump since last month. bernie sanders at 18 and vormer vice president joe biden develop to 12% sliding from second place to fourth in the first in the nation caucus state. let's switch gears here to get a check of the weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. fires raging. >> fires, tropical depression in the gulf, a snowstorm in north texas, and active weather as we head into the weekend. and obviously the situation in california, it was ugly with the

winds and we started the morning with the northern portion in the wine country and last night we had the fires and look at this one. this is the tick tock fire, just outside of l.a. in the mountainous areas, this is right behind this neighborhood. they did a significant air drop on this with a ton of water and they were able to save most of these homes that you're looking at here but they did have to get 40,000 people evacuated early. this is the aerial view and this is what it is like doing an air drop as a pilot doing an air drop, and really low on the mountain top and try to time the winds with all your water. pretty brave people and the firefighters, and everyone with the efforts to save homes. we lost 21 homes in geyserville in the wine country with the big blaze yesterday morning. we will do it again today. the winds died off a little bit yesterday. and now they're starting to pick back up. we have extreme fire growth potential in areas outside of san diego, and the mountains, and critical fire conditions outside the mountainous areas

near santa clarita and also los angeles. so today will be very windy. tomorrow, we get a break. and then we do it all over again on sunday in northern california. already a high wind watch in effect. six million people. here is what, with the big headline, pg&e already put out a potential pre-emptive power outage map, and someone took that map and estimated the population potentially to be 2.8 million people play have pre-emptively lost power because of the big windstorm on sunday. it is a way of life now in california. this very to plan around these events. just mind boggling. so we will update you on that obviously as we go through the upcoming weekend. i mentioned the thing in the gulf, you can notice this area of low pressure here combining with the storm over texas, we have a heavy rain event, already under way in los angeles, and mississippi, and we have flash flood watches, up from new orleans, heading that areas of northern mississippi, now, and three to six inches is possible, with this heavy rain event, and then we are going to take this

rain on saturday, bring it up into the ohio valley, and then sunday, all that rain goes into the northeast, not concerned so much with flooding but if you have outdoor plans, there is a chance it is a rain-out in the ohio valley, and then sunday, a potential for a rainout in areas, especially areas north of philadelphia, and new york city, and all the way through northern new england, so today is not that bad, in areas to the northeast, and the gulf coast gets the rain and we will keep an eye on california. >> thank you, bill. still ahead president trump says he plans to attend game five of the world series, at national park. but he is hesitant about throwing out that ceremonial first pitch. i wonder why. plus, why the houston astros have fired a team executive ahead of tonight's game three. we're back in a moment. you just saved a bunch of money by switching your boat insurance to geico. it was easy. folks, can it get any better than this? is that what i think it is? that is an armada of tiny sushi boats. awesome!

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welcome back. after awarding racing legend roger pence with a medal of freedom yesterday, president trump told reporters he plans to attend game five of the world series in the nation's capital on sunday night. that is if the washington nationals and the houston astros are actually still playing. >> going to the world series, mr. president? >> going to the world series? >> on sunday. >> throwing out the first pitch? >> i don't know. they have to dress me up in a lot of heavy armor. i look to heavy. i like that. >> according to the "washington post," the nationals later said that trump will not be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch,

the nationals are ahead two games to none in the best of seven series. and if they win tonight, the nats could wrap it up on saturday with another win. and assistant general manager was fired for yelling at a group of protests, at a world series berth was clinched. in an article for sports illustrated, the reporter says thank god we got osuna after some expletives after the astros clinched the american league championship against the new york yankees. the pitcher was suspended for 75 games last year, for violating major league baseball's domestic violence policy before being traded to the astros. the astros had initially believed the remarks were not directed towards any reporter and defended talkman, but yesterday, the team released a statement, saying that after conducting interviews, it had

substantiated the claims writing quote, this, we were wrong. we sincerely apologize to stephanie apstein, sports illustrated and to all individuals who witnessed this incident or were offended by the inappropriate conduct. the astros in no way intended to minimize the issues related to domestic violence. nbc news reached out to talkman after he was fired for comment but did not hear back. still ahead, senator lindsey graham lashes out at the impeachment inquiry. and touts a new resolution to condemn house democrats investigation. plus in a stunning reversal of the president's decision to withdraw troops from northern syria, the pentagon is now planning to send tanks and armored vehicles to the war-torn area. those stories and more coming up. area those stories and more coming up ♪ [phone ringing] how are we doing? fabulous. ♪ i wonder how the firm's doing without its fearless leader. ♪ you sure you want to leave that all behind? yeah. stay restless, with the icon that does the same.

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welcome back. i'm yasmin vossoughian. it's the bottom of the hour. let's starts with the morning's top stories. senator lindsey graham has introduced a resolution backed by 46 republicans slamming house democrats' impeachment inquiry. the five-page measure co-sponsored by majority leader mitch mcconnell accuses democrats of violating due process for interviewing key witnesses behind closed doors. according to a summary released by graham's office, the resolution calls on the house to hold a floor vote that would formal formally initiate the impeachment inquiry as well as provide trump with quote due process to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the accusations being made

against him. it also requests that republicans be able to quote participate fully in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas. here's what graham had to say about the measure just yesterday. >> we have president trump, give president trump these rights that every other president has had and be on record authorizing this. this is a rogue action by a single committee of the house, that has never done impeachment inquiries before. and i think it's dangerous to the presidency. >> >> if the senate had tried to interfere with the house impeachment process in the '90s, how would you have reacted? >> i think we were doing this you would have beat the bleep out of us. >> and senator collins and murkowski and mitt romney. in the latest survey monkey out this morning, american voters are divided over the president's

impeachment and voters are split 49 to 49 whether trump should be impeached and removed from office. broken down by party, a majority of democrat, 89% say trump should be impeached and removed from office. the number is 53% among independents. and 9% of republicans agree with that. and secretary of state mike pompeo deflected a host of questions including on ukraine, and on syria that were slung at him during an interview in his home state of kansas yesterday. >> bill taylor told congress this week that he sent information on august 9 and his misgivings of ukraine. >> i'm not going to talk about that. >> did you relay his concerns to the president? >> i came here today to talk about work force development and the good things going on here in kansas. >> what good is the word of the

u.s. in the light of the presence of the kurds and undercut responsibility? >> the whole predicate of your question is the same. i will give you a good example. the word of the united states is much more respected today than it was just two and a half years ago. >> so pompeo's heightened presence in kansas this time, on a visit with senior adviser ivanka trump comes amid speculation he will run for an open senate seat there in 2020. so turning to syria now, multiple defense officials telling nbc news that u.s. forces have been ordered to prepare to provide security for oil fields in the eastern part of the country to keep them from falling into the hans of isis. the pentagon says the u.s. will reinforce the area with quote additional military assets and a defense official tells nbc news it may include more troops and battle tanks a senior official telling nbc news that president donald trump was briefed by top officials on the importance of securing the oil fields so they can't be seized and used to fund isis terrorist activities.

according to the commander of the formally u.s.-backed syrian democratic forces, turkey and its affiliates continue to quote launch attacks along parts of the border region. the syrian observatory for human rights also reports that the turkish-backed militia's advance has continued. nbc news cannot independently verify that hostilities have resumed but turkey's erdogan told officials just yesterday that the offensive will continue against the kurds if they don't withdraw from the safe zone, adding, quote, it is our national, natural right to crush them. according reuters. on on wednesday, president trump said the cease fire would be permanent and announced the lifting of economic sanctions on turkey. and vice president mike pence spoke about the situation in syria yesterday. >> turkey's ministry of defense confirmed a permanent cease fire and a halt of all offensive military operations. our troops are coming home. it is progress indeed.

>> in addition to that cease fire, appearing not to hold, defense secretary mark esper has publicly said multiple times that the troops pulled from syria are not heading to the united states. but are instead currently going to neighboring iraq. after that, they still aren't heading home. according to a statement released by the iraqi prime minister's office after meeting with esper this week, those troops in question will leave iraq quote within four weeks, and then head to kuwait or qatar. let's talk about some of this stuff. joining me reporter for the "washington post" eugene scott. i want to talk about this gop resolution condemning house democrats impeachment inquiry led by lindsey graham. are you surprised here by the republican support considering president trump has slammed them for their response to the inquiry, up until just yesterday? >> well, not really. i mean the president's words and his behavior were meant to

attract support from republican lawmakers, to remind them that not only is he on the ballot, but they are as well, and that if they do not back him, to the degree that the republican voters are, that they could lose office, each if he does not. even if he does not. so to see graham rally the troops perhaps and go public with essentially who is on the president's side, revealing who perhaps may not be as well, seems to be right in line with what the president was hoping would come from his words after he scolded republicans. >> is this resolution likely to gain actual traction? or is this more of a pr stunt on behalf of graham, saying, look, we support the president no matter what? >> i think it's meant to communicate to the president that republican lawmakers do see things the way that he does, when it comes to the political motivations of the democrats, regarding impeachment, and

perhaps challenging him to back up off of them, as he has been doing, you know, these past few days, and refocus on targeting democrats, and hopefully, develop some type of united front that will keep them inasmuch power as they currently have with the goal of ultimately winning the next election. >> talk to me about some of the reporting that you heard with regards to when in fact this impeachment inquiry and the testimonies will be made public. from what i'm hearing, it is going to be sometime in november, in the next couple of weeks or so. >> it is certainly the hope. folks i've talked to on the hill are hoping to make some progress on this matter before the holidays get going. there's been talk, repeatedly, about not wanting this to drag too far into to 2020, people on both sides especially obviously the right want this be to be over well before the election and so that people running to replace trump don't have to constantly revisit this issue and therefore to communicate what what they believe would be

best for the american people regarding their policies and their vision for their own administration. >> while i have you, i quickly want to touch on syria here, reports continuing to surface that fighting has been resumed. we have not been able to independently verify that. are the lifted sanctions, against turkey, our nato ally, by the president now under more scrutiny than ever? >> it certainly appears that way. i mean it has only been a matter of time, as people critical of the president, both on the right and the left, guessed, as they predicted, that turkey would behave in a way that was concerning to anyone with human rights concerns. if president trump gave them a green light. and of course, he says that it is not what he did. but it certainly appears to be that way. now that they don't have sanctions looming over their heads. and perhaps could make some actions that are even further concerning moving forward. >> eugene scott, great talking to you as always, thank you so much. white house press secretary

stephanie grisham defended the president's use of the word scum to describe those who work against him. watch this. >> the president yesterday called the never trumpers scum. does he regret that? >> no, no, he shouldn't. the people who are against him, and who have been against him, and working against him, since the day they took office, are just that, it is horrible, that people are working against a president who is delivering results for this country, and has been since day one. and the fact that people continue to try to negate anything that he's doing, and take away from the good work he's doing on behalf of the american people, they deserve strong language like that. >> as you will recall on wednesday, trump tweeted the never trumper republicans, though, on respirators, with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our country than the do nothing democrats. watch out for them. they are human scum. still ahead, the very latest in the dangerous wildfires burning across northern and southern california right now, and the entire town of geyserville was

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welcome back. wildfires are tearing across the state of california this morning, in northern los angeles county, around 40,000 people were forced to evacuate, after a brush fire broke out yesterday afternoon. the fire has destroyed several homes and structures. and in northern california, a fast-moving fire fueled by strong winds is burning through homes and vineyards in sonoma county. pacific gas and electric told regulators yesterday that a transmission power broke near the so-called kincaid fire right around the time that the blaze started. let's get a check now on your weather, with nbc meteorologist bill karins. and it seems as if especially areas of sonoma county cannot catch a break, and remember that raging fire from just a couple of years ago. and again. >> that area has had h-it rough.

there's valleys and there's mountains, and all of the vineyards. >> would he had this picture yesterday. there was a nbc photographer trying to get to the geyserville area to get to the fire, the fire jumped the highway and spread rapidly, and he actually had to stop, and turn around, i mean look at the trees, just the bases of them, just sitting there on fire. >> it's terrifying. that's terrifying to have to drive through something like that. i can't even imagine. >> the heat and, yes, and then living in it and knowing it is approaching your home. >> and 49 structures did burn yesterday from that fire, the kincaid fire, and 21 of them were homes. and yes, there's 21 families out there looking for a place to live. devastating. so as we head through the weekend, besides the fire threat today, and then on sunday, we're going to be watching this huge rain event, we could have some flash flooding issues, don't be surprised if we get a tropical depression formed during the day today amend the hurricane center tracks it, it will be short lived and merge with the area of

low pressure, over the storm over texas and spread this huge rain event, all the way through the eastern half of the country over the upcoming weekend. so for today, rain down along the gulf coast and as we head through the weekend, the rain spreads, the soaking rain into the ohio valley, tennessee valley, on saturday, and it is pretty much an all day rain for a few areas here, indianapolis included into that and memphis and then on sunday, it makes its way to the east coast, the heaviest rain will be really from washington, d.c., northward, more scattered showers and storms, further to the south, and for today, anyone traveling, airport impacts, memphis, nashville, in accordance, anyone driving on the roads of course, interstate 20 and 55 being the worst of it. and saturday's airport problems, cincinnati to st. louis, chicago, cleveland included and interstate 70 is one of the worst roads and if anyone has flights in and out of new york city come sunday afternoon, that would be a possibility of cancellations and significant delays. >> thank you, bill. appreciate it. still ahead, after ending the last quarter with less money than some of his top 2020 rival, joe biden opens the door for

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welcome back. former vice president joe biden's campaign has reversed position on accepting supporters from super pacs giving a green light to fundraising efforts and the biden campaign manager in a

statement kate menningfield defended the move saying biden says as president will push to remove private money from our federal elections including through a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united to quote end the era of unbridled spending by super pacs and added quote, until we have these badly needed reforms, we will see more than a billion in spending by trump and his allies to re-elect this corrupt president, and let's be clear, donald trump has decided that the general election has already begun. before launching his candidacy, biden had publicly said he would reject the support of any outside super pac tweeting in april quote this, i've said it before and i'll say it again, to speak to the middle class, we need to reject the super pac system. that's exactly what this campaign is doing. the former vice president in 2018 also claimed he was the person who told senator bernie sanders not to accept super pac money during the campaign. >> if you take a look at my position -- >> how do you see going forward.

>> my position is a hell of a lot closer to elizabeth warren and bernie sanders on some of the economic positions. i sat with bernie, i'm the guy who told him, you shouldn't accept any money from a super m a super pac because people can't trust you put how will a middle class guy if you accept money -- >> let's talk this. amazon saw a huge drop in their third quarter profit, down 26% from a year ago due to their heavy investment in same-day delivery. villa marx is joining us on this. many of us have benefited from the same-day delivery. what more can you tell us about this blow to the company? >> so what we saw was the share price tumble in response to these lower profits. of course the analysts that researched the company were expecting the profits to be better than they were, and they're not, shareholders sell. in terms of the costs rise tlrg

is abo rising, this is about investing in that last mile. you got the idea of spending more money on trucks, drivers, they hired 100,000 new part time and full-time workers in just the last three months, so their costs went sky high, even though the revenues, the overall money they're bringing in is higher, because of those higher costs their revenues were lower. they saw their shares close down around 7%, that's the equivalent of about $7 billion. poor guy. if it stays that way today, he will have to cede the title world's richest man to be bill gates. >> poor guy. let's talk about the mega mall, american dream finally opening up in new jersey. i believe that's where aman is spending his weekend, why he's not here today. including the world's biggest wave pool and the largest candy store, which i like the sound

of. what you tell us about this? >> it's got a nickelodeon theme parked for kids, ski hill, ice skating rink, but the retail stores won't open till march. and even if they do, don't follow ayman because there's a rule. going back to the 1600s where this mall is located even though they spent 17 years getting this off the ground, $5 billion, those retail stores will not be able to open on a sunday. >> i've always known that since i was a kid. going to the mall on a sunday and the doors are closed and can't get in. >> last town that has those laws in place. >> thank you. great seeing you. coming up, axios's jim will be here.

juliaansly joins us. plus, congressman tim ryan will be a guest on the heels of his announcement that he is dropping out of the 2020 race. "morning joe" is moments away. "morning joe" is moments away. a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair® pair with new retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® do your asthma symptoms ever hold you back? about 50% of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells.

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>> announcer: axios one big thing is sponsored by bp. welcome back. joining us frthis morning is ji and have. good morning to you. >> i'm good, how are you. >> let's talk about the one big thing today. >> michael lindh is about to pop a good scoop about the book coming out next month by the anonymous white house official who everybody has been talking about. in that book, he's going to -- the person who is anonymous is going to write about very specific meetings that they were in in the oval office with the president. they have extensive notes, they're going to put a lot of

the book in trump's mouth. one of the quotes that we have for the piece that we're about to put up is that the most damning things that you can report from inside the white house are the actual things that are coming from the president's mouth. and so this book -- this author by the way is going to do another interview between now and the release of the book. think there's lots of intrigue about who this person is, what they have to say. one last thing on the book, they're also saying others are likely to come forward. in part of the book there's going to be a big push to get others to join this author. >> i want to read a quote from the author. >> yeah. >> that we are hearing from for the first time. and this is what the author writes. i realize that writing this while the president is still in office is an extraordinary step. some will find it disloyal, but too many people have confused loyalty to man with loyalty to the country. the truth about the president must be spoken, not after americans have stood in the voting booth to consider whether to give him another term and not after he has departed office.

hopefully others will remedy the error of silence and choose to speak out. the author also teases that we will hear from trump directly. will this new account, jim, push other senior administration officials to speak out about what exactly is going on in the white house? >> no clue. like so far many have not. most have not. i will say next month is going to be the first month where people are. you're going to have not only this book, but you're going to start to have the impeachment hearings, some of them start to go public. and so you are going to start to hear from people in what the president calls the deep state. the people who worked at the cia, people who worked inside the white house, especially as it pertains to the president's dealings with ukraine. and so you are starting to hear from some. but i still think one of the most remarkable, dynamic presidency is how few people leave and speak out. how fearful people are about the

repercussions for their career or for just their dealings in republican politics if they do speak. >> all right. jim vandehei, thank you so much. we're going to be reading axios a.m. in just a bit. you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. go to the world series, mr. president? >> yes. >> you are going to the world series? >> on sunday. >> are you going to throw out the first pitch? >> i don't know. they've got to dress me up in a lot of heavy armor. i'll look too heavy. how about that? >> they said you'd be wearing a bullet proof vest. i didn't say to him what i felt like saying, which is, hey, man, i got throw the pitch. you know, you warp twear the bullet proof vest. i thought it was for me to accommodate the secret service. their job is to protect me and i need to make their job easier,

not harder so i put it on. [ cheers and applause ] >> president george w. bush 18 years ago during the world series a month and a half after 9/11 threw a dart down the middle. i'm willie geist, president trump as you heard attending the world series on sunday, if there is a game five, the nationals could end is before then. with us this morning, we have "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner, the author of the book a world in disarray richard haass, republican strategist and