silenced, and they're never heard from today. today was a small part in changing that, and it was an honor to work with those individuals and hear from some of the candidates. that does it for us, "the beat" live from philadelphia tonight. i'll be back tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. eastern. don't go anywhere. "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. crashing toward impeachment. let's play "hardball." >> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. tonight, two gate crashing steps toward the impeachment of donald trump. first, speaker nancy pelosi announced today that the house of representatives will hold its virs vote on impeachment. a vote that formalized the heightening inquiry that is now entering its second month. quote, we will bring a resolution to the flor. speaker pelosi wrote ing a letter that cub firmed the ongoing existing investigation

that is currently being conducted by our committees as part of this impeachment inquiry. though democrats say the resolution isn't needed under the constitution or the law to conduct an impeachment, its passive this thursday, that's when the vote will occur, undercuts the white house, which has been arguing that the inquiry is illegitimate without the approval of the full house and resolution. rebutting the white house, pelosi writes, the trump administration has made up this argument, apparently out of whole cloth, in order to justify its unprecedented cover-up. however, she notes, we are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the trump administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard dually authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the house of representatives. the impeachment inquiry resolution will be introduced tomorrow with a vote, as i said, by the full house on thursday. in the second step to expedite the impeachment, trump says they will forego lengthy fights to

enforce the subpoenas for evidence and testimony that the white house has been blocking. they will simply use the white house's refusal to honor them as evidence of obstruction of justice. it comes as former deputy national security adviser charles kupperman defied a subpoena and skipped his deposition today. his no show at the behest of the white house earned a strong rebuke from house intel chair adam schiff. >> i think we can infer from the white house opposition to doctor kupperman's testimony that they believe that his testimony would be incriminating of the president. we are not willing to allow the white house to engage us in a lengthy game of rope-a-dope in the courts. so we press forward. >> no more rope-a-dope. i'm joined by david cicilline who served on the house foreign affairs committee. shannon pettypiece, david jolly, former republican congressman from florida. i want to go to mr. cicilline. thank you, sir.

a couple steps. let's start with this, a resolution to conduct an impeachment inquiry, not necessary. why are we voting this thursday? >> so it's not a resolution to conduct the impeachment inquiry. judge howell has ruled we don't need to to that. this resolution will set forth the procedures for the next phase of the inquiry, which is a set of public hearings. it will set forth the procedures that will be followed by the committees in the public hearing part of this process. it will authorize the committees of jurisdiction to send referrals to the judiciary committee of work they have done. so it's really a procedure, setting forth the procedures for the public hearings so they can be done efficiently and with tremendous transparency, and it will acknowledge we're in the midst of an impeachment inquiry by implication, but this is really important because it's going to set forth the procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry, the public hearing process. >> if it ain't broke, you don't fix it, but you're doing it. will this stop the white house from having an excuse not to participate, not to respond to

requests? >> well, for sure, they have never had a legitimate excuse for doing it. after judge howell's decision where she said an impeachment inquiry doesn't require a formal vote, so you would hope by that moment he would realize this is not a good excuse. but look, the president has resisted efforts, our efforts to collect evidence and to get at the truth. he's tried to obstruct this investigation since the very beginning. we should not lose sight, we are investigating the president for reaching out to a foreign ally, asking them to interfere in an american presidential election to help him in his re-election. and holding up military assistance to that country as leverage. this is shocking behavior. and we intend to get to the bottom of it and hold the president accountable. >> thank you so much for being on tonight. david cicilline of rhode island. thank you, sir. >> welcome back, chris. >> thank you. shannon, this is great. i like two things about today. it is gate crashing. it knocks down two gates. one, it says okay, you guys have been fuddling around, saying we're not going to cooperate because you didn't pass a

resolution. we're going to pass a resolution. number two, it says no more court fights. you resist a subpoena, that's evidence of obstruction of just. keeps it moving. >> it knocks the legs out from under the process argument, which was the big argument that republicans were making last week in congress, when they stormed or went in, whateveria want to call it, to this hearing. >> the brooks brothers. >> right, knocks the legs ought of this argument. it puts the white house on the defense, but the white house is going to make whatever argument they want to make, and they can continue calling this an unconstitutional investigation if they want to. their argument was already on questionable legal ground, and we had actually asked a white house official at the time that the main white house lawyer, pat cipollone, came out with this argument about the process not being correct. and we said, well, if the white house, if the congressional leaders followed this process, would the white house cooperate? they refused to acknowledge or say they would. they called it a hypothetical

situation. t president will continue making whatever argument he wants to make, that he did nothing wrong and this is unconstitutional. >> david, the criminal mind always has an alibi, always has an excuse. somebody told me to do this, i thought i was doing something right. there's always an answer. nobody ever says i did it, so their defense all these weeks has been you don't have a resolution, so we're not going to participate. and we'll find out in court because we own the courts, things like that. now i think pelosi, once again, is showing her savvy and saying okay, we'll give you the damn resolution and get that over with. number two, we're not fighting it out in your courts anymore. they're not being helpful. we're going to move ahead to impeach you guys. go ahead. >> i would say there may be a third. this indicates the house may be preparing to file an article of obstruction of congress. here's why i mean that, chris. at this point, the white house has tried to exert privileges, they have exerted constitutional immunity, which does not exist. they have tried to litigate the request for subpoena or the

depositions. and even during the clinton impeachment, you had republicans who were trying desperately to defeat clinton, ultimately acknowledged that even the white house, even bill clinton was afforded certain due process rights and it was not impeachable for him to exercise his legal rights. in this case, if they were to move forward with an article of obstruction of congress right now, you would be in a predicament where the white house has simply alleged or proffered their legal defenses. and some would say, hey, that's not enough for obstruction of congress. in this case, by filing the articles, and we have the kupperman case in front of us, the courts are ultimately going to order that trump administration officials must testify. the courts are going to defeat this claim of constitutional immunity. it does not exist. at that point, it's obstruction of congress. it is an article of impeachment that the house is in a much stronger position to file against the president, and likely pass out of the house if the white house fails to comply with the court ordered testimony. >> you know, shannon, nancy pelosi is pretty much my age, and i have to tell you, one

thing you learned in catholic school growing up, you learned scholastic philosophy, you could discern the difference, you could distinguish between the essential and the accidental. and it seems like at every stepf the way, she's sticking to the essential. what's impeachable, what do we need to get to a vote on it, to get this out of the house some time this year, and maybe around thanksgiving time. she's sticking to the essential. >> right. well, and we'll see if that strategy plays out. longer term, the strategy does cause a lot of members have to go on the record and vote, which was a sense that that was the concern that -- >> she's protecting her members. >> these districts that trump had won, that democrats took back, were now going to have to go on the record and have an impeachment vote. as we have seen the polling move increasingly towards a majority of americans being in favor of impeachment or certainly in favor of an impeachment inquiry, i think that's lifted a lot of that overhang, and so i mean, maybe that's why we're seeing it now at this time. because the polling is really

going in that direction. and i'll say within the white house, there's a quinnipiac poll last week that showed about 50% of americans supporting impeachment. that definitely, i heard, got attention within the white house, and they're finally starting to hear some concern about these. >> i tell you again, the essential thing is national security and the fact that the president traded public trust for his political ambitions with regard to ukraine. that's better than arguing about "access hollywood" yucky poo and all that stuff because people don't think it's essential. "the washington post" reports today that in their attempts to defend the president, house republicans have been using their time in recent depositions to get information about the whistleblower. according to sources involved in the proceedings, quote, gop members and staffers have repeatedly raised the name of a person suspected of filing the whistleblower complaint. and their questions in those depositions have been interpreted as an attempt to unmask the whistleblower. their behavior stands in contrast to senate republicans who, according to "the

washington post," have quietly voiced exasperation at the expectation to defend the president. one veteran republican senator says, it feels like a horror movie. david, distinguish between house and senate here. senators with six-year terms, wider constituencieconstituenc to house republicans who come from republican areas, how they're differing in their behavior here. >> and the senators are going to be jurors. and i believe there's already five or six senators that are probably considering whether or not they're going to have to vote to convict this president on an article of impeachment. what the house is doing is trying to replicate what they did during the mueller investigation, which is undermine the entire investigation as somehow being invalid. if they can put a face to that lack of credibility, in this case the whistleblower, they will exploit that for everything it's worth, even if it's meaningless. what, chris, ultimately they're going to have to face, though, and this is where i hate to give

counsel to my republican colleagues because i think they're on the wrong side of history on all of this, but they might as well start arguing the president's behavior was not impeachable. is it impeachable for donald trump to ask ukraine to investigate joe biden? that is a fair conversation to have with the american people. stop with the procedure nonsense. and start trying to convince the american people and gop senators that, yes, it may have been wrong, what the president did, but it's not impeachable. >> that would be a little more targeted, i would say. is it wrong for the president to hold up foreign military aid to a country under attack by russia if they don't get the dirt for him for his political purposes? they don't get their missiles, which they're fighting the tanks at the very moment. i would be more critical. shannon, thank you. david jolly, as always. >> meanwhile, in an exclusive story, exclusive nbc reports that the white house was alerted as early as mid-may that a budding pressure campaign by rudy giuliani was rattling the

new ukrainian president, zelensky. that's according to two people familiar with the matter who say fiona hill was alerted that giuliani's meddling in ukraine had unnerved the ukrainian president zelensky even before his inauguration. hill learned that giuliani was pushing the incoming administration to shake up the leadership of the state-owned energy company. additionally, hill was also told that ambassador to the eu, gordon sondland, we know him, was giving zelensky unsoliceded advice on who should be elevated to influential posts in his new administration. i'm joined by josh letterman, who joins us from kiev. josh, this is your great story. what does it all mean in terms of this whole role that rudy and the president were playing in pressuring zelensky to come up with helpful information for their campaign for re-election? >> right, chris. a lot of the depositions and other testimony we have heard so far have indications that officials in the white house and the administration started

learning about this secret plan to influence the ukrainians outside the normal diplomatic channels over the summer, more into june and july, but now we're learning that this started much earlier. that by mid-may, when president zelensky was being inaugurated right here in kiev, back in washington, fiona hill was hearing about these concerns, how he was already very upset about what giuliani was pushing him to do to mix up that board of the gas, and also specifically about the involvement of lev parnas, and egor fruman. this was happening a few weeks after joe biden had announced his presidential campaign. as you mentioned, sondland, the ambassador to the eu, also pushing the new president of ukraine to try to take his suggestions for who should be an influential posts. so this information came to fiona hill via a former u.s. diplomat who had met with zelensky here in kiev and went back to the white house to relay

to fiona hill what he had heard. he told that to fiona, who told it to john bolton, indicating just how much people knew in the white house that far back about these concerns. >> wow. thank you, josh, for that great story. by the way, just shows you how much this administration has outsourced american interests for political interests. the amazing amount of enterprise that went on over there, thanks to rudy and the president. the rest of them to get dirt so they could win the next election. nothing to do with u.s. foreign policy interests. >> in advance of raid that killed isis leader al baghdadi, president trump notified vladimir putin. got this theme? he told putin. but he didn't tell our congressional leaders. it could have been a moment of national unity, but instead, president trump used it as another opportunity to demean his democratic rivals, et ceter. standard pattern. plus, the key to surviving in trump world. praise him like a despot on a

gilded throne. secretary grishp is something. said john kelly was, quote, this is a memorable quote. totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president. it sounds like something from north korea, from pyongyang. got much more to get to tonight. stick with us. performance comes in lots of flavors. there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of sheet-metal-kind. and then there's performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. that's the kind lincoln's about. ♪ we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. even a- (ernie) lost rubber duckie? (burke) you mean this one? (ernie) rubber duckie! (cookie) what about a broken cookie jar?

(burke) again, cookie? (cookie) yeah. me bad. (grover) yoooooow! oh! what about monsters having accidents? i am okay by the way! (burke) depends. did you cause the accident, grover? (grover) cause an accident? maybe... (bert) how do you know all this stuff? (burke) just comes with experience. (all muppets) yup. ♪ we are farmers. ♪ bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum why fingerstick when you can scan? 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. learn more at freestylelibre.us you can do it without fingersticks. here, hello! starts with -hi!mple... how can i help? a data plan for everyone. everyone? everyone. let's send to everyone! [ camera clicking ] wifi up there? -ahhh. sure, why not? how'd he get out?! a camera might figure it out. that was easy! glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today.

welcome back to "hardball." in the wake of yesterday's successful raid on reviled terrorist and isis leader abu bakr al baghdadi, president trump headed to chicago for a victory lap. >> he's dead as a door nail. and he didn't die bravely, either. >> i will tell you that. he should have been killed years ago. another president should have gotten him.

>> well, trump missing an opportunity to to defend his decision to keep them in the dark about the raid this weekend, accusing them of being so untrustworthy that would put american lives at risk. trump first made those claims in a 40-minute rambling news conference on sunday where he divulged operational details and made unfounded claims about osama bin laden. >> he died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. >> washington is a leaking machine. and i told my people, we will not notify them until the -- our great people are out. al baghdadi, everybody hears because he's built this monster for a long time. but nobody ever heard of osama bin laden until really the world trade center. a year, year and a half before the world trade center came down, the book came out. i was talking about osama bin laden, i said you have to kill him, you have to take him out. nobody listened to me.

>> late tonight, nbc news is reporting that president trump got a few of those colorful details wrong. many of the rest were either classified or tactically ince e insensitive and their disclosure made intelligence and military officials cringe. i'm joined by jeremy bash, michael besh lof, i don't understand but i do understand why this president takes a moment of success for america. isis was evil. beheaded good people, it was a horrible, horrible reality. a caliphate from hell. everybody should unite around this. its success. we always like success. and he's turned it into a weird kind of torture like how he enjoys the guy's demise and some sort of street fight has been won by the good guys and how poor and chicken the guy was who died. and who cares? he's gone. and then to go after obama again. what's this about? >> well, there's no honor in

spiking the football or doing an end zone dance. >> hotdogging it. >> yeah, hotdogging it when it should be a moment of national unity. our compliments should go to those on the ground who put their lives on the ground. this isn't about whether or not a previous president should have done better. i remember in the hours after the bin laden operation was successfully completed, the first person i boss, director leon panetta, told me to, was i called general mike hayden who had been george bush's cia director i said tonight, we're standing on your shoulders and the shoulders of the men and women for the past ten years have been chasing this target. >> harry truman started the cold war, reagan ended. okay, maybe bush ended it. it was both sides. >> and everyone gave credit to everyone as well they should have. and this is a tradition that really goes back to the night of

pearl harbor. after pearl harbor, franklin roosevelt invited the congressional leadership from both parties to come to the white house and talk about what they do next. that tradition went all the way through the cold war and the post cold war era. looks as if it's another that may be going by the wayside. >> he also asked wendell wilke to cut a deal with the british before the war. let's talk about the pelosi thing because pelosi is an honorable person. she's obviously partisan. no more partisan than anyone else in washington. a smart, patriotic person. in a statement today, pelosi said the house must be briefed on the raid. the russians but not top congressional leadership were not notified of in advance. the the overall strategy in the region. the statement reminiscent of remarks she made directly to the president earlier this month when she asked him why all roads lead to putin. the great moment when she pointed across the table to the president and said why does everything lead to putin. why did he tell putin before the democrats? >> i think he was probably telling his military officials

were trying to deconflict the air space so they could conduct the operation, but it points to the larger point, which is although the law may not have required it, they better practice for a president in this case is to brief the congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle. don't just brief one party or the other because isis doesn't care whether you're a democrat or a republican before they come to blow us up. there's no room for partisanship in how you conduct the operation. there should be no room for partisanship in how you describe it or brief it. >> michael, all he had to do was call pelosi up and say don't spread this around, just talking to the two leaders on this. we're keeping it really close. then pelosi would have had to get up the next day, today, and say you know, i have to give the president credit, as she's pursuing impeachment. i have to give him credit because he gave me a call with the heads-up. now she has an opportunity to hit him hard. she's on offense again. bad politics. >> i think it would have been only great for everyone, because just as you said, it would have made him look larger, trying to

unify the country. >> which he ain't. >> was not on this occasion. and you know, one example of someone who really did do that was in 1971, richard nixon. who as you know, ran this very partisan campaign during the 1970 midterm elections. and he literally went obtv and said i'm now taking off my campaign hat. i'm putting on my presidential hat. and he was a lot more presidential in 1971. that positioned him in a way that made it a lot easier for him to occupy the center in 1972 against george mcgovern and win by a landslide. so i think it's not only good government. i think it's good politics. >> in today's "new york times," national security correspondent david sanger writes the death of the islamic state's leader in a daring nighttime raid vindicated the value of three traditional american strengths. robust alliances, faith in intelligence agencies, and the projection of military power around the world. but president trump has regularly derided the first two.

sangar goes on to write that americans foreign policy in the age of trump runs the risk of looking like a force of exploitation, willing to enter hostile foreign lands for two reasons only -- killing terrorists and extracting resources. the mission of the american century helping other nations develop their economies and build democratic institutions is missing. just a more narrow point, this president has dumped on the intelligence agency since he got there. and there you have the ciae pulling off this tough fight, going after the bad guy. killing him. getting it done. excellent execution. of intelligence, and the president gives himself credit. himself. >> he started his presidency on day one by standing in front of the memorial wall at the cia original headquarters building in langley, virginia, talking about not the sacrifice of those who had given everything for our country. >> the stars on the wall. >> he talked about how many time his face had graced the cover of "time" magazine. he compared cia officers to

nazis. he denigrated intelligence agencies. he called them the deep state. he has criticized law enforcement, the fbi, and others charged with the counterintelligence mission. so i'm glad that our intelligence professionals have kept their nose down, they have stayed focused on the target. they have done their job, but they have not gotten a lot of support from the president. >> how would you charge this up historically? a president of the united states who last we said, there is no team. i am the team. i am him. it's almost a statement of a dety. i'm the one who does everything. i do everything. i killed baghdadi. personally. >> and he said at the convention in 2016, i alone can fix it. so this is something that's gone back a while. you can only hope that, you know, in retrospect, he'll look at what happened and the death of baghdadi and see that our intelligence agency has performed extremely well, and it was helpful to have allies, so that may make an impression on him. >> where does he get the whimpering and crying and

running like a little baby? where did he get that info, the color of the game of this guy dying. i thought he blew himself up in a suicide vest. that's horrible enough. >> i don't know where he gets that information. maybe he had some reports from the field about what they saw in the tunnel. i think it points to this larger issue which is that on the ground, the kurds have been our allies. they have provided vital intelligence, and the bigger strategy in the region has been to abandon the kurds. that's a mistake. >> gets around. doesn't it? that we abandoned allies. >> just hours after announcing the successful raid against al baghda baghdadi, president trump was greeted by a chorus of boos as he attended last night's world series game in d.c. let's take a look. >> the president and first lady of the united states. >> he was smiling, chants of lock him up were also heard during his introduction. "chanting lock him up ]

>> fans are better than the batters last night, i must say. they're doing pretty well there, michael, mr. washington. you live untown here. >> i do. and presidents have been booed at least back to harry truman and maybe even earlier than that. >> it's normal. >> at baseball stadiums. it's normal, but i must say, the "lock him up" part is something you don't find much in history. >> you know, what do you think he thought he was going to get when he went to downtown d.c., not far from capitol hill, to the den of the deep state? most of this town is democrat. liberal, probably. government employees, cia agents, federal fbi agents, all kinds of people who work for the government. he's treated them all as dirt. what did he expect? >> i think it's less about them being democrats and more about being federal employees who are committed to the mission, many of whom work in national security. i was at a game, game four. i saw a lot of my former colleagues from the defense

department and elsewhere celebrating baseball, obviously, baseballtient be a political issue. >> what was your ticket cost? >> a lot. >> i had over $600 for a standing room the other night. >> i had to mortgage the house, but i'm with michael. i think the lock him up is inappropriate from any corner. the criminalization of political differences is wrong. >> who started that? >> i think trump started it. you can't go by boos at baseball games because richard nixon thought he could beat pat brown as governor of california. he went to the opening of candlestick park, they booed the hell out of pat brown, and then he beat nixon by a quarter million votes. so bad call. don't go by boos. but in this case, go by boos. jeremy bash, thank you. michael beschloss. >> up next, unheeded warnings. john kelly, general john kelly, says he tried to warn trump that hiring a yes man as his next chief of staff, mick mulvaney, it would lead to impeachment.

more on that warning and the white house's bizarre response coming up next. your business fo. but when your team is always dealing with device setups, app updates, and support calls... you can never seem to get anywhere. that's why dell technologies created unified workspace, powered by vmware. ♪ a revolutionary solution that lets you deploy, manage, support and secure all your devices from the cloud. so you can stop going in circles, and start moving forward. to earn j.d. power chevdependability awards... across cars... trucks... and suvs. four years in a row. since more than 32,000 real people...

just like me. and me. and me. took the survey that decided these awards. it was only right that you hear the good news from real people... like us. i'm daniel. i'm casey. i'm julio. only chevy has earned j.d. power dependability awards across cars, trucks and suvs. four years in a row. hey allergy muddlers... achoo! ...do your sneezes turn heads? try zyrtec... ...it starts working hard at hour one... and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. zyrtec muddle no more. great riches will find you when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar? thanks, lady. taxi! only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c behind me, i feel free... ...fearless... ...and there's no looking back, because i am cured.

talk to your doctor about mavyret. if we're going to keep our dpme democracy alive, we need to challenge those in power. this is the message i have heard again and again these past two weeks that people want me to keep asking the questions because without accounting, it's government by the elite. the economic elite, the cultural elite, whatever. and that's not democracy. the day we leave it up to our financial or academic so-called betters is the day we kiss it all good-bye. welcome back to "hardball." former white house chief of staff general john kelly says he warned president trump about the looming threat of impeachment. at a political conference hosted by the washington examiner over this weekend, kelly said he advised the president against hiring a yesman to replace him. last year.

>> i said whatever you do, don't hire a yes man. someone that's going to tell you, won't tell you the truth. don't do that. because if you do, i believe you'll be impeached. someone has got to be the guy that tells you that, you know, that you either have the authority or you don't. or, you know, mr. president, don't do it because whatever. you know, but don't hire someone that will just nod and say, that's a great idea, mr. president. because you will be impeached. >> in a statement, president trump responded to kelly's recounting events, saying john kelly never said that. he never said anything like that. if he would have said that, i would have thrown him out of the office. he just wants to come back into the action like everybody else. kelly suggested the blame for the president's current situation lies at the feet of the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney, for not keeping trump out of trouble. given what we have already seen

from this administration, it's no surprise the president would want someone to tell him only what he likes to hear. >> i want to begin by recapping the incredible historic trip that the president and first lady have just concluded because it truly was an extraordinary week for america. it was an unprecedented first trip abroad. >> the president, thank you for the honor to serve the country. it's a great privilege you have given me. >> i can't thank you enough for the privilege you have given me. >> mr. president, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing you have given us to serve your agenda and the american people. >> isn't that nice? well, that fawning praise wasn't enough to keep any of those people in their jobs. every one of them is gone after all that applause for the president. but press secretary stephanie grisham, she beats them all. she showed what is coming up next. she's hard to beat in the fawning department. you're watching "hardball." chin. well have you tried thinkorswim? this is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want.

okay, it's got screeners and watchlists. and you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks you're interested in. now this is what i'm talking about. yeah, it'll free up more time for your... uh, true crime shows? british baking competitions. hm. didn't peg you for a crumpet guy. focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. ♪ (engines rev) the only thing better than horsepower... ...is more horsepower.

(engines rev) if we were for everyone, we'd be for no one. with dodge power dollars, more power means more cash allowance. purchase now and get $10 per horsepower. that's $7,970 on the srt challenger hellcat redeye. on a scale of one to five? one to five? it's more like five million. there's everything from happy to extremely happy. there's also angry. i'm really angry clive! actually, really angry. thank you. but what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling... and then do something about it. turn problems into opportunities. thanks drone. customers into fanatics change the whole experience. alright who wants to go again? i do! i do! i have a really good feeling about this.

our opponents, the media, and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions that the powers of the president to protection our country are very substantial and will not be questioned. >> god, is that frightening? welcome back to "hardball." that was stephen miller in 2017 on president trump's unquestioned authority. miller remains one of the president's longest serving advisers thanks in part to his unwavering devotion. stephanie grisham outdid him. john kelly told a political congress hosted by the washington examiner he warned president trump that hiring a yes man to succeed him as chief of staff would lead to impeachment. in response, gresham put out a statement that seemed written in pyongyang, north korea. grisham said, i worked with general kelly, and he was totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president. for more, i'm joined by adrienne

elrod, former adviser to hillary clinton,shermichael. what do you think of this north korea state leader talk. >> i don't think it would have mattered because general kelly is now on the outside. remember rex tillerson. remember general mattis. >> all the kiss butt guys didn't last. >> they didn't last. you showed them in the video. >> what works for this guy? >> nothing works. at the end of the day, donald trump is going to do whatever donald trump wants. why? because he's not a disciplined individual. i don't think if general kelly was still there, i would predict donald trump would still find himself in the midst of an impeachment crisis. >> i completely agree. >> you could have said, mr. president, in the back room, i have seen what you're doing with giuliani over there. and you're setting up a totally separate foreign policy. it involves all of the effort to get dirt on your opponents.

all this 2016 conspiracy nonsense and the joe biden stuff. it has nothing to do with american interests. this is going to get you in trouble because nixon had a whole separate operation called the plumbers and that brought him down. can't anybody give him a history lesson? >> he's not going to listen to anybody. i believe even if he had two or three people left in the entire west wing of the white house, he still wouldn't listen to them. this is how donald trump operates. he believes he won his election single-handedly without the outside help of anybody else. you know, he's obviously constantly defending himself in terms of the legitimacy of the election, which is up for debate. but he truly believes that he single-handedly, not his staff, not anybody else, got him elected. and that same mentality is what is driving his decision making in the white house. i also wanted to make a point -- >> he's deluded then, he's crazy. you're saying he thinks he killed baghdadi this weekend, the head of isis. >> of course he does. he is the one who made the decision. let's also be clear, john kelly is no angel, right? he was not exactly an effective

chief of staff. >> you think he's lying? >> he's the person who went out there and called daca resepiacis lazy. >> do you think he sided with the president in the oval office, do you think he said mr. president, don't hire a yes man? do you think he did what he said he did? >> if he did, i think donald trump would have fired him. he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did. i don't think, with all due respect to general kelly's military record, i don't think politically to your point, this guy wasn't very effective. from my perspective, he doesn't have a lot of legitimacy to be insinuating things against a current acting chieff staff. >> he was constantly running up against this president by telling him i don't want jared kushner in the room. you have to ask my permission to come in the room. all the times he's setting up the guardrails. >> and jared kushner still got a security clearance. he got a security clearance. his daughter got a security clearance. donald trump still did every single thing he wanted to do, in

spite of some of the general's concerns. so my point, again, it doesn't matter what any of these people say. as adrienne said, trump believes he won alone, but the only negative side of this is if he loses, he's not going to lose alone. he's not going down alone. many of the folks around hiem are going to go down with him. >> he thinks he can do it all by himself, he's an idiot. i have worked in politics for years, and every politician needs counsellors, men and women around him who will say be careful on that. you're going to get in trouble with that. >> you can ask some of the most effective white house chiefs of staff in recent history, rahm emanuel, john podesta, leon panetta, none of them were yes men. there's no way barack obama would have gotten the affordable care act passed. rahm emanuel made that happen because you have to be contradi constructive. you have to have give and take and you cannot be a yes man in that job. >> that's why the white house is in chaos, why the president is experiencing impeachment. there isn't a cohesive message. republicans in the senate seem

to be sort of looking the other way. >> okay, you're a republican, right? >> i am. >> let's imagine this, as a party guy. >> okay. >> this guy gets re-elected by a squeaker. it's still possible. i don't think he will, but he could win by a squeaker. win pennsylvania by a squeaker over senator warren or somebody, who knows. he comes back like, my god, i can do anything i want. i got away with everything. >> he will. >> i did it all myself. i'll do anything. >> if people think the past two and a half, three years have been mad, imagine when the guy doesn't have to worry about the next re-election. he feels the impeachment has gone nowhere. he was found not guilty, if you will, in the senate. he's going to say, i now have an immense amount of power that alleviates -- >> just take a look at the supreme court when he's done then, too. it will be 7-2 right wing court for the next 50 years. >> let's thing positively. >> i want to warn people on not voting, thinking of not voting next year.

two words. 7-2 will be the supreme court when he's done. they will when i get finished with them. i'm going to remind them. adrienne, thank you. shermichael, you're going to stick with us. >> biden and buttigieg fighting it out. everybody is a b this year. from moderate republicans and other 2020 coming up, this is interesting, he's trying to take away that guy's lane. he may do it in iowa. we'll be right back. may 1 of '75... the magic moment. congress really democratized wall street... i wanted to have a firm that wanted to get everybody in. because people couldn't access wall street. we wanted to be agents of change. for the better. ♪ lashmakes every lash fullyrom maybsensational.ork. our fanning brush volumizes every kind of lash...

...for a sensational full-fan effect. lash sensational. only from maybelline new york. ♪ ladies and gentlemen mini is a different kind of car. for a different kind of drive. ♪ ladies and gentlemen for the drive to create a new kind of family car, that became a new kind of race car. for the drive to rebel, zag. for the drive that's inside you. and inside us. that's the drive under the hood of every mini. because every mini is... for the drive. ♪ get the perfectly grilled flavors of an outdoor grill indoors, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do even more,

like transform into an air fryer. the ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles, and air fry crisps. lashmakes every lash fullyrom maybsensational.ork. our fanning brush volumizes every kind of lash... ...for a sensational full-fan effect. lash sensational. only from maybelline new york. ♪ ♪ ♪ born to be wild... we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ even a- (ernie) lost rubber duckie? (burke) you mean this one?

(ernie) rubber duckie! (cookie) what about a broken cookie jar? (burke) again, cookie? (cookie) yeah. me bad. (grover) yoooooow! oh! what about monsters having accidents? i am okay by the way! (burke) depends. did you cause the accident, grover? (grover) cause an accident? maybe... (bert) how do you know all this stuff? (burke) just comes with experience. (all muppets) yup. ♪ we are farmers. ♪ bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

the upsetting cynicism of this white house is that you have somebody who on one hand sees actual literal no [ bleep ] jews will not replace us anti-semites as very fine people. >> that was mayor pete buttigieg. today, now, using strong language, had to bleep it there, while speaking to a left-leaning jewish advocacy group about the president's relationship with israel. he was invoking president trump's remarks fau s following charlottesville rally. he's seen a rise in support as he trieses to secure his place in the moderate lane of the party. that support is most apparent in iowa. he's seen his numbers rise to more than double since september. he's on the rise in iowa. watch him. according to the real clear politics average for iowa,

buttigieg has risen to third place, only slightly behind biden. as the race tightens, biden says he's confident in his status as leader of the pack. >> do you still consider yourself the front-runner? >> i front-runner? >> i know time front-runner. find me a national powe with a notable, a couple of exceptions. this is a marathon. this is a marathon. >> i have three possible scenarios. choose your favorite. how this electricity for the democratic nomination works. >> number one. elizabeth warren wins early and wins early. she wins iowa, new hampshire, she keeps winning. she is a fast break winner of the nomination without stop. she goes right through nevada with harry reid behind her. who knows? the second possibility is buttigieg messes up the whole thing by winning in iowa. taking race a lot further down the road. that will hurt her chances in new hampshire. it will give biden a second

chance in south carolina. the whole thing will slow down through super tuesday. buttigieg is the one, like a big yellow flag. the one that slows people down. third possibility, and i don't think it is likely at this point, biden wins everything from the beginning. which scenario do you like? >> if you were to pick one of three, i think the last scenario is the least likely. >> what is the most likely? >> with elizabeth warren, mayor pete is on the rise. we have seen this in poll after poll. you have to look at cash on hand. mayor pete is sitting on $23 million. versus joe biden sitting on $8.5 million. >> what would you do with that money? blow in it iowa? just spend it. >> i think he's doing it already. first of all, it's a good thing there is a super pac going in for him. he needs the extra funding. i would take a long hard look at my pay roll and figure out whose staff salaries can i reduce and

probably fly a little less on private planes than $1 million on private planes. >> i love it. sir michael, my bet? buttigieg wins early and slows the whole thing down. i see two numbers in iowa. one undecided. and the other is buttigieg. another way of saying none of the above but my february vote is for buttigieg. >> i think number two is absolutely likely. i think he has the amount of money, the cash on hand enables him to continue. >> and by the way, people are fine beam good values say i'm with buttigieg and nobody challenges them. oh. that makes sense. >> he has the type of money that allows a campaign in a key state like iowa to directly target and mobilize voters and there are a lot of voters in iowa looking at biden and saying he's shaky. they're looking at the mayor. the guy is smart. moderate leaning. we think he could go the long

way. and i think that benefits mayor but i think it is certainly something the biden campaign should be concerned about. one, they haven't been able to raise a significant amount of money and two, if he can't win in iowa and new hampshire, that goes against his entire argument. >> how come he's been the one successful person to question senator warren about financing and health care and the rest of the program? how come he's been able to bite into her and hang on to that question? >> that's an excellent question, chris. that's what we saw happen in that last debate. instead of joe biden taking on the, i'll going to defend obamacare which i helped get past, i'm going to defend these obama era policies. it was mayor pete making that defense with an assist by amy klobuchar. this has not hurt him so far. i think if he want to keep mayor pete at bay, he has to have a stronger performance and be the one on that stage defending the obama era policies.

>> was norah o'donnell right by asking? >> it is an honest question. i think mayor pete is carving out a piece of that moderate lane. >> are you smarter than him? i'm just teasing you. >> i like -- >> he's a brilliant guy. >> i don't know anybody who is smarter than him. every time you ask him a question you have the sense that he had the question two weeks ago. and he just got it. >> if you compare him to joe biden, his responses are rambling and all over the place. i think people look at the mayor, at biden and say this is a guy who can go the long haul. >> i still think this is joe biden's race to lose,/warren's race to lose. >> are you with him? >> i am undeclared. >> you sound like you're with him. >> i like him a lot. i think his support with

african-american could decrease if he doesn't perform well in the early state as we saw obama's support increase. >> because the black voter is watching. national story. they don't want to waste their votes. thank you. up next, remembering james foley. remember him? we ought to. you're watching "hardball." you'k pad. like the old "tunic tug". you know it, right? but i don't have to, with always discreet. i couldn't believe the difference. it's less bulky. and it really protects. watch this. the super absorbent core turns liquid and odor to gel, and locks it away. so i have nothing to hide. always discreet. for bladder leaks.

my moderate to severe i ulcerative colitis.ing but i realized something was missing... me. the thought of my symptoms returning was keeping me from being there for the people and things i love most. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira can help get, and keep, uc under control when other medications haven't worked well enough. and it helps people achieve control that lasts so you could experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible.

at outback, steak & oh no, it's gone.ck. phew, it's back with lobster mac & cheese. it's gone again. oh, it's back with shrimp now! steak & lobster starting at only $15.99. hurry in before these three are gone again. outback steakhouse. to put on our website? i mean i would have but i'm a commercial vehicle so i don't have hands... or a camera...or a website. should we franchise? is the market ready for that? can we franchise? how do you do that? meg! oh meg! we should do that thing where you put the business cards in the fishbowl and somebody wins something. -meg: hi. i'm here for... i'm here for the evans' wedding. -we've got the cake in the back, so, yeah. -meg: thank you. -pronna make it, you're not gonna make it! ask her if we can do her next wedding too! -so we'll design the insurance solution that fits your business. -on second thought, don't...ask that.

that fits your business. hey. ♪hey. you must be steven's phone. now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today. i thought of one person when

i heard the head of isis was dead this weekend. i thought of james foley, the young american journalist who isis killed five years ago. when the history of war is written, any war, it is the courageous one and those are the ones who deserve our regard. the good people of the war. those like james foley who when horror ranges, the world turns itself on life and death, show their character, their true worth as human beings. i have for the last five years carried in my wall at the time photo of james foley with his head shaven, being walked out there in front of cameras to have his life stripped from him. to have his head cut off. all for the world to see. and what did they see? what did james foley give these evil people that so much want to get something from him? here's what. when foley met his end squarely in the face, he showed the moral face of courage. he held true to who he was. he gave them nothing. i will carry that photo with me long after isis is dead.

to me, the memory of james foley's courage and stoicism is what matters. and my best again to his father and mother. how proud you must be. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us tonight. "all in" with chris hayes starts now. tonight on "all in" -- >> we have to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. >> the full house will take a vote. >> i think the president knows the argument that can be made against him and he's scared. >> what we know about the vote on the impeachment inquiry that nancy pelosi just announced. and why republicans are starting to complain loudbly what they have to defend. >> the impeachment of your president is a scam. >> and growing concerns about what comes after baghdadi. >> his death marks a devastating blow. >> some people call this electronic assault