that military aid was linked to ukraine pursuing investigations. >> plus new reporting that president trump wanted attorney general william barr to hold a news conference to say that no laws were broken during his phone call with theok leader of ukraine but barr declined to do so. >> in kentucky,d to republican governor matt bevin is refusing to concede and filing a recanvas of vote totals after he lost to the democrat by about 5,000

votes. good thursday morning. everybody. it is november 7th. i'm yasmin vossoughian, alongside ayman mohyeldin. wehi begin as the impeachment probe of prp is ramping up. house committee chair adam schiff has announced it will begin nextas week, and on wednesday, bill taylor, and state department official george kent and on friday, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine maria yovanovitch. and additional witnesses are expected to appear before congressex publicly. >> those open hearings will be an opportunity for the american people toan evaluate the witness for themselves, to make their ownfo determinations about the credibility of the witnesses, but also to learn firsthand about the facts of the president's misconduct. >>pr based on the transcript of his closed door testimony which was released yesterday, we have a pretty good idea of what ambassador bill taylor will tell lawmakers in the open hearing.la

you may recall that taylor was the one who texted ambassador gordon sondland that it would be quote crazy to make ukraine military aid contingent on investigations aimed at helping the president get re-elected. taylor is now filling in the gaps from those text coverages. likeos this one, when sondland responded callnd me after taylo asked if that really was the white house's position and he didti call and during the phone call ambassador sondland told him that he wants president zelensky to state publicly that ukraine will investigate burisma and interference in the u.s. election,an and ambassador sorchdland now recognized that heso had made a mistake by earlr tellingad ukrainian officials t whom he spoke with that a white house, at a white house meeting with president zelensky was dependentre on a public announcement ofde investigation. in fact, ambassador sondland said, everything was dependent on suchas an announcement including security assistance. he said that president trump

wanted president zelensky in a boxwa by making a public statemt about ordering such investigations. >> so meanwhile, senator lindsey graham presented to new new arguments in defense of the president including suggested thatid gordon sondland colluded with democrats when he changed his testimony ton acknowledge quid pro quo. watch this. >> now, here's a question. why did the senator change his testimony? was there a connection between sondland and democratic operativesso on the committee? did he talk to schiff? did he talk to schiff staffers. i've been a lawyer for a very long time and when somebody changes their testimony, they suddenly recall something they didn'tsu know before, it makes incredibly suspicious. >> what i can tell you about the trump policy toward the ukraine, it was incoherent. it depends who you talk to. theyou seemed to be incapable o forming a quid pro quo. >> and the "washington post"

reports that president trump wanted attorney generalnt willi ba barr to hold a news conference to say he broke into laws and people familiar with the matter say that it came around the time the white house released the transcripte of the controversi call and wastr passed along by white house officials to the justice department. a department of justice spokeswoman at the time released a statement saying a review of the transcript determined that quote there was no campaign finance violation and no further action was warranted. however, trump advisers tell the post that the president has mentioned barr's demure to associates in recent weeks saying he wished barr would hold the news conference. >> it is unclear why barr would not go beyond the d.o.j. statement but in an effort to tamp down a cushion, a discussion between the attorney general and president trump, saying the president has nothing but respect for ag barr and appreciates the work he has done

on behalf of the country and with no amount of shady sources to smear and slapder will change that. trump is pushing back against the report writing on twitter last night, the report is totally unclear and another fake news story with anonymous sources that don't exist and labeled the news media as quote the enemyd of the people whichs quote working overtime with made-up stories in order to drive dissension and distrust. joining us now from washington, d.c., senior writer at roll call, niels lesniewski, great to have you with us this morning. let's discuss this report on trump's request for attorney general william barr to hold a press conference solidifying his innocence. barr has been a very loyal foot soldier going back to the days of the mueller probe a lot of people may remember. what factors may have played into barr nixing this idea? >> well, it seems like that this even goes a step beyond what we saw from the attorney general during the mueller probe with

his summary of the findings and the sort of public statements that the attorney general was making outge of the justice department at that time. this seems like a case where barr may not have wanted to get the justice department itself into being a subject of the investigation that's going on in the house of representatives. certainly had there been more communication and certainly had barr come out and made some sort of public statement, as the "washington post" and others have reported, that the president was looking for, all of a sudden this would have become within the purview of what adam schiff and the house democrats are working on now, and i just have a suspicion that the attorney general does not wanter to end up right in the middle of having his people calledis to testify about wheth

or not they were covering up something for the president. >> so now, we are seeing some of these testimonies being made public, and then we have the announcement of the open hearings beginning next week and we have talked about these the last couple of weeks when they would c begin, and we have a da, wednesday, ambassador bill taylor and then george kent and then maria yovanovitch. walk us through what to expect from the scheduled hearings next week. >> sure. so my colleagues, katherine tully mcmans and lindsey mcpherson went through the transcript of bill taylor's testimony yesterday, and have posted a list of some things that they think that people should behe watching for.ou the one that is most mostable to me is what are the republicans on this committee up to when it comes time for these open hearings, of intelligence. remember, there is the possibility that the housere republicanspo may seek to sort replace devin nunes as their

lead sort of member in this questioning. i'mqu interested as much as in what taylor says, and the others say, as to what the republicans do who may be appealing to the audience of one, president trump, and as well as what happens and what exactly the president is doing during these hearings.pr is there a constant twitter feed? what sort of implications he may have as well as this is going on. >> real quick, what do you make of lindsey graham and his position in all of this, the way he is constantly evolving trying to throw something out there to stick. it sounds like he is trying to beg the defense attorney for t president in these hearings if in fact they get to an impeachment trial at the senate. >> it sure sounds that way. and specific lick t, specifical latestly one from senator linds graham, they couldn't have formulatedgr a quid pro quo whe it comes to ukrainerm policy,

because their ukraine policy wasn't coherent enough to do so. that is quite a defense, if that's the one they're going to go thwith. >> and then t turning around an saying that sondland was, calling him sunderland, calling him sunderland, and saying he may have been talking to schiff's team or one of his staffers and that's why he changed. >> niels lesniewski, thank you very much. former vice president joe biden slammed republicans at a washington, d.c. fundraiserbl yesterday.wa making a prediction about their demeanor in a post-trump presidency, biden had this to say, with donald trump out of the way, you're going to see a number ofto my republican colleagues have an epiphany, mark my words. but republicans weren't the only ones to getwe the brunt of bide. the former vice president also took a slight dig at senator elizabeth warren for criticizing candidates who have expressed doubt aboutid her medicare for l plan. he said quote, the people that arehe running against me tell mi am naive, one said i should be in the republican primary, god love her.lo that's not the way you get things done. >> president trump's personal

lawyer rudy giuliani announced yesterday he has obtained new legal representation in the on ongoing impeachment inquiry. in a seriesgo of tweets, he nam the new legal team, writing this, i am represented and assisted by robert costello and the pierce banebridge firm in particular, aaronrm creizman an lisa mad gal. the decision comes as investigators began to release closed door testimony from state department officials that implicate giuliani in the white house's dition decision to block military i aid in exchange for investigations into the biden family. the hires mark a shift for giuliani who until recently insisted he did not require a defense attorney. >> never a good look when your attorney has to hire a lawyer. the first day of the roger stone trial and it links president trump more closelye a 2016 effort to obtain stolen democratic emails. danny cevallos is hereat to wei in. >> former alabama senator jeff sessions, remember him, well, he is apparently interested in

getting his old senate seat back. we're going to see what president donald trump has to say about that. we'resa getting some clues. those stories and a check on weather when we come back. ths an weather when we come back. sundown vitamins

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welcome back, everyone. now to the start of the roger stone trial. phone records introduced in federal court yesterday are drawing renewed attention to the trump campaign's efforts to obtain the stolen democratic emails then previously known, than previously known. this includes numerous conversations between the trump and stone during the summer of 2016 when stone was desperately trying to obtain the stolen emails from wikileaks founder julian assange. prosecutors say while it is unknown what trump and stone discussed, the timing lines up with major developments leading up to the theft and release of the emails, including three calls stump and stone had june 14, 2016, the very same day that the "washington post" reported that russian hackers had infiltrated the dnc's computer

network. stone faces charges of lying to federal investigators about his efforts to contact wikileaks during the 2016 election season, obstructing justice, and witness tampering. let's get into this. joining us on the site, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. as amin walked us through some of, that the prosecutiondon necessarily accuse the president of any crimes, but is saying that there was direct contact, has evidence of direct contact between roger stone on some of those very important days and the president. how is this going to affect the impeachment inquiry, if at all? going forward. >> not necessarily. for two major reasons. number one, the roger stone indictment has been out there in the ether for at least a year so people have known about some of these allegations. and number two, the indictment doesn't charge roger stone for any of his actual conduct in communicating with people associated with wikileaks or randy credico, he is not charged with espionage, he is not charged with computer hacking or anything like that, and all of

roger stone's charged crimes arise after, and as a consequence of the mueller investigation. they are crimes he allegedly committed when the mueller investigation and the house intelligence committee came to him and said, tell us the truth about what happened, give us documents that we're asking for, and they allege that he broke the law by failing to tell the truth, or failing to provide those documents. >> so what can we expect to see as the trial goes forward? what are some of the key, you know, twists and turns that you are anticipating, pivotal moments? >> what is interesting is all of the information, all of the alleged collusion-type activities are really just background information for the roger stone charges, which are really about lying to congress, lying to the fbi, and then essentially obstructing justice. so those, while those are not what he is actually charged with, there will be a central theme, and of course, another central theme is his alleged witness tampering of randy

credico by making godfather ichl i type references and you may have heard that the court denied the prosecution's bid to have godfather ii actually played in court. so the prosecution is going to have to generate that context without the help of the actual movie itself. >> so it is more painting a picture of what they have taken place, connecting the dots, versus anything actually actionable aside from what stone is being charged with. >> yes, stone is not charged with russia collusion so to speak. he's essentially charged with lying or obstructing justice about that, when asked about it. so all of that stuff is important for context. but ultimately, since president trump is not directly alleged to have been involved with a crime in connection with the collusion, the alleged collusion, on the whole, the overall effect on the impeachment inquiry may end up being minimal. >> not much. thanks, danny, appreciate it. let's get a check of the weather with nbc meteorologist michelle grossman.

>> we're looking at cold air coming in. if you haven't brought out the winter coats yet, now is the time to do it. the reason is we had a jet stream dip so far to the south, it is allowing the cold air to come in and opening up the door to the canadian air. the purples and the pinks indicating where that bitter blast will be, and most of us will be under the bitter blast. so taking a look at temperatures today, 34, that's just two degrees above freezing, in omaha and 18 degrees below what is typical for this time of the year. tulsa, dallas, also chilly, and little rock, 57, and 31 in chicago. that is below freezing there. and now we slide this to the east, so by friday, the northeast, you're going to feel the coldest air of the season, and well below what is typical for this time of the year. cleveland, 35. new york, 41. 14 degrees below what is typical for this time of the year and factor in the winds and brisk winds and feel colder than that, so a lot of spots feeling like the freezing mark if not below the freezing mark. surd, if it stays in place, 34 in philadelphia. we also have some cold air in

place that is setting the scene for some snow. we will talk more about that. now early next week, we will have another blast and stay in place for this week and next week and into the following week. it is going to stay with us for a while. wind chills, this is what it feels like on your body when you walk outside and dress for these temperatures. so this morning, today, we are looking at wind chills, nine degrees, in minneapolis, and this is very untypical for early november. and omaha, nine degree, and chicago will feel like 13 degrees. and same story when you wake up in the morning on friday morning. buffalo, just feeling like 18. cincinnati, 18 as well. and again, it stays in place on saturday morning. even into sunday. here's that stage set with that cold air in place. bringing the snow and accumulating snow in many spots. we have the warm great lakes, so that cold air comes over the great lakes, and it gives you accumulating snow, so we could see up to eight inches of snow in some spots, even into the interior parts of the northeast and also new england, it looks like the major cities along the i-95 corridor though will be spared, we are going to have a

chilly rain tonight. not a great commute. a little slow commute. for this evening. but at least it is going to be a rain. and it is all due to the cold front that is moving through. we will talk more about that. and also some pretty heavy rain in the southern plain, we'll talk about that, too, when we come back in a bit. >> you get a feeling that winter is coming at you real fast. >> winter has arrived. >> all right. >> michelle, thank you so much. turkish president erdogan is scheduled to visit the white house next week, the same day house democrats begin open impeachment hearings. we have a preview of what to expect during that visit next week. that's all coming up next. maria ramirez? hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!!

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welcome back. two major events are set to happen next wednesday, the opening hearing into the impeachment inquiry into the president is set to begin and president trump is hosting turkish president erdogan at the white house. >> which one do you think will get more attention? >> i think equally they will both get a lot of attention to say the least. trump tweeting erdogan's news, saying the visit will come roughly one month after turkey launched a major assault on the former u.s.-backed syrian kurdish force, the trump administration initially applied sanctions to turkey in a response but later rescinded them. at the time trump sent erdogan a letter threatening to destroy the turkish economy and calling on erdogan to not be a tough guy or a fool or else history will quote look upon you forever as the devil. the last time erdogan visited the white house back in may of

2017, you remember this. just minutes after a meeting, with the president, in the oval office, erdogan was caught on camera ordering his security detail to assault a group of peaceful protesters on embassy row, in the nation's capital. charges against the turkish assailants were later quietly dropped and trump hasn't commented on that, however he has heavily praised erdogan. >> i want to thank president erdogan, on behalf of the united states, i want to thank turkey, i want to thank and congratulate president erdogan, he's a friend of mine, frankly, he's a hell of a leader, and he's a tough man, he's a strong man, and i have great respect for the president. he did a terrific thing, he's a leader, he's a leader. >> and president trump has accepted an invitation to kick off new york city's 100th annual veterans day parade, making him the first sitting president to ever do so. trump has long been enthusiastic

about veterans day festivities in new york city. in 1985, he donated $1 million to create a vietnam veterans memorial in the city's financial district. and in 1995, according to "new york times," he gave $200,000 in exchange for being named grand marshal of the parade, though it was unclear he was actually granted this honor. as a house impeachment inquiry enters the public phase, the white house communications office is expected to add two new trump allies to its staff. according to a senior administration official, a former florida attorney general pam bondi, and former treasury department spokesman tony, are both expected to join the white house communications team on a temporary basis, to work on impeachment messaging and other special projects. now, while president trump was resistant to the idea of a formal team to focus solely on impeachment, republican lawmakers and conservative groups have advised the white house in recent weeks to bring in additional help for the impeachment fight. still ahead, a growing split in the republican party over

identifying the ukraine whistle-blower. what top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are saying about that. >> plus, the latest on the kentucky governor's race as republican matt bevin refuse to concede. those stories and more coming up. concede. those stories and more coming up 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 retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® wow! giving one. how did you guys...? >>don't ask. the lexus december to rembember sales event get 0 percent apr for 60 months on all 2019 models. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. woman: i'm here, and suddenly

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welcome back, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. let's begin with the morning's top stories. a split has been ignited within the republican party over identifying the ukraine whistle-blower who sparked the impeachment probe. according to "politico," several

senior senate republicans opposed the idea of exposing the identity of the whistle-blower. "politico" reports that they are worried about the precedent it would set, fearing government sources would be less likely to reveal wrong doing in future presidencies. those republicans have rebuked comments by senator rand paul who demanded that the media print the whistle-blower's name during a rally in kentucky just this week. senator paul went a step further, just yesterday, blocking a resolution, reaffirming the senate support for whistle-blower protections. senator lindsey graham argued yesterday that the president should be given the chance to cross examine his accuser. >> the whistle-blower statute is being abused and i got to run in here, it is designed to protect you from being fired if you come forward, it doesn't give you anom ty. no one should be prosecuted based on an anonymous accusations. >> some of president trump's closest allies including don jr.

have stated the identity and an attorney for the whistle-blower saying in part this, publication or promotion of a name shows the desperation to deflect from the substance of the whistle-blower complaint. it will not relieve the president of the need to address the substantive allegations, all of which have been substantially proven to be true. and democrats are pushing back at republican calls to unmask the ukraine whistle-blower arguing it is simply quote revenge. and would stop future whistle-blowers from coming forward. >> at this point, the whistle-blower is really irrelevant. the whistle-blower's information began the investigation. but the substance of the investigation has gone way beyond what the whistle-blower knew. so this attempt to name the whistle-blower simply is revenge, outright punitive retribution, and trying to discourage other whistle-blowers.

>> all this is, is to send the message out there, that all you people who work for the federal government, if you see some kind of wrongdoing or misdeed going on, don't come forward, because expect no protection. expect the president to come after you. expect the president's minions to come after you. >> and senate republicans are reportedly privately discussing whether to counter-probe former vice president joe biden and his son hunter as the impeachment inquiry into president trump continues to heat up of the "washington post" reports that there is a quote intense and growing interest to delve into the biden's potential links to ukraine as well as china. but despite repeated attempts by some of trump's most ard ept allies to call the bidens in front of the senate foreign relations committee, the head of the panel says he has no interest in doing so right now. and in a letter obtained by nbc news, chairman jim riche wrote to the top democrat, due to the house impeachment inquiry, i believe it would be more appropriate for our commit to

wait on examining these matters until after the house completes its process. meanwhile democrats are not planning to let that happen without a fight. chris coons told the daily beast, calling on the bidens to testify would be literally rolling a grenade down the aisle of senate which would have lasting consequences. joining us once against from washington, d.c., senior writer at roll call, niels lesniewski, good to have you back with us. let's discuss some of the divisions within the republican party, whether they're substantial or not, on whether or not the whistle-blower's identity should be revealed. what do you make of this split? what is likely to happen? >> i still think that senator rand paul is in the minority among the republicans, at least in the senate, in terms of whether or not the whistle-blower should be identified publicly, or made to come public in some sort of open hearing, or deposition or something like that. but surely, those calls are

going to increase from supporters of the president on and off capitol hill, you know, i will be interested to see what happens with pam bondi, and the new communications team at the white house that's being brought in for impeachment, what sort of tact they take, regarding the whistle-blower specifically as well. >> so let's go with that for a second, what are you expecting here, especially looking at historical precedent, what are you expecting here with now the addition of pam bondi and others to this sort of impeachment defense team, or whatever you want to call it, inside the white house, and how they're going to be moving forward? >> so there's two different ways that they could go. and what i don't know yet is how much of this is going to be sort of messaging behind the scenes, communicating with reporters, sending out briefing memos,

trying to rebut what adam schiff may be talking about outside of the intelligence committee hearing room, and how much of it is going to be an attempted barrage on cable news and elsewhere to try and sway public opinion. so how much of it is sort of an effort to actually counter the charges themselves, as they come down, versus how much of it is to try and prop up, or at least keep from falling any further president trump's approval ratings. >> and ni l. s, walk us real quickly, what we can expect next week with the house intel chairman adam schiff announcing public hearings on the impeachment inquiry. >> sure. so with ambassador taylor and the others who will be testifying in public, the thing that, one thing to look at, is whether or not the early questioning is done by committee staff, there's a procedure in place, in theory, at least, that

would allow for top aides to conduct longer questioning or members to conduct longer questioning, we may not see the usual, you know, five minutes back and forth where no one really goes anywhere, because the house members pontificate too long. it will be interesting to see whether or not they reserve their judgment and do it that way instead. >> thanks, niels lesniewski, appreciate it. two sources tell nbc news that former attorney general jeff sessions is expected to announce his candidacy for the former u.s. senate seat ahead of the filing deadline this coming friday. it is clear to sessions that president trump intends to campaign against him. now, back in june, president trump told "meet the press" chuck todd that hiring sessions was the biggest mistake of his presidency, after the former attorney general recused himself from the mueller investigation. still, sessions plans to come out forcefully in support of trump's agenda while announcing the impeachment efforts, according to the hill.

sessions will join an already crowded republican field including roy more, who lost to doug jones after moore faced allegations of inappropriate behavior with minors. sessions has not had a competitive senate race since 1996 but would have $2.5 million of campaign fundraising which he saved over the years. >> the republican governor of matt bevin who has not conceded against the democratic challenger has requested a recanvas of tuesday's election results that show he is trailing by more than 5,000 votes. the state's attorney general said yesterday, beshear said he is confident in the election outcome and will move forward with the transzbligs whatever process that the governor chugss to go down, you know, it is not going to change this overall number of votes. we are going to take the steps to move forward, to make sure that we are ready. that we are ready on the day that we're inaugurated. >> and kentucky secretary of

state tweeted she has received bevin's request of a vote count and has scheduled recanvas for a week from today. elizabeth warren says she doesn't have a beef with billionaires but bill gates does have some thoughts on her wealth tax. the first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. " is back in a mom oh! oh! oh!

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up four, and senator kamala harris remains at 5%. a four way race between the iowa primary between elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and pete buttigieg and joe biden and a new quinnipiac shows, 20% for warren and buttigieg at 19% and sanders at 17% and biden, rounds out the top four at 15. all four candidates sit within the poll's five point margin of error and the poll has appeared to have qualified congressman tulsi gabbard for this month's democratic debate in atlanta, georgia, with 3% of support among likely democratic caucus-goers. let's switch gears and get another check of the weather with nbc meteorologist michelle grossman. >> hi there, guy, looking at a dicey forecast the next couple of days here, this morning in new york city, we're waking up to relatively mild temperatures. that will change draftcally was we go overnight into friday morning. and extending into the weekend. so this is the setup. we are looking at a strong cold

front out ahead of it. we will have warm rain. and once it comes through, the air plummets from canada, bitterly cold air, and drop the temperatures overnight tonight to below freezing. are you listening to that, yasmin? the personal irrigation systems freezing? factor in the wind chills and it will feel colder than that and some spots in the 20s. on the southern end of the storm, the warm temperature, it is a heavy rain event, we had rain yesterday in the southern plains and rain right now, we will see rain through friday morning and so as a result, we have some flash flood warnings, in place, and flash flood watches, that's where you see the green, that's intact for at least the next couple of hours, now the northern side of this storm, we have that cold air in place and that's going to set the stage for some snow, from the great lakes, into the interior northeast, and also parts of new england. we could see anywhere from four to eight inches, especially along the great lakes, where we have the cold air coming over the warm waters. so let's take a look at the

temperatures, bitter blast, we have the jet stream that dipped, allowing the cold air to come in, not right now for new york city, that will change overnight. this is going to slide to the east, and slide to the south, as we go through tonight, so we will have that chilly rain tonight. before we could see some wet snowflakes mixing in by the morning. so for today in chicago, 31 degrees. that is below freezing. it's going to feel like -- was that a cold over there? what was that? >> the weather report. >> i didn't know if you were hurt. >> little rock, 57. and that's nine degrees below what is normal this time of the year. i feel like i should be looking at you guys for the forecast because you need a lot for me. >> it was like a wind howl and a whistle to create the atmosphere of chicago, very windy and cold. >> and by friday, nashville, 46. and 35 in cleveland. new york city, 41 degrees. and 14 degrees below what is typical for this time of the year. those are the highs. that's not the low that we are talking about with the freezing mark. saturday, 44 in philadelphia.

raleigh, 50 degrees. the cold front is coming through. as we look to next week, it's not going to end. we have at least two weeks before we see that cold air ending. we can forecast bitter wind chills, and we have all of the game, you know, the kids have flag football still, we have soccer games wrapping up, you want to dress those kids warmly on saturday morning. and get the irrigation systems taken care of. >> thank you, michelle. still ahead, breaking business news overnight, reports of a possible break through in the u.s. trade war with china has u.s. stock futures on the rise. >> airbnb announces changes after a series of bad news reports. the stories driving your business day are all next. business day are all next. i am the twisting thundercloud. power... in its most raw form. speed in its most natural. i am royalty of racing, ...defender of the checkered throne.

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i don't have a beef with billionaires. my problem is, you made a fortune in america, you had a great idea, you got out there and worked for it, good for you. but you built that fortune in america, i guarantee, you built it in partners and workers all of us helped pay to educate. you built it in part, getting your goods to market on roads and bridges all of us helped pay for. you built it at least in part protected by police, and firefighters, all of us helped pay the salaries for. and all i'm saying is you make it to the top, the top one-tenth of 1%, then pitch in two cents, so every other kid in america has a chance to make it. >> so that was senator elizabeth warren, at the last democratic

presidential debate, defending her wealth tax, her plan would levy a 3 to 5% tax and here is what the second richest man in the world bill gates had to say about that. >> maybe i'm just too biassed to think that if you create a company that's super valuable, that at least some part of that, you should be able to have a little bit for consumption, and hopefully the plans to do philanthropic things. i paid over $10 billion in taxes. i paid more than anyone in taxes. but i, you know, i'm glad to have paid, you know, if i had to pay $20 billion, it's fine. but you know, when you say i should pay 100 billion, then i'm starting to do a little math about what i have left over. sorry. i'm just kidding. >> have you ever talked to elizabeth warren about any of this before? >> i have not. >> would you? would you want to?

>> i'm not sure how open minded she is. or that she would be even willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money. >> you have been politely saying public, about your misgivings about our current president, if elizabeth warren were the other candidate, what would you do? >> you know, i'm not going to, you know, make political declarations. but i do think no matter what policy somebody has in mind, a professional approach is even, as much as i disagree with disae with some of the policy that are out there, i do thing the professional approach -- whoever i decided would have the more professional approach in the current situation probably will weigh -- is the thing that i'll weigh the most. and, you know, i hope that the more professional candidate san electable candidate. >> senator warren responded with

this, i'm always happy to meet with people even if we have different views. bill gates, if we get the chance i'd love to explain exactly how much you'd pay under my wealth tax. i promise it's not $100 billion. now to the breaking news. china says it has reached a deal to roll back existing tariffs as it works towards a trade deal with the united states. we go to london with the very latest. pretty big significant development there. what are you hearing about this? >> what beijing has said is that they would be willing to roll back tariffs on both sides so long as they did so at the same time. this is part of this phase one deal they're all talking about. no one quite knows what phase one means but markets reacting very positive. it looks all the u.s. markets will open higher at the moment. another interesting story, this is something you focused on in the past in your reporting, the idea that the saudi government has been grooming employees at twitter to hand over user data. this is according to the

department of justice, a new set of charges against one saudi citizen, one u.s. citizen who both worked at twitter up until 2015, they started grooming them in 2014 trying to get information on saudi critics, very alarming stuff and something that twitter says it's taking very, very seriously. >> what a satisfactory thougcaru think how much data that have on us. let's talk about airbnb after getting bad press recently. tell us about that. >> yeah, so some positive developments after that awful, awful shooting in california at that, quote unquote, party house there that was an airbnb listing, five people left dead. the company will start going through and checking every single one of the 7 million listings currently on its books. it will look to screen high-risk properties and will try to ban those so-called party houses in the future, guys. >> all right. thank you. >> thank you. coming up next, jim vandehei

of axios a.m. has a look at one big thing. and lindsey graham appears to be scraping the bottom of the barrel for arguments to defend the president. plus, kamala harris joins the conversation as well as senator tim kaine of virginia. jam-packed just moments away. ♪oh there's no place like home for the holidays.♪

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>> announcer: axios one big thing is sponsored by bp. joining us now from washington, d.c. with a look at axios a.m. cofounder and ceo mr. jim vandehei of axios. jim, great to have you with us this morning. >> good morning. >> what is the one big thing? >> you were just talking about elizabeth warren and bill gates. i don't think there's a lot of sympathy for people who pay billions of dollars of taxes so i don't think that will be the big topic for warren. but if you look online, you can really start to see that elizabeth warren is betting a big chunk of her white house run

on medicare for all. and on social media where most people are getting their news and a lot of the debate unfolds, she really got clobbered in recent wooek recent weeks for her plan and contention that middle class americans won't have to pay higher taxes to pay for everybody being on medicare for all. and when you talk to democrats behind the scenes, they think this issue alone can make or break her. because in a general election, if she were to win the nomination, part of her plan is anybody who has private insurance, you lose it. you have to get into medicare. and for people who like their private plan, democrats worried like trump is just going to pummel her and pummel democrats for taking away something americans like, even if she can make an intellectual argument that overtime medicare will be a superior product for more people than not. >> so you're saying democrats behind the scenes are betting this is going to make or break her. which way are they leaning more that it makes or it breaks?

>> well, if you look at polls recently, she was surging and then medicare for all she started to get a lot of criticism about can you pay for it. then she put out this plan that got pretty heavily scrutinized about whether or not it can be paid for without raising taxes for middle class and her numbers started to go down. democrats take that as a sign that this is potentially problematic. you see pete buttigieg, joe biden, others being more critical of her on this and other plans. and the thing for elizabeth warren that she can't do that other candidates have done in the past, it's hard to run in the left in the primary and then for her to run to the center because her whole persona has been on not compromising. >> twitter announced last week it will ban all political ads on its platform, completely opposite of what facebook was saying a couple weeks prior to that. what is axios reporting about how other tech companies are responding as to whether or not they will allow political ads in

their various policies? >> there's few people who understand that space better than sara fisher on our staff and she's hearing from people from google and facebook they think they're going to have to make more compromics. that the twitter decision to ban political advertising will put more pressure on them. maybe get rid of micro targeting, which allows people and campaigns to target very specific voters and move them emotionally. and, you nov, we weknow, we wer about bill gates or elizabeth warren getting news on social media. mark zuckerberg has dug in, he said the hell with it, i'm not only in support of political advertising on my platform, you can lie. you lie on my platform because i believe in freedom of speech more than all the hand wringing. >> all right. jim vandehei, live in washington, d.c. for us. stand by for the top with

"morning joe." you can read that newsletter by going to signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us on this thursday morning. i'm yasmin alongside ayman. "morning joe" starts right now. the attorney general says i'm going recuse myself. and i said, why the hell didn't he tell me that before i put him in? >> the race for the u.s. senate seat in alabama could get kind of interesting as president trump's former attorney general jeff sessions is eyeing a return to capitol hill. >> i think it's interesting that donald trump making fun of jeff sessions' accent. he made terrible fun of jeff sessions behind the scenes in the white house saying he was stupid in part because he went to alabama, the university of alabama. which is funny. when we were in alabama, steve bannon made fun of me claiming that i was stupid because i went to the university of alabama. he went to georgetown.