>> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. good morning. i'm jo ling kent at msnbc world headquarters here in new york. it's 6:00 in the east. it's 3:00 a.m. out west. and here's what's happening. new wrinkles in the impeachment inquiry. the lead democrat has a direct message to republicans and the president about who's in charge. new poll. the first real gauge of mike bloomberg's impact on the race. will he hurt democrats or trump more? billionaire backlash. behind the numbers of elizabeth warren's wealth tax and why some of the ultrarich are opposed. and strawberry fields, made famous by the beatles. why it's now open to the public for the first time. developing this morning, a

fresh back-and-forth between democrats, republicans, and the white house on this day 49 of the impeachment inquiry. first to democrats pushing back on house republican demands seeking hunter biden and the anonymous whistle-blower speak publicly during hearings that begin in just three days. gop intel committee ranking member devin nunes sent the gop wish list for at least ten witnesses to intel chair democrat adam schiff on saturday. schiff responding sharply, making two things abundantly clear. first, "the impeachment inquiry and the committee will not serve as vehicles for any member to carry out the same sham investigations into the bidens," and schiff says the committee also will not facilitate efforts by the president to threaten, intimidate, and retaliate against the whistle-blower who courageously raised the initial alarm. nunes responded. >> the ink wasn't even dry on the letter that we sent to the democrats this morning before

they blasted out that press release to all of their cohorts in the media that then ran and said, well, these are -- you know, calling, as if there's something wrong with us calling hunter biden, someone who is receiving $50,000 to $80,000 a month. it's well documented that something definitely happened there. the fact that the democrats are already not letting him testify -- >> all right, let -- >> as of right now, they're going to give us no witnesses. >> this comes just days before the first public impeachment hearings are set to begin after weeks of testimony behind closed doors. career state department officials william taylor and george kent are expected to speak on wednesday, and testimony of former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch is set for friday. democratic congressman andre carson will be in those hearings this week, too, and here's what he told msnbc about what he expects to hear from those witnesses. >> i think that they will highlight the fact that president trump did, in fact, attempt to misuse taxpayer

dollars, your and my taxpayer dollars that have been approved by both the house and the senate to use as leverage to force the ukrainian government to investigate a political rival, i.e., joe biden. >> we know, of course, president trump will be watching the proceedings very closely, and he's been in new york this morning after being cheered on by a friendly crowd at the louisiana state/alabama football game last night. once again, trump struck a familiar theme on his feelings about impeachment. >> this is a witch hunt at the highest level, and it's so bad for our country. but here's the deal -- read the transcript. you'll see the call. now i'll give you a second transcript because i actually had two calls with the president of ukraine. so you'll read the second call, and you'll tell me if you think there's anything wrong with it. but never in history has anybody gone through this. it's a witch hunt and it should never happen to another president.

>> joining me now is msnbc white house correspondent hans nichols. he's at trump tower here this morning. the president is back amid these fast-moving developments in the impeachment probe here. what is the latest from trump tower? >> reporter: well, what the president did yesterday was really two things. number one, he wants to keep this conversation just on the transcript, so he set a timeline, saying that he's going to release that second transcript on tuesday -- monday or tuesday, because of monday being the holiday, it may come tuesday. listen to how the president uses his language to insist that he did nothing wrong based on the transcript. >> read the transcript. it's all about the transcript. they're having people i never even heard of some of these people. i don't know who they are. and by the way, it's all third-hand knowledge. but regardless of whatin says, read the transcript. >> reporter: and then the president was on twitter, and i think that's the second phase of what he did yesterday. and for the first time, he

appeared to directly attack one of the potential witnesses, marie yovanovitch. he suggested on twitter, retweeting a transcript of hers from one of the house republicans on the committee but suggested that she was a liar. joe, that's different from what the president in the past has said about marie yovanovitch. he said she seems like a nice lady. he's basically tried to maintain that he didn't really know a lot of these people, whether it's tim morrison, marie yovanovitch, gordon sondland, even though he had obviously had conversations with them. so, in this next phase, this public phase that we're going to get on wednesday, we'll see to what extent the president directly attacks the witnesses that are giving testimony against him. now, you mentioned the back-and-forth between house republicans and house democrats. clearly, house democrats are not going to let house republicans call either hunter biden or the whistle-blower to offer testimony. those are nonstarters. the question then becomes is, will the republicans call anyone or will they simply try to claim that they were shut out of this process and allow the president to continue to use this argument that it was a sham process?

j jo? >> we also know that it wasn't thirdhand knowledge here. as you look ahead to seeing the transcript that the president is promising, what do you expect to actually get on tuesday? >> reporter: you know, i'm reluctant and hesitant to speculate on this because the president seems as though he's read it, and he thinks he's fine and he's exonerated. if you look at the second transcript, the one from july, tg was a more formalized call when they're trying to hash out certain things. the initial calls tend to be more congratulatory and more pro forma, and that was from back in april, before a lot of this stuff and a lot of giuliani's freelancing really had matured. so we just need to wait to see if the president decides to release it and what's in it. importantly, mick mulvaney, the white house chief of staff, is putting up legal road blocks from testifying. so it seems as though the universe of witnesses that we have is basically frozen and that we will go forward and the house and the senate will go

forward based on the facts as we know them now. now, there could be dramatic moments in the public testimony aspect and republicans could still decide to call some of their witnesses. and real quick, jo, lsu won the game. guys? >> lsu did win the game. a lot of people celebrating that this morning. maybe a little hung over this morning, too. hans nichols outside trump tower in new york, thanks so. hannah trudeau is with "the daily beast" and danielle strauss with politico. daniel, good morning to you first. >> good morning. >> the requested witness list offered by republicans, we have that right here, includes the anonymous whistle-blower and hunter biden. what's interesting is that in the letter, nunes says president trump should be afforded the opportunity to confront his accusers. what does that tell you about the gop approach here to the public hearings? >> i mean, look, this is part of the main strategy. like hans said, hunter biden going on stage and testifying is a nonstarter. and we already know that

republicans have been intent on criticizing the entire process of this investigation by saying that nothing has been fair, that the proper witnesses have not been brought forward, that the procedures involved in doing this are really problematic, and that's why the whole thing is a nonstarter. >> do you think realistically any of the names on this list -- will these people actually appear, or is schiff going to say, nope, i'm rejecting all of them, and can he do that? >> i mean, ivan a feeling we're going to see some people on this list come forward. >> right. >> i am loath to guess which ones. i think that either way, the gop will make big deals about who is and isn't coming forward. the aminity of the whistle-blower remains a major flashpoint, because just the fact that what we don't know about this person allows both sides to really play with the imaginations of the public. >> hannah, what about the

negotiation tactic of this? do the republicans put out this wish list saying, okay, democrats or republicans eject and use this as a negotiating tool so they can talk about how the process isn't working for them. >> i would guess that that's probably likely. i mean, like daniel said, this is kind of a nonstarter with a lot of the people on this list, so i would assume that, you know, the more people that democrats refuse to put forward, the more ammunition against republicans -- i mean, it's important to kind of keep in context the broader atmosphere that we're working with. obviously, we have president trump at the top and he's running a re-election campaign right now, so this is all part of that political ammunition, at least from the republican side, and they see the democrats sort of as more fodder, you know, to use in potential campaign aids or just talking points as the president continues to go about on the trail. >> daniel, we also had president trump throwing out this, dangling this yesterday.

listen. >> now they want to have a transcript of the other call, the second call, and i'm willing to provide that. we'll probably give it to you on tuesday. monday being a holiday. we'll probably give it to you on tuesday. but we have another transcript coming out, which is very important. they asked for it, and i'd gladly give it. >> daniel, why does the president think that contents of an earlier call is going to change anything from the one we already know about here? i mean, what is the strategy behind this, do you think? >> i'm not really sure. it's a little puzzling. but obviously, the president thinks that an earlier call will demonstrate that his relationship with the ukraine government has always been germane. i mean, i haven't seen the transcript of the call yet. >> right. >> but it sounds from what the president has said that the argument will be, see?

in this call, i did not say to the ukraine government, if you don't investigate hunter biden, we're going to withhold all u.s. aid to the country. therefore, nothing happened. >> but hanna -- >> i guess that's what he's going to say. >> -- is it possible for that logic to actually work out for the president here, looking at what we know as just the facts? >> no, because i don't think the logic really makes much sense. i mean, we've seen other -- i think what's important is, as the public testimony ramps up, i mean, this is a chance for people to really get a sense, sort of a bird's-eye view and not so much of the nitty gritty of what's going on. so, i think that sort of defense or that rationale that president trump has outlined there doesn't seem to make much sense, and i think as the public testimonies become more prominent and in full view for people to see, it's going to make less and less sense as that kind of continues because it doesn't sort of jive

with the facts as they stand currently. >> okay. i want to also get to this other big headline out this morning, some good news for michael bloomberg, who's thinking about getting into the race. a new morning consult poll out today shows the former new york mayor, who's weighing that run for president, he would lead president trump by six points in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. bloomberg originally said he would not run, but news broke this week that he's reconsidering that because his adviser says he's, quote, increasingly concerned that the field of current -- or the current field of candidates is not well positioned to beat trump. now, this morning, consult polls shows that if he does not officially throw his hat in the ring, bloomberg would enter the race in sixth place between kamala harris and andrewening. and of course, joe biden at the top of that heap there. so, hanna, how do you interpret this poll? is this realistic in your mind in terms of what the field actually looks like on the ground? >> it's interesting. you know, i think we see a lot of democrats right now currently beating trump, so he would be

one of, you know, almost two dozen who are still in the race. but you know, i think a lot of democrats have kind of rolled their eyes to be diplomatic about it with the possible entrance of bloomberg, including joe biden, who in particular would kind of sort of occupy that same moderate lane. of course, he's had many more fund-raising struggles, so i think he's looking at michael bloomberg's $50 billion-some that he's worth and thinking, you know, this could be a potential threat to me. but in terms of the other candidates, i mean, everybody, you know, is kind of intent on running their own campaign. that's what a lot of these aides and strategists say. but i think, you know, it's definitely ruffled a few feathers and just, you know, potentially shaking up the race in a way that nobody's sort of saw coming at this point. >> daniel, do you think that bloomberg potentially weakens the democratic field by getting in? >> i mean, there's always this worry that more candidates in the race will split the vote.

for moderates and skeptics of elizabeth warren and bernie sanders and the wing of the party that sees an ultra-liberal candidate as the antidote to donald trump, bloomberg is a welcome face. the fact that he has a deep war chest, that he's always styled himself less as a hyper liberal and more as a moderate and that he's incredibly competitive in a primary probably gives moderates a sense of relief, especially since joe biden, while leading for the entirety of this race, has still not been able to scare away most of the democrats he's been running with. >> all right. daniel strauss, it is extremely early central time. thank you for joining us. hanna trudo, also thank you for getting up early in d.c. we appreciate it. >> thanks. >> thank you. next in the impeachment inquiry, president trump wants mick mulvaney to testify, but does he really? and scapegoating the three trump allies who could become

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what you just described is a quid pro quo. it is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happened as well. >> we do that all the time. >> i'd love to have mick go up, frankly. i think he'd do great. >> get over it. there's going to be political influence in foreign policy. >> i'd love to have him go up.

>> the president is now on defense saying he'd now prefer to have his acting chief of staff testify before the house's impeachment inquiry. after facing new questions about his efforts to block current and former white house officials from testifying with 11 no-shows just last week. mulvaney was one of those 11 and is now requesting to join an ongoing federal lawsuit on whether he should comply with his boss, the president, or the house's subpoena. joining us now to discuss this is msnbc legal contributor and trial lawyer katie phang and former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst glenn kirshner. >> good morning. >> glenn, does the president really want mulvaney to testify. >> no, he doesn't. rarely can we take president trump at his word. if he didn't want him to testify, he could say raise the right hand, swear to tell the truth and then incriminate the

president, which is likely what all of these witnesses would do. i actually think it's a smart move on mulvaney's part to join the suit that is differently going on in federal court to determine how to break the tie between congress issuing a subpoena and demanding testimony and the president telling people, do not testify. i don't really think it's a tie, because i think the way this thing should be handled is the witness should appear, should answer questions, and then if there are questions that conjure up notions of executive privilege, that's when the witness should invoke it and only those narrow issues should then move into the courts to be decided. so, this is nothing more than sort of delay and try to keep the witnesses from presenting incriminating information about president trump. >> okay. we also have this new report in "the new york times" that calls mulvaney's move, this legal move as head spinning, because instead of just going with what

his boss says to do, to cooperate, he sent his lawyers to ask a judge whether he has to testify. so, do you see this as a move that should concern president trump? >> it definitely should, because for mulvaney, kupperman and john bolton, the ultimate determination by the court gives cover to those witnesses to be able to say, hey, look, i was going to come, the court said i didn't have to, or hey, look, i have to go because the court says i have to show up. and so, what's really interesting, though, is it's gotten very convoluted, jo, because the kupperman lawsuit, actually, the house subpoena has now been withdrawn for charles kupperman and the house said, dismiss that lawsuit, judge, because it's really moot now, there's really nothing for you to decide. but the judge in that case, because we now have this motion from mulvaney to join in that lawsuit, has scheduled a hearing by phone, 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. tomorrow's veterans day. courthouse is closed, but that judge in federal court wants to be able to make a decision as to

whether or not mulvaney can join this lawsuit to be able to have an ultimate determination. but really, we have another lawsuit that's been going on by don mcgahn, and that mcgahn lawsuit should have a ruling by the end of this month, which would be before anything that came out of that dunk -- kupperman case. so everyone's waiting with bated breath to see what happens in that mcgahn lawsuit because that will determine whether things need to be done with subpoenas or not. but you should not defy a subpoena and this is obstruction of justice. it's keeping congress from getting answers that we as the american public deserve to get. >> well, on that point, the oral arguments of the case, they're set for early december. so looking at the calendar, both of you, glenn, first of all, do you see this as just a way to punt the ball and kick the can down the road from the white house, since the house dems have already expressed their interest in getting this done as quickly as possible? what's your take on that reporting? >> yeah, it is. it's in part running out the clock. and you know, i agree with katie, the mcgahn lawsuit, which

is kind of still up and running, the kupperman lawsuit is sort of in a precarious position right now. we'll know more tomorrow, perhaps. but here's what i think is going on. if they can sort of delay having to appear before congress by waiting for the courts to decide if these witnesses have what is really a fiction, absolute immunity, they don't, then what they'll do -- let's assume the court says, no absolute immunity, comply with the subpoena. they'll go to court, they'll begin testifying, and then they'll do what i suggested a few minutes ago. they'll say, you know what, i had to appear, i have no absolute immunity, but i still invoke executive privilege. that now requires yet another round of hearings in federal court, which is just another way to delay all this. i think the house has got it right. when they say, listen, you don't want to appear, we're going to assume that that would be because you'd provide

incriminating information against the president, and we're just going to move on to the patriotic witnesses, the vindmans, the fiona hills, the ambassador yovanovitches, the kents, and that is where we'll get our evidence. >> katie, do you agree with that? >> oh, yeah, absolutely. because look, when you actually invoke, for example the fifth amendment -- if you're being questioned and you say i invoke my fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, what happens is an adverse inference or negative inference can be drawn and presented to say a jury. so, i think it's a really important thing here for everybody to also remember, as we saw in the run-up to this segment, mulvaney has already basically testified, hasn't he? he's already told all of us that the quid pro quo not only happened, but it happens all the time in this trump administration. do i really need mulvaney anymore if i'm congress? no. he gave me what i needed and you know what he's going to say, i was lying when i did that presser in front of the world? he'll never do that. so mulvaney, let's check that box, move on and try to get

bolton there. but glenn's right, if you're not going to come forward and be truth and transparent, we'll just assume you were going to hurt the ultimate person, which is president trump. >> is that a safe assumption to make, though, as the democrats are trying to gather evidence? because we are dealing with an administration here, including the president himself, who routinely say things on the record publicly and then routinely do not want to do the same in a setting like a hearing or a more sort of stratified setting. >> well, is there a fear that maybe later on during the senate trial -- because listen, that's an inevitable thing. we're going to get articles of impeachment against donald trump. we're going to go to a trial in the senate. is there a fear that maybe they'll come forward during the senate trial and say something that supports donald trump? sure, but will we really be surprised? no. we have people who have come forward under oath, under penalties of perjury and have said what's happened and implicated these people. now it's like who are the patriots who said the truth and the people who hid behind some alleged privilege and didn't show up. then suddenly when it came to the trial, suddenly they found jesus and they were able to find the truth then? no. it doesn't fly, in my opinion.

>> all right, katie phang, glenn kirsch snare, thank you. we'll talk about how the gop witness list could turn the hearings into a circus. we'll see how that goes. we've got the letter here and we'll dig into that. the warren tax proposal, is it just a small price to pay for america's money class? the bottom line coming up. america's money class? the bottom line coming up. >> you may have heard some billionaires on tv recently crying about that 2-cent wealth tax. aw. aw. aw great riches will find you when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need.

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now to your morning headlines. in just a few hours, residents in the central, southern, and eastern parts of the u.s. are about to be hit by a powerful arctic cold front. the national weather service predicts the coldest air of the season arriving tomorrow will shatter dozens of mid-november records as temperatures struggle to get out of the teens. the frigid weather could also bring more snow already blanketing several areas of the country. family and friends gathered saturday at a church in northern mexico to say good-bye to the last victim of a cartel ambush that killed several women and

children from a mormon community. survivors of monday's attack say christina langford johnson jumped out of her vehicle and waved her hands to show she was not a threat but was shot dead anyway. no arrests have been made in that situation. and a new controversial law many say criminalizes the homeless goes into effect today in las vegas. earlier this week, city officials passed an ordinance making it illegal to sleep or camp in downtown in residential and public areas as long as there are open beds available at homeless shelters. the criminal provisions of the new law will not go into effect until february. senator elizabeth warren catching some heat from some of the nation's richest this week over her wealth tax plan. warren wants to fund her medicare for all plan with a 6% tax on every dollar a person has over $1 billion and a 2% tax on anyone with more than $50 million. that did not sit well with some of the country's top ceos.

>> she uses some pretty harsh words, some would sayvilleifies successful people. i don't like vilifying anybody. >> i've paid over $10 billion in taxes. i've paid more than anyone in taxes. but you know, i'm glad to have paid, you know. if i would have had to have paid $20 billion, it's fine. but you know, when you say i should pay $100 billion, okay, then i'm starting to do a little math about what i have left over. >> elizabeth warren responding with a calculator where billionaires and anyone else who's curious can see how much the wealthiest americans would chip in under her plan. sibile marcellus is a reporter with yahoo! finance and is here with us now. good morning. >> good morning, jo. >> okay, so, is this a good strategy for warren? does it help further the fact that the current -- i mean, what does this do? because the current occupant of the white house also happens to be a billionaire.

does this help trump? >> yeah, so, i don't think it helps trump. it helps elizabeth warren. let's remember, right now she's fighting to get the nomination to run for president as the democrat. so, right now she's fighting that battle. and when it comes to what the democratic party wants right now, it's somebody who's going to lead the fight for fixing income inequality. it's a huge problem in the country right now. and what we're seeing is that billionaires are revolting against her wealth tax. now, to kind of break it down, this is what she's proposing. 2% tax for every dollar for households that have over $50 million and a 6% tax on every dollar for households with more than $1 billion. now, experts say that with that wealth tax, it's going to generate $2.75 trillion, and she wants to use that money to pay for all her proposals that she's been saying on the campaign trail. we're talking about medicare for all. we're talking about forgiving student loan debt. we're facing a $1.5 trillion

student loan debt crisis right now. she also wants to use that money to pay for quality public education, free public college, and also expand ss. so, she's proposing a lot of things, but she's also coming up with a plan for how to pay for it. >> how did you read the reaction from jamie dimon and bill gates there. >> yeah, so jamie dimon was basically saying elizabeth warren is trying to punish, vilify successful people. they should instead be applauded. and elizabeth warren is fighting back, hitting back, positioning herself as the person who can't be bought. she's already said that she is going to turn down money from wall street firms, from fossil fuel -- the fossil fuel industry, and big tech, big pharma, if it's over $200. she also said she's not taking any money from pacs and federal lobbyists. so in terms of her positioning for her campaign, this plays right into her hand. the billionaires actually attacking her only helps her image as the woman who actually wants to take on wall street and big money and reach some income equality in the country. >> what does this mean for

michael bloomberg, who's thinking about getting into the race, another billionaire, someone she's criticizing, not directly, but in terms of how much tax bloomberg should be paying? what does this do with her argument with the base of the democratic party? >> well, she's pulling all the punches. she actually put mike bloomberg on her website for the calculator for billionaires. and i even wrote it down. for mike bloomberg, she said under her wealth tax, he would pay $3 billion. so, she's on fire right now. she would definitely make sure that mike bloomberg is one of those billionaires that also pays for her wealth tax. but as we know, mike bloomberg actually wants to get into the race, so he's probably not likely wanting to pay that wealth tax himself. >> well, you wrote a piece a few weeks ago, arguing that wall street is scared of elizabeth warren. we know that mark zuckerberg at facebook is certainly concerned about legal action that may be taken against big tech. i mean, why are investors so -- i mean, i guess the real question is, how nervous are they about the prospect of a

warren presidency, given where she is currently in the polls and what we see in the current landscape? >> so, many investors are scared of elizabeth warren. they fear that if she is elected president, it's going to have a huge impact on their wealth and also in terms of their investments and their portfolio. so, i was actually speaking to an analyst who said that when clients call, they usually love to talk about football and then talk about their portfolio. but these days, because elizabeth warren has been doing so well in the polls, sometimes she's the front-runner, that it's very tight, when they see that, they go, whoa. all they want to talk about is elizabeth warren. they want to catch up on her proposals and find out exactly how she's going to impact their money and their portfolio. >> interesting stuff. we've got it here on wall street. sibile marcellus, thank you. >> thanks, jo. now to a story from liverpool, london, about john lennon and a place that inspired the artist on one of the group's most memorable songs. nbc's kelly cobiella takes us to the new strawberry fields. >> reporter: they're one of the greatest bands of all time and

"strawberry fields forever" one of their greatest songs. ♪ strawberry fields forever written by john lennon, who used to play in the gardens of strawberry field, a salvation army home for girls in liverpool. it's a beautiful space to just walk around. >> it is. >> reporter: julia baird is lennon's half sister. what do you think this place meant to john? >> i think it meant an awful lot to him. the first thing that we know, which he wrote about, was strawberry field. the song is describing how he would come here. so it was obviously a place of importance to him. >> reporter: for decades, beatles fans have come here to take pictures of the famous red gates, but the gardens were overgrown. the victorian home empty, damaged by fire. now, lennon's playground has been reborn. let me take you down to the new strawberry fields, open to the public for the first time, where fans can follow the beatles' footsteps. this place, which was such an

inspiration to a young john lennon, is now part museum, part meditation space, and much more. a place where young adults with learning disabilities are taught life skills. >> i've done new things, bigger things that i've never done before. >> you feel like john lennon's presence is here around the building, making your confidence grow. >> reporter: it all works out in a way john lennon the boy, playing in these fields, could never have imagined. kelly cobiella, nbc news, liverpool. >> kelly, thanks. the new strawberry fields will officially open tuesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. and it's perhaps the biggest reason joe biden might survive the wounds of the 2020 battlefield and emerge with the democratic nomination. next, the new evidence this morning helping biden's cause. s morning helping biden's uscae. ♪ (dramatic orchestra) performance comes in lots of flavors.

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now to 2020 and a new poll showing how big a threat michael bloomberg could be to the president's re-election bid. the poll put bloomberg six points ahead of the president in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. elizabeth warren, bernie sanders and joe biden also leading president trump by between four and six points each. and the margin of error, of course, 3% there. joining us now is progressive commentator and radio talk show host rashad richey and daniel strauss back with us from chicago.

guys, good morning again. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> okay, so, rashad, do these numbers help bloomberg's case to democrats for getting into the race? because if you also look at the other numbers, he has the highest unfavorability rating at 25% of all the dems. >> yeah. nobody's checking for bloomberg to run for president. and when you look at the numbers of him polling at 6% in a head-to-head matchup against president trump, that's not a great number because similar polling data shows that biden is actually 17 points ahead of trump in a head-to-head matchup and then sanders is 15 points ahead of trump. so when you look at the comparative data, bloomberg is actually the low tier in the field, and this guy is a former republican, a white male billionaire running in a progressive atmosphere of democratic politics. he has absolutely no chance to win the democratic nomination for president. >> okay. that's a statement from rashad there. daniel, how significant is it

that bloomberg appears stronger? do you buy what rashad is saying here from your reporting? >> i mean, look, if you look at that poll, there is a confidence among the electorate that a more moderate candidate is more competitive against president trump. at the same time, though, you have to factor in that bloomberg's name i.d. is relatively low. warren and sanders have been in the race for much longer. they have grown their name i.d. and vice president biden as well. at the same time, though, the fact that biden is still polling pretty close to president trump in this poll could indicate a question about his viability in this primary, and that bloomberg is a relative unknown gives voters the opportunity to think that he can be the viable candidate that seems to be missing from this race. >> rashad, can bloomberg pull

this off without going to those first four states and just pumping his own money into later states for super tuesday? >> well, he can mathematically, but once again, i don't think that will happen. but mathematically, based on how the delegate count works for the democratic primary, he does have a roadmap to actually pull it off, but he still has to win the heart, the mind, the soul of the individual democratic voter. and while we're looking at national polling as it relates to the democratic primary, democratic primaries are not national contests. they are done state to state, caucus to caucus. and when you look at the breakout for state to state, he still doesn't fair well. and you have to look at the outside of this. yeah, he is a viable candidate in a general election. he at least seems to be competitive, but he has to make it out of the democratic primary first, and that's the election he has to secure. >> well, rashad, bloomberg's adviser is telling politico the

shift in this electability question in the general is certainly behind bloomberg's interest in joining the race. and he said, "the data shifted after impeachment. democrats were always focused on electability, but after ukraine that impulse became even stronger. and the current field is not well poised for success." how do you see it? >> well, 97% of democratic voters say that it is very important or extremely important to defeat donald trump. so, the electability argument is primary in this debate. but outside of that, you can't throw away the electability argument totally. there are some who are saying we don't care, we just want someone who excites us, who motivates the base. where did the electability argument even start? well, it started in the early 1970s with senator mcgovern. senator mcgovern was the democratic party nominee. he ran on an antiwar platform. he excited the base. democrats were happy that he was in it, that he was the nominee.

he represented the progressive agenda of the democratic party. well, in 1972, when that progressive senator mcgovern went to a general election against nixon, nixon mopped the floor with this guy in 49 states. he won 49 states against mcgovern, and it is to this day the largest electoral and popular vote victory in the history of the united states. so you can't throw away the argument of electability totally, but i don't think you need to lead with it either. >> okay. so, daniel, maybe can't lean on it entirely here, but the monmouth electability ratings we have here dropped after biden, warren and sanders. so i want to ask you about these numbers. do other candidates still at this stage have a shot to break into that top tier for the perception of electability? i mean, is there a shot here? i know we have a couple more debates to go before the end of the year, but what does your reporting tell you? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, what we've seen from these debates is that a breakout

moment can be a game-changer. it can shift a candidate from the lower tier of the primary to the very head of the pack. all you need is just a good moment in one of these upcoming debates, maybe the one in atlanta or the one in december hosted by politico, where there is an opportunity to prove that, somehow, if you're any of these candidates, you have an argument, you have a view of the case that can appeal to voters and counter donald trump. >> all right. daniel strauss, rashad richey, thank you guys. >> thanks. >> thank you. new hope for an american kidnapped in iran more than a decade ago. is he any closer to being released? hane y closer to bein released ♪oh there's no place like home for the holidays.♪

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that's verizon. new today there's confusion over the fate of an american man missing in iran since 2007. the case involves robert we voin who disappeared working as a private contractor on an

unauthorized cia mission. he was facing charges there. levinson's family reacted with optimism asking for more information and saying they welcome iran taking the first step to end their 12 year nightmare. but today iran's foreign ministry now says the case does not involve criminal charges, it's merely a missing persons case, quote opened on the basis of goodwill and humanityian issues. joining me now to discuss this is columnist and member of the editorial board of bloomberg. bobby, what does this development in the last 24 hours mean? >> well, it seems that the iranian regime is of two minds whether or not to admit this person is in their custody. yesterday it seemed like after years and years of denying it they seemed to acknowledge they have him and he was being tried and today they are once again stepping back to say, it's a missing persons case.

they are leaving ambiguity about whether he's actually in an iranian prison. this is not untypical of the iranian regime. trying the to have their cake and eat it too. they are dangling the possibility that they have him and that they may be willing to make a deal over robert levinson, but at the same time giving themselves plausible deniability to say we never said we had him. >> last week the u.s. government as a whole rose the reward to $20 million for information and u.s. calling on iran to discuss any potential prisoner swap through diplomatic channels. what do you know as to what's happening behind-the-scenes here? >> to be honest i have no special information about what's going on behind-the-scenes. but there's a formula for this. there's been an international a tradition of countries exchanging captured spies, we remember many, many instances of

this during the cold war between the soviet union and the united states. there's a tradition of this. and there's also a form you go through in order to make these exchanges possible. in this case there's a complication that the united states does not have the diplomatic presence in iran and therefore an intermediate yery probably be the swiss would be used. there was a video released a couple of years after he was originally taken showing him alive. he was holding a placard saying help me. it was very clear that he had been taken by a group and was being held captive. but the iranian government cannot bring itself the to say openly they have him. makes negotiation more complicated. not impossible but more complicated. >> how do you interpret the optimism coming from the levinson family. there's so much hope for more information here.

we know there's at least four other americans in detention in iran and you see the trump administration making some of this more of a priority, pompeo talked a little bit about it recently. how do you interpret what the administration is doing here versus past administrations? >> well, there are two aspects to this. for the family you can only feel enormous sympathy for their situation. they've not known for a while now whether their father and brother is alive or not. and so any indication that he might, indeed, be alive would be reason to have hope and we can only sympathize and hope with them that this is the beginning of the end of a long trauma for them. from the u.s. administration's point of view, well again there's a tradition of these kinds of exchanges. after the signing of the nuclear deal in 2015 with iran, there

was a release of some americans, dual nationals that were being held in iran. the other four, iran has acknowledged they have them and has actually the iranian foreign minister in new york earlier this year openly suggested that he would be willing to talk about a deal, an exchange of some kind. iran wants a deal from the u.s. it wants first and foremost release from economic sanctions, but there may be other demands lower than that threshold that it could put in exchange for its hostages. >> thank you for your perspective this morning. the republican wish list of impeachment witnesses, there's a sharp response this morning from the lead democrat. one word in particular stands out. that's next. from managing inventory...

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