daughter with down syndrome, you're appreciating everything about them and the special quality that they bring to a family. >> it sounds like you've gotten a lot out of it. >> yeah absolutely, a ton. it's changed my life. every meeting i've went to, i learned something new. these guys are like my brothers, my best friends. it's good to go through life with friends like that. >> you can watch the full series at today.com. that's going to do it for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning. >> i love that story. >> thank you. >> one of my best friends is a young man named joshua who has down syndrome and he is so cool. thank you for bringing that. appreciate that. hello. right now must see tv as eight more blockbuster witnesses prepare to testify in the open impeachment hearings this week. president trump reportedly rages against his secretary of state and hints he might be open to answering the committee's

questions. >> he should not frivolously throw out insults, but that's what he does. i think part of it is his own insecurity as an imposter. i think he knows full well that he's in that office way over his head. >> leader of the pack? mayor pete buttigieg surges ahead in the latest iowa poll, but does he have what it takes to beat president trump? >> what we've seen is that our message is gaining traction with people across the state of iowa who are concerned about the future of this country. >> and campaign clout. lingering questions about those back to back losses after president trump went all in on candidates for governor. is it a warning for republicans in 2020? >> the headlines the next day, trump took a loss. you've got to give me a big win please, okay? okay?

♪ hello. i andrea mitchell is on assignment. we begin today with more high drama in washington. president trump throwing house democrats a curve ball by hinting he might be willing to take spoke espeaker pelosi up o offer to make his case to the impeachment committee, tweeting this morning he will strongly consider testifying for the inquiry, potentially in writing. that before this week's tsunami of testimony including what is expecting to be gripping accounts from jennifer williams and lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. two key witnesses already taking heat from the president. then on wednesday ambassador gordon sondland, the trump donor

and ally who finds himself at the center of the case unfolding against president. interesting new reporting on the state of the trump/pompeo relationship. let's start with the surprise from president trump this morning, but i'm guessing democrats aren't holding their breath that he would actually show and answer questions. >> reporter: you're right. democrats are not holding their collective breaths and they'd be wise not to. we have not encountered a house democrat today who takes this offer from president trump seriously. president trump now offering to testify in his own impeachment hearing responding to house speaker nancy pelosi's offer for him to come present his case. it was just last year that president trump repeatedly offered to testify before robert mueller investigators. after months of negotiations, that entire thing fell apart with president trump deciding to answer a limited series of questions in writing. house democrats are now questioning the veracity of

those answers. i think the view from house democrats right now is that if president trump wants to be helpful, if he's serious about that, then he should let folks like mick mulvaney, rick perry, john bolton come and testify and he should direct the state department to turn over hundreds of pages of documents that house investigators have been trying to get for weeks now. >> here's the thing, obviously. he always thinks he's his own best messenger. what about the testimony coming up this week, president trump on the attack against alexander vindman and jennifer williams. what are we expecting? >> reporter: she is a state department employee who was assigned to be on vice president mike pence's national security detail. this week, yes, i think we can expect president trump, administration officials to try to continue to attack the credibility of the witnesses.

republican lawmakers might try to attack the relevance of the testimony, but they have a much harder lift this week than last week. look at the schedule for tomorrow. you have three trump administration officials who were on that call in question. that's jennifer williams, alexander vindman and tim morrison. they all listened in on that july 25th call and all of them based on their testimony reacted with different degrees of disapproval. jennifer williams said that president trump's request of his ukrainian counterpart, she said it was unusual and inappropriate. tim morrison was afraid that if the summary of that call had been leaked, that it would be politically damaging. then you have lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who flagged the national security council lawyer not once but twice because he was so alarmed and so disturbed by what he was seeing. gordon sondland is the wildcard in all of this, set to testify on wednesday because neither democrats nor republicans know precisely what he'll say, but

both sides know he is a key player in this entire ukrainian gambit. >> carol, you have this great new reporting on the first sign of friction between the president and mike pompeo, who is heading to the white house today. give us the broad strokes and more on this key piece that trump particularly blames pompeo for tapping ambassador bill taylor in june to be the tom u.s. diplomat in ukraine. >> president trump hinted at that publicly a couple of weeks ago when he spoke to reporters on the south lawn before departing the white house where he said, you know, everyone makes mistakes, pompeo made a mistake and he called bill taylor a never trumper. we learned the frustrations are deeper than that. the president has really blamed pompeo for hiring a number of officials who he sees as trying to take down his presidency. he's been frustrated with the

secretary's ability to stop these folks from testifying. we're told that on october 29th the president and secretary had lunch at the white house and the president showed up quite angry and confronted him about this. pompeo's response was basically there's a lot of people that work at the state department, i don't know half of these people, i can't control everything. we're told two conflicting things about where they stand now. one person said they kind of patched things up in that lunch. another person said they actually haven't, that pompeo still remains, quote, unquote, iced out. as somebody put it to us, in trump world once there's a crack in the relationship, it's really hard to repair. >> joining me barbara mcquaid, ned price and matt miller.

great to have all of you here. barbara, you're a law professor going on here, but if you're the president's attorney and make the leap that he would actually listen to counsel and he says, look, they're all lying about me, i want to testify, i'm the person who can best speak to my own defense. on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being a brilliant idea, where does this idea rank? >> this is a negative 10. i think it would be disastrous for president trump to come testify and i think he won't. i think this is just a bluff. he said before, look, america, i'd love to talk to robert mueller but my lawyers won't let me. i don't think he wants to come in and testify. he'll be tripped up on his own contradictions. he can be asked about things beyond the skocope of what he wants to talk about. >> does he understand that he is contradicting himself? he doesn't seem to when it

happens. >> i think this is his m.o. he sticks to simple phrases like no quid pro quo, beautiful call, perfect call and those kinds of things. but when you are under oath and taking questions and being cross examined, those things aren't going to fly. and i think his lies would be exposed to the american public. so i predict with 100% certainty that he will not testify. >> so assuming this all is kind of a head fake, he wants us talking about this instead of the other stuff, he knows there's blockbuster testimony ahead starting tomorrow morning. he's already going on offense ahead of this public hearing with jennifer williams and alexander vindman. >> that's right. there are eight witnesses this week, eight potential opportunities to unveil even more damning evidence against president trump. one it was tomorrow, lieutenant colonel alex vindman. then on wednesday we'll hear

from ambassador gordon sondland, someone i would highlight for his uncertainty. lieutenant colonel vindman is the director on the national security council staff for ukraine, meaning he is the person charged with essentially knowing everything that's going on with the u.s. government vis-a-vis ukraine. so this is someone who has been at the center of this. this is someone who has reported those concerns twice and someone who certainly comes with a lot of background he will share with congress and the american people tomorrow. of course, the big show will be ambassador gordon sondland on wednesday. that comes with a lot of uncertainty because we're not sure which gordon sondland will show up. will it be the gordon sondland who gave an account to congressional investigators that he really had no idea this was about the bidens, he really didn't know what burisma meant. or will it be the gordon sondland who since has shown a different tune, first revising

his statement. there are gordon sondland's fingerprints on a lot of e-mails suggesting that maybe he's starting to prime the pump for an appearance where he's a bit more forthcoming and he is willing to say things that president trump himself may not find all that helpful. >> we all know he changed his testimony in the first place because other people were coming out contradicting it. on one side we have president trump and house republicans executing a strategy on the president's behalf. then we're going to talk a little bit more about that later in the show. i want to ask you about the other side, adam schiff and the democrats. how do they need to approach tomorrow and specialgordon sond unpredictable testimony on wednesday to sort of get the maximum bit of story telling and sort of get their point across? >> i think for all the witnesses except for gordon sondland, they have a very easy job which is just to get out of the way and let the witnesses tell their stories like they did with the hearings last week. all these witnesses have

incredibly powerful stories to tell and they all bring in years and years of experience not serving president trump but serving the country. they should let the facts speak for themselves. adam schiff and the majority members and the council have done a good job at eliciting stories from witnesses so far and i expect they will this week. with gordon sondland it's a different approach. it's a big question about which gordon sondland shows up to this testimony. the gordon sondland who testified behind closed doors, it's clear he was still trying to protect the president. he said on a number of occasions he pretended not to know things that any witness in reality would remember. you don't forget your conversations with the president of the united states. or he said things that were contradicted by future witnesses. if sondland is going to come in and continue to try to protect the president, i think he'd be better off taking the fifth and not showing up. he's shown in previous testimony

he is not a nimble enough witness to come forward and try to remember which story he's going to stick with. he's going to make another mistake and he's going to find himself deepening the hole he's already in. i think the democrats have a pretty strong case that he made a false statement to the committee once. he would be very wise not to do that again. >> this isn't your typical hearing where you have 5 minute republican and democrat back and forth. now you have at these hearings both daniel goldman for the majority, steve castor for the republican minority. they've been in the spotlight with varying degrees of success during these initial questioning sessions. what are you going to be watching for from both of these men specifically? >> i think as ned mentioned, what dan goldman did so effectively last week i think is

in a very workmanlike fashion is hit some of the highlights presented in the deposition testimony and really let the words come out of the witnesses' mouths themselves. the one to watch is gordon sondland who might be more of a hostile witness. we'll have to wait and see. >> we've got a lot of tv viewing this week. thank you. appreciate it. coming up, pete the one to beat? mayor pete buttigieg surging to the top of the democratic pack in iowa but he is the party's best bet to beat president trump. e party's best bet to beat president trump. when you move homes, you move more than just yourself.

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go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. on the ground for weeks i've been feeling that there's more and more support. i've been feeling momentum. so it's great to see that feeling validated in some of the numbers, but we're not getting carried away by a poll result. i know we've got the biggest hills to climb right ahead of us

and we'll stay disciplined and focused. >> pete buttigieg acknowledging his breakout from the democratic pack in iowa according to a new poll. just 2 1/2 months before the iowa caucuses, buttigieg is pulling 25% support among prospective caucus goers. what will it mean as the candidates face off in their next debate right here on msnbc this wednesday? steve kornacki is here at the big board. these polls fascinate me, because you see just how volatile, first of all, things are. how much people are willing to listen and adjust their point of view. tell me how you see it and what it means. >> volatile i think is the keyword. obviously this headline this weekend in iowa, pete buttigieg la leading in that poll.

here are the two questions for buttigieg that this races. number one is, is he peaking too soon, can he hang onto this lead. take a look at the recent history of candidates who have led in the des moines register poll at this point. how did they end up doing in the caucuses. last time out hillary clinton led in the des moines register poll around now and that matched the final outcome. in fact, the numbers were almost identical. in 2018 barack obama had a small lead. he was in the high 20s. he ended up winning the caucuses with 37.5%. the cautionary note, though, is the race that may have the strongest parallels to this year, the 2004 democratic race. that's a race where that word volatile really applied. you had a bunch of democratic candidates. you did not have a front runner. richard agagephart won the poll.

that's the cautionary note for buttigieg. a volatile race in the past still had a lot of flux to come after this point. the other question for buttigieg is, if he does hold the lead in iowa, can he build on a win in iowa because this is a big problem for him when you get beyond iowa and new hampshire, two states with largely white electorates. in south carolina he is still in single digits there. he has not shown any ability to increase his support with african-american voters. that would have to change if he would win iowa and try to win the nomination from there. >> joining me now two former congressmen from the state of new york and kimberly atkins. so much to talk about. what do you make of mayor pete's

surge? he has 20 field offices. he has more than 100 staff so he's really well organized there. is he catching on in a race right now that's pretty volatile? is this a sign of the fact that he's well organized? >> what i think the poll says is that it's anyone's game. i think pete buttigieg is demonstrating that he's surging there. he's probably going to invest a lot more there now because he sees this as his opportunity to really rise in the field itself. but it's still biden, warren, buttigieg. amy klobuchar from the midwest is having appeal. >> even if he doesn't win iowa or new hampshire, they're playing the long game. he's still ahead when voters in iowa are asked who can beat trump. why hasn't biden been able to replicate his national lead in

iowa or new hampshire? >> biden remains at the lead of almost every national poll of the democratic electorate. let me just build on something that steve just said. being at the top of a poll doesn't count as much as staying at the top of a poll. steve took us through those volatile numbers. 2011, one year before the 2012 election, do you know who was leading in virtually every poll of the republican primary electorate? herman kaine. 2008, do you know who was leading in almost every reason poll one year away from the election? rudy giuliani. we all know who rudy giuliani is now, but how many of us remember that he was leading the republicans in november of 2007. >> you could also make an argument that there was a point at which early on when donald trump took the lead, people said it's early, this is going to

change, this is a flash in the pan. and he's president of the united states. >> well, that's exactly right because these moments change. at a certain point you do have to establish that traction. now, i think buttigieg has the ability to establish that traction. he's an appealing candidate. i think he wins in those battleground states and counties. as you just pointed out earlier, there's a lot of twists and turns been hei before he's able establish that foothold. >> michael bloomberg did some backtracking on stop and frisk. he apologized yesterday. take a look. >> i didn't understand that back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and latino communities. i now see that we could and should have acted sooner and acted faster to cut the stops. but i can't change history.

however, today i want you to know that i realize back then i was wrong and i'm sorry. >> is that going to work for him? i mean, he can say he didn't understand but anybody who lived in new york at that time or anybody who can gaooogle the st and frisk policy knows that there was controversy about the disproportionate impact. i think in the end what they found was that the stop and frisk actually found more people who were caucasian had actually done something wrong than people of color. having said that, did he help himself the there are and is th chance he can make inroads in the black community even given that history? >> i think it's way too early to tell. he made this speech because he had to immediately after he started making inrouds in thads

race. the people in the back community knew his policy about stop and frisk and it was a nonstarter for them. he thought at the time he was doing right. not only was the policy found to be ineffective, it was found to be unconstitutional and he supported it anyway. he is changing his mind now right before a presidential run where he knows as a democrat he would need significant support from communities of color. he got a tepid response in that church. i think we might expect a tepid response from voters as well. >> the fact that he's considering getting in and the fact that deval patrick is considering getting in. which brings us to wednesday night's debate. what are you going to be watching for because another big opportunity i think clearly pete buttigieg helped himself with his debate performance the last time around. what are you looking for this time?

>> i think all kweyes will be o pete buttigieg and whether he'll be attacked. i think joe biden, whether he can rebound or not, where elizabeth warren can continue the surge she's been experiencing. about mike bloomberg, in the end he did do the right thing. whether or not it's enough to move this forward, he was a good mayor and i think at the end he did the right thing unlike the guy in the white house today. >> steve, what are you looking for on wednesday? >> buttigieg is going to be attacked. when biden had the lead, they attacked him. when kamala harris had the lead, then they attacked her. then warren had the lead. they all attacked her. can he withstand those attacks and create momentum going into the next debate. >> i guess part of the equation is because we're talking about iowa and new hampshire, when you look at these early states what are they going to be looking for, what are the voters there

looking for? i'm interested in your take on what you're looking for and what you think we might see on wednesday night. >> yeah. i think i'm going to be watching joe biden most of all. i think all the movement in recent weeks is about joe biden, the fact that we have these two new more moderate candidates getting into the race, the fact that donors and others seem to be worried about whether he can carry that baton over the finish line. i think he needs to give a really strong performance or else you'll see him continue to lose support to people like pete buttigieg. i think that's the key here. he really needs a very strong performance in order to quell some of these concerns. >> be sure to join us wednesday night 9:00 p.m. eastern for the democratic debate hosted by msnbc and the "washington post,"

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you got to get your friends, you got to vote, because if you lose, it sends a really bad message. you can't let that happen to me! trump took a loss. i lift him up a lot. so trump took a loss. so you've got to give me a big win, please, okay? okay? >> well president trump today facing questions after he made that big play. three republicans running for governor, he ba he backed. two of them lost big including in kentucky. big losses may have candidates reconsidering if he can deliver votes in big races. president trump visited louisiana three times, twice in

ten days to campaign for the republican including those two rallies leading up to the votes. john bell edwards won anyway. after republican matt bevin lost in kentucky, the president's allies tried to paint it as an anomaly. >> they follow with the sort of bevin was unpopular and the dynamics on the ground were not in republicans' favor because of that unpopularity. the president came in basically saying hey, this is about supporting me. you don't want to disappoint me. you don't want to let me down. so with that as the backdrop going into that election and the same is true with louisiana, voters had a different view of it. and where the difference was made was in the suburbs where democrats have been making very, very strong inroads in capturing

a lot of those center right votes that republicans certainly could count on and independent voters would often deliver. so it changes the dynamics going into future elections over the next year quite a bit. a lot of republicans, to your point, are asking is this a bell cow or is this an anchor around my neck? >> one thing we know for sure that you've pointed out, if you look at new orleans, if you look at louisville, if you look at lexington suburbs, those are the places that went for the democrat. >> it's true that president trump continues to be able to gin up republican turnout. the trouble for republicans is he does even more to gin up democratic turnout. in louisiana in particular, democratic base voters in the big cities out in bigger

numbers. and in those suburban counties, moderate white voters who republicans have been able to claim in some past elections turning out and voting for the democrat. now, in both these cases, in kentucky and louisiana, you had moderate democrats, democrats that were suitable for the red states in which they were running. that said, they defied the president these white suburban voters many of whom voted for him last time around. >> i thought it was really interesting to hear what john bell edwards said when he gave his acceptance speech. >> our shared love for louisiana is always more important than the partisan differences that sometime s divide us. and as for the president, god bless his heart.

>> god bless his heart, michael. >> god bless his heart. yeah that's the wonderful southern clapback that says, okay, how you like me now. >> yeah. >> i think what the governor said cannot be lost in where the electorate is, not just in louisiana, not just in kentucky but i think across the country. and it is an ace card for democrats, i think, that there is a stronger appeal for this idea of creating a different space than the one we're in of sort of bringing these parties together, solving our political differences without acrimony and without the kind of personification of one individual. >> i'm going to take that a step further because i think what i

keep hearing on the campaign trail is people are exhausted and they're tired of looking at you and saying and you're the one who's making me exhausted. >> i think that's right. >> i think they're also tired of nothing ever seeming to get done on issues that they care about. like we have another shooting today, another shooting that's taken american's lives. the number one issue people care about in every poll is health care. when they look at the debate going on in washington and elsewhere and they don't see things getting done that help them, that is not a good feeling for voters. >> i want to ask you really quickly because the president backtracked on the plan he said he had to ban the sale of most of those flavored e-cigarettes because vaping among young people is such a problem. was that a political move? was it a smart political move? >> it pthe policy changes on a .

the president announced they had prepared the decision paper the night before they were going to formally roll it out, he decided against it because he had warnings that it could hurt his reelection chances in some battleground states. >> what do you make of it? >> not to make more of it than we need to but it's, again, one of those narratives. this is an issue that is killing a lot of young suburban kids or creating real health concerns for their moms, who are those white suburban females that we're talking about. so to the extent that the president has backed off on a policy issue that they thought he would step to the table on their behalf around, yeah, that's going to cause them to look again. it's not going to be dispositive by any measure. but i think to susan's point

they're looking for more than something other than being tired with the president. coming up on defense, how republicans are trying to protect president trump as we head into another week of impeachment testimony. e head into another week of impeachment testimony. i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424.

if gordon sondland says the president told him condition aid

to ukraine on investigating the bidens, are you going to say that he's wrong, that he's lying? >> i know you've been asking and others have asked hypothetical questions. let's talk in reality. why don't we look at the three witnesses who actually did testify this week. all three were asked did you see any impeachable offenses, any bribery? not one of those things were mentioned. >> sir -- >> that's congressman steve scalise playing defense for president trump. what he does not mention is that the witnesses called in the open impeachment hearings are not asked to comment about whether they observed crime, only to state the facts they witnessed. joining me now, author of the "washington post" power up newsletter and heidi przybyla. president trump tweeted about scalise's appearance on fox. he wrote steve scalise blew the nasty and obnoxious chris wallace away on chris's lowest

rating morning show. this kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the fox news past. great job, steve. is this the explanation they're going to stick with, the other side is mean and unfair? >> we keep seeing republicans switch up their defenses on a consistent basis especially as more and more testimonies and private depositions become public. i think that this has always been a sure fire strategy for the president to attack the media and attack democrats and to play along those partisan lines. but you're also going to see republicans this week attempt to front a few other defenses, which is attacking the key witness at the center of the impeachment inquiry here, which is gordon sondland, who's going to be testifying on i believe wednesday. sondland has really become the linchpin, the direct connection

to trump. you heard people like tim morrison, a former national security council staffer who's also going to be republicans' star witness even say that sondland spoke with the president dozens of times, acted at the behest of the president. sondland has some credibility issues republicans are going to be sure to high height. we're going to keep seeing republicans try to shift the goal post here but one thing that will remain consistent is the president attacking the media. >> congressman jim jordon was also on the sunday talk shows. take a listen to what he said. >> most importantly the ukrainians did nothing as far as investigations goes to get the aid released. there was never this quid pro quo that the democrats all promise existed before president trump released the phone call. >> they got the aid, nothing to see here. having said that, clearly this dart board like onslaught of defenses isn't working great because there's a new abc poll

out this morning that shows 70% of americans think what trump did was wrong and more than half think he should be removed from office. >> and that argument that representative jordan just made is about to get blown out of the water because based on reporting gordon sondland was overheard by aides who are already testifying that this was a quid pro quo and that the president was pushing these investigations and that it seemed like zelensky had acquiesced to it. but what happened was the whistleblower report came out and the whole thing blew up. that's point number one. point number two, this hearsay argument that they are arguing is also going to blow up because that is the whole point of the order of the witnesses, is that the people that we've heard from so far were pushed aside. they were the formal people who should be representing the united states' interests and they were pushed aside so that gordon sondland, who was now directly communicating with the president on his cell phone,

could execute this shadow foreign policy. republicans are also arguing and ads that are being dropped into vulnerable democratic districts that this is a way of undoing the election. >> let me stop you there. as you probably know, the american action network is putting $7 million into an ad blitz in 37 districts where they think that it could make a difference. they clear ly think that the witch hunt argument can be a strong one for them in some of these vulnerable republican districts. >> you know, with the trump base it probably will be a strong one. the trump base is getting its information from select sources. they're never going to be watching the whole hearing and channel surfing and hearing the full extent of what is being testified to. they're just seeing the characterizations being fed to them in the conservative media. that said, i do think there are

a number of educated republicans in these districts who are also paying attention. and i interviewed many of them. the reason why they for the first time voted for a democrat in some of these districts is specifically because they wanted a check on president trump and they are paying attention. it's unclear exactly how this is going to shake out in the end. the democrats are clearly calculating that the more coverage they get out, the better, because these witnesses are all corroborating each other. coming up, all politics are local. the new nbc news series "county to county" focusing on crucial counties that could determine the 2020 election. our first stop kent county, michigan, next. ent county, michigan, next when did you see the sign?

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tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. michigan all of a sudden seems to have come into play here. people here say that in western michigan, which is where grand rapids is, you're absolutely right that the hillary clinton campaign had to come in here. yesterday, donald trump made one of his final stops here. grand rapids, all of a sudden, is on the map, with regards to this election campaign. >> that was a little 2016 throwback from michigan. nbc news is on to a new series. over the next year, we're going to give you an on-the-ground perspective from key counties in

the crucial swing states, counties that could decide the election. mar ikoba. and beaver county, pennsylvania. and miami-dade and kent count, michigan. we're talking to, i guess you would call they reluctant voters. what are you hearing? >> reporter: yeah, that is exactly right. that's exactly why kent county is so important to watch in 2020. going back to 2016, donald trump did win this county. but he won it by a much smaller margin than mitt romney back in 2012. it's because of a different republican voter. grand rapids where we are right now, this is the hometown of gerald ford. he's that traditional moderate that a lot of people around here subscribe to. lifelong republican voters say

they look at the republican party today and don't recognize it as the party they grew up with. they're conflicted with what they're doing in 2020. and some have said they would actually consider voting for ail democrat. listen to what we heard. how long have you identified as a republican? >> i don't anymore. as trump was getting more and more popular. i kind of looked around and said this is not the republican party that i recognize or want to be a part of. >> this shift in the party where does it leave you? >> politically homeless. >> could you see yourself voting for a democrat in 2020? >> yes. >> reporter: people say whether or not they do vote for a democrat in 2020 will heavily depend on who that nominee actually is. you better bet these folks will be watching this primary and debate on wednesday closely, chris. >> let me ask you about the 2018 election, most people were telling me, i'm worried about jobs. i'm worried about guns. all of those things.

2019, more and more people that i talked to were really tuned into the impeachment process. >> reporter: yeah. i have to say, we were pretty surprised by what we found here. we asked voters about impeachment. voters from across the political spectrum. we went down to the farmers market. we went down to main street. we in people's homes. i sort of expected what you mentioned earlier in 2018 that voters are interested in issues that impact them. they want to put food on the table, and people are doing those things but actually very engaged with the process. whether that's watching the hearings live or taping them or following headlines online. people are paying very, very close attention. now, the reactions to the impeachment inquiry, whether people think it's healthy or unhealthy for the country that varied. but pretty much across the board, chris, people were catching this very closely. >> thank you so much. coming up, house

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and that does it. i'm chris jansing, remember to follow the show online and on twitter. at andrea mitchell reports.

hi, everybody, it's monday, november eighth. coming up on this hour on "velshi & ruhle," another week of public impeachment hearings. we're talking eight witnesses in ten days. president trump says he'll consider testifying himself. plus, new polling out from iowa showing mayor pete buttigieg surging to the lead. gut he stand a chance against donald trump in a nationwide matchup? and hundreds remain trapped inside of hong kong. we're live with developments on the ground. a new key witness could be stepping into the impeachment hearings. president trump himself. speaker nancy pelosi suggested he testify during an interview she did on sunday. president trump took to twitter today and said he likes the idea and will strongly consider it. that would wildly change the course of the hearings. and we'll dig into that possibility in just a moment. >> as