but the news tonight is hill is revising this policy. they say they will update, an at a time or correct his writings as necessary which comes after public reporting and a lot of criticism. that does it for me. i'll be back at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. don't go anywhere, "hardball" starts now. witnesses for impeachment. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews from washington. this is the most consequential week in the impeachment hearings of president trump. there's a brigade of witnesses set to testify with firsthand experience or actually evidence that president trump tried to bribe the ukraine president into investigating his political rivals by withholding military aid. starting tomorrow, nine more witnesses will paint a picture for the american public of the president's interactions with ukraine. three of those witnesses were on

trump's july call with the ukrainian president. two others heard trump follow up on that phone conversation the day after, speaking from the white house to a kiev restaurant. and last week david holmes, a staffer to the u.s. embassy in ukraine told congressional investigators he overheard a phone call between u.s. ambassador to the eu gordon sondland and the president where the president asked sondland if ukraine would investigate the bidens. holmes testified that sondland testified that he's going to do it, saying president zelensky will do anything you ask him to. holmes raises the stakes even higher for wednesday morning's testimony from sondland himself who provides the direct link from president trump and the pressure to ukraine. tomorrow there is firsthand testimony from officials who were listening to that first july 25th call with the ukraine president. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman and national security council's top ukraine expert,

and jennifer williams, an aide to vice president pence. that will be an interesting witness. president trump attacked williams on sunday calling her a never trumper who he mostly never even heard of. in the transcript of her closed door testimony released on saturday, williams told investigators president trump's insistence on pushing political investigations during that 25th of july phone call seemed unusual and inappropriate. this is from a pence person. for more i'm joined by eric swalwell of california, a member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, it's great to have you on again on this eve of this week. >> thanks, chris. >> after all this sort of dodging and weaving by the republican members of committee arguing you don't have firsthand evidence, this week is all firsthand evidence. i've counted at least five people testifying this week who were on the phone listening to the president talk about this swap of dirt for u.s. military aid. >> chris, so far the evidence is uncontradicted that the president used taxpayer dollars

to ask the ukraines to help him cheat an election. the complaint that i've heard from the republicans all last week is that you don't have anyone who heard the call and you don't have anyone who talked directly to the president. this week, tomorrow, starting with tomorrow, we have three witnesses who actually heard the call. one witness thought it was inappropriate, another moved that call into a top-secret server because he thought it was a political liability and the third describes this is just not how a leader should conduct himself. and then as it relates to hearing president trump's wishes, ambassador sondland will testify on wednesday about what he said in his deposition, which is the president put everything on the line, that aid and the white house meeting was on the line unless the ukrainians investigated his political opponent. >> talk to me about three of the witnesses. first of all, there's jennifer williams who testified over the weekend. she works for the vice president, who's very loyal to this president. how do you think she will respond to questioning on television basically with her boss, the vice president of the united states, and the president of the united states who's

already begun to attack her now watching? >> it says a lot that she even showed up for her deposition despite the president asking people not to show up. she's very credible. she's one of these persons, chris, who you would be next to in the grocery store or sit next to on the subway and not appreciate how big of a role she plays to help her country. she did not sign up to come to congress and testify in this way, but she's going to honor her subpoena. she said in her testimony that what the president was asking of the president of ukraine was inappropriate. she's not going to be shaken by this president's intimidation. no one so far from the state department has been. >> let's talk about alexander vindman. when he showed up in his dress blues, even walking in to testify in the scif, this country was impressed. what will they think of this guy showing up in his dress blues as a serving officer in the u.s. military basically in the national security council testifying against this president? what's that going to be like? >> well, lieutenant colonel vindman is the story of america. he's an immigrant from ukraine,

left a corrupt soviet union, came to the united states, chased the promise of america, went to war on what of this country. was wounded in war and works in the white house today. he has unimpeachable credibility. just like others who heard this phone call, he was bothered by what the president wanted to do and he spoke up at the time and said something. >> let's talk about gordon sondland because i think he's going to be a problem for you guys. i wouldn't call him a hostile witness but he's a confused witness. i'm worried he's going to be lawyered up. he's constantly talking to his lawyer, both putting their hands over the microphone. i just can imagine. are you confident that he can tell a straight story having flipped from one side to the other about the president's role here? >> he has an opportunity to do that on wednesday, chris. i'll tell you, when i was a prosecutor and i sat down with homicide witnesses who were very reluctant to come in and told a different version before they were going to go tell the jury

what really happened, i'd tell them, look, it's never too late to do the right thing. and what you say on that witness stand will follow you for the rest of your life. if you're truthful, that will be liberating for you and the people that know you. if you're not truthful action you're going to have to answer for that. i see it as encouraging that ambassador sondland did update his testimony because it does align with what others say so i'll give him the sfipace to co forward and do the right thing. >> nobody has ever seen a president complete a basically impeachable act basically on television in realtime when he was being investigated on live television for impeachment. it's sort of a jack nicholson role we're not used to in the white house. what do you think he's doing to these witnesses this week coming up? what role do you think the president is playing actively in tampering with these witnesses? >> this is a crime spree in progress. we have what the president did,

what the ukrainians and his shakedown scheme of asking them to investigate his opponent. but he's obstructing congress' investigation, he's intimidating witnesses as they're testifying or in the case of miss williams this weekend, right before they testify. and, chris, if you're someone sitting at home wondering what does it mean, why should i care if he's intimidating them? it's this simple. innocent people do not intimidate witnesses. guilty people who are worried about what witnesses could say to harm them do. >> you're doing great work, congressman. u.s. congressman eric swalwell of california, member of the house intel committee. what a week you're going to have and we'll be covering it right through. >> thanks, chris. >> the impeachment inquiry is causing a riff between president trump and do you believe it mike pompeo, his own secretary of state. nbc news has learned that according to four current and former officials, trump has fumed for weeks that pompeo is responsible for hiring state department officials whose congressional testimony threatens to bring down his presidency. i'd be mad too actually. adding trump particularly blames pompeo for tapping ambassador

bill taylor in june to be the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. he's supposed to be better than yovanovitch for trump. he wasn't. today pompeo was asked why he wasn't defended state department officials who have testified, especially former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. >> the state department is fully supportive not only of what we've done but our ukraine policy moving forward. >> but no defense of your employees? >> i always defend state employees. it's the greatest diplomatic corps in the history of the world. very proud of the world. >> you said you talk about ukraine policy. i'm curious if you think ambassador taylor has been an effective envoy of that policy and if he's going to remain in his job. >> yeah, the state department is doing a fantastic job. i think we've delivered in a way that the obama administration has not delivered on ukraine. >> that was a flip in performance. i'm joined by nicholas burns, former u.s. ambassador to nato and advisor to the biden campaign. betsy woodruff swan, politics reporter for "the daily beast" and kim whaly, author of "how to

read the constitution and why." let me ask you all, congressman, ambassador, let me ask you about the witnesses we see. this jennifer williams coming out of nowhere from the vice president's office, from mike pence, the most embarrassingly loyal vice president i've seen in a long time and how he's testifying here now and officer vindman who was so impressive walking into the scif and imagine what he's like with a live audience and gordon sondland. tell us about the week as you see it. >> the pieces of the puzzle is coming together. jennifer williams is a state department officer, another foreign service officer just like masha yovanovitch. >> but she's detailed to the vice president. >> and works for the vice president. this weekend the vice president's office and the white house tried to say, oh, she's really a state person. she works for the vice president of the united states. she reports directly to him. and i think -- i admire her courage. >> so the veep can't fire her? >> well, the vice president could relieve anybody on his

staff and send them back to their departments, but i can't believe he would do that. she is showing a lot of courage and a lot of mettle. and she and vindman are in the white house. they saw this whole six month what i would think of an extortion conspiracy thing by rudy giuliani, they saw it all created. >> but she was also -- excuse me, she was listening on the phone july 25th. >> she was on the phone call. >> the infamous notorious phone call where the president said i want a favor from you, though, and she had a reaction to that which this is inappropriate and unusual. unusual and inappropriate she said. >> colonel vindman had the same reaction. so two people tomorrow who work in the white house and who had a highly negative reaction to what the president said because we've never heard an american president do anything like this. >> betsy, let's talk about -- how do you predict sondland will behave? he's been flipping around like a top, or spinning like a top.

will he come out for the prosecution here or for the defense? >> sondland is likely to have a very stressful day on capitol hill. remember, he's not someone who has a history of working in government. >> he's a hotelier. >> he supported trump's inaugural. >> do you think he paid a million bucks for this? >> i couldn't -- i could not allege a quid pro quo but we know throughout the way a lot of these diplomatic jobs get filled across administrations, there's preference given to donors. >> given a million. >> a million is a lot of money. it certainly seems to indicate that his friendliness or the white house's view of him as a political ally probably informed him getting that appointment. another thing that's important, though, is that the ambassadorship to ukraine under the trump administration has only been filled by career officials. i can tell you trump himself has long wanted to install someone more like sondland, somebody who is a political ally in that spot. people in trump's or about it

like rudy giuliani have looked for someone to put there. >> he bought his way into this ambassadorship. fair enough, it's been done before but now he finds himself in a stew. pulled in one direction by trump, who is basically his patron, and in the other way by the truth and the law and he's doing this in front of the entire country. >> well, and as congressman swalwell mentioned, the fact that he shifted his testimony the way he did is significant. i can imagine the tension in that conversation with his attorney where the attorney saw, had a sense of what the other witnesses were saying. we saw of course last week roger stone is going to jail for perjury, for obstruction of justice. so this is not an insignificant thing to make statements that later could be proven to be false. so he made that shift. my guess is, his lawyers are telling him stick with the new plan and actually tell the truth. >> a friend of mine once told me if you're not running for office again, take the fifth. that may be very cynical but

that is a small town narrow view of what a lawyer will tell you. in a big public world where your reputation is everything, is that the smart move on wednesday, just cover it up? what is the smart move? >> the smart move on wednesday and the pattern i think that we're seeing is to actually go in and tell it like it is. his name is peppered throughout the testimony already. we know from ambassador taylor that he spoke with the president on one occasion around september 1st. we also know now september 26th he -- or july 26th he had another conversation with the president. it's going to be very difficult for him to say i'm not part of this. >> speaking of the testimony the last couple of weeks, a new abc poll conducted over this weekend after the first week of testimony by state department people found that 70% of americans now say president trump's actions toward ukraine were wrong. 51% want him impeached and removed from office. so i think the witnessing worked. i think your colleagues at the state department were compelling enough to move this thing a

little further over toward action. >> you know, i think all of us in the foreign service were so proud of them because they did tell the truth, and they have deep substantive knowledge. i think they did two things, chris. they helped us to put this picture together, at least in its largest dimension, from the political standpoint. you know, what did the president know and what was he trying to do and does it reach the level of impeachment. but they also told us about the cost to our foreign policy, particularly george kent and masha yovanovitch. when they said, look, for 30 years since ukraine became independent, we've been trying to convince them not to be thugs, not to be authoritarian, not to go after their political enemies. what does rudy giuliani and the president do? they said go after our political enemies, in this case trump's enemy, joe biden. and i think we've lost our credibility when that happens, when we look like we're an authoritarian country. that's what this president looks like to people around the world. he's not supporting a democratic way of looking at things. >> well, that's what i think. >> i think it's really important.

there's almost two narratives here. one is a quid pro quo which we'll hear about this week and the other is this sort of side foreign policy that was at odds with official foreign policy towards ukraine, which is to build democracy. we have rudy giuliani on the side, a private citizen, outside the scope of the constitution, not accountable to congress, not accountable to the rule of law in the same way as federal officials basically taking steps that are at odds with what's best for america. >> it's called -- in philosophy it was the difference between commu commune afternoon justice and distribu distributeive justice. the two or three strong countries in the world, germany, russia or china now, they kicked the hell out of everybody. that seems what he wants to do. every state department person -- you know what his biggest knock on them is? i never heard of them.

like everybody is on on "apprentice." >> and yet they're people of deep, deep quality. >> this dynamic is something that's very clear to people in the zelensky administration. we've seen from some of these transcripts and conversations with sources that people who spoke with american diplomats in kiev raised the way that trump and guiliani were pressuring them and pointed to it when american official diplomats there tried to encourage the zelensky administration not to engage in political prosecutions. so this shift that you're pointing to, which is sort of broad and part of the administration, also has immediate identifiable impacts on the way the united states' relationships with these countries work. >> i think he's trying to turn us more into somalia than ambassador marie yovanovitch ever did. ambassador nicholas burns, thank you. betsy woodruff swan, thank you. kim whaley, thank you. from president trump's mouth to gordon sondland's ears.

the ambassador to the shakedown will be the first firsthand witness to give public testimony about the irregular channel with ukraine because he was on the phone with trump. trump says he hardly knows sondland, how convenient. but a witness says they have spoken half a dozen times recently. plus the president's short coat tails. his endorsed candidates are lost everywhere he goes. he's tie poyphoid mary. trump is losing big in the suburbs, even down south. we've got much more to get to tonight, stick with us. tonight, stick with us i do. check out the united explorer card. savin' on this! savin' on this! savin' in here. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." actually nearly every witness in the unfolding impeachment inquiry has singled out ambassador gordon sondland as a key link, the key link between the president and the scheme to trade arms for dirt in ukraine. in fact some of those witnesses' accounts have already prompted sondland to change his own testimony. as we said earlier this month, sondland admitted that he told a

ukrainian official that military aid would not resume unless they, ukraine, committed to investigations that trump wanted. now we're learning from a former national security official that throughout his work in ukraine, sondland maintained that he was acting on the president's behalf. according to the transcript of tim morrison's deposition released this weekend, sondland bragged that he could call the president whenever he wanted, adding that trump and sondland spoke approximately five times during the period that military aid to ukraine was frozen. morrison testified that sondland told him that his mandate from the president was to go make deals, and that the president was giving him instruction. additional emails obtained by "the wall street journal" show that sondland updated administration officials about the effort to secure the investigations on 2016 ukraine and of course biden and his son. before trump's july call with president zelensky sondland wrote chief of staff mick mulvaney and others saying zelensky will ensure trump that he plans to run a fully

transparent investigation and turn over every stone. i'm joined by josh ledderman and michael mcfaul. let me go to josh on this just to get this reporting done. he's the guy. >> yeah. i mean -- >> he's the guy that trump was using to work this deal. not a government guy, not a man schooled in the culture of the state department or government or public life or anything. he had another guy like him and he said i want you to take this project over. i want you to squeeze this guy, get some dirt i can use in the next election. >> the more witnesses that come forward, chris, the more we learn about how central of a role gordon sondland played in this. not only the fact that he had multiple conversations with president donald trump about investigations, about getting the ukrainians to make that statement about investigations into burisma but the fact that he spoke to the ukrainian leadership, to mr. yermak. he did not tell congress about --

>> small detail. >> small detail. >> i'm just teasing. let me go to the ambassador on this. ambassador mcfaul if you're a regular ambassador, you took the exam in your 20s, worked your way up to an ambassadorship and never had a conversation with the president. he said not only can i get him on the phone, i'll call him right now. i'm over in a kiev restaurant, whenever i want the president i can get him, i'm his guy. what's that do to you? i'd think that would push you out of the way. >> well, of course they didn't like the professionals so they had to reach out to this guy. i don't mean to call him this guy, ambassador sondland. it seemed like he was pretty proud of his role. think about it. he could have gone over to the embassy and made a secure call. that's what normal ambassadors would do. i think he was kind of showing off. say look, i just got the president on the phone. i just wanti to underscore how rare that was. i worked for the president three years at the white house, two years in moscow, i knew the

president well, president obama, and i never once called president obama on a cell phone or any other way. usually it's done in the context of policy making. so this was extremely unusual channel that president trump was using to do his, quote unquote, drug deal, as ambassador bolton called it in dealing with ambassador sondland directly. >> that's what it seemed like, a back alley deal. we've learned more about the relationship between the president and ambassador sondland from the embassy aide in ukraine who overheard one of their phone conversations. on friday david holmes told congress that sondland made clear that he had direct and frequent access to president trump and to chief of staff mick mulvaney. more damning sondland told holmes in july that the president only cares about big stuff that benefits himself, like the biden investigation that guiliani was pushing. that would appear to contradict sondland's earlier testimony that he didn't know that he was really pushing an investigation of the bidens because as he told congress, i never made the connection between burisma and

the bidens until the very end. you know, josh, this ignorance is no defense maybe here. what do you think? >> exactly when he put together that burisma equaled biden is going to be a critical date that democrats will push for, because he's maintained that it was only recently. even as he was pushing for these investigations, he never would have done that if he knew that we were talking about investigating the president's political opponent. >> is that plausible deniability or real deniability. >> it was only plausible before these other witnesses came forward and said actually in july, in august we heard ambassador sondland connect these two things. so now he either has to try to talk his way out of that somehow to say these people were lying or otherwise explain how these things can square with each other. >> well, ambassador, let me ask you about the way we're going to get this on wednesday because he's going to testify before the whole country and we'll be covering it live on msnbc, everybody else will do. this guy will have to face a reckoning in his life now, isn't he? this may be a psychological

question, but do you tell truth to power or power to truth like everybody else? he's still, i believe, ambassador, isn't he? >> he is. most certainly he's still serving as the ambassador but i think you just said it exactly right, chris. he's got to decide, everybody knows the facts. come on. we all know what happened. this notion that i didn't realize it was hunter biden's son, that is not credible, so i think he needs to decide is he just going to tell the truth and live with those consequences or is he going to continue to pretend? by the way, there's one other guy that is in the exactly the same dilemma and not getting enough attention in my view. it's ambassador kurt volker. he's one of the three amigos here, right? he's dealing with sondland in these negotiations and he knows ukraine. i know kurt personally well. he knows the facts, he knows what's going on. he also has to decide am i just going to tell it like it is and apologize to the american people that i went along with this drug deal or am i going to continue

to try to cover it up and say, well, we didn't really understand what was going on, because there's no way that ambassador volker doesn't know what was really happening. >> whatever they say about schiff and the scif, it was one way to get each one of these witnesses to speak without anybody else around. >> yeah, it was. >> there was no collaboration here. so they all get the chance, like in a police television show, "law & order" or something, they get them in the interrogation room basically and don't know what the other guy said about them but they damn well know what they have to do to defend themselves. >> and house democrats were very strategic not releasing the transcripts until they already had a lot of these folks testify so they could then compare these things and not have people inform themselves based on what other people had testified. but i talked to a trump administration official who's working on impeachment who said volker aside, gordon sondland is the one they are most concerned about because of the possibility that he will perjure himself and

they think that will reflect more on president trump than some of these other people. >> okay, you're the president of the united states, you're donald trump, which is the same thing now. >> right. but he's a political appointee. >> is he rooting for this guy to tell the truth or to lie? >> i think he has to be rooting for gordon sondland to say as little as humanly possible. >> i think danny goldman knows what he's doing. i'm betting on danny. this guy is my hero right now. i think danny will get the arns answers out of him. still ahead, a tortured defense. trump's allies were twisting themselves into knots this weekend trying to defend the president on impeachment. i don't know if you saw "meet the press." we've got the highlights and lowlights for you next on "hardball." e highlights and lowlights for you next on "hardball. 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand

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those individuals that leaked this, you know, if their interest was a stronger relationship with ukraine, they didn't accomplish this. having this all come out into public has weakened that relationship and has exposed things that didn't need to be exposed. this would have been far better off if we had taken care of this behind the scenes. >> well, that's one argument. welcome back to "hardball." as more witnesses testify and evidence against the president continues to build, republicans' defense of the president has become increasingly tortured. here was republican congressman jim jordan this weekend unable to answer if he thought the request for ukraine to investigate joe biden was appropriate or not.

>> are you comfortable with the investigation that was requested? >> the investigation that was requested -- look. >> the president spoke to gordon sondland about this request to have the bidens investigated. >> i thought we were supposed to be looking into potential impact on the 2016 election and foreign countries' involvement in the 2016 election so i'm comfortable with this. >> this is the 2020 election. does that make you comfortable? >> i don't think that's what took place here because there was never an investigation undertaken or an announcement -- >> but the request for one that was overheard and testified to. >> but it didn't happen. there's all kind of talk about things but it didn't happen. remember when this all happened -- >> and the attempt doesn't bother you? >> the democrats said there was a quid pro quo. the scary thing is the democrats have been out to get this president. >> well, that was a good interview. it wasn't successful, it was a good interview. i'm joined by juanita culver and matt gorman, former communications director for the national republican congressional committee.

juanita, it seemed to me that the interviewer there was trying to find out from a man who asked to get on the intelligence committee, he put himself on it, he wanted in the action and he was asked a central question. was it okay for our president to push the president of another country, ukraine, for dirt on a political opponent. >> seems like a yes or no question to me. >> he didn't have an answer. >> he couldn't answer it. it's something that many members of the gop can't answer because there's no way to refute the substance, there's for way to refute the information that witnesses, one after the other are coming forward and presenting, that trump asked a foreign government to not only interfere in our elections but dig up dirt on a political rival for his personal political gain. >> well, matt, 70% of the american people this way in a poll say that was wrong. they can disagree about the remedy. 51% want him out of office, that's a close call but the 70 is not a close call. most americans, more than the required two-thirds required to remove somebody from office think it was wrong for this president to basically shake down zelensky.

where are you on this question? on this question? >> you see them fight over the process. >> no, this question. are you okay about that shakedown? the question put to mr. jordan. i put to you. >> if it happened the way it happened, that's not appropriate, okay. >> okay. are you questioning all these witnesses? >> we're going to have a trial in the senate. we're going to see. i'm not going to prejudge this thing at all. we're in the middle of the process right now. we had the first week of hearings. we're in the second week. who knows what will happen beyond that. >> which of these witnesses do you disagree with because their testimony has come out -- >> it's not a matter of disagreement. it's about hearing all the witnesses, including the ones republicans have called. >> what would you like to hear from another witness to counter what you've heard already? >> again, it's going to depend. >> what would you like to hear to exonerate the president? >> they have to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. >> that's a hell of a statement. it needs to be a reasonable doubt. yesterday on fox news host chris

wallace didn't let steve scalise dismissing the witnesses who have testified so far. here's chris against scalise. >> a dozen people listened in on the phone call and a number of them were immediately upset because what the president said about burisma -- >> well, those were schiff's witnesses. >> no, sir, they're career foreign service officers. these are people who worked in the trump administration. >> they were schiff's witnesses. the inspector general said that the whistle-blower had political motivations. >> we're not talking about the whistle-blower. >> why don't we look at the three witnesses who actually did testify this week. all three of them were asked did you see any impeachable offenses? did you see any bribery? any of that? not one of those things were mentioned. not one person said they saw a crime committed. >> sir, with all due respect -- with all due respect that very badly mischaracterizes what they said. >> in response president trump tweeted that steve scalise blew the nasty and obnoxious chris wallace, will never be his father, mike, away on chris's

lowest rated, unless i'm on, morning show. this kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the fox news past. great job, steve. that was the president as umpire there. what did you think? >> nothing dumb and unfair. i think trump doesn't like that fox news has hosts on it -- >> chris works for fox broadcast network. >> i agree. >> he is one of the best out there on sunday morning. what do you think of the president jumping in there and attacking him saying he wasn't his father's son and this personal stuff? >> chris is a really good journalist. >> is this president a good president? >> it depends. i think he's done really good things. >> is he a good president? >> he's done a good thing on the economy and judges. >> we score presidents good or bad. is he good or bad? >> kids in cages, i think -- >> is he a true republican? you're a republican. >> i am a republican. >> where do you guys agree? i've always wondered how flexible this party has become.

you guys were for fiscal responsibility. the deficit is through the roof. you were free trade. i don't know what we are right now. >> look -- >> what do we do now? >> a couple things. i certainly agree with him on judges, certainly agree with him on taxes. >> how about russia? >> i think vladimir putin is an enemy of the country. mitt romney called him -- i worked for mitt romney. called him a geopolitical foe. democrats mocked him for that. i certainly believe vladimir putin is an enemy of the country. >> trump versus biden, who do you vote for? >> i haven't decided who to vote for. >> you'll pay for that over dinner tonight. a man who's not sure he's voting for trump after all this. up next, another embarrassing loss for trump. he's voting like louisiana. trump begged voters to support the republican candidate for

governor down in louisiana as he did in kentucky, with the same results. is this a sign of things to come in 2020? you hope not if you're trump. you're watching "hardball." you get straightforward advice, tailored recommendations, tax-efficient investing strategies, and a dedicated advisor to help you grow and protect your wealth. fidelity wealth management. why fingerstick when you can scan? with the freestyle libre 14 day system just scan the sensor with your reader, iphone or android and manage your diabetes. with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose levels any time, without fingersticks. ask your doctor to write a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us you can do it without fingersticks. as a doctor, i agree with cdc guidance. i recommend topical pain relievers first... like salonpas patch large. it's powerful, fda-approved

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with love, california. welcome back to "hardball." earlier today president trump called democratic governor john bel edwards of louisiana the democrat who won to congratulate him on his re-election this weekend. edwards got 51% of the vote, beating the president's endorsed candidate, eddie rispone. this is the latest in a string of electoral losses for the republicans, including kentucky and virginia already this last week. president trump has played an active role in all those races. he attended three rallies in louisiana alone. here he goes. >> the headlines the next day, trump took a loss. i lift them up a lot. so trump took a loss. so you've got to give me a big win, please, okay? okay? >> anyway, that's jimmy cagney

or somebody. according to politico, the louisiana race left trump with a black eye and intensified concerns from some in the president's orbit that he spent too much political capital on off-year races. we're joined by shannon pettypiece, susan page, washington bureau chief. let me ask you, susan, first of all, have you figured out why trump stuck his neck out and went to louisiana? his candidate wasn't favored. it would have been an upset if his candidate won. >> a winnable race, it was a close race, still a two-point race and he would have gotten a lot of credit if after going there three times he pulled him over the finish line. i think president trump has a lot of faith in himself and his own appeal and so probably thought he could do it. >> how big a black eye is it? >> i know one thing that the campaign wanted and the president wanted i'm told is to get some wins to show the republicans in congress that i

am still a force in this party, that i can still move people to the polls for you, so stay in line behind me and i will be there to help you. they knew matt bevin was a bad candidate, they knew john bel edwards was popular. so they knew it was a risk but the reward -- >> you could be a pro-life democrat. >> that's right. >> that's true. but not reflective of who the democrats will be running in 2020. >> they'll be pro choice, yeah. >> but i will say they have time and a lot of money. every rally they do is also a fund-raising opportunity. so if they can get 10,000 people in a stadium for a john -- to campaign against john bel edwards, for example, and he loses, they still got 10,000 people in an audience who they now have cell phone numbers for, who they can text and hit up for money. >> so win or loss for him altogether. >> for trump? >> yeah. >> better if he would have won.

>> should he have gone at all? >> no harm, no foul, i guess. president trump is a risk taker. >> let's talk about two groups that are probably -- i love talking like everybody else. i hate talking like everybody else. african-american vote has got to turn out big-time more than '16 for hillary. they have to be much more excited about the race and more involved. two, the women in the suburbs, that means college educated women in the suburbs, mostly white. this was an example apparently of that pattern hurting trump. >> right. and of course -- >> both categories, african-americans, regular people and these people much better off in the 'burbs. >> we saw that in 2018 and saw in some of these special elections, you know, in 2019 the suburban women vote shifting out. and so that's going to be the big challenge for them. the african-american vote i would say especially in michigan. i was just having an exchange with a strategist today saying michigan could go red if the democrat is not able to drive out the african-american vote in detroit. but the same thing -- >> my question, is there

anybody -- a two-person all white team running in 2020, can they bring out the african-american vote? >> joe biden has a lot of support among african-american voters. say you had an all white ticket and you had barack obama out there campaigning hard for them, that could do something to turn out african-american voters. >> i've got something to say about barack obama in the close tonight because he said something about moderating the stance of the party a little bit. he's pulled back a little, he was shaying. shannon, thank you so much. susan, thank you. up next, the president and the white house says president trump's visit to walter reed hospital this weekend was routine. but after floating conspiracy theories after hillary clinton's health in the last election, is trump's health subject to the same scrutiny? you're watching "hardball." crut? you're watching "hardball. hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria!

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only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. any comments doug? yeah. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liber♪y welcome back to "hardball." on saturday, this past saturday, president trump made an unannounced trip to walter reed medical center over in maryland. in a statement released to the public shortly after the president left the hospital, white house press secretary stephanie grisham confirmed that the president had undergone as she put it a quick exam and labs but said there was no cause for concern because, quote, the president remains healthy and energetic without complaints as demonstrated by his vigorous rally performances in front of thousands of americanss several times a week. president trump tweeted sunday morning that the visit was, quote, phase one of my yearly

physical everything. very good, will complete next year. last year they were not completed in phases like they say this is being done. the president has not held any public events since his trip to the hospital. i'm boack with shannon pettypiee and susan page. susan, historically, is this abnormal? >> yes. i've never seen -- ordinary walter reed physical annual exam handled in this way. is it unusual for presidents not to be candid about their health? that is not unusual. john kennedy. >> john kennedy hid everything. >> but it's the price they pay for not having more credibility with reporters that cover them. if they came to the white house press corps and said i'm telling you nothing to this, there would be a willingness to say maybe that's true. this white house does not have the credibility with reporters who cover them for people to

take this at face value. >> and the white house didn't put out that statement until there was already this buzz, rumor mill on twitter. you know, nothing verified but there was already starting to be questions about why he was there. this white house does a lot of things unusual. there are a lot of miscommunications, poor coordinations, who knows if that fell into this category. but i will say the white house physician's office is quite well equipped to do things like labs. they can take blood, a urine sample. they can do surgery if the president is shot or has a heart attack, so you do have an office in the white house that can do a lot of elements of a physical so, again, it is strange. and had the white house come out to your point ahead of tile and said the president is going to walter reed, have some lab work done and meet with patients while he's there, it would not have been -- >> hours after his visit to walter reed, his press secretary told a fox news host that he was in excellence host. >> there's no truth to the rumors that it's something else?

because the rumors are flying. >> oh, the rumors are always flying. absolutely not. he is healthy as can be. >> you know, stephanie, he's almost super human. i don't know how anyone can deal with what he's dealing with. >> i can't match that, he's almost super human. you don't go to the hospital if you're super human. 2016 campaign trump fueled conspiracy theories by repeatedly questioning hillary clinton's strength and stamina. >> she's got no strength. she's got no stamina. remember that. you don't need a president with no strength or stamina. i think she doesn't have the stamina. you watch her -- her life, you watch how she'll go away for three or four days, she'll come back. she'll go -- i just don't think she has the stamina. she's going to do nothing. and you know what, the truth, she doesn't have the stamina to do it even if she wanted to, believe me. >> as woody allen would say, the key word here is stamina.

>> i caught that. president trump does have a lot of stamina. she does these appearances at rallies and talks for an hour and a half. that is really extraordinary. >> as they say down in louisiana -- >> almost super human. >> we all wanting to bless his heart. i really do wish him well. thank you, shannon pettypiece and susan page. up next, with 77 days until the iowa caucuses, there's a shakeup going on in the democratic candidates. something big is happening in the democratic neighborhood the last couple of weeks. have you noticed? if not, we'll let you know what's happening. lots of big can stuff going on. you're watching "hardball." you're watching "hardball. (bert) even a "not-so-handy monster." (johnson) what is going on in here! i can't hear myself think! (grover) what does it look like, sir? i am here to help you with your water heater. (johnson) oh! [sighs defeatedly] (grover) do not worry sir. i also fix cars! [johnson groans] (bert) grover is a monster of many talents! (burke) and we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. (bert) mmm. ♪ we are farmers.

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there's something happening in the fight to take on donald trump. for whatever mix of reasons, we're seeing voters change their minds about the candidates. first came former president obama, who warned his fellow democrats not to lose sight of the fact that most americans want a government, quote, rooted in reality. that they like seeing things improve, not having the system completely torn down. another voice is coming from the democratic voters of iowa, where the candidates face their first big test on february 3rd. for a while it looked to be a contest to get to the farthest left rail, that of the most progressive voters. that looked to be senator elizabeth warren who managed to overtake senator bernie sanders in that lane. it began to look like she was going to win iowa, new hampshire and run away with it. three weeks ago we saw south

bend mayor pete buttigieg make his move. we all saw the 37-year-old coming up really fast to where he's now leading the pack in iowa ahead of warren by nine, biden and sanders by ten. it's hard not to see the buttigieg bump as showing the democrats' shift to the center. this could explain warren's shift on medicare for all. a while back she was for mandatory national health insurance system and eliminating private health insurance. now she says she wants to have a medicare for all option with the more revolutionary plan to be considered later. well, this is news. more than that it signals a shift in democratic party thinking, which with all the focus on impeachment still rests on the assumption that the only way to get rid of donald trump is to go out there and get the votes to beat him. by the way, the fifth democratic debate hosted by msnbc and "the washington post" will air live on wednesday. that's two days from now. i'll be in the spin room, which i love, starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. and then of course the debate itself starts at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and that's "hardball" tonight

for now. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> what the president did was so much worse than even what richard nixon did. >> week two of public impeachment hearings and a whole host of new details implicating the president and those around him. >> i'm proud of what this administration has done with respect to ukraine. >> tonight, the latest testimony on the hill. how it's playing out with the public. and the real world electoral consequences for the president and his party. >> you've got to give me a big win, please, okay? okay? then, trump's defenders scramble as the evidence piles up. >> this would have been far better off if we would have just taken care of this behind the scenes. plus, new questions about just how much mick mulvaney knows. >> i have news for everybody. get over it. >> and a major policy shift in the