that's going to wrap up this hour of "msnbc live." right now "andrea mitchell reports". right now with friends like these, as new questions swirl about whether or not the top republican in the house intelligence committee spoke to ukrainians at the center of the impeachment inquiry. senate judiciary chairman lindsey graham goes after joe biden and his son. >> he's the nicest person i think i've ever met in politics. >> is that right? >> he is as good a man as god ever created. >> despite their decades long friendship. >> joe biden is a good friend. but if we're going to look at corruption in the ukraine, we're going to look at both sides. ship wrecked. the president fires the secretary of the navy for trying to punish navy seal eddie gallagher who mr. trump had reinstated.

>> this is all about ego and retaliation. this has nothing to do with good order and discipline. and big apple billionaire. former new york city mayor michael bloomberg jumps into the democratic race but is skipping the early states. >> elections should not be for sale, not to billionaires, not to corporate executives. >> multibillionaires like mr. bloomberg are not going to get very far in this election. >> how did you get in here? >> well, i tipped the doorman $30 million. ♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where house democrats are taking the next steps toward impeachment without getting testimony from top cabinet and white house officials as congressional republicans embrace discredited conspiracy theories to defend the president. today two key trump allies are facing new scrutiny. the "washington post" reporting how acting chief of staff mick

mulvaney, who's also the budget director, tried to justify withholding military aid to ukraine. and top intelligence committee republican devin nunes will not explain his reported contacts with former ukrainian officials in searching to dig up dirt on joe biden. >> bottom line, were you in vien vienna? >> i really want to answer all of these questions and i promise you i absolutely will come back on the show and answer these questions. but because there is criminal activity here, we're working with the appropriate law enforcement agencies. >> joining me now is nbc's jeff bennett. ha what is your latest reporting on devin nunes? there's new reporting, i gather, on not only the controversy over whether or not he actually went to vienna to meet with

ukrainians, but your reporting is that he actually had either facetime or some phone conversation with these ukrainians. >> right. i'll walk through this chronologically because i think it is difficult for people to understand. the first reporting is that lev parnas, the indicted associate of rudy giuliani, according to lev parnas's attorney is prepared to tell house investigators that victor showkin met with devin nunes in the late 2018, in december of 2018. now, you saw there devin nunes wouldn't really engage on the substance of the question when asked directly. but i dug up congressional records. they're public congressional travel records that show that devin nunes, in fact, in europe from november 30th to december 8th, 2018. at the time he was chairman of the house intelligence committee.

now the congressional records don't show precisely where he was or with whom he met. since that reporting, cnbc is now reporting that earlier this year nunes' staffers attempted to make a trip to ukraine in march but they scuttled the trip. they scrapped it entirely when they realized they would have to inform adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee. this is according to parnas's attorney. the reason why this matters is because march, the spring is precisely when democrats say, according to all of the evidence that they've amassed, that that is when this pressure campaign started. that is around the time that rudy giuliani and his associates smeared and ultimately led to the ousting of marie yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine. this allegation speaks to the fact that devin nunes and his aides were involved in the very same thing allegedly that the house jeintelligence committee

now looking into, whether or how president trump and his allies used public office for personal gain and tried to manufacture dirt on the bidens. >> lindsey graham is the senate judiciary chairman, has been a long time friend and ally, travel mate of joe biden when they were on bipartisan trips overseas. lindsey graham speaking out in south carolina today to try to defend why he is now going after the bidens, launching new investigations into the bidens on ukraine despite his long time friendship. >> my conscience is clear. i love joe biden as a person. he is a really decent man. he's had a lot of tragedy in his life. but i have a conscience very clear right now and i have a duty if the house is going to shut it down, the senate is going to pick it up. i didn't start this. >> so phil rucker, this is where

is lindsey graham and try to explain. what we're looking at in your "washington post" reporting your team reporting new reporting that mick mulvaney, who runs the budget office and is the acting chief of staff, also came up with all kinds of excuses to try to explain withholding that ukraine aid. >> two important issues here. first of all, with senator graham, he's clearly proceeding along the direction that the president wants him to by trying to investigate the paidbidens b trying to get those documents from the state department and make the inquiry into the bidens and ukraine more of a substantive part of the discussion as the impeachment inquiry heads toward a likely senate trial early next year. now, with the new reporting by my colleagues over the weekend

regarding mick mulvaney's role at the white house, it's another example of how far reaching the effort was inside the administration and among the president's top aides to try to cover up what the president was trying to do by withholding that foreign aid. there are many e-mails that my colleagues referenced in their reporting showing mick mulvaney and others in the white house trying to come up with a rationale and reason for why that foreign aid was delayed to give to ukraine, reasons that would make more sense or be more ethical rather than the president's stated reason, which was to try to pressure the ukrainian government to launch that investigation into the bidens. >> and then there is rudy giuliani. explaining rudy giuliani, he was asked about indications, some hint that is the white house was walking away from him, that they might throw him under the bus to get the president off the hook. he said if they did, that he had

an insurance policy. now he's tweeted to try to explain that he meant he's got stuff on the bidens. if he had anything on the bidens, he would have made it public by now. the implication in the original comment was that he had stuff on the president that he could release if the president tried to throw him under the bus. >> right. that wouldn't be much of an insurance policy, would it? just more broadly, the whole thing is such a total snake pit now. you have a couple weeks in which facts were established, i think, beyond a reasonable doubt. now with parnas, who by the way is not so trustworthy in his own right and graham and mulvaney and giuliani, you have this whole kind of counter attack based on both fiction and gutter politics. the overriding point, yes, there's criminal possibilities and there's ethical possibilities in the house. but come on, this is an

important investigation now and the american people deserve to hear about this. the real sort of immediate sin is that we don't know what mulvaney would say, what giuliani would say, what parnas would say, what bolton et cetera would say. that's still being hidden from view. that should be front and center now and instead it's just this sniping innuendo with no factual basis. >> one of the points you've been making is abuse of power or obstruction by withholding dm i be an article of impeachment. >> i think they're preparing and it totally makes sense. that's the once response to the stonewall they've received. >> thank you so much.

>> jackie speier joins me now. first of all, what do you think about the possible travel of devin nunes now? did he actually go? there are congressional records that he actually went to vienna. we don't know whom he met with. we now understand that he had communication, had calls with some of these former ukrainian officials as well, facetiming or phone calling in some way or fashion. is there an ethics issue for devin nunes not to have disclosed this to his colleagues? >> i think there certainly is a potential -- if it's true, a potential ethics inquiry that needs to take place. if he was on a political errand for the president, that was using taxpayer funds inappropriately and he should be investigated by the ethics committee and he should be forced to repay the treasury of

the money that was spent for what was a purely pl lly politi activity. >> if he did not physically travel on the taxpayer dime, it would be different if he was gathering information. >> sure. if he wanted to use his own campaign funds to do that, he was doing opposition research for the president, that would be a gift of money to the president's campaign and you're limited in how much you can actually contribute. so he could be hit both ways, to tell you the truth. >> do you expect that the committee will hear in some fashion from lev parnas regarding rudy giuliani and his role? >> so we have subpoenaed documents from lev parnas. what's been dribbling out is mostly incomplete commentary from his attorney. he has not been fully supportive of that subpoena. he has not disclosed as much as

we have asked him to disclose. so we're waiting for a more fullsome disclosure by lev parnas. >> certainly from the closing statement by adam schiff on thursday it left very little doubt that as chair of the committee, that you're moving toward drafting a report, turning it over to the judiciary committee and presumably moving toward an impeachment vote. >> so after 30 hours and 12 witnesses, a number of whom were republican witnesses, the overwhelming evidence, a mountain of evidence shows that there was a bribe by the president trying to get from mr. zelensky an investigation that would benefit his campaign. you know, the constitution is very clear about impeachment.

it's treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors. it was specifically meant to deal with a president who was placing his personal interests in front of the country's interests. that certainly appears to be what the president is doing. furthermore, there have been all these individuals within his administration that have been subpoenaed. there have been documented from his administration that have been subpoenaed. he has basically defied all of them and told all of his higher-ups to defy them as well. so again we have obstruction of congress. if you have nothing to hide, why are you preventing people from testifying to congress? >> when you proceed, though, given the fact that the public seems to be turning against support for impeachment as the hearings have progressed despite what you all see as strong evidence, do you risk losing the politics, the political argument if you impeach and head into a

senate trial where the republicans will be in charge? >> well, this is really the end of the beginning. there continues to be information just over the weekend that has come up that we didn't know about before. so i don't know that we can somehow look at the polling on one day and take a snapshot and think that's what it's going to be for all time. remember when richard nixon was being investigated with all those 51 days of hearings that they had on watergate, he was not being opposed by the american people until the end. what we have here is someone who has cheated. what some people are saying is, well, the election is next year. well, someone cheats on a test and is a senior in high school, do you let him have a pass because he's about to graduate? it is a violation of the constitution and that's what we are here to protect. >> are you concerned that he

would theoretically cheat again when he got to college, to use your analogy? >> i think he is capable of cheating and has shown us over and over again that he cheats and that he lies. so the combination is really toxic. it's a toxic potion that the american people should not be subject to. >> thank you very much for coming on. happy thanksgiving to you and your family. >> happy thanksgiving to you as well. coming up, firing line. the secretary of the navy is forced out after defying president trump's support for a navy seal facing military discipline. l facing military discipline ♪ limu emu & doug and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ]

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navy secretary richard spencer is out of a job today, fired by defense secretary mark esper after defying president trump's support for navy seal

eddie gallagher. gallagher had been acquitted in a military trial of shooting iraqi civilians and killing an enemy fighter. but he was convicted for posing in photos with a dead isis soldier. the jury in this case recommended a reduction in rank. earlier this month the president issued a pardon restoring gallagher's original rank. joining me now courtney kube who just spoke with secretary esper about all of this. this is extraordinary. we have not seen the president of the united states stepping in to a military justice case. >> especially one like this where the president has not only stepped in on the military justice part of this, but now he's stepping in, intervening in the administrative review process, which is essentially what this was for eddie gallagher. it's called a trident review

board. a jury of his peers would look at the case laid out, in this case, that he was accused and found guilty of posing with the body of a dead isis fighter and they would determine whether that was a crime or something that was serious enough to warrant him losing his trident pin. that's what president trump was intervening in. he said the navy needs to leave that alone, let eddie gallagher keep his trident pin and let him retire as a seal. >> secretary esper just talked to you about this. did he defend the decision of the president to intervene? >> he did. in fact, for the first time now the one thing that's been unclear in what is a very amerimurky and confusing story is that the president has wanted eddie

gallagher to keep his status as a navy seal. president trump was the one who directed secretary esper to end the navy review board process to let eddie gallagher retire as a u.s. navy seal. that was unclear. we know that senior leaders here in the pentagon including the now former secretary of the navy richard esper has said the process needed to go forward. this is a peer review process. it's an administrative process. his goal was to get the white house to continue forward with the process. we reported over the weekend he told the white house and we now know from secretary esper he also told secretary esper that if he was ordered by the white house to end the review process, that he would resign. so what's so confusing about this is now we just heard from secretary esper that the reason secretary spencer was fired is because he was intervening to help eddie gallagher keep his

trident pin. the very thing he told his colleagues and superiors on thursday he would resign for is what he was allegedly working to back channel to come out as the ending anyway. it's a very confusing case. when asked about that, secretary esper acknowledged, look, i don't understand, he was saying one thing in public and one thing in private and that's why i lost confidence in him and asked for his resignation. >> thank you so much. joining me now is retired four star u.s. army general barry mccaffrey. it's pretty stunning that the president for months now has been intervening through the gallagher defense attorney who is actually a former law partner of rudy giuliani. there's clearly a lot of white

house intervention all along the way during these court martials. >> i think the mini drama was secretary of defense mark esper firing spencer, correctly i think, for going behind his back and trying to cook a deal with the white house without informing he and the chairman. that's a mini drama and spencer is gone. some things are not in dispute. the president has -- unless it's an illegal order, almost unconstrained ability to fire senior military officials. his pardon authority is almost completely unconstrained. what is unusual, though, if you want to back off this is that the armed forces now for a generation have been in combat. we've had 60,000 killed and wounded and the special ops

community has been in the lead of that. they're trying to reinstall, reinvigorate standards of discipline and we've had some real serious problems. so the president's command influence in public is unheard of. by the way, the uniform code of military justice didn't get written in the pentagon or the white house, it's a federal system of justice passed by congress. so i think the appalling thing is to have the president of the united states pardoning people, one of whom hadn't even gone to trial and also in public talking about things like endorsing torture of detainees under our control. very harmful to the internal good order and discipline of the armed forces. >> i just want to read from secretary spencer's resignation letter. however this came about, he wrote, unfortunately i no longer share the same understanding with the commander in chief who appointed me in regards to the key principle of good order and

discipline. i cannot obey an order that i believe violated the oath i took to support and defend the constitution. so there's a real issue here of the president's intervention at several stages of this and also the fact that eddie gallagher went on television, went on fox news sunday morning in the middle of this whole dispute attacking the commanders who were about to reinstate him or give him back his trident pin. >> yeah. it's really an apollipalling situation. i've served on general court martials for more than five years so i'm loathe to ever question the results of a jury, judge. gallagher was acquitted of murder charges, shooting a 12-year-old girl, shooting an older guy, stabbing to death -- those are the accusations, but he got acquitted by the jury.

i might add the president had been in public exerting command influence, which was well known throughout the armed forces. so again the problem is, you know, we simply must obey the laws of war. we want to be the good guys and we have a system of investigations, of peer group review, ucmj calls for a jury trial of your peers. that's the way the system is supposed to work. and mr. trump has essentially intervened in that process in a very public way, calling into question whether or not we're committed to the rules of warfare that we signed up to by international treaty and by u.s. federal law. >> i can only imagine if senator mccain were still alive what he would be saying right now. thank you so much. coming up, late bloomer. former new york city mayor

michael bloomberg officially jumping into the already crowded 2020 race. what will the billionaire's candidacy mean? l the billionair candidacy mean - [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi pressure cooker,

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well, he's in. three-time new york city mayor michael bloomberg officially entering the democratic race. his campaign is already blanketing the air waves are more than $30 million in campaign ads, directly taking on president trump. >> he helped create a movement to protect families across america and stood up to the coal lobby and this separation to protect this planet from climate change and now he's taking on him. to rebuild a country and restore faith in the dream that defines us where the wealthy will pay many in taxes and the middle class get their fair share. >> the billionaire's first campaign stop is in virginia today in norfolk as he skips the traditional early primary states and focuses on super tuesday march 3rd. bloomberg is also skipping primary debates, having vowed not to accept any outside contributions, a party requirement for getting onto the

debate stage. republican strategist rick tyler and eugene scott political reporter for the "washington post." how does this shake up the democratic field, if at all? >> we haven't seen much evidence of it shaking it up thus far. his numbers in the polls are low. he's obviously banking on -- >> no pun intended. >> banking on these ads, but he's not running these ads where the contest really is right now which is in iowa and to some degree new hampshire and south carolina. so i think he's actually -- this is all about who emerges from those states, not what happens in those states. if you have strong candidates emerge, right now we should be clear, 70% of democrats like the field. if you have strong candidates emerge, there may not be room for michael bloomberg. if you don't, then i think

that's where the question really lies. he has a lot of criticism within the party he's going to have to weather as well. >> he's already apologized to a key component of a democratic coalition which is the african-american voters. he's not going to be in south carolina. a week ago he finally apologized for a controversial policy that he refused to back off of which was stop and frisk targeting mostly profiling african-american men in new york city. 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. >> this is a man who has not apologized for very much in his life, who has been progressive on a lot of issues, has financed gun reform legislation, climate

change, all kinds of health issues, but notably was criticized just a week ago by the police union in new york city saying we knew at the time, we tried to tell you and you stuck with this controversial policy. >> indeed. the challenge with michael bloomberg apologizing for back then is for him back then was actually less than 12 months ago. as recently as january 2019 he defended stop and frisk. we know there have been other candidates in this race who have had to apologize for policies they've supported that we now know have been more harmful than helpful. for many black voters bloomberg is going to have to go beyond apologizing. he's going to have to repair the harm caused by stop and frisk just like joe biden has had to respond to criminal justice issues that came from his policies. until bloomberg says this is what i want to do to fix the wrongs that i've done and that's not even to begin all the problematic things he's said

about women. he's just batting zero right now. >> rick tyler, the conventional wisdom has been that he was eager to get into the field because he believes that elizabeth warren and bernie sanders medicare for all is too liberal for a general election campaign. it could help reelect donald trump. and that joe biden, as the moderate front runner, certainly was not holding up very well. >> if anything, he helps bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. >> and hurts joe biden. >> and hurts joe biden. he essentially wants to skip the regular season and go right to the playoffs. look, if we nominated candidates a different way -- let's say we all voted in one night and we all had to just advertise and you weren't allowed to meet candidates and shake their hands and that was illegal, mayor bloomberg would have a shot at this race. that's not the way it works. you have to go to iowa.

>> and then new hampshire. >> and go to new hampshire. and that will be the story coming out of iowa. if he has not placed in iowa anywhere, it will be like he evaporated. it just won't happen. all the money in the world can't buy you the process. actually going to iowa is not rigged. you've got to meet voters and you can't skip south carolina and expect to be the nominee. also, what problem is mayor bloomberg trying to address here? you can't find a supporter in any of those three states to even interview that supports mayor bloomberg and he's not taking donations because i don't think he'd be able to raise any money. so his campaign is just a fantasy. i think he will be lucky if he gets a single delegate. >> we've gone through months of

people wondering if the biden campaign is going to collapse and he's taken a lot of incoming and really in the national polls he's still doing pretty well. he has 100% name id. people know him still and he's still actually holding on given how much negative press he's had. coming up, the pompeo papers. newly revealed diets abo eed de. es thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients.

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and that's the president and first lady with conan and of course the vice president. conan is the hero dog from the baghdadi takedown. his name was declassified by the president. also gave some interesting details about that raid, none of which were confirmed by military officials such as the alleged screaming of baghdadi when he was taken down and captured. if the president takes questions about impeachment, we'll return to this. conan has been given a plaque and a medal today at the white house. for now we'll talk about the impeachment hearings. fiona hill, the former top russia expert on the national security council appealed to republicans to stop last week spreading what she called the fictional narrative that

ukraine, not russia, had attacked the 2016 campaign. but that did not stop republican lawmakers from pushing that conspiracy theory on the sunday talk shows. >> senator kennedy, who do you believe was responsible for hacking the dnc and clinton campaign computers, their e-mails? was it russia or ukraine? >> i don't know. nor do you. nor do any of us. >> the entire intelligence community says it was russia. >> right. but it could also be ukraine. >> i'm not at all surprised that russia is gearing up, not at all surprised that she's correct that russia tried to interfere in 2016. also, ukrainians themselves tried to interfere also. >> really. joining me now roberta jacobson former u.s. ambassador to mexico. and ned price, senior director in president obama's national

security council. welcome both. ambassador jacobson, first of all, this whole business that the republicans are touting about ukrainian interference despite fiona hill's testimony, she a former intelligence officer, a top russian analyst at the nsc. how do you explain that? >> it's very hard to explain. i can't explain it. it just smacks of if you keep saying it over and over again, no matter how untrue it is, people will believe it. that's the only thing i can think of. it's been debunked. the truth, which is russian meddling in our election, has been confirmed over and over again. and yet we keep being told look at this shiny object over here, which may or may not be true, in this case is not true, but it's highly useful as a distraction. that's the only thing i can explain. >> the pompeo papers, the e-mails that were finally because of a court order released very late friday night

showing that mike pompeo, the secretary of state, talked to rudy giuliani, talked to others in the white house in march of last year, before your fellow ambassador yovanovitch was recalled precipitously. not only has he not defended her ever even now given the opportunity repeatedly, but he was in close contact with giuliani and according to e-mails was part of the original conspiracy really to get her out of there and make way for the giuliani side show. >> right. well, i think at this point we don't expect that he will defend her. he's made it pretty clear that he's had lots of opportunities to do so, indeed lots of opportunities to defend the foreign service and state department officials writ large that he's not taken despite promises of getting the swagger back at the beginning. it makes even more astonishi ii

protestations subsequent to now what we know was his knowledge of and sitting in on the phone call of the ukraine issue when he just kept saying i don't know what you're talking about, i don't know anything, nothing to see here. >> ned, you worked at the nsc and were similarly to others assigned from another agency, from cia to the nsc. understandably, the nsc grew after 911 into being a counter terror action group as well. there were a lot of people added. now it is being cut back notably according to the new national security advisor robert o'brien. and according to john gantz, trump's nsc has been home to a pitched and persistent battle between those dedicated to this irregular presidency.

this fight has lasted longer and grown far more heated for two reasons. first, trump brought in incredibly unorthodox views to the west wing and, second, the nsc's power grew immensely during the post 911 years making it a force difficult to tame. i recall being over at the nsc during the transition on the day you all were doing a table top with the incoming folks. i was interviewing susan rice and there was no preparation from the new transition team. the new people had no understanding of the way policy generally works. >> and they showed no interest in it. much of the last year even predating the last year into 2015 was dedicated, was directed at this process of transition. the obama administration handled it with the utmost care, briefing books were prepared. they all went into the trash as far as we were concerned. the briefings that were given were given in some cases to people who ended up not serving

in the trump administration because they were sacked before the inauguration or even shortly thereafter. i think you can look at all of this in the same way that we're hearing from trump's defenders, trump's defenders who are pushing now this russian propaganda that it was actually ukraine that was behind this. there's a difference between professionals including the careerists who serve on the national security council staff and nothose who are elevating politics ahead of our national security. i think that's what we've seen from some white house officials serving on the national security council who are elevating politics ahead of national security. that's really the through line that has gone throughout this whole scandal. president trump placed his own political interests ahead of our national security and that is something we've seen consistently from his defenders as well. coming up, one for the books. how the republican national committee helped donald trump jr. reach the top spot on the

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so you can be ready for what matters most. aetna medicare advantage plans call today. we'll send you a $10 visa reward card with no obligation to enroll. or visit us online at aetnamedicare.com/tv. hbut mike bloomberg became thele clasguy whoho mdid good. after building a business that created thousands of jobs he took charge of a city still reeling from 9/11 a three-term mayor who helped bring it back from the ashes bringing jobs and thousands of affordable housing units with it. after witnessing the terrible toll of gun violence... he helped create a movement to protect families across america. and stood up to the coal lobby and this administration to protect this planet from climate change.

and now, he's taking on... him. to rebuild a country and restore faith in the dream that defines us. where the wealthy will pay more in taxes and the middle class get their fair share. everyone without health insurance can get it and everyone who likes theirs keep it. and where jobs won't just help you get by, but get ahead. and on all those things mike blomberg intends to make good. jobs creator. leader. problem solver. mike bloomberg for president. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. ♪ spread a little love today ♪ spread a little love my-y way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ philadelphia cream cheese. made with fresh milk and real cream makes your recipes their holiday favourites. the holidays are made with philly. make family-sized meals fast, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away. the ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away.

author, arthur, donald trump jr.'s few book. there are some big question of how it got there. the "the times" report the republican committee boosted its

sales. the mass purchase shows corruption at the organization he used to lead. >> giving away $100,000 to the president's son. are you kidding me? this is the kind of corruption that people complain about inside the rnc. those are donors, moms and dads who writes a check to help elect candidates and not to go out and buy some dumb behind book. >> oh joining me now, nick, he's been covering this story for the new york times. welcome both, "the new york times" book, there he is number one on the list.

twitter promotions by his dad and himself. >> yeah, i think any author in the country would be glad to have the american resources of the president and a major political party to sell a book. now this is actually a two-way street. a lot of the promotions are about raising money to the rnc and you get a free copy of the book. everyone wins, the rnc gets the money and trump gets to sell the book. it is an entry, a remarkable way where the trump's family able to leverage their father's career into other pursuits. >> margaret, any author would love to have this kind of promotion. don jr. active on twitter. >> daddy scripts fox news so he gets that promotion. >> when he's not pushing it on

its own. books have been weaponized, it is a signifier of what you are about. you know i love michael steel still being outraged about things in his party. trump owns the dnc, it is not surprising that they bought the books in bulk. the other aspect of the promotion were much more effective. it is like pouring miracle grow on your seedling to get the bulk sales out there and you begin to climb on that list and viola, there he is. >> this certainly not only helps the president and his reelection but don jr. is a potential candidate as well. there is a lot of talk about him running for the governor of montana. look, he's a popular surrogate for his father so i think there

is an organic demand for those books. i don't think he made the best seller list solely on the bases sale of the party. it is a campaign book that his father would write if the president had the inclination to write a book. i saw a lot of spots on the book tour for this book in florida and the panhandle in central florida. there is going to be a bid in don jr.'s future, it may be in florida. >> i think florida is a natural, too. if his name were don jr., none of this would be happening. running for governor and being number one was all due to daddy. he was a prodigal son at one time. >> we love authors and their books but we'll see. that's a right one.

>> nick and margaret, thank you both so much. coming up, our next hour, mike bloomberg makes his campaign stop in northern virginia. live comments ahead. stay with us. ginia. live comments ahead. stay with us only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i'm part of a community of problem solvers. we make ideas grow. from an everyday solution... to one that can take on a bigger challenge. we are solving problems that improve lives.

that does it for "andrea mitchell reports." here are ali velshi and

stephanie ruhle for "velshi & ruhle." >> andrea, thank you, hello everybody, it is monday, november the 25th. the secretary of the navy forced out by president trump over his handling of a controversial case involving a navy seal. what it means for the chain of command. where the impeachment inquiry is headed next as we get new reports of e-mails holding ukraine's aide money after the fact. michael bloomberg is jumping into the democrats primary. we are live on the campaign trail to look at how the former mayor is planning to win over the rest of the country. we are now hearing from defense secretary for the first time, richa richa richard spencer. >> you may recall gallagher was