games and probably the toys he would have made for them. >> they never got a chance to roll their eyes at a jim joke? >> yeah. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. while the hearings get under way on capitol hill president trump will be in london. plus it is cyber monday, more than 165 million americans are expected to hunt for bargains from their favorite retailers. ♪

good morning, everybody. it is monday, december 2nd. i'm yasmin vossoughian. we begin with a look at the critical week ahead in the impeachment probe of president trump. today the house intel committee will review a draft of the impeachment report, which will make the case for the removal of the president. tomorrow the committee will vote to send the report to the house judiciary committee. then on wednesday the house judiciary committee will hold its first impeachment hearing. the judiciary committee had invited president trump or a white house lawyer to attend the hearing, but the white house informed democrats yesterday it will not participate. in a five-page letter to house judiciary chair jerry nadler, white house counsel pat cipollone wrote under the current circumstances we do intend to participate in your wednesday hearing, adding this, we cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the judiciary

committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings. and while this new week of impeachment proceedings kicks off, the president is leaving for the annual nato summit today. the president tweeted on saturday this, i will be representing our country in london at nato while the democrats are holding the most ridiculous impeachment hearings in history. read the transcripts, nothing was done or said wrong. the radical left is undercutting our country. hearings scheduled on same dates as nato. and as the impeachment proceedings shift to the house judiciary committee, the ranking republican congressman doug colli collin says he wants to hear from adam schiff. congressman collins complained that wednesday's hearing gives republicans too little time to study the intelligence committee's impeachment report. >> the first person that needs to testify is adam schiff. adam schiff has been the author of many things, a lot of them found to be false over the past couple of years. he's going to be the author of this report.

he's compared himself in the past to a special counsel. this is what he said he was doing. if we go back to clinton and even back to nixon, but in clinton ken starr was the special counsel. he presented a report. he came and sat and testified under oath and took questions from all sides including the whielt house. i have a question. why are they hiding stuff from us? if they think they have such a case, give us such materials. we don't even have the information from the intel committee yet. this is why this is a problematic exercise and simply a made for tv event coming on wednesday. >> and for a second sunday in a row, republican senator john kennedy of louisiana argued that ukraine interfered in the 2016 u.s. election in a pretty contentious interview on "meet the press," moderator chuck todd asked kennedy about a "washington post" op-ed from a congress criticizing his comments that ukraine was responsible for the dnc hack. >> simply uttering this

conflation on ukraine and russia, the inference is you're doing the president's dirty work here. do you accept that criticism? >> well, listen, i like michaelgerson, i haven't met him. i know he's a smart guy and i read his columns now and then. i disagree with him. i think russia and ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. i think it's been well-documented in the financial times, in "politico," in "the economist" and "the washington examiner" even on cbs. >> according to the "new york times," u.s. senators were briefed after fiona hill's testimony that this entire effort to frame ukraine for the russian meddling of 2016 of which you just made this case that they've done it, that actually this is an effort of russia propaganda, that this is a russian intelligence propaganda campaign in order to get people like you to say these

things about ukraine. they're trying to frame ukraine. you apparently were briefed about this in the united states senate by intelligence officials. are you at all concerned you're doing russian intelligence work here? >> i was not briefed. russia was very aggressive, and they're much more sophisticated. but the fact that russia was so aggressive does not exclude the fact that president poroshenko actively worked for secretary clinton. now, if i'm wrong -- >> actively worked for -- i mean, my goodness, wait a minute, senator kennedy, you now have the president of ukraine saying he actively worked for the democratic nominee for president. now, come on. i got to put up -- you realize the only other person selling this argument outside the yieund states is this man, vladimir putin. thank god nobody is accusing us anymore of interfering in u.s.

elections. now they're accusing ukraine. let them sort this out among themselves. you have done exactly what the russian operation is trying to get american politicians to do. are you at all concerned that you've been duped? >> no. because just read the articles. >> okay. so while republicans deny knowledge of the russian effort to place blame on ukraine for interfering in the 2016 u.s. election, according to a "new york times" report citing three u.s. officials, american intel officials informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that russia had engaged in a year's long campaign to frame ukraine as responsible for moscow's own hacking of the 2016 election. the briefing came as republicans stepped up their defense of president trump in the ukraine affair. a u.s. official familiar with the matter has confirmed to nbc news that the briefing occurred and said that it was considered classified information until it was made public during the impeachment testimony from former white house national security adviser fiona hill.

and while the house intelligence committee readies its impeachment effort and report, the top republican on the judiciary committee congressman doug collins of georgia and judiciary committee member tom mcclintock from california yesterday defended president trump in his dealings with ukraine. >> if you believe that the president had used the power of his office to try to get ukraine to interfere with our elections, if you believe that, would that be an impeachable offense? >> i do not believe -- i'm not going to answer a hypothetical which is designed to say the president did something improper. he did knowing improper. there was nothing about giving an aid which you're talking about corruption, which he's required to do by law. and a president's candidate's son who was getting a massive amount of money from a country under investigation, even other witnesses have said needed to be looked at. this is a problem of overall proportion. there's nothing here the

president did wrong, and this is the thing we're going to move forward on. >> when you defend the president and think about these hearings, is there anything in your mind that the president did involving ukraine that is wrong or that concerns you in any way? >> well, he didn't use the delicate language of diplomacy in that conversation. that's true. he also doesn't use the smarmy talk of politicians. what you hear from donald j. trump is the blunt talk of a manhattan businessman. he says what he means. he means what he says. that's the only thing that's remarkable about that conversation. but he was entirely within his constitutional authority and was following the statute that congress adopted in granting aid to the ukraine. zblp joining me now from washington, political reporter for the "washington examiner" emily larsen. good morning to you. run through for us some of the major impeachment inquiry developments on the upcoming

schedule as this week plays out, and how are the events going to potentially impact the future of the president's time in office? >> well, of course the biggest thing going on is that the house intelligence committee is preparing a report to send over to the judiciary committee with their findings from all of the testimony that they've had both behind closed doors and in the public testimony, and starting to draft articles of impeachment, which we are expected to see soon. that is also a major development. one of the interesting things about these articles of impeachment is that there seems to be reportedly some debate among democrats as to whether to add one article of impeachment based off of the mueller report, mueller investigation, which a lot of democrats did not think that they should go and go forward on impeachment based off of those instances that robert mueller laid out of potential of

instruction of justice. but perhaps that might be part of articles of impeachment. and then of course we also have the first hearings in the house judiciary committee coming up, which will have some constitutional scholars. we don't know exactly who yet, and those are likely to be pretty exciting and fiery because we have some interesting characters on both sides of the aisle there. >> how is that possible tactic being viewed in washington right now, emily, the tactic you just spoke of with regards to including part of the mueller report and the articles of impeachment or being more narrowly focused on strictly what happened in the ukraine call? >> all right well, i think including some of the mueller investigation, i think, could possibly be a downfall to democrats in the sense that there were a lot of democrats who didn't support impeachment when the mueller report came out, and we only had the tipping point of democrats and nancy

pelosi's caucus after the revelation of this ukraine call and the revelations about ukraine. and so that from a political standpoint could muddy the waters a lot for democrats communicating this to the american people, which i think is something that they're worried about. on the other hand there are a lot of democrats who thought that those were impeachable offenses when they learned about them, and some even before they learned about them. and so regardless of whether they decide to go on that, they're going to have some pluses and minuses on each side. >> i quickly want you to weigh in on what we just heard from senator kennedy there, and he's not the only republican who is basically peddling lies with regards to ukraine and its interference in the 2016 election. u.s. intelligence agencies have said ukraine did not interfere in the 2016 election. it was russia. dr. fiona hill sat during the testimony and said ukraine did not interfere in the u.s.

election. it was russia. they are still doing it, and we are not prepared to combat it come 2020, and that is the major worry. what is the angle here for republicans to continue to push these lies? >> well, i think that some republicans are in a confusing spot because on the one hand you have some republicans who are trying to brush off and hide and not really talk about this essentially conspiracy theory that's been peddled around about ukraine interfering in the 2016 election. but on the other hand, you have president trump going on cable news and in and continuing to push these ideas, and so if you're somebody who wants to be incredibly loyal to president trump or maybe you are swept up in the ideas, it's sort of hard to say, but there's a lot of republicans put in a tough spot trying to rein president trump back, but at the same time not wanting to speak out against him or look like they're not

supporting the president, which could be very politically damaging for them. i think that's what's going on. >> emily larsen, thank you so much. still ahead, a warning before you start your cyber monday shopping. bots and cyber thieves could be out if full force today. plus, parts of the northeast are being hit with severe winter weather. some areas could see a foot or more of snow. meteorologist bill karins is going to have a check on your forecast when we come back. wayfair's biggest black friday blowout ever

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welcome back, americans across the country are heading online today to spend billions of dollars on cyber monday deals, but before you shop on your laptop or your smartphone, a consumer warning about grinch bots trying to steal some of the best deals. nbc news correspondent jo ling kent has more. >> reporter: first came the black friday frenzy. online shoppers shelled out a

record $7.4 billion. now the cyber monday rush already on track to break more records. 77% of consumers plan to shop expected to spend $9.4 billion, and forget the laptop, consumers are buying 50% more on their smartphones than last year, and retailers are attempting to woo customers by extending cyber monday into cyber week. best buy offering up to $250 off leno voe laptops and chrome books. apple advertising gift cards up to $200 depending on what you buy. and getting those packages into your hands fast has become more competitive than ever. >> you can order on the app and within two hours i can drive up and have my items waiting for me. it gives the convenience of shopping online and the breadth of product at my leisure. >> for the hottest items you might be competing with a grinch bot to get it. according to cyber security company radware these computer

programs are run by gangs of cyber criminals. they shop faster than you can, scooping up the biggest discounts and selling them elsewhere at a higher price. >> to protect yourself, experts recommend don't buy from third-party sites to avoid getting scammed. make sure you're using a secure url with https and check out with paypal or another payment service and check your credit card statement often for fraudulent activity. >> reporter: and to get the best cyber monday deal, always shop around. >> never pay full price, and never accept anything less than free shipping. >> 'tis the season for shopping securely and saving. jo ling kent nbc news washington. >> what are there are people up now probably watching us, i'm going to bring bill karins in in a moment who's probably shopping while simultaneously watching us and getting the weather forecast ahead for the day. >> it seems like a lot of the deals continue. cyber monday starting saturday.

>> no, it's like thursday midnight through monday and then some. >> just keeps going. >> i'm sure there's some special deals. >> it makes you anxious because you're like oh, i'm going to miss the boat. and then you go back online and oh, it's still a deal and maybe there's more percentages off. nonetheless, tis the holiday season. >> it's like three, four weeks to christmas, three and a half weeks. december always flies by. yesterday was a nightmare, we had over 5,000 delays in the lower 48. we had over 1,000 cancellations with the airlines. i know a lot of people got stranded. my brother couldn't make it. made it from san francisco to charlotte, couldn't get back to new york. there's a lot of stories out there from a lot of people just continue get home from the holiday weekend. and this winter storm is going to linger. it's going to be annoying. it's going to continue throughout the day today, tonight, even into tomorrow morning in some areas. we have about 49 roughly million people or so under winter storm warnings or advisories. everywhere you see in the pinkish, orangish color here, that's where we're seeing the winter storm warnings.

that's where the worst of it has already happened and continues to happen. the storm itself is in two pieces. you can see a spin over the ohio valley. we even have a little bit of snow in areas of tennessee this morning. the continuous heavy snow has been in central new york, the new york state thruway, the capital district already reporting a foot of snow outside of albany and north greenbush. later on today some colder air moves in as the storm intensifies and pushes away. here's the additional snowfall. from boston north wards, this area of this purplish color, that's another six inches of show on top of what you have on the ground. that's where we'll see significant impacts tonight and early tomorrow morning. we talk about the cat skills, the poconos, those areas could see another four inches. new york city not much i think maybe late afternoon, early evening on the grassy surfaces an inch or two. boston around four to eight,

portland, maine, could get six to ten and albany, new york, 10 to 14. as we go through the scene, we'll pause this at 6:00 p.m. the storm intensifying a little bit. snow over new york city, snow back through the capital district up through southern new england. as we head this evening into tonight it ends in new york. by early tomorrow morning the storm begins to pull away for a clear tuesday. we're almost done. this is the same storm that started in california like six days ago. it's just been a slow, slow storm. >> the silver lining in all of it is there's a lot of happy kids out there this morning to see if schools are closed. >> the teachers too, don't forget them. >> the teachers are probably pretty darn happy as well. still ahead, following president trump's visit to afghanistan, there's new reporting that the taliban is hoping to restart peace talks with the united states. what the president is saying about that, we're back in a moment. with so many changes, do you know if your plan is

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i then got down. i sat down. i had a gorgeous piece of turkey, and i was all set to go, and i had some of the mashed potatoes. i had a bite of mashed potatoes, and i never got to the turkey because the general said come on over, sir, let's take some pictures. i never got to my turkey. it's the first time in thanksgiving i've never had anything called turkey. >> that was the president speaking to troops during a previously unannounced trip to afghanistan on thanksgiving. the president's first visit to that country. it came almost a year after he

made a surprise trip to iraq, which was his first time visiting a combat zone since taking office. meanwhile, the taliban has signaled interest in reigniting peace talks with the u.s. a spokesperson for the insurgent group told reuters on friday that the group is, quote, ready to restart the talks. it comes just one day after president trump's surprise visit to u.s. troops in afghanistan where he discussed the status of the talks with the taliban. >> the taliban wants to make a deal, and we're meeting with them, and we're saying it has to be a cease fire. they didn't want to do a cease fire, but now they do want to do a cease fire, i believe it will probably work out that way, and we'll see what happens. >> but the "new york times" reports that those comments further confused the taliban and left them scrambling to figure out whether trump had suddenly moved the goal post for negotiations with the addition of a cease fire demand.

and according to a new report the department of homeland security did not have the necessary tools in place to track how immigrant children it separated from their families. a inspector general report found that the trump administration estimated it would separate 26,000 kids if the zero tolerance policy of 2018 had been allowed to continue. further more, the agency knew it lacked the technology to track and reunite children with their parents after receiving backlash nationwide, president trump signed an executive order ending the policy back in june of 2018. the administration previously said an estimated 2,800 kids were separated as a result of zero tolerance but the new report says that due to the lack of technology to track which children had been separated meant the agency had to revise that estimate to more than 3,000. the report released last wednesday also said officials atticus toms and border protection forged ahead with the policy even though they knew ahead of time that the agency

lacked the proper technology to track and reunify kids with their parents. meanwhile, "politico" reporting the department of homeland security's inadequate medical technology and records management for thousands of migrants who passed through their custody are contributing to poor care and even death citing a review of lawsuit records. still ahead, president trump will be abroad for the 70th annual nato summit. we're going to have a preview of when to expect when he meets with world leaders there. plus, former vice president and 2020 candidate joe biden is hitting the road in iowa, and he's pledging to win the first in the nation caucus. his message to his voters coming up next. ♪

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♪ welcome back, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. president trump is back at the white house after spending the thanksgiving holiday with troops in afghanistan and with his family in florida, this is going to be a busy week for the president. he's heading to london for the nato summit while new impeachment hearings take place here in washington, d.c. nbc news white house correspondent kelly o'donnell has more. >> reporter: leaving florida's sunshine behind, president trump heading back into the storm of impeachment. a critical week, lawmakers review the draft report of allegations against the president. tuesday the house intelligence committee votes to send the findings to the house judiciary

committee, which takes over wednesday with a hearing on the constitutional grounds for impeachment. the president's allies complain about the process e. >> rounds one and two by speaker pelosi and chairman schiff are as rigged as a carnival ring toss. >> reporter: but in this next phase the president could mount a defense. >> they're invited to participate, so we are certainly hoping that the president, his counsel will take advantage of that opportunity. >> reporter: republicans insist they should be able to defend the president by questioning his accusers like the whistle-blower who was not called to testify by intelligence chairman adam schiff. >> my first and foremost witness is adam schiff. it's easy to hide behind a report. it's easy to hide behind a gavel in intelligence committees. >> reporter: zoe lofgren lived impeachment history. a staffer on the nixon investigation, she voted against bill clinton's impeachment and

says president trump's conduct is worse than watergate because it involves a foreign country. >> nixon's behavior didn't fall into that range, so in that way this is conduct is more serious. >> reporter: a quick turn around for the president, he and the first lady head to london today, and they'll be there for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of nato. the president also has meetings with european leaders, and he's complained that democrats are undercutting the country by scheduling impeachment tef activities aon the same dates a his nato meetings. >> our thanks to kelly o'donnell for that reporting. in what is being spun by some as a win, an unchanged opinion on public sport of impeachment and removal from office. this stagnant result comes within the time frame of the first round of public impeachment hearings. however, half of americans still

want the president impeached and removed from office. these numbers come in stark contrast with president clinton's impeachment numbers. the peak of public support for impeaching and removing clinton from office back in '98 only rose to 29% according to cnn's polling, and the d.c. circuit court of appeals has set back to back impeachment related hearings for just after the new year, according to the order issued last week on january 3rd. the court's going to hear oral arguments as to why don mcgahn should be immune from having to testify in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the president. that same day another impeachment related court fight will be held. the attempt to obtain grand jury information in special counsel bob mueller's final report on the russia investigation. the democrat-led house already won both cases in front of district court judges and is now trying to push away efforts by the justice department to overturn those decisions. and as nbc's kelly o'donnell mentioned, president trump is

going to travel to london this week for a meeting of world leaders marking nato's 70th anniversary while then candidate trump labeled the alliance as obsolete, "the wall street journal" reports the white house has struck a more conciliatory tone ahead of the upcoming summit taking credit for increased military spending by member countries and declaring that the transatlantic relationship is in a very, very healthy place. the "new york times" reports that in a gesture to trump, nato announced last week that it had agreed to reduce the united states's contribution to the alliance's relatively small central budget for about 22% to about 16%. according to the times, nato's own budget, which covers its headquarters and staff and some small joint military operations is about $2.5 billion a year compared with more than $700 billion for the pentagon. and former vice president joe biden launched an eight-day bus

tour of iowa over the weekend pledging that he will win the state's february caucuses despite recent polls that suggest otherwise, biden was optimistic telling a few hundred supporters, quote, we're going to win this race, and we're going to beat donald trump, and we're going to change america. meanwhile, biden's aids acknowledged he must sharpen his message and bolster public outreach ahead of the caucuses. they insist that biden has wide support and remains well-positioned to cover any lost ground. south bend mayor and 2020 candidate pete buttigieg visited the church of reverend william barr -- after attending yesterday's service he spoke to reporters about his efforts to engage with african-american voters. listen to this. >> certain ri i have a responsibility as a candidate for office to reach out to black

voters who may not yet feel that they know me. i think the more we do that outreach the better that relationship will grow. >> let's talk about some polling. we have the latest emerson poll showing joe biden falling ten points in new hampshire. now bernie sanders and mayor pete, senator sanders rose 13 points to lead the field at 26. buttigieg follows with 22% after climbing 11 from september. biden and senator elizabeth warren are tied with 14%, each respectively and congresswoman tulsi gabbard and andrew yang round out the list of leading candidates. when asked about their choice between president trump and the current field of 2020 contenders, buttigieg, biden and sanders all end up on top, mayor pete beats president trump 53-47. biden and sanders beat trump 52-48, but president trump is the winner when facing andrew

yang and elizabeth warren. 51 to 49. lets talk about some of this. joining me once again from washington, political reporter for "the washington examiner" emily larsen, welcome back. what do you make of some of this polling, especially the matchups with president trump when you see andrew yang and elizabeth warren losing to president trump? >> i think that elizabeth warren losing to president trump in new hampshire is exactly what a lot of republican advisers would expect are from a matchup when they're trying to -- like that when they're trying to paint people like elizabeth warren as being incredibly too progressive and trying to tie her to socialist ideas. the interesting part about that is that bernie sanders does beat trump in new hampshire, and so that it ctactic doesn't work wi him, but he does have a history, a longer history with the state. he won new hampshire in 2016 by a wide margin, and he is

neighboring right next door in vermont, and so there's sort of some of the same spirit there, i think. but i think what the polls show with at least the -- bernie sanders now leading the field in new hampshire, it shows that this is really a volatile field and you can't really say what's going to happen in these early states just yet. >> i think it really shows that it's anyone's race when you're out there and people are asking you, especially when they see you on television talking about politics all the time and the 2020 race. people are always asking me, i'm sure you get this as well, who's actually going to win this thing, and i think the answer is nobody really knows, and it's obvious when we do these polls week to week and they're just changing constantly. you had a recent piece in "the washington examiner." in it you point out that the 2020 impeachment schedule will give one presidential candidate a leg up in terms of campaigning time. talk to us about what you mean. >> well, there are six senators running for president, and they will be tied up with impeachment hearings, and if the -- it seems

like there'll probably be a senate trial around the time of the first primary contest in iowa and new hampshire, and at the same time mayor pete buttigieg is about to leave his office as mayor of south bend, indiana, and be able to campaign full-time on the campaign trail, so not only is he surging right now, but he might be able to surge a little bit more if he can have a heavier campaign schedule right at this crucial point before the iowa caucuses and scoop up some more support that way. so -- and while all the senators are tied up in washington d.c. he's going to be able to be campaigning on the campaign trail. the flip side to that is a lot of focus will probably be on the impeachment trial in washington, d.c. he'll have to breakthrough that noise in order to get his message out there. >> as we saw quickly over the weekend with mayor pete, the

over arching theme with mayor pete is how does he capture the african-american vote, it seems that's where he's lagging the most. what have you heard with regard to the efforts that he is engaging in to capture the african-american vote? >> well, he's, first of all, just trying to introduce himself to voters. i think one of the biggest things is joe biden is absolutely dominating with african-american voters, and part of that is because he has some very deep relationships with those voters. he is known by them. he's been part of those communities and reached out to those communities for decades, in fact, and so pete buttigieg is still whoorking to introduce himself to voters. it doesn't help him that he's had controversies regarding police shootings with a white police officer killing a black man in south bend. there have been a few other controversies on the campaign trail about how he targets and

reaches out to black voters or how his campaign team has stumbled in some senses, and so those are hurdles that he's having to get over, but pretty much everybody, the biggest argument against pete buttigieg winning the presidential nomination is that you cannot win the nomination without support from black voters and you cannot win a general election without support from minority voters coming out to support you, especially voters who don't really -- aren't habitual voters and aren't excited by your candidacy. >> it's certainly going to be an uphill battle for him to say the least. emily larsen, thank you so much. good seeing you. >> thank you. still ahead, it is cyber monday, and the holiday shopping season is just getting started. what you need to know to make sure the gifts you buy online arrive on time. plus, another check on your weather as the northeast gets hammered by a powerful winter storm, the first i'm sure of many in this winter season. we'll be right back. ♪

with so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit? having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket, and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. with their new fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from national insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. in minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit or if there's another one that can get you extra coverage or help save you money. best of all, their service is completely free. does your plan have $0 copays, $0 deductibles, and $0 premiums? if not, maybe it's not the right fit. does it include dental and vision coverage? well, if not, maybe it's not the right fit. how about hearing aid, glasses and gym memberships at no additional cost? maybe there is a better fit for you. call healthmarkets now or visit healthmarkets.com for your free fitscore. we can instantly compare thousands of medicare

plans with all of these benefits and more, including plans that may let you keep your doctor and save money. with the annual medicare enrollment deadline coming, don't waste another minute not knowing if you have the right medicare fit. for this free service go to healthmarkets.com or call right now. having helped enroll people in millions of policies with an a+ customer satisfaction rating, you can trust healthmarkets. don't assume that your plan is still the right fit. the healthmarkets fitscore makes it easy to find the right medicare plan for you. healthmarkets doesn't just work for one insurance company, they work to help you and they do it all for free. your insurance marketplace. healthmarkets. there may be medicare benefits and savings you're missing out on. only healthmarkets has the free fitscore. call before the deadline.

welcome back, as the busy holiday season gets underway, an onslaught of orders and bad weather across the country could mean delayed deliveries. nbc's chris clackum has the details, excuse me, that an american shopper should be aware of. >> reporter: the delivery services all promise to do the best they can around the holidays. >> the explosive growth of e-commerce in general has really shifted shopping patterns. it's our peak season. it's peak shopping season, and therefore it's peak shipping season. >> we're making sure that we have appropriate staffing and we'll be ready to deliver everybody's packages and holiday cards. >> reporter: but delivering on time is still dependent upon how early you ship. so here are the deadlines to keep in mind over the next three weeks. for standard shipping, the deadlines are december 13th for ups, the 14th for the postal service, the 16th for fedex.

for priority shipping, both fedex and ups want your boxes or packages by december 19th and 20th. the 20th and 21st for the postal service, and for the fastest of all deliveries the overnight shipping. all three want your shipment in hand by no later than december 23rd. of course there's a way to avoid shipping deadlines. >> the earlier you mail your packages is always better. >> reporter: they also suggest professional packaging. >> they can take care of that and it really helps to ensure that the package arrives in good condition. >> reporter: this way the holidays get delivered in good condition, too. chris clackum, nbc news. >> our thanks to chris clackum for that report. theme of the day, get on it. get ahead of it. get it mailed. >> i feel like this whole

stress, presh. >> pressure. >> that's what i was thinking. >> last year thanksgiving was a little early and we a little more time. >> it's such an incredible time of year coupled with stress of getting all these packages out to the people that you love. >> thankfully you're right here, it's very easy for me. >> just hand it over. >> walk it right over. >> thanks for the mug. >> you want a mug? >> third year in a row. >> that picture of you and i on a mug. that'll be great. i'll order that. let's get into this forecast, we still have a lot of areas with snow. we're going to have a lot of school cancellations. a lot of them are already canceled, especially interior new england. that's who got the worst of it yesterday. it was also icy in pennsylvania. the heaviest snow is in central new york. now they've gotten a little bit of a breck. there was even thundersnow reported in areas of massachusetts. it's a lot of cleanup, and then we're going to get round two later on today. here's how the airports are going to look. now, the new york airports yesterday afternoon and evening with the rain and the high volume, they were about two-hour

delays. there were a bunch of cancellations. once again today, with the low ceilings out there having some rain and then going to snow, i think the new york airports will have a lot of delays. same for boston later today, especially with the snow. the albany airport's already had a lot of cancellations from yesterday. there will be more likely today as the snow moves back in, but it won't be as heavy as it was last night. philadelphia may be a brief period of snow. i think the airports around d.c. will be fine, buffalo should be okay, pittsburgh shouldn't be too bad. anyone driving today, the worst of the recoroads, the new york e through, the hudson valley on 87 and i-95, mostly wet roads, and then as we go through the later portion of today, it could get a little slippery, especially interior sections of the northeast. middle of the country you're fine. we got nailed over the weekend. areas like duluth had 28 inches of snow. there's still some cleanup in areas of the great lakes and the northern plains. the west coast we had a big storm with windy, rainy conditions in san francisco.

today that moves to the intermountain west. i'm happy to report as we go throughout the next two to three days, i mean, besides the storm out here in the west, it's kind of a quiet weather pattern. it looks like it's going to warm up significantly for much of the country in the middle of december too. thank you, bill. still ahead, new questions are being raised about president trump's no quid pro quo phone call with eu ambassador gordon sondland. the washington post is digging into the fact that there's no evidence the conversation even happened. plus, what president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani is saying about reports that he pursued business in ukraine while also trying to dig up dirt on joe biden. we'll be right back.

welcome back, the justice department's inspector general has reportedly found no evidence that the fbi spied on the trump campaign back in 2016. that's according to people familiar with the draft of the report who spoke to the "new york times." the report spearheaded by inspector general michael horowitz examined key aspects of the russia investigation and whether trump's associates conspired with russia's election interference operation. sources claim that the report debunks various conservative talking points, many hurled by the president himself, that the fbi acted improperly while handling the probe. the document also undercuts an unsubstantiated acquisition made by president trump that former president obama ordered his phones to be tapped.

horowitz sharply criticizes fbi leaders after finding errors and omissions involving the surveillance of former trump campaign official carter page but ultimately found that the agent's actions were not politically motivated. it is kbpted to debunk the theory that the fbi relied on information to open the investigation from the infamous steel dossier, a final version of the report is expected to be released on december 9th. the now infamous no quid pro quo call reportedly had between president trump and eu ambassador gordon sondland at the crux of the administration's impeachment inquiry defense may be unraveling. during sond land's second congressional testimony he recounted aspects of the september 9th phone call. however, no other witness testimony or documents have emerged that corroborate his description of a call that day. the "washington post" points out that trump himself in describing the conversation has referred only to the ambassador's account of the call, which based on

sondland's activities would have occurred before dawn in washington, d.c. according to an administration official, the white house has not located the record in its switchboard logs of a call between trump and sondland on september 9th. and according to documents reviewed by the "new york times" at the same time rudy giuliani was trying to dig up dirt on the bidens, he was privately pursuing hundreds of thousands of dollars in business from ukrainian government officials. giuliani has reportedly said he has no business in ukraine and none of the deelals were finalized. however, documents indicate he was exploring financial agreements with the same ukrainian officials he was pushing to investigate trump's political rivals. in an interview on wednesday, giuliani played down the discussions saying that a ukrainian official approached him this year seeking to hire him personally. giuliani said he dismissed that suggestion but spent about a month considering a separate deal with the ukrainian government. he then rejected that idea.

all right, a new poll shows the majority of republicans think president donald trump is a better president than the president who ended the civil war, abraham lincoln. the economist poll shows 47% of republicans think abraham lincoln is a better president with 53% picking the sitting president. republicans favor president trump over every republican president in the poll except for ronald reagan. upon hearing the news the president tweeted a link to an article about the new poll, the do nothing democrats want to impeach president trump? the president has gotten a little competitive with honest abe in the past. most recently in a fox news interview where he said quote, some say abraham lincoln received harsher news coverage. i say i dispute it. another busy week in the impeachment probe. we have a preview of what to expect as the week gets underway. republican senator john kennedy once again repeats a claim that

ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. we're going to show you his new comments and much more coming up. we'll be right back. deadline is only days away. with so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit? having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket, and that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. with their new fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from national insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. in minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit or if there's another one that can get you extra coverage or help save you money. best of all, their service is completely free. does your plan have $0 copays, $0 deductibles, and $0 premiums? if not, maybe it's not the right fit. does it include dental and vision coverage? well, if not, maybe it's not the right fit. how about hearing aid, glasses and gym

memberships at no additional cost? maybe there is a better fit for you. call healthmarkets now or visit healthmarkets.com for your free fitscore. we can instantly compare thousands of medicare plans with all of these benefits and more, including plans that may let you keep your doctor and save money. with the annual medicare enrollment deadline coming, don't waste another minute not knowing if you have the right medicare fit. for this free service go to healthmarkets.com or call right now. having helped enroll people in millions of policies with an a+ customer satisfaction rating, you can trust healthmarkets. don't assume that your plan is still the right fit. the healthmarkets fitscore makes it easy to find the right medicare plan for you. healthmarkets doesn't just work for one insurance company, they work to help you and they do it all for free. your insurance marketplace. healthmarkets. there may be medicare benefits and savings you're missing out on. only healthmarkets has the free fitscore.

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. this week a new round of impeachment hearings is set to begin, and the white house says it will not be participating claiming the probe is unfair, basele baseless, and highly partisan. and while the hearings get underway on capitol hill, president trump will be in london to mark nato's 70th anniversary. he's reportedly eager to lead on foreign policy as the impeachment probe ramps up back home. plus, it is cyber monday, one of the biggest online shopping days of the year between black friday and today. more than 165 million americans are expected to hunt for bargains from their favorite retailers. ♪ good monday morning to you, it is 2, i'm yasmin vossoughian. we begin with a look at the critical week