i'm chris jansing. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now, hey, andrea. >> hey, chris. and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," bring it on. the president daring the democrats to impeach him. and speaker pelosi is already on it. >> sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for america, today i am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. and don't mess with the speaker. when a reporter later asked pelosi about a republican claim that democrats hate the president, she lets him have it. >> as a catholic i resent your using the word "hate" in a sentence that addresses me. i don't hate anyone. i was raised in a way that is a heart full of love and always prayed for the president and i still pray for the president. i pray for the president all the

time. so don't mess with me when it comes to words like that. and piling on. the 2020 candidates use a viral video of world leaders laughing at president trump to make their case against him. >> the world sees trump for what he is. insincere, ill-informed, corrupt, dangerously incompetent and incapable, in my view, of world leadership. and john kerry about to announce he's endorsing joe biden. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where house speaker nancy pelosi is taking an historic step, we'll have a lot more on 2020 politics coming up but she is giving the judiciary chairman the green light to proceed with impeachment charges against president trump. pelosi says this president brought it upon himself. >> our democracy is what is at

stake. the president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt once again the election for his own benefit. the president has engaged in abuse of power, undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections. his actions are in defiance of the vision of our founders and the oath of office that he takes to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the united states. >> president trump says he is eager to take the next steps in this process, calling for a quick impeachment vote and a trial in the senate, putting pressure on senate republicans to call adam schiff, the bidens, and speaker pelosi herself to testify. in the last hour the speaker forcefully pushing back against reporters' questions based on something that the house minority member, the ranking member on judiciary, doug collins, had said earlier on fox news about the democrats' hating

pelosi. moments after the conclusion of her weekly press briefing, this is what happened. >> reporter: do you hate the president, madam speaker? >> i don't hate anybody. i was raised in a catholic house. we don't hate anybody, not anybody in the world. don't you accuse me of -- >> reporter: i did not accuse you, i asked a question. >> you did. >> reporter: representative collins yesterday said that the democrats are doing this because they don't like the guy. >> i think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. i think he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our dreamers, of which we're very proud. i think he's in denial about the climate crisis. however, that's about the election. take it up in the election. this is about the constitution of the united states and the

facts that lead to the president's violation of his oath of office. and as a catholic i resent your using the word "hate" in a sentence that addresses me. i don't hate anyone. i was raised in a way that is a heart full of love, and always pray for the president. and i still pray for the president. i pray for the president all the time. so don't mess with me when it comes to words like that. >> well. joining me now, nbc's garrett haake on capitol hill, "usa today" washington bureau chief susan page and former republican national committee chairman michael steele. susan -- garrett, were you also in the room when nancy pelosi said that? >> yes. >> so garrett, let me start with you, then we'll talk to nancy -- to susan page about nancy pelosi about whom she's writing a book. and garrett, i have rarely seen nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, that angry. >> no, that question clearly got

under her skin but the answer was instructive because it really was just the most fiery version of what she's been saying for a long time, that this is not personal when it comes to the president. she's said this at every press conference, that she prays for him, that she prays to address things in a different way. she pulls no punches on policies of his that she does not agree with but rejects the categorization that she hates him. kevin mccarthy was asked affidavit, he says he takes the speaker at her word but does think there are people in the democratic caucus for whom the word "hate" might be more applicable when it comes to the president. pretty extraordinary action from nancy pelosi. again, all in trying to frame what democrats are doing now and continuing to pursue impeachment as a constitutional necessity, not an act of hate or distaste

towards president trump. >> and susan page, you were also at that extraordinary briefing from nancy pelosi following by about two hours after her normal announcement that they were going to proceed in drafting articles of impeachment, that history was marching on, if you will, which was delivered very somberly with her scripted presentation. then she was doing her normal weekly briefing. take it from there. by the way, let me just add one point, the president has now tweeted against nancy pelosi. his characterization, nancy pelosi just had a nervous fit. she hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and so much more. stock market and employment records. she says she praise fys for the president, i don't believe her, not even close. help your home district, nancy. usmca? there's little miss misogyny in

there as well, a nervous fit? i don't remember him talking about him talking about a man having a nervous fit. >> she dodged a question from garrett about the mueller report and whether that would be an article of impeachment. she was walking out of the room. it was extraordinary that james rosen of sinclair broadcasting posed a question that got her so mad that she turned back and went back to the podium to make an impassioned statement. that was unusual for her. "nervous" was not the word i would use to describe the attitude she was projecting. >> and to michael steele, now, you were the lieutenant governor of maryland as well as republican party leader nationally. you've been watching nancy pelosi for a long time.

this was nancy de'allesandro frm baltimore, not nancy pelosi. >> she comes from a very, very anchored and focused political family. they take their public service very seriously. and most importantly, they take their faith tradition very seriously. and so that was a personal affront to her in that regard when he used that term, when mr. rosen used that term. she wanted to make it very clear, don't mess with me when it comes to my faith, don't second-guess my intentions. she's been very clear from the very beginning this is not about a personal vendetta against the president, this is not about hating the president. you know, i love these republicans now who, you know, are claiming how much democrats hate president trump. did they check that hate towards barack obama? because i was in those rooms, all right? so this cuts both ways and she

knows it. so i think for her, she wanted to draw very succinctly and clearly where that line was, not just with mr. rosen but with the president as well. >> garrett, bring us up to date on where we stand. we know now the judiciary committee will be working this weekend on articles of impeachment and they've scheduled a hearing for 9:00 monday morning. what is the monday morning hearing all about? >> andrea, democrats are moving very quickly here. i can tell you that nancy pelosi left this press conference, went straight back to her office and met with chairmen schiff and nadler and daniel goldman, counsel for the intel committee, right away following this meeting, perhaps in advance of that hearing on monday. now, the hearing on monday will be the intel committee's chance, and this will be goldman presenting, the counsel, chance to present the report more formally to the judiciary committee. i don't anticipate any bombshells there but it's an important box to check to make sure the judiciary has all the

facts gathered by the intel committee. i would imagine most members or those actively engaged in the process have read that report but now they'll sit down and be confronted with it as will the american people, who are not keen to sit down and read a 300-page report. now they'll get a presentation of the facts laid out in that report starting first thing monday morning. >> and susan page, as we go into this, against the backdrop of 2020 and all of the politics surrounding this, and we'll be talking about that later, "usa today" and you are launched a new study, a survey of how divided americans are based on a lot of polling. and you wrote the lead, let's talk to you about that. >> you know, this is what we're calling hidden common ground, an election year project. what we found in the polling is americans think they have more in common than the politics of the day seems to suggest and they blame national political leaders, social media, and the news media for exacerbating and

exaggerating the divisions we have. we found a great appetite for working together in a more comprehensive, compromising kind of way. and in fact about four out of ten americans told us they would be tempted to vote across party lines for president if they thought the other party's candidate would do a better job of unifying our country. >> and when we talk about unifying our country, so far we have yet to see a single house republican, michael, join the democrats. >> right. >> as they approach these key votes. what about the senate republicans? >> i don't think you're going to see any movement on that front either in the senate, in fact that's the ultimate beachhead nor that, because that's where conviction has to take place if it takes place at all. when you have senators like senator graham saying out of the box i'm not going to even read the house report, i'm more interested in protecting adopt

than upholding constitutional principles that drive the idea of impeachment, you're not going to see much change. i think that "usa today" poll that susan has been involved with sets the -- has the opportunity to set the real tone here. there is an undercurrent out there in the country of people who are sick and tired of the way this game is being played. in fact the fact that it is treated like a game that has real consequences for people i think is really annoying. and so that leader who emerges who can say, you know, damn it to all that have, no more of this, let's push in a different direction, let's find those things that bring common ground, that's the leader that can emerge against a donald trump, whether it's a republican or democrat, that i think a lot of people in that poll are looking for. >> and let's say in the "usa today" poll, 83% of americans say in this poll that they are sick of the gridlock, sick of the infighting among politicians. we'll be watching that series. susan page, thanks so much for

hustling over there to get to that camera for us. garrett, on both sides of the hill as well, and michael steele as always. california congressman eric swalwell serves on the judiciary and intelligence committee and joins me, congressman, thank you very much. >> of course, good afternoon, andrea. >> we had eight hours of hearings yesterday. let's talk about what happened with the speaker today, she was really angry that her faith, her conviction and her motives for impeachment were being called into contention by the reporter, quoting a republican, doug collins. >> i've had an opportunity for the last few years to sit next to her, you know, as the chair of the steering and policy committee every week, i'm on the leadership team, i've seen her assist the process with the intelligence committee and the judiciary committee. and she has been anything but eager to do this. i've seen, you know, a reluctance just because of what it means for the country.

but a recognition that the president has taken us here and it's our duty to the constitution to carry out this process. but to suggest that it's anything other than that i think, you know, justly deepens the partisanship here in washington. >> what about the president tweeting that she had a nervous fit? >> yeah, that's the way the president talks about women. he has proven himself unserious in this process. he should be focused on the requests we have made of him for 71 different documents in this investigation, 12 different witnesses he has told not to come forward including mick mulvaney, john bolton, secretary pompeo. if he has any evidence that can clear him, now is the time to do so, because we're moving forward. >> how are you moving forward? i know you're going to be working this weekend, i presume you're not going back to california to your district. >> i wish i was, and i'm not. >> and you'll be writing

articles of impeachment as of this weekend? >> so we're going to be receiving the evidence this monday from the intelligence committee but also looking at the state of the evidence as we know it. and just evaluating what we should do to hold the president accountable. that includes of course bribery. there was a lot of evidence of bribery and the constitutional scholars yesterday laid out that the president used his office to seek personal gain and ask a foreign government to cheat in an election. of course obstruction of congress in the way he's refused to turn over anything to us. an abuse of power in the way that he's leveraged your taxpayer dollars to ask a foreign government to interfere. so all of that is on the table. and now it's just a matter of, you know, figuring out what's the best way to proceed with our duty to the constitution. >> you did not mention something that chairman nadler mentioned yesterday which was obstruction of justice, which would imply picking up the ten obstruction

issues that were raised in the second chapter of the mueller report. are you going to, as some of your colleagues, karen bass and others have spoken to this, going back to the mueller report and folding any of that in and having a separate article of impeachment that refers to that, or is this going to be single focus, ukraine? >> we want to keep it as simple as possible, and also recognize the urgency of an upcoming election that the president invoked in that july 25 call. that's why we have put pressure on ourselves to move fairly but also to move swiftly. now, the president's conduct with russia and that investigation shows that he has priors, and that a leopard doesn't change his spots. the way he invited a foreign government in the past is exactly what he's doing here. the way he obstructed the mueller investigation is exactly what he's doing here. i don't think it's been determined yet whether that will be an article of impeachment. i can just say personally, anything we have to keep it as simple as possible for the american people to understand. and andrea, most people in their communities know that if a

police chief went to a mayor and said, i've got a crime problem in my town, i need more police officers, and the mayor said, i'll give you your money but i want you to do me a favor, though, investigate my political opponent, in our guts we know that would be wrong. and that's exactly what this president did. and i think we need to make sure the articles convey that as simply as possible. >> when will you expect this to get to the floor? >> well, if we are able to mark up articles, next week, a floor vote would be next. there's no timeline we put on this. that's intentional. we want to get this right and make sure the president has every opportunity to participate along the way. yesterday chairman nadler gave the president that opportunity. he noted, this is the period at the end of the proceeding where the president could ask questions, he's chosen not to appear. we want to make sure the process is as powerful as the facts behind it. >> thank you very much, congressman eric swalwell of the

judiciary committee. coming up, former senator and democratic presidential nominee john kerry throwing his support behind joe biden. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. the holidays are easier... when you can do this.. post this... and be there like this. so we give you that. and right now, buy a samsung galaxy s10 or note 10... and get one free. the ones that make a truebeen difference in people's lives.

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and more on the breaking news that we reported at the top of the hour. former secretary of state and democratic presidential nominee john kerry has just endorsed joe

biden in his run for the presidency. in a statement from the campaign, kerry says there has never been a time more urgent for leadership at home that can work for the middle class and tackle existential issues like climate change where we're moving dangerously backwards. joe is uniquely the person running for president who can beat donald trump and get to work on day one for the u.s. and the world with no time to waste. joining me is the reporter behind "the washington post" and joel payne, former director of paid media for hillary clinton's campaign in 2016. joel, how big a deal is john kerry? obviously he did not win the presidency, and he represents kind of the older old guard, if you will, literally and figuratively. >> i think it's as significant as any other endorsement now. i think we're in an era where endorsements probably matter less. there are probably two or three democratic endorsements that are

coveted, barack obama, michelle obama, maybe hillary clinton. that said, what it does demonstrate for the former vice president some momentum and it stabilizes what many people felt like was a cratering of support with the establishment base. this is good for him the same way it was good for pete buttigieg that he got the trio of endorsements earlier today. i think we're entering the phase of the campaign where we will start to see these endorsement wars start to take over our airwaves and our twitter feeds between now and iowa. >> and certainly it's an anti do antidote to the mike bloomberg effect, jumping in with a $31 million ad buy on day one. >> that's absolutely right, and joel is also right, there's always been a question of do endorsements even matter. i think at this time in the race right now where there's no clear front runner, anything can help. this endorsement also seems to be very strategically timed and seems to come at a clarifying moment which is sort of this realization i think amongst democrats that after two months

worth of, you know, trying to get as much evidence as possible to show that -- to make the case that the president should be impeached for his pressure campaign on ukraine, there has been this realization that republicans are not going to budge an inch on this. that serves as a catalyst to make the democratic establishment potential ly pani even more, whether or not they can be on the same playing field going into the general. democrats already have a money deficit. and i think there is this realization that, you know, the party needs to start punching back towards trump a little stronger now. >> kerry is going to be exchange in iowa with joe biden tomorrow. cory booker has just made a point that is notable to anyone watching, that the next debate is two weeks on pbs, and it's

going to be, as of right now in terms of the dnc qualification metrics, six white people now that kamala harris is out of the race. cory booker has not yet qualified. let's watch booker. >> it is a problem that we now have an overall campaign for the 2020 presidency that has more billionaires in it than black people. i've seen folk here in iowa belie what all the predictions are. it was this state that set a trajectory for the first black man in american history to become president. [ applause ] >> joel? >> so look, this is complicated. i think the senator makes a good point, kamala harris made a good point, about the importance of the african-american vote which was underrepresented in the republican party. that said, african-americans are

speaking, joe biden and elizabeth warren are dominating the field when it comes to african-american support. i understand what cory booker is saying. i also understand that voters kind of speak with their vote and not just white voters, by the way, african-american voters. i think barack obama ran a very good campaign and was able to coalesce a winning coalition across racial demographics. and i think any democrat is going to have to win a winning coalition that includes african-americans, latinos, women, young people, people of color. any candidate that is on the stage next to donald trump this time around is going to have to represent all of those folks. i think that that candidate can be pete buttigieg, elizabeth warren, cory booker, bernie sanders, so on and so forth. >> and joe biden? >> and joe biden, sorry, i didn't mean to leave the former vice president out. >> i was going to tell you i was talking to a prominent democrat from michigan who said that as of right now, donald trump would

beat any of those democrats. >> i love the pundification of folks right now. i understand the nervousness, i'm a political pro, this is kind of what we do, we get nervous this time of year. >> a lot of people should have been a lot more nervous in november of 2016. >> probably. >> among the democrats, let's say. joel, jackie, thank you very much. and coming up, open mic fight as the president calls canada's prime minister two-faced for mocking him among other world leaders. democratic candidates are seizing on the president's poor standing on the world stage. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. u're watchingl reports" on msnbc. create your own ultimate feast is back at red lobster. with new creations to choose from; like rich, butter-poached maine lobster and crispy crab-stuffed shrimp rangoon. how will you pick just 4 of 10? it won't be easy. better hurry in.

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president trump is back at the white house tweeting about his success at the nato summit despite leaving abruptly without holding a planned closing news conference to the surprise of his own aides. the president's sudden departure followed several embarrassing moments including being mocked on camera by canada's prime minister justin trudeau, overheard on an open mic

gossiping with the other world leaders about the president talking so long at a photo op, he delayed the summit schedule. president trump called justin trudeau "two-faced." we' thanks so much, peter, you were writing today about this summit, the president's standing on the world stage, he was mocked abroad, in fact, and you wrote, when trump can hop on air force one to escape the country for a while, but it was not so friendly. the lack of friendliness on the world stage was notable for the

mockery, nato leaders, allies, figured out how to sort of work around him after he blew up a previous summit in brussels. it did not work to the president's benefit at all. >> i think he hates to be mocked, of course. i think that he hates the idea that people are talking about him behind his back. remember, this is somebody who grew up in new york feeling that the manhattan elites were always scorning him, looking down their nose at him. it sort of fueled the grievance and resentment that he has, you know, that has powered his career in business and now in politics. the idea that these leaders were kind of joshing about him, making fun of him, basically, behind his back, clearly got under his skin. he called prime minister justin trudeau of canada two-faced in response. and then he did something odd, he left town. he went ahead and left london without the closing press conference that he had already scheduled. he talked to the reporters plenty when he was there, but it is kind of unusual for him not to try to wrap up the events on

his own terms, you know, in his own way, that way. i think that was striking to people as the you know that he was not shown great respect. >> no, not at all. and i think as peter pointed out, it is unusual nor trufor tt to take what he sees as a huge opportunity to have that closing press conference. it usually appears to be the part of a foreign trip he actually likes. it's just him on the stage taking questions from the american press there to cover him and the foreign international press, the host country press, and at international gatherings like this one, reporters from all over the place, he loves that. to not do that is suggestive that he did not want to answer a bunch of questions about impeachment and he especially didn't want to answer questions about other leaders making fun of him. >> joe biden has already seized on those moments. this is a new campaign video put out overnight by the biden team.

>> world leaders caught on camera laughing about president trump. several world leaders mocking president trump. >> they're laughing at him. >> my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. [ laughter ] i didn't expect that reaction, but that's okay. >> peter, it's not surprising that they would jump on this. also we should point out that pete buttigieg also taking the same tack in a tweet saying, this president has berated and demeaned our allies, tarnished our credibility abroad and put political and personal motives above the national interests. we're seeing results from betrayal on the battlefields of syria to policy at nato. foreign policy is always used, as you've been writing, peter, by presidents to show them being commander in chief and especially when they're being impeached back at home.

but now it's being turned against the president. >> exactly right, richard nixon famously went off to the middle east and then the soviet union weeks before he ended up resigning. it was a way of showing him being a statesman on the world stage. bill clinton went to russia and northern ireland shortly after his grand jury appearance in the monica lewinsky/kenneth starr investigation and went to the middle east days before his impeachment in the house. the idea was to show that, you know, we're above the muck back home, the scandal-obsessed opposition leaders care about that but i care about shaping events of the world. that didn't stop either one of them from getting in trouble, nixon did end up resigning and clinton did end up getting impeached. president trump didn't get that opportunity this weekend. it works against him, he had a talking point which was going to be an important one for him, that the nato secretary general said all these other allies have begun increasing their military spending under pressure from

him, it was something he could brag about but it got overshadowed by this viral video. >> peter baker and anne gearan, thank you, both of you, very much. coming up, red scare. the department of justice charging two russians with one of the largest cyber crimes in history, pete williams coming up next. e williams coming up next .♪ ♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪ we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. -well, audrey's expecting... -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust. ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. okay. mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. lemme guess, change in plans?

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the big case today, federal

prosecutors have filed charges against two russians accused of carrying out one of the largest cyber crimes in history. earlier the just department announced the string of attacks targeted victims in at least 11 states. >> the conspiracy was a constantly evolving and adapting criminal enterprise that had a level of sophistication and scope of threat that we rarely see. >> joining me now is pete williams, nbc news' justice correspondent, and joyce advanced, former u.s. attorney and msnbc contributor. welcome, both. pete, you were at the news conference. do they have any idea who these guys are? >> yes, they know they're both in russia. the poster you showed earlier says it all, wanted by the fbi. they admitted these charges won't shut down their operation. but whenever these individuals are indicted, it makes it impossible for them to travel,

there are interpol notices and so forth. they said this is the worst hacking operation in a decade, 300 organizations targeted in 43 countries. it was a very simple thing. they sent innocent-looking emails. this is the basic phishing thing that people clicked on, launching malware into their computers and it injected very sophisticated malware that was connecting a hose into people's bank accounts and draining them. >> in answer to a question you asked at the news conference, this stuff is still there in various places, the malware, so victims need to be alerted. >> yes. so often the fbi finds out that people don't have the proper level of security. these were small organizations, mostly, that were targeted, small companies, school districts, some cities with ransomware. so they don't have the very latest, most sophisticated kinds

of protections against this. but they said, you know, a lot of this can be stopped if people will just use really secure passwords that are changed often and what is now known as two-factor authentication where you can't get in with just one password. >> joyce advancvance, the fact this has been going for a decade and they're just now arresting them, these cases are hard to track. >> they're incredibly hard to do. zeus, one of the pieces of malware that's the subject of this indictment, first became available in 2007, became a big deal in 2009. even though these defendants are in russia and it may be tough for law enforcement here to bring them to trial, it's incredibly important for them to understand two things, both that u.s. law enforcement is tenacious, it doesn't give up, and that ultimately it can i had them as individuals, which has a

lot of impact on them. as pete points out, it means they can't travel. an earlier defendant in the western district of pennsylvania related to this scheme was nabbed when he was on vacation in cyprus. so now these folks have to take their vacations i guess on the baltic instead of going into a warmer country. >> and pete, do they know whether there is russian gru military intelligence or russian government involvement in this, as the mueller report said there was, and of course the hacking of the dnc. >> they may. they may know. if so, they haven't told us. we asked that question today. there was some indication that there was some kind of relationship with the russian government. but i don't know, they haven't told us whether this was directed, blessed by, done with the cooperation of the russians using any kind of government infrastructure. but they say that yakubets especially, the ringleader of

this, has been living an opulent, open, extravagant lifestyle, so he hasn't kept it a secret in russia. >> joyce, i wanted to ask you about the attorney general, because apparently there's reporting from "the washington post" if not others that william barr's hand-picked prosecutor has not been able to back up the president's conspiracy theory about the origins of the trump campaign having been set up by u.s. intelligence operatives in 2016, this in anticipation of the ig report, the inspector general's report that's coming out on monday, michael horowitz' report. >> john durham, the prosecutor you've been talking about, has been part of doj for a long time. he has a solid reputation as someone who is very thorough and diligent in his work. what the reporting indicates is that when the inspector general reached out to ask him if he had developed any evidence at all that might lend credence to the president's long-standing belief that ukraine was involved in

hacking and that there was some flaw in the origins of the russia investigation, durham said he had been unable to develop any evidence. and that's important in light of the earlier reporting we also saw that indicated that the attorney general was personally traveling with durham trying as hard as he could to develop evidence and apparently he came up empty-handed. >> joyce vance, as always, thank you, and pete williams on the case here. coming up, war games. the trump administration considers sending thousands more troops to the middle east to stand up to iran. i'll talk to senator kirsten gillibrand about what she and her colleagues are doing to fight these deployments. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us right here on msnbc. reports. stay with us right here on msnbc. , not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it - with hassle-free claims, he got paid before

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it's bitcoin exposure through a traditional investment account. nice rock. it's time to drop gold. go digital. go grayscale. the trump administration is considering expanding the number of troops in the middle east. rot joining me now is democratic senator kirsten gillibrand who serves on the armed services committee, is just back from afghanistan and kuwait over thanksgiving. let's talk about another

deployment. do you support the idea, do you think it's necessary? there's a lot of trouble coming from iran right now and there is concern in the region. >> i have a lot of concerns with regard to president trump's policy with regard to iran. i think it was a mistake to unilaterally walk away from the deal in the first place. that destabilized the entire middle east. it breached with our allies who worked very hard with crippling sanctions to get all the players to the table. and now president trump has the opportunity to make the sanctions greater and to actually make a larger agreement. but he's not taken that opportunity. i think a deployment of 14,000 troops without coming to congress first is a serious concern. i have a bill, a war powers reform resolution, which would put the power back in the hands of congress as our constitution intended and as our founders intended. i don't think we should be having forever wars. the aumfs that were passed in

2001 and 2002 have been used to go into 20 countries to deploy tens of hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of lives have been lost. and so the truth is, before trump sends 14,000 troops anywhere, he should be coming to congress. >> which he of course has not done. you and others, tim kaine, have all been calling for this. and you haven't, without, you know, any democratic leadership there in control, been able to get this even on the floor, i don't think. let's talk about afghanistan. you were just there. you were talking to troops, men and women in afghanistan, and also to the afghan women. what are their concerns? because i've been hearing a lot about the concerns of afghan women about a deal with the taliban. women about a deal with the taliban.

role models for their whole nation and for taliban leaders and as they bring all their talents to the table hopefully the taliban will also recognize that women have a role to play in society that not only creates stability, but creates >> and closer to home of course i want to ask you about a decision that is now official. we've been hearing about it for quite a while, which is the administration'shi decision to change the work rules, the work requirements, for nearly 700,000

people who are going to lose their food stamps because of new department of agriculture work requirements. how does that make anyde sense? >> i think it's outrageous, andrea, becauseag the people wh access food stamps need them. they are hungry. they tend to be seniors. they tend to be children and veterans. one of the reasons i went to afghanistan was to see our men and women who are sacrificing everything. i got to see the tenth mountain division who is the most deployed division in the entire army and when those men and we will come home if they need our help,ee why should they be deni basic supports like food stamps? the truth is that's what president trump is doing. his reforms are going to needlessly cut thousands of families from access to food. >> senator, as a member of the senate, of course, you are going to be a juror in this upcoming impeachment trial which we think is going to happen now. just today joe biden was

confronted inoe iowa by a residt there, we don't know what his background is, but confronted and accused of all sorts of things involving his orson, sayg that what he did and what his son did was worse than anything that president trump has done, and i think that former vice president called him a damn liar so there was quite a confrontation in the field. i think we have a little bit of that ttvideo, if we can play a little bit of it for you. >> you, on the other hand, sent yourhe son over there to get a b and work for a gas company that he had no experience with gas or nothing in order to get access to -- for the president. so you are selling access to the president just like he was. >> you're a damn liar, man. that's not true. and no one has ever said that. >> i see it on the tv. >> you see it on the tv. no, i know you do. by the way, that's why -- i

don't like it -- let him go. >> so a moment in iowa, but, you know, how do you and the democrats push back against thoses accusations which have been disproved by credible sources? >> well, what you've seen, andrea, in these proceedings is that the republican house members ares trying to distrac the american public from the facts that president trump, in fact, solicited a bribe asking a world leader to investigate a political rival in exchange for resources that were already authorized byr congress. that'sth something for his personal gain and we heard yesterday in testimony from legal experts that that's exactly what is an impeachable offense. if that's not an impeachable offense, then nothing is. so i have great concerns about thee allegations and i hope th my senate colleagues and the republicans in the senate will do their constitutional duty

like we are all required to do and listen to the evidence that if it does come over to the senate that we will listen to the evidence carefully and maybe a sobered a eed and reasoned ju. >> always a pleasure. thank you for being with us today. >> thank you, andrea. and nbc's mike mamali is in iowa and was with skroebd when that voter just got in his face a bit. describe what you saw. >> reporter: yeah, andrea, as you said, a moment in iowa. the whole point of this no malarkey tour for the biden campaign was to have the vice president making more personal interactions with voters and, yes, taking questions from time to time from them. a gentleman he introduced himself started by saying i'm a democrat. he actually started by saying as well that he wanted to ask him about his age, whether he had the mental faculties to be the president of the united states. so certainly something that put biden already on the defensive, though he said he wouldon answe that, but then he continued as you just played the sound to raise the questions about what exactly his son was doing in

ukraine and whether the vice president had sort of authorized it. he saidrt you sent your son to ukraine. it's unclear yet, andrea, whether the man was trying to genuinely get the vice president tonu explain what happened or i he was simply repeating what have been clearlyat debunked in terms ofha what the vice presidt was -- his role was. he has long said he did not know his son was even taking a role with the ukrainian gas company, butan biden responded very viscerally, said, you are a damn liar. the exchange continued, there was a long back and forth where the man said, do you know what, i'm not voting for you anyway. biden said i know you're not voting for me, you are too old to vote for me. clearly you know this ukraine issue has been hanging over the campaign for a long time. they felt good about how it has been playing from the congressional hearings, felt they could staep back from engaging in the back and forth because so many government officials including trump appointees have violated biden's insistence that he did nothing wrong and his son did nothing wrong. it's still affecting voters as

they consider their many options in the iowa caucus and biden forcefully responding to it here. you can see a lot of our colleagues behind us trying to talk to that gentleman, we will join that scrum. we also expect to hear from vice president biden shortly. >> thises on a day when they goa big endorsement at least in the world of foreign policy, john kerry the former tomorrow knee and that he had what they had hoped to be talking about today as well. mike, go to it, thank you very much. and that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." a busy edition indeed. remember, follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. here are ali velshi and stephanie rule from "velshi & ruhle." >> hello, everyone, thursday, december 5th, 2019. as andrea said, theres a lot happening on this historic day in washington. any moment we will hear from president trump who is attending a lunch for the united nations security council at the white house, the meeting, the lunch, follows a momentous announcement

from house speaker nancy pelosi today asking the house judiciary committee to draft articles of impeachment against president trump. >> if we allow a president to be above the law, we do so surely at the peril of our republic. in america no one is above the law. the facts are uncontested. the president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding military aid and crucial oval office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival.n