against president nixon in a case that was about whether or not he has to comply with, well, similar types of requests. and it court once unanimously ruled against bill clinton in a similar vein. see you back here tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. eastern. "hardball" is up next. the speaker's verdict. impeach him. let's play hardball. good evening. i'm chris matthews up in new york. well, the speaker of the house spoke for the democrats today and called for impeachment of the president. nancy pelosi began the day directing congressional committees to get busy next week drafting articles of impeachment against donald j. trump. in doing so speaker pelosi established herself as the driving force to make president trump the third american

president to be impeached by the house. pelosi's declaration today leaves the house two full working weeks before it leaves washington for the christmas recess to complete its work for impeachment. she says the house has no choice but to act now in the face of the president's wrongdoing. >> the facts are uncontested. the president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding milita military aid in esh change for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival. sadly, but with confidence and humility with allegiance to our founders and our heart full of love for america, today i am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. >> just hours after pelosi spoke the judiciary committee announced a hearing for next monday, december 9th to hear impeachment evidence from the

house intelligence committee. that would clear the way for articles to be drafted by the judiciary committee and voted on next week in that committee with a vote by the full house the week after. friday december, 20th, by the way is the last scheduled day of the house session this year. today pelosi rebuked a reporter who suggested she is being driven by personal antipathy to the president. >> do you hate the president, madam speaker? >> i don't hate anybody. i don't hate anyone, not anyone in the world. don't accuse me. >> i'm not accusing you. i asked a question. representative collins suggested yesterday the democrats are doing this simply because they don't like the guy. as a catholic, i resent you 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 comes to words like that. >> for more i'm joined by democratic congresswoman mary gay scanlen of pennsylvania, vice-chairman of the house judiciary committee, susan of usa today, and what a great trio. congresswoman, give us a sense now that the speaker has laid down the law basically. what's it going to look like between now and the christmas break the friday after next? >> well, i think we're going to continue to do the hard work we've been doing. yesterday you saw we had a hearing where we laid out the constitutional basis for impeachment, the kind of things the founders thought were impeachable offenses. and on monday we're going to have a hearing where we look at the evidence that's been compiled to date and apply that to the constitutional foundation. >> what's it going to look like? you're sitting on the committee

and spending a good part of your time and mind thinking about it. give us a sense what you see coming, what you'd like to see coming in terms of articles. >> that's what we're moving into next week. i'm certain everyone has thought privately about it, but we haven't had those discussions yet because this has been a very quickly moving investigation. but now we're at the point where we are going to have those discussions. certainly we heard yesterday from these constitutional experts that the founders were worried about interference in our nation's affairs and worries about just general corruption. what we didn't hear is that the founders anticipated we'd have one president that gave all of those things in one bucket. >> i've been hearing now for the first time in my life the last couple of years are the most important political battleground in the country. are the countries around philadelphia including your county, delaware and pennsylvania.

has the message of the speaker and your judiciary committee and the rest of the democratic house, has it permeated out there among the people? >> well, it certainly has in my region. you know, in addition to coming from a district that includes philadelphia where the constitution was written, pennsylvania's been very aware of election issues in the last few years. we've had some voter suppression measures. we had a strict voter i.d. law that had to be overturned. i'm here in large part because we have gerrymandering that was determined to be unconstitutional. pennsylvania is aware of the fact people can mess with our elections. certainly people have been very focused whether there is wrongdoing in d.c. and monday night i was at a forum what is impeachment and talking to constitutional experts. i had a gentleman come up to me and he said i worked for a township. if i had done what the president did here, i'd be in jail. so people get it.

>> i think i got it growing up in philly because in the dirty old days of philadelphia when it was somewhat corrupt as we all remember sadly, they used to talk about the magistrates who would open their drawer for people to put all the money in there if they want the call to go their way. let me go to susan page on this. it does seem to be coming into focus like an old polaroid picture. it looks like impeachment in a couple of weeks. it's going to get done. >> you heard some clues of that with what speaker pelosi told reporters today. on obstruction of congress, perhaps one on obstruction of justice. we don't know exactly what the articles are going to be if it's going to go much beyond the ukraine affair into pulling things from the mueller report, for example. but speaker pelosi has kept a pretty good control on this, and her focus has been narrowly drawn on the ukraine affair and with a timetable that has really

been extraordinary fast. we do expect to have a vote by the full house by christmas. that's going to be a busy two weeks ahead. >> yes, it sure will. president trump responded of course to the speaker's press conference on twitter. his favorite mode of activity. writing -- by the way he refers to nancy pelosi just had a nervous fit. she said she prays for the president. i don't believe her. not even close. help the homeless in your district, nancy. later during an event at the white house the president was asked for his thoughts on impeachment. >> no, not at all. it's a hoax. it's a big fat hoax. >> you know, it gets worse. and somebody once said to franklin roosevelt, his big idea of being president was to be franklin roosevelt. this guy's idea of being president of the united states

was being donald trump. he seems to get lower under this pressure. >> yeah, he's got no idea that there's a constitution -- i don't think he's ever read it. the constitution creates the power of impeachment. why? and i had to study this in watergate where we went through the same exercise. we had to study the constitution and match up the facts up to the constitution to see if it met the standard. why did the framers put it in? they knew some time there'd be a president who would abuse the power of his office, put himself above the law and threaten our democracy. and we've seen that here. and we've got to do something about it. >> nixon knew he had done something wrong. he knew when the tapes came out that he was being corrupt, and he was ashamed of himself. if you listen to the later interview, this guy has no shame. >> he has no shame, but he knows he's done something wrong because he's been engaged in this huge cover-up.

he's trying to keep people from going to the congress -- >> consciousness of guilt. >> absolutely. he knows he did something wrong. he knows he's in big trouble. it goes -- when the intelligence committee issued the subpoenas, they said if you don't show up, we're going to use -- draw adverse inferences and that's what they need to do. the president is involved in a big cover-up here. >> did you see the president today tweeting he said -- he did want use these words, but in effect when i was shaking down z zelensky, the president of ukraine i wasn't was doing it in the interest of the country. what's your thought of his defense today? >> well, this is the latest offense we've heard. jim jordan tried out the defense yesterday when we were talking to the constitutional experts. it is cherry picking one portion of a sentence and ignoring the rest of the conversation or at least what we know of it because we still haven't seen the entire

conversation. i think he's absolutely right. he knows what he did was wrong, he's engaging in a cover-up and we've heard all manner of excuses why we shouldn't proceed. whether it's procedural battles or, you know, just him claiming that article ii allows him to do anything he wants. it's not about him. its about the constitution. >> let me go to susan because i know you're writing a book about the speaker and i have to tell you having worked as a speaker myself, i am really impressed by the speaker. her discipline of the party is always unbelievable. she got aca through, her first health bill since medicare or medicaid and she got it through. she got the votes. and now i'm watching her pull the reins again.

it looked like she said this morning at 9:00 i'm calling the shots, we're going to impeach this guy. your thoughts. >> that didn't start at 9:00 this morning. she has very firm control of her caucus. she has put one of the chairman she trusts the most, adam schiff in charge of the investigative part of this. she's the one that made the announcement they're going to draw articles of impeachment. she does defer to chairman of the committees on some issues, but she not only wants to be in control of this caucus, she has the loyalty of the caucus behind her. we may see a defection or two, just a handful of democrats on this impeachment vote, but not very many. and it is -- it does reflect what we saw on previous -- when she got tarp through, which was on behalf of president bush. she got the affordable care act. when the obama white house was ready to reduce the breadth of the bill and she said no, we're going to try to get the whole thing through.

so, yes, this is test of her speakership. and we saw in the exchange today how fierce she can be. >> i can see the work you've done already, susan. susan pelosi today she met privately with judiciary chairman jerry nadler and intelligence chairman adam schiff as susan just mentioned along with the chairs of four other committees. pelosi was asked if she'd support including elements of the mueller report in the articles of impeachment in the next two weeks. >> you mentioned those previous investigations. do you want to see elements of the mueller report or -- >> i'm not going to tell you about that, okay? my chairman will be making recommendations as to what the -- our counsel, our lawyers, our chair, the staffs of the committees have been sensational. and we'll look to them for their judgment about what the

articles -- with all due respect to your question i'm not here to talk about that. >> i got the sense when the speaker was going to announce something at 9:00 this morning she was grabbing the reins and she was saying let's not spend the next week arguing about the long list of litany really of articles, or do we stick to the main focus. we caught the president abusing his authority, abusing his power. we caught the president in a bribe situation. we got him. let's not mess this up with a lot of other issues. do you have a sense she still wants to go in that narrow particular direction? >> well, i think that's what we're going to be talking about the next few days. certainly there were ties from the ukraine incident to, you know, what we saw throughout the mueller investigation. in both instances we have the president welcoming or soliciting help from a foreign country to interfere in an election first in 2016 and now

moving ahead to 2020. then once there's an investigation, he obstructs the investigation. so there's a pattern of conduct here that i think we very well may look into, and we were exploring some of that with our constitutional experts yesterday. >> well, i want to ask you to give some advice to the congresswoman particularly along this line. water was a word used because of the break in of the democratic national headquarters, but there was so much more to it than that. in this case do you narrow it down to one focus, the zelensky july 25th conversation or you broaden it or just focus on one issue but say well, we're really talking about a lot of other stuff? >> well, i think we should keep it really focused on the abuse of power, bribery and abuse of power in terms of soliciting a fake investigation of biden. but you also have this cover-up, and i just wrote an article for "the washington post" about this. i think in the article about where the president is covering up, refusing to cooperate with

the committee, forcing people not to testify, intimidating witnesses, he did that not only about the effort to find out about what happened in ukraine, he did that when the judiciary committee tried to find out what happened with regard to russia. so you can have that in the article of impeachment about obstruction of the committees and without really changing the focus, which is the president's abuse of his power with regard to ukraine. >> i was saying today in our staff meeting today with my producer it's like when you say head of cattle you mean whole cattle. in a sense when you hit him on a couple of things you're really talking about a much larger pattern. anyway, thank you congresswoman mary gay scanlon of pennsylvania. susan page, what a book it's going to be and you've got some great stuff today.

anyway, thank you congresswoman elizabeth. and fruchl raises the prospect of calling witnesses including this show he wants to put on in the senate when they go to try this case. adam schiff. here joe biden and his son, all of them are coming. nancy pelosi wants to call a witness all the testify in this senate impeachment trial. of course the republicans -- the president leading the band wants to turn it into a spectacle against biden of course. once again he's back to the whole rabbit hole. plus rudy giuliani is at it again digging for dirt on ukraine on biden. he's being quite open about it this time. and joe biden takes on donald trump in a new campaign ad that's now gone viral. >> world leaders caught on camera laughing about president trump. >> several world leaders mocking president trump. >> they're laughing at him. >> my administration has accomplished almost more than

any administration in the history of our country. didn't expect that reaction, but that's okay. >> that was the voice of joe scarborough you heard there in that ad. by the way, biden has also picked a high prestige endorsement. we'll tell you who that is in just a minute. we're back after this. n just a minute. we're back after this. so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar? thanks, lady. taxi! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ sa new buick? for me? to james, from james. that's just what i wanted. is this a new buick? i secret santa-ed myself. oh i shouldn't have but i have been very good this year.

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the speaker gave a speech on national television to push forward her rushed and partisan impeachment. one word, not one word on the outstanding legislation the american people actually need. all impeachment all the time. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was senate republican leader mitch mcconnell this morning on speaker pelosi's announcement the house will proceed directly now with articles of impeachment. while mcconnell criticized the impeachment process as being rushed, the president today

called for speed. trump tweeted if you're going to impeach me, do it now fast so we can have a fair trial in the senate. trump's counting on the republican majority of course in the senate that will serve as the jury in this trial to let him off the hook. white house officials held a meeting yesterday with republican senators, and according to "the post" their strategy includes calling, quote, get ready for the show, live witnesses on the floor during the trial. previewing that strategy today president trump said they'll call democrats as witnesses met with the clear intention of disrupting and distracting with the court charge against him, the president. trump said we'll have schiff, the bidens, pelosi and many more testify, and we'll reveal for the first time how corrupt our system -- our system is corrupt. the statements our guy makes, our government system is corrupt. they intend to focus his trial

on his political opponents. i'm joined now by david jolly, former republican -- i love to do that to rub it in -- from florida. i don't know whether he's elmer fud or bugs bunny because sometimes he's playing defense. do you think he will participate as a guy who does love the senate of making it into a joke, of bringing all these people in, hunter biden and all these -- do you think he'll run along with the spectacle? >> i do. look, the republican strategy will be to make this look like a trump-style reality television spectacle. and they're going to do it by injecting subplots of deflection and distraction and at some times deceit, and mitch mcconnell is going to play along because if he doesn't he's fearful of the response by donald trump. but he does have one conflicting

priority with the trump administration. >> to keep the senate majority. >> yes. and thnl thing he cares about is 53 votes, and he's got five republican senators in states that voted for hillary clinton, in colorado, iowa, elsewhere around the country. so he's got to get this thing over with, rip the bandage off and be able to protect those five senators. >> does your ex-party still need to save its reputation? >> yeah, but i think they're in the process of losing it. in '98 during the clinton impeachment you had -- >> i mean # 1 said let's go out and take a look at this case before they voted, most of them with bill clinton. >> that's right, chris. and in this case you are seeing republicans completely overlook the truth, ignore the truth and suggest to the american people the truth simply doesn't exist. that's where they're really tarnishing and ruining their

reputation. your question to steve is an intriguing one because it is not donald trump's call whether biden and schiff and pelosi get to be witnesses. it is up to the senate to work that out. it was a contentious debate among republicans and democrats during the clinton impeachment. ultimately democrats only called three witnesses and provided video testimony during the trial. this would be a fascinating call if mitch mcconnell goes the route steve suggested. i'm not disagreeing with steve. if he does so, he will simply ruin the integrity of the institution of the senate that mitch mcconnell has suggested he is trying to protect -- >> he does care about the senate, by the way. even though i disagree with him. i don't think he wants to make a joke of the institution. >> right. for trump it's always the ratings, not the polls. trump wants the show trial.

he feels he can excel in the show trial and energizing his base. he wants that. mitch mcconnell, i'm not sure he does to steve's point. >> i think this president would disgrace the united states senate to get one vote out of it. i don't think he gives a jam about the united states government, the institution. he said today the whole system is corrupt, well, who's running it? the president continues to engage in a very misconduct that's driving this whole impeachment action. as we speak his former -- actually, his current lawyer, still his lawyer rudy giuliani is out there back in ukraine, yes, in ukraine seeking more dirt on trump's political opponents from former pro-russian prosecutors in that country who stand accused of corruption themselves. giuliani told "the new york times" he's still act ogen trump's behalf saying like a good lawyer i'm gathering evidence. the president was caught

off-guard by giuliani's arrival. equally shocked by his arrival was the u.s. embassy. once again a free booter out there on his own but you know he's in touch with the president. >> of course. look, this is what's happening with rudy giuliani. first of all it's actually sad to watch his deterioration. he was an icon, and to watch this happen is actually sad -- >> he's like a former heavyweight boxer. he becomes the official greeter or worse. >> that's exactly right. look, remember when kellyanne conway said at the beginning of this administration there are facts and there are alternative facts? what he's trying to do is create alternative facts. he's trying to create a narrative that doesn't exist. the question in this trial and i know david agrees with this is the question is impeachment. did donald trump abuse his power in order to enhance and enrich his campaign? it is not about hunter biden, not about joe biden, not about

adam schiff, and we shouldn't be fooled by this massive distraction. >> what's your sense as to why the democrats ever called rudy giuliani? they can still do it in the senate when adam schiff, i assume he'll be the chief manager in the fight for conviction against the president, removal from office. why haven't they done it yet? this seems to be he's the mess the carinate? >> he's also a bit of a wild card kind of like cory lewandowski. and the question is do they already have enough based on all the corroborating evidence and testimony? and the answer is yes. i think the witness they really want is mulvaney and bolton and pompeo and others, but they're not willing to litigate that. why is rudy over there now, chris, because they're all corrupt. this whole trump team is corrupt. that's the bottom line. i think rudy giuliani ultimately ends up in jail for some other time of violation related to disclosure and receiving foreign

money. but this will feed the rank and file republicans particularly in the house who will continue to try to delegitimize the democrats' investigation when in fact it is the republicans who are delegitimizing it by not cooperating with the democrats. >> thank you, two former professional member of politics. our commentators. thanks so much. up next the judiciary committee of the house settles in to write the articles next week. will the committee be taken a focus narrow approach or go for a more wide ranging indictment? a lot of progressives want to go wide. it's an interesting discussion. we'll see if it matters and how it's going to work out. i want to talk to constitutional schol scholar laurence tribe about what he thinks. r laurence tribet what he thinks we made usaa insurance for members like martin.

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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. >> welcome back to "hardball." it will now be up to the judiciary committee in the house

of representatives to determine the scope. quote, if the full committee by majority vote determines that grounds for impeachment exists a resolution imp a peaching the individual in question and setting force specific allegations of misconduct in one or more articles of impeachment will be reported to the full house. that's how it work. according to "the washington post," quote, democrats are considering articles of impeachment against president trump that include obstruction and bribery but are unlikely to pursue a treason charge. i think that's fair. to help us make sense of what comes next i'm joined by laurence tribe coauthor of to end a presidency, the power of impeachment. would you like to see the congress if it votes articles to limit it to say two or three or go further? >> you know, i don't think it is the precise number that matters, and the whole debate about whether to go broad and narrow i think misframes the issue.

as i argued in "the washington post" op-ed that came out this evening. the issue isn't broad or narrow. the issue is shallow or deep. i think it's important to identify the pattern of misconduct as representative scanlon and to some extent former representative -- suggested earlier on your show. it is not a one-night stand at the president had with russia. and ukraine-gate wasn't a one-night stand either. he is is serial abuser. what we have is a pattern, a consistent pattern. first he asks russia for help, and then russia gives him help and he accepts it. then he obstructs justice to prevent discovery. and as soon as he thinks that's behind him, he then turns to ukraine and shakes down ukraine. and if he gets away with that as he thinks he has because the whistle blew, but it blew in

time for him to release the aid, then he's going to go onto more. and as you said we've got giuliani out in ukraine right now. he is is serial abuser of power, and he's a serial krumter of our electoral process. that's why this matters. it's not some legal technicality. it's the right to vote that matters. we all care about our vote, and we don't want it to be stolen by foreign influence, by influence whether it's from russia or as he publicly requested from china or as he might be requesting behind the scenes from maybe north korea, who knows saudi arabia. the whole integrity of our system is at stake. that's why nancy pelosi was so right when she said this is matter of our democracy. it is a pattern that needs to be charged. it can be charged focusing centrally on ukraine, but that

means taking russia into account as well. but not throwing in the kitchen sink, not stormy daniels, not emoluments, not all the other things that this guy has done that could justify his impeachment. it's this consistent repeated pattern of serial misconduct that uses the power of the presidency to enhance his own political standing and wealth. that's not what this country was built on. and because he thinks he's above the law and can stone wall and obstruct justice, he's essentially dismantling all the checks and balances so that we can't wait until the next election. we have to remove him as soon as we can. >> you know, the way you said that, professor, so much makes sense of what john bolton perhaps for different reasons called this whole thing a drug deal. because the way you describe it is the police know that a guy's dealing drugs on the same corner every night and at the same time every night, and they get an agent out there or police

officer to buy drugs proving not that he sold drugs that night, but that's what he does. >> and that's his pattern. this is serial abuser of power. he has the office of the presidency not to help us, the people, not to help the people who elected him although his base is mesmerized, i guess. but to help himself and his family and to keep them in power perhaps to create a dynasty. but in any event to benefit the trump tower and not to benefit the people of the united states of america. we need to take our country back. that's what this impeachment is about. >> one flaw in the argument i wonder about, professor, is if you go back to mueller and his ten instances of obstruction of justice in the second part of his report, if you go back and cite that as the basis in itself for an article of impeachment, you have to answer the question, if that's impeachable, why didn't you do it when the report came out, and why didn't you

have the 218 votes for that, because each article has to be self-sufficient, right? >> well, you don't necessarily have a separate article on obstruction, but you have an article about the pattern of obstructing justice and taking the law into his own hands. the reason we didn't do it then is that the pattern was only beginning to emerge sometime crystal forms on the screen and you see the pattern more clearly. and when it's unmistakable and the evidence is overwhelming and clear as nancy pelosi suggested it must be, then you move. and it's possible, though i'm an etern eternal optimist here, it's possible the people by a substantial majority do think the president should be removed and will begin to feel that even in places like wisconsin, pennsylvania, mish, throughout the country. and not only in red and purple areas. >> well, wisconsin's is a hard sell right now. one last question, professor.

the senate trial coming up. we're all going to be watching it. it's going to be gavel to gavel on this network and elsewhere. can the republicans turn that into a spectacle? any way that the chief justice if he's ready to do it could limit the actual matters at hand? >> well, he could try. and john roberts who was a wonderful student of mine and who's been a very serious chief justice may view his role as slightly more than ceremonial. you know, bill rendquist who robert clerked for back in the day had these robes and stripes and he was basically playing a role from central casting. he said i didn't do very much as the presiding officer but i did it very well. maybe roberts will think that a little more seriously but ultimately i think mcconnell has the gavel. he has a lot of power and we've

seen how willing he is to abuse it. and i wouldn't count on mcconnell to conduct a fair trial, but we have to do everything we can. we can't give up just because some senators are going to risk their legacy and maybe their re-election by looking the other way while these serious patterns of abuse of power continue, and they're going on right now. that's why we can't wait for the next election. there are going to be cyber attacks, real problems in the 2020 election. >> it's an honor to have you on especially at this critical time. thank you profelser laurence tribe of harvard law. the biden campaign put that video of leaders laughing at trump into a sharp new campaign ad. biden makes the case to restore america's standing in the world. and that's next on "hardball." america's standing in the world. and that's next on "hardball." [farmers bell]

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welcome back to "hardball." the biggest headline of trump's

trip was world leaders mocking him. and now 2020 candidate joe biden using that picture of the mockery to his advantage releasing this campaign ad yesterday. >> the 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. didn't expect that reaction, but that's okay. >> world leaders mocking and ridiculing him for being completely off balance. >> allies are deeply worried about it. they say he's becoming increasingly isolated. something is very wrong. >> the world sees trump for what he is, insincere, ill-informed, corrupt, dangerously incompetent and incapable of my view of leadership. and if we give trump four more years we'll have a great deal of

difficulty. >> that's a great ad by the way if you get to watch it in full. anyway, today biden got a key endorsement to bolster his argument he's the best candidate to represent america on the global stage. we'll tell you who that high prestige endorser is. you're watching "hardball." prestige endorser is you're watching "hardball. ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment.

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democratic presidential nominee officially endorsed joe biden for president saying in a statement i believe joe biden is the president our country desperately needs right now. i've never before seen the world more in need of someone who on day one can begin the incredibly hard work of putting together back the world donald trump has smashed apart. i'm joined now by the senior director of progressive programming for my favorite radio station serius xm. what do you make of this? timing is pretty good. >> it's pretty good. but endorsements have less weight i think in previous cycles because there's so many different candidates. so it's not surprising. it's always good to have another statesman say i think this guy can be commander in chief. so it's a good thing for biden but it's not surprising. >> let's talk about kerry and today. i think you and i know what matters most in politics is not

the argument. because no one ever agrees they're wrong. if you change the topic, though, if you change the stage, biden got a break this week. the stage is now the world global stage. the other candidates are pretty good on issues like health care and that domestic issue. he's the only one with the world experience, and then throw it in kerry endorses the give me the old alley-oop. >> you mean the timing was good because trump was on the world stage and it didn't go -- >> we were on the world stage, yeah. >> understood. the american president. i think john kerry is justly highly regarded figure in many -- among many people. but i would also say that it is probably true that john kerry's endorsement of biden will be very pleasing for people who are already for biden. isn't it sort of not the same quadrant? >> it's being called a new

castle. biden got in a very heated exchange today with a voter out in iowa. judge this especially his performance. >> i know trump has been messing around in ukraine. but you, on the other hand, sent your son over there to get a job and to 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're selling access to the president just like he was. >> that's not true, and no one has ever said that. no one ever said my son has done anything wrong and i did not on any occasion -- >> i didn't say you were involved. >> you said i setup my son to work in an oil company. you know what you said? get your words straight, jack.

>> how'd he handle that? >> i didn't think he handled that particularly well. i think -- some people are talking about how he challenged the guy to push ups and said something about an iq test. and you sort of have trump on the flip side doing similar things. >> is trump our standard now? >> that's a sad standard. and i think when we talk about our moment in politics i think back to moments like this in 2016. if you recall in south carolina hillary clinton was interrupted by a protester who was criticizing her from her super predator quote from 1996. it wasn't handled like that. i can't imagine that moment happening and hillary clinton getting away with saying you're a damn liar. and so i just think that in some ways we're judging the candidates a little bit differently on that front, on a gender front. and because of trump. so we've definitely lowered the bar in terms of diskrcourse. he's going to have to handle --

>> did you see how well pelosi handled the shot today and she had complete control. did joe biden have complete control today? >> no. and i think when i saw that this afternoon i thought the great question of joe biden's kanld d. d.c. in 2020 is when do moments like that start to matter? there's a moments that come by him in which there's an awkwardness or gaffe or debate moment that's not so great. it has never mattered before. i'm simply wondering at some point does it start to matter. >> here's the question. it's the job of staff people on a campaign to sit with a candidate and say this question is going to come up, and it's going to keep coming up, have an answer. >> yes, you write the answer out so that they have sort of a go-to template for what they're going to say when these issues come up. this issue is going to come up. this is the whole center piece

of the impeachment hearings, so he has to be prepared to respond to people. it doesn't matter they're not attacking him with the facts. >> it would be unbelievable if it didn't come up. >> dont you get the sense he's waiting for it to go away. he's never quite handled this subject of hunter and this whole thing and you get the stubborn sense of one who loves another, he doesn't like the question and he's waiting for it to stop. >> name a president who hasn't had a relative they've had to defend? nixon had don nixon, bill had billy carter billy bush, clinton had roger. >> these are normal families. richard nixon and his brother, they were normal. that's why there's always someone who it's not going to work.

>> thank you. this is quite a duo. up next when it comes to nancy pelosi it seems like donald trump doesn't know what he's up against. that's for sure. you're watching "hardball." for. you're watching "hardball. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, 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 his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa -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.

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in the next two weeks we

will witness a battle between a speaker of the house with leadership ability and a president who should fear it. nancy pelosi continues to display the attributes that matter. let's look at them. first, timing. she opposed impeachment until she saw a clear-cut case to justify it. that was donald trump's attempt to shakedown the president of ukraine by demanding he smear joe biden. second, focus inasmuch she has kept the hearings targeted to that case of presidential bribery. lastly, discipline. speaker pow losy won the endorsement for the impeachment inquiry from all but two democratic members of congress. her leadership in this historic moment has been stunning, and it should terrify donald trump. i remember when richard nixon learned that tip o'neil, my old boss was running the impeachment drive against him. he said that is when he knew he was in trouble. she's got the timing, the folk

sqs and the party discipline. there's one big difference between trump and nixon. at least nixon was smart enough to know who and there are what he was up against. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> today i'm asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. >> speaker pelosi makes the announcement. >> the president leavess us no choice but to act. >> the house will bring articles of impeachment against donald j. trump. tonight what we know about new hearings and what happens next. plus -- democrat denny heck on why he says democrats and republicans are causing lim to retire from congress. and democratic candidate bernie