sunday. you can actually catch jeremy o'harris and that's msnbc.com/withpodtour. and if i were you, i'd want to go see jeremy and chris. that does it for us. we'll be back monday 6:00 p.m. eastern. and i also have a special series sunday night 9:00 p.m. eastern, white house in crisis. and "hardball" starts now. speechless. let's play hardball. good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. president trump was left speechless today passing up his last chance to defend himself, acknowledging he faces the near certainty now of impeachment by

the house of representatives. the president through his attorney informed the house judiciary committee he will not participate in the committee's hearings next week. he did so just under the wire of the 5:00 p.m. deadline. in a letter to chairman gerald nadler white house counselor pat sippalone called the impeachment baseless arguing nancy pelosi, the speaker, quote, ordered house democrats to proceed with articles of impeachment before your committee has heard a single shred of evidence. well, that's his account. this letter came monday or right before the monday coming hearings at 9:00 a.m. this coming monday. the judiciary will hear evidence from the house intelligence committee counsel as it prepare tuesday draft articles of impeachment next week.

and that should setup a house vote before breaking for the christmas recess december 20. in a letter to nadler telling drms, if you're going to impeach me, do it now fast so we can have a fair trial in the senate. a senior administration official explained the white house's decision telling "the wall street journal" we don't see any reason to participate because the process is unfair. they will not give us the ability to call any witnesses. well, the president is banking on acquittal by a republican led senate but today democratic senator chris murphy suggested there's some possible cracks in the republican firewall. >> have you spoken to a single republican colleague in the senate who's even considering voting for impeachment? >> yes. >> you have? >> yes. >> okay, would you like to name them? >> how many? >> it's a small list on one h d

hand. >> he didn't say full hand. he said it could fit on that hand. i'm joined by congresswoman debbie who serves on the house judiciary committee. jill colvin white house reporter for the associated press, chuck rosenberg. it's great to have you right here in the room with us. what do you make of the president's no mas. i'm not going to talk, i've had it? >> we've actually given him the opportunity to come and present his side of the story. but if you notice they're not contesting the evidence or facts because they cannot say anything about the evidence that has been presented which is very damning for the president. >> let me ask you about that because we've all watched criminal cases on television and even in the worst case situation with the worst defendant who is totally clearly guilty, oj, for example, they come with an

alternative theory. they come up with something. a guy drops some banana peels on the way and say he must be doing a cowered or whatever killing. they didn't try. they accept the fact the president was shaking down a foreign leader. >> they're trying to dismiss the evidence and the facts, and the reality is that we have clear evidence especially after that phone call, and we had that hearing this week, and you heard from the witnesses that they said that phone call shows that the president is abusing the power of his office to solicit a foreign government for his own private and political gain. and so that undermines the integrity of our elections, and that goes to the very heart of our constitution. and so i think that he knows and i think his advisers probably don't want him to speak under oath, and they're protecting him in some sense, i think. >> jill, the partisan nature of our times, it's not just this

case, this impeachment, it's the world we live in. there are very few people you walk up to and say what do you think of trump and say i'm a mixed mind on that. everybody, i think the democrats have the facts but that's my opinion, too. but this time around there's a reality, and the reality is this president now faces impeachment, he probably will be impeached in two weeks. he knows that. it will be engraved in law. it will be for every school kid that goes to a good school in this two week period, impeach the president. do they in the white house get it? >> i think that's what you saw that was so extraordinary this week was basically the president, his campaign, white house officials openly saying, look, we get it, the writing's on the wall, it's done. there's no point in us even engaging because we know how this is going to go. so let's pivot and try to put our faith in the senate process

where we can get a better shake where the president thinks he can create this admitted for tv moment with all his republican allies -- >> it's right out of macbeth, why are they talking like that? >> they want it done as quickly as possible so they can move over and they're putting their faith -- >> the president is not too sure about the constitution to put it lightly, but they're better at reality tv. are they thinking -- let's get the democrats reality tv which is real off the television, get it off quick before christmas and then two weeks of christmas and the holidays and the other holidays, we don't have that on our mind, it'll fade a bit. and then we'll come in january and create a new reality calling hunter and joe biden and calling

pelosi and schiff. is that what they're thinking, a new reality tv show? >> they might be thinking that. if you analogize a house proceeding to a grand jury and the senate proceeding to an actual trial in a federal criminal court case, defense attorneys normally don't have the opportunity to go to the grand jury, right? and i don't known many defense attorneys that would turn down any opportunity to take a shot at a case. so in my world as a federal prosecutor your turn as a defense attorney only comes at trial, so i'm a little bit surprised on one hand they're passing up an opportunity to attack it in the house. >> well, let's talk about television for a second because heir we are on television. if donald j. trump said december 10th or 15th ear somewhere in that week, i'm going to do a little rehearsal and i'm going to go before that committee myself, and i'm going to make a case for my innocence, i will be as good as any of these clowns

on the committee and i'm going to beat them at their own game? do you think he was afraid to do that? >> i think that he has a very hard time telling the truth, chris. and i think if he is under oath in the front of the judiciary committee in such a judicious moment in the history of our country, it could be very dangerous for him. and i do think that it's the reason why he has obstructed this entire time. he has obstructed many witnesses from coming forth in front of the judiciary committee. we have been trying to go with an investigation for this president for months. and he hasn't allowed key witnesses to appear before the judiciary committee. so that's why i'm not surprised he's not coming. >> do you think he would be in a perjury situation, to put it lightly? >> you know, i can't make any assumptions because obviously he's not going to be coming in front of the committee, but what i've seen from this president is say one thing one day and then say a completely different thing the next day, so, yes, it

wouldn't surprise me if he lied under oath, yes. >> there's big breaking news right now as we speak. moments ago house intelligence chair adam schiff sent a letter to vice president mike pence asking him to declassify the supplemental testimony of jennifer williams, his special advisor on europe and russia. that's his advicer, pence's. in the letter chairman schiff said it contains information about the vice president's september 18th call, telephone call with ukraine's president. adding the classification on this supplemental testimony will allow the congress to see furth further corroborative evidence. >> that's interesting. keep in mind the white house and even pence's office has been trying to distance themselves. sources told me the vice president wouldn't even recognize her if he was in the room with her. and remember she had testified not only she was on that call but also she had been told it was the president who directed the vice president to cancel his

trip to zelensky's inauguration. there was some debate within the vice president's office about exactly the chain of command and how it went through. i have no idea what's in that supplemental testimony. that's really interesting. >> who gets to declassify something like that? >> the executive, the president. the entire system is built for the president, and so the president can delegate to other officials the ability to classify or declassify. but in the end it's his call. and by the way with all the concern republicans expressed about the depositions being secret and not transparent, now in part you see why. there's classified information there. >> what do you think the vp's role is here? >> i think that has been one of the biggest questions hanging over all of this. the vice president's office has tried very consistently to distance himself saying he didn't know anything about this. the case where it was actually after his meeting in warsaw with

z zelensky there was that pull aside conversation made and pence didn't know about that, it's an interesting argument pence's folks try to make. because it suggests how much did the vice president know if he was in the room with this guy -- >> yeah, i think there's down sides to be donald trump's vice president. >> i mean, i doubt there are many things happening without them getting approval from the president. i mean, what we've seen is this all comes back to the president. this is not about the vice president. it's not about giuliani. i've heard a lot of stories about all the people surrounding him. i think ultimately it falls back on president trump and what he has directed the people to do around him, which is to violate the constitution, to seek foreign interference, to help his re-election campaign, and again for me it was a clear national security issue. >> you're an american citizen. >> i became an american citizen, yes. >> you have an amazing american

story. you were born in ecuador. did you have to go through the citizenship test? >> yes, i did. >> would trump pass it? >> i don't know even know if he's read the constitution. i've gone now to a few citizenship ceremonies, and every time you stand up to take that oath and i speak to them and tell them, look, it's not just taking an oath for allegiance to this country. it's also having the responsibility as a citizen of this country to participate to give back to your community and to take the right to vote. and we today passed a monumental bill that restores the voting rights act. and so we are working in congress regardless of what anyone thinks. >> i want to talk about that at the end of the show. a little news coming up here. senator murphy on morning joe said he had an idea from conversations on the senate floor that there's five -- maybe

five senate republicans who might vote to convict. >> i have heard that there are a couple of senate republicans that are concerned or worried that -- we'll wait to see all the evidence but it wouldn't surprise me. >> let's look at the names. mitt romney, lisa murkowski is a maverick. and maine's susan collins who's facing a tough re-election, maybe cory gardener. i don't know. >> at the end of the day we're here to represent the people that sent us to washington, d.c. so i hope to see our republican colleagues not only in the house but in the senate put their country -- >> let's talk about that. let's stay with you. i am impressed by nancy pelosi. i've known her a long time. it's like her whole career is leading in these two weeks. she is a great political leader. when they tried to rattle her the other day, a reporter from

fox said you hate -- and she gave him the stoneface, the poker face and she lectured him about her religious beliefs, her culture. and she took advantage and control of the situation. >> and i can relate to that. she is an incredible leader. she listens to each and every one of us. she understands the diversity in our districts and shooechlts to make sure what we're doing remts the will of the people. and it's going to be not a political decision but really a decision that's going to be for the progress of this country and protect our democracy and freedoms. and i relate to that because one of the witnesses on the hearing on tuesday said, you know, i've seen people very angry and i was thinking i'm not angry, chris. i'm very concerned. i am concerned about the future of this country. i've left a country where i've seen what happens when a president abuses his power and is surrounded by corruption and is trying to hold onto that office and puts his private, political gain in front of the

gain of the people. >> and we've had the thing with the big name. >> and i'm proud of all the immigrants that have stood up and had the courage to really come forth and tell us their stories. >> let's talk about the last two week, the next two weeks. the next two weeks you've got the counsel for the intelligence committee we've watched them in action coming over to the judiciary committee to lay out the case for impeachment. monday morning at 9:00. it's all going to happen. >> and potentially tuesday, wednesday we might even see those articles of impeachment. we'll see how broad they go or whether we see something about the mueller report, potentially something about the emoluments clause and then it comes time to vote. and by christmas, they'll be done. >> i get the sense the speaker who's one of the strongest speakers we've had since tip o'neil, i worked for him, she's a helicopter. she's riding around the committee chairs right above

them. she's going to stay sharply focused, disciplined. very logical. i'm impressed. >> i am, too. but we should ask the congresswoman because she knows her better than we do. >> i'm always so impressed by her. and again i want to come back to the fact she understands the intricacies of all our different districts. a lot of us come from districts where there are a lot of people still not completely clear what has happened. >> how strong in your district? >> he's a little bit under 50 but people are working very hard, chris. they're working 40, 60, 80 hours a week trying to pay their bills. they don't have time to tune in and understand what's happening. that's what speaker pelosi is trying to do. this is not political. this is about protecting our democracy. >> thank you so much of the best part of florida down in the keys

in miami. what a district to represent. thank you jill colvin so much and chuck, one of my favs. coming up what's rudy giuliani doing in ukraine? good question. the president's lawyer says he's continuing to dig up dirt on joe biden. but there's new reporting today senior white house officials are startled and concerned giuliani's out there in his latest escapade. joe biden says mostic voters are not onboard with the push for medicare for all. he says congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez does not represent the future -- at least she's not the future of the entire democratic party. is he right? and here's what bloomberg said today when he jumped into the democratic primaries. >> i watched all the candidates and i just thought to myself donald trump would eat them up. >> i'm not sure about that.

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welcome back to "hardball." rudy giuliani, what a character, being himself under investigation, of course. continues his expedition for political dirt out there abroad despite the imminent charges his client, the president is now facing like impeachment with stops in budapest and kiev. he's interviewed the former ukrainian prosecutors who promoted unfounded claims about joe biden still at it. and all themselves facing allegations of corruption because they're corrupt. furthermore giuliani met with kgb trained lawmaker of the political party in ukraine also pushing similar claims against ukraine. no surprise giuliani is now

leveling a new round of unverified allegations against joe biden, former ambassador marie yovanovitch and the obama administration all with the dubious promise he's going to release evidence soon. according to "the new york times" the trip is for a tv series on a conservative i think right wing cable channel, but its aim is to, quote, give the president's supporters new material to undercut the house impeachment proceedings. yet the daily beast reports today that giuliani's trip was so startling to administration officials and national security brass that they began tracking his movements in an effort to get a read on his objectives abroad. so how connected is he? i'm joined now by shannon pettypiece, nbc senior digital white house reporter and former federal prosecutor and author of "how to read the constitution." that's appropriate for this week. let me start with shannon about this. tell me about rudy. he is the president's lawyer, he is his agent. >> well, there's a lot of

questions we've seen over the past two, three years of what makes someone your lawyer. when is michael cohen your lawyer, when is he the fixer? >> i've been told you don't even have to give them a dollar, you don't even have to pay them anything. rudy giuliani has said during the entire mueller investigation he was doing this for free, he was not getting paid at all. but he has been working for free on this. during the mueller investigation of course rudy was very in the loop. he was part of the legal team. they were talking about the president weekly if not more. since then we have these call logs to indicate he has been in contact with the white house but it's unclear how much that contact continued. and right now trump continues to say nice flattering things about him, is not trying to distance

himself too much from rudy at this point. so as far as it seems there's no big gap between those two. >> what about the government -- well, aren't they going close to these people? >> they have two of his pals under indictment and the reports are they're actually investigating him as well. but i think we have to take him at his word when he says he's still operating on behalf of his client. when it comes to impeachment there is no factual counter narrative to what the democrats put forth. i think he's generating basically propaganda that trump was basically really interested and concerned with corruption in ukraine. and most people can't follow this story with the kind of details and intricacies we do. and that makes sense. and we members of the republican caucus reiterating this falsity

which was actually planted a year ago by putin. trump knows how to shape public opinion. and as chuck said in the last segment, they're not interested in actually posing a defense like lawyers on the merits with actual facts. the defense is going to be let's dupe the american public again. >> shannon it seems like what we learned that what the president wanted, his people wanted was somebody over there in ukraine, so far away culturally in every way, you wonder how this happened. they want somebody over there to say they're investigating. they wanted the president over there to say i'm investigating. they didn't even want him to say we got them. it seems like the latest attempt by rudy right now as we speak. different time zone, but he's over there looking for dirt to try to get somebody over there to throw some mud at joe biden

and his son in the next couple of days. >> i think it may be to dig up some dirt but i think it's also to give legitimacy to the argument that the president had concerns about the corruption in ukraine or there was a genuine problem with the 2016 election interference that the president was asking the ukrainians to look into. rudy worked very hard to create a counter neighborative this entire time with spies in the trump campaign and this very confusing counter narrative. and you can see the same thing could take shape here and that is why i think the case for the democrats to move quickly is very strong. the quicker they can move, the harder it's going to be for this counter narrative. >> and who believes this stuff? who believes what rudy comes back with?

who would believe it? >> as we saw during the mueller investigation there became a general sense of confusion and fatigue and a sense of people, not everybody but a certain group of people throwing their hands up and not knowing what to believe. right now i believe the latest polls i saw are about 44% are for impeachment and removing the president from office and 44% are against. and you continue to have those independents that are almost evenly divided. >> meanwhile the ranking public on the house intelligence committee devin nunes continues to face his own questions of his own involvement in the president's scheming. yesterday he was asked for call records to show that he giuliani spoke to the indicted business associate lev parnas who was helping giuliani dig up dirt over in ukraine. >> what did you discuss with lev parnas? >> well, i don't even know because i never met parnas like

i filed in federal court. so it's a great question because many people want to know like mec myself. >> you never had any conversation with him? >> we've not confirmed that yet. >> you don't think you'd remember a conversation? >> you have to remember we are the oversight committee, okay, so we get calls from people every day, i get them from all over the world, allies and people that aren't our allies. in this case i just don't know. >> well, an attorney for lev parnas himself tweeted last night saying hey, devin nunes, lev remembers what you spoke about, you don't remember? kim, it just seems like a guy who's involved -- like he got involved with a mob or something this congressman. he's doing all these operations going down to the white house and delivering dirt and stuff for trump. does he even know what he's doing? >> deeply, deeply disturbing as a matter of the legitimacy of

the congress now. not just problems with the presidency but problems with congress. and we know there were call records that were gotten from at&t that show he spoke with lev parnas. documents don't lie, they don't die. the undercurrent here is vladimir putin. for america we need to find out at some point. >> i don't think congress is working for putin, maybe trump is working with him. >> what is happening in the congress and in the white house consistently benefits vladimir putin. >> it does. well, that's the pelosi argument. and by the way, it's almost every time something comes up you ask yourself the question does this help putin? >> who are these people working for? >> we're looking for a grand motive here and maybe it's just putin. anyway, thank you shannon pettypiece. up next joe biden says most democrats are more moderate for medicare for all. the numbers actually support that, but what about the passion issue? who cares most? you're watching "hardball." st o cao you're watching "hardball. standard of care.

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16 years ago this month pundits of the polls had written me off. but in this state i saw it and you take the measure of candidates themselves. polls don't speak for you. people do. you lead in and you're listening. so i would never del tell an

iowaen how to vote. but i can tell you why i'm voting for joe biden. >> welcome back to "hardball." ha that was former secretary of state john kerry who won back in 2004. he joined his no malarkey tour in iowa after endorsing him yesterday. biden is taking his campaign from a simmer to a boil. and new online national poll by reuters published just yesterday shows biden leading the crowded field with 19% of the vote nationally during an interview with axios biden made a pitch for his view of the democratic paefrt saying it isn't as progressive as some people think. let's take a look. >> you guys got it all wrong about what happened. it's just bad judgment. you all thought what happened was the party moved extremely to

the left after hillary. aoc is a new party. she's a bright, wonderful person. but where's the party? >> joe biden might benefit from another development that happened this week. open fighting between two of his opponents. we can't wait to get to that of course. you're watching "hardball." get course you're watching "hardball.

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itreat them all as if, they are hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911 and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. welcome back to "hardball." as joe biden tries to regain the lead in iowa, the two candidates who are currently duking it out there for the top spot in iowa are also duking it against each other. last night for example senator elizabeth warren criticized pete buttigieg for a lack of transparency. that's getting into it when it comes to who he's raising his money from. it's a point she made again today. >> we have a unique opportunity here to build a grass roots movement across this nation. and the way we build a grass roots movement is not by going

behind closed doors selling access to time, giving special titles and special access. people across this country are sick of a political system where it's typical politicians just keep selling access to their time. he needs to make clear who's raising money for him, who the bundlers are, and he should open up the doors so that anyone particularly the press can come in and hear exactly what's being said. >> it's a rare direct personal attack really for the senator who's tried to remain above the fray so far. mayor pete has made some of her proposals like medicare for all a target of his. for more i'm joined by sam stein and eugene. he's been above the fray and now

pete buttigieg looks like the guy who's leading and may stay in the lead in iowa, and she has to in iowa. >> yeah, i think that's right. what interested me here was the turf she chose, because she could have chosen to do this on his attacks on health care. she went after him on transparency. i think she views this as more health care is obviously a complicated one. it's proven complicated for both her and kamala harris who have been has left the race. and she stakes a legitimacy to saying, look, i'm open book on this stuff, i'm all transparent. i don't do big fund raisers like this. i have a complete grassroots fund-raising apparatus, so she has the high ground here. i think it's interesting she chose this fight and not for the health care -- >> they all ask us what do you hear, what do you think? all the fine people are for buttigieg. they're always for the smart

people, the well educated people who have good values and are tolerant about people who are gay in their orientation. no problem, they really like him. is that what she's afraid of, the people that tend to show up for caucuses are going to be for this guy? >> i think she is. and she should be based on how he's doing in the polls. but she's also mindful that people on the left or moderate or closer to the base are really concerned about transparency right now considering what people are dealing with in the white house. they know they want a response to a president who has not been very open about his conflicts of interest, his business dealings and they're holding buttigieg to that as well. >> what would be pay dirt for her? what would she find on mayor pete that would hurt him with the iowa caucus? >> two things. one, some person -- a bungler is someone who also gets other people to give the max to your campaign. if someone who's doing that, you know, is a representative of a

shady industry, a pharmaceutical industry -- >> there's a lot. you can go the democratic party, that could be fossil fuels, could be pharmaceuticals, cigarettes, could be guns. >> so that's one vulnerability to her point mayor pete does have a vulnerability here. he should probably open up the -- >> by the way, trump shows you never have to do it. >> of course. trump has proven all rules don't apply. the second thing for mailer pete that is vulnerability now is his work in mackenzie, famous consulting firm. he said he's bound by a confidentiality agreement, but they are really hammering -- >> we're on television so television shows how people behave. finances don't really work on television. the stories that work on television are what you see. yesterday during a campaign in iowa joe biden got into a heated exchange with a voter and today he was asked if he'd get similar questions in the future. >> are you concerned you're

going to get more questions like the one you got yesterday from voters on the trail? >> we've got over 2,000 people show up on this bus trip and no one's ever done it except -- look, i think it's going to be part of what is going to be the opposition in this case. look, trump's already spending $12 million to try to send the same message, and there's nothing to the message. but at any rate i probably shouldn't have challenged him to push-ups. >> he made light of it, but i watched that tape yesterday, eugene, and it wasn't fun. first of all he said the guy is too old to vote which i wouldn't push if i were biden. >> but joe biden is going to have to find a way to answer these questions without getting angry and challenging people to push-ups. and i think one thing many people notice is how biden seems to -- this is not his first time

hitting someone with a push-up challenge and getting upset, but this is something julian castro has not been able to do and elizabeth warren was called angry and elizabeth warren got push back for responding firmly -- >> let me try this. can't they all do the poker face like nancy pelosi? the guy who attacked her is a hater and she just looks and says i'm not a hater. >> i think there are ways to handle this. one is to get a better answer. a lot of politics is visceral in imagery, right? i think unfortunately for a goodtection section of the country they probably looked at him and they were like i like this guy. i like he's in his face and of course there's a double standard here. this is it. >> okay, sam, i'm going to push you on that. the iowa caucus voter, their

sort of sensibility -- >> you're saying midwest nice. maybe it'll play better in new hampshire, i don't know. >> there was an editor on a newspaper in iowa who said iowa voters especially the older ones thinks castro has fangs in attacks. so it's really interesting who gets called angry and who doesn't. and i think if biden want to prove he has self-control and actually can provide policy answers and a response to this question about his son -- >> i've got a great line for you. winston churchill said i like a man who grins when he fights. that's a great one. grin. up next, mike bloomberg has already spent millions to try to shoe horn his way into this already crowded field of democratic canndidates. you're watching "hardball." crdi.

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-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? at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. i watched all the candidates and i just thought to myself, donald trump would eat them up. >> you think all of the candidates who are running today, he would eat them up? >> let me rephrase it. i think that i would do the best job of competing with him and beating him. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was former new york mayor

michael bloomberg this morning not mintsing his words about the other 2020 democratic candidates. let me ask you about the economy. we have a 3.5% -- when i studied economics in grad school you couldn't get that. we have 260,000 new jobs and this is president is below water in approval. >> the economy is better than anybody thought it would be. nobody can completely explain it. we are at full employment at any measure. inflation is low, interest rates are low. i don't see an economy as good as this in decades. >> so putting that together with blo bloomberg, everybody else running will lose to trump. that's what he said. that's an amazing statement, but is that based on the economy being strong? >> the economy is strong, but those aren't the only things

people take into account. generally when an economy is good, presidents get re-elected. you and i worked for a president, had a recession, didn't get re-elected. >> we had an inflation too. >> we had a lot of challenges for sure. but i don't think it was the economy that was the principle problem there. >> there's almost a french revolution atmosphere out there. you know, the democrats for years were just for about helping their average person get a little ahead, get a better education, things like union power, labor and collective bargaining. now there's a feeling there's something wrong with the very rich. there's a mood out there. it's not like one or two people like biz or bernie and there's elizabeth warren. >> clearly there's an income gap that's bigger than it's ever been. it's social mobility, too. people at the bottom don't think they can get to the top. >> can they? >> it's much harder. i believe in the american dream. i came from a family who didn't

have college education or a high school education. >> your dad was a postman. >> that's right. but i think a lot of people today don't think they can rise to the top. >> how can we change that? >> one thing i'd like to mention is literacy. right now we have a situation where 14% of the american people can't read, and you're at the bottom of the social ladder and you can't read, you're never going to get to the top. these are native born americans. 14% cannot read and can't read past a fourth grade level. and we have 1.7 million people dropping out of high school every year. you've got to deal with that problem. you can tax all the rich people in the world you want, people at the bottom can't read they're never going to get to the top. >> imagine the democrats do nominate mike bloomberg, he goes against trump. we've got two oligarchs going against each other. is that good for this country,

and by the way he's $18 billion or something, he's probably more. he's really rich. >> i don't really know what his net worth is. i have a show on his network but obviously -- >> you're allowed to talk. >> okay, i think he's an unusual candidate in this sense. we've never had a candidate before who's a successful businessman and an elected official previously. whether he can come in late and win i don't know. >> he spent $7 million to win in new york. if you figure out cost 70 million, the whole country costs me billions, is that acceptable? >> in 1976 john conley had more munhy than anybody and he -- so money doesn't always win these

things. >> and what i liked about it is you could put this up at night and read about how we got here. the stuff about nixon, great stuff. you've got bob woodward who knows all about the nixon split and he got in trouble with watergate. and you've got nixon saying i kept the tapes because when i read them, nixon, he thought they would read positively for him. isn't trump just as crazy? he thinks that conversation with zelensky helps him. >> i can't comment on whether there's delusion, i would simply comment on what's in this book. >> well, that's in the book. >> you work in congress and sometimes members of congress don't know as much about history as maybe they'd like to know. so i started a program six years ago to educate congress by having these historians come once a month. >> how many congressmen show up? >> we get about 200 to 250 every time. because we don't have a lot of

legislation now the senate and congressmen don't know each other. >> what's the most important thing you learn in this? >> we don't know as much about history as we should. and right now sadly three quarters of americans can't name the three branches of government. the result is we don't have an informed citizenry. >> your next career, become a teacher. >> thank you very much for having me. >> a long time friend of mine. up next, once again democrats are the ones pushing for voting rights. an important thing we're going to talk about in the next minute. it's about democrats and how they're different from republicans. you're watching "hardball." 're m republicans. you're watching "hardball. ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event.

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politics isn't complicated. generally speaking democrats want everyone to vote. if you're 18 and an american citizen, they want you in that booth on election day. republicans, again, generally speaking lean towards way of limiting the franchise. i.d. cards, registration requirements, reduced number of days for early voting. they want the active voting to be one of those prime time reality shows where contests have to manage all kinds of obstacles simply to meet the requirements. the peoples house voted to reinstate the mission of the 1965 voting rights act. its goal was to protect states who try to manipulate laws in order to reduce participation.

the vote today was along party lines with only one republican, brian fitzpatrick of pennsylvania voting aye. i've seen this before in my state of pennsylvania. how many times have republicans up there tried screwing around with election laws in order to shrink the democratic vote? american citizens should be allowed to vote in this country. it's that simple. and that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on a special edition of "all in." >> they give the server to crowd strike. >> a president being impeached for his pursuit of a conspiracy theory will not defend himself in the house. >> are you sure they gave it to ukraine? >> well, that's what the word is. >> tonight how donald trump has managed to separate his entire party from reality. and congressman ted lou and senator mazy hirono, what happens next. plus new alarms over rudy giuliani's trip to ra