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reasonable doubt, could also shadow conrad truman for the rest of his life. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. good morning. i'm cori coffin in new york at msnbc world head you quarters. it is 6:00 on the east and 3:00 out west. a blistering letter, a white house refusal, the new decision and what it means ahead of a new impeachment hearing. a new poll brings new hope for democrats in 2020. in spite of impeachment proceedings. tracking the president's personal attorney, why rudy giuliani went back to ukraine. and what michael bloomberg said that offended cory booker. big news this hour on the impeachment front. on this day 75 of the inquiry,
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the white house deciding to opt out of participating in the next steps, confirming to nbc news that it has rejeblcted the invitation to be part of next week's hearing. in a letter to jerry nadler, pat cipollone wrote in part house democrats have wasted enough of america's time with this charade. you should end this inquiry now and not waste even more time with additional hearings. on monday the house judiciary committee is expected to hear evidence from democrat and republican counselors to the intelligence committee information gathered during the committee's investigation. >> i'm hoping on monday when the intelligence committee staff and counsel arrive, that they are able to put this into a coherent narrative such that we are able to do our work of articulating what the high crimes and
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misdemeanors were so we are able to organize them into articles of impeachment that would impeach the president for his specific misconduct against the government and the people of the united states. >> an president trump again blasted the inquiry tweeting nadler hasn't had a single fact witness testify. sooef r zero substance. country wants usmca and growth, not impeachment. polls have tanked on the do nothing democrats. joining me now, kelly o'donnell with more on this. kelly, what is the white house saying here? all right. we'll move on here. joining me now is scott wong senior staff writer for "the hill." i want to start with this question, are you surprised the white house decided not to participate in monday's hearing?
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>> not really. i think the white house had been deliberating over whether to spend somebody to this hearing to participate, but the concern from counsel as well as from republicans on capitol hill is would that deciding to send somebody send the wrong message, would it suggest that this, you know -- they have argued that sending somebody could be seen as validating the entire impeachment process which the president a s we know has said s a sham and a setup. so not entirely surprised by this decision. >> others though have said that not participating shows that they don't have anything to come back with, anybody to testify or any information when it comes to defending the president's position. >> i think the strategy what we're seeing from republicans is a shift to the senate. they feel that the cake is sort of already baked in the house, that they will impeach the president in the house and that
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the white house feels like their real defense will be in the senate where they have more allies where mitch mcconnell the republican leader controls the senate and the senate floor and the calendar. you saw that earlier this week with pat cipollone, the white house counsel, meeting with senate republicans in a closed door lunch going over strategy, discussing what that process might look like and what the white house's best defense might be. >> we want to leave it there for now, scott. we appreciate your insight. and we'll have much more on this but first we'd like to go back to kelly o'donnell at the white house. >> reporter: good morning. so you've been talking about this, this is the white house sending a message to congress where they are saying that the process they believe has been unfair to the president because it has been controlled by democrats and that the president has not had a voice. democrats say that is ridiculous
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because the president has och d opted to not participate. some of the differences are deep and obviously a divide that cannot be recovered at this point. so the letter from pat cipollone is sending a message saying you've wasted enough of the country's time, that is the white house mess aenlg to the democratic chairman of the committee, end this now. and pointing out for example that speaker pelosi announced that she was moving ahead and directing her chair men to write these articles of impeachment earlier this week before the deadline for the white house to even respond if it would be participating. so making a conclusion they believe toward impeachment before the white house even had its opportunity to respond based on its invitation from the committee to respond by friday end of business. so it is those kinds of things that have the white house saying this is a process where the president won't get a fair shake and instead their focus would be on the senate. now, democrats of course have argued that the president has
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obstructed by not providing documents, not providing witness, by choosing not to participate even though it would be a democrat controlled process where ultimately democrats decide which witnesses are included and so forth. but on the republican side for a senate trial, if we get to that point and the expectations are that is very likely, the white house believes that would be a place where the president would be able to mount his defense, have his case heard by the public, and even ththen they th numbers are on their side and the president would be likely acquitted of any articles of impeachment if found to be impeachable offenses by the house. so this is one of those cases where the white house has sent a message, it is a no although the let her did not explicitly say it would not participate, but our sources are saying that was the intention of the letter to say they will take a pass on this phase of the impeachment inquiry. >> and we know it will pick up very quickly in the coming days. kelly, thank you so much.
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i want to bring back scott wong with "the hill." we want to talk more about this with just how this is all going to be laid out. kelly mentioned the meat and substance here of the articles of impeachment, democrats would like to introduce them as early as next week. what do you think the scope might be and how many might be drafted? >> well, that is being discussed as we speak. and in fact house democrats on the judiciary panel have been instructed by the chairman to stay and work through the weekend here in washington. that is pretty unusual, but they are under a time crunch. they want to try to get it wrapped up before christmas. and so the deliberations over the scope is being discussed as well as preparation work for the monday hearing. what we're hearing that the point, there could be several, there could be abuse of power article, there could be obstruction of justice. what they haven't decided yet is whether to wade into the mueller report.
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and how that mueller report tackled obstruction of justice, that is still being discussed. people have a variety of opinions on that point and so we probably will know sometime after the monday hearing, but i think things are as you mentioned moving quite quickly and we could see articles of impeachment introduced as early as next week. >> let's talk about the witnesses here that we have heard from testifying throughout this whole process. top republican on the house judiciary committee doug collins sent a letter to chairman nadler requesting several witnesses be you issued subpoenas including adam schiff and the whistleblower. what is the point? >> i think it is simply not going to happen. republicans want a shot to question adam schiff, they feel like the process has been unfair under his leadership. they want to know more about any sort of contact that he might have had with the whistleblower himself who kicked off this impeachment process to begin
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with. and so they want -- republicans want a shot before the television cameras to question schiff. that certainly will not happen because democrats control the process and nadler has made it very clear that that will not be the case. but schiff will be sending his counsel, so we will hear from counsel from both the democrats and the republicans on monday. i think this is more of a information formality, but as you mentioned, things will be moving quickly after that monday hearing wraps up and i think that perhaps could being the last he the las impeachment that we see before the formal markup of the articles of impeachment. >> and the goal for democrats is to vote on the impeachment by christmas, but you wrote that they would rather end with a vote on government funkd iding. why is that? >> i think there is a sense that democrats don't want to be seen as the grinch who stole
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christmas. they want to end on a more bipartisan note. obviously there are two major things that they want to do before the holidays, one is impeach the president and the other is to pry ventevent a goe shutdown. so we're likely to see in talking to a number of democratic sources, we're likely to see an impeachment vote before the government funding vote. usually that funding vote would be the last vote before the holidays, before you wra up tyoe year. so i think we're anticipating impeachment first and then government funding after that. >> all right, scott wong, thank you for your insight. new today, federal officials at this hour still on the scene of a deadly shooting at the florida naval station in pensacola that left three dead and eight hurt. this morning the fbi is digging into the background of that suspect, but late last night, the fbi saying still no word on why he did it.
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>> we are not prepared at this hour to confirm what may have motivated the shooter to commit this horrific act today. there are many reports circulating, but the fbi deals only in facts. and this is still very much an active and ongoing investigation. >> for more on all of this, let's turn to blayne alexander. >> reporter: the shooting happened at one of the busiest times of the day, early in the morning as people were arriving here to work at the base. now, the sheriff says that there were hundreds of people inside the building who could have been hurt. the urgent calls came -- an active shooter inside a classroom building at naval air station pensacola. deputies were on the scene in less than five minutes. law enforcement officials tell nbc news shooter was know hachl mid al shamrani, a saudi
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national on base for training. officers engaged him in a gunbattle ultimately killing him. >> walking through the crime scene was like being on the set of a movie. >> reporter: police say al shamrani killed three and injured eight more including two deputies. all rushed to the hospital. >> all these brave warriors come through here for flight training and so this is a dark day for a very great place. >> reporter: the chief deputy was one of the first to arrive on scene. >> you are stepping over broken glass, you're stepping over bloody broken glass. and unfortunately, there are bodies there that you are seeing and you are going past. >> reporter: responders in all uniforms are being hailed for their bravery. >> there was some real heroism today. i couldn't be prouder to wear the uniform that i wear. >> reporter: the home of the iconic blue angels, this busy military base is known by some as the heart of pensacola, employing more than 23,000 military and civilians.
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the base regularly holds active shooter drill, training officials hoped to never have to use. but now after one of its darkest days, the sheriff is sending this powerful message to members of the base and beyond -- >> you can be proud of your community, you can be proud of your navy. thank god for the united states of america. >> reporter: now, we do know that both of those deputies suffered nonlife-threatening injuries, and in the words of the sheriff, thank god they're alive. >> indeed. thank you very much. mike bloomberg's first television interview since announcing his 2020 run and why cory booker says he was taken aback by one of the comments. cologuard:
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i don't think so. because i think rudy is a great gentleman. he has been a great crime fighter. he looks for corruption wherever he goes. i want nothing, is this a quote, i want no quid pro quo. i want nothing. >> president trump there standing by his personal attorney and his actions claiming that there was no quid pro quo. but rudy giuliani now seems to contradict that by suggesting policies have not been resolved. and until it is, will be a major obstacle to the u.s. assisting ukraine with anti-corruption
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reforms, aka unless joe biden 's conduct is investigated. joining us now is danny cevallos. good morning. we know rudy giuliani is in ukraine this week and along with those tweets, he did an interview to make it clear why he was there. take a listen. >> what is the ukraine trip all about? >> i am doing today, all day, and all night maybe, what i've been doing for a year and a half. i'm representing my client. >> question is, does the suggestion that assistance depends on ukraine investigating biden and that he was representing the president prove there was a quid pro quo here? i mean, that is the big question in the room. and also what does this do for the president's argument? >> the challenge for rudy giuliani has always been that he is wearing too many hats. in one day he is the president's personal attorney and then he is sort of a quasi state department official. and some days a lobbyist and now
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yet another hat, that of documentarian in ukraine. and it is a risky strategy. on the one hand, the conservative thing do would be, hey, people are saying what you did in ukraine is a little sketchy, maybe it is time to get out of ukraine. rudy has taken the approach i so believe what i'm doing is legitimate that i'm going to double down, i'm going to do more work in you crane, iukraina crew and show how everything i'm doing is warranted because the request made by president trump were valid to fight corruption. that appears to be rudy giuliani's plan. it is a gamble and it does not come without risk. >> so this documentary that you mentioned, it is called you ukranian witnesses destroy schiff's case and of course that is for the oan. and now does this trip increase his legal exposure because he's putting himself in the limelight here? he could be seen as trying to tamper with the case. >> well, there is that and then in addition to the extent he is asking for anything from a
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foreign government, that could be problematic in terms of campaign finance law. it is unlawful to ask for anything of value from a foreign government. but on the other hand, he may just be filming a documentary as many people do, they film politically based documentaries abroad and that arguably is not a violation of campaign finance law. so rudy is walking a very fine line here, but he must believe very clearly in the legitimacy of what he is doing because it is such a risk. after everybody is scrutinizing what he is doing in ukraine to stay in ukraine and continue to deal with folks in ukraine. but his mission to me is clear. it is to show that president trump's request, two fold request of the president of ukraine, was warranted because corruption is in fact as rudy would put it an issue in ukraine that deserves inspection and investigation. >> so he is trying to find something. and giuliani knows that he is under investigation by his former office, the southern district of new york. so he knows how these
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investigations are run. do you think it is likely that he is under surveillance? >> well, that is a tough one. surveillance is a really difficult thing to get and it becomes even more complicated when an american citizen is abroad. in some ways it becomes easier, but generally speaking, surveillance of an american citizen requires a pretty high level of showing before a judge. but some of the other hints are there. the people around rudy giuliani have been investigated, his former clients or associates or whatever you want to call them depending on whatever hat he is wearing. it is a lot easier for the u.s. government to surveil a foreign national than to surveil a u.s. citizen. but surveillance does require very high showing of criminal y criminality, higher than just general suspicious. so while it is possible and certainly the investigation does seem to be focusing on people very close to rudy giuliani, i wouldn't necessarily conclude he is under surveillance yet. >> so we'll have to see what comes out of giuliani's trip to
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the ukraine and follow it all for us. thank you so much, danny. tomorrow ari medica melber preview the next phase of the inquiry. watch tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern. and now to an alarming surveillance video of the last moments of the life of a teenage migrant in aholding cell. outrage is growing because of what is on the tape and also what is not. gabe guttierez has the story. and the video is disturbing to watch. >> reporter: these are the final moments of carlos vasquez's life, this newly obtained video is sparking outrage about how he died in a border patrol cell in may. nbc news obtained the video from the weslaco police department which investigated. his family is still devastated. more than 2,000 people turned out for his funeral.
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the 16-year-old can be seen crossing into the u.s. nearly a week earlier. he was diagnosed with the flu at this texas processing center and sent to a quarantine facility. he and a cell mate are seen sleeping on concrete with mylar blankets. for almost a half hour, vasquez appears to be almost doubling over in pain. he walks to the toilet where he collapses. and then a four hour gap in the video, records obtained show an agent logged welfare checks but the gap in the video raises questions about whether that actually happened. when the video comes back, vasquez is in the same spot, the cell mate is seen calling the guards who realize that he is dead. the video contradicts customs and border protection's earlier statements that he was found unresponsive during a welfare check. >> this child should have been transported to a medical facility or had a doctor come and visit and give proper treatment. >> reporter: cpb says it has significantly increased the number of medical personnel on
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the border in the last six months and that it is still investigating the case so it can't discuss details, leaving many unanswered questions about how this teenager died in custody. gabe guttierez, nbc news, new york. a new poll shows common ground is more prevalent than you might think. the numbers that highlight where voters from both parties see eye to eye and how it could help democrats in 2020. man 1 vo: proof of less joint pain woman 1 oc: this is my body of proof. and clearer skin. man 2 vo: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 2 vo: ...with humira. woman 3 vo: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain,
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we have breaking news from the white house where president trump has just released a statement of the freeing of an american held prisoner in iran for more than three years. the president says that he is returning to the u.s. a princeton university graduate student, mr. wang had been held under the pretense of espionage. the president thanks our swiss partners for their assistance in negotiating mr. wang's release and says the highest priority of the united states is the safety and well-being of its citizens. he says that freeing americans held captive is of vital importance to his administration and he says but we will continue to work hard to bring home all our citizens wrongfully held captive oversees.
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we'll of cour we'll of course have more for you later on. now to other news this morning. all new, lawyers for president trump have amounts more than time in the financial records dispute. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg put a temporary hold friday on handing over record sought by democratic led congressional panel, that includes account, transactions and investments linked to the president, hisse oldest childre their immediate family members and several trump organization entities. the hold goes until december 13. some relief this morning for some of the victims of the lle california wildfires. pacific gas and electric has agreed to pay $13.5 billion in damages covering four deadly fires from 2015 to 2018. the agreement covers all major claims blamed on the utility company's outdated equipment and negligence. it is subject to court approval first. and new this morning, two
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academy trainers and a cadet have been fired over this photo, it captured dozens of west virginia corrections trainees making a nazi salute in uniform. the employees in that photo were hired in july, they had not yet begun working. more than 30 others have also been suspended without pay as officials investigate. also today, troubling questions after another deadly shooting in florida. a u.p.s. driver and a bystander killed after two specifuspects hijacked the truck and exchanged gunbatt gunbattle. and a warning, this video is disturbing. >> reporter: authorities have admitted that this investigation is complex simply because of the grand scale that it covers. from the attempted robbery at a jewelry store to where this all came to an end nearly 30 miles away, every bit of this short i authorities are scouring. and in the meantime the family
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of the ums o of the u.p.s. driver racing questions as to whether plit followed protocol. >> reporter: the wild gunbattle played out in rush hour traffic, police chasing two armed men who opened fire from a stolen u.p.s. truck. >> yeah, it was pretty surreal. >> reporter: the frightening scene broadcast on live tv. the men tried to rob a jewelry store. the owner had other plan, opening fire on the suspects who shot back, wounding one woman before running off. >> they hijacked a u.p.s. truck and kidnapped the driver. >> reporter: what followed was a nearly 30 mile chase through northern mail and the suspects dodged traffic, swerving down sidewalks and even breaking through a neighborhood barricade. when police closed in, they unleashed a barrage of bullets.
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>> there was exchanged fire and unfortunately the suspects are now deceased. but two additional innocent civilians were also deceased. >> reporter: one of the civilians killed, u.p.s. driver frank or donez. a father of two young girls. we've learned that 13 have been placed on administrative leave, but that is standard protocol anytime an officer discharges their weapon. >> morgan chesky reporting for us. thank you. a new poll brings new hope for democrats in 2020. in spite of impeachment proceedings. it shows that all are united on reducing cling costs, taxing the wealthy and a public option for health care. joining me now hannah trudeau.
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good morning. let's take a look at these numbers first. in the last year, more than half of voters had difficulty finding a decent paying job, they had too little money to buy enough food, they fell behind on gas, medical costs were too high, they fell behind on rent or mortgage. how do you square this shared struggle with strong divisions over the president himself and also how can democrats capitalize on this for 2020? >> this poll should terrify the president and the president's campaign because when you look at the actual numbers, this mirrors what we saw in 2018. the president ran on a faux populism. the only problem is his friends got rich while the middle and lower class didn't see a rise in their wages. and so what i think that you will see in 2020 is very similar to 2018, health care will be important, student loans will be important, the shared tax cuts and shared benefits of all that will be really important and it will be interesting to see how he answers those questions. >> and this poll comes as
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speaker pelosi formally announced the articles of impeachment would be drawn up acknowledging that the process can be divisive. >> impeachment is a very divisive place to go in our country. impeachment is a very divisive measure. but if we have to go there, we'll have to go there. sadly but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and hearts full of love for america, today i'm asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment. >> so does this mean that voters are less concerned about impeachment, that it might not hugely impact the vote? >> it is interesting to listen to nancy pelosi use that exact word divisive because to me, it sounds like that is kind of a republican ad in the works. they are likely to seize on her talking about how divisive the issue is as we move into 2020.
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but i think what is wise for democrats looking at that poll that you just mentioned was how are they best able to as individual candidates seize upon some of the nuances and issues that there is common ground on, health care obviously is something that is widely considered a top issue. and while most people in that poll responded that public option is something that they would like, there are different ways of getting at that in the democratic primary. so you see different approaches. same thing with the wealth tax, we've seen that throughout elizabeth warren and bernie sanders' campaigns. so a lot of these issues i think it is a matter of nuance for the democrats to turn a little bit away from the divisiveness of impeachment as nancy pelosi puts it and as we see it unravel in washington. >> so michael, even in this poll that we've been mentioning here, republicans put president trump's approval rating in the
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70s. obviously that is how democrats would rate it. look at how it breaks down on specific issues. 46% disapproval on creating quality jobs. 51% disapproval on wages keeping up with expenses. 54% disapproval on helping working class and middle class families. and 58% disapproval on health care. how do you interpret that? >> well, i think it is a you couple things. the president has spent much of his administration trying to destroy obamacare.the president his administration trying to destroy obamacare. people have gotten used to it and now they like it. and when you look at wages, the president hasn't actually hipped t helped the working class. he has lowered taxes for the rich but he hasn't done anything for the average american. the average american doesn't have a 401(k) and doesn't participate in the stock market. so when he talks about those things, that does not affect a large portion of the country. >> and something that does affect a large portion of the country is health care. when it comes to the issues that
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are important to voter, health care again tops the list. so the question is, can president trump even win on this issue? he went hard at it when he was first elected and he really didn't gets a far as he wanted to. >> yeah, i think that that remains to be seen. i mean, looking again at the sort of -- the need for among voters the need for a public option to me strikes the cords of the most to strike. i mentioned bernie sanders and elizabeth warren have been fighting for medical care for all, though elizabeth warren has equivocated a little bit on it. but then you have two contenders who are also in the top tier, joe biden and pete buttigieg, the south bend mayor, who are calling for a more moderate approach to health care. biden is calling for expanding the affordable care act which like michael said president trump has worked vehemently to try to unravel. and pete buttigieg is calling
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for medicare for all who want it which also involves a buy-in and also a role for the private insurance companies. so i think that again this matter of nuance whether or not president trump is able to capitalize on sort of the lack of unity in the democratic party among a single health care platform i think will be an interesting trend to follow. >> that will definitely be in addition to all of this impeachment talk, other issues that will bubble up to the surface when it comes to actual platform, certainly one to watch. michael, let's turn to something different here. the conflict brewing between mike bloomberg and cory booker. take a look at this. >> by the way if it stays the way it is now, it will have more billionaires than black people. >> i endorsed cory booker a number of times and he's endorsed me. he is very well spoken, he has some good ideas. >> it is sort of stunning at times that we are still revisiting these sort of tired
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tropes or the language that we have out there that folks i don't think understand and the fact that they don't understand is problematic. >> michael, your reaction here. >> you know, michael bloomberg's whole approach is that he is not joe biden, he is not as gaffe-prone as biden and he can get the job done and keep his head down. the last two weeks his interviews haven't been good. and so i think this is a stupid thing to say and i think that he apologized, but he can't keep doing these kind of things. >> and we'll give you, hannah, the last thought on this. >> i agree completely. i mean, especially running as the alternative to biden like michael said, i mean this is sort of the kind of bidenism that we've grown accustomed to seeing throughout his three presidential runs now. so bloomberg has his work cut out for him in this regard, search comments like that or tropes just bring people back and it is not something that i think voters necessarily are
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surprised to hear him say given some of his stop and frisk policies for example in new york city. but he has his work cut out for him on the campaign trail. >> and starting from behind. hannah, michael, thank you both for your time this morning. what you might have missed from the big impeachment hearing this week, the highlights you haven't seen. (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7 and maintained it. oh! under 7? (announcer) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? (announcer) a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. oh! no increased risk? (announcer) ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens.
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breaking news. the u.s. has just carried out a prisoner swap with iran. it took place in switzerland and included an american student. ali, what can you tell us about this prisoner swap and how significant? >> reporter: it is significant. and it seems to be one of those rare cases where through back channels, iran and america were able to reach a compromise and swap these prisoners. mr. wang is an american citizen, a princeton graduate student and he was arrested here about three years ago while researching one of the former monarchies that left power in the early 20th century. in february of 2017, mr. huang w wang was charged with espionage and sentenced to ten years in prison. the united states repeatedly
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called it unjust and called for his immediate release. and iran even released a video of mr. wang in 2017 allegedly trying to smuggle documents. the state department then called the video a forced video appearance and shameful. they explicitly denied mr. wang was working on behalf of the u.s. government. it now appears that the iranian foreign minister zarif with the help of switzerland who acted as a go between between iran and the united states because the united states has no presentation here in iran, then have been working on the swap for about a year now. and he was swapped with a medical researcher arrested in the u.s. in october of 2018. and accused of violating u.s. sanctions by trying to export biological materials for growth from the u.s. to iran without
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authorization. he had been held in atlanta. it seems like those two have now been swapped. they are in switzerland where the swap is taking place. and the iranians just released some video of the researcher on his way back to tehran. >> and veers we'of course we'lle from you at the top of the hour. thank you. democrats get closer to a date for a final house vote and a possible trial in the senate. >> the impeachment inquiry reaches a new phase as democratic leadership vows to move forward and a senate trial over he rremoving president tru from office becomes august the more likely. >> today i'm asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. >> reporter: democrats make a historic move as house speaker nancy pelosi calls on party leaders to start drafting articles of impeachment against
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president trump. the house judiciary committee could approve them as early as next week setting up a whole house vote before christmas. solidifying the democrats' case, a trio of constitutional law experts. >> president trump has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors by abusing the office of the presidency. >> when the president invited indeed demand foreign involvement in our upcoming election, he struck at the very heart of what makes this a republic to which we pledge allegiance. >> if this -- if what we're talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable. >> reporter: meanwhile the republican's solzhenitsyn witness so far said democrats are rushing to judgment. >> impeachments require a certain period of saturation and maturati maturation. i'm not pre-judging what your record would show, but if you
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rush this impeachment, you will leave half the country behind. >> reporter: the white house refused to participate in wednesday's hearing with an attorney calling it an irretrievably broken process, but you did not rule out future cooperation. a report released tuesday made the intelligence's case against the president. among revelation, phone calls between rudy giuliani and the office of management and budget, the agency that oversaw the dispersement of military aid meant for ukraine. and calls between congressman devin nunes, the top republican on the intelligence committee, and lev parnas, giuliani's now indicted business associate. republicans preempted the democrats' report with their own, calling the inquiry an unfair, abusive and partisan process. the president spent part of the week in london with nato allies but couldn't resist commenting on matters back home. >> the word impeachment is a dirty word. there was no crime whatsoever and they know it. tell have a tremendous loss in 2020. >> reporter: but pelosi said the
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decision to move forward isn't political or personal. >> do you hate the president, madame speaker? >> i don't hate anybody. i don't hate -- we don't hate anybody. not anybody in the world. this is about the constitution of the united states and the facts that lead to the president's violation of his oath of office. >> while president trump braces for an impeachment vote state side, giuliani is back in ukraine meeting with ukraine yan prosecutors to uncover misdeeds connected to former vice president joe biden. claims u.s. intelligence agencies say have no merit. >> heidi, thank you. and president trump pushing back after nato leaders made fun of him in london. coughing oh no,... ...a cougher. welcome to flu season, karen. is a regular flu shot strong enough... ...to help prevent flu in someone your age? there are standard-dose flu shots. and then there's the superior flu protection...
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my mom is amazing. if i got her one of these for christmas, she'd be freaking out. (announcer) and now buy the latest iphone and get iphone 11 on us. plus, get $400 when you switch. with plans starting at just $35. (shrieks) yeah, exciting. (announcer) happy holidays from the network that gives you more. new reaction from president trump about world leaders who laughed at him. the world leaders, justin trudeau and boris johnson sparked an abrupt end to his summit. donald trump wrote on twitter, the fake news media is doing everything possible to belittle my very successful trip to london for nato. i got along great with the nato leaders. >> some are not close and we may do things having to do with trade, it's not fair that they get u.s. protection and they're not putting up their money and
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they're really i call them i use the term delinquent, that's exactly what they are. >> joining me christopher dickey, world news editor for the "daily beast." let's jump in, is the president's threat realistic and are european allies even concerned? >> you know, if he had gone, if we had heard more of that quote, went on to say -- main they should pay back dues, they're delinquent. maybe we should look back at all the money they haven't paid over the years and start telling them they should pay that. what was he talking about? nato members as if they were paying dues like at the mar-a-lago country club. that's not how it works. this is question of whether they pay on their own defense programs, 2% of their gross domestic product. what trump really wants is for them to spend 2% of their gdp
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buying arms from the united states, that's his real agenda. that's not going to happen. and what is happening is that president macron in france and others are saying yes we'll decrease our defense spending, increase our cooperation to defend europe. but we're not necessarily going to be underwriting the u.s. and its efforts to lead nato. the fundamental problem, corey? is nobody is sure any more what nato is for. what is it depending against? what is the strategy? those questions have not been resolved. >> so what is your read on the fact that trudeau doubled down when asked to comment on the viral video? >> well you know trudeau is basically just joking with friends about how trump would take over what was supposed to be a photo op and turn it into an impromptu press conference. that completely screws up everybody's schedule. but what it does for trump is make him the center of attention again and again and again.
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i think he had three or four meetings that day and on every one of them, he gave like an impromptu press conference, so everything ran late and trudeau was joking about that. he takes 40 minutes off the top says trudeau. then trump really enjoyed his comeback. his own comeback calling trudeau two-faced. but at the same time saying he really liked trudeau. so it was one of those typically trumpian things. >> before the president left a trail of brutal headlines behind. he engaged in a very public slight of the french president, take a look. >> mostly from europe. and some of the countries are agreeing -- i have not spoken to the president about that. would you like some nice isis fighters? i can give them to you. can you take every one you want. i heard that president macron said nato is broken.
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think it's insulting to a lot of different forces, including a man that does a very good job running nato. you can't just go around making statements like that about nato. it's very disrespectful. >> what's going on here, christopher? >> first of all, let's remember that countless times trump has said that nato is obsolete. but he took the statement of macron, personally. when macron told the "economist" magazine a few weeks ago that because trump, trump's policies, particularly his policy in syria, nato is brain dead, trump thinks that's a personal slight to him. so what does he do? he depends himself by saying he's defending nato. that's the game that he's playing. it all comes back to the basic idea that macron wants to push for nato to figure out what its long-term strategy is, what its purpose is. and he thinks that counterterrorism is the way to go. trump is just playing his games
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as usual about finance. >> one of several rows with world leaders, we'll leave it there for now. christopher dickey, we'll continue on to cover it throughout the morning. thank you for your time. we're going to talk about this headline next. obamacare is working and what it means for the 2020 race, coming up next. -excuse me. uh... do you mind...being a mo-tour? -what could be better than being a mo-tour? the real question is... do you mind not being a mo-tour? -i do. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.
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time for my colleague, alex whitt. >> great to see you, cory. we'll see you back tomorrow morning. i'm alex witt here in new york. it is 7:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. out west we have breaking news to share. an american student detained in iran is now free following a u.s. and iran prisoner swap. it took place in switzerland just about an hour ago. let's go to nbc's elia ruzi who is joining us with the news. i understand this is a graduate student from princeton. how long has this person been kept behind bars? >> that's right alex. you and i have spoken about iran a lot over the last decade and it's rarely good news. but this seems to be one of those cases where through intermediaries and back channels iran and america were able to reach a compromise. now mr. wang is an american