worlds. i don't see any movement of that happening. >> nicholas johnson live for us in washington, d.c., thank you. you can sign up for that newsler by going to signup."axios".com. i'm yasmin vossoughian, alongside ayman mohyeldin, "morning joe" starts right now. >> this country is so respected, and we were not respected four years ago. we were laughed at. >> oh, there's a lot of laughing, but it's happening right now, and it's not good for us. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, december 11th, along with joe, willie and me we have former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department, elise jordan, former

nato supreme allied commander, james defree tus joins us, he is chief international security and diplomacy analyst for nbc news and msnbc, really important day to have you on along with columnist and associate editor for "the washington post" david ignati ignatius, and u.s. national editor at the "financial times" ed luce joining us from washington. basically if you blink, you might miss it. look at yesterday, house democrats announced this was the big story we thought, articles of impeachment against the president. shortly after 9:00 a.m., after we went off the air, an hour later they were announcing a bipartisan trade deal at noon. attorney general william barr was back at it putting politics above the fbi. next, it was the trump administration giving russia a bull horn to lie about its meddling in american democracy.

the president spun his own stories later that leader in pennsylvania including false claims about the progress of his border wall. in reality, a federal judge was busy blocking his attempt to fund the project with money slated for the military. also last night, the president attacked elizabeth warren in jarri jarring terms. >> i did that heavy, heavy pocahontas deal. i gave her credit. they were like just little embers, and then she rose. she rose, and she became strong, but then she opened that fresh mouth of hers and it stopped. it stopped. >> all right, but wait, there's more, joe. there's a new poll out of iowa this morning, take a look at this, joe biden, bernie sanders, pete buttigieg are in a statistical tie, biden with 23 points, sanders up nine points since october now at 22%. buttigieg is at 18.

elizabeth warren was tied for first place two months ago, and this poll she is now in fourth place, down 11 points at 12%. also notable, a nine-point gain for amy klobuchar has her hitting double digits for the first time at 10%. joe, your pick? what story strikes you this morning? >> i mean, there's so many stories, i think the attorney general of the united states literally tearing a page from roy cohn's play book, and just blatantly lying, attacking an inspector general for the doj. it's just what he did during the discrimination case when donald trump and his father were found guilty of discriminating against minoritie minorities, and it was roy cohn who went out and said outrageous things attacking, get this, attacking the doj and the fbi and accusing them of being

spies, accusing them of being undercover agents. he literally, he literally is parroting. you've got republicans parroting vladimir putin, you literally have william barr parroting one of the most despicable of the 20th century in american politics. the man who made mccarthyism possible, he's parroting roy cohn, so donald trump has found his roy cohcohn. >> let's go to attorney general william barr's exclusive interview with nbc news despite the findings of the justice department's inspector general report. he still claims that the fbi may have operated out of bad faith when it investigated the trump campaign in twuk2016. speaking with nbc's pete williams, barr essentially dismissed the i.g.'s conclusion

that there was no evidence of political bias when the fbi launched its russia probe, arguing that his hand picked prosecutor john durham will have the final say. barr also stood by his assertion that the trump campaign was spied on. >> i think our nation was turned on its head for three years. i think based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press, and i think that there were gross abuses of fisa and inexplicable behavior that isn't tolerable in the fbi. in one area i do disagree with the i.g., and that was whether there was sufficient predication to open a full-blown counter intelligence investigation specifically using the techniques that they did to

collect intelligence about the trump campaign. the score statement in my opinion by the i.g. is that these irregularitieirregulariti misstatements, these omissions were not satisfactorily explained, and i think that leaves open the possibility to infer bad faith. >> do you still stand by your statement that the campaign was spied upon? >> oh, clearly spied upon. i mean, that's what electronic surveillance is. i think wiring people up to go in and talk to people and make recordings of their conversations is spying. i think going through people's e-mails, which they did as a result of the fisa warrant, they went through everything. >> i don't know where to begin, willie, but -- so here is -- let me find this really quickly. it's not going to work for me, so i'm very challenged this morning technology wise.

but again, you heard him talking about them being spied on. the fbi, again, this is the language that roy cohn used attacking the d o', j and the fbi back in the 1970s when the federal government caught donald trump and his father discriminating against minorities, and he's doing the same thing. but he's the attorney general of the united states. he talked about a bogus narrative for three years, a bogus narrative, and he blamed it on an irresponsible press. willie, i just -- we don't have to -- i don't have to remind you of the fact that the president of the united states first national security adviser found guilty of a felony. the president's campaign manager found guilty of a felony and will probably spend the rest of his life in jail.

the president's long-time lawyer and fixer found guilty. he was in the middle of that illegal hush money scheme that violated fec laws. the president's assistant campaign manager found guilty, and the same with a man that he claimed was one of his top foreign policy advisers found guilty. we can go through the numbers. they are absolutely astounding, the number of people connected to donald trump who were found guilty of a federal crime spending time in jail and turned state's evidence against other people in the administration. and of course roger stone, found guilty. you just -- willie, he's talking -- he continues his war

on the department of justice. this was the work of the department of justice, not the deep state. these were federal judges. these were federal judges that found these men guilty, and yet he's talking about how -- he's blaming all of this on, quote, an irresponsible press. he's projecting when he talks about inexplicable behavior that is intolerable. he actually should direct that back at the man who he's working for, donald trump. >> and speaking of projecting, how about calling this a bad faith investigation. again, he's talking about a deep state conspiracy. he is effectively as the attorney general of the united states echoing donald trump's claims that this was all a deep state conspiracy despite all the convictions you laid out, despite all the good faith investigations by the men and women of our intelligence services, the men and women of the fbi, he on the very day that the i.g. report came out from his own justice department, he

sat down with pete williams to do a breathtaking interview where he undermined every piece of that i.g. report, again, from his own justice department, and david ignatius if that's not bad faith, i don't know what is. he knows better than to say a fisa approved surveillance program is spying. he knows better than all of this, but again, he views his first job now as defending the president of the united states. >> like you and joe, i felt that attorney general barr really crossed a line in his comments yesterday for all his partisanship, seeming partisanship before, this was different, and the reason it was different was that he was attacking not enemies in congress, not even really the press, he was attacking his own justice department inspector general's report, and publicly disagreeing with it, and making wild allegations of bad faith,

not supported, against the people who lead our nation's key law enforcement investigative agency. it was an extraordinary thing for an attorney general to do. that job in our government is different, asknd if people can' rely on the attorney general to back up the orderly process in which the department investigates its own, that's what the inspector general does, something is really broken. he's now going to turn to his hand picked prosecutor durham, who's already come out with his own statement rewbutting the inspector ve inspector general's report. my fear is we are now heading into conflicting legal narratives of what happened. we're already in danger of becoming a country with two versions of what's going on in our politics. that seems now to be embedded at the justice department itself, and it's really dangerous.

>> you know, it is really dangerous and mika, you and i for the past three years have had a debate on whether america's institutions will be sufficient to check donald trump in a way where we'll be strong or even stronger from this challenge on the other side, and i've always said, our institution will check him, madisonian democracy will check him. i'm not a big believer of going in and talking about constitutional conventions or changing this part of the government or that part of the government. i will say three years in that the one area where our system obviously needs to be checked has to do with the appointing of an attorney general, and i was saying this before barr became the attorney general, i think there has to be a higher -- forgive the pun, a higher bar to becoming attorney general of the united states. maybe it's a two-thirds vote in

the senate to select and remove somebody. we just can't have any prosecest having an attorney general who will protect them from criminal actions that they've taken. we're no better than some, you know, banana republic right now, and was -- and that's exactly what donald trump and william barr are moving us towards. there has to be a higher threshold for somebody becoming attorney general of the united states. that is the one area of reform that i think a lot of people are going to be looking at when donald trump leaves office. >> so let's look at the conflicting legal narratives that david ignatius brought up and what we are moving toward, which is what you're moving toward, joe, but admiral, 20,000 feet, what does it look like? no order of importance here, the white house and the president reportedly devaluing the truth, alternative facts in the ukraine

scandal, alternative facts to what was laid out in these hearings with multiple witnesses servants under oath telling americans what happened. two, foreign leaders laughing at the president on the world stage, mocking him, laughing out loud. three, what we just saw yesterday, the attorney general and the president of the united states undermining, repeatedly undermining our intel agencies, our intel servants, people who work for america. what does this look like to you? >> you know, i'm going to denver tomorrow, and i'm going to give a commencement speech at metropolitan state university, which is kind of a 20,000 student enterprise where 65% of the students are the first in their family to go to college. what i'm going to talk about is the federalist papers versus the novel "the lord of the flies".

this is really a collision between order and rule of law and increasing anarchy, which we see evidenced with this piece that you just mentioned, but also, mika, you know, david said a moment ago the attorney general's special position. i'll give you two others, secretary of defense and the head of the cia. those three positions are so central to these institutions, and when we have to worry about whether an inspector general is going to be overridden in one of those three positions, you start to feel that needle moving from the federalist papers toward the isla isla island in "the lord of the flies." >> take a look at this, this is the president last night calling the fbi scum. >> the fbi also sent multiple undercover human spies to surveil and record people associated with our campaign.

look how they've hurt people. they've destroyed the lives of people that were great people, that are still great people. their lives have been destroyed by scum. okay? by scum. an fbi lawyer forged, took a fema e-mail, forged an e-mail used as evidence, an act which is now the subject of a criminal referral. okay? what they did is so unbelievable. oh, i look forward -- i don't know. i don't know. keep away. i look forward to bill durham's report. that's the one i look forward to. >> see, and there you go, ed luce, we've now had two i.g. reports that have shown that there was no bias in this -- in

the investigation beginning. the facts have been laid beare and yet you have donald trump going and calling fbi agents scum. calling fbi agents scum, and that's bad enough, even more disheartening you have people cheering the description of the president of the united states calling the fbi agents, quote, scum. this is something no president has ever done unless it's a president of russia or some other enemy of the united states of america. >> no, it isn't. it's unprecedented in this country. it should be sort of mentioned that monday is u.n. genocide day, and the u.n. secretary general issued a statement saying that the holocaust didn't begin in the gas chambers. it began years before with hate speech. now, i'm not suggesting for a moment america's going to end up with genocide, but the

dehumanizing language that the president has used, initially it was mostly about muslims and illegal immigrants and the media, is now spreading into political opponents, people who work for the federal government including in the fbi, and really anybody who gets in his way, and words are not just words. they make the climate more permissive, and as i say, they dehumanize the people whom the words are targeted at. and calling the fbi scum the day after the inspector general clears the agency of political bias in beginning its investigation of the campaign says that there was no link between the steele dossier and the fbi's decision, only learned several weeks later about the existence of the steele dossier

and the fbi's decision to start that, having within minutes the president and the attorney general and people across washington describe that report as the opposite of what it found. it's just -- it's a new level of mendacity of lying that i think is going to have consequences. it's getting worse. >> well, it's disinformation, and yeah, maybe we dent want ono compare it to nazi germany in 1933, but maybe we do compare it to russia, to vladimir putin's regime now, to orban's regime in hungary now, to other autocratic regimes who use language in a way to savage their opponents, to dehumanize their opponents,

and most importantly, and this is the key in autocracieautocra democracies that move to autocracies, the key is the attacking of the press, the attacks of an independent judiciary, and the attacking of the intel agencies. you know, willie, there's a reason why assad is now parroting donald trump and talking about fake news. there's a reason why other dictators across the planet when they get caught in human rights violations parrot donald trump and talk about fake news, why erdogan is doing the same thing. they're all reading from the same play book, and of course we have a madisonian democracy that i still believe keeps us strong and will protect us as a nation, but every day donald trump and the attorney general of the united states now and so many of

donald trump's supporters are doing everything they can to make true donald trump's vision of the constitution, that article ii gives the president of the united states unlimited power. >> and as you say, the president of the united states can't do it alone. he's got a lot of help from his attorney general. he's got help from his secretary of state. he's got help up and down the line creating this narrative around him that his campaign in russia did not work together, that russia did not somehow put its thumb on the scale and help him get elected president. and you know who's enjoying this was sergey lavrov yesterday as he stood next to mike pompeo and said before the cameras this is a bogus idea, the idea that russia interfered in the election, it's nonsense, despite what all the intel agencies have said. despite what the mueller report has said. russia is enjoying this for sure. i'll let you take a crack at the human scum that the president made about the fbi, but what he's doing and what attorney general barr are doing are

seizing on that part of the i.g. report that it was a mess, the fisa application, that mistake after mistake was made in getting the fisa applications but ignoring the broader point of the report that the investigation of the trump campaign was properly predicated. it was clear as day in the i.g. report. >> there's so much hypocrisy in abundan abundance, heaps of it, that's it hard to know where to start when you have bill barr lecturing about warrantless surveillance, that i believe is general counsel to verizon, he worked hand in hand with the government to implement, yet now he's up on his pedestal, suddenly a libertarian crusader. you look at all the through lines of what's happening right now, and what connects is authoritariani authoritarianism, the desire for authoritarian continuity among donald trump and all of his enablers. that's the through line.

it's not a fight for liberty. it's not a fight for the rule of law. you see secretary of state mike pompeo and what he's done at the state department. you see how state department officials who are career servants speaking out, what happens when they speak out. you look at the department of defense and the war criminals that have been pardoned by this president upending military discipline and the values that so many of our servicemen and women hold dear just because dear leader says this is our value system now. >> add that to the list i made for you, admiral. >> two quick comments: one is, you know, i've spent much of my life working with the intelligence agencies and the fbi. these people are anything but scum. these are terrific patriots who get up every morning to protect the country. it's really extraordinary to hear a president use a word like

that. and then secondly, just back to lavrov in elise's excellent comments, just the juxtaposition of a president being impeached and then what happens? the foreign minister of russia has a private closed door meeting with him with conflicting reports about what they discussed. really? in the middle of investigations with russia, ukraine, that false narrative, those two are storm warnings we would say in the u.s. navy. >> well, storm warnings that david ignatius, if we're in the middle of this storm, our constitution constitutional republic is in the middle of this storm, i suspect if we were able to fly at 30,000 feet above it, and look down like the planes that look down at hurricanes as they're moving toward the shore, we would see there is a recurring pattern, and nancy pelosi revealed it a few weeks

ago when she said all roads lead to putin. you just plolook at all the thi we've been concerned about. we talk about ukraine, of course. we can talk about donald trump goes around the white house saying that ukraine is not, quote, a real country? that's straight from the mouth of vladimir putin. you can talk about our fight against isis and donald trump saying that russia can have the middle east, first time america has let russia in the middle east since 1973, so now he's the king maker in that area. you can -- let's say i wrote a few things down here. you also -- you have donald trump when he's calling the fbi scum, it's really actually quite consistent with him standing up in helsinki and telling vladimir putin and the world that he trusts that ex-kgb agent's word more than he does the word of

our own intel community when it's his intel community leaders who held a joint press conference and said russia poses the greatest threat to american democracy. and the constant attacks on the intel community. these are all -- i can even go back, david, back to the 2015 interview mika and i had with him where we were shocked in december of 2015 when he said oh, putin kills people but we kill people too. it is that sort of -- and you know this better than anybody -- it is that sort of moral relativism between the united states and russia that the soviet union preached for 70 years. >> joe, we've talked since the days of the campaign, certainly since the inauguration, about this extraordinary way that trump from the beginning has undermined our national security agencies, the cia, the fbi. that did not begin yesterday

with attorney general barr and seemed to be taking -- as you said, seemed to be taking the side of our greatest adversary, russia's vladimir putin in most key foreign policy issues, and that's continued. the only thing i'd say is we're a democracy. if people think that this president is not serving our country, is siding with his enemies in these instances, the remedy is there in two ways. impeachment, i've got the resolution, the two impeachment articles that were pushed by the house yesterday, and then we have an election coming up in november. and you know, the remedies are close at hand. in so many ways this story really is about what kind of country we are and whether people take seriously the things we're talking about this morning and reflect on them and say it just isn't right. we're going to make changes.

>> admiral. >> i'll use a nautical term, we're drifting away from those federalist papers. we're drifting away from this madis madisonian democracy. we haven't put full speed on the shift yet, but we are drifting, and we need to be mindful of that. >> yesterday one person did speak out in defense of the fbi, it was director christopher wray. he said ukraine did not meddle in the election. he defended the fbi and what did he get? a tweet from the president of the united states attacking him. the message is clear, get on board or get out. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we've got lots to cover on presidential politics including new polls nationwide and in iowa. what those numbers say about the state of the race next on "morning joe."

i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats,

chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪

♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪♪ we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. the ones that make a truebeen difference in people's lives. and mike's won them, which is important right this minute, because if he could beat america's biggest gun lobby, helping pass background check laws and defeat nra backed politicians across this country, beat big coal, helping shut down hundreds of polluting plants and beat big tobacco, helping pass laws to save the next generation from addiction. all against big odds you can beat him. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. ♪ do you recall, not long ago ♪ we would walk on the sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we need someone to lean on

♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we needed somebody to lean on ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ all we need is someone to lean on ♪ looking around here i see tablets, laptops, printers, smartphones. they're all connected to the internet. they're all connected. can your network handle all those devices? sometimes. comcast business runs on the nation's largest gig-speed network. so you can get the bandwidth you need to power all of your devices at peak performance. if all of my devices could have that kind of speed, i would be dancing! get started with secure 35-megabit internet and one voice line for just $64.90 per month. call today. comcast business. beyond fast.

. welcome back to "morning joe," we're 33 past the hour. joining us now msnbc mike barnic barnicle. former director of strategic communications, adrienne elrod, she's an msnbc contributor, and msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele joins us. let's talk about that new poll out of iowa that we showed you at the top of the show, joe biden, bernie sanders, and pete buttigieg are in a statistical tie, biden with 23 points,

sanders up nine since october, and now at 22%, and buttigieg is at 18%. elizabeth warren is now in fourth place in this poll down 11 points. first of all, joe, what do you make of it? >> well, a lot of polls coming at us. this iowa race continues to move. we still have a couple of months as we always say, it is still a long way to go, but adrienne, there are two trend lines here that are just undeniable. one is that joe biden has held his own, at least in this poll he's in first place in a state where a lot of people were expecting a third or fourth place finish just a few weeks ago, and of course elizabeth warren continues -- her numbers continue to drop. again, it's early, but i'll say what i've been saying from the very beginning. joe biden is in the same position barack obama was in 2008. if he wins iowa, he is on his

way to the democratic nomination because all he has to do is survive until south carolina, and chances are good those older black voters who support him in such huge numbers will carry him toward the finish line. but he's got to get past iowa and a win there, what a statement that would make. >> yeah, you're exactly right, joe. i mean, joe biden has really withstood some serious attacks on this campaign trail, and the fact that he is still -- he's back in the number one spot in iowa is pretty significant and a very good sign for his campaign. and to your point, if he wins iowa, that's pretty much a given that he's going to win south carolina. if he wins iowa and wins south carolina, he's going to be a very, very hard candidate to beat going into super tuesday. he's going to have so much momentum. i think frankly anybody who comes out of the first four states with two wins is going to be in a significant place going

into super tuesday. elizabeth warren, we'll see if she comes back up. you're still sort of seeing the song and dance of some of these candidates. to your point, it's still early. people are starting to make decisions. they're starting to land on a candidate and decide who they want to support, who they want to be with for the long haul. if i was joe biden's campaign, and i know they're excited about this poll because i've talked to them, they are feeling pretty good about where they are in iowa at this point. >> well, then it's just a snapshot of today. today it sort of looks like joe biden is doing more than holding in iowa. that's what he has to do with iowa and new hampshire, he has to survive until south carolina, mike barnicle. if he does, chances are very good looking at all of the polls and looking at the fact that no other candidate in this race, this is why i can say this with such confidence at least as of today, no other candidate in this race has the support among older black voters that joe biden does.

it is the most important demographic in the democratic party. that's one of the reasons why elizabeth warren so badly needs to win iowa or new hampshire because like pete buttigieg, like bernie sanders, like other top contenders, she doesn't have an in with black voters in the democratic party. >> a couple of points, joe, when you talk to the biden people, it's pretty clear that the seven or eight days straight in iowa on husbais bus tour helped him enormously. a lot of people got to see him up close, hear him, talk to him, touch him. the other aspect of the biden campaign in iowa and elsewhere they feel strongly is that he contrasts vividly with what happens in washington dc, d.c. you see a loud boisterous president every night on tv, calling the fbi scum. then you see the former vice president of the united states,

competent, calm, reflective, familiar, and they gravitate towards him. the other aspect of the biden campaign is that elizabeth warren, despite the number ha is posted on that screen still has the best field operation in iowa, and it is only the second week in december, and as you pointed out, there's still a ways to go. so be wary of elizabeth warren. she's an electric performer, and she could come back strongly. >> i just think the crazier the president acts, if you would consider his behavior crazy, the better for biden. >> yes, big contrast. >> i think that's the real equation that plays out. >> what you hear from the biden people in iowa and elsewhere and you hear it in you just walk around, you know this, people -- a lot of people just want this country calmed down. >> they know something's wrongs at the very least, enven if they're worried about other things understandably. a couple of national polls to show you, the latest from monmouth university has joe biden senator bernie sanders

statistically tied, biden with 26%, up three points, sanders at 21, up one point, senator elizabeth warren has been, boy, she dropped six points in her support since november now at 17%. mayor pete buttigieg has an 8% situation going here down one, and former mayor michael bloomberg comes in fifth place with 5% of support nationally. let's look at the new quinnipiac university national poll, joe biden up five points since last month with 29% support. senator sanders and warren tied at 17%, and 15% respectively. buttigieg at 9% down seven, and andrew yang has 4%, also up two points since last month, but also according to the poll, almost six in ten democratic voters say they may change their mind about who they will support during next year's primaries.

39% said their mind is made up. >> adrian, name we don't menti enough is bernie sanders. he's up nine points in iowa in this latest poll. he's hanging around near the top of the pack in the national polling. he had the heart condition a while back and people said oh, that might be the end for him, a sign that maybe he's too old to run for president. if you look at the polling, the opposite has happened. he has surged. if he wins iowa, there would be no question he would be a front runner in new hampshire as well and who knows what happens from there. bernie sanders, again, going to be right there until the end? >> yeah, you know, we learned in 2016 on hillary clinton's campaign you should never underestimate bernie sanders. he's rebounded from his heart attack, and i think he also has benefitted from the fact that a lot of elizabeth warren's supporters had concerns with the high cost of her medicare for all plan. he is benefitting from that. look, when i look at this race

now, i think about the fact of who's going to get the delegates. that's really what matters here. sure, we're still nine, eight weeks away from the first caucus in the nation, but when i look at anybody who's polling between 12 and 15%, those are the ones that we really knead to staneed looking at. those are the ones that are going to win the delegates. you have to receive 15% of the popular vote in any congressional district in the democratic primary in order to get a delegate. we're starting to look at, sure, andrew yang great that he hit 4%. he's probably going to have a hard time getting some delegates and that's really what matters in this primary. >> michael steele, according to a hypothetical quinnipiac poll the new general election, if it were held today, a majority of voters said they would back the top 2020 democrats over president trump: in the hypothetical matchups, joe biden -- >> that's not even close, mika. wow. >> no, it's not, not even close.

he leads trump by nine points, 51 to 42%. senator bernie sanders has an eight-point advantage. >> but bernie's a socialist, mika, that's not close either. >> i know. >> wow. >> elizabeth warren leads trump by seven. 50 to 43. michael bloomberg would top the president -- he's richer, and he also beats him in this poll, 48 to 42. gee, it's a bad day. >> yeah. >> buttigieg leads 48 to 43. senator amy klobuchar has a four-point advantage over trump. meanwhile, biden and trump split support among women and men. biden leads among women voters: trump leads among men, 51% to biden's 42%. what do those numbers says to u michael steele? >> it says in one sense it kind of justifies what you're seeing in the iowa poll and probably in the other early primary polls that joe biden has some

resiliency that i think people really underestimate. the fact that he is -- to joe's editorial comment there is as strong as he is relative to the president, i think is something that despite all the bravado from the president's team, they're concerned about joe is competitive, and i think the numbers reflect that. the other thing that i thought was interesting about those numbers is where mike bloomberg is in this. so you couple his rise for a guy who just came into the race a few weeks ago, dropped $37 million is at 5%, running competitively against the president not at the end of the pack, but getting close to the middle of the pack i think is something also that's going to be worth looking at, particularly when you consider a pete buttigieg who was the darling and, you know, the candidate dejour who everybody was fixating on surpassing him

in these types of polls. bloomberg may catch on in some degree. we'll see, i think getting those delegates becomes a real problem for a number of these guys, joe biden is in the best position to move beyond. joe if i can address one thing you said earlier, i think you're right about joe in iowa and new hampshire, but i'm not convinced yet that he needs to win iowa. i think if joe comes this a strong second or third, you know, his firewall is clearly south carolina. he's still going to get that momentum, so i think he's well-positioned of all the candidates right now as we turn the corner into the new year and the iowa caucus. >> i completely agree. he has to hold serve in iowa and new hampshire. maybe a second prailace finish y on -- in one, a third place finish in another. if buttigieg wins in iowa and sanders or warren win in new hampshire, he's in really good shape as we take the turn south

to south carolina, and of course nevada as well. willie, interesting about mike bloomberg, the way bloomberg is competitive going into super tuesday. you have, you know, buttigieg winning iowa and sanders winning in new hampshire and let's say biden winning in south carolina three, four days later you have super tuesday, andst it wi it's open and there's no clear front runner and michael bloomberg's dumped $10 million in these individual states, that makes it of course very competitive, and actually gives him an opportunity of getting up to that 15% point in some of those states? >> yeah, he could, and this will be a test of money and politics, let's just say it. if he can spend enough money to be on the air as much as he's already been, we see it, you watch tv anywhere, and you see a mike bloomberg ad, but in iowa

and new hampshire and creep up a little bit, we will see. i was looking if we can go back to the last poll we had up about the split between men and women when it comes to biden versus donald trump. that is an extraordinary number among women. 60 to 34 is joe biden's lead over president trump. you know what will not help is donald trump yesterday at a rally in pennsylvania talking about senator elizabeth warren and saying she became strong, but then she opened that fresh mouth of hers. that's donald trump talking about a united states senator, not the first time, by the way, he's talked about elizabeth warren's quote, fresh mouth. i know it played big in that room. it will get big cheers with his base, but when you're down 26 points among women to the man who could be your opponent, you might not want to talk about women in those terms. >> adrienne, do you think that's the kind of language that suburban women in pennsylvania, that really resonates with them when they're not paying that

much attention to the election but they just are kind of sick of dealing with donald trump? and nose are the soundbites that make it on the nightly news that they're actually tuniing into. >> i wonder if with this race the democratic field has been so overly focused on being more progressive than other candidates, and you look at mike bloomberg being able to jump in and he's not really a democrat, and yet in national polls he's actually doing semiwell. grant it they're only national polls. you look at elizabeth warren, she seemed to be on the rise when she was moderating a bit before she said she was going to take away private insurance, and then now competing over that middle lane seems to be where these candidates still have an opportunity for pickup. >> that's exactly right. when you talk to anybody on the campaign trail and they will tell you that elizabeth warren has such a solid ground game, and not just iowa, but also some of the super tuesday states. she's had people, staffers on the ground for a long time, and

that will make the difference, i think, having staff on the ground has been working undecided voters and making sure their voters get out. that's going to make a huge difference. i think she's kind of coming back down to realistic numbers. if i was elizabeth warren i might not be too upset that i'm not this that top one or two spot right now. you're under less scrutiny, and you're not as criticized constantly in you're back in the number three or number four spot? >> and you know, the ground game means everything in iowa. you know that better than any of us, adrienne. we to have a long way to go. elizabeth warren has a good chance of moving forward, and you look at all of these polls and it just shows how fluid the democratic side is. the only thing i wanted to touch on those national polls that shows donald trump doing so badly to a guy he calls sleepy joe biden or the guy that he

says is a socialist, who says he's a socialist himself, or to the woman he calls pocahontas who he attacks talking about her quote, fresh mouth like he's biff from back to the future. i'll just say wow. but you look at all of those national numbers, mika, and it's important to remember this race comes down to regardless of the national polls, this race comes down to wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, florida, perhaps north carolina, and i think you got to put arizona in there as well. those states are all up for grabs right now, and the question is who's going to do the best in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, and florida especially? i think more and more democrats right now are starting to think it's joe biden. i've also got to say, too, bidens bus tour through iowa made a real difference, you

know. he wasn't hiding. he was out there on the campaign trail. he got into some back and forths you may not have liked. >> people seem to like it. >> all the dumb -- you better believe it, jack. you better believe it, jack. if you don't i'll chamg yllenge to push-ups. but people like joe biden, and that's evident in that poll. it's evident in that bus trip across iowa. the campaign doesn't need to keep him isolated. they need to keep him out there shaking hands with people. it's working. >> maybe they know what they're doing. all right, coming up at his pennsylvania rally last night, president trump said his administration started winning in court when it comes to his border wall with mexico. me must not have heard about the latest ruling by a federal judge. that's ahead on "morning joe." ♪ ♪

(children playing) (dog barking) ♪ (music building) 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. plaque psoriasis uncoverth clearer skin that can last. in fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira®

in providing significantly clearer skin. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. janssen can help you explore cost support options. the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit. you can give help and hope to those in need.

welcome back to "morning joe." so here we are a day away ed luce from a critical election in the uk, and it is a race between

one former conservative mp called it an apolling choice between a compulsive liar and a totalitarian. happy days are here again in britain. how's the race shaping up? >> yes, do you want to be shot or poisoned? well, until the last couple of days it looked like the conservative -- boris johnson's conservative party was heading for a very clear majority, but in the last 24 hours or so, some fresh polls have come in to show it might well be much tighter than that. and the range of scenarios now for tomorrow's voting is somewhere between a slimmer conservative majority and a hung parliament where no single party holds a majority. there have been a lot of -- >> what's been moving those numbers that way, ed? >> well, there's been a lot of controversy about boris johnson's with the media, there was refusal to do proper hard

one on one set piece interviews with the bbc. he yesterday even hid in a refrigerator, a large industrial refrigerator from a journalist sparking the line that if you can't stand the heat, then hide in the fridge, and so he's -- he's made a few snafus. he's also been campaigning with some skill at the populous level by packing boxes in warehouses, delivering milk to people's doors, producing a brexit actually ad in the last 24 hours, a play on that hugh grant movie "love actually" where he turns up at someone's door. it's all sort of trivial, celebrity-ish, the british electorate in a fickle, capricious mood, and polls do not have a good track record in

recent british history. quite a lot of o'differediffere could happen tomorrow. >> thank you so much. great to have you on the show this morning. still ahead, the justice department's inspector general will go before the senate judiciary committee this morning to defend his report on the origins of the russia investigation. we'll talk to two members of that committee, senators dick durbin and chris coons, "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ unpredictable crohn's symptoms following you? for adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease, stelara® works differently. studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tb.

tell your doctor if you have an infection or flu-like symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. remission can start with stelara®. life isn't a straight line. things happen. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but at fidelity, we help you prepare for the unexpected with retirement planning and advice for what you need today and tomorrow. because when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪♪lear, we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home.

male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit. you can give help and hope to those in need.

>> this is kind of a whiplash morning, dealing with impeachment. >> the day is young. >> and the reason they announced it on the same by a oday one ho lat later, they announced impeachment, a few guys standing behind her, they announced meecht, a impeachment, and then an hour later she announced she's going to do a usmca. it plays down the impeachment because they're embarrassed by the impeachment. >> but today the house democrats announce these two flimsy, pathetic, ridiculous articles of impeachment. the house democrats are walking back from everything they claimed with today's announcement. they're now admitting there was no collusion. there was no obstruction of justice, and there were no crimes whatsoever. there were no crimes. it says it.

there were no crimes. they're impeaching me, and there are no crimes. this has to be a first in history. they're impeaching me. you know why? because they want to win an election, and that's the only way they can do it. >> where do i start here? first of all, you were holookin by the way, that clip of the guy in pennsylvania, that's going to be the third president in 240 years of this great republic to be impeached. that's the impeached we'll be referring to him as the impeached donald trump, but of course the lies, mika. if he could just stop the lies and talk about the economy, i mean his numbers would go up among women and men, if he would stop the conspiracy theories and just talk about the economy, his numbers would go up among women and men. if he could stop doing vladimir putin's bidding his numbers would go up among women and men, but he can't do it. i don't know why he can't do it. it makes no sense. people who work for him don't

know why he can't do it, but he's constantly -- he's shooting himself in the foot every day. it's just what he does. a couple of things here, they admitted there's no obstruction of justice. nobody's admitted that. there are ten examples of obstruction of justice in the mueller report, which of course half the republicans haven't even read, but if you did read it, you would see ten examples that would get you and me and other people who did those things buried under a federal penitentiary. he did obstruct justice. of course yesterday how funny that lavrov, how stupid of him to let lavrov come back to the white house to remind us of the last time lavrov was in the white house when donald trump admitted he obstructed justice to the russian foreign minister by saying, you know what, i fired my fbi director today. it's a really good thing. it's going to put some of the pressure off on this investigation. so no, no, there actually --

there was obstruction of justice. so let's check that off. that's a lie, also, for our friends in the audience last night when he said no crimes. no, actually the president's committed crimes. again, any member of congress in the house or the senate, any presidential candidate that had done what this president did right before the election paying hush money to a porn star so he could win the election and avoid that bad headline right before the election, and then not report that to the federal elections commission, that person would be in jail. i've known members of congress that have gone to jail for a lot less. and as far as collusion with russia, i don't know if you want to call it collusion or a conspiracy or whatever you want to call it, but we have found out the president actually was directing his people along with roger stone to work with a front

for russia that he knew was a front for russia, that roger stone knew was a front for russia, and we get information from the roger stone trial afterwards that draws a straight line from donald trump to his people to russia. and it's there. it's in the report. i guess this president's decided he's only going to appeal to low information voters, people that don't read because if they read there are a lot of great conservative republicans out there that, like me, like to read. if they read the mueller report, if they read the details of this ukraine investigation, if they read about the hush money to a porn star, and i'm sorry, mr. president, i don't mean to go on so long about this, but you just lied to your people, and that makes me sad. i want them to know the truth. i wish you'd stop lying to your people. but if they read the details about the hush money to the porn

star, they would understand, that, yes, he committed crimes that have his people in jail. i mean, the person that was in the conspiracy with him committing that crime sitting in jail this morning. and yet the president's running around claiming i committed no crimes. no, mr. president, time and time again, robert mueller and everything else said you can't be charged a crime. you can't be indicted while you're president of the united states. we understand that's why this re-election meaning so much to you. >> it does. >> because you think you can skate from justice for another four years if you win. willie -- >> he would. >> on a slightly less important note, willie, but something that is as deeply disturbing, the rotted souls of new york yankees fans. >> finally, we get to the biggest story of the morning. >> wow. >> to be -- really the gross materialism, the win at all cost

attitude that the new york yankees have possessed time and time again, i just got to say along with mike barnicle, thank god, you know what? we just -- like spurrier said, we just play pitch and catch. >> yep. >> we just play pitch and catch. we're in it for the love of the game. it's not about dollar bills, but you guys once again, you devalue your organization. you make it about nothing more than who can write a big check. it makes me sad, willie. >> yoiu know, joe, we're trying to keep up with the big money red sox, the big money dodgers, we're a little group from the bronx playing still back in the yard. if somehow, some way we managed last night to sign the biggest fish of free agency, the ace, the stud pitcher gar gerrit cole away from the houston astros. my son just woke up and was texting me, his exuberant, cole was the guy the yankees wanted.

he's going to make $36 million a year to pitch in the bronx. >> yes and we talk a lot here about the tank, politics having to do with money and corruption of cash in politics. >> it's gross. >> this is an example of -- >> oh, come on, giver me a bre. >> this is so gross. >> until -- >> first of all, how in the world is he worth that much more than strasbourg i don't get that. >> he is. >> really? seriously? $80 million more? >> he's younger. he's pitched fewer innings. >> we'll revisit this after next year. we'll see how they both do next year. >> you still have to play the game. >> joe, we were only the second best team in the american league last year, only 103 wins, so we had to get a little better to catch up with the houston astros. >> the astros are taking a page of the new england patriots. they are the ones that are best known for cheating. >> yes.

>> claire's here as we can see. >> thank you, claire. >> david ignatius, and michael steele still with us, and joe, republican strategist rick wilson has a scathing critique of the democrats' play book in the "daily beast" entitled the democrats are blowing impeachment. and he writes in part in the week where democrats announce historic and fully deserved articles of impeachment against president donald trump, they also started blowing it and throwing away 2020. for all the skill nancy pelosi has displayed as political opposition leader against trump, the idea that working with him is a net political positive for the democrats is scorchingly stupid. donald trump doesn't really want to pass usmca or family leave or anything else for that matter. trump will lucy them every time pulling back the football at the last second. 2020 is a referendum on donald

trump. that is all 2020 is about. the cognitive dissonance in declaring trump a lawless, reckless criminal who seeks to have foreign powers decide our elections and ride rough shod over our democracy and also declaring we can work with this guy is utterly astounding. i think they're in a tough position because you also want to look like you're trying to get something done for the american people. >> yeah, you know, i love reading rick. i love his book, but i think we disagree on this one, rick and i do. he's more of a scorch the earth and then throw salt on the ground to make sure nothing -- wait a second, i'm that way too. >> can be. >> we're different in some ways. i haven't quite figured out exactly how, but claire, i'm a big believer when you can put points on the board, you put points on the board. if you can do something that

will help the american people, do something that will help the american people. some democrats strongly disagree with this trade pact going through, but bill clinton's strongest defense against republicans during his impeachment battle was i'm getting impeached but i'm still doing the people's business. they're worried about politics. i'm worried about your family. they're worried about impeaching me. i'm worried about making sure that you get retrained and get into the job that you need to get into. it was a very strong winning message, and that's the message that democrats need. democrats need to say, this, this, this, this, this, moscow mitch killed it. donald trump refused to sign it. please help us get people that will help us do all these good things for you and la la la. that's without the la la la's, that's the democratic message that i think helps them win in

2020 despite impeachment. >> yeah, this is a -- this door could swing both ways on this decision. i understand what nancy's doing. she is appealing to the 30 moderates in her caucus that won last time so they can go home over christmas and say, no, it wasn't just about impeachment. it was about getting things done for our farmers and for trade. on the other hand, this will be something that he will use next year late in summer and into the fall, and so there is -- but watch what's going to happen a little bit in the senate, you saw pat toomey coming out saying no way i'm going for this tedea. this was a total sock to the labor unions. if the labor unions are for this, that means donald trump is not such a negotiator because he gave them everything. he gave the democrats everything they wanted. so i think you're going to see more along the lines of pat toomey. they're not going to vote on this until late january in the senate. i think you're going to see some of those republicans say, hey, we'll support you on

impeachment, but you went too far and gave away the house on this trade deal. >> we were talking about this a little earlier off camera, i think you agree with joe about this. this in some ways is democrats calling the president's bluff. all they're focused on is impeachment, there's nancy pelosi saying yeah, we're happy to work with you to get things done. we can do both things at once. >> i think this is a little bit republicans are from mars, democrats are from venus a little bit where democratic voters like to see things get done. democrats need to see something at the end of the day and impeachment in and of itself isn't going to be enough. how much are you really going to be able to make democratic voters care about what is a foreign policy issue. go back to the mueller report, and at the end of the day, it was something that you just couldn't get voters that engaged upon, so you have to keep pushing the envelope forward. i thought that speaker pelosi

did a brilliant job yesterday of branding this as her negotiation. she got what democrats wanted. she got what donald trump was willing to give away because he's not that engaged in the details. >> yeah, michael steele if you look at polling, obviously the american people, many of them concerned about the question of impeachment and what the president's doneme. they also want stuff to get done. they're tired of hearing about this as the only thing on the menu. >> absolutely. when you stop and think about the fact that the house has up to this point has passed over 400 piece s of legislation that are now sitting in the senate and have been sitting in the is that the. so house democrats can under pelosi's leadership make the case that despite the crazy from the other end of pennsylvania avenue, and we're trying to deal with that, and that's what this impeachment process is about, we have been dill jenigently putti forth legislation that touches on health care, that touches on

jobs, that touches on job training, et cetera, et cetera. and take that back to their people. this mcusa deal that the president wants, notice what he said about it yesterday. so he just kind of one off on it, he just kind of one handed it aside as if it was some kind of political toy. he knows come next year he's going to be using that to say look at what i've done, but nancy will say really that's what we've done. so she's kind of positioned an issue like this where, yeah, it looks like it helps the president, but democrats will get credit, too, and that's what you call a draw in politics, and that's a good thing for both sides going into next year. >> well, it also -- the more you get done the less republicans can make the argument that you're just obsessed with impeaching the president of the united states. and so again, it's just critical

for democrats to have ten things that they passed, whether they were stopped by moscow mitch mcconnell or whether they were stopped by the president of the united states, list those things on the campaign trail, and you undercut your opponent's argument that all you're interested in is impeaching donald trump because you can turn to the republicans and say no, the only thing you're interested in doing is killing every good piece of legislation that we pass your way. the president was in pennsylvania last night, obviously a critical state for him. i'm sure you saw some of the national polls that we put up on the screen last hour that showed donald trump getting beat en in these one on one competitions, but man, this race is coming down and people have said it for a long time tor michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, and florida. talk about pennsylvania and what he was trying to accomplish last night. >> joe, i spent all day going across western and central

pennsylvania with vice president pence. in towns i visited in the closing days of the 2016 election where as a reporter i saw this huge array of signs that pointed to a grass roots movement on the conservative populous side for the trump campaign, and i saw yesterday vice president pence trying to stoke those voters again, trying to prod them to come out, talking about the impeachment process. even vice president pence as he met with voters at a couple of diners called it crazy, the impeachment process. you see him echoing president trump's own language but not to the same extent. and then at that rally in hershey in the evening, grievance driven politics by president trump while also trying to doubt his administration's work. pennsylvania is so key because you see the suburbs of philadelphia in 2018 and in recent elections this year that the suburbs are going blue. they're trending away from the republican party. that makes it much more important for the republicans and the trump campaign to turn

out voters in the west near pittsburgh. those former mill towns and then in the center part of the state around hershey. >> so you know, bob, mike barnic barnicle's dear friend tim russert said in 2000, of course, that it was all about florida, florida, florida. i think it's safe to say all these years later in 2020 it's going to be about pennsylvania, pennsylvania, pennsylvania. it really does have the makings of the battleground, but what do trump people tell you, the campaign, what do they tell you about how things have changed over the past four years? like you said the suburbs of philly are going to go deep, dark blue. of course philadelphia, i'm sure we're not going to see a downturn in the black votes that we saw four years ago. then of course we saw conor lamb win in western pennsylvania. we've seen democrats do extraordinarily well in local

races that republicans -- in seats that republicans have held for years now for quite some time. are the trump people starting to get concerned, or do they really believe they can mind enough votes in central and western pennsylvania to make up for everything they're requestinggoe this time in eastern pennsylvania? >> when michael steele was talking about how speaker pelosi is trying to give democrats something else to talk about, he was in a way referencing conor lamb, the young democratic congressman from western pennsylvania you just mentioned. he's someone who the trump campaign is already targeting with advertising saying he's too focused on impeachment. he's not focused on the issues. so that's the way they're going to try to win over some of the voters in the western and central part of the state. in the suburbs their whole case comes down to the economy. if the dow jones industrial arrange average is at 28,000 or heyer, s&p's around 3,000, if you look they're in a strong position to

maybe not win the philadelphia suburbs but not have a total wipeout. the other factor that they can't determine is who is going to be the democratic nominee. when you talk to trump advisers and allies privately, they're a little worried about vice president bide en. he has such strength in pennsylvania. he was born in scranton, and they look at someone like senator sanders, he'd be easier to beat, but then again there's cause about someone like senator sanders because he has a rapport with union voteers and working class voters and that could be potent in the western part of the state. at this point they see a very difficult map. that's why for now it's all about turning out the base. >> you know, mika, if you look at the state of pennsylvania, the reason why joe biden would be so exceptionally strong there, it starts and ends with where biden is from and that is scranton, pennsylvania. that is a republican-leaning area. it has been trending republican

for some time but you do polling there and you see how joe biden in scranton and this swing area, he does exceptionally well there, and in a state where you're talking about one percentage, you know, maybe one, one and a half percentage points separating the two, winning a media market like that in an area like that and keep not only stopping it from going red, but turning it a darker blue, that could be the game changer in pennsylvania, which could be a game changer for the entire 2020 election. >> yes, it could, and it's completely anecdotal, but i know folks from pennsylvania who voted for trump who are looking for an alternative and they would vote for biden, probably not anybody else on the democratic field. we're going to come back to this, but we want to get this news in. secretary of state mike pompeo and russian foreign minister r sergey lavrov held a news conference before his oval

office with the president where the two disagreed with moscow's interference in the 2016 elections. >> on the question of interference in our domestic affairs, i was clear, it's unacceptable and i made our expectations of russia clear. the trump administration will always work to protect the integrity of our elections, period. should russia or any foreign actor take steps to undermine our democratic processes, we had take action in response. >> translator: we have highlighted once again that all speculations about our alleged interference in domestic processes in the united states are baseless. there are no facts that would support that. we did not see these facts. no one has given us this proof because it simply does not exist. >> i appreciate secretary of state pompeo's clarity there. the white house readout of the president's meeting with lavrov claimed president trump warned against any russian attempts to

interfere in u.s. elections. lavrov claims the issue never came up, joe. >> well, this is, actually, david ignatius, we've been talking about how chaotic things have been and how crazed. this is for one minute a nice return to normalcy. it was nice. it was actually nice. i can't believe i'm having to salute somebody for doing their job and defending america, but it was nice to see mike pompeo say as he did in his defense of cia director that the russians were, in fact, trying to interfere in the 2016 election, and they needed to make sure they didn't do that again in 2020. and of course what sergey lavrov o going to say? yeah, we're busted. no. that's what we saw for 40 years during the cold war. so there's a bit of a return to normalcy there. and i've got to say, even in donald trump's readout, the president's readout -- and i don't really -- whether he said

it or not in a meeting we'll not know that -- but the fact that the white house, the trump white house felt compelled to put that into an official readout is actually a dramatic departure from what we saw at helsinki. the white house's language, the secretary of state's language is now lining up with what the director of the cia, the department of homeland security, the dni, everybody else in the intel community is saying. >> isn't it nice to have a secretary of state who says it's unacceptable for russia to interfere in america's elections? yeah, that's -- i'm relieved. >> to admit it. >> yes. >> and -- >> thank god for small favors. >> yes, don't want to put that down. it was not what i'd call a full-throated criticism of lavrov. it was pretty mild, his words were it's unacceptable. but he said the right thing, and i think more to the point there

is a real mobilization among our national security agencies, department of homeland security to do everything they can to make the 2020 election as tamper proof as they can. they're working very hard on it. the nsa has a task force that continues to monitor russian actions. sergey lavrov standing there, russians were conducting a covert action, which means if you're asked about it, you say it didn't happen, and so he stands up there and says it never happened. that's what you do. and it was good to see him -- good to see him called on it. the question really is whether what's ahead. we're heading now, i think, into a period of u.s. russian bargaining over arms control and other issues. that's just about -- just over the next tournament in the river, and we'll see if donald trump is serious about that, if he bargains effectively.

the russians have done some very interesting diplomacy in the last week with ukraine, with president zelensky and ukraine, something the u.s. should be part of but hasn't been. what's trump going to do about that. it's interesting to see these sort of more normal issues, arms control, the negotiations over the future of eastern central europe come back into our focus. it's just almost like having a normal country. >> let's bring in "washington post" national security reporter john hudson, who asked this question to russian foreign minister lavrov yesterday. >> as you mentioned, you would like to see the u.s. come forward with information about election meddling. why not just read the mueller report? it's very detailed when it comes to u.s. allegations related to meddling in the 2016 election. >> translator: as for meddling or not meddling, you suggested to simply read the mueller

report. we read it. there was no proof of any collusion. >> well, that was his answer. good to have you on the show, and i think that same question could be asked of some republicans as well. there are many who claim they did not read the mueller report. >> yeah, i mean, what was very interesting is lavrov highlighted the part of the mueller report that president trump likes to tout the most, no collusion. now, it's obviously a fact that the mueller report didn't establish a conspiracy between the trump campaign and russians, but of course as we know, it also included many details and including an indictment of several russian intelligence officers for the crime of intervening in america's election, for the crime of hacking the democratic national committee and the hillary

clinton campaign. that's very-established, and that's why i asked him if he had read the mueller report because he spent so much time at this press conference saying that the russians have asked the united states for evidence of this, and of course we know that this is a very detailed document that took a long time. and so it was just sort of the elephant in the room, but obviously lavrov dismissed it out of hand. >> john, back to the root of this meeting. do we know how long this meeting was on the president's schedule? and how is it that lavrov gets the opportunity to have a high school graduation photo in the oval office with the president seated at the desk when the president of ukraine cannot get a white house meeting? we're involved in a hot war, or ukraine is involved in a hot war on the russian border over there, and we have mountains, literal literally mountains of evidence proving that russia did indeed declare war on us in our

election in 2016. how did this meeting happen? how long was it planned? who else was in on the meeting? >> it's a good question because lavrov has been kept at sort of arm's length distance by secretary of state mike pompeo. they're not known to get along or like each other, and pompeo has pretty much stayed away ask avoided the russian portfolio. he left it up to john bolton when john bolton was there. he's left the nitty-gritty to his lower level envoys. lavrov and the russians have been pressing for this meeting for a long time as a matter of reciprocal diplomacy. they met in sochi several months ago, and at the time that is when pompeo got an audience with putin. and so the russians always were pushed for reciprocal treatment, and so after he met with pompeo yesterday in washington, he did get an audience with trump. it wasn't guaranteed, and you're certainly right that there is a sort of split screen moment

where trump is meeting with the russians and very, you know, just a day before zelensky had met with putin, a moment when the ukrainians really would have liked to have established that they have the full back of their principle military supporter, the united states. >> hey, john, we got conflicting readouts of lavrov's meeting with president trump. the white house says that president trump warned lavrov and russia about interfering in elections. lavrov said the issue didn't come up. do you have any sense for who's telling the truth here? >> it's very difficult at this point. the white house readout is the only indication that we have that president trump pushed back about election interference and warned them not to intervene. interestingly enough, lavrov, he had a very lengthy evening press conference last night, and he did at one point say that during his meeting with president trump he brought up that mike pompeo had complained about election

interference, and he used that moment to tell trump, well, we could settle this by disclosing information that had been shared between 2016 and 2017 between the governments. it's not clear if trump pushed back, certainly lavrov was asked twice about that, and he never indicated that he faced any pushback from trump in the meeting. >> all right, "the washington post" john hudson, thank you very much for your reporting. and let's bring in now member of the senate judiciary and foreign relations committees, democratic senator chris coons of delaware. a lot to cover, senator, and joe has the first question, joe. >> so senator, we've been talking about a lot of things this morning, but i've also been in touch with jonathan lemire of the associated press, white house reporter, and we're trying to figure out this call, the yankees buying cole for as much money as they threw at him. we're trying -- we're putting down the three greatest scandals

in baseball history. >> wow. >> where does that line up with the steroid scandal of the 1990s and of course the 1919 chicago black sox scandal where they threw the world series? would you put it at one or two? where would you put it? >> it's ahead of throwing the world series but behind the steroids i'd say. right in the middle of the pack. >> okay. i think you're right. now that we've got that cleared up, i think we have david ignatius in washington, d.c., and david, do you have a question for the senator? >> i do. so senator, i want to ask you about what we talked about at the beginning of the show today, and that is the really to us surprising comments, disturbing comments by attorney general barr denouncing his own inspector general's report. you're a careful observer of everything in washington and the justice department, what did you

make of it? what are your concerns going forward? >> this was a striking angctiony the attorney general to try and continue to pump up these fake conspiracy theories that republicans in support of trump's campaign to discredit the ongoing impeachment inquiry have been spreading. later this morning, we're going to have a hearing on the senate judiciary committee about inspector general horowitz's investigation, an investigation that concluded that the fbi was without bias and properly and well-founded as they launched the investigation into the then trump campaign and russian interference into the 2016 election. that attorney general barr dismisses that out of hand in sharp contrast to the fbi director chris wray who stands by the conclusions of the inspector general is to me just one more piece of evidence that the attorney general is not our nation's top law enforcement officer but is instead acting as president trump's personal attorney. >> senator, it's willie geist. i know we want to come back to

this subject, and i'll pass it around. i noted something yesterday on a different subject that observes some attention. you joined senator kamala harris in calling for the firing of steven miller as a senior white house adviser to the president of the united states. this after a former breitbart editor released all those e-mails showing that steven miller was in contact with white nationalists spewing disgusting rhetoric. he still sits at the right hand of the president of the united states. what do you hope happens here beyond his getting fired how do you think that would even happen? >> in any previous administration someone in the modern era who was revealed to have views so wildly different from what is acceptable in the united states in our modern society would have been thrown out years ago. it tells us everything we need to know about where president trump is on immigration policy, on his views of people of different racial backgrounds and where some of his most divisive actions have come from. those of us in the senate who

have worked on a bipartisan basis to try and resolve some of our impasses over immigration, for example, can see a straight line between stephen miller's hateful views and opinions and the decision to separate parents from their children at the border or the decision to dramatically reduce the number of refugees accepted into the united states. these have long been bipartisan positions that we don't use cruelty towards immigrant children as a tool of our policy, that as a nation many of whom came here as refugees ourselves, it is a nation whose families have a history of seeking asylum in this country where we don't block those seeking refuge. stephen miller is a cancer at the very heart of the values of this presidency, and i hope that more senators will join us in saying these expressed views released in recent e-mails show that not only is he disqualified from serving but that president trump should abandon his hateful rhetoric and move towards representing all americans.

>> good morning, chris, it's claire. >> good morning, claire. >> i should tell you that we're going to do special coverage of the hearing and judiciary committee this morning, and we're going to try to really focus on this i.g. report. tell me who's going to show up as the chairman today? will it be the groupie lindsey graham, the weird guy that's shown up over the last 18 months, or will it be the thoughtful lindsey graham who knows that this inspector general has incredible respect and support in the i.g. community as one of the most straight shooters out there? which one's going to show up? >> well, of course i hope that the chairman graham who shows up this morning will be the seasoned attorney, someone who understands and respects the role of the inspector general, someone who sounds more like fbi director wray who has accepted the findings of his report. i am concerned that we're more likely to see the kavanaugh

confirmation hearing lindsey graham who is full of aggression and anger and at times even venom and who is a vigorous forceful defender of everything president trump is saying or has said. i'll remind you, president trump has since he became president been claiming that the investigation into his campaign's activities was a witch hunt and a hoax. that's an investigation that produced six convictions of some of his most senior folks, his campaign manager, his personal attorney, his national security adviser, and this inspector general report, claire, shows that it was without bias and well-founded. that's the conclusion that i hope chairman graham accepts in this morning's hearing but given the current environment here in the senate, i suspect we're in for a rough ride this morning. >> so senator coons, you obviously sat in on the confirmation process for attorney general barr. what are your thoughts about how he has evolved as attorney

general using a combination of faith-based approach to the law, an incredible backing of the president to the point, as you just pointed out, he appears to be the president's personal attorney rather than the attorney general of the united states and now perhaps precipitating a real split between the department he leads that he has attacked including attacking the fbi. what happens to chris wray? >> all right, mike, i've known chris wray since law school, and i voted against attorney general barr and i voted for fbi director wray in their confirmation hearing processes, and i suspect events in the days and weeks ahead may bear out the differences in their approaches. there are thousands of men and women every day who go to work at the fbi to protect our nation to keep us safe and to uphold our laws and constitution, and the attorney general of the united states should be the head of the department of justice.

the person whose personal oath is to the constitution, not to any one president. i'll remind you, president trump's got one personal attorney who's currently serving jail time, another one who's mucking around in ukraine again and has frankly become somewhat of a laughing stock despite his respected tenure as may your orw york. if attorney general barr wants to join that company, i think ultimately he'll go down in history as a discredited attorney general. i'm impressed that fbi director wray is standing up to president trump's conspiracy theories and mischaracterizations and is continuing to defend the men and women of the fbi and to accept the i.g. report. >> senator, if i had to guess, i would bet that in today's hearing the use of fisa to surveil the trump campaign is going to be a very contentious issue. >> yes. >> do you think that republicans moving in the direction of

reform of warrantless surveillance, or is this going to be political theater today? >> if this were a coherent leadership approach, they would take some of the issues and concerns raised in the report and as fbi director wray has done embrace them, and then talk about responding to them and making sure that we continue to hold federal law enforcement@highest possible standards going forward. instead, i'm concerned we'll be treated to more political theater. we've seen some of this tension on other matters and in other committees. you mentioned earlier in the show in this section that secretary of state mike pompeo actually publicly challenged russia's interference in our last election at the same time that the department of justice i.g.'s report is being reviewed by the judiciary committee this morning, the foreign relation committee is taking up a number of bipartisan bills.

this week and next week we'll be taking up sanctions against russia and sanctions against turkey, and i think it's encouraging to see some bipartisanship in the senate. today, however, at the department of justice inspector general's oversight hearing, i don't expect that. i think we'll just see more political theater. >> senator chris coons thank you so much for everything. >> thank you, mika. coming up, the mayor of new york city bill de blasio is standing byme. he joins the table. straight ahead and as we go to break, we want to mention a track from joe's band is included on a new holiday collection. the song is called "i don't want to go home for christmas" which i'm going to ask him about that. why wouldn't he want to come home? i don't get it. you can listen right now on spotify. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ i'm your mother in law.

and i like to question your every move. like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me. so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. this is my son's favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady. in america, the zip code you're born in can determine your future. the y helps fill the opportunity gap with education programs for all.

for a better us, donate to your local y today. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels

welcome back to "morning joe," four people including a police officer are dead after an hour's long shootout in jersey city, new jersey, yesterday. gunfire across three crime scenes began near a cemetery yesterday afternoon where 15-year police force veteran detective joseph seals, husband, father of five approached a suspicious u-haul truck. police say the two suspects, a man and a woman, then fatally shot detective seals and killed him before fleeing to a nearby kosher supermarket. a standoff ensued insides market where three more victims died from gunshot wounds. the two suspects also were found dead. a senior law enforcement official tells nbc news the suspects used an ar-type weapon in the shootout.

while no official motive has been determined yet, the mayor of jersey city tweeted this morning after an extensive review of closed circuit camera footage, it is now clear the two individuals targeted the kosher grocery store. joining us now is the mayor of new york city democrat bill de blasio. good morning. sent some of the nypd over there, helicopters overhead and also officers on the ground. do you have any sense more for what the mayor of jersey city is talking about here that this was a targeted attack on a kosher supermarket? >> willie, this is a very troubling incident. we have a police officer who was assassinated. we have clearly a hate crime, a very violent hate crime. there's more we need to know. it's early in the investigation, but we take this very seriously. i have put the nypd on high alert focusing on our jewish community and protecting our jewish community. this is our neighbor.

we did send officers to support helicopters, et cetera, to support jersey city, but now we see this kind of hate right on our doorstep, and these violent anti-semitic attacks have been happening around the country so i take it very, very seriously. >> mr. mayor, you just called it a hate crime. does that mean for sure these two shooters went after a kosher supermarket. this is in a hasidic jewish neighborhood. they were attacked because they were jewish? >> based on what we know now, i think it is a hate crime, i think we should take it very seriously. i have ordered nypd to reinforce key jewish communities today and make sure we have a lot of presence out there. i'll be speaking more to other measures we'll be taking. this is too close to home and too serious. we cannot take it lightly. >> do you have any information at all on the two shooters, their identities? not enough to be able to put the pieces together, but again, we believe this was a chosen target

and specifically an act of violent hate. >> what do you see? because i love next door to a synagogue in new york city, and i'll go out to get a bager with my kids on saturday morning and boy the nypd is there to support and protect the synagogue as a precautionary measure. have you seen an uptick in threats just in the last year or couple of years against jewish communities? >> yeah, against a backdrop of an increase in hate crimes overall in the nation, in the city, but the fact more recently is more and more of them have been anti-semitic threats or anti-semitic acts in new york city. some of them have been violent but never of course to the level of what we're talking about in jersey city or, you know, pittsburgh or california. i mean, we've seen violent anti-semitism growing in the united states of america and around the world, so this is the city i lead has the largest jewish population literally of any city on earth within the city limits of new york city

more than within the city limits of any other city on earth including jerusalem and tel aviv. >> we know a lot about the threats facing the jewish community. there is growing anti-semitism in this country, and it is taking a more violent form, a more overtly violent form. we need to take it seriously and take every measure to protect, but also get to the root causes. >> amen. >> so we'll be following that, and i want to make the turn now to politics and the developments over the past 24 hours. we had the articles of impeachment announced, but then we also had trade, democrats working with trump on that. there's been some criticism we've discussed on the show of, you know, calling the president a criminal and yet working with him on this. i know that you've been critical of this updated trade deal. what do you make of the past 24 hours? >> mika, it comes down to this, if this trade deal is truly rigorous, it's pro-worker, it's pro-environment. it's it is strong, then not only is

it good policy, but democrats can go out around the country and say look, we did something very different. but bluntly democrats made a mistake in the past in my minute join with nafta 25 years ago. and we've never been able to get rid of the stain of that. when you look at where donald trump won in 2016 and where the nafta job losses happened, it is a very strong parallel. so we are still paying the price of the mistake of nafta. but if this trade deal is strong and verifiable, democrats have something to say. my fear is that we have not seen the documents yet. this depends on wording from the trump administration that is believable and enforceable and mexico has to do its share which is a big lift for mexico. we're talking about inspections of factory, checking product at the woor dborder, making sure w levels come up. that is a lot. i say this way, democrats get it

right, they can hold their head high and we're in business. but they don't, it will be and a half and a hanafta all over aga. >> and so you are fresh off the trail of politics. you see the field beginning to narrow. what do we need to do four years from now to, if anything, to change this process as it relates to the order of the prime he areas? everybody that is still running won't say a word about iowa and new hampshire being first even though they are not representative overall of the democratic party. you didn't have to worry about that now. so why don't you tell us what you think about what should happen with the democratic primary process. >> i will tell you having lived it, that that -- those four early states actually composite america better than one might think. nevada, south carolina, plus new hampshire and iowa, and it also credi creates a more intimate process. i found it helpful that you have

to talk and you should talk to everyday americans and really hear them. if we did a national primary, it would all be tv, it would be big rallies, no interaction with people. >> but should we rotate the order? should you let south carolina go first one year and nevada first the next year, next year iowa, should it always be iowa and -- >> that is a good question, but my impulse is to go to the issue with the dnc debates that i think is the bigger problem. >> i think that you're running again. >> slow down. >> i'll say it right now, he's running again. >> you are way ahead of the action. but here is what i want to say, the debate problem, we see two for the american people. there are too many people. and now we're losing diversity

because the debate format ultimately works against inclusion. but meanwhile back at the ranch, my predecessor is well on his way of trying to buy an election, $100 million he has spent on advertising. look, this is a guy who here in new york city consistently helped the rich get richer. he is spending $100 million and somehow we're not talking about it because of donald trump having numbed us all. but this is a threat to american democracy when someone can take their billions and sub bevert t process. >> i don't think that you fix the problem by posing another problem. bob costa has a question. >> good morning, mayor. mayor buttigieg has spent this week talking about his past week at mckinsey. do you have any lingering he questions or concerns about that work? >> yeah, i think that we all want to know more. look, if the clients he works for did things that were against the interests of working people, he has to account for that.

this is an age in which everything is being put on the table and in some ways it is very healthy. but if you make a choice as someone working in corporate america, that is what mcxen zke is, was it in the interests of working people or against the working people and about the door corporate would the li bottom line. even though he was 24, 25 years ago. >> he is 37 now so that is not that long ago. and you have to account for all of your actions. >> is the list troubling to you? he's released it now. it seems to me pretty nothing berger. >> and it well may be. i'm asking the core question, what was the work that he did for each client, what did they ask him do, was it something that was in favor of working people or against work people. i keep coming back to the simple theme. and i give you a lot of credit.

you won in a tough state for a long time because i think people could tell that you were on the side of everyday people. everyday folks in missouri and we need this party to be the party of everyday americans working americans, kitchen table issues. so whoever is our candidate has to be believable that they are on the side of the little guy and the working person. and if they seem to be more connected to corporate america, it will be a problem. and obviously again to mike bloonlg bu bloomberg, if they are part of the billionaire class, how do we attract working people to our cause. >> you realize she dislikes the red sox. >> the cardinals have been very tough on the red sox for generations. >> i dislike the yankees slightly moore. things are happ. >> runts thrilled that the yankees signed garrett cole? we can celebrate that, right? >> well, willie, wilg lie,

willie -- >> everybody is different. >> you know what people should stick with their home team and the team they grew up with. and i credit you, your cardinals are a wonderful team. >> mayor, thank you. and bob costa, great to have you on. still ahead, justice department inspector general michael horowitz will be testifying on capitol hill about his report on the origins of the fbi's russia probe. we'll talk to the senate minority whip dick durbin who will be in the hearing room this morning. will be in the hearing room this morning. it was in this small little village- in connemara. right! connemara it is! there's one gift the whole family can share this holiday season, their story. give the gift of discovery, with an ancestrydna kit.

the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. ♪

♪ ♪ the calming scent of lavender by downy infusions calm. laundry isn't done until it's done with downy. it's something we take personally, and believe in passionately.

it's the idea that if our mothers were diagnosed with cancer, how would we want them to be treated? that's exactly how we care for you. with answers and actions. to hear your concerns, quiet your fears, lift your spirits. with teams of cancer experts and specialists, delivering advanced treatment options and compassionate support every step of the way. all here in one place, with one purpose. to fight your cancer, together. that's the mother standard of care. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit.

you can give help and hope to those in need. and we were not respected four years ago. we were laughed at. >> there is a lot of laughing, but it is happening right now and it is not good for us. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, december 11th. along with joe, willie and me, we have former aide to the george w. bush white house and state departments, alys echle j and himself james frietas is

joining us. really important day to have you on. along with columnist and associate editor david ignatius. and u.s. national editor at the financial times, ed luce is joining us from washington. there is so much happening right now that if you blink, you might miss it. so nobody blink. just look at yesterday. house democrats announced, this was the big story we thought, articles of impeachment against the president. shortly after 9:00 a.m. and an hour later, they were announcing a bipartisan trade deal. at noon, attorney general bill y barr was back at it putting politics above the fbi. and next, it was the trump administration giving russia a bull horn to lie about its meddling in american democracy. the president spun his own stories later that evening in pennsylvania, including false

claims about the progress of his border wall. in reality, a federal judge was busy blocking his attempt to fund the project with money slated for the military. also last night, the president jarring terms. >> i did that heavy, they have virks po heavy po heavy poke heavy pocahontas deal. i give her credit. good stuff. >> and there a new pool out of iowa, joe biden, bernie sanders, pete buttigieg, in a statistictal tstatistical tie. buttigieg at 18%. and elizabeth warren was tied for first place two months ago in this poll and now they is in

fourth place down 11 points. and also notable, a nine point game for clone dollamy klobucha. joe, your pick, what story strikes you this morning? >> i mean, there are so many stories. i think that the attorney general of the united states literally carrying a page from the playbook and just play tabltly ltabl blatantly lie, attack the inspector. just what he did during the discrimination case when donald trump and his father were found guilty of discriminating against minorities. and it was roy kohn who said outrageous things attacking, get this, attacking t ing the doj a and accusing them of being spy, accuse them of being undercover

agents. he literally is parroting -- you have republicans parroting vladimir putin and you literally have william barr pay rotting o parroting one of the most dispick bl creature, the man who made mccarthyism possible, he is parroting roy koconkohn. >> and let's go to his interview. despite the findings of the justice department's inspector general report, he still claims that the fbi may have operated out of bad faith when it investigated the trump campaign. speaking with pete william, barr essentially dismissed ig 's conclusion that there was no evidence of political bias when the fbi launched its russia probe arguing that john durham

will have the final say. barr also stood by his assertion that the trump campaign was spied on. >> i think that our nation was turned on its head for three years. i think that based on the completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press, and i think that there were gross abuses of fisa and inexplicable behavior that isn't tolerable in the fbi. in one area, i do disagree with the ig and that was whether there was sufficient presented indication to open a full blown counterintelligence investigation specifically using the techniques that they did to collect intelligence about the trump campaign. the core statement in my pin

dwron by t opinion by the ig is that these irregularities, these m misstatements and omissions were not satisfactorily explained. and i think that leaves open the possibility to i think finfer bd faith. >> do you still stand by your statement that the campaign was spied upon? >> it was spied upon. that is what electronics going through people's emails which they did result of the guy a warra fisa rnts with warrant, they we everything. >> again, you heard him talking about being spied upon. the language that roy kohn used attacking the doj and the fbi back in the 1970s when the federal government caught donald trump and his father diskric discriminating against

minorities. but he is tattorney general. he talked about a bogus narrative for three years. and he blamed it on an irresponsible press. will willie, i don't somewhere thave you that the first national security adviser found guilty of a felony. the president's campaign manager found guilty of a felony and will probably intend the rest of his life in jail. the president's long time lawyer and fixer found guilty. he was in the middle of that illegal hush money scheme that violated f.e.c. laws. the assist tanltd cant campaign found guilty.

and the man that he claimed was one of his top foreign policy advisors found guilty. we could go through the numbers. they are absolutely astounding, the number of people connected to donald trump who were found guilty of a firm crime, speeder spending time in jail or turned state's evidence against other people in the administration. and of course roger stone found guilty. you just -- willie, he continues his war on the department of justice. this was the work of the department of justice, not the deep state. these were federal judges. these were federal judges that found these men guilty. and yet he's talking about how -- he's blaming all of this on, quote, an irresponsible press. he's projecting when he is

talking about behavior that is even to intolerab intolerable. >> and how about calling it a bad faith investigation. again, he is talking about a deep state conspiracy, he is effectively as the attorney general echoing donald trump's claims that this was all a deep state conspiracy despite all the convictions that you laid out, despite all the good faith investigation by the men and women of our intelligence services, the men and women of the fbi. he on the very day that the ig report came out from his own justice department, he sat down with pete williams to do a breath taking interview where he undermined every piece of that ig report, again, from his own justice department. and if that is not bad faith, i don't know what is. he knows better than to say that fisa approved surveillance program is, quote, spying. he knows better than all this,

but again he vee of vieiews hisb as defending the president. >> and like you and joe, i felt that attorney general barr really crossed a line in his comments yesterday for all his partisanships -- seeming partisanships before, this was different. and the reason it was different was that he was attacking not enemies in congress, not even really the press, he was attacking his own justice department inspector general's report and publicly disagreeing with it and making wild allegations of bad faith not supported against the people who lead our nation's key law

enforcement investigation g agency. and so if people can't rely on this, something is really broken. he will turn it his hand picked prosecutor durham who has lie detector come out with his own statement rebutting the inspector general's report saying that he disagrees. he is laying down his marker. my fear is that we are heading in to conflicting legal narratives of what happened. we're already in danger of becoming a country with two versions of what is going on in our politics. that seems now to be embedded at the justice department itself and it is really dangerous. still ahead on "morning joe," it was disturbing enough when the president called reporters scum. now he is using that same word for the fbi. we'll tackle that straight ahead 37 but fir but first a check on the forecast. and another traffic trouble spot in connecticut because of heavy snow, we have traffic delays going on i-95 and also

84. and that was the spot overnight cold enough so when it changed from rain to snow that it accumulated as muches 5ch much inches in connecticut. so give yourself extra time. the airports will improve. the worst of it will be area in areas like new york city and back up through logan airport. by this afternoon when the sunshine comes out, a little breezy and i think the airports will be just fine. the other story today, the cold was with us yesterday in the midwest, it is with us today too. the windchills 5 in dwroit, bett green bay 16, and duluth negative 36. that is brutal. so the next storm on the map, this will come out of the gulf of mexico as we go throughout thursday and thursday evening. this is going to be mostly a rain event. it looks like the air temperatures are warm enough on the east coast we don't have to worry about snow or ice. but traveling through charleston, similar the lot,

raleigh, there could be delays. and then a pouring rain in new york city on saturday. and it will be an ugly saturday with a storm system right over the top of much of the northeast. we'll have airport delay problems and you been fortunately, now we're getting to the heart of ski season and it looks like a heavy rain event for all of the ski areas. so again, sunday will be much improved for any of your errands in the northeast, but saturday looks m s miserable. new york city, snowflakes coming down, but the temperatures are warm enough that it is just melting as we look at times square here. mes square here. ♪ (loud fan noise) (children playing) ♪ (music building)

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.

plaque psoriasis uncoverth clearer skin that can last. in fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

yeah. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ and everyone has dad's eyebrows! we chose eleanor. it was great-grandma's name. so apparently, we come from a long line of haberdashers, which is a fancy word for... they left everyone, and everything so they could get here. and start this family. every family has a unique story. this holiday season, help your family discover theirs. this holiday season, beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network.

because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. t fbi.

the fbi sent mumultiple und spies. they destroy the lives of people that were great people. that is still great people. their lives have been destroyed by scum. okay? by scum. an fbi lawyer forged, took a female forged an email used as evidence, an act which is now the subject of a criminal referral. okay? what they did is so unbelievable. i look forward -- i don't know, i don't know, i look forward to bull durham's report. that is the one that i look forward to. >> and there you go, ed, we've now had two ig reports that have shown that there was no bias in

the investigation beginning. the facts have been laid babare. and yet donald trump is calling fbi agents scum. calling fbi agents scum. and that is bad enough. even more disheartening, you have people cheering the description of the president of the united states calling fbi agents, quote, scum. this is something no president has ever done unless it is a president of russia or some other enemy of the united states of america. >> no, it is unprecedented in this country. it should be sort of mentioned that monday was u.n. genocide day. world genocide day. and the secretary-general issued a statement saying that the holocaust didn't begin in the gas chambers, it began years before with hate speech. i'm not suggesting that america

will end up with genocide, but the dehumanizing than that the president used initially was mostly about muz limislims and l immigrants i and the media, and now spreading into people who work in the federal government including the fbi. and really anybody who gets in his way. an words are not just words. they soften people up, they make the climate more permissive. and as i say, they dehumanize the people who the words are targeted at. and calling the fbi scum the day after the inspector general clears the agency of political bias in beginning its investigation of the campaign says that there was no link between the steeles doier and t dossier and the fbi decision. the fbi's decision to start that. and having within minutes the

president and the attorney general and people across washington describe that report as the opposite of what it found, it is a new level of m mandasict of lying. it will have consequences. it is -- it is -- it is getting worse. >> coming up, joe, you've said that if joe biden wins iowa, he could be on cruise control to the nomination. well, we have now polling from that state. we'll talk about it next. as a struggling actor, abot

i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

it's rukmini here from the new york times . hey, you see this?

it's how we bring real hope to our cancer patients- like viola. when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her team at ctca created a personalized care plan that treated her cancer and strengthened her spirit. so viola could focus on her future. their future. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now.

welcome back. joinings us now, mike barnicle. and also adrienne elrod is with us. and also our political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee

michael steele is joining us. let's talk about the new poll out 6 ioof iowa. joe biden, bernie sanders and pete buttigieg are in a statistical tie. biden with 23 point, sanders up 9. and now at 22%. and buttigieg is at 18%. elizabeth warren is now in fourth place in this poll down 11 points. first of all, joe, what do you make of it? >> well, a lot of polls coming at us. this iowa race continues to move. we still have a couple months as we always say, it is still a long way to go. but there are two trend lines here that are just undeniable, one is that joe biden has held his own, at least in this poll he is in first place in a state where a lot of people were expects a third or fourth-place

finish just a few weeks ago. and of course elizabeth warren continues -- her numbers continue to drop. again, it is early, but i'll say what i've been saying from the beginning, joe biden is in the same position barack obama was in 2008. if he wins iowa, i is on his way to the democratic nomination because all he has to do is you are is survive until south caroa and chances that those older black voerters will carry him. and. you're right, joe biden has withstood some serious attacks and the fact that he is still -- he is back in the number one spot in iowa is pretty significant and very good sign for his campaign. and to your point, if he wins iowa, it is pretty much a given that he will win south carolina. if he wins iowa, and wins south carolina care, he wi

carolina, he will be a hard candidate to beat on super tuesday. i think anybody who comes out of the first four states with two wins will be in a significant place going into super tuesday. now, elizabeth warren, we'll see if she comes back up, i think that you are still sort of seeing the song and dance with some of the candidates. and to you point, it is still early. people are starting to make decisions though, they are starting to land on a candidate, come home and decide who they want to support, who they will be with for the long haul. and if i was joe biden's campaign and i know they are pretty excited about this bomb because i talked to them, they are feeling pretty good about where they are in iowa at this point. >> and yeah, and just a snapshot of today, but today it looks like joe biden is doing more than hold be serve. he has to survive iowa and new hampshire until south carolina. and if he does, chances are very good looking at all of the polls

and looking at the fathe fact t other -- i can say this with confidence. as of today, no other candidate in this race as the support among older black voters that joe biden does. and it is the most important develop graesk in t demographic in the democrat party and one of the reasons that elizabeth warren needs to win iowa or new hampshire because like pete buttigieg, like bernie sanders, like other top contenders, she doesn't have an in with black voters in the democratic party. >> a couple points. when you talk to the biden people, it is pretty clear that the seven or eight days straight in iowa on his bus tour helped him enormously because a lot of people got to see him, hear him, talk to him, touch him.other aspect of the biden campaign's progress in iowa and elsewhere, they feel strongly, that he

contrasts vividly with what m h happens in washington, d.c. you hear the president calling fbi agents scum and then the former vice president of the united states competent techbt, cal calm, reflective, familiar. and they gravitate toward him. 7bd at other aspect that they are a beingacutely aware of, th elizabeth warren still has the best field operation in iowa and it is only the second week in december. and as you pointed out, still a ways to go. so be wary of elizabeth warren. she could come back strongly. >> and i think crazier the president abilities the better for biden. >> yes. >> i think that that is a real like equation that plays out. >> what you hear from the biden people in iowa and elsewhere, and you hear it if you just walk around, you know this, people -- a lot of people just want this country calmed down.

>> they know something is wrong at the very least. even if they are worried about other things. understandably. coming up on "morning joe," we'll reveal "time" magazine he's person of the year. but first dick durbin is joining the conversation. but first dick durbin is joining the conversation ♪ i can shine, i can shine, ♪

♪ i can shine. ♪ i'mma do what i'm made to do. ♪

built for excellence. you start from the foundation up. the excellence is reaching dreams and chasing them at the same time. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®.

the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. some things are too important to do yourself. ♪ get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today.

no issue has the democratic politicians more thoroughly betrayed the american people than on the issue of immigration. i mean they are fighting me on the wall. but that is fine. we have the money coming in from the military. believe me, if i weren't a good developer, you could forget about the wall. these people fought me. and we started winning in court.

>> the president at his rally last night -- >> and that was wrong actually. he is losing. >> he is tad bit unaware. >> mr. president, you are losing in court. >> the federal government in el paso, texas blocked the administration's plan to use military funds to pay for the border wall. ruling the administration does not have the authority to divert money appropriated by congress for a different purpose. it was the first instance of a local jurisdiction's successfully suing to block border wall construction. let's bring in minority whip dick durbin of illinois. joe, take it. >> and by the way, the president's not building the wall, he hasn't been building the wall. he has been mixing tobama wall.

we thank him for that. democrats are not weak. at a 50 year low when barack obama left office, it has exploded since then. and so i'm just curious, senator, your reaction to what donald trump said about immigration when it is clearly a lie, when again under barack obama immigration, illegal crossings, plummeted to a 50 year low before exploding upward under donald trump. >> don't forget that scandalous zero tolerance policy that removed children from their parents and had no way of tracking them within the technology of the department of homeland security. when you get down to it, theism pablgt that the trump administration has had on immigration has not been positive at all. it has been negative almost at every level. >> and so you are on the

judiciary committee. i just want to get your reaction to what has bachb happenieen ha. you have the president of the united states, chief law enforcement officer in america, calling the federal bureau of investigation and the proud brave men and women working there, the president called them scum. i'm skoelting hi quoting him.president called the fbi heros scum. and attorney general is attacking the inspector general's report and spreading false debunked suspicion theories. and then this rogue i guess apparently corrupted prosecutor in connecticut that is running around and instead of doing his job, he is being donald trump's public relations hack. and putting out his own statements following a doj inspector general's report. this is straight out of a banana republic, senator. what can be done?

>> well, i can tell you this, i can remember when william b. barr was presented to us as our next attorney general and querp given we were given assurances that this a professional, give him a chance. he came to my office and i said why did you decide do this, to really dive into this department of justice under this president. and he basically said you should have taken a look at the names of the other people who were being considered. that's what he said. and off he went. i didn't sfroet him. but he became the attorney general and now what has happened to him? he's become a political tool of the trump administration. to criticize this inspector general's report, a man who was recognized being a cro across t government for his credibility to attack the firm bureau of investigation and christopher wray for what he has said that he being acknowledges, there have to be positive changes made, but he respects what was found. and then to have this attorney

general taking trips to italy to pursue these wild conspiracy theories that have been rejected by our intelligence establishment. i mean, it is completely out of control at the department of justice. >> congress obviously has the ability to fund operations for the executive branch. is there anything that you can do in terms of funding? because again, this is a second inspector general's report that has cleared the fbi. clearly says that the fbi -- there was no underlying bias to start the investigation. the attorney general continues to lie about conspiracy theories regarding steele and the time line doesn't match up, about carter page and the fisa warrant when that time line doesn't start up. like you said, they are flying all over the world with this corrupted connecticut prosecutor who again bizarrely puts out a statement like he is some pr hack for the president when he

is supposed to be conducting an investigation. >> joe, i can tell you it must be a day at the beach for people in your business to try to keep up with this president and the claims being made. he was in hershey, pennsylvania last night talking about spies and his campaign. and this report that came out said expressly that was not the case at all. there was no indication of that anyway whatsoever. yet the president repeats it day after day. after thousands and thousand of these lies. really no surprise the american people are numb. >> you know, wiquill lirk willi put up a tweet yesterday and language used by roy kohn when donald trump was caught discriminating against black people who wanted to be in their buildings. roy kohn accused the doj once against and the assisting fbi gestapo-like tactics and habled

t labels the investigators undercover agents. this is the same exact tactic that barr has bumbled on to. he is literally channeling roy cohn who was trying to justify the trump racism by talking about gestapo-like tactics. does that sound familiar for a president and an attorney general that talks about the fbi, quote, spying? it is the same thing reason cohn was saying in the '70s. >> and not a new narrative. remember, he said that before congress under questioning back in april. he believed that there was spying on the trump campaign and now given all the evidence of the nearly two year ig report from his own justice department, he continues on the narrative that there were spies. the president picks up on it last night as the senator said in his rally, there are spies inside my campaign. the report says that is garbage, that that is not true that that is a conspiracy theory and yet

you have the president and attorney general working hand-in-hand to push that idea. senator, i want to ask you a question that i asked chris murphy here last week. the idea of the conventional wisdom has been that for many months the wrd would likely that the president would likely be impeached in thouse but the nat would never vote to quiskts the president. i'll ask you what i asked senator murphy. in your brift conversatiprivate did you talk to republicans who may vote to convict president trump? >> they look at their shoes. they are very quiet. they don't have even to say about it. because they will realize what this president did and then released for the public to read was a clear skags that he windi that he was asking the president of ukraine to investigate my political opponents and couple with my friend rudy giuliani in the process.

i mean, the president has already disclosed this to the american people long before the house had its first hearing. and now we have a situation where the administration is refusing to provide documents or witnesses to the impeachment committee as subpoenas somewhere requested. if we reach a point where any president can basically to stonewall congress, the impeachment article disappears. >> senator murphy said there was a small handful of republicans that would vote to convict. does that sound right. >> >> sounds right to me. i was speaking to a colleague and we were noting though it cost him his political said, jeff sessions at least recused himself and said i shouldn't be involved in discussions in relation to the russian

interference. to think now that william p. barr, the man who was supposed to recent cute departmen rescue justice as sunk to these lows is very -- >> and now that it is all shifting to the senate, the focus will be on mitch mcconnell obviously, but there is also an opportunity for democrats here. you don't have the bombastic noise that you saw out of the house.senate is a different chamber. how are democrats prepared to actually prosecute this case in the senate? keeping in mind everything that we know and the facts that we know, but then also realizing that the members sitting opposite from you has an agenda like senator lindsey graham says i'm not even reading this stuff, i'm not taking this seriously. and he will be overseeing judiciary hearings this morning on the ig report and there is a

question about the seriousness of this. how are democrats prepared to elevate the conversation in a way that captures the imagine and more importantly the attention of the american people to follow along with exactly what happened and why this ross could you go is prosecution is so important? >> there were about 15 of us there at the clinton impeachment and i can tell you that the environment changes dramatically when the chief justice of the supreme court arrives. you start to put into perspective what you are being asked to consider and that is whether the president should continue his term in office. and you can feel it. i think the american people are expecting us to show ourselves as dignified, as independent, and with mutual respect for one another. there is no room for celebration and his tree oonic i histrionic. and i hope that they maintain the dignity of the institution and the importance of this process in the course of history. >> senator dick durbin, thank

you very much for being on. and claire, you will be joining the special coverage? >> yes, we'll cover the hearing and i'm hoping that we can pull out some of the quotes from lindsey graham when this russian plot was exposed. i remember him sitting on the armed services committee and saying we need to get serious about this because the next time they will be going after us. and so people realize that how far we've navigated from the early days of the hawkish republicans as it relates to russia and where they today. >> you know, while you are doing that, you should get this quote from lindsey graham who of course attacked stro ee eed str. lindsey graham said this -- he

is shallow, im prepared to prep commander in chief, he doesn't know how our laws work. he easy the first things about immigrants and women and he is a complete idiot. i will by the his brains out. that is on donald trump. and so it also -- the same lindsey graham of courseeat his. that is on donald trump. and so it also -- the same lindsey graham of course not take long ago said if there was any evidence of a quid pro quo or an attempt quid pro quo, that would be very serious and it would have to reassess his support of the president. well, he got that evidence. and now he is burying his head in the sand. >> claire, thank you very much. coming up this, year's person of the year came down to five

finalists. we'll tell you who the magazine's editors picked for this year's top spot straight ahead. and as we go to break, a look at what is happening at know your value.com. our weekly motivation, stop complain, it is brad fad for yo brain. and i remember my friends in hart ford. and we have research with the potential of saving the lives of newborns. and is it time to jump ship? five questions to ask yourself before you quit your job. know value.com. job know value.com skin sin #17...

too many after-parties. new neutrogena® bright boost with dullness-fighting neoglucosamine. boosts cell turnover by 10 times for instantly brighter skin. bright boost neutrogena®. the ones that make a truebeen difference in people's lives. and mike's won them, which is important right this minute, because if he could beat america's biggest gun lobby, helping pass background check laws and defeat nra backed politicians across this country, beat big coal, helping shut down hundreds of polluting plants and beat big tobacco, helping pass laws to save the next generation from addiction. all against big odds you can beat him. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

♪for the holidays you can't beat apprhome sweet home.♪♪ we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. (children playing) (dog barking) ♪ (music building) 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. all right, "time" magazine's pick for the 2019 person of the year -- 16-year-old climate activist greta thunberg. okay.

joining us now for the magazine's editor in chief, edward belsenthal. how did greta make it to the top? >> she became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet. she went from almost nowhere 14 months ago to leading a worldwide movement. she, you know, 7 million people across the americas climate striking in september. the greegtz she got, the crowds she drew in madrid when she arrived last week. this is just -- you rarely see a rise like this in terms of influence. the choices this year i thought came down to activists, you know, and i think greta in some ways is the symbol for the youth activism we're seeing in hong kong and elsewhere around the world. and of course, impeachment with its drama playing out here. >> yeah. >> in the end, we came to greta. >> you also had a lot of categories. entertainer of the year is one of them. so, who have we got? >> lizzo! >> lizzo. i love lizzo! >> lizzo. we need lizzo in the world.

>> yeah. >> and you have -- >> love lizzo -- >> we chose more than a dozen public servants who came forward in the environment. you all have been talking about that this morning and for weeks, against a lot of odds with a lot of risks to tell the -- you know, we focus on the whistle-blower, but we tell the story in the issue, the person of the year issue. if you're not convinced this is serious, read the 7,000 words that really lay out the bravery of these public servants who have served presidents of both parties from multiple parts of the world coming forward to say what they saw. >> was there any competition at all from business person of the year to bob iger, given the huge, the enormous success of disney and their new streaming operation? >> absolutely. i mean, these are hard choices. this is the first time we've done a businessperson. we've been doing runners-up for many years and we thought it would be more interesting, more

reflective of the way influence is exercised around the world and think not of runners-up but of specific fields. i think what doug mcmillan is doing at walmart is impressive, and fascinating, and you know, many voices in the business community talking about stakeholders and not just shareholders. so there's a lot of dynamism, a lot of turmoil in the business world, but iger is such a consistent player, controls the world's biggest dream machine. disney plus, but also he won the fox battle and just $5 billion-plus movies, so it's been a great year for disney and an incredible, consistent run for iger. >> excellent choice for athlete of the year. "sports illustrated" yesterday named regular aa aan -- megan re athlete of the year. and then the team. >> we chose the women who showed

incredible performance on the field, but incredible persistence off the field and have been inspired -- again, power of youth i think is a big theme in the headlines this year and the culture this year. impeachment a powerful story, but i think in the end we won't know until november 3rd what the impact is. >> michael steele has a question. michael, jump in. >> well, first thing i just think you need to create a category for us former elected officials. so joe and i and claire will have something to talk about. but how does this play out culturally? i mean, this -- every year this is -- we get to this point and there's a high degree of anticipation for time making this announcement. in the ensuing year what do you think is the cultural effects of doing this, in raising these profiles up the way "time" has done for generations? >> well, i think the choice of greta is a reflection of, this is only going to grow. the climate issue is beginning to -- you know, a year ago, climate was kind of a blip, an

ambient noise in the political world. you're seeing the candidates in iowa pressured. you know, a lot of farmers we've been covering all year who have seen, you know, been the victims of floods and droughts, pressing democratic candidates about climate change, having a big impact now in european politics. so, i think, you know, what greta has done is taken this issue from sort of behind the curtain to in front of -- you know, in the center stage. and she's the one raising the awareness. >> edward, i get it. i have to say, i was rooting for nancy pelosi. weren't we all? amazing moment, but person of the year. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> "time" magazine. all right, so, we're counting down it hear more from the inspector general, joe. what are you looking at? what are you going to be watching for? >> well, it's going to be quite a day today. you havically, again, the facts are going to run up against,

once again, a series of republican elected leaders who are going to do anything they can to defend and protect a president who doesn't deserve that defense, a president who called the fbi, our proud men and women of the fbi scum last night. i think, willie, that will resonate for quite some time. and i don't know exactly who he thinks that will move closer to voting for donald trump in the undecided columns, but it's hard to see who that voter would be. >> quite a night in pennsylvania. the president called the fbi scum. he said that elizabeth warren, senator elizabeth warren, presidential candidate elizabeth warren has a fresh mouth. and actually, believe it or not, joe -- we didn't play this, this morning -- but took a shot at ronald reagan, saying he could not have gotten a crowd as big as the president had last night. he said if reagan were here, it'd be like a hundred people in

a ballroom. and we all love reagan, but he can't get a crowd the way i can get a crowd. >> oh, my gosh. >> yeah, he talked about reagan that way yesterday. but the focus as you say should be on the people circling around attorney general barr, the president, and protecting him, even when barr's own justice department came out with a report that said something completely contradicting the message being put out by the attorney general. >> we're going to see a lot of hawkish republicans today, probably led by lindsey graham, really upset about the abuse of warrantless surveillance and fisa. >> see, i don't know how long we can -- >> and i hope we have chyrons at the bottom with their direct quotes. >> yes, from the past. >> michael steele, what does it take? my lord! >> i don't think they have invented that drug, to be honest. >> okay. >> it's beyond pathetic in many respects, because i think it was well put just now when you're saying these individuals, these members who represent all of us, are out there defending the

indefensible, and we're going to see a lot of that today. >> yeah, and one of the great underlying issues of the campaign that has started, the election next year, is going to be the damage done to institutions like the fbi, like the justice department. how long will it take to recoup that damage? can it be repaired? and that's, i think, going to be a huge underlying issue as we go forward. >> well, right here on msnbc, you'll watch it all play out. that does it for us this morning. chuck todd picks up the coverage right now. and good morning. i am chuck todd here live in new york. and if you think this has been a week for the history books, remember, it's just hump day. this morning we are watching two huge stories unfolding simultaneously. the first focuses on those two articles of impeachment unveiled by democrats on tuesday, and set to go to committee mark-up tonight with a vote expected this time tomorrow. mark-up is things they do for bills and legislation, and yes, this is being treated almost like a piece of legislation. and then there's the focus of