tv MTP Daily MSNBC December 13, 2019 2:00pm-3:00pm PST
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and keep the public safe. we're always grateful to our guests but a lot of people around the table, this one, have been putting in 12 to 20-hour days. and jake on capitol hill. we're so grateful to have you guys. my thanks to jake, maya, sharpton. most of all, to you for watching all week long. another wild one. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts now. today is a solemn and sad day. for the third time in a little over a century and a half, the house judiciary committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president.
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for abuse of power and obstruction of congress. the house will act expeditiously. thank you. welcome to friday. it is "meet the press daily." and good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington practice president trump is now on track to become just the third u.s. president to be officially impeached in the house of representatives. the house judiciary committee voted this morning along party lines to approve two articles of impeachment against the president. abuse of power and obstructing congress, as you just heard. these articles head to the full house where the full vote is expected on wednesday. senate republicans are beginning to coalesce around the idea of a speedy trial in the senate with no witnesses. that would quitckly acquit the president of the senate's charges. and that brings us to the big issue hanging over american politics right now. because if you thought impeachment has been brutal, it's time to start thinking about its aftermath.
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democrats promise to be a check on the power but what happens if the ultimate check on presidential power has been used up in an election year? what an unleashed president could do to them at the ballot box. republicans have left themselves with little choice but to offend most everything this president does. then there's the wild card involving the president's conduct with ukraine or his associates or, frankly russia. and that seems highly likely w now. combined with rudy giuliani's brazen activity. bottom line, both parties are going to have to think about quickly shifting gears from the bitter partisan warfare of the impeachment process itself. so its election year aftermath. here, i've got leanne caldwell. hans nichols at the white house for us. andrea mitchell. and peggy nunes.
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"wall street journal" columnist. nbc news political analyst. let me start with both sides of pennsylvania avenue. leanne, you know, in its own way, both nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell seem to have one thing in common. they're very concerned about protecting their majorities. and they are trying to deal with this process in a way that both appeases a base and gives those vulnerable members some room to move. >> absolutely. you're seeing it first with house speaker nancy pelosi who's having to deal with -- with it more immediately. that's because they're in the impeachment process as we speak. and that's why they're watching all of these moderate democrats. these ones who come from the districts that president trump won in 2016. all eyes on them. in the past 24 hours, we've seen more than a handful of them come
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out supporting impeachment. so the floodgates might be opening. but republican sources have told me that they're very confident that republicans are going to stay united against impeachment. so what they're doing is they're turning their attention to some of these democrats who they think could flip. could side against impeachment. against the democrats and side with the republicans. and so they are working. they're doing the soft influence by having these subtle conversations on the house floor. and then, of course, there is the hard political influence, as well. there's millions of dollars of campaign ads being spent in these districts. and so these moderate democrats and speaker pelosi are dealing with it immediately. and this is the same thing that majority leader mcconnell is going to deal with when it gets to the senate, too. >> and, nancy, for the first time nancy pelosi's superpac is providing some air cover for some of these members. but it's not about impeachment. it's tv ads on the -- i think on prescription drugs, is that correct? >> yeah, it is.
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they're trying to focus on the accomplishments that they say the house of representatives has done over the past year. this has been a very productive week in congress. especially, in the house. they passed a prescription drug bill. i know. the agreement on the usmca. national defense authorization agreement. oh, and also, there is an agreement on government funding. not just a short-term cr but to fund the government for the remainder of the -- for the fiscal year. so that's a huge sign that pelosi needed these wins for her members. >> who knew the impeachment process would suddenly make congress functional again? it took impeachment to prevent a government shutdown. i'll let -- i'll let peggy and andrea process that in a minute. but let me turn to the other side of pennsylvania avenue. hans nichols. there is a -- there's always this idea with president trump. don't listen to what he says. pay attention to what he does. so on this senate trial, he says he wants a senate trial.
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>> yeah. >> his white house counsel seems to be preparing for a -- a -- in a way that prevents a senate trial. and now, watching mitch mcconnell, is it fair to say pat cipollone and mitch mcconnell are on the same page now? >> i wouldn't be so certain on that because they got to figure out the coordination of the timing. the president and mitch mcconnell are talking only about the calendar that the president isn't trying to unduly influence a juror, which is what leader mcconnell is. one, we saw them discard the argument that the president wouldn't be impeached. you know, a couple weeks ago, you talk to folks here and they almost -- it wasn't like they had a hard count. but they seemed to suggest that some of those 31 democrats that were won in trump seats, enough of them would vote against impeachment that there wouldn't actually be a full impeachment headed over to the senate. that seems to be over with. even though we haven't had the vote, the house has moved on from that. and the other idea you have is what kelly anne conway said
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today, and that is that a senate trial doesn't just have to not convict trump. it has to totally exonerate him. now, chuck, that's a high bar. total exoneration from the senate. and so when we think of the contours and the shape of what the senate and the white house wants the trial to be, if total exoneration is the goal, i'm not so sure you can do that in a short trial. although, they claim to be agnostic on that point. guys. >> well, as i said, hans, i'm -- i'm watching more than i'm listening. i'll just be perfectly honest with you when it comes to white house rhetoric. leanne and hans, i will pause it there. let me turn now. andrea mitchell and peggy. let's take a step back here. this is an historic day and it feels odd. why? okay, andrea, let me start with you. >> well, the president is responding in a very restrained way given his torrent of tweets over the last few days. at least today he was more restrained, for him. you know. >> if restrained by calling it a
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scam, sham. you know, for him. yeah. >> for him. that said, i think the calendar is what one wants to look at. if you've got mitch mcconnell and the white house counsel agreeing on two weeks and getting it done, that's not going to be witnesses and testimony. that's going to be opening arguments from each side. from the floor managers. >> and then closing arguments. >> and then closing arguments. that means the 51 votes that he knows he can count on to shut it all down get it over with quickly because the testimony itself is so damning. uncontradicted by all of the republicans in these hearings. they have dealt with process. they have dealt with conspiracy theories. but they have not been able to shake the key witnesses. one of whom had a, you know, medals on his chest as he was testifying. an iraq war hero and a current national security council
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employee. others, you know, very highly-regarded diplomats. there's very little that they can do to shake those witnesses in challenges or cross-examination. >> peggy, i'm just struck by the fact that i feel both mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi in their own way actually are listening to the public a bit. meaning they realize they have to strike a balance. nancy pelosi realizes i'm going to make the last thing we do usmca, not impeachment. mitch mcconnell realizing, look, susan collins and cory gardner have to show voters that they're holding the -- that they take this seriously. it seems as if they're trying to -- and, you know, we're always so hard on congressional leaders sometimes. they do strike me as two leaders that are worried about their own politics a bit. >> yes. i think so. i also think in nancy pelosi's case and mitch mcconnell's place, they have a quiet sense there's a thing in their brains. where they're thinking protect
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the institution. protect the respectability of the house of representatives and of the u.s. senate. i'll tell you. i was very interested in what andrea said. the -- one of the things that strikes me most about this moment, as we journey now at a quicker pace towards impeachment which i suspect will be next wednesday, is that in past impeachments, chuck, there was a sense of gravity. a sense of big things are happening here. an epical event. watergate with richard nixon. i remember it. i was a college kid. in the bill clinton era even during his impeachment, there was a sense of gravity that i don't quite sense in the country now. >> yeah. >> it is not my sense -- >> is it cynicism? >> i don't know. people are not enthralled by this. part of it is that there's no suspense. we know what the house is going
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to do. we know what the senate is going to do. so there's no sense of mystery. there's something else. i think in the '70s, for nixon in the '90s, even for clinton, there was a greater sense that you could trust institutions. that if the house impeached bill clinton, there was probably something to it. i think, as a country, it's a benel observation but nonetheless true as a country, we have lost faith in institutions and in our leaders to be necessarily doing the right thing. so i think that's part of this. it's just funny to be in on the third impeachment of an american president ever and not having a sense of gravity about it nationally. >> but, you know, if there's one difference, another difference here, bill clinton and richard nixon also had a sense of the american story to them. so -- and they also, because they lived their whole lives wanting to lead these institutions, they cared about
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these institutions. trump doesn't have that same sense of loyalty to the institutions of the united states of america. sorry, let me go to andrea first. but yeah. >> i was just going to say jon meacham yesterday said that this is an historic moment. it's a serious moment, which is being handled in a very unserious fashion. i'm paraphrasing jon. but that captured something for me. what peggy was just saying, the loyalty to institutions, donald trump is a disruptor. and even at the -- in the worst moments of the bill clinton pee impeachment, which was so degrading and terrible to live through and to cover, he was very somber when he was acknowledging his fault at the end of the game. i can't imagine. >> reinforce the point on the bill clinton impeachment. we were at least trying to wrestle with how do we handle personal conduct? so we created gravity around that. we may have decided collectively as a country, you know what, no. personal character, we're going to set over here. depending on what that
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character. but we were at least taking that debate seriously. peggy. >> yeah. i think that's true. and, also, in the past, i think both presidents and their parties with the serious sense of impeachment as a historical matter and a historical judgment. i don't see people talking about that in quite such a way. people are using the phrase asterisk. the president doesn't want an asterisk next to his name. he doesn't want the lead in the final story written about him to -- to include the word impeachment. well, heck. that's not important. you know? history is important. >> well, let me talk about something that's important here. wait till you hear what jim mattis said earlier today. told this to our friend david ignatius. you got to just listen to it in full. but he identifies who he thinks the greatest threat is to america's national security. >> elections are about division. governance is about unity.
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and if we start unifying by understanding each other's point of view, instead of calling people names or enemies of the state or terrorists or anything else, then i think we can start putting it back together. but i'd be very alarmed -- i'm -- i'm less concerned right now with foreign enemies than i am with what we're doing to ourselves. >> peggy, let me go to you first on that. i have a feeling you're -- you're going to, sadly, amen what he said. >> oh, my god. that was the authentic voice of america. that is how people in the middle of this country, in the middle metaphorically and literally, feel. one of the reasons impeachment is not taken as so grave is that they see almost impeachment as politics by another name. okay. they're doing this. the red team's against the blue team. blue team's killing the red team. that's unfortunate. they all know there should be -- and i think the american people really yearn for a greater sense
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of unity and holding on to each other. and, chuck, that is something that they show, no kidding, every day in the office. every day at school. as americans deal with each other, they're together. i think they look at washington with a kind of dismay. why can't you guys do what we do? work it out. >> andrea, we, for sunday on "meet the press" we traveled to grand rapids. i'm a believer, as grand rapids goes, so goes the nation this coming cycle. as good a place as any to check in. exhaustion unified everybody. >> absolutely. and i mean, there was a parallel also with our friends and cousins over in the uk. >> sure. there is. >> exhaustion. enough already. let's just go with -- >> whatever. we made this decision. go. >> we want a decision. but the turmoil that we've all experienced and we can talk about who is responsible. how much the media plays into it. how much the way we cover 2016.
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collectively, all of us. social media. education. lack of education. but the lack of seriousness in american politics with which peggy understands better than anyone. and what jim mattis is saying. this is a war fighter. he is trained to kill terrorists. he was in charge in afghanistan and key roles in iraq. and he is the person now saying our greatest danger is ourselves? >> by the way, i -- >> i can't argue. >> it is impossible to argue with. >> you know, lincoln said it, too. >> yeah. yes, he did. >> so did pogo. >> yes, he did. look. i have worried we are -- we are repeating a period of american history between jackson and lincoln. and it took a civil war to get us out of it. i -- i hope we're not repeating that period. anyway, andrea mitchell, peggy, you guys helped do what i wanted to do, which was let's elevate this moment and at least try to realize what the heck's happening. >> i can't think of better people to be with tonight. >> thank you, chuck. >> all right. and of course, hans nichols and leanne caldwell on capitol hill
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and at the white house. got much more ahead on what this impeachment will mean going forward and beyond. plus, the return of rudy. president trump's lawyer is back from investigating the bidens in ukraine. just as impeachment is set to go to the full house. if that doesn't encapsulate where we are as a country right now -- by the way, u.s. attorney rudy giuliani would be really angry with this version of rudy giuliani. i'm just saying. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ 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 ♪
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welcome back. we know that the next step for impeachment is a full house vote, which is expected next wednesday. and we fully expect that it will then move to the senate for a trial in early january. but there is still some major unknowns in this process on the substance. including the ongoing criminal investigation of rudy giuliani and his associates because, boy, that story keeps getting, let's just say, more interesting. moments ago, giuliani met with president trump at the white house today.
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where he says he was conducting his own investigation into the bidens. he's promised to compile his filings into his own report. but we also now know that federal prosecutors are asking that one of giuliani's recent fixers in ukraine is indicted associate lev parnas, have his bail revoked. why? they say parnas lied about his assets. ready for this? among those assets. a $1 million payment from a russian bank in september. it's just another reminder while house lawmakers are wrapping up their investigation, the southern district of new york is still ramping up theirs. joining me now is chuck rosenberg, former senior fbi official and former u.s. attorney and current nbc news contributor. let me just start with a bit of a snarky question. but how would u.s. attorney rudy giuliani have handled somebody who is at least a person of interest in an investigation? sort of thumbing his nose at the investigation and going off to ukraine. which may be the heart of where that u.s. attorney's office is
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investigating. >> sure. well, right now, mr. giuliani is private citizen. there are no charges pending against him. no restrictions on his travel. so if he wants to go to ukraine, chuck, maybe a really bad idea because he might be generating more evidence for prosecutors down the road. he's certainly free to travel. >> fair enough. it just seems as if he's almost inviting more scrutiny by doing this. i guess is the point i'm making. that you tell me if you're in -- and i'm not saying you but prosecutors, when they watch people take actions like this, i assume, if they -- if they sort of aren't taking -- if it appears they're not taking your question seriously, that kind of angers them, does it not? >> well, sure. but, you know, look. if you harken back to mueller investigation days, the president himself was an evidence machine. i mean, you read volume two of the mueller report on obstruction of justice. the president was generating
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evidence for prosecutors almost every single day. during the pendency of that investigation. so it's very possible that mr. giuliani is doing the exact same thing. what he's doing there isn't quite as visible to us, chuck. but prosecutors and fbi agents have lots and lots of ways of figuring out what happened. and everyone that giuliani talks to, by the way, becomes another potential evidence. i mean, one way we gather evidence is by talking to the people that he talks to. and so it seems to me it's a bad idea for a couple of reasons. i'm also surprised that a president, any president, of the united states would be meeting with somebody who is under federal criminal investigation. i understand the president's last attorney isn't available. he's in jail. but it doesn't seem like a particularly-good idea. >> let me ask about the issue that lev parnas is -- that they're trying to revoke his bail here. considering the fact that they
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arrested these two gentlemen as they were about to leave the country, were you surprised they were offered bail? >> i was. so, look, that is a decision by a federal magistrate judge. different judges see it in different ways. i would have made the argument that he's obviously a risk of flight. that his ties to this community, the community in which he'll be tried, are not that strong. particularly, if he's buying a one-way ticket, first class, to get out of here. some judges believe that that would be sufficient and probably would have ordered him held. this particular judge did not see it that way. prosecutors were probably a bit less than pleased. and so when they found out that mr. parnas had lied to them about his assets and, importantly, the source of those assets, i think they properly moved to revoke his bond. >> do you expect he'll probably be sitting in jail the whole time he's under investigation? >> i think it's more likely than not. again, it's not just that he lied about his assets. it's a million dollars from russia.
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and so that strikes me as a problem for a couple reasons, including as i alluded to earlier, that he has sources that have money that are willing to give it to him, which give him the means to travel. right? i mean, flight is one of the considerations. flight from custody. flight from charges. you know, flight from jurisdiction. are one of the criteria that a court looks like when they're determining bond. and so this guy has already indicated, he's demonstrated by his behavior, chuck, that he doesn't take the process all that seriously. and that he is indeed a risk of flight. my guess, and it's just a guess but somewhat informed, is that he will be detained pending trial. >> so this is -- and i'm just curious. you, on an observational level, and i know decrea-- i'm not asku to talk about the politics of something. but are you surprised, if congress was investigating this president over these issues with rudy giuliani. and you actually have a u.s. attorney that also now has a --
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at least a related investigation, right? an investigation that might be helpful. are you -- are you surprised that they didn't at least pause long enough to see if there's some fruits of that u.s. attorney's labor that might be helpful to them? >> you mean the house impeachment inquiry folks. >> the house impeachment inquiry, yes, sir. >> yeah. you know, so i understand what mr. schiff said the other day. i mean, he's frustrated that he doesn't -- i imagine he's frustrated in a couple ways. one, is that he doesn't have more. he is a former federal prosecutor and he understands the value of evidence. my mantra was there's no such thing as too much evidence when i was in prosecutor. on the other hand, he's also frustrated by the delay. it takes a long time to get a court decision. and then longer if it's appealed. and so, sure, you know, in a perfect world in which we don't live, chuck, you would want as much as you could get and you would want it quickly. it was sort of ironic that one of the law professors, jonathan turley, criticized the impeachment inquiry for going too fast and being too narrow.
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you know, it's narrow, in part, because the white house has denied information, access to witnesses, and documents to the house. it's fast, i think, because they realize that otherwise it's just too slow. i know that sounds a bit like an odd configuration. but it made sense to me given the constraints that are on the house. >> no. it -- it -- it does. i get where they're at. this is one of those things where i have a feeling after we're done with impeachment, we're going to learn more information that will have -- that will likely -- it will likely, perhaps, have people rethink the impeachment process in the rearview mirror. >> i think that's exactly right. time will tell. >> best way to put it. chuck rosenberg, as always, sir, man, you were a great partner all week. i'm sure i'll see you a lot next week as well. up next, another sign of the times. mitch mcconnell promises quote total coordination with the white house and impeachment. we all just shrug our shoulders these days because of course no
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hopefully, in a fairly short period of time. in total coordination with the white house counsel's office and the people who are representing the president and the senate. >> welcome back. quick senate trial with republicans acting with the white house. that's what mitch mcconnell and the white house seem to be hoping for, if and when the articles of impeachment reach the senate. a different time in politics, that coordination would have been a lot bigger deal than it is today. joining me now, carol lee. former advisor to jeb bush and john boehner. it is amazing we're all shrugging our shoulders now, michael steele, and in fact, i even argued the opposite this morning. if they weren't coordinating, they'd be getting criticism. my god, you know, we believe we're all organized in a partisan way now. no longer in a -- in a three branches of government. >> right. well, they're fighting for the party rather than the institution. and that's fine. but i think they would argue that house democrats are doing the same by bringing these articles of impeachment without adequate cause. i do think that he has to say
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that, in part, because it's not totally true. >> he's also got to say it because he was talking to sean hannity. let's remember this was mcconnell's -- >> he went on hannity to deliver this message. >> correct. we're not going to have a long trial. you're not getting hunter biden but i'm not saying it that way. >> he's saying he's coordinating with the white house counsel's office to provide an effective defense for the president. >> not the white house. >> it's not what the president wants to do. the president wants to have joe biden, hunter biden, probably hunter biden's alleged arkansas love child. he wants a circus. he wants a spectacle. he's not getting that mcconnell has to go on hannity and explain that we're working in close coordination to hannity's audience because what they're going to get is different than what the president's tweets are going to describe. >> i think you just translated mcconnell hannity speak for the rest of the country. well done, doug. i think -- i think he nailed it. >> and look, but i do think -- i never like to give mitch mcconnell credit but i think he's staring at the idea of this turning into a circus where you have hunter biden. you've got joe biden.
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you've got santa claus. >> by the way, let's say he gave them all that. you know what the cost of it is? john bolton testifying. mike pompeo testifying. mick mulvaney testifying. like, does the white house -- >> but why does the -- how does the white house -- >> they can't. >> that's the point that mcconnell's been trying to make to them is that whole mutually-assured destruction is that you don't just get a hunter biden. you get all these other people. >> but come on. donald trump isn't serious about these -- this is -- if you follow donald trump's legal career, and i hate ve to call i that because he's been in so many lawsuits, the pattern is the same. it's bring it on. i can't wait to testify. i've got all sorts of counter. and what does he delay. delay. delay. delay. >> that's what he did -- >> and like seven years later sometimes he finally gets deposed and you see the hamana falling all over himself moments. >> he usually avoids it. >> no, trump university
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deposition is 101 why pat cipollone, it's never going to ever allow donald trump under oath. >> and i mean, look, trump is all talk and we know that when it comes to his career, his litigation career. i mean, we know with mueller. >> right. litigation career. >> whatever it is. we know with bob mueller, he said, over and over again, i'll testify. i'm happy to testify. i'm happy to testify. that was nonsense. and, you know, it was -- i actually think he may have wanted to. but his -- his advisors are like because of some of the previous testimony, they're like this would be a disaster. >> i was speaking with a trump person today who said that, you know, when he says i testify, he doesn't really mean it. but he does mean it when he says he wants all of these other people to go testify. >> i'm sure he does. in his fantasy land. >> he thinks it'll work to his favor. >> let me throw something out here. i want to show you what mike -- like, i'm curious because the trial's going to have moments that we're going to have republican senators, like mike braun, saying something like this. some of the stuff being discussed i think was inappropriate on the part of the
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president, so says mike braun. republican senator from indiana. not impeachable. i would say it was unwise. zelensky has said there was nothing there. no pressure. no coercion. but the fact it occurred in the spirit of political at nmospher you're going to be taken to task on that. >> he's generally been okay about that. because -- >> has he? where? >> republicans have been saying this stuff at home for the past several weeks. >> i don't think he has seen it. >> that's the question. if it's not on fox, he might not see it. at the same time, he hasn't gone after anyone really but mitt romney. and there have been comments like that. >> but look at what he did to chris ray. that's my point. but he saw him. what happens when he sees because don't you think he'll watch the trial? >> yeah, and he's watched house republicans for the last couple weeks fall in line. do nothing. come up with the crazy arguments that he has had. if there is a -- a lisa murkowski, a mitt romney, a cory
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gardner, a susan collins who actually raises some objections over his behavior, that's a lot different than what he's been seeing in the house. >> one of the things that you can see them doing is the republicans, mcconnell, is to get him some sort of release valve for these -- when this happens. when this happens, when he doesn't get all the witnesses that he wants, you know, whether that's -- there's reporting about do they ramp up the committees? and do they do some of the things the president wants to see in an impeachment trial? right. so there's like -- and there's other ways in which they're going to try to -- and they're saying maybe we could call witnesses later, which is just kind of a way any white house official you talk to, that's how they delay the president. >> i've said i wanted to try to talk about the aftermath of all of this. i want to put up this from kyle cheney of "politico" yesterday. democrats are only just beginning to confront the paradox their imminent impeachment vote creates. only this time, after the house is already deployed the most potent weapon in its arsenal. mr. thornell, i will let you
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respond first. >> they pin it on republicans. they said, look. yeah. i think that's what they do. but look. i think what's really interesting that i think democrats are doing right now and we're seeing it in the house. and we aren't seeing it with republicans at all. is their focus is entirely on this impeachment. republicans are from a pure message standpoint. >> and it's probably -- it's succeeding in keeping him from being tossed out of office. >> potentially, yes. but in terms of voters, democrats, their approach is, you know, the democratic message of this week. you know what, it was on the prescription drug bill. never mentioned impeachment. the ads that the -- now, i'm just saying that -- >> but to me, that's also undermined their impeachment. >> i actually don't think so. i think this is exactly what they've been saying from the start. that we can conduct our business on impeachment and also do other work. they're taking the bill clinton approach to impeachment, which is silo off the impeachment. and still do work for the people. >> i completely agree except the
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outcome is trump does not get impeached. >> and i think -- >> i'm sorry. go ahead. but right? >> if -- well, yes. he gets impeached. he just doesn't get removed from office. yeah. >> and no one's paying any attention to the democrats' prescription drug bill. republicans also have a prescription drug bill that passed on a bipartisan basis. no one cares. impeachment is sucking up all the oxygen and nancy pelosi is exactly where she said over and over and over again she didn't want to be. >> what's your evidence? >> said i don't want a partisan impeachment process. you are about to pass articles of impeachment. >> but you just said no one's paying attention. no, i understand. but you just said that no one's paying -- we just passed the prescription drug bill yesterday. that's why they're running advertisements. my point is we don't know exactly and that's why they're investing. carol. >> i guess i would -- am looking a little forward. and one of the things, last state of the union, the president said there would be peace and legislation or war and
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nothing. and he seems he's shifted on that. >> they got war and legislation. >> they got all of it, right? so there's that out there. then, you know, just looking at january, you're going to have this, you know, coming to a head. and you're going to have the president really leaning into his campaign even more so than he is now. and he's going to have another state of union. and it's just going to be -- he's going to get the spectacle he wants. >> state of the union is going to take place, what, the tuesday after the acquittal? >> yeah. >> what about next week? they're voting on impeachment, the trade bill, and government funding. >> again, impeachment would make congress functional again. literally, they got all the funding bills done. we thought it was actually going -- >> they're actually doing the funding bills. >> yeah. it's pretty incredible. knock me over with an impeachment feather. stick around. up ahead, why i'm obsessed with impeachment overload and why we may have found the solution. later, britain labor pains. thursday's election.
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there is a lesson here for democrats. the question is what lesson are they going to take from it? e s whr they going to take from it at fidelity, we make sure you have a clear plan to cover the essentials in retirement, as well as all the things you want to do. because when you're ready for what comes next, the only direction is forward. 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.
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tonight, i'm obsessed with the only element of bipartisanship this week when it came to impeachment. sheer exhaustion. the nonstop parade of hearings. the hours upon hours of testimony. the yielding back and forth. the constant striking of the last word. i have motion sickness myself. you need proof? cue the lawmaker fatigue montage. ♪ ♪ ♪
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we may have gotten the entire committee there. glum faces all around. but what to do? by still have so much more impeachment to go. we think we might have found an answer. way, way in the back of the "meet the press daily" medicine cabinet. >> think you were exhausted before? well, welcome to impeachment exhaustion. the news cycle is about to get even more relentless. but now, there is hope. from the makers of oblivia comes maximum-strength oblivia, impeachment formula. proven to give you maximum relief from maximum exhaustion. targets the information overload at each access point giving you the break you need from the nonstop barrage. the news may be breaking but it doesn't have to black you. stop spinning and start grinning with maximum-strength oblivia, impeachment formula, from the makers of la-la-la-la ear muffs.
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hi, i'm joan lunden. when my mother began forgetting things, we didn't know where to turn for more information. that's why i recommend a free service called a place for mom. we have local senior living advisors who can answer your questions about dementia or memory care and, if necessary, help you find the right place for your mom or dad. we all want what's best for our parents, so call today. welcome back. prime minister boris johnson's victory in britain last night. may be bad news for progressives here in america, especially the progressive wing that is led by bernie sanders. johnson and his conservative party. and corbyn, a deeply unpopular socialist announced today he would step down as labor leader
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in the wake of the party's historic defeat. corbyn's very left-leaning message is similar to bernie sanders whose national organizing director tweeted this photo yesterday encouraging brits to vote for labor. solidarity with all the folks knocking on the doors they said in that tweet. now, of course, we should be weary of drawing too many conclusions on elections here based on the results of elections there. but as our friend over at axios wrote, it's a reminder mainstream voters hesitate to embrace radical change. and voters who are uneasy about an incumbent won't necessarily choose the opposition party if they think those leaders are as, or more, disruptive. if you will. carol lee, michael steel, doug thornell are back. so, doug, is this a yellow light for bernie sanders? a yellow light for the democratic party? how do you view the corbyn business? >> the corbyn business. well, i mean, he obviously wasn't a great candidate. corbyn. and i think boris johnson ran a very sharp, smart wasn't a goo.
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johnson ran a smart simple race. get brexit done. he did the play off of "love actually." >> corbyn's message was more delay. >> it was unclear too. he had various approaches to brexit. he had a bunch of different issues that were hard to message. and i think the message to dems, i think the message to everyone is got to make this stuff simple for voters to understand. and corbyn for whatever you want to say about him, he's not a traditional politician but he understood that and he ran a very disciplined race on get brexit done. it's what people can understand. and it made a lot of enroads in parts of the country that used to be labour strong holds. >> let me read you something familiar about the labour party. the tide has gone so far out for labour that it is now predominantly a party of the
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english strong hold. it fell to the conservatives. >> this is what the trump campaign would say, what they want to say. what do they say this week? they're the jeans and beer party now or something like that, that democrats are too focused honesties and suburbs and they're not kind of branching out. that's something that democrats are going to have to contend with. the thing that's dramatically different. this was a decisive election. this isn't razor thin which is where we're probably going to be in our election. >> i think if it's decisive, it would be for the democrats. >> two things we need to separate here.
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the socialist as the traditional left wing has collapsed over in europe. but i do think it's a reminder that candidates matter, ideology matters, and the democratic primary field right now has elect able candidates and unelectable candidates. biden, buttigieg, and sanders are electable. >> sullivan drubs himself as a conservative who feels like he's not allowed in donald trump's version of the republican party. he's a conservative with had it comes to british politic. how much can be blamed on corbyn? a lot? what kind of politics does he like? as much about socialism as environment lichl. he's deeply hostile to the jewish state, wants to abolish nato, and admired the regime in venezuela.
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remind you of anyone? obviously we know where andrew sullivan is going. what does this mean for elizabeth warren who made a strategic decision to hug sanders. do you think the warren folks overread the progress swing of the democratic party? >> they made a decision. you remember she got into the race almost a year ago. at that point she was going through issues related to the dna and she was not doing particularly well. i think they made a calculation that we need to go more to the left and go after bernie sanders voters. it served them well. they made incremental gains and she was the front run for a little while. now i think that, you know, if you look at her campaign, if you look at kamala harris' campaign, i do think that some democrats, them included, did misread where the heart or the bulk of the party is, that, you know, generally that they want things like keeping obamacare, adding a
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public option. so, they want change, but they don't want it as radical, maybe, as what elizabeth warren is adding. but look, i would say she's much different than jeremy corbyn. >> that's right. 100,000%. >> she has ran a campaign very disciplined. and people seem to like her. >> she needs to distance herself from the sanders wing of the party perhaps to get into the electable wing. >> and win. >> she's got to get off lefty twitter. >> it's going to be interesting to see in the coming weeks how she tries to calibrate because she does need to do that. if she can't, we're left with this other crop. the other thing i think that democrats like her maybe didn't consider enough is how much beating trump matters in the electability. they just thought it's about ideas and it's about this. and the party cares about one thing right now. >> doug, why do i think the
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candidates are secretly hoping there is no labour resolution and there is no debate next week. >> i think that's right. >> yeah. i think so so too. i hope so for my pbs friend that is they get this debate. but i'm worried that the candidates are secretly rooting for no resolution. we'll be right back. y rooting for no resolution. we'll be right back. -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.
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"meet the press daily." and if it's sunday, it's "meet the press" and we'll look at the articles of impeachment, where the process and country goes from here. "the beat with ari melber" starts now. good evening. we begin with breaking news altering the course of the trump era. today the united states congress took its most formal step towards impeaching president trump, the judiciary committee passing two articles of impeachment, a move that came after two days of debate that ranged from solemn to exhaustive. chairman nadler adjourning close to midnight, bringing members back for this today. >> impeaching donald j. trump for abusing his power, the clerk will call the role. impeaching donald trump for obstruction of justice.
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