lines 23-7, 17 in both instances, two articles of impeachment against donald trump. >> 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 for abuse of power and obstruction of congress. >> president trump's trade shifts from twitter to the oval office. railing against house democrats taking the next step toward voting presidential history. >> it's a witch hunt, a sham, a hoax. nothing was done wrong. zero was done wrong. >> the white house has set its sights on the senate where republicans remain staunchly in defense of the president. but even as the white house looks forward to a trial in the senate, which is what happens next, "the new york times" reports that trump quote nurses resentment over the red mark about to be tattooed on his page

in the history books as only the third president in american history to be impeached. >> those articles move to the house for a vote, it's expected to happen wednesday, house democrats argue impeachment is necessary to preserve our democracy. we have a team of reporters and analysts following the news. today's big headline, a fiercely divided house judiciary committee formally improving two articles of impeachment against the president, accusing him of abuse of power and obstructing congress. it sets up an historic vote before the full house on wednesday, likely triggering a senate trial in the new year. joining me is abigail tracy, a writer for "vanity fair." let's start with an assessment, this was a difficult weekend, democrats were able to push two articles through. what's your assessment of the

results? >> i think we're at an interesting point. this is going to move to the house floor next week. as you said earlier, december 18 is looking like the date that the full house vote is going to happen. you have a democratic party, i think a lot of individuals and staffers are ready to turn the page on this. looking ahead, this is a vote that's expected to pass the house easily. there's a lot of talk among democrats in districts that trump won by a wide margin. but i think one kind of important thing to note right now is the scope of the articles themselves. you just had two, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. i think when you're looking at these moderate democrats, that's critical to what they say, their view is this is just about ukraine, this is just about national security. it's not trying to relitigate 2016 or dig into the mueller stuff too much. it's looking ahead to 2020 and the integrity of our elections.

>> was the big debate when they were drawing up these articles, voting on these articles. you have a piece out right now that's a look inside nancy pelosi's 3-d impeachment chess game. i love the way you describe it. it's not just a chess game, it's 3-d, on another level. nancy pelosi has a lot of lines to walk here. what are your main take-aways from that reporting? >> the tailoring of the articles is critical to these members of the caucus, they sort of view as key to kind of maintaining the majority in 2020. i think beyond that. what you saw during that week as the impeachment vote and sort of debate in the house judiciary committee was unfolding, you saw the passage of these other bills, you saw the mdaa, the usmca reaching the floor and reaching decisions. and you had a bill on drug pricing. one of the keys about my reporting and the conversations i've been having with democrats is that's the strategy of nancy pelosi what she wants is for the

mod rats, all democrats, but the moderate front-line democrats to be going back to their districts and saying i'm doing what you elected me to do, i'm passing legislation and i'm also holding this president accountable. the idea is to cut through president donald trump's leading argument about do-nothing democrats, all they want to do is impeach me. and what nancy pelosi is doing right now, is sending some of these more moderate individuals in her caucus, back to their districts with progress. >> some 31 vulnerable democrats who hold seats in districts that trump won in 2016, that's a tough number. because right now 17 of them say they will vote yes on impeachment, but eight is undecided and one is confirmed no. there are several more that we have not heard from. is this something that pelosi should be concerned about and democrats in general should be concerned about? >> yes. so over the past week i've been

having this conversation with a lot of democrats, and the over-arching take-away from these conversations is nancy pelosi always notes where her votes are at. i think there's an expectation that there will be a couple of defections as we saw during the clinton impeachment as women. but the sort of number i'm hearing kind of thrown out there as to where these numbers might fall is between like two and half a dozen democrats, which obviously wouldn't actually sink votes on either of the two articles in the house. i think one of the other things, even just over the last 24 hours we've seen a number of kind of critically vulnerable democrats come out in favor of impeachment, calling max rose, killeen allred. and looking at the back grounds, it portends what we might see from others in similar positions. there was the "washington post" op-ed by freshmen democrats, they talk about the idea that this is about national security. i think notably allred and rose are both veterans. i think there's going to be

over-arching view from this group of democrats is that this is about national security and they'll be thanking nancy pelosi for keeping the narrow scope on those articles as well. >> the speaker was asked about her message to these vulnerable democrats, listen to what she had to say. >> what is your message to those moderate democrats who are undecided and who are concerned that the vote for impeachment could back-fire. >> i have no message for them. we have not whipping this legislation. people have to come to their own conclusions, they've seen the facts as presented in the intelligence committee. they've seen the constitution, they know it, they've taken an oath to protect and defend it. they see the constitutional experts speak about it. they'll make their own decisions, i don't say anything to them. >> we've talked about whether or not it's going to lay out in her favor. let's also talk about some of the additional possibilities here what do you think it's going to be possibilitiwise for both articles of impeachment to

be passed? or do you think there is some world in which there might be a split there? >> yes. so i really don't think so. i think when you're looking at the articles, i think they kind of go hand in glove a bit. i think you know, they will both pass. there's not so much daylight between where democrats are on the two articles. i think if we see individuals kind of defect they'll likely defect on both articles. i think people who vote yes will both for both. one is abuse of power and one is obstruction of congress. they really go hand in hand as we look at out crane scandal. sort of back to the narrow scope, there was discussion around including things related to obstruction of justice and the mueller report. but the focus on these two articles, just the abuse of power and obstruction of congress, was really what you saw being pushed by some of the more vulnerable democrats, they view the ukraine scandal as something different, that crossed the rubicon and got them

off the sidelines in terms of their support for the inquiry and now their support for voting on the articles. >> harking back to this 3-d chess game. there are reports that the speaker could delay sending articles of impeachment to the senate in order to negotiate terms of the actual senate trial which we both know as of now she has no control over. do you think there's any realistic possibility of this? >> i really, i've heard that a little bit. but i think one of the keys right now is a lot can change as we move forward. but i think the expectation really still is that the house is going to move forward on this. and i think one of the keys to actually think about when we look to what can happen in the senate, is a lot of individuals are focused on this number that would be required to remove donald trump from office. but you know when i've been talking to senate democratic staffers about it. the number that they're hitting me with is 51. 51 is the vote threshold that you're going to need to pass anything in the senate. you need only four democrat, sorry, four republican senators to sort of defect from the party

line over there. and that sort of how any decision over in the senate will be made. whether it's calling witnesses, whether it's overruling any decisions, that chief justice john roberts might have. i think people are missing the fact that it's only going to take four republican senators to break with the party line to make decisions over there. >> when you compare the numbers, it is fascinating. we'll be watching the timeline closely. thanks. when and if the articles pass on wednesday, in a full vote next week, there's the senate trial on whether to convict the president. based on the house impeachment recommendations. well senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who holds sway on how this whole process is going to proceed all but guarantee as trump acquittal. saying there is zero chance the president would be removed from office. now mcconnell also raising eyebrows after stating that the senate will closely coordinate with the white house on impeachment. here's reaction from one white house democrat. >> i think that the american

people are smart, i hope they look at the facts. and i hope they make their decision and call their representative, call their senator to tell them that they want a fair trial in the senate. not a fixed trial where the forman of the jury, mitch mcconnell, the guy that decides all the rules is actually going to coordinate with the defendant that makes no sense whatsoever. it is an outrage and frankly it's, a tremendous disrespect to the constitution and to our framers. >> all right. with me now, kevin cirilli, washington correspondent for bloomberg news. we've got a lot of questions for you. eel help us break it down. my first question, what is the impeachment trial going to actually look like? >> in terms of the process, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said he's going to try to work with senate minority leader chuck shumer to develop

the rules of the road for the trial that said that interview that he gave with fox news' sean hannity setting a marker for how he anticipates this to go through. for him to say there's a zero chance for president trump to be removed from office, that has drawn the ire of democrats. it also sets up an interesting dynamic between the leaders' office and president trump. and the question is whether or not the white house would like to see a long trial or a short trial. some within the white house feel a long trial would give the president the opportunity to be able to go on offense, to offer a full-fledged defense of himself, of the argument coming from democrats, the drumbeat coming from democrats, the house judiciary, the house intelligence committees, for there to be a quid pro quo with ukraine. that he would be able to offer a defense for that. that said, other republican strategists i speak with say hey wait a minute a short trial would be better positioned to help the republicans keep senate control in the 2020 re-election.

but to also help president trump so there's this interesting political back and forth going on. virtually around the clock. >> you can make an argument for it either way. is there a sense in washington over what president trump is going to do? i know he says he's okay with either one. but in the end, he usually dictates the terms. >> that's such a great point. i had off yesterday. but my phone was blowing up with the twitter alerts from president trump. something like 125 times the president -- >> it's a record. >> i think it was, actually a record. clearly from all joking aside, his focus was, in terms of the political war room presence that the white house has created. you got to take a step back here. we end this process, i shouldn't say end. we head into this process with this process. the same way that we started. which is that the expectations haven't changed. which is that an impeachment on the democratic controlled house with the nonconviction from the

senate republicans, whether or not this has an impact on the 2020 race, that's what we don't know. there was some polling that firehouse strategies did, where they looked at battleground states, independent voters in wisconsin and ohio. it seemed that the voters were split, but the most independent voters in those battleground states weren't saying that they were going to vote upon the results of the impeachment. >> so you talked about, you can make arguments both ways, one way or the other when it comes to the senate. what do the democrats want if they had it their way? >> democrats are saying this needs to be a fair trial this needs to be a transparent trial this needs to be a trial where leader mcconnell is not speaking with the head attorney or defense attorney, they would argue pat cipollone, white house counsel. they would like to see this play out. i think the question becomes from democrats' perspective, moderate democrats' perspective is one, do any democrats break with speaker pelosi? i know she said she didn't view

it in terms of whipping. but do any democrats break with the party and vote against impeachment? and then secondly, where do people like senator susan collins and mitt romney go in the senate? these more moderate-esque deemed republicans. do they break with leader mcconnell? do they vote to convict? are there going to be any republicans who vote to convict? we don't know yet. >> the white house and senate republicans are in lock-step with the whole thing on how to proceed with the impeachment trial. take a listen to what senator mcconnell will to say followed by the president. >> everything i do during this i'm coordinating with the white house counsel. there will be no difference between the president's position and our position. as to how to handle this. >> i'll do long or short. i've heard mitch, i've heard lindsey, i think they are very much in agreement on some concept. i'll do whatever they want to do. it doesn't matter. i wouldn't mind a long process. because i'd like to see the whistleblower who is a fraud. >> we've gone over this whether or not trump is going to be able

to in the end dictate this. is there any to me it sounds like the likelihood of it flowing into 2020 is what it's going to be. >> absolutely. i mean in terms of the process and the procedure, there's a full expectation inside of the beltway in washington, d.c. that this kicks into the 2020 calendar year. whether it's six weeks, whether it's three weeks. that we don't know. but in terms of the process, if you look at the previous impeachment processes, you'll see that it's gone several weeks. i would just say, speaker pelosi and leader mcconnell are, their reputations in washington is that they are master political chess players. so to see this process play out, from a reporting sense and to see the maneuvering behind the scenes unfold publicly. it's quite interesting. but again the dynamics of this,

we started the process with speaker pelosi signaling and her orbit signaling an impeachment by the end of the year. and we also started this process with leader mcconnell's office saying virtually signaling that there would be no conviction in the senate. that's still where we are. >> despite all of this and the back and forth, we'll continue to follow this and follow where impeachment goes in 2020 and the coordination between the white house and the senate. kevin cirilli, thank you. voice of the voters, people in iowa react to what's happening in washington. new development in the stabbing death of a college student in new york city what we've learned about her accused killer, next. ♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪ we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home.

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two articles of impeachment is a big decision facing members of the house. how to vote on them next week. a "new york times" survey on where lawmakers stand finds 166 supporting the articles, 159 republicans, all but one expect to vote against them. 19 house members undecided or it's unclear how they stand now. no answer from 87 members still. now to 2020 and the race for the white house with today marking exactly 50 days until the iowa caucuses. in fact many candidates are spending this saturday on the campaign trail. still, as is to be expected, impeachment is part of the

conversation. joining me now, from irvindale, iowa, is nbc's laura bandera. >> i'm covering presidential campaign events here in iowa, voters rarely bring up the topic of impeachment. they never really ask the candidates about it that doesn't mean they don't pay attention to what's going on. i spent the afternoon yesterday at a diner talking to voters about what they think about impeachment. i want you to listen to mike, mark and rachel, registered independents and democrats and they have some differing opinions. >> i'm not opposed to it, because there's some obvious things that have gone on that weren't right or norms, so i think that's a good thing for the country. even if it feels best, like getting a shot. you don't like the shot, but it's better for you.

america is getting a shot. >> it's a joke, it's been a waste of $40 million at least of our taxpayers' money. they have nothing, they have no proof. and i think it's just a employ to try to not get trump elected. >> i think a lot of people are worried about the impeachment inquiry. like interfering with the election. i do think that we are at a moral moment in this country. and that there is a separate but important conversation to be had about the presidency and about the oath we take when we enter the oval office and what that means. and i think that that's totally separate from the election and we should be calling for impeachment because we should be holding this country to those standards that we want for a president. >> cory, iowans are known for being very engaged in the political process. there's some candidates here in the hawkeye state. elizabeth warren, bernie

sanders, andrew yang trying to get into extra time here in iowa ahead of the caucus come february 3, things get a little tricky when it comes to the debate this week. the holidays don't get as much time in the state in december. usually january is a very busy month here in iowa for everyone campaigning for president. as you've been discussing on the show this morning we're still waiting to figure out what a possible trial schedule looks like in the senate come january. that would put five presidential candidates who are senators out of pocket to be campaigning in iowa. as i was talking to voters, they're not exactly sure how an impeachment trial could affect the campaign necessarily. iowans are used to seeing candidates in person. some of them brought up the option of social media or virtual town halls being an option for the senators to campaign alternatively while they're also conducting the senate trial back in d.c. >> it's a great idea especially with their time split having to juggle all of this. hoping for voters' attention and in addition to that, having to

talk this impeachment talk as we continue to watch how it's unfolding. thank you so much. back in new york city, new details this morning from police who say they have charged a 13-year-old boy who they believe took part in the murder of an 18-year-old new york college student. let's bring in nbc's kathy park now. what more can you tell us about the suspect and are police searching for others in relation to the case? >> yeah it's a tragedy that really has shaken up this community this week. now investigators say they are making significant progress, introducing new information in court last night. >> this morning new details in the fatal stabbing of new york college student tessa majors, our new york station wnbc reporting in a court hearing on friday new york city police detectives testified that the 13-year-old suspect told them he watched his two friends grab tessa majors in morningside park, put her in a choke hold and remove items from her

pockets. then the boy told detectives he watched as his friends slashed the young woman with a knife and saw feathers from the stuffing of her coat come flying out. the 13-year-old is charged as a juvenile with second-degree murder, robbery and a weapons charge. due to his age, nbc news is not naming the suspect. >> the kid had his whole life ahead of him and the victim, she had her whole life ahead of her, it's just unfortunate. officials questioning a 14-year-old in connection with the killing. police say the 18-year-old freshman at barnard college was attacked by a group just minutes from campus wednesday night as she walked through the park. >> during the struggle one of these individuals pulled out a knife and stabbed our victim several times. she was able to stagger away up to the surface side of amongside street where she was observed by one of the school security guards, he called 911.

>> new york city leaders promise swift action. >> i am absolutely confident that any individuals involved in this terrible heinous attack will be brought to justice. >> the brazen crime rattling nerves among students. >> it's really painful. i walk through that park on my home every day. >> tessa's family issued a statement saying they are devastated by the senseless loss of our beautiful and talented tess. >> the virginia native played in a band and interned for the augusta free press. >> for me the greatest tragedy here is that the world won't get to see what she would have done. >> through a podcast we gate glimpse of her enthusiasm about starting college. >> it's an all-girl school. i'm really excited about that. >> a promising life ending too soon. as a family prepares to say good-bye. >> just a heartbreaking story. now officials say it's still unclear what role that

13-year-old played in tessa's death. believe there were three people who were involved in the attack and a law enforcement official told wnbc, our affiliate here in new york, that a witness actually saw a group of people running away from the crime scene. so cory, still a lot to piece together. >> possibly more arrests coming, thank you so much. north korea says it just conducted another crucial missile test. the latest on what we know. and the decision made by kentucky's governor to pardon hundreds, including murderers and rapists. what does help for heart failure look like? it looks like this. ♪ the beat goes on ♪ entresto is a heart failure pill that helps improve your hearts ability to pump blood to the body.

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now to your morning headlines. breaking overnight, north korea says it successfully performed another quote crucial test at its long-range rocket site. the nation state-run media reported the test further strengthens north korea's reliable strategic nuclear deterrent. that launch comes as the kim jong un regime pressures the trump administration over an end of year deadline to salvage nuclear negotiations between the two countries. new this morning, new zealand police confirming another person has died

following that eruption at the white island volcano. bringing the official death toll to 15. this as divers resume their search for the remains of two victims still not yet recovered. the bodies of six other victims have been found on the island. about 47 tourists, including nine americans were visiting when that island erupted, the volcano erupted on that island on monday. and the fbi is searching for a white van this morning in connection to the mass shooting in jersey city this week. that van is believed to be linked to one of the dead suspects. a candlelight vigil was held outside jersey city's city hall on friday. to honor the detective and three civilians killed on tuesday. law enforcement officials say the attack is being investigated at this point as potential act of domestic terrorism. fuelled by antisemitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs. new fallout today over hundreds of last-minute partens issued by matt bevin after he was voted out as governor of

kentucky. part of a report from nbc's peter alexander on "nightly news" last night. >> days after leaving office, former kentucky governor is under fire for issuing 428 pardons and commutations, cording to the louisville newspaper. among those pardoned. a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old child. another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner. a man who killed his parents and a man who beheaded a woman before stuffing her in a barrel. >> well quite poignant words there. joining me congressman john y yarmouth, democrat of kentucky. matt bevin is defending the pardons on twitter, saying they are quote second chances. among those pardons is patrick baker, a convicted killer. "louisville corier journal" reports that baker's family raced more than $21,000 for bevin last year.

with this correlation, do you buy his argument? >> well, no, i don't. and actually members of his own party don't. mitch mcconnell actually was very critical of some of these pardons. the republican president of the senate called for an investigation by the u.s. attorney. and others have called for an investigation of the pardons as well. this one case is particularly suspicious because the man who was, whose brother threw the fundraiser for him, he was one of three men convicted of this crime where they killed man in front of his family. the other two are still in jail and the man who, mr. baker who was pardoned the other day, was the one who actually pulled the trigger, the other two are still in jail, that's particularly suspicious, and the attorney for one of the other two said there was compelling evidence of the guilt of mr. baker. so that's i think probably the most egregious pardon.

but there were many others that raised a lot of eyebrows and had the state pretty outraged. >> has us raising eyebrows, are your constituents angry? >> yes, i think they are. and to be, to be perfectly fair about it, a lot of the pardons -- there were more than 400 pardons or commutation of sentences, about 300 of them apparently were related to drug possession and so forth. minor trafficking charges and that i think is a reasonable thing to do. the country is shifting dramatically on the question of drug use and so forth. so i think a lot of them are probably well founded. but some of these, the rapist of the 9-year-old girl, the man who beheaded another person, i mean these are, you have to question what in the world he was thinking. and his, his series of 20 tweets, which i read this morning, really i mean basically

just, he talks about his process in doing them. he doesn't try to justify any individual cases. >> now, you were speaking about just the fallout from all of this. and him, he's been defending it. his decision on twitter over and over again. we've talked about the fact that both republicans and democrats are questioning this. not just the state level in kentucky. but also on the federal level. take a listen to what senate majority leader mitch mcconnell had to say about it yesterday. >> honestly, i don't approve. it seems to me, it was completely inappropriate. i expect he had the power to do it. but looking at the examples of people who were incarcerated as a result of heinous crimes, no. i don't approve of it. >> given this highly divisive political state that we are in, congressman, are you surprised actually that republicans have come out against his mover? >> well not totally.

because matt bevin as you might know, was one of the least popular politicians in the country. the reason he lost. in november. he spent a lot of time during his four years in office antagonizing republican members of the general assembly. he's an equal opportunity offender. and i think it's not surprising that a lot of people now using this to attack him. >> something folks want to know after this is can anything realistically be done to look into all of these commutations? >> well, again, they've asked the u.s. attorney to investigate and i think there will be investigations at the state level as well as the federal level. so there is such a thing as the abuse of the pardon power. this is certainly something that would warrant that kind of investigation. >> let's switch gears, mcconnell spoke about impeachment when asked about it this week. take a look at what he had to

say about that. >> everything i do during this, i'm coordinating with the white house counsel. there will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this. there's no chance the president is going to be removed from office. >> do you find this shocking at all? are senators required to take this oath? to be fair and impartial jurors when it comes to impeachment? it's different than your normal proceedings in the senate. >> it is, but you expect both men and women are going to be jurors in the trial of impeachment, would at least be seem to be open to argument. i think what you're seeing now both with what senator mcconnell said and many of the other responses, of the republicans in congress, is that they have no case and what they're trying to do is, is to construct a process in the senate which will make sure that there is no evidence presented. because they have no answers to evidence.

and i think the key thing is going to be if there are any witnesses called. if they allow witnesses to be called, i would wish that they would. i don't really know how you have anything resembling a trial without evidence. if they allow witnesses to be called. they know that would be fatal to the president. or to his case, anyway. and so i think they're going to be just let the two sides argue and then have, have a simple vote. again because i think everything that they're doing now reflects the fact that they don't have a case. and if you listen to the 14 hours of arguments in the house jude rish committee. i didn't listen to all 14, but i listened to a fair amount of it. it's clear all they're doing is arguing process and they're trying to deflect. they won't, they won't contradict the evidence that says that the president committed a crime and an impeachable offense in soliciting political help from a foreign official. flos way to get around that.

and i think what mitch mcconnell is saying is reflective of that. >> we will leave it there for now. thank you so much congressman. we'll be following this very closely. it's time to see what's ahead at the top of the hour with "up." my colleague david gura this morning joining us with a preview. >> joe biden, the wife of joe biden is going to join us on set. the bidens, the center of the impeachment inquiry. she's talked about the strain it's placed on her family and has been on the campaign trail. i'll sit down to talk with her about what she's hearing from the voters. and we'll talk about what we can learn from the election that took place in the uk this week. long-time labor party member will join us, a lot of people looking for parallels, what happened in the uk what might it mean for what's going to happen. >> the first lady defends president trump's attacks on

16-year-old greta thunberg, how she justifies her actions amid her "be best" dpan against bullying on social media. today nbc news education correspondent rehema ellis and ali velshi, six of the 2020 presidential candidates will discuss their plans for the future of education in america. the forum starts this morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. msnbc.com and nbc with special coverage on msnbc throughout the day.

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reaction from the white house defending first lady melania twrump's silence about the president's mocking of greta thunberg. the president attacked the 16-year-old climate activist on twitter after she was named "time" magazine's person of the year. joining me charlotte alter, national correspondent for "time" magazine. it's an honor to have you here. give me a play by play. the president's first tweets about thunberg on wednesday calling the honor ridiculous saying she should work on her anger management. how does thunberg respond? >> one of the things about thunberg is she really doesn't care. she really has been able to let a lot of this roll off her back. one of the most astonishing things about her, and she's talked a lot about this is that

you know because she has asberger's, she's very focused on her one issue, getting world leaders to take radical action on climate change and she has got a lot of haters, she's got a lot of detractors, but she doesn't let it bother her, she's not really interested in getting trump's approval, frankly she doesn't care what he thinks of her. >> using it right in her twitter profile. you know of course, the first thing the president goes to is chill, greta, chill. when it's an angry woman. of course, i want to roll my eyes. then there's the backlash over the silence from melania trump. she has her anti-bullying platform. then she did release a statement. what did it say? >> she said that you know, that there's, that they, that the two of them communicate differently. and so she's kind of trying to distance herself a little bit from the president. one of the central ironies from

the trump administration and the trump marriage is that president trump has a long, long pattern of bullying behavior to anybody who disagrees with him or threatens him in any way. and it's just frankly interesting and a little hilarious that the first lady has decided that bullying is going to be her signature issue. given her husband's pattern of behavior. >> just to push back a little bit here. is she fair game because she has become a climate activist on the world stage? she put herself out there? >> of course. and one of the things, one of the reasons that person of the year is such an interesting choice every year, it triggers people to, to it prompts them to think about who's influential and who's not and there's always a push-back and people disagree and part of the whole process is it sparks a discussion of what influences and whether it's the right choice and this and that.

and we always welcome that discussion, it's supposed to be part of a larger reckoning with who had the most influence over the course of the year. but i don't think anybody was surprised that the president had this reaction to this choice. >> not that this 16-year-old needs it in any way, but there are a lot of people standing up for thunberg, including former first lady michelle obama. don't let anyone dim your light. like the girls i've met in vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all. she wasn't the only person supporting her. >> we've heard from people all over the world who have felt inspired by greta and inspired by this choice. particularly many people in the autism community, who you know haven't ever seen somebody who isn't neurotypical held up in this way. so you know she's somebody, her message is one that is

controversial because it's so compelling and effective and that's frankly why she was picked as the person of the year. she is the most compelling voice on the world's most urgent issue. absolutely most urgent issue facing the planet. that's why she's the pick. >> compelling voice. couldn't agree more. all eyes on her right now. charlotte alter with "time" magazine, thanks for your time. suing the fbi for violating her privacy. a closer look at the lawsuit filed by lisa page, next. -excuse me. uh... do you mind...being a mo-tour? -what could be better than being a mo-tour? the real question is... do you mind not being a mo-tour? -i do. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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back in. break it down for us, is there any basis for this lawsuit in general? is there a clear violation here? >> possibly. it contains private information about their employees. none involve disclosing information to the media. so there may be a violation of the privacy act here r. >> what about the extra wrinkle that these text messages here were between their work phones that were issued by the fbi? is this technically government property? >> that's a major boo boo on their behalf is using the government phones to do this. employees in private industries have done this as well. when you use your company phone or the government phone that's not really your information.

your disclosing it to your employer and it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do but federal employees are protected to some degree although maybe not intentionally by the privacy act against unwarranted disclosure. >> okay. how serious are the implications if that is proven true. >> none of the exceptions apply under the act, then she may have a case. it's not so much about protecting lisa page. it's the privacy act with certain requirements about what information can be disclosed and usually that doesn't include stitchly disclosing it to the media in order to and this is another element she'd have to prove curry favor with the president. >> this would not be the first lawsuit she has faced just in 2019 alone.

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this morning president trump facing two big battles in congress. a historic vote on two articles of impeachment and the supreme court announcing late friday it will decide if the president can keep his taxes secret. a trial is on the horizon and democrats are debating who will prosecute their case to the senate as president trump picks his defense team, rudy guilani shows up at the white house on the heels of a trip to ukraine. it started as we all know with the president asking for a favor. an investigation into the biden family. jill biden will join me to respond to the attacks and to talk about her husband's campaign. the former federal prosecutor and now msnbc legal analyst and a democratic strategist and former executive director of the new york state democratic party and jeff mason