eastern with stephanie r. hle. the msnbc app and apple tv, and find me all over social media. thank you for joining us. deadline white house with nicolle wallace begins right no now. >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in the new york, with fox news poll shows 53% of americans believe donald trump abused the power of his office and 48% americans in the same fox news poll believe he is obstructing congress. the battle over the impeachment senate trial of donald j. trump is heating up. chuck schumer clapping back at senate leader mitch mcconnell, who announced the outcome of the donald j. trump impeachment trial has been decided and it is an almost certain acquittal. chuck schumer answering the mcconnell/trump trial collusion

with a proposal to subpoena some of those firsthand witnesses that republicans clamored for during the course of the first house hearings. making that request in the letter to mcconnell last night. "new york times" writes it this way, in the letter, mr. schumer proposed a trial beginning january 7th that would give each side a fixed amount of time to present its case and called for four top white house officials who have not previously testified, including mick mulvaney, mr. trump's acting chief of staff, john r. bolton, the former national security adviser to appear as witnesses. mr. schumer also called for the senate to subpoena documents that could shed light on the event at the heart of the charges, his campaign to enlist ukraine to investigate his political rivals. >> i haven't seen a single good

argument about why these witnesses shouldn't testify or these documents be produced unless the president has something to hide and his supporters want that information hidden. the president hasn't offered a single exculpatory bit of evidence that refutes what's in the house impeachment charges. they've not refuted them. what is the president hiding? why doesn't he want the facts to come out? >> what is the president hiding? that's where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. from "the new york times," michael crowley, and cnn washington correspondent for politico anna clamor, a.b. stoddard, "new york times" magazine mark liebowitz, and raul reyes is here. let me start with you, michael

crowley. we pulled from "the new york times" report. just talk about this letter. this letter landed with a little bit of wind at the backs of democrats in terms of the majority of americans believing that the case made over the last several weeks by democrats in the house was a credible one. 53% of americans in a fox news poll, no less, believing that donald trump abused his office when he sought dirt on the bidens. >> yeah. and, of course, the president was particularly galled that this poll came out of fox news, the one outlet whose data he occasionally cites. although recently he has had his skeptical questions about fox's loyalty. that's a topic for another day. i think it is, you know, encouraging for democrats who i think for the past couple of weeks have, perhaps, felt a measure of frustration that the needle didn't move more dramatically. there were hopes that, you know, they went into impeachment with

numbers that were pretty good and they thought they could push them substantially higher and that didn't really happen. but what your -- you know, this poll corrects to some degree the fear that some democrats have, that impeachment might potentially be backfiring and that is an argument you'll be hearing from republicans in recent days, that this is actually blowing up in the faces of democrats. it's good for president trump. they never should have done this. they swung and missed. when you look at numbers like that, particularly again coming from fox news, it's a vivid reminder that this is really serious for president trump and it's doing him damage. having said all of that, those approval numbers, the bigger picture of how americans view president trump are just astonishingly rigid. you're not seeing a lot of movement in them, which is not good news for president trump because he's in the low 40s. but nothing seems to move the

big picture. >> anna, take me through what really becomes a more complicated and for those of us who watch it, possibly more interesting dynamic in the senate. mitch mcconnell has to hold on to 51 republican senators every step of the way, every question about witnesses, every question about how circusy this gets. mitch mcconnell has already announced how this is going to end. he went on national television and said in consultation with the white house counsel there will certainly be an acquittal of donald j. trump. that's not going to land well in the states held by republican senators who have a real battle on their hands next november. >> it certainly was telling, where mcconnell has come out is very different than where some of the other senators, when you think about susan colins will have a very big fight on her hands in maine. she doesn't want to weigh in on anything. she has to be an impartial

juror. senator lindsey graham has been giving a lot of interviews saying he's not impartial. what's going to be interesting here, unlike the house where you have leadership controlling every little bit of movement of this and has been a top-down experience from nancy pell owes toy her chairmen, who have been leading the fight on this in the senate. each senator can call for witnesses themselves. they can make this, muck it up, the process, a lot more. that's why you're seeing this opening salvo between senator schumer. they want to come up with some kind of a deal. otherwise it can get very unruly and last a lot longer than either senate republicans or democrats want. >> i'm going to miss the red-face republicans said no one ever. there won't be any excuse for red faces in this part of the process. and the process was the central message of the republicans. no republicans went out and defended donald trump on the

substance. no one went out and said that's a perfect call. that's donald trump's position. they're now in charge of the process. how do you thread that needle? >> that's what's so hard. pam bondi, white house impeachment spokesman said they didn't get a fair trial in the house. of course, there's no trial in the house. you have a trial in the senate. the president is asking for witnesses in sort of the maga world, wants to drag in the whistle-blower, hunter biden, joe biden and everybody related to them. then you have mitch mcconnell who are thinking straight, who knows the witnesses will boomerang on the president and say throw those articles on the floor, hear lawyer arguments. we don't need witnesses after everyone has been telling us they need witnesses and due process and to tell his side of the story. it's not a vindication story. it's a distraction. it's a way to muddy up joe biden again. but there's powerful forces that want that.

mitch mcconnell seems to have convinced the white house but he has to get all the way to january, keeping the president on board. >> 51 republicans against -- here is what fiona hill said that john bolton did. >> specific instruction was that i had to go to the lawyers, to john isenberg for national security council to basically say you tell i sechlt nberg, ambassador bolton told me, that i am not part of this whatever drug deal that mulvaney and sondland are cooking up. >> what did you take it to mean, whatever drug deal that mulvaney and sondland were cooking up? >> investigations for a meeting. >> did you speak to the lawyers? >> i certainly did. >> here is a cold hard fact. testified under oath fiona hill, colonel vindman, gordon sondland. john bolton thought that mick

mulvaney, gordon sondland and rudy were somehow involved in a drug deal. how does susan collins, lisa murkowski and any other vulnerable republican say i don't think he was relevant? how does mitch mcconnell hold that caucus together, hearing from the person described as multiple witnesses as describing trump's conduct as a drug deal, as a hand grenade has already been had. >> right. i've named the 12 people. >> name them again. i like hearing them. >> three retiring, n.c. roberts and alexander, romney and murkowski. richard burr, last term, run the most bipartisan investigation in the entire congress and has seen all the evidence and knows the ukraine thing is a load. then you get into the re-elect basket. that's six of them. i'm not including mcconnell. all of them are going to have a tough time. people who are retiring want to

say that the senate held a fair trial and people in the re-election pressure want to say that the senate needs to hold a fair trial and richard burr along with the free thinkers like murkowski and romney will want at least the veneer of a legitimate trial. >> this is weedsy but our viewers are lower in the weeds sometimes than i am so i'm going to go there. i detected and you're a student of the body language of spokespeople. i detected through mcconnell's spokesperson today the statement in that "times" article a little defensiveness about his boss announcing on national television that the end was decided upon and agreed upon in consultations of the white house, certain acquittal for the president. the comment in your article today was we're going to meet -- whoa, whoa, we're going to meet with schumer. they cannot be that confident that they can hold 51 republican senators against hearing from witnesses like bolton, against hearing from witnesses like mick

mulvaney. >> you can look at that. i think you can look at the way the democrats, specifically chuck schumer here, are messaging this. he's talking about where are the witnesses. the democrats in the house -- >> the republican message for the last six weeks. >> and you don't -- doesn't have to be witnesses. you can say mulvaney. you can say pompeo. giuliani. go down the list. that's not something that the house democrats brought up very much. the other thing that schumer was saying, which was interesting, is that there's not a single fact that republicans tried to refute. that's something they'll hammer home a lot. republicans were completely dwelling on process during the house portion of this. and they just don't have any leg to stand on. >> they're in charge of the process. >> right. i think there again, schumer is probably talking to six or seven republicans in the senate right now, more than anyone else. >> seemed very smart about this letter that he sent. he took away two of their huge talking opponents. one is that we cannot go through

an endless ongoing impeachment process. he laid down the time down to the hours as to how long testimony will be. and that it's all hearsay. he's saying bring in these specific people. it might very well reach a point where, as you mentioned, they're trying to negotiate we'll bring in the whistle-blower in exchange for this person. that is a huge risk even for the trump administration that may want that. the other thing i can't ignore is that when mcconnell makes these statements about having predetermined -- he knows how this is going to go, or lindsey graham, the same. i cannot move away from how aston eshing that is. that's one of the reasons we have a separate oath for impeachment, to separate the political component to the legal component of what these senators are being charged to do. that'sing they swear to, to help me god. >> let me pick that up. >> in advance it's unbelievable

dereliction of duty. it's not something that's lost upon this country. even republicans have a vested interest in something that at loest bears the appearance of a legitimate trial. if it's a sham affair, it will not satisfy anyone, including donald trump, because there will always be that lingering air that this was a joke. >> it's a great point. there is a separate oath for these senators to take when they embark on this solemn and rare undertaking of conducting an impeachment trial. are you picking up in any of your reporting from capitol hill any discomfort with the way that this has always been sort of sped ahead to the end result? that seemed to be done for an audience of one. but mitch mcconnell has an audience of 53 senate republican

republicans. >> sure. you're talking here about a president who is at 41, 42, maybe 43% in the polls. that's still a dangerous place for republicans to be. even if it's true that among republicans voters president trump has these astonishingly high approval ratings. at least if you're going to take a look at this through a political lens of where these senators are. this is not like bill clinton in 1998, i guess it was, when his approval ratings, i think, were going through the 60s as he was on trial in the senate. >> 67%. i used to walk around the west wing and say, bill clinton was at 67% the week he was impeached. we can do better. he had a 67% approval rating the week they voted to impooch him. >> imagine chopping 20

percentage points off of that. the driver here, such an essential story of the trump presidency is the way senate republicans have stood behind him. that has a lot to do with get ing thrown out. this is not' popular president. at some opponent he could drop into the 30s and they all have to be thinking could this get worse before the next election and what could that mean for me? >> i've worked for a president ntd 30s and know that things can get worse. it's amazing what happens on capitol hill when approval ratings are in the 30s. some republicans no longer call themselves republicans. i want to ask you about efforts to recruit justin amosh to be one of the impeachment managers. what do you know about that. >> there is a group of largely

freshman members that put together a letter that they want just amosh to be the impeachment manager. the reason he is no longer republican, he has been critical of the president. i have a hard team seeing nancy pelosi to go that direction. she, of all people, is a master of wanting to keep control, have her allies and people she feels are best suited to actually represent democrats in this hearing, which could turn into a bigger circus. >> mr. amosh's very public breakup with the trump party.

and i can accept anna's reporting of taking this to the bank. they may have taken this in terms of public opinion as just a democratic undertaking. it may serve their political purposes to involve an independent -- self described -- >> i completely agree. >> right? >> founding member of the house freedom caucus. he was once very good friends with mick mulvaney. i don't know when and how the breakup occurred. he is fiercely conservative and a constitutional who left the party over issues about -- >> a lawless president. >> separate and co-equal branch. >> right. >> the idea that she could open her mind, there's obviously a long line, maybe 75 people, who are saying that they deserve to be house managers, and she's going to obviously tend to party pressures and reward lieutenants who have been loyal on all of that stuff. i think it would be very shrewd to have amosh in the mix.

>> here one of amosh's tweets. he takes on the republican propaganda. here is what he wrote. republicans are making a concerted effort to mislead, high crimes and misdemeanors is not about statutory crimes. in fact, the constitution doesn't provide for impeachment for ordinary crimes. they must be high. impeachable wrongdoing must relate to abuse of office. you don't look to statutes. you look to whether his behavior involves abusing power. violating the public trust or using his office for personal gain. it seems like it could be very helpful to have someone with justin amosh, with all that cred in the farthest right corners of the old gop to make the case to the people in the middle gop. >> theoretically, i agree with y you. what constituency does he really have? in the house he's a free radical at some point, even was within the republican party. after the optic is used up, you actually have to perform. it's sort of unclear to me how justin amosh would essentially

conduct himself as a trial lawyer. that's not really his thing. >> right. >> he's more of a philosophical thinker. >> doesn't have the background as a criminal prosecutor. >> right. >> great idea in theory. for me there is no middle gop. it isn't there, beyond maybe as you mentioned a week or so of being in the headlines. i'm not convinced that will sway anyone in the republican -- mopping the leadership or republican base. after the gop went after lieutenant colonel vindman i felt like forget it, it doesn't matter who they present. if he's not on trump's side he will be attacked, destroyed on every possible way. it might be a goodwill, bipartisan gesture. in doing that, democrats have been plagued 25 years by republicans. it will not work, especially not with this base. >> i think it would bother trump to have a bipartisan coalition. so unravels trump so unravels

the rest of the coalition perhaps. we dig deeper in those polls that show he sought help in digging up dirt on the bidens. and those who believe act constitutes criminal bribery. standing her ground, elise lof lofgrgren explained her support for donald trump's impeachment. and mowed over with insults, smears, mockery. in the case of ted cruz, insults for his wife and father. so it was surprising, a little bit, to see them lay down at the alt a. r of trump's certain acquittal over the weekend. we'll show it to you. all those stories, coming up. the good news? our protection is guaranteed.

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overnight house judiciary committee released its full report outlining donald trump's criminal conduct as part of the impeachment inquiry. the document is essentially a formal road map through the two articles the committee put together last week and the rationale behind the charges. in the abuse of power section of the report, quote, in all of this, president trump abused the powers of the presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interest for political benefit. abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in

corrupting democratic elections. we told you about that fox news poll earlier. here is a number that stood out. on the topic of bribery, federal crime mentioned 134 times in the house judiciary report, 45% of all americans in a fox news poll said yes, trump did commit bribery. trump himself is evidently aware of these numbers, fox news polls always inaccurate -- we don't know if he met new or news, never can tell. ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. i feel like there was a debate and hill reporters, others have reported on this show about how restrained to be. they settled on two. that seems to be right political choice. you're saying there's no hope on getting anyone bipartisan. so i'm not sure that will bear out. the idea that even one of the

crimes that didn't make it into an article, bribery, is something that half the country believes he did. >> uh-huh. >> well, i think that you learn about bribery when you're pretty young, if i recall. it's pretty simple to understand. >> quid pro quo. i'll brush my teeth if you give me the ipad. >> and so i think those who are following it, you know, understand that this was an exchange in the use of his official capacity for something that personally benefited him. it was of value and it was crooked and it wasn't allowed. the problem for democrats is that they can't celebrate this polling because none of the national polls matter. it always matters how he's doing in the swing districts. that's where he can win an electoral college victory. that's what president trump can take comfort in but every time he sees a bad poll, especially when it's from fox news. >> someone in contact with the

president told me he was told five, six weeks ago, you will be impeached. at that moment, there was an effort to shift all of his attention to holding on to the senate, an effort to get him to stop watching wall-to-wall coverage, stop fretting about the democrats in the house who control that. as multiple people said today have tote control of the process. he can't help himself. he is most dangerous to himself when he feels agrieved. >> absolutely, nicole. how many efforts have there been to get the president to stop commenting on, tweeting about one subject after another, after another now for going on three years from the mueller investigation to all kinds of national security issues that were once deemed too sensitive to be tweeting about, to, you know, commentary about women. he just never listens. i think at this point it's clear

he's never going to change. the thought experiment here is what does president trump lock like if he ever takes any of that advice instead of being at 41-ish percent, is he up in the high 40s and suddenly looking like he's in a very strong position going into 2020 as opposed it a pretty treacherous one? this guy is not going to change and if re-elected, i think it will be twice as intense. >> anna, the same source tells me what michael crowley is reporting you. he not capable of changing and that they are impulses and if at one point he could have fired nancy pelosi gets the best of him every time she goes head-to-head with him. i imagine support for her is

always strong. it would feel like it would be swelling especially after the judicial committee managed to not have any slippage that all those compelling, nonpolitical, lifelong diplomats, trump employees testified before the intel committee. the polls were as high as they were after all that dramatic witness testimony. >> absolutely. speaker nancy pelosi is -- i mean, her caucus is so strongly behind her. if there's one thing that unifies the democratic caucus in the house more than anything else, it is president donald trump and their opposition to him. every time he takes shots at her it really only bolsters their support for her and their willingness to go down the path that she has laid out for them. >> sethere's a scene in lego b t

batman where the joker is seen letting go, like i'm nothing without you. i'm thinking about the government shutdown. i'm thinking about him tweeting out that picture where she's obviously owning him on the subject of russia, saying all roads lead to russia. the report actually has 341 mentions of russia. the judiciary committee contends trump's actions were part of a plan with the welcoming of russian interference in 2016 and continues to this day. by building investigations and support where she can, she does lay brick after brick after brick that if he is undermined politically by all of this, she deserves the credit for that. >> i think he also sort of underhandedly gives her a lot of credit by reacting to this. >> that's true. >> nothing elevates her more than having the president tweet about her teeth falling out or whatever it was. >> weird. >> which is weird. it boomerangs back to him and not flatteringly. also, believe me, it doesn't help him with the senators he needs to keep.

you mentioned earlier, getting the president to focus on the republican senate at this point, it's very smart. he needs them. he's very good at reaching out to them. they're as prone to flattering and attention as any politicians are. when he does this, what do you think lisa murkowski and martha mcsally think? it's not helping his case. >> not only does she get under his skin but his constant focus on her shows where his focus is not. he's not lay iing out potential working any kind of strategy, while this impeachment proceeding is going on. oert number in that poll that should be worrisome to trump and his allies is that 60% of respondents, 60% believe any president who solicited a foreign power to interfere in

our elections was wrong. that attempts to take the politics out of it and say is this okay? 60% to 20% know this is not okay. >> conduct under any other president, president obama, president bush, president clinton would be -- >> totally wrong. >> -- viewed as out of bounds. >> people seem to be cool with it. >> settle on acquittal. >> remember the republican talking point about there's no crime? it laid out per the statute, bribery and phone calls like he made to gordon sondland. people will say it's wire fraud peechlt have gone to prison for wire fraud for decades. those are serious crimes. and that takes away the talking point of no actual crime was committed. these are allegations that yes, with evidence, serious crimes were committed. >> thank you for spending time with us. after the break, former cia

analyst, defends her decision to vote to impeach donald trump to protect national security. that story, next. that story, next mom, why do we always come here for the holidays? how did you find great-grandma's recipe? we're related to them? we're portuguese? i thought we were hungarian? grandpa, can you tell me the story again? behind every question

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i will be voting yes on obstruction of congress. now, obviously, i know and i can hear that this is a very controversial decision. and i knew that. and all i can ask from the people who are listening is that while we may not agree, i hope you believe me when i tell you that i made this decision out of principle and out of a duty to protect and defend the

constitution. >> that was a rauckus town hall in michigan today after freshman elissa slotkin announced she will vote yes for both articles of impeachment. a mix of applause and some boos, even signs that read "impeach slotkin." according to slotkin, it came down to the country's future. she explained her decision in an op-ed writing, quo, in the national security world that i come from, we're trained to make hard calls on things, even if they are unpopular. if we believe the security of the country is at stake, there are some decisions in life that have to be made based on what you know in your bones is right, and this is one of those times. joining our conversation, msnbc correspondent garrett haake. garrett haake, the few republicans that still talk to me ask me why i'm so hard on them. it's those words she just said,

when you know in your bones something is wrong, you stand before booing constituents and do the right thing. is there one republican since you've been covering that building the last few weeks that have been able to say that to you? >> there won't be one in the house, no. she joins with these freshman democrats in coming out back in their districts and making this argument in favor of impeachment. since we've been on the air, abigail spanburger, another veteran, saying she, too, will support both articles of impeachment. everybody was running around this building quoting ben franklin of a republic if you can keep it. democrats are using this other franklin quote, we must hang together or we will hang separately. they have looked at the information provided to them and found the facts to be damning. i was in slotkin's district the

week the inquiry was announced. she did a series of town halls, some in more liberal parts and some in more conservative parts of her district and really put her personal integrity on the line to go out and run this investigation. and you're seeing this now come full circle for these freshmen democrats who are going to be at the tip of the spear, win or lose, politically, next cycle for democrats. if this is a disaster for democrats, nancy pelosi is not going to lose her seat. it's these freshmen democrats who are out here. they are choosing, one after another, to stick together and fight this out. >> and it would seem, maybe, that fighting it on national security grounds with her unique national security credentials is both an authentic claim to the decision she made, and one that, you know, i know that state pretty well. those are people that vote on trade, the economy, and economic stress and anxiety. >> right. >> and they have a very good

head for the national security challenges. a lot of the hardships we've been through, through the last three administrations. >> i think she joins the other freshmen colleagues who come from these backgrounds and bring a specific perspective, an important one to the congress. they make a very credible case on national security grounds that this is also an issue of the separation of powers. these people are freshmen they just took that oath to be a separate and co-equal branch of government and to do their constitutionally mandated duty to be a check on the executive. they take it very seriously. congress will never have the power of the purse again if any president, president warren can get in that office and start hurdling appropriated and approved funds around in any manner they see fit for their political gain or anything else. these members know that. >> do they know? do they know that? >> i don't know that people in slotkin's town hall are caring about congress being a separate

and co-equal branch. they should. we may lose the executive to oprah, mark cuban but the congress belongs to us. they took their marching orders from nancy pelosi. no, she probably needs their majority more than they want to hold their seat. these people will have lives, incredible resumes. the easiest thing to do is call nancy pelosi and say i just can't win. south carolina won again but joe cunningham is going to vote for impeachment because he thinks it's the right thing to do. it's harder to vote yes. it's easier to tell nancy pelosi, you can lose 18 people. i can't be with you. and have her say i get t i can't whip you on this. come next november, she will lose if she loses, but i don't think it will not look the same october 16th as it does december 16th about impeachment.

>> connor lam gets a lot of attention. what president trump did was wrong. i hoped he would take responsibility and put this incident behind us, but he hasn't. instead, he insists the call was perfect, which means he would do it again. the evidence is clear the standard is the standard to impeach. this is a piece that was a very interesting message about cheating in the future. these most vulnerable democrats in the national security caucus have grabbed on to protect the next election. they don't seem eager to rehash '16. do you think that's going to work? >> it is. that's part of the argument. this is part of a broader re-election argument. what are the next four years going to look like? >> right. >> not just this next election but what if he wins under south koreas that are questionable? then we have another four years of this? obviously, it's a piece of a larger argument. what's interesting about these town halls, you'll be seeing a lot of them, dramatic announcements. i'm wondering if a few

democrats, probably not republicans, but you never know, a few banning together, like we're the national security democrats and we're going to do this together. but i think that's going to be like part of the scenery for the next week or so. >> it also underscores how vital the testimony from the nonpolitical security establishment was to these -- this is who -- they weren't necessarily on those committees but they were listening. when we come back, donald trump mocked them and smeared them mercilessly. now they're the tips of the spear over ukraine and investigations into the bidens, the complete collapse of recognizab recognizable on the part of the senators. lindsey graham and ted cruz to be specific. that's next. cruz to be specific. that's next. ♪ limu emu & doug

hour 36 in the stakeout. as soon as the homeowners arrive, we'll inform them that liberty mutual customizes home insurance, so they'll only pay for what they need. your turn to keep watch, limu. wake me up if you see anything.

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in the private sector, he couldn't get a job. you're all retired and rich as hell. he wouldn't be rich. he would be poor. >> ted cruz is like a baby compared to some of the people. he is like a little baby. soft, little baby. but for lying he is the best i've ever seen. >> trump was brutal. republican senators lindsey graham and the baby, i forgot about that, ted cruz, on the trail. it's a good thing for him that they forgot about that of the both of those men, american senators, made clear they would defend trump and wouldn't even pretend to be impartial. >> this thing will come to the senate and it will die quickly, and i will do everything i can to make it die quickly. i am trying to give a pretty clear signal i have made up my

min mind. >> i wasn't in any doubt at this point. >> the framers understood impeachment of a president is inherently a political exercise. senators are not required like jurors to be sequestered, not to talk to anyone, there's no prohibitio prohibition. >> they do take an oath, senator ted "baby" cruz. at the start of the trial, the constitution requires the senators to take an oath. the oath includes, quote, i will do impartial justice, according to the constitution and laws. so help me god. garret where will you be standing when lindsey graham and ted cruz do that? >> an interesting question. this shows you the absolute vice-like grip that donald trump has on the republican party. i saw this in 2018 when i was out, covering the campaign.

there is no appetite, none, among republican primary voters especially, but even core general election for trump agnostic republicans. mitt romney in utah, who has his own reputation, wholly separate from that in a state that's always been a little bit confused about what to do with drch. what you see here are two republicans who perhaps, and by virtue of having run against him, realized it sooner than their brethren, that is what the republican party demands now, is this unquestion iing loyalty to this president. this doesn't get better in the minds of republican voters than it does. martha mcsally in arizona, cory gardner in colorado have to make decisions, do they want to try to be as much like indifferential to this president as possible or go their own way?

i think the numbers will tell them to hue to trump however that might force them to bend and con tort like we see with these two swre. >> i accept everything that garret said about the politics but the question is about the manliness, the men, the character. trump went after ted cruz's father, his wife. he green lit smears against ted cruz, gave out his phone number. i get politics. but what about their pride? >> i think ambition has a way of melting a lot of other conflicting emotions down. pence, who clearly hopes to be president one day. ted cruz hopes to be president one day. he is having twitter engagements with alexandria ocasio-cortez.

streaming conversations, his office with melissa milano while making sure the trump base knows he is all in with president trump because he has a long view about the future that i don't think is about how much he was embarrassed by trump over his wife and his father. ted cruz was very tough in 2016. came charging that convention saying terrible things, refusing to endorse the president i mean, he was really the last person standing. but i think this is all about eight years from now. >> all right garrett, thank you for spending some time with us. after the break, obama, president obama, on what may be the an swer to all of our problems (vo) the moth without hope, struggles in the spider's web.

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president obama spoke at a private event in singapore this weekend. and according to the bbc, he told the audience women are indisputably better than men. and that if every nation on earth was run by women for two years, quote, you would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything. living standards and outcomes. now, nbc news has not independently confirmed the comments. anna and the table are back. anna, obama still looms large over this party and over our national politics. and making news and getting a lot of attention. certainly, an interesting comment on the heels of kamala harris coming out and elizabeth warren struggling a little bit in that democratic primary. >> yeah. i mean, every time he opens his mouth, it's big news. whether it's kind of what he sees as the future of the democratic party or, you know, i'll take it that women are better leaders than men. so i think it's interesting to

see where he's willing to go. he has tried to stay, for the most part, out of the daily fray of politics. you know, and even really, for the most part, out of the presidential election. it will be interesting to see when that changes. when does he, and potentially michelle obama, get more engaged? >> he's used his platform to make two comments that got a lot of attention. putting his scale finger on the for women. >> when you were saying nbc hasn't independently confirmed that women are better than men. >> yeah. no. no. everyone's for women. but obama's using his platform to make these provocative statements is just interesting. >> yeah. i mean, it's unclear if he planned to be like his provocative statement of the day. but obviously, he has an extremely powerful voice. he's been very judicious in using it. and i think, you know, he'll be more so in the future. but look. i mean, he has a gift and the gift is his silence right now. but people listen to obviously.

>> his gift is very, very powerful appealing power house of a wife. we're going to sneak in our last break. we'll be right back. n our last break. we'll be right back. if you see wires down,

treat them all as if they are hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911 and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe.

my thanks to anna, a.b., marc, most of all, to you for watching. "mtp daily" with my friend katy tur in for chuck todd starts now. welcome to monday. it is "meet the press daily." good evening, i'm katy tur in new york in for chuck todd at the start of what will be a historic week for our country. on wednesday, just two days from now, the house of representatives is all but certain to vote to impeach president donald trump. making him just the third president in american history to be impeached. ahead of that vote, the house judiciary committee released