where the president is impeached but never trield, nevaled, neve the benefit of the acquittal. does that make a difference in the 2020 election. >> thank you. you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us on this thursday morning. i'm yasmin alongside ayman. "morning joe" starts right now. >> we have a great group of people behind us in the republican party. >> we use used to care about democracy. >> crazy nancy pelosi's house democrats. >> the moral courage of the house democrats -- [ booing ]. >> it doesn't feel like we're being impechd. >> the yays the 129. >> neigh are 128. president's article 2 is adopted.

>> here we go at 8:30 p.m. on his 1,032nd day in office, a former reality tv host and the current occupant of the white house became the third u.s. president to be impeached in congress since america's republic was found 240 years ago. the charge, abuse of power. it was confirmed on a mostly party-line vote in a debate marked by frantic floor speeches defined more by their volume than persuasive wit. the next article of impeachment was for obstruction of congress with the legislative majority against impeaching the president proving in a most historic way that donald j. trump was tragically wrong in his bizarre belief that article two of the constitution gave him the power to do whatever he wanted. the checks and balances provided by madison he's constitution ma

contusions last fall proved otherwise. it was many of those women who represented trump districts whose votes assured that history would not blindly look past a president abusing his power to demand campaign help from foreign leaders. as that unfolded in washington, donald trump was in a safe space miles away, a rally room in michigan packed with supporters and fueled by the suspension of disbelief. there, the president talked about toilets, lied about trade, railed against critics, including a sitting congresswoman, and the husband she lost less than one year ago. yes, he attacked a dead man. a bluffut loved person that tru suggested is now burning in hell. at the end of the day, the republican party, the party of lincoln, marched to lockstep behind donald trump. here we are, thursday, december

19th, the morning after, along with joe, willie and me we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. former aide to the george w. bush white house elise jordan. author of the book "the death of expertise tom nichols. an historian, author of "the soul of america" and rodgers professor at vanderbilt university, jon meacham. he's an nbc news and msnbc contributor. >> willie, high don't you hold up some of the newspapers. take us around and show us what the morning papers are saying about the historic event last night. >> well, for a president who's deeply concerned, as we all know, about the way he's covered in the press, this is what he's waking up to today. every newspaper in the country, usa today, "the wall street journal," the "new york times," any local paper around the country, impeached. the new york post focused on nancy pelosi, but that is what

the president is waking up to and the united states congress made a statement that it's not okay that a president, any president, cannot do what donald trump did. and they voted on two articles of impeachment to make that statement. on the other side of it, republicans one by one got up and didn't argue the facts, they argued the process. they conceded the facts, effectively, that what happened is what happened but maybe that it wasn't a crime or it's not impeachable. so tacitly saying to themselves and the country there is okay. and i hope that's not the statement they meant to make, but it is the one they made by voti voting nay on these two articles of impeachment. >> just pointing out that democrats flipped 41 seats in 2018, a lot of them were women. elaine loria, jennifer wexton, donna, these are women who stepped up and made a difference in a way, a self-inflicted wound

by this president losing so badly in the midterms and then of course these women, many of them, voting to impeach him. as we said, the first article against president trump, abuse of power, was adopted shortly after 8:30 last night following nearly 12 hours of debate. the second article, obstruction of congress came less than 20 minutes later. two democrats voted against the first article, three voted against the second. republican turned independent justin amash voted to impeach oon both counts while tulsi gabbard voted present on both. here's house speaker nancy pelosi calling the votes and keeping her caucus in line. >> on this vote the yays are 230, the nays are 197. is present one. article one is adopted. on this vote, the yays are 229,

the nays are 198, present is one. article two is adopted. >> jon meacham, so much to talk about. starting with nancy pelosi who has to be put up now, if you look -- if you look at what she did in her first term as speaker of the house, being responsible for passing the affordable care act, keeping her party in line in a way that few speakers have other than, let's say, tip o'neil and sam ray burn. she certainly is in the top of that class of powerful speakers, is she not? >> absolutely. and i think she'll be spoken of in those terms. not least because she's a terrific democratic leader, upper case "d," but she's proven to be a defender of democratic values with a lower case "d" and

has put the country above party. which is not tragically, is not as universal a value as we would like it to be and as we see. but she's -- what i love about speaker pelosi is i think i'm right about this, when she was a kid, her job was to keep her father's favorite book mayor of baltimore, she would keep track of the political horse trading so that he would know which horses to trade or not to trade. and we're seeing anew that for all of our disdain for politicians or our effected disdain for the politics, you need a master of the give and take of politics to make this work if it's going to work. and speaker pelosi embodies let's make this work. >> you know, willie, this is

such a self-inflicted wound by donald trump. and we've talked about it for some time, all of us knowing donald over the course of ten, 11, 12 years. he could have chosen a different path. we said so from the very beginning. you had people like robert gates and general hayden and other who worked in democratic administrations saying at the beginning of this administration we only have one president at a time. we have to do everything that we can to make him a success. and, yes, he had -- he had a spotty background, to say the least, but then again so did lbj who in his first 20 years in congress voted against every civil rights act, including antilynching laws before a 1957 turning around and changing his votes. and by the mid-1960s passing the most sweeping civil rights legislation in a hundred years

since the civil war. donald trump could have used the presidency any way he chose. and unfortunately, he showed us all the way he was going in that inaugural speech talking about american carnage. well, that carnage has come to washington, d.c. it's come to our political institutions, and now it's overtaken donald j. trump. >> yeah, i think the great hope, which sounds quaint now when donald trump was elected was that he would be the businessman that he talked about being during the campaign, the deal maker that he talked about being during the campaign, which is to say, he had more in common with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi than he did mitch moim mcconnell or mark meadows or somebody like that. you hoped that maybe he would go in and make deals and go in and be the guy that he had been projecting off these years. but instead he dug in deep we are his base. he was a fighter on all of this

stuff rather than conceding some of it. here's what some of the democrats argued yesterday on the floor debate. >> the president may refuse to comply, may refuse lawful process, may coerce an ally, may cheat in an election because he's the president of our party, you do not uphold our constitution. you do not uphold your oath of office. well, i will tell you this, i will uphold mine. i will vote to impeach donald trump. i yield back. >> it is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections, the basis of our democracy. >> we cannot rely on the next election as a remedy for presidential misconduct when the president threatens the very integrity of that election. >> president trump's wrongdoing and the urgent threat that his actions present to our next election and our democracy

leaves us no principled alternative but to support these articles of impeachment. >> we're on the precipice of the 2020 election and congress has ultimate responsibility to protect the sacred equalizer, our right to vote. >> we do not hate president trump, but we do know that president trump will continue to threaten the nation's security, democracy, and constitutional system if he is allowed to remain in office. that threat is not hypothetical. >> i don't hate the president, but i love my country and i have no other choice. i voted for these articles of impeachment as the only moral course of action, the only way to honor our oath of office. >> madam speaker, we have seen republican courage throughout our history. in 1974, one congressman took the brave and principled step of becoming the first republican of the judiciary committee to support impeaching president

nixon. my colleagues, that congressman's name was larry hogan senior. he represented the fifth district of maryland, which i now represent. when larry hogan senior died in 2017, every obituary led with praise for his act of political courage. who among us many years from now will receive such praise as a man or woman of courage? >> mike barnicle, you've watched a few of these things unfold from nixon, clinton, in donald trump, i don't think you were there for andrew johnson's. i don't want to push you back too far. >> you're close. >> what did you think as you watched this unfold, the stark difference as republicans stepped to those mike phones cr versus democrats that we just heard there? >> i spent the good part yesterday afternoon and evening

watching everyone speak from bomb sides of t both side of the aisle. it struck me that the first time i went to washington many, many years ago, the only job i could get, and i took it, was as on elevator operator in the cannon house office building. and i saw many members of congress on a daily basis, both from the senate and the house giving them a ride up on the elevator. republicans and democrats, i saw bob dole and tip o'neil. i saw bob michael and dan ros10cowski. i saw members of both parties who got along. this was during a turbulent period in our country's history, vietnam, civil rights, earth day, assassinations, the casualty count out of a war each and every week averaging 225 young men being killed.

members of both parties, republican and democrat, stood together. they didn't agree with each other philosophically, but they stood together as friend and they voted together as americans. and i watched yesterday and i listened to the language. and the thing that struck me more than anything was that as the republicans stood cloned to donald trump and defended the process, attacked the process of what was going on, i didn't hear one of them saying about the president of the united states, he's a good man. he's a decent man. he's an honest man. i didn't hear one republican say that. >> because none of them believe it, none them say it behind closed doors. they are just buying their time until he leaves town. they fear him, and they will do anything to defend him. and yesterday, mika.

>> yeah. >> the proposterousness of it all. talking about saying he was persecuted worst than jesus christ. well just stop and let evangelicals think about that in this holy season. stop and let trump supporters think about this in hthis holy season. this is where the personality cult has led us. >> and this is what they're doing. we're going to show you right now while, by the way, they know in the back of their mind this president could be doing something crazy. and, yes, he was. in the back of their minds they knew he was through the in michigan saying things that just might be inappropriate. well, what he was doing was -- was saying incredibly nasty things about a dead man. and this is what the republicans said during the impeachment debate backing up trump once

again. >> when jesus was falsely accused of treason, pontius pilate gave jeess us the opportunity face his accuser. during that sham trial, pontius pilate afforded more rights to jesus than the democrats have afforded this president. >> 21 years ago this week i spoke here on impeachment. in this sadly history will not treat democrats well. they'll be forever remembered as the senator joe mccarthys of our time, so blinded by their hatred of president trump they abandoned american rights rfr due pro saensd fairness and just decency. reminiscent of joe mccarthy, they assaulted the constitution, took glee in secret hearings, blocked evidence and switched charges like rogue prosecutors. >> in order to arrive at their stalinistic conclusion, they spent the last staining in well rehearsed hearings where the charges, drawn up by their focus

groups, democrats served as witnesses and democrat staff served adds jumg as judge and j >> a horrific act happened in the united states and it's one that president roosevelt said this is a day that will live in fainmy. today, december the 18th, 2019, is another date that will live anyone famy. >> tom nichols, i knew through my father and grandfather a lot of men who actually were at pearl harbor on december 7th, a lot of men who gave their lives in service to this country. >> yeah. >> that's just a comparing the impeachment of donald j. trump to pearl harbor is shocking. it's not as shocking of -- it's of course saying that the romans afforded jesus christ more

kindness than they did -- than they did donald j. trumpet said th trump. i said that, somebody's laughing. that came up twice yesterday. two times people said that donald j. trump's trials were worse than the crucifix of jesus christ. and eric errickson, who he's a friend of mine but we don't agree on anything as it pertains to donald trump, he said if trump has not been tortured, beat tone within an inch of his life, nailed to a cross, and killed after falsely being accused, please shut up about him being tweeted worse than jesus. and you should apologize. what a disgusting thing to say, particularly during a holy season. but we have seen again, this personality cult grow and this is, of course, the ultimate --

this is the destination for such a personality cult. and how ugly it was yesterday for republicans, who none of them actually defended donald trump's character. none of them actually said it was okay to work with foreign adversary for campaign help. they just attacked the process and compared democrats to pontius pilate and stalin and the japanese who killed americans on pearl harbor day. >> the other word think we need to use beyond shocking is it was obscene. >> yeah. >> it is an obscenity to compare an impeachment conducted on the floor of the house in front of the cameras in full view of the people of the united states with the attack on pearl harbor. one of the representatives invoked the last words of jesus

christ which i found personally offensive as a christian. and i think what you're seeing, because, again, joe, you and i and others here have said, they don't really believe this. i mean, they know what donald trump did. that's why they're arguing process. they don't -- they get it that if this were barack obama or hillary clinton they would have burned the white house to the ground by now. but what they're doing is they're emulating, they're playing to the base. they're emulating the cadences and the images and the rhetoric of fox news, talk radio, the most extreme fringes of their party. i mean, the republicans have turned into a walking facebook meme because that -- because they like being in power. they like being in congress. and that's all that matters. staying in washington and being in power is more important than the constitution, it's more important than our national security, it's more important than the arms and tradition that have sustained our country for 240 years and they're going to

do whatever they have to do if that means comparing this to pearl harbor or the crucifix of jesus christ, they're going to do it. >> and, willie, the infection is so widespread. you know, we stopped being shocked by what donald trump did a long time ago and then i started being shocked by how far the republicans would go in defense of donald trump. and it has picked up every year. yesterday i saw marching into the house well to spout out nonsensical trump talking points. that actually -- i just got to say, i saw sam last night, both sides are right. no, no, rick, buddy, buddy, so much of what was said was factually inaccurate. conspiracy theories spouted out about all of this starting in ukraine, that ukraine invaded

georgia, that that this wis was ukrainian operation and russians didn't have that much -- no, there is no oral equivalency between the facts that were presented by both sides. but, you know, willie, yesterday i actually saw members of congress that i worked with years ago who were quiet, they weren't back ben chechers, theye quiet, committee chair people, chairwomen, who went about their job and maintained their dignity staying focused like paul ryan always said, he was going to stay focused on the issues. and yesterday even they were marching into the well talking like john kennedy at a trump rally. it was so distressing. they know better. they should have just remained

silent to history and, yet, they couldn't do it because they felt the pressure as well to besmirch their honor. to compromise their reputation in the defense of this failed reality tv host. >> and we ask the question we've asked again and again in this age of our politics this last three or four years, why? why? is the job that great? is the job that important that you're willing to go up and compare a constitutional impeachment process to the crucifixion of christ so that you don't get primaried or lose your job or whatever the reason is? is the job that good? is it that important that you're willing to bend the knee to donald trump and compare it to pearl harbor? it was stunning what we heard in the well there and we heard from bill johnson of ohio. we've had pearl harbor, we had joe mccarthy, the crucifixion of

kries, t christ, and then the salem witch trials and then this moment. watch. >> this is a sad day for america. this partisan impeachment sham seeks to disinfranchise 63 million american voters. so i want to use my time to call on this chamber, for members to be rise and observe a moment of silent reflection. to give every member here the chance to pause for a moment and remember the voices of the 63 million american voters the democrats today are wanting to silence. >> and then, elise, there was the extended moment of silence as proposed by congressman

there. president trump is still in office, we should point out and likely will remain in office after it passes through the senate so nothing's been overturned or reverse but one of the many stunts we seen yesterday. >> in terms of a stunt, that one at least reassured me because you you just didn't have to listen to anything during the silence and you got to almost just revel in how insane the day had gotten by that point. it at least was jarring enough just because after so much nonsense, after hearing donald trump compared to, you know, jesus being nailed to a cross and tortured, after hearing republicans compare democrats to joe mccarthy, to joseph stalin, to are the pearl harbor, it had gotten simply so ridiculous. i just -- of all the comparisons, the jesus one

bothers me the most because it's so sack contracreligious. but if you're comparing donald trump to what jesus christ went through, how are you going to feel at your candlelight service on christmas eve when you actually are dealing with christmas that you've been so upset about christ being taken out of christmas but then suddenly you've elevated donald trump to suffer more than jesus christ? it's just kind of an interesting conundrum for those evangelicals who put themselves behind that line of argument yesterday. >> and, joe, as mika pointed out earlier, the kries like figure donald trump was on stage in battle creek, michigan, mocking the late congressman john dingle who died earlier this year and whose wife serves. he put out a tweet last night saying he made her pain worse, her grieving is worse because

the president of the united states used that platform in the state of michigan, by the way, to attack, to attack a man who passed away earlier this year. >> saying that he was in hell, you know, we're going to talk more about that in the next segment. debbie dingell of course said let's set politics, asaid, mr. president, my husband earned all of his accolades after a life time of service. i'm preparing for the first holiday season without the man i love. you brought me down in a way i can never imagine and you're hurtful words just made my eelg healing much harder. and our heart goes out to debbie dingell. i know after my dad masspassed, mom mourned it for eight years. never got over it in the day she died. i know the passing of your father has been difficult on your family. it's something that spouses of

husbands or wives live with all the time. and to have the president of the united states say that john dingell was in hake in michigan was unbelievable. not christ like, not even close. and those drawing the comparison with jesus christ, it's blas blasphemous. john dingell was a man in every way that donald trump is soft, john dingell was tough, he was hard, he could legislatively break donald trump over his knee. he was a strong, powerful man that we republicans even in the majority feared because he was so tough. and he fought so hard for his district and for workers all over michigan. but you know, willie, that moment of silence i found fascinating. it wasn't quite as moving as barratt's moment of silence in

front of oklahoma city traffic commission. >> i didn't see that coming. >> i know. >> escalated. >> and you need to look it up to barratt's moment of silence in front of the oklahoma city traffic commission. it is amazing. but i do wonder if the congressman gave a moment of silence for the 63 million people who voted for donald trump, what about the 66 million who voted for hillary clinton? i mean, they keep bringing out this number and they keep overlooking the fact that hillary clinton actually got more votes than donald trump. it's a stupid argument to make. >> you know, i wondered how barratt was going to find his way not program. you found a way to get him in there. of course. and also, again, it bears repeating, this is not overturning an election. >> by the way, i beat jon meacham to it. he was going to do it next. >> okay. stop it. >> there we go. >> if jon knows who barratt is

i'll be shocked. i won't put him on the spot. >> he and henry clay served together. >> yes, they did. that's right. it's an obvious 90 joe makes but it's one worth pointing out. hillary clinton got nearly 66 million votes, 3 million more and that process is not overturning an election, the president has been president for three years. he will continue to be president through his term, most likely, and perhaps even beyond. >> not only that, but there was an election in 2018. >> yeah. >> and millions of people came out and voted and there were results about that. and but the whole day, everybody called it -- not everybody, but more often than not someone would stand up in the we will of the house awell of the house ant was a sad day. it was a predictable day and almost an inevitable day. >> it was. and amid all of this, almost half of voters, according to new nbc news "wall street journal" poll said they will vote against president trump in 2020. according to the poll, 48% of

voters said they are certain to vote against trump. in next year's general election, 34% said they plan to vote for the president's re-election. and 18% of voters said it would depend on the democratic nominee. those numbers for trump are worse than president obama and his re-election prospects heading into the 2012 presidential contest. meanwhile, 50% said they feel very uncomfortable with trump when it comes to the 2020 election. 28% said they were enthusiastic. and 12% said they were comfortable with the president. so let's bring in the house editor for the cook political report, day ve wasserman. dave, what do you think of those numbers? >> well, mika, the reality is democrats need to do even better than that to beat trump. it's possible that donald trump could -- could lose the popular vote by four points or more and still win the electoral college.

look, democrats can make the case that they had no choice but to impeach him because anything else would have been an abdication of constitutional responsibility. that is a very reasonable argument. but the reality, mika, that i see is that this is not going well politically for democrats in the key battleground states that are going to decide this election like wisconsin where we saw a marquette poll that put support for convicting and removing trump from office at 42%, 52% opposed. >> you look at that 48% where they said they definitely are going to vote against donald trump in normal times that would be a deadly number. barack obama's, again, only at 37% at this point. in his first term. what does that number need to get up to for you to start saying now democrats are in the game? does it need to be 51%, 52%

zbli? >> i think that's reasonable. prufrp is probably 47%. he won his first term with 46.1% and losing the popular vote by 2.1. the reality for democrats is they're only continuing to add support in california which is utterly useless to them. they're continuing to cut the margin in texas, but probably not by enough to make it a key tipping point state in 2020. if i really to narrow it down, i would continue to say that the two most valuable states, the two closest to the tipping point are wisconsin and arizona. joe, i was in wisconsin last week talking to a lot of dairy farmers in green bay. even the few democrats in that room told me that impeachment was simply not on the minds of people in their communities. they didn't -- they didn't see it affecting their daily lives and that even though tariffs were hitting them badly, that voters weren't making the connection to donald trump's responsibility for their economic plight. democrats need to spend money

convincing these voters that trump is hurting them on particular issues that affect their lives in order to move them against trump. and right instead what you see is tom steyer and mike bloomberg who are spending their money on personal vanity tours. >> yeah, well, you know, by the way mike bloomberg's personal vanity tour there are just in, up to 7%. >> yeah. >> i wouldn't be surprised if he's in double digits pretty soon. he's moving up -- >> i would be. >> -- quickly than i -- >> okay, well we'll see. never know. take a look at those increasing poll numbers. >> we'll see what happens. i said the same thing about donald trump in 2015. we'll see what happens here. i do think there is a possibility that he gets into double digits, that he continues to move. but, you know, mika, it's interesting that when i went to the hill during the middle of the mueller investigation talked to a lot of members of congress. and even adam schiff said in a group of democrats that were around the table, people are not

going to vote on the mueller report. and if you talk to adam now he would tell you people are not going to make their voting decision based on impeachment. >> right. >> and that's why what dave just said is so important. democrats need to sell their message, but it's not on impeachment. it's on the pain that tariffs are causing farmers. it's about wages. it's about work. >> it's about national security. that's where it might tie back to impeachment. >> i don't think -- listen, the people are not going to be voting on national security next fall, unfortunately. it's going to be what it's always been, kitchen-table talk. are we going to be better off if this guy gets another four years or worse off? and, can we trust the democrat to knost nnot take our health ie away and push a radical plan on us. >> unless we have a radical foreign policy that frames the problem. just in now, congressman mark

meadows will not be running for re-election. nbc news has confirmed that the north carolina republican may leave congress before his term is finished to help president trump in a still undecided role. that's according to a source close to the congressman. that person says that the decision has been a long time coming adding that meadows has been thinking about it a lot. >> meadows, of course, runs the freedom what are they? freedom caucus on the hill had it first began, the freedom caucus was actually intended to do what a lot of us did, a small group of us actually did when we were in washington. and that is limit spending in washington, d.c. unfortunately, it morphed in a very ugly way into a blind defense fund for donald j. trump, not financially, but they gave their reputation. willie, geist, they gave their reputation, they gave everything they had to defending donald

trump at all costs while the federal debt grew to record levels, they passed the largest budget, loaded budget, in the history of the republic. deficits exploding, tariff taxes being pushed. all the things that the freedom caucus was supposed to support, a smaller government, free trade, the free market all of that thrown out the window in defense -- in blind defense of donald j. trump. >> and they're certainly not alone. groups that had a very specific purpose have all morphed into becoming defense fund. you look at somebody like the club for growth was about debt and deficit now weighing in on impeachment to defend president trump. evangelical groups could be added to that list. tom nichols, these are groups you've been familiar with over the course of your career who probably don't resem habl they look resemble what they looked like when you first were introduced

to them. >> no. what's striking is the way that they've decided that nothing matters other than simply main taping power taining power. it's almost interesting, what would you zo is now you've accomplished this, drawn the line on impeachment. freedom caucus has completely become the donald trump caucus, the gop is in the tank for this president. okay. what is it you want? clearly it's not smaller budgets. clearly it's not about constitutionism. i think they would answer you and say -- give you kind of vaporous answers about religious freedom because we can finally say christmas again, apparently. but it's really striking that i think trump has laid bare that this is not a political division in the country, because the politics don't matter. one of the really striking things is that people -- it's a moral division.

and people don't hold the president -- it's kind of interesting, people don't draw connections between the president and policy. that the voters that joe and mika were just talking about saying, yeah, tariffs are bad, if only the president, you know, if only the czar knew what was going on, you know, they really kind of treat him as a tv star who's removed from all of this. and i think the only hope in 2020 is that impeachment, and think you saw it with that disgusting attack on john dingell is that in the next year impeachment drives the president so crazy that maybe there are enough people who sort of wake up and say, you know, this is a larger question of we're just tired of this guy, he's not fit for the office, we don't want him controlling 1400 nuclear weapons and maybe it's time to try something else. >> well, it has nothing to do with politics, it has nothing to do with ideology. i keep looking for a small government republican on capitol hill, they no longer exist.

>> good luck. >> largest budgets ever, largest deficits ever, largest federal debt ever. largest socialist spending scheme ever. donald trump's socialist spending scheme to bail out agricultural and industrials more money than in 2019 2009. we ran newt grin grip out of town over an omnibus appropriations act that was smaller than. it's incredible, how radical, how big spending these republicans have been. because ideology doesn't matter. it's all tribal. it's all about defending the flag. it's all about defending the failed reality tv host. that's what republicanism has boiled down to and everybody knows it. republicans on the hill know it. republicans in the senate know

it. republicans in the house know it. everything that we fought for when we, when we balanced the budget for four years in a row in the '90s, these republicans have betrayed. they've betrayed burke, they've betrayed curbing, they've betrayed buckley, they've betrayed reagan and those of us who fought like hell to balance the budget for the first time in a generation and four years in a row for the first time in a century. and what do they do? they spend like drunken socialist. they are shameful and they're doing it all in defense of a man who contributed to hillary clinton eight times, who contributed to charlie rangel, who contributed to elliot spitzer, who contributed money to anthony weiner, who contributed money to kamala harris, who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the dnc. that is a man that they have

allowed to destroy conservatism once and for all. and yesterday, willie, they shamed their selves -- themselves again, shamed themselves again by going over the cliff for this former democrat who said in 2008 that he loved nancy pelosi, he had great respect for her except he wishes she would have impeached george w. bush. >> joe, as you're laying out this long line of democrats the president's given money to and donated to because he was a democrat for so long, last night on stage in michigan he said, i gave a bunch of money to chuck schumer why is he doing this to me? i gave a bunch of money to carolyn maloney in new york and he actually asked her to give all that money back that he'd given her since she voted for impeachment to throw him out. but he was talking on stage about how much money he's given over the years to democrats. i don't know how that went over

in the room, i wasn't there. dave wasserman, about before we let you go there's a new poll that just crossed, there's a democratic debate tonight to point out. there are bigger headlines to talk about than a debate today. but cnn poll -- that's the nbc news poll, joe biden 28, sanders 21, elizabeth warren 18. they cross at 6:00 this morning a cnn poll kind of matching that with bind 26, sanders 20, warren 16. what's the state of the race? we see elizabeth warren ticking down five points in the nctibc l here. as we head into the debate, what's the state of play? >> a poll result like that is a recipe for a contested contention. if you have a bunch of candidate over the 15% threshold, by the way, so far bloomberg is pretty far away from the 15% threshold where you become eligible in states and districts to win delegates, then you have a bunch of candidates splitting vote in all kinds of different

directions. biden is still resilient. he's got solid support from african american voters in the south, no whaert what hmatter w pile up to be. and they need to unite more quickly to take on donald trump who has a massive head start. >> all right. the house senator for the cook political reporter -- dave wasserman -- >> i can ask you senator, because we've only gone 45 minutes in this first block. what his seat look like? >> they've put asheville back into the district in this new map, but it's trump plus 18 districts. it's not going to be competitive. the new map mean that republicans probably need a net of 24 democratic seats as opposed to just simply 18 to get the majority back. so i still like nancy pelosi's odds of keeping her job. >> there you go.

house senator for the cook political report, dave wasserman. thank you so much. and tom nichols, thank you as well. and still ahead on "morning joe," key voices from both chambers, house majority leader steny hoyer is our guest plus senator tim kaine on what comes next. "morning joe" apparently with limited commercial interruptions is back in a moment. limited commercial interruptions is back in a moment. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get.

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i endourrsed him at his request and i gave him the kind of funeral that he canwanted, wh has president i had to approve. i don't care about this, i didn't get thank you, that's okay. swhinlt on the way, by wasn't a fan of john mccain. we needed 60 votes and we had 51 votes. and sometimes, you know, you had a little hard time way couple of them, right?

fortunately they're gone now. they've gone on to greener pastures. or, perhaps, far less green pastures, but they're gone. they're gone. >> so -- so that was at the faith and freedom coalition. faith, let's use that word faith. a lot of really good trump supporting evangelicals there where donald trump just said fortunately john mccain was dead. just think about that. president of the united states said fortunately john mccain was gone. he was dead because of a political disagreement. because of a vote. that's who evangelicals are supporting at record rates. that's who franklin graham and jerry fallwell junior are supporting, guy suggesting that john mccain, maybe he's in hell.

and then of course this continued -- it have again -- who am i? i'm a sinner but, of course, because i actually read the bible i understand that we're all sinners. so i'm not one to cast stones, but -- >> it's just a question. >> my gosh, donald trump, i mean, how can people support -- if you just read the bible, even if you're not a believer and you just read the red letters in the gospel, matthew, mark, luke, and john, or just go from matthew 5 to 8 or 9, read the sermon on the mount, look at the red letters, that's as unchrist like any pastor will tell you that doesn't blindly support donald trump, that's as unchrist-like as can be and yet it continues and the continued celebration of political rivals being dead continued last night. >> so that was with mccain, he was also lamenting on how much he did for mccain's funeral.

>> and that mccain was in hell. not in a better place. >> so he went there again at the rally in michigan. this time about the late congressman john dingell, a man who was beloved in his home state of michigan. >> you know, dingell for michigan. [ booing ]. >> you hear dingell for michigan? debbie dingell, that's a real beauty. so she calls me up eight months ago, her husband was there a long time. i didn't give him the "b" treatment. i didn't give him the "c" or the "d," i could have. i gave him the a-plus treatment. take down the flags. why you taking them down? for ex-congressman dingell. oh, okay. do this, do that, do that. rotunda, everything. i gave him everything. that's okay, i don't want anything for it. i don't need anything for anything. she calls me up, it's the nicest

thing that that's ever happened, thank you so much. john wore so thrilled. he's looking down, he would be so thrilled. thank you so much, sir. i said that's okay, don't worry about it. maybe he's looking up, i don't know. [ laughter ] >> i don't know. maybe. maybe. but let's assume he's looking down. >> wow. donald trump, by the way, donald trump did no favors for john dingell. john dingell was the longest serving member of congress in american history. committed himself to working-class voters in a way that donald trump would never understand. actually did things for them. actually fought hard for union men and union women. donald trump talks about it, john dingell did it, and he just didn't do it on a lark, he did it his entire life.

>> yeah. >> so what was said last night in michigan was beyond sick, willie. but, it's something that we've grown accustomed to, i guess. >> it's appalling and just bays it's donald trump doesn't mean we shouldn't pause and call it appalling. that's the most powerful man on the face of the earth. there's a grieving woman in debbie dingell whose pain she said last night was made much worse as she approaches the holidays without her husband of 38 years, john dingell. if we want to just limit it to the presidential campaign and the presidency we can kind of say that this started with the insult early on in 2015 of john mccain, senator mccain, when donald trump said i like my heroes who didn't get captured. and that was allowed to pass among many republicans. his poll numbers didn't change, in fact, they went up over time. i guess that should have been an early indication that the ugliness that donald trump puts out every day, and this being an

extreme case with john dingell would be okay with a lot of people in this country and particularly among people who support president trump. >> yeah. and what i'm about to say is not partisan, it's just based on historical reading of the facts as you've laid them out beginning in 2015. president trump, donald trump before that, attacks those things which he is not and which other people esteem, right? so he attacks john mccain for his heroic war record. he attacks the gold star family. he attacks congressman dingell, chairman dingell yesterday. but remember the common denominator here. they -- he jumps, he pounces when something has happened that threatens his own sense of

pride, well-being. so the gold star family, they spoke at the convention. congresswoman dingell, debbie dingell voted to impeach him yesterday. mccain was not a fan. and so he's as -- i sometimes think we ascribe a complexity to him that he doesn't merit. he's pretty transparent here. he's a creature of appetite and ambition and ego. and to some extent historically and culturally we've been given this interesting -- remember the old comic books the x-ray glasses they used to sell. we've all been given a set of those. we just see him now entirely for what he is, moments that -- where other people would at least say, mutter or kick the door in private, he does in public. the other thing about this is i

think arguably the most important sentence he uttered last night in that moment was i gave him everything. i gave him everything. >> yeah. >> and it was this sense of i have power, i -- why aren't they grateful to me? i lowered the flag. that is the language of a dictator and a king. it's not the language of an american president. >> and i would add one more element to that, in addition to the ego and him thinking that it's his government, his flag, his capital. donald trump in one of the motivating factors i think behind yesterday's impeachment votes is a resid vist. he will do it again. whatever he's been charged with doing, he will do it again. >> yeah, and obviously there were some groans and boos in the room, elise, but people who support donald trump, of course.

but john dingell barely got below 70% any time he ran in an election. very popular figure. but beyond that, donald trump displaying his lack of humanity, his lack of empathy for a man who passed just months ago. >> i will admit i'm just completely baffled. why do you go out of your way to be so cruel? why last night? why in john dingell's home state? why with the holidays approaching was there any reason on earth to go out of your way just to be nasty and cruel and vicious? i don't understand the thought process and i know i never will, but it is so sick and twisted and just another example of how broken donald trump is. >> the have simple, because congressman dingell's grieving widow dared vote yes on impeachment and dared stand up and say what the president did was wrong. let's take a turn now, go to former treasury official and

"morning joe" economic analysts steve rattner. steve, good morning. i understand you've got some charts for us today looking at the economy as we turn the corner into 2020 what the president is really going to emphasize as he seeks re-election. >> yeah. i heard joe talking a little bit earlier about kitchen table issues, and we're in a situation now where the economy is actually doing a little bit better and kitchen table issues may work in his favor. something for the democrats to worry about. and think some of this is the president's own affirmative actions in the sense that be he's called the trade war off for the moment. he signed that ridiculous spending and tax bill that joe was talking about earlier to get that off the table. and so when you start to look at the numbers, you can see some strength in the economy. the fed has been cutting interest rates as well. so this is -- you look at lots of different numbers. this kwon assumer confidenis co because that's what drives the rerk a

economy, and it's been growing nicely from the election and from the beginning of trump's election. and what you can see is even with the craziness of the past year, impeachment, trade wars, tough stock market the last fourth quarter, it has stabilized at high levels and consierms a consumers are spending. we had a big jobs number, the fourth quarter gdp number looks like it will come in ahead of expectations. good news on that front. then as you look ahead, the news is also quite good on the economy. people's expectations of recession have really dropped, economists predictions of recession have fallen from about 38% to 24% probability. but let's take a look at the 2020 economy and what you can see here is that this is one set of forecasts, also it goldman sachs. not every economist completely agrees. but you can see gdp growth accelerating a little bit next year. you see consumer spending accelerating a little bit next year, and a forecast of unemployment coming down to 3.2%, which would be the lowest since the korean war in 1953.

so this is an economic tailwind for donald trump whether we like it or not, he's got this behind him. so what is it that the democrats can argue or what could affect this in a democratic way? the economy -- the economic recovery is not evenly spread around the country. and let's look at some swing states and see what's happened to job growth be in swing states. so the national average is about 4.5%. this total job growth under trump. and then you can see all these battleground states that have well underperformed that average, wisconsin, ohio, michigan, minnesota, pennsylvania, all have had job growth that's come in well below the national average. and while the unemployment rate is below the national average in wisconsin and minnesota, it's above 4% in ohio and michigan and pennsylvania. also important to note that manufacturing jobs have been falling in all these states this year. we're in a manufacturing recession. the average factory worker is worse off than was before.

income growth in these states is very muted. that's the argument the democrats are going to have to make, which is notwithstanding overall economic picture, that the average person in a swing state like this, especially in the midwest, times are a bit tougher. >> yeah. so, steve, those look like great numbers, great news for americans. great news for all of us. i wonder, what -- what's happened over the past six months? because in the middle of 2019 you had 50% of economists, maybe even more, suggesting that there was going to be a recession in 2019 or 2020. this is great news. it looks like the economy's continuing to roar on. so what's happened since then to actually make next year look even brighter? >> that's a good question, joe. some of that is actually the normal comings and goings of the economy which economists have a hard time predicting. but there's been a gradual reduction in global economic tensions, if you will. we now have some certainty around brexit.

'it may not be perfect but we think we know where it's gone. china's economic noubs have come in better and consumers here have continued spending a bit faster than people thought. and i do think this is all part -- i think trump stully a litt is actually a little bit crazy like the fox on this. i think is he quite focused on the economy. i think he made deliberate effort to get a trade deal done with mexico if the may not mean very much but there is one. he made a deliberate effort get a so-called phase one deal with china. it may not mean very much. but all of that gives consumers and business more confidence, leaves them to spend more money and keeps the economic machine going. >> well, those close to president trump have said -- told me that, yes, on these trade deals he is crazy like a fox. there was several times when the negotiators were helped when he blew things up, walked away from the table and they didn't think he was going to come back, particularly with mexico. you know, i was on the hill two days ago when the ways and means committee passed the new nafta

deal unanimously through the ways and means committee. republicans and democrats alike. it's just something that doesn't happen often. so if you take that off the table, as far as concerns about the future of that trade deal, if china gets resolved, the future of that trade deal becomes less of a concern, then obviously there's a lot less -- there are a lot less question marks hanging over the economy and it looks like some really great news for americans going into the new year. >> but, at just a few minutes over the top of the hour there is one singular headline this morning, and it is one for the history books. president trump impeached. with the swing of her gavel, nancy pelosi led house democrats and soon the senate into a head-on collision with the commander and chief. the first article against president trump abusive power was adopted shortly after 8:30

last night following nearly 12 hours of debate. the second article, obstruction of congress came less than 20 minutes later. here's house speaker nancy pelosi calling the votes and keeping her caucus in line. >> on this vote, the yays are 230. the nays are 197. present is one. article one is adopted. [ gavel strikes ]. >> on this vote the yays are 229. the nays are 198. present is one. article 2 is adopted. [ gavel strikes ]. >> we cannot manage this until we see what the process is on the senate side. and i would hope that this will be soon, as we did with our legislation, our resolution 660 to describe what the process

would be. so far we haven't seen anything that looks fair to us. so hopefully it will be fair and when we see what that is, we'll send our -- >> wait to send the articles until you understand what the senate's going to do? >> we'll make a decision as a group, as we always have, as we go along. there are witnesses that the president withheld from us. there are documents that the president withheld from us. and we would hope that that information would be available in a trial to go to the next step because that's another level in terms of conviction, in terms of this. but right now the president is impeached. >> all right. joining us now, host of msnbc's politics nation and president of the national action network,

refer remember reverend al sharpton. political analyst for nbc and msnbc news, philip rucker. and former senior adviser for the house oversight and government reform committee kurt bardella joins us as well this hour. good to have you all on board. >> philip, you wrote last night about this being the latest chapter in the turbulent presidency of donald j. trurp. te trump. sell us what you saw yesterday. >> many of them felt it was their responsibility to be a check on president trump's power and hold him to his actions. but this is the first time really maybe in president trump's adult life where he's been held to account for his conduct, for his behavior. this is an unindelible mark on his presidency.

he most likely will be acquit by the senate, that's based on the latest sizing up of the state of play in that chamber. but he will be remembered as a president impeached. this will stick with him throughout history and he realizes that. that's one of the reasons he's been so aggrieved in these last few weeks as impeachment has become more and more clear. so bothered, so taken to write that six-page letter earlier this week, that screed, really, lashing out at speaker pelosi because this is a mark does he not want. >> kurt bardella, just curious the news that developed late yesterday that nancy pelosi will be holding on before passing this to the senate taking some time. what is the strategy there? >> well, you know, a poll came out the other day that showed that more than 7 in 10 americans want to hear from the people that donald trump doesn't want us to hear from. from mick mulvaney, mike pompeo, from john bolton, et cetera. and i think that this is the last chance that democrats have to try exert some influence over

this process. listen, leadership mcconnell has gone out there and said this will be a sham process in the senate. he's not going to hear witnesses and rush through and try exonerate trump. he's effectively colluding with the defense here and the white house lawyers. so in order to exonerate trump, mcconnell's will have to get the articles of impeachment sent to him from the house. and i think that speaker pelosi and the democrats would be wise to hold back on doing that to see if they can work with leader schumer and try to get some sort of fairness out of this process and really use those public opinion numbers of the american people we heard for weeks upon end every republican yell and scream no first hand witness flowitnesss. it turns out the american people agree. 70% of americans can't agree open anything right now and yet 64% of republicans want to see these witnesses. 72% of ifds wandependents want

these witnesses 'the they can tie these witnesses to the forefront and use those numbers to bully mcconnell and try to get him to move on hearing from rudy, pompeo, and mulvaney. >> i want to play two sound bites for you that everyone pxee republicans versus the democrats. take a listen. >> but today this day we didn't ask for this. this is a sad day. it is not a day of joy. our nation is founded on the principle that we do not have kings, we have presidents. and the constitution is our compasses. when you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. our children and their children will ask them, what did you do? what did you say?

>> when jesus was falsely accused of treason, pontius pilot gave him the opportunity to face his accusers. they have afforded mr. rights to jesus than the democrats have afforded this president. >> reverend al, john lewis said we do not have kings were we have presidents. but republicans weren't trying to crown a king yesterday, they were trying to crown a god. several made references to donald trump as jesus christ, compared democrats to pontius p pilot, to romans, to joseph stalin, to those who killed americans on pearl harbor day. it was a sorry display by the house gop. >> i think yesterday was a sad day and what made it sadder was to see people stand up in the house and make those kind of comparisons contrasting that

with john lewis, an american icon, certainly a civil rights icon, talking about the moral imperative that we must honor in terms of standing up and speaking out when things are wrong. and what is so outrageous to me, joe, is that the evangelical leaders that have supported this president ought to be outraged and vocal denouncing the use of jesus and the crucifixion and the meaning of it in any way, shape, or form of being compared to what is transpiring with this president a week before christmas. you yesterday was seven days before christmas. and to stand in the well of the house and act like jesus who christians, i'm a practicing baptist christian, believe died for our sins and compared to a man who's being impeached for his sins. and to act as though they're the

same thing and to prove the point, donald trump went on to michigan to prove who he was by suggesting a man who died may be in hell because his widow voted to impeach him, this a day after he questioned how nancy pelosi praise f prays for him. to so show how unlike christ he was, he underscored it in those two occasions want to actions. >> he attacked nancy pelosi and said there's no way she could be praying for him when, of course, jesus talks bus prayiabout us pr those who persecute us and those who are not our friends. even the heathian play for those who persecute you, who oppose you. so what nancy pelosi said would only be a shock to somebody who had no idea what jesus' teachings were on the sermon of the mount or throughout the gospels or the new testament. you know, willie, it was -- it

was really something, and, again, there was something particularly insulting and eric erickson and others that -- let's put up the eric erickson tweet for a second if we can, because we're not just talking about a jesus comparison. people do from time to time joke about that guy's god, he's this, he's that. but that's one thing. but to compare donald trump's sitting around in the white house eating and drinking and watching tv and tweeting, comparing that to jesus christ, having a krouchb thorcrown of t into his head and piercing his flesh is sick. eric erickson said if trump had not been tortured and beaten to within an inch of his life, nailed tie cross and killed

after being falsely accused, please shut up about him being tweeted worse than jesus and you should apologize. what a disgusting thing to say, particularly during a holy season. and, of course, again, willie, what made this so offensive is that you were talking about, perhaps, the most sacred moment of christ's life, the most difficult. and, again, this is where the personality cult has taken us. where it can say that and no evangelical leader but eric erickson does, thank god for erick, comes out and criticizes that talk. that sort of comparison. >> let's pause and think how insane this conversation is. we're having to stop and have reverend sharpton or father james martin, a catholic priest or a number of religious figures go out publicly and explain that donald trump is not like jesus

christ and here's why. because a congressman said that in an impeachment hearing yesterday. it's incredible. it's astounding. and, jon meacham, barry loudermilk is a congressman from georgia, represents the suburbs of marietta, places like that, the argument is that the guys who were saying things like that are saying it to save their jobs, to protect their jobs. they've got to stay close to donald trump, don't cross him, because they don't want to be voted out of office. i lived in atlanta for a long time, i know a lot of people who live in marietta and those places. i find it very hard to believe that they would support what he said in the well of the house last night, that donald trump, a mortal, a man, the president of the united states, is like jesus christ. and, by the way, this congressman knows better. he went to a baptist university. he knows exactly what jesus went through. he knows it's nothing like an impeachment process. but do you think this is a smart even strategy? you're a southern man, do you

believe that this works in marietta, georgia? >> yeah, i think it works in marietta. it's newt's old district, though it's all been redrawn. doug collins is from the north part of the state, just over the line from shaathing intooting ii grew up and the top of the state. ela jay, georgia, was a place where pat buichanan ran well in 1992. i think they know the base they want to play to. i think there's a larger point that you would hope would play itself out and manifest itself in the give and take of the arena. and it's that, you know, the initial image of the wall between church and state was not to protect the state from the church, but the church from the state. and the notion that if you have

ultimate concerns and if your notion is -- if you're animating reality is the journey of the soul ideally toward returning to the company of god, which is an augustinian sense of what faith is, then is it really -- is the politics of the given moment really going to replace and take -- knock that concern out? and why have we allowed and why would people of faith undertake what's essentially the eidoltry of power. what they have done is elevated judges and their allegiance to this particular president at the expense of the implications of their creed.

and that's a generational struggle. and i would just urge folks to think, you know, is this guy worth it? >> you know, listening to jon meacham, as usual, it causes you to think. and yesterday as the evening -- as the afternoon lingered into evening and the worlds melded into one phrase uttered by a continual line of republicans, it caused know think that history can never be erased. you can never erase history. what happened has happened. and, again, listening to the republicans, it caused me to shudder a bit thinking about the 2020 presidential campaign. because the only way that donald trump can now rehabilitate himself is by winning in november of 2020. and there was -- there is nothing he will not do to win.

so the campaign is going to be an attack on race, on crime, on gender, on our culture, on everything around us. it is going to be the ugliest aspect of politics that we have ever encountered in our lives. and, mika, i don't know about you, but it scares me. >> yeah, absolutely. white house press secretary stephanie grisham told reporters that president trump would be working all day. but his twitter feed offered realtime commentary on the impeachment proceedings yesterday writh an emphasis on fox news commentators. he was watching. at the very moment the house was voting to impeach him, president trump was rallying supporters in michigan, a state he won in 2016 and will be crucial to his re-election next year. earlier, we showed you his disgusting attack on the late john dingell. here is some more of what his supporters heard last night.

>> sinks, right, showers, and what goes with a sink and a shower? ten times, right? ten times. not me, of course, not me. but you. you. but i never mentioned that. because one time i mentioned all three, i said, sinks, showers, and toilets. the headline was trump with the toilets, toilets. that's all there were. they don't even mention it. so i didn't mention that, okay. i go off the record. but you know what? it's terrible. you want to wash your hands, you turn on the sink, no water comes out. so you leave the water go ten times as long, it's the same thing. you have a shower, drip, it's no good for me. for me, you know the one thing that came out really good about being in this business, i used to -- they always used to say i wore a hairpiece. it's okay, i know people wear a hairpiece. but they don't say that anymore because i have been through the

worst storms. if you wear one of those vuccers you got to give it up fast because within two weeks they gotta. dishwashers, the dishwasher, right? you press it. remember the dishwasher, you press it, boom, there would be like an explosion, five minutes later you open it up, the steam pours out, the dishes. now you frepresident it 12 time we want a land of safety. justice, i don't know. when i look at those fbi reports, we got -- we got to clean up a lot. what they've done to hurt people, what they've done to hurt -- with comey and these horrible people, what done to hurt people, i think one of the best things i did as president, a lot of people would say, you know, with all what we've done for the economy and everything, but one of the best things is firing james comey's ass out of

there. i don't know who the security company is out of there, but the police came up but they want to be so politically correct. they don't grab a wrist lightly and get her out. they say ma'am, would you please come with me? and then she gives the guy the finger. you gotta get a little bit stronger than that, folks. >> all right. so there you go. >> my god. >> donald trump at points sweating like albert brooks at points in news broadcasts. talking about showers, talking about not giving him enough water, dripping. >> yeah. >> the faucets, he's got this obsession with faucets. at least he didn't talk about how he flushes the toilet 15 times. why does anybody have to flush a toilet 15 times, i don't understand that. but he's pretty obsessed with it so, hey, you know what? we all have our crosses to carry as donald trump's supporters

might say. perhaps he'll next say that's a worst trial than jesus ever went through. >> one might say it's just a desperate, very, very out there, outlandish attempt to distract from the history going down in washington. >> but, willie, he did something else there too at the end. he, once again, suggested that protesters be roughed up, that he needs to treat them more roughly and rough 'em up more. which, of course, he did throughout the 2016 campaign. i just wonder, people who are cheering behind him when he says that, i mean, i'd say what do their parents think but some of them are parents themselves. i just wonder, when -- when did we in this country celebrate the abuse of people who are protesting? i -- am i wrong?

i don't remember having a candidate talking about beating the hell out of people and, you know, paying for the defense fund. but that's what donald trump does and that's what he did last night as president of the united states. it is pure strong man theater. it's erdogan, it's putin, you name it. whoever's name you attach to it, it is bad for america. >> remember during the campaign he used to have the line where he'd say in the old days we'd take him out on a stretcher, beat him up, take him out on a stretch, he are we'd hand out justice our own way. he did that again last night pelt said something that was sut until there and raised a bunch of eyebrows in here. >> yeah, he equated women with washing dishes. >> he said women are telling me that dishwashers don't work the way they used to. it's always 1955 is my -- >> for him and the danger of that is that we're normalizing this kind of feeling about women. >> yeah. >> when you say women tell me about dish washing, it's

normalizing and equating women with dish washing. i was not going to get the president anything for christmas but i'm going to get him a copy of mika's know your value. he needs to understand that women are not dishwashers over the last 20 years. >> i'm sure mika's given it to him i'm just not sure what's read it. >> let's bring in the senator, there's a lot to talk about. but let's start if we can with the vote last night. your reaction to the vote, yes on impeachment on two articles there, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. and what happens now as it moves to your body? speaker pelosi has said she will not remand the articles of impeachment to the senate until they're confident that mitch mcconnell will give a fair trial. what would a fair trial look like to you, senator? >> well, first it's great to be with you. and i just in your last conversation when the president was talking about water, i just want to indicate he was in michigan and he's done nothing but attack the funding to

protect the great lakes for the last three years. so in you want to talk about water, we want to talk about water in the great lakes. as it relates to last night, i am very impressed and proud of what the speaker and the democrats have done to lay out a case, to make it very specific, to lay out the facts in a very persuadable way and, frankly, unrefuted way. and so for us in the senate, when this comes to us now, we want to give the president of the united states one more chance. when we say fair, when senator schumer lays out a set of principles it's not because we don't believe the case has been made for impeachment, the case was made. the president chose not to participate, chose not to have anybody from his staff in the room that he said could actually say that he was innocent. so we want to give him a chance, bring forth the evidence that he

has, that he feels makes his case. and we in michigan, you know what we would say, folks back in michigan? put up or shut up. so we're basically at a point where we want to give the president of the united states an opportunity to do that. and if he doesn't do it, common sense says he probably doesn't have anything. if you feel you're innocent, you rush to make the case. >> yeah. >> and so far they've not done it. >> as you know, senator, your majority leader mitch mcconnell has come out and said publicly a couple of times i'm not an impartial juror. >> right. >> we're working hand in hand with the white house. mcconnell wants to make this a limited and brief process. he knows he's got the votes, let's vote on it. so how do you make that a fair process? how do you bring those witnesses in and make. trial it's supposed to be? >> well, we will continue to put forward the proposals. ultimately, we can't do that without majority leader or at

least four republican senators believing that there should be a fair trial in doing that. we have the head of the jury who's working with the defendant in this case. so i don't know whether or not mitch mcconnell can raise his hand and take that oath that says we are to be impartial. he'll have to wrestle with that in his own conscience. back up we ultimately, we're not in the majority but we will continue to speak, rally the american people, and indicate we want something fair, transparent, and we want to give the president every opportunity to be able to make his case. and if i might just say one other thing, and that is impeachment, we know that the american people are divided on impeachment. but what they're not divided on is protecting their health care if they have preexisting conditions, background checks for gun violence, dealing with climate crisis, protecting

pensions. why do i say that? because while the house has been doing impeachment, they've sent over 300 pieces of legislation to the senate, 90% bipartisan, and mitch mcconnell refuses to take it up. and that's what people in michigan want us doing. >> senator, let's get back to donald trump's obsession with water for a second. two-part question. one, how's the tap water in flint, michigan? and the other part of the question is what are the chances right now of the democrats retaking michigan in next year's election? >> really good questions, thank you and i was going to mention the lead in the water. it's not just in flint, but it's certainly in flint. we also have the same problems in detroit and other urban areas. so i welcome the president wanting to talk about water. but he should go to his epa and tell them to raise the lead levels that the standards so that we can really tackle it. in michigan, we're doing that,

the governor is doing that. but federally they are not doing what needs to be down protect our water in any way. and in michigan, i can tell you that we're going to work very hard to make sure not only my friend, senator gary peters is re-elected, but that the people of michigan come forward as we did in 2018. we just did this in 2018 with democrats winning across the board. we've kept the organization going. the focus going. i will be very involved, continue to be very involved in making the case for why this president has betrayed our workers, turned his back on michigan. just on monday he alone said no to the next generation of vehicles and technology by saying no to the electric vehicle consumer tax credit when we were negotiating the tax bill that is in front of us. which sleeves wide open for china to take that technology and those jobs. so, you know, he first didn't support the auto rescue before

he was president over and over again. i could go on and on with why he is betraying people in michigan. >> you've got a big uaw membership in michigan, obviously. medicare for all as a democratic issue, does that help or hurt with the union workers? >> well, right now i happen to believe people should have a choice. but what i think we ought to be talking about, i hope our candidates will be talking about on the stage, is not just all the ways that we want to increase opportunities for health care. the thing that we share, the value we share regardless of your proposal, we all want people to have more health care, lower costs and prescription drugs, lower costs on health care. donald trump today is trying to take away people's health care. yesterday there was a court case in the fifth circuit that ruled in a way that puts us one step closer for people with preexisting conditions, which is half the families in michigan, from losing their health care. every day he is trying to take

away people's health care. and so that's what i want to litigate in michigan. >> senator, i know that i probably shouldn't be surprised anymore by donald trump's cruelty, but his comments last night about the late congressman john dingell really, it was yet another low of lows. and what did you make of donald trump choosing to single out the late congressman last night in michigan? >> you know, i share your description of it. i think it was mean, cruel, disgusting and i wish i could say it was surprising. after hearing him speak about my friend john mccain over and over again and his disrespect, you know, it is just one more day in how he operates, which is very, very concerning. and for people in michigan who

loved, respected, honored john dingell, it is, you know, it's something that people will remember. >> all right. senator debbie stabenow, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. >> you're welcome. now we look at how this moves forward, whether it's process or strategy. philip rut ker, what a philip rucker, what are you look at? >> i want to see what nancy pelosi ends up doing in terms of bring those articles of impeachment over to the senate. she indicatesed last night that she was open to a delay in part it appears to gain leverage on the senate to force a fair trial and set fair parameters in what snore mcconnell will be putting together on the senate side. mcconnell takes the floor later this morning and we're hoping to hear from him a little bit more clarity about the kind of trial that he's designing, although as he has said earlier in the week does he not look to be an impartial juror here. he's very much going to be

acting in the interest of protecting the president. and so it's up to pelosi at this point about when she brings those articles over, which is an important procedural step and wrought a lot of precedent. because as we've said over and over again, this is only the third time that an american president has been impeached by the house. so they're sort of playing as they go along here and we'll see how it takes shape. >> all right. kurt bar dale della, from an ovt perspective, what's the process moving ahead? nancy pelosi seems to be putting a new strategy on the table, but where, then, is the trigger that gets the compelling testimony from the people that everybody wants to hear from? >> well, i really think, mika, it comes down to how democrats message this. kind of what their public relati relation strategy is going forward. if they can tie transmission of the articles of impeachment to the senate with rudy, mull sflan, pomp and bolton, they have a chance here. because pb opinion is for across

party lines they want to hear from these people. republicans did democrats a favor by talking about first-hand fact-based witnesses nonstop for the last few weeks. so there's no shortage of ammunition to use against republicans. even donald trump is on record saying he wants to have witnesses testify for his trial. he wants to be exonerated. democrats need to use trump's eagerness to be exonerated to try to force mcconnell's hand and get those witnesses to testify under oath in public view. and the last thing that they have for that to make that happen is to hold back articles of impeachment. >> all right. philip rucker and kurt bardella, thank you both for being on the show this morning. we'll be watching this all. still ahead on "morning joe," mike bloomberg tries to make the case that joe biden didn't have the experience to be president. stephanie ruhle joins us with her new interview. plus, house majority leader steny hoyer joins the conversation and we'll talk to senator tim kaine as impeachment moves over to the senate. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. te. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. you wouldn't do only half of your daily routine

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joe biden doesn't have the experience? >> he's never been a manager of

an organization. he's never run a school system. his wife actually is an educator and has good experience there. but, no, i don't think any of them -- you know, the presidency shouldn't be a training job. you get in there, you got to hit the ground running. we cannot wait. >> that was michael bloomberg going after democratic front runner and former vice president joe biden over his lack of experience. joining us now, msnbc stephanie ruhle who sat down yesterday for an exclusive interview with the former new york city mayor in his massachusetts childhood home. stephanie, tell us what is his case? what is his path? what did he say? >> you know, i know mayor bloomberg quite well before i worked at nbc. i worked at bloomberg news for five years. i know this guy. while many people have said what, is he coming out of nowhere?

where has he sfwhn wbeen? he makes the argument he's been beating trump for the last two years. two days ago steve bannon one of the architects of trump's campaign blamed bloomberg for the impeachment saying he put all that money into the 2018 midterms that flipped the lours flippi house. flipping the house got the votes to get trump impeached. it's steve bannon saying bloomberg's in the game. for anyone that says he hasn't been here, he's saying i've been here beating trump. >> the case you know well from the campaign is that he's competent, he knows thousand get thin how to get things done. but there's a human side to running for president, which is retail politics, going to a diner in iowa and new hampshire. he hasn't mastered that yet. you know him well. do you think he's got the ability to get in, get his hands dirty, roll up his sleeves and take questions for two hours at a town hall in new hampshire? >> mayor bloomberg can roll up

his sleeves and get the job done. >> right. >> can he roll up the sleeves and connect? is that remains to be seen. think about the movement that donald trump has, the movement elizabeth warren. so will someone like mayor bl k bloomberg get people nay block and because he's not taking donations, he's going to be invested in him? even if you write a $10 check, you know you're going to go out in the rain and vote for him. i don't know if he's going to find that. >> reverend al, you've spent a lot of time with mayor bloomberg. how does he connect with people? how did he connect with you? how did he connect with leaders in the civil rights movement? is he going to be able to translate that to success in california, in texas, and all the states where he's going to be campaigning? >> think when he was mayor the way he dealt with many of us was he would deal directly with the issues. he was not a hug, feel goody kind of guy. but he did deal with those

issues. many we disagreed, stop and frisk being one. but the sean bell police shooting and others, we relate and dealt with the issues. went to the family and apologized on behalf of the city. but i think that the thing that you have to be very cautious of is don't underestimate mike bloomberg. there was no way that i felt and many others in new york he could beat a sitting liberal public advocate who had won citywide for mayor in a democratic city and he was run ags republicning republican. he did win because he executed the plan and the other side faltered on their plan. i think that anyone that just dismisses him should remember he is a man in liberal democratic new york won three times, the last time he was independent. and he definitely is very focused and knows what he wants to do. now, i'm not endorsing him, i'm not endorsing anyone, i'm going to the debate tonight in l.a. right after the show. but i'm saying that for them to

just act like all he is is money, he also usually has a plan and it's empowered by the money. and i think when you're dealing with a field now, joe, that no one has really lit the country up. >> right. >> it's wide open, it's not like he's competing with somebody who's mastered retailing already in these primaries. >> stephanie, we heard mayor bloomberg talk about joe biden, made his criticism there. bloomberg a capitalist at his core. equally interesting to hear him talk about some of the other democrats running. here's what he said about the possibility of senator warren winning the democratic nomination. >> this country is in trouble. and in the last few weeks we've heard from very successful business people similar to you who have been very critical of the president suddenly say, i would never vote for president trump but i'd vote for president trump before i'd vote for

elizabeth warren. >> you'd stroh have to ask -- >> i'm asking you, this is a candidate who's saying she wants to put rules on capitalism. if this man is that dangerous, why would people sooner vote for him than her? >> i can only tell you if i were faced with elizabeth warren or donald trump, i would vote for elizabeth warren even though i don't agree with her on a lot of things. she is honest and smart and hardworking. >> steph. >> i turn to mike barnicle because think about this. i was in the state of massachusetts, your home state, mike bloomberg's childhood home, that's where elizabeth warren is from. but i know you, like me, everyone dhat tab everyone at this table who have dumped on the president in the last two years, called him a demagog, a con man have said i will vote for him over warren. what does that tell you? >> well, it's a sad diext thein of their thinking. i would think that they're

thinking she's going to kill capitalism, blah, blah, blah. but at the bottom line they like the tax bill. they're afraid of, you know, her tax bill, stuff like that. they're a bunch of babies. >> but does elizabeth warren want mike bloomberg's endorsement or money if she gets the nomination? >> absolutely she would take it, absolutely. >> hey, reverend, i want to ask you -- >> what do you think. >> i'm sorry. reverend, i wanted to ask you, there seems to be a difference, and i haven't quite got my arms around it yet, between how you do hear that a lot. man, i would never vote for elizabeth warren. but, we've seen polls that have shown that bernie sanders for some reason, who calls himself -- ease an avowed socialist and supports most same things that elizabeth warren supports. i just never quite understood the difference between those two, why bernie sanders actually does better in head to head

matchups. certainly in the polls we've seen over the past couple weeks with donald trump than elizabeth warren despite the fact that they have -- they share a lot of the same ideological stances. >> i think two things play in. some is misogyny that she's a woman and they can accept bernie sanders as a man saying things that they will not accept this bright, very serious-minded woman. secondly, i think it's that they do not think in many cases that bernie could ever be president. and elizabeth warren started rising in the polls and became a feasible candidate so they took it a little more seriously. i think those are the two factors. but when you have a president that thinks women ought to be in the kitchen washing dishes, it's not surprising that they don't take women seriously, which is why we've got to push back on that. >> well, it's not surprising a lot of women stepped up in the midterms and made it so this

president could be impeached. stephanie ruhle, thank you very much. we're going to be watching your full exclusive interview with former mayor michael bloomberg this morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. and still ahead, during last night's impeachment vote, house speaker nancy pelosi invoked the late congressman elijah cummings saying we did all we could ar elijah. coming up, we'll talk to the congressman's widow who is now running for his congressional seat. morning joel be right back. s c seat. morning joel be right back. l . . fall back!

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♪ welcome back to "morning joe." two years ago women across this country had had enough. they had heard enough. they had seen enough. they had felt enough. they were fed up, so they

stepped up in droves. they ran for office and won. they flipped seats in trump country and now they just voted to impeach him. many would argue this is on the president and that he did this to himself. looking virginia's elaine luiria whose second congressional district voted for trump in 2016 before elected her in 2018. elaine voted to impeach. also from virginia, former cia officer abigail spanberger who voted to impeach. there's former prosecutor jennifer wexton who won a seat held by republicans for 40 years. she voted to impeach. from florida, debbie powell, an immigrant to america, debbie voted to impeach. so did donna shalala who witnessed the impeachment of president bill clinton as a member of his cabinet and voted to impeach. you've heard the name mikey

sherrill on this show. mikie has four kids, stop right there. mikie voted for impeachment while representing a district that trump won. in pennsylvania, mary gaze scanlan, an education and human rights advocate, she voted to impeach. so did air force veteran krissy haul houlihan, the daughter of holocaust survivors, she voted to impeach. susan voted to impeach. in minnesota, angie craig worked two jobs to help put herself through college. angie voted to impeach. sharice davids of kansas became one of the first two native american women to serve in congress, and sharice voted to impeach. kendra horn flipped oklahoma's fifth district for democrats in an upset win and kendra was

there to vote to impeach. ann kirkpatrick of arizona streeted to impeach. she represents one of the most competitive districts in arizona and is being targeted by republicans in next year's election. abby finkenau rirks and cindy axne. trump won both districts in 2016, abby and cindy voted to impeach. illinois's lauren underwood is the first person of color and first millennial to represent her community in congress. in 2012 lucy mcbath lost her 17-year-old son to gun violence. she stepped up. in 2018 she won a seat in congress. last night lucy voted to impeach. we spoke this week with alyssa slotkin, the former cia analyst. she knows her vote for impeachment could cost her her job. alyssa showed courage and did it

anyway. she voted to impeach. also from michigan, haley stevens, whose vote for impeachment was met almost immediately by an opposition super pac. hailey is good with that, voting to impeach. democrats torres, a lawyer who narrowly flipped new mexico's second congressional lawyer. she voted to impeach. katie porter, california. a single, working mom, three kids. katie voted to impeach. president trump says it is a witch hunt. he says it is all his enemies after him. these women would offer a different reason for this stain on his presidency. the president is, it is arguable, did this to himself and these women stepped up to push back and make a place for themselves in history. we'll be back in two minutes with much more coverage of this historic moment.

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people behind us in the republican party. >> we used to care about democracy. >> i know the party of ronald reagan used to. >> crazy nancy pelosi's house democrats. >> the moral courage of the house democrats. >> by the way, it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. >> on this vote the ayes are 229. the nays are 198. the president is one, article two is adopted. >> here we go at 8:30 p.m. last night on his 1,032nd day in office, a former reality tv host and the current occupant of the white house became the third u.s. president to be impeached in congress since america's republic way founded 240 years ago. the charge? abuse of power. it was confirmed on a mostly party line vote, by those

defined more by excessive volume than persuasive wit. the next article of impeachment was obstruction of congress with the legislative majority against impeaching the president proving in a most historic way that donald j. trump was tragically wrong in his bizarre belief that article two of the constitution gave him the power to do whatever he wanted. the checks and balances provided by madison's constitution and the massive electoral landslide last year proved otherwise. it was many of those newly-elected women who represented trump districts whose votes assured that history would not blindly looked past a president abusing his power to demand campaign help from foreign leaders. as that unfolded in washington, donald trump was in a safe space miles away, a rally room in michigan packed with supporters and fuelled by the suspension of

disbelief. there the president talked about toilets, lied about trade, railed against critics including a sitting congresswoman and the husband she lost less than one year ago. yes, he attacked a dead man, a beloved public servant, a person that trump suggested is now burning in hell. at the end of the day the republican party, the party of lincoln, marched lock step behind donald trump. so here we are, thursday, december 19th, the morning after. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mark barnacle. former aide to the gorge w. bush white house and state department's elise jordan. national security expert, columnist at "usa today" and author of the book "the death of expertise," tom nichols. historian, author of "the soul of america" and rogers professor of the presidency at vanderbilt university, john meacham.

he is an nbc news and msnbc contributor. >> willie, why don't you hold up some of the newspapers? take us around and show us what the morning papers are saying about the historic event last night. >> well, for a president who is deeply concerned, as we all know, about the way he is covered in the press, this is what he is waking up to today. every newspaper in the country, "usa today", the "wall street journal", "the new york times", and you go to any local paper around the country as well, his local new york tabloid, impeached. the "new york post" focussed on nancy pelosi but that's what the president is waking up to. the united states congress made a statement that it is not okay that a president, any president cannot do what donald trump did, and they voted on two articles of impeachment to make that statement. on the other side of it, republicans one by one got up and didn't argue the facts. they argued the process. they conceded the facts effectively, that what happened is what happened, but maybe that it wasn't a crime or it is not

impeachable. so tacitly saying to themselves and to the country, this is okay. i hope that's not the statement they meant to make, but it is the one they made by voting nay on these two articles of impeachment. >> so, you know, just pointing out that democrats flipped 41 seats in 2018. a lot of them were women. elaine luria, jennifer wexton, debbie powell, donna shalala, mikie sherrill, these are women that stepped up and made a difference, in a way the self--inflicted wound by the president losing in the mid terms and these women voting to impeach him. as we said the first article against president trump "abuse of power" was adopted shortly after 8:30 last night. the second article, "obstruction of congress" came less than 20 minutes later. two democrats voted against the first article, three voted against the second. republican-turned independent

justin amash voted to impeach on both counts while congresswoman tulsi gabbard voted present on both of here is house speaker nancy pelosi calling the votes and keeping her caucus in line. >> on this vote the ayes are 230, the nays are 197. present is one. article one is adopted. on this vote the ayes are 229, the nays are 198, present is one. article two is adopted. >> john meachem, so much to talk about starting with nancy pelosi who has to be put up now if you look -- if you look at what she did in her first term as speaker of the house, being responsible for passing the affordable care

act, keeping her party in line in a way that few speakers have other than, let's say, tip o'neil and sam rayburn. she certainly is in the top of that class of powerful speakers, is she not? >> absolutely. i think she will be spoken of in those terms and not least because she's a terrific democratic leader, upper case "d", but she has proven to be a defender of democratic values with a lower case "d", and has put the country above party which is not -- tragically is not as universal a value as we would like it to be and as we see. but she's -- what i love about speaker pelosi is, you know, i think i'm right about this. when she was a kid, her job was to keep her father's favorite

book, mayor of baltimore. she would keep track of the political horse tradings so that he would know which horses to trade or which not to trade. and we are seeing anew for all of our disdain for politicians or our effective disdain for the give and take of politics, you need a master of the give and take of politics to make this work if it is going to work. speaker pelosi embodies, let's make this work. >> you know, willie, this is such a self-inflicted wound by donald trump and, you know, we have talked about it for sometime. all of us knowing donald over the course of ten, 11, 12 years, he could have chosen a different path. we said so from the very beginning. you had people like robert gates and general haden and others who worked in democratic administrations saying at the beginning of the administration we only have one president at a time. we have to do everything that we

can to make him a success, and, yes, he -- he had a spotty background, to say the least, but then again some did lbj who in his first 20 years in congress voted against every civil rights act including anti-lynching laws before in 157 turning around and changing his votes. by the mid 1960s passing the most sweeping civil rights legislation in 100 years, since the civil war. donald trump could have used the presidency anyway he chose and, unfortunately, he -- he showed us all the way he was going in that inaugural speech, talking about american carnage. well, that carnage has come to washington, d.c. it has come to our political institutions, and now it is overtaken donald j. trump. >> it is him. >> yes, i think the great hope,

which sound quaint now, when donald trump was elected that he would be the businessman he talked about being during the campaign, the deal maker he talked about being done the campaign, which is to say he had more in common with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer and like them had relationships than he did with mitch mcconnell or somebody like that and you hoped he would go in and make deals and be the guy he projected all of these years. instead, he dug in deeper with his base. he was a fighter on all of this stuff rather than conceding some of it. >> still ahead on "morning joe," key voices from both chambers. house majority leader steny hoyer is our guest. plus senator tim kaine on what comes next. [ applause ] thank you.

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almost half of voters according to new nbc news "wall street journal" poll said they will vote against president trump in 2020. according to the poll, 48% of voters said they are certain to vote against trump in next year's general election. 34% said they plan to vote for the president's reelection, and 18% of voters said it would depend on the democratic nominee. those numbers for trump are worse than president obama and his reelection prospects. >> by a long shot. >> heading into the 2012 presidential contest. meanwhile, 50% said they feel very uncomfortable with trump when it comes to the 2020 election. 28% said they were enthusiastic, and 12% said they were comfortable with the president. so let's bring in the house editor for the political report, dave wasserman. dave, what do you think of those numbers? >> well, mika, the reality is

democrats need to do even better than that to beat trump. it is possible that donald trump could -- could lose the popular vote by four points or more and still win the electoral college. look, democrats can make the case that they had no choice but to impeach him because anything else would have been an abdication of constitutional responsibility. you know, that is a very reasonable argument, but the reality, mika, that i see is that this is not going well politically for democrats in the key battleground states that are going to decide the election like wisconsin where we saw a marquette poll that put support for convicting and removing trump from office at 40% to 52% opposed. >> so you look at that 48% number where 48% say they definitely are going to vote against donald trump, in normal times that would be a deadly number. president obama's, again, only at 37% at this point in his first term. what does that number need to

get up to for you to start saying, okay, now democrats are in the game? does it need to be 51%, 52%? >> i think that's reasonable, 51%, 52%. president trump's win number is probably 47% in my estimation. keep in mind he won his first term with 46.1% and losing the popular vote by 2.1%. the reality for democrats is they're only continuing to add support in california, which is utterly useless to them. they're continuing to cut the margin in texas but probably not by enough to make it a key tipping point state in 2020. if i really had to narrow it down, i would continue to say that the two most valuable states, the two closest to the tipping point are wisconsin and arizona. joe, i was in wisconsin last week talking to a lot of dairy farmers in green bay. even the few democrats in that room told me that impeachment was simply not on the minds of people in their communities. they didn't see it affecting their daily lives, and that even though tariffs were hitting them

badly that voters weren't making the connection to donald trump's responsibility for their economic polite. democrats need to spend money convincing these voters that trump is hurting them on particular issues that affect their lives in order to move them against trump, and right now instead what you see is tom steyer and mike bloomberg who are kind of spending their money on personal vanity tours. >> dave wasserman, thank you. up next, house majority leader steny hoyer and sen ton tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. e conversation "morning joe" is back in a moment t tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. o tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. r tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. a tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. t tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. o tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. r tim kaine joins the conversation. "morning joe" is back in a moment. test e on test e mike bloomberg's never been afraid of tough fights,

the ones that make a true difference in people's lives. and mike's won them, which is important right this minute, because if he could beat america's biggest gun lobby, helping pass background check laws and defeat nra backed politicians across this country, beat big coal, helping shut down hundreds of polluting plants and beat big tobacco, helping pass laws to save the next generation from addiction. all against big odds you can beat him. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. (loud fan noise) (children playing) ♪ (music building) experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment.

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engine yo the president may refuse to comply, may refuse lawful process, may coerce an ally, may cheat in an election because he's the president. our party, you do not up hold our constitution, you do not up hold your oath of office, i will tell you this, i will up hold mine. i will vote to impeach donald trump. i yield back. >> on december 7th, 1941 a horrific act happened in the united states, and it is one that president roosevelt said, "this is a date that will live in infamy." today, december the 18th, 2019 is another date that will live in infamy. >> it is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections, tht to our next election and our democracy leaves us no principle . that the democrats have afforded

this president. >> all right. >> can we just wash our hands? >> can we? >> of that speech? >> just wash our hands of that. >> try. a little compare and contrast between the democrats and the republican arguments yesterday. >> we didn't even show the influenced moment of silence we saw on the floor. >> no. joining us the majority leader of the u.s. house of representatives, democratic congressman steny hoyer of maryland. >> steny, it is always great to talk to you. >> good morning. >> you heard everything yesterday, donald trump being compared to jesus, democrats compared to pontius pilate, joseph stalin and, of course, those who bombed and killed american troops at pearl harbor. tell me, is that about as -- in all of your years in congress, is that about as low as any debate has gone? >> in some respects.

unfortunately we've had, as you know, joe, many low points, but this was one of the lower points. this was an extraordinarily serious day. i think, frankly, both sides articulated that this was a sad day. not everybody said it was a sad day, but i think that was the one common thread that both sides believed. it was a day, however, of responsibility. it was a day where members who had raised their hand and sworn to protect the constitution of the united states and our democracy felt they had no choice in light of the president's actions, in light of the president trying to dragoon a foreign head of government to participate in the american elections. it put our national security at risk and the integrity of our elections at risk, and i think that you saw some extraordinary courage on the democratic side of people who believe it is an extraordinary political risk for them to have voted for articles

of impeachment but felt it was their duty. i was very proud of our members. as you know, we did not whip or urge a single member to vote one way or the other. they came to this conclusion based upon the evidence that was brought forward by so many witnesses, many of homeworked for and weof whom worked for the president himself. >> i retweeted a stack of bipartisan bills, about a four-foot stack of bipartisan bills that have already passed through the house of representatives and died on mitch mcconnell's desk. you have done the house -- you all have passed two more pieces of legislation. i want to ask if those will be signed into law. you passed a spending bill that averts a government shutdown and, of course -- >> right. >> -- you passed trade deal or a

trade deal -- >> we're going to pass it today, joe. >> you're going to pass it today. >> yeah. >> but a trade bill that went through ways and means a few days ago, and republicans and democrats alike voted together unanimously to pass it out of committee. so things are getting done in the house. you are getting things done every week. the question is, is mitch mcconnell going to kill those bills always well? >> well, joe, i hope not because, as you point out, from the very beginning -- of course, opening up the government was our first focus, but then we have passed a lot of very substantive legislation for the people, and the legislation that we said we were going to pass. it gives lie to the assertion that we have been distracted by impeachment. what republicans don't admit, democrats overwhelmingly voted on three different occasions in 2017, 2018 and as recently as

july 2019 not to move ahead with articles of impeachment, all the while passing very substantive legislation, 275 pieces, over 400 bills that are consistent with our pledge to bring drug prices down. we passed a prescription drug bill which we think the president should sign because it very much is along the line of his saying we need to negotiate to bring prices down for people. we passed a bill to protect preexisting conditions, which the republicans say they want to protect, which mcconnell hasn't taken up. we passed substantial reforms of voting, campaign finance, redistricting reform. we passed just this week, as you point out, the budget with no drama, no threat of shutdown. i certainly hope the president will sign that bill. we have been doing our legislative business while at the same time feeling it our duty to protect the constitution

and our democracy. >> leader hoyer, it is willie geist. good to see you this morning. >> hello, willie. >> speaker please said after the vote last night she would not send the article of impeachment to the senate until she could be assured majority leader mcconne mcconnell would run a fair trial. a two participator for it. was it a wise decision by speaker pelosi and, number two, what would a fair trial in the senate look like to you? >> well, willie, as you may know, under the senate rules the members of the united states senate will be sworn in as jurors in effect and they will all make a pledge to be impartial. >> right. >> now, in a political process -- and this is a political process as well as a quasi judicial process, it is hard to expect all of these members to be impartial. but in light of what mitch mcconnell has done over the last few weeks, in effect sitting at the defense table, cooperating

with the defense, apparently strategizing with the defense, it is very hard to believe that mitch mcconnell can raise his right hand and pledge to be impartial. so on terms of when we send the bills over, number one -- let me point out there's some practical issues here. as i understand it under the rules, once we send that bill to -- or the articles of impeachment to the senate, they will have to take that up immediately and do nothing else. we would like to make sure that they get the budget passed, which we sent them on tuesday. we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to take up the usmca. so i think first of all the speaker will be talking to both mr. schumer and mr. mcconnell about that practical aspect of it, and then the second part is the part you point out, willie, in terms of is it going to be a fair trial, is there a -- are we sending it to simply a deep,

dark hole in which the senators will not or the senate will not in a fair and impartial way as they will pledge consider whether or not the facts put our democracy and our elections at risk. >> as you point out, leader -- majority leader mcconnell has said, "i am not an impartial juror." he said it on the record in interviews. he said, "yes, i am working with the white house and, yes, i want this to be quick, i know we have the votes." with that in mind it is hard to imagine a world where what you and the democrats are talking about ever exist. with that in mind, is there a chance the articles of impeachment never go to the senate? >> i don't think that's the case. i hope it is not the case. the founders set up this process, probably one of the two most important acts that the congress of the united states can perform, one, of course, sending people to war to the point of a spear and, secondly,

determining that a president of the united states has broken their oath of office to defend our democracy and our constitution and our laws. so i hope that the process will proceed in an orderly fashion because that's what the founders had in mind. but it is hard to believe that mitch mcconnell will be able to raise his hand and take the oath that the senate rules require of the senators sitting as a jury on this impeachment case. >> congressman, let's talk about the $1.37 trillion spending bill that a deal was reached on. what did democrats get out of the bill? "the new york times" reported that the white house was specific on some language they wanted included. what did the white house want out of the bill? >> well, the white house, of course, is focused on one issue and one issue only and that's the wall, and so they wanted

language in the bill that allowed them to -- or they didn't want language in the bill that precluded them from transferring funds as they have done in the past. now, of course, it has been a court case that said they transferred money inconsistent with the law, but having said that what we got out of that i think is, first of all, the government is funded. there will not be a shutdown. the government being shut down is not only bad for government employees, many of whom i represent, but it is bad for the entire country and the image of america of not being able to run itself in an orderly fashion, the leader of the free world. it is harmful to us around the world. so we also received significant funding for domestic priorities in terms of children, in terms of health and in terms of security that we needed to get done. >> yeah. >> house majority leader steny hoyer, thank you very much for coming on the show. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you, stenny, so much. still ahead, yesterday a white house staff apparently delivered to democratic senators both trump's angry leader to pelosi along with a giant 16 by 12 christmas card. >> okay. >> we will ask senator tim kaine about that. he joins the conversation next on "morning joe." ♪

♪ savannah guthrie situate a gun savannah guthrie situate a gun a president who abuses power. and obstructs justice. the impeachment of donald j. trump.

he was supposed to protect our constitution. not trample on it by asking foreign countries to undermine our democracy for his personal political gain. trump broke his oath to america. members of the house and senate must now do their constitutional duty. if you agree, sign our petition at need to impeach.com need to impeach is responsible for the content of this advertising.

♪ today senate majority mitch mcconnell will take to the senate floor and is expected to address the democrat's impeachment process, which he calls the most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history. joining us now, one of his senate colleagues, members of the armed services, foreign relations and budget committees, democratic senator tim kaine of virginia.

>> of course, senator, how rich it is that he says it is one of the least thorough in history and yet -- >> and we could slow it down and really go through stuff. >> it was donald trump who worked as hard as he could to keep the most important witnesses, the most important documents, the most essential facts, the most relevant facts out of the house inquiry. and now after doing that, after obstructing the investigation, after saying that the white house and republicans wouldn't participate in the investigation, they now fault the investigation for not being thorough. how does anything change in the senate when you -- >> joe, you can't -- >> yeah. >> you can't make this stuff up. you're exactly right. i wish the entire american public could see the letter that the trump administration gave to all of the witnesses that were asked to testify to congress, basically telling them, you work for us, it is our position that you should not cooperate with this investigation.

you can ignore a congressional subpoena. nothing in the letter says, if you do cooperate you will be protected from retaliation. there's sort of an unspoken retaliation threat in the letter, and it was given to all of the witnesses and they wouldn't produce documents. so the most highly relevant documents about why was aid withheld from ukraine, they refused to produce it. they have stonewalled the process and now they're claiming that the process wasn't thorough. you can't make this stuff up. >> so in '99 when bill clinton was impeached i was in congress. i saw the entire process. and, yes, there were democrats saying some of the same things that republicans are saying now and there were republicans saying some of the same things that democrats were saying back then and now, a lot of hypocrisy to go around. but i must say, it has been stunning to see both the majority leader of the united states senate and the chairman of the judiciary committee say they're going to be partial

jurors, they're going to be unfair. they're not going to listen to the facts. they're not going to read the evidence. they're not going to give america a fair trial. >> joe, as you know, the first thing we do when this matter starts in the senate is we take an additional oath. we have all taken the oath of office, but we have to take an additional oath and promise to be impartial. and so when leader mcconnell or senator graham go on tv and look in the camera and say, i'm not going to be an impartial juror, what are we supposed to have? like a laugh track when they take an oath and promise to be impartial when they've told the world they're not going to be? i think it will be a moment like when the tobacco execs raised their hand and said tobacco was not addictive. when these guys raise their hands to take the oath to be impartial when they told the world they're not going to be, it will be an epical moment that

will be remembered for a long time. >> senator kaine, al sharpton. >> reverend sharpton, sure. >> when he was impeached last night, it certainly gave a question to his credibility as president as he has lived with throughout his business career, which many predict -- including me -- that will make him totally unhinged in the campaign. how will the democrats deal with a president that will be desperate to win to try to vindicate himself where there will be no holds barred at all on what he will pull? secondly, what is the risk of ms. pelosi, speaker pelosi going too far in trying to negotiate the terms that she would hand the articles of impeachment over to the senate, to where it looks like they are overplaying the hands of the democrats or it

plays into those in the republican party that's saying this is all about a political vendetta and not about the rule of law? >> reverend sharpton, two powerful questions. i am very worried about your first question, not only about what the president might do on the campaign trail but what he's going to do as commander in chief. i mean he -- when his back is against the wall, he can do things that are very dangerous. will he go too far at a rally, encouraging his supporters to treat journalists or others badly? we see how that can work out. will he blunder us into a war we shouldn't be in to do distract people's attention? the biggest single thing i'm worried about right now is what this president does as the president when his back is against the wall, and so we have to as members of the article one branch put up appropriate guardrails. that's been tough to do, but not impossible. there are republicans who are worried about some of these -- not within the impeachment trial, but some of the steps he

might take. for example, last week all of my republican colleagues joined me in a unanimous vote in the foreign relations commission to prohibit the president from withdrawing from nato without senate confirmation of that. so i am getting republican votes on some what i call guardrails against bad behavior. with respect to speaker pelosi, i don't think speaker pelosi can or should or is planning to dictate terms to the senate. the senate gets to set the procedure. she is saying i will give it to you, i will apoipoint the prosecutors as soon as you decide on the rules. they could work out the rules in an afternoon and she can send it over. if she has to appoint the prosecutors, she can say what are the rules because it may affect who she appoints. as joe correctly said when the

shoe was on the other foot in the '90s when clinton was president, the republicans may have said different things, the democrats may have said different things. the question is what does the public deserve of something of this magnitude? they deserve something fair and complete and basic documents that were relevant to the question were not produced by the white house. we should have them. basic witnesses that refused to testify, the american public should hear what they have to say. >> senator kaine, i would like to ask a question of tim kaine, the missionary. here is the question. in this season, in a few days we are about to celebrate the birth of a child born to a homeless couple in bethlehem. we have been surrounded for a decade by a political party whose one sole intent seems to be to deprive millions of

americans of health care coverage. >> yes, yes. >> that same political party worked feverishly to throw people off of food stamps a few weeks ago. so given their behavior, given the demonization of language in politics today, the level of cruelty that we have seen from the president of the united states and many of the people in the party that surrounds him. what do you tell americans about the future of their country? >> well, and let me add another dimension to it. remember after the birth of jesus his family had to become refugees to flee violence and go into another country to seek refuge. just as people are seeking refuge in our country from violence and we're trying to stop them or demonize them for doing so, this isn't a story that's 2,000 years old. the whole thing is a story that's about today, that is about today. so what do you say about the

future of the country? so since you started us off with the season, let me tell you what i've been thinking about. i have been thinking about the book of job. job went through a lot of punishment and trials, and he wondered, i've been a good person, is it because the universe is random? his neighbor said, hey, bad things are happening to you, it must be because you are a bad person. but the reader of the story knows it is neither of those things. job is being tested to see whether he will stay true to his principles. even though he doesn't like the suffering he is undergoing he won't let go of his principles, and the end of the story as you know is everything that was lost to him was restored. we are being tested as americans to see whether we will hold to principles. is a person above the law? is free press no longer important? is the judiciary no -- independent judiciary no longer important? can you kick people around because they're of the wrong religion? we are being tested to see whether we will hold on to or let go of our principles?

i believe that there's enough people in this country who are going to hold on to our principles that we will get to a day where we will be sadder and wiser but what has been lost to us will be restored. that's the way i'm looking at the moment that this country is going through right now. >> all right. senator tim kaine. thank you very much. >> absolutely guys. >> that really means a lot. at this rally in michigan last night, president trump invoked his 13-year-old son's name as part of an attack on senator and 2020 candidate elizabeth warren. >> crazy pocahontas goes to the middle of central park or whatever, she is in manhattan. and, people, i could have -- i could have barron trump go into central park and he would get a crowd. he's 13. he would get a bigger crowd. >> the president's referencing

his 13-year-old son to make a political point at the rally last night, but you will recall that he was apparently livid when one of the democrat's impeachment witnesses invoked his son's name as a word play to make a point during her testimony earlier this month, including first lady melania trump that tweeted that a minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics. that's rich. >> willie, i haven't looked at twitter lately, but has she tweeted any complaints about the use of his name last night for political reasons. >> the president in front of thousands of people? >> i don't think so. and he he wwas making his usual point about crowd size, a boring thing. different using your child's name, so i'll grant him that. he's talking about crowd sizes as he sweats through a two-hour rally in battle creek, michigan, while being impeached in washington. that's the big story. up next, house speaker nancy

pelosi honored the late congressman elijah cummings yesterday. his widow, maya cummings, joins us next on her bid to fill his seat. k keep it with "morning joe." ♪ what'd we decide on the flyers again? uh, "fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance." i think we're gonna swap over to "over seventy-five years of savings and service." what, we're just gonna swap over? yep. pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over? that's right. instead of all this that i've already-? yeah. what are we gonna do with these? keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. geico. over 75 years of savings and service. aveeno® with prebiotic striple oat complex balances skin's microbiome. so skin looks like this and you feel like this.

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one person not present with us here today, our former chairman of the -- our oversight committee chair, our north star, elijah cummings. he said when the history books are wring about this era, i want them to show i was among those in the house of recommendations that stood up to lawlessness. when we're dancing with the angels, the question will be what did you to make sure we kept our democracy in stack. we did all that we could and we passed the two articles of impeachment. >> that is exactly who and what i was thinking about as the impeachment went over.

and now maya cummings is running for the seat that was formally filled by her husband, elijah. the last time we had you on the show you were announcing your candidacy. you were on the eve of having a double mastecomy. it went really well and you look amazing, first let's talk about what we saw happen, the impeitch impitch -- impeachment of president trump. >> i just kept thinking about elijah and i want to athank you to speaker pelosi and all of the house democrats that uplifted his memory in this time.

i can't tell you how moving it was to hear speaker pelosi not just in her remarks, but in the post impeachment remarks calling him the north star. he stood for truth, justice, integrity. he today against lawlessness and tire a tyranny, and he did everything he could to basically stand up to trump and seek the truth for the american people. he believed that we needed to preserve our democracy so our children could have a country worthy of their promise. and last night's result was absolutely what he would have stood for and by. >> and now you are running for his seat. what will your platform be in

the light of your history and connection with the district and elijah's history exaland connec with the district. >> he was a product of the segregated south. the surrounding regions as well was a former slave state. i am fourth generation slavery, and we bonded over the need for an inclusive and diverse society. one that really embraces all people. and so we are at a moment in history, i call it our zero moment, where we have a man sitting in the white house, certainly a man who has been held in contempt of congress, he has pursued corruption, but he also sought to divide people against each other. to divide people by race, by ethnicity, gender, sexuality,

state, immigrant status, and we deserve better. we're at a particular moment in history where we can sink or we can continue to rise and lift up everyone in this country. and i am dedicated to making sure that i pursue an inclusive democracy, one worthy of our children, and one that embraces all people. so i shared that dream with eli jah. i'm pursuing it now, issues important for the kitchen table of all americans whether or not that is health care, education, economic security and prosperity for all, that is what i'm pursuing, that's what i'm standing for, and please if you want to know visit mayaforcongress.com. >> maya, yesterday, to the

detriment in my opinion, it has been under assault, the affordable care act, since obama left office, what do you think will be the legislative agenda that they push at the same time holding this president accountable. i legislate, you agitate, and there needs to be an agenda of the impeachment to protect a lot of american that's can suffer in this period. >> reverend sharpton, you're right, they have done everything they can to take away life saving health care for the american people.

they're standing in the way and seeking to under mine life saving access to health care. the dcs are standing for access and pushing and agenda to make sure that the american people will experience relief. they are passing the lower drug costs. allowing medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drug so that americans don't have to suffer a skyrocketing prescription drug costs. this bill would lower prescription drug costs for americans to the tune of, i think $5 billion or $10 billion in the space of ten years. we need to realize that even as the democratics were pursuing impeachment, they're also pushing forth an agenda that --

get this, republicans in the senate and donald trump are standing in the way of lower drug costs for americans. what the american people need to realize is that republicans in the senate and drumptrump are n your friends. they're the enemy of your household and your health, they're not even seeking to move that bill or to bring relief for americans, it's important to realize that we need to take this fight to the ballot box in november of 2020 and make sure that we turn that white house blue and flip that senate. that is the only way the american people will get the relief they need. >> i just want to thank you for your sharing your journey, encouraging women to take preventive care. sharing it online, talking about

it, that is really helpful and generous. thank you, very good to see you. >> thank you. >> one more thing. before we wrap up, congress's year end spending bill bans the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21. trump is expected to sign it, it includes cigarettes and e cigarettes. it was introduced by senator mitch mcconnell and senator mccain. it is needed now more than ever as we graping with the youth e-cigarette epidemic. that does it for us on this moe m -- momentous day. >>