i just have to get a hold, to get over this. >> that's it for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning, at msnbc world headquarters in new york, it is 6:00 in the east, 3:00 out west and here is the latest. what happens now? new questions about what is next in the president's impeachment case, especially the chances of a speedy trial. >> and what we're talking about now is someone who is morally abusive and a dangerous way. >> trump fights back, after a prominent christian magazine argued he should be removed from office. new light shed on the president's relationship with vladimir putin. did the russian leader plant a seed that blossomed in that phone call with the president of ukraine? >> the first daughter on defense. when asked about how the president is handling life after

impeachment. >> we start with president trump overnight, signing two spending packages, totaling $1.4 trillion. averting a government shutdown. the white house says the president signed the bills aboard air force one late last night on his way to mar-a-lago for the holidays. but as the president wakes up in sunny south florida this morning, back in washington, a cloud of uncertainty remains over what happens next in the impeachment battle. here is ivanka trump in a new interview. >> i think he sees it for what it is, which is really just raw partisan politics. >> on capitol hill, the impeachment showdown intensifies. the two chambers of congress caught in a bitter standoff as lawmakers head home for the holidays. and the house speaker nancy pelosi is holding impeachment in limbo saying she has no intention of sending the articles to the senate until their process is laid out. and in the senate, deadlocked between the republican and

democratic leaders feuding over what they think the trial of donald trump should look like. let's go to nbc's hans nichols traveling with the president this holiday in south florida. he is in west palm beach, on hazard pay duty out there. what's the white house's strategy during this impasse? >> reporter: well, if you look at just the white house, it appears to be to ignore what is happening and not really respond on a day-to-day basis. you saw the president last night at that signing ceremony staying on message. they're at joint base andrews not weighing in to impeachment. not engaging with his critics. now later on in the evening, he did respond on twitter, and there is always that distinction, you see this so much on capitol hill, between what the white house is doing, officially, and what the president's rhetoric is, and the official moments and then what his twitter feed and his campaign rallies are like it. is almost two separate tracts now. they like the advantages of that because at times the president can appear presidential. and other times, he can get down there and fight with democrats, and try to rally up his base.

but so far, it seems that they have this idea that they're really not going to engage until it gets transmitted to the senate. now, we did have a tweet from the president yesterday saying that nancy pelosi who is now guilty of a quid pro quo and that she should be impeached but that is the president being a little rhetorical. >> on the democratic strategy here, seems to be, to hope that public opinion will push either the president or mitch mcconnell to have to call these witnesses. >> yes. >> is the white house worried about the idea here that the president might be the unstable actor here? he might be the one who breaks first on the question of witnesses? >> oh, potentially, but look, we know that there is no, that there is no daylight between mitch mcconnell and president trump. and mitch mcconnell seems to be chuckling at this strategy, not understanding it for, professing to be baffled by the house doing something that he doesn't really, or that he wants them to do, which is not send him articles of impeachment. so he, when he was on the floor in the last few days, he has been pretty clear that he

doesn't see the political wisdom of this strategy. now, that could be a bluff on mcconnell's part. you're always right that the president is the wildcard on, this because as he always says, he is the team me, he is the team of one, and he is his own political strategist, his own communications director, his own press secretary, so he could call an audible, but right now, we seem to have this situation where they're at a stalemate, and they seem to be staring each other down. >> i'm old enough to remember when the president wanted witnesses to come. he thought it was important to clear his name in a bigger way than just having a speedy trial. is it still possible that the president changes his mind here and he pushes mcconnell towards witnesses? >> well, potentially, but you have to sort of delineate which witnesses you're talking about, right? the president wants to call hunter biden and joe biden and wants to relit late the burisma aspect of what he says he was asking the ukrainians to look into. democrats want his actual staff members and the president and his attorneys have been very

clear, they believe those conversations are privileged and executive privilege although they haven't invoked it or a spirit of absolute immunity that hasn't been quite tested in front of the courts. the four witnesses that senate democrats want to call, those are central to the president, and the praez president in the past has talked about not just talking about protecting himself but preserving the presidency. and whether or not he is preserving the presidency, that's a different matter but that's the rhetoric he is wrapping this in. >> with the impeachment talk going on, there is governing going on in washington, the house and senate passed a $1.4 trillion spending bill, they sent it to the president and he signed it. what is in this thing? >> well he signed that portion at night, right? this is the overall government spending part. he did that on the plane, as you mentioned in the intro. what he did a victory lap on is the defense department. 738 billion. that is a record as the president said. he is touting that. that didn't include parental leave for 12 weeks, which is a democratic priority.

look, the president almost sounded like santa claus at times last night, enumerating all of the things that are in there, tank, f-35s, destroyers, new four class aircraft carriers and the president sending a strong signal he believes in defense sending, criticizing his predecessor and almost president george w. busch a republican for what he says it is so depleted, talking about how the pentagon was completely depleted, didn't have enough ammunition. so you see, that he is there at joint base andrews, it was a pretty, as my producer, the term he used for it is staid affair, it didn't have a campaign rally feel and sometimes before the military, the president can lapse into, but he stayed pretty much on gypt and wished the troops happy holidays and merry christmas. >> talking about scripted presidential speakers, we know the speaker of the house invited the president to come deliver the president of the union, the day after the iowa caucus. it could be in the middle of the

impeachment trial. how does that play out? is the white house gaining out the possibility that the president may be addressing the nation while he is being impeached by the same body? >> drama a moment of high drama. the white house is obviously gaming out scenarios. you remember last year the invitation was tendrd by pelosi and revoked because the government was shut down and this time the white house was quick to accept right away but we don't have the date. and you don't know who will show up. supreme court justices tend to show up wearing their robes. potentially senators. potentially house impeachment managers. you could have prosecutors. you could have the jury and the judge, all listening to the president from the very place where speaker pelosi brought down the gavel and sbeefrped the president on two articles. we sigh it so often during the trump administration, it leaves it short, but this one, i don't

think people should set their tivos for and stay up late and i probably dated myself by use can tivo. >> i think tivo still works. hans nichols in south florida, thank you very much. overseas now, new details on charges filed in britain against an american woman the wife of a u.s. diplomat, ann sacoolas now says she will not return voluntarily to the u.k. to face trial. she is accused of killing a teenager in a wrong way crash in central england last august. she says it was an accident. nbc's matt bradley joins us from london. matt, what are we learning about the charges and how is the teenager's family reacting? >> well, the family isov overjod by this news even as they process the tragedy of harry's death. and that was four months ago. and sky news caught harry's family just at the moment when they heard that ann sacoolas would be charged with the death

of their son. it was a very emotional moment. take a listen to that. >> that's what we've been waiting for. >> so as you can see, lots of tears there. you know, for the dunn family, this charge is in many ways, it is all they have been asking for, they have been desperate for the british government to press their claims with the u.s. government, to charge sacoolas with a crime and begin extradition procedures against her. over the past four months, the dunns have really struggled for this, and at times, they even accused the british government of not doing enough. we have to remember, these are two ordinary families, in a car accident like this one, while extremely tragic, under normal circumstances, it would barely even make the local news.

but instead this has burst open into a massive international incident and it is because of the ambiguity surrounding that notion of diplomatic immunity. ann sacoolas left britain shortly after she killed dunn in this car accident. but even in their grief, the dunns appeared to understand that these charges and the extradition procedures currently being filed, they're probably about the best they're going to do, in terms of getting justice for their son. sacoolas's lawyer as you mentioned released a statement yesterday saying that there is no way she is going to return voluntarily to britain to face these charges, even with the 2003 extradition gremt between the u.s. and the u.k. now, the final decision on almost all extradition decisions rests with the state department. and the state department has already defended sacoolas, and her decision to claim diplomatic immunity when she left britain the for the dunn family, here in the u.k., those charges alone count as a step towards something like justice. >> matt, thank you very much. that is a tough thing for that family, that video is hard to

watch. appreciate it. matt bradley in london for us this morning. in the final days of 2019, of course we're talking 2020 and what joe biden is saying about impeachment and partisan politic, next. impeachment and partisan politic, next. ♪ limu emu & doug

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lot of the senators you mentioned spending time here, and pulled off the trail more

often than not for the senate impeachment trials and that comes right before the critical weeks leading up to the iowa caucuses, where many people here will be making that final decision of who they're going to support, and come out and caucus for in early february. >> impeachment touching everything here. you mentioned buttigieg. after the debate, vox wrote they thought the winners from the debate were senator klobuchar and biden and they thought buttigieg came out as a loser as they say he failed to defend himself against other attacks and do you get the sense of this debate shook up this race at all? >> well, we're going to be talking to a bit more voters today, so that's something that i will definitely be asking them, especially here in iowa. buttigieg has a lot of support. i'm not necessarily sure just yet that voters will take that, his debate performance then and say oh, no, i'm not going to support him, i'm not going to go out and caucus for him anymore. i think the threshold for these voters to pull their support away is definitely much higher.

so we'll see. i don't necessarily think that debate will put a dent in where his lead is at least here in this state. >> thank you in iowa for us. thanks. stay warm out there. now, to the latest impeachment twist, as a new report suggests the president's legal team is exploring whether president trump has officially been impeached, despite wednesday's vote. this after an op-ed claiming the house passed to send the articles to the senate to actually prosecute the impeachment. joining us is msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. what do you make of this theory that trump hasn't sbulactually impeached. i was in the room. it certainly felt like he was impeached in the house chamber but are both needed? >> i love this debate because both side, both democrats and republicans are taking an empty space in the constitution about transmitting the articles of impeachment from the house to the senate, and each are defining their own set of

partisan rules from it. on the one hand the house says we can technically withhold these articles of impeachment until we extract senate trial rules that are favorable to us, or that we think are fair. republicans on the other side are now suggesting an argument that, well, until the articles of impeachment are transmitted, there is no impeachment. and because the constitution doesn't explicitly tell us what happens, or when and how the articles have to actually be stuck into an inter-office mail envelope and brought over to the senate, which of course the framers didn't have inter-office mail, at least not in the conventional sense, so we're left wondering, what exactly that mean, and what is the constitutional import of this withholding of the articles of impeachment? and both sides have come up with very creative arguments favoring their view of the case. >> so what does the constitution, and statutory law, tell us about how long pelosi can actually hold the articles here? is she breaking any rules if she just lets them sit on her desk for a couple of weeks and what about the majority leader come

can he claim any constitutional prerogative on the senate side? >> this is where the framers were brilliant and frustrating at the same time. because in criminal and civil trials, in the judicial system, lawyers like me have volumes, literally volumes and volumes of books on procedure that tell us when to do things, what we can do, when we have to file it, how many signatures it has to contain, and there is virtually nothing in the realm of procedure for senate and house procedures when it comes to impeachment. yes, there are rules that the senate has adopted, but when you compare them to the rules of procedure that guide lawyers and judges, there's virtually nothing out there. and so it is not surprising that either side can seize on a vacuum in the constitution. and draw from it whatever they will that will benefit their side. and both sides are doing that, this right now, taking an empty space, and devining whatever benefits their argument the most. >> and danny, the president is

an ex-factor in this, a new article in "politico" that reveals his desire to create a flashy testimony-filled trial, where the rest of the party wants a quick trial, there is a family feud essentially between the trump strategy and the mcconnell strategy. just quickly here, if the president wins out, how risky could it be to have that bigger flashier trial for him? >> i have to wonder if the president is really a student of history because you have to go back no further than the clinton impeachment and there is a strong argument that both sides stood to benefit from a speedy trial, not a speedy trial in the criminal senate, but a speedy senate trial, and strategically, the president may personally want to be vindicated, but at least for his popular support, and for support in the senate, probably the best thing would be for him to have a short trial. and that is what senator mcconnell appears to be pushing. something without witnesses. and in senator mcconnell's world, a perfect situation, would be a motion to dismiss, and throwing the case out as soon as it gets to the senate.

the rules again, we don't have those volumes of rules of procedure like we do in the judicial system, so the rules are very much open in a sense, although senator mcconnell has at least suggested using the old rules from clinton's impeachment, which are based on the old rules from the nixon almost impeachment. >> a lot for us to chew on over the next couple of weeks. danny cevallos, thanks. a bizarre ending to a tragic missing persons case. a live report next. missing persons case a live report next i'm going to the ball. tonight is a magical night. anything is possible. i love it.

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now to the morning headlines, nasa and boeing engineers are still trying to figure out this morning just went wrong with friday's failed mission to the international space station. boeing's star liner spacecraft was supposed to deliver food, clothing, and holiday presents, but an issue with the mission timing clock put the spacecraft in the wrong orbit. the plan now is to bring star liner safely back to earth sunday morning. carnival cruise line officials are assessing the damage this morning after two of their ships collided at a port in mexico on friday. carnival glory was maneuvering to dock when it crashed into carnival legend, sparking out windows and bending railings. at least six people were injured.

both ships are said to be seaworthy. new this morning, u.s. military and naval academy investigations found hand signals at the army/navy game were not flashing white power signs and they were playing a common game known as the circle game. regardless of it, military officials say they are disappointed with the cadets and being disciplined for their actions. now to a stunning turn in the disappearance of a texas mother and her newborn daughter. heidi broussard has been found dead, her three-week-old baby alive and well and one of her long time friends is under arrest. nbc's sam brock has the latest twist in this sordid mystery from houston. sam, good morning resear sam. >> reporter: good morning. multiple twists in this case and now the latest. heidi bruce sard strangled to death. eighths flooding the home of

heidi's friend, and authorities discovered broussard's body in the trunk of the car and her baby margo safe in the house have we all prayed that we would be able to find are find heidi alive. we are very thankful though, that through the combined efforts here, we were able to recover baby margo. >> megan, also known as megan humphrey, now charged with two counts of kidnapping, and tampering with a corpse. this photo of the old friends together this summer, a sharp contrast to humphrey in court. karessa one of broussard's closest friends. >> i was disgusted. i was heart broken. i didn't expect this. >> how many times this week have you talked with the suspect? >> every day. she was concerned for heidi's well-being. and it was probably every two or three hours. >> friends say humphrey told her she was pregnant and an online baby registry listing a due date

the same time as heidi. >> when heidi was giving birth, where was the suspect. >> in the room with her and my mother. >> rachel west talked about you want it talk about a plot twist? i have been in contact with maygen this whole week and she played it off perfectly. >> the investigation was focused 150 miles away in an apartment complex where heidi lived with her boyfriend and two children where she was last seen more than a week ago. >> a lead was generated that created a location of interest in the houston area. >> authorities say the investigation continues. the still mysterious case of a mother now deceased. her baby spared. >> notably, there have been no murder charges in this case yet. but that was before authorities found out the cause of death. so that could change in the coming days. back to you. >> sam in texas, thank you. a new fallout from the impeachment vote. president trump's now getting stinging criticism from a surprising source. it is a christian magazine. founded by the reverend billy

graham. nbc's peter alexander fills us in. >> reporter: just days before christmas, a surprising and stinging judgment of the president from "christianity today," a leading evangelical publication, the editor calling for president trump to be removed from office, saying the facts are unambiguous, arguing the president tried to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit joe biden. insisting his conduct is not only a violation of the constitution, but profoundly immoral. >> what we're talking about now, is someone who is morally abuse nive a dangerous way, and the scales don't work any more and it is time for him to leave the house is what my view is. >> but the president who won 80% of the evangelical vote in 2016 firing back on twitter. >> dismissing christianity, as a far left magazine. adding no president has never done what i have done for evangelicals or religion itself. christianity today was founded by the late reverend billy graham, but his son franklin

saying his father would not agree with their opinion piece. accusing the magazine of being used by the left. and revealing billy graham voted for president trump, because he believed he was the man for this hour in history, for our nation. >> that was nbc's peter alexander reporting. joining me now, john, a political reporter for business insider, and john, over the past couple of weeks, over a dozen editorial boards have called for trump's impeachment, but the president seems particularly stung by this one. why does it matter? >> well, 80% of white evangelical voters backed trump in 2016 and they make up, you know, roughly one-third of republican voters, so this is a huge chunk of trump's base, and clearly he was rattled by this piece, and he is nervous, heading into 2020, about what this could mean. with that said, polling has recently said that roughly 75% of white evangelicals still support trump, and an overwhelming number of them

opposed his impeachment, so in some ways he could have accidentally elevated this piece from "christianity today" which only has about 80 to 90,000 skshs and meantime he has millions of twitter followers who he elevated this piece to. >> givening it a larger audience. >> and what about this editorial specifically, could it start to chip away at the evangelical support? >> i think they're less concerned about the piece itself and more concerned about trump's response in terms of what we said about elevating and bringing and drawing more attention to it. trump is clearly rattled and sweating it out a bit, union, now that the articles of impeachment have been put on hold and there is a bit of an impasse here in terms of his acquittal in the senate trial. and you know, he wants to be exonerated in the eyes of the nation. he wants to dismiss this as a, you know, partisan hoax, but he has to sit it out and wait until the winter recess is over. >> john, you wrote a piece yesterday about how democrats playing hardball on impeachment

are depriving the president of the one thing he wants the most for his re-election, so what is it that he wants that they won't give him? >> as i just said, he really wants the exoneration. he wants to dismiss this whole thing. and he wants to ride on anger over impeachment toward re-election. he wants to use that as a catapult to his re-election. as we saw from his rally, the night that he was impeached. >> we do not always get what we want for christmas. john, thank you. new insight now into why the president was so convinced it was ukraine, not russia that meddled in the 2016 election. next, the report that shows the part vladimir putin had in pushing the experience theory. i'm your mother in law.

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turning back now to capitol hill, as lawmakers head home for the holidays, the two chambers of congress caught in a standoff regarding what comes next in the impeachment battle. joining me from washington, nbc's geoff bennet to walk us through it. so lawmakers have gone home for the holidays. generally speaking, where do we stand over the next two weeks? >> what is interesting, gary, you have the white house counsel pat cipollone doing a walk through of the senate side yesterday. so whenever this trial begins and still we're tracking it to begin, we expect it to begin sometime in january, the white house legal team effectively have offices just off the senate chamber, where they will gather as they prepare, to present the rebuttal. so we expect that when these lawmakers come back, sometime in the new year, you will see the

house speaker do those two integral things that she has to do to key up the senate trial. one, she will name that group of house managers, that group of house lawmakers, who will prosecute the case, on the senate floor. that will be followed by a rebuttal from the white house legal team, and then the next step, the next step is really up for debate. what the senate majority leader has been trying to do is create and structure a trial that is as fast and forgettable as possible. so after the white house legal team presents its rebuttal, he's envisioned a scenario where there would be 51 senators who would say, you know what, we've heard enough, we can now vote up or down, on these articles of impeachment. but what the senate democratic leader wants is he is saying no, that does not constitute a fair trial. and because democrats think they have all of the leverage that they would, if they have any leverage at all, would be at the beginning of this process, not in the middle of it, what he is trying to get up front, is an agreement that for these four witnesses, these four administration officials, who he

says know more about why president trump withheld this aid to ukraine, he wants that agreement up front. so what we don't know yet is whether any witnesses will be called. any witnesses will cross that threshold, on their way to the senate floor. that's the big question. and of course, that determines how long the senate trial will last. >> you're talking about witnesses and you talk about leverage, there is new polling out overnight that shows a majority of americans, a slim majority, but a majority, do want to see the senate call witnesses in the trial. do you think that is the kind of ammunition that democrats would need to potentially force mcconnell's hand on this issue? >> i think so. and what they're really trying to do, they're trying to force those six to eight moderate/vulnerable republican senators who are up for re-election. because whoever can get to 51, garrett, as you know is, in the driver's seat. so if mitch mcconnell can keep his 53 senators that he has, the 53/47 split in the senate, if he can keep his 53 intact, then he can ignore chuck schumer all he wants and keep it moving.

but if chuck schumer can pick off four republican senators, to join with him, then he has that 51 simple majority and all of a sudden he's in the driver's seat. so it really comes down to, and i think this is where public opinion is key, if those republican senators feel the pressure, and feel as if their re-election in some way hinges on the way they comport themselves, and the way they vote in this impending senate trial, then we might see some movement. >> the rule tends to be in politics, whoever is more united wins party-wise. are the democrats united on this strategy? is there any disagreement at all about this plan of holding on to the articles to force the issue here? >> there seems to be some. maybe not in the strategy. but certainly in the messaging of it. i mean when you put that question to the house speaker, wednesday night, after the articles of impeachment were voted on, the lack of clarity from her led to at least 12 hours of speculation that she might just held these articles of impeachment indefinitely and

president trump would be perpetually impeached, never having the chance to get an acquittal and of course, that's not what she meant. because a day later, what she said was all she was saying was that she wasn't going to send her army into battle unless she knew what the battlefield looked like. so she wasn't going to name the house managering until she knew the full scope of the senate trial. which sounds logical. but i think as these days turn to weeks, certainly i think you will see some pressure mount on democrats to do what they need to do to tee up this trial. she cannot hold back these articles of impeachment forever and ever. >> we're looking at the calendar and now we have a state of the union date, february 4th. could that be the kind of thing that forces one party's hand or the other? this is somehow still an open question come early february? >> yes, i think the thing that might be the arbiter, the outside arbiter to awful this may n, to all of this is not the state of the union but the iowa caucus, february 3rd and the state of the unite on february 4th and for months now,

democrats have not said this publicly but they have certainly signalled it privately, that they wanted to have their portion wrapped up by the end of the year, which would then tee up a senate trial in january, so that they wouldn't run up against the iowa caucuses. because they didn't want the messaging confusion out there, that you have, you know, senators, and democrats in the house back here trying to impeach president trump and then you have presidential candidates to include a handful of senators themselves, trying to replace president trump at the ballot box. so if there is anything that would help focus their minds, i think it would be the 02020 election that is almost upon us. and people going to the polls in iowa and new hampshire in less than two months. >> what a mess this is going to be. nbc's geoff bennet, thank you very much. good to see you. fallout from the democrats smallest debate lineup yet. are there any clear winners today? >> and as 2019 comes to a close, we want to know what do you think the biggest story of the past year, go to our web site and let us know. our web site and let us know.

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we see your spark in each nod, each smile, we see sparks in every aisle. we see you find a hidden gem, and buying diapers at 3am. we see your kindness and humanity. the strength of each community. we've seen more sparks than we can say. about 20 million just yesterday. the more we look the more we find, the sparks that make america shine. new today, president trump picks up support on impeachment from russian president vladimir putin and shares it with his almost 68 million followers on

twitter. meanwhile a new report shows that the trump administration is quietly battling a senate bill that promises new sanctions on russia. joining me from estonia, "the new york times" reporter and msnbc contributor, they use skype a little differently there, i see, matt, the co-sponsor of the bill, called it the sanctions bill from hell, the state department letter says it could cripple global energy markets and putin is threatening to reciprocate any new sanctions so whose side gets president trump's support between putin and the u.s. senate? >> that's a great question, and that is a question that putin has actually been playing, as long as president trump has been in office. on the one hand, you've got president trump and the tration that has been very strong, in sanctioning russia, and on the other hand, you have obviously the president's personal affinity, personal relationship with vladimir putin and then of

course, overshadowing that is these allegations or suspicions that the two are particularly close. so what we saw from vladimir putin most recently is in basically supporting president trump's talking points on impeachment, and frankly, you know, once again, siding with president trump, and so i think that the more he does that, the harder it becomes for president trump to break that relationship. certainly for a president who prides his loyalty. >> let's talk about the talking points a little bit. the "washington post" quotes a senior white house official who says that president trump stated explicitly that he knew ukraine interfered in the 2016 election because quote putin told me. so did vladimir putin plant the seed that ultimately led to the impeachment of the president this week? >> yeah, i don't know if he planted the seed, but obviously, i think it is important to remember that anything that

calls into question american support for ukraine, for the ukrainians, excuse me, ultimately is a net positive for russia. so if the president becomes suspicion of if the president b suspicious of ukrainian intentions, the president holds up ukrainian aid, then that's a net positive for putin. this aid of course is intended to help ukraine defend itself from russia. and so there's no incentive for vladimir putin to encourage stronger relations between the united states and ukraine. so you see several people, you see the prime minister of hungary kind of planting those seeds. and you see other conservatives planting those seeds. i think that the concern here where i am in estonia is that anything that cleaves the united states away from the eastern

european allies is a bad thing for nato and is ultimately a net positive for russia. >> matt apuzzo joining us from estonia. back to the race for 2020 and democrats on the campaign trail, one last chance to talk to voters in 2019. it comes on the heels of the sixth democratic debate thursday, which despite being the smallest debate in terms of candidates so far was full of fireworks on a variety of issues from impeachment to wine caves, joining me michael star hopkins for northern star strategies, worked for president obama, hillary clinton and john delaney and hanna trudeau, reporter for the "daily beast." michael, who helped their campaign the most with their performance on thursday? >> i think andrew yang had the best night out of any candidate in terms of expectations. even i have been kind of critical of the andrew yang campaign and where the ceiling was. i thought he had a really good night. he sounded reasonable and he was

engaged and i thought his answer on race was a really great one. >> hanna, there were a lot of people who thought amy klobuchar was one of the stronger performers on thursday night. she said she raised $1 million as she walked off the debate stage, how significant has the last 36 hours been for her campaign. >> $1 million is is a huge boost for amy klobuchar, she's up against some top-tier candidates onnen the fundraising scale and within the polls. that's a huge number for her and i think she did have something of a breakout moment. she's steadily increased her performances debate to debate. i talked to one person directly familiar with her thinking yesterday after the debate. and this person said you know, this is exactly the fight that she wants to have, this fight with south bend mayor pete buttigieg. she brought the heat to elizabeth warren when she was surging a little bit more. her campaign is ready to pivot

to whoever tries to capture the crowd in iowa, which is of course the state she has to place well in in order to compete coming from neighboring minnesota. >> mixing it up with mayor pete seemed to be one of the themes from thursday night. one of the more notable events of the debate was this interaction between mayor pete buttigieg and senator elizabeth warren. >> the mayor just recently had a fundraiser. that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine. billionaires and wine caves should not pick the next president of the united states. >> this is the problem with issuing purity tests, you cannot yourself pass. if i pledge, if i pledge never to be in the company of a progressive democratic donor, i couldn't be up here. senator, your network is 100 times mine. >> who got the better end of that?

>> you know i think mayor pete did. that debate is kind of the microcosm of where the party is at right now. if you're a warren supporter, you think that warren did better and if you're a buttigieg supporter, or more moderate in the race, you would think that buttigieg did well. the question has been can mayor pete counterpunch, i thought that was a good counterpunch for him and a good messaging moment. >> joe biden managed to fly under the radar on thursday, do you think his performance will play well for him? >> you know he's feeling good about it. and his campaign is feeling good about it. one thing i will say following joe biden here in the race i'm currently in new hampshire, but just broadly, he has been running an unabashedly general election campaign against donald trump. it's no secret to anybody that he took a strong beating the first couple of debates. getting hit right, left and

center from all sides. and so i think this, this was one of his stronger performances yet. he really, he was able to kind of spar back and forth with bernie sanders, who both of which refer to each other as good friends. of course they have a lengthy history in the senate. but primarily over health care. which is what their respective campaigns are both run on. i think he was able to use the fire, the voters are frankly looking to see against a potential nominee to take on president trump. in this debate. it wasn't too long ago, the first couple of debates i remember in miami, where there were real questions about whether his sort of shaky stumbles in the beginning called into question his front-runner status, i think he'll make it, make it to january at the very least. he's already qualified. >> michael, you mentioned andrew yang, he was the only candidate of color on the debate stage thursday, here's what he said when he was asked about that. >> both an honor and disappointment to be a lone candidate of color on the stage

tonight. i miss kamala, i miss cory, i think cory will be back. >> so michael, you mentioned this earlier. what do you make of that, do you think cory booker can make it back onto the debate stage. >> i think he can, i think he's seeing an uptick in support and attention given the lack of diversity on the stage. i think cory booker is is a very charismatic candidate. but the democrats have an optics problem right now on the debate stage. >> we'll see if they figure it out. hanna trudo, michael starr hopkins, thank you for your time. what's going on in georgia? thousands of voter registrations purged this week. and some of them suddenly reason stated. coming up in our next hour. mizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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that wraps up this hour of msnbc live, i'm garrett hake, now time for kendis gibson and cory coffin. >> it's strange to see you up there and not in a crossfit box. >> i'm cory coffin alongside kendis gibson. >> 7:00 on the east coast, 4:00 a.m. on the west coast. president trump overnight signing a $1.4 trillion spending package averting a government shutdown. the president signing