this sunday, impeached. >> article 1 is adopted. >> donald trump becomes the third president to be impeached. but he and his supporters dismiss the democrats' vote. >> it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. >> what will the senate trial look like? speaker pelosi delays sending over the articles until she's sure. >> it looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet. this is really comical. >> if the house case is so weak, why is leader mcconnell afraid of witnesses and documents. >> my guest marc short chief of staff to vice president pence and impeachment juror senator cory booker of new jersey. plus the democratic race, after a debate in which pete buttigieg was the target of amy klobuchar. >> we should have someone heading up the ticket that is actually won -- >> and elizabeth warren.

>> the mayor had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave. >> this is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass. >> were bernie sanders and joe biden the biggest winner. also "christianity today" called for president trump's removal citing gross immorality and ethical incompetence and why it is unlikely to change my minds. joining me are peggy noonon, helene cooper from "the new york times," rich lowry from the national review and presidential historian doris kearns goodwin. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news wash washington, the longest running show in television. this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. after a week in which the president was impeached in a hanner that seemed unpredictable now there is much we don't know.

we don't know if we'll hear from eyewitnesses who didn't testify in the house. we don't know how john roberts will react as he's pulled into the polarized politics of our time he's carefully tried to avoid. we don't know if impeachment will act as a break in the presidential behavear that led to this moment or whether a acquittal will act as an accelerator if republican senators in swing states will be rewarded or punished in november or how this entire episode will impact the presidential election. but we do know the impeachment numbers have barely moved. the question is split down the middle. 48% for, 48% against. roughly where it has been for two months. 25% of adults surveyed said president trump has done nothing. 22% say he may have done something wrong but it was not impeachable. 8% say his actions are the first impeachable thing he's done and

44% say he committed acts against ukraine. and it is something the democratic master of the house are matching wits as they prepare for the president's trial in the senate. >> a historic vote but few minds changed. >> it's a no vote on impeachment day. we had one 95 to nothing. >> reporter: 83% of democrats believe trump should be impeached and removed from office as do 50% of independents, only 8% of republicans do. that divide is playing out in the standoff over a senate trial between two masters of political chess. on thursday, house speaker pelosi made it clear she will not formally name impeachment managers and transmit the articles to the senate until leader mcconnell unveils the rules of a senate trial. >> our founders when they wrote the constitution, they suspected that there could be a rogue president. i don't think they suspected we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the senate at

the same time. >> mr. president, it looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet. >> reporter: democrats want four witnesses to testify including the president's chief of staff, mick mulvaney and john bolton. >> it the president's case so weak that none of the president's men can defend him under oath? >> reporter: mcconnell is prided himself on his iron grip on the senate. holding open a supreme court seat for is 11 months, denying garland a meeting. >> one of my proudest moments was when i looked at barack obama and said you will not fill this vacancy. >> speeding the conservation of judges and holding just 27 roll call vote this is year. democrats want to highlight that log jam believing they could make him a foil in 2020 campaigns. >> grim reaper. >> the grim reaper. >> grim reaper. >> i'm not a impartial juror. this is a political process. >> leader mcconnell claimed the

impeachment was motivated by partisan rage. this from the man who said proudly, i am not impartial. >> he sits there and said we have to be impartial and in reality he's trying to manipulate this for political advantage. at least mcconnell is honest. >> mcconnell needs to protect members up to for reelection who don't want to be seen as not taking the inquiry seriously. this is susan collins during e the -- the clinton impeachment two decades ago. >> i'm willing to travel the road wherever it leads and in order to do that, i need more witness, i need witnesses and further evidence. >> reporter: mcconnell needs to keep republican skeptics on board. >> i'm going to be talking to colleagues and listening to the leadership and giving it a great deal of thought. >> reporter: and up for re-election himself in a trump-friendly state, mcconnell needs to please the president. >> i just left president trump. he's mad as hell that they would do this to him.

>> and joining me now is vice president pence's chief of staff and the president's former legislative director marc short. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks for having me back. >> let me start with the simple question, what -- how does the west wing want to see a senate trial? what kind of trial does the west wing want to see? >> chuck, i think right now the west wing of the white house is understanding the reason this president is being impeached is because he's winning in so many ways. he won on taxes. the economy is booming. there is record low unemployment. the military is getting refunded. we're striking new trade deals. it goes back to what congressman al green said. he said we have to impeach this president or else he could get re-elected and as we transition to the senate i think that we understand that mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer will strike a deal on this. but we do find -- >> you're confident they're going to strike a deal. >> yeah. >> do you have an idea of what that deal will look like? >> sure. >> what does it look like? >> chuck schumer wants a deal like the clinton impeachment and that was a vote that was 100-0

including chuck schumer himself voting for that deal that allowed both sides lay out the arguments and had decisions whether or not there is witnesses. it is untenable for speaker pelosi to say this president is such a clear and urgent danger to the world, to the globe, that we have to basically trample his constitutional rights to force a quick impeachment and then say well we'll hold up papers to send to the senate. how you could justify the contrast to say this is urgent and then say we'll have to wait and see. >> so you want to see a trial start as soon as possible, number one. >> i think the president wants to prove his innocence. >> and he wants witnesses? >> i think the president has articulated he's open to witnesses, chuck. >> his legal team doesn't. is that fair to say or no? >> i think at the same time the american people are tired of the sham and tired of it and we're anxious to get back to the work

of the american people. we're anxious to get back to what the people wanted and the democrats campaigned on promises and said we'll work with this administration on immigration and health care and rebuild our schools and roads and none of that has happened. >> they seemed to work you with on trade. >> they finally did. but that was put on nancy pelosi's desk over a year ago. and she held that out to make sure -- >> perhaps a new important piece of the timeline having to do with when the aid may have been held with ukraine. there are some foia requests that have surfaced and emails and you're aware of it this morning and you have put out a statement i think about it. but i would try to understand, it leaves the appearance that the administration is said the decision to free the aid was known publicly july 18th within the white house at the budget office and this seems to indicate that a request was sent to the pentagon after the phone call between president trump and president zelensky on july 25th.

can you explain the disparity between the july 18th proclamation and a july 25th email from a budget official to the pentagon saying make sure this freeze happens and by the way keep this on the down low. >> let's step back for one second, chuck, and remember this administration provided lethal aid to ukraine. the previous administration sent blankets to ukraine. the previous administration had russia invade ukraine. we're the ones that have stood up and defended ukraine. so yes, there was a delay. there is nothing new in the emails about the timing truly, chuck. there was a lot of emails and back and forth ex changes. the aid was released. at best account there was 55 days in delay as we did our own review. if you think about it in our budget request last year we asked for $250 million for additional aid to ukraine while democrats did this scam impeachment they delays aid for three months. if they would have done their job we would have had it --

>> and should mick mulvaney and others clarify this. >> nancy pelosi said we have an air tight case and now demands more witnesses. how do you reconcile those two statements. our administration is anxious to get back to work for the american people. we want to see a trial in the senate because we want to see that the president gets exonerated. >> the best way to exonerate the president is to get -- get mick mulvaney out there to tell his side of the story, is it not. i'm asking, is it not. >> we had witnesses testified about what happened with the calls and in ukraine and a lot of -- >> and you brought up the vice president. he had shown openness to declassifying his calls and from his top russian aide, the memos and her understand gs of all of this. but you haven't done that yet. why? >> there is two questions. one is declassifying a transcript and one is declassifying a supplemental

submission. that supplemental submission, they shared with the judiciary committee and included in the report, there is nothing being withheld, chuck. and we had our own witnesses testify, democrat witnesses testify about the vice president's call and about his meetings with zelensky in which they all testified that burisma sand the bidens never came up and the whole conversation was about the commitment to ukraine. >> what is about the vice president's phone call? >> think we're still open for it. i think it sets a bad precedent for future leader calls, i think that is something sincere we haven't looked at but we remain open to doing that if the senate makes requests. but what was happening in the house in the investigations, they said you can't have counsel present and can't provide your own witnesses or see evidence. so why would we participate in a kangaroo court when they had no concern about due process. >> the senate side, don't you trust the senate to -- so why are you -- so what is wrong --

having witnesses, having your defense -- >> i said we'll consider that, chuck. i said we're open to considering that. but there is again the notion that is like we're going to deny the president and the administration his constitutional rights but now we want to dictate what the trial looks like in the senate. >> i'm curious, you were in the administration as the legislative director working in the west wing and there was a washington post story this week about -- that talked about the president was talking a lot about ukraine in those first year, in 2017 and 2018 and we put up one excerpt from thursday. one former senior white house official said trump even stated so explicitly that at one point saying he knew ukraine was responsible because putin told me. >> never. i heard him say no relation to putin and ukraine and say again and again frustration that the allies weren't doing more. >> but you didn't hear the

president blaming ukrainer for the stolen emails from the dnc. >> no. and what i heard from vice president, when you meet with zelensky on my behalf, this is not reported here. that meeting happened on septembering is. the democrat case was there was a quid pro quo. that is the president's meeting scheduled on september 1st. the aid was released on the 11th -- >> after the whistle-blower report. >> the vice president went on the president's behalf to that meeting and said talk about why europe isn't doing more and generally what they're doing to fight corruption. the vice president came home, reported and said zelensky is doing a lot to fight corruption, i think we should release the aid and ten days later it was. >> before i let you go i want to get you to respond from "christianity today" and perhaps you've talked to the vice president about it but i don't know. this excerpt in particular. consider what an unbelievable world will say if you continue to brush off mr. trump's immoral words and behavior in the cause of political ex peadency and if we don't refer course now what

will they say with justice and righteous nsz for any serious days to come. >> evangelicals are not monolithic in his political view points but a lot of us who celebrate our savior's birth this week, we acknowledge there is a president in this administration protecting thousands of other unplanned pregnancies in defense of life. >> is that trump's behavior at time. >> a president standing for religious liberty. and, you know, this morning in churches all across our country, we'll be singing a little town of bethlehem and there is no president who has stood up for -- to re-elect this president and that gives comfort to christians are cross our country. >> even if his behavior is not always christian. >> there are a lot of us that look at what this administration has done and take great gratitude he is our property. >> marc short, chief of staff for vice president. hope you and your family have a merry christmas. >> chuck, happy holidays. >> and joining me now from

urbandale, iowa is presidential candidate cory booker. senator booker, welcome back to "meet the press." >> great to be on. good morning. >> so you have to be a juror while a candidate. so let me ask you about your juror role here first. i almost want you to respond to something one of your colleagues bill cassidy republican senator from louisiana implied in our set up peiece is this idea of wo is not impartial here. what do you think a senate trial should look like? >> i think we all swear an oath and we're going to swear a special oath. we're literally swear to the ideal of impartiality. and i've heard from my democratic colleagues folks just tell me, this is not a good thing for america. i don't think the colleagues that i know that are my friends in the senate on both sides of the aisle think this is a good thing. none of us are happy about this. as a guy who is a big competitor, i want to beat donald trump mano a mano and i want to face him down on debate floor. so this is not something that i want to do.

and yeah, i'm going to evaluate the facts objectively and honor the oath that i swore even though i think donald trump has violated his oath of office. >> speaker pelosi has delayed sending over the articles. is that a good maneuver and do you think she should send them over no matter what or a time table in your head? >> look, nancy pelosi, i've watched her over the past year or more, she's been a light worker in dark times, balancing the most difficult of circumstances in the united states president's being impeached. those articles will come over. i talked to chuck schumer this week. we all know they will. she's trying to make sure the best possible case for a fair trial happens. to have this all happening in the context that mitch mcconnell is openly saying he'll violate his oath and not be impartial that we have a situation here that to me is just very simple. you have a trial, have the firsthand witnesses -- if you're innocent, have acting chief of staff mulvaney come before the

senate. swear to an oath. settle this whole thing. so i think she's just trying to say, hey, let's not make this a circus, let's just get to the facts and get this trial conducted rightly and then behind us. >> do you view the ask of hunter biden and joe biden as witnesses as basically an attempt by whether it is the republicans or the trump administration as sort of to make the witness request a matt you'll assured destruction. >> i'm exhausted of the biden aspect of this. this does not speak in any way that is jermaine to the president's behavior. did the president or not -- and there were witnesses in the room. did he violate his oath? did he violate national security and pursue his own interest with our taxpayer dollars counter to the mandates of congress. this is clear-cut and dry to me and there are people who could testify in front of the american people and settle this once and for all under oath, what did you witness and we should be doing

that. because, god, all of us on both sides of the aisle we're fatigued of this. so much noise. so much onification and distraction and let's move on from this very sad period. >> i want to play you a clip of a couple of basically voter responses to the impeachment. one is from 1998 and one is from a voter in iowa from the last week. take a listen. >> him dropping his pants with somebody in the white house isn't going to affect my bottom line. >> i think he's a jerk. but things are getting done. >> i think it is a ploy to try to not get trump elected. >> senator, i bring that up because there is this fatigue that you brought up yourself and i think there is fatigue out there in the country and people are looking at this in sort of through their own pocketbooks and the kpli is -- the economy

is doing well. how much should public opinion exhaustion impact how you conduct this senate trial? >> it should not at all. not at all. when i walk on to the senate floor, i am still one of the folks that get the overwhelming sense of gravity. we have institutions so much bigger than us, the traditions and constitution. this is not a question about popular opinion. this is a question about the sacrosanct ideals of our nation. does the president of the united states violate the oath of the office and the values of the nation and we created a system of checks and balances to hold him accountable. he is not above the law. he should be subject to the constitutional mandates. so we should do this independent of public opinion. this is a time -- history will look back on this moment. did the president violate his oath, did he violate the sanctity of our constitution and if he did he should be accountable and we should move on and do the right thing and move on as a nation. >> i want to ask you about your

campaign. you were not on the debate stage last week. something that obviously that is not something that pleased your campaign and you've made your views known that you feel as if the parameters to get into the debates are too high. the dnc just raised the bar even higher for january. let me ask this, what do you believe was missing from the debate that your voice would have added last thursday night. >> let's just be clear. what you hear from local media in iowa and people is why is some dnc officials in washington determining who we get to evaluate because here on the ground our campaign is third or fourth in net favor ability and our campaign is one or two in overall endorsements from local leaders. we're picking up county chairman and local mayors and state reps according to the des moines register we have the top team setting up and there is articles why cory booker will upset in

iowa. one month later -- went on to finish one and two. barack obama around this time was 15, 20 points behind hillary clinton. the polls have never predicted who would go on. our campaign is surging and this iss why i'm grateful to the american public because there is almost a backlash against us not being on the stage. we had one of the best fundraising periods of the entire campaign and i hope people who want my voice in this race will continue to go to cory booker.com and help us to surge like we are now and win when it comes to february. >> your history is correct, senator booker. december leaders in iowa often don't finish as the leader when the caucus is actually happened. so you definitely have to watch out for upsets there. senator booker, thank you for coming on and it sounds like you are campaigning hard. you've been campaigning a lot voice there. stay safe on the trail and rest that voice. >> yes. >> and have a -- enjoy your holidays. >> chuck, really appreciate you. merry christmas to all who celebrate and happy hanukkah to those as well. >> the two big stories of the

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welcome back. panel is here. colleen cooper and peggy noonan, presidential historian doris kearns goodwin and rich lowry. let me put up sort of the three impeachments or near impeachments of our lifetime and show you sort of the polling. where the american public was on each. here is president trump. 48% support impeachment. his job approval rating at 44% and his job approval in his own party was 89%. let's compared to bill clinton. the support was much lower. his job approval was much higher and in his own party was slightly lower. and then nixon, approval slightly lower than trump and

job approval showing the best number and of course 48%. doris, in some ways, i think we see why donald trump is surviving, why bill clinton survived and why nixon did not. >> clinton survived because people thought it was a private matter more than a public matter. the economy was booming and they liked him and when they started the impeachment hearings his approval rating went up. >> even as his personal rating went down. >> it took a hit because of what they were saying before about dropping your pants in the white house. but for nixon, the hearings did make a huge shift. there was a much lower beginning, way back, 28% thought he should be impeached by the time you get to june it is 44% and by the time you get to the tapes it goes up and finally the impeachment would have taken place and people would have felt it was the right thing and republicans and democrats and ford said our long national nightmare is over. that one had movement. the difference with president trump is his impeachment desires are much higher than the other

ones to begin with even though they haven't moved and what you thought is the hearings would move them and i heard when i talk about the founders. i love it when founders come in and history is mentioning and you're hoping to educate the country about the rule of law but we have two alternative views of the hearing. we had one story on one side and the other side and unlike three networks in the old days. >> i have a feeling this is a way -- impeachment is a huge and grave political event. and yet by the end of this week, i kind of thought, history is going to kind of forget this. it is not going to remember this as a dramatic moment. why? you all know the reasons. party line vote. a split coming in and a split country going out. there is a sense this is -- that the past week was almost politics by other means. and that people experienced it that way. which made is different. i would say -- >> unremarkable and when it should have been remarkable?

>> it did indeed and i wonder the plan going forward if we're going to pick this up again in two weeks when supposedly everybody is still involved. i'm not sure. >> tu still interesting when you compare it to richard nixon because it said more about the time that we're living in right now than anything else because in the case of nixon's impeachment, it feels to me looking back and that facts then actually mattered. i think now in this -- the world that we live in, people -- no matter what, we don't actually -- there is no real disagreement on what actually happened. but people are going to feel the way they feel and vote the way they'll vote no matter what. and you're not going to see any sort of -- any sort of big swing -- if they came up with a -- a tape of trump on the phone call with zelensky, nothing would change. you would still have -- >> trump mentions something about fifth avenue. >> exactly. that is exactly where we are right now. >> rich, respond to jeff flake,

his op-ed and sort of interpret it for viewers. he writes my sem pell test for all of us is what if president barack obama has engaged in the same behavior. i know the answer with certainty and so do you. you would have known the threat it posed and what to do. this is jeff flake writing to his former republican colleagues in the senate. explain to jeff flake why they are not doing this. >> well, first of all, i think republicans should forthrightly acknowledge this is wrong and they'll regret it when -- a democrat in office and they want to complain about his or her potential abuszs of power. if you look at the house, you have to be with your team. jeff van drew votes against the impeachment and has to leave his party. justin amash, republican from michigan, comes out for impeachment. has to leave his party. >> i think that is the most important thing people need to understand about impeachment. >> and also just historically, small sample size, obviously just had two senate impeachment trials in our history.

but never has a member of the president's own party voted to convict in the senate. and i think that will likely hold true this time as well. >> what makes me sad when you think about what jeff flake was talking about was really about the integrity of the senate and the vote for the country. when you think about how trent lott handled it with dashle, with the clinton impeachment, they went into the old senate room and be surrounded by history and make the decision outside of cameras and they came to an agreement on what the rules would be which then was 100-0 and theyar able to understand the importance of what they were doing and this right now we have mr. mcconnell saying ahead of time i'm going to take my queues from the president and it is not impartial. >> can i just tell you, i can't believe we're referring to the '90s as the good old days. we thought those were the most polarizing time we've ever had. >> yeah, yeah. >> all of this is the back drop for the presidential race and i want to put up our most recent

national primary because it shows you more things change, the more they stay the say. we have biden, sanders, one and two. and warren third at 18%, only double-digit, buttigieg at 9% and cloeb and bloomberg and yang. three months ago biden had a lead and sanders has fully recovered from the heart attack and warren seems to have lost a little bit of ground. has this impeachment inquiry saved joe biden? >> saved joe biden in what way? i can't imagine -- >> is it a shield in this respect? that the democrats can't fully engage with biden for fear they look like they're doing the president's bidding. >> with hunter and the whole thing and i don't want to make that worse. i don't know. i sense biden may be on a floatable -- like a feather that is not going upward but downward. we were talking before, i have a feeling bernie sanders might be in an interesting position. >> we should stop assuming he's

a niche. there is too many people that assume his a niche and will never grow out of that niche. >> i'm not sure. i was out in iowa and i saw him speak to a whole bunch of teamsters and they gave him a standing ovation and i realized there is something ancestoral. it is the old progressive left meets in bernie. >> very quick. >> if you just had the -- all we had seen was biden from the last debate, democrats would not idiots not to nominate him immediately and if you look at the polls and say that is what is happening but iowa in the early states it's wide open. >> if one candidate can win two races in february, then that is something. but we may have four different winners in four different races. when we come back, it is a divided nation and in the divided nation the voter who can make the difference in november are intriguing and this year's swing voters are much different than eight years ago. sacre.

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welcome back. it is no secret that our politics are polarized and frankly broken with the wings of both parties aflying pressure on a disappearing middle. achieving success in ability to appeal to the other side and struggling to be nominated. joining me now are two office holders who have experienced this. claire mccaskill who lost her seat last year as missouri became more conservative and former tom floofrnlts as his district has become a lot more liberal. welcome to both of you. and i want to talk about that -- that so-called disappearing middle because let's be frank here, impeachment is breaking congress as we know it for now. the center is who puts humpty-dumpty back together again and it feels like it is harder this time. senator mccaskill, i'll let you take the first swing at this,

how does the center reassert itself to fix the senate? >> well, first of all, i think that the senate was broken, congress was broken before impeachment came along. >> fair. >> my first year in the senate, i voted on 306 legislative amendments this year there is fewer than 30. mitch mcconnell has presided over absolutely destroying senate norms from merit garland to killing legislative debate. the senate is no longer what it was. and the people of this country are going to have to be the ones politically to put pressure on this disfunction and say we want unity, we want stuff to get done and quit the partisan food fight. >> tom davis, there isn't a political constituency that rewards that right now. >> not at all. we have a balance of power structure and it doesn't work. remember that for about 80% of the house in the majority of the senate, the only race that counts is the primary election.

to these members, november is a constitutional formality. voters have sorted themselves into making most of the seats safe. the number of marginal seats is decreased in each party but they're the ones that decide who is the majority. >> what is a interesting in the new poll is how certain some people are of their vote already. we asked this question about 2020, certain to vote against trump is up to 48%. it is up two points from when we asked last month and certain to vote for trump is 34% and the nominee is 18%. and i would like to focus on this is the swing voter for this election and no swing voter that any of us have talked about in 30 years, this swing voter is male, younger, white, and i want to show they approve somewhat of the president's job rating. they would prefer a republican congress over a democratic congress. but they believe that the president did something wrong even if they're not ready to imeven him. senator mccaskill, this is a

different type of swing voter. normally it is the suburbs. well the suburbs with moved in one direction. you tried to appeal to the swing voters and you had a hard time doing it. it is impossible for democrats to reach out to those folks? >> i don't think it is. especially if the candidates get back to focusing on what is pragmatic and practical, unifying the country and the big one, health care. the republicans are in a bad position on health care. they have tried to take away the protections that people have really grown to be really guarding. they don't want that pre-existing protection gone. and i think if, in fact, the democrats nominate someone who could talk about unity, talk about going after drug companies, talk about stabilizing health care costs, then i think donald trump will no longer be president in january of 2021. >> tom davis, there is another fascinating fact about the group of 18 percent, they're more

uncomfortable with joe biden than bernie sanders. bernie sanders scores fairly well with this group of voters. and because another dynamic in them is they are not fully happy with the system as it was. is it possible that sanders might be the best person to take trump voters away from trump? >> well, i think it depends on where you're talking about. i had think this race is going to be a race to the bottom at any extent. where people are holding their nose. a lot of swing voters in picking the lesser of to evils. what the president has going for him right now is the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years and a stock market that is going through the roof. so he's getting good results on the ground. he just passed a new trade agreement. that is going good for him and if the democrats run against him on the economy, i think that is a tough sell at this point. you want to get to the middle to appeal to the swing voters and give them a reason, but the nomination process drives the democrats left and republicans right and that's the dilemma that both parties face.

>> senator, what did you make of the debate the other night. you could come to the conclusion that the party looks like they're arguing more -- moving toward the middle. maybe because buttigieg is the guy that is getting traction in iowa more so than warren or sanders. do you see that as -- how do you view that development? >> well, i saw a very recent survey among democratic voters and it is really interesting, they really don't like the idea of the government paying for college for rich people. they really do -- the majority of them want to hold on to the option of private insurance. if people want that. but they certainly want a government option also. so i think where most democratic voters are, are frankly closer to mayor pete or joe biden or amy klobuchar than they are the universality of the proposals that both elizabeth warren and bernie sanders are pushing. >> tom davis, would you advise

democrats to spend time wooing republicans like yourself. and i say this not presuming more centrist republicans or presuming where you are on the president trump personally, but a republican like yourself? >> absolutely. because in the swing states it is really the suburbs, you're hiring come suburbs and the republicans have been losing it. they lost in the midterms. but remember the midterm election was more about putting a check on the president rather than giving him a blank check and that is what we see in midterm elections. i think these voters when it comes to the presidential race are up for grabs and will make the difference over who carries the swing states. >> senator claire mccaskill and tom davis, formers on both of them, but people who bring a reasonable conversation to a sunday morning. thank you both. hope you enjoy your holiday break. >> happy hanukkah chuck. >> thank you. when we come back, a look at some of the people we lost in 2019. in 2019

2019. >> the question will be asked in 2019, what did we do? to make sure that we kept our democracy in tact? ♪ limu emu & doug and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ]

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welcome back. as we do every year, we want to take a moment to look back at some of the iconic people in politics, culture and media whom we lost in 2019. >> i like people to think i was a honest judge and a good judge. and i always tried to reach the best result in every case. >> i run because i believe that we have a mission in this country to lead the world. >> the women of the senate know how to bridge the partisan divide and get the job done.

>> i'm trying not to write just because i can or just write more. i'm trying to write less that means more. >> i'd like to be remembered as a mother and a wife and friend of people that i love very, very much. >> i was texas born, texas bred and when i die i'll be texas dead.

>> do your own thing in your own time. >> there is a tombstone out in kansas somewhere where it said he did his damnest. when they put a tombstone on me it will say that. >> when we are dancing with the angels, the question will be asked in 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy in tact? tact?

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back now with "endgame" and the end of the decade. it's sort of weird to think that we are ending the decade -- we are going to enter a decade that's a lot easier to refer to instead of the teens or 20s, 30s. but we asked all of you to come up with what were the most impactful stories of the decade, sort of politically, socially. and we tallied them up, created a scoring system. there was a three-way tie for

fourth with the great recession, the recovery from that. osa osama bin laden killed and the 2016 election. >> the recession was not only an economic event, 2008 in america. it was a psychic event. it changed us politically. it changed a whole lot. it was not a recession and a small thing. it was a big epical event. >> you also had bin laden. >> because i'm a news reporter. you guys are thinking these big lofty high-altitude thoughts. i'm thinking about what grabbed us and just, like slammed us down in the chair and you're like, oh, my god, look at the headlines. that was a huge deal. we had been looking for this guy for more than ten years, for 11 years, and for far more than that actually. that was a big news story. >> we have trump election tied for fourth. the next one is political

realignment. and, rich, we put your brexit within political realignment as part of that. all of you had some form of this. look, that's why it's third. >> well, the coalitions of the parties are shifting, it had been for some time, but it's been accelerated. and boris johnson's smashing victory in the uk points to how a more populist potentially has a broader appeal. >> the number two story of the decade. let's show it on screen here. climate change. doris, you had that i believe as your top. >> i did. >> that's because i'm thinking as an historian what are they going to say 50 years from now. but i think you look at the national disasters that happened, the withdrawal from the paris peace accords and if we are not taking a leadership role in the generations to come, we know that we have failed.

>> number one we were trying to figure this out because about half of you put -- well, let me reveal number one before i give it away. we decided to call it social ills because half of you put gun massacres, sandy hook. half of you referred to opioids. and this is where i want to spend a minute. when you put that together, it does feel as if we have a societal ill here on this one. we haven't figured out how to tackle either. >> yes. i would say america and drugs has been a huge story. the number of people never used to get into that area of life started in the past five, seven years. >> these are all legal drugs. these are not illegal drugs. these are legal drugs. >> and the change in legal pharmaceuticals. the sense that people have that in a way we are all guinea pigs for a new drug revelation that's going on. we don't know how things are going.

i would add into addiction, social media addiction, pornography, all of those things that very quietly happened but changed the face of the country. >> and the increasing isolation of so many people. >> that reinforces that. in your news event you put sandy hook as number one. it is -- there are two memories etched in my head of being a white house correspondent. >> i think sandy hook for me is by far the most important thing that happened because it showed that i think that we were willing to accept as a people the deaths of children in schools. we were willing to prioritize our gun rights over protecting children in elementary schools. the fact that we are okay with this and that nothing changed after sandy hook said so much. now when you see all of these kids who are so used to active shooter training. we didn't have that kind of stuff before then. that was a big deal i thought.

>> you know what strikes me, rich? is it's a reminder of how little americans turn to politicians anymore for moral leadership. because our politicians have totally failed on these two crises. >> we've had now for years peace and relative prosperity in this country. but there is a sense of deep unease, one because this decade played out under the shadows from the financial crisis and the iraq war, and just something broken in our society. the lack of attachment of individuals which accounts for the drug crisis, for alcohol deaths, for suicide in 2017. i think those three things accounted for 150,000 -- >> our life expectancy rate has declined depending on where you live. we don't want -- we so distrust our politicians we don't expect them to have the answer. >> losing trust in our government means losing

collective trust in our ability to do something. frankin roosevelt used to say you can solve the problem if man created that problem. i think we are losing that sense and that is scary. although there was activism. there were long lines waiting to work. more women ran and won than ever before. a lot more people interested in politics. there's an art to this decade. you have to see the positives. >> you have to see it as a historian. in 30 years this decade may be reviewed differently. we are reviewing in what feels like a more dark decade. that's all we have for today. thank you for watching. remember, we will be back next week, because if it's sunday it's "meet the press." ♪ week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪

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we switched to tide pods free & gentle. it's gentle on her skin, and dermatologist recommended. tide free & gentle. safe for skin with psoriasis and eczema. ♪ welcome to "kasie dc." i'm ayman mohyeldin. tonight the season finale ends in a cliffhanger. story lines like usmca and the budget have come to a dramatic end, and the president is impeached. but when the next season starts, will this senate get the articles from the house? i am joined live by the chair of one of the committees guiding the impeachment, congresswoman maxine waters. plus, i'm going to talk to presidential candidate julian castro as the democratic debate stage takes a turn for the