>> yes, yes. yes. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. and good morning to you, i'm richard lui in new york at msnbc headquarter, 6:00 in the east, 3:00 in the west. fresh doubts about whether the impeachment trial will really be a loyalty test. we will tell you about the new call to action to senators, plus how the president is paying an historic price for doing business his way. >> joe biden is weighing whether he will comply with a senate subpoena or not. >> and michael moore and the odds of trump winning if democrats pick the wrong kind of candidate. >> plus -- ♪ christmas time is near ♪ >> remembering the man who helped make this song a

christmastime staple. we will start this hour though with some breaking news coming out of somalia for you, where the death toll from a truck bomb in mogadishu now soaring to at least 73 and authorities expect that toll to rise. nbc's matt bradley is monitoring the latest for us from our london bureau, and matt, the question might be, who's behind this and how much worse can it get? >> reporter: richard, as you mentioned that death toll has been rising all morning. and the officials at the scene are certain that it will keep increasing throughout the day. it is no exaggeration to say this is one of the deadliest attacks in years, in a country that has been no stranger to appalling violence, and as it stands, you mentioned the count is more than 60 dead but a number of from somalia's parliament has announced on twitter, the death toll over 90 people and scores more injured and this is the latest in a string of terror attacks over the last several months,

particularly in mogadishu, the country's capital. it was 8:00 a.m. local time, when a truck filled with explosives detonated at a security checkpoint, and according to witnesses, who had spoken to the local media, the bombing really reminded a lot of people of a similar attack back in 2017, and that's when nearly 600 people were killed, also in a car bombing. so no one has claimed responsibility for that horrific attack, and so far today, no one has claimed responsibility for this morning's bombing. but somalis and foreign observers are likely to focus blame on al-shabaab the islamist militant group throughout the country for the past several years and has launched numerous very lethal terror attacks. al-shabaab doesn't always claim responsibility for the terror attacks but this is the latest manifestation of an onfighting taking the lead and tearing somalia apart. the bombing like the one this morning, it is part of nearly a

30-long civil war that has torn this east african country apart since 1991. richard? >> nbc's matt bradley with the very latest on the breaking news story at the top of the hour, thank you, matt. we will continue with a stirring of conscious, as "the new york times" is putting it, happening in the senate. the first potential cracks starting to show in the republican party in the party's plan for an impeachment trial. >> in fairness, when i heard that, i was disturbed. we have to take that step back, from being hand and glove with the defense, and so i heard what leader mcconnell had said. i happen to think that that has further confused the process. >> i think that mitch mcconnell eventually will be forced by these cracks in his implacable wall, as reflected in lisa murkowski's comments and by

other colleagues who are saying it privately, the question is, will they say it publicly, will they act on it? >> this comes as president trump is finishing up the holiday week on vacation in florida. but on his twitter feed, impeachment appeared to be weighing heavily on his mind with a slew of attacks against house speaker nancy pelosi who is still holding on to those two articles, as well as former vice president joe biden who told reporters on the campaign trail yesterday how he would respond if subpoenaed by the senate. >> do you stand by your earlier statements that you wouldn't comply if you were subpoenaed to testify in an impeachment trial before the senate? >> correct, and the reason i wouldn't, is because it's all designed to deal with trump and what he has done his whole life, trying to take the focus off him. >> nbc's hans nichols is traveling with the president in west palm beach florida, and hans, impeachment is at a stalemate for the holiday recess, as nancy pelosi holds on

to the two articles. how is he responding? >> reporter: the president is responding by taking to twitter. we've seen him do this throughout his vacation where he attacks nancy pelosi for perceived unfairness, called her crazy the other day, really going after almost every day that he has been on vacation. there has been no official statement, but clearly, the president has been active on twitter. and meanwhile, there's some potential developments on a potential trial in the senate. and i hedge that, because we heard from senator richard blumenthal earlier and the senator from connecticut talked about how there might be five to ten republican senators who want to see a different process in the senate. potentially a process with witnesses. fairness is the watch word that he is using. and what blumenthal is doing is he is seizing upon those comments from senator murkowski, the republican from alaska where , she was critical of the way

mcconnell has been handling the process, and that is to say in total coordination with the white house. as always, we will be monitoring the twitter's feed of the president, and that seems to be his main portal. and now the president is an official resident of florida and ivanka trump is expected to call washington home on a full time basis if the president wins re-election and spends another four years at the white house. richard? >> hans nichols, floodwatch. joining us, hannah trudeau, politics reporter for daily beast. and david mark, deputy news examiner for the washington examiner. where does the impeachment trial stand right now? any sense of a timetable right mow? >> we are really in a stalemate, as we just heard from hans there, speaker pelosi has not sent over those two articles of impeachment that were passed shortly before christmas. there is no indication she is going to do so at any point in the very near future. and on the republican side, in the senate, it's almost open

insurrection at least by one or two members. so we don't know, best guess, maybe mid january or so, but this could go on for a while. >> some concern on the right here, david, also some on the left, potentially here, looking at president trump's tweets against nancy pelosi, leader pelosi, what effect is that intended to have if you have a thought on that, and what effect does it actually have? >> this is really rallying the republican base. speaker nancy pelosi is a reviled figure on the republican right, even before president trump took office. but particularly now, she is the main foil against president trump. so this is a way of ginning up support. probably doesn't show her actions at all. she has shown a spine of steel in going up against him but a way of keeping his supporters in life. >> hannah, one person who is certainly on the president's mind joe biden, here and there, and joe biden saying yesterday,

he will not testify in an impeachment trial if subpoenaed. when you think of this, is the biden camp concerned at all that he actually would be called? >> well, they're not tipping their hand currently, whether or not they're concerned about it, but i think it is interesting that he made those comments of course to the des moines register editorial board, which is in the all-important iowa, and that's the state that he is focusing in on, like a laser. and in addition to many of the 2020 contenders. but i think that is interesting with biden, is that throughout the course of his candidacy, his primary campaign, he has remained consistent in these remark, and he hasn't wavered at all, in his sort of general election strategy that he has been employing against president trump. we have seen many other democrats kind of fight internally among themselves, against of course, you know, who will eventually take on trump. but i think for biden, it is really a one-on-one match, and

his campaign has seen it as that this entire time, and so refusing to testify, if he is called, that is just another sort of spar, another jab in the sparring match between he and trump that have gone on for nearly a year now. >> we'll switch quickly here hannah to the 2020 election, the senators that might be involved that we of course don't know exactly when the actual trial will begin. are they concerned that the impeachment trial would take them off the trail for too long and therefore might impact their chances in special places like iowa and new hampshire? >> well, the two people that popped out to me just now on that graphic were senator bernie sanders and senator elizabeth warren, of course, they are top of the pack in terms of the front-runner contenders right now, especially in some of those early state, iowa, like we mentioned, and also new hampshire, where they're both from neighboring states. so i think it will be very interesting to watch primarily the two of them, of course amy

klobuchar is one of those senators on the list, so she will be pulled off the campaign trail for a little bit. as well, michael bennet from colorado, although he is a little bit lower tier. so i think it will be interesting to watch and see if joe biden or pete buttigieg, the mayor of south bend, indiana, if they capitalize on those two top tier senators' absence in the remaining days before iowa. >> i want to move to something that was written in the "new york times," and mentioned a second ago, david, as was put by "the new york times," the stirring of conscience in the senate, from the gop side, where some republicans may cross over or not. and at least vote to force witnesses, certain one, and might be requested and maybe wanted by democrats and maybe not by many of the republicans. >> that of course was a "new york times" editorial. so i think it was more wishful thinking than reality. so far, senator lisa murkowski of alaska is the only republican senator to indicate she might

cross over. it doesn't mean that there wouldn't be others. we don't know if senator murkowski actually will do that. the ones we can look at would be of course be senator susan collins of maine, mitt romney from utah, perhaps a couple of others, but it would be a real affront to their leader, senator mitch mcconnell, who prides himself on keeping his troops in line. of course, they would also incur the twitter wrath of president trump, and his supporters, so they've got a lot of calculations to weigh there. >> some seven gop senators up for re-election, that if you're watching this election, and how they might vote here. is there any sense who might benefit, hannah, in the 2020 field, who might benefit most from the impeachment trial most or more than others. >> that's an interesting question, the first person that pops out to me, among that graphic right there, is elizabeth warren. and the reason for that is because she was the first one out of gate to call for impeachment, and it has become

part of her sort of stump speech, as the hearings have gone on, and as the house moved to impeach him. so i think she could potentially benefit from it. but also, joe biden, i mean it is a personal attack on his candidacy and his family, hunter biden, his son, so if anybody is going to benefit from it, i think i would look to biden and warren to kind of seize on that moment, more so than people who have been sticking to more of the signature issues of their campaign. i'm thinking more like bernie sanders, who is a little bit sleer to the impeachment call than others and doesn't frequently incorporate it into his stump speech although he does obviously call for the impeachment. >> on a saturday morning, hannah, and mark, have a good one. >> thank you. new details now on a retired navy seal pardoned and celebrated by president trump. navy seal and special operations chief eddie gallagher was recently a holiday guest at

mar-a-lago. new videos and text messages leaked to the "new york times" give some shocking details. from other navy seals. who turned gallagher in to face war crime charges. nbc's kate snow takes a look at the video evidence and we should warn some here, that some viewers may find the report disturbing. >> the guy got crazier and crazier. >> in 2018, one after another, navy seals expressed grave concerns about their platoon leader eddie gallagher. >> we thought he was, he thought he was okay with killing anybody. >> they are going against this unwritten rule of not taking dirty laundry outside of the seals. >> they accused gallagher of targeting civilians, women and children. >> i saw eddie take a shot at probably a 12-year-old kid. >> it kind of turned into a platoon sniper escort to beat the sniper off. >> team members say they would

intentionally fire shots to warn iraqi civilians. >> so they would run away and hide before eddie would engage them. >> they were trying to protect the civilian population. >> at times, with helmet camera video, never seen outside of a courtroom. a young isis fight her been wounded by a bomb. >> eddie came over the radio and specifically said don't touch him, i got him? >> nobody touch him, he's all mine. >> gallagher is seen with a medic bag, pushing him and then the camera goes black. it is not clear why. >> all of a sudden, eddie just starts stabbing him. >> i see eddie laying over on him with the knife. >> in a text message later, the times gallagher, got him with my hunting knife. >> he just pulled out a knife and started stabbing him. >> but that seal, corey scott, changed her story in a bombshell moment at gallagher's trial last summer after being granted

immunity, he said he was the one who killed the isis fighter. >> did you suffocate him? >> yes. >> eddie gallagher was acquitted on charges of murder and attempted murder and found guilty of posing with a photo with the corporation. >> they went in and told these completely fantastic and unsupported and fake styles. >> gallagher's attorney says "the new york times" is trying to relitigate the story and says gallagher has asked him to sue reporter dave phillips. >> there is a couple of members of the platoon who had a personal animosity towards eddie gallagher, they didn't perform well in combat, and they were afraid of being called out for being cowards, and they made up a story, and they went with it. >> this past weekend, gallagher posed for photos with president trump at mar-a-lago. >> he was a great fighter. he was one of the ultimate fighters. tough guy. >> in november, president trump ordered the pentagon not to strip gallagher of his rank and trident pin. >> we're still sort of on cloud nine about it, but i can tell you that, you know, my family is

completely grateful for this decision. >> >> that's nbc's kate snow reporting. the navy seals and an attorneyy for corey scott are not commenting on the tapes and nbc has not spoken to the individual seals in the interviews and "the new york times" reached out to every one of them and they all declined to comment. caught in a bind. why the cia director now fines herself stuck in the middle of the investigation of the russia probe's origin. just how far will the attorney general go to disprove the intel agencies. ve the intel agencies i like chillaxin'.

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new details are being revealed this morning from the controversial investigation into the russia probe's origins. the federal prosecutor conducting investigations, john durham, is reportedly focusing on the cia, which now forces the agency's director, gina has pel to quote choose from protecting her agency against trump's wrath and bowing to barr's wishes. joining me is msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos, and good morning to you. does thee have to choose or can she do both at the same time? >> she doesn't necessarily have to choose. in all likelihood, she will cooperate with the investigation. because it does put her in an uncomfortable situation. but this investigation does that to a lot of different people in high levels in both the cia, the fbi, and other law enforcement agencies, within the executive

branch. but the key here is that durham is part of a team investigating, using u.s. attorney, federal prosecutors, intelligence community activities, overseas. so that creates a natural tension because this is normally done by the intelligence community itself. federal prosecutors applied different standards, they're in the law enforcement business, so that alone creates an awkwardish situation whenever you have federal prosecutors, used to investigating domestically, conducting investigations or communicating with intelligence agencies abroad. >> you know, danny, on that same report, it says that durham is focusing on the cia and as was mentioned here, former director john brennan, and his communication, that it is no secret that the president dislikes brennan. when you take a look at the tweets done so far, he has insulted him some 29 times since taking office. as it stands right now, danny,

how will this investigation turn out to be seen at the end, plit ply motivated or one, politically motivated or one with a proper basiss? >> there is no way to remove the political tenor of this investigation because it is essentially an investigation of the roots of another investigation, and that original investigation, being the genesis of the notion that russia was trying to interfere in the u.s. election in 2016. just to give you an example, one facet of this is the idea that a russia-linked professor, joseph miksud, who had apparently met with george papadopoulos, one of the theories, although it is not very credited in the trump camp, is that this professor was actually a plant by the cia. now there is no real evidence yet to support that, but the idea there is that this entire genesis of the investigation comes from apparently the idea being it is a cia plant in the form of this professor.

so it is an investigation of the investigation of the investigation. and so any time you have that, there's going to be allegations that it is politically motivated. >> as part of this, when we look at gina haspel and go back to that very dynamic you brought up a second ago, as she sits here as the article says at the center of a politically toxic tug of war here, what happens here, danny, if in the end, you do have d.o.j. prosecutors here, potentially grilling a cia analyst, or gina hapsel herself? >> again, it creates a really awkward situation. the intelligence community and the d.o.j., federal prosecutors, exist in different but overlapping realms. and the idea that you would have one area, d.o.j., prosecutors, investigating the cia, which to say it lightly, operates in a nuanced realm, is going to create some tension. but gina hapsel has a record of

mostly promoting the cia from within, and building the morale there, and staying off the radar, so consistent with her theme of staying off the radar, she might find a way to cooperate that is not very public and not very loud. ultimately, though, donald trump has tweeted lots of favorable things about gina hapsel, hopefully for her, he will continue to do so. >> all right, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos, thank you, my friend. drawing pictures as a truck crash leaves a camera crew running for cover. 1 in 5 people you meet wear dentures.

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more on our breaking news story this morning, an explosion at a crowded check point in somalia has killed at least 61 people and injured dozens more. the government says most of those hurt in the mogadishu blast were students. no one has claimed responsibility for the explosion but the al qaeda-linked group al-shabaab has carried out similar attacks in the past. a few other headlines. a powerful winter storm is gripping the country this weekend, causing problems for millions of holiday travelers trying to head home. it dumped nearly two feet of snow on parts of southern california. and a crashing semi caused a

multicar pileup in lubbock, texas. see the people scrambling getting out of the way as the truck careens off the side of the road and flips on its side. nobody was killed. 12 people are killed in kazakhstan after a commercial plane crashed into a house just after takeoff yesterday but dozens more survived. the bek aircraft says no one on the ground was hurt. survivors said they had to rescue themselves, digging out from under the wreckage with their bare hands. and lee mendelssohn, the producer of a charlie brown christmas, who wrote the famous lyrics to the signature song died on christmas day at the age of 86. ♪ christmas time is here ♪ >> he headed the team that included charles schultz and vince giraldi when the now famous movie first aired on tv back in 1965. controversial radio and tv

host don imus dead at 79, famous for pushing the limit in his commentary, a pioneer of the shock jock radio format as controversial as he was colorful. nbc's kathy park has more on his long career. >> ladies and gentlemen, imus in the morning. >> reporter: don imus was a fixture on the air waves, starting in radio and became the modern day shock jock and later transitioning to tv. his signature cowboy hat drove up the rating and dozens of stations syndicated his popular talk show imus in the morning. msnbc began simulcasting the program in 1996. >> no i haven't heard about that. what exactly happened? >> his big personality and antics helped launch his career and also got him in trouble more than once. >> in 2007, racially insensitive remarks about the rutgers basketball team would cost him

his job. >> imus later apologized for his comments, addressing the controversy on al sharpton's radio show. >> we don't have an agenda. our agenda is to try to be funny and sometimes we go too far. but sometimes we go way too far. >> imus returned to the air waves later that year, but on wabc, but after five decades, the outspoken voice in media, signed off last year. >> i know this in my heart, i've always thought this, there has been nobody ever better on the radio than me, and i mean that. >> besides his on air controversies, imus was also known for his charity work. he and his wife dierdre founded the imus ranch for those battling cancer and other illnesses. close friends and colleagues are remembering him as one of the true giants in the history of radio. his family released a statement saying he was hospitalized since christmas eve. don imus is survived by his wife dierdre and six children. he was 79 years old.

kathy park, nbc news. >> and now, back to politics. and a new editorial in usa "today," it has a strong message for democrats saying beating donald trump in the 2020 election isn't everything. it is the only thing. also saying debating wine cellars and fundraisers and free tuition for all won't rid america of an unfit president and the party should focus on the overriding issue, which of the candidates is best equipped to beat trump next november. michael star hopkins founding partner and northern star strategy, wokking on campaigns of president obama, hillary clinton, and john delaney and hannah true drow also with us, politics reporter for the daily beast back for this segment. michael, i will add to what i said president trump has promoted the u.s. foes and ran up massive government threats and palpable harm to america's health care system and turned

the once proud party of abe lincoln and ronald agoreagan of adulation cult. it is far more important than who has the most extensive plan to hand out free money and require everyone to get their health care through an expanded medicare. do you agree with all that has been said? this isn't all of it. are democrats focusing their energies in the wrong spaces right now? >> if they learned anything from 2016, the negative implications of a purity test. hillary clinton was more than a qualified candidate and should have beaten donald trump in 2016 but the democratic party fell victim to some of these purity tests. you know, the emails, it will ring hollow for the rest of our country's time. but for sox those litmus tests, i don't think we would have had donald trump. >> one of those litmus tests is the way that he messages and have democrats figured that out and which candidate does you think is doing that well?

>> i think democrats have gotten a lot better with shortening the message, and making it more concise. and understandable. i think mayor pete has been someone who is really good at that. i think tom steyer is someone who has managed to take some lessons from 2016, about the way you brand things, and take it to the american public. and so i think as this campaign goes on, we will see which candidate can really hone in and tighten the message of, you know, a future that we can all be a part of. >> hannah, let's parse the words and go with that, i guess, for a second, not everything, the only thing, and when you're out on the campaign trail, are voters sharing that same idea? lick we just got to win? like we just got to win? is that what they're saying? >> i think it is a little more nuanced than that. i think it depends on the voter. one thing that struck me slightly jarring in the wording of the editorial was that it basically likened the entire democratic primary to one big squabble within an academics department. i can't help but think of some

of the more professorial candidates running, pete buttigieg but elizabeth warren, they share that harvard tie together, so you know, that is one thing that i think the democrats do not want to appear. they don't want to appear philosophical, they don't want to appear pie in the sky, they do want to run on getting their policies through, and you know, certainly beating donald trump but i think it depends who you ask. if you're asking swing voters, those in the middle, it is not going to be singular, right? >> for sure. and i think, beating donald trump is of course the number one thing around democratic candidates and a lot of democratic primary voters, and swing voters but it also comes down to the nuances of the issues and when you look at somebody like bernie sanders or elizabeth warren who is planning the central part of his campaign an bernie sanders has run on his

long history of big visionary ideas which are adopted in mainstream in many parts of the democratic party, i think that appeals to voters, as well as the more sweeping statement that we have to beat donald trump, or as joe biden would i sarks lisa drum, but i think that is overarching but more nuance than that. >> michael moore, film maker, everybody knows quite well, has many messages that might fit on both sides here. this is what he said yesterday about the 2020 election on democracy now. >> if the election were held today, hillary won by three million popular votes, and i believe whoever the democrat is next year, is going to win by four to five million popular votes. if the vote were today, i believe he wouldn't win the electoral states that he would need. because living out there, i will tell you, his level of support has not gone down one inch.

in fact, i would say it is even more than it was before, because they're afraid now, they are afraid he could lose. >> all right. comes out, the energy, right, michael, out there working for all of these candidates that you have in the past, and he gets people out there, and what do you make of michael moore and his assessment? >> iowa, i think you've seen mayor pete and elizabeth warren and bernie sanders being able to turn out big crowds but at the end of the day, i think donald trump has something, had something in 2016 that he won't have in 2020, which was the benefit of the doubt. he was the change candidate. and now he is running as an incumbent. and i think that that is something that will actually turn out to be a negative in the 2020 election. >> michael, hannah, thank you. >> thank you. what would a national health care program, what would it mean for your life? a preview of a new msnbc special next. must be hot out there, huh?

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let's talk about power, politics, paychecks, federal workers next week are in for their biggest raise in a decade. president trump signed a pay raise of more than 2.5% yesterday. new laws in the era ahead, including washington state's ban on most gift cards with expiration dates. the measure going in effect in july, also forbids, inactivity or service charges on gift certificates and giving students the chance to protest, one of

the nation's largest schools, fairfax county school, will allow one excused absence a year to take part in protests and civil activities and students in grades sev through 12 will be el visible for that what would a national health care program mean for americans? francesca florentini breaks it down for all of us to understand, "red white and who". >> what is medicare for all? there is no exact definition because it doesn't exist yet but the two proposals in congress is that the government runs one national health care program and everybody is on it. private health care companies are pretty much put out of business and doctors, and pharmacists and hospitals bill uncle sam. deductibles would mostly disappear. but nothing in life is free. the government needs money for all of that care which side effects a payroll tax, a income,

wealthy tax, extremely wealthy and financial institutions and the government may negotiate drug prices for pharmaceutical companies and then we may have less money for commercials such as this. >> francesca has that tomorrow night here at 9:00 on msnbc. the most political significant events of the year and how they may alter the course of history. that's next. living joyfully. the united explorer card hooks me up. getting more for getting away. traveling lighter. getting settled. rewarded. learn more at the explorer card dot com. but in my mind i'm still 25. that's why i take osteo bi-flex, to keep me moving the way i was made to.

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nice! if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. well, as we prepare to bid farewell to 2019 most americans are not optimistic about their country, the latest poll shows 60% are dissatisfied with the currents state of the nation and 39% are satisfied. nbc's hallie jackson looks at events shaping that opinion. >> 2019 started with fireworks over the longest government shutdown in history. >> are you proud to own this shutdown. >> i am proud of doing what i'm doing. i don't call it a shutdown. >> after the fight over the border wall, a presidential retreat that reopened the federal government and a state of the union delayed but delivered. >> it is called a state of the union. it is in the constitution. >> a week later. >> i just want to get it done

faster. that's all. >> a declaration of a national emergency at the border infuriating democrats and instantly setting off a court fight that continues even today. >> overseas, a spring summit, suddenly scrapped early, with president trump leaving vietnam, and his meeting with north korea's kim jong-un without a deal on denuclearization. that relationship repaired enough by the summer for a surprise visit to the dmz, with donald trump, stepping where no president has before. >> back home, the investigation that loomed over the white house for two years, coming to a close. robert mueller, concluding russia did interfere with the 2016 election, but the special counsel did not find sufficient evidence the trump campaign coordinated or couldn't spired with the kremlin. in the 448-page report, mueller describes instances in which the president could have obstructed justice without explicitly exonerating him. >> it is not a witch hunt. >> the president insisted -- >> we went through the greatest witch hunt in political history.

>> airing his grievances as he kicked off his 2020 re-election campaign. but it was a different rally where this chant erupted. >> send her back. send her back. >> send her back. after the president's racist tweets slamming the so-called squad, four freshmen lawmakers, all women of color and u.s. citizens. >> again, i'm not going to negotiate up here. >> this summer saul the west wing's revolving door swing again with press secretary sarah sanders and stephanie grisham stepping in. >> in august -- >> we've got a mass casualty. >> nine or ten shot. >> two devastating shootings stunned the country. >> we're waking up again to a pair of tragedies in america brought on by men with guns. >> and sparked changes to gun control laws. >> despite the talk -- >> we have to have meaningful background checks. >> little action. >> if you look at background check, it wouldn't have stopped any of the last few years worth of these mass shootings. >> in the fall, foreign policy

in focus, as president trump announced he was pulling u.s. troops from syria. >> i'm not going to get involved in a war between turkey and syria. >> that same month, another announcement. one of the most significant in the trump one of the most significant anourmts, the president describing the death of the world's most wanted terrorist, abu back daddy. >> the president himself personally approved this operation. >> he died like a dog. he died like a kourd. >> later on the south lawn a photo op with the hero canine who helped commandos. but a shadow was hanging over the white house. impeachment as democrats accused the president of abusing his power by asking u vooin for information. >> there was no crime. >> the danger persists. the risk is real. >> the white house, choosing not to cooperate with the house proceedings and on december 18th, donald trump became only the third ever impeached

president of the united states. >> with todayies illegal unkoptstutional and partisan impeachment. >> his white house choosing to focus on several political wins like an agreement on the first phase of a trade deal with china to ramp down a trade war and the year-end pass age of a funding bill that includes the space force and approval of the usmca. still impeachment looms over 2020 with a trial on the way and donald trump hoping to make history again by becoming the first impeached president ever re-elected. hallie jackson, nbc news, the white house. joining us now, nbc news.com jonathan allen. good morning. busy year. you've been reporting it. what stands out for you in 2019 and certainly probably has the word trump attached to it. >> many, many things trump, richard. i think collectively as you step back and having looked at

obviously that retrospective from hallie there, the incredible change in the balance of power and the shaking of the foundations of our government. you saw coming right out of that government shutdown last year, the president moving to building his border wall by grabbing appropriations out of the defense department and moving them toward the border wall. he's having tremendous difficulty building a new wall but attempting to do that, having a court fight that's still raging. his ukraine scheme that has been uncovered where he leveraged federal dollars as part of the effort to solicit hope from ukraine to investigate political opponents. this is a president who is grabbing authorities for himself in a way that really no president has before. and then of course the clash on the other side of that, with the house of representatives standing up and impeaching him just last week, and the united

states senate poised once it gets the papers from the house of representatives to try that case. >> his use, what we traditionally call the bully pulpit had changed via twitter within the last year. will that tactic continue to have the level of efficacy we have seen to date in 2020 moving towards in next election? >> i don't think there's any reason to think that it won't, richard. he has found a way to communicate directly with the american people, unfiltered, unchecked, by anybody who's able in quite the same way, at quite the same speed, with quite the same reach, to say that what he's saying on twitter is untrue when it's untrue. and so he's going to continue because it's unfiltered too have his messages go out. the president is somebody who has great confidence in his skills as a salesman. it obviously at time backfires

on him, it can distract from his message, distract him from the message of his party, it can enraij people on the other side of the political debate. and sometimes it can deflate his own side. however it is an amazing tool for him. >> potentially here for the level of interest of quantum mechanics here, i wanted to ask you very quickly, the very way he has tested the connective tissue between the three branches of government, that has especially come forward in the last year, and what will happen in 2020 as we really do get to see the outcomes of that connective tissue. >> we've got two key questions here, richard, and some that are, i guess, core lairy to them. one is whether the republican party in the senate will shield the president from removal from office, and it appears that they will. it appears that they will render the judgment that essentially nothing short of out-and-out

treason is an offence that a president should be removed for. because, you know, what the house has impeached him for, there's tremendous evidence of. and basically what the house has said in the articles of impeachment that he has abused his power and they've laid out bribery and high crimes and misdemeanors. the second question is whether the voting public believes the president should be given a second term ones that impeachment process has played itself out. >> 30 seconds, you wrote a story on trump's impeachment, you talked to a democratic strategist who said trump is mag nifying the significance of impeachment. >> he's got to get his base riled up. he wants impeachment to be on the mind of his voters. he wants them to believe he is aggrieved, that he is somebody targeted, that they are the under daugds in this situation

coming into the election and under attack. it's the politics that he has always pursued and that's what he's going do with this impeachment. one thing he will be unable to do is remove this stain from his record. he is one of three presidents ever impeached by the house of representatives, and that's never ever going to change. >> jonathan allen from nbcnews.com. lots more. president's twitter tantrums and the republican senators who might soon be the target of the president's ire. it's finally time for... geico sequels! classic geico heroes, starring in six new commercials, with jaw-dropping savings. vote for your favorites at: geico.com/sequels ahhh, which way do i go?! i don't know, i'm voting for our sequels. with geico, the savings keep on going to a screen near you. not the leg! you dang woodchucks! geico sequels. vote and enter to win today!

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our coverage right now reporting for you -- >> thank you so much, returned. good morning to you and happy saturday. good morning to everybody joining us this morning. ♪ it is 7:00 in the east, 4:00 out west. we begin with new dwemtsz in the impeachment from capitol hill and florida. president trump is there. he may be taking a break from d.c. but not twitter. he's fired of dozens of messages since arriving. here are some of the voices speaking out today. >> do you stand by your earlier statements that you wouldn't comply if you were subpoenaed to testify in an impeachment trial for the senate? >> correct. and the reason i wouldn't is