mark esper says 750 u.s. troops are on their way to the middle east. joining us now to talk about all of this is "washington post" reporter from background and hillary, a former u.s. negotiator with iran and former national security counsel director for iran, afghanistan and persian gulf affairs. also co-author of going to tehran, why the united states must come to terms with the islamic republic. my thanks to you for being here. mustaf, what led to demonstrators leave that area of the embassy? >> yesterday when they were gathered around the embassy the prime minister issued a statement to leave immediately. they didn't listen and kept putting tents there. they kept trying to reach inside the embassy until late night. the second gate of the reception

room. this morning, probably between the prime minister and the militia leaders and according to my sources, the prime minister that he will step aside and leave his position emp tty if ty don't retreat. after all this, they're claiming they are part of the iraqi armed forces. he then told followers to leave the greep zone. all the groups have left except two. both are classified as terrorist organizations by the united states. they said they don't listen to the orders of pmu. only to the orders of their leaders and they state in the play place for a few hours then a command er of hezbollah, a spokesman, came andished a statement telling them that your message has been delivered and told them to leave. when i talked to him briefly, he said they got guarantees from

the parliament that in the near future. they will issue a law issuing or demanding the u.s. troops to leave the country and that's why they agreed to leave the area. >> so let's talk about that. as you mention ed, there are reports we're reading here in the states, demonstrators are going to try to pressure the iraqi parliament to vote to expel u.s. troops from the country. we know the iraq prime minister said that sunday's air strikes were a breach of sovereignt ttbt is there enough sport support for such a move? >> it hasn't always a discussion to do this vote. wheven with the prime minister. to speak in reality, they can get the enough votes to do that. in order to get enough votes, they will need the majority of the votes. sudanese and kurds and some shia people won't vote on that. >> you mentioned something we

talk ed about before the show started with these 750 u.s. troops going to the region. that's 750 targets as you put it. >> yes. president trump keeps giving the gift that keeps on giving to iran. he's sending more troops. attacking war heroes. iraqis who fought isis and claiminging somehow they're just proxy puppets in iran when in iraq, many are seen as war heroes so he's sparking these types of backlash against the u.s. diplomat presence and this gives iran all u sorts of assets. in iraq, the u.s. embassy, the diplomats are sitting ducks. many have compared it and president trump has tried not to, but to benghazi. also saigon where vietnam where they were forced to flee from the roof by helicopter. how else are they going to get out of iraq today? this is a victory for iran and this just gives the iranian and their friends more targets to shoot at or possibly to take hostage.

>> that embassy, that 100 acre wide embassy, it's symbolic of the u.s.' enduring perresence i iraq. >> it's not seen as the presence of a friend. to have 100 acres in the heart of your capital. the beating heart of the arab and muslim world. background. it's an auper. many who are angry at iran don't like that either. so what we see happening and this is the real strategic problem for the united states is that u.s. troops are going to leave iraq. they're going to be forced out by iran's friends in a horribly humiliating defeat and trump needs to get on to the gauc negotiating track and negotiate his way out of there. otherwise his 2020 election campaign is going to be like jimmy carter's 1980 where he's force d out of the presidency b iran. >> president trump is blaming iran u for the violence in iraq. here's what he said yesterday. iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost of

damage incured at any of our facilities. this is not a warning. it is not a threat. many of us in this country, we are used to president trump's tough talking on twitter. we're unaffected by it. how is that sort of thing received in the region? >> as the threat that it is, but it gives iran the opportunity to come back. so just today, ayatolla tweeted back to trump that you can't do a damn thing. that's what the founder of the islamic republic said to president carter in 1980 as he forced the carter presidency to go down in flames. so this is if gift that keeps on giving! . >> this could drag him into this tinderbox. >> it's part of what he ran on in 201, that he was going to get us out of these forever wars but instead, he has more troops in the middle east today than president obama did.

so despite his rhetoric that he's getting us out, no, he's sucking us into the abyss. >> morgan or teg said president trump's maximum pressure campaign was actually working. >> the reason why, the reason why our policy is working is because the iranian regime is out of money. the militias are out of money. we are extend iing the hand of diplomacy while pursuing our maximum economic pressure campaign while we're pursuing sanctions. we're not seeking another war in the middle east. but we are holding the iranian regime accountable and protecting and defending ourselves. >> a lot of talking points in there. >> the idea that the islamic republic of iran is going to fall because it's out of money is the same canard we've heard for 40 years. every time we say they're out of money, they do something to come back and smack us in the face so the idea that the maximum pressure campaign is working,

again i'm afraid that president trump could be seeing his last year just like president carter did. >> what do demonstrators do next if they're not able to get iraq to push u.s. troops out of the country? >> well, according to the spokesperson who was doing the speech today, he said that if the parliament want for filled with promise to issue this law, then they will treat the u.s. as occupiers and fire them just like before which means they will keep targeting them with rockets and just like what they did before. but eventually i think it's all being done to pressure is from iran to get some leverage against the u.s. between the attention from the u.s. and iran. >>. >> all right, thank you so much for your time. >> thanks very much. >> north korean leader kim jong-un is warning that he will end his country's suspension on nuclear weapons testing because the u.s. has not reduced its economic sanctions. state run media is reporting

that kim says he will introduce a new strategic weapon in the near future. president trump has appeared to shrug off past threats claiming to have a good relationship with the north korean leader. he seems to be doing that again today. >> he did sign a contract. an agreement talk uing about denuclearization and that was signed number one said denuclearization. that was done in singapore and i think he's a man of his word so we're going to find out but i think he's a man of his word. >> that was president trump last night in mar-a-lago. now experts have suggested that the emphasis on denuclearization was too big to be effective. last month, kim threatened to deliver a christmas gift as he called it. president trump responded by suggesting that gift could be a base instead of the missile test. coming up, several states are ringing in the new year and raising the minimum wage. why for so many workers it won't be enough.

plus, senator michael bennett joins us. you're watching msnbc. ♪

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he's not some weird log to al-qaeda orris is. it's not some foreign thing that looks like we've been fighting in the war on terror. it's actually fundamentally as american as anything and it is a threat to the multiracial, pluralistic, equal and open democracy that we've been fighting for in this country since people died on the battlefield in the civil r war. we have new fund raising numbers from some presidential candidates. just more than a month ahead of the iowa caucuses. andrew yang announced his biggest single day of fund raising. he says his campaign raised 1.$3 million in just one day bringing

his post christmas eve haul to $4 million. pete buttigieg's campaign says it raised $24.7 million this quarter and that brings his total to more than $76 million. let's go to nbc news road warrior, von hilliard, who's in des moines, iowa. break down the numbers. $25 million for mayor pete. that's big bucks, man. >> a big haul. an important one. the buttigieg campaign, they have more than 500 staff around the country. we' when you're b looking at campaign operations, you build up for iowa but long-term. take kamala harris' campaign. a big part of the reason she said she dropped out was because they just didn't have the financial means to continue on. not only paying staff and organizers and keeping an organization going, but going on the tv and continuing to get your message out through different forms of media. it's part of this tulsi gabbard announced her numbers raising

$3.5 million. yang has not release d his exac numbers, but several million. he says his campaign has pulled in the last several weeks. we are 33 days away. we're inside of amy klobuchar's campaign headquarters here in des moines, iowa. when you're talking about campaign operation, this is where it takes place. for instance, amy klobuchar's campaign. they've got more than 80 folks on the ground here across the state of iowa. she has visited all 99 counts. only the second candidate outside of john delain to do that. she wrapped up her 99-county tour to do that. she's coming back to do not only western iowa tomorrow, but then eastern iowa on friday. this is what this campaign will look like. if you're klobuchar or booker or sanders or warren, one of the question marks is is that senate trial. the impeachment trial that you've been covering over the tr. are they going to have to tend to that and be spending a significant part of their january there? because in the meanwhile, while they may be in d.c., it's these

folks who are going to be left in charge getting folks ready for february 3rd caucus day. >> thanks to you, buddy. all right. the economic policy institute estimates that almost 7 million americans are kicking off 2020 with a raise. after nearly half of u.s. states raised their minimum wages in 2019 and more are scheduled to take place over the could you rephrase the year. but while this comes as great news for millions of american families, we should also remind you that the federal minimum wage hasn't moved with the times. in fact, it remains at $7.25 an hour. the same as it was in 2009. joining me now is andre perry. a fellow in the metropolitian policy program at the brookings institution. he's done extensive research on structural inclusion. >> happy new year. >> you, too. what's also noteworthy about these hikes is that a slew of workers are going to earn $15 an

hour. what does that tell you about the success of what was known as the fight for 15 movement? >> we're clearly labor has been pressing to take on some of the benefits of a booming economy. incredible stock market. low unemployment. but those benefits of a booming economy have not blood pressuee to workers so they're doing what they should do. demanding more. so the organizing, a fight the 15, has had impacts across the country because local municipalities can dick katetat minimum wage requirements. they've done that. the federal government however has not done their part. >> a lot of higher income earnings americans think that minimum wage jobs are really for teenagers working at the gap or whatever. but that's not really who the average minimum wage worker is. >> let's remind people that 54% of african-american workers are in low wage jobs.

63% of latino workers are in low wage jobs. compared to 36% of whites and about 40% of asians. so black people and let's not forget women, women and brown people, are in a low wage job so it impacts a large section of our community. >> the other talking point you often hear is that if you raise the minimum wage, you're going to kill a lot of these jobs. is that true? >> the average paycheck had the same purchasing power as it did 40 years ago. >> wow. >> and about, while the economy is booming as i said, more than 30% of counties throughout the united states have seen an increase in poverty and so certainly, benefit is, the economy is booming. there's great benefits. however, it's just not being passed on to everyone.

we need shared prosperity if we're going to consider this economy a booming one. >> is this just a dollars an cents thing or is there more that needs to be done to invest in labor? >> yeah, just raising the the minimum wage is simply not enough. we need to upscale workers for the economy. too many folks just aren't equipped to participate in the, this economy so we need to put tech in the hands of every child. we need to give advanced train ing to folks who have grad jated from high school but are clearly underemployed so this is not enough just to increase the wages. we've got to look long-term. let's prepare workers for the next economy, for this committee. >> it's great talking to you because you're a policy guy but also a prak tigs ner. what works well and has it worked well for black and brown

folks, for women who need to earn more and deserve to earn more? >> well black and brown people are doing well in about 124 places in the country. majority black places throughout the country where average incomes exceed national averages. we need to look into those places, see what are in them. clearly, a lot of these places have anchor institutions, government institutions, colleges and universities. military bases are there to ensure consistent wages so but we can replicate that by demanding employers give the same kind of benefits in places where the wages are not increasing. and so the goal is to examine where blacks are doing well and let's replicate some of those phenomena, some of those pr practices in places where it's not doing well. >> great to talk to you. up next, the president is slamming lawmakers in new york and california because of the devastating increase in homelessness in their states, but he's ignoring the growing problem of homelessness in his

own home state which now is not new york, but florida. we'll explain why coming up next. but first, here's one of the top video stories of the year from nbc news.com. cory booker goes after joe biden on the issue of marijuana in november's democratic debate. >> i have a lot of respect for the vice president. he swore me into my office. this week, i hear him literally say that he doesn't think we should legalize marijuana. i thought you might have been high when you said it because marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people and it's one of war on drugs has been a war on black and brown people. let me just say this. with more african-americans under criminal supervision in america than all the slaves since 1850, do not roll off into

communities and not talk directly to issues that are going to relate to the liberation of children because there are people in congress right now that admit to smoking marijuana while there are kids in jail right now for those drug crimes. l right now for those drg crimes man: sneezes

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president trump is slamming lawmakers in california and new york, both blue state, over the growing problem of homelessness. according to a survey, 552,000 people experienced homelessness at least one night in 2018. president trump is pointing the finger at democrats in new york and california including nancy pelosi saying they're too distracted by impeachment to focus on the homelessness there. it's true that california and new york have large homeless populations, but so does the state that president trump is in right now. the one he now calls home. that's florida. in fact, florida has the third largest homeless population in the nation. so how has it escaped the president's scrutiny? let's bring in vox associate editor, aaron. you have this new article entitled truch's use of

homelessness expoeses his disregard for blue states. what in your reporting surprised you about this? >> well, you know, one thing that surprised me is that california has indeed had experienced a huge spike in the homeless population over the past two years. the other thing that sort of surprised me though from trump's standpoint on this is that a lot of presidents would probably regard the fact there's been a spike in homelessness as something they should take a bit of responsibility for and trump on the other hand is just completely throwing democratic politicians under the bus for this problem so i found that to be quite striking but there's a surge in the homeless population, especially in california, but also in new york over the past couple of years. that's a real problem. >> yeah. the president is attacking new york and california for the issue of homelessness because it's politically expedient. is that what you found in the reporting that you did?

>> right. it's still striking for an american president to pit communities against each other in the way that trump is doing with this issue. over the holidays, it really became a cod yul to you know push back on democrats, especially pelosi, who he believes has been too focused on impeachment to take care of the surging homeless population in her district. and of course has anybody who's spent time in san francisco recognizes, there's a real problem there. but this notion that trump has been pushing that its solution is just one phone call away is absurd. not to mention the fact that the budgets he's proposed year in and year out have cut funding for affordable housing programs that would help provide some sort of solution to this. you know to me, it's very striking to see a president show disdain for states that are you know, in the union that he's supposed to be b the president of. so you know, yeah, it's, excuse me, sorry. >> no, you're fine. in fact in your article, you

write this. tht the part of the interview where i read back what you wrote. you say trump is ostensibly president of the united states, you think he'd regard himself as partly responsible but instead, he's trying to make it seem as though the problem b is one his democratic opponents created and could solve. all manner of issues he's going to tuck about in this election, but do you think he think this is in some way salient during this impeachment push as opposed to some other issues? >> yeah, he seems to think it's a way to portray democrats as being obsessed with impeachment instead of taking care of problems that could benefit their constituents. to the extent trump has a policy on homelessness, it's to criminalize it. there's been reporting that an executive order is in the works that would incentivise police departments to dispose of homeless encampments, give them

incentives to crack down and he's been in favor of creating homeless populations and getting people into long-term housing is the best way to take care of the problem. it's pretty cynical, but it's also part of the same tendency we saw last summer when he was attacking elijah cummings for the alleged infestations in baltimore and things like that. so as part of the dividing and conquering where new york and california are the states he does not need to win to win the re-election. florida which has the third highest homeless population in the country is a state he does need to win and as you mentioned, he's now living there so the silence about homelessness in florida in contrast to how he's trying to politicize the issue in new york and california as i write in the piece for vox.com kind of

exposes you know his cynical disregard for blue states and the fact that he regards himself as only being president of states that support him. >> thanks for your attention to this critical issue and for your time this afternoon. coming up, with the holidays over, lawmakers are looking ahead to sure to be one of the biggest moments this year on capitol hill. the looming senate impeachment trial. up next, the president's defiant new comments in a preview of what we can expect as early as next week. stay with us. pect as early as next week. stay with us can my side be firm?

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as the new year begins, the white house is look iing ahead the impeachment trial in the senate. rudy giuliani told reporters last night at mar-a-lago that he would testify if called upon. >> would you testify? >> i would testify. i would do demonstrations. or i'd do what i do best. try to gates. >> meanmeantime, the president new year's eve lashing out at house speaker nancy pelosi for what he sees as an unfair house impeachment inquiry. >> well the impeachment thing is a hoax. a big, fat hoax. i think the impeachment thing, a disgrace and nancy pelosi should be ashamed of herself. she's a highly overrated person. i know her well. she's highly overrated.

>> joining me now is former senior counsel to the house intelligence committee and also nbc news senate producer and reporter, frank thorpe. we're also office mates from capitol hill. so we've talked about this a lot. the major complicating factor of the senate trial is that the rules that govern a senate trial are few and so much of this is left open to negotiation. >> yeah and so there are those rules that kind of establish the idea that they would meet between monday through saturday. they would have sundays off. there's technically a rule in there that would say they would start at noon and so those are things though that would be worked out by senators and this is what there would hopefully get to do if the articles come over from the house. now this is what pelosi's hoping they do ahead of time. establish there might be witnesses but u in '99 when we saw the clinton impeachment trial is that they established the rules for how they were going to lay out the case. basically the house managers

could come over, lay out their case then they made the decis n decisions about witnesses. so we can expect that to happen in the articles come over. the question is where, when they decide to make the decision about whether or not to talk to witnesses or not. >> such a great point because we so often shorthand this issue of witnesses but what you laid out is that. chuck schumer wants that to be determined at the start because u democrats believe if they have any leverage, it's at the beginning of the process, not in the middle and mcconnell is saying no, we'll have this two week trial then make a determination. >> we saw susan collins saying she would go back to that model. she was a part of the '99 trial. she's going to be a big deciding factor in this. because you only need 51 senators to make this decision. they had all 100 senators make that agreement to establish the process for the '99 trial, but people r were thinking that would p highly unlikely to get all 100 senators on board for how this process is going

considering how partisan it's been. >> speaking of the partisan inquiry, you saw rudy giuliani there and mar-a-lago. president trump's public spokesman, but also his personal attorney, saying he would be happy to testify. he also said he wants to prosecute the case, which is interesting because as the president's attorney, he would defend the president, not prosecute him. giuliani, if he were to testify, you've got to imagine that would keep mcconnell up at night. >> certainly keep the democrats happy. he's somewhat of a loose cannon. every time he gets on camera, he's got a drink in his hand and makes some kind of comment that gets the president in hot water. the president seems to like it. brings him to mar-a-lago, keeps using him. the president may want to put him on the stand and may want him to serve as attorney in the trial, although it would be an odd move. mcconnell is trying to keep this thing tight and quick, get it off the plate. if rudy giuliani is testify, this thing could go south fast. >> what are we going to see as early as the second, third full

week in january. you've got the senators at their desks. what are the mechanics? >> all 100 senators will have to sit in their chairs. they have to sit and listen. technically, they're not supposed to have their phones with them. this is what mcconnell has been telegraphing to senators tr months. the idea they're going to be sitting in their chairs for hours at a heim. not able to speak. >> how's a u.s. senator going to do that? >> they're nervous about the idea this could, hypothetically, they're going to get antsy. they're going to be sit iting there. hear the case from the prosecutors. the house managers. they're going to hear the defense from the white house counsel then be able to submit questions but those will be in writing. won't be able to stand up in you know, speeches or anything like that. >> this isn't going to be a senate judiciary hearing where kamala harris throws fire. >> no. it's going to be a little bit more subdued. clearly different from the house process. this is, but also you have to think about it from the

standpoint of because the white house didn't participate in the house inquiry, we're going to for the first time, hear the defense from the white house. we've seen tweets from the president. responses from surrogates, from rudy giuliani or the president himself, but this is going to be the first time we're going to hear from the actual white house counsel. their defense of why they think how he handled ukraine aid was correct. >> what do you think that defense might be? because so far, all of the evidence that democrats have compiled all points in one direction and republicans on the hill, their argument, they've sort of mounted a process argument. but it's not going to cut it when you're mounting a defense for the president in a senate trial. >> you're right. president's withhold aid all the time. what i was concerned about was corruption. not hunter biden. it was hunter biden on the board of burisma. there's going to be a will the of hunt rer biden talk, right? this was a perfect decision.

president obama withheld aid. joe biden himself raked the ukrainians over the fire on their prosecutor. this is a common thing presidents do. not because of the aid or trid i was going to make. you're impeaching me because you don't like me. >> they can make the argument, what, because i didn't meet with the president of ukraine? when matched up with the evidence, you can't sell that, but if you don't have any witnesses, they might think they have a fighting chance. >> at the end of the day, the key issues are in front of the american public. the transcript. there's a line where zelensky says i want this. president trump says i want you to do this thing. that's the issue. the problem is right now as of today, it looks like the vote should be in favor of the president. it's not clear what the democrats strategy is because they're going to lose this trial without witnesses. that's why you see pelosi holding up the articles of impeachment. right now, they're on the verge of losing this and it's not a

good move. >> quick question to you, frank. we're in the reporting business, not the speculation business, but we have reported enough to know what he said isn't true. there are not 20 republicans clearly who are going to join with the democrats to get that 67 number. >> yeah and i think though but we have seen a willingness from the moderates. susan krins, lisa murkowskis, mitt romneys, to listen, to be open to the arguments. that's going to be the folks we're watching. not house, not a single republican voted for these articles. >> so you might have 51 for a trial of witnesses, but not the 67 to get removal. great conversation. appreciate your being here. pop francis is apoll swrizing for slapping the hand of a woman who grab bed his arm on new year's eve. he was clasping hands with admirers, waving and smiling and that's what happened. a woman grabb ebed his hand and pulled him towards her. she didn't release, you can see

what he did. he said today quote, many times we lose our patience. me, too. i apologize for yesterday's bad example. all right. coming up, a b panel of scientific advisers, many of whom were appointed by president trump, have a new warning for the epa. the roll back of certain environment regulations clash with established science. what that means for our climate coming up. what that means for our climate coming up. when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com

we've got some breaking news to report. mike pompeo is postponing his trip to ukraine. state department says the secretary needs to stay in washington, d.c. to monitor the situation in iraq. the state department says the trip will be rescheduled in the near future. pompeo was expected to visit ukraine, belarus, kazakhstan, uzbekistan and cyprus. scientific advisers at the environmental protection agency is sounding the alarm and warning that regulatory roll backs could clash with established science according to the reporting of "the washington post." the report quotes steven hamburg, a chief scientist at the environmental defense fund who served on the epa's science advisory board. he says this. it is noteworthy that a board

dominated by scientists appointed by trump, some of who advocate looser federal rules, found serious flaws in the science behind serl veral of th proposed changes. he joins me now. thanks for coming on. so "the washington post" went on to mention some of the rolls. they say this. the changes would weaken standards that govern waterways as well as those that dictate gas mileage for u.s. automobiles. another change would restrict the scientific studies to be used in regulations while a fourth would be used in changing how the epa counts the benefits from eliminating coal fire power plants. what are the short-term consequences of this and how will it affect the epa's ability to do what its mission is? >> well, the real issue here is sticking to the mission of the epa to do science based regulation.

and the science advisory board was chartered by the congress to provide advice to the epa, to ensure that in fact it could meet its mission and the sav over the last couple of years, has been trying to engage the epa in review of the many rollback and different regulatory agenda items. but the epa really has not been eager to engage so the sab made a commitment to review numerous of these proposals, which the draft reports were released just yesterday or day before. but it's been a very hard process because the sab has had to do that without, much input from the epa itself. >> what are the real life impacts here? >> well, we're talking about things like car mileage and the pollution produced by automob e

automobiles. they're talking about greatly reducing the requirement and using a set of models to justify that, but the review by the working group that draft port which is now posted for public review, suggests that in fact that work is not sound science. and that extends to other issues like the proposal to limit the science that can be used in regulatory reviews by the epa trying to increase transparency in science, which we're all absolutely for, but in the process, they've been very untransparent. they've been very opaque about actually the nature of those rules and the sab requested in writing, clarification on many of the details of the tra transparency and science proposal and the epa was not forthcoming. so they're opaque about their efforts to be more transparent in the process of skate iing th

ability to use good science. >> all right. my thanks to you. coming up, presidential candidates, senator michael bennett, joins us to talk about today's headlines and his strategy to finish in ♪

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get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. one breaking news from the state department, mike pompeo, is postponing his trip to ukraine to monitor his trip.

michael bennett is joining me now. no relations, by the way, good to see you. >> it is nice to see you my cousin, although you spelled your name correctly. >> uncle mike. >> it is great to have you here. let's get down to business. what's your reaction to secretary of state mike pompeo postponing the trip to ukraine which a lot of people said he should have been taken in the first place. >> it is important that we make sure that the people in our embassy continues to be safe in baghdad and that ought to be our number one priority at the moment. we said a message that russia's interest is more important than ukraine interests. this is inevitable outcome of having a president who has no

foreign policy strategy. last week we are all about kicking iran out of iraq and now in this turn of events, we now have the prime minister agreeing he's going to support legislation and kick the united states out of iraq. the president is reckless. >> and yet you have the experien spokesperson from the state department, u.s. policy in iran is stronger than ever. that's p >> for once it was an effort by our country to manage the situation in the middle east can sped up to go to war with it. because he back out of that plan with no theory about what to do afterwards, iran that has been continuing to do acts all over the region.

we are in a butmuch weaker posin with iran, just as we are with north korea and china. the guy can't find a foe that we have that he can stand up to it. >> let's talk about 2020. you are there in new hampshire and before we get to all the horse race questions, i want to ask you a question about one of your policies, your education educati push. high quality program by 2028. you want all students to be able to read by third grade and be efficient in math in eighth grade and graduate and earning a living wage. >> i am so happy you asked an education question that brings tears in my eyes. in 2020, i hear about it everyday in my town hall and you

know i am the only school superintendent ever running for president. i am a lot more in preschool than i am in precollege. i believe we need to focus on the 70% of kids graduating from high school but not going to college to make sure when they leave high school, they can earn a living wage and not consigning to a minimum wage. we can do that by transforming the way high school community college works in this country. that investment will transform the lives of millions of americans. >> you said something that you are more invested in free pre-k than free college. they cannot college age students to vote for them. >> i have to tell you that i

thi think we have a rapid agenda. what's clear, if you ask any kindergarten teacher they'll tell you. if the kids come to kindergarten, they live in pover poverty, they'll have heard 30 million fewer words. that means they're going to drop out from the time they're in kindergarten. they start dropping out in kindergarten when they are not ready. investment in preschool early is a much more effective use of money and would mean much more to the kids that i used to work for in the denver public schools,most of whom kids of color and most of whom kids living in poverty. our agenda would be relevant. >> got to invest in public

schools. you want to finish in the top three of new hampshire's primary. how do you do it and if you don't do it, what happens? >> well, i am planning to do it so i will leave that to the second question for afterwards. i have been in new hampshire more than any other candidates. i have done something like 50 town halls. we are just with my family on a new year's hype with the people there. i am going to earn this in the retail way that new hampshire sometimes let politicians do it, by answering all the questions and taking all the critics people have. people in new hampshire have not made up their mind. they are looking for candidates that can beat donald trump. i think i am that candidate. >> michael bennett, thank you for your time. appreciate it. great to see you. >> great too see you, anyone

wants to help go to m michaelbennet.com. >> allison morris takes over. >> great to see you geoff. >> it is 9:00 p.m. in iraq where the u.s. embassy in baghdad is surrounded by heighten security. hundreds of demonstrators scale the compound walls throwing rocks. u.s. troops fired back with tear gas and rubber bullets. protesters largely withdrawn and iraqi forces secure the embassy. the pentagon deployed 750 soldiers to baghdad. the rhetoric between u.s. and iran escalating on twitter. this is not a warning. th it is a threat. iran's supreme leader says he does not hesitate to defend