democrats from the start of the inquiry and even before. the party is also facing another issue, and it's one of diversity. democrats pride themselves on being inclusive and diverse in its group. yet in the past month, the 2020 field lost two of its minority candidates. now just four remain in the race, cory booker, andrew yang,

deval patrick, and tulsi gabbard. none of them have qualified for the presidential debate this month. so with a full congress back to work in three days, the iowa caucus is about four weeks away and the general election now ten months away, 2020 is shaping up to be historic, dramatic, and, well, entirely unpredictable. let's start with a quick update on the attack in iraq and how the president is defending his actions. nbc's hans nichols is traveling with the president in florida. hans, what's the latest? >> well, the white house is basically is in wait and watch mode. the president spent most of the day at his golf course and the heavy diplomatic lifting was left to mike pompeo and he was

talking to lots of people. he's basically trying to do what the president is also trying to do, and that is make the case that the threat against americans was imminent. pompeo's being met with criticism. president trump is being met with skepticism, at least we've seen congressional democrats as they review the evidence they've seen thus far. we didn't hear a whole lot from the president. there's one tweet talking about republican unity. last night he was at a campaign event and it was a group of evangelical christians here in south florida, further south than miami. he topped off his remarks with targeting and killing soleimani. it's an indication -- he also mentioned al baghdadi. it's an indication of what we may get from the president in terms of his stump speech. talking about judges, he's really giving his greatest hits, touting the strength of the economy. that's the message that the

president wants to take going into 2020. we'll see as you mentioned whether or not events take over and somehow veer the president and get him off course but as of right now the president and his team feel confident and comfortable with the story that they're telling. rev? >> hans, quick follow-up. do we have any indication at all of what this imminent dissolution of marriage that was blarng . >> we have some but not a great deal of detail. it was to u.s. facilities that were in the region, facilities and individuals in the region. we know that soleimani was in syria most recently. some reporting that he had approved this latest attack and was heading back to iran to get the approval from the supreme religious leader in iran. so seems to be a regional threat, not a global or a threat

to the united states homeland. the evidence would suggest that the president was presented with an option and there was also a harm and a cost of not acting. and the president made the call and that's where we are today, waiting whether or not iran will retaliate. remember, the president had bellicose language last night that they have identified targets inside of iran should the iranians retaliate. rev? >> nbc's hans nichols, thank you. for more on the political impact, i'd like to bring in former senior adviser to the democratic national committee doug auththornell and republica strategist rina shah. why do you think, renah, that the president would not inform the group of eight or any democratic leader about this attack, which is the usual procedure when a president is going to make a move with such

ramifications? >> rev, let's look at the president's mantra. he said i'm running for president and believes that only he can fix it. i alone can fix it is his mantra, and that is exactly why he doesn't believe that he needs to be accountable or inform anybody in congress that he is going to be a the advantagemstr something he's admired in vladimir putin. that tells you right there, this man is somebody who acts like a king and a dictator and doesn't feel that he needs to abide by norms. >> but he did inform some republican leaders. >> sure. >> if we could inform some republican leaders, why wouldn't he show this is for the nation and not partisan in any way? >> those are the ones that hang around at his resort, mar-a-lago, the white house of the south and ingratiate

themselves. trump feels good about it because he feels they've come to kiss his ring. he doesn't understand the equal branches of government and serious matters such as taking our country to war, using taxpayer dollars and putting our men and women on the line. he doesn't understand that this is nonpartisan and it should be a time where it should be solemn and unifying the country. >> doug, one of the first things that president trump did upon taking office is get the united states out of the iran nuclear accord that president barack obama had established. do you think if this accord was still intact in terms of the united states, that we would have faced this imminent danger that they are proposing or this kind of situation that we have facing with the iranian general being assassinated? >> that's a really good question. i just don't know.

i mean, i think a lot of what people are wanting to hear from the president and his team is the intelligence they relied on to carry out this killing. that's something that nancy pelosi is pressing. as you pointed out, rev, there was no notification of the gang of agteight. that's something obama did prior to taking out osama bin laden. i think what congress wants, next week you'll hear a lot from democrats, is what is the intelligence you relied upon to carry this out? and then what is the plan? what is the next step here? because there is a deep sense among democrats that they don't trust president trump to not act impulsively and out of his own political interests when it comes to national security. >> now, take a look at what trump tweeted back in 2011. quote, in order to get elected, barack obama will start a war with iran. and in 2012, quote, now obama's

poll numbers are in a tail spin, watch for a strike in libya or iran. he is desperate. later in 2013, remember what i previously said, obama will someday attack iran and order to sh -- in order to show how tough he is. maybe questions that are being raised about whether there was some political motive to president trump, he threw into the water himself, raising against president obama who did not invade iran. >> yeah, i mean, i think that's a clear case of projecting on someone else your own views. my sense is that whether or not trump did this for, you know, political reasons or not, i think there's reason to believe based off everything we heard about ukraine and how he's conducted himself in the oval

office to date that he is putting his political interests, his own personal, political interests ahead of the national interests of this country. we saw in emails last week that were released, rev, where his national security team told the president that it was in the national interest to release that funding to ukraine. and he still didn't do it. so i don't have a lot of faith or trust that he's going to be looking at what's in the best interest of america here. >> rina, do you think at least two republicans began to say they were somewhat leery of what majority leader mcconnell said he was on the president's -- he felt the president was going to clear the trial and that he was not impartial, and that disturbed at least two that spoke publicly. do you think the fact that we're now in a military action would

make all of the republicans that may have even had questions say, no, we're going to tow the line and stand with the president as we prepare for whatever the ground rules are going to be for the senate trial on his impeachment? >> two things here. this past week in washington so many people said this is a wag the dog scenario, one in which the president surely wants to get elected because he'll be seen as a wartime president. i don't want to give my kudos to trump here, but it's hard to determine. it's hard to even decipher what is on the president's mind usually. he shoots from the hip too often for us to guess. secondly, this is a reality where whatever comes next, congress as well as this president are both woefully unprepared for. that puts our country at a loss. very scared for that. >> let me ask you quickly the same question. will this change how the republicans in the senate who have the majority, how they may

respond when you only need four to vote on some of the procedural questions like witnesses and other things of that nature in the senate trial? >> look, i don't think it will. i don't have a whole lot of confidence in the senate republicans to stand up to trump. certainly mcconnell is not going to do it. while lisa murkowski and susan collins raised questions about what mcconnell said, at the end of the day i have a feeling that they are going to fall in line. i hope i'm wrong about this. but the reality is that that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a fair trial and there should be some witnesses called because there's just too much at stake and too many questions that have been raised. certainly in the impeachment inquiry and also gestuthe new e released that are now

unredacted. >> thank you for being here. coming up, which of the presidential candidates raised the most money in the fourth quarter in 2019? that news in a moment. first, my colleague richard lui with today's top news stories. richard? [ no audio ] [ engine sputtering ] [ heavy breathing ]

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this week the 2020 presidential candidates released their campaign fundraising totals from the fourth quarter of 2019. as you may have guessed, the four democrats who've been on top of most of the polls also raised the most money. though the runner-up in many surveys, bernie sanders, pulled in more than any of his democratic competitors, pulling in $34.5 million, nearly $10 million more than his next closest rival. meanwhile president trump is blowing all those democrats out of the water. his re-election campaign raised $46 million, and he now has $102 million in cash on hand. joining me now, the national press secretary for the 2020 bernie sanders campaign, debrby

gray. why do you think your candidate raises so much more money than the competitors consistently? >> those numbers make me smile because of who they're coming from. the number one donors, the number employer, they're teachers. the number one employer has been amazon, target, walmart, the kind of places where bernie has been advocating for employees to have a higher minimum wage and has successfully done so since the stop bezos act. not only do we have the grassroots fundraising from small-dollar donations, we have the ability to sustain that because 99.9% of our donations from people who have not maxed out. moreover, in the last day of fundraising we had 40,000 new contributors, people who had never given to the campaign before, which shows this isn't just some clan of diehards as they are painted in the media. they are increasingly learning

more and more about the candidate and coming on board because they see him as someone who can delivery material change in their lives. >> he's run a transformative kind of campaign, i call it a transformation more than transacting better. but at the same time, he's had issue with diversity in terms of his voting base. doing better now, but still not getting the kind of black and brown support, particularly black support that one will need if he is the nominee. you're a black woman and you're all the way with him. just because you're black doesn't mean you support a black candidate, but how do you deal with the diversity question? >> first, i want to point out that bernie sanders is leading with nonwhite voters. in particular -- >> where? >> in national polls. he has the least white support in terms of overall estimation of who's supporting him compared to anyoire -- >> why is he having problems with black voters? >> he is not having problems

with black voters. he consistently polls either number two or three with black voters. what's so interesting is that when you look over the course of the campaign -- and i know we're talking about some of the candidates of color who have recently dropped out. persistently bernie sanders has polled better with black voters than all those people of color. so the question becomes what are people of color looking for? what are black women specifically looking for? in an essence poll, what we said the number one issue was was health care. when you look at other polls that show who is trusted most on issues, including health care, it is bernie sanders. so i think the winning ticket here, it's not about what bernie sanders represents per se. when you ask people on the trail, i ask black people, my family members, they like bernie sanders, but black voters are concerned about electability and they're not getting the message that bernie sanders is the most electable candidate by a number

of metrics. >> the optics of him having had problems with black voters, would that in some way put pressure on him to, if he were the nominee, and that's an if, that held have to ha would have person of color as a running mate? >> i don't have questions about the diversity of the bernie sanders administration would be. >> i didn't ask about the administration, i asked about running mate. >> look at the campaign is showing in terms of diversity. 77% of the staff are women. we have a black national press secretary and a campaign campaign manager who's a black woman. the head of our political department is an afro latina. >> will heavy running mate that is black or brown? >> bernie sanders said repeatedly he's going to look for that and it's going to be a serious consideration when he picks a vp. why i love bernie sanders and

why he's considered the most trusted person in this race is what people stand for comes first. you and i both know there have been plenty of black and brown politicians who haven't always had the best interests of our communities at heart. >> i agree. >> first and foremost we need someone who is committed to the issues that have driven bernie sanders to the top of this pac, that has driven people to give their money to him in this campaign. >> people also like to see that they are included and people with their background and experience is included. julian castro's been vocal in his criticism of the order of the primary and caucus states. last night he compared holding early contests in overwhelming white states to voter suppression to people of color. here's what he said. >> it's time for us to grow up as democrats and to be willing to look at our own house. we have to complain and take action and file suit when republicans trample on voting rights, but we can't stop there. we actually have to improve how

we do things as well. >> would senator sanders support change the lineup of how the primary and caucus season starts. >> it's so important that south carolina is one of the states that's included in early voting -- >> but it's after two states that are very much white in terms of -- >> it is, although it is also important not to erase the diversity in some of these places like waterloo, iowa, which has a substantial black community and all the latino people who live in iowa in particular who are an integral part of the community. >> there's clearly not a large percentage in the state of iowa. we're not going to say that, or new hampshire. again, would you support castro, you being the campaign, saying we ought to change how we start the caucuses and primaries in terms of the races for the convention's nominee?

>> what's absolutely important is that the early states are diverse. that's why we talk about states like south carolina, nevada, which has such a huge latino population as well, as crucial to setting the tone for what's going to happen over the course of the election. as long as those voters have weight, we have some kind of stabilization. >> so you want to keep it the way it is? >> i'm not in charge of deciding what these things are. as they try to increase the amount of representation that's here in our country. when we have voter suppression and so many people who don't even go -- remember, just in wisconsin alone, 87,000 black americans chose to stay ohome i 2016. overwhelmingly because they felt none of the candidates in the race were offering something for them, that it wasn't worthwhile

for them to come to the polls. we have to look at the entire thing. >> who won the wisconsin primary? >> bernie sanders is incredibly perform popular. >> you said had he been the nominee, he would have been able to bring the nominees up. >> when you look the obama to trump districts, bernie sanders was outfundraising there by orders of magnitude. this is part of the electability case. bernie sanders isn't just the person who is going to provide universal health care for all americans, who's going to cancel all student debt, which no one else in the race is advocating for, who has a plan to cancel medical debt, he his the strongest candidate because people like him and trust him. >> national press secretary for the sanders campaign and we see why, thank you for being here. coming up, hate crimes in the u.s. are on the rise.

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mrb: this is america. we can certainly afford to make sure that everybody that needs to see a doctor can see a doctor, everybody that needs medicines to stay healthy can get those medicines. nurse: you should know, he did it as mayor, he'll get it done as president. mrb: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message. ♪ oh, oh, (announcer)®! ♪ once-weekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! mer kowski murkowski mer kowski murkowski stroke, or death. there's no increased risk. oh! and i only have to take it once a weeki urkowski murkowski ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) ozempic® should not be the first medicine for treating diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis.

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in this week's memo to the president, i want to address the

rising tide of hate in the country and the president's complicity in that trend. five jewish people were stabbed as they gathered to celebrate hanukkah. the suspect's family says he has mental health issues but he also has a history of seeking out anti-semitic material online and has been charged with attempted murder and federal hate crimes. yet, another act of hate committed during the three-year spike that has taken place since you took office, mr. president. and you might be asking yourself how is that my fault? and i'd love to tell you. let's start with the fact that counties across the country that hosted one of your election rallies in 2016 saw a whopping 226% increase in hate crimes. coincidence? it seems like maybe your

audiences are responding to your hateful rhetoric like -- let me give you these examples. >> so they have no jobs. they have horrible education. they have no safety or security. >> you're brutal killers, not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me. you have no choice. >> the real pocahontas we wouldn't have minded, but the fake pocahontas, you can't have it. >> they're bringing crime and they're rapeists. >> just a sample of the derogatory things you had to say about african-americans, jewish people, native americans, hispanics, and those who oppose the very fine neo-nazis. you also malign patriotic american journalists as quote scum, slime, sick, and the enemy of the people. and your fans hear you loud and clear, escalating their violent attacks on those you criticize. the problem, mr. president, is

that you don't concept allize people who who disagree with you as being fully american, and your rage manifests in the hateful rhetoric spewed in your tweets and speeches. and make no mistake, your supporters feed on that hate. you may not have caused hate to take root in america as i've noted in the past, oppression is at the root of the american experiment. but your words and actions has given permission to american bigots to shout their hatred, to spew it online and in the public sphere. in the worst cases, to explode in the violence of hate crimes all over this country. you know it's not too late to turn over a new leaf, mr. president, by setting a better example for the millions of americans who look up to you, like is it too hard to offer well wishes, even with a simple tweet to civil rights icon and

congressman john lewis, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer? it would restore human decency to the oval office. hopefully your formals will follow suit before more blood is spilled. as always, i'll be praying for all of you. more on that in just a moment. ld s s s

i'm your mother in law. and i like to question your every move.

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. in the last 30 days we've seen a rash of anti-semitic violence across the tri-state area. last month two gunmen stormed a kosher grocery store in jersey city, killing two jewish civilians and a police detective. their rampage purely motivated by hate. last weekend a man stabbed five jewish people during a hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home in muncie, new york. a woman is facing charges for assaulting aha acidic man in brooklyn this week. the anti-defamation league has reported 1,900 anti-semitic attacks in the year 2018 and 2019 seems to be on pace. my organization, the national action network, along with other black and jewish leaders have made certain to publicly denounce such violence acts.

another person helping to lead the charge against anti-semitic hate is new york congressman hakeem jefferies, who is the chairman of the house democratic caucus and a member of the house judiciary committee. congressman, you stepped out at least twice, doing more than those two, one having dinner, people coming together, black and jewish community because in these last incidents it was blacked that have been accused. you've also come out with the congressional delegation. tell us what you're doing. >> thanks, rev, for your continued leadership and great to see you. happy new year. >> happy new year. >> this is definitely troubling in terms of the dramatic increase we've seen in anti-semitic hate crimes in the tri-state area and beyond over the last few years, as you laid

out. dr. king we know once said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere. >> that's right. >> and my view has been working alongside other leaders within the african-american community is that we have a long-standing relationship, of course, with other communities of color and with the jewish community on issues of racial, social justice, religious tolerance and things of that nature. it's important for all of us to step up to confront what's happening. >> you can't fight hate against yourself, which we all do, if you're not going to fight when it's demonstrated against others. >> absolutely. so the congressional delegation has been fighting turnover laov year to make sure there was an increase in funding made available for nonprofit religious organizations, to synagogues, to mosques, churches, to people who've been victimized by the rise in hate crimes we've seen over the last few years. in the last budget -- >> i want you to get into that because i know people are going to say that i'm harsh on the

president and i'm not saying he causes violence. i'm saying he's complicit with this mood that people with mental issues or not can in many ways be incited. on a policy level, tell us what happened with that budget. >> in the last year, $50 million was allocated, which we had to fight for. interesting into this current budget cycle, the president proposed zeroing out that number. >> zeroing out the $50 million. >> that's correct, taking it from -- >> that came from president trump? >> and his proposed budget. we fought to restore it because this is funding that can be used by religious institutions and organizations to secure things like security contractors and personnel, increased locking mechanisms, security cameras, and things to improve the safety of these individuals who are practicing their religion, who

are worshiping together and who should be left alone consistent with the spirit of religious freedom in america. >> and this is across the board muslim, jews, christians, whoever would face bias and face these areas of attack? >> that's correct. so it's available to every religious denomination. of course, we in the new york delegation, we've had great leadership from max rose and grace meng. we fought to restore the money and then we increased it to a record $90 million. now we want to make sure that every single organization within the tri-state area can put together a competitive grant applications to secure this funding. >> as we fight, we are also now confronted. i have to ask you since you're here, with this new problem in iran. how do you view how the president has dealt with this

situation? and the specific question is, if we were facing imminent danger, would it not be appropriate and expected that he would at least have informed the group of eight that we were facing imminent danger? i mean, how were we in imminent danger and you don't tell the group of eight? >> the traditional protocol would have been to inform kevin mccarthy, nancy pelosi, as well as the lead democrat and republican on the intel committees in both the house and senate. that was not done. also, subsequent to the strike that took place, and soleimani is a bad guy, we understand that. >> no question, no question. >> but from a policy standpoint, the president threw a stick of dynamite into a very volatile region. this is an individual who promised to move away from the so-called endless wars and conflicts in the middle east,

started on the watch of george w. bush. yet what we've seen is him doubling down on what may ultimately become the mother of all wars against iran. we don't see a plan of action to deal with the retaliatory responses. we haven't even seen evidence that there was an imminent threat. when we get back to washington next week, we expect to see something presented to us. >> now, we're out of time. but as you say, you're getting back to washington next week. where do you see us going in the next steps on impeachment and the senate trial? >> we want to make sure, consistent with what speaker pelosi said, there's a full and fair trial in the senate. and until we get some evidence of what the trial is going to look like, it's impossible for the speakers to determine who would be the appropriate individuals to serve as impeachment managers. when you've got mitch mcconnell and lindsey graham and others suggesting it's going to be a kangaroo court. the president abused his power

by pressuring a foreign government to target an american citizen. we held him accountable, no one is above the law. we expect the senate to do its job. >> do you have confidence that nancy pelosi holding those two articles of impeachment can create the leverage to have a more fair trial? >> certainly it's my hope that would be the case. we know there are ongoing conversations between senator schumer and majority leader mcconnell that hopefully will bear some fruit. we've seen senators like collins and murkowski at least suggest that they would like to see some fairness consistent with the oath they'll have to take in connection with the senate trial. >> all right. we'll have to leave it there. new york congressman hakeem jeffries, happy new year again. coming up, it may be soon in philadelphia. having a new day as the city just appointed its new police commissioner. how she's making history, next. ,

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i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424. . this week the city of philadelphia named its new chief of police. the mayor selected danielle outlaw, a former police chief in portland, oregon.

soon she will become the first black woman in philadelphia to serve in that position. outlaw will be tasked with cleaning up a city with surging gun violence and a police department mired in scandal after having to fire almost 80 officers for posting racist messages online. in a statement, outlaw writes i'm convinced there can be humanity in authority. they are not mutually exclusive. joining me now, the mayor of philadelphia, jim kenney. mr. mayor, first, congratulations. i know you'll be inaugurated for your second in terms term on mo. >> happy new year. >> happy new year to you. why did you choose mrs. outlaw? she has a hard traffic between the firing of almost 80 police

for racist postings, certainly outraged most philadelphians, and the problem of gun violence. why did you choose her? >> because she was absolutely the best person for the job. we had a process, where 30 candidates applied for the position. 18 of them were inside the philadelphia police department. and the rest were across the country. and we had a very extensive process. and she shined better than anyone else there. when i first interviewed her, i said to myself if anyone's going to beat her, they're going to have to really do a unbelievable job because she has all the things that we need. she has the intelligence. she has the sense of humor. she has the command -- the command. she holds herself in a commanding way. she has experience both in oakland for 20 years and in portland for almost three. she -- she's very good with -- with people and with communities. and one of the biggest problems we face in philadelphia with all the things you've talked about is this disconnect between the police and the communities that they are -- they are -- they are

tasked to serve. and we believe -- i believe -- that she can build those bridges into those communities and help with reducing our poverty rate. reducing our gun rate, our shootings. and reducing our homicide rate. and reforming the department when it comes to things like sexual harassment and racist facebook postings and all the things that we've had to deal with over the past few years. >> now, according to data from the police department, shootings in your city has been increasing over the last several years. and homicides in general are on the rise, as well. what about outlaw's experience indicates that she can adequately handle this task? >> well, she spent 20 years in oakland. obviously, a smaller city than philadelphia. and she spent three years in portland. she says to me and to the public the other day that urban policing is pretty much the same if you're doing it the right way. the issue in philadelphia when it comes to violence has to do

with poverty, lack of educational opportunities, lack of training, and availability of guns. and the availability of guns, i can't control because the federal and state government's not going to do anything probably about it. but we can control access to education and training and access to employment. and if we can bridge the gap between the police and our communities and provide those services for our young people in our struggling neighborhoods, we will reduce that violence. we'll reduce the homicides. and we'll all be safer because of it. >> now, in terms of these almost 80 police that were fired because of racist -- >> it wasn't that many. it wasn't that many, al. >> how many were there? >> i think -- don't hold me to it but i think we fired 17 and i think there were a large number that were disciplined in one way or another. but there were way -- i mean, literally a couple hundred that came under -- came under scrutiny. and it's a very embarrassing situation. it's a very aggravating situation. and social media, which i call it anti-social media, has caused lots of problems in lots of areas. but we will not tolerate it when a person has a badge and a gun

and has the ability to arrest or shoot you. that is something we need to take care of. >> you will continue to monitor that -- those -- those police officers not only on social media but their whole attitudes and behaviors on the streets in your city. >> you -- you have to show people respect in order to get respect back. actually, the officers -- most of our officers do a wonderful job and are respectful and decent to the people that they protect. there's -- there's groups of people in every area of our -- our society that don't. but if we can -- if we can get our new commissioner, who will put her best foot forward, her best effort, to make sure we bridge those communities with the police. put the right people on the street with our -- with our citizens and make sure that they understand that we respect them. they deserve respect. they're taxpayers. they are citizens and we're here to serve them, not to harass them. >> all right. and you have selected her. she comes in office soon. you, again, as i said will be sworn in for your second term on

monday. i know a little about philly myself. mayor of philadelphia. jim kenny, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> up next, my final thoughts. stay with us. inal thoughts. stay with us to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. set yourself free with fleet. gentle constipation relief in minutes. little fleet. big relief. try it. feel it. feel that fleet feeling. - do that are degrading?ideo tapes, film reels, or photos, legacybox professionally converts them to dvds, thumb drive, or the cloud. legacybox is simple and safe, with over half a million satisfied customers. visit legacybox.com today, and get 40% off.

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wthat's why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. and tv with you a breeze. really? yup. you can transfer your service online in about a minute. you can do that? yeah. and with two-hour service appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. so while moving may still come with its share of headaches... no kidding. we're doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. it's 2020. the ball has dropped in times square. the new years parties are over

and the new year's eve services have come to an end. and people have made resolutions. i want to challenge us, though, on what we really want to see happen this year. yes, i want to see voter suppression combatted and defeated. yes, i want to see us deal with the problem of homelessness and poverty. yes, i want to see healthcare secured for all. yes, i want to see criminal justice reform continued the way we had started several years ago. and hold people accountable no matter who they are. but i also want to see a return to civility in the public discourse. i want to see the president debate the issues and refrain from playing into an atmosphere that will lead to bigotry and hate. it sounds cute to have sound bytes. but what you're talking to people that can become inflamed and incited, you become complicit with behavior that you probably don't think is possible until it happens.

i remember about 20-21 years ago, martin luther king iii sat with me and she said to me, al, you nonviolent. you come out of a dr. king tradition, my husband, but you must have your language match your conduct. and whether you defend, whether you did anything specific or not, many things i wasn't even there for. you must set the tone that keeps people in a civil and respectful and peaceful dialogue even when they disagree. let us have a year where we have civility. differences, debates. deal with some real differences in how we see where the country needs to go. but we can disagree without being disagreeable. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern. up next, my colleague richard lui picks up with more coverage of today's news. very good evening to you. i'm richard lui live at msnbc

headquarters in new york city on this saturday evening. we're going to start with a new development that just came in to msnbc connected to the killing of the top iranian general qasem soleimani. in just the past few minutes, we learned from two congressional sources that congress has received the formal notification of the attack against soleimani. it was sent to house speaker nancy pelosi and senate president -- senator chuck grassley. now, this notification is required by law to happen within 48 hours under the war powers act and that just happening in the nick of time if you will. and acting homeland security secretary chad wolf also just sending out this tweet with a new bulletin on the threat to the country, it says there is no credible, specific threat that they are monitoring. but it -- given the events, an attack may come with little or no warning. show that to you in a little