that will do it for us. our first one. do you want to come back tomorrow? >> we'll see. wake up at 2:00 a.m. not bad. >> we hope you'll join us tomorrow. >> welcome to you. >> thank you for the tweet, jeff. >> good to see you. >> good morning and welcome to

nbc live. coming up, iran's admission. the country taking blame for accident exactlily shooting down a passenger jet. house standoff. articles of impeachment could be turned over to the senate next week. why the time may be finally right to send the case for president trump up for trial. wildfires down under. massive blazes in australia have claimed dozens of lives and now american firefighters have arrived to help fight the flames. and mexit. iran announces it accidentally shot down the

passenger plane blaming human error. tweeting armed forces international invest has concluded that regrettably missiles fired due to human error caused the horrific crash of ukrainian plane and death of 176 innocent people. ukraine's president is weighing in saying he expects a full admission of guilt and for iran to bring those responsible to justice. the tragedy comes amid tensions in the middle east. iran striking back, firing missiles at air bases and u.s. troops. retaliation after the u.s. took out the top general. >> the trump administration targeting a new round of sanctions targeting officials and the iran steel industry. with us this morning, nbc news correspondent ant cal perry and

our executive editor and senior gender analyst at the international crisis group. thank you all three for being with us. cal, this admission from iran is a transition are after days of denial. what contributed to its admission? >> i think part of the admission comes because of the technology we see in the year 2020. there is so much open source out there. so many people are ratcheted up the evidence. we look at the admission and heard from the commander who gave some details on what happened that day. they said they believed it was a missile picked up by the radar and that this person had less than 10 seconds to decide what to do. that was at the time the fateful

flight was shot down. they are taking credit, blame for this. we heard from the foreign minister who said this was partly to do with american adventureism leading up to a series of events. saying if the americans hadn't ratcheted up tensions, that this never would have happened. this happened on a day iran lashed out firing missiles at that base. iranians are saying their air defenses were at a state of war. that is sort of the circumstances that they were laying out. they are saying now that was a surface to air missile that brought down that airliner. >> making a good point about the evidence. this is the youtube era.

we've heard about how special operations side on syria have had a hard time trying to fight secret wars. iran didn't shut down the internet so this was all going to come out. it was interesting, how did the decision happen that somebody pulled the trigger on this missile. americans were already given warning to american airliners not to go in the airspace. what was the ukrainian plane doing? there is plenty of blame to go around. there is a little tarry story that it is not easy to make this kind of mistake. there is supposed to be a whole lot of steps and clearances that have to be met before you can fire something like this surface to air missile. that's not the case. that was part of the gamble the president made when he decided to attack. >> how significant is it that iran has admitted guilt and what

do you see as next steps here? >> i think it is hugely significant. i think it displays the government coming together and feeling confident to their people and to be transparent. they remember the massive crowds and millions people in the street ought to mourn general soleimani. they view this as a sad and tragic moment of what people perceived as american aggression. i think they bank that there would be public understanding. we have to remember that these things happen in times of war. it is not just countries that do this. this happened in 1988 in an instance in which it didn't even apologize. here, we have an iranian apology

and admission of guilt. in the 2014 crash for which russia never accepted responsibility. i think we have a move that reflects confidence and expectation people will understand. >> as you understand, tensions have ratcheted up. what is the scene now in iran, generally. what is the mood? what should we be looking for next? >> listen, i still think the koi country is rallying around. that probably had something to do with the announcement that

was the mo to fight. why we see the malitia in iraq and syria. the days go on and we had that sigh of relief, the night they responded hitting those bases, i think gulf countries took a more relaxed tone because the americans said they weren't going to respond. as days go back, people are getting more tense. you look at the persian gulf behind me. the fifth fleet is taking a look at the strait of hormuz as a target. the longer this goes on and the longer we see the tensions boil and we see some of these proxy groups respond.

>> the trump administration wants to deescalate. we saw the secretary of state mike pompeo announcing new sanctions they will slap on tehran. how do those two things exist in the same space? >> that follows new troop deployments. they have 10s of thousands of troops in the region. a lot of these are band-aids and public relations. other things are really meant to pressure the iranians and to continue to be under pressure. >> they came in and said the iran deal. they have nothing to do with the

decision to strike soleimani. unless you go back and say, it does because america should have never enter into anything about counterism. it is politics on top of politics that made this happen. cal is right, watching the actions of the military is one way we can gauge tensions. we are seeing pause. i think the real worry is the proxies. there was a fear that hezbollah would launch an attack into israel and dubai and yemen. in terms that the united states did try to assassinate the leader of iranian forces in yemen. i'm also still worried about european cities. we saw a couple years ago, bomb

attacks, knife attacks, van attacks. i think all of that is on the table. >> the sultan of iran died last night. what does his absence mean for the deescalation? >> i don't think that will have a big impact. he played a role originally creating a space for iran and the u.s. to come in the prelewd for what became the nuclear deal. i think we are far from a situation where a country like that would be the go between.

that policy didn't have a strategy. neither does it want to pursue diplomacy to seek another deal. we are still in a very, very trag i'll moment the u.s. military is a pliejed from iraq and allowed to reorganize. and be allowed to be on the front line. and plotting attacks against european cities. we have to remember, although general soleimani was portrayed as an enemy to the united states, he was crucial to the battle against isis. i think europeans know that and are keen for a more constructive way forward.

>> my thanks to the three of you this morning. let's bring in nbc news chief news correspondent bill neely. what is the reaction from kiev overnight? >> reporter: it was a stunning reversal from iran saying it was science tifficly impossible saying it saw the plane as a hostile plane. interestingly, the air commander said he had fired on wednesday and yet thursday and friday, iran was still denying.

speaking of your deep regress. iran's president saying he regrets this zaft russ mistake. saying u.s. adventureis disater. ukraine wants full responsibility taken. france wants to take the black box. the president of ukrainian airlines has been defending his pilot saying they didn't take

any kind of right turn. nothing to justify this shoot dune. >> thanks to you. we'll have more on those heightened tensions later in the program. >> first more on the power play. what is next as the speaker prepares to take her impeachment to the senate. >> she is obsessed with impeachment. she has done nothing. she is hurting our country and she is very bad for our country and become a crazed lunatic. to help people that were voiceless in his country. that put a fire in my heart. it made me realize where i got my passion for social justice. bring your family history to life like never before.

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. this is msnbc live. i'm geoff bennett. the next steps of the impeachment process set to get under way next week. nancy pelosi asking nadler to bring to the house floor a resolution to appoint the lawmakers that will prosecute the case and transmit articles of impeachment to the senate. democrats will talk to speak about next steps. it was back on december 18 that the house originally voted to impeach president trump for abuse of power and obstruction of congress. overnight, president trump reacted during an appearance on fox news. >> i think it is ridiculous, she

should have sent them a long ago. it belittles the process. nancy pelosi will go down as probably the least successful speaker of the house in the history of our nation. >> no one asked for his reaction to the highly anticipated news. senate majority leader mcconnell simply told reporters it is about time. in a report that president trump met private ali with mcconnell at the white house where he walked trump through the official format and relaying the current mood of republicans. going to our guests now, washington bureau chief for mother jones. good to see you this morning. sources told me that president trump met with mcconnell on wednesday and mcconnell walked him through, this is the format i've envisioned for this trial.

at one point president trump wanted republican pllawmakers t be part of his defense. he had to be talked out of that, i'm told. generally, what is the source you are hearing about how the president is feeling about all of this. >> when the vote happened, he was just very angry. he's had a couple of weeks to deal with it. he went to mar-a-lago and had his vacation and he's come back and is frustrated it hasn't happened yet. he wants it to quickly go away. he wanted witnesses that would be beneficial for him. he also wanted house members to be a part of his legal team. though he trusts his legal team, they don't have tv experience. they are not out there talking on television. he's very worried about that and wants that pr out there.

at this point, i think both men want it to be over with so it can go on with other things. >> david, what did democrats think they achieved with this delay and not immediately sending over the articles. >> they've cast a spotlight. he's basically going to pull a merrick garland on this. he's not there for a fair trial. he's there in lock step in defense of trump. for three weeks, there was also recess but it showed that mcconnell is resisting witnesses and is not really concerned about showing the public both sides or even one side of this matter. it may well be at the end of the day he will have this fast and forgettable trial. if we don't have witnesses, they have a vote to assist.

maybe it passes on a 51-49 vote with maybe one or two republicans saying no to this. we don't know. the other day susan collins said they were meeting with a bunch of republicans that want witnesses. they said it was a fairly small group. >> so small, we don't know who the other republicans are. >> it may be just her. anyway, i do think they demonstrated that they have some strategic thinking here. as soon as they handed off to mcconnell, they do lose control of the narrative. >> what has come out. president trump has gone back and forth saying i want the whistleblower to testify, the bidens to testify, and at one

point saying john bolton and mick mulvaney to testify. >> he's been hearing from others saying as soon as you get some to testify, it opens the whole thing. he saw yesterday he's pulling back from that saying i might have to evoke executive privilege. it sounds like he might not want everyone to testify. there is a possible lisa merkowski might be open to it. >> mitch mcconnell is famous for playing things to her own advantage. i don't put anything beyond him at this point in terms of trying to manage this impeachment trial totally to trump's advantage whereas even if the republicans

that want something may not have the opportunity to get it. >> do you think those republicans, those moderate republicans would pay a price and never a witness crosses the center floor? >> i think you have cory gardener in colorado and they are basically on the edge now in terms of the reelect ability. this would give people another reason this would fight against them even harder. >> i agree. it is january. by november, it could be something completely different. >> that's 8,000 news cycles by them. >> right. i do think the option will bring that up. it is a question of whether voters are really fixed on that. >> some of those might be

related to impeachment. it could make them look really bad for having covered up stuff. this story is not over. we still don't know a lot about rudy gate and the information that's come out recently. >> good conversation this morning. appreciate it. still ahead, the australian wildfires have lefted many dead. extra help is on the ground as american firefighters have arrived to help battle those blazes. stay with us. i don't keep track of regrets.

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here is a look at some of the other stories we are following. a 5.2 magnitude after shock hit puerto rico coming days after a larger jolt. estimating more than 2,000 people have been displaced after their homes were destroyed. the u.s. territory has had 950

earthquakes and after shocks in the past 11 days. think about that. with over 500 having a magnitude of two or higher. new forecast show there is an 84% chance no more large earthquakes will hit the island over the next 30 days. the washington post reports $18 million of federal funding has not arrived after the island was struck by hurricanes two years ago. deadly wild fires in australia as a crisis as two wildfires have merged into one. it stretches about 1.5 million acres. the u.s. has sent 159 american

firefighters and plans to send at least another 100. experts believe 1 billion animals have been killed and may have caused the extension of an entire species. it could take decades for these eco systems to regenerate. the twitter account posted this picture with photos honoring the firefighters. our reporter is in australia's kangaroo island with more. >> reporter: jeff, cooler temperatures will hopefully help firefighters get ahead of these blazes. they are laying down containment lines. conditions yesterday, high temps with the strong winds made for these furnace-like conditions in one area we passed through. two large fires merged creating this megan fire that is now

1.5 million acres in size. we seeing people leaving towns or staying to defend their homes. stag in this before they have been burnt out or threatened again. here on the island, people are taking precautions. the army is here helping and with getting supplies like hey to farmers who desperately need it. the scale and the nature of these fires are unprecedented. after a lack of moisture and years of drought is creating the extreme conditions providing the fuel for these fires to advance the impact is being felt as far away as chile and other places where they are seeing ash and

soot showing up on glaciers. the air quality in australia is appalling. there is no clear end in sight. one official in victoria state today said these fires could burn for weeks. >> thank you. still ahead, the iowa caucuses are about three weeks ago. polling shows a new democrat has taken the lead in the 2020 race. another candidate has qualified for the debate. senator cory booker tells supporters he's not going to make the cut. >> this is frustrating. at midnight tonight, i will not make the debate stage. i love the grown. this is what i need. excuses to avoid screening for colon cancer. i'm not worried. it doesn't run in my family. i can do it next year. no rush. cologuard is the noninvasive option

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not some foreign thing that we have been fighting in the war on terror. it is actually fundamentally as american as anything and is a threat to the multiracial, pluralistic, equal and openen democracy we've been fighting for in this country since the civil war. >> for the first time in this cycle and the last. senator sanders has surged ahead. take a look at the front page of today's edition of the register. sanders is at 20% but it is still a tight race. almost a nine-point drop for former south bend mayor pete

buttigieg. as well as billionaire tom styer will take the stage in this debate. going to our guests now. howard, i'll start with you first. you, my friend, are a keep observer of these things. what is your latest take away from the latest iowa poll? >> the fact that we are still looking at a shuffling of the deck chairs really says how unsettled this field is. especially as to how 40% of likely caucus goers still haven't picked a candidate. i expect a lot of change. i don't see a whole lot of settling on a front runner or a national speaking to lead the voice to this party yet. >> in 2016, it seems every front

runner for a while. you've got pete buttigieg in third. biden in fourth. nationally, biden is still the front runner. what has changed? >> to begin with, this is all in the margin of error. a couple of things have happened. one is, you saw elizabeth warren peek during the summer and come down. she has a very strong base of support. very well organized in iowa. i think pete buttigieg on a take off path and he's settled down a little bit. one of the things the iowa voters is concerned about. they are trying to read the tea leaves. who will be the electable one. they are trying to play you and

me. keeping in miechbd, it is a caucus. anyone that doesn't have 15%, their supporters are freed up to vote for other people. amy klobuchar is around 7% right now. if she doesn't make up that 15%, where do her people go? amy klobuchar may help pete buttigieg rise up. >> howard, next week's debate in iowa. you've got billionaire tom steyer. take a look at the amount of money he spent on ads there.

he has spent $10.4 million in nevada and $14 million in south carolina. elizabeth warren isn't wrong when she says in effect these billionaires are buying their way into this race. >> i am a recipient of those e-mails and facebook ads where a billionaire is asking me for a dollar oir two at a time. it is really useful forgetting the democrats on to the debate stage. it does hurt the discussion. we will look at a couple of voices that will look like credible voices to beat donald trump in november. >> what about the make up that reflects all of america.

those folks on that stage will be all white. cory booker and andrew yang will not be there. on one hand, cory booker is right when he says the field of candidates should reflect the party's voters. on the other hand, black and brown voters are speaking by polling and joe biden seems to be their choice? >> if that question is for me, i would say there is a disconnect between where the field started. i think it underscores the democrat's desire showing what it takes and the resolve for

donald trump and to boot him from the white house. when i talk to democrats, a lot of folks express their differences and tend to book end those comments with, i'll take whatever i can get to beat donald trump in november. one of the reasons he's going to do that is to go through president trump in campaign spending. >> the other way he could do it is to spend all of that money now. everyone has a right to run for president, i suppose. the question is what is the most productive use of a billionaire's money? to run a vanity campaign or to start on a senate race. on running just impeachment ads. not like tom steyer did but the

john bolton testify kind of ads. it is a very good thing for the democrats. keeping all in and keep spending money. he's spending a lot of money now that i think could go to better purposes. just to speak to the issue of the diversity. many americans and the media is very guilty of this. get it in their head who is a risky candidate and who is not. because hillary clinton is a woman and she lost last time creates the find set that women are risky. we have to get an older white guy. the presumption that gets set about who is electable and who is not is sometimes very harmful for those dand dats that don't

strike you as the traditional type of candidate. there is one little thing pete buttigieg did that is very, very smart. he got himself an hour solo on another network for a town hall on january 26, eight days before the primary. no one else has that coverage. he has a bad debate, this is the time to clean it up. if he has a good debate, why he's getting more momentum. an hour free eight days before the primary frmts pretty smart move. >> thank you for the reminder. howard franklin, good to see you. coming up, former national security advisor john bolton says he is willing to testify in a trail we'll take a look at what trump may be thinking this

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do you have problem with john bolton testifying in a senate trial? >> i'd have to ask the lawyers, because for the future, we have to protect presidential privilege. when we start allowing national security advisers to just go up and say whatever they want to say, we can't do that. >> why not call bolton, why not allow him to testify?

>> i don't have a problem other than one thing -- >> you're going to invoke executive privilege? >> i think you have to for the sake of the office. >> president trump is threatening to invoke executive privilege if his former national security adviser john bolton testifies in the upcoming senate impeachment trial. this comes after bolton released an unexpected statement saying he is now prepared to testify if the senate issues a subpoena for his testimony, and while this is an offer, senate republicans like majority leader mitch mcconnell want to refuse in an effort to keep a speedy trial. a new op-ed in the "new york times" by george conway and neal katyal argues the only reason mcconnell is pushing for no witnesses is because he's afraid of the truth from a central witness like bolton. joining me is former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst cynthia alksne. >> good morning. >> you heard president trump say if bolton is allowed to testify,

he'd invoke executive privilege. that's not how executive privilege works. typically what happens is the witness at least shows up, and then if there's specific questions he or she can't answer, then you invoke executive privilege. explain this for us. >> well, the first thing we know is that all of the talk that the president had for so long about he'd love to have bolton testify. that was not true. that was a lie, number one. number two, the white house has used this notion of executive privilege or some kind of absolute immunity to try to get people not to come at all, not to even sit in the chair and have to face the questions. the idea with executive privilege is we want to protect important discussions between members of the executive about matters of policy so that a person would come, sit in the chair, be asked a question. if it had to do with a real policy issue, then the question could be blocked, but there are limits to executive privilege. for instance, you can't use executive privilege to cover up a crime, and what we have here is extortion, and so executive privilege does not apply to the

questions about the ukraine extortion. it doesn't also apply to people who are outside the executive branch, so conversations with giuliani, conversations he had with lev parnas and egor whatever his name is -- >> fruman. >> what they were going to do to extort zelensky, none of that is covered by executive privilege. the claim of executive privilege is weakened when the information is basically out. and in the situation here, because of the testimony of those brave state department people, the information is out. >> yeah. >> already! i'm told by my sources that if there are any witnesses in the senate trial, it would most likely be john bolton, perhaps only john bolton. if he testifies before the senate, does that make it easier for house democrats to compel him to testify with a subpoena that they might issue? a congressional subpoena is a congressional subpoena whether it comes from the house or

senate. >> yes, it does. if you look at the rules that were in the clinton trial, the rules were that first the person would be deposed before they could actually testify in the trial. so if he actually goes forward and there is a deposition, of course that's a big if because mcconnell is really trying to cover this all up, but if he does go forward, then we would have a full deposition. it's unclear how much he would need it in the house if you had a full and robust deposition as required under the clinton rules. >> cynthia alksne, thank you as always. >> thank you. ahead in our next hour, both democratic and republican lawmakers vote to rein in the war powers of the president to limit military action against iran. we'll get reaction from congressman adriano espelliat. >> kristen welker made her debut today as co-anchor of weekend

today. kristen is an unshakable and dogged white house correspondent. she's also a dear colleague and a treasured friend to us all. she's also a mentor to a lot of us too. i'll never forget the way kristen welcomed me with open arms when i joined nbc a couple of years ago. congratulations, kristen, there is no one more deserving. my age-related macular degeneration could lead to vision loss.

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d.c. iran now admits that the country's military unintentionally shot down that ukrainian passenger plane on tuesday after initially claiming that mechanical trouble had doomed the jet liner. in a statement, the islamic revolutionary guard cor p,s blamed human error for the deaths of 176 innocent people adding they had been on highest alert after launching strikes against american assets in iraq. those strikes came as retaliation for the american attack that killed qassem soleimani. the administration has argued multiple times there was an imminent threat posed by soleimani and they would have been highly culpable if they didn't take action. yesterday the president very broadly addressed the situation. take a look. >> don't the american people have a right to know what specifically was targeted without revealing methods and sourc sources?

>> well, i don't think so, but we will tell you that probably it was going to be the embassy in baghdad. you saw that happening. you saw it with all of the men, very few women circling it and circling it very strongly and very viciously knocking out windows and trying to get in, and they were close to getting in. >> did they have large scale attacks planned for other embassies and if those were planned, why can't we reveal that to the american people? wouldn't that help your case? >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies, and i think that probably baghdad already started, but baghdad certainly would have been the lead, but i think it would have been four embassies. could have been military bases. could have been a lot of other things, too but it was imminent, and then all of a sudden he was gone. >> well, it's unclear if alerts were sent to the embassies that president trump claims were being targeted as is normally done, and despite trump's assertion, a senior administration official and a senior def