there on your behalf. when the client and the lawyer don't agree you may need a witness. it goes to this witness fight at the coming senate trial. don't go with it right now. hard ball with chris matthews starts now. now hard ball with chris matthews starts now good evening, i'm chris matthews here in des moines, iowa. there's a major news now. a bit of news the democratic race for president of course with the two key progressives stuck in a war of words you might say about gender. ahead of tonight's final debate between the iowa caucuses. and back in washington, nancy pelosi made it official tonight announcing democrats would vote tomorrow to send those articles of impeachment against president

trump to the senate. it's a huge development of course and a little while i'll talk to a key house democrat about what happened in the caucus today and what we can expect tomorrow. but first the turmoil in the democratic race as an unexpected battle between senators bernie sanders and elizabeth warren over gender threatens the dynamic of the race two weeks before the iowa caucuses. it escalated yesterday after reports surfaced that warren alleged sanders told her during a december 2018 meeting a woman could not win the presidency. sanders denies the charge saying that it was ludicrous. his campaign manager later told nbc i believe strongly what we are talking about here is a lie. he also called it a smear. warren countered confirming the conversation saying i thought a woman could win. he disagreed. moments ago, campaign senior

adviser told my colleague chuck todd it came from, i don't know if you can believe this one, different recollections of the conversation. here goes weaver. >> senator sanders never said a woman could not win the race. and attacks that trump will launch but hillary clinton beat trump by 3 million votes. how could you say a woman couldn't win for the presidency. again, i think that there was what they said was not correct. and what we said is correct. >> well, the progressive win will almost certainly unend tonight this fight. the debate is going to be effected by heavily in the beginning where six candidates will face-off for the last time before iowa's caucuses february 3rd. but nbc news reports joe biden is staying out of the progressive fray tonight he says even though he will literally be standing between warren and sanders.

literally is a big biden word. it's telegraphed that he will do it best to stay out of a spat between these rivals. we'll see. i'm joined by editor and chief of the recount and national affairs analyst of course and the national political reporter at the washington post. i want you to start here. this thing bubbled up because four people said through various means they heard elizabeth warren said that bernie said no woman could win the election in 2020. how did it get out into the ether and how much has it been promoted now by the attacks from both sides. elizabeth warren's claim that it's exactly what he said. i said a woman could win. he said they couldn't. he disagreed. and then the campaign manager for bernie sanders said it was a lie. it was a smear on bernie. the whole thing was being cooked up by his enemies.

your thoughts on the reporting? >> yeah. the washington post has been doing some reporting about this, this conversation that senator warren and senator sanders had in december of 2018. and what we learned is that senator warren asked senator sanders a question. do you think that a woman could win in 2020? and for us, you know, i think that shows that this question that -- this question of electability which has hung over this primary for the last 12 months was something that the very top -- two of the top candidates were hashing out and discussing before either of them had gotten into the race and i think that it's bringing this question to the forefront in a way that is a little unexpected and can go in all sorts of different directions. you know, there's a lot of discussion about who might have leaked this. whether this is a sanctioned leak from the warren campaign or

not. i had conversation with some of obama's advisers to say would you guys have done something like this when obama was running and there were big questions about whether a black man could be president of the united states? and they said absolutely not. because the questions about gender, questions about race are so difficult they become brush fires and that's what we're seeing right now is brush fire. >> i can say i remember back when it was hillary clinton versus obama. the word from bill clinton was it's a fantasy. that was translated to be saying an african american -- i don't think that's what he meant but that got out there. this is a classic case of dynamic. i used to not like that word. one side says one thing and the other side says it's a smear and the other side goes on the record and says he did say that a woman can't win. >> let's not forget a couple of things.

the weekend, this last weekend bernie sanders comes out, the morning register poll comes out and looks like he has momentum and rather than deciding to sit back and say i'm playing the hot hand, they go negative on biden in south carolina in race. on social security. they are going after biden and then there's this reporting that says there's this script that the sanders people had volunteers that were -- they have now confirmed today they have used it in two states trashing buttigieg and warren. so the warren campaign sunday night is hot. i can report definitively they're making plans for this debate and upset -- >> they didn't like being called the elitist candidate. >> they thought bernie was the one breaking the truce. the non-aggression pact. so suddenly, so mysterious we have a piece that has elizabeth warren allies and campaign finger prints all over it. two of the sources are said to

have warren aids, warren friends in that piece. it was from bernie sanders and then tat from elizabeth warren and then they're calling each other liars and by the end of the day on monday you effectively had what i think the question is for the two of them today, chris, bernie sanders and his campaign are calling elizabeth warren a liar. her statement effectively calls bernie sanders a liar and i don't know that any reporting sfr goiis ever going to get to the truth of this. they could remember it differently. >> you can take lie detector tests i suppose if you want to get ludicrous about it. >> you have done reporting like this where two people in a room can legitimately honestly remember things differently. >> then you're getting into man splaniing because the senator from massachusetts is so clear. i said a woman could. he disagreed. >> i'm just telling you i have done enough reporting where i

have heard two people in a room, two years later and they remember the conversation differently. they're not lying but they just remember it differently. >> that's what weaver is saying. that's one of the guys. >> i'm not crediting bernie sanders or elizabeth warren. their positions on it are opposed. either people are misremembering or someone is flat out lying. here's the reality in this debate with the pressure and the tension and the stakes are higher and any of the debates are less than three weeks from iowa. they're watching this race. these campaigns are mad at each other. they are hot. i'm telling you it will be hard for either one of them emotionally on the stage to try to deescalate from this right now. the campaign distributed a script to volunteers instructing them to call senator warren the

candidate of the elites. that's the word. elites. both candidates responded over the weekend. here it goes. >> i was disappointed to hear that bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me. >> i never said a negative word about elizabeth warren who is a friend of mine. we have differences. but no one is going to be attacking elizabeth. >> well, i'm joined right now by the national co-chair and we reached out to the warren campaign by the way. they declined to provide a representative tonight. thank you for this. i have two words coming from your campaign. and the campaign is calling it a lie. saying it's a smear. he said no it was just a misunderstanding. which is it? >> let's take the senators words chris, he said it was leudicrou

and he did not say it. the senator has been talking about women. as we know in his book, our revolution, he wrote in that book that in 2015 he asked senator warren to run for president. senator sanders has always been one to believe in women and stand up for women. it is ludicrous to think that he would change that now. we also have the congresswoman that said she had a one-on-one meeting with the senator as well. but he was nothing but courteous and encouraging. so senator sanders took up for women three decades ago and he's still standing up for women right now. >> has he told you that he didn't say it? >> the senator did not say it. he said it was ludicrous. he did not say it. >> how do you know he didn't say it? let's get back to your campaign manager. why is he calling the other side a liar and saying they're smearing bernie. that was the phrase. why do you think elizabeth

warren campaign are sticking to their guns and saying she said a woman could be elected president and he, that's bernie sanders, your candidate, disagrees. why would she say that on public record last night if she didn't believe that it happened? if she didn't believe that he said it. >> chris, why would the senator say that he didn't say it? it makes no sense that you can look at his track record, roll the tape. we got him on video talking about, you know, wanting women -- he was in a classroom talking to children about you participate in politics. he wrote in his book in 2015. >> you're a political person. >> chris. >> you are both political. think about this. and bernie wants to run again in 2020 and finds that in the home of elizabeth warren and she wants to run.

i don't know what he said and you don't either. >> well, i will tell you this. i do know and you know this too. it's consistent. run the race. senator never discouraged anybody from running from anything. let's run the race. he is even on the record talking about republicans an their cowardess when they try to stop people from voting. so why would he say something like that. it's just the ark ntithesis of what he is. the real war on women is the fact that women need to be paid dollar for dollar and those are the kinds of conversations that we should be having right now about the real war on women. >> i have to give you credit and i do believe this myself as an observer and commentator i have an opinion and i went and

studied the entry polls four years ago in iowa and in new hampshire and bernie sanders you had a 90% support on issues of honesty and integrity so people believe him. i hope he's telling the truth you believe him that's the record it's always great to have you on for the campaign. thank you as well. great reporters and it's always great to have nina on. coming up, house speaker nancy pelosi will send impeachment articles to the senate. this is rolling again. it looks like tuesday that's a good guess for the trial to begin next tuesday, a week from today. and mitch mcconnell admits republicans don't have the votes. mitch, moscow mitch says they don't have the votes to dismiss the charges. they're not going to get away with a quick dismissal plus the russians hacked our elections once and they're likely to do it again and now we have more details on reports that the russian spies have had the

ukrainian guest come at the center of trump's impeachment. and james joins me now. i hate to talk about the latest in the 2020 race for president and what he learned about impeachment from the clinton era. a lot to get to tonight. a big show tonight. stick with us. a big show tonight stick with us. e care of yourself. but nature's bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance and help keep you active and well-rested. because hey, tomorrow's comifast. nature's bounty. because you're better off healthy. 45 plus at average risk. i've heard a lot of 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 that finds 92% of colon cancers. you just get the kit in the mail, go to the bathroom, collect your sample, then ship it to the lab. there's no excuse for waiting. get screened. ask your healthcare provider if cologuard is right for you. most insured patients pay $0.

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welcome back. a historic vote is coming tomorrow. first of all to set the stage for the impeachment trial over the senate. after meeting with her fellow democrats this morning, speaker nancy pelosi announced that the house will approve a resolution over the senate tomorrow. actually it's wednesday. they'll be sent over a formal procession and will administer the oath. according to mitch mcconnell that means the trial itself is

likely to be next tuesday. and have the case dismissed. surveyed members of the republican caucus. and no dismissal. here's mcconnell today. you should move to dismiss. why not push to try and dismiss. >> there's no motion for dismiss. >> mcconnell deflected. and trump's trial in the senate. >> can there be a fair trial if there are no witnesses? >> well, you know, you look at the house product, you really got to wonder what the definition of a fair trial is and with regard to what witnesses are necessary, we're going to vote on that.

at the appropriate time after we listened to the argument. >> 51 senators will decide who to call. after that, who knows who will employ what kind of legal devices. i have no idea. >> i'm joined now by the democratic con gretsz woman on the house committee. the prosecutor that worked on the mueller probe. and former aid to george w. bush at the white house and the state department. thank you all for joining us tonight. this is a big move. the trains are moving. explain about what happened in the caucus. move this now to the senate. >> so today there was anonymity among my colleagues to take up a resolution tomorrow that would make it appropriate to move the articles of impeachment to the senate and to name the managers.

what would be the success that you could point to of a delay. what do you think was accompl h accomplished right after you passed impeachment in the house. >> well, i think what is most telling is that by waiting we were able to determine that ambassador bolton is willing to come before the senate if he's subpoenaed. we also got a recognition that through the center for integrity and the security justice organization that there were documents that were never made available to us in the house. they were court ordered by a freedom of information act that was made available and of course what we uncovered after that is, in fact, again another cover up has taken place.

now today there are documents that have been provided and he has been one of those individuals that has been charged under the federal elections commission with having a fraudulent organization providing foreign money to president trump's campaign and there is a treasure trove of new documentation that shows there's a criminal enterprise being operated i believe out of the white house and the cover up is so widespread that it has prevented us from accessing documents that would have shown a direct relationship by the president seeking this investigation for his personal gain, again indication of a bribery and now we have more documentation to support it even though we have not been able to get one page of documents from this administration through the

subpoena process and again a cover up in the making. >> a couple of points. turning over the two documents. the two articles of impeachment this week was part of getting the senate republicans not to dismiss the charges in the senate. that's at least one step back to dismiss all charges. >> it's unclear that we delay what has come as more evidence. there are more witnesses who are now willing to testify and more documents out there. so one message i think to republican senators is you really act at your parallel at this point if you don't really treat this as a trial. americans understand that a trial involves witnesses and documents and if you ignore that, if you say we don't really want to hear from witnesses or documents history is going to be

a judge of that because documents of witnesses are going to come out at some point and you're going to look really foolish down the road if you have not made an effort to understand what went on here. >> it's to me confounding that all of this new evidence is going to pile on the evidence that you already have. the president was on the phone with the president of ukraine. he did say i want a favor though. it's pretty clear what he wanted in exchange for the delivery of the weapons, the missiles so the question now is if you find out this amendment just surfaced it basically says get him to agree to investigate that, how does that add to the case in the u.s. senate? >> so i think that the democrats are going to say look the proof is already overwhelming but i think the issue is that you have a number of republicans who are likely to say i don't think there's enough evidence. i don't think there's enough firsthand evidence.

now we may all disagree with that but if that's going to be the argument that republican senators make that we haven't heard enough, this is the opportunity. they are not frozen in time and they have to take just what the house presented. they are -- this is a trial. they are entitled to hear from witnesses, new witnesses and new documents. so i don't think it's going to come, you know, with good grace to say, gee, we wish there were more evidence but we're not going to look for it. >> well said. anyway, mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader also indicated that senate republicans may try to justify the extortion of ukraine by propagating allegations against the bidens. notably mcconnell would not rule out calling hunter biden as a witness. here he goes. >> some in your conference suggested that if democrats are calling witnesses like john bolton they may also want to call witnesses such as hunter biden.

would you support calling hunter biden? >> we'd be dealing with a witness issue at the appropriate time and i think it's certainly appropriate to point out that both sides would want to call witnesses that they wanted to hear from. so when you get to that issue i can't imagine that only the witnesses that our democratic colleagues would want to call would be called. >> i'm thinking about that but sometimes he is bugs bunny. he's not elmur if you had. he knows what he is doing. he'll say to the democrats, okay, if you want john bolton, fine, i want hunter and joe biden. i also want the whistleblower. could he knockoff some of the democratic senators with that? he'll say i'm not that excited. i'm going to drag hunlter biden in here. but could he play it that hard? that hard ball.

>> i think that democrats have less to lose by having hunter -- >> not that kind of a trade. >> what about that kind of a trade. you want these guys, i want your guys. >> joe biden or hunter biden come forward. it's what he has been quoted by direct eyewitnesses as seen going down in the white house. his testimony promises to be much more explosive than what certainly joe biden has been pretty forth coming about the details of his involvement when he was on the board. i think that that witnesses will likely, it will be similar to in the house trial when republicans thought ambassador volker and then george w., the law professor were going to help

their case and then instead, it was just a nothing burger and were fond of calling that entire process. >> and evidence seized by prosecutors. released some of those materials which include a handwritten notice i said on stationary from vienna. it says announce that the biden case will be investigated. also provided a letter and asking to meet in may. he says in my capacity as personal counsel to president trump and with his knowledge and consent i request a meeting with you. also between the congressional candidate of connecticut. the committee said it had him under physical surveillance in

kiev. congresswoman, what do you make of all of this latest stuff? >> it's explosive. and what's interesting about this is we had asked for documentation production and at that point he hired dowd who was the president's attorney. he then got rid of dowd and hired another attorney and low and behold he is willing to comply with the subpoena. so here is someone who is complying with the subpoena with explosive documentation that shows that this has been an effort underway dating back to early last year to be able to build a case to tear down biden as he saw him as the most likely opponent in his presidential race. this is a strong case of bribery where the president has used his

office to ask for something of personal benefit and to do so by virtue of being the president of the united states seeking this specific favor. again. it is a very strong case of bribery. this is precisely what our founding fathers were concerned about using the office for personal gain and the president i think has been caught red handed. >> well, most ominous about the new documents is that the republican is the russian and march i think it is ukrainian that his contacts that appear to be tracking were quote willing to help. you can do anything in the ukraine with money. what do you make of this? it looks to me like i don't know what they're doing. who knows. >> another witness who is now

somebody who the senate could call. i think the letter that you just put up from rudy giuliani is a real smoking gun because you have rudy giuliani saying that he's acting in the president's personal capacity. that shows that the president and rudy knew that this would be improper to use the office of the presidency for a personal errand to use doctor fiona hill's phrase. the president was on the call and was using the office of the president. >> we're going to see whether he's going to testify in the senate trial.

thank you. it can hurt the bidens i guess. so now russian hackers are trying to pick up where president trump left off digging for political dirt in ukraine. you're watching hardball. ukrain. you're watching hardball usaa inr members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it - with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa i'm the only candidate in the mb: bracee way, who doesn't take a penny in contributions from anyone. no big donors, no special interests, nothing. the party rules prevent me from debating, if they change the rules, i'll be happy to join it. in the meantime,

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it's not some foreign thing that looks like something that we have been fighting in the war on terror. it's actually fundamentally as american as anything and it's a threat to the multiracial pleuralistic equal and open democracy that we have been fighting for in this country since people died on the battlefield in the civil war. >> did you think this was a

single attempt by the russians to get involved in our election or did you find evidence to suggest they'll try to do this again. >> we're doing it as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign. >> they're doing it as we sit here. well, welcome back. i should say welcome back to the russians. that was former special counsel robert mueller last year wa warning. the center of the president trump's impeachment investigation. according to a report from the cyber security firm, the campaign targeting the company where joe biden's son served as a board member started in early november. that's this year at the same time the house was holding impeachment hearings. the report indicates quote the timing of the gru campaign in relation to the 2020 u.s.

elections raises the sector that this is an early warning of what we have anticipated since the successful cyberattacks undertaken during the 2016 u.s. elections. as the new york times points out, quote, the russian tactics are strikingly similar to what american intelligence agencies say was russia's hacking of e-mails with hillary:on the's campaign chairman and the democratic national committee during the presidential campaign. responding to this report the 2016 democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton quote russians appear to be rerunning their 2016 hacking playbook. once again to benefit donald trump. will they help pick our president again. there's been no reaction yet from president trump. top democrats are raising the alarm. not just about russia's actions but how they found out about it. that's next. that's next.

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we're tracking all the records that are active in this landscape as we move them to the hay day of election season. and the russians are the threats. i don't want to misunderstand. can we assume that you're pretty up to date on what the gru is doing. >> it's a tough prior for for us. >> welcome back. that was the top national intelligence official in charge of election security saying our intelligence agencies are on top now. >> that includes the report and the russians hack the company that the former vice president's son hunter worked for.

and here is chairman of the house intelligence committee. and he is describing how he learned about vladimir putin's greatest actions. >> if the intel community is aware of this, that should have been brought to our attention by now. >> for more, former fbi special agent and author of messing with the enemy, surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. what is your reaction? are you surprised that the russians are going up to the gas company in ukraine that hunter biden was working for. >> not at all? the russians, even in their state sponsored media have been talking about him for at least nine months now. this is not surprising at all.

you can expect they might be doing something covertly. they're taking a different approach this time. they were hitting the dnc, campaign managers and even government officials. even reporters trying to dig up dirt and find information that they could launder and push out to advance a narrative against hillary clinton. this time though the narrative is always out there. the white house has already brought this up. it's part of the impeachment trial. they are hacking to confirm the narrative. that's what is different about this scenario. they know where to go because the story is already out there. they want to push it out there and make it surface in the news. and even in this failure and this attempt we haven't seen them push anything out and we got this story back out in the news again. >> it's so blatant.

pelosi points that out. everything is for vladimir. everything. and now it's everything to defeat joe biden. you mentioned the russian tv network over here in the united states is blastingway regularly against joe biden. that's sort of the pattern they did last time. use every one of their platforms to get the same message across. >> from overt to covert, what the russians do is hack the compromise and dump information out there. what they're doing this time is a little bit different and i call it upstream hacking. last time they were hitting things. one of the reasons why the congressman didn't hear about it is the u.s. government doesn't do cyber protection for a company like that and we have to

rely on corporations like area one or crowd strike to let us know when these sort of breaches occur because they're the ones out in the dot com world and if you look at the narratives where they're advancing against former vice president biden it's his son. it's about his health. who are you going to hack to confirm those things. and you're instead going to go to soft places like law firms and banks. multinational corporations and medical facilities. that's how they're going to try and farm that information and launder it and get it out in the open and that could be somebody else if you see them rise up in the polls. you'll see how rush will will twist back and forth on any emerging candidate in order to help president trump be reelected. >> well it's out there. as you say it's in and it's out it's public and it's not public and it's secret and it's social media. it's their own network. it's their hacking.

they have one plan, help trump. thank you so much. it's so flagrant. up next, the democratic strategist will talk to us about everything. especially tonight's debate. he had some experience with that with clinton and more. you're watching hardball. and m. you're watching hardball each person unique. that's why i like liberty mutual. they get that no two people are alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. almost done. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back to hardball.

six democrats will be taking the stage tonight for the last debate for the candidates before the iowa caucuses which are coming now three weeks from yesterday. one of the candidates missing from this stage is colorado senator michael bennett. that's bennett with one t. he just scored a major endorsement however. and gained national intention as the lead campaign strategist in 1992. he joins me now. james, you're wearing a hat of a winner there i noticed. i watched the game every minute last night. all the greats. i can't think of one that's as good as this guy. i've never seen anything like it in my life and way back in the left side. the end zone. that would have been another one. that was in the guy's hands. anyway, congratulations. i know this means a lot

religiously to you. you come into this race and you're picking a candidate why. why this one. think that trump and trumpism is the greatest threat this country has faced since the fall of communism. and the only way to deal with it is defeat it. michael bennet is a democratic nominee, you're going do get 55% of the popular vote and pick up 55 senate seats. it will be the end of trumpism. trumpism doesn't have to just be defeated at the polls. it's got to be decimated. it's got to look like a beat -- it's got to look like clemson looked like night. beat and ready to quit. micha michael bennet is the best choice among any democrat to accomplish that. >> how's he get from here to there? >> just got to get out there and get in front of as many people as he can and have people go and people see him and come back and tell me, james, you know michael bennet would be the best president, you know his

temperament is entirely different than trump's. or you know if we nominated him, we would have a great election. so, why not be for him? why not? i think the -- temperament -- >> i agree with it, jachlmes. i don't see how he gets there. how does he get past bernie, e l bernie, e l elizabethh, biden, michael bloomberg sh out there spending money, he's not doing it. >> the levels of engage ment ar so high. people are paying attention. if they start seeing him and paying attention to him then things can break very quickly in this environment. this is not a normal environment. these democrats know it's their responsibility to save this country. if that's what you want to do, then michael bennet is your choice. and he's got to go out there and get in front of as many people as they can and when he does, i think he can turn things around. i honestly do. i keep hearing that and people just like you say the same thing, well, yeah, he would be great, but how does he get there? the way he gets there is by being out there early every day

and staying out late every day. and talking about how this country has to change from what we have right now. if he does that, who knows. >> well, let's -- >> i'm there for him. >> james, you know more than i know. i want to ask you this, you know how you get to be president. you have to have that fire in your belly that's unstoppable. bill clinton had it. i don't know if barack obama had it or not. barack obama. but he had -- clinton had it. that drive that makes you get up in the morning, go to bed at night, never stop about anything else, calculate, strategize, raise money until you're sick. shake hands until your hands are bleeding. that is the way to do it. to be a little bit crazy. but michael bennet doesn't seem to be a little bit crazy. >> well, i don't think the country is looking for a little bit crazy right now. i think we're worn out on craziness. and you're right, he's a kind of sedate guys in many ways, he's very thoughtful. he's very organized. i think these are appealing traits in 2020. i think we've had enough craziness. >> i abree. >> i'm dean with crazy. >> let me ask you -- >> he's hardworking. he's competitive.

and he's determined. >> is there any way that this impeachment trial that's beginning a week from today is going to accomplish anything good for the country? the trial in the senate. is there any way it can be good so we look back on it, even if trump survives and, say, that was a good bid of governmental business. that was good thing to do. >> the most critical thing is to vote on the fair trial and that's the best vote the democrat have going. if you have a fair trial and the country sees this, it will be a good lesson in civics. if mitch mcconnell is successful and shuts down a fair trial, then you're going to have a different result, but they have to push the idea. now we have parnas has government his text messages, john bolton wants to testify. there's all kind of evidence out there. if mitch mcconnell denies the american people the right to evidence, an unfair trial, then the people will take it out on republicans in november, and they know that. tillis knows that. mcsally knows that.

cornyn knows that. and cory gardner knows that. joni ernst knows that. force the vote on a fair trial. >> what happened to the republican party? the opposition party, from your thinking, the party that wasn't evil, wasn't stupid, now, i mean, i noticed in the whole day of defending trump not a single republican member of the house, they're all some of them smart, in the one of them said one good thing about donald trump personally. nobody -- nobody spoke for his character. nobody said he's a good, honest, guy. i mean, it was immaculate, immaculate. not a single positive comment, yet, they bow to him like he's the emperor of sian. they bow to him without ever respecting him personally. how do you explain? >> right. look, the republican party that you and i knew does that exist. there's only trump and trumpism. the republicans are going to do nothing about it. it is up to the democrats. it is up to the democrats to

eradicate this scourge, and the way to do that is by massive and humiliating election defeat. it's no republican is going to come up and save us. everybody keeps waiting. pretty soon, maybe rob portman will say something. they're not going to say something. they're scared to death and the democrats have to save the united states. that's it. there's no other choice. the republicans are not going to do it for you. >> okay. spoken like a great partisan, sir. thank you, james carville. >> geaux, tigers. >> true partisanship. geaux tigers. they don't have to go anywhere. they're the best team ever. maybe the washington redskins. maybe snyder will end up getting this guy as his quarterback. >> don't forget our nationals. don't forget our nats. >> oh, yeah. okay. i'm a phillies guy, but let's go on. thank you. we made usaa insurance for members like martin.

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that's "hardball" for now from drake university in des moin moines, iowa. join me later tonight for msnbc's live post-debate coverage along with brian williams. i'll be here at 11:00 in the spin room. i love it right here. interviewing the candidates and bringing you the key moments from tonight's debate. and tomorrow, i'll be back in

washington as nancy pelosi and the house democrats vote to send the articles of impeachment over to the united states senate tomorrow. it's going to be an historic day. thanks for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" of course, starts right now. tonight on "all in" -- >> we have information on your opponent. oh. i think i'd want to hear it. >> democrats release an impeachment bombshell. >> what conversations have you had with lev parnas and igor fruman? >> i don't know these gentlemen. >> tonight, house democrats unveil a trove of new documents provided by rudy giuliani's indicted associate. what we're learning from handwritten notes by lev parnas, what looks like a plan to tail the american ambassador to ukraine and what all of it means as democrats and the white house prepare for the trial of donald trump. >> the whole thing is a hoax. >> "all in" starts right now. good evening