formally begin donald trump's trial at noon eastern tomorrow. house managers will come to the chamber, read the articles of impeachment at 2:00 p.m. chief justice john roberts will be formally swore in and will then swear in the jurors. we'll have it covered for you tomorrow. "hardball" starts now. the president on trial. let's play hard ball. ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. it's an historic night here in washington as president donald trump becomes just the third american president to stand trial for impeachment in the united states senate. the house of representatives completed its final step in the impeachment process with the ceremonial procession by the impeachment managers with the two articles against president

trump, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. they walked the articles as you see across the capitol to the senate. house speaker nancy pelosi signed the house resolution transmitting the two articles and naming the impeachment managers, shifting the next phase to the senate. as the articles reached the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell officially set the trial in motion. >> i further ask consent that the secretary of the senate be directed to notify the house of representatives at the time and place fixed for the senate to proceed upon the impeachment of donald trump in the senate chamber. >> today's vote on the house resolution sending the articles to the senate fell along party lines. 228 to 193, with only one democrat joining with the republicans in voting no. it came nearly one month after the house voted to pass the articles initially. well this morning speaker pelosi defended her decision to wait these weeks.

>> on december 18th the house of representatives impeached the president of the united states, an impeachment that will last forever. time has revealed many things since then. time has been our friend in all of this because this has yielded incriminating evidence, more truth into the public domain. this further evidence insists that -- and we wouldn't be in this situation had we not waited -- insists that there be witnesses and that we see documentation. >> that incriminating evidence the speaker referred to are documents that indicted rudy giuliani associate lev parnas provide to congress including notes, letters and text messages tying the president even closer to the pressure campaign against ukraine that led to his

impeachment. it will ultimately follow the team of seven impeachment managers chosen by speaker pelosi to prosecute the case to the senate for president trump's removal from office. i'll have legal or law enforcement backgrounds chosen for what speaker pelosi called an emphasis on litigators. i'm joined by congressman denny hack of washington state who serves on house intelligence committee, donna edwards, a contributor for "the washington post," former director of the cia, john brennan, and jeff bennett, nbc news correspondent. thank you all. congressman, i want to talk to you and have you speak about the moment today of this impeachment articles, these two impeachment articles going over to the senate. you've admitted or confessed to a real emotion to this whole process. >> well, chris, if there was any wave of emotion today, it was one of frankly being quite somber about it. if i had to put words to it, i would tell you what i was thinking or feeling.

it was, we have done our duty and now we pray to god that the united states senate does its duty. but there wasn't much drama. it was more ritual than trauma dra drama. there is the drama of high and expectation as to whether or not there will be four united states republican senators who are going to be willing to subpoena witnesses and reveal more documents because obviously the parnas revelation is the tip of the iceberg. we need to know what the iceberg looks like. >> do you think that new evidence that came out in the last 48 hours or so -- we'll get to it later in the program tonight. it really shows the president's hand and the hand of his lawyer, rudy giuliani, and his associate, lev parnas. they're all involved in what's clearly an attempt to smear biden, joe biden, who was then leading in the polls. it shows, i think -- well you tell me. it makes it very clear this had nothing to do with reform or getting rid of corruption in ukraine. this had to do with leveling a political shot at the man they

thought was his number one opponent. >> game, set, match in that regard, chris, but i want to fast rewind to both the deposition which you didn't see but also the public hearing which you did see with ambassador yovanovitch in which it was revealed that she was recalled from ukraine and told that she needed to come home right away for her safety. it was never very clear what was meant by that. well, it's pretty clear now and it's pretty frightening when you hear not just the president having said as he did, she's going to go through some things, but parnas indicating and others indicated that with money you can get things done in ukraine as they stalked her which is a crime. as a matter of fact, chris, i think what ought to come out of this is that a criminal investigation ought to be opened up. >> yeah, i think it looks more like -- less like a regular street corner drug deal than a real mob hit perhaps involved here which is pretty frightening, as you're right, congressman. donna, it's interesting that as nancy pelosi, the speaker, held

back the articles, and it was serendipitous, when she realized she had to send it over, all this information came out about everything this president was involved with like nixon with the plumbers, he was, windo wor around it. >> we saw in notes from rudy giuliani that it was really clear that he's saying i'm operating on behalf of and at the direction of the president of the united states. look, i think what's really clear here is that there is a mountain of documentary evidence, some of which the house was able to get, and we know that there is more out there and it's incumbent on the united states senate to hold a trial to get that evidence in a trial to bring witnesses forward and to validate the documents and to make sure that this president is really held accountable. i think if the senators do less than that, then the american people are going to see that

they've created a sham trial, and as nancy pelosi says, a coverup of this president's lawless behavior. >> mr. director, it seems to me there's only one way of ruling on this, with the facts in, the facts about the president's conspiracy here to basically work with giuliani and his partner, lev parnas, to basically scare or i should say it this way, perhaps mug them. they're saying we're going to get rid of this ambassador so we can get the dirt on joe biden. you can't say it didn't happen now. it happened. >> one of the most significant documents that was released last night is that ritz-carlton stationary upon which donald trump said get zelensky to announce the biden investigation. he didn't say the burisma investigation or the investigation on ukrainian corruption. it was the biden investigation. i think it's very clear this mounting evidence indicates that trump was going after this investigation purely for his own personal and political reasons. that's why i'm aghast that the

republican legislators both in the house and the senate refuse to acknowledge that this was a very serious dereliction of the president's authorities. >> i would argue that politicians of all people can see a political act when they see it. they said we just want an announcement coming out of kyiv. they don't care if anything happens. they want dirt that they can spread all over the american press. anyway, only four republican senators need to vote as has been set here with the democrats to force the senate to subpoena witnesses in a senate trial. alaska is very gutsy, lisa murkowski, maine's susan collins, and mitt romney of utah who i like to say flirts with greatness, that's three. two others have been seen as possible defections from the republican crowd. colorado's corey gardner, another guy facing a close re-election, and tennessee's lamar alexander who is an institutionalist, who loves the

place. according to "the new york times" gardner can ill afford to break with trump because he needs the republican money. alexander is a genuine concern of the white house. jeff, we're doing the study like everybody else and trying to figure this out. it looks like if you get three of these people, if you get collins, you get murkowski and you get lamar -- i'm sorry, if you get mitt romney who's obviously a much better bet, that might be enough if the chief justice weighs in and breaks the tie. >> you're right. there could be four votes out there. i think that's one of the reasons why you see folks like ted cruz, the republican of texas, inject this notion of the reciprocal witness to in effect scare democrats to say, look, if you get your john bolton, we'll get our hunter biden. i think though for these republicans, especially the vulnerable republicans who are up for re-election, when there is a witness like a john bolton who says i'm willing to testify under certain conditions but he says he's willing to testify, to be a senator who will tomorrow

swear an oath, to then say i'm unwilling to hear it, that senator has to provide a reasonable justification for that position so as not to be seen abdicating his or her responsibility. that's one of the reasons why these seven house impeachment managers that the house speaker has settled upon, why the selection of the seven is so key, because the case that they present, i think, will certainly direct the outcome of the trial but i think will be key in determining whether republicans get to the point where they say, you know what, they presented the case in such a way where we need to hear more. >> let me throw this out at you. suppose the republicans led by the very political man, mitch mcconnell, and they decide the game's up, we're going to have to bring witnesses in so we're going to put together a slate of witnesses which include problematic people like maybe hunter biden or joe biden or the

whistle-blower and they put together -- they con fekt a list the democrats won't like but they'll throw it at them, they don't need the democrats to agree with that. 53 of them can say this is our slate of witnesses. we're going to bring them in and you have to eat them, deal with them. what happens then? it looks like democrats lose the fight. or maybe they win it, maybe they get john bolton to turn the president in if you will like a star witness. >> there you go. that is sort of the blue sky scenario. if you dissect and distill all of the facts in evidence in all of the testimony, all of the relevant witnesses who have either direct knowledge about this ukrainian gambit, all of the evidence that they provided to house investigators, it all points in one direction. it's not a partisan statement, it's a statement of fact. it points to culpability. even if you bring in a hunter biden and joe biden, they have no direct knowledge of, those are not relevant witnesses to use the phrase chuck schumer would use.

democrats, using the scenario that you laid out, would potentially be okay with that. they would think that at the end of the day even if they had to make that tradeoff, you would still get that valuable testimony and documents that would point to their case, the reason why they say impeachment is the proper remedy for president trump's wrongdoings. >> thafrnks for your great reporting. back to congressman denny hack. what do you make of that scenario? just hearing about it through conversations around here, that might be what mitch mcconnell will do as his fallback, put together a slate of witnesses that the democrats won't like but they have to buy. >> chris, i think the watch word here for senator mcconnell ought to be careful what you wish for. the fact is that vice president biden is not on trial, nor is hunter biden. president donald trump is on trial. if we know anything with a virtual certainty, it is that john bolton has information that he could reveal and will reveal that is not exculpatory, that in fact is damning. he is the one, after all, who

said i'm not going to have anything to do with giuliani's drug deal. so careful what you wish for, senator mcconnell. >> john, this scenario could change overnight. we don't know because the pressure on those four republicans -- we may not even need four. we may just need three with chief justice roberts weighing in and saying, no, i want to hear from witnesses. >> i think the senators even though they're going to go to their partisan corner, they have to be aware that there is the court of public opinion that is looking at these proceedings. i think it's over 70% of the american public believe there needs to be this fair trial in the senate to address the articles of impeachment. so i think you're going to have a number of the senators who on the republican side going to try to meet the democrats' wishes for witnesses. the question is whether or not there's going to be this combined list of witnesses botha the democrats want and the republicans want. >> look, i don't think democrats should balk at having either of the bidens -- >> that's a good price to pay.

>> it really is and they are not fact witnesses. they're not relevant witnesses, and i think the democrats will deal with john bolton and with duffy and with mulvaney who are direct fact witnesses in the president's lawlessness. >> because they know about the money that was being withheld for the -- >> they know about the money. they know about the timing. they're deeply implicated in the president's wrongdoing, and they are -- and john bolton, i mean, they are directly relevant to the issue at hand and i think democrats will swallow it. it might be embarrassing for the bidens but it is not the worst thing to happen to be able to bring forward the true fact witnesses. >> it all moves forward tomorrow with the managers tomorrow at noon. it's all moving forward. chief justice is being sworn in tomorrow too. it's all moving forward with the impeachment of this president. congressman denny hak, thank you

for your service to the country and coming on tonight, congresswoman donna edwards, director brennan, he'll be back with us later in the program. coming up, rachel maddow's exclusive, a big get today, with one of the men at the very center of the ukraine scandal, giuliani associate lev parnas. >> what do you think is the main inaccuracy or the main lie that's being told that you feel like you can correct? >> that the president didn't know what was going on. president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all of my movements. >> wow. that's a perry mason moment right there. more of that exclusive interview with rachel tonight at 9:00, her program. we'll have a bit of it in our program. plus breaking down the historic significance of today's events with presidential historian michael bech las. and donald trump didn't know where china was, get this. he didn't know details like

there's a border between china and india. he had no idea what pearl harbor was. he didn't know what the uss arizona was when it sunk. he just wanted to meet with putin. he wanted to fall in love with this guy. he considered putin an expert on anything. those are a few details of a book out next week by two "washington post" reporters. john brennan will be back with us to discuss the consequences of a president whose own aides say at times was dangerously uninformed. much more to get to tonight. stick around. to tonight. stick around (whistling)

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welcome back to "hardball." the parnas papers released by the house intelligence committee provide explosive and disturbing new details about the president's scheme to extort ukraine for political gain. the trove of materials were seized in october from lev

parnas, rudy giuliani point man, there he is with rudy, for ukraine. 500 more pages were released tonight. among the documents is a letter giuliani wrote to request a meeting with ukrainian president zelensky, a request he said he made with trump's knowledge and consent. it's evidence that the president personally approved giuliani's presence in the ukraine, something trump later tried to deny. parnas is breaking his silence with our msnbc colleague rachel maddow that airs tonight. he says president trump knew exactly what he was doing in this whole affair. >> what do you think is the main inaccuracy or the main lie that's being told that you feel like you can correct? >> that the president didn't know what was going on. president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all of my movements. i wouldn't do anything without the consent of rudy giuliani or the president. i have no intent, i have no

reason to speak to any of these officials. i mean, they have no reason to speak to me. why would president zelensky's inner circle or minister or all these people or president poroshenko meet with me? who am i? they were told to meet with me, and that's the secret that they're trying to keep. i was on the ground doing their work. >> in terms of the president and what he has said about you, he said about you and mr. fruman, igor fruman, i don't know those gentlemen. i don't know about them. i don't know what they do. you're saying that was not a true statement from the president? >> he lied. >> boy, she got to the heart of this question. the materials from parnas also shed new light on the smear campaign that led to the ouster of u.s. ambassador marie yovanovitch. text suggest giuliani and parnas had a deal and they proved they

were going to get rid of her in exchange for dirt on the bidens. that was the dirty drug deal that bolton managed, we'll get rid of the ambassador if you get us dirt on biden. as the prosecutor made explicit, if you don't make a decision about madam -- that would be yovanovitch, you are bringing into question all my allegations about b -- that's biden of course, a possible reference to him, or burisma where hunter biden worked. candidate robert hyde appeared to be physically surveilling yovanovitch through contacts in ukraine. in a series of cryptic messages to parnas, hyde seemed to detail her whereabouts, saying they will let me know when she's on the move, like he's spying on her. i'm joined by national political reporter for axios and a former senior director at the national security council. thank you, gentlemen. let's start with the reporting here. let's start with yovanovitch. they didn't like yovanovitch because she didn't like corruption. she was really the one going after corruption, not our

president. they wanted to get rid of her. they say if you get rid of her -- they're saying to rudy giuliani and parnas -- then we'll get you dirt on biden. >> the yovanovitch, the text messages discussing her, are the most disturbing communications i've seen throughout this impeachment inquiry, just in terms of pure unnerving information. the implication very clearly from there is that they were surveilling her, watching her, and also possibly even had access to her computer and phone, whether her phone was turned off. it just reads as this thugish, mobish dialogue. it's really disturbing. this was a senior state department official who we heard during the testimony that there were concerns about her safety. there's a lot more that needs to be unpacked here and

investigated as to what went on there. >> every time we go after mob corruption we try to start at the bottom. you know this, you work your way up. here we have parnas nailing the president, fingering him. the president knew everything i did. what more can you want in a senate trial than to have parnas walk in that room and say the president set up this whole thing. >> this is just what gordan sondland told the house. gordan sondland said everyone was in the loop, highest levels throughout the folks working for donald trump on this so-called drug deal. everyone was in the loop. these parnas documents show that in exquisite detail. everyone was in the loop. to your point, chris, there is new information coming out by the hour at this point even though we are on the eve of the impeachment trial actually starting. that means there's a need to figure out the full scope of the information. that calls for a real trial, not a sham trial, not a coverup, getting these people on the stand. >> john? >> in my view the most important document we've seen so far is that letter from giuliani to

president zelensky of ukraine. >> where he said i'm the president's man. >> he says in his personal capacity as a private citizen. well, i mean, what possible personal business could private citizen donald trump have with the president of ukraine? rudy giuliani's explanation was it was to help exonerate his client but the mueller report was already finished by then. so the idea that this was a public corruption campaign is directly called into question by those lines in the letter. that's why i think that letter is the most important document that we've seen here. >> well, not everything parallels with watergate but this sure does. the idea of setting up an extra governmental operation like the plumbers nixon set up that had no responsibility to the constitution to anybody. so you get around your role as president under the constitution which limits your power and you set up another government operation which is totally not even government, extra

government, under rudy giuliani and this guy parnas to do the dirty work. it's like, okay, i don't have the power as president so let me get this other thing going, just like nixon. >> if you had to sum up this impeachment inquiry in a single sentence, it would be that donald trump abused public office for private gain. as jonathan says -- >> that's what corruption is. >> that's what corruption is and that's what the letter is saying. giuliani is saying i'm here to do the personal bidding of donald trump. i'm not here to represent american interests. i'm here to represent donald trump's partisan interests. >> what about the person out there -- there's probably, i don't know, 20% of the country that's open-minded these days about trump, maybe, i don't know. >> i think that's pretty ambitious. >> okay, 15. >> really? >> i'm talking to them as if they exist so let's talk to them. you now know in all probability the president lied, really lied here when he said he didn't know these people, when he dismissed any responsibility for this whole thing. what do you do? do you say it doesn't matter? okay, he's a crook.

okay, he breaks the law. okay, he ignores the constitution. okay, he goes to another government to help his re-election. you have to okay a lot of stuff at this point. >> chris, we have photos, photographs. we don't need new documents to know that lev parnas and donald trump had more than -- there are photographs of the two of them next to each other. this is all out there. this is why, okay, we've got this new trove of 700 things. we basically know what happened. we have the documentary history of this. it's all out there. people are going to decide whether it's peachabimpeachable. from i can tell, we've seen more signs of it and i saw comments from susan collins today, they're not going to vote to convict this guy. they're just not going to. >> well -- >> i don't care how many more pages lev parnas releases. >> whatever the polling is about whether people support removal, there's been one consistently encouraging number which is a high percentage of americans have been paying attention to

this. >> why is that encouraging? if your goal is to get rid of him, if they're paying attention and none of these republicans are feeling the pressure to move and they're feeling actually very emboldened to be defiant -- >> what do they say when they get home to their loved ones, what do they say when they're not shower and thinking, what am i doing covering for a guy that did all this stuff? >> what do they say tomorrow when they take this oath to be an impartial juror and do their duty not as republicans, democrats, people running for re-election campaigns but as u.s. senators to stand up for that body and its constitution. >> i don't care the truth, i don't want the left wing bastards to win this one, is that what they say to themselves? >> if yoou're a republican senator, you're hearing from constituents who overwhelmingly love donald trump. it's true. they don't want them to convict him and they would probably vote them out in a primary if they did.

>> down in naples, florida, there's a lot of places in this country that's true. i just heard from a friend of mine. they love him down there. >> i think americans know what it means to exploit a role for your personal benefit. we all have jobs. we know what it's like to abuse that position of trust. if they can see this now that they're paying attention on display -- >> first question, you likee th? i like presidents who cut my taxes, get the economy rolling. that may be the way they answer these questions. thank you for your expertise. up next for only the third time in history articles of impeachment have been consent. there's the ritual. over to the senate. how is donald trump taking it. it's real now. it's a ritual but it's real. you're watching "hardball." t it. you're watching "hardball. tis c. i put off treating mine. epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. whatever your type, epclusa could be your kind of cure. i just found out about mine. i knew for years epclusa has a 98% overall cure rate.

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well, mr. secretary, by direction of the house of representatives and pursuant to house resolution 614, i hereby deliver these articles of impeachment. would you hold this? thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as secretary on behalf of the senate i accept these into the official record of the senate for deliberation later on, and we thank you for your courtesy in coming over. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was the scene back in 1998 when the house delivered the articles of impeachment against president bill clinton. well today that action was repeated for only the third time in our country's history.

this morning white house press secretary stephanie grisham said in a statement, quote, the only thing speaker pelosi has achieved with this sham impeachment process is to prove she's focused on politics instead of the american people. i'm joined by white house reporter for the associated press and michael beschloss, presidential historian. i don't know where to start with this administration and its press secretary. they don't even act like government officials. they act like they're political operatives trashing the people that criticize them. this impeachment process has proved itself to be very well handled by the speaker. they've done it all right and then they just trash the whole thing. this person, i don't know her, stephanie grisham, press secretary, she doesn't hold press briefings or do her job of telling what's going on, doesn't

do that or minute tear yal work. all she does is issue these attacks. here she is attacking a legitimate constitutional process which is in the constitution before the bill of rights. it's essential to the way we do things. the congress has a right to remove a president. >> yeah, and contrast it with the bill clinton time where he appointed people, as you remember, who were spokespeople for him on impeachment who were going to do that differently from his normal press secretary and he was able somehow to get through this and run the presidency and at the same time wage this battle against him. >> how about joe lockhart who said the other day his job is to try to help the press find out what's going on. how is that for an amazing idea. >> a little antique. >> let me ask you, let's talk about this process because there's a grudging nature to this. mitch mcconnell who i say is he elmer fudd or bugs bunny.

today he acted like a legitimate senate leader. he acted like we'll receive it, we're going to do the job. we're going to take the oath of impartiality he even said. what do you make of it? >> you really felt the gravity of the situation. >> he had a striped suit on, got all dressed up for the occasion. >> and it really felt like this historic moment. on the flip side you had the president and his team really not set on a definitive strategy at this point. held a briefing call for reporters today in which they were really all over the map. they seem to think that the articles are going to wind up being dismissed even though mcconnell and the senators made very clear there aren't the votes for that to happen. they're hoping for a trial to conclude within two weeks. seems unlikely that's possible. >> do you think it's more likely the senate will stonewall and say no witnesses, or they'll come up with a slate of witnesses that's not too appetizing for the democrats either. it may have bolton, mick mulvaney, duffy from the omb but

it also has the bidens on it. >> we've heard from senators like mitt romney and susan collins making clear they have interest in hearing from witnesses. romney would like to see john bolton come in and the problem is as soon as you open the door to witnesses, that means both sides. >> the white house has not yet announced who will defend president trump in the senate trial. multiple sources tell msnbc pat cipollone will join the defense, joined by jay secondkulosekulow the president's attorneys. there's also talk about dershowitz, giuliani. do you think they'll muck it up with outside stars? >> well, this is a president with a background in reality television and he knows that if you don't have stars, it has a little bit of a different texture than it does than if you

have people that are unpredictable. >> the dream team. >> the dream team, dershowitz, giuliani. that's the dream team. >> i guess the question is as we report this because i'm going to be covering it, we're all going to -- msnbc is going to be all over this and the other networks as well. we're going to cover this gavel to gavel. i think there's so much social press right now, social media all over the place. everybody's going to be talking about this. the country is paying attention. with all this attention, can the president deny a legitimate trial? >> look, the president is also somebody -- >> because he can approve it. >> he's going to watch this incredibly closely. he's skproexpressed to associat that he doesn't like the idea that the nation is going to be riveted to this but the president also wants a show. as you're saying, he's a reality tv president. he wants this vindication. >> i remember when rehnquist was the chief justice and he had these chevrons, these amazing

costumes. chief john roberts will preside over the senate trial starting soon. his first act will be tomorrow when he swears in the senators who will act as jurors. however, beyond that his role is somewhat murky. this is where it gets interesting. the constitution only mentions the chief justice once in this context and that's the context of impeachment. in article one section three of the constitution it states when the president of the united states is tried, the chief justice shall preside. this is a question, will he go further and say, you know what, we got 50 people for example, three republicans pop up and say we want witnesses. that's 47-3. 50, that's close enough. i'm going to give it to them. i'm going to throw in my vote and apparently that's an argument the chief justice can say you got 50 votes, that's good enough for me, we're going to have witnesses. >> that would be more activist than chase was under andrew johnson or rehnquist was at the

time of the clinton impeachment. because the constitution does say preside, they really pretty much follow that idea that it was presiding. >> how will he look if he does that? if it's 50 votes and he doesn't give it to the witnesses in a real trial and he's the last one that says no, do you think john roberts wants to be that person? >> probably not and this is someone who, given the makeup of the supreme court right now, is probably very used to having to make decisions like that. >> i don't know him that well. i know him a very well bit like most people do. i don't think he wants to be the bad guy. >> if you look at his writings, especially most recently, he's focused on trying to maintain this idea that the judiciary is independent. he's got that contending with also having to deal with the president who's going to be watching and judging him. >> the last thing he wants to be is a controversial chief justice in the wpr the truest nature of a conservative is to hold society together.

if it takes national health to do it, social security to do it, you do it. that's the chief goal, it's not the remember the old scriptures, it's to hold the people together. thank you both. up next, a highly anticipated new book from two of the "washington post's" most respected journalists reveals alarming details about the deaths of donald trump's disconnect from things taken from past presidents like a basic understand of geography, american history and the rule of law. trump, i don't know nothing about that stuff. you're watching "hardball." abt outhat stuff you're watching "hardball. mader 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.

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welcome back to "hardball." president trump has approached the presidency with a different level of detail and reverence than his predecessors. >> acting presidential is so easy for me. it's much easier than what i do.

much easier. and sometimes i have to do it. >> frederick douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more i noticed. >> i have an article two where i have the right to do whatever i want as president, but i don't even talk about that. >> i have president putin. he just said it's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be. >> believe it or not, i watch my words very carefully. there are those that think i'm a very stable genius, okay? i watch my words very, very closely. >> there's shocking new reporting today about the president trump presidency from an upcoming book by "washington post" reporters carol leonnig and phil rucker. at one point according to excerpts released in the book in "the washington post" the president did not seem to grasp the fundamental history surrounding the attack on pearl

harbor. after his then staff secretary rob porter was accused of domestically abusing two women, the president suggested one of the women might have faked her injuries to, quote, get money out of porter. that's his quote. the president also complained that it was unfair -- this is something -- that americans companies aren't allowed to pay bribes to help set up businesses overseas. he thinks they should. one government official complained that the disdain that trump shows for our country's principles, the disregard he has for right and wrong, your fist clenches, your teeth grate. the book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 200 sources corroborated with calendars, diaries, memos and private video recordings. you just heard a tip of the iceberg. much more after the break. stick with us. you're watching "hardball." e br. stick with us. you're watching "hardball. 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.

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♪ ♪ ♪ don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg. welcome back. the new book, "a very stable again use" by washington post reporters also details the president with a fundamental understanding for basic geography. according to their reporting in this new book, president trump told india's prime minister, quote, it is not like you have got china on your border. well, india and china share more than 2,000 miles of border. there it is if you look at a book of geography.

according to one aid, the president's mistake was so upsetting to the indian prime minister that his eyed bulged out in surprise. the aid explains after that the indians took a step back in their diplomatic relations with us. i don't know what to say. but trump is not stupid, but he is ignorant in many ways. i think he went to business school. he went to military school before that. he didn't take anything like history or literature or geography. there is things he doesn't know, like that there is a border several thousand mile border between india and china which they have been fighting over for decade. >> the book provides rich detail of what we have seen every day for the last three years that donald trump is the most ignorant, as you said, as well as incompetent individual that held the office of the presidency. i worked for six presidents. i got to know some of them very

well. every one of them had an understanding of history and geography. >> that's why they ran for president, because they grew up reading histories. >> once they became president, they realized there is a lot more to know and to learn. but donald trump knows no intellectual on these issues. he looks through the prism of the dollar sign and business. and, so, it's, again, unsurprising. but i think we're all looking forward to reading the book. >> maybe it should scare us about our kids getting too much specialized education. they go to business school, that's all they want to know, money. >> i couldn't agree with you more. >> that's helpful, actually. >> that supporting stem education. liberal arts exposes one to a lot of issues you need to deal with on your life. >> early on the president was eager to meet putin, the strong man over there.

awe cording to authors, he interrupts an interview to ask, when can i meet putin? can i meet with him before the inauguration ceremony? when is this? you know this better than anybody. this love affair with the idea of being a strong man. >> well, there is a lot we don't know about that putin-trump relationship and what trump is either interested in getting from putin or afraid that putin might reveal. it demonstrates this eagerness he had early on from day one to meet with him and then his subsequent meetings where he dismissed. >> do you think he's smart about that or he's paranoid or does putin have his number? >> all of the above. there is something that drives donald trump in terms of the way he interacts with putin and gives putin a pass on so many issues, whether it's for future consideration that putin will give him after he leaves the oval office or he's afraid of what putin might reveal.

>> i used to think there was a grand deal coming because he was going to cut a deal over syria and get the government out of there or something like that. >> i don't think trump is either interested in those grand deals or understands what is required in order to forge them. i think there is something very personal, maybe very political that he has. >> let's go back to something that's really important to me. when he became president, one of the first bills he wanted to pass was to get rid of the rule that you couldn't bribe other governments. pepsi cola, coca cola, makes a deal with their president over whatever, crown lands or whatever you want to call them, sovereign lands, every dollar agreed to in that deal has to be made public so there is no bribes or kick-backs. trump got rid of that. he wanted to be able to do kick backs and bribes. >> well, he is somebody who

looks for the ways to forge deals that are outside of ethics, principals, even the law. in terms of bullying, intimidation, corruption, whatever else. it is not surprising that in fact he would try to take that similar philosophy in dealings with overseas. >> he said it's unfair not to be able to drive. talk about victimization. thank you, chuck. up correct, why bernie sanders is the candidate to beat, i think. i think i know what's going on out there. it may not be what you want, but i think it's what's going to happen. bernie out there. you're watching "hardball."

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six candidates took the stage last night for the seventh democratic debate. let me leave you with my assessment of why bernie sanders is the candidate to beat. his anti-war position. he's anti-war in his bones. again last night he let the world know it. two, i checked the numbers. two-thirds of the democratic iowa caucus voters in 2016 call themselves liberal or very liberal. bernie swept those very liberal caucus goers in 2016 and should do it again in 2020. and this explains why elizabeth warren is battling with bernie. she's trying to get the very votes he has gotten before. between the two of them, it is a zero sum battle.

joe biden who called themselves moderate or conservatives can't match bernie's potential. the arithmetic is not there. he's battling with buttigieg or klobuchar for that. "all in" with chris hayes starts now. tonight -- >> what do you think is the main inaccuracy or the main lie that's being told that you feel like you can correct? >> a witness at the center of donald trump's impeachment speaks out. >> that the president didn't know what was going on. president trump knew exactly what was going on. he was aware of all my movements. >> tonight, previewing rachel maddow's exclusive interview with rudy giuliani's indicted associate. why it now looks like ukraine's corrupt prosecutor was