thank you so much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. will all senators now stand and remaining standing and raise their right hand. do you solemnly swear that in all things app pertaining to the trail of the impeachment of donald john trump, you will do partial justice according to the constitution and laws so help you god. >> president trump's impeachment trial proceedings have officially begun. chief justice john roberts and the nation's senators have been officially sworn in, and president trump is still calling the whole thing a hoax. plus, complicating impeachment matters a new report from the government

accountability office says the trump administration broke the law when it withheld ukraine aid and more from that bomb shell interview with lev parnas, the indicted associate of rudy giuliani. he has implicated several members of the trump administration, and now he is dealing the president's alleged attempts to fire former ukraine ambassador marie yovanovitch. good morning, everyone, it is friday, january 17th. i'm ayman mohyeldin, yasmin has the day off this morning. the senate impeachment trial of president donald trump has officially gotten underway. preliminary proceedings kicked off as the senate officially received the two articles of impeachment, and heard them read aloud by the lead democratic prosecutor, congressman adam schiff. after that chief justice john roberts was sworn in as the presiding judge for the trial. he then asked the nation's senators to solemnly swear to do

impartial jugstice according to the constitution and laws. the senators replied i do in unison. the trial will start tuesday. before that the house must deliver trial briefs laying out arguments by 5:00 a.m. tomorrow. white house counsel must deliver trial briefs by noon. it must be handed over by noon on tuesday. at the white house yesterday president trump was asked about the upcoming impeachment trial, and once again, he described his phone call with the president of ukraine, an issue that is at the center of all of this impeachment as perfect. >> well, i think it should go very quickly. it's a hoax. it's a hoax. everybody knows that. it's a complete hoax. the whole thing with ukraine. >> now, according to "the new york times," president trump capped his day by meeting with several campaign aids and grilling them on how voters were receiving the impeachment news. speaking with advisers yesterday, trump reepeated that he couldn't believe he was facing such a predicament as

impeachment. he wanted people to be prepared for a motion to dismiss and as hoped for one even though majority leader mitch mcconnell has signalled that dismissal won't happen. to new revelations from parnas, which continues to gain traction. with a one way ticket in october. he is currently free on bail and is cooperating with authorities and is in fact, giving more press interviews. he has already implicated the president, the vice president, the attorney general in a scheme to pressure ukraine to dig up dirt on joe biden. now, we're hearing the part of parnas's story that involves the energy secretary, rick perry, whom parnas said giuliani recruited after other attempts to pressure ukraine failed. >> harry says i spoke with zelensky and i got him to agree to announce the investigation. >> yeah, and they did the announcement, but they didn't

announce that. this was the whole key, every time somebody would meet zelensky, they would like agree and then they would walk it back. they announced something about corruption, but giuliani blew his lid on that saying that's not what we discussed. it wasn't supposed to be a corruption announcement, it has to be about joe biden, and hunter biden and burisma. >> he said the name biden's name needs to be spoken. >> always. >> parnas described the multiple attempts to fire marie yovanovitch. >> about firing her, i spoke to the president once about that, or twice. once or twice. once directly the at our dinner when he fired her actually at the dinner which was the most surprising thing ever. >> tell me more about that. >> basically at that dinner, we had a conversation, there was like six of us there. >> at the white house. >> at the trump hotel, but it was at the private, like, area there. it looks like a little white

house. >> and the president was there. >> absolutely. yeah. the president was there, his son don jr. was there. i don't know how the conversation came up but i do remember me telling the president that the ambassador was bad mouthing him and saying that he was going to get impeached something to that effect, and at that point, he turned around to john di stephan know who was his aide at the time, and said fire her. and we all there was a silence in the room. and he responded to him said mr. president, we can't do that right now because pompeo hasn't been confirmed yet, that pompeo is not confirmed yet, and this is when tillerson was gone, and pompeo wasn't confirmed. so several conversations, he mentioned it again. i don't know how many times at that dinner, once or twice or three times, but he fired her several times. >> reiterated that she should be fired and he was ordering her to be fired. >> correct.

>> parnas described life in the trump orbit, and why he believes the president is more powerful now than ever. >> i keep saying it was like, you know, being in the cult. when they say organized crime, i don't think trump is like organized, i think he's like a cult leader, and right now the scary part, i keep mentioning and people don't understand, there's a lot of republicans that would go against him. if you take a look and you know very well because you have been following, the difference between why trump is so powerful now. he wasn't as powerful in '16 and '17, he became that powerful when he got william barr. >> joining me legal analyst, danny cevallos and daniel litman in washington, d.c. daniel, good to have you with us. let me begin with you. explain the significance of president trump's alleged attempts to fire the ambassador to ukraine before she was let go as we were just informed by lev parnas. >> it shows almost like

premeditation, that president trump had this long-standing beef against the ambassador who i don't think he even met, so he didn't really know what she was like, and i think he was told that she was a roadblock in terms of getting those announcements of investigations and so he wanted to get rid of her, but the fact that johnny di stephano said pompeo hansn't ben confirmed so you can't fire her. trump would complain to his aids, fire mueller or get rid of sessions and they were usually able to placate him and prevent him from that happening. because they knew it would lead down a road trump should not be going down. president trump makes a lot of attempted orders that his staff often ignores. >> danny, it's interesting because you and i were talking about this very briefly. there's a certain amount of detail that lev parnas is

describing these conversations with. it is possible someone makes it up but the fact that he is telling you names, and then giving you the specific response by saying at that point, joe said mike pompeo is not appointed yet, you cannot fire her. do you think all of these details he's giving right now could one day implicate somebody like rudy giuliani or president trump that could face charges over this whole ukraine scandal. >> every person is equipped with their own equipment for evaluating the credibility of witnesses but you're absolutely right. when witnesses recount this level of detail, and then i should add when they don't remember, they say so. refresh my recollection. those are in the seas of general credibility, and he has been amply prepared by his attorney so he knows how to present the facade of a credible witness, but just evaluating him, yeah, he doesn't appear to be pursuing any agenda other than, and this is important to point out because any defense attorney would have to at trial, this is somebody who's charged with a crime who will say and do

anything to get out of trouble. now, the government's response, the counter to that is, well, look, it takes a criminal to catch a criminal. these are the folks who know what the bad things are that other people are doing. >> are you surprised he's doing so much press, is that a strategy you would encourage a client to do, or hold on to the information and give it in piecemeal to the feds to get them to ease the indictment or charges against him. >> parnas has a very good attorney. i'm sure there's a strategy behind it but it is unusual, if public, you give up your poker chips. you no longer have something to offer the prosecution. they already know what it is, that's out there. it is maybe a gamut, because to get his cooperation, if the government wants him as a cooperation agreement later on, they would have to enter a plea agreement or a cooperation agreement, but it is a risk because this transcript is yet another transcript that this witness has to get exactly right

or a defense attorney down the road will skewer him on the stand. >> daniel litman, let's ask you next about what happens, we expect the house to hand over its briefs tomorrow. what will that entail? what is in those house briefs? >> so it's basically the case that lays out what trump did wrong in the eyes of democrats, and so we're talking about those two articles of impeachment, abuse of power, you know, obstruction of congress in terms of blocking all of those witnesses and documents, and so it won't be a ton of new stuff but i think democrats are hoping to incorporate, you know, in their arguments some of what we've heard from parnas and from the gao saying that the withholding of aid was illegal, so that's going to be, you know,

same old, same old. >> really quickly, danny cevallos, what's the president's strategy, how do you see him defending himself in all of this, not in the public space as we have seen, calling it a hoax, and dismissing it saying the call is perfect. >> at the trial. >> at the trial, if this were a strategy. >> if this were an article three trial, the defense's strategy in the judicial system is to keep the burden on the prosecution, counter that i kn counter their evidence. don't introduce new evidence unless you need to. this is more than an article three trial. this is an article one trial. they have to persuade senators, it is not a purely legal event. >> danny cevallos, appreciate that. daniel litman, we're going to talk to you in a little bit, don't go anywhere. still ahead, we are digging into the government watchdog report that finds the trump administration did break the law when it withheld aid to ukraine. how the white house budget office is responding this

morning. how 2020 candidates bernie sanders and elizabeth warren are trying to move on after that tense moment following the democratic debate earlier this week. we're going to have those stories, and of course a check of the weather when we come right back. right back why are we doing this? why are we doing what? using my old spice moisturize with shea butter body wash... all i wanted was to use your body wash and all i wanted was to have a body wash.

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the president's republican defenders say he did nothing wrong by withholding military aid from ukraine, but the disability office disagrees with that. the gao says it was illegal, referencing the presidential oath of office. the agency said the following, faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that congress has enacted into law. omb withhold funding for a policy reason which is not permitted under the impoundment control office. if the white house wanted to withhold the funds, gao had an obligation to notify congress. the office of management and

budget and the state department have failed to provide that information adding quote we consider reluctance to provide a fulsome response to have constitutional significance. pel federal officials and employees take an oath to uphold and protect the constitution and its core tenet, including the congressional power of the purse. we trust that state and omb will provide the information needed. well, the white house budget office as you can imagine responded saying quote we disagree with the ga o's opinion. omb used its appropriation authority to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent, consistent with the president's priorities and with the law. and fbi agents visited the connecticut home and business of congressional candidate robert hyde yesterday according to a senior law enforcement official. one of hyde's neighbors told nbc news that an agent had parked outside of hyde's home before dawn but did not believe the fbi

agent entered the home before. i guess he entered and left by 10:30 a.m. the visit comes days after the house intel committee released texts that hyde sent rudy giuliani associate lev parnas suggesting that hyde have marie yovanovitch under surveillance. hyde claims that he had been drinking and was not serious when he sent those texts. a spokesperson for the fbi office in new haven declined to comment on the visits. hyde also did not immediately respond to nbc news' requests for comment. ukraine set in motion a criminal campaign into the hacking of burisma and the legal surveillance of marie yovanovitch. on the alleged surveillance, the ukrainian government cited the text messages from the republican aid, hyde to lev parnas. ukraine says it will investigate if she was illegally tracked or whether it was bravado or fake information in the informal conversation between two u.s.

citizens. ukraine's interior minister met with a representative based in ukraine to officially request that the u.s. help to look into the surveillance of yovanovitch and the hacking of burisma, according to ukrainian government official. with that, let's switch gears and bring in bill karins with your weather. >> a cold friday morning. >> and it looks like wirnnter around the country. we have one of our largest winter storms. 75 million people are under winter headlines, the biggest is a blizzard warning issued for western minnesota, a chunk of eastern south dakota, a slice of north dakota and a portion of iowa. a decent storm with a lot of blowing wind on the backside of it. it is going to cause travel concerns all day today. the schools in kansas city, and adding areas in anticipation of the snow coming this way on saturday. new york city is under a winter weather advisory, and areas of massachusetts and connecticut under a winter storm watch. so here is a look at the radar, and it looks like, you know, like a rainbow here, the blue

shows the snow, the pink is the sleet, the bright pink and purple color is freezing rain, and the yellow and green, and we have everything moving into areas of kansas and missouri, that's where the roads are most treacherous early this morning for your morning drive. let's time this out, and let you know what's going to happen later today, and take you into the weekend. this is as we go throughout the day today, all the snow moves through iowa, minnesota, wisconsin, we pause it at 6:00 p.m., just about to arrive in chicago for your evening drive home. saturday morning, you wake up to a snowy winterland. areas of michigan, snow breaks out during the day. should have 1 or 2 inch of snow on the ground, and by sunday morning, gone, the storm system is out of here. a quick mover, no one is going to get block buster snow amounts. we are going to see widespread 2 to 4 inches, some areas could get 6. minneapolis could get a half foot of snow. areas of northern iowa, chicago in 2 inches, detroit, 2 to 3 inches. buffalo and pittsburgh, similar,

around 2 to 3. philadelphia, 1 to 2. even the d.c. area could get a slushy inch and go over to rain. boston, and areas of interior new england could get worse, 2 to 4 inches. some of the mountainous areas could get up to 6. t it's cold in the northeast, airline delays because of that. snow free, all the travel control because of snow and ice will be moving into the midwest. not a block buster storm but for a lot of people, they haven't had a lot of snow. at least it's happening mostly toward the weekend, and kids will have fun. >> hopefully so. bundle up out there. appreciate it. the president notches a win after the senate passed a new north american trade deal. there's still a lot of work to be done. we're back in a moment with that and more. back in a moment with t and more the lexus nx. modern utility for modern obstacles. lease the 2020 nx 300 for $359 a month for 36 months. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. i don't make compromises.

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so call now. president trump secured his second big trade win of the week after the senate passed the umca with an overwhelming majority. it passed the senate 89-10 and will replace the previous agreement known as nafta. president trump is expected to sign the revised deal next week. this agreement comes as the president signed a phase one trade deal with china on wednesday, which yesterday he referred to as the biggest deal ever done in the history of our country in terms of trade. now trump officially signed the u.s. mca a year ago but house democrats worked to negotiate stronger labor enforcement provisions before getting on board. now, the u.s. mta needs approval

from canada's house of commons which reconvenes in late january to go into effect. the latest sign stealing scandal, the new york mets have parted ways with carlos beltran before his first game as the team's manager. beltran who was hired by the mets in november was implicated in the scheme used by the houston astros when he played for the club in 2017. no player was disciplined by the league, he was the only player named in the mlb report. the mets released a statement on beltran's departure saying we met carlos last night, and again this morning and agreed to mutually part ways. this was not an easy decision considering the circumstances, it became clear to all parties that it was not in anyone's best interest for carlos to move forward as manager of the mets. he maintained that his exit was mutual. i am grateful for them to giving me the opportunity, but we agreed this decision is in the best interest of the team. i couldn't let myself be a

distraction. and half of canadians say they don't mind prince harry and meghan markle's move to the country but the majority said they should not have to foot the bill for the couple's security. according to a poll, half of the canadians say they don't care if they spend a significant time in canada. 73% said canadians should not have to pay for security, and meghan and harry should cover the costs themselves. 3% said they should pay for the necessary costs. the royal couple plans to spend time in canada and the uk after announcing they would step back as senior members of the royal family. still ahead, we're going to show you how president trump and vice president mike pence are responding after lev parnas implicated both of them in the ukraine scandal, plus in the wake of iran's attacks on u.s. forces in iraq, president trump said no american troops were harmed but now the pentagon in fact says some military members were evacuated and are receiving

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welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin. yasmin has the day off. we begin this half hour with the latest from washington, while the senate prepared for the impeachment office, the government accountability office said they did violate the law holding funds allocated for congress that were dedicated to ukraine. nbc who's encounter hallie jackson has the details. >> reporter: that explosive government watchdog report says

the president broke the law, overriding capitol hill by freezing that military aid to ukraine, pointing out he can not substitute his own policy priorities for those that congress has enacted into law. >> 45 years here, i have never seen anything like this. >> reporter: but a senior administration official describes the findings as overreach. the military aid is part of what democrats have called a quid pro quo, accusing the president of using it as leverage to get ukraine to open investigations into his political rivals, like the bidens, a key player in that push was lev parnas, rudy giuliani's right-hand man in ukraine, explaining in a bomb shell interview, with msnbc's rachel maddow. >> it wasn't just military aid, it was all aid, their relationship would be soured that we would stop giving them any kind of aid. >> unless. >> unless there was an announcement made, several demands at that point, a, the most important one was the announcement of the biden investigation. >> reporter: parnas says the vice president, the attorney

general, even president trump were all in the know, though he did not mention any direct conversation with the president. >> 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. >> reporter: but the president has denied any wrong doing. parnas also implicating other top officials. >> you have reason to believe that vice president pence was tasked at that meeting with getting president zelensky to announce investigations of joe biden specifically. mr. barr knew about that. >> mr. barr had to have known everything, it's impossible. >> reporter: the justice department said that's 100% false and the vice president's office points to witness testimony that contradicts parnas, adding he will say anything to anybody who will listen in hopes of staying out of prison. parnas has been indicted, accused of breaking campaign finance law, arrested this fall at a washington airport with a one-way ticket out of the country. >> our thanks to nbc's hallie jackson for that report. and president trump continues to flat out deny knowing lev parnas

despite the indicted associate's detail detailed accounts of their multiple interactions. >> what is your response to lev parnas who says that your reference in ukraine were all about 2020, you just wanted joe biden out. what's your response? >> well, i don't know him. i don't know parnas, other than i guess i had pictures taken, which i do with thousands of people. i don't know him at all, don't know what he's about. don't know where he's come from. don't know about him. >> he said it was more than taking pictures with the president. >> i don't know him, i don't believe i have ever spoken to him. >> you were on the phone with giuliani. >> i don't believe i've ever spoken to him. >> in response to trump's continued denials, parnas's attorney in fact posted this video of the two men side by side at mar-a-lago back in 2016, alongside the former head of the ukrainian fiscal service, meanwhile on the campaign trail in florida yesterday, vice president mike pence said quote i don't know the guy when asked about parnas. pence called parnas's claims that he knew about the push for

ukraine to investigate the bidens quote completely false, and republicans down played evidence in the ukraine scandal brought to light by lev parnas. senator lindsey graham, the chairman of the judiciary committee, and house minority leader kevin mccarthy appeared to dismiss parnas as a reliable witness. >> i haven't looked at it. to me, the source of the evidence is at best questionable, all the evidence identify seen is a bunch of notes that have nothing to do with the facts as far as i'm concerned, and the people in question are sketchy at best. >> this man lacks all credibility. this is the same pattern that i have seen before with cohen, with avenatti, the media tries to build something into it. just didn't show that he went on and the nature of what he spoke. this is the same man that said denver nunes was in vienna when he was not, so he doesn't have any credibility. you have the transcript of the phone call.

that's all you need. you have the phone call. that's what they based their impeachment on, even though their managers have decided on impeachment, you have hakeem who voted for it two years almost to this date, a year before the phone call even took place. you have adam schiff who met with the whistleblower but lied, said he had proof beyond circumstantial, we found that was not true. you don't need anything more. they made their case for impeachment, the senate role now is to judge it, and that's what they're do. >> martha mcsally lashed out at a cnn reporter who asked her about the parnas allegations. watch this. >> senator mcsally should the senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial. >> manu, you're a liberal hack, i'm not talking to you. >> you're not going to comment? >> meanwhile, former white house chief of staff and chair reince priebus argued that the evidence brought against president trump is not impeachable. >> sometimes the best defense is

the so what defense, is everything the democrats said is true, it's still not impeachable. if everything lev parnas says is true, it's still not impeachable. >> and house speaker nancy pelosi held a news conference on capitol hill where she accused senate republicans of being quote afraid of the truth, following the release of the new evidence from rudy giuliani's associate lev parnas. >> what's your response to senate republicans who say they shouldn't have to consider new evidence like the parnas material because it wasn't included in the house investigation. >> no, they're afraid of the truth. the american people have seen the allegations and their allegations we need to see more evidence that would be contained in the documentation. so this is just another avoiding of the facts and the truth on their part. any further evidence should not be avoided and now the ball is in the court of the senate.

public opinion will have a lot to do with this. since we passed ours and then sent it over, public opinion has grown enormously for seeing witnesses, eyewitnesss, and documentation, and they'll just have to contend with the public on that. >> joining me once again white house washington reporter for "politico" daniel litman. good to have you back with us. let's break this down. what to you make of president trump and republicans reactions to the allegations levelled by lev parnas. is this similar you think to how trump's former lawyer, michael cohen was treated? are they taking a page out of that play book. >> i think this is how trump operates and so if someone he knows or has been associated with gets in trouble or turns on him, then his classic move is to say he barely knows the person or, you know, why are we talking about someone who did not work in the white house. and so this is an attempt by president trump to undermine the

credibility of parnas, and parnas is facing criminal indictment, and so his own credibility is at stake as well, but this is a classic trump play book. he's probably been doing it for decades. >> how might these revelations that have been claimed by lev parnas change or impact the scope of president trump's senate impeachment trial in all of this? >> i don't think it changes it completely because house democrats and those impeachment managers feel like they have a very strong case as it is. even though they know they probably won't win because this will turn into a political trial, and senate republicans are very unlikely to convict president trump. but it just adds to their evidence and it cops mes at a perfect time because parnas is really one of the insiders. he was pressuring the ukraine government to enact those investigations and so the fact

that he's turned and, you know, gave rachel maddow her best ratings ever on that episode when he -- when she interviewed him, that shows that the american people are interested in what he's saying and it's very rare for someone who is part of this inner circle in terms of ukraine to really spill the beans and so i think democrats were very happy that parnas is saying what is on his mind. >> daniel litman with the nbc ratings plug for us, appreciate it as always. thanks. talk to you soon my friend. the latest in the feud between democratic potential contenders, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, what the progressive candidates are saying after the hot mic moment on the debate stage. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. k at "morni" is back in a moment. ♪

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and bernie sanders are trying to move on from their public feud. warren told reporters she had no further comment on the tense post debate caught on a hot mic, and sanders refused to answer questions about the clash between the two progressive candidates. politico obtained a set of talking points, which reads quote please refrain from commenting on the cnn story on the meeting between bernie and senator elizabeth warren adding goal take the high road. both candidates left the campaign trail and returned to capitol hill yesterday to be sworn in for the senate impeachment trial. evelyn yang wife of andrew yang said in an interview yesterday that she was sexually assaulted by her ob/gyn in 2012 while she was seven months pregnant. yang identified her former doctor as robert haden who pleaded guilty to a felony count of criminal sexual act in the third degree back in 2016 after being indicted on charges stemming from six patients in

total. haden was accused by 19 patients of sexual abuse. yang told cnn in the beginning she did not notice any red flags but as the months progressed, haden began asking inappropriate questions about her sexual activity with her husband and asked her to attend longer and more frequent examinations that she later learned were unnecessary. yang said the worst assault happened when she was seven months pregnant. >> i was dressed and ready to go, and then at the last minute he kind of made an excuse. he said something about i think you might need a c section, and he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally ungloved and at first i was a little bit like

what's going on here. >> andrew yang issued a statement writing in part quote i am extraordinarily proud of evelyn, and my heart breaks when i think about what she had to experience. when victims of abuse come forward, they deserve our belief, support and protection. i hope evelyn's story gives strength to those who have suffered and sends a clear message that institutions must do more to protect and respond to women. in legal filings, haden's attorneys denied yang's allegations. neither the hospital nor an attorney for the ob/gyn have yet returned requests for comment. let's get a quick check on weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. weekend plans, sunday is pretty much clear for everyone. we have to get there first. a lot of people traveling in the snow this weekend. the storm is impacting 70

million plus people. schools in kansas city closed for the day. a lot of parents scrambling to figure out what they're going to do with their kids today. later on this will be pushing to chicago later on tonight. areas in the northeast are cold, but the snow showers from yesterday are over with. we're not dealing with those anymore, that's at least one good piece of information. now also as far as the winter weather advisories go and warnings, we now have blizzard warnings up for a good section of the northern plains. it will be very difficult travel later on today, especially tonight and early tomorrow morning in areas of minnesota, south and north dakota, especially along the border states and as far as the snowfall projections go, this isn't block buster, we're not talking about a foot anywhere, but blue is 2 to 4 inches, sections of purple, iowa, green bay, southern michigan, those are spots we could see 6 inches of snow. d.c. philly and new york, maybe an inch, maybe two, and that's it. it's not a huge or deal in the big cities in the northeast.

kansas city is a trouble spot. st. louis could go into a mix, and minneapolis later on especially this evening could have problems. let's get into the weekend forecast for all of your plans as far as what you're doing on saturday, and the northeast, we will see the weather starting kind of calm, and then the snow will move in. when it heads in, it's almost like a front end dump or a thump. that's where we're going to see a quick burst of heavy snow, and then it will be over with. it's not going to last all afternoon. you will get snow in areas say philadelphia and new york, especially areas inland, north and west of i-95. especially as we go throughout the middle of the afternoon will be the worst of it. we'll get a rainy period through areas of the southeast, we're going to recover in the middle of the country, and then a new storm comes into the west. by the time we get to sunday, everything kind of quiets down, the storm exits, we'll get a little left over snow in maine, and it will be much colder in the great lakes. get your snow clean up done on saturday if you can, it's not going to be fun to be out there. look at these temperatures, negative 1 for a high in sioux

falls, 3 in the quad cities, sunday, everything is going to freeze solid like a rock. the southern half of the country should be just fine. we haven't had a lot of big snow events. this isn't like a huge blizzard that's moving across the country, but a lot of us will have to deal with it. >> snow suits and hand warmers for the kids, let them play outside. >> a lot of kids waiting to do sledding. there hasn't been any snow. >> thanks, bill, appreciate it. the latest company to reach a $1 trillion market evaluation. and the senate signs a new trade agreement as china's gdp growth slows to a near 30-year low. and comcast's highly anticipated streaming service, those stories are driving your business day, next. ing your business day, next if that was the last time i was going to do that thing. i thought...i'm not letting anything take me away

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welcome back, everyone. a lot happening in the business world this friday including business news from our parent company. joining us live from london with the latest. what you got? >> reporter: that's right. top stories today. google parent company alphabet joined is the $1 trillion club. the fourth u.s. firm in history to hit the milestone. optimism comes from the company the growth in cow business doubled revenue from $1 billion to $2 billion between february 2018 and july 2019. elsewhere, the senate has now

passed the us mca deal notice a nafta the last 26 years. president trump initially proposed agreement 2018 but subject to revisions. the deal awaits the president's signature as well as canada's rat fshification to come into effect. numbers out of china. beijing had grown in 2019, slowest pace since 1999 and still in line with expectations, though. remember, this comes on the back of that historic signing ceremony of the phase one deal between china and the u.s. just a couple days ago. >> news coming out of the streaming wars here in the u.s. comcast unvealing news and parent company of nbc universal and msnbc. what can bring watinge watchers?

>> that's right. a multitiered pricing approach announcing peacock priced at $4.t$4 $4.99 without commercials. $9.99 with commercials. the premium version will have 15,000 hours of existing and new content including popular reruns of shows like "the office" and "parks and recreation." comcast wanting to get 30 million to 35 million by 2024, up from the 24 million existing comcast customers they already have. exciting news. >> streaming wars continue. not enough hours in the day to watch all of this content. >> reporter: no. >> live in london, thank you very much. up next, the very latest in russian president vladimir putin perceived power grab. coming up on "morning joe," the very next steps in the impeachment process as the

senate trial is now officially under way. plus, new revelations from lev parnas in the ukraine scandal as president trump continues to deknowing rudy giuliani's indicted associate. "morning joe," everyone, just moments away. best original screenplay... there's only one way this war ends. and best picture of the year. last man standing. ♪you got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive♪ ♪ e-lim-i-nate the negative ♪ and latch on to the affirmative ♪ ♪ but don't mess with mister inbetween ♪ ♪ you got to spread joy up to the maximum ♪ "it's okay, you got this" ♪ bring gloom down to the minimum ♪ "slow it down a little" ♪and have faith, or pandemonium "it's okay" ♪liable to walk upon the scene♪

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after iran's missile strikes against u.s. troops in iraq 11 american service members now treated for concussions, the pentagon said yesterday. the u.s. central command release add statement saying in part all personnel in the vicinity of the blast screened for traumatic brain injury, deemed appropriate transported to a higher level of care. the pentagon mentioned the service members are expected to return to iraq following their screenings. at the time, president trump, you may recall, claimed there were no american casualties as result of iran's attack targeting an iraqi base housing u.s. and coalition forces. the attacks in retaliation for the killing of iran's cop general qassem soleimani. and a new request to build hundreds of miles of border wall along the u.s./mexico border a senior defense official tells nbc news. the request asks the defense department to use money designated for counternarcotics

to build the wall. unknown how much the construction would cost. last year the pentagon set aside funds for 129 miles of that wall. homeland security didn't get enough money in its budget to cover border construction this year prompting this request to the pentagon. the official told nbc news so fares 104 miles of wall built to date and the goal finish 400 miles by end of the year. all right. russian lawmakers approved russian president vladimir putin pick for prime minister replacing dmitry medvedev who resigned along with his entire cabinet after putin suggested changing the constitution. live from london, what do we know about putin's intentions? how do people look at this as a power grab? >> reporter: ayman, good morning. right. been a wild few days in russia seen as an absolute power grab.

how it went down wednesday afternoon. president putin proposed sweeping changes to the constitution keeping him in power in practice well past his term in 2024. putin in his fourth term and the claim he lived in russia 25 consecutive years rules out his mown prominent cydics alexi nervani. it weakens the office for his successor allowing putin to fill the power vacuum from outside the office are and remain dominant politician in the country. and from the carnegie moscow center tweeted no second putin so no one else can rule 20 years with this kind of iron fist. >> wow. what do we know about dmitry medvedev replacement? a staunch ally close to 20 years. >> reporter: absolutely. by all accounts, medvedev is

very much in the inner circle. this security council enjoys large powers may be putin's ticket to power. for medvedev's replacement a name no one expected. a career tech knowntechno grad. been in charge of russia's taxes. as a side note, even though hasn't been a politician, certainly spent time with them, rubbed elbows on the ice as he played in the amateur night hockey league in which putin also plays. >> molly hunter with that update. interesting developments in russia. a pleasure, thanks. that does it for me on this friday morning. "morning joe," everyone, starts right now. i'm ayman mohyeldin. i don't know him very well. i have not spoken to his much. >> i don't know those gentlemen. >> i don't know vindman. i never heard of him.

>> i really don't know about her. >> i know more about the environment than most people. >> nobody knows more about trade than me. >> i know windmills very much. studied it better than anybody. >> wow. >> better than anybody! oh, my god. >> and when trump says he knows everything, he knows nothing. when trump says he knows nothing, he knows something. >> this is beautiful, and that something is bad. >> you don't have to go up like -- you don't have to visit a maharishi to learn his insight windsor man will tell it to you. >> it's the bottom line. >> how beautiful is that, will willie? somebody suggested windsor man and somebody should put toghe