that wraps up this hour of msnbc live. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >> and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the president retaliates. it's pay back time for the president, setting the stage for a showdown with everyone involved with his impeachment, confirming reports today that he's considering removing a star impeachment witness from the white house, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman working at the ncs. >> well, i'm not happy with him. you think i'm supposed to be happy with him? i'm not. they'll make that decision. you'll be hearing. >> the missing man, joe biden noticeably absent from new hampshire yesterday as his campaign struggles to regroup after falling behind the new front-runners in iowa. >> the iowa caucus is behind us. >> it has been an extraordinary

week. >> and investigating hunter biden. senate republicans get financial data on joe biden's son from the treasury department opening a new front in the political wars. >> good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump taking the fight to his rivals, rewarding political loyalty, sending a signal to any republicans that he demands total support from them or else. the first causality may well be lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, a key impeachment witness, reportedly to be moved and sent to a new assignment in the pentagon. the president is celebrating a victory today as courts reject a challenge on emoluments that the president has been profiting from being in office. >> we just won the big emoluments case. i think it was a unanimous

decision. this was brought by nancy pelosi and her group. it just came out a few minutes ago. so i'll be reading it on the helicopter. but it was a total win. >> the president also went after nancy pelosi today, again, for ripping up his state of the union speech. >> that was on display the other night when she ripped up the speech. it was terrible. it was so disrespectful to our country. and, actually, very illegal. >> joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, ashley parker, and jon lemire. i don't know how you can be in two places at the same time, you were the one asking the president questions among the group back there. you're out front now. tell us about him obviously triumphant on emoluments and certainly not denying the reports that he's going to move alexander vindman out of the

ncs. >> what we saw was a continuation of the victory lap that started here at the white house yesterday when president trump had that free-wheeling event here in the east room. today he was equally defiant. he didn't deny those reports that he's considering removing alexander vindman again. he said i'm not happy with him. you think i'm supposed to be happy? they'll make that decision. not giving any specifics about a potential timeline and sort of dodging a question about whether or not this all ultimately leads to pay back for frankly all of his political rivals. i asked him also how does he plan to heal the country, andrea, and i thought it was notable, he didn't give specifics, but instead went onto essentially argue that the country is unified. he said, you know, what's going to unify the country, look at our crowd, look at our support, what unifies the country is great success. so the strategy moving forward,

andrea, as he pivots away from the impeachment saga, as he tries to put the focus on his acquittal and to turn the page toward his campaign, clearly he's going to talk about what he sees as his successes, the economy, that is going to be front and center today as he travels to north carolina and he's going to be talking about low-income communities, his plan and his administration's plans to help them. but that i think, andrea, is going to be the focus moving forward as he fights for re-election. >> and, jon lemire, it was predictable given everything we've seen in the past, it's very different what some of his supporters like susan collins suggested might be his response after an acquittal. >> right, look at the contrast between the speech that bill clinton gave after his impeachment acquittal back in '99 and what we saw yesterday from the president. bill clinton apologize today the nation. the only apology was to his own family saying they went through

the witch-hunt. there's no acknowledgement that he behaved slightly inappropriately with ukraine. he continues to refer to it as a perfect phone call and has defended all of his behavior and it was remarkable. we saw the contrast in styles from the state of the union on tuesday night where the president stuck to the teleprompter to yesterday where he couldn't help himself even at the national prayer breakfast where he went after house speaker nancy pelosi as well as mitt romney. and then truly remarkable display from the east room of the white house yesterday where working with no teleprompter just off of a few handwritten notes. gave oscar-style thank yous to all the republicans who stuck with him but also launching into attacks against pelosi, romney, james comey, the list goes on and on. this is a scorched earth victory lap from the president. >> and it's a warning to anyone

who crosses him in either congress or any of the candidates going forward, ashley parker, this accusation against nancy pelosi that what she did was illegal, it's striking considering reports in the past who reported that the president himself has torn up official documents in the oval office and they have to be, you know, taped -- scotch taped back to together for the archives. eric swalwell was just on with my colleague and responded to that question in particular. >> this is the person when he was in the room with vladimir putin in helsinki, destroyed the notes of the translator. we don't know what happened during that meeting. i'm not going to listen to this president about destruction of evidence. >> ashley, let's talk about that, and the whole accusations against pelosi, the anger that

the president is expressing. how do you see it playing out going forward? >> well, it's not just that, he also accused her in ripping up his state of the union of being disrespectful and this is a charge being levied by a man who used an obscenity in the east room yesterday. to put it in a broader context, he's clearly furious with leader pelosi. he was putting these lists of disloyalists in his eyes on notice, offering a verbal enemies list. but the broader perspective is, one of the president's biggest political attributes is his shamelessness and willingness and ability to take something that he himself has done, whether it's destroying his own notes and having aides scrambling to scotch tape them back together and accuse somebody else of doing just the same thing and channeling sort of indignation that ignores the

fact that he's guilty of the very charge he's leveling against someone else. it's tough to respond to. leader pelosi is someone who generally has figured out a way to manage the president and often get the best of him, but it's an uncomfortable situation for her. >> well, it is certainly heating up rather than calming down. what a week this has been. kristen welker, ashley parker, jon lemire, thank you very much. and the white house is working with the president's allies on capitol hill to keep the pressure on hunter biden with reports that chuck grassley and ron johnson already receiving financial information on joe biden's son from the treasury department even though the administration that be battling in court against demands for similar information about his own tax returns. chris coons joins me now. your reaction to these reports that hunter biden is being

targeted, that information from treasury about his financial records are being turned over to the senate committees. >> andrea, this was disheartening news. i was encouraged by quotes by senior senate republicans, senator cornyn and several others today that they think we should move on, we should be trying to get the business of the people done. that we should try and get bills passed this spring that would reduce drug prices or strengthen our schools and that continuing the false narrative that somehow joe biden interfered in ukraine to help his son and continuing to gin that up and carry out this trump-led shameless campaign of retribution against anyone who testified against him or raised issues against him really isn't productive for the country. i am hopeful that in the senate we can get back to work but i recognize the deep passions and

divisions that impeachment produced. there is no evidence that joe biden did anything wrong here and i really am disappointed that the chairs of these important committees in the senate are choosing to use their power and their time to dig into something that i frankly think in the end is not a legitimate goal in terms of oversight for the congress. >> is there anything that you and other democrats can do? you're outmaneuvered, outnumbered on this? >> well, any committee that has a majority of republicans can take a vote if every republican agrees to issue subpoenas, to seek documents, and to move forward. my hope is that given those quotes from a number of the most senior republicans, that they recognize that dedicating the next few months to investigating what hunter biden did or didn't do in ukraine years ago is not ultimately a good use of our time. >> i want to ask you about joe biden because he's fallen behind, clearly, did not do well

in iowa, reports that he has been trying to, you know, retool the campaign, was off the campaign trial, there are only five days left in new hampshire yesterday and he was in delaware doing debate prep which he could have done in a hotel room in new hampshire. he's the only candidate who completely disappeared from the trail and he's the one who arguably needed, you know, to have a boost before tonight -- before tonight's debate and before tuesday's vote. is this a real crisis point for the biden candidacy? >> let's be real, whether he's spending today doing debate prep, tonight is an important -- a critical debate. i'll be there with him and the debate is a central moment for joe to remind people what they already know about him. he's been up in new hampshire many times over many years.

folks know him. they know senators sanders and warren who represented adjacent states. joe was in a town hall the other night that reminded them of his experience and ability. the reason he continues over many, many months to have been the leading democrat to take on donald trump is folks know his values and they know his approach. given everything your panel was just talking about, about how president trump is carrying out retribution against anyone who stood up to him in this impeachment trial, do we not know that the heart of joe biden is the heart of a servant leader, someone who's combination of experience and compassion would make us proud to have him as our next president. it will be a vigorous contest. after the mess that was the iowa caucuses, i think we should be focusing on new hampshire,

nevada, and south carolina to get a sense of what truly representative primaries will look like as we head into super tuesday. i remain optimistic that joe has a great campaign, has a great background and has a really strong connection with the people of this country that will make him our nominee this fall. >> senator mike bloomberg is in virginia getting the endorsement of the former navy secretary, the first trump appointee who is endorsing not only a democrat in this race in the democratic primary race, but mike bloomberg. and mike bloomberg is just all over the air waves with his commercials and rising in the polls. in one poll, up to 15%. is he -- i don't want to -- i don't know how to quite phrase it. waiting for biden to fail? really to go in of course big time on super tuesday?

is mike bloomberg the real threat now to joe biden? >> mayor bloomberg who has, you know, is a billionaire from new york who's been very successful in business is pouring resources into super tuesday states. we've seen this same strategy from tom steyer, a billionaire from california, who spent enough money, tens of millions of dollars to buy his way onto the debate stage. but then ultimately did not perform well in iowa even though as i drove across the state last weekend, you can see tom steyer billboards and signage almost everywhere. mayor bloomberg will have a strong presence in super tuesday states. joe biden is also someone who have have a strong presence. the american people know him -- >> will he have an enough money to continue -- is the -- >> that's why i'm still optimistic -- >> sorry. i didn't mean to --

>> it's a fact -- >> will he have enough money to be a strong presence in super tuesday? >> he will. he'll be competitive. of course, anyone who is going to put a billion dollars of their own money into a campaign is going to be a contender. i think at the end of the day the american people look at that and they discount the fact that you're buying your way onto my phone, television, onto a billboard down the street from me and they're going to look hard. they're going to look at joe, mike, and look at their character and experience and background and they have one question, who can beat donald trump? if you look at the numbers coming out of iowa, bernie sanders, senator sanders had four years from 2016 to 2020 to organize and get prepared. he got 50% of the vote four years ago. he got about 25% of the vote this year. that suggests to me that his model, his idea which is if you choose my vision, an aggressive

vision, a political revolution, if you will, you will really bring out the base, you will get out a remarkable turnout, the turnout in iowa was actually significantly lower than four years ago and bernie got half of what he got four years ago. i don't see that his message is inspiring more people to come out. we'll see. he may do well in new hampshire because he represents an adjacent state and is popular in vermont as well as new hampshire. after that comes nevada, the first diverse state to have a competition and then south carolina. i think, andrea, we should wait until the first four contests are over to reach a conclusion about this first phase of the presidential campaign. >> senator coons, thank you. >> thanks, andrea. >> safe travels. the latest from new hampshire with just four days to

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with election results in iowa clear as mud, 2020 democrats have their eyes on the next prize, new hampshire. just four days from now. mayor pete buttigieg continues to surge there. he's now in a dead heat with

bernie sanders who this morning came out swinging at buttigieg, accusing him of being the candidate of billionaires based on newspaper columns. >> pete buttigieg has most exclusive billionaire donors of any democrat. that was from forbes. pete buttigieg takes lead as big business candidate in 2020 field. i like pete buttigieg. a nice guy. but we are in a moment where billionaires control not only our economy but our political. >> tonight seven democrats are going to face off in a debate from manchester. joining me now is mike memoli and vaughn hillyard. this will be the first time we'll see joe biden in 48 hours, critical hours that he was retooling his campaign, and the front-runners are clearly sanders and buttigieg. >> reporter: yeah, andrea. i think what stands out to me is

the same thing that you laid out very well there and spoke to senator coons about is that one of the most precious commodities is the candidate's time. he spent 48 hours not just off the campaign trail, but out of the state entirely. but that is really a measure of how much the campaign does see this as a pivotal moment for him. he needs to perform well. in addition to being aired nationally, it's an important opportunity for him to show voters here that he is the candidate. and, andrea, which one will see, will we see the fighter taking shots at mayor pete and senator sanders or the more empathetic candidate we saw the other night talking about his stutter. >> vaughn, what about sanders going after buttigieg as the candidate of the billionaires. you've got two billionaires in

the race and he's going after buttigieg of being the recipient of wall street money. >> reporter: it's not after joe biden, it is after pete buttigieg and i'm going to jump off of what you were talking about when it came to the interview you just conducted there, senator coons, i don't know if he made one mention of pete buttigieg. he made a mention that perhaps he won't perform as well in new hampshire because this is senator sanders' backyard. if you look in iowa, pete buttigieg also won in dubuque county. i wrote a story four years ago about how dubuque would be the soul of joe biden presidency and yet it was pete buttigieg who won dubuque just this week. when you're looking at joe biden right now, the fact is, that pete buttigieg is the target of bernie sanders and you should expect to see that more of today. meanwhile, the south bend mayor is going to continue to press that message that joe biden

wishes he could be the one delivers. that is bringing over independents and bringing over republicans in an ability to win in new hampshire where donald trump won by just less than 3,000 votes four years ago, andrea. >> vaughn hillyard, mike memoli, thank you. joining me now jennifer palmieri and chris lu senior white house aide to president obama. you both know new hampshire well. the pluses and minuses of new hampshire, bernie sanders just swamped hillary clinton in new hampshire and it was not a fair fight. she ended up succeeding -- >> i'm having a little ptsd. i'm here again. you got to love bernie sanders saying i like pete buttigieg as he's reading the hit from a piece of paper against him. it's getting a little chippy in

new hampshire. it's starting to feel like new hampshire and the candidates engaging. but everybody is focused on pete and bernie and biden, but i wouldn't forget about elizabeth warren. in most of these polls, she's the one in third place and i've been going to a lot of her -- covering a lot of her events and, you know, i think that she's someone that you could connect here and amy klobuchar is rising as well. i know for the former vice president, you know, he's clearly in a tough spot. iowa is a tough, new hampshire is going to be tough. but the thing -- the truth remains that i don't actually see an heir apparent for another candidate to be able to get a lot of african-american support. until we hit nevada, south carolina, even though things do look rough for biden, it's sort of hard to know where this ultimately is going. but i would also look for warren and klobuchar to have the chance to do well in new hampshire too.

>> and, you know, it's a fascinating new hampshire primary. you've got so many candidates. it's volatile, independents can walk in and ask for a ballot on either side and a lot of mischief can also be made. >> i'm having a little ptsd from 2008. the weekend before the new hampshire primary, there was a poll showing that obama was up by 13 points. >> and there was a moment in the diner when she teared up -- >> and also that moment at the debate when he said to her, i think you're likable enough, hilary. there's no real republican primary. you don't know what the independent voter is going to look like. you have intervening events like tonight's debate and you have two senators from neighboring states creates a complication. i'm not sure we're going to see a great amount of clarity. and then we're going to be talking about nevada. >> how important is the donor

issue for biden. chris says he's got strength in nevada, strength in south carolina. but he's running on empty, practically? >> it's rough. he's not in a good situation and he's going to have to gut it out here and get through to south carolina and make his stand there. but, you know, i have sympathy for them. i've been in the situation before. it's not an easy -- it's really hard when you lose in iowa, come in rough in new hampshire, even though when people are prepared for it, it always feels worse in the moment. but even with all of the -- those truths and the fact remains, i'm not sure -- no one else has laid claim to -- proven an ability to diversify their vote. senator sanders does well with young hispanics, that's a -- that's something that is true about his base of support. nevada could be a new -- hilary won nevada in 2016. he could do better there this time around.

but, you know, still the vice president remains the person who's best positioned to do well in those -- in the states where it gets more diverse and more representative of the country and much more representative of the democratic party. until you get there, you can't really make a good judgment on his campaign. >> we'll be heading to new hampshire this weekend. see you up there, thanks so much. coming up, it's the president's party. after donald trump's impeachment win in the senate, he's ready to remake the republican party in his image. actually already is. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. a mitchell reports" on msnbc. break out the butter lobsterfest is on at red lobster if you've been dreaming about tender wild-caught lobster, dig in to butter-poached, fire-roasted and shrimp & lobster linguini. see? dreams do come true. or if you like a taste of new england without leaving home, try lobster, sautéed with crab, jumbo shrimp and more,

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president trump and his allies are targeting senator mitt romney after his impeachment vote to convict and remove the president from office. the president at yesterday's event questioned romney's faith and today vice president mike pence was asked about that. >> i don't question his faith. i just question his judgment. we couldn't be more grateful for

all the members of the house and the senate who not only stood by president trump but stood by the presidency. the good news is, it's over, america. >> joining me now bill kristol, and from "the washington post," anne gearan and eugene scott. that was a unique response from mike pence. he's not questioning mitt romney's faith, his judgment. that's a politically correct comment especially after the tirade from the president yesterday. >> clearly it's calculated to do a couple of smart political things, change the subject from the tirade for those who didn't care for it, look ahead. it's over, america. we're moving on. we're doing our job. and to give us sort of a grace note to mitt romney saying that, you know, look, i'm not

questioning his motivates is wh he's saying there which is something that many moderate republicans and many people of faith of all parties will welcome hearing. i think that was something that pence had clearly thought through, how he was going to respond to it. and it was delivered with less pence equivocation than we sometimes hear. we knew what he was going to say and he said it. >> and you wrote about this, about the way the president was challenging romney's faith. it was a warning to others that even if you're following, you know, your beliefs, there is retribution from this president. >> absolutely. and this is not the first time the president has done this. he questions or has issue with or doesn't like as he says the faith of mitt romney, the faith of nancy pelosi. he doesn't like the faith of anyone who pushes back against trumpism. for him, the only faith that matters is a deeply held religious conviction that allows you to affirm his politics and his world view and actions. and i think that is something

that he's increasingly sensitive about in these weeks or months following this christianity today op-ed and attention from some he might be receiving from the evangelical and catholic community who are stepping back and saying is this what our faith featurteaches us to back. >> i wish more people were questioning among his supporters. they sat there in the white house listening to him impugn mitt romney, cheering, applauding. and did they get a reporter to call and distance themselves or herself or put out a statement saying, look, i support the president, but i don't approve of these attacks on mitt romney. would that be so hard to do? apparently it is. they're so intimidated. it is astonishing.

it's on a whole different level from the normal, i don't want to take on the president unnecessarily. >> especially considering the number of things that were said about romney that weren't true. the president said romney has never talking about his faith before today. the idea that mitt romney has never talked about his faith before tuesday is on absurd to anyone with a 4-year-old idea of politics. >> this is the man who was the presidential nominee, those people in the room know him, know him well, he was the governor, the nominee, he's a colleague of many of them now. the cabinet members know him now. it's a human matter, you would think they would say that's ta bridge too far. i'm sorry the president said that. it's not fair. but they couldn't even say that. it shows how utterly trump and trumpism has taken over the republican party and the conservative movement. what you say about some of the evangelical leaders and other leaders who aren't in office, where were they? >> they all see impeachment as a

political victory, a pivot point. mitch mcconnell was quoted by saying that in each of the vulnerable races he's tracking, it's made the republican candidate stronger. >> i want to read something from the editor of america the catholic newspaper. the president's speech at the national prayer breakfast was disgusting. self-serving, mean-spirited and targeting his enemies. it was the opposite of prayer. at the heart of the believer's relationship with god is a profound humility before the lord. he goes on. and at the heart of the christian's relationship with jesus christ is a reverence for his teachings including love your enemies. and the last place one should flaunt one's vanity is in the setting of prayer. it goes on. it's worth reading. thank you all. thanks for writing about this.

important to have all of you here today. the senate report, are we better equipped in this year's presidential contest? perhaps not. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. can startg wherever you are - even on the bus. download now and get your first stock on us. robinhood. othroughout the country for the past twelve years, mr. michael bloomberg is here. vo: leadership in action. mayor bloomberg and president obama worked together in the fight for gun safety laws, to improve education, and to develop innovative ways to help teens gain the skills needed to find good jobs. obama: at a time when washington is divided in old ideological battles he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. bloomberg: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

the senate intelligence

committee releasing a bipartisan report criticizing the obama administration's response to the initial reports of russian hacking in 2016. while recommending that the president of the united states should take steps to separate himself or herself from political considerations when handling issues related to foreign influence. that issue, of course, central to the first article of impeachment, abuse of power involving ukraine. richard burr also says that the obama administration was frozen by paralysis of analysis. obama officials debated courses of action without actually taking one. joining me now an msnbc security analysis and justice analyst. let's talk about the senate report, first of all. one of the obama administration's rebuttals has been as we were afraid of it

being we were putting our thumb on the scale for hillary clinton as well as mitch mcconnell pushing back into anymore public denunciation of russia. >> i think they were in a difficult position. i think they were trying to do the right thing. they wanted to push back forcefully and i think you can in good faith criticize them for not doing more. but i think the concern they had which is a real one, if you had a republican party that was united and not being willing to call out foreign interference and it's not just mitch mcconnell, look at donald trump, had been welcoming foreign interference. when you have a republican party doing that, anything that president obama said would be instantly seen as political and wouldn't be treated with credibility. i think in hindsight, they probably all wish they would have done more, but i think the real problem is, we in 2016 and still today are in a country where only one party is really willing to confront foreign interference and the republican party wasn't willing to confront it then and not willing to confront it now. >> at the same time you have the president -- it's the fbi who

has got to be on the lookout for foreign interference and this is what the president had to say about -- yesterday about the fbi in his denunciation of his perceived enemies. >> these are the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people i've ever seen. they said mrs. struck, hilary should win. if i didn't fire james comey, we would have never found this stuff. when i fired that sleaze bag, all hell broke out. they were ratting on each other, they were running for the hills. >> the way he described the fbi, how does that affect the bureau? >> it makes it very difficult for them to have legitimacy in terms of any source of investigations. imagine if you're in a very trump-loyal part of the country, you're trying to run a case of any type, it's difficult to get people to testify -- >> and foreign cooperation.

>> foreign cooperation. it's overwhelming, the fbi still to this day, even with this new policy in place about the department of justice authorizing this investigation, but just the fbi in general, when would they get started on foreign influence in the election? what is their mandate? how would they contact any of these political campaigns at this point and -- for those political campaigns to think, okay, this is a legitimate concern, yet i've seen the president say, don't trust the fbi. i've seen the president if i get information from a foreign country, i might not take it to the fbi, i might keep it. that's very contradictory. >> it was striking to see the attorney bill barr as part of the cheering section at that campaign rally in the east room, there's no other way to describe it. yet he's issued this judgment that -- going forward there will be no investigation of candidates that is not approved by him.

in a perfect world, that would seem rational that you should at the highest level approve any kind of potential explosive investigation. but knowing bill barr -- >> i think that's right. i think the policy on paper is an appropriate one. the fbi has its own biases both political and institutional, but other agents have had at times. and there should be supervision at the highest level, presumably the attorney general works for an administration that can be voted out of office. and it comes back to the biases he's shown in running the justice department, he's killed investigations into the president, not allowing an investigation into ukraine to go forward, he's spun the results of the mueller investigation and he's launched investigations into the president's political opponents and it's not just the durham probe but it's also a leak investigation that's been started on jim comey that looks like very flimsy evidence and of

course the fact that andy mccabe someone the president has called for to be charged for years is still not out from under the gun. you can't trust bill barr to run this policy in a fair way. >> disturbing, obviously, very disturbing to anyone looking for equal justice under the law. matt miller, clint watts, thank you very much. coming up, a made for tv state of the union, an acquittal, a long speech, how history may remember this whirlwind week. lwind week only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. lwind week con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ as parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. (vo) why the aceves family chose verizon. we all use our phones very differently. these two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime.

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feel that fleet feeling. in sharp contrast to president clinton's expression of remorgs after his impeachment 20 years ago, president trump was out for revenge in a blistering at times profane attack on his opponents to celebrate his acquittal. now going after national security council lieutenant colonel vindman. . joining us, steve inskeep.

we'll talk about your book in a moment. it was one of the first instances of a celebrity couple creating a political career out of what they had done through their own popularity. a lesson to be learned for today as well from history. let's talk about the president's response and now going after vindman. pelosi was asked about it coming off the floor and said that was really a shame, that she thought he was a patriot and she would be looking into it but there would be little they could do about a pentagon and military man being transferred back to the pentagon from the white house. >> we're not terribly surprised by this given that the entire impeachment drama has included personnel moves that people would disagree with. one of the things that happened in ukraine was yovanovitch, the u.s. ambassador was removed and although there are some

indications people privately defended her within the administration, she was not publicly defended in any way, and as we know has resigned from the foreign service even though she had an opportunity to get another ambassadorship, perhaps later. it's not too surprising that vindman would be asked to go. it doesn't mean he's out of work. it means he would be tfrransferd somewhere else in the defense department. it is remarkable that the president and the president's spokesperson has said directly, publicly, should there not be retribution here? it's not unusual for people to seek political retribution. it's amazing to openly say that's what you're doing. >> against his twin brother as well. he has an identical twin brother also working in the nce. we don't know what's going to happen to him, but there's been suggestions from the president himself he might also be taken out. >> well, there were a lot of

people who testified in ways that the president would find negative. and i want to be clear these are people who were public servants who felt they were telling the truth. william taylor just to give an example, the man the charged affairs, the acting ambassador in ukraine after yovanovitch, as now been removed because his presence was inconvenient, but this is a guy who although he spoke critically of what the president did, testified critically of what the president did, was in ukraine to enact the president's policies and to serve the united states. >> now, in your book imperfect union, you write about the mapping of the west, and you write about political demagoguery and racism. all kinds of issues that seem awfully prescient when you talk of the 2020 race. >> exactly. it's a kind of earlier version of the story we're living now which is what draws me to history. it's a story of a man and a woman, a married couple, john charles freemont was a western

explorer in america's west ward expansion to the pacific. he didn't discover much that was new but came home to washington and wrote best-selling books about his adventures with the aid of his wife, jessie benton freemont. it's a story of exploration and adventure, but also generating fame because in making the west more famous, they also made themselves more famous, and yeah, freemont's name ended up on everything. there's a street in las vegas and there are mountains named after freemont. imagine a guy running for president because he's famous and seems like a hero and knows how to get publicity on many things, imagine that happening in america. >> imagine that. that's why we love you and your histories and you as co-host of morning edition. thank you so much. thank you for taking time for us. >> glad to do it any time.

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thank you for being with us. we'll be in new hampshire next week. this weekend, next week, monday and tuesday bringing you all the best reporting from the new hampshire primary campaign. follow us online on facebook and twitter at mitchel reports. we'll see you monday and tuesday

on the road. here's chris jabsing. >> we've been to many of new hampshires. do you remember it being quite like this before? i mean, it's crazy what's going on. and the news just keeps turning out. >> well, actually, 1992 was pretty crazy if you remember. >> i'll give you that. >> if you remember what happened to bill clinton, but it's amazing and here we go again. >> thank you, andrea mitchel. i'll see you in new hampshire. i'm chris jansing. tonight the most consequential debate for the democrats yet. all seven presidential candidates, and as a stunning new boston globe tracking poll shows just how much this race is changing. bernie sanders, pete buttigieg in a virtual dead heat in new hampshire. just as they were in iowa. but for joe biden and elizabeth warren, a slide. and if they're going to reverse it, tonight's debate may be their biggest opportunity. that debate comes against the backdrop of the democratic party