this sunday all the in president'vestigations. michael cohen sentenced to prison, and implicating president trump in illegal tabloid hush money payoffs. >> he directed me to me payments and to become involved in these matters. >> i don't think and i have to check, i don't think they paid any money to that tabloid. >> this as new investigatis emerge involving donations to mr. trump's inaugural committee and to the trump invesgatioorgn. we have a "wall street journal" poll on th the president's honesty. >> plus, obamacare struck down. a texas judge rules for republicans that the individual mandate without a tax is unconstitutional and the law must go. >> big ruling. great ruling for our country. 'l

be able to get great health care. rats vow to appeal and the case appears headed to the supreme court. my guest this morning, senate minority leader chuck schumer of new york and roy blunt of missouri and democratic congressman adam schiff of telifornia. also, that wouse showdown over a government shutdown. it's trump versus pelosi and schumer. >> i will shut down the government, absolutely. >> we disagree. we disagree. >> i am proud to shut down the government for border security.s >> is preview of the battles to come?me join for insight and an ysis are "washington post" columnist eugene robinson, katy tur, host of msnbc live and david brody and eliana johnson. national political reporter for politico. welcome to sunday, it's ""meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running wilevision show in history, this

is "meet the press chuck todd. good sunday morning, as if we needed another reminder. this week illustrated how not normal the trump presidency has become. lawyeent trump's sentenced to prison. his chief of staff, second one, mind you is ou a are y a routine photo op was a taunting schoolyard smack down. look at the president's vestigations among the targets, the trump campaign, the trump transition team, the trumn inaugura committee, the trump family, the trump organization and the trump charitable foundation, trump associates and finally, president trump himself. essentially everything he's touched his adult life is under investigation. allf this may be taking a toll on the president. we have a poll out this morning on the russiaio investig 62% say president trump has not been honest and truthful. that's a growing number in our poll and across the board, democrats, independents and

republicans. 34% say he's been honest and truthful. 45% want to see the instigation continue. 34%, familiar number there would like to see it end. there are the entire law has to go. republicans have sought to kill the affordable care actin the pastisage but the ruling cos as obamacare is now more popular than eelr andd democrats flip 40 house seats in november. so looking ahead. multiple investigations, a new fight over health care, trade war with china, possible recession, and we haven't even mentioned the chances of a down at the end of this week. happy holidays, everyone. joining me now is the senate

democratic lead er chuck schumer of new york. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be back, chuck. al>> let's start with the care ruling. the assumption is there will be appeals. how do you appeal this law? do you appeal the specific argument about the mandate or the entire ruling or is it on severibility >> first, it's an awf ruling. it undoes prensisting condit it jeopardizes the tens of millions getting good health care in the exchange but goes way beyond that. it would knockout fundinfor treatment of opioids and raise drug prices and close the doughnut hole so seniors would pamore for drug prices and eliminate maternal care and women's health. it's an awful, awful ruling. we're going to fight this tooth and nail and the first thing we'rgoing to do when we get back there in the senate is urge, put a vote on the floor, urging an intervention in the case.

the judge, a lot of this depends on congressional intent and if a majority of the hous majority of the senate say that this case should be overturned, it will have a tremendous effect on the appeal. on the peel. urts.irst stop is the it's an awful, awful decision and puts a lot of our republicans in a box because they sort of were once -- you know, two faced on the one haf- they said they want to preserve preexisting conditions and preserve health care. o the other hand, donald trump and a large numb republicans brought this court suit, so there will be a good number of republicans that will really have to make a decision whether to join us in this intervention or face very severe consequences. >> are you open to finding a compromise with republicans? let's say yourrospects don't ok as good in the courts as you might think they do.wo do you try t with them to bring a penalty back on the mandate if that's what it takes?

do you work with them to figure out a plan that eliminates the hindate? where are you on >> well, legislation when it comes to health care as we have seen is very difficult and the president and a large number of republicans are actually for cutting back on health care. that's what they have done for two years. we have a divided house and senate.ts i think the coave to be the first and best way to go. >> let me ask you this about the courts, by the way. brian fallon, somebody that used to work for you tweeted the following. e he said the judge that r favor of gutting obamacare was confirmed by voice vote. mber that the next time democrats cut a deal with mcconnell and defend it by saying they were non-controversial nominees. this judge by the way confirmed in 2007 when democts were in control of the united states senate. do you regret the way you guys voice voted this judge? >> you never know how a judge will vote ten years later, but this was an awful, awful decision and it has to be

overturned. there is also, you know, an element, deal with this but forum shopping. the republicans chose this court and this bench because they ought they might get this way out of the main stream ruling from this judge whose done i >> you brushed off this judge issue very quickly. look, that was part a deal. you were part of cutting back in '07. was that a bad d wl? >> no, the no deal i don't think on this judge. he was a nominee to the district court.ug no one b up anything, no one knew how he would rule in the future and, you know, it's an awful ruling. let's ke no mistake about it. >> some progresses and senators in your caucus are going to sago okay, here wgain with the affordable care about and it was a flawed enterprise anyway. here is what adam green, founder of progressive change campaign writes. he says democrats need to put a bright north s the sky for 2020 voters to make clear that

we're moving toward medicare for all as a big part of a 2020 electoral strategy. it seems pretty clear the presidential nominee, whoever it is will support medicare for all. do y democrats to push this? >> look, democrats are for universal access to health care, from one end of the party to the other. we want more people covered, everyone covered. we want better health care at a lower cost. people have different views as to how to get there. many are for medicare for all. some are for medicare buy in and some are over 55, some are medicaid buy in, some are public option. we have to do a lomore on health care. a it will ajor issue in 2020 and i believe democrats will get the best health care for the most people. >> where are you? do you think you should spend more time fixing the affordable care act or launching a new proposal? >> we have to undo the decision. we have a republican president and senate. they spent a lot of sabotaging health care. that's the first job. ceter that, democrats, as we did in 2018 rather sfully will make health care a major,

probably the major issue in the upcoming campaigns and as we acn in congreswe're going to force the republican colleagues now that this decision has sort of lifd up their hypocrisy to choose a side. are you for the american people, working people for more and better health care or are you going to continue to cut it? me with trump. same with president trump. >> i know you're careful putreng your view ow that you're the leader of the senate conference there, are you goingm to suppoicare for all, senator schumer? >> look, as i said, there are lots of different roots. i'll support the plan that passesnd the cheapest health care for all americans. >> i want to move onto the issto that may lea government shutdown, it's immigration.

i want to play something you said in 2009 on the senate floor. take a listen. >> people who enter the united n ates without our permiss are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people that enter the u.s. legally. >> i apologize, you said tha georgetown. >> some people at georgetown would think it's better to say it there. >> that is so true. senator schumer, do you still believe in that principle? >> of course. no democrat believes there is no difference between legal and illegal immigration. we democrats were for a path to citizen ship, however, not amnesty, a very difficult path to citizen ship. in 2013, every single democrat

voted for it. a bunch of republicans led by john mccain voted for it and it was thwarted in the house. we want to create a path to citizen ship for those illegally but we don't think they are the same. >> is there any way you budget all on your number on boarder security on the 1.6? we know you don't want to give them the five. is there anyiddle ground that you would be willing to inch over to that you think could get 60 votes in the senate? >> president trump should rstand there are not the votes for the wall in the house or the senate, he is not going to get the wall in any form. even the house, which is mat rity republican, they do have the votes for his $5 billion wall plan. in fact, ryan, afraid of what's going to happen sent all the house home until wednesday night, a day and a halor two days bthe shut down and they certainly don't have the d they certainly don't have the s votes in tate. now, we democrats, leader pelosi and i offered the president two options aso how to avoid the shutdown and we should not let a

temper tantrum, threats push us in the direction of doing something that everybody even our republicans colleagues know is wrong. leader mcconnell said we shouldn't shut down the government. chairman shelby said we shouldn't shut down the government. >> i understand that. >> and they should join us in one of these two propels, which would get more than enough votes nd avoid a shutdown. if the president wants to debate the wall next year, he can. he shouldn't use innocent workers as hostage for his temper tantrum to sort of throw a bone to hibase. >> what you're saying is there is no wiggle room here. it's those two options or that's it. >> those two options are the kinds of things republicans supported in the past and when you talk t publicly, a c.r. is much preferable to a shutdown. they have to have the guts to tell president trump he's off on the deep end here and all he's going tantrum is a shutdown. he'll not get a wall. >> before i go, i want to ask

you about the prospects of impeachment. we learned the president directed michael cohen to co felonies. at what point do you believe thy house democrat are on the house judiciary committee in 1998.y you're vmiliar with this.po at what are house democrats obligated? nobody says that means you vote for impeachment but are they obligated to start one? >> i'll give you my vi. we should make sure that mr. mueller is unimpeded, that he i finishes hestigation and

we should make sure that that report is public and then make a decision on the totality. as you know, impeachment has a lot of different ramifications. we certainly think no president is abo it's wise to wait for the report, more and more people are believing in mueller. fewer and fewer people as your survey showed believe the president. let's get the report and let's ndad it. let it go publichen let us decide. >> is it an asset or liability to have the first name of senator ifou run for president02 in >> we have a lot of senators running and not good senators running. let 1,000 flowers bloom. let everyone run and see the best. hodemocrats will be guidedan best beat trump because he's such a danger to the nation, to the middle class, to the workin

close peopleerica. i think at the end of the day, there will be more unity than people think. >> sounds like you think electability shoulrebe first and st. >> the voters will believe that. >> fair enough. senator schumer, thanks for your time. >> chuck, good to see you. can i make a plug? go giants. go giants. >> oka as you fight for your non-play-off spot. >> ou never know, you never know. >> okay. i'll have to check that math. fair enough. joining me now from the other si of the isle is republican senator roy blunt of missouri who sits on the intelligence committee. welcome back to "meet the press", sir. >> good to be with you. >> let me start with something senator schumer said he would ask the united states senate to do, to ask for a sense of the senate and the house on this lawsuit that says it to be congress needs to intervene with this lawsuit and stop it. would you support that? >> what he was saying is the congress should tell the circuit court what to do. i can't recall a similar time anything like that happened and he said on health care hard to get anything done when you ask him what kind of legislative things we want to do on health care. that's clearly not going to happent that's not w ought to be doing this week, and senator schumer knows it. >> didn't this federal judge act like a legislator and he decided on his own what the law is g ng he said well, i've decided that congress said this is a zero tax, i've decided it's no longer

a tax. that's the definition of a judge writing legislation.t >> that doesan that legislators can act like judges just because -- >> so you acknowledge, the judgy probver stepped his bounds here? >> i think the thing to remember abouthe judge's ruling is it has to immediate impact. nothing changes yesterday. nothing changes tomorrow. this will have to go through a circuit court process. who knows if the circuit court would uphold it or not. that will either be quickly dismissed, whi is one option or a long period of time before the circuit court deals with it. this will be another area where this health care will be used as a political issue way beyond the ramifications of one district judge making a ruling that has immediate impact.

>> well, let me tell you what the president said. the president said, this was great news for america. that was his point. do you agree with him? >> i think it's basically for america, it means we'll continue to debate this health care clearly matters to people. some of -- what we had with obamacare, as you've called it today was a poorly thought out plan, really poorly implemented to start with thatad lots of negative impact lots of families who have insurance thed don't ith deductibles they can't afford. >> if that is true, why have you eailed to have an alternative? you've had eight. >> we had lots of alternatives

when obamacare passed. letting people up to age 26 stay on their parents' insurance was a bill i filed. as far as i know, it's the only republican proposal that was filed during that process and an it was four pages and probably insured more people than any other single part of the affordable care act did. there were lots of ideas but the other side didn't want to listen to those ideas. >> your party can't unite on any idea, though. if youad one, wouldn't you have more leverage at the table? >> i wouldn't say we couldn't unite on any idea, but this is a lovery difficult issue andly divided senate. 49 senators including me voted to do something last year that couple republican senators couldn't agree with. trying to get -- thihy the committee process matters. the one thing i think we would be able to unite on is medicare for all would wind uing medicare for none. if democrats want to take that view to the american people and seniors, particularly people covered by medicare understand the ramifications of that, there is no way that will happen and no way voters willet it happen >> was this lawsuit necessary? >> you know, i'm not in the job of questioning what state attorney generals decide they o want. >> you have a future colleague n

he senate, josh holly who filed this lawsuit. it was probably the biggest political negative he faced, the health carissue. he had to do a lot of answering of chargesdsn that. in hht, was this a mistake? >> he won the election. if anything had impa on voters, i don't know. i do know the court case -- >> you don't seem enthusiastic about the lawsuit. you do seem,ou know, take it or leave i >> you have to -- when you challenge something like the fo able care about, an attorney general in texas doesn't have the obligation to come up with what the alternatives are. josh holly and i have a different obligation than the attorney generals and we continue to look for more options, more chois, more access to insurance that really meets people's needs, things a like tociated health plans that allow people in small businesses to ban together.

that's going to have a real impact on people that can get out of the individual market, which is always more expensive and more difficult to navigate than insurance at work. a lot more people will have insurance at work because of the associated health plans that the administration put ohere and they are already beginning to work. >> are you at a point, though, the expectation now is the vefordable care act is the new baseline and whayou do, you can't eliminate any benefit that that already has? >> i think you can create more options. i think for the dividual marketplace for any foreseeable future, the affordable care act is going to be there. it's going to have the boundaries of the affordable care act but that's not served individuals for familier as well as ohings. we have a real opportunity here to look at this democrat congress, republican senate, topublican president tryin find solutions to some of these problems that have now been around for at least six years. >> if it temporarily halted this twsuit, would you support putting a one ce, if you will, on the mandate in order to pass this? >> chuck, i think the tax was always a stretch. the obama administration said it's not a tax, it's not a tax until the way the court would uphold it, maybe it is a tax and t the court upheld it on t basis coming up with a one cent

gimmick wouldn't have appeal to me. >> you were the head of the inaugural committee as far as congress is concerned not to sa' part of the actual campaign aspect of raising money but there is this investigation and the amount of money that was raised, let me put what the head of bush's inauguracommittee in 2005 said about trump's he committee,had a third of the staff and a quarter of the s evnd raised twice as much as we did so there is the obvious question, where did it go? i don't know. s

look, what y in your role as head of the inauguration, did you say boy, how come they don't have that many events with the amount of mone mthey raised? role was time consuming. it was a great opportunity. that part of the inauguration, what happens at the capital is under the control of the congress. the funding, congressional funding, taxpayer money and our government is never more vulnerable at any time than when you've got everybody outside i the middle of the winter on tons of plywood and lumber and there is a lot to think abou i would say the two or three times that i interacted with that committee, normal with tom barrick to make sure what happened at the capitol was up to us, not them. i have no idea what they did. during that particular period, my time was very consumed by being sure if we had tget everybody off that platform for some emergency, we oould get th there quickly. >> you voted for all four articles of impeachment for ll two that passed were lying to a

grand jury and obstruction of justice. do you regret those votes? >> not as much as i'm sure he regrs lying to the grand jur >> do you reet the impeachment process? >> you know, i looked at ken star's book. i think all of us looking back sh that would not want to to anything that has all of the ramifications that impeachment has. if i was given advice to my friends in the house, most of the chairmen i would have served with, my advice would be i legislate, donestigate if you want to be rewarded with the continued opportunity to be in control of the house of representatives. >> roy blunt, republican from missouri. ks for coming on. good to see you, sir. when we come back, the two big stories of the day, the trump investigations and future and politics of healthisare. the paneext. ♪ ♪

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welcome back. we he eugene robinson and nbc news correspondent katy tur and david brody, analyst. here is what donald trump, president trump tweeted out after the ruling, as i predicted all along, obamacare has been struck down as anti uncotional disaster. now congress must pass a strong law that provides great health care and protecting preexisting conditions. mitch a nancy, get it done. it's the visual of mcconnell and pelosi somehow rewriting the health care law with donald trump as president. what does that look like? >> i think that's a vision that nobody in this town can conjure right now and donald trump may be the only republican cheising decision, which is somewhat fascinating. looking at conservative legal scholars and conservatives at large, there is nobody who seems to be happy about this ruling and to think it's reasoning

makes much sense, which is really that you can't have a tax of zero dollars, which republicans in the house, they did away with the individual mandate by just saying the tax on it is zero dollars but bore october went into law, you heard conservatives say once you pass an entitlement, you can't take it away and the feeling several years in is that it's too hard to tak away because it's increased in popularity. >> sounds like republicans hope this gets toss. >> yeah, they are like rooting for the circuit court to throw it out like next week, right? they want this out of the way because as long as this is sort of pending and it does seem to be a weird and i'm not a lawyer, i can't call it ridiculous, reasoning, the decision but seems ridiculous to me. it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. i read commentary by scholars scratching their heads. but this is awful politically

for republicans because they got to stepup, right? and they are going to have to say if push comes to shove, we have to do something about prepre existi preexisting conditions because if they don't, they will get blown out. >> looking at the timeline how this would get appealed if it don't getoverturned, it has to go to the supreme court which would mean there is a pert whos talk about the timeline would be in 2020, which would make ate perfect political issue for democrats. so the idea that maybe this iso not to be a topic come 2020 in the nextn electios i think a bit of wishful thinking for republicans and democrats will use that. >> i'm old enough to remember when the 2012 supreme court decision was going to be the be all end all of that presidential election. >> here comes john roberts again potentially on obamacare. part two. to potentially save the democrats again.

i think that will b interesting to watch. look, i think it's an opportunity for potential reset here. look, obamacare was passed in terms of just a full partisan vote. so we know this. so here we are, for example, they do need to start from scratch if you will. it does give republicans and democrats a c dnce to it the right way or the way both parties said all along, it needs to be bipartisan. maybe this is a chance high in the sky but giveseplicans a reset. >> let me remind people, i'll put uptop issues, it was health care and it wasn't that close. was health care and immigration economy almost had to be combined to getver alth care. >> that's the context here. we have to step back and look at the context. our health care system is crazy. it is crazy. >> conas a ruwe have some of th medicine in the world and laser surgery and everything else but it is sti the case, even after

the affordable care about that catastrophic illness can bring financial ruin to a family. 'tthat we just d have the protectionand the access that the rest of the industrialized world has. >> let mere shift this comes, it was sort of like what e ye a going to put on washington disfunction? we had new investigation this week, katy adtur. we michael cohen now basically charged that e presiden directed him to commit crimes and the federal government backing him up o this. now you throw health care into this atmosphere but this atmosphere, as crazy as it is in the trump era, t's like we stepped it up a notch. >> lawmakers will tell youhey can walk and chew gum at the same time, in the past two years. >> they have to do the soft shoe. >> not a lot has gotten done even though congress has been controlled by republicans top to bottom. they certainly didn't get health care.

they didn't try even to broach infrastructure so when you throw in the house bng ledy democrats now and all the investigations that are going to popp with them, it's going to be difficult to get a lot done in these next two years. politically speaking, that might be a benefit in a backwards way to donald trump becau can go out and tell his voters, hey, listen, nothing iti g done because democrats are trying to obstruct at every corner andav he'll democrats that maybe will not be working with him but then again, he d run on being a deal maker. he ran on getting things done. , >> lo want to put up maybe we know why he had a hard time finding chief of staff. it's amazing four people went out of way to plicly pull themselves out of contention. no, no, no, i did not b want the full time chief of staff. all of them, which is som we know the president hates, the perception that nobody wants to work for him. he settles on nicknd what

happens, we find out immediately? nick once trashed president trump. let me show y this clip. >> yes, i'm supporting donald trump. m doing so as enthousiastically as i can but the choice on the other side is just as bad. ef that's his c of staff. >> i think mike pence may be the only person i washington that would say donald trump is a good person. certainly not the odd man out o that. i can't think of a time in washington where there has been so mh uncertainty. uncertainty when there wil sbe a governmetdown six days from now and what the trade wilicy is and whether ther be a trade war with china and certainty what the mull eller investigation is going to change and has an acting chi of staff. this is a president that probably needs a chief of staff more than any president in recent history but won't let somebody do t job and so we're really at sort of fascinating

juncti n politics, we a ca have no idea what the next six months to a year will bring. >> that's why we all want to have the acting titleshese d when it comes to washington. the acting panel will be coming back in a bite but when come back, the man that will be heading up the intelligence committee's investigation in the democratic controlled house. ♪ traders -- they're always looking for advantages. the smart ones look to fidelity to find them. we give you research and data-visualization tools to help identify potential opportunities. so, you can do it this way... or get everything you need to help capture investment ideas and make smarter trading decisions with fidelity for just $4.95 per online u.s. equity trade. fidelity. open an account today. ♪

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turnow to the investigations of the trump administration. we asked people whether they support democratroiding more oversight by opening up new investigations of president trump and his administration.

overall 55% said yes while 42% said no. take a look at the party break down. it won't surprise you it b was a margin of 88 to 10 that democrats said yes. among republicans it was flipped. 18% said yes while 81% were opposed. independen look like the mix of the two. joining me now is the man whod will l the house intelligence committee in the next congress. it's adam schiff of cafornia. let me start with an interview.e thline was adam schiff's plans to obt rate the red line. if mueller goes into my personal businesses before the campaign, that would be a red line. that isoo much. the implication being maybe he would fire him or something else what does that headline mean in

practice? that you are going to obliterate the red line. >> obliterat was not my choice of words. is there any entanglement that might influence u.s. policy against our national interest what we saw in the michael cohen revelation, some of the michael cohen revelations that the president while he was denying dealings with russia his business was pursuing in multimillion dollar deal in h moscow,ding it from the country. that is deeply compromising. the president has wanted to draw a red line and say you daent look at my business. if the business is trying t have favor with the kremlin, we can't ignore that. thotpresident should be in a position to say you can'trt investigate n things. that's what i mean. if mueller is not looking into this and i don't know whether he

is, someone needs to because otherwise we are being derlict with our security. >> what policies do you fear mighhave been influenced by financial dealings with the president? >> unquestionably the u.s. response to the russian hacking of our election has been influenced by something. whethert's been influenced by the president being concerned that his effort to build the trump tower deal would come out. the russians knew about it. they were on the other end of e transaction. whether that was the motivation or whetherhere is other motivation or whether it is donald trump reacting to the question that has been raised about his legitimacy because of ethe taint of election i don't know but we need to find out. a >> does saubia fit into that in your mind? ois that something you pl investigating? >> saudi arabia could fit into it if the saudis were funneling money into the iuguruation

committee or the saudi investment in the trump ss busi, buying hotel rooms, the deals that trump talked about dung the campaign that made him love the saudis so much, if that is warping u.s. policy or affecting the president's unwillingness to criticize the crownrince over the murder of khashoggi. some of this may be the purview of our committee or other committees. we will working to ensure we don't step on each other's toes. >> what do y believe the deutsche bank financial records will show yo why them? what will their records show. >> theeuoncern aboutche bank is they have a history of laundering russian money. they paid hundreds of millions of dollars of fines to the state of new york because they were laundering russian money. a tharently was the one bank that was willing to do business th the trump organization. now, is that a coincidence?

what do we mfe what the president's sons have reported of saying not having to deal th u.s. banks because they get all the cash they needed from russia? if this is a form of compromise it needs to be exposed. >> >> gina haspel has given a briefing. what you have learned, we heard bob corker essentially said if a jury heard what i heard the crown prince would be convicted in 30 minutes. is that a fair read of what you learned in your briefing? >> i don't think there is any question that the crown prince wasware and knowing and would have had to approve of an is. ation like so what concerns me is when i hear people like the secretary of state say things that they be literally true but are deeply

misleading. these are important issues as they affect the policy ounthe ed states. policy makers need to make decisionse on st intelligence. i think you saw that by that senators are convinced that the crown prince's role in this. >> shoulwe intervene in saudi politics and basically push the king to dump the crown prince? >> what we ought to do -- here where we need to rely on our intelligence agencies. we need to go through a menu of the responses here, everything from using sanctions against the crown prince to suspending arms sales to suspending any support of t war in yemen. what will theea saudiion be? if the crown prince were to fall who comes next? what does that mean? >> you are in a go slow approach. feeling is you use the best intelligence. you don't ignore it or discount it. youse it to guide your decision making.

and ere are still a need to have a relationship with the kingdom. you ought t be governed by the facts. >> the last time you were here you talked about looking at transcripts of people who gave interviews to the house intelligence committee. have you found instances that you think are questionable? have you referred it to mr. mueller? >> we have found testimony that we find deeply concerning and it would include mr. stone among that group >> roger stone, the one you congress. ied to >> i believe there is ample reason to be concerned about his truthfulness. i think that with respect to mr. stone and perhaps otrshat the special counsel is in a better position to determine the truth and that we ought to provide it to special counsel. >> do ye h a theory as to why michael flynn's lawyers are attacking the fbi? >> i do. there are several witnesses who are trying to have it both ways in some degree. you've gotanafort who was

clearly double dealing trying to get a cooperation agreement with the government a trying to get a pardon. papadopoulos pleads guilty, admi guilt, gets sentenced but seems to make a public case for a pardon. i thk to a lesser degree the same situation with flynn. is?you don't know what it >> the theory is they want to cooperate and get the investment from the government. >> thanks for coming on. >> thanks for coming on. when we come back, is it ♪ our mission is to make offshore wind one of the principal new sources of energy.

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of your gift giverha more you think. if the gift giver is a trump voter ere is a decent chance that present is something from nerf. what is the big gifenamong indepe? it's hot wheels. 42% of indies are buying the toy cars this year way more than republicans ormo ats. what would the holiday season be without barbie? only about a quarter of democrats and republicans are buying the iconic doll th year. when it comes to toys, there is one gift that nearly every group agrees on because they have red and blue bricks. legos. they all plan to buy legos this time of year. if your house is anything like mine these days we all knowhe older kids are hoping for some video gamestuffed in stockings this year.

the most popular games for democrats and republicans are call of duty and fortnite. republicans lean towards mlb the show. the holidays are special time of year for children. here is one more area where red and blue america agrees. majorities of republicans and nt ocrats said they toprovide their children with things they didn't get to have as a ild. m one of those. and majorities of both parties admit that they plan to indulge their children with the little extras, the ones they proebl don't need to be getting. there you have it, a note of happy political agreement in time for the holidays. the new year and the new congress will bring plenty to disagree about. when we come back, guess which democrat movedto i the top three in the latestpo l. coming up, end game and post game brought to you by boeing,

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ion ng, continuing our mi to connect, protect, explore and inspire. >> back now with end game. we have the first filedid prtial candidate this week from our big list of 34. what did we get overnight? the first des moines register poll told us who the top two tiers of democrats are. tier one biden at b32,nie sanders at 19. be beto. here is a noticeable second tier. harris at five. booker at 4. they tested a dozen other candidates that didn't get up to

three. what do you make of obviously the heaine is beto o'rourke in double digits. >> it tells you the extent tohe whicroke through into the national consciousness with that incredible run in texas. it shows he is going to be a oactor in this. he's someone thatntially democrats could fall in love with democrats fall in love and republicans fall in line. >> beto o'rourke had a town hall on friday. sounded like a presidential candidate to me. take a listen. >> i want us to be big and to be boldnd not to succumb to the smallness and pettiness and divisiveness that defines so much of the national conversation today. that is what were up against right now. it is more than just one person. sit is all of making this decision that we are going a live to our potential and to our

promise. >> everybody from ted cruz campaign has said donald trump better take the isguy seriously. >> because h is a really good messenger. there is a lot of folks -- joe biden, i guess on paper he would be pretty good in terms of getting back some of the blue collar democrats that trump had won. i that is interesting to watch. he is getting up there in age. be hnd that, he been known to be somewhat of a gaff chine. i think that is a problem. i think beto o'rourke -- the smart money is on him because of the messaging and put it all together. they need energy but at the same time kind of morphing into an optimistic messe. think if it is beto o'rourke and trump it is angerus ve optimism. anger comes with fear. a lot of folks vote when they are fearful. care. t health trump will play up on

immigration. >> what is it going to look like in 2008re democrats wanted to get inspired and have hope again ter eight years of president bush. they have be inspire, play itt safe or angry. >> chuck schumer once played it safe. he wants somebody who can win. >> he wants somebody that can stand up to donaldtrump. so far joe biden is proven to be somebody who can stand up to donald trump and who can get down in the gutter with him when need be but not get dirty in thw sa that donald trump has. >> when i look at the top four candidates i see c two wuld potentially eat into the trump base. i can tell you that folks on the trump campaign are worried about the caidates and those are joe biden and bernie sanders. the other two, elizabeth warren and beto o'rourke would have to really juice minority tuout. i think beto o'rourke one surprising thing while he did overperform democrats in texas, he did not overrform on

minority black turnout. oi think there are going be questioned raised about that if he moves forward. looking deep into our dive in our poll,oe biden and bernie sanders' favorable ratings are much better when you look at it than odemocrats. there is a bunch of independent men that really like bere and biden and nobody else. it's an interesting challenge for democrats. >> call it a gender gap, but i may be approaching tha so they are formidable figures. i wonder if this will be another bernie year or a biden year. i think they are loongor -- >> i wonder if it is another year for a white man. there are progressive liberal voters who will say not now when is it going to be?

they need to elect a woman or they need to nominate an african-american or some sort of minority in order to push the party forward? >> i think what donald trump does best is brand. my point is that beto o'rourke is a clean slate f dald trump. joe biden is not, bernie sanders is not. watch outbe for o'rourke. >> quite a panel. appreciate everybody on tv watching. we'll be back next week because if it'ay it's "meet the press." you can see more end game in post game on the "meet the press" twitter accnt.

president tsmp predi an incredible year ahead for our nation. but right now his credibility is being called to the carpet. in a new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. a weekend scare for "snl" cast member pete davidson's well-being after he tweeted that he didn't want to be on this eart'l anymore. have the latest. then car shoppers beware. can you spot the car that was to be from a flood only a ticking time bomb of corrosion? a double win day for one bears player who also got the answer he was looking for. and sir paul mccartney rocks out big-time ahead of his major u.s. tour. "early today" starts right no good morning. i'm marlie hall in for frances ri pra. >> and i