with amy walter.th of npr. hello to both of you. it is politics monday. we are six weeks away from the iowa caucuses. where does this democratic race stand? >> it feels like it is volatile and stable at the same time. the spring all the candidates were in the race at we now have. joe biden was ahead, bernie sanders in a close second. inme the s elizabeth warren was on the ascendancy, buttigieg came up and plateaued. we saw harris pop-up. looks like she would get close to taking a front runner mantle. close to christmas, bernie sanders at number two, joe biden although iowa and hampshire, sanders doing better than biden. buttigieg could win in iowa. things are as scrambled as they could be. to the other wilblards, michael mberg and his millions of dollars. nobody knows whato make of this. hilitical professionals are intrigued by we do not know what to make of it. amy klobuchar, trying to get into a lane somewhere for a ticket out. judy: what does it add up to? mara: there are still a lot of their mind.

with amy walter."ara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "nprst politics pod hello to both of you. >> hello. >> woodruff: it iay"politics mo and let me just say it for the third time, we are six weeks away today from the iowa caucuses. so here we are, amy, christmas is right around the corner. where does this democratic race stand? >> it seems incredibly volatile and stable at the s be time. we gk to the beginning of this year, but let's say this spring when all the candidates were in the race that we nowal have essen. joe biden was ahead, bernie sanders was in a close second plac we went though the summer, elizabeth warren was on the ascendancy, biden and sanderste stto drop, buttigieg came up, seemed to have plateaued, harris popped up at one point, looked like she was clo to taking a frontrunner mantle. we're close to christmat and ih bernie sanders at two, joe biden at number one. although, when we look at iowa and new hampshire, bernie sanders doing better than biden in those states. pete buttigie

polical news, amy walter ofk's the "cook political report" an host of public radio's "politics with amyter." and domenico montanaro. he's a senior political editor at npr. thanks so much for being here. amy, this is the democratic fiod, still in flux for months away from the iowa bus tours, there tv ads.having how wide open is this field >> well, you laid ut pretty well in your opening list, the fact that you have two candidates really focusing on their weaknesses this week. so joe biden is ahead in all the national polling and has had a pretty consistent lead for the entirety of the cmpaign. it narrowed since he first jumped in, but his big problem spot is iowa, the first state that kicks us off where he's somewhere send, maybe thi, but certainly behind pete buttigieg. pete buttigieg's problem, as he pointed out, is not with iowa where he could win and even do well inps new hre where he's moved up in the polls, his problehe the states come afterwards, states that have a more diverseanlectorate,y more african-american voters, many more voters of color where he still has not been able to

wit amy walter." keithf npr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." welcome to you both. good to see you. amy, i want to stttrt with you. ieg has been under pressure to release, as we just list from his time in mckenzie. mckenzie said you can release it. his campaign spokeswoman said they will be releasing the client list soon. is there something on trehehat could damage him? do voters care about this? >> well, we'll see what's on there and whether it matters, but it's pretty clear what's going on now. iowa, as judy pointed out, is two months away. pete buttigieg is now far andfr away thontrunner in iowa, that used to be elizabethe warren'sritory, she was seen over the summer as the candidate most likely to win ioa caucus, she needs to get back in contention and pete buttigieg is standing in her waso it makes perfect sense she's going to be spending time to kck him off his plies-place finish. it's also really clear that twe of them need iowa as a springeard. they areng not only have they both b

amy walter and tamara break down the politics of impeachment.hat india's new citizenship law means for the world's largest democracy. and much more. >> woodruff: climate talks in madrid ended yesterday with little agreement on addressing whatany say is the single greatest challenge facing humanity. william brangham has more onhy the talks failed to achieve nearly any of their stated goals. >> reporter: that's right, judy. these marathon talks ended with a small compromise and enormous disappointment. the annual gathering-- known as cop-- ended 14 days of talks where the ggest polluting nations were unwilling or unable to agree on stronger plans to curb their emissions, the very thingshat are dangerously warming this planet. they also postponed a decision on carbon markets, which are considered a key tool for trying to slow climate change. antonio gutteres, the secretary general of the united nations, yesterday expressed the feelings of many: >> we are not on track. the reality is stihingmping so coable with the commitments we hope will be made.

and that brings us to our olitics monday" duo: amy walter of "the cook political report" and public radth'slitics my walter." o and tamara keinpr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." hello to both of you.cs it's "polionday." so we are going to talk about about impeachment.rst let's talk tam, as we heard lisa desjardins reporting earlier, a number of moderate democrats are starting to annpeunceople whwere considered maybe on the fence, where for and against.st so far, mo of them say, the ones who've declared, they're going to vote for impeachment, but where does all thans and how much does it matter how many democrats. >> congressman van drew, apparently on his way out of the democratic party, is a pretty decent example of what happens when you're adom who deci you're opposed to impeachment at this moment, and his experience is simply that the democratic party of new jersey wasn't there for him anymore, and he ran into the arms of president trump, who has been tweeting nice things. about hi so the problem for moderate democrats if thevote against impeachment is that, you know, the

you see her regularly on the news hour and a host of the take away with amy walter like many of you i read a lot of political commentary she is always fair and doesn't follow the pack she digs into election related data the cofounder of echelon inside the most innovative and interesting of polling and intelligence firms as a pioneer in the digital world from 17 years ago stating a change how the republican party can adapt if you don't read the friday roundup of interesting stories you should sign up for it visiting fellow in senior election analyst for real clear politics has an mba just finished our masters in statistics and now for his phd in political science as a co-author of one of the additions of the almanac of politics that michael brown introduced to the world in 1971 with america's individual entry of the idiosyncrasies of the 535 people in congress is classified of the almanac before interviewing providing a rich detailed and goodhearted each of the panelists will speak for eight minutes i want to make sure we have time for all of your questions right now thank you for al

. >> woodruff: plus amy walter and mara keith are here to analyze the state of the democratic primaryn the last fullk

judy: amy walter and temer keit are here tinvestigate the state of the primary in the last ll

amy walter is the national editor for the coach political report, jeffrey goldberg is the editor in chiefthe atlantic, ben domenech is the publisher of the federalist and jamal simmons is strategy gist that f ll tv and also a cbs news political contributor. welcome to all of you. i don't know if you can hear the rain but we are going to pour down opinions right now. benly start with you theut 11 whais t defense o >> is it wrong or is it that he did something wrong but it is not impeachable? >> i think that some republicans are taking from column a and most republicans are tabling there column b. the response you heard from will herd just a couple of weeks ago after the hearings were winding supervisor one i have heard from a lot of republicans that say they are uncomfortable with what the president did but they don't believe it rises to the level of impeachment. one of the things i think is actually aided in the republicans in this has become more of a process story as it has gone along one where athletic go into different radicals and directions as opposed to plowing ahead with the argum

judy: and that brings us to amy walter and tamith from npr. welcome to you both and good to seyou. with you, mayor pete has been under pressure. an his campaign spokeswoman said they would be releasing the client list soon. is there something on there tham could damage amy w: it is pretty clet is going on. idea what is too much -- iowahss two moway. pete buttigieg is the front-runner there. elizabet warren needs to get back intont conn in the person standing in her way is pete buttigieg so it makes sense that she is spending timeto tryg knock him off his first-place finish. and they both need iowa as a springbod. they have both been front runners at different times and they are both expecting to use iowa to springboard them to a strong stand in new hampshire. that they think will help them go to nevada and south carolina, places where they are not polling as well because they are not doing quite well with voters of color. >> there is a battle between them so far and it strikes me thate are having it onhe democratic side at the same time that we have a president that has not release

i'm joined by our pbs newshour west anchor stephani next to her, amy walter of the cook political reportan lizza, chief washington correspondent for politico. and, laura barron-lopez, national politicaleporter at politico. ladies and gtlemen, i have a estion for you. with all of this news, how do any of these candidates stand out, get any attention tonht? stephanie, what could happen here that could get some voters' attention?ou >>now, i think a lot of voters are actually paying attention to these debates because a lot of them are undecided, so i think really for these candidates to stand out, it has to be about policy, and it has to be about personality. i mean, let's not kid ourselves, the first of the voting is less than two months away. there are still so many people voting for, so ink theey are candidates that really resonate are the ones that can connect on a deeper level. you know, i think they want to last week that showed mostar about the ate that can most beat president trump versus the candidate that they identify with policy-wise. so i know a lot of the democratic voters i sp

or do votaers, amy walter,nt this big vision and sort of lofty rhetoric? >> voters wt to understand the value system of the candidates. they aren't getting into the weeds on these issues in the way that these candidates do. they want to feel like those candidatesave thought through this. that they do understand the elements of the issue in front of them. but, really what they need to deliver-- and this is the challenge for candidates at thi st the processbut this sort of optimtic, forward-looking, a vision, a narrative, who we are as a country, who we can be as a country, and that the rest of the policies fit into that.h elizabrren has a very clear narrative. thrunderlying challenge in country, she says, is the corruption. it's the money tha ot fuer politics, that comes from big corporations and other wealthy individuals, that keep u in this cycle that we'ren right now. that's-- that's her bigger, broader narrative, that she has been making now since the verygi ing of the campaign. >> laura barron-lopez. >> and i think warren, also, has been very effective