joining us once again is white house and washington reporter for "politico," daniel lippman.d to have you back with us. and let's talk about the fundraising numbers and what they indicate about where the race may be going. what may be the driving factor behind former mayor, we should say, as of yesterday, mayor pete buttigieg's fourth quarter boost, while senator warren, having that bit of a downturn? >> i know you looked at mayor pete, he has a number of obama bu bundlers from the last couple of campaigns for president who are supporting him this year. i get some of those emails because i'm friends with some of those people. i'm never going to give money to them, but it is interesting to see those networks that are growing for mayor pete. he is seen as someone who is pretty moderate, but also his policies are often very liberal, but he frames it in a way that is much more reasonable, compared to a bernie sanders, so it is hard to lampoon mayor pete as a socialist, because obviously he could win in a red state. although remember the last time that he tried to run statewide in

daniel lippman, thanks my friend, appreciated it. >> thanks, daniel. >>> we are following developing news at this hour. secretary of state mike pompeo wrapping up a news conference with ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky, this comes as ath at an interesting time. why is pompeo there now. that's the big question. we're going to go live to kiev with some answers right after this break. we'll be right back. r this break we'll be right back. ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) once-weekly ozempic® is helping many people with type 2 diabetes like james lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) ozempic® does not increase the risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke, or death. there's no increased risk. oh! and i only have to take it once a week. oh! ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) ozempic® should not be the first medicine

let's bring in daniel lippman, reporter at "politico." daniel, good morning to you. the president believe this at the time? or did he actually know that people had been injured? was he covering it up? this brings up so many questions. >> well, he's long had issues with the truth. and so one might think that he was saying things that were not correct here. but, actually, i think his explanation holds water, which is that he did not know. the reports of the injuries filtered to the pentagon a few days late. and so if trump said, today, hey, there were no injuries, then we can say, hey, this information is out there. why is he kind of covering it up? but i don't think that when he tweeted all is well that he knew about those injuries. >> do you think there's any military strategy here to try to minimize the damage or not acknowledge that iran had struck its intended targets? >> i think the strategy is to deescalate because president trump did not want another foreign war. he -- that was one of his big campaign promises. to get out of afghanistan. to not do more foreign

laird — an american politics commentator and economist and i'm alsojoined by politico reporter, daniel lippman. daniel, after the marathon hearings we saw last week, this was a relatively short affair. it was. it provided the opportunity for senators to go back home or stay in washington where there is a fancy dinner tonight but if you watch the couple of hours of the defence, this was heavily focused on poking holes in the democratic arguments and previewing what we will hear on monday where we are expected to hear lots of attacks on joe monday where we are expected to hear lots of attacks onjoe and hunter biden's work in ukraine and making the point that trump has done nothing wrong and this would overturn an election. interesting as well that attempt to stop to unpick the prosecution case. there was a wider message about the motivation of the democratic movement. the defence is not engaging with the facts here. the arguments we have heard today we have heard over and over and over. donald trump did release the aid for the ukraine so how could there have been quid pro quo? there are question

been speaking to laurie laird — an american politics commentator and to the politico reporter daniel lippman what the trump defence was trying to achieve in their opening arguments. if you watch the couple of hours of the defence, this was heavily focused on poking holes in the democratic arguments and also previewing what we will hear on monday where we are expected to hear lots of attacks on joe and hunter biden's work in the ukraine and making the point that trump has done nothing wrong and that this would overturn an election. interesting as well is that attempt to unpick the prosecution's case. there was a wider message about the motivation of the democratic movement. the defence is not engaging with the facts here. the arguments that we have heard today we have heard over and over and over. look, donald trump did release that aid for ukraine, so how could there have been a quid pro quo? there were questions about the whistle—blower who brought that phone call on july 25 to light. was the whistle—blower biased? the inspector general of the cia found there may be some biase, but the conc

for more on the impact this may have on donald trump, we can speak to daniel lippman who's a reportery, wejust danny, we just heard danny, wejust heard senator bernie sanders they are criticising president trump, will that criticism be popular? i think most americans know that sulla money was a terrorist, they have been designated a terrorist by the un security council, but they are concerned that president trump in the white house didn't properly calculate the amount of revenge iran might enact on us targets, and so, it's almost like a case of be careful for what you wish for, because the entire reason that we went after this guy was to stop attacks on americans, and so if we get more attacks, then it feels like it wouldn't have worked at. how other democratic contenders taking the subject on? well, joe biden and others, they have all said that you know, it's a good thing that soleimani is no longer with us, but if they have also raised concerns about how congress was not looped m, about how congress was not looped in, and even the senate and house leadership were not properly told t

daniel lippman. amy stoddard and joyce vance there in alabama. morning to you all. >> let's start with you on this one. before we look ahead because we have three major days ahead obviously as the president begins his defense and his team begins his defense. these three hours leading up to it. kind of the preamble. it seems as if they want to reserve the majority of their defense for monday and tuesday so they have more eyes on their defense. give me your take because this is the first time yyou're joini today on what you heard overnight from the democrats. >> i think the democratic closing argument, they were trying to basically guilt republican senators. saying we need to hear more evidence and if you are asking for what's new here, we're getting new stuff every day. why -- you know, you would go down in history as being just a defender of trump, if you vote against witnesses. you're seeing some softening among some of those moderate senators who we expected maybe to vote for witnesses. maybe they're getting pressure from the republican colleag