want to go, in terms of 2020, to hear their arguments, and to make a conclusion. >> all right, eugene scott, live in washington, d.c. for us, eugene, we will talk to you again in just a bit. >>> still ahead amid the fight over impeachment, democrats hand president trump a win on trade. what we know about the new deal to replace nafta. >> and former white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders apologizes for mocking joe biden during last night's debate. we will tell you exactly what happened there. those stories and a check of your weather when we come back. k you wouldn't do only half of your daily routine so why treat your mouth any differently? listerine® completes the job by preventing plaque, early gum disease, and killing up to 99.9% of germs. try listerine®. need stocking stuffers? try listerine® ready! tabs™. ♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪♪ need stocking stuffers? we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. >>> welcome back. the house of representatives passed the $1.4 trillion usmca deal yesterday signaling a victim for for president trump and house d

political reporter for "the washington post," eugene scott is here, who's been looking at the back andevangelical magazine's op-ed calling for the removal of president trump. hey, eugene, since that op-ed came out, you have nearly 200 other faith leaders sending a letter to the christian post, defending the president, praising the policies that they like that he's put into place, and it comes as you're talking to somebody else who's pretty prominent in this community, right? >> absolutely. and i think what the op-ed from christianity today revealed is that the president does not have a strong of a lock on the white evangelical vote as many people assume. he's won 80% of them in 2016 and has kept his approval with a group about that high, but there's also a strong percentage of evangelicals, somewhere between 5 and 10%, that are so dissatisfied, that they could vote against the president and the belief is that this op-ed has given them the courage to speak out. and so we see the trump campaign trying to push back against that because the belief is that they cannot afford to lose 5 to 10

eugene scott from "the washington post," and msnbc contributor and former rnc chairman michael steele. kay, first, let me delve into something about iowa that seems different this time, that is this desperation of the iowa democratic party to create a set of rules to appease national democrats and progressive democrats that this will be a much more open process, much more diverse process, and they've done so much with it, that it's possible we have two different winners on caucus night because they're going to track delegates and turnout. how confusing is all of this going to be? >> it may be very confusing. or there could be a really significant result if one of these candidates sort of sprints out ahead of the rest of the pack. there will be delegate decisions released first and then we'll see the raw vote totals. we'll see the raw vote totals from the first alignment where people go into parts of the room and support a candidate and a group. then we'll see this second raw vote total if there is a realignment on a second round of voting. so actually, to complicate things more, there

. >> eugene scott with "the washington post" for us. eugene, great to have you on the show. thank. thank all of you for watching this hour from msnbc live. live from sunny, cloudy, kind of west palm beach, florida. we'll be here all week long as i'm on assignment covering president trump's holiday visit to his mar-a-lago resort. that does it for us today. we'll see you right back here tomorrow. craig melvin, i know the weather here is a little bit nicer than where you are. 80 degrees on christmas. >> is that? wow. okay. there's a little envy there. miss jackson, good to see you. good to see you as well. craig melvin here. msnbc headquarters in new york cit city. >> fighting back. in the last 15 minutes, chuck schumer laying out what he wants the impeachment trial to look like. and in a new interview, mitch mcconnell says he is fine to slow down this process. also, a christmas threat from north korea. some exclusive new satellite photos that give us some clues about exactly what north korea may be up to in its weapons program. and about that evangelical magazine founded by reverend

joying me now is eugene scott. joel payne, is your head exploding?umbers are crazy. >> they are something else. what i will say is bloomberg is also spending on voter registration and things like that. bloomberg is betting that he can skip the early states. that is a bet that has never worked out before. and it is the kind of money, not with this kind of money, but i think what bloomberg is counting on also is the 24 primary states. and i think he is expecting to enter the democratic national convention with 5% or 10% of the vote. that is the strategy. >> let's put these numbers in per spective. bloomberg hasz doubled the combined spending. >> so far it appears that what it can't buy is significant support. he has convinced voters on the left that he is the best person. >> his staff sighs it is early but it is late in the grand scheme of things. many voters already know who they want to back moving forward, and anything -- even some of those who don't know, know they do not want to back michael bloomberg. so steyer and bloomberg are in two very diffe

. >> joining me from capitol hill nbc's jeff bennett and eugene scott, political reporter for the "washington jeff, mitch mcconnell has the votes, 51 votes most likely. we so far he thinks he's got 51 votes among the republicans. he's got 53 republicans to cut off those witness requests. >> reporter: yeah. well and chuck schumer apparently thinks he doesn't. that's why he's written this letter addressed and named to mitch mcconnell but you can bet he's addressing that letter that handful of moderate and potentially vulnerable senate republicans including lisa murkowski and mitt romney. schumer is making the point that if these republicans want to commit to a real trial and uphold the dignity of the senate, republicans can join with him in calling for a serious trial. i'm told privately that mitch mcconnell has expressed support for a quick two week trial. the majority of the senators at that point would have heard enough to make a determination of up or down. you have chuck schumer saying no, we want a real trial with witnesses. so john bolton, who through his attorney late last month said th

"washington post" political reporter eugene scott and former counsel to the house judiciary committee during the nixon impeachment process, michael conway. garrett, explain to us what has been going on in that committee room today. >> officially the rules committee is debating the rules by which the house impeachment will go forward on the floor, how long, whether or not there will be amendments loud. you're seeing some of a dress rehearsal for the floor debate with two of the most outspoken members who have been involved in the impeachment process, pushing for the articles or key fending the president against them, doug collins as the ranking member defending the president pushing back moving this to the floor and a late substitution, jamie raskin, young congressman from maryland, replacing jerry nad her the judiciary committee chairman had to return to new york with a family emergency. expect to see more throughout the afternoon as these two go back and forth. something of a colloqu colloquyg articles of impeachment. more and more members whose political careers may be defined how t

eugene who slips and fumbles. hawaii recovers. a wasted opportunity for the cougars. mcdonald's good for 493 yards. last chance for byu. the final 30 seconds. wilson intercepted by corey bakley. >> scott11. >> i will be making it home just in time. >> bay area shoppers preparing for a wet christmas and the rain started to come down. >> the 11:00 news on ktvu fox news starts now. >> we want to take alive look at our radar. it shows widespread rain around the bay area. you can see it is a little heavier around the south bay. >> here is a live look at san francisco at the golden gate bridge. the roads are slick for people traveling on this christmas eve night. we want to bring in kyler grogan. >> the showers have certainly gotten more pervasive and heavy gear throughout the night tonight. you can see them on the radar. as i zoom in you can see the darker green popping up in oakland and berkeley and down in alameda. as we head a little bit further to the south it is down in