nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston joins us. how do we explain this?re one of those are millionaires. there is a big disparity. >> it's complicated like a lot of issues are. we need to stipulate a couple things. at the outset at least, california has more people today than it does, did ten years ago and according to u.s. census bureau between 2000 and 2018, california had a net gain of more than 1,300,000 people. that's because those who came here from other states and others who immigrated from abroad. as for departures, california still has 10 million people, more than texas, the second most populated state, but the fact is, they're going. >> right, so still, 1 million people have left. what accounts for those losses, do you think? >> there's no one central cause, but rather several causes, kira, but studies point to three major factors, for the population drained the standout over the last few years. one, the cost of housing, sound familiar? >> yep. >> two, transportation, that also sounds familiar, and three, the state's changing political culture.

nbc bay area political analyst larry gerston is here again to guide us through the next steps. the time line of how we got here. >> it's a quagmire, isn't it? there are some things. this much we know as facts. about three months ago, president trump called ukrai ukraine president zilinsky to congratulate him on his election. he called on him to investigate crimes by then vice president joe biden and his son hunter during the clinton administration. earlier probes of trump's games were investigated by the american authorities and found to be without merit. mean whil president trump denied military aid for the ukrainians in a life and death battle with the russians. just about everyone on all sides subscribes to the facts including president trump in a summary of the call he released to the public. that's the quick update. >> devil's advocate. if there is widespread agreement on the facts, why would the democrats investigate those facts? >> well, the now famous whistle-blower to authorities, that account he wrote to the authorities a long letter alleging several potential misdeed

we are joined here in the studio with our political analyst larry gerston. good to see you. we bring in nbc news political director chuck todd and moderator of "meet the press." thanks for joining us this morning. >> hi, guys. >> inevitably we will get to the impeachment inquiry of course but first we have the fifth debate in the 2020 race this week for president. can you summarize what we learned? >> i think what i learned is that the people not named pete buttigieg are having a hard time figuring out how to knock him off a peg or two. look, to me the subtext of that debate was how to spend a message that pete buttigieg can't win over african-american voters without saying it directly and alienating african-american voters or gay democratic primary voters. so you could see that tension that came through and it was all this subtext and bank shot and i think they struggled to have that break through. i think you could see that there is really no leader in the democratic primary, there's sort of three front runners, if you will, in buttigieg, warren and biden, with the open qu

political analyst larry gerston is with us.n the impeachment inquiry. >>> also touching down within the hour, whye >>> right now impeachment showdown goes live. the first public hearings going live on national tv. two witness, five hours of testimony and this is just day one. >> today new revelations about president trump's back channel dealing with ukraine. republicans say there is nothing that justifies impeachment. janelle wang joins us on this show down. >> raj and jessica, this is the first public impeachment hearing in 20 years, today televised testimony beginning today with democrats and republicans trading barbs over whether president trump acted in the nation's interests or for his own personal gain. lights, cameras, action. the house intelligence committee gavels in the first public impeachment hearing against president trump. democrats laying out their case that the president abused his power by pressuring the ukraine for his own political gains. >> the matter is as simple and as terrible as that. whoeporter: while r

our political analyst larry gerston is with us. larry, nice to have you again.zing here. if you listen to the president, if you listen to republican outlets, they will tell you everything went well for them today. so what's the truth here? so much of the american public follows. you watch msnbc or fox or you follow those people. >> we're a long way from understanding this thing. it has to be put together somehow, and i suspect it will be once we get to the judiciary committee. but the reason why everybody hears different things is because of the snippets. i heard this sentence. i didn't know the other three in the paragraph. this is going on by both sides for effectiveness. and unfortunately, it's kind of hard on the viewer. but there will be a point in time where the democrats will make their case. and if it's good enough, fine. and if it's not, fine too. >> following up on what raj saodayid, keep insisting that ukraine got the $400 million so there is nothing to see here. but today the testimony really pinpointed that july date asing. >> yeah, jessica, they di

larry gerston is joining us. let's be honest and up front, most people will not be watching.will be watching, but most people will get the clips from social media or the nightly news. so, the message is important of how the president shapes the message and how democrats shape the message. >> we're getting to a point that most people are going to believe that that phone call on july 25th occurred. it happened. the question is does it rise to an impeachable offense. that's what they're arguing about so much in the weeks to come. >> the president will tell his supporters it's a phone call that was perfect as he says. the democrats say it crossed the line. >> this week, several people say i was on that phone call and the transcript or the report doesn't reflect what i heard on that phone call. you put that together with what happened with gordon sondland on wednesday which is probably the star of the week because he went in there the first time in closed session, didn't recall any such go-between between the president and zelenski, the ukrainian president about quid pro quo as th