nichols. the chair now recognizes professor peter a. walker, professor of geography at university of oregon. you have five minute, sir. >> my name is peter walker. i'm a professor of geography and environmental studies at the university of oregon. i personally observed the 2016 armed occupation of the wild life refuge in harney county, oregon. after the occupation, i conducted research in harney county for more than two years including over 100 in depth interviews with individuals representing all parts of the community. my observations are recorded in my book sagebrush collaboration, how harney county defeated the takeover of the wild life refuge. a lot can be learned from the refuge occupation for preventing such incidents and for safeguarding federal employees and enabling them to work constructively in rural communities. the great majority in harney county opposed the occupation and rejected the militants' plan to launch an antifederal government revolution from harney county. i use the word militants because they used armed force a

joins us jason lee opolicy, yawn stan itch, and tom nichols is back with you. you broke the story, jason. the tie-in here from the documents that you were able to obtain is right around the same time, if we've got our months right, when the president did say in front of the cameras, and he reached out to russia saying, if you can help us -- i'm paraphrasing, of course -- with they e-mails, please do so. >> rick gates was interviewed by the fbi as part of the special counsel's investigation last year, and this is what he told the special counsel -- excuse me, the fbi, that in fact -- the theory, the seed was planted that ukraine was involved in the dnc hack in 2016, when the trump

i want to go to hans nichols now. one of them was the national security lawyer, john eisen berg, who according to a source familiar with testimony, instructed a key witness to stay quiet about concerns about that phone call between president trump and the ukrainian leader. talk us through the white house response this morning, hans. >> reporter: so those were serious concerns that alex vindman had about what he thought was a restriction on him, having a discussion about policy. garrett just hinted at the fact that there might not be any testimony for the rest of the week, any private depositions. the current white house thinking on this is that that's how it's going to hold. and i think that's important for a couple of reasons. >> wait a second, hans. that includes john bolton? >> reporter: correct, the current thinking -- and this could change but i was just speaking to an official here. a current thing is that bolton likely will not testify. but what that does is it basically freezes the facts before we go into i gu

joins us jason lee opolicy, yawn stan itch, and tom nichols is back with you.ke the story, jason. the tie-in here from the documents that you were able to obtain is right around the same time, if we've got our months right, when the president did say in front of the cameras, and he reached out to russia saying, if you can help us -- i'm paraphrasing, of course -- with they e-mails, please do so. >> rick gates was interviewed by the fbi as part of the special counsel's investigation last year, and this is what he told the special counsel -- excuse me, the fbi, that in fact -- the theory, the seed was planted that ukraine was involved in the dnc hack in 2016, when the trump campaign began to discuss that. it was another manafort associate who had suggested that, manafort tonight that to the campaign, and essential said that it's unlikely that it's russia. it's likely that it's ukraine you and as part of these interviews rick gates is discussing how manafort felt pressure to get additional leaks from regarding hillary clinton's emails, that trump was growing frust

garrett haake is on capitol hill, hans nichols is at the white house, pete williams has more on what is next. let's start on the hill because it's the next big phrase of the impeachment inquiry. where do we go from here? >> reporter: the best way to think of this is that the fact finding stage is largely over. here preparing their report, a summation of everything we learned in open hearings, behind closed doors, and to the degree they've been given any documents to review, from the documents which they have reviewed. here hoping to present the report to the judiciary committee shortly after they come back from their thanksgiving break, so the first week in december. then it's up to judiciary to decide what to do with it. adam schiff explained a little bit of this in a letter he sent yesterday, saying we've gotten the facts, we've gotten the information about what we believe the president did. now it's up to the next group of people to whom they're handing off the ball to decide what to do about it. should they draft articles of impeachment? if so, how many. and how will the judiciar

joined from the white house by nbc's hans nichols and justice correspondent pete williams with me from washington. we know now this federal judge has ruled a former white house counsel don mcgahn will have to follow the subpoena from white house democrats. we know it stems from the mueller investigation. take us how this could potentially impact the impeachment investigation. >> that's a political question. i'm not sure the answer to that. there's a couple of variables here. number one, yes, the governor has filed a notice of appeal of the judge's ruling. i assume at some point they'll ask for a stay to temporarily stop the effectiveness ruling while they pursue their appeal in the d.c. court of appeals. whoever loses there i'm sure will go to the supreme court. remember how this got started. this was the house judiciary committee asking for don mcgahn's testimony about things that were raised in the mueller report. now obviously the impeachment inquiry has turned in a totally different direction. i'm not sure whether house judiciary still wants him to testify about that or whether the

. >> natasha and hans nichols, thanks to both of you. hans is outside trump tower. and the list gives pretty good indications wh indications of what they're focusing on and it's not the president or his administration. according to the washington post, the list includes hunter biden, hunter biden's business partner devon archer, the original whistle-blower, researcher from fusion gps which commissioned a dossier. and a ukrainian american who worked with the democratic national committee. garrett haake joins me now from capitol hill. also, joined by our attorney pamela. she's former veteran prosecutor and served as counsel to the house judiciary committee during proceedings against chief judge walter nixon of mississippi. pier garret garrett, let's start with you and that list. i don't know. give me the right question to ask because the question in my head is, why are all those people on the list? >> those are folks on that graphic who represent all the other topics that republicans would like to have be part of the conversation on impeachment. hunter biden and one o

nbc's hans nichols is standing by for us.ven't had an entiretyopy to read the entire time is the but it would seem that the assertion by bolton's attorney is essentially this ruling doesn't really apply to my guy. >> reporter: that's exactly right, craig. they've studdied the mcgahn ruling and said it won't compel their client, it won't compel kupperman or bolton to testify. they're looking for a definitive ruling from the courts on their case. what they've always said their case is about is conversations that either the national security adviser or the deputy national security adviser had with the president of the united states on foreign affairs and national security matters. you can almost see with this statement that it was going to come, if you look closely at their initial letter, the attorneys' initial letter when they were arguing the differences between the mcgahn case and the bolton and kupperman case. they're saying it's not authoritative. i think that's the key quote there. they're insisting they look for a final

hans nichols is back with us. what are they saying about this?'re saying that the president's plan, his process is moving forward to ban any flavor of e-cigarette. when they announced this in september they said they would be banning all flavors. early november before the president left town for a trip, he said he would announce something the next week, that was last week. last week came and went without any regulations on what sort of flavors they'll be banning from e-cigarettes. in the interim, and we know top aides have left and gone to work for companies like juul. in the interim there's misgivings about the politics of this. in swing states, as you mentioned, those e-cigarettes are popular and this may be a bit of a backlash for the president. hallie? >> hans nichols, thank you much. >>> something you might have missed over the weekend when i filled in co-hosting over the "today" show and took a viewer question. >> do you have some news for us this morning? >> a little bit. frank and i did our family christmas card photo earlier this year. w

jose, he plans to attend a mixed martial parts fine at madsen square guarden >> haunz nichols in new york city. thank you very much. >>> now out west renewed i would wildfire fierce in california with winds expected to hit 35 miles an hour tonight. they could fuel the 8 fires already burning there. and now there is a new high-tech threat in the air. unauthorized drones. nbc's sarah harman is in the fire zone north of los angeles. >> reporter: firefighters trying to gain the upper hand again the maria fire working around the clock against santa ana winds and bone dry vegetation. and at a critical moment drones forced water drop choppers out of the sky. >> data confirmed drone siting holding the aircraft down. >> life or death situation for the piemts flying the aircraft. >> reporter: while fire retardened drops samd this orchd from flames, the harvest may be a loss. >> how can you eat this fruit? now is it edible? i don't know yet. >> and zpit massive preemptive blackouts meant to prevent fires. >> you have no power no water no way to put the fire out and someone not a lot of money th

here's nbc's hans nichols. >> reporter: the president says they're going to ban some vaping flavors this week. >> we have to take care of our kids most importantly. so we're going to have an age limit of 21 or so. >> reporter: but he's also acknowledging the political power of the vaping industry >> we have a lot of people to look at including jobs, frankly. because you know, it's become a pretty big industry. >> we vote, we vape! >> reporter: pressing their point and their vape pens, ex-smokers converged on the white house in protest >> we vape, we vote! >> reporter: and on twitter they explain how e cigarettes helped them quit their tobacco habit. >> strawberry cheesecake flavor saved my life. >> reporter: now they're circulating data that shows a vaping ban could leave a political burn for the president. more than 4 million vapors live in swing states including almost 900,000 in florida the president won florida in 2016 by little more than 100,000 votes. all this just days after researchers from the cdc discovered a link between 29 mysterious lung injuries including two deaths and a t

the 5—2 second favourite, ridden by harry cobden and trained by paul nicholls, led the two and threesaudi arabia to claim his first victory in formula e. the briton held off bmw team mate maximilian gunther and now leads the drivers‘ championship. the next round is in chile in january. england's women scored ten tries as they crushed italy 60—3 in bedford to complete a clean sweep of victories from their autumn internationals. world player of the year emily scarratt scored a second half try. england finish the year with 12 wins from 13 games and extend their run of victories at home to 17. tommy fleetwood still has a chance to win his second race to dubai title — but his ryder cup team—matejon rahm has thrown a spanner in the works. there are various ways in which both can be named europe's best golfer at the season—ending tour championship. rahm is currently ahead, but as our golf correspondent iain carter explains, fleetwood is certainly still in contention. has a lot of work to do, one under par, soa has a lot of work to do, one under par, so a few shots of the lead here and he re

. >> hans nichols, great work, appreciate it. good luck to you. i leave you in the capable hands of my colleague craig melvin in new york on what is shaping up to be a busy friday. >>> hallie jackson, good to see you. craig melvin here at msnbc headquarters in new york. moments ago, as you just saw and heard, president trump speaking to reporters at the white house defending himself once again against the impeachment inquiry. also, he spoke against the second phone call with the president of ukraine, saying he's open to releasing more details about that call. he talked about a forthcoming report on vaping, raised the idea once again of perhaps requiring those who are at least 21 to be able to vape. he took a shot at a potential newcomer to the 2020 democratic primary field as well. and that is where we are going to start on this friday, that potential seismic shock to the 2020 democratic race. billionaire and former three-term new york city mayor michael bloomberg positioning himself perhaps to jump into this primary race. he said back in march, a

also joining us tom nichols.nd tess, whenever they're running to the white house lawyers in this testimony i'm always thinking of you because you used to be in that office they were running to in this testimony today. what did you make of tim morrison's rush to the lawyers -- and the lawyer he's rushing to that position is your boss when he was working in the white house, is that right? >> yes, that's exactly right, and it's an odd answer that morrison gives that he rushed straight to the office of john eisenberg and he also does mention his deputy michael ellis. to make them aware generally of the call and because of concerns about a potential leak. but when pressed what was it that you specifically wanted the nsc's lawyers to be aware of, he's not able to give a direct answer to that question. and when asked why is it that you're concerned this call might leak, it doesn't really make much sense that's the kind of concern you'd go to the nsc legal office about. so both aspects of his answer to this question, why

let me go to hans nichols. one thing i know from talking to my sources is that the president is extremely keyed in on how republicans are out defending him, using some of these talking points that we just showed that geoff mentioned. it is, you've got to imagine, undeniable that the president will watch some of the testimony tomorrow, but he's got some counter programming set up with the president of turkey happening tomorrow as well. >> reporter: yes, we know the president is his own communications director. we know he's the team of one. to be able to execute any sort of response, the president is going to have to watch this in real time. now, we don't know the actual schedule tomorrow when erd oh won is suppose to come. the president could be in a position to watch the crucial first hour that geoff is talking about, the first hour the democrats want to choreograph. and in all of this i would add a caveat, and that is the president likes to mix things up and step on other people's news stories and he's shown h

terry nichols, who has been in custody since just after the bombing. >> timothy mcveigh and terry nicholsthe army. mcveigh had fought in the first persian gulf war. >> he left the military very disillusioned. the one thing that sustained him was his reading about the radical far right and meeting like-minded people. >> timothy mcveigh's alleged plot to blow up the federal building took shape over the course of a secret year-long odyssey across america. >> mcveigh visited militia groups throughout the country. he went to the waco compound when it was under siege. on april 19th, two years to the date after the waco incident, oklahoma city was bombed. >> mr. president, there are tens, maybe more -- tens of thousands of men and women dressing up on weekends in military garb going off for training because they're upset about waco. despite what you say, we're talking about thousands and thousands of people in this country who are furious at the federal government. >> well, they have a right to believe whatever they want. they have a right to say whatever they want. they have a right to keep and

let's go to hans nichols. what is their real case for appeal? >> their case for appeal is they think that there is an obama appointed judge. they think this is an unfair ruling and precedent is on their side. the president is knot going to necessarily testify or provide answers. he hinted about that last week saying he was considering it after pelosi made that offer. s she is saying now that it is an ill legitimate impeachment process, and then on the question of whether or not it will leave the house, the white house is zeroing in on any democrat that suggested that they won't be voting for articles of impeachment. they seem to be suggesting, and i think this is the narrative they want out there that it might not leave the house. they say they're preparing both eventually eventualities. >> the white house is on lock down. we can't leave here. they have not provided any information, pete williams is reporting there has been an air space violation. we'll see if pete comes on air here. it is a breaking situation. this has happened in the past, i b

i know hans nichols is on the south lawn. we can't show this to you yet, and i know we talk about this every time the president takes these questions. there's not a live feed. we're going to get notes and they're going to run the tape and we're going to turn around and play it on the show. give us other highlights of what you're seeing from the text messages and emails that we're getting from our colleagues actually out there? >> reporter: so hallie, this is ongoing. so these are the headlines that we have so far. as you point out, one on the testimony. of course we're getting transcripts of the testimony that's already been given. president trump saying i'm not concerned about anything, the testimony is fine. i have no idea who they are. that's a reference to some of these top officials who have been talking to lawmakers behind closed doors on capitol hill. he says they're very fine people. all that matters is one thing, the transcripts, what they do is they go all over washington. let's find ten people that hate trump and p

is on those for me nichols political child and a great come come on power is giving it all at this year's conference and so far she's won at least for now. straight to the c.d.u. conference in leipzig very well defined correspondent. so it looks like no one is going to take up. bows challenge. where they set 7 minute standing ovation for a cake a she'd known as anything to go by after she gave a speech today and that certainly seems the case but of course this issue over the leadership of the c.d.u. is far from over of course the the c.d.u. would next year in 2020 will be presenting a candidate for the 2021 elections and so that could still be yet more drama when it comes to who leads the c.d.u. and also leads them into those 2021 elections and it's also worth pointing out as well that even a k.-k. itself especially when it comes to public opinion polls right now isn't fairing particularly well and his is actually dragging behind many of her potential much of her potential competition here with the c.d.u. chief among those potential competitors it seems to be afraid that some tried and fa

s nichole furnished in the capitals found out this is grown into a social movement who support base is a lot larger than those who turn up at rallies. it's another day of protests in santiago but any ball isn't going he lives only a stone's throw away from plus the epicenter of the country's mass demonstrations but a couple of weeks ago he kicked off a different kind of mobilization a neighborhood gathering known as. we didn't think anyone would come and we were a bit pessimistic. but the turnout exceeded expectations. so we sat down analyze what had happened and what we hope the chile of the 21st century who would look like. but. the meeting soon grew too big for the park so today the neighbors are meeting at a local hostel some 80 people from all walks of life. this type of forum is not a new invention in latin america the open could build oh dates back to colonial times as a communal gathering in response to emergencies or disasters and standing together in the face of adversity is still very much the essence of the could build are today. if we want a better future as much of a clic

fi commentator jack nicholls explores where hamilton now stands when it comes to the greatest of allest formula 1 when discussing the greatest formula i driver of all time, firstly it's pretty much impossible and that's why i'm specifically chosen senna and schumacher. one funjoe was good,jim clark and schumacher. one funjoe was good, jim clark people tell me is the greatest fi driver of all time but it's so difficult to compare across errors. i pick the late 80s onwards really is modern formula i. first let's deal with senna and prost, to the greatest writers in history formula i and undoubtedly both had a dark sides. elaine prost deliberately crashing into ayrton senna in 1988 and the reverse in 1989. those two were not above breaking the law, breaking the rules of racing in order to win the championship stop then we move onto michael schumacher, statistically the greatest f1 driver of all time but he too had that ledge. whether it was 1990 four, running into damon hill in adelaide, 2006 deliberately accidentally pretend crashing sort of in monaco to secure pole position. all these

henry nicholls has also gone. currently 202—5.e two test series saracens have another win in the bag as they look to try and stay in the rugby union premiership. after the champions' 35 point deduction for breaching the salary cap they are now up to minus—18 following victory at bath. they welcomed back their england players and won 25—12 at the rec. the england captain 0wen farrell kicked 20 points scotland's sean maitland went over for the only try. they would be top of the table without the points deduction but trail 11th placed leicester by 22 points and in the pro 1a there was an impressive win for edinburgh who moved second in conference b after beating leaders munster 18—16 in cork. eroni sau scored the decisive try in the second half. t0 ulster really hit the ground running to beat scarlets 29—5 in conference a. the ulstermen earned a bonus point by the break — this spectacularfinish from matt faddes was one of four first half tries. sir mo farah says he hopes to defend his 10,000 metre 0lympic title in tokyo next year. fa

hans nichols is outside the street this morning. >> reporter: good morning, it is all ahead of a busy week of private testimonies in the impeachment inquiry that the president wants to make public. president tru president trump prepares for i am peevemea impeachme impeachment. >> reporter: trump's phone call with zelensky is at the center of his impeachment on whether he pressed him to investigate on joe biden and his son, hunter. robert mueller obtained by cnn and buzz feed newscast new light in ukraine's role in 2016 election meddling. as early as 2016, campaign officials suspected that ukraine, not russia infiltrated the national committee's computers and president trump was interested in the stolen dnc e-mails. get the e-mails as he said on the campaign according to rick gaetz. he declined to recommend indicting the president. the president accusing congressman adam schiff of picking the whistleblower whose complaint launched the impeachment inquiry. the president tweeted over 11,000 times in the last 33 months using short character verses to attack someone and more than half of t

chancellor for the 1st time and this remains something very special to me guns is on the walls for me nichols political call child and they couldn't come on power is giving it all at this conference and so far she's won at least for now. rajiv political editor he had a cafe standing right for us in the east and german city of lights at that party conference the big clash well it's off the table but i think one has to offer will that peace last. if you're right it's so down didn't happen and i very much doubt that this piece will last we saw an eclipse come convoy's key contender for the last in a vote against her just one year ago and seeing her becoming party leader well he basically said that he would be loyal to the party leader at the same time saying well if the party wants me to help out i'm available and this is been his message throughout the past year he still has his eyes set on potentially becoming. a real success and that would mean becoming candidate for chance technically were one way off that question one year off that question but we've seen of downward trend in the opinion po

so fi commentatorjack nicholls can give us the breakdown on hamilton's champion status. greatest formula 1 when discussing the greatest formula i driver of all time, firstly it's pretty much impossible. as why specifically chosen schumacher. people say this memo five titles was amazing. he wore he was incredible, jim clark people tell me is the greatest at one driver of all time but to me it so difficult to compare across errors i picked the late 80s onwards, really as modern formula i. but still first with these men. to the greatest drivers of formula i but both of the dark sides. deliberately crashing in 1988 and 1989, those two were not above breaking the law and rules of racing in order to win the championship. specifically michael schumacher the greatest driver of all time but he also has a little edge. 1984 ramming into damon hill and 2006 deliberately accidentally crashing sort of monaco with the pole position. all of these little things just slightly undermine the true champion status of these drivers. it was hamilton has no incidents of that kind in his history.

el juez federal nichols de washington, adornados por el reciente trump dictaminÓ hoy que el mandatario sean entregadas a los legisladores demÓcratas del congreso. hoy la naciÓn agradeció y honro a los veteranos que han democracia y la seguridad del paÍs.cuenta que muchos hÉroes de guerra regresan a casa enfrentando obstÁculos que se pueden vencer con el apoyo de toda la comunidad. juan carlos: los los soldados estadounidenses comienzan desde que dejan a la familia. despuÉs continÚan a ser enviados a combate, en especial porque se enfrentan cara a cara con la muerte. >> es muy difÍcil, la pÉrdida humana es lo mÁs ser testigo en el momento en que pierden la vida es traumÁtico y muy duro para cualquier persona. juan carlos: cuando regresan a casa se convierten en veteranos. uno de los primeros obstÁculos es readaptarse a la sociedad. >> despuÉs de que uno anda en un conflicto, es muy difÍcil entregarse otra vez a la vida normal. juan carlos: en los estados unidos existen actualmente unos 18,600,000 veteranos que han participado en diferentes conflictos bÉlicos de estados unidos. muchos de

editor in chief john nichols told staff yesterday we will continue our tradition of not investigatinge and his family foundation. that prohibition extends to bloomberg's rival because we cannot treat his democratic competitors differently but, this raises the appearance of partisanship, the company will continue to investigate donald trump. it is not clear whether trump's family would also be fair game as opposed to joe biden's son. the company will largely limit its coverage of bloomberg's pgs, policies and poles. initial story said he's offering his own mix of moderate policy stances, experience in business, government and philanthropy as a way to beat trump. the top editors of bloomberg opinion are taking leave to join his campaign. this is barring any op-eds about the 2020 campaign. former bloomberg editor megan murphy said the policy was ridiculous and not journalism and three years ago she threatened to resign over a similar memo. as with the washington post examining jeff bezos and amazon other media companies cover billionaire owners and their, bloomberg refused to tell wherea

hans nichols at the white house. thanks so much chuck todd is nbc's political director chuck, good morning. good to see you. so a deep breath here at the end of two long weeks of public testimony in the impeachment inquiry. a long list of witnesses told a very similar story about what happened in ukraine and the involvement of the trump administration in that deal. the witnesses we haven't heard from, john bolton, mike pompeo, mick mulvaney on the list as well what do you expect to happen from here, chuck, for the american people watching this, taking it in what are the next steps? >> well, it looks that democrats have decided they've done as much in the public hearing aspect as they can do within a reasonable period of time. i guess is the way to put it and you brought up all these witnesses that we haven't heard from and i think they would argue it's going to take too long to hear from them and timeliness here matters, too. so it means that we would likely after thanksgiving see about a week or two of hearings in t

hans nichols at the white house. good morning. >> reporter: public hearings. now, yesterday, the president said he didn't want that. that's after weeks of arguing that this private testimony should be made public. it all comes ahead of legal uncertainty on who will be compelled to testify. after returning to washington late friday, the president bracing for potentially big bombshells in the impeachment inquiry. former national security adviser, john bolton, may be ready to share relevant meetings and conversations on ukraine that have not been discussed publicly, according to his lawyer, making him a possible star witness. his appearance could shed some light on the newly-released testimony of his former deputy, fiona hill, who says he referred to rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, as a hand grenade in the ukraine discussions. hill testified that bolton was so concerned about a july 10th conversation between ukrainian officials and gordon sondland, the ambassador to the european union, he left early. also in the meeting, alexander vindman, looki

hans nichols outside trump tower. chuck todd is moderator of "meet the press. let's do a viewers' guide for everybody. what to look for now that there's an open impeachment inquiry. the public gets a first look at some of the witnesses, yovanovitch and kent and taylor among them, whose private depositions, closed testimony have been damning to the president. what do you expect this week >> reporter: well, i expect the first day to be sort of almost laying the narrative, telling the story and the reason bill taylor is kicking things off is because i think the democrats believe he's not just one of the moecht credible witnesses they have, but he tells the story succinctly, he's very matter of fact he doesn't beat around the bush. there isn't a lot of ambiguity about it he lays it out there plus throw in his long service to the government in various ways, including the military career, as well as a foreign service career so i think the first day will be laying out that narrative for what it is, wednesday. on friday i think ambassador yovanovitch is someone who may

el juez federal nichols dictaminÓ hoy que el mandatario no podÍa demandar a funcionarios legales de nueva del estado de nueva york sean entregadas a los legisladores demÓcratas en el congreso. bolivia continÚa sumida en el caos, de renuncia de evo morales como presidente este sÁbado la oposiciÓn y funcionarios del gobierno, y periodistas estÁn denunciando atentados, incendios en sus casas y saqueos. las calles de la paz, cochabamba y santa cruz continÚan bloqueadas por manifestantes que exigen saber quiÉn estÁ al frente del paÍs hasta nuevas elecciones. el canciller reportero: el senado de bolivia recibiÓ finalmente la carta de renuncia de evo morales a la presidencia, tras casi 14 aÑos en el poder. estÁ convencido de que fue vÍctima de un golpe de estado algo que niega el expresidente y excandidato competidor a morales. carlos mesa: des mentimos, no hubo un golpe de estado en bolivia. no hay ningÚn elemento que permita considerar que se produjo un golpe de estado. reportero: otro lÍder opositor que forjÓ la caÍda de morales se mostrÓ eufórico. >> bolivia va a ser la esperanza de toda amÉ

hans nichols has the details. hans, good morning to you. >> yeah. >> can you tell us where things stand right now? >> so the initial cause for this was this court case, this court-martial case for edward gallon gar for -- gallagher for killing an isis fighter. someone else admitted to killing the captured isis fighter. he was a teenager. there was a question, though on whether or not gallagher posed with the corpse. posed with the head. he ultimately was convicted of a charge related to that. president trump intervened at the time. he commuted the sentence. he also restored edward gallagher's rank. on thursday, after reports that gallagher was going to be killed out of seals, the president said he shouldn't be kicked out. the president intervening yet again. over the next couple days, you see the tweet that the navy will not be taking away his try tent seal pin. over the weekend, he's denied reports that he is threatening to resign over the president's intervention in military discipline. nbc news reported that ri

nichols is serving life in prison.enced for 12 years for failing to warn authorities about the bombing plans. after appearing as a prosecution witness, he served ten years, was released and entered the witness protection program. i've never been to the memorial. many have warned me to be prepared for an overwhelming emotional experience. i will see the 168 empty chairs made of glass, bronze and stone, each indescribed with the name of one of those killed on april 19, 1995. i was invited by sarah sweet, who lost her father, steven williams, a claims representative for the social security administration. as she said to me in a note, he will always be 42. younger than me now. in 2016, she left this shirt on the memorial chair that celebrates his life. he was a lifelong chicago cubs fan and one of sarah's fondest memories was watching games with her dad. >>> still to come, your best and worst tweets and facebook comments and we'll give you the result of the survey question from smerconish.com. go vote if you have yet to do

we start with hans nichols. what more is the president saying about all of this? >> reporter: well, he has a mixture of offense and defense from the president. he took in that college football game yesterday. what you saw on twitter was a preview of his defense. now he took two opportunities to go ahead and find the cameras yesterday before leaving and what he's doing is setting a timeline for himself. he's saying he's going to release a transcript of that earlier phone called had with president zelensky by tuesday. at one point he suggested monday but saying tuesday. that's important because it's a day before the public hearings are set to begin. it's clear that the president wants to have his defense rest on what was in the calls, have a listen to how he described it. >> this is a witch-hunt. at the highest level. it's so bad for our country. but here's the deal. read the transcript. you'll see the call. now i'll give you a second transcript because i actually had two calls with the president of ukraine. so you read the second. you tell me if you think there's a

. >>> joining us right now, hans nichols at the white house, garrett haake is on capitol hill and carol lee, nbc's carol lee is in washington with that aforementioned brand new reporting about what the toll that the impeachment hearings are taking on the president and one of his key allies. the president saying he is willing to testify. is he serious? >> reporter: deputy white house press secretary said we'll see what he does. this is the president, throwing something out there. remember it initially started with house speaker nancy pelosi saying in that interview she wanted the president to testify or submit written answers. in the president's tweet that he put out before 9:00 a.m., he seemed to be more willing to do written answers. we need to make the distinction between testifying and answering written questions and putting those out and that would be clearly gone over with the lawyers. in any sort of public hearing, public testimony would be very dramatic. as we all know, this is a very dramatic presidency. but there's a difference between that and having your lawyers having legali

i'm joined from the white house by nbc's hans nichols, on capitol hill nbc's leigh ann caldwell. and with me onset, josh letterman. we'll start with you, hans. does the white house plan to send a representative to this judiciary committee hearing? >> they're reviewing nadler's letter. they need to make a decision on whether or not they want to focus on process or substance. there's a bit of a hint from the white house that they think the process argument is cutting in their favor. in that statement we have, grisham refers to it as a i illegitimate sham process. they're looking at some of the public polling out there, some of the private polling. they're insisting they're winning this argument in the states that actually matter. you saw the president give a full-throated defense of himself at his rally in florida. officials close to the campaign, they think florida is still in their column, no longer a battleground state. they see that in a lot of the places they think they need to win to be re-elected in 2020. so they've got -- the deadline is sunday that nadler has given them. s

let's go to hans nichols first in new york. hans, good morning to you. there was mixed reaction when the nt entered the arena at madison square garden. what exactly happened? >> reporter: we don't know. like so much of the president's appearance here in new york, his presidency, it's controversial. there were enthusiastic boos, there were enthusiastic cheers. i think this will be debated about for some time. dana white, one of the ufc promoters, a big person in martial arts insisting, as well as the president's son insisting it was raucous and friendly. we did hear some boos as well. the president goes to events like this, not just to talk to the audience or be in front of the audience, but it's all the americans that follow this kind of sport. you look at the mixed martial arts demographic. that's the demographic the president needs to turn out at the polls and next november one year from now. now, before he came up here, we did get a little bit of news from the president. a little bit more, i don't want to say about his strategy to face impeachment but

the white house says it was routine, few details have been released we get more from nbc's hans nichols. >> reporter: the president going to walter reed medical center with his personal physician bhousy said it was for portions of an annual physical. >> that man works from 6:00 a.m. until very, very late at night he's doing just fine. >> you know, stephanie, he's almost superhuman. >> reporter: the saturday visit was different from the two previous presidential physicals raising concerns about his health those were on his official schedule, took more than four hours and were not done in phases the president tweeted everything is very good, great. will complete next year as thedihis doctor toting his excellent health but the doctor said trump dictated the whole letter his official doctor declared him fit. >> i told the enif he had a healthier diet the last ten years, he would live to be 200. >> reporter: they noted a higher coronary calcium score. >> the calcium score from 2018 showed he had plaque buildup around his heart that's a bit concerning. >> reporter: the president who is 73 pla

geoff bennett is live at capitol hill and hans nichols live at the white house. geoff, any idea when we'll see the new transcripts? i think it was around 11:50 when we saw the transcripts. are we expecting the same time frame? >> reporter: good to see you, craig. house democrats haven't said when to expect the release of these next transcripts. if today is anything like yesterday, i could be talking to you again at the end of this hour if democrats choose to release them around that time. what to watch for, remember, volker and sondland were referred do in other witness testimony as being two of the three amigos, the two of them plus energy secretary rick perry were deputized to be responsible for the shadow foreign policy that was being run in ukraine. we have really reported on the broad outlines of most men's testimony. the transcripts will fill in a lot of important details. sondland is an interesting character because we knew at the time that his testimony was self-absolving. in his testimony he was pointing the finger at a lot of other people for being resp

. >> move-in day at nichols state university in thibodeau, louisiana. sophomore rodney woods is excited to get back to his studies. >> when i walked in the art department, i fell in love. i see cameras and art, and i think yes, this is where i am supposed to be. >> everybody knows me with the dude that twalks around with the camera all day. >> the hard part, paying for college. the annual cost of tuition, fees and housing is about $291,000. rodney's entire family income is just $10,000. >> has there been a big financial burden for you to go to school here? >> yes, there has been. soledad: rodney estimates he willow between $25,000 and $50,000 in loans by the time he graduates. >> we had money, but we didn't have like college expense money. so it is like we had -- we could live from check to check. >> we have the hall right here. this is kind of my home as i like to call it. >> ethier and henry is a sophomore from houma, louisiana. he is studying bigs. >> what am i getting? it is an amazing experience. i love it. >> solidly middle-class, ethan is going t

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hans nichols, thank you very much. and jeff bennett, thank you as well. let's now go to congressman mike quigley, who is joining us from the capitol hill. mike quigley, are you there? congressman, are you there? i don't think the congressman is with us. congressman, can you hear us? >> i can in just about a second when the person next to me stops yelling. sorry. >> it gets loud there in the hall. >> it's not accouncally perfect. fire away. >> hopefully, you can hear me now. let me ask you this. what are you hoping to get out of david holmes' testimony, public testimony, on thursday? >> i think the thing to take away from it is the president of the united states didn't care about ukraine. that's why this policy went forward. all he cared about was the investigations. and in that conversation, he referenced sondland saying he only cared about the big things. well, obviously, there's a war going on there, which is a pretty big thing that influences not just our ally but the entire region and, frankly, our own national security. so this puts it in perspective

we'll get more of a download from him. >> hans nichols at the white house. thank you very much. chuck, vi to come back to you. robert mueller was known to examine donald trump's tweets in the context of whether or not he was seeking to tamper with witnesses. >> absolutely. i've said this over and over and may as well say it again. i find volume two of the mueller report as compelling today as when it was issued. a series of witness intimidation, counseling people to create false documents, threatening potential witnesses with all sorts of consequences. if that sounds familiar, it should. i don't know why we've lost our focus collectively. i don't mean here on this panel, but collectively as a nation on the mueller report on what those prosecutors and agents found. the type of things that people do when they are under investigation is what the president did. it was a series of obstructive acts. if it was anybody else, if there wasn't department of justice policy that says you can't indict a sitting president, i believe he would be charged. >>> let me pick up another piece of what

it is a city -- amy: we have to leave it there, john nichols of the nation, thank you so mu

thank you so much, hans nichols. julia manchester reporter for the hill. julia, with a welcome to you. >> thanks, alex. >> your interpretation of giuliani's comment. do you think it was sarcastic? because it's not the first time he has said something like this. >> it's certainly not the first time he has said something like this, alex, and i don't think we have to look any further than michael cohen to see that president trump has definitely turned on those advisers and attorneys close to him and i think that there is a feeling or there could be a feeling among giuliani and those close to him that, you know, his involvement in this shadow diplomacy in ukraine amid this impeachment inquiry, ahead of the 2020 elections, could cause president trump to distance himself from him. there is no doubt that giuliani's involvement in ukrainian foreign policy and trying to meddle on behalf of the president is damaging to the president going forward in this impeachment inquiry and we know that democrats are using giuliani as sort of a launching point to go after the pr

hans nichols has more. first, can you tell us about these emails? >> what the email does, they prove that there is a white house link between rudy giuliani and his phone conversations with mike pompeo, the secretary of state. we have known from all of these congressional hearings that there had been a couple of conversations around march between pompeo and rudy giuliani, and then it had to do with marie over, who was then the u.s. ambassador to ukraine, and she of course has blamed giuliani of orchestrating a smear campaign against her. what these emails do, they essentially leave a paper trail, showing just where and how giuliani got in touch with mike pompeo, and indicates that they did indeed speak on the phone. now, what is interesting about it is sword, coordinated by a white house official, who was dismissed for different reasons but it shows you how close it came to the oval office. now, the other new story that we're talking about this morning is the idea that giuliani's former, one of his former associates, is willing to testify that devin