we see patty murray on the screen. how was she involved in some of the issues that came up this past week? >> the senate got started right away at the beginning of the week. they had two spending bills for the -- the department of labor, education, state, and other foreign operations. the pentagon and epa and water programs, so they had intended at the outset of the week to tackle those fiscal 2020 spending bills, and there were going to be individual senate spending committee markups, but just as things were getting off to fallnd, they started apart. senator patty murray essentially said she was going to introduce an amendment to the education bill that would stop the trump administration from implementing this antiabortion title ix family-planning rule, and republicans right away were like , whoa, we consider that to be a poison pill, and that term is key because in the budget agreement that president trump signed last month, there was sort of this handshake agreement between house and senate lawmakers to avoid these

we see patty murray on the screen there. how was she involved in some of the issues that came up the past week? caitlin: the senate got started right away. spending bills for the department of labor, education, state and other foreign operations, the pentagon, epa, and water programs. they had intended on the outset of the week to tackle fiscal spending bills right away, just as things got on the ground, things fell apart. patty murphy said she would introduce an amendment for the education bill that would stop the trump administration from implementing this antiabortion title ix rule. republicans right away were like, we consider that to be a poison pill. the term is key because in the budget agreement, president trump said there is sort of a handshake agreement between house and senate lawmakers to avoid the so-called poison pills we also saw state and foreign operations bills get sidelined. it was also tabled. so right away, things got off to a rough start. the senate appropriations committee and that passing a spending b

bush and dave brown, former senior advisor and committee counsel to washington state senator patty murraying. mike: for the first time we will see all the top contenders on the same stage together. do you expect some sharp elbows, brad? >> there has to be because remember, you have to be selected by the party before you're elected by the people. you never get to donald trump until you become the nominee of the party. this is equivalent to the roman coliseum and the fans want to see a mix up, they want to see a fight, they want to see fire, and they have to start distancing themselves from each other and comparing themselves to each other and showing how different they are. if they don't do it, it is a huge missed opportunity. mike: do they look to take on their closest rivals to have a moment on the debate stage or do they try to stay focused on going after president trump? >> mike, i think it is a combination of all of the above. you noted in lead-in to the segment this is the first time that all the top candidates will be on stage together. it is the first time that vice president biden

get a sense where he sees all this going and david brown, former senior advisor to senator patty murray. gianno, what you have seen and heard of this transcript and the interpretation that it didn't look good for the president of the united states to appear to be strong-arming the leader of another country to give him information on a potential rival but nothing impeachable. i'm relying on lawyers and constitutional expert host have been saying that. there are others who say just the opposite there is plenty to go on here. where is this all going? >> honestly i don't feel it was strong-arming of any kind. to me this is not a smoking gun. certainly something which democrats will try to rest their case upon but we got to keep in mind democrats were calling for impeachment as of yesterday before there was any evidence of, not evidence of a call before they could see the transcript and before the whistle-blower report was even seen. when i continue to hear this effort of impeachment we talked about what happened in the 2016 election, even in cases with the mueller report, people were saying

senator patty murray event essentially said she would introduce an amendment to the labor education bill that would stop the trump administration from implementing this antiabortion title ix family planning role and republicans right away were like we can consider that to be poison pill and that term is key because in the budget agreement that president trump signed last month there was sort of this handshake agreement between house and senate lawmakers to avoid the so-called poison pills that are overly partisan policy. right away senate of provisions german, richard shelby, said i will pull this from subcommittee markups and we will postpone it so there is no action on that this week. we also saw the state and foreign operations funding bill also get sidelined by an abortion -related amendment is an annual amendment that senator shaheen is the most and i was also tabled. right away things got off to a rough start but senate provisions committee did end up passing a spending bill for the pentagon import energy and water programs yesterday. those two bills are moving forward and the sena

as chairman of the senate help committee, he worked with senator patty murray to fix no child left behind. president obama called it a christmas miracle. and "the wall street journal" said it was the greatest devolution of power to states in a quarter century. the nation's governors and the national education association recognized lamar with awards. so, mr. president, we're dealing with a rare public servant who can literally win plaudits from "the wall street journal" editorial board and the nation's largest teachers union at the same time. in 2013, senator alexander was one of a group of senators who revamped federal student loans with a new market-based interest rate to save hundreds of millions of dollars for students attending college. in 2016, he and senator murray sponsored the 21st century cures bill, a landmark legislation i was proud to be involved with and view as the most significant law of that entire congress. in 2018 againith senator murray he authored the landmark opioid crisis response act. president trump called it the single largest bill to combat a drug crisis in the