Trump and giuliani have been up to in ukraine. How much has giuliani shared with you about his recent trip to ukraine . Not too much. All in starts right now. He does it. He does it out of love. Tin anticipation of a full floor vote this morning, the House Judiciary Committee released a 658page report making the case that President Trump betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections. They charged with two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. They will consider the rules for wednesdays impeachment debate. There are few notable trend lines happening in the politics of this. The big news over the weekend was that jeff van drew, who was one of two democrats who did not vote for the impeachment inquiry and is not going to vote for impeachment is expected to switch the Republican Party. Some call it a coup for the president. It shows that congressman van drew didnt think he could cross the party on this and stay a democrat and maintain his seat. As democrats lose one member, the Washington Post reports a group of 30 freshman democrats is pushing leadership to consider the one republican turned independent congressman who supports impeachment as an impeachment manager. Of course, congressman amash came out in favor after the Mueller Report was released. That led to his decision to leave the Republican Party. More than 30 democrats from front line districts have come out one after another announcing their support for impeachment. Two Congress Members from the texas suburbs said they were in. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of michigan made the case in a town hall. Many others gave her a standing ovation. Congressman Joe Cunningham of South Carolina who took former governor Mark Sanfords seat announced his support for impeachment as well. Its notable that the voices of people who are no longer involved in politics, who dont have to worry about being primary or political loyalty red lifelong republicans that this group of people have said, yes, this is bad what the president ask. Tom ridge, extremely prom meant republican in the bush years. First secretary of the department of Homeland Security said he will not be backing the president in 2020. Carly fiorina, who ran against trump in 2016, said its vital trump be impeached but said she may vote for him. Go figure. And william webster, lifelong republican, said he is disturbed by trumps recent comments. Its notable republicans who longer have to worry about a primary and election are clear how out of bounds the president s behavior is. The polling shows the country is split on impeachment. Fox news poll released yesterday showed 54 of the country thinks he should be impeached. 4 think he should be impeached but not removed. A quinnipiac said the president should be impeached and removed and 51 in opposition. You essentially have about half the country who thinks the president of the United States should be impeached and removed from office. Its really kind of remarkable when you think about it. Thats something that never happened during the long period of the run up to and during the impeachment of bill clinton and something that didnt happen during the entire watergate scandal until right before nixon resigned. Joining me bone of the members f the Judiciary Committee, and you are a freshman. You are a member of this freshman class. You have a fairly safe seat. Its not one of these front line seats. So im just curious to get your sense of the lead of the freshman class as were seeing member after member come out sometimes in tough and competitive districts saying, yes, i support this. Its good to be with you, chris. I have the honor of representing the freshman class as a corepresentative to the Leadership Team and have gotten to know many of my colleagues quite well. The members you mentioned i am so deeply proud of. Elissa slotkin, abigail, so many others, served our country blasey fordly and who now are honoring their oath that they took as we all did to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and are choosing country over party. Its brave and courageous and i wish that our republican colleagues would do the same. Listening to the opening, i thought governor ridges comments in particular were very compelling. This was george w. Bushs first Homeland Security secretary who acknowledged just how deeply problematic this president s conduct was. Public opinion shows that the American People recognize this president abused his power. The fact that you see so many members of congress reaching that same conclusion is really speaks to the egreemgousness of the president s conduct. Do you have any sense we know there will be a rules Committee Markup tomorrow and then the wednesday. Do you have any sense how wednesday is going to go . You know, i dont. I imagine there will be robust debate on the floor of the house. I suspect that it will be similar to the debate that took place in 1999 with respect to the president of impeachment of president bill clinton and i imagine it will be similar to some of the debate that you heard during the Judiciary Committee proceedings last week. My hope is that my republican colleagues will treat this process and that debate with the respect that it deserves which is certainly something that me and my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee worked very hard to do when we took up the articles just last week. The article about freshman members pushing for justin amash was interesting. Do you have any insight or comments on that idea . Im not going to speculate about who the speaker may or may not select with respect to the impeachment manager team to the extent that the house approves those articles. Im sure she will pick a very compelling team. I think justin amash, when we talk about standing up and picking country over party, he is certainly a testament to that. When he bravely came out in support of an impeachment inquiry and, you know, worked to explain the constitutional underpinnings as to the reason why i thought he was a compelling messenger, still is. I imagine you will see him take part in the floor dab on wednesday. There was a line that i thought was newsworthy in that long report issued by the committee that you sent, most which was not necessarily new. Although President Trumps actions need not rise to the criminal, his conduct was criminal. Do you agree with that . I do. I think that you heard the academic experts, the constitutional scholars that testified in front of our committee explain in great detail and expound upon the legal standards that govern this impeachment inquiry and what they explained was that abuse of power is the highest crime that can be charged so to speak in an impeachment. That certainly is the case here. As you recently referenced with respect to the report, the various other potential crimes and k crimes, rather, are subsumed by the abusive power article and detailed at great length in the Judiciary Committees report and i would encourage every american to read that report. Its lengthy, but there is a very concise summary that lace out the elements of these various crimes and the reasons why they ultimately reached the conclusions that we did. This is a strange time in the year. Were heading to the end of the year. There is a lot of legislative activity thats going to happen to avoid a shutdown, a bunch of mustpass bills, the president is likely going to be impeachmentimpeached. I am curious what is the mood like in that building right now . Its a somewhat strange week to be going to do your job. Ill say this. As far as the Democratic Caucus is concerned and the freshman class in particular, i think the mood is one of ensuring that we deliver on the promises that we made to the American People. There has always been consensus in this caucus, chris. We have had a chance to discuss this previously around both the for the people legislative agenda and holding this Administration Accountable and upholding the rule of law. Last week, while the Judiciary Committee proceeded with the somber and sol lem obligation and duty it proceeded with, the house passed hr 3, an incredible step forward in terms of reducing Prescription Drug prices. It was supported by progressive and democratic members of the caucus. We are here to do the peoples work. Thats weigh ind tend to do this week. That will continue while we honor the oaths that we took to defend the constitution and end of the day uphold the rule of law. Thank you so much. Thank you. Joining me now, nicki edwards, former republican congressman. Let me start with you. Its notable to me, i think earlier rounds of contentious legislative fights that i have covered, there was more of an inclination of taking votes to distinguish you from your party. We are seeing the way that structural polarization has developed and i think Mitch Mcconnells deep insight into this during obama if you give him bipartisan cover then by definition its not bipartisan. Its interesting to see the uniformity which the front line members in tough districts are like were doing this. Well, im not surprised. They needed to buy time because they dont have a position, makes them look like they are thinking about things more and its one less state perhaps for an attack ad. They had a reason. Today you have hundreds of pages of the house report that might add more insight to somebody who wants to justify their decision. But here is another quick example of the degree of polarization. You talked about the rules committee coming up tomorrow. I know a lot of people dont know what its about. Its not a highprofile group. This will be the first time in history rules is taking up an impeachment. In clinton you know, the beginning of the extremism that we have today even then the republicans and democrats were able to in a unanimous way decide on what the rules should be so they didnt need to go to the rules committee. That just shows another example how deep these divides are. I want to talk to you today because there is this fascinating divide to me between republicans who currently are in elected office and who want a future in the Republican Party and many republicans who are no longer in that position but have deep connections to the party, to the conservative movement. You saw with ridge and with william webster, i mean, they are just lots of people who say this is terrible and not defensible and they are looking at the current elected republicans and wondering whats going on. I wonder if you could share your view on that. Yeah, chris, first, its good to be back with you. The people like tom ridge and others who have previously had other jobs, executive or legislative, and took an oath of office meant that oath seriously. So the republicans who are in Congress Today are not just at war with another political party. They are at war with the constitution. They are at war with the separation of powers. They have become a cult that has set aside as set aside their concerns about the country because party first and party for them today means follow the leader, the other branch of government. So i really think that people like Mitch Mcconnell, lindsey graham, and the others who are in a similar position, you know, they should be impeached. They took an oath of office. They took an oath to follow the constitution and they are clearly not doing that and they dont even appear to feel like they need to pretend they are doing it. So, i mean, i think its really disturbing what they have done to the party and what they are doing to the country. There is no impeachment provision in the United States constitution for nonprincipal officers and the executive. I take your point. Lynn, i am curious what you make of the senate. You talked about the precedent, much polarization has changed the institution such as the rules committee cant come to an agreement. What does that mean do you think for the senate and how the senate tries to take up a really thorny set of questions i think that arent necessarily easy and clear for Mitch Mcconnell . Well, first thing to remember for everybody who wasnt paying attention, it will be 21 years ago on thursday that clinton, that the house voted impeachment on clinton, another benchmark. This is called a trial but its not what you think of when you think of a criminal trial because this wrangling over rules is a big deal, and we dont even know, for example, if mcconnell agrees to the minimum amount of argument to keep face. That is something that will just spark an uproar. The house prosecutors and bill clinton had three days to put on Opening Statements against bill clinton. Three days. So thats the kind of dealing and wrangling that, you know, schumer tried to get out in front by putting out his witness list and everything. But these rules of the debate and the senate are a big deal, and you only need a majority to do it. So mcdonnell is in the drivers seat. If he wants to do another marek garland, that is no way, no how, he can do it but he is up for reelection in kentucky. Maybe there is a line that he will cross if he tries to just pretend that the trial is a minimal event in the nations history and just tries to dispatch it in a minimum of time. You might reed on my read on mcconnell, he is trying to give enough to the front line members, because he has folks up in difficult states like collins and gardner, to say they deliberated, did their duty, voted not to remove the president. Thats my read of what mcconnell is after here. I think he is trying to do that. He is also looking at his own election because kentucky has shown its willing to remove republicans from office, too. So i think he is trying to give a little bit of cover. But i dont see how you can cover what they are doing. There are too many who are just ignoring what the president did. At least there should be an open mind. There should be even if you dont start out by saying we want to impeach him, lipsen to the evidence. Listen to testimony you have got and then make a thats their they are committed. They are committed. They are taking an oath to be impartial jurors and they simply dont care about those things anymore. Yeah, it is striking how much tension there is between the words of that oath and what they have expressed as their view on how they are going to proceed. Thank you both. Thank you. Preparing for that senate trial. Mitch mcconnell says he will work in coordination with the white house. Where impeachment goes from here in two minutes. Impeachment goese in two minutes aying dog barking Music Building experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. When youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. So you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com here, it all starts withello hi . How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone wifi up there . Uhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your local xfinity store today. Over the weekend senator Chuck Schumer september a leader to Mitch Mcconnell calling on him to establish ground rules for the upcoming impeachment trial in the senate including calling witnesses the house was unable to compel to testify. People like mick mulvaney, john bolton. Schumer is confident he will have the votes to be able to push some of this forward. I expect to have the support from democrats and republicans because the argument is so strong. And many republicans have voiced to peand many of my colleagues privately that they think what the president did is wrong, but they are just not sure enough facts have been presented to make an high crimes and misdemeanors. This is the way to do it the way we out lined. Since mcconnell went on hannity last week to say he would be working in total coordination with the president s defense team, people pointed out the literal text of the oath administered to senators sitting on an impeachment trial that Mitch Mcconnell himself will have to take requires him to be, well, quite impartial. Quote, i sol emily swear or affirm all things pertaining to the trial of blank now pending i will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws so help me god. One of the people who will likely be taking that oath in the next year is senator chris coons, a democrat from delaware, and he joins me now. Lets start on this question of impartiality. You have the Senate Majority leader saying, look, we are working hand and glove with the president s Defense Attorneys then the wording of this oath which i imagine you and your colleagues take scariously. How do you square those two . I intend to take that oath seriously. One of the things i have been take to my republican colleagues is that President Trump deserves the chance to put on a full vigorous defense. But he declined to do so in the house. He blocked the folks who are most central to making the president s case from testifying in front of the house. So all i can say is i will do my best to do impartial justice, but all of the evidence that i have been able to hear or see so far from the house inquiry points to President Trump having actually dangled military aid as a bribe or inducement to a vulnerable ally, ukraine, in order to get them to dig up dirt without any foundation on his most viable political opponent joe biden in our upcoming president ial election. So thats why leader schumer put this letter forward to majority leader mcconnell. These are four witnesses who would actually help either make the president s case, if they were allowed to testify, or further confirm that the president actually did the bad things that a whole series of witnesses testified in front of the house he had done. I guess the question everyone sort of is wondering is whether this it this is going to come down to party line votes. The republicans hold a majority. And the rulings on procedure are going to come down to who can amass 51 votes on the proceed url questions. Thats right. Are you in the midst of conversations . Is this a thing that you think there is kind of fair minded openness to amongst your colleagues are we going to essentially see mcconnell sort of pull a marek garland 2. 0 and hold this caucus together . Its entirely possible what will happen will be a depressing display of caucus unity on the other side and by a 51 or more vote margin they will have a very brief, very truncated trial with no witnesses, no evidence. The house managers will present the barest of cases and it will be dismissed. Thats entirely possible, chris. I continue to have conversations with colleagues across the aisle because if just four of them decide they think it should be a stronger and a fair trial, there should be some witnesses, some evidence, then weve got a chance at a real trial. I think, as i have heard from my more senior senators who were here for the trial of president clinton, when you actually take that oath, when the chief justice takes the chair and begins presiding and when the historical significance of the impeachment trial begins to settle in, there is a chance that a few republican senators will vote with the democrats for a few witnesses in order to make this a more evenhanded trial. You said something that struck me because its something i have been thinking about, being gravely concerned about the president s behavior and what he thinks he can get away with should he, in fact, be acquitted. It seems we are entering dangerous territory in 2020. The president s lawyer still essentially carrying out the plot for which he is being impeached in front of all of us. What are your concerns . Why are you gravery concerned . Frankly, Rudy Giuliani has just returned from ukraine where he was continuing extending his efforts to gin up fake dirt on President Trumps opponents in the upcoming president ial election. My core concern is that there is lots of opportunities for President Trump to invite interference whether by china or russia or to continue to dig up and throw in the air distractions or in some ways efforts that will undermine our election. I want to add one encouraging note, chris. I hate coming on and always depressing your audience. I think its just become public that there is going to be 425 million in Election Security grants in this appropriation bill that i think we are going to pass this week. Thats something i fought very hard for. It came out of the subcommittee of appropriations where im the senior democrat. And it is a small but important investment in trying to make sure that our states have the most up to date cyber secure machinery to make it harder to hack our next election. Do you think there is a i mean, one thing that i hear from you and other folks is, look, our colleagues wouldnt actually do this. They wouldnt try to get a foreign leader to, you know, open an investigation on political rivals nor is it appropriate or okay, but in this environment you are either with the president or against him. Do you foresee a space at least for members of the senate to at least express their disapproval of the thing that was done whether or not they vote to remove . Well, as you know, chris, during the clinton impeachment there was a discussion about a sense you a sen censure motion. They didnt want to give an alternative to a trial. I do think that there will come a time for that conversation if we get through a full impeachment trial. Thats the time to say, okay, we have a president who has been cleared by the majority in the senate and who is now ungoverned, unbounded, unrestrained. We have to express in some strong and bipartisan way disapproval of these actions. So im not trying to foreclose or forestall the accountability that comes with President Trump likely being only the third president in the United States history to face a trial in the senate. But i agree with the premise of your question, chris. There has to be some other way to hold him accountable if the outcome of the trial is that a republican majority refuses to hold President Trump accountable on the evidence developed by the house intelligence committee. Senator chris coons, thank you so much. Thank you. Still ahead, Rudy Giulianis stunning awed Mission Related to one of the key plot points in the ukraine scheme. What he confirmed after this. N the ukraine scheme what he confirmed after this you dont want to cancel your plans. [sneezing] cancel your cold. The 1pill power of advil multisymptom cold flu knocks out your worst symptoms. Cancel your cold, not your plans. Advil multisymptom cold flu. And my lack of impulse control, is about to become your problem. Ahh no, come on. I saw you eating poop earlier. Hey my focus is on the road, and thats saving me cash with drivewise. Whos the dummy now . Whoof whoof so get allstate where good drivers save 40 for avoiding mayhem, like me. Sorry hes a baby you have a brother in the second battalion . Theyre walking into a trap. Your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow mornings attack. If you fail, we will lose sixteen hundred men. If were not clever about this. No one will get to your brother. I will. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. 1 in 5 people you meet wear yeah. That many but right now, is not the time to talk about it. So when youre ready, search my denture care. Poligrip and polident. Fixed. Fresh. And just between us. Spread a little love today spread a little love myy way spread a Little Something to remember philadelphia cream cheese. Made with fresh milk and real cream makes your recipes their holiday favourites. The holidays are made with philly. Save hundreds of thousands of lives. But after the emergency, time and again, Insurance Companies deny coverage, second guessing doctors, nurses and first responders. Now big insurance is lobbying congress. Asking for restrictions on air medical services. Eliminating patients access to lifesaving care and destroying jobs all in exchange for bigger profits for Insurance Companies. Tell congress, put patients first, not big insurance. Unnerving subplot of the impeachment drama is the fact that the president and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani are continuing to do the thing that the president is being impeached for, part of the thing. Just out in the open. In fact, today in this just fascinating and excellent new yorker piece about one of the exprosecutors of the center of the ukraine story, Rudy Giuliani admits a key part of the plot. He says he spearheaded getting rid of a former ambassador of ukraine Marie Yovanovitch because she stood in the way of his scheme. I believe i needed yovanovitch out of the way. She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody. That scheme is partly what Rudy Giulianis two associates are indicted for. Its partly what President Trumps impeachment is about. This civil servant, Marie Yovanovitch, had to be removed so they could undergo their corrupt extortion plot holding back nearly 400 million in aid to ukraine until it announced investigations into the bidens. The wall street journal reported when Rudy Giuliani got back from his latest trip to ukraine, the president called him, what did you get, rudy said the president asked him . More than you could imagine, he replied. He was at the white house on friday and trump acknowledged calling Rudy Giuliani a very great crime fighter. Joining me now, White House Reporter rebecca ball house who coauthored the wall street journal piece. We know they are in touch. He comes back. You have him telling you gets a call from the president. Away do we know about what the nature of that friday meeting or debrief was . So the white house and giuliani have so far declined to say what was discussed at that meeting, but one thing i would note is that in that call that you mentioned where the president called giuliani the minute he lands back in the u. S. From ukraine and says what did you get, that on that call he asked giuliani to brief the attorney general, to brief congress, and to brief him at some point on what he had found. And we know that this week or this morning the findings or some of the findings that giuliani collected while he was on his trip started being broadcast on this series that he has been working on with oan and the president has been retweeteding a lot of that. All signs point to the fact this was discussed on friday but nobody is willing to confirm. This is now, if you read that piece in the new yorker, great piece, barr comes up over and over again. Giuliani has connections to barr and can get meetings with barr. Has barr met with giuliani on this matter . I dont think we have any indication that the two of them have met. And actually we have reported at the beginning of this saga that back in may, i believe, or april, barr called the president to express some concerns about giuliani and whether he was serving the president properly. So they certainly i think have had sort of a fraught relationship in that sense. And i think there was a lot of reporting around the time that the rough transcript of the president s call with zelensky was released in september that barr was not happy with being sort of lumped in with giuliani on that call. The president repeatedly asked zelensky to work with both giuliani and with barr on the investigations into biden and election interference that he was asking for. Here is a question we talked about before and i want to return it because there is some interim reporting. So Rudy Giuliani is not taking payment from the president. There is some reporting last week the president did not note this in his gift financial decision closures, even though it would be a sizable gift of services. You know, this is a very well paid lawyer. We still dont know who is paying like completely for his for all of this, do we . So i asked him actually about who was paying for his travel last week when he went to budapest, to viana, rome, and ukraine. What he said was that because he was working on this series with oan, but also conducting some of his own investigations, that they split the cost of his travel. So that answers some of the questions, but its not clear, i think, where the money that he has been funding his own efforts with is coming from. And then fundamentally one of the issues here, rudy is talking to these characters and figures in ukraine and one of the things that that new yorker piece does a good job of laying out who these people are. But its pretty clear he keeps going to pedal this information to people and cant get anyone to bite because there is good reason to be suspicious of the motives behind the people he is talking to. Is that a fair characterization . I think thats certainly fair. One of the people that he has been talking to is viktor shokin, who was the prosecutor who biden pushed to oust, but who also was the focus of not only an International Effort to oust him from the prosecutors office, but also several republicans who are currently serving in congress and were also at the time also suggested that he be or were pushing for him to be removed from that position. And lutsenko, people advocated for him to be removed because he wasnt doing enough to combat crime in ukraine. We should note rudy is claiming, among other things, that he was poisoned and died twice and came back to life twice. One of the many claims he is making in this series that he is doing with this essentially rightwing news outlet with whom he has sort of partnered on this trip. Thats right. That is a claim that he is making. I dont think we are able to independently evaluate that claim right now, but thats if he came back to life twice . We havent run that into the ground yet. Not yet. Rebecca, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Still to come, the Supreme Court takes up the fight over the president s financial records. What that means ahead. Plus tonights one thing next. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with. An increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. I need all the breaks, that i can get. At liberty butchumal cut. Liberty biberty cut. Well dub it. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I am all about livi g joyfully. Hello. The united explorer card hooks me up. Getting more for getting away. Rewarded going new places and tasting new flavors. Rewarded traveling lighter. Rewarded. Haha, boom getting settled. Rewarded. Learn more at the explorer card dot com. And get. Rewarded fred would do anything for his daughter get in fred even if it means being the back half of a unicorn. Fear not fred the front half washed his shirt with gain detergent. Thats the scent that puts the giddy in giddy up ahhh. The irresistible scent of gain. For a scent with even more giddy up, try gain scent blast in detergent, fabric softener and scent beads. Thing one tonight, not terribly hard to figure out when donald trump is lying. Its pretty much always. But there is one routine he does that is particularly entertaining. The old i have a friend who told me a thing. Like the story about jim who used to love to go to paris but not anymore. I have a friend every year he goes to paris. I havent seen him in a while. Paris, the city of lights. My friend used to go to paris. Donald, i love paris, so beautiful. For years, a friend of i mean, i saw him yesterday. I said, how did you like france . And i said, jim, let me ask you a question. How is paris doing . Paris . I dont go there anymore. Paris is no longer paris. He said france isnt france anymore. We are not going. As it turns out, there is no evidence that jim actually exists. The new yorker tried to find jim and came up empty. Because, of course, they did. But jim isnt the most egregious of trumps friend stories. A brand new one is something else. Thats thing two in 60 seconds. E thats thing two in 60 seconds Washington Post identified a strange pattern last week in Donald Trumps speeches although maybe nothing is that strange with this president. Its a story trump told several times about the iran deal he backed out of this. This is about a conversation with a jewish friend. Every time he tells the story its a different jewish friend. I said to people, what is more important . The Golan Heights or the capitol of jerusalem by moving our embassy there . He said neither, sir. What you have done in iran is more important than both of them. I said to sheldon, what do you think was bigger . Israel and the embassy going in and it became jerusalem, the capital of israel, or the goal an heights. He said neither. I said what do you mean neither, sheldon . He said the biggest thing you did for israel was breaking up and terminating the horrible onesided catastrophic deal that was made by president obama. I said bob kraft, which is bigger . Which is more important to the jewish people . He said neither. I said what does that mean . He said what you did by terminating the Iran Nuclear Deal is bigger than both. And then i asked charlie kushner, whats bigger for the jewish people . Giving the embassy to jerusalem, it becomes the capital of israel, whats bigger . That or the Golan Heights . He said neither. I said away does that mean . He said the biggest thing of all is what you did by ending the iran nuclear catastrophe. I think thats true. I think thats true. What do we want for dinner . Burger. I want a sugar cookie. Wait. I want a bucket of chicken. I want. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. And i approve this message. Climate is the number one priority. I would declare a state of emergency on day one. Congress has never passed an important climate bill, ever. This is a problem which continues to get worse. Ive spent a decade fighting and beating oil companies, stopping pipelines, stopping fossil fuel plants, ensuring clean energy across the country. How are we going to pull this country together . We take on the biggest challenge in history, we save the world and we do it together. Male anchor . An update on the cat who captured our hearts. Female anchor how often should you clean your fridge . Stay tuned to find out. Male anchor . This years most buzzed about premieres. Female anchor makes it redcarpet official with. Male anchor 50 5star products you can buy online right now male anchor tributes pouring in from fans. Female anchor her hot new album is just one of the things we talked about. Male anchor beats the odds at the box office to become a rare nonfranchise hit. [anchor voices ramp up together becoming indiscernible] you can provide the help and hope that survivors need. 1 in 5 people you meet wear yeah. That many but right now, is not the time to talk about it. So when youre ready, search my denture care. Poligrip and polident. Fixed. Fresh. And just between us. Ever since the house started moving forward with the impeachment inquiry there is been an effort by the president and his allies to paint the House Democratic majority as doing nothing but the impeachment of the president. They passed 400 bills before impeachment started, including big once sweeping anticorruption legislation, bills to protect americans with preexisting conditions and Climate Change. Since the impeachment inquiry started, and probably in some suspects to ward off trumps attack, the Democratic House passed more legislation including a bill to restore the Voting Rights act to full functionality which they did e with a lone solitary republican joining them. They will pass the acfa after a fm of concessions from the trump administration. Last week a bill to reduce Prescription Drug prices. While President Trump made noise about lowering drug places, we will probably not see Mitch Mcconnell in the senate let that body vote on the bill. 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On friday the Supreme Court announced it will hear three Different Cases on subpoenas for the president s records. Ruled the president or more specifically the Financial Firms that have the records have to turn them over. Interestingly, missing from that set of cases is, perhaps, the most legally compelling one which is the house ways and Means Committees demand for the president s tax returns. The committee subpoenaed the Treasury Department and the irs for those in may after the agencies refused to complcomply committee sued. That was five months ago. Theres still no decision from the court on it. Since then, many critics have accused the chair of ways and Means Committee, congressman richard neil, of dragging his feet. Meanwhile, however, as we face the question of whether or not the president s taxes will be made public before election day 2020, theres also a story of a whistleblower in the irs that sort of looms in the background. In august there were reports an irs whistleblower came forward with concerns about that agencys handling of the audit of the president s or Vice President s taxes. Senate staffers have reportedly met with the whistleblower but given the impeachment it seems like more Public Information on this would be useful one way or the other. Joining me to talk now about the status of the president s taxes, noel bookbinder, executive director for citizens of responsibility and ethics in washington. Elliot, let me start with you, when i saw the grant by the court on friday, i was it reminded me that the ways and means claim for the taxes is probably the most strongest statutorily because theres actually part of the law that says they can ask for tax returns but that hasnt even gotten to a ruling. Where are we on that case . Well, as you said, its still in early stages and youre absolutely right that the law is extremely clear that when the ways and Means Committee in the house asks for anyones tax returns including the president , the irs has to give them. And so were certainly hopeful for a quick ruling or its not quick at this point but for a ruling. In the meantime, the Supreme Court cases do include new york states attempts to get the president s tax returns from from Financial Institutions so well see well see which way we get there faster, but its still crucial all these years later to get those tax returns. It is striking to me, i mean, as someone who reports on the Trump Organization, we had that amazing New York Times piece, right, where they got bits and scraps here and there they were able to get and found on its face, they used the word, fraud which is remarkable. Yeah. The New York Times coming out saying this is fraud. It was remarkable that was published, the president kicked the can, kicked the can, kicked the can, fought everywhere in the courts and still dont really have any definitive sense of what the president s income is, who he owes money to, what his businesses are doing, what foreign governments might be putting money into them. Yeah, it is really incredible. The president has fought oversight and accountability every step of the way and now hes fighting that battle on many different fronts. Theres the two congressional subpoenas that you referred to in the intro. There is Manhattan District Attorney cy vances efforts to get that information which is also part of the Supreme Court case. And then theres separately the house ways and Means Committee also trying to get access to his tax returns and hes fighting all of them using using an interesting variety of arguments. So if we look at the case in manhattan with the District Attorney here, cy vance, vance is looking into the mush money payment made to Stormy Daniels which the Trump Organization we believe classified as Legal Expenses that may be that may constitute falsifying Business Records which is a criminal offense. Cy vance trying to look into that trying to find out more about that. Hes subpoenaed records from trumps accountant. Trumps legal team intervened in that case and they basically said there should be no state or local oversight of the president. Right. The Justice Department memo says that federal crimes cant be prosecuted against a president but theyre saying state and local crimes so theres actually this crazy moment in the court where the judge said, well, could donald trump really shoot someone or if this is true, could donald trump shoot someone on 5th avenue, the famous example he once offered, and trumps attorney came back and essentially said, yeah. Yeah, you couldnt investigate him. And part of whats remarkable about this sort of legal argument thats being meat here, noah, the strategy does seem delayed. It really does matter if people get to see some transparency of the president s business expenses before he stands for reelection again and seems clear from a legal strategy a lot of this is designed to just move that date as far into the future as possible. Thats absolutely right. And the president from day one has been fighting any kind of oversight. Hes been fighting congressional subpoenas, hes been fighting lawsuits. Hes been fighting prosecutors offices and really it does seem like what hes trying to do is throw up as many obstacles as possible so that we cant get the records and see what his conflicts of interest might be. See whether hes been complying with the law in in his taxes and his finances. See how he might benefit from the legal changes that his administration and this congress, the last congress, have made, and the longer he pushes it back, the less opportunity there is to have any oversight and for the American People to be able to really evaluate what this president is doing now, what hes done in the past. This point is a key one, right, because everyones like, we know the campaign its a live issue. Every year the president files his taxes then he releases them and everyone gets to see what they are. We had to track them down to see if he was even filing. Correct. Its a live issue what hes doing while, since being in the white house. Lets add on top of that the Trump Organization is a live organization from which donald trump can still draw income in which his two adult sons, don junior and eric are still running, so much like the ukraine scandal, which is playing out in tandem with this, also subject to whistleblower complaint, this one also is sort of a realtime, i guess, scandal is the word i would use for it or realtime conflict that we are all having to grapple with and its putting our government under zran. Your organization has raised questions about charles reddick, the commissioner of the irs who has only conflicts, himself. Thats right. So there are really two reasons why we should be very suspicious about whether the irs is looking at the president s tax returns the way they should. The first is as you said, commissioner charles redig, the president s choice to lead the irs, is somebody who owns trumpbranded condominiums from which he profits, he initially didnt disclose that but then he did, disclosing in the year for which we have records that he gained up to a Million Dollars in income. From the trump businesses. Wow. Thats a conflict of interest. That could cause rproblems with his objectivity. We also know there is a whistleblower out there whos saying there is political interference in the irs audits of the president s tax returns. We dont know a whole lot about it, but we know thats out there, too. Yes, and thats something that it seems to me that its worth, again, definitively settling one way or the other. Absolutely. We know so little about this right now, but potentially, i feel like this is one of those things that could really bubble up and start to cause new headaches for the president in the mosnths ahead. Yeah, we know theres been senate staff thats interviewed this individual. We know i think they have retained some counsel. Again, it may be that theres nothing there but, again, the issue seems to be in all of these things, it may be theres nothing there but some sort of definitive transparency seems so, so crucial to establish burgla particularly in the runup to reelection. Noah book binder, ilya marritz. Thats all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show begins now. Much appreciate it. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Happy to have you with us. Its a week before christmas. Everything supposed to be slowing down, if not closing up. Right . Everybody getting into the holiday spirit. The news going into a long winters nap. Ha. Thats if we could be so lucky. It is the week before christmas, but, of course, it is all systems go. Tonight we are following developing stories on a few different fronts. On the issue of Voting Rights on the upcoming election, the crucial, crucial, crucial, crucial, swing state of wisconsin is, as the president might say, going through some things right now. In a lawsuit brought by a