Campaign, polls show more americans supporting the impeachment inquiry. Its also revealing some troubling signs among voters he needs to win back the white house. In the last 30 minutes or so, this is just breaking, President Trump leaving the white house calling on two different foreign governments to investigate his political rival, joe biden. China should start an investigation into the bidens. What happened to china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. I would say that president zelensky, if it were me, i would recommend that they start an investigation into the bidens, because nobody has any doubt that they werent crooked. So President Trump right there essentially describing out loud the precise accusation congress is investigating behind closed doors at this minute. It unfolds as a key player central to the impeachment inquiry, former u. S. Special envoy to ukraine kurt volker is being deposed by house lawmakers and their staff. Weve got a lot to talk about. Lets go right to washington where we find nbc News White House correspondent Peter Alexander on the north lawn, nbcs Geoff Bennett is on capitol hill. Peter, you were with the president as he left. You heard him make this ask. Give us your analysis of this and a little more about what he said. Reporter chris, lets put this in very simple terms for people right now. President trump is now publicly calling for foreign leaders to investigate joe biden amid an impeachment inquiry of whether President Trump privately urged a foreign leader to investigate joe biden. He was asked about ukraine. As we have been discussing here, he said out loud he believes ukraine what he wanted them to do and wants them to do is to launch a, quote, Major Investigation into the bidens. Then unprompted, he raised his desire for china, also to investigate joe and hunter biden here which is significant for a variety of reasons, not the least of which right now is the fact that this president , this white house is tied up a major negotiation with china. This trade war currently in place. The president effectively said to the chinese, if youre listening, that he would like from them to see them investigate the bidens. The bottom line is on ukraine the investigation was focused on whether or not the quid pro quo was that he was withholding money, military aid to that country unless they investigated the bidens. Here many analysts, critics say hes basically saying our negotiations could in some form be dependent upon you doing what im asking you to do, investigate the bidens. He was asked specifically as a followup in the course of that back and forth with President Trump on the south lawn, whether he asked president xi directly. He says he has not to this point. Chris, it really was draw plat tick because the president appeared in recent days, had gotten some traction, at least for the argument, that he tried to say, adam schiff was shifty, as he likes to say. The focus had been on adam schiff, on House Democrats, more than nancy pelosi. In the course of the last hour we saw the president reignite a new firestorm by now saying publicly he wants both ukraine and china, those foreign governments to investigate his leading political opponent. We cannot emphasize that enough. Geoff bennett, so this changes the equation in many ways. You have volker behind closed doors, right . But you can imagine whats going on as the same House Democrats learn behind closed doors about what the president just said. Reporter youre certainly right about that, chris. This deposition is entering its second hour. I talked to people who know kurt volker, theyre familiar with his thinking, with the role he had when he was the u. S. Envoy to ukraine. He was appointed, tapped by rex tillerson, the former secretary of state of 2017. He held that position, chris, until last friday, when the whistleblower complaint was made public and voelker resigned because were told he wanted to be more free in what he could tell members of congress. Whereas Rudy Giuliani, the president s outside attorney has tried to paint kurt volker as an accessory to julianne anys own Pressure Campaign as he tried to encourage the ukrainian leader to dig up discredited dirt on joe biden, volker is telling these congressional staffers handling the decision that that was not the case. He maintains he had no role in the decision to hold up Ukrainian Military aid. In fact, he told ukrainian leaders not to get involved in the u. S. 2020 election. And if Rudy Giuliani believes he had any guidance from the state department, specifically from volker himself, its that he saw him, meaning Rudy Giuliani, as a problem and was trying to table his effort, trying to end it as quickly as he could. Its also that his job was voluntary. His fulltime job is executive director of the mccain institute. He was al ally and protege of john mccain. He has no closeness or aftfinit to President Trump. The case hes making in this deposition is not beneficial to President Trumps bottom line politically. Now that it is 11 06, at 11 05, flbs news was given this first from the office of laos republican leader Kevin Mccarthy. He wrote a letter to nancy pelosi urging her to stop the impeachment inquiry. He says she does not have off fisht legitimacy to bring forward articles of impeachment or even carry out this inquiry process. It says, unfortunately you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry will proceed including whether key historical precedence or basic standards of due process will be observed. This is the latest effort from House Republicans to call into question the ongoing formal impeachment inquiry that nancy pelosi announced last week. Well talk a little plofr about that. But peter, the president s comments this morning of course come on the heels of the two Public Events yesterday. He used vol garrity, went after democrats in the media. He continued to make false and unproven claims. Let me play a few clips from what we heard yesterday. I dont call him shifty schiff for nothing. Biden and his son are stone cold crooked. You know it. Nancy pelosi hands out subpoenas like theyre cookies. You want a subpoena . Here you go. Take them. Like theyre cookies. Theres an expression, he couldnt carry it blank strap. I wont say it. Are you talking to me . It was a followup of what i just asked you. Listen. Are you ready . We have the president of finland. Ask him a question. Add to that again, the president is just a short time ago, making the democrats own argument about courting interference. Do white house staff that you talk to, peter and i know you talk to them multiple times a day, do they still believe he is his own best spokesperson or is nervousness growing . Reporter frankly, it doesnt platter if he thinks he is or isnt, hes clearly going to be his own spokesperson Going Forward as evidenced by what he saw yesterday. It was interesting to see a visibly angry President Trump. One of the photographers immediately came to me and said, honestly, ive never seen him like this before. There was another moment where we witnessed it again with the finnish president later in the day. You can imagine the finnish delegation and their experience at the white house. My conversation with this white house, there is a real sense of frustration among those aides and allies of President Trump that this strategy has not been made clear. Its not exactly clear to them what they should be doing. Youre not seeing many surrogates, certainly not seeing republicans go out on the air and try to defend President Trump in this time. Kevin mccarthy was on 60 minutes this weekend. It didnt go well for him. Given the fact that congress is in recess, theyre not easy to track down in the lal ways. Were they to be defending them fiercely, there would be plenty of cameras available. Thats not happening right now, as they continue to watch what critics describe as an unraveling of this president , to see him that angry publicly while he continues to repeat information that is factually inaccurate, lies on a regular basis, i think was striking and certainly the fact that he came back out on the south lawn and continued with that line and even i think reignited it in a bigger way by bringing china into this equation, will be something that people behind closed doors as soon as we finish this conversation. Feel free to come back to us. I want to bring in peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. John meacham, Pulitzer Prize winning historian, jake sherman, Senior Writer for politico. All three are msnbc political analysts. Peter baker, it is one thing to see what we saw yesterday. We know and the Washington Post has kept great track of this, how often the president lies. He clearly was angry yesterday, as peter pointed out. It is another thing altogether to do, would you agree, what he did this morning saying publicly to china and ukraine start an investigation into my political rival. For two years during the russia investigation, the mantra was no collusion, no collusion, meaning i didnt work with a foreign power to influence our domestic politics. Now hes saying so what . So what if i do . Hes doubling down . Its very much a defiant president youre seeing. Hes defiant of the congress. Hes saying the thing youre investigating i dont think is such a big deal at all. I think i have no only the right to do it, i should do it. I have the obligation to pursue corruption as he puts it. What congress would say is hes pursuing his political enemies using the power of his presidency to do so. No direct quid pro quo he mentioned this morning. He did start to talk about the fact theyre about to have the trade talks with china and the context of the trade talks. The fact hes calling on china now to investigate the bidens at the same time hes having these negotiations which are a great consequence to the United States and its national interest, obviously great consequence to chinas national interest. Further clouds that picture. I think what you see here is a defiant president. Jon meacham, you and peter were two of three authors on the book impeachment. It strikes me as im looking at this statement we got from Kevin Mccarthy, a political statement hes putting out there. He says, unfortunately youve given no indication about whether there are key historical precedence or basic standards of due process that will be observed. Help us put what weve seen unfold over the last 24 hours in any kind of historical context, jon. Well, we have a rolling abuse of power unfolding on our television screens. At least nixon did it behind closed doors and taped it. Trump has disintermediate eighted that as well. Without being anyway partisan, it seems the question for those, including leader mccarthy i havent seen his letter. Every republican, every person who supports the president i think has to answer the following question, and the answer can be whatever they want it to be. But at least they have to confront it. Is american sovereignty worth the reflexive support of the president . Do you so want to support this man against all criticism, against allcomers, that youre willing to live with a president who clearly believes that our sovereignty, the sovereignty of our elections, the integrity of our democracy, is basically for sale or rent depending on the political needs of his own at a given moment . I think that this is this is like the ukrainian phone call, but he just did it in the driveway. You laid it out very well. He talked about the trade talks and then a few seconds later he says, i think they should open an investigation. Is that a quid pro quo . Im sure were going to hear from the trump people that its not, that people are overreacting, hyperventilating, but there is a pattern here, and i just think it requires an honest confrontation of the facts, and maybe, folks, maybe that 45 or whatever it is now, that opposes impeachment and tends to support the president no matter what, maybe their answer is we dont care. We believe in this president , we dont like the alternatives, we believe socialists are coming over the wall. So maybe thats the answer. But at least have the moment of confrontation where you have to answer that question. Its extraordinary. We dont need a rose mary woods, secretary for richard nixon, and there are questions about missing parts of the tape. He came out and spoke openly and clearly on television. Jake, youre the perfect person to have to essentially answer the very important question that was just raised by jon meacham. Weve talked a lot in the last couple weeks as this has escalated. One of the complaints of Kevin Mccarthy is the swiftness at which this happens. Im not sure who hes blaming for that. I know who we wants to blame. It is moving very swiftly. The question s is this one of those points that might move some republicans . Thats a good question. First of all, ill disagree with mccarthy its moving quickly its not moving terribly quickly. He says swiftness and recklessness is what his letter says. Democrats certainly have Political Risk here which would be not Holding Hearings and rushing this to the house floor for a vote. We dont see that quite yet. It doesnt mean it cant happen and wont happen. We dont see that quite yet. I will answer jons question by saying, yes, republicans believe with donald trump in office, their only option is to lock themselves to the president , defend him until the proverbial death because thats believe thats where their base is, and they might be right. They do not believe these are impeachable offenses on the substance. I dont know whether they believe that, but thats what they say. Impeachable offenses is in the eye of the beholder, right . Theres no definition besides high crimes and misdemeanors. Its up to the congress, to the house to decide whats impeachable. Democrats are in the process of doing that. I guess there is a sliver of a chance they do not write up impeachment articles if they dont find what they expect they will find. If you talk to most democrats, they will say what trump has said in the open, things like he has said today on his way to the helicopter, things he said on that phone call, his mission of all the things that hes done, those are impeachable enough without any other evidence. So i guess the answer to jons question is, yes, republicans are going to defend him. They believe they can win back the house by defending him. The nrcc put out polling today that shows swing districts are wary of the impeachment push and believe democrats are too focused on impeachment. Most polls dont show that, but thats certainly what House Republicans believe. Thats the political reality were working with on capitol hill. One of the things that we heard, peter, from nancy pelosi when she was reluctant to move forward with impeachment, she wanted to make sure she had the American People behind her. Theres a new usa today poll out today that shows a plurality of americans support impeaching President Trump, 45 to 38 . This follows a pattern weve seen over the last couple weeks, that Public Opinion is moving toward impeachment. How, if at all, does this affect whatever strategy the white house may have, and conversely, what does it mean for the democrats . Its obviously not good news for the white house because the argument they have had up until now long before the ukraine thing came up was the public didnt want the impeachment and they had the polls to prove it. There was no question, a factor in Nancy Pelosis reluctance to move forward. She was a member of congress in 1998 and 1999 when clinton was impeached. His ratings went up, not down in that. The democrats didnt want to repeat whthe bad experience the republicans had in that experience. Theyre moving to the basic corners where everybody is already sitting. The antitrump people coming out in favor of impeachment inquiry or impeachment itself. But we havent seen that move beyond that dynamic, 45 to 38 split is more or less where the country has been on trump all along. In fact, theres been a larger percentage of people who disapprove of President Trumps performance in office than 45 . They havent gotten the full antitrump electorate behind the impeachment effort. The calculation nancy pelosi made earlier is the house could impeach him on a Party Line Vote and the senate would acquit him. And the president would use that as an effective election argument. That still hasnt changed. Its very likely the senate would acquit him even if the house doesnt impeach him. That would be the final verdict from congress the president would take to the campaign trail. Jon, i cant remember if this is part of what you wrote in the book. I cant remember who to assign each of these if its good, i wrote it. If it wasnt, baker wrote it. Absolutely right. There is great. Im reminded about the awesomeness of the responsibility that congress has. I think we did see that yesterday a little bit at the press conference with schiff and pelosi, that they were very calm, very measured in their comments. I think this is about a decision that would nullify the will of the voters. That is so enormous what theyre undertaking, but also the idea that congress has never been the most popular kids on the block. Theyre one of the least favorable institutions we have in this country. I checked a recent gallup poll showed 78 of the American Public disapprove of the way congress is doing its job. Does that play in this world at all into it . Or is it about who has the stronger narrative here . What are you looking for to tell us where this is going . I think what weve been talking about the last five or six minutes is absolutely relevant. Nobody knows more about this than jake and pieter, about the political calculations, about looking at both their own seats, the senate composition, possibly the president ial ballot. Thats all true. Impeachment is an inherently political process, unquestionably. Its not a judicial process. However, and this is coming from somebody who doesnt have to face the voters, i will say there. At some point if you continue to raise the bar on what is impeachable, you lower the bar inextrablly on the behavior youre willing to live with. I dislike what i sometimes think of as the punditry of hypocrisy. What if obama did this . What if george w. Bush did this . Thats an easy thing to say. In this case it really does matter, because i think what the members of the house have to do and i think what citizens have to do, because politicians are far more often mirrors of who we are than they are molders, what we have to decide is, is this a moment where a higher duty actually should take presence over the next election or that strongly support number youre looking at from the nrcc or nrsc. Is there a moment . This is the kind of moment that people write books about. This is the kind of moment where, if your portrait is on a wall, people point at it and say this person did the right thing when it wasnt popular. One final point, in this climate a sevenpoint margin is a pretty interesting number. If youre looking for unanimity, looking for in this moment a 60 40, a 70 30, an 80 20, i dont think thats going to happen. It didnt happen in watergate until very late in the game, late july, early august, 26 months in. So its a higher duty question. And the answer may be no, that we want to preserve our positions, we want to be reelected and we dont think this rises to that level. I promise you, if a democrat had done what theyre doing, they would be saying the opposite. Its a fantastic book, if people in this moment want to read about impeachment, peter and jon meacham, couldnt ask for two more important voices at an extraordinary in an extraordinary moment. Jake sherman, you always have your finger on everything thats going on there. I thank all of you for being with us today. Coming up, another day, another revelation about just how far Rudy Giuliani reportedly went in his efforts to dig up dirt on the president s political rivals. Plus new warning signs for the president. Polls starting to show he could be losing ground with a key group he eel need to win the white house again, all coming as some House Democrats would won in trump districts this year are going back home to tell impeachment to their constituents including congresswoman Elise Slotkin who attracted a much larger than expected crowd yesterday. I did this not lightly, i did this out of judicious and thoughtful reflection and i did it because i believed it was the right thing to do based on my ineggity and oath of office. I appreciate your understanding. Theres a better choice. Aleve pm. The only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12hour painrelieving strength of aleve that dares to last into the morning. So you feel refreshed. Aleve pm. Theres a better choice. Hi. Maria ramirez mom maria Maria Ramirez. Mcdonalds is committing 150 Million Dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs. Prof Maria Ramirez mom and dad Maria Ramirez to help more employees achieve their dreams. What are you doing back there, junior . Since were obviously lost, mom and dad Maria Ramirez im rescheduling my Xfinity Customer Service appointment. Ah, relax. I got this. Which gps are you using anyway . A Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. My whole body is a compass. Oh boy. The my account app makes todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Not my thing. We have new reporting about one of tpts men at the center of the impeachment storm. It reveals the lengths that the president s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has gone to deflect away from President Trump and find dirt on the other side. The Washington Post reports giuliani in recent months has consulted several times with trumps former Campaign ChairmanPaul Manafort while hes serving a prison sentence. Were joined by paul sony, National Security reporter with the post. Also harry lit man, former Deputy Attorney general during the clinton administration. Great to see both of you gentlemen oochs. Paul, the way you and your coauthors lay this out, this is part of giulianis quest, you wrote, do rewrite the history of the 2016 election. Tell us how giuliani was able to reach out to manafort, what was his goal . What did he want from him . I think the key thing to remember here is giuliani was brought in in april 2018 by the president on his personal legal team to defend the president against special Counsel Robert Mueller in any indictments or impeachment that might arise from that inquiry. What giuliani was doing starting then but increasingly later last year and it sort of changed direction to focus on biden this year, was do essentially find a way to undermine the special counsels investigation, undermine the origins of that and build a case that would defend the president. And one of the methods he was using to do that was actually something that manaforts team was promoting back in 2017 which is that the real story of the 2016 election is, quote, ukraine interference on behalf of the democrats rather than russian interference on behalf of donald trump. Throughout this process, giuliani has been a mainstay on fox news. I want to play some of the information that hes trying to peddle as fact. This is information given to me. I didnt go looking for joe biden. The ukrainian brought me substantial evidence of ukrainian collusion with Hillary Clinton, the dnc, george soros, george soros company. They put it in my lap. They came and gave me testimony. Now, your report lays out how the stuff that he says, like he did there, is taking root within sort of republicanism. A lot of republicans are saying these same things now. I think what giuliani is doing is quite clever in that he is saying things that on their face are legitimate facts. For example, there are suspicions about the nature of a blackledger released by ukrainian authorities sort of showing possible corruption by manafort during the campaign. There are questions about, in fact, part time dnc employee was Gathering Research on manafort and trying to, quote, ring the alarm bell about him and, in fact, hunter biden, joe bidens son did serve on the board of a ukrainian gas producer. The owner of that gas company was under investigation by ukrainian authorities at the time and biden was Vice President. So these are all sort of discreet facts. I think what giuliani is essentially doing is creating a connective tissue to weave a narrative that suggests that ukrainians are out to get donald trump. This was a vast conspiracy between the democrats and ukraine, and while those distinct facts or suspicions might be true, the connective tissue and motive has not been proven and not there. Thats supposition and spin on his part. Harry, you wrote a brand new oped in the post titled why attorneyclient privilege does not apply to Rudy Giuliani and trump. I think we should remind folks that after giuliani got the subpoena, he tweeted, well, it was only signed by democratic chairs and they have prejudged the case. Why do you think, as he wrote as you wrote in your oped that his arguments are feeble . Well, look, in short attorneyclient privilege is in order to give advice to a client. Thats not whats going on here. Even he said hes not even acting like a lawyer when hes out on the road trips trying to gather dirt and take the smallest scintilla of irrelevant facts and weave them together. I actually think hes being too clever by half. He is a private citizen. All these talks, hes going to have very little defense to actually producing all the information and that of his whole team with his weird Foreign Policy that was joined at the hip with trump, with whom he shares a kind of instinct for the big lie and a kind of viciousness. If he is put to the if he tries to stonewall, its going to support the democrats second count of impeachment, and its all going to come out eventually. I think hes going to be a weak link because hes not a member of the executive branch and trump and he are making a strategic mistake to give him this rogue power to conduct, what you could call Foreign Policy, but it is campaign dirt. I noted you didnt call it halfbaked theories, but quarterbaked. I need to ask you, if House Democrats issue the subpoenas they threaten to tomorrow, assuming the white house doesnt give them what theyve asked for, and then if the white house tells them to comply, what happens then . If they dont comply, its the same song and dance in court which could take, even if expedited a few months. The dems have a different notion to funnel that into their second count. I think probably the white house will try to make some kind or at least look like theyre making some kind of accommodation for that reason and will give them half measures. Harry litman, paul sonne, thank you for coming on the program. Still ahead, polls reveal how this inquiry should be shifting the opinion of a key group that helped put the president in the white house. Signs the 2020 democratic field is starting to winnow even more. Candidates facing an uphill race to make the upcoming debates. Hey there people eligible for medicare. Gimme one minute. And ill tell you some important things to know about medicare. First, it doesnt pay for everything. Say this pizza is your part b medical expenses. This much about 80 medicare will pay for. Whats left is on you. Thats where an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company comes in. This type of plan helps pay some of what medicare doesnt. These are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement for meeting their high standards of quality and service. So call Unitedhealthcare Insurance Company today and ask for your free decision guide. With this type of plan, youll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. And when you travel, your plan will go with you anywhere in the country. Whew call unitedhealthcare today and ask for your free decision guide. President trump is in battle mode as he charges head first into an impeachment fight with democrats. Already on twitter this morning calling house intel chairman a low life and the media deranged. But with an eye on 2020, trumps team is relying on a whole number of fire walls that helped him get elected in the first place. Fox news opinion host at the top of the list using conservative media to reach his base. White women voters, another firewall, a critical electoral puzzle piece and arguably his biggest talking point, the economy. Joining me, yamiche shin door and alleys jordan, both msnbc political analysts. Lets start with the firewall. Sean hannity and fox news, phillip bump did a fas neating dive on this. He found through july 25th more than a third of every interview President Trump has given hes given to fox or some part of the fox news corps company. Hes mentioned or retweeted fox and its properties more than 500 times. But, as i read that, as astonishing as those numbers are, you cant win preaching to the converted. Well, one good way to lose is to lose the converted. Can you lose the converted . His firewall is fox. If he loses fox, it is game over. And i wonder what would even happen to his mental state if donald trump lost the support of fox news. You look at how hes fired out these warning shots over twitter about certain fox hosts or coverage he thinks isnt up to par. He really starts to it destabilizing him when he doesnt have that comfort blanket of support from fox news. Its astonishing to me that in 2019 fox has changed so much from where it was, and the reporting that happened at fox during the bush years. They were not just a pushover lap dog for president george w. Bush. Certainly it might have been a more friendly audience at some points, but they did real reporting and had a lot of criticism of george w. Bush when there was critical news to be had. And those people who you mentioned the president have gone off on, have continued to do the real reporting. Lets talk about the other firewall, jyamiche. In 2017 he took 47 of that vote. Politico writes, even more dangerous for the president and his allies is the apparent groundswell of support for impeachment among women including self described independents. White women with College Degrees and women in suburban communities. Five polls conducted since last tuesday Shows Majority of women endorsing democratic efforts to remove trump from office. We know that could spell trouble for a president who relied on these women in 2016. It wasnt that long ago that i and im sure you were talking to republicans who had all these strategies going for how they were going to win this women back. Does anything like a strategy, a plausible one exist now . Its hard to say because obviously women, College Educated white women were an important part of the president s winning factor, even though people talk a lot about White Working Class voters, white College Educated voters picked President Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016. So that is a critical voting bloc for him. When i talk to people, they tell me they had issues with President Trump long before this call with ukraine. They had issues with the fact that there was the kavanaugh hearings, issues with the way hes talked about women himself. There are his policies. Add to that this idea that you have the face of a woman in speaker nancy pelosi, going after the president and saying, look, this is someone who is pressuring a foreign lead tore do that. Its also important to note just a few minutes ago on the white house lawn the president was inviting china to also investigate joe biden. What you see is the president not backing down and saying i went too far, instead hes doubling down on that. At pbs news hour we lad polls with npr and maris who have shown a 10 jump in people backing impeachment. What you have is since april after the Mueller Report people are more interested in having President Trump impeached. Those numbers could really be bad for him if he starts really losing College Educated white voters. It was interesting, elise, politico spoke to an anonymous republican operative who ar said, no one wants to look like Kevin Mccarthy did on 60 minutes. President trump replies, i would like you to do us a favor though. You just added another word. You said id like you to do a favor though. Yes. Its in the transcript. Of course, this hour nbc reports mccarthy, weve got the letter, mccarthy is calling on the democrats to stop the impeachment process. How much of a problem is it for the president . The American People are not stupid. These swing voters, College Educated women are not stupid. You see somebody go on television who doesnt really have a defense. How much of a problem is that going to be for the president when even first of all, were hearing a lot of republicans reluctant to answer any questions, but the ones that do dont seem to have a clear message or strategy. Chris, its impossible to have a clear message or strategy when garbled nonsense and delusion and blatant lies and the changing of stories and the twists and turns when youre told as a surrogate to go out, this is what happened, here is your message. And then the president himself will change his message within 30 minutes of your television appearance. Thats not a position that any credible person wants to be put in. While there might be a few lone rangers willing to go out and completely embarrass themselves and solidify their position in history as liars and as sycophants and tools of donald trump, there are plenty that know if they can avoid, avoid, avoid, thats a better way to wait this out in the near term. Yamiche, i want to ask you quickly about the other firewall which is the economy. I looked at the wall street journal this morning. There was a headline calling this an ominous start for wall street to the Fourth Quarter at a time when indices usually are getting their biggest gain. How ominous is that for the president . The economy has been the thing thats been the cornerstone of the president s ability to keep people frustrated by his brash style of politics, frustrated by the kavanaugh hearings or the call with ukraine or the number of other scandals hes faced throughout his presidency. I will also say when i talk to evangelicals, voters out in the country, theyll say the president does have issues, but at least the economy is doing well. At least i have more money in my pocket. If the president loses the economy, thats a bigger issue than even losing fox news. Youll see critical voters in michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, theyll say why are we holding on to this president who is doing a lot of damage to the Republican Party . Youll see the president want to talk about the economy. Thats why hes been very clear, he thinks this is all fake news when people Start Talking about the economy possibly going into recession. He doesnt want any sort of crack in the fact that the economy could at some point have problems. Yamiche alcindor, always great to see you. Elise, youre sticking around. Upping the ante for the 2020 democratic candidates. Were learning how much cash theyre raking in as many get ready for their last time pitch to voters. And whether Bernie Sanderss heart condition raises a big question in our 2020 discourse. Now to 2020 and some new signs that the november debate may winnow down the crowded field, upping the ante for those still in the running. So far just five democrats have met the tougher criteria to qualify for the debate next month biden, warren, buttigieg, harris, booker. Lets bring in Christine Greer and elise jordan, contributor to Time Magazine and former aide to the state department. Six candidates have not qualified for the debate. Elise, is there any path for them anymore . I didnt mention marianne williamson. She really was a breath of something on the debate stage. Fundraising quarter is finished, the other candidates really have its surprising that the field is even as wide as it is. Its pretty much a fiveperson field, if were being generous. Five candidates are in for november, christina, seven more have met the fundraising threshold but only booker, yang, and steyer have qualified in more than one poll, thats second part of it, fundraising and polling. Klobuchar and orourke have one poll. Will they be dropping out soon or hold on for dear life . Booker doesnt want to drop out yet. Castro seems to surge and then recede. For november, i do think well have more than five on the stage but its going to be difficult. Those who you mentioned who arent making october, you think they had best hope for a cabinet position or something. Meantime, and were all wishing senator Bernie Sanders well, as people know by now, he had some stents inserted yesterday i think it was yesterday. Its so hard to keep track. Yesterday. So hard to keep track of the days, with everything thats going on. A blockage was found in one of his arteries. New reporting just came in from our team that covers Bernie Sanders. Quote, we do not know where senator Bernie Sanders is. We do not know what state he is in. We do not know if he is in a hospital or not or what his condition is. The Campaign Says no comment if he is still in the hospital, and no comment on whether there would even be an update today. From a Communications Perspective, what do you make of that, elise . From a Communications Perspective its doing Bernie Sanders no favor for his Campaign Staff to look like theyre covering up his whereabouts and that they have something to hide. They just need to be forthright and honest. Plenty of people undergo heart procedures, have stents. He could be out on the campaign trail again in a couple of weeks. Honesty would really be the best policy so that it doesnt get deflected and turn into a bigger conspiracy than what the truth could actually probably dispel. Why would they do it, even, is what im trying to figure out. Why not just come out and say, heres the deal, we told you what happened yesterday, now lets talk about heres where we are today. I think they know their democratic competitors are respectful enough not to exploit the situation but this is clearly something the president would exploit. I do think hopefully Bernie Sanders is healthy enough to be on the debate stage on the 15th, and i think hell try and pivot. Weve already seen him tweet that hes fine. Remember what happened to Hillary Clinton, she had pneumonia at the time and it became this big thing at least on the republican side. How much better for Hillary Clinton if she had just said, oh,ive kn iv have pneumonia. Its not good, but it bloomed into this story that she did not have the stamina for office which to see her out this week doing interviews, she seems to be in great health. If youre honest in these situations you leave people less chance to speculate whatever the worst situation is. If he comes out and says what the worst is, its fine, the story goes away and we can focus on the story as far as paying for medical care, what so many families are dealing with today. The three front runners that we talk about, biden, elizabeth warren, and Bernie Sanders, are all at least 70, right . There hasnt been like a whole lot of concern about that. As a matter of fact, Bernie Sanders continues to have a huge amount of support among 20somethings, 30somethings. But does this raise age questions, will people, whether explicitly or implicitly, start to think about age . Its a completely legitimate question to ask just as you would ask if someone is too young for the job of president. I think all factors have to be assessed when it comes to the presidency. I dont think its unfair at all to assess the world the way we have to assess it. We saw this with john mccain, he was 72, he tried to balance that out by choosing sarah palin, a younger running mate. I do think these are fair questions. We want to know the health of any leader of the United States. We know the current president hes a sham doctor who is like, everything is perfect. The healthiest president in history. Exclamation point. We want to make sure whoever is leading this nation has the mental and physical stamina. In my next hour, my colleague dra dra welcomes Rachel Maddow to her show to talk about breaking news from the white house. Show to talk about breaking news from the white house. That does it for this hour of msnbc live. Im chris jansing. Andrea mitchell is in the house. Great to see you, thanks very much, chris jansing. Right now on Andrea Mitchell reports, the heat is on as new reports say that Vice President pence was also brought into the president s pressure on ukraine. The president today answering the question hes been dodging, what did he want ukraines president to do for him . If they were honest about it, they would start a Major Investigation into the bidens. Its a very simple answer. Uh, they should investigate the bidens. And the president now says china should investigate the