Given whistleblower protections. This morning, the president and republicans are trying to show a united front. How long is that going to last . Were watching all of this from both ends of pennsylvania avenue. I want to start with jeff bennett. Kelly odonnell is at the white house for us. Jeff, as we come on the air, i want to start with Chuck Schumer. Hes going to be on the senate floor introducing something to try to protect alex vindman. Were going to talk more about what vindman said in this testimony in a second but whats schumer supposed to say . Hes prepared to announce that hes sending a letter, hallie, to the Army Secretary and the army chief of staff trying to get whistleblower protections for Lieutenant Colonel alexander vindman. Its important to point out that vindman in his testimony makes clear that he is not the whistleblower, but schumer says that he wants guarantees that vindman is protected from reprisals given his testimony, his bombshell testimony before congress. So were watching for that. Schumer is expected to take the senate floor some time in about 15 minutes or so. The other thing were watching is what you mentioned, house investigators hearing today from two more state Department Officials, career officials. The first, Katherine Croft, is expected to tell house investigators about her participation in a mid july meeting where she says a White House Budget Office staffer told her that acting white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had put an informal hold on Security Assistance to ukraine. Now, in her prepared remarks, she says it was her understanding that this was done at the direction of President Trump. So this has echos of that quid pro quo that mulvaney admitted to before trying to walk it back some weeks ago. Later this afternoon house investigators will hear from christopher anderson. Hes a former special adviser to the former ambassador to ukraine, kirk volker. He, according to his prepared testimony which weve obtained, is expected to talk about what then National Security adviser john bolton told him. Bolton, according to his testimony, said that he was concerned and cautioned that Rudy Giuliani, the president s outside attorney of course, that giuliani could be an obstacle to increased white house engagement. Thats a quote from his testimony. More echos this has now been a consistent theme where you had state Department Official after diplomat after state Department Official all raising questions about Rudy Giulianis role in this pressure campaign, this ukraine pressure campaign. Were watching that. Were also watching for whats going to happen at 3 00 here, 3 00 eastern. The House Rules Committee is set to mark up which means theyll debate and amend that resolution that we got the text of yesterday that defines of rules of the road for this impeachment inquiry as it goes public. Now, they arent expected to amend much of it. I mean, house leadership has already put their stamp of approval on this resolution but we will at least get a sense of what the republican line of defense will be as they talk through this resolution, hallie. You got a busy day ahead of you, jeff bennett. Good luck out there. I want to quickly bring in evelyn far cuss, Deputy Assistant in the obama administration. You know Katherine Croft whos coming to testify today. Christopher anderson will also be there. This is interesting that these officials, at least one of them, is expected to say john bolton warned Rudy Giuliani is a problem. Tell me about that. Right. So Katherine Croft is another one of these solid professionals. Shes working in the state department. Shes responsible for coordinating with the department of defense, the overall military assistance to ukraine, and i guess she was also the assistant when i was there thats what she was doing. Now shes the assistant to the special representative for uke yur ukraine. I think its just another corroboration that a crime was committed, that the president used pressure, the pressure of our taxpayer dollars on the government of ukraine to try to get dirt on his political opponent to use for his own political purposes and at the same time hes also trying to muddy the reputation of ukraine. He could have picked china but, no, he picked ukraine because giuliani and his cronies seemed to be tight with a lot of prorussian folks or prokremlin folks i should say. The bigger story here is, yes, the president committed a crime. Its a crime that helps him personally, but it also helps russia. I have to bring it back to that to remind the viewers. I want to talk about the testimony from yesterday. Bombshell testimony from, what, less than 24 hours ago from army Lieutenant Colonel alexander vindman. He is of course the top ukraine expert on the National Security council. New reporting confirmed by nbc news that vindman essentially told congress he tried to add edits to the rough transcript of that call between president s trump and zelensky as first reported by the new york times. He says crucial words and phrases were omitted, including a mention by ukraines president of the Ukrainian Gas Company where hunter biden worked while his father was Vice President. President trump is again dismissing vindman, again, somebody who served in combat for this country, received a purple heart for his wounds received overseas. Never trumper is what the president said. His ally, Kevin Mccarthy, is trying to downplay this whole call. Hes not the only one listening to the call. There are a number of individuals listening to the call and they put the transcript together. If one person disagrees, its a collective group that decides, not the president. So kelly, that was Kevin Mccarthy this morning. Seems like the gop, President Trump, really trying to show a united front here. Certainly the president has been telegraphing very clearly for some time now that he is bothered by the fact that he perceives democrats to being very united as a party and wants the same from his own republicans. So youre getting that from the probably closest ally in leadership in congress and thats Kevin Mccarthy, ally of the president , who also tweeted about the very friendly gathering last night at the president s familyowned hotel here in washington d. C. Where he was gathered with some Top Republicans in the house for dinner. Kevin mccarthy saying republicans are united, so just trying to billboard that out for the president s consumption and as a signal to those who are in the Republican House to sort of stay in the president s corner, to fall in line as needed, and part of what the president is certainly doing here is its a defensive move to try to convey this level of solidarity among republicans but also to try to make it harder for members of his own party to lodge criticism. Weve seen some criticizing any sort of liz cheney comes to mind about dont take any swipes at vindman because, as you point out, purple heart recipient and a dedicated servant of the government through his military time as well. The president also takes issue with the notion of what the call transcript looked like. We have always said that this is a rough summary and the documents themselves indicate it was not a specific transcript but heres how the president has described it in the past. They tried to take that conversation and make it into a big scandal. The problem was we had it trance describ transcribed. It was an exact transcript. We had an exact transcript. Reporter what actually happens is that a number of key staffers who are a part of this very big group call are in real time taking notes and they use Voice Recognition technology where and people might be familiar with this with their own phones where it sort of grabs the words and helps to transcribe it. It is imperfect. It is certainly a good record of the call but it is not a transcript like a Court Reporter or a wordforword, every period, comma and end of sentence in there correctly. So a dispute there on the facts. Hallie . Kelly odonnell, ill see you there in a little bit, thank you. Evel evelyn, back to you, and thanks to jeff as well. Alex vindman, as we know, senator schumer in about six minutes is going to be on the floor talking about whistleblower protections. Youve got this reporting that we have confirmed about how he tried to add things back into the transcript. Youve been in these rooms, in these situations. How big of a deal is it that he tried to get some of this stuff back in . I think its a huge deal and heres the reason why hes so credible i think theres an acknowledgment that it didnt materially change the overall transcript itself. Correct. The crime was still out there for all of us to see. There was still pressure put on ukraine, the request for dirt on Vice President trump. There was also the request for dirt on his son, right . President trump didnt even need to say burr ees ma. The president of ukraine knew what he was talking about, but alex vindman is fluent in russian and ukraine so he would have an advantage. Remember, one person talks and the other person is translating. While that person is talking, because alex vindman speaks the original language, he could be taking those notes and during the translation, he actually could translate if he wants to but he has the advantage of time. His notes, i bet, are way better than everyone elses. You think it is significant that he was trying to put things back in . Yes, because it strengthens, makes more obvious what was happening. Maybe the reason the Trump Administration, the white house, said this is a perfect conversation is they felt by omitting some things, they made it somehow less damning for him. Always good to have your perspective on set. Thank you. I want to bring in somebody else with an interesting perspective, congressman jerry connolly, he sits on the Foreign Affairs and oversight committees. Its a pleasure to have you back on the show. Great to be with you, hallie. You are heading into or heading out of the deposition this morning . Heading into. We have a sense of what some of these officials may already say including sounding the alarm about Rudy Giuliani, that john bolton apparently warned the white house that giuliani was an obstacle to ukraine policy. What do you make of that . I think whats clearly emerging is that there are a lot of professionals in the administration in Foreign Policy who are deeply disturbed by the fact that President Trump allowed the creation of sort of this other group, a parallel group, that was pursuing extortion and political dirt on a perspective political opponent in distinction to the policy we were officially pursuing with ukraine which was to reestablish the rule of law, fight corruption and restore a vibrant democracy. Those professionals were bothered by what giuliani was doing and what ambassador son land was doing and what the president himself was doing. Are you disturbed by what youre already seeing in this testimony as weve seen in these Opening Statements . Frankly, when you sit back and listen to the aggregate narrative, its very disturbing that the president of the United States would engage and encourage others to engage in extortion, and thats the word. We should stop being euphemistic about put pressure on. He extorted by using military aid and the promise of a president ial visit to get political dirt on perspective opponents. That is illegal. It is an abuse of office and its something no patriotic american ought to tolerate. Senator Chuck Schumer in a few minutes here is expected to introduce a resolution that would give alex vindman whistleblower protections. Vindman of course is not the initial whistleblower who came forward. Do you believe vindman deserves those protections . I think its a very prudent step. Lieutenant colonel vindman is a patriotic american. He was born in ukraine but came here when he was three. He loves this country. He has a purple heart for serving his country in iraq, and the disparagement of Lieutenant Colonel vindman on fox and other right wing news outlets is despicable and rightfully condemned by both republicans and democrats here on the hill. But the problem is damage has been done. The hatred, the vitriol, has been unleashed and i think Chuck Schumer is right to want to protect this witness from that kind of prospective violence. We know that the house will vote tomorrow likely. The markup is today, the vote is tomorrow on this resolution to formal lies the rules of this impeachment process. You know i cover the white house as my day job for nbc news but Stephanie Grisham isnt thrilled with this, calls this essentially an illegitimate sham from the start, that thats what this vote confirms essentially and continues what she calls a scam to hold this new round of hearings. Isnt this what some democrats worried about, that holding this vote that the white house said it wanted to see, you still wouldnt get a leg up on the president and his allies anyway . No, i dont think so. The resolution were voting on is not a vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry. Its a vote to codify how we proceed Going Forward in terms of the hearing. The rules of the inquiry. Thats right. The rules of the inquiry. The white house has tried all kinds of defense mechanisms. The idea to call a constitutional process thats embedded in the constitution, a protection for our democracy, impeachment, a grave matter but its there and was put in there by design by the founders, you know, a sham, is a very weak defense. This is a constitutional process. The white house would be well advised to take it seriously. Quick before i let you go, i hear you want to maybe take the gavel, run for the head of the oversight committee. Can you confirm that . I am actively exploring that possibility and obviously it would be a great honor. I think it is important that we have the best possible talent we could possibly find at this moment at such a consequential moment. When are you going to make your final decision . Very soon. All right, we hope you share it with us. Congressman jerry connolly, thank you for being on the show. We have a lot more to get to including exclusive reporting from nbc news, one of the president s closest advisers apparently unaware, in the dark on that military raid that took down the leader of isis. Our sources are talking with us about how Mick Mulvaney seemed to be out of the loop. Also, Savannah Guthrie is joining us with an incredible emotional interview with Kayla Muellers parents, including why theyre holding out hope shes still alive. I was able to tell him our 1 chance that kayla is still alive and why we feel that 1 chance is there. 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The San Francisco chronicle reports prop c is an audacious overreach, threatening to overturn the ban on flavored products approved by voters. Prop c means more kids vaping. Thats a dangerous idea. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. Now to an nbc news exclusive interview. After that raid that killed the worlds most wanted terrorist, the mission named in honor of kayla mueller, the aid worker from arizona who died, held in syria by isis four years ago. To this day her body has never been found. Now as you can see her parents are talking only with nbc news. Marcia and carl mueller say they will not rest until they find out what really happened to their daughter and where she is. Something always would happen and wed never we did get three photos but kayla was completely covered. All you could see is this part of her face. She does have a gash in her cheek and its horrific to look at that. She looks lifeless to me, but then we start getting these messages that people said she wasnt gone and dont be surprised if isis did this. We hadnt always been the truth wasnt always told to us. We just decided it was our mission and especially me and people thought i was crazy, but until shes home, weve got to find her, weve got to find truly what did happen to her because we do not know, and weve got to get her back home here. Thats whats important. Joining me now is the cohost of the today show, Savannah Guthrie. I appreciate you staying this morning to talk with us about this. You clearly hear parents who are still searching for answers here. Can you talk to me a little about your conversation with them. Yeah, the muellers are more convinced or more determined than ever to find out what exactly happened to kayla. They were told back in 2015 that she was killed in a Jordanian Air strike. They have such a fascinating story, hallie. They actually communicated with isis over a period of several weeks and months. Isis demanded a ransom. They of course under u. S. Law were not permitted to pay a ransom. They were asking for like 6 million. Unclear that they could have gotten the funds if they tried but they had some communication. Letters got smuggled out from kayla. Then in february 2015 isis said that she was killed in a Jordanian Air strike, and you just heard mrs. Mueller talking about those three photos of kayla looking lifeless. They say, look, we know its probably not likely that shes still alive but they have a lot of questions about how exactly she died and what theyve learned, hallie, about what happened to her in captivity and that she was actually kept for a period of time by baghdadi himself under the worst possible conditions, their pain and sadness is written all over their faces and this is not over for them. And theyve talked, savannah, with you about the president , President Trump, and their interactions with him. I want to play a little more from your interview. I had written up about two and a half pages because we knew that the phone call was coming. We still have many questions over the five and a half years. Of course after he cordially gave us condolences and said what he knew about kayla and i said, mr. President , we have some questions. He said what are your questions . I asked him a few questions and there was a pause and he said do you have anymore . I said, yes, sir, i do, and we continued to ask those questions. It seems that the muellers have been appreciative of what the Trump Administration has done for them including as we mentioned naming this operation, the Defense Department wanted to name this whole raid against baghdadi after kayla mueller. Yes. They were very touched and very appreciative that kayla was at the forefront of the minds of the special operators who went in there. They were appreciative of the president s phone call. They said they spoke to him for 14 minutes or something and really felt that he heard them and listened, that they were able to tell him some things that he was unaware of in terms of they got reports over the years that maybe she was sighted here or sighted there. Again, theyre very clearminded about it. Marcia mueller says i know its 99 likely that kayla is gone, she said, but if theres even 1 chance they just want to know more about the circumstances of her passing. They want to bring her remains home if at all possible. She said to me this morning off camera actually, she said kayla wants to be home. She wants to be home back in arizona. Its heart wrenching what theyve been through over these last few years. Quickly before i let you go, you talked to these people, this family, back in 2015 i think it was right at the height of their grief. Now here we are four years later. I imagine youve seen an evolution in their thought process here. Definitely. Its heart wrenching. I was at their house this is really the days after it was announced that kayla had been killed. For a long time people didnt even know there was an american young woman being held by isis. That was a secret. They were told to seep it secret and they were really just shell shocked at that point but theyve come to learn theyve traveled to iraq and talked to some of the yazidi women who were held with kayla and knew her and they found out about the conditions of confinement and what baghdadi did. I think its evident how much theyve carried on this journey and how much theyre still carrying and they made a point to tell me today its not just for kayla that were doing this but for the other hostages and those who were killed in the summer of 2014. Incredibly emotional and a powerful interview, savannah. Amazing work this morning. I so appreciate you being with us on the show. Thank you, hallie. Appreciate it. We have a lot more to get to this morning including waiting to see Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer any second right there on your screen speaking on the senate floor. Were told hes going to call for whistleblower protections for a key witness in the impeachment inquiry. Were also just one day before that big vote on the rules of impeachme impeachment. House democrats laying out their road map. Our new reporting on their playbook thats as easy as one, two, three. Well explain in a minute. One, two, three well explain in a minute. 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Call today and find out more. Im proud to be a part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. Liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. I wish i could shake your hand. Granted. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. 6, 7, 8 big dreams start with small steps. But dedication can get you there. So just start small. Start saving. Easily set, track and control your goals right from the chase mobile® app. Chase. Make more of whats yours®. I want to take you live to the senate floor where right now Chuck Schumer is announcing hes sending a letter to the Army Secretary about whistleblower protections. Lets listen for a second. Whistleblowers are standing up for the constitution they swore an oath to defend. Their lives and families must not be put in jeopardy by an outrageous attack or disclosure. On health care, today the senate will hold a vote on a resolution to repeal that was senator Chuck Schumer rather quickly but talking about alex vindman and others like him who are putting their livelihoods essentially on the line. That is why the senator and some democrats want to make sure there are protections for people who come forward. Msnbcs Garrett Haake is on capitol hill. Political analyst robert costa also has new reporting for the post hes going to share in a second. Garrett, let me start with you. Interesting that Chuck Schumer is making this move and it seems to be somewhat in response to what weve heard yesterday a little bit from some conservative outlets trying to frankly smear the reputation of this decorated combat veteran, Lieutenant Colonel alex vindman. Theres a couple of things going on here. As it relates to vindman, you have it directly from Chuck Schumer saying that he wants to make sure that vindman who is still detailed to the white house, an active duty officer can keep his job and be free of harassment but this also sends a message to anyone who has yet to testify who maybe is concerned that by coming forward they, too, might put their live or livelihood at risk, that the Senate Democrats are trying to have their back. You know, theres also the question about the original whistleblower here who there is still a fairly concerted effort by republicans to find out who that person is and to find out where their loyalties may lie and to essentially attack the credibility of the whistleblower. So theres a lot going on about the identities of the various people who have been informing this probe behind the scenes. In addition to what senator schumer is talking about, house democrats, garrett, are looking to take this vote to, as we heard from congressman connolly earlier in the show, formalize the rules of this impeachment inquiry. How do you think its going to go down . Who is going to hold out . There will be this whip process that will start today but i suspect well see a pretty down the line partisan vote here. D democrats are casting this as purely a process vote, trying to take some of the heat off this pitch if you will say this is just a vote to move things forward. This isnt a vote to convict or charge anybody. This is a process probe. It sets up a system. The hope is that that will keep the democrats in line. It will not win over the hearts and minds of any republicans. There may be a time later on in which democrats will make a more impassioned appeal to try to convince republicans to vote for an article or several articles of impeachment. This is not that time. This is liable to possible a partisan vote, to have democrats formally speak out in favor of an impeachment inquiry. Nancy pelosi could presumably afford to lose all of them and still get this across the line. I think well hear more about that whipping process. Senator mcconnell is speaking as well, basically slamg, while we were in commercial break, this resolution garrett is talking about. You have new reporting that some of these senators are, as you put, lost, adrift and frustrated. You talk about how in hushed conversations gop senators voiced exasperation at the expectations that they defend the president against the troublesome picture thats been painted with neither convincing arguments from the white house nor confidence that something worse wont soon be discovered. It feels like a horror movie, said one veteran republican senator speaking of course on the condition of anonymity. Bob, this is serious stuff for some of these senators. Its serious because they feel like they are navigating in the dark. They do not have talking points or guidance from the white house about how to counter the substance of these allegations, the substance of the testimony by ambassador after ambassador, official after official. Bob, you also name some gop senators considered to be potential republican breakaways if this thing does end up making it to a senate trial. You talk about mitt romney, susan collins, pat toomey, lis sa mur k lisa murkowski. One of them talked about impeachment this morning. Here it is. In my view, its time for me to stay silent on impeachment until the process is complete. If articles of impeachment come ill review the facts before i make my decision. This is what weve heard i think from other republicans as well saying i might be a juror, i dont want to say anything, at least not publicly, right . Since republicans do not feel comfortable with understanding the full terrain of what happened during the summer of 2019, what exactly President Trump said, they now have retreated into this talking point that you heard from senator romney. Theyre going to be jurors in a possible trial in the senate and because of that fact, which is on the horizon, they want to step back and not comment on any of the details. This is a challenge for the white house because they want to see Senate Republicans go to the barricades in the same way House Republicans are fighting for the president at this moment. So is the white house reaching out to some of these senators . Whats your sense . Theres not too much of a briefing going on with this white house. Theres not a full fledged Communications Operation focused on impeachment, at least not yet, inside the west wing. Many republican senators say the white house doesnt reach out to them as much as they would expect amid this crisis. They say invitations to dinner or phone calls from the president are few and far between. Bob costa, great reporting. Garrett haake, you as well. We have some developing news for you. Chiles president just now cancelling that countrys role as this years apec hoets. President trump was supposed to be at apac. He talked about wanting to sign that fade one trade deal there with chinese president xi. I want to bring in eamon javers, my buddy in the booth at the white house. Youve confirmed this reporting on apac. If the president and president xi arent going to sign a trade deal there, where and when might they do . They are scrambling at the white house. They were caught off guard by this announcement by the president of chile. Obviously there have been violent protests in that country, the president of chile saying its common sense that theyre going to have to cancel this Major International economic gathering. The hook for the United States and for your viewers is really that this was the venue where President Trump and president xi were expected to sign that phase one trade deal that the Financial Markets had really been anticipating. Now the question is will there be an apac summit at all or will trump and xi jinping meet somewhere else, perhaps in the United States, to sign that trade deal. Officials scrambling to get us whatever the backup plan is and maybe scrambling to put together a backup plan now. Boy, another country hosting apec. This is three weeks away it was supposed to be, not even. That is a massive undertaking to have these leaders converging in one place, its hard to imagine that gets put together in one month. November 15 and 16 was the planned date for this thing and as you point out, the lead time, the security, the infrastructure, the hotel rooms, the food and beverage alone takes months to put together. So the idea that they could host an entire apac somewhere else may be unlikely unless they had been already planning on that and we just dont know that right now given the instability thats been in chile. The possibility is that we could see trump and xi meeting somewhere else. The president clearly wants to sign this phase one deal. Sure does, yeah. Its important for the economy, the Financial Markets, for him for november of 2020. For all those reasons the president wants to go forward with this. The question is where is he going to go forward to, and thats up in the air right now. I know you and i will be working our sources on this. Lets put our Heads Together when i see you this afternoon. Well watch the markets as well. Thank you. We have a lot more to get to including on capitol hill right now. The fbi director testifying in front of lawmakers about domestic terrorism. Weve got his new warnings this hour about the threats here at home, next. 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As the fbi director just mentioned, just this year alone weve seen those threats turn deadly at a walmart in el paso, texas, a synagogue and a garlic festival in california. Let me bring in National Security analyst who served for the assistant of Counter Intelligence under president obama. Thank you for being with us. Talk about your reaction from what youre hearing from chris wray this morning. What we all need to hear from the director is whether were any closer to stopping the next el paso attack, stopping the next tree of life synagogue attack, whether or not weve equipped our Law Enforcement agencies with the tools they need to get the job done. What im hearing so far, hallie, and what im hearing from my cohorts is the answer is no. Lets remember this country still does not have a specific designated domestic terrorism law. It is not against federal law to commit domestic terrorism. What does that mean . It means were left with a patchwork of techniques and creativity and bandaids to try to address what the director has just testified is a persistent and evolving problem. Its time to change that. Its time to change the way we treat domestic terrorism and treat it just like we treat International Terrorism. You write in a think piece that we need to rethink this about reliabling this. I want to read what you say. Its time to dismantle what you describe as the artificial legal wall between domestic and International Terrorism and treat all violent ideologies the same. What are the chances that actually happens . There is proposed legislation. Theres various proposed legislation on the hill but we need the senate and the house to get together. We need republicans and democrats to Work Together on this and theres no sign that thats going to happen. I would ask those representatives lets change lets see what happens, tell me what happens if you change the motivation of the el paso shooter from someone who wants to shoot latinos, hispanics because he sees them invaders, now make him a violent islamic jihadist who is a muslim. We treat that entirely differently. We allow the fbi to get inside chat rooms and Message Boards and websites and monitor the violent talk of those groups because weve designated those groups. We havent done that with domestic terrorism and its time to completely rethink that or were going to be cleaning up the wreckage instead of stopping the act before it happens. Always a pleasure to have your perspective on the show. Docoming up, new nbc reportg revealing a key member of the president s inner circle seemed to be totally out of the loop about the mission to take todow the worlds most wanted terrorism before that mission went down. What that might mean for mick mulling vainys future. T might mulling vainys future when i showed my mom the dna results, it made her feel proud. They saw us, they recognized us. Ancestry® specifically showed the regions that my family was from. The state of jalisco. The city of guadalajara. The results were a reflection of our family and the results were really human. I feel proud about my identity. Greater details. Richer stories. And now with health insights. Get your dna kit at ancestry. Com. Theyre americas biopharmaceutical researchers. Pursuing lifechanging cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. Ive been through two tours of duty, and luckily, i came home with my health. But what almost ended up taking me down. Was a stroke. I thought i was invincible. But its really humbling to face an enemy you dont see coming. 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We know Top Democrats like House Speaker nancy pelosi were not given a heads up and apparently neither was somebody whos supposed to be the righthand man of the president , Mick Mulvaney. Thats right, current and former Senior Administration officials, five of them, are now telling nbc news that the acting white house chief of staff was not told about the raid until the moments before it was happening. Typically the white house chief of staff would be in the room, would be central to big military operations like military operat this, coordinating the logistics, maybe notifying leaders and allies. So what was up with mulvaney being in South Carolina while this was going down. One person close to the white house says that the president didnt loop mulvaney in because he isnt seen as having a being role. I want to bring in carol lee. I know we were up all night nailing this story down. But talk through a little bit of why this is so unusual. And it did raise my alarm bells over the weekend when i first told by a source that mulvaney was not even in the situation room. He was back home in South Carolina. Kind of weird, if you think about it, given that bill daley, if you look at president obamas chief of staff, was in the situation room for the bin laden raid, if you simply compare current and past precedent. And i think the main reason its so extraordinary is because the chief of staff is obviously typically the most important Senior Adviser to the president and basically runs all kinds of things in the white house. And when you have a moment like this, which is really momentous for a president , these are the kind of things that make or break a presidency. A chief of staff is usually essential and a chief of staff would typically do things like coordinate National SecurityCouncil Meetings ahead of time. They would, you know, come up with a quarterback basically coming up with a communications plan, a plan for if things went awry and it wasnt a success, how do you navigate that. How do you message that . How do you noif peoptify people. So the idea that Mick Mulvaney was not there really underscores, as i said, the president doesnt see him as a critical adviser for him on his team. And let me channel what i think the view is, i think, from some who are sort of close with mulvaney or close into those circles, which is, listen, he is not a traditional chief of staff, right . He is not somebody whos doing those things that other chiefs of staff have done in the past. Thats not a bad thing. The argument goes, mulvaney just has a different lane. This wasnt really it. This is ant big deal. He was briefed, as one of our sources said to us, he was filled in on whats going on. Theres no there there, is i think the argument you might hear from people, you know, defending mulvaney on this. Yeah. And even, you know, someone close to mulvaney told us that, you know, he was aware of this, you know, and before him, but he wouldnt say when or what specific knowledge Mick Mulvaney had. I will say that i spoke with andy kard, who was charge w. Bushs longtime chief of staff. And he just said that he found this baffling that the white house chief of staff is supposed to be allknowing. And that, you know, when he was serving president bush for more than five years, you know, there was nothing that he was blindsided by. And that something specifically and so thats just daytoday stuff, but specifically, something this consequential, this much of a big deal, if he were the chief of staff, and wasnt notified, it would really send the signal that maybe he shouldnt be chief of staff, you know . Carol lee with nbc here in our washington bureau, thank you much, my friend. Coming up on our next hour, were talking to the mayors of birmingham, alabama, and jackson, mississippi, about why they say the 2020 contender who best understands the south will be the next nominee. Well also be back on this show live in the state thats in the 2020 spotlight today. But first, check it out. It all comes down to up with game after the nats did stay in the fight last night, despite a couple of controversial calls, one that was really controversial. If you stayed up late, you know that the nationals beat the astros 72. The world series now in a do or die game seven. Well see how blearyeyed all of washington is tomorrow after this one. Yed all of washington is tomorrow after this one because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr, a oncedaily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. Xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. 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Serious allergic reactions may occur. Tremfya®. Uncover clearer skin that can last. Janssen can help you explore cost support options. So, lets hit the 2020 campaign trail with this renewed focus today on New Hampshire for the democrats. That is where were going to see a couple of toptier candidates, just in the next hour, two hours or so, with new polling laying out the lay of the land in the nations first primary state. Bernie sanders, check it out, now outfront. Elizabeth warren, just behind him within the margin of error. Both senators, by the way, overtaking former Vice President joe biden as they battle it out there with the sort of new england home field advantage, you could say. You can see Pete Buttigieg in fourth. Both sanders and warren, of course, represent states bordering New Hampshire. And warren is trying to stop a sanders repeat of his 2016 win over hillary clinton. Shes stepping up her Granite State blitz with a town hall today in a place she usually gets a warm reception, a college campus. Its where we find ali vitali on the trail. And today is just the start of whats going to be a pretty active scene there in New Hampshire over the next couple of weeks. Reporter thats exactly right, hallie. Were hitting filing period here in the state. Elizabeth warren on unhss campus today. Theyre starting to set up if this event. And this all comes against the backdrop of that poll which you were just talking about that has Elizabeth Warren trailing only slightly Bernie Sanders, but both of them overtaking joe biden. Theres a few other things in that poll that caught my attention. Specifically the idea that the candidates who arent polling in double digits are getting some pretty big bumps. Tulsi gabbard, andrew yang getting four to fivepoint bumps since july when this poll was done. The other number that really caught my attention, the number of people in New Hampshire who say that they are still undecided. 57 . In talking to students here at the student union, thats exactly what i found, too. Take a listen. If the election were tomorrow, do you think youd have a decision . I would say no. I am on the democratic side, but i dont have one person where im like, i would vote for them right now. Whos on your radar . I would say probably Elizabeth Warren. I would say Bernie Sanders was on my radar and not so much anymore. Hallie, the Common Thread between all of the voter interviews ive done today, no matter who they think theyre supporting right now, a lot of Energy Around finding someone to support when election day actually does come around here. That is for sure. A lot of people still swayable, too. Ali vitali in New Hampshire. Thank you so much. That does it believe it or not for us, this hour of nbc. Im ten seconds over my time. Actually, youre 15 seconds over, hallie jackson, but good to see you. Go, nats. Go, nats. Craig melvin here, msnbc headquarters in new york city. More witnesses and likely more trouble for President Trump. And his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, as well. Right now on capitol hill, lawmakers are hearing from two career diplomats who are expected to detail the obstacle that giuliani posed in doing