Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Katy Tur 20191206

And why someone from saudi arabia was training here . We have an International Training service. We have students from several Different Countries who come here. They learn aviation, they become naval aviators while theyre here. Its important that the training we do with our allies. In world war ii we had Royal Air Force folks who were training there. Theres always been International Students training here because its a good place to train and its a good quality training. How many students do you have, International Students . I cant speak to the exact number. Roughly . A couple hundred. What was he training to do . He was an aviation pipeline. He was training in aviation. At the time of the shooting, the suspect was a member of the Saudi Arabian air force . I dont want to get into that. Thats up to the fbi to complete their investigation to see exactly. It would be speculation on my part how far was he in the pine line . Im not going to speak to where he was in the pipeline or his exact training right now. Was he authorized to have a gun on base . Weapons are not authorized on base. You cannot you cant bring a weapon on base unless can you talk a bit about security measures . I think thats one of the biggest questions. What types of measures are in place to keep Something Like this from happening . Yeah. Thats something thats difficult for me to speak here because our security measures, we keep to ourselves for a reason. I will say that we practice to this. This is part of our training. Our civilian dod along with the Escambia County and Sheriffs Department and with Pensacola Police department, we train active shooter scenarios regularly. We just did one recently. We never expect it, but we train for it, and we remain vigilant for it. Do you expect theres going to be more changes . Im not going to speculate. How are you confident that he was acting alone . Im not going to speculate on the particulars of the investigation or exactly what happened. Can you talk about the thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, everybody. I want to talk about the heroism of your deputies weve been following this News Conference down there in pensacola. I think its ongoing. Were going to go right back to it right now. To see the officer and is their families and to kind of reinforce what the captain said. We do active Shooter Training on sight and computer simulations that we train with the navy. And so this was an actual example of where all that training comes into being. How do we react to this and coordinate and communicate with each other. Unfortunately, that training was put to the test today. Ill tell you, its hard to speak to that without tearing up. I could not be prouder of the men and women of the Escambia County sheriffs office. Theynew there was an active shooter and, again, the chances of putting your life in danger are great, guess where they went . They went inside. So let me tell you, the best of our community was on scene today and thats why it turned out the way it did. Youve learned more about what happened. Can you walk us through what happened today . Just very briefly, we have a precinct off the base. Thank god the call came in, we had officers that were available. It was a three to fiveminute response. I wont get into a lot of specifics on that because of the fbi investigation and heres let me explain why we dont do that, folks. Theres a lot of witnesses out there that are listening to these programs, that are social media texting each other. The worst thing in Law Enforcement that can happen to you is for me to get a second, third and fourthhand story from an eyewitness, from someone who was there who has a clear understanding of what they saw this morning but theyre reading texts and what they see on the television tonight. And that memory, which is very distinct right now becomes clouded and now we begun to tell a blended story. And weve shared it with ten other people. We want to be careful with that. Thats why i really think as the captain told you, many times, we dont want to get into that if you were a witness, i would want to know where you were at in the building, what time you were there, when did you hear the first shot, what did you do, was your access there, did you get eyes on the slohooter, et ceter those are critical for developing time lines and angles of trajectory. I appreciate that. The facts have been established that we have unfortunately four dead, eight injured. What type of weapon . It was a handgun. Are you able to address whether or not the shooters room was raided . I will not. Was his name i will not confirm that. I know the answers to your questions. I am not answering or confirming it not because im attempting to be trite. Its because im not the cognizant authority for this investigation. The fbi, the atf, the ncis on base are the lead agencies on this. We are a support element. And so while i have the answer to your questions, im not at liberty to answer them. Im a little confused we now have an additional person wounded. You have an update were going to stop the press conference right now. More information will come out later. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Again, weve been listening to a News Conference out of pensacola, florida, at that Naval Air Station about the shooting that happened at 6 50 a. M. This morning. There are multiple victims, three people we now know have died. According to our sources here at nbc news, the suspect is a man of saudi arabia. This training has gone on without incident until today. Ron desantis, the governor of florida was speaking and he spoke to the president and he told the president that the saudi government needs to make things right for these victims. Unclear what the president responded in return. Weve been hearing from the mayor, from the captain, the army captain, the sheriff, ron desantis as well. We have not yet heard from the fbi. It is not clear whether this is being investigated as a terror incident, that is still unknown right now. But they do say the suspect was a Saudi Foreign national in the United States for training. Theres obviously going to be a lot of questions about, you know, this individual being a Foreign National, being a part of the Saudi Air Force and when to be here training on our soil, to do this and the fbi is working with dod, theyre working with the Escambia County sheriffs to answer those questions. One of the things that i talked to the president about is given that this was a Foreign National in the employ of a foreign service, there will be time to do this, but obviously the government of saudi arabia needs to make things better for these victims. And i think that they theyre going to owe a debt here. Navy captain, i should say. Not army captain. This is the second shooting at a u. S. Military base this week. Joining me now from pensacola, florida, blain alexander, also with me, Pete Williams, tom winter and jim kavanaugh. What do we know so far . We have now on the record the governor saying what weve been reporting is the person who fired these shots was a member of the Saudi Air Force in the u. S. To receive aviation training. Weve reported his name. Al shamroni. One point to make here is that when people come to the United States for this kind of training, they are vetted by not only their host country for us but by the u. S. Military as well. So its it takes a lot to get into one of these programs to train in the u. S. Theyre going to be real serious questions about that. Before we go any further, i think its important to say that while there is an investigation obviously to see whether this is an act of terrorism, no one is saying that there is. And its of course entirely possible that this person could have been motivated by something other than a terroristic motivation. The same kind of motivation that could cause other people to carry out shootings, jealousy, mental problems, who knows . No one is saying at this point among all the officials that weve talked to that they have any idea why this attack was carried out. Obviously there are questions of terrorism. You heard Governor Desantis say that he thinks the saudi government will have to do something to help make the victims help in their recovery here and the people who were affected by this shooting and the families involved. Weve reached out to the saudi officials here in washington. What were told is that they have no comment now. But may have a statement to make later in the day. Well certainly keep you posted on that. And of course now the investigation goes into try to figure out the background of this person, we heard from the sheriff that this shooting was carried out using a handgun. One thing theyre going to want to know was how did this person get his hands on a handgun. So thats a question. And then looking into the background. How long has this person been here, are there any potential radicalizing elements, all those things will have to be looked at. If, again, underscoring the word if, if this turns out to be an act of terrorism, its going to have large implications for this kind of foreign training which is important to the military and it would be the first act of terrorism in the United States carried out by someone from saudi arabia since the 9 11 attacks. Symbolically, it would be a big deal too. Thats a huge if and were not there yet. Nobody that weve talked to is there yet. They dont know why this person did this. Youre right to point out that it would be the First Time Since 9 11 and our relationship with saudi arabia is a complicated one. The president has tried to strengthen it. Militarily, its always been an important one ever since the gulf war when it was strengthened and theres been lots of training between the u. S. And saudi arabia and other countries in the middle east and you heard the captain say why thats so important, that cross training. He said a number of Foreign Nationals from a num allied nations come to this Training Camp and theyve been coming for decades. He mentioned the Royal Air Force, the british Royal Air Force coming as far back as world war ii, if i heard him correctly. Politically speaking, theyve been a complicated ally. Tom winter, what do you have . I covered an incident where three afghan solders who were here for training, they left the air force base, they were found trying to enter canada through the border point. At that time, i talked to the then head of the Massachusetts State Police and we went through the vetting that occurs for these people to, you know, not only in the weathhether theye from the middle east or afghanistan, but i think to petes point, the vetting that occurs by the u. S. Military here. This is an important reason why we dont want to jump to terrorism. Of course it could certainly be a concern. But we dont want to jump to terrorism at this point because of the background vetting thats under way. Were trying to go through local pilot records. We heard at that press conference that this person was involved in training in aviation. Thats something that were going to look in both faa records there to see if this person flew locally. There are a number of similar names, including one that lives in pensacola. But were trying to figure out if thats the same person. What questions are you asking, jim . The important thing to note here to build on what pete said, katy, these aviation programs are very, very intense and so you also could have situations where a Foreign National student is failing, not doing very good, maybe going to be washed out of a program, all of those are possibilities. The intensity of that to a student in a program that important to a nation, they could lose so much face going home that they would want to act out. You got to not jump to terrorism. If youre a commander on the ground, you said it as a major lead category of terrorism. Thats what the agents are doing now. Theyre going to look at this guy and see all the background and of course the vetting and who hes connected with. But you also have to look at the pressures on the guy from the school, the training, was there any discipline, and human pressures, family, money, theres all kinds of things that have to be looked at. Weve had terrorist attacks on the military. Fort hood in 2009. We had an attack in tennessee here where in 2015 where a terrorist killed four marines and a sailor at the Naval Reserve center and killed five of our military in 2015. Weve also had nonterrorist attacks on naval facilities like the washington, d. C. , naval yard which was not a terrorist attack. So we have to look at all those. The commanders will look at those and ill say closing this comment is the deputies, the city police, the base police, the state troopers, all went into the active shooter protocol, textbook, the way the sheriff described it. Went after the shooter, going in like they were trained, engaged him and stopped him. What do we know about the victims . I know three people have died. Who were they, what do we know about them, and what about the others who were injured . And thats what were still learning right now and hoping to find out. I will say one thing that stood out in that News Conference to me is the number of injured has risen from seven to eight. Eight people, two of them deputies, were shot in this attack earlier today. Now one thing that i think going back to one of petes points is the question of how he was able to get a weapon on base. The commander confirmed that of course weapons are not allowed here on base. So asked him what security measures are in place, what security protocol is there to stop Something Like this from happening . He told me that he didnt want to go into details but he said that they train for things like this. They said that they had just had an active Shooter Drill not too long ago where they ran through a scenario almost exactly like this. This is something that they prepare for, that theyre constantly thinking about but certainly not something that they ever thought would happen. To your question of the victims, we know, again, that two of them were deputies, two of them who responded and were able to take down that shooter, one was shot in the arm, one in the leg. They had nonlifethreatening injuries but they were among the six who were injured here today. Thank you very much. Joining me now is jackie speier. Thank you so much for joining us. What can you tell us . What have you heard so far . Were still gaining a lot of information as well. We know that one of the victims was a sailor. I think for the Armed Services committees it raises a lot of questions about vetting of those that we train, why that gun was allowed on the base, and more importantly how it was that all of this transpired in that classroom. So i think as we move through this process, were going to be finding out a great deal more. I think it would be premature at this point to try to determine whether or not this was a terrorist act, a lone wolf or someone who had snapped. Let me ask you about what Governor Desantis said that he told the president. He said the saudi government bears responsibility to make things right for the victims, make things right for the families of the victims since this man was a saudi national. Do you have any opinion on that . I do think that we should be hearing from the saudi government. I would expect that the president would be in communication with the saudis and that there would be some gesture made. Three families now have lost loved ones. There are eight who have been injured and injuries can run the gamut. They could be disabled. And i think that saudi arabia owes those families some compensation. I was talking about this with Pete Williams briefly. We have a complicated political relationship with saudi arabia. I know theyre considered an ally. Theyve been considered a Strong Military ally. It was saudi nationals who attacked us on 9 11. The president has spoke glowingly of mohammed bin salman, a man whos been accused of killing an american resident, jamal khashoggi. Is it time to look at our relationship with saudi arabia again . Is it too premature to be asking that question . I think its premature, but you raise very important points and i dont think this president acted appropriately in actually excoriating mbs, mohammed bin salman, for the act against the journalist, mr. Khashoggi. I think there is a very delicate dance thats being played by the president and i dont think that we are going to play a delicate dance when you have members of our military who have been slain and others who have been injured. Im hoping that the president will come out with a very strong statement and have High Expectations from the saudis in terms of what theyre going to say and do. You talk about vetting. According to the experts that weve had on speaking about this, theres a very heavy vetting process in place in order to bring a Foreign National to train with our military in the United States on a naval base. Theyve got to be vetted by their home government, vetted by the american government, no guns are allowed on that naval base. He shot three people with a handgun its alleged. How much more vetting can be done . Thats a very good question. But obviously there needs to be more done. Whether he purchased that gun in the United States is another question we have to ask. Did he walk down to a local license dealer and purchase that gun . That would be another question that we should be asking, whether Foreign Nationals can buy guns in the United States . We dont know enough yet. But the vetting process needs to be reviewed. Theres no question about that. Thank you very much for joining us. And the president has just tweeted. King salman just called to express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies to the families and friends of the warriors who were killed and wounded in the attack that took place in pensacola, florida. After a quick break, were talking about impeachment as the house drafts articles, but what are those articles, and when could the house vote on them . Later ill talk live with a senator to talk about what to expect when impeachment reaches her chamber. Turns out russia may actually be listening. Actually be listening. To avoid screening for colon cancer. Im not worried. It doesnt run in my family. I can do it next year. 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Im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. When we were looking he wanted someone super quiet. Yeah, and he wanted someone to help out with chores. So, we got jeanpierre. But one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with renters insurance. Yeah, geico did make it easy to switch and save. Oh no. Theres a wall there now. Thats too bad. Visit geico. Com and see how easy saving on renters insurance can be. The calming scent of lavender by downy infusions calm. Laundry isnt done until its done with downy. As democrats move into historic impeachment proceedings, there are a number of crucial questions going unanswered. Today is day 74 of the impeachment inquiry and heres whats happening. Democrats have not decided what they are impeaching the president for. Some would like to broaden the investigation to what they consider a pattern of misbehavior during the president s time in office while others believe the best course of action is to narrow the focus solely to ukraine. The white house has not said if theyre going to offer a defense of the president during house impeachment hearings. They have until 5 00 p. M. Today to decide. Theyre going to focus their resources on a potential senate trial instead. And we still dont know what that senate trial might look like. Politico reports that gop senators have made it very clear that they dont want an impeachment trial to divulge into a big circus. Mitch mcconnell will attempt to keep the process civil. Its unclear if an increasing partisan senate will be up to the task. Democrats say they need to impeach the president and with so many questions unanswered, it does not seem likely theyre certain how the process will play out. Joining me now, msnbc, Garrett Haake on capitol hill. Theres been a debate to keep this solely focused on ukraine or whether to bring the obstruction of the Mueller Investigation into that. And we heard a couple of lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee and even the counsel for the Judiciary Committee bring up the Mueller Investigation. Talk to me about whats going on behind the scenes. Heres what the debate is all about. Some lawmakers see the obstruction outlined in Robert Muellers report as part of a pattern. They see it as the starting point to the same obstructive behavior that President Trump was engaging in on the ukraine front by blocking witnesses, blocking the production of documents and by refusing to respond to subpoenas. There are some lawmakers who think that by including this earlier obstruction that moving lays out, you make the case that the president is regularly obstructing justice and obstructing congress that much stronger. But there are other democrats who believe that including anything from muellers report makes this effort seem too back ward looking, make it seem like its about 2016 and not about 2020 and that might further poison any hope they might have getting bipartisan support later and that it might make for a more difficult vote for some moderate democrats on the house floor. This is an active debate. No guidance yet on exactly which way this will break. But it will be a decision made by nancy pelosi and those Committee Chairmen who will be deciding whats in and whats out. Let me ask you about new reporting that came out from the wall street journal about the phone call between Rudy Giuliani and a budget phone number within the white house. They say its not a phone number that is directly related to omb, pushing back against that, that democrats list add phone number as being associated with omb and the call logs, but the journal writes, that number all correspond to a placeholder number that shows up when officials in several white house departments make calls according to people familiar with the matter. Are democrats explaining this . Theyre not. In fact the democrats have been really repd sent to talk about those phone calls at all. And they wouldnt say how they got them, where they got them or where they think they lead. But the phone records are not a huge part of the democratic case here. They suggest some very tantalizing leads, not just the phone calls to omb, but phone calls between Rudy Giuliani and devin nunes, devin nunes and lev parnas, the associate of mr. Giuliani. So theres things that the democrats want to explore there but theyre not vital to their case. It could create an opportunity for republicans to say that all of these phone records are, you know, to be doubted. But theyre not a huge part of the detectimocratic case. I dont know that this is a particularly deep well. Garrett, thank you very much. Joining me now, former aid to the george w. Bush white house and state Department Elise Jordan and professor at law school. Shes the codirector of the center for constitutional democracy. The next phase of this, after the house votes on impeachment, theyre drafting up the articles, it potentially is going to the senate. What would the senate trial look like . So the short answer to that question is, its up to the senate and that is, assist i understand it, a very active negotiation going on now. The senate is able to set its own rules for what the trial looks like. Theyre not bound by the federal rules of evidence. It doesnt have to look anything like a criminal trial in federal court. But typically theyll hear witnesses, take evidence, there will be a chance for the senators to hear the case. The trick here i think with the process is the senate has to get 51 votes to approve whatever process, whatever rules its going to move forward with. So theres an initial set of senate agreements that have to happen way before you get to any vote on whether the president s innocent or guilty or convicted or not. Theres a vote that requires a slim majority. This requires some negotiation in the senate about what the rules will be. Why would the president want to wait until the senate trial to participate in the hearings . Why not take judiciarys offer up and say im going to send my white House Attorneys and theyre going to make the case that im innocent . Donald trump is still operating by his normal playbook which is to do what he feels like at any given moment, consequences be damned, the law be damned and were seeing that in how hes approaching the senate trial. He thinks hes going to have much better treatment from his Republican Senate friends and hes been working on wooing them. Hes just today i think three senators announced that theyre going to look into ukrainian interference in 2016. So we still have theyve had a briefing from the Intelligence Community that said that russia was behind this. Which because they know otherwise, yet are still pursuing President Trumps tenfold theory. That gives donald trump confidence that, hey, maybe hes going to have a better pass of it in the senate. Democrats have not decided on what articles to pursue. Abuse of power seems to be an obvious one, obstruction potentially another. Is it a good idea to bring the Mueller Investigation into this, to put context here to say this is not a one off thing. The reason that were worried about the president , need to do it now before the 2020 election, look at this pattern of behavior that hes been engaging in since he took office. Theres two arguments that the house needs to think about making. One set of questions, one argument is what do they think gives them the best chance of securing a conviction in the senate, if any. And there the answer might be relatively narrow. Keep it focused on the strong argument associated with this particular ukraine scandal. But that doesnt stop and the house has an obligation to make a broader argument to the public in the impeachment process which is in many respects, a political process. And the broader argument to the public can absolutely include and probably should include from the house point of view the pattern of behavior that theyre worried about in the president and part of that pattern is the obstruction in the Mueller Investigation. The republicans argue that the democrats have been going after him since day one, they dont like him as the president and want to kick him out and thats the argument theyve been making to the American Public and they cite all of these investigations as evidence of that. Im not saying theyre right. I am saying that a lot of americans look at washington and think washington is a corrupt place. Its a place where legal bribery exists through campaign contributions, dialing for donors, money has infected it and they might look at donald trump and think, donald trump is just doing what everyone else does, hes just much worse at covering it up. Do republicans find themselves in a better position because americans dont trust washington or do democrats find themselves in a better position because americans dont trust washington . It benefits republicans that trust in congress is so low and terrible right now and what i hear constantly from Trump Supporters is, you know, i might not like the behavior but what about that i wants. Not Trump Supporters. What about that section of independent or the people who are not sure whether he did something wrong or did not do something wrong . Thats why i think this process is important and the fact finding part of it, especially, hearing testimony from key players who were there and who witnessed the chain of events and it is coming directly from the ambassadors involved, from the Top National Security officials, thats why i think that the flouting of the subpoenas by so many top Trump Officials is so troubling and the Trump White House is theyre complete insistence that theyre not going to participate at all, its ridiculous and congress should assert their sort as a coequal branch of government. Nice to have you. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Please come back soon. Still to come, the impeachment process will move to the senate and could constituents sway their senators vote . Debby stabenow joins me live. The fears the president s cell phone may pose a risk to National Security. I was diagnosed with parkinsons. I had to retire from Law Enforcement. It was devastating. One of my medications is three thousand dollars per month. Prescription drugs do not work if you cannot afford them. For sixty years, aarp has been fighting for people like larry. And we wont stop. Join us in fighting for whats right. Janie, come here. Check this out. Let me see. She looks. Kind of like me. Yeah. Thats because its your grandma when she was your age. Oh wow. Thats. Thats amazing. Oh and she was on the debate team. Yeah, thats probably why youre the debate queen. Mmhmm. Ill take that. Look at that smile. I have the same dimples as her. Yeah. The same placements and everything. Unbelievable. [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. 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I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Its a sound bite that doesnt seem to get old. Russia might actually be listening to President Trumps phone calls. Phone records in the house intelligence committees impeachment report show a long list of calls between the white house and Donald Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The Washington Post reports those calls were held on unsecure phones. The former deputy chief of russia operations at the cia told the post from all of advertise experience, he is sure the russians were listening in. In fact, he and others believe the kremlin knows more about those conversations than even impeachment investigators. Joining me now one of the reporters who worked on that story, Washington Post National Security correspondent greg miller. Hes the author of the apprentice. Walk us through your reporting. Thank you. When we saw that these call records laid out in the house report this week, we really many of us looked at those and said, wow, thats an entire web of communications that appear to be on unsecure lines, plugging directly into the white house switchboard on regular intervals through Rudy Giuliani and we wanted to try to understand what was happening. And i think the story has a lot of other revelations in it as well including new details about efforts by trumps own chief of staff in recent years to try to reign in his habits and most of those have failed. The clip that you played at the outset here, trump takes far greater risks in terms of security of communications than any president weve ever encountered. Rudy giuliani is in the ukraine or in ukraine right now or maybe hes on his way back from ukraine. We can assume that hes been speaking to the president , maybe he has. Maybe he hasnt. This means that this is continuing to happen even as this impeachment investigation ramps up, as the articles are drafted, as there are questions about ukraine. If Rudy Giuliani and the president are still having conversations while hes there, it seems like this concern could be going completely unchecked. And theres no indication that trump really cares. Thats one of the staggering things here. Hes been repeatedly prodded by his own security aides and he doesnt appear to care. In our story we talk about how his former chief of staff john kelly tried to urge him to use white house hard phone lines even when he went back to the residence at night. When he found that john kelly was able to keep logs of his calls, he was annoyed by that, that he reverted to using his phone. Hes trying to hide his own communications from his own senior staff. If anybody else was doing this sort of thing, wouldnt they be labeled as a National Security risk . Its such an upside down world that we live in. As long as ive been covering administrations and government and intelligence agencies in washington, i cant imagine a disclosure like this in any other context but this one, in this Political Climate in which this wouldnt be explosive with the Immediate Repercussions and consequences. Here, the administration reacts with a shrug and the president s lawyers back in ukraine where every cia expert says hes probably surrounded by russian Intelligence Officers and russian Intelligence Surveillance capabilities there. We just went through an election a couple years ago that was based off of or at least the president was trying to base it off of Hillary Clinton being careless with National Security, careless with her emails. He claimed that he was a National Security risk and then he continued to do the things that he accused her of doing. There are people in his white house, his daughter was one of them, his soninlaw another, who were using their personal phones for white house business. There was a report recently that nikki haley when she was a u. N. Ambassador used her personal blackberry because she couldnt get into her work phone after a National Security event happened. Its mind blowing. It is mind blowing. Perhaps its not so shocking anymore that trump does this because as you laid out there, hes the master of doing exactly what he attacks others for doing. Youre right, he made an enormous issue out of the clintons use of the private email account in 2016. But it appears remorseless about his own families and his own security failings as president. But i think in some ways whats more shocking is that in 2016 those condemnations of clinton were coming also from Many Republican lawmakers and they dont hold trump to even close to a similar standard. It is remarkable when National Security becomes a partisan thing, when suddenly National Security doesnt really matter and its not as concerning and we dont need to set our hair on fire when your president , your republican president , your chosen president , is the one doing it. Then its all fine. Greg miller, thanks for your reporting. As democrats push for a formal Impeachment Vote before christmas, the senate is gearing up for an impeachment trial. We touched on this a second ago. How will the republican controlled chamber handle their constitutional duty. Joining me now from capitol hill, Debbie Stabenow from michigan. Senator, thank you for joining us. I know youre not a republican senator, but youre going to be a part of this impeachment trial if it gets to the senate. All signs seems to point that it will get to the senate. What do you know so far about how this is going to go. First its great to be with you and listening to your last segment one more time, it makes my Blood Pressure go up and its also greatly depressing because the president of the United States is unfortunately a National Security threat. And that is why in fact the impeachment process is Going Forward and we dont know specifics here in the senate. We are assuming if the impeachment comes to us that this will be january. We dont know if it will go farther than that. Leader mcconnell has to make decisions and hopefully hes going to reach out with senator schumer, our leader, and the most important thing is that this be treated with the seriousness that it deserves, openness, transparency, respect do you think it will . You know, we dont know, actually. We dont know that yet. Hopefully thats the case. I think people are going to be watching and rather than namecalling, we we know what the president will do. Hell do what he always does. But im hope. That senators will understand the gravity of what this is. This is only the third time in our countrys history that were talking about the possibility of removing a president of the United States and it needs a set of seriousness with the responsibility that we have. Do you want to hear from people like john bolton, Rudy Giuliani, do you want to hear from mick mulvaney, do you expect those to be witnesses that house managers call . Well, at this point, it needs to be a negotiation as you know with Mitch Mcconnell, chuck schumer. Hopefully that is a negotiation. Would i like to hear from them . Certainly, personally, i would like very much to hear from them. I think its striking that the president who says hes innocent we in michigan, common sense says to us, you know, if youre innocent, you run to the mic, you bring your friends, you let them testify. You make it clear, you make your case. This president has blocked every single one of the people youre talking about from coming before congress and answering questions. He certainly doesnt sound very innocent. Personally i would like very much to hear from them. I dont know how this will flow. Theres a lot of factors in here. But certainly it would be interested in that. If i might if you dont mind mentioning Something Else that is related to what were going to hear while this is going on in january. Yesterday on the floor, one of my Republican Leadership colleagues were saying that the democrats are going to shut down the u. S. Senate in january because of this trial. I just want to go on the record one more time, Mitch Mcconnell has shut down the United States senate for an entire year. The house while theyre doing impeachment has sent us over 300 pieces of legislation to improve peoples lives, 90 of which are bipartisan, and two of them relate to gun safety, which one more time today, we see whats happening in florida. 282 days ago the house sent us a bill, bipartisan bill on background checks. Mitch mcconnell wont take it up. When they talk about how were waisting time in an impeachment, Mitch Mcconnell has been wasting time all year on what the American People want us to be focused on. We put up on the screen, enacted laws in the 114th congress. In the 115th congress, 2015 to 2017, and notable because president obama was still the president and republicans controlled the senate. 443 enacted laws. In the 116th congress, 2015 to 2017, 77 enacted laws. Mitch mcconnell is in charge. The president is the president. Only 77 laws. One other question, just very quickly, were basic out of time. I want to know how michigan is feeling on impeachment. Are you confident that michigan voters are paying attention . Are there persuadable voters out there or is it you dont like donald trump, you think he should be impeached . I think its really mixed. I think there are many, many people that believe a line has to be drawn in the sand with what this president s doing and his corrupt behavior has to be held accountable. Of people that believe that. I think there are other people that, not listening, watching your channel, watching another channel, who basically, you know, buy what the president is saying. And i do think there are some people, certainly in the middle, that are watching closely and havent made up their mind. But i do know this because when im home, people more than talking to me about impeachment are saying my Prescription Drug prices are too high. Im afraid im going to lose my pension. Why dont we tackle Climate Change . What about gun safety . And so thats why what im most impressed about about the house, i i i am very impressed that while theyre doing their constitutional duty, they passed over 300 different pieces of legislation. 90 of it, bipartisan. And so they cant say that democrats are only focusing on well, they can say it because theyre going to say it over and over again. But its not true that democrats only care about impeachment. And we, in the senate, are eager next week, were happy to take up that gun safety legislation. Or any other one of those 300 bills. Michigan senator Debbie Stabenow. Michigan senator Debbie Stabenow. I dont know why i repeated that twice but i felt like lets just underscore it and do it twice. I meant to say thank you very much. Have a good weekend. Youre welcome. You too. And breaking news in the fight over President Trumps tax returns. Nbc news has learned that the white house has asked the Supreme Court to block house subpoenas to deutsch bank and capital one for Donald Trumps financial records, including his taxes. On tuesday, a federal Appeals Court ruled they must hand over the records. The president made a similar request on thursday for the high court to block subpoenas to his accounting firm. Going to watch that. Next up, hot, hot heat. California is in danger and there is nowhere to hide. Any comments doug . Yeah. Only pay for what you need with Liberty Mutual. Only pay for what you need with Liberty Mutual. Con Liberty Mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. Only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The ones that make a truebeen difference in peoples lives. And mikes won them, which is important right this minute, because if he could beat americas biggest gun lobby, helping pass background check laws and defeat nra backed politicians across this country, beat big coal, helping shut down hundreds of polluting plants and beat big tobacco, helping pass laws to save the next generation from addiction. All against big odds you can beat him. Im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. Fonda will turn 82. Shes got big plans to spend the night in jail. Just like shes done for four fridays over the past three months. Shes been in d. C. Protesting Climate Change and getting arrested for her efforts. Shes back at it right now. Protesting alongside other activists. In fact, fonda moved to d. C. In september to avoid the Environmental Impact of flying to and from her home state of california. Now, california is itself in trouble. New data shows california is warming faster than anywhere else in the continental United States. And because of that, they are feeling the dramatic effects of Climate Change right now. Droughts, fires, floods, and mudslides. That will force a fundamental social reckoning. Joining me now, amy westerbelt, a climate journalist and host of the drilled podcast. Amy, it is really great to have you. I highly recommend your podcast. It is a really good explainer about how we got here and who is ultimately responsible for the Climate Change effects we are feeling right now. There was an article today in the in the Washington Post that talked about whats happening in Santa Barbara, california. Youre from ventura county, which includes Santa Barbara. I went to school at Uc Santa Barbara and it talks about how this is a place thats feeling, right now, the effects from the erosion of the hillside, mudslides, fires, floods. It is also an extraordinarily liberal and progressive place. And its a place thats not not doing enough or much about trying to address Climate Change. Explain. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I i actually was in Santa Barbara over thanksgiving and got evacuated for a fire. I believe you were supposed to be on my show that day and thats why you couldnt make it on. Yeah. Yeah. So so it hits close to home for me. And, you know, to me its really interesting to see this data. And to look at Santa Barbara and ventura as, you know, basically a preview into the sort of twodegree warming world. And see that people are still, you know, choosing more free parking over sensible environmental policy. When you say more free parking, youre pointing to how they were supposed to reduce their Carbon Footprint by a certain percentage. And instead of reducing it over over i think a two or threeyear period, they actually increased it. And part of that is because Santa Barbara loves its free parking so more people are driving, getting on the roads. And burning fossil fuels. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, Santa Barbara has this whole history. It was like the birthplace of the sort of modern environmental movement. Earth day came out of there. There were, you know, oil spills that prompted that and all of that. And it likes to think of itself as a really progressive place. But, you know, when push comes to shove, a lot of these proposals that were meant to curb emissions there have not passed. So where does that leave california . Because its its a state that its they compare it to florida. Florida with the rising sea levels. You can leave the coast and go to the interior. California with the winds and the fires. You cant escape it. Its its its blanketing the entire i mean, the entire state was almost on fire. Im exaggerating but much of the state was on fire. It was almost. Yeah. Yeah. Just a month ago. Yeah. Exactly. Thats the thing is that, you know, there was just this announcement that, you know, the california State Government is sort of mandating that insurers have to renew peoples Fire Insurance because other ways, they wouldnt. Because its not a safe risk for insurers. You know, so like you said, in florida, people can move inland a bit. But in california, youre looking at the whole state really having to grapple with, you know, where can people live . Is it safe . And what is that cost in terms of, you know, subsidizing insurance . Or yeah. If youre talking about insurance, is that where to look . Are the private Companies Going to start addressing Climate Change and recognizing Climate Change . And force the government to recognize it because they dont want to bear the financial responsibility for the effects of Climate Change. Like Insurance Companies. Yeah. I mean, Insurance Companies have been kind of a bell weather for Climate Change. You know, when they start to pull away from wanting to, you know, insure even fossil fuel projects. Insurance companies have been sort of shying away from big fossil fuel projects, too. But then you have things like whats happening in california where the states will try to sort of, you know, force the issue. I think that that can only last for so long. And eventually, theyre gonna theyre gonna stop insuring places. And that will have various ripple effects. And might, hopefully, make the rest of the government move. And just quickly before we go, weve got 30 seconds left. Theres protests in d. C. Are you surprised that there are protests in d. C. . Im not surprised that there are protests in d. C. I am surprised that there are not also protests at the headquarters of every Major Fossil Fuel Company right now. Thats where i keep, you know, expecting to see massive protests erupt. So, you know, i know there are people complaining about the traffic in d. C. Maybe maybe take the take the fight to the steps of exxon mobil, shell, bp, chevron. Amy, thanks so much for joining us. Well have you back on soon. Thatll wrap things up for me this hour. Shes got a podcast called drilled. And ive been listening to it and itll make your blood boil along with the boiling temperatures were experiencing. But she and we talked about this. But it is a really good explainer for how we got here. And she goes back to the 70s and talks about how exxon mobil was at the forefront or exxon was at the forefront of of Climate Science. Yep. They were at the forefront. They knew what was going on. They wanted to be the bell labs of Climate Science and they were able to predict warming. They were able to predict what releasing carbon in the atmosphere was going to do. And then when they realized that it was or some people in the companyli