Undertakings. First, how to handle the growing tensions in the middle east, and at the same time, how to move forward with impeachment of president donald j. Trump. As two parties fail to agree on a fair impeachment process. We have reporters on both fronts to breakdown the latest. Lets start in the middle east and fallout from the killing of general Qassem Soleimani. Theres also confusion over possible withdrawal of u. S. Troops from iraq. Listen to this. After the United States military sent an official memo to iraqi officials signaling a move out of the country, they said oops, forget about it, just a draft, shouldnt have hit send. Lawmakers hoping to get some sort of answers when theyre briefed on the generals killing tomorrow. Lets go first to richard engle. Richard, you have been covering iraq and the middle east more than 20 years. Help us understand the memo. Reporter first a little news. You mention a stampede at Qassem Soleimanis funeral. The death toll is 50 with over 200 injured. A serious incident. Here in iraq were trying to figure out, iraqi leaders are trying to figure out what the United States is doing, what is the future of the u. S. Presence here. You have to look at what the country has been through over the last 20 years or so. In 2003, u. S. Troops rolls in here, they turned over the government, overturned the government of Saddam Hussein, brought in a democratically elected system, and u. S. Troop presence has been more or less consistent since then. There was a brief period when u. S. Troops left and this country collapsed into chaos. Parts of the country fell to isis control, and u. S. Troops rushed back in. Now we are at another inflection point. There are growing calls for u. S. Troops to be kicked out of the country once again. Peoples memories here go right back to that period when u. S. Troops left and they wonder are we going back into another civil war, will this country break apart into a kurdistan and sunni region in the west thats a lawless region, that a hard kco sunni area. When the u. S. Put out the memo, you read it, it said in accordance, out of respect for decision by the Iraqi Parliament, respecting iraqi sovereignty, u. S. Forces are going to be preparing for onward movement. The Iraqi Parliament has just asked for all u. S. Troops to leave. When you read the letter, it says in respect to the request by the Iraqi Parliament, were getting ready for onward movement, everyone thought it is done. President trump is going to do what he did in syria. He is going to throw in the towel and the iraqi people will be a little like the kurds in syria, left with no troop presence and erratic policy. Then officials come out of the pentagon and say thats not what the letter said, it was a mistake, poorly worded, u. S. Troops are staying, just a few hundred are repositioning in the region. But it certainly sent a lot of chills down peoples spines here as theyre trying to figure out whats next. Is this the end of the troop presence because they know what happened last time u. S. Troops left here under uncomfortable circumstances. Chills down peoples spines and a whole lot of confusion throughout the region and around the world. Richard. Thank you so much. Now the second major story. Back in washington, what could be a huge shakeup in the impeachment trial. That man right there, one of the most sought after witnesses, former National Security adviser john bolton says he is willing to testify if subpoenaed. Republican senators are split on whether or not they want to hear from bolton. Garrett hague is standing by on capitol hill. Garrett, a week ago Lindsey Graham said this is over and done, dont need to hear from anybody, Mitch Mcconnell is working with the white house. Now youve got other senators saying maybe i want to hear from bolton. Reporter yeah. But maybe is not going to be good enough, stephanie. What were seeing so far from republican senators returning to washington today is unwillingness to buck the party line on calling witnesses. Perhaps later on, after presentation of cases by both sides in the impeachment inquiry, but no major effort towards calling bolton or agreeing to call any witnesses on the front end of this. Senators from Joanie Earnst to Lindsey Graham saying they dont necessarily need to hear from bolton. That was the houses job. Theyre not closing the door on witnesses, saying perhaps this is something we should hear down the line, but all of the republicans are remaining aligned with Mitch Mcconnell saying were not considering this until articles come over. Thats despite what we have seen as a Pressure Campaign from democrats by withholding articles over the christmas break, hoping perhaps that the president s ideas on the trial would crack, even if Mitch Mcconnells didnt. As i stated this morning, that hasnt happened. Democrats have to figure out what they want to do. Do they want to pressure republicans to adopt rules favorable for calling witnesses on the front end or send over the articles, hope for the best. Perhaps more news on that as early as today. Democratic Leadership Meeting later today. All right. Jo joining me why it matters to you, our white house reporter, chuck rosenberg, former u. S. Attorney, senior fbi official, and guess who is back. Steve schmidt himself, former republican strategist and adviser to john mccain and george w. Bush. Steve, say john bolton testifies. This guy is a lifelong republican. He could take us up to the edge of wrongdoing, not deliver a smoking gun. Why are democrats excited to have john bolton testify. We know President Trump spent a lifetime going to the deliver and never delivering the smoking gun. We know john bolton described the transaction as a drug deal, that he was concerned about it. We know that he knows exactly what happened. Whether he testifies and expull indicates the president or incriminates him, we have no idea. He is a fact witness. Unimpeachable no pun intended conservative. John bolton will have tremendous credibility because you cant seriously label him as a trump hater. You cant label him as a liberal. Cant label him as a never trumper. He is somebody who has been in the public sphere controversially for a long time. So well see what he has to say. I think that when we look at all of this, the reality is these republican senators in swing states will have a hard time justifying. Brutal testimony, damaging to the president , and we didnt see republicans move. Those are career public servants. Those are people that toiled for the countrys interests behind the scenes. John bolton is a prominent person. He has been in the center of the political ring, he has been in bruising battles in his own right. He is an idea log. He is aligned with the hardest Trump Supporters on National Security issues. I think it is very difficult to do the smeerg done to vin man and hill done to other public servants. Bolton has been in the fight, he is a tough customer, and clearly has something to say. Talk about the timing. Yesterday, was a warning in terms of impeachment, impeachment wasnt on the front pages of any newspaper. It was all iran. Talk about timing of john bolton, language in his statement. How deliberate is all this . Interesting to me, stephanie. I think theres a chance we dont hear from john bolton. The fact he is willing to testify doesnt mean the senate is willing to listen to him. Moreover, the president has another card to play. The president still hasnt invoked executive privilege. If they hear that claim from the president , an argument we cant hear from bolton because what bolton and trump talked about was privileged, even if the president loses that, loses that in court months if not years from now, the timing is curious. Bolton changed his mind. Originally said he wanted courts to tell him whether or not he could testify. Now he said he is willing to do so. But we may still have to litigate the question. I am not convinced we will hear from him. I hope we do. I am not convinced it will happen. What is motivating john bolton here . He left the white house an unhappy guy, not on the side of mick mulvaney, mike pompeo. How nervous are these two guys, he could possibly humiliate him. Reporter thats what brings concern to the white house. People dont know what is motivating him, he is a wildcard at this point. Youre looking at a trial like the expert prosecutor can tell you, you never want uncertainty, never want a wildcard. Theres really not a sense in the white house where boltons loyalties and allegiance lie. Theyre bracing for a claim of executive privilege, which they argue one of the key protect or ats is conversations the president has with a National Security adviser over matters of National Security. That thats clearly covered by executive privilege. Questions his judgment, very uncomfortable with rudy giuliani, the white house is feeling theyll push back, none of that is impeachable offense, high crime or misdemeanor. Theres anxiety because of the big unknown, and just hope that this is only theoretical conversation and that mcconnell doesnt actually end up having votes to subpoena or brings to a vote the question of subpoena and bolton as a witness. Is there a difference between a smenate subpoena and house subpoena . Adam schiff in the house would love to hear from john bolton. A subpoena is a subpoena. Interesting that bolton said he tried to limit his announcement that he would comply with a senate subpoena. What kind of principled argument would he have to refuse to comply with a house subpoena. I tend to agree with chuck, it is an open question whether he will testify, just because he announced he is willing to doesnt mean that enough senators are going to vote in favor of witnesses. Mcconnell may keep that locked down. I do think the next move may be to have the house consider subpoenaing bolton and holding him to his word that he is now willing to testify. If he is a principled eye dia log, why word the statement to say i will comply with senate subpoena. Why not put out a public statement, show up on tv and tell his story. Instead it is a grand drum roll for the biggest potential paycheck ever, his book. Absolutely. I think he is the National Security adviser to the president of the United States. I think that the executive privilege concerns are real ones. The president , any president , whether obama or bush or reagan, carter, trump, are entitled to deliberative process confidentially in the white house. I think that bolton is saying hey, i will tell you, but youre going to have to request it through lawful means, lawful process. Thats the subpoena process. Again, he is clearly hinting that he has something to say thats material to all of this. I have no idea what it is other than we know donald trump is at the center of this and john bolton is likely to be a fact witness to all of it. How consequential do you think his testimony could be . We said before, this guy is a lifelong republican, and the president , whether theres wrongdoing or not, is very crafty at never signing his name to things, the roy combs school of behavior. Stephanie, you remember one of the complaints about other witnesses that i found wholly credible like colonel vin man, they werent speaking to the president , they were one or two steps removed. Bolton was speaking directly to the president. To the extent republicans were complaining that statements were hearsay or ten u ated, he resolves that problem. The way we get to the truth, glenn knows this, we were federal prosecutors a long time. The way you get to the truth in federal court is through honest witnesses, authentic documents, broadly speaking. The more of that stuff you have, closer to the truth, not to oversimplify it. If we hear from john bolton, we have direct firsthand conversations with the president corroborating stuff we heard from other credible witnesses. That gets us closer to where we need to be. Again, i dont know that well ever hear from him. I hope we do. Glenn, how do you square what chuck just said with the fact that multiple gop lawmakers are making the argument that no new evidence should be introduced . They dont seem to be honest brokers of the truth, steph. Bolton characterized what he saw going on inside the administration as a drug deal. That conveys one thing and one thing only, he saw wrongdoing. The information he has is going to be sharply incriminating of the president of the United States. And it seems like some republican senators are determined to protect the president of the United States as opposed to promote rule of law and protect the citizens of the United States. Well, john bolton has plans. Well see what happens. Well leave it there. We have more to cover and breaking news. In puerto rico, a powerful 6. 4 magnitude earthquake hit the main island early this morning, knocking out power, damaging buildings, killing at least one man. This follows a 5. 8 earthquake that struck monday, and weeks of seismic activity. The puerto rico governor is urging citizens to stay safe and remain calm. Next, democrats are asking for answers about why the Trump Administration chose now to take out irans top general. Were speaking to congressman, former assistant secretary of state tom mol in ow ski from new jersey. Thousands pack the streets of iran, warning and calling for action against the United States, a new warning about threats to one of the most critical shipping lanes in the world. This is msnbc. We have a lot to talk about. Nbc. We have a lot to talk about. Nne . Burger. I want a sugar cookie. Wait. I want a bucket of chicken. I want. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. For adults with moderately to severely active crohns disease, stelara® works differently. Studies showed relief and remission, with dosing every 8 weeks. Stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. Some serious infections require hospitalization. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or flulike symptoms or sores, have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. Alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems. These may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. Some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. Talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. Remission can start with stelara®. Explore cost support options. Man whats my my truck. Is my livelihood. So when my windshield cracked. The experts at Safelite Autoglass came right to me. Tech hi, im adrian. Man thanks for coming. With service i could trust. Right, girl . Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Here, it all starts withello hi . How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone wifi up there . Uhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your local xfinity store today. Yeah, ive had some pretty prestigious jobs over the years. News producer. Executive transport manager. And a beverage distribution supervisor. Now im a director at a Security Software firm. Wow, youve been at it a long time. The thing is, i like working. What if my Retirement Plan is i dont want to retire . Then lets not create a Retirement Plan. Lets create a plan for whats next. I like that. Get a plan thats right for you. Td ameritrade. Is the administration going to declassify the intelligence . I dont know if were going to be able to do that or not, we dont want to put sources and methods at risk. Were looking at that. I can tell you the evidence was strong. That was National Security adviser robert obrien, doubling down on the administration claim there was enough evidence to warrant the air strike that killed general Qassem Soleimani. How much of that evidence lawmakers will see is very up in the air. Tomorrow, the house and senate will be briefed on the air strike as fallout here and abroad continues. Someone looking for answers, democratic congressman tom malinowski. What do you want answers to . I want to know what they meant when they said there was imminent threat. We have to do this right now. From everything i see, the imminent threat is now, after the strike. It is now that we are telling civilians, americans in iraq to leave because it is not safe. It is now that we stand down counterterrorism cooperation with the iraqis because it is not safe. Now we are speeding thousands of troops to the region to fortify our embassies and bases because it is not safe. These things were not happening before the strike. By its own actions, the administration is basically saying this is now the imminent threat that we face today because of what we did, so i want to know what justified putting us in a situation where were clearly less safe, at least in the short term. Soleimani was a very, very bad man. Former ambassador to the united nations, former governor of South Carolina nikki haley on fox news last night, i want to share how she characterized Top Democrats and their reaction to the air strike. The only ones that are mourning the loss of soleimani are our democrat leadership and democrat president ial candidates. No one else in the world because they knew this man had evil veins. Congressman . Thats an outright lie. First of all, soleimani was a monster. Spent the last 15, 20 years of my career focused on human rights, i know who the man was, i do not mourn his death, no democrat mourns his death. This is not whether killing him makes us feel better, were asking whether killing him makes us safer, whether it makes things better or worse for the people of the middle east. Thats a legitimate question, we have not gotten answers to that question. Does dealing with now imminent unrest in the middle east interfere with the ability for democrats to proceed with impeachment . No. The only person linking this to impeachment is donald trump which is pretty suspicious, that he associates the two concepts. It leads some people to wonder whether it may have influenced his decision to take the strike. We can defend this country. We can protect the American People and we can protect the constitution. We have a constitutional duty to do all those things at the same time. John bolton now says he wants to testify. Do you actually think he will . Eventually, yes, and if he doesnt now, he will put it all in a book. If i am a u. S. Senator and i want to get at the truth and i care about the integrity of my institution, do i want to be embarrassed saying i am afraid to hear from john bolton because it will make me uncomfortable, knowing that whatever he has to say, he is going to say it anyway eventually, either in a book that will make him a lot of money or if we subpoena him in the house. So were going to hear from him either way. Congressman, thank you so much. We have to take you overseas again in australia. Police charged 24 more people for deliberately lighting the countrys wildfires. So far, the fires claimed the lives of at least 24 people, destroyed 2,000 homes, scorched 12 million acres. According to the university of sydney, nearly half a billion animals have perished. Several organizations are accepting donations, including australian red cross, Salvation Army australia, New South Wales fire service, and World Wildlife fund. Consider it if you can. You can we made usaa insurance for members like martin. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa apps except work. Rywhere. Why is that . Is it because people love filling out forms . Maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much Vacation Time they have. Or sending corporate their expense reports. Ill let you in on a little secret. They dont. By empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. To learn more, visit paycom. Com when you take align, you have the support of a probiotic and the gastroenterologists who developed it. Align helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets, 24 7 with a strain of bacteria you cant get anywhere else. You could say align puts the pro in probiotic. So, where you go, the pro goes. Go with align, the pros in digestive health. And try align gummies, with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health. President trump has one potential plan for iran, but it appears his top military commanders have a very different one. Defense secretary mark esper said yesterday the United States would not target irans cultural sites, even though trump said on sunday it was on the table. The chair of the joint chiefs of staff had espers back saying he will follow laws of armed conflict, laws that dictate cultural sites cannot be intentionally targeted. Joining us, kelly mag ne son, Vice President of National Security and International Policy at the center for american progress, served on the National Security council in the obama and bush administrations. Also with us, Quincy Institute parse ee, and military analyst, retired four star general barry mccaffrey. General, in terms of chain of command, how odd is it that top military brass are openly rejecting the president s strategic statements . Look, you know, this is a preposterous situation. General soleimani was clearly a legitimate military target. He was actively involved in attacking u. S. Forces, responsible for deaths of tens of thousands of people. He was in iraq clearly to orchestrate a continuing operation to get us out of iraq. Cursory analysis of the option should have resulted in people saying this isnt a very smart move. Now the president has descended into the bizarre language about the wharf museums and antiquities. Not only is it stupid from a military perspective, it invites retaliation. Were going to have u. S. Marines guarding the Smithsonian Institute . It is an unprecedented adolescent view of National Security interests of the United States. Mike pompeo says were safer today than we were a week ago, but today, u. S. Maritime website warns of, quote, multiple maritime threats near iran. If the whole point of killing soleimani was to stop an imminent threat, isnt that exactly what were facing now . That is exactly what we are facing now, why we should question whether this was aimed at preventing a threat indeed. If there was a threat imminent, how does the killing of soleimani change that . None of these things have been explained by the administration. I suspect, i dont want to go into it too deeply, but i suspect that perhaps the thing thats changed between the posture of trump six months ago when he decided not to go to war with iran after they shot down an american drone and what we are seeing now where he actually seems to be wanting the iranians to retaliate so he can escalate further, the only big change between those two moments seems to be impeachment. Kelly, yesterday, a memo signaled troops were ready to leave iraq, then the chairman of joint chiefs said it was a mistake, a draft sent too soon. How does a mistake like that happen . In this case, commanders on the ground are trying to coordinate with iraqi partners on potential draw down in troop movements and thats actually a good thing. Bad news is it shows how hard managing strategic messaging will be in this crisis, and things are only going to get worse. The fact that secretary esper and chairman were not aware it is happening is a problem, and i think the pentagon needs to tighten the ship in terms of its own messaging. General, President Trump threatening sanctions if iraq does force u. S. Troops out. Is that an effective strategy . No. It sounds patently illegal to me, never mind the thought of making them pay for an air base we constructed in iraq, never mind saying that we would refuse iraqi requests to withdraw. Look, we went into this prior to hitting general soleimani. We are an iraqi shyite caretaker was gunning down hundreds of demonstrators over iranian influence in the country, and inside iran, iranians were killing or wounding hundreds and hundreds of people, protesting against their corrupt, ineffective regime. Somehow mr. Trump has sing emhandedly snatched out of this situation a posture where suddenly we are on the outskirts, tactically vulnerable in iraq, have thousands of soldiers all over that country in small packets, the embassy is isolated. Were on the verge of using our only real tool which is air and naval power directed against the iranian home land. The next step could be a high intensity war in the persian gulf. Trita, the u. S. Reportedly denied a visa to irans foreign minister. Irans foreign minister is coming to attend a u. N. Meeting thursday. How does that even happen in terms of what a mess this is . Well, i think it shows this is an administration that has no regard whatsoever for what International Law or laws actually mean, and how they should be followed. This is a you know Security Council meeting. The foreign minister was apparently invited by president of the Security Council. My understanding of the law is that the United States is obligated to provide that visa. I want to also provide information. The administration said soleimani was there to plan an attack. The iraqi Prime Minister said in parliament he was actually there as part of an iraqi mediation effort between saudi arabia and iran. The saudis sent a message how to diffuse tensions. Soleimani was in iraq to provide the Prime Minister with answer from tehran on mediation. If that is true, that means the assassination stopped at least temporarily a mediation effort that would have reduced tensions in the middle east, that actually is good for the United States. Thank you all so much. Were going to leave it there. When we come back, were talking gang of eight. Theyre supposed to be getting briefed today about tensions with iran, get up to speed. Were going to find out what theyre hopefully going to learn. And big news in the 2020 race. Bernie sanders goes after frontrunner joe biden. Youre watching msnbc. Trunner j. Youre watching msnbc. Trump obamacare is a complete and total disaster. Let obamacare implode. Nurse these wild attacks on healthcare hurt the patients i care for. Ive been a nurse in new york for thirty years. I know the difference leadership can make because i saw what Mike Bloomberg did as mayor. Vo mayor bloomberg helped lower the number of uninsured by 40 , covering 700,000 more new yorkers, Life Expectancy increased. He helped expand Health Coverage to 200,000 more kids and upgraded pediatric care infant mortality rates dropped to record lows. And as mayor, Mike Bloomberg always championed Reproductive Health for women. So when you hear Mike Bloomberg on health care. Mrb this is america. We can certainly afford to make sure that everybody that needs to see a doctor can see a doctor, everybody that needs medicines to stay healthy can get those medicines. Nurse you should know, he did it as mayor, hell get it done as president. Mrb im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. In just a few hours, top congressional leaders will be briefed on the decision to kill irans top military leader, but already democrats are crying foul. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says briefing material should be declassified so americans can see exactly why the president escalated tensions with iran. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to call a vote to limit President Trumps authority to use force. Joining me, anna palmer, senior washington correspondent. Brendan buck, and former republican strategist, steve schmidt. Steve, if iran doesnt retaliate, does this somehow become a win for President Trump . I think it is the wrong way to think about it, whether at a personal level it is a win for donald trump. General soleimani, heres the thing. Sometime before the next president ial election somewhere in the middle east the First American soldier, sailor, air man, marine, born after attacks on 9 11 that commenced these wars will be killed in action. A generation later. Almost 20 years in the longest war in americas history. Trillions of dollars of american money evaporated. Tens of thousands of our best young people in service to the country wounded. Thousands killed. These wars have defined this countrys last 20 years. And what donald trump did is make it more likely that more american blood and treasure will be invested into the middle eastern sinkhole, and after all these years theres a fundamental question that americans should be attuned to, which is that after you kill one of these people, and hes a bad guy, happy hes dead, i am happy Saddam Hussein is dead, the question around both deaths is this. Was the world a safer place after they were dead . The answer is no. It was a profoundly more dangerous place. The question that americans should be attuned to is what happens next. What happens next. The chances of them not retaliating are exactly zero. Zero. They will retaliate. They will further destabilize the region, and that regions destabilization is a mortal threat to the interests of this country. Do the American People understand that, anna . You have voters that say it is not in my backyard. Thats how the president thinks. The president thinks it is not my problem. But you obviously know to steves point it is our problem. Yeah, thats a tough way of looking at it. I think when it comes to another potential war in the middle east, it is very unpopular, certainly with lawmakers. Nobody in Congress Wants to be holding the bag for a potential another decade long interaction with middle east, sending troops in mass quantities. This is what the issue is. Right now you have democrats and congress saying whats happening here, whats the war Power Authority of this president , and theyre trying to check and have there be balance to what the president has done already. Brendan, democrats want to have a vote on this, they want to vote on war powers resolution. Do they have a leg to stand on . Can they limit the president s power . Well, i think implicit in what nancy pelosi is doing, her resolution as i understand it says that he has to stop any military action within 30 days, without congressional authorization. Implicit in that is that he had the authority already to go ahead and do that, and would still for 30 days. This is a serious situation. I am having deja vu. We have been through situations like this so many times, with donald trump or president obama, theres a military action taken, Congress Reacts and says hold up, we need an authorization vote. The reality is members of congress dont want to take that vote for two reasons. One, for all of the reasons steve laid out, it is dangerous politically to tie yourself one way or another to unknown military adventure, whether it goes well or bad, look at joe biden. He is already being hit for that. You have political expediency. The other is there is a fundamental disagreement, when i worked for john boehner, president obama took action, we had big debate about authorization for force in syria. We ended up getting hung up on president obama and democrats wanted a very prescriptive authorization we argued tied the hands of him and future military commanders and republicans want to say get the job done, maximum flexibility. What ends up happening is we dont do anything. President s feel embolden to do things because congress has given away their authority. Thats 100 right. The president is operating under the use of military force authority that came from after 9 11. Congress is completely ab did i debated responsibilities to check off on, be involved in changing and transitioning American Foreign policy and military strategy on the 20 years basis we have seen play out in the middle east. Thats precisely right. Congress has been completely derelict in its duty going back from Obama Administration through this administration on all these issues. Given how polarized we are, how partisan even the media is, do you think, anna, americans will get to see the intel that led to this . Hard to say. What will happen now, we said earlier, the gang of eight will be briefed on it, later this week, members of congress at large. I think there will be leaks in terms of what members are willing to talk about why this happened now, but as far as getting to the real nittygritty of what the president knew, why he made the decision to do it at that time, it is not going to be known in the near time or probably anytime in the coming months. Steve, should americans see the intelligence or are there cases, might not be this case with this administration per se, are there cases they would trust the administration on Something Like this . The American People dont trust the administration on this after years of lying, gas lighting the American People, this administration has no credibility. This is the fundamental point here. Political parties dont go to war. It is not that the audience at the maga rally is going to war, countries go to war, the United States goes to war. This president singularly lacks the credibility to look the American People in the eye and be believed. What we know for certain, what was the motive of killing of soleimani, it was domestic politics, it was about the president using the power of his office to distract from these impeachment hearings, to throw up a giant smoke screen. This isnt on the level at all. This is what it seems to be on its face, distraction. This is out of the trump play book. He has over and over again subordinated the National Security interests of the country. Thats what this entire ukraine fiasco is all about to benefit him personally and politically, and nobody should have any doubt because it is as clear as day that thats what this was about also. Brendan, last word to you. I dont know that you should identify intelligence. It is classified for a reason. The administration has the obligation to make the case why theyre doing this and explain where we go from here. There are a lot of unknowns, where are we going from here. Thats the responsibility of the commander in chief to come out, explain what he is doing. Thank you all so much. Were going to leave it there. This hour, Harvey Weinstein is back in new York City Court for start of jury selection in his new york trial, even as he faces new criminal charges on the west coast. The disgraced Film Producer was charged with sex crimes in l. A. Yesterday. In new york, charged with rape and criminal sex act in the first degree. He faces a charge of predatory Sexual Assault for which he faces a maximum of life in prison. Weinstein has pled not guilty to the new york charges. E new yorks memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Hey, our workers comp insurance is expiring. Should i just renew it . Yeah, sure. Hey there, Small Business owner. Pie insurance here with some sweet advice to stop you from overpaying on workers comp. Try pie instead and save up to 30 . Thirty percent . Really . Sure get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. That is easy. So, need another reminder . No, im good. Reminder for what . Oh. Ho ho, yeah need workers comp insurance . Get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. Senator Elizabeth Warren is campaigning in friendly territory tonight with a rally in brooklyn, new york. Alongside Julian Castro who endorsed her days after ending his own president ial bid but now the pressure is on for the warren campaign. Recent polling show her stalled in third place. How she addressed it last night with my colleague Rachel Maddow. Take a look. So i actually dont know why the numbers are a little bit off. But i will say this. Whats been happening is we just keep building on it. And we are now closing in on nearly 1 million donors. And the donations are modest. Theyre small. A lot of grass roots donations. Joining us now is the president and ceo of vote latino and ali batali and reed galin. Ali, you were there back in seventh, new york city, Washington Square park. The movement Elizabeth Warren created, we never saw crowds like that. She was taking selfies for over four hours. Yeah. How much pressure is on her to recreate that moment tonight . There she was with Rachel Maddow saying were building but if she doesnt recreate that is it building or stalling can ever. Because you have to consider when we were at that rally first happened. September was really the apex of her summer climb. Now shes middling. Shes in third, both nationally and in the early states that she needs so badly to win in. Tonight shes on friendly turf but the other thing im looking at whats in the endorsement . Really castro is somebody who provides her two big bolsters. One, he was the only latino candidate in this race and hes an obama obama cabinet secretary. Not a bad person to have speaking on your behalf, especially if youre getting yanked off the campaign trail and you need surrogates out there in your stead. Maria, Elizabeth Warren not necessarily a surprise last night took a swipe at Mike Bloomberg and his campaign. The alternative is Michael Bloombergs version of democracy and that is billionaires who decide among themselves who is going to throw a few hundred million on the table and buy what . A nomination. Buy an election. If thats the case, then our democracy becomes something that only works for a tiny number of people. And its going to shut everybody else down. Maria, how do these type of attacks play among undecided voters . I think the challenge its one of the reasons why she chose Julian Castro. Most democrats right now when they take that stock of the state of affairs of this country theyre going to out and vote. Who are they going to vote for . Her choosing castro is how do you bring in the 123 million voters who sat it out last time . How to you bring in the young voters and none of the candidates started to appease to that but castro did when he started to talk about homelessness and talking about the idea that we have to reimagine how we do immigration reform. He brought in a lot of people that had not seen themselves in policy making. While Elizabeth Warren speaks a lot about, you know, the policy that shes going to do at the 35,000 foot level. He was able to drill down and say, these are how well impact the 123 million that were left out. The idea though that shes attacking a billionaire is i think it doesnt actually serve well because bloomberg did quite a bit for new york when it came to policy reform, when it comes to education. So on and so forth, so ien courage them to talk about what is going to excite a base that had for a long time not seen themselves as part of this policy. It has nothing to do with whats in your bank account but it has to with the vision of how you see america. Reed, Julian Castro aligning himself with Elizabeth Warren is a blow to joe biden. Ali said it before. He was part of the Obama Administration but last night Bernie Sanders again second day in a row took aim at joe biden. Specifically around the war in iraq. Take a look. Joe biden voted and helped lead the effort for the war in iraq. The most dangerous Foreign Policy blunder in the modern history of this country. If were going to beat trump we need turnout and you need energy and excitement. I dont think that that kind of record is going to bring forth the energy that we need to defeat trump. Now that voters have Foreign Policy fresh on their minds, is it damaging to joe biden what Bernie Sanders was saying or is it a positive that hes got more experience than the others hes fighting against . Well, the former Vice President has even before he was Vice President had extreme experience when it came to Foreign Policy and this is where were seeing a really ride is among the democratic electorate. Joe biden has been in the lead for more than a year and this is the time that joe is going to go, he hasnt gone. What you see is that even in this time of upheaval in the middle east, Americans Still would rather have bad guys get killed by president s than not. So i think what youre seeing is that joe biden has the ability to say, look, i can make an admission that iraq was a mistake. Maybe we shouldnt have done it. But ill take a hard line when it comes to bad guys and thats something that most democrats are looking for. I think Foreign Policy being front and center causes them to pass or failure the lead test. Joe biden has that more baked into the cake. Its a place hes comfortable competing with his fellow candidates and if the iraq war comes back front and center, Pete Buttigieg can say, look, i served in the kind of wars and it allows for those kind of senators to show how theyd impact on the world statement. If you look at President Trump the thing hes been able to do the most on is Foreign Policy and where america is on the world stage. Kitchen table issues, Foreign Policy became the main dish. Thank you. Secretary of state pompeo is expected to brief reporters on the escalating situation in the middle east in moments. The escalating situation in the middle east in moments but i also want great taste. So i drink boost for women. New boost women with key nutrients to help support thyroid, bone, hair and skin health. All with great taste. New boost women. That wraps us up. Im stephanie ruhle, see you at 1 00 p. M. With ali velshi. I promise its a great one on twitter and instagram. Coming up more news with hallie jackson. Thank you much. We want to get you to the state department because the man who is doing the pr push, secretary mike pompeo. He is set to speak now as questions build about the new threats from iran overnight and the intelligence that led to the drone strike. Were also live in iran where the burial of Qassem Soleimani is on hold after a deadly stampede at his funeral overnight. State media reporting dozens of people killed, hundreds hurt as iranian leaders dial up talks of retaliation against the u. S. We are live on capitol hill with congress returning today. Splitting their attention between iran and impeachment. The democrats want public hearings and key leaders getting a briefing this afternoon. Everyone gets one tomorrow