All of it as the 11th hour gets under way on this tuesday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1,041 of this trump administration. And in the last few hours, marine one touched down at maralago, and a new story landed from the new york times. According to the newspaper, President Trump has already been briefed on the whistleblowers complaint when he released the congressionalal congressionally approved military aid to ukraine. Its under a triple byline that includes michael schmidt. He and his colleagues write, quote, lawyers from the White House Counsels Office told mr. Trump in late august about the whistleblower e complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to congress. The revelation likely sheds some light on mr. Trumps thinking at two critical points under scrutiny by impeachment investigators. His decision in Early September to release 391 million in Security Assistance to ukraine and a his denial to a key ambassador around the same time that there was no quid pro quo with kyiv. Remember, trump was so clear when talking with Gordon Sondland on that point. Also tonight, trump is talking about his personal lawyer and longtime friend Rudy Giuliani. Inlo an interview with bill oreilly, the president distanced himself from giulianis role in the ukraine effort, denying he sent him to look for dirt on the bidens. Ny what was Rudy Giuliani doing in ukraine on your behalf . Well, you have to ask that to rudy, butha rudy i dont eve know i know he was going to go to ukraine, and i think he canceled the trip. But, you know, rudy has other clients other than me. Im one but you didnt direct him to go there on your behalf . Reno, but no, but you hav to understand rudy is a great corruption fighter. He felt personally insulted by what happened during my campaign because there were a lot of bad things happening. Giulianis your personal lawyer. So you didnt direct him to go to ukraine to do anything or put any heat on them . Tno, i didnt direct him, b he is a he is a warrior. Rudy is a warrior. Rudy went. He possibly saw something. I think hes done work in ukraine for years. Heres the problem with that. In the summary of that now infamous july 25 call with the new ukrainian president , trump himself repeatedly brought up giuliani saying, quote, mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of new york city, and i would like him to call you. Rudy very much knows whats happening, and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him, that would be great. I will have mr. Giuliani give you a call. That was part of the socalled perfect telephone call. Just last week we heard ambassador to the eu Gordon Sondland, the former trump donor, testify that trump told him and other officials to talk to rudy when it came to dealing with ukraine. Secretary perry, ambassador volker, and i worked with mr. Rudy giuliani on ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the United States. This evening the house Intelligence Committeeen releas the closeddoor transcripts from two more impeachment witnesses. Philip ssreeker, an assistant secretary of state who testified october 26thcr, and mark sandy,n official at the White House Office of management and budget, who spoke to lawmakers on november 16. Sandy told them two staffers left the omb after expressing frus tral frustration over the old placed on aidld to ukraine. Meanwhile the House Judiciary Committee has announced it will hold its first public hearings on december 4 at 10 00 a. M. Chairman jerry nadler, democrat of new york, wrote the president to ask trump if he or his counsel, quote, planned to attend the hearing or make a request tori question the witne panel. Nadler added trump has until december 1 to notify the committee. Tonight the president held what was billed as a homecoming rally in sunrise, florida. Given he now claims florida as his permanent residence, he spent a good part of the evening as you might imagine airing his grievances about the investigations during his presidency. First it was the russia hoax. Total hoax. It was a failed overthrow attempt, and the biggest fraud in the history of our country. And then you look, the mueller deal. You remember that mess. They had nothing. Two years. They spent 45 million, and the real cost is many times that number. And now the same maniacs are pushing the deranged impeachment. Think of this. Impeachment [ crowd booing ] impeachment. A witch hunt. Was tonight in florida. Here now for our leadoff discussion on a tuesday evening, one of the threesc reporters on tonights breaking story from the new york times, the aforementioned michael schmidt, pulitzer prizewinning washington correspondent for the paper. Kimberly atkins back with us, senior washington correspondent for wbur, bostons npr news station. And jeremy bash is back with us as well, former chief of staff at cia and the pentagon, notely former chief counsel to the house intel committee. Mike, since you were quoted, id like to begin with you. What does your reporting say about the impeachment process . What might your reporting say about the motives of donald trump . Well, what our reporting did is it provided a very key but sort of basic point about the entire saga. The simple fact of when the president knew about the whistleblowers complaint to sort of help fill out the larger picture of the information the president had when he made one of these crucial decisions. And the point that we had uncovered was important to us because we didnt think that the folks on capitol hill that had been doing the impeachment proceedings had actually gotten to that in the course of all of their investigation. They spoke to all these witnesses. Theyve only gotten so many documents. The white house has blocked them from talking to those people closest to the president. The exact people who could answer the basic questions of what the president knew. When was he briefed . Why did he decide to do the things that he did . So while on the face of it, not the biggest fact on the face of the earth, not the biggest thing, but something substantial that fills out the larger picture, that chips away to give us a better understanding of everything that he knew when he made thesewh decisions that are now at the center of the impeachment investigation. Hey, kimberly, lets talk about will hurd, the lowtalking, retiring republican member of congress from texas who really became, for a brief while there, the favorite republican of so many very hopeful democrats. He notably and publicly said about a week ago that he hadnt seen enough evidence or evidence yet of bribery or extortion. Does reporting like this get a guy like will hurd and thats one republican close center. I think well have to see. One thing we are seeing is public opinion. It seems to be growing in support of this impeachment hearing, and thats something that a lot of republicans not congressman hurd because he is leaving, but a lot of republicans should have in mind when they consider what rises to the level of bribery in their eyes. The democrats clearly have laid out a case that is only supported by this later reporting by michael and the other folks at the times that donald trump did this and ultimately gave this aid after he essentially got caught in the words of congressman schiff. And it takes away a key defense of republicans, who say, look, theres no foul here. He gave the aid. There was never any announcement of any investigation. Nothing to see here. Were learning facts that really cast doubt on that defense, so its becoming more difficult for republicans. But if they believe that they have the support of their constituents and the support of thend president , so far thats been enough for them to be solidly behind him. Jeremy bash, in plain english, with guys like mike schmidt out there, were learning new things every day, and yet the train is coming down the tracks, to mix my metaphors. The calendar is owned and run by the democrats. Is this going to be a problem . Are you going to have various addenda coming late to the floor while this is being debated . I think we may learn additional facts that strengthen the case. But i do not think were going to learn new facts that weaken it. I think if the president had any exculpatory evidence, he would have put it forward. He would have insisted that the information he has be put out there. But there b is no substantive defense of the case. I think in some respects, its case closed. The evidence is in. The testimony has been received. Yeah, we might hear from john bolton down the road or some additional witness. But for the most part, the factual predicate is there. Itsl now really a legal issuea constitutional issue as to whether or not this body of facts t constitutes bribery, treason, or a high crime and misdemeanor. Mike, talk about the conflict inth the White House Counsels Office that was going on during the time period of your reporting tonight. Well, the White House Counsels Office was trying to figure out whether the administration had to hand over the whistleblowers complaint to congress. The whistleblower had come forward to the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, and thee Inspector General wand to give that document to congress, but the White House Counsels Office thought that there may be some executive privilege issues. This was a highly unusual situation because you had someone coming forward complainingmi about the preside, and the president has these powers or, you know, people think the president has these powers to protect certain information from going out the door. And they were asking and talking to the president about theyre going to ask the Justice Department for an opinion on whether they hadnt to do this. Now, the Justice Department ultimately came back and said they did not have to hand this document over, and it was only under pressure that this thing actually came tout. So its unclear sort of how this actually fed into what the president was thinking because after he was briefed on it at the end of august, he may have thought, certainly in Early September, that it may not come out, and it may not go to congress. And obviously it is on the 11th, september 11th, that the aid is ultimately released. And at that Point Congress knows about the complaint, and we learn about more detail about that shortly thereafter. Kimberly, lets widen the picture out a little bit to present day. Jeanine pirro spotted at the Trump White House atpi least tw days this week so far. Democratic polster mark penn having visited the white house, further endearing him to his fellow democrats. Is this indicative of any change in staffing, change in the inner or outer circles . If that constitutes the war room for impeachment, i think that, thats still pretty problematic for this president and one reason why republicans have been having such a democrat time trying to find a way to defend him in all of this. It seems that the president just insists on being defiant, but at the same time, he himself is weakening any defenses may have legally in his comments about Rudy Giuliani, that he didnt tell him toli go anywhere, thate was a fighter and a warrior. Theres no warrior privilege if giuliani, as expected, will assert any sort of attorneyclient or other privilege, if the client who holds the privilege is saying, no, i didnt have anything to do with it. He was off being a warrior by himself, its only going to cause him more problems. So itca seems so far that theres not a Clear Strategy coming from judge pirro or anyone else. Warrior privilege, it strikes me, mayit live on past this conversation, counselor. Thank you for that. And jeremy bash, you and i have talked many times on this broadcast about the president interacting with pressuring, criticizing institutions. Fbi, intelligence branch. Ive justnc written down a few. Federal reserve. And as recently as this past weekend, the u. S. Navy. Years from now, are these like the points on a starfish . Do they grow back, or will they need help . Well, there is intensifying outrage tonight inside the department of the navy, inside the department of defense, at the way the president has meddled in the peer review of the disciplinary matter involving that navy s. E. A. L. , who wasat acquitted at trial bu whose cos. E. A. L. S, the members of his profession want to determine whether or not he was entitled to wear that pin. I spoke to three former naval senior naval officers today, d they all said, in the words of one, this was gross. This wason disgusting by the president. Another said itshe like the president going in and saying, hey, that kid, he failed his buds class, the dive challenge in buds class. Im going to give him a s. E. A. L. Pin anyway because his dad is well connected or his defense lawyer has reached out to me or they pressed some political button, and im going to go m and determine the professional standards for the s. E. A. L. Community. It really undermines the military. It really esundermines the profession of arms, and i think youre going to hear a lot more about this,ng brian. As we were reminds as recently as last nights broadcast,la chain of command h existed for so long for a reason. Our chanthanks for starting off broadcast onks this tuesday nig. Coming up as we continue, how muche foreign business is Rudy Giuliani doing . We added up the countries. There are a lot of them. And later, minutes before they press publish, we get an exclusive first look here tonight at ae new report on wh russia has to say about donald trump these days as the 11th hour is just Getting Started on this tuesday evening. We can explain that photo. Exact. They answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. And when they were done, chevy earned more j. D. Power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. So on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say thank you, real people. Youre welcome. Were gonna need a bigger room. Is your business still settling for slow internet . Well time is money. Switch to comcast business now and get a great deal when you get fast, reliable internet. With a 30day moneyback guarantee, installation when it works for you, and 24 7 customer support. So what are you waiting for . Get this great deal when you sign up for fast, reliable internet. Call 18005016000 today. Comcast business. Beyond fast. The Washington Post is reporting that while Rudy Giuliani was pursuing his ukraine campaign, he stayed with a wealthy Venezuelan Energy executive link the to an investigation into possible Money Laundering and bribery in the u. S. A month later, giuliani met with doj officials on the venezuelan executives behalf to argue his client should not face criminal charges. According to reports from nbc news, abc news, and the post giuliani has either done consulting work, delivered speeches, or represented foreign clients or governments in at least 19 overseas countries. Here to talk about all of it, mimi rocah, former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york, now a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at the Pace University school of law. In most law firms, theyre called rainmakers, and people from mueller to mondale to bob dole, its not uncommon to have a prominent, big name on the letterhead as no one needs to remind you. What happens when rainmakers make their rain overseas and in some cases it splashes back against the home team . Well, look, i mean giuliani is in this very precarious position for a lot of reasons. And what were talking about here is this blurring of lines between being a lawyer, being a consultant, and supposedly being the personal lawyer for the president. So hes trying to purportedly, you know, represent the president in criminal matters though i still really question that whole premise that thats what hes doing. Hes more like a spokesman fixer for the president , and hes purportedly representing people in criminal cases like before the department of justice. And hes out trying to gin up business for possibly some business endeavor hes doing with mr. Parnas and fruman, who were recently indicted. I think fiona hill actually even made a connection in her testimony about the possibility of parnas and fruman having some involvement in venezuela and that there was some connection there. So, you know, is it just a coincidence that giuliani was meeting with people with respect to venezuela and with respect to ukraine in the same place, or was that something more nefarious, more connected . We dont know right now. But thats one of the things obviously the Southern District would be looking into. And when you see a subpoena with eight different crimes listed on it, thats very telling. Hearing the president say to bill oreilly to the effect of, youll have to ask rudy sent a lot of people back to the president in the doorway on air force one, youll have to ask michael cohen. What is the peril for rudy when the president says Something Like that . Look, Rudy Giuliani, as far as i can tell, is up to his eyeballs in crime. I mean there is you know, again, we dont like to try and make predictions, but i would be surprised at this point if Rudy Giuliani didnt get indicted. Like i said, that subpoena with, you know, eight crimes on it seems very specific, very far along to me. And just the reporting that were hearing, you know, theres a lot of smoke there. If trump is going to try to now put this whole ukraine matter on him, giuliani seems to be going along with that so far. Oh, yes, the president s right. I didnt physically go to ukraine to dig up dirt on joe biden. That was given to me by the oligarchs. He can go along with that for a while, but at some point that means that giuliani is essentially being implicated in a bribery conspiracy by the president of the United States because if he wasnt acting on behalf of trump and trump is saying, oh, no, if he went there to get dirt on the bidens because he hates corruption. And told them they cant have their aid, that was all him, then he was just implica implicating giuliani. He really should start paying attention and speak up now, not wait to be indicted. This is why we invited you on tonight. Will you and your family please have a happy thanksgiving. Thank you. You too. Our thanks as always. Coming up, exclusive analysis of how the media arm of the russian government is attempting actively right now to shape our politics and our debate going into 2020. And why are you United States senators and television hosts, republicans who know better, advancing talks points translated from the original russian when we come back. If you have medicare, listen up. The medicare enrollment deadline is only days away. With so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit . Having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket, and thats why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. With their new fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from National Insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. Call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. In minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit or if theres another one that can get you extra coverage or help save you money. Best of all, their service is completely free. Does your plan have 0 copays, 0 deductibles, and 0 premiums . If not, maybe its not the right fit. Does it include dental and vision coverage . Well, if not, maybe its not the right fit. How about hearing aid, glasses and gym memberships at no additional cost . Maybe there is a better fit for you. Call healthmarkets now or visit healthmarkets. Com for your free fitscore. We can instantly compare thousands of medicare plans with all of these benefits and more, including plans that may let you keep your doctor and save money. With the annual medicare enrollment deadline coming, dont waste another minute not knowing if you have the right medicare fit. For this free service go to healthmarkets. Com or call right now. Having helped enroll people in millions of policies with an a Customer Satisfaction rating, you can trust healthmarkets. Dont assume that your plan is still the right fit. The Healthmarkets Fitscore makes it easy to find the right medicare plan for you. Healthmarkets doesnt just work for one insurance company, they work to help you and they do it all for free. Your insurance marketplace. Healthmarkets. There may be medicare benefits and savings youre missing out on. Only healthmarkets has the free fitscore. Call before the deadline. Brandnew research from our next guest reveals the president is getting a lot of attention on russian statesponsored news outlets. Legitseeming russian state news media is one weapon they have, one weapon they use. Another is americans themselves. U. S. Senators, members of congress, tv hosts using the russian talking points out loud, in public. These are people who, in other words, know better embracing russian propaganda. While he has tried to clean it up since without much success, here now is Louisiana Republican senator john no relation kennedy this past sunday morning followed by Tucker Carlson from just last night. Senator kennedy, who do you believe was responsible for hacking the dnc and Clinton Campaign computers, their emails . Was it russia or ukraine . I dont know, nor do you, nor do any of us. The entire Intelligence Community says it was russia. Right, but it could also be ukraine. Im not saying i know one way or the other. Why do i care whats going on in the conflict between ukraine and russia . And im serious . And why shouldnt i root for russia, which i am. Nato cares. You may not. I dont live in western europe. I live in d. C. , and i dont care. Before we go, earlier in the show i noted that i was rooting for russia in the contest between russia and ukraine, and of course im joking. Im only rooting for america. Mocking the obsession with russia that so many on the left have. With us for more, clint watts, former fbi special agent, author of messing with the enemy. And a distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign PolicyResearch Institute through which he is about to release his latest study of russiansponsored news media. We also welcome to the broadcast the veteran journalist john harwood, who covers washington for a living. Gentlemen, welcome to you both. Clint, ill start with you as youve been kind enough to share this before it gets released. What does round two show, especially about News Coverage of our president . It wouldnt be what a lot people particularly on the political left would think, which is, yes, russia wanted donald trump to win going into 2016. Vladimir putin will even say that onstage nowadays, but they dont necessarily treat him that great in terms of their state media, and they really have to separa separate him as two distinction individuals, one, the candidate thats going to run in 2020 versus the head of state. And when you find pretty consistently is it breaks in two different lanes. If hes the candidate, theyre far more positive towards him. They see him as a candidate whos done great things for the country of the United States. Its interesting that russia wants to give their opinion about what our president has done for our one. But then the negative side is when President Trump drifts into Foreign Policy that doesnt match with what russia wants, you start to see the negative mentions pick up. That will oftentimes be tied in with some sort of negative gaffes or things that the president might have done that speak to his character or mistakes that he made, which is also very common of biden. We talked about him last week. They would go after him for his age, making mistakes, for gaffes. They do that similarly with the president in terms of media coverage. John, i wanted to share with our viewers the reason i invited ouen the broadcast. It was because of a tweet you put out after we heard that jaw dropper from senator kennedy. You wrote, heres a republican senator disseminating russian intelligence propaganda fabricated to harm the United States. Hes doing it because it helps him politically. And i had this thought. You and i are approximately the same age. We came up under the same training and sets of rules, yet these times clearly require playing by a different set of rules. You would never have used that language ten years ago. I know you too well. I see totally why youve used that language this past weekend. Brian, it is shocking the point that we have reached in this debate. The Republican Party for a number of years has moved further and further away from reason and rationality as theyve lost what they once thought was a natural majority in the country. And rather than adapt broaden the base of the party, reach out to new voters, theyve tried to maximize the use of sort of bluntforce politics. Weve seen this in voter suppression. Weve seen this in wild arguments against president obama, in bogus arguments for some of the president s tax cut and other programs. But now weve gotten to a point where it is so clear a president elected with help from russians, who welcomed that help as Robert Mueller told us, who then tried to obstruct an investigation into it, continues that attempt to use foreign help in an election with ukraine, hes been caught clearly doing it. It is unambiguous. We know what happened. Its been shown what happened. And now to try to justify it because theres no factual defense of what the president has dungeone. They are enleaning on what fion hill identified as russian propaganda in the hearings last week. Shes one of the foremost experts on russia in the government. The president s own Homeland Security adviser told him that this was bogus, it was propaganda, and yet what weve seen is republicanelected officials, the secretary of state mike pompeo, who himself has been implicated in this, are parroting this propaganda as a way of defending the president. We can presume that those people, pompeo, kennedy, and others, actually know better. Not entirely clear that President Trump does. You know, President Trump evinces a certain detachment from reality. Its possible that hes been somehow persuaded and his paranoia has made him think that this is whats happening. But anyone with open eyes, clear eyes, can see that thats not what happened. And as for Tucker Carlson and fox news, they get paid money to appeal to that audience and parrot that kind of stuff. Tucker carlsons kind of a troll. As he said, he was joking, but i think his motivation is a little bit more transparent. Clint, lets talk about senator kennedy. He likes to skew homespun vanderbilt, uva law, oxford educated. He made his first comments on fox news with chris wallace, attempted the cleanup last night on cnn with chris cuomo, a cleanup which still left the strong whiff of it was probably ukraine. Is there anything to be gleaned from his choice of those two networks . I find it interesting how he is playing this, which is trying to open up the aperture, right . This is a very russian approach by the way, which is if there is truth, drown it out with falsehoods, which means it could be any number of possible scenarios. It could be any human on the planet that also tried to influence the election. You can do this in an infinite way, and it becomes almost impossible to defend. You could go to the center and say, what would you like us to do . What would you want us to investigate . Wheres the thread . And it would be pretty open, i would imagine. So when you get to the end of this, it just leaves you wondering, as r. T. Would say, question more. That is literally the headline of their news site every single day, and that method just leaves you open to the sort of doubt. And that is the entire goal of it. But when you hear from an elected official like the senator, who knows better, when you see him on multiple outlets giving slightly parsed or different answers, which is what weve heard of the mueller investigation, impeachment, you name any sort of topic in the trump era, it becomes impossible for americans to know what to believe. And they actually tune out. It creates apathy amongst the public in terms of policy debate. You cant move forward as a country if you cant decide on what actually happened or not. Well have you both back. Our chanthanks to both gentleme coming up for us, how effective have democrats been in making this case for impeachment so far. New polling numbers are on the move. That may offer some clues to us. Theyre pushing that impeachment witch hunt, and a lot of bad things are happening to them because you see whats happening in the polls . Everybody said, thats really bullshit. So that happens now at just about every trump rally. That point he was making actually not what the latest impeachment polling is showing us. According to a new cnn survey, half of all americans support not only impeachment but also his removal from office. This number has steadily increased from march when it was 36 to may when it slid up to 41 . Support then reached its current level right with the start of the hearings that were live televises. Back with us, alexi mckammen, politics reporter for axios, and Michael Steele, former Lieutenant Governor of the great state of maryland, host of the appropriately titled Michael Steele podcast. Good evening and welcome to you both. Michael, on the general drumbeat of impeachment, how its approaching this president , would you rather these days have a d or an r after your name . Thats a good question, brian. Oh, man, probably id like to have a j and b, a little jim beam, baby, at this point. You know, probably i think the dems have done a very effective job of sort of setting out the case, the narrative. What has been interesting is more people paid attention to it than i think republicans and certainly the president thought would pay attention, and probably even democrats to be honest about it because you just didnt know how this was going to get absorbed by the american people. And i think thats reflected in the cnn poll, that a lot more people paid attention to it, and, you know, maybe it started with yovanovich. It sort of captured the imagination and carried through and culminated with dr. Fiona hill. So i think that narrative really worked to the advantage of the democrats to set up the next stage of this. Alexi, two points that you already know. Number one, none of the polling matters if all of this ends without consequence. Number two, even some democrats are saying, lets settle this with an election in 2020. So that having been said, how is this going to play itself in to a president ial election campaign, do you think . Well, i think its too early to know exactly how voters, when theyre going to the polling stations in november 2020 will think about impeachment and use that to inform their vote. I mean especially if this gets to a senate trial and the senate decides to acquit him, which we are assuming that will be the case, that will make his supporters, i would imagine, even more emboldened. The interesting thing for 2020, of course, is all the senators who are running for president who will be plucked from the campaign trail to instead participate in the senate trial in the impeachment inquiry for President Trump. That could shake things up in the dynamic of the primary field shaking up, but i dont know that it will necessarily sort of inform peoples votes when they are voting in november 2020. Both of our guests have agreed to stay with us. Lets fit in a break now. Coming up, Pete Buttigieg dealing with some new controversy about some old comments. It is part of one big challenge he has with a critically Important Group of democratic voters. With so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit . Having the wrong plan may cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket, and thats why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. With their new fitscore, they compare thousands of plans from National Insurance companies to find the right medicare plan that fits you. Call or visit healthmarkets to find your fitscore today. In minutes, you can find out if your current plan is the right fit or if theres another one that can get you extra coverage or help save you money. Best of all, their service is completely free. Does your plan have 0 copays, 0 deductibles, and 0 premiums . If not, maybe its not the right fit. Does it include dental and vision coverage . Well, if not, maybe its not the right fit. How about hearing aid, glasses and gym memberships at no additional cost . Maybe there is a better fit for you. Call healthmarkets now or visit healthmarkets. Com for your free fitscore. We can instantly compare thousands of medicare plans with all of these benefits and more, including plans that may let you keep your doctor and save money. With the annual medicare enrollment deadline coming, dont waste another minute not knowing if you have the right medicare fit. For this free service go to healthmarkets. Com or call right now. Having helped enroll people in millions of policies with an a Customer Satisfaction rating, you can trust healthmarkets. Dont assume that your plan is still the right fit. The Healthmarkets Fitscore makes it easy to find the right medicare plan for you. Healthmarkets doesnt just work for one insurance company, they work to help you and they do it all for free. Your insurance marketplace. Healthmarkets. There may be medicare benefits and savings youre missing out on. Only healthmarkets has the free fitscore. Call before the deadline. The kids need to see evidence that educations going to work for them. There are a lot of kids, especially the lower income minority neighborhoods who literally just havent seen it work. There isnt somebody they know personally who testifies to the value of education. Pete buttigieg made those comments and further comments on the topic when he was running to be mayor of south bend in 2011. They prompted a harsh rebuke from michael harriet, who writes for the root. In his essay, he wrote in part, quote, mayor petes bsry is not just wrong, it is proof men like him are more willing to perpetuate the fantastic narrative of negro neighborhoods needing more get along moderates would rather make stuff up out of whole cloth than wade into the waters of reality. Pete buttigieg doesnt want to change anything. He just wants to be something. So this setback comes as buttigieg struggles to gain traction with black voters especially. He later called harriet to talk about the piece and offered this explanation at an event today. What i said in that comment before i became mayor does not reflect the totality of my understanding then and certainly now about the obstacles that students of color face in our system today. Hair iot has subsequently written about his phone call with the candidate. Quote, for 18 minutes and 45 seconds, we talked about educational inequality, poverty, and institutional racism in america and how to fix it. Back for round two, Alexi Mccammond and Michael Steele. Alexi and michael, this conversation on the merits could take us several broadcasts. Lets reduce it to initially here the kornacki estimate, and heres what i mean, alexi. Steve kornacki estimates one in four democratic voters in the primaries, africanamerican. Does this mayor have any hope of winning folks over to his side . Steve kornacki also points out in that piece that you just read from that since 1992, no democratic candidate for president has eventually become the nominee for president without winning a majority of the black vote. Mayor pete in polling has shown up at zero percent. The most hes reached is 4 support from black voters. Theyre obviously a lot of room for him to grow. This conversation that he had at a table full of white men by the way, in 2011, which is like also very problematic to be talking about minority and low income students at the a table full of white men no matter what year it is, is obviously coming back to haunt him in a way that, you know, voters, reporters alike want to know where he stands on these issues now, especially as you mentioned earlier in the segment, as hes struggling to really gain traction with black voters. Its interesting when you compare someone like Pete Buttigieg to senator elizabeth warren, who has steadily increase the her report from less than 0. 5 support in march of this year to now 20 among black voters. You have to did yourself why. I think its because she walks into these settings with black voters where she connects her own genuine experience to the sberns theyre going through, and shes really thought through the issues that black women in particular face in their daily lives whether thats health care or economically or otherwise. I think that for a lot of folks, Pete Buttigieg just comes in and sort of seems like he doesnt really know what the Actual Experience is like and instead he points to his douglas plan or his plan to end systemic racism. Alexi, just to complicate things, enter mike bloomberg, who before he announced, apologized at a speech in a church in new york for the nypd policy so called of stop and frisk. Yeah. Situations like that, im not a political consultant, and im not running for president. Im a reporter. But what is fascinating to me and the question i would love to ask Michael Bloomberg is why are you apologizing for it now . Is it because you just now suddenly realized that that was wrong and the longstanding implications of Something Like stop and frisk and the implications they have on the black and Brown Community . Is that something youre just realizing now because youre deciding to run for president , or is that something you realized in however many years since it happened . Thats whats confusing to me and i think to a lot of voters, who will recognize that that is simply pandering. Youre only apologizing, i think a lot of voters will think, because hes running for president , and that is problematic. Michael steele, at venues like the debate in atlanta but more broadly across this race, does anything make you cheer . Does anything make you cringe when you see democrats speaking to, dealing with, trying to interact with africanamericans and the africanamerican voting bloc that they are not naturally a part of themselves . Well, it goes back for me, you know, this has been a narrative for a long, long time in my political career. Ive always argued the idea that, you know, republicans dont give a damn and democrats pretend they do. And thats kind of been the juxtaposition of the black political narrative relative to both parties. What i love so much about Michael Harriots piece is he kept it real and he was very straightup and honest about it, and it pushed pete to have to respond to him directly because hes on point with respect to democrats and quite frankly the country. A lot of thought around the black community is a stereotypical thought, you know. I grew up in, you know, a lower middleclass neighborhood. Nye daddy was a truck driver. My mother was a laundress. I had perfect role models beyond them in the community both inside of school and outside of school. So this idea that a young negro child would not have such role models is just preposterous. You should take the two or three kids that you see, and you project it to almost every kid in the neighborhood. No wonder its been so hard to deal with a lot of the systemic issues that afflict the community. So this idea that democrats, you know, will come to the table and show up in a black church, you know, two weeks out from an election or presume the black vote is a given, that day is over. And i think that has been profoundly made clear by black women, who have said enough. So i think this dynamic is going to be very interesting for democrats over the next few months. Black folks arent going to tee off of iowa as the party has in the past. Theyre going to make a subjective, their own independent analysis of these candidates, which theyre starting to do and have been doing, and come probably to a very different conclusion. Two friends of this broadcast. Alexi, i can tell youre bursting to continue this conversation. Were just going to invite you back and well do it the next time. Great. Thank you both. We really appreciate you coming on. Coming up for us tonight, the president tonight in florida vowing to defend us against something with no chance of happening. Last thing before we go here. It was during that trump rally in florida tonight when he said something out of nowhere. Not unusual. Things got really out of nowhere later in the rally when trump told the crowd he has a gorgeous chest, and then he told the crowd the governor of florida looks great without a shirt on, but i digress. This was the first out of nowhere moment about the holiday were about to celebrate on thursday. As we gather together for thanksgiving you know, some people want to change the name thanksgiving. They dont want to use the term thanksgiving. And that was true also with christmas, but now everybodys using christmas again. Remember i said that . But now were going to have to do a little work on thanksgiving. People have different ideas why it shouldnt be called thanksgiving, but everybody in this room, i know, loves the name thanksgiving, and were not changing it. As the historian ted weg mer wrote just days ago, thanksgiving is just thanksgiving. Its intended to bring us all together, all groups and sub groups, all to give thanks, and it works, starting with the name. Calling it the day we give thanks gets wordy and clunky, so thanksgiving is really kind of perfect when so much of our world is not. Politics lhas now seeped into te football we watch, the foot we eat, and god forbid the drinking straws some of us might use while at the table. So when we heard the president tonight, we wondered who is trying to rename thanksgiving and why . Short answer, no one. You can almost guess the rest here. While the president may have seen this graphic on his favorite morning show, the story hes referring to most likely a trope from the obama era. The twoterm democratic president whom trump tonight calmed Barack Hussein obama has one does. The story which was false from the getgo alleged that obama was planning an executive order renaming thanksgiving celebrate immigrants day. Never happened, never was going to happen, but it made for a nice story tonight in florida where it certainly revved up the crowd. That is our broadcast on this tuesday evening. Thank you so much for being here with us. Good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york. Tonight on all in youve seen the polls and were now the highest im the highest ive ever been in the polls. Half the country supports impeaching and removing trump from office as house judiciary sets its first impeachment hearing for next week. John bolton, i think that would add a great deal to it. Tonight the push to slow down so key witnesses can testify. Th i think mike pompeo would be a critical person to hear from right away. As the white house fights it out in the courts. But when the time is right, all good things happen. Then how the Top Republican on the Intelligence Committee is now implemented in the ukraine scandal