Personal attacks on congress while making his case about why he should be able to go it alone. Plus, iran lashing out again as some there are calling for further retaliation against trump, while their government tries to explain away what appears to be a horrible and brutal truth. Iranian missiles shot down that commercial jet liner full of innocent passengers just after take off the night of that missile attack. And Speaker Pelosi says shell be sending over those impeachment articles to the senate soon, but then theres the matter of congress leaving town for another long weekend as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1,085 of the trump administration, and 299 days until the president ial election. Donald trump is making a new case for ordering the killing that brought the u. S. To the brink of a wider conflict with iran. This morning in the roosevelt room, trump defended the drone strike that dispatched the iranian commander one week ago now, and he continued to make his case tonight at his first rally of this 2020 Election Year in the critical state of ohio. We caught a total monster, and we took him out. And that should have happened a long time ago. We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy. He had more than that particular embassy in mind. And he was looking very seriously at our embassies and not just the embassy in baghdad. He loved planting the road side bomb. So now hes gone. Up until now, all this administration had said is that soleimani was planning imminent attacks on americans and u. S. Interests in the middle east. There was also the explanation top Trump Officials Gave Congress at that classified briefing yesterday. Democrats came out highly critical and, indeed, so did some republicans. Late this afternoon the house passed a war powers resolution that forces trump to go to congress for authorization before taking any future military action against iran. The vote was 224194, mostly along party lines. Tonight trump blasted the vote and House Democrats moved to put a check on his powers to reassert congressional authority. Theyre all trying to say, how dare you take him out that way. You should get permission from congress. These are splitsecond decisions. You have to make a decision. So they dont want me to make that decision. They want me to call up maybe go over there, let me go over to congress. Or come on over to the white house, lets talk about it. We heard where he was. We knew the way he was getting there. And we had to make a decision. We didnt have time to call up nancy, who is not operating with a full deck. Can you imagine calling crooked adam schiff . They want us to tell them so they can leak it to their friends in the corrupt media. As for the public, a new usa today ipsos poll shows a majority of the public, 55 , think the strike on soleimani made the u. S. Less safe. Less than a quarter say the u. S. Is safer as a result. Tonight one tragic result of this latest conflict has become clear. It appears iranian missiles shot down a commercial jet liner just after take off on the same night as that missile attack. Well have more on that a bit later on in our broadcast. Meanwhile, trump is trying to manage the fallout from all of this as he watches Mitch Mcconnell fight his battles on impeachment. Nbc news reporting the two met yesterday at the white house to talk about it. Today mcconnell issued this new warning to pelosi who has yet to transmit those articles of impeachment over to the senate. If the speaker continues to refuse to take her own accusations to trial, the senate will move forward next week with the business of our people. We will operate on the assumption that House Democrats are too embarrassed too embarrassed to ever move forward. It appears that everything will have to wait for congress to come back from yet another threeday weekend recess. Pelosi, who was featured on the cover of this weeks time magazine, responded to mcconnell and made it clear she is not about to be pushed into making any moves. We are concerned that the senators will not be able to live up to the oath that they must take to have an impartial trial. The articles indefinite . No, im not holding them indefinitely. Ill send them over when im ready, and that will probably be soon. We want to see what theyre willing to do and the manner in which they will do it. We need to see the arena in which we are sending our managers. Is that too much to ask . She has used that word before. Her concern about the arena has to do with whether or not there will be witnesses called or allowed at trumps trial. Thats a matter mcconnell wants to settle after things get underway. Former Trump National security advisor john bolton is someone the democrats and maybe a few republicans are eager to hear from, and hes agreed to testify if, indeed, he receives a subpoena. Today trump sounded somewhat hesitant about the prospect of this particular former employee under oath. John bolton testifying in the senate trial . Id have to ask the lawyers because we have to to me for the future, we have to protect president ial privilege. When we start allowing National Security advisors to just go up and say whatever they want to say, we cant do that. So its about future president s just to have that down. And here with us, for our lead off discussion on a thirst night, susan page. Washington bureau chief for usa today, best selling author who on the heels of barbara bush is currently working on one nancy pelosi. Jeremy bash at the c. I. A. And the pentagon. Jonathan lemire, White House Reporter for the associated press. Good evening and welcome to you all. Jeremy, on the National Security front id like to begin with you. Talk about the actual Serious Business that the gang of eight is charged with and how seriously in normal times they take those roles. Well, the chairs and vice chairs or ranking members of the intelligence committees and the congressional leaders from both houses and from both parties are eight members of congress, the socalled gang of eight, and they are charged with overseeing the most sensitive intelligence activities and sensitive intelligence operations. And as Congress Asks pertinent questions tonight about whether or not the information about soleimani can be shared with congress, what are they asking . Theyre asking, number one, why was this so imminent . What information did the United States possess . And i think heretofore, the answers have been vague and they have been unspecific and they have been, therefore, unsatisfactory to members of congress who are trying to discharge their responsibility for oversight. I think theyre also going to ask the Intelligence Community a broader question, which is are we indeed safer . Is all well, as the president said on the night of the Ballistic Missile strikes against our forces in iraq. Is, in fact, iran going to retaliate in other ways beyond that overt missile strike . Are they going to engage in proxies and surrogates, terrorism, building out their Nuclear Capability and Cyber Attacks . These are all questions that have to be debated, which is why Congress Passed this important war powers resolution act tonight. And, susan page, indeed, talk about how safe or unsafe we feel. Talk about Public Opinion as you wrote about it today. You know, this was a surprise to us, a level of concern we found americans felt about what was happening in the wake of the drone strike that killed soleimani. Usually these things, often they divide along party lines. Republicans would say its great, democrats would express concern. Thats not what we found. By more than 21, americans said we were less safe. A majority of americans said that the president was acting recklessly when it came to iran. So we saw a high level of concern about the repercussions, not the defense of soleimani, nobody is defending soleimani as someone who didnt deserve to die. But about the repercussions of the action that the president took. And you know, we saw the president take a very different tone yesterday than he had taken in the previous couple days and i wonder if the white house, which is constantly doing its own poll and survey work, understood the chord that the president touched with his more provocative rhetoric of the previous days. Jonathan lemire, lets take that point from susan page. Have you seen a migration of attitudes and talking points from the president , from the white house . Is it clear that anyone told him anything about the after effects of this unilateral decision . Well, this is a decision that was made rather hastily at maralago last week. And i was there as part of the president ial pool for a few days. There were a group of reporters who travel with the president. He had been given a series of options. To the surprise of his advisors, he took the most dramatic one. He ordered the strike that killed soleimani. They spent a couple days going over options, they went to another time, he went for it. There was some certainly discussion of what the aftermath could look like, but i think that people that weve talked to, the reporting weve done, thats not where the president s focus was. Looki looking tough, striking out defending american interests. He authorized the raid to kill al baghdadi, thinking that shoe showed americas reach, youre not safe from us anywhere in the world. They thought this was good for his reelection chances. Projecting american leadership. And he forged forward. But instantly there was not a real instinct from this president for this to devolve into a significant shooting war. He was looking very quickly for an off ramp. He made the statement. There was an understanding iran would retaliate. The missile strikes on the iraqi base the other night, thankfully, did not cause any casualties. And, you know, some of that perhaps by design, by the iranians, although certainly we shouldnt suspect they will not try to retaliate again. At least for the time being they didnt. There was no loss of life, no real damage. And the president was able to sort of claim victory. And, yes, this is a crisis largely of his own cree avgatio. Lets not lose sight of that. In the short term he got to have it both ways. Its his Foreign Policy gambling. This is what he does where he sort of talks tough. He doesnt want to have involved military action. And then he tries to claim victory even if its returning to the status quo. In this case he did, of course, kill an iranian general. Well have to see whether teheran which for the moment seems like its willing to take down the temperature, whether that continues. Jeremy bash, weve seen movement. I use the word migration on the talking points. Suddenly today we learn that the definition of imminent strikes was this guy was planning to try to take out our embassy in baghdad. Tonight the president switches to plural, embassies. So, Lawrence Odonnell asked democratic massachusetts senator ed markey, you were in the big briefing on the hill. Was this ever mentioned . Heres what transpired a few minutes ago on this network. We did not hear about blowing up the embassy yesterday in that briefing. And i sat through it from beginning to end. So, jeremy bash, why on earth w would the story change in 24 hours and why wouldnt you share information like that with the United States senate . Well, the fact that the story changes is a red flag. And second, if the president can announce it at a political rally, or at a political event in the white house, certainly they could tell the members of congress in a sensitive compartmented information facility in the basement of the capital when all members of the congress have checked their cell phones at the door and its a classified briefing. Youve got the chairman, the secretary of defense, the c. I. A. Director standing there. First of all, the president , maybe to echo jonathan, hes trying to have it both ways as well. Hes trying to trickle out details for political purposes, but hes not willing to brief members of congress who have the constitutional responsibility to oversee these activities. And hes also trying to say that this was totally imminent, but, in fact, hes also saying that this should have been done long ago. The story is not adding up and i think its going to invite a lot more scrutiny, a lot more conversation and a lot more resolutions like we saw from the house of representatives tonight. Susan page, so many of our print friends on this broadcast come on this broadcast. Theyre deadline journalists by day and go home and they are knee deep in a book project that puts them in another subject entirely. I ask this, knowing you are and youre hours away from usa today, knee deep in the subject of nancy pelosi. Talk about the ongoing effect she is still having on this president who, again tonight, went deep and went personal against her to cheers at that rally in ohio. You know, there is some division there is actually some concern i think among democratic ranks about exactly where shes going with withholding the articles of impeachment, how long shes going to hold onto them, whether she has an end game in mind. She has an extraordinary control of her caucus that is really quite remarkable, much more significant than the control her previous republican speakers had over their ranks. They had dissidents as you have in the Democratic Party who are much more public. Today you had a house chairman, adam smith of the Armed Services committee, say in an interview this morning that he thought it was about time to turnover these articles of impeachment. By the afternoon he was tweeting that what pelosi wanted to do. She has definitely, whatever else is withholding the articles of impeachment, it has gotten under president trumps skin. It clearly bothers him in a way it does not bother Mitch Mcconnell. And so for some democrats theyre saying, well, we dont know what else the strategy is for nancy pelosi, but that for democrats is a good thing. And, jonathan lemire, to take off on that, democrats have marvelled at the unity of the republicans, and that committee chairman, that exact episode is republican seeming under trump more than it is democratic. Can the democrats, will the democrats try to duplicate that kind of sticktogetherness . It was a rare break for the republicans yesterday when senator lee and senator paul questioned that briefing on the air strikes. And then some. Called it a disgrace. Lee said it was the worst hed ever heard. Beyond that there are few exceptions where the republicans are willing to break with the president. Helsinki was another. They march in lockstep with him and seem to be here on impeachment as well. The democrats, its a slightly different group, there are certainly characters who are not afraid of speaking their mind nor should they be. Speaking as a testament, susan was saying, Speaker Pelosi over the caucus where we had a few voices the last few hours, its time to send the articles over. Its time to transmit them. Suddenly that went away. Some of the members of the other chamber, too, senator blumenthal tim kaine. Yes, tim kaine, within a few hours reversed themselves. We should get this process going. No, lets wait and see. We trust the speaker. Shes in charge. To this point shes handled it pretty masterfully. The end game is certain. If it is certainly to annoy the president , she has succeeded. Jeremy bash, a lot of the standard stuff at tonights clintons rally clinton rally Hillary Clinton was called, crooked hillary again and again and again. You heard chants of lock her up at the trump rally in ohio. But then there is this Washington Post headline i wanted to raise with you. Justice department winds down clintonrelated inquiry once championed by trump. It found nothing of consequence. Jeremy, where does that leave us . Well, i think it leaves that u. S. Attorney who made that conclusion probably wondering whether hes going to have a job tomorrow because, of course, bill barr and the leadership of the Justice Department have played such an active role in advancing president trumps conspiracy theories and his attacks on the clintons and the obamas and anybody else. So its an unusual vindication here. But, of course, investigation was bogus to begin with and probably shouldnt have ever been launched. Three of our very best. Just one of whom is knee deep in nancy pelosi. Susan page, jeremy bash, and jonathan lemire, our thanks. And coming up tonight, the view from teheran as iran tries to convince the world they didnt shoot down a civilian aircraft. All evidence to the contrary. And later, with just 25 days sorry, we had to say it. 25 days till iowa, another democrat has reached the threshold and will be on the stage at the next democratic debate. 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Now is the time to update your coverage or enroll for the first time. Call healthmarkets now. Some things are too important to do yourself. Get customized security with 24 7 monitoring from xfinity home. Awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. The more we learn, the worse it looks for iran tonight about that ukrainian passenger jet that crashed in teheran just two nights ago, just hours after iran fired that volley of missiles at those iraqi bases that housed american forces. U. S. Officials tell nbc news that the intelligence evidence suggests strongly the boeing 737 was, indeed, shot down by iranian missiles by mistake. The jets last signal was recorded two minutes after take off, 6 12 a. M. There is new video tonight that the New York Times says appears to show a missile hitting its target. Presumably the aircraft near teherans airport. All 176 souls on board perished, including 63 canadians. Today the canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he wants a thorough investigation. We have intelligence from multiple sources, including our allies and our own intelligence, the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by an iranian surfacetoair missile. This may well have been unintentional. We are so happy to be able to talk to ali arouzi tonight, our nbc news teheran bureau chief. He was with us the night of the attack. Hes with us from the iranian capital where, as you can see, it is already well into friday morning. Ali, there are many problems for the iranian side in this story. Number one, if you have a mechanical issue, engine failure, you dont lose radio, gps and radar all in the same instant. Thats what happens here, and thats why its believed to be a catastrophic failure. And number two, this was the mostwatched piece of real estate that night in the world. You had every piece of american optics and many of our allies looking via satellite and other means at the air space over iran because we were fearing, suspecting and they were enemy aircraft to attack iran. So that makes it difficult to belie believe their excuse that this is something sold by the c. I. A. Selling the story this was shot down. Reporter thats right, brian. Good evening. Thats right. Iran is one of the mostwatched places, americas biggest adversary. And during a time when theyre launching attacks aimed at u. S. Troops, even more eyes and ears are on this place. But with that said, iran is strongly denying that missiles hit that plane. They do admit that the plane went dark immediately, which is very unusual. But they are sticking to their story. They are saying that this was a mechanical failure. They say the plane shortly after takeoff caught fire. The pilot tried to make a hard turn back to Imam Khomeini International Airport and during that time it crashed tragically killing everybody on board. Now, the head of irans Civil Aviation initially had said that the black box wouldnt be available to parties concerned. Now hes coming out and saying that the black box is available to all the parties that are concerned in this flight. He even said boeing can come and check the black box out for themselves. Now, there are ukrainian officials here on the groundworki ground working alongside iranians, checking the records, seeing what they can come up with, and all sorts of reports are coming out of this that are unconfirmed. There are some reports here that fragments of a russianmade missile was found on the ground. Again, the iranians deny that thats been found, but the iranians do buy a lot of their Missile Defense systems from the russians, so thats looking a little bit odd. But the National Security council here says this is psychological warfare to turn the iranian people off their armed forces. The debris will tell us almost instantly if there is the presence of an explosive. On the other front, ali, are we girding, do you think, for iran to launch any further attacks . Or is it the iranian surrogates that the west is likely most worried about . I know there are calls within iran that that shouldnt be enough retribution. Reporter thats right, brian. Well, youve been here. Youve reported from here. And you know how the authorities here like to talk tough, and thats exactly what theyre doing. The man that came out of the shadows and replaced Qassem Soleimani said hes going to follow his predecessors path. That those rocket launches against u. S. Forces was just the beginning of getting america out of this region. Irans president warned if there was any more miss adventure by america, revenge would be even tougher than weve seen up until now. And irans Supreme Leader said that attack was just a slap in the face for america, and the ri yong ho veng is still to come. But, brian, as the dust has settled after those attacks, it looks like it was more symbolic than anything else. Designed for domestic consumption and to show some strength, to say to the americans that we have the missile range to hit your targets in this region. But i dont think they want to invite an allout reprisal and revert to their old play book with proxies in this region to fight america. Ali arouzi reporting from the center of this story early friday morning in teheran. Our thanks always, ali. The Democrats Holding their 7th president ial debate eight days from now. It looks like one candidate might have just spent his way onto the debate stage. Were easily one of the most competitive campaigns on the ground competing for your vote. But the folks in d. C. In our party say you shouldnt be on the stage. Cory booker is one of the democrats who will likely not be standing on the debate stage next week. So far just six candidates have qualified. One of them a bit of a surprise. Two new fox surveys out tonight from South Carolina and nevada have Billionaire Tom Steyer polling at double digits, enough to land him a spot on next tuesdays stage. He was on this network just the last hour and defended his style of campaign spending. If your point is that im taking on the biggest problem i see in america and putting everything i have into it to try and solve that problem, including my money, then ive done that for ten years. If thats the worst thing you can say about it, about me, then ill take it. Back with us for more on all of this tonight is our friend mara gay, former bureau chief for the wall street journal who these days is a member of the New York Times editorial board. I have so many questions for you. First question is, if he can buy his way on the stage to use the pejorative, where is bloomberg . I think hes right on his heels actually. I think bloomberg has spent nearly 130 million so far. He jumped in later. Thats lunch money. Lunch money. Bloomberg jumped in later, but i think hes already tied in third place in some polls. And hes not taking donors, which complicates the rules, right . Thats right. Bloomberg is not even trying to actually compete by debating on the stage. He has a different pathway to victory. Listen why are you smiling . Im smiling because its so frustrating to me that you can really come into a race and no matter how good your candidacy is, you can just spend a lot of money or how bad. Or how bad, and you can make a lot of headway. But listen, in South Carolina, for example, theyve had years now of tom steyers ads. So i think for democrats who havent really been paying attention, theyve seen the ads and theyre about to see bloomberg ads if they havent already. Look, money talks. Money has an impact. Well see what happens once the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire race unfolds. I think then well get a better sense of how these democrats play on the ground and the retail politics will more come into play. But right now money gives you a huge advantage. Bloomberg spent 300 million to win his city hall campaigns. And you can really make an impact. Lets talk about a guy like cory booker. Sure. Cant crack 5 . We had so many candidates on the stage it took us two nights early on in this race. There are still that many candidates in the race. This stage has slimmed down. Are these rules designed to anger the entire field except for those on the stage . Well, it is you have to make a limit somewhere. Cory booker has been interesting. He has in some ways just as much experience he has more than someone like pete buttiegieg, the mayor. And yet he hasnt really cracked that 5 threshold. There are several reasons for that. You have to raise money. And when you call a donor at this point, you know, donors are kind of tapped out. Theres a lot of candidates to go around right now, and so thats part of the problem. But right now cory booker needs a moment. He needs a breakout moment. Well see if that can happen. Lets talk about the state by states. Michigan is interesting where you spent four years as a wolverine. Wisconsin is interesting. Do you buy into are these any state by states you look at and think, okay, i buy that as a real ticket to the bank trend for the snapshot in time that it is . Yes. Heres what happe heres whats interesting. I think the most important status to look at what happened in 2018 in the midterms. Both wisconsin and michigan elected democratic governors that year. The turnout was massive in those states. And i think trump wasnt even on the ballot. So really democrats should be looking at both wisconsin and michigan, and also pennsylvania as opportunities for pickups. Same with virginia. And so they really need to drive up turnout. The margin of victory for trump in 2016 was Something Like 11,000 votes. So you need to win over more White Working Class voters, but you also need to go to your base, which is both young people and people of color, black democrats, and you need to drive them out to the polls. I am duty bound to point out the clinton campaign. She didnt show up. So thats rule number one. Show up if youd like to win a vote. Im going to quote you on that. Mara gay on the the New York Times editorial board. They have an interesting editorial coming up on who theyre going to endorse in this race. Coming up for us, could the Trump Campaign be taking a critical state for granted . As goes ohio, i believe as goes the nation and the presidency. In 2000 i said florida, florida, florida. I think 2004 is ohio, ohio, ohio. Our friend tim russert was right back then, and more generally, where would the presidency be without ohio . The state of ohio has given us eight president s in our history. Theyre also very good at picking the next winner. Since 1896, ohio has voted for the winner 29 out of the last 31 times, maintaining a perfect record since 1960. Ohio went for 8 points for trump over Hillary Clinton, which might explain why trump was in toledo just tonight. Im thrilled to hold the first rally of 2020 right here in the great state of ohio. [ cheers and applause ] the democrats have almost admitted now ohio is trump country. Well, we want to welcome to the broadcast one of our political road warriors, and we will get to know them all, believe me, over the next ten months. Non monica alba covered the 2016 campaign on the road and the administration as part of our white house coverage team. Monica, how do the democrats view ohio versus the Trump Campaign . Is the Trump Campaign showing, perhaps, too much confidence at what is really a genuine swing state . Reporter hey there, brian. Well, they were certainly projecting a lot of confidence tonight. Of course, given, as you mention, how they did in 2016, but, of course, former president barack obama won the Buckeye State in 2008 and 2012. So the democrats would tell you this is a swing state certainly where they would like to be competitive, but this is probably one of the tougher ones to turn back blue. Thats exactly because some of the comments Trump Campaign manager made tonight which he basically said to the crowd, help me write this state off and help me not spend money here, citing internal polling that the Trump Campaign wont share specifics of, but they feel confident in a place like this. But the other thing to sort of look at is where we are. Were northwest ohio. So were so close to the border with michigan that the Trump Campaign sort of strategically feels that while this checks the ohio box, they can also attract voters from a nearby state that he won so much more narrowly that will be also so important in the upcoming election, brian. Because not all of us journalists can be where you are, and certainly not the people watching tonight, i want to ask you a few questions about atmospherics at an event like tonight. What got, for example, the largest crowd response . Mentions of the conflict with iran or impeachment . You could call it the conflict with pelosi. Reporter sure. The double is there, which is the president sort of portrayed as intertwined concepts, which is sort of how this rally crowd reacted. When the president was bashing democrats on one, in the same breath he would mention the other. Thats certainly what got the crowd most riled up. Whats also notable to hear about is the rally is sort of a bit of a sort of a call and response atmosphere. And the other thing that was notable, which we hadnt really seen in a while, was the sustained protest. There was actually a couple people with banners that very pointedly in this moment actually one of them said, no war. Certainly a reference there to iran. Yeah, i watched as much as i could live and i heard the president thanking security for taking people out. I have to ask you, because we ran one of the clips tonight where he focused the attention of the entire crowd he said if he briefed the gang of eight, they would only leak it to the dishonest media. Katy tur wrote a book about this dynamic, in effect. What is it like to be in there and suddenly, as a press corps, be the subject, the visual target of his comments . Reporter it is certainly unnerving. And i think whats very strange about it is its almost become routine. Since this has happened now for so many years, weve kind of become accustomed to it. So you sort of become more intense in terms of focusing on your work and plowing ahead and sort of straight through it. But i think what is sort of concerning is that whats more notable now or more news worthy is if the president of the United States is not attacking the media and not attacking reporters, but its unfortunate. Its a symbol of where were at at this time, brian. With miles to go before she sleeps, monica alba in the great state of ohio. Thank you for staying up with us on a cold windy night in northwest, ohio. We appreciate it. Well see you along the way. Coming up, the man who literally wrote the book on president s and war joins us after this. Do you know what else goes right back to George Washington . George washingtons view that the president s Inherent Authority can be exercised without congress insofar as its necessary to deal with an imminent or presently occurring attack. But following that, to engage in a more sustained military effort, it does require the approval of congress. The very energized senator mike lee, our next guest says theres a good reason the constitution gives us a say in whether the nation should go to war. It says the nations founders worried that president s might be prone to do so to help themselves. And with that, we are so pleased to be joined once again by president ial historian and prolific author, michael banglade beschloss, epic war, 1807 to modern times. Michael, by way of welcoming you and wishing you a happy new year, id like to start with a very simple definition. Do you define donald trump as a wartime president . A wartime president . Yes, because he came into office with wars going on and that has continued to be the case. And i think we have seen, you know, the other night you always look for a crisis thats going to bring out certain qualities in a wartime president. I think we saw some of them the other night. What were the founders worries about what we now know as war powers . They always worry that, one, if you put the war power in the hands of one person as president , that person might be prone to get involved in wars to make himself more popular or perhaps to expand his or someday her power as president. They felt that it was not right for one person to be making those decisions. They look back to europe. A lot of the monarchs of europe when they got unpopular or they began to worry about their longevity, they would get involved in a war that would allow them to unite the country. And so thats the reason they made very sure in the constitution that unless youre applying, as nsenator lee was talking about, an attack you have to do quickly, that the war power remain with congress, not with president s. And that congress would have to declare war. And now lets take on what weve seen as kind of a modern continental drift as war power has moved away from the legislative and toward the executive. And if you will, along the way talk about the role of one jacob javitz, veteran, former republican senator in drafting the modern war powers act. Right. Well, on the 20th century, the war power continued to move really quickly from congress to president s. Mainly largely because Franklin Roosevelt proved to be right in saying that we had to fight the Imperial Japanese and adolf hitler in the late 1930s, early 1940s, whereas congress was very isolationist. And then after world war ii, 1950, harry truman who was otherwise someone who was a senate man, was asked after korea was invaded and he sent arms forces to korea. When are you going to go to congress to ask for a war declaration . And truman said, essentially, im with james k. Polk. I think congress should be told to go to hell, he said. And Linden Johnson did the same thing, never asked for a war declaration. The last Time Congress was asked to declare war was 1942. So were in this habit. 1973, jacob javitz, as you rightly say, the senator from new york, thought that was a bad thing and that you had to have legislation that would move the pendulum back toward congress. And thats the reason he came up with the war powers resolution, which was passed over Richard Nixons veto. I was thick about your line of work tonight. And i heard frank rich tell Lawrence Odonnell his strong view that when trump is out of office, whatever time that is, the truth will come out. It may roll out slowly, but we will learn the truth some day. And i suppose even in this era where you dont have very many president ial papers, per se, to go through where a lot of it is ephemeral, electronic communication. Right. You have to hope and pray that truth comes out so that you and your colleagues can chronicle it. Thats right. And there are always records and there is a president ial records act. And it takes awhile. And thats why when people say what will history say about donald trump or barack obama, you know, we have to wait at least 40 years because we wont have the kind of hindsight we need to have to have a historical judgment as opposed to a political judgment. And the other thing as you rightly say is that we wont have those kind of documents fully to make really a full assessment. If you have a 40year wait before writing about this era, is there a multivitamin you could suggest to your anchor or your audience . I think we should look for one, brian. That would be helpful for a lot of reasons. Theres an idea. Including getting through this week. Michael beschloss, author par extraordinaer, always great to have you on the broadcast. Thank you, brian. Coming up for us, there is a reason it turns out you or someone you love may have recently complained that its just impossible to keep up. These folks, they dont have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again last thing before we go here tonight is about something you hear as a complaint these days, and its really brandnew to American Life over just the last couple of years, and here it is. Theres too much tv. Way too much to watch. Just cant do it. Now, we say this while fully aware that we have a minor role in the whole too much tv issue. We contribute what we believe is a manageable five hours a week. But we also note, we say this from a building as part of a company that produces a lot of tv, better known by the preferred sterile unromantic label of content. But we digress, with apologies for wasting even a moment of time you devoted to content consumption this week. What got our attention was this story in the New York Times. No slouch in the content department, by the way. It says, there were 532 scripted tv shows in 2019, and that, of course, is a new record. But lets choose to digress here to talk about how new this all is. Children born today will not know a World Without hundreds of available television shows. Children born 50 or 60 years ago remember three networks, and they aired television shows. And if your Favorite Television show was on, say, tuesday night at 8 00 and you missed it, you were out of luck. Maybe it would reair as a rerun months later, but pretty much it was gone from your life. Now there are networks or streaming places that also ship paper towels to your house. Some of them are named after types of cheese or a noise, and its pretty true that whatever youre looking for is out there behind one of these logos. And make no mistake, a lot of it is really good. More than that, its what the unromantic Business School types call premium content. And thats their highest praise in this business. Bottom line, the number of shows has doubled in six years. And when you include reality shows, that number doubles again. Its a lot. Oh, and homeland starts back february 9. That you can for your time that. Is our broadcast. Thank you for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Tonight they said it was a mistake for the senate even to have a debate about the president s war powers. Read the Constitution Congress moves to check the president. This is a statement of the congress of the United States. As the house votes on a war powers resol
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