bipartisan, very separate track. indicted senator bob menendez facing democratic colleagues with overwhelmingly calling for his resignation, one day after he and his wife pleaded not guilty in court. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where house republicans are taking their impeachment inquiry against president biden to the next level. with today's combative oversight committee hearing on capitol hill. for nine months republican lawmakers have tried to establish a connection between hunter biden's business dealings and the president. they have not proved any direct evidence so far that then vice president biden profited off his son's work. joining me now ali vitali, ken dilanian, mike memoli, and former fbi general counsel andrew weissmann. ken, give us the latest on the substance today, including highlights from the witnesses. >> reporter: house democrats are acknowledging that hunter biden essentially sold what they call the illusion of access to his father and based on his family name was paid millions of dollars, including from foreign sources, which can be troubling to a lot of people. what even the republican star witnesses here have asserted is that they do not see any evidence that implicates joe biden. in fact, that would merit articles of impeachment. listen to a professor, a frequent guest on fox news and a star witness here at this hearing. >> this is a question of an impeachment inquiry. it is not a vote on articles of impeachment. in fact, i do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment. that's something an inquiry has to establish. i also do believe that the house has passed the threshold for an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of president biden. >> reporter: what they are saying is there's enough smoke here that merits an investigation. the democratic witness, a constitutional law professor, said this is an abuse of the impeachment process. it's not designed as oversight, unless you have evidence against the president of the united states, he testified. you shouldn't about conducting an impeachment inquiry. as a viewer here, just watching along, there's some interesting information being put forth that raises questions, for example, about the prosecution of hunter biden and whether individuals inside that case made decisions that appear to have gone easy on hunter biden. by the way, it was during the trump justice department that some of the decisions were taken. there really isn't an allegation that president biden played any role in that. there's interesting information being drawn out, none of which leads or points to any criminal wrongdoing by the president. >> ali vitali, what was the reaction to the professor's comments in the room? they counted on him as being a conservative witness. he was a witness against the impeachment of donald trump at the first impeachment. >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right. of course, a mainstay on fox news, which carried much of the impeachment claims as fact. according to one of the democratic members that i spoke to in the room, he felt that around him among republicans, there were palpable surprise at the way that he was if equivocating, then going against the idea this was sufficient for an impeachable offense. contrast what he said, which was frankly measured, the idea that there's enough smoke, as ken said, for an inquiry, but certainly no smoking gun to impeach president biden at this point. i think that that's an important note. you contrast that with what the oversight committee chairman said, which is that he would be ready to vote for impeachment right now. of course, it makes sense he would say that. he is the one leading the charge on these investigations. but really for him to say that gives democrats something to seize on, gives viewers potential pause about the point of this investigation. i asked the judiciary chairman jim jordan in the last few minutes what he thought about this. he continued to stand by turley as someone who is a rare expert on these cases, someone who they will lean on, but certainly, the idea that there were republican members surprised by the way that he testified here really does go to show that this is not necessarily the perfect narrative that they were hoping to set at the outset of the impeachment inquiry, which is in the words of the chairmen, for the american public to see what they have been able to gather and collect. but it's also meant to convince some reluctant members of the republican conference that there is enough here to go from an impeachment inquiry to a full-on impeachment. >> andrew weissmann, we know in the past, inquiries lead to impeachments. there have been no instances that i can think of other than richard nixon, and he resigned to avoid the impeachment vote. after hearing all of the house republican talking points from those investigations, how far away are they from producing direct actual evidence that you think could legally hurt president biden? >> this is one where obviously this is not a court of law. this is a political sort of pretrial. this may be something where they are sort of afraid for what they asked for which is as ali said making this all public could really hurt them, because the public views this -- which i think would be the correct way to view it so far, as there's no there there, to quote gertrude stein. i don't think this is useful. one of the things that happened this morning was that i think the republican questioning, frankly, hurt donald trump in his case in the manhattan district attorney's office, because basically, the theory that the republicans have is this very strange theory of campaign finance violations. that's exactly what the former president is accused of, with far greater direct evidence with the payments coming directly from the former president and the criminal allegation. there's no direct evidence whatsoever, none, period, with respect to joe biden. i thought it was a very interesting take to go down that road to be trying to conjure evidence on that legal theory, because that's one that really hurts the former president. >> andrew, one thing comes to mind, that they have the platform, they can amplify that, they have the megaphone, they have one cable network or more right now. does it matter whether there's legal direct evidence, whether there is there there, if they can damage the president politically? is that the point? >> i assume that is the point. you would hope there would be -- they would be tethered to the facts and the law, because this isn't a legal proceeding. it's under the constitution is supposed to be sort of a political trial. it isn't required. but it's hard to imagine that this is anything more than trying to muddy the waters, to say -- so donald trump can say i'm not the only candidate who is running for office who has been impeached, that it's just a political thing. for me, it was a political thing and for joe biden. the real difference is if you get people to actually focus on the evidence. that's my stock and trade. there's just, right now at least, a huge disparity in terms of the evidence presented with respect to donald trump, which led to four criminal cases, and with respect to what we are seeing so far with respect to joe biden. >> mike memoli, the white house is handling this very gingerly, it seems to me. they have been avoiding any comment at all on hunter biden's legal difficulties. this merges the political with the hunter biden case, the case that fell apart in the delaware courtroom and led to the special counsel being appointed. >> reporter: that's exactly right. the white house is focused on the relationship of this hearing into president biden's own conduct, not discussing at all what hunter biden's role is in this. this is a while house that is keen on talking at the moment about split screen moments. we are seeing two split screens from the white house today. the first that they are trying to draw our attention to is the split between what house republicans in their view should be doing, working to avert a government shutdown, versus what they are doing with this hearing. just as we were talking, i received the fifth nearly identical statement from a white house spokesperson since this hearing began noting the exact number of hours and minutes left until the shutdown and saying, nothing can distract this hearing from the impact that this shutdown could have. we are seeing the white house draw attention to nbc's polling showing a greater than 20 percentage point gap in the highly polarized times, between the number of americans who say they support, just under two in five support this impeachment, versus those who oppose it. there's the other split screen we are going to be seeing as this hearing drags on into the afternoon, between this hearing and what president biden is doing in arizona, giving a speech on democracy itself and showcasing, as you and i have seen, that relationship he had with a republican, senator john mccain. >> also describing the maga republicans as extremists. he is going after them. >> reporter: that's exactly right. this is comments we have hear president biden making in late, in closed-door fund-raisers. this is a high-profile opportunity for the president to say that not just is this an extreme movement, this maga movement, but if it were able to enact its agenda, it would alter our democracy itself. strong words from the president. >> thanks to all of you. andrew, please stay close by. we will talk about a lot of legal issues coming up. house republicans pushing for deep spending cuts and fighting senate efforts to avoid a shutdown. congressman bob good joining us next when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. stay with us you are watching msnbc t? huh. two things at once. two things at once! ♪ two things at once. i'll have the... ...two things at once, please. now back to two things at once. ♪ two things at once. that's not two things at once. moooom! travis? ask about getting this season's covid-19 shot when getting your flu shot. with two days to go, a small number of house republicans continue to block a deal to avoid a government shutdown. the senate and house are sharply divided on how to proceed. speaker mccarthy continues to call on president biden to compromise on deeper cuts than were agreed to in july when they did the debt ceiling deal. so the president has no interest in meeting with them. joining me now is bob good of virginia, house freedom caucus member who serves on the budget committee. it's good to see you. thanks very much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we are trying to understand. there are so many moving parts. you are right in the middle of it. you know it better than i how the house caucus, the republican caucus is divided. trying to pass standalone spending bills, the approachation biapproach -- appropriation bills. the house is pushing for an extension. it's with deeper cuts than the president, the speaker, senate leadership agreed to in july. the white house and the senator not agreeing to that. is the shutdown unavoidable now given how far apart the two sides are and how time is running out, to get anything passed? >> we are borrowing $200 billion a month. we are on track for a $2.2 trillion deficit. senate democrats are refusing to address spending. they are refusing to address the border crisis. we are suffering under the $1.7 trillion omnibus passed by all democrats in the house and senate. unfortunately, a complicit number of liberal republicans who joined on. it was projected we would have a $1.7 trillion deficit. instead, it's $2.2 trillion. house republicans are united in cutting the spending, addressing border security. the democrats in the senate refuse to go along. we are passing spending bills, trying to break precedent over the last 20 years of failure by congress to do that. i call on senate democrats and senate republicans, for that matter, to join us in cutting spending, addressing the fiscal situation and securing our border. >> you are right about spending. the fact is, there was an agreement in july that was supposed to have settled all of this. it was negotiated by all four parties representing the branchs, including the speaker. to go back on that and relitigate it is one issue. separately, senator cornyn points out according to every budget experts, it costs more to shut the government down than you are saving, because of higher interest rates, because of the way the money is going to pile up, the compounding of interest. you are actually costing the taxpayers money by holding out rather than agreeing to a short-term deal and then negotiating a compromise. >> the fact is, a $200 billion monthly deficit, $33 trillion in national debt, projected to reach 35, $36 trillion at the current pace by the end of this congress. we are causing inflation. interest rates are up. the american people can't afford housing, groceries, utilities because of the massive inflation. it's going to get worse. we cannot do what congress has been doing for decades. the republican majority ran on fiscal responsibility. the american people elected us to implement those policies. this is our opportunity to meet the moment, to rise to the occasion, to hold the white house accountable. republicans are united in doing that. >> we are talking past each other on the budget numbers. we will not agree on that. let me ask you about the fact that with 48 hours to go, how can you justify the impeachment, the time being spent on this, by members who could otherwise be devoting their time to coming up with a solution here? >> simple. the president should be impeached on the border invasion in addition to the biden crime family, the evidence that's being confirmed and verified, investigated. the oversight committee doesn't work on the appropriations process or the budget. i serve on the budget committee and the leadership team for the house freedom caucus. i'm focused on the budget battle. i don't have responsibility with the impeachment. we have dozens of committees. we can walk and chew gum at the same time. we owe it to the american people to investigate the most corrupt president in the country. he lied to the american people in the last election to secure their vote. that's been proven. they changed the narrative. they no longer say he didn't know about his son's business dealings. well, he wasn't officially in business. we have emails. we have text messages. we have audio recordings. we have eyewitness testimony. we have travel and visitoverwhe. we should impeach him for the biden family crime activities. >> to call it the biden crime family without evidence -- you have accusations -- >> you are lying there. you are being dishonest to say there's no evidence. this is evidence that would be admissible in any case when you have texts, you have emails, testimony, when you have visit history, those things. >> not true. >> that's evidence. you can debate the evidence and whether you think it proves beyond a reasonable doubt. but that's what the oversight committee is doing with the impeachment inquiry. >> a good deal of it was from when he was not in office. it was after he left office from 2017, 2018. >> he was the sitting vice president. it was from when he was sitting vice president. >> that's not what the house ways and means chairman presented. >> he lied during the debate. he said he didn't know anything about his son's business dealings. we know that's false. >> these are accusations. >> it may be uncomfortable for defenders look you, but it's false. >> i'm not a defender. i'm trying to call the facts as we see them and know them at this time, sir. evidence is presented. evidence is contradicted. >> do you question the impeachment when they set the bar low and tried to impeach president trump based on a phone call? >> i questioned all of that. >> for that to be investigated and now we have president biden on video bragging about getting the prosecutor fired in exchange for a billion dollars in aid. that's evidence right there. that is evidence right there. you said evidence didn't exist. we have that right there. the president is foolish enough, foolhardy to brag about that on video, on air during a discussion that he was having. that's your president. >> we appreciate your point of view. thank you for joining us today, congressman bob good. joining us now is a member of the oversight committee, new york democratic congressman dan goldman, the former lead counsel during the first trump impeachment inquiry. i wanted to ask you your opinion, because the congressman was claiming they have overwhelming evidence, direct evidence of what they call the biden crime family and of his direct involvement with his son's business, when he was a sitting vice president. our fact checking is that has not been established. >> that's correct. that's not right at all. if i could just respond to your former guest, my colleague's assertion that there's evidence of corruption related to this. the evidence that has been corroborated by all sorts of witnesses, including republican witnesses, is that joe biden's effort to have the prosecutor general fired in ukraine was bad for hunter biden's business. his partner and also on the board said it was their view that they had the former prosecutor general, who was corrupt -- that's why he was fired. they had him under control. every single body urged them to fire him because he was not prosecuting corruption and he was not investigating correctly. his successor initiated an investigation. that is exactly what they were worried about. this is the kind of gaslighting that the republicans are trying to do right now where they are completely misrepresenting the facts. there is no evidence that joe biden had any involvement, knew anything about hunter biden's business interests, received any benefit from hunter biden's business interests. this is an effort to lump joe biden into the, quote, biden family, when there is no evidence of joe biden getting any money or having any involvement in the business ventures of his son. >> what was your reaction to professor turley, their witness, commenting on not seeing hard evidence for articles of impeachment? >> look, i think professor turley is right. it's interesting he is their witness, that he is someone who has consistently been a republican witness. who advocated against the impeachment of donald trump after the january 6 insurrection, acknowledged there's insufficient evidence to impeach president biden right now. which means that there's insufficient evidence to initiate this inquiry. you need to have some reason to turn an investigation into an impeachment. there has to be some new evidence, something that actually links the president of the united states to wrongdoing. we are not in an impeachment hearing of hunter biden. that's being dealt with by the department of justice. he has had a five-year exhaustive investigation. that's where it should stay. an impeachment investigation relates to the president. for the last eight or nine months the republicans have been doing an investigation. they have gotten 100% of the information they wanted from the administration and elsewhere. they don't have evidence showing joe biden's involvement. we are just getting more and more confirmation of that today at this hearing, including from the republican witnesses. >> congressman, the evidence may not exist. that's the contention. that's what our fact checking has shown so far. in terms of the political damage, does the white house have to be more forceful? you just heard congressman good. you can see the way all of the house members potentially could amplify this and could vote for articles of impeachment on the oversight committee, because they have the votes. they are in the majority. >> you would need a full house vote. they don't have the votes for that, which is why kevin mccarthy went back on his word to go to the house floor for a full vote on impeachment and decided just to open up a unilateral impeachment inquiry. this is so clearly part of a pattern directed by donald trump to distract from his own criminal indictments, to even the score against his future political opponent. he is directing this. he is orchestrating on one hand the impeachment of joe biden and on the other hand a government shutdown, which he thinks will delay his criminal cases. it's all about donald trump. unfortunately, the house republicans are more than eager to do his purely partisan political bidding. that's why we have the confluence of these two things. we are wasting our time on a sham impeachment when the house republicans are barrelling us down a rabbit hole into a government shutdown where millions and millions of americans will be negatively affected. >> i just want to clarify the procedure. what i meant was they have the votes in this oversight committee to report it to the floor, not the votes for articles of impeachment. >> if they report it to the floor, then we would have a floor vote. we will see. right now, there are many, many republicans who have said there is insufficient evidence to impeach joe biden right now. they don't have the votes. that's why we haven't had a house vote. >> good point. fair point. thank you so much, congressman dan goldman. we appreciate your expertise on this. the escape artist. former president trump avoiding the chaos of the second gop debate last night, remaining far and away the frontrunner for the nomination. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. what are the three ps? 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donald trump is missing in action. he should be on this stage tonight. he owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. that set the stage for the inflation that we have. >> i want to look in the camera and tell you, donald, i know you are watching. you can't help yourself. i know you are watching. you are not here tonight not because of polls and not because of your indictments. you are not here tonight because you are afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. you are ducking these things. let me tell you, you keep doing that, no one up here will call you donald trump anymore. we will call you donald duck. >> joining me now is republican presidential candidate john kasich, michael steele and robert gibbs. governor, you have been on that stage. you have seen it all. what did you think of the debate? maybe that wasn't chris christie's best one liner. >> there seemed to be no joy last night. you want to be in a positive and good -- i think the republicans are right now stuck in this sort of negative populist orthodoxy. everything is so bad. i didn't hear the kind of positive things -- look, i think they had a better night. they all -- the nerves were gone. i think they improved. at the same time, was it enough to overtake donald trump? i think, again, the republican party is stuck in this negative populism. i think over time, they are going to have to shed that. they think they will win with this. i don't think so. >> robert gibbs, do they think they will win? it seemed for a while as though they were scrapping with each other so much that as i think john kasich pointed out there was no uplifting, no vision. it diminished all of them. >> yeah. i think we were only missing somebody yelling "food fight" to complete the debate. they did seem to rush to get out to say what they weren't going to do, to say what was wrong, to the governor's point. surprised they weren't a little more forceful on what they wanted to do. obviously, the reagan legacy is one of positive vision, whether or not you agree with it, that shining city on a hill, which was missing. i think ron desantis and governor haley had good nights for their campaigns. whether or not that does much, quite frankly, to upset the math of where we were, i would be pez -- pessimistic on that. the overall winner is donald trump because he goes in and comes out still a commanding and strong frontrunner. >> michael gibbs, there was another highlight was nikki haley going after ramaswamy over his use of tiktok because of his past involvement as an investor in china. >> i have a radical idea for the republican party. we need to win elections. part of how we win elections is reaching the next generation of young americans. >> this is infuriating. tiktok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could have. what you have -- every time i hear you, i feel a little dumber for what you say. >> michael steele? >> that summed it up for me about everybody on that stage. i think people across the country felt the same way. with all due respect to my friends and colleagues to my right and left here, last night was an absolute crap show. it was nonsense. there was nothing redeeming about it. they stood in the house of ronald reagan, in his library, and belittled his memory and his legacy. didn't talk about how the republican party under his leadership at that time defeated commun communism, defeated russia, brought it to its knees. you had people who actually embrace vladimir putin. there was, for me, as a republican, nothing worth really talking about, getting excited about. as an american, even less so. what was more foreboding was the inability to not only carve out a direction for the country amongst those you are standing on stage with, but with the very important piece in front of you that was not there in donald trump. there was nothing that distinguished them against trump and gave the republican base a reason to move off of trump on to them. i think we will see more of this, andrea. nothing improves from this, in my view. i'm just saying as someone who has worked with, trained with and been part of presidential campaigns and candidates. this is a very difficult slog for the gop right now. they moe it. they know it. >> another thing missing, having covered reagan debates, reagan's light touch. there you go again with jimmy carter or what he did with walter mondale in the second debate. he would not exploit his opponent's youth and inexperience to deal with the questions about his age. governor, california's governor reacted afterwards. i want to play a little bit of that. get your response. >> i thought it would be more of a vice presidential debate. i wasn't convinced we saw the next vice presidential nominee for donald trump on the stage. from trump's perspective, it was great. there was no great breakout. there were feeble attempts to take shots at trump for not showing up. i thought biden honestly was the big winner tonight. >> i don't know about that. joe biden was taking hits from every direction. governor, what was your reaction? >> he is -- come on, he got sent there by biden. he wants to run. if joe biden were to say, i'm not running again, we will watch the democrats debate. you will see how much fun that is. these debates are not the best way to pick a leader. i think it's one set of skills you need to get picked as a nominee. it's another set of skills to be picked to govern. i think all the biden people are hoping that things can move forward and he can be the nominee and nothing gets in the way. governor newsom, he is out there to do a job. the real interesting question is, does trump go to the next debate? as of right now, i think he doesn't want to be in a situation where for two hours people are pounding on him. i don't know what he will decide. i want to reinforce one other -- we talk about reagan. i knew ronald reagan. i was in congress when he was president. there was a sense of uplift and a sense of positive. what donald trump has brought on the republican party is this negative populism. everyone is against you. you are a victim. right now, the people in the party -- they look at polls and see him competitive with biden. i think they think that message kind of works. if you have a different sort of a message -- i thought -- i imagined myself on that stage. a different kind of a message, a positive message, i'm not sure it sells with the party, with the base. right now, it's really a quandary for the republicans. right now, they will bet on this. they will bet on this negative populism. i think they will need to come out of it. i would be imagining ronald reagan, he would say the same thing. come out of this. come out for what you are for. paint a better picture. it's difficult for these candidates right now. >> it's also difficult to be a member of congress or the senate right now because of the shutdown. or a taxpayer in the united states. robert gibbs, briefly, i was talking to congressman good a bit ago. he was disputing not just on the impeachment issue but the shutdown, disputing all of the budget numbers and insisting that they were going to save so much money from the budget. all of the budget numbers that i have seen is that shutdowns cost taxpayers money. you get downgraded. you pay more interest. that gets compounded. it ends up costing us all billions and billions of dollars. >> the ratings agencies have said that they are looking at the shutdown as a failure in government. i want to take one thing that he said that's just patently false. granted, i don't think we have enough time left in your show to go through what was patently false about what he said. he said republicans are passing appropriations bills in a very different way than they have before. we are two days from the end of the fiscal year. the house hasn't -- i think passed one of the 13 appropriations bills. >> right. >> in order to finish the budget. the notion that they are somehow taking the governing of the country seriously is a joke based simply on that. >> michael steele, would you weigh in on that? >> before we go, i want to commend you. i didn't like the way that guy was interrupting you. he kept asserting all these things. i want to compliment you from the standpoint that, you get a different point of view on that. i don't like the way he presented. i don't agree with his point of view. but you showed it. i think on television sometimes, we got people who kind of lock into what they want to watch. if they hear something she don't -- they don't like, they go crazy. it wasn't easy. it wasn't fun. i want to give you credit and praise for the fact that you conducted that interview. >> thank you. that's the mission of the show is to have all points of view on the tough subjects. i wanted to let michael steele way in on kevin mccarthy and how he will navigate this in terms of the shutdown. >> that's why she's andrea mitchell. that's why she does what she does so well. kevin mccarthy, to say the emperor has no clothes is just an understatement here. he is completely exposed on all sides, completely exposed. he thought that if he did this impeachment thing that he could wrangle some success on getting -- moving that caucus towards a resolution on the debt. can't do it. where does he go next? well, i guess, you know, marjorie taylor greene and matt gaetz will tell us where he goes next. i think we are headed for something that's very difficult for the country. the blame lands in one place and one place only, because we knew this for months coming. it lands at his desk. that's the price of leadership, particularly when you have no clothes on. >> we will have to leave it there. thanks so much to all of you. what about bob? at this hour, senator bob menendez facing his democratic colleagues on capitol hill, all of them for first time since his indictment and since 30 of them have called for him to resign. what's happening behind those closed doors behind their regular weekly lunch? you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. ll reports." this is msnbc. at this hour, senator bob menendez is with his democrats with his colleagues facing them at their weekly lunch. it's the first time he will speak to his colleagues since his indictment and since a majority of them have called for him to resign. wednesday, he and his wife pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges alleging that the company used his influence to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including $500,000 in gold bars and cash found in their home. 30 democratic senators have called for menendez's resignations. others want to give him a chance to address the charges before deciding whether or not he should step down. joining me now is nbc capitol hill correspondent julie sirkin and andrew weissmann, former senior member of the mueller probe. senator fetterman tweeted that unless senator menendez is coming to resign, i am not interested in hearing his explanation for gold bars stashed in a mattress. we are past the point of his tough talk and defiance given the scope and scale of his alleged corruption. what are you hearing from other members of the senate? >> reporter: i gotta tell you, it's not just fetterman. i couldn't find a single senate democrat who has called on menendez to step down to resign who said that anything menendez would share with them in the lunch, which is happening right now, would change their minds or change their calls for him to step down. there are also other senators, including senator ben carden, who replaced him temporary on the senate foreign relations committee as chair who say the allegations are shocking. listen to that. >> details in the indictment is a shock. more than just a surprise, it was a shock. >> reporter: that's what i'm hearing from republicans, from democrats. those who haven't called on him to resign but are giving him a chance to explain himself, they say he has a lot to explain. it doesn't seem like anything he can say today in lunch will convince more than half of the conference, who has called on him to step aside, saying the charges are just too far or just too high weighing, bribery, corruption, for him to continue serving and representing the people of new jersey at this time. certainly, menendez, having the first opportunity to come face to face with the colleagues. >> thank you so much. andrew, let's talk about this. that was quite a speaking indictment. it was a shouting indictment, if you will. it laid out such a catalog of alleged offenses that it makes it very hard for the senators, even cory booker who stood with him until the last minute, a character witness the last time around when he was indicted on felony charges, had to join the critics and called for his resignation this time. >> sure. in addition to a very, very detailed and what appears to be a very strong criminal case, there are really significant national security concerns, and you would know very, very well. that's something that the senate democrats and republicans should be taking very seriously. just security, a legal forum connected to nyu, put out a piece talking about the various ways in which these allegations go to the issue of whether menendez really was operating as an agent of a foreign power. an act of egypt in the way he was conducting himself, giving them information that he was getting -- confidential information from the senate and giving it to egypt through his now wife. it also, as the senators will remember, when there were efforts to try to beef up the foreign agent registration act, dealing with this problem of national security and foreign influence here, it was senator menendez who held that up. it's nbc reporting this morning on that issue detailing how the role of senator menendez, which the senators here will know very well, was instrumental in blocking the effort to beef up that statute. it's very hard not to see that in the light of these charges and the national security concerns at the heart of this case. >> also on this program, the day before yesterday, former democratic congressman from new jersey, tom malinowski, a former state department official on human rights, said he was suspicious why his bipartisan legislation to cut back or withhold some of the money -- $1.3 billion that goes to egypt each year because of human rights abuses, why that died in the senate with nobody's fingerprints. he has, without evidence, thought that was another instance and there may be more alleged instances where his work on behalf of egypt was inappropriatelyinappropriately conflict with his duty as a senator. andrew, i also want to ask you about some breaking news from new york and the possibility of former president trump on the witness stand in a civil case. can you tell us what's going on there with the d.a. there listing him as a potential witness? >> sure, so if you remember just this week the judge there granted summary judgment for the new york attorney general finding fraud by donald trump and his two sons and others on liability. what remains is the damages portion, and so both sides have given a list of witnesses, about 28 or so for the attorney general and over 100 for donald trump and his side, and so because this is a civil case both sides can call people from the other side, so it would be totally appropriate for letitia james, the new york attorney general if she wanted to to call all of the defendants. now, i think with respect to donald trump, we have seen that he is likely, as he has in the past in this case, to assert the fifth amendment. he doesn't have to testify if a truthful answer would tend to incriminate him. it's a right that we all have under the constitution, but because it's a civil case, that assertion of the right could be used by the judge as an adverse inference. it's something you can use in a civil case. you of course can't do that in a criminal case. >> are there cameras in the courtroom for that case? >> that is a great question. i don't think there will be, but it isn't the strict rule that we have in the federal system, so i do think there's some leeway there, but i don't expect that there will be. >> andrew weissmann, our of counsel on all sorts of things. thank you very much. good to see you. >> you're welcome. and home at last, just free from north korea, travis king, the private second class is back on u.s. soil today. what's next for him? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ports" oc l with this tomorrow. you won't. it's ripe in here. my eyes are watering. i'm a busy man. look how crusty this is. shameful. ugh, it's just too much. not with this. tide. tide can tackle any pile. that a tackle pun? just clean the pile, ron. okay. this too. that was easy. when stains and odors pile up, it's got to be tide. what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ army private second class travis king is back in the usa after his release from north korea. the military plane carrying private king landed overnight in san antonio, texas, where he will now undergo medical tests and receive isolation support at brooke army medical center while being reunited with his family. >> what was her reaction when she heard the news? >> i mean, she was overjoyed, relieved. she's been on pins and needles, the 71 days he was gone. they were able to connect on the phone and she relayed that he was in good spirits, and she was thrilled to hear her son's voice. >> his mother of course has been in touch with the government and thanked the government for their work. king intentionally ran into the dmz and north korean custody in july while fleeing from his military escort after being jailed in south korea for an assault conviction. nbc's pentagon correspondent courtney kube joins me now. courtney, the military has been downplaying any kind of disciplinary action because he was awol, and they're focusing on his health, his emotional well-being, reuniting with his family. they seem to be taking a very low key approach to this wanting to emphasize his physical and emotional condition. they seem concerned for him. >> yeah, that's absolutely right. so the officials i've spoken with here have had that exact same message. right now they're prioritizing travis king's emotional health, his physical well-being. he's going to undergo a roughly two week long or so phase of reintegration training. that's what you just mentioned this, post-isolation phase of his treatment. so they'll look at things like his physical health. was he mistreated while he was in custody by the north koreans. also his emotional health and his well-being, his mental well-being. also they will look at whether he endured any traumas that need further treatment, any kind of emotional and mental health support going forward, and that really does seem to be the focus right now. focusing on him. now, you mention that had he went awol. that is true, and because of that he could be eligible for some sort of charges, wu the officials i've spoken to say that's not their priority right now. most likely if that were to happen, it would start as some sort of an administrative action, what the army tends to call a 15-6. they would look into the possibility of some additional charges. at this point the officials i'm speaking with don't expect to see something more public like a court martial. again, it's not completely off the table at this point, andrea. >> so is there any issue of charging him as a defector. was there any indication he was emotionally capable of something as dramatic as a defection? because the north koreans expelled him. they clearly did not think he was a good bargaining chip. >> i've asked that same question, that's a really smart question to ask, and the reality is people don't want to speculate yet who i'm speaking to. i really don't know that we're going to hear much about that for the next couple of days or weeks. i'm also not really sure that much of the -- much about his mental well-being is going to be made public in the days and weeks going forward, but we'll keep asking that question. it's a very fair question to ask. >> courtney kube, thanks so much for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reportsreports" "chris jansing reports" starts right now. ♪♪ >> good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. the search for evidence to support impeachment, house republicans claim they can prove the president broke the law using dozens of pieces of evidence, but his own star witness isn't so sure. we'll go live to the hearing room in just a minute. plus, the republican debates already reduced to little

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