Than a political side show. Could they go away altogether . The latest on donald trump calling for the gop to pull the Plug On Future Debates as he questions whether any of his opponents should even be Vice President. And is the shutdown a sure thing . President biden insists it isnt, but his hopes hinge on House Republicans, in his words, doing their job. And theyve got now less than three days to do it. So what happens next . Lots to talk about, but were going to start in washington where one small group perhaps ten conservative republican lawmakers are refusing to support any Stopgap Measure to keep the government from shutting down 59 hours from now. Instead, the far right is committing critical hours to an Impeachment Inquiry that a new poll shows most americans do not want, and not only is there little time or public appetite for this hearing, theres zero evidence to justify holding it. And of the three witnesses for the majority, none of them seems to have any evidence firsthand evidence related to the president. In the words of Ranking Member jamie raskin, not only is there no smoking gun, theres no gun and no smoke. That hasnt stopped House Republicans from doing what theyve been doing for months, stringing together a series of allegations and claiming its evidence. One of their own witnesses, jonathan turley, wasnt having it. 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 is something that an inquiry has to establish. But i also do believe that the house has passed the threshold for an Impeachment Inquiry into the conduct of President Biden. I want to bring in nbcs ali vitali outside the hearing room, nbcs ken dilanian is in d. C. , Barbara Mcquade is a former u. S. Attorney and University Of MichiganLaw Professor and msnbc legal analyst and matthew dowd is a former Chief Strategist for the Bush Cheney Reelection Campaign as well as senior msnbc political analyst. So ken, bring us up to speed. What stuck out to you here . Chris, i think that turley sound really captured the tenor of all three of the republican witnesses. They came to the hearing to say, look, theres a lot of troubling behavior here, a lot of smoke. Hunter biden was paid millions of dollars including by foreign business entities. Theres an email where he says i had to give half my salary to pop, thats never been explained, but theres no evidence beyond that smoke that leads to President Biden, and even those witnesses had to acknowledge that there isnt, what they say is this should be investigated. And the democratic witness, a constitutional Law Professor said, wait a second, thats an abuse of the Impeachment Process. The Impeachment Process is not for suppositions and oversight and innuendo, its for hard evidence that the president of the United States committed crimes, which there doesnt seem to be any. That said, we all know this is a political game here as well, and what the republicans have succeeded in doing is putting a lot of the evidence that theyve been working on for months in their Oversight Inquiries into Hunter Bidens business dealings, putting that in front of an audience has not familiar with it. Its not a great picture for democrats. The democrats acknowledge that hunter biden was essentially trading on the illusion of access to his father. He was paid millions of dollars. Theres a lot of troubling evidence and paper trails, but no hard evidence that joe biden ever profited from any of this, that any of the money went to him. Thats the crucial question hear. Hunter biden after all is under indictment. Everybody knows hes in trouble, what that says about his fathers conduct as president was not made clear in todays hearing. All you had to do was listen to Jamie RaskinsOpening Statement and you can see that democrats are fired up to disabuse anyone of the notion that theres anything impeach able here, but sort of whats the bar that republicans are looking at . Is it simply as long as were talking and our base is listening, then this is worthwhile . Reporter yes, this is something that hard right conservatives have been pushing for. Its why about two weeks ago Speaker Mccarthy said he would support an Impeachment Inquiry, but youll say this about congressman raskin, he has been very effective today at continuing to disrupt republicans from getting any momentum or narrative story telling behind this hearing. At each turn hes been offering motions, trying to get people like Rudy Giuliani and lev parnas subpoenaed by this committee. Its created the vibe of a little bit of chaos or mess in this hearing room at a time when republican witnesses are not exactly marching in lock step with the narrative republican members might have wanted them to take here. The fact that turley and others are making clear theres not enough evidence to move forward on impeachment, though they do think its a worthwhile endeavor to continue the fact finding, its really important especially when you consider the fact that for many americans, maybe this is the first time that theyre tuning in to this, and that could jog their minds of why this is happening in the first place. I think the political that ken point out there is really critically important. The other piece of the politics is that mccarthy launched this inquiry so he could potentially let a little steam out of the pot on his right most flank. Maybe that could have made it easier for him to avoid a Government Shutdown. Its something that democrats are reminding of. The fact that this inquiry is going on days before the government could shut down. Heres one of those moments, chris. People are going to be hurt when this time runs out. This is not The Wizard Of Oz when All Of A Sudden she turns over the hourglass while the wicked witch is standing there. These are children. These are women. These are military officers and soldiers and civilians. These are Law Enforcement officers, these are Senior Citizens looking for paychecks for social security. Why in the hell are we playing this game . And why dont we be honest . If it were so important, it could wait. This is what is important, protecting this government. And protecting the people who pay taxes here. Reporter and look, i think its important to point out, republicans huddled this morning as they often do at the end of the week to talk about where theyre at in terms of negotiating to avoid a shutdown. Ive talked to key members out of that meeting, they are not very optimistic that they have a plan in place that would garner the amount of votes they need to not shut the government down. And frankly, ive even heard some republicans on this committee concede that maybe an Impeachment Inquiry, though it was set on the schedule before all of this mess on the shutdown, that maybe this isnt the best use of their time and maybe not the best image to project to the american public. Nevertheless, this is where republicans are, getting what they wanted and moving forward on this Impeachment Inquiry while simultaneously potentially be held responsible for shutting down the government. So matthew, when we talk about image and what it is that republicans want to project, are they having any success at all . Or is it more likely that americans would watch this and say, you know what, hes right. This is not The Wizard Of Oz. Well, i think most americans who are paying attention to this are thinking to themselves, okay, if theres evidence, give us the evidence, and then well make a decision about whether or not joe biden is at fault here. But theyre simultaneously watching the clock run down on whether or not the governments going to shut down, and theyre going to be affected by it and hurt by it in the midst of this. So i think its a catastrophic error by republicans in their regard. You would think they would, you know, aim before they shoot, but they seem to just want to shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot in the midst of this Impeachment Inquiry as theyre calling it. The other thing ill say is we have seen throughout our political history shadiness or mis you know, mistakes made by relatives of president s, whether its roger clinton, neil bush, billy carter, relatives of lyndon johnson, relatives of richard nixon. None of it has blown back on the president unless theres been evidence that actually connects the president. So i think the two split screens on here, Government Shutdown while this clown show goes on with zero evidence only is going to behoove to the benefit of the democrats in the shortterm. The keyword we keep hearing here, barbara is what you deal with in your day job every single day, and that is evidence. So let me play a little more. This sound is from republican nancy mace. In 2017 the joe biden family teamed one Chinese Company cefc to make millions off of granting access to joe biden. Hunter even arranged for joe biden to Share Office Space with the ccp aligned company cefc. My democrat colleagues say none of this is relevant because joe biden wasnt Vice President while his family did these shady deals. Turns out thats complete and total [ bleep ] its a lie. Hunter biden referred to access to his father as the keys to his familys only asset. Those words are going to come back and haunt hunter biden and his family forever. Is that what constitutes evidence as you know it . Or was there anything you heard so far today, barbara, that constitutes evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors . No, none whatsoever, chris, and you know, to start a criminal investigation just to talk about a parallel, you need something thats referred to as predication. And that means sound evidence, arcticable evidence from which you believe a crime has been committed that should begin an investigation. And when it comes to public officials, theres usually a requirement that you have two pieces of evidence before you begin an investigation to prevent politically motivated witch hunts. Here all we have is some puffery out of the mouth of hunter biden. Was hunter biden trading on his fathers name . It appears that he absolutely was shamelessly, but that has nothing to do with joe biden himself. So until they have evidence that joe biden was involved in some sort of illegal activity, or some sort of activity that compromised his ability to serve as president of the United States, an inquiry is really out of bounds in my view. And it also becomes this sort of diminishes the value of what an impeachment is all about, and perhaps that is the goal. If every president gets impeached for something, then impeachment means nothing, and so therefore the impeachments of donald trump we just shrug and say, well, all president s get impeached. Its all political. So let me take the Impeachment Question out of it then. Have you heard anything because i know you have followed the Hunter Biden Investigation very closely as well. Is there anything new you heard that might help in a legal investigation . No. Again, all weve heard relating to the relationships with foreign businesses is hunter biden trading on his fathers name to be able to cash in. That may be shameful, that may be inappropriate. That may be nepotism at its worst, but theres nothing that says that joe biden was involved in that himself. So, no, i see no illegal activity whatsoever by joe biden. In fact, even with regard to hunter biden, we know that there are cases against him relating to the possession of this gun, perhaps relating to unpaid taxes, but nothing that connects him criminally with his father. So matthew, i mentioned the majority of voters are not on board with this. 56 of americans say congress should not be holding an Impeachment Inquiry, including 6 in 10 independents. We should mention that this poll was taken earlier this month, the threat of a shutdown wasnt imminent the way it is now. But then again, i wonder if anybody pays a price. We all have short memories. So much happens in the world. Does this matter in the long run . Will it matter politically . Well, i think both the shutdown and the Impeachment Hearings, how much they matter is totally contingent on the outcome. And so if the Impeachment Hearings continue as they did today with no evidence presented, no connection to joe biden in the midst of this, its going to blow back on the republicans. If all is said is and evidence is discovered thats problematic, theres a different outcome. The same is true of the Government Shutdown. I dont think most americans fundamentally focus on the hurt of it until it actually happens, so they watch this and say why dont these guys fix this, but they dont really get engaged until the time it shuts down. Checks stop being sent. People op being paid. They cant get into National Parks. The Ripple Effect from there. Much of the political outcome depends on what happens in the aftermath of both of these things. Well, you know, not even former president are carter can have his Birthday Celebration on sunday because theyre going to shut down all the things that are run by the National Park service, so we shall see what happens. Dilanian, Barbara Mcquade, thank you both. Matthew, youre going to stick around, and were going to be keeping our eye on the Impeachment Hearing throughout the next couple of hours and bring you any important exchange and if there is new information, well have that for you as well. When were back in just 60 seconds, ill talk to democrat Jared Moskowitz who serves on the House Oversight committee for his thoughts from inside the Impeachment Hearing. Thats next. Impeachment hearing. Thats next. You know that unwelcome guest everyone wishes would just leave already . Thats covid19. So i got this seasons shot designed to keep up to date with recent variants. [thwack ] got it . When you smell the amazing scent of gain flings. Time stops. and you realize youre in love. Steve . With a laundry detergent. gain flings. Seriously good scent. Right now republicans are continuing to work to try to justify their Impeachment Inquiry, but the question is whether theyve done anything to substantiate their allegations that the president did something wrong. I want to bring in a member of the House Oversight committee Florida Democratic congressman Jared Moskowitz. Thanks for dipping out for us. And i wonder how you would characterize as a trained lawyer as well as a member of congress what james comer and other republicans presented today that they call evidence . So thanks, chris, for having me. So this has been an unmitigated disaster for chairman comer. Chairman comer has committed what i would call Impeachment Hearing malpractice. He has violated the first rule, which is know what your witnesses are going to say. His star witness, his first witness, Professor Turley said in his Opening Statement that there is no evidence to impeach joe biden full stop. Thats it. The rest of the hearing doesnt matter. Its been a lot of regurgitation over the last nine months of these hearings. Its the Second Season of the real House Republicans of oversight, which is the worst tv drama on television. But the bombshell out of this hearing is that james comers own witness said no evidence to impeach joe biden. I went on a number of conservative websites. I wanted to see how they view the hearing. The Washington Times acknowledged top legal and tax experts testified its premature to impeach President Biden. Take a listen to this. Im not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing. In my opinion, more information needs to be gathered and assessed before i would make such an assessment. So i think generally we can say nothing yet, but republicans will argue thats the whole point. They say it