[ adspeaking Foreign Language ] what was the last one . A language i made up to spoke to gnomes. Justin amash of michigan wrotef he reached the conclusi aftered carefully reading the Mueller Report. He wrote impeachment does not require probable cause has been committed that a finding an official has engaged in corrupt, abusive or dishonorable conduct. Hes credited sized the attorney general. Contrary to barrs pore trailer, it meets that. Rashida talib is inviting him to cosponsor her petition. The he is an outlier within his own quack cumaverick. More of a libertarian we saw this during the snowdon era and pa pat rot. How bigpa of a deal is this d what does it mean . Its big deal and isnt. We have someone with an r next to their name. From grand rapids, came from wisconsin, hes been a side in the side of leadership and republican. Coming out specifically not specifically in favor of impeachment but he calls the president s conduct impeachable as it was sdrind in the Mueller Report. He said bill barr the attorney general, remember that controversial rafourpage quote unquote summary barr released the report, some four weeks before, said bill barr and subsequent testimony as well to congress, that bill barr a intended to mislead the public about what bob mueller was trying to say in that report. Justin amash beats to his own drum. Sure,there are republican members of congress who cringe whenwh the president starts tweeting and some have had a hard time defending the president s conduct in office. Can look at justin amash as a front runner in the vanguard of any republican insurrection on the president. We heard from the president for the first time on the alabama abortion law. Reporter weve seen several states, in georgia and now alabama, very strict antiabortion law passing there, no exceptions for the antiabortion, the banning of abortion in alabama. The president has come out with a clarifying statement about his position. Asme most people know im strony pro life life with three exceptions, rape, incest, taken by ronald reagan. And then his spokesperson had this to say. The president is for exceptions, i for rape, incest d the life of a mother. Were talk about a life of loss life. Democrats are losing on this issue. Reporter so, what the president and his spokeswoman aret essentially saying that ty are prolife but the alabama law may go a little too far. And the president in tweets last night went so far to say, if we were foolish and we dont stay united then gains will disappear. Remember, this is a republican argument in support ofs the president in that he is appointed a Record Number of federal judges who have a prolife record or assumed to have ad prolife record or assumed to be prolife. This is a record the president hasre heading into 2020. He doesnt want to do anything to d jeopardize that. You joining me now, daniel lippman, reporter with politico and coauthor of the political playbook. Good morning. Lets begin with congress amash. He writes, when loyally to a publicto party trumps loyalty t the t constitution, the rule of law, the foundation of liberty crumbles. He is the first, but will he be the last republican to declare the president committed impeachablemm offenses . Yes, so this is out of character for the gop as a whole,th but its not really ou of character forno justin amash. He has been critical of President Trump repeatedly. He stood against him on things such as his National Emergency for funding for the border wall. So, this isnt out of character for him. He has already been rebuked by the Republican Leadership for this. Pu so, i thinkfo its a bit early say if this is the sign of a big shift. Yet, as i said, its out of character for the gop but not so out of character for amash. He might be the first and he might be the only. Daniel, what do you think. Daniel amash is alone on this political island. Do you think anyl other republican is going to join him . How much does his voice matter . Well, most republicans dont have the same base that justin amash has in that michigan district. They likemi the fact that he is outspoken in his mind. And that he is not going to take marching orders from Republican Leadership so he doesnt care what d ken mccarthy or mcdaniel think of his stance. And i think amash is pointing to very interesting issues in his tweets where he says most republicans and most democrats came out with statements on the Mueller Report before having even read it fully. Thats why its taken him weeks to come out with these tweets. Hes read them with his report, discussed them with his experts, getting further analysis on it and then hett came to his conclusions. This was not a rash response to this report by amash, like you saw, from many other republica who said, well, case closed, lets move on. And then democrats who were rushing to form their own political points on this. Lets talk about former Vice President joe biden and liz khi kickoff really he called for unity but took several jabs at the president. If americans want a president toan add to our division, spew hatred, they dont need me, they have donald trump. Donald trumpp. In a hurt econom from obama biden administration, that was given to him. Just like he inherited Everything Else in his life. But every tool that donald trump uses is out of the past. Whats the most important thing you want toth accomplish . Beatu donald trump. Is that a bit of a contradictory message, to demonizing opponents and then emphasizing an antitrump message . I thinknt the message that biden is trying to present here is that trump is not about unity and he wants to be the antithesis to trump. Whether or not that will appeal to democratic vote certificates another thing. Ca democratic anger in a large part is what catapulted an historic number of women and people of color in office to the 2018 midterms. Will this message fall flat with voters . Thats a big question. So far joe biden is a strong front o strongrunner. Somehow this message seems to be appealing to a lot of w voters. He is extending that lead. What do you think about how biden is framing his opposition to the. In t president . He seems hes going to be the general election candidate already. He doesnt have to attack his rivals. He can stand above the fray. Many democrats, their most important issue is electability. Joe biden with his roots in scranton, pennsylvania, and his ability toia get some of those voters who voted for trump last time from places like pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan,si those bluecollar voters, they think joe biden is going to be on their side. So, the fact that he isnt having to worry about squabbles in his democratic primary, he can kind of position himself antitrump when that is the overridingth theme in the democratic party, everyone just wants toev defeat donald trump, that seems to be a winning message. And hes dispelled a lot of doubters that he would start early and he could be a not very campaigner. Heno seems to have held that po position lead. Biden is d joe ignoring the other democrats, but when do you think the other democrats will starthe attackin joe biden . I think youre already seeing some of that in the shadow boxing that takes place in the media where you have people pitching Opposition Research on joe biden and hunter biden and his dealings in china and ukraine. Thats been helped by President Trump and his allies, who have dished on this as well. Trump called said it was appropriate for him to intervene and bill barr to launch investigations again joe biden and hunterat biden. Once the debates start kicking up in june, youll see people throwyo more mud at biden and s, well, are you liberal enough . Whatra about your climate chang plan . Yesterday hecl said the most important part of his Climate Change plan was to defeat trump but that doesnt actually solve the Global Warming concerns. Not as far as we can tell. I also want to discuss a new analysis a bit largest democrat super pac, priorities usa. It says if the election was held today, the president will not have enough electoral votes but ohio is less likely to go for democrats than texas. What do you make of this early in the race . Its veryly early in the rac. Trumpn won by a landslide in oo in 2016. This isnt that surprising. I think betting on too much polling this early in t the rac can be e dangerous. As we were talking about with biden,bo he has a strong lead right now overall, but after the debates when voters learn more about where candidates stand specifically on policy, things can alshift. The same can be true for trump. Its veryue early right for you. Banking in on any early polling at this stage, i think, would be a mistake. The analysis warns republicans have erased an Enthusiasm Gap that bolster democrats in the 2018 midterm elections. Daniel, others may argue the president s behavior has been giving democrats a strongrunning platform. What do you make of that . I think any time that trump does something democrats think is crazy, they get more enthusiastic about voting in 2020. I was with some people yesterday who supported sanders in 2016 and then didnt vote in the general election for Hillary Clinton. Some regret that decision. If youre a democrat who doesnt show up in 2020 because your favorite candidate in the primaryte lost, thats a tacit vote for Donald Trumps second term. On i dont think most democrats want to see that so theres going to be a ground swell of people voting on election day. Even if their favorite candidate didnt win. A lot of people assume Hillary Clinton is going to win in 2016. Theyre not going to make that same mistake. Daniel, well talk with you about the president s twitter guru. It new today, more evacuatio amid tensions in the persian gulf. Exxonmobil is the latest to remove ststaff, 60 from their active oil fields and the government of bahrain is ordering citizens to leave iraq and c iran. Irans top didnt is disminutesing the conflict saying, they do not want war. Ali, where do we stand today . Are there obvious signs the tensions are dedeescalating . Reporter good morning. Tensions in the middle east, ebbs and flows on a moment to moment basis. In the last day or two circumstances seem to be calmer with President Trump saying he doesnt want war with iran. Irans foreign minister also say tehran is not looking for a conflict. Deescalation seems to have taken placede with iran apparena offloading missiles that were placed on small boats in the persian gulf. One of the reasons washington gave for this heightened threat level from iran. And part of the u. S. Carrier strike group has entered the persian gulf without incident. The strain between all of those involved in this standoff, in this dangerous game of brinksmanship is palpable. The head of the revolutionary guard has been making very antiamerican statements over the last few days. Those precautionary measures you mentioned are being taken. Those on exxonmobil in iraq, bahrain telling their citizens to leave. A badly battle scarred country recently trying to get back on its feet but its caught between iran andca americas feud. Today iraqs oil minimumster is angry about those ee vauvacuati saying it has nothing to do with security reasons but politically motivated. Iraq is worried its going to get caught between these tensions between iran and america and that would damage at the very least its economy. At worst it would become a battleground where the United States and iran are settling scores. There is aar ratcheting down of tensions but you can still feel the strain very much in this region, as we still remain in very Uncertain Times between the u. S. And iran. A very complex situation there. Ali,er thank you. Five things to wamp in the standoff between the president and congress. The president and Congress Play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. Tum tum tum tums with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. The inlaws have moved in with us. And our Adult Children are here. So we save by using tide. Which means we use less. Three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. Anybody seen my pants . 1 stain and odor fighter, 1 trusted. Its got to be tide. With the chase mobile app, jason wu could pay practically anyone, at any bank, all while putting on a runway show. Or, he can make it even easier meow with recurring payments to his cat sitter. And now shes ready for the catwalk. Chase. Make more of whats yours. The Trump Administration is hiding information from American People and stonewalling congress at every turn. Were fighting all the subpoenas. Donald trump is now obstructing congress. Theyre violating the statute. They knew theyre not going to get these taxes. They know what the law is. The tax returns of the president ial be provided. Congress is going to litigate this and we will win that court case. The idea there are going to be these ongoing congressional oversight hearings is a waste of money, its political. The white house seeks to prevent more than 20 congressional investigations into the president. Democrats are escalating their threats against officials refusing to comply with subpoenas, including imprisonments and fines. What to look for in this standoff. Joining me to discuss is nbc legal analyst danny. Good morning. What do you think is the better idea for democrats, the idea of jailing has been proposed. Would that work . Ethats not. Youre essentially asking the executive branch to police the executive branch. Historically that has resulted in a presentation to a grand jury exactly zero times in the past few decades. The other option is the sergeant of arms option which literally means sending someone out from congress, the sash geergeant of to grab someone and bring them to congress testify. Also a difficult proposition. Maybe not as realistic in the modern age, to send someone out to fuelphysically arrest people. Were learning congress has this tremendous subpoena power, this investigative power. Ultimately, without the help of other branches, very little power to actually enforce. Theyre waiting, the democrat im speaking of, theyre waiting on whether President Trump executes executive privilege. Thats the argument. By releasing so much of the Mueller Report, the executive privilege, which preserves or protects communications between a president ands his or her advisers, thats arguably waved because so much has been released from the executive branch. Beyond that, as to employees who left the Justice Department or executive branch and are private citizens, this becomes virtually impossible to prevent their testimony. A private citizen may be able to come back and testify at his or her own will. That includes Robert Mueller, when he eventually leaves the doj. A report in the wall street journal says muellers testimony is being stalled by executive privilege claims and congressman nadler told politico theyre delaying his testify to june. Are executive orders enough to keep Robert Mueller from testifying . They may not be enough, but as we can see this playing out, they could be enough to stal testimony. Most of us are familiar with the subpoenas in the judicial sense. A judicial subpoena can be enforced by Law Enforcement and you can be brought right into jail if youre in contempt. What were learning about congress is, again, they require the judicial branch, they require the executive branch to help them enforce this subpoena power so this is why you often see in the case of congress appear subpoenas negotiation, discussion, attempts to work things out before it gets to that criminal contempt or inherent contempt level. You discussed stalling as a kind of tactic. How long can the white house stall . Is this all moot if the president loses in 2020 or parts of this go on for quite a long time . Yes to all. These battles go on for years and years and years. There are some battles that go on from two, three administrations ago. This is something the Trump Administration knows it can stall for years if necessary. And the other significant thing is that if they stall long enough and a new Congress Comes in, well, then those prior subpoenas, they essentially dissipate into legal air. They no longer exist. Theyre in the ether. The Trump Administration has every incentive to stall as long as possible. Yes, its mooted if the Trump Administration is voted out of office but its mooted on congresss end if a new Congress Gets voted in before the issue is resolved. Thank you for your expertise. Now to battleground 2020 and a look at working class stronghold that voted for donald trump in 2016. Now in luzerne county, pennsylvania, south of scranton, some say the president has not kept his promise to the struggling community. Kal p cal perry has more. Reporter . Youve got operators youve seen go by with the trucks and the guys with the loaders here pushing the material are very similar to whats happening in the coal industry. If there was a transition from coal into reclaim, this is it. Reporter donald trump promised coal jobs would come back to pennsylvania. Theyre not underground in mines, we found them here on the surface where the land is being reclaimed and converted for future business use. Projects like this one may help lessen the below for former coal workers. Were seeing a layoff situation going on in the coal fields. We need experienced people to do these remediation projects rather than displacing somebody, cleaning up what our great grandfathers did. Because this area swung so wildly from reliably democrat to trump, its time to look at Lessons Learned for local party leadership. There are many theories why he turne