Transcripts For MSNBCW Andrea Mitchell Reports 20200207

Week. And investigating hunter biden. Senate republicans get Financial Data on joe bidens son from the Treasury Department opening a new front in the political wars. Good day, everyone. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington. President trump taking the fight to his rivals, rewarding political loyalty, sending a signal to any republicans that he demands total support from them or else. The first causality may well be Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a key impeachment witness, reportedly to be moved and sent to a new assignment in the pentagon. The president is celebrating a victory today as courts reject a challenge on emoluments that the president has been profiting from being in office. We just won the big emoluments case. I think it was a unanimous decision. This was brought by nancy pelosi and her group. It just came out a few minutes ago. So ill be reading it on the helicopter. But it was a total win. The president also went after nancy pelosi today, again, for ripping up his state of the union speech. That was on display the other night when she ripped up the speech. It was terrible. It was so disrespectful to our country. And, actually, very illegal. Joining me now, nbc White House Correspondent kristen welker, ashley parker, and jon lemire. I dont know how you can be in two places at the same time, you were the one asking the president questions among the group back there. Youre out front now. Tell us about him obviously triumphant on emoluments and certainly not denying the reports that hes going to move Alexander Vindman out of the ncs. What we saw was a continuation of the victory lap that started here at the white house yesterday when President Trump had that freewheeling event here in the east room. Today he was equally defiant. He didnt deny those reports that hes considering removing Alexander Vindman again. He said im not happy with him. You think im supposed to be happy . Theyll make that decision. Not giving any specifics about a potential timeline and sort of dodging a question about whether or not this all ultimately leads to pay back for frankly all of his political rivals. I asked him also how does he plan to heal the country, andrea, and i thought it was notable, he didnt give specifics, but instead went onto essentially argue that the country is unified. He said, you know, whats going to unify the country, look at our crowd, look at our support, what unifies the country is great success. So the strategy moving forward, andrea, as he pivots away from the impeachment saga, as he tries to put the focus on his acquittal and to turn the page toward his campaign, clearly hes going to talk about what he sees as his successes, the economy, that is going to be front and center today as he travels to North Carolina and hes going to be talking about lowincome communities, his plan and his administrations plans to help them. But that i think, andrea, is going to be the focus moving forward as he fights for reelection. And, jon lemire, it was predictable given everything weve seen in the past, its very different what some of his supporters like Susan Collins suggested might be his response after an acquittal. Right, look at the contrast between the speech that bill clinton gave after his impeachment acquittal back in 99 and what we saw yesterday from the president. Bill clinton apologize today the nation. The only apology was to his own family saying they went through the witchhunt. Theres no acknowledgement that he behaved slightly inappropriately with ukraine. He continues to refer to it as a perfect phone call and has defended all of his behavior and it was remarkable. We saw the contrast in styles from the state of the union on tuesday night where the president stuck to the teleprompter to yesterday where he couldnt help himself even at the National Prayer breakfast where he went after House Speaker nancy pelosi as well as mitt romney. And then truly remarkable display from the east room of the white house yesterday where working with no teleprompter just off of a few handwritten notes. Gave oscarstyle thank yous to all the republicans who stuck with him but also launching into attacks against pelosi, romney, james comey, the list goes on and on. This is a scorched earth victory lap from the president. And its a warning to anyone who crosses him in either congress or any of the candidates Going Forward, ashley parker, this accusation against nancy pelosi that what she did was illegal, its striking considering reports in the past who reported that the president himself has torn up official documents in the oval office and they have to be, you know, taped scotch taped back to together for the archives. Eric swalwell was just on with my colleague and responded to that question in particular. This is the person when he was in the room with Vladimir Putin in helsinki, destroyed the notes of the translator. We dont know what happened during that meeting. Im not going to listen to this president about destruction of evidence. Ashley, lets talk about that, and the whole accusations against pelosi, the anger that the president is expressing. How do you see it playing out Going Forward . Well, its not just that, he also accused her in ripping up his state of the union of being disrespectful and this is a charge being levied by a man who used an obscenity in the east room yesterday. To put it in a broader context, hes clearly furious with leader pelosi. He was putting these lists of disloyalists in his eyes on notice, offering a verbal enemies list. But the broader perspective is, one of the president s biggest political attributes is his shamelessness and willingness and ability to take something that he himself has done, whether its destroying his own notes and having aides scrambling to scotch tape them back together and accuse somebody else of doing just the same thing and channeling sort of indignation that ignores the fact that hes guilty of the very charge hes leveling against someone else. Its tough to respond to. Leader pelosi is someone who generally has figured out a way to manage the president and often get the best of him, but its an uncomfortable situation for her. Well, it is certainly heating up rather than calming down. What a week this has been. Kristen welker, ashley parker, jon lemire, thank you very much. And the white house is working with the president s allies on capitol hill to keep the pressure on hunter biden with reports that Chuck Grassley and ron johnson already receiving Financial Information on joe bidens son from the Treasury Department even though the administration that be battling in court against demands for similar information about his own tax returns. Chris coons joins me now. Your reaction to these reports that hunter biden is being targeted, that information from treasury about his financial records are being turned over to the senate committees. Andrea, this was disheartening news. I was encouraged by quotes by Senior Senate republicans, senator cornyn and several others today that they think we should move on, we should be trying to get the business of the people done. That we should try and get bills passed this spring that would reduce drug prices or strengthen our schools and that continuing the false narrative that somehow joe biden interfered in ukraine to help his son and continuing to gin that up and carry out this trumpled shameless campaign of retribution against anyone who testified against him or raised issues against him really isnt productive for the country. I am hopeful that in the senate we can get back to work but i recognize the deep passions and divisions that impeachment produced. There is no evidence that joe biden did anything wrong here and i really am disappointed that the chairs of these important committees in the senate are choosing to use their power and their time to dig into something that i frankly think in the end is not a legitimate goal in terms of oversight for the congress. Is there anything that you and other democrats can do . Youre outmaneuvered, outnumbered on this . Well, any committee that has a majority of republicans can take a vote if every republican agrees to issue subpoenas, to seek documents, and to move forward. My hope is that given those quotes from a number of the most senior republicans, that they recognize that dedicating the next few months to investigating what hunter biden did or didnt do in ukraine years ago is not ultimately a good use of our time. I want to ask you about joe biden because hes fallen behind, clearly, did not do well in iowa, reports that he has been trying to, you know, retool the campaign, was off the campaign trial, there are only five days left in New Hampshire yesterday and he was in delaware doing debate prep which he could have done in a hotel room in New Hampshire. Hes the only candidate who completely disappeared from the trail and hes the one who arguably needed, you know, to have a boost before tonight before tonights debate and before tuesdays vote. Is this a real crisis point for the biden candidacy . Lets be real, whether hes spending today doing debate prep, tonight is an important a critical debate. Ill be there with him and the debate is a central moment for joe to remind people what they already know about him. Hes been up in New Hampshire many times over many years. Folks know him. They know senators sanders and warren who represented adjacent states. Joe was in a town hall the other night that reminded them of his experience and ability. The reason he continues over many, many months to have been the leading democrat to take on donald trump is folks know his values and they know his approach. Given everything your panel was just talking about, about how President Trump is carrying out retribution against anyone who stood up to him in this impeachment trial, do we not know that the heart of joe biden is the heart of a servant leader, someone whos combination of experience and compassion would make us proud to have him as our next president. It will be a vigorous contest. After the mess that was the iowa caucuses, i think we should be focusing on New Hampshire, nevada, and South Carolina to get a sense of what truly representative primaries will look like as we head into super tuesday. I remain optimistic that joe has a great campaign, has a great background and has a really strong connection with the people of this country that will make him our nominee this fall. Senator Mike Bloomberg is in virginia getting the endorsement of the former navy secretary, the first trump appointee who is endorsing not only a democrat in this race in the democratic primary race, but Mike Bloomberg. And Mike Bloomberg is just all over the air waves with his commercials and rising in the polls. In one poll, up to 15 . Is he i dont want to i dont know how to quite phrase it. Waiting for biden to fail . Really to go in of course big time on super tuesday . Is Mike Bloomberg the real threat now to joe biden . Mayor bloomberg who has, you know, is a billionaire from new york whos been very successful in business is pouring resources into super tuesday states. Weve seen this same strategy from tom steyer, a billionaire from california, who spent enough money, tens of millions of dollars to buy his way onto the debate stage. But then ultimately did not perform well in iowa even though as i drove across the state last weekend, you can see tom steyer billboards and signage almost everywhere. Mayor bloomberg will have a strong presence in super tuesday states. Joe biden is also someone who have have a strong presence. The American People know him will he have an enough money to continue is the thats why im still optimistic sorry. I didnt mean to its a fact will he have enough money to be a strong presence in super tuesday . He will. Hell be competitive. Of course, anyone who is going to put a billion dollars of their own money into a campaign is going to be a contender. I think at the end of the day the American People look at that and they discount the fact that youre buying your way onto my phone, television, onto a billboard down the street from me and theyre going to look hard. Theyre going to look at joe, mike, and look at their character and experience and background and they have one question, who can beat donald trump . If you look at the numbers coming out of iowa, Bernie Sanders, senator sanders had four years from 2016 to 2020 to organize and get prepared. He got 50 of the vote four years ago. He got about 25 of the vote this year. That suggests to me that his model, his idea which is if you choose my vision, an aggressive vision, a political revolution, if you will, you will really bring out the base, you will get out a remarkable turnout, the turnout in iowa was actually significantly lower than four years ago and bernie got half of what he got four years ago. I dont see that his message is inspiring more people to come out. Well see. He may do well in New Hampshire because he represents an adjacent state and is popular in vermont as well as New Hampshire. After that comes nevada, the first diverse state to have a competition and then South Carolina. I think, andrea, we should wait until the first four contests are over to reach a conclusion about this first phase of the president ial campaign. Senator coons, thank you. Thanks, andrea. Safe travels. The latest from New Hampshire with just four days to go before the nations first primary, this is Andrea Mitchell reports. Youre watching msnbc. Re watchih february 24th. Score extra savings on mattresses from tempurpedic, serta, beautyrest and sealy, starting at just 399 kick back and relax while we do all the heavy lifting. Because every single mattress ships free you dont want to snooze on these deals. Shop now through february 24th. Only at wayfair. Com. Thats why its important to be prepared for anything life brings. 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But we are in a moment where billionaires control not only our economy but our political. Tonight seven democrats are going to face off in a debate from manchester. Joining me now is mike memoli and vaughn hillyard. This will be the first time well see joe biden in 48 hours, critical hours that he was retooling his campaign, and the frontrunners are clearly sanders and buttigieg. Reporter yeah, andrea. I think what stands out to me is the same thing that you laid out very well there and spoke to senator coons about is that one of the most precious commodities is the candidates time. He spent 48 hours not just off the campaign trail, but out of the state entirely. But that is really a measure of how much the campaign does see this as a Pivotal Moment for him. He needs to perform well. In addition to being aired nationally, its an important opportunity for him to show voters here that he is the candidate. And, andrea, which one will see, will we see the fighter taking shots at mayor pete and senator sanders or the more empathetic candidate we saw the other night talking about his stutter. Vaughn, what about sanders going after buttigieg as the candidate of the billionaires. Youve got two billionaires in the race and hes going after buttigieg of being the recipient of wall street money. Reporter its not after joe biden, it is after Pete Buttigieg and im going to jump off of what you were talking about when it came to the interview you just conducted there, senator coons, i dont know if he made one mention of Pete Buttigieg. He made a mention that perhaps he wont perform as well in New Hampshire because this is senator sanders backyard. If you look in iowa, Pete Buttigieg also won in dubuque county. I wrote a story four years ago about how dubuque would be the soul of joe biden presidency and yet it was Pete Buttigieg who won dubuque just this week. When youre looking at joe biden right now, the fact is, that Pete Buttigieg is the target of Bernie Sanders and you should expect to see that more of today. Meanwhile, the south bend mayor is going to continue to press that message that joe biden wishes he could be the one delivers. That is bringing over independents and bringing over republicans in an ability to win in New Hampshire where donald trump won by just less than 3,000 votes four years ago, andrea. Vaughn hillyard, mike memoli, thank you. Joining me now Jennifer Palmieri and chris lu senior white house aide to president obama. You both know New Hampshire well. The pluses and minuses of New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders just swamped Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and it was not a fair fight. She ended up succeeding im having a little ptsd. Im here again. You got to love Bernie Sanders saying i like Pete Buttigieg as hes reading the hit from a piece of paper against him. Its getting a little chippy in New Hampshire. Its starting to feel like New Hampshire and the candidates engaging. But everybody is focused on pete and bernie and biden, but i wouldnt forget about elizabeth warren. In most of these polls, shes the one in third place and ive been going to a lot of her covering a lot of her events and, you know, i think that shes someone that you could connect here and Amy Klobuchar is rising as well. I know for the former Vice President , you know, hes clearly in a tough spot. Iowa is a tough, New Hampshire is going to be tough. But the thing the truth remains that i dont actually see an heir apparent for another candidate to be able to get a lot of africanamerican support. Until we hit nevada, South Carolina, even though things do look rough for biden, its sort of hard to know where this ultimately is going. But i would also look for warren and klobuchar to have the chance to do well in New Hampshire too. And, you know, its a fascinating New Hampshire primary. Youve got so many candidates. Its volatile, independents can walk in and ask for a ballot on either side and a lot of mischief can also be made. Im having a little ptsd from 2008. The weekend before the New Hampshire primary, there was a poll showing that obama was up by 13 points. And there was a moment in the diner when she teared up and also that moment at the debate when he said to her, i think youre likable enough, hilary. Theres no real republican primary. You dont know what the independent voter is going to look like. You have intervening events like tonights debate and you have two senators from neighboring states creates a complication. Im not sure were going to see a great amount of clarity. And then were going to be talking about nevada. How important is the donor issue for biden. Chris says hes got strength in nevada, strength in South Carolina. But hes running on empty, practically . Its rough. Hes not in a good situation and hes going to have to gut it out here and get through to South Carolina and make his stand there. But, you know, i have sympathy for them. Ive been in the situation before. Its not an easy its really hard when you lose in iowa, come in rough in New Hampshire, even though when people are prepared for it, it always feels worse in the moment. But even with all of the those truths and the fact remains, im not sure no one else has laid claim to proven an ability to diversify their vote. Senator sanders does well with young hispanics, thats a thats something that is true about his base of support. Nevada could be a new hilary won nevada in 2016. He could do better there this time around. But, you know, still the Vice President remains the person whos best positioned to do well in those in the states where it gets more diverse and more representative of the country and much more representative of the democratic party. Until you get there, you cant really make a good judgment on his campaign. Well be heading to New Hampshire this weekend. See you up there, thanks so much. Coming up, its the president s party. After Donald Trumps impeachment win in the senate, hes ready to remake the Republican Party in his image. Actually already is. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports on msnbc. A mitchell reports on msnbc. Break out the butter lobsterfest is on at red lobster if youve been dreaming about tender wildcaught lobster, dig in to butterpoached, fireroasted and shrimp lobster linguini. See . Dreams do come true. Or if you like a taste of new england without leaving home, try lobster, sauteed with crab, jumbo shrimp and more, or maybe youd like to experience the ultimate surf and the ultimate turf. With so many lobster dishes, theres something for every lobster fan so hurry in and lets lobsterfest. Or get pick up or delivery at redlobster. Com uh, fifteen minutes could save you 15 ain . 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President trump and his allies are targeting senator mitt romney after his Impeachment Vote to convict and remove the president from office. The president at yesterdays event questioned romneys faith and today Vice President mike pence was asked about that. I dont question his faith. I just question his judgment. We couldnt be more grateful for all the members of the house and the senate who not only stood by President Trump but stood by the presidency. The good news is, its over, america. Joining me now bill kristol, and from the washington post, anne gearan and eugene scott. That was a unique response from mike pence. Hes not questioning mitt romneys faith, his judgment. Thats a politically correct comment especially after the tirade from the president yesterday. Clearly its calculated to do a couple of smart political things, change the subject from the tirade for those who didnt care for it, look ahead. Its over, america. Were moving on. Were doing our job. And to give us sort of a grace note to mitt romney saying that, you know, look, im not questioning his motivates is wh hes saying there which is something that many moderate republicans and many people of faith of all parties will welcome hearing. I think that was something that pence had clearly thought through, how he was going to respond to it. And it was delivered with less pence equivocation than we sometimes hear. We knew what he was going to say and he said it. And you wrote about this, about the way the president was challenging romneys faith. It was a warning to others that even if youre following, you know, your beliefs, there is retribution from this president. Absolutely. And this is not the first time the president has done this. He questions or has issue with or doesnt like as he says the faith of mitt romney, the faith of nancy pelosi. He doesnt like the faith of anyone who pushes back against trumpism. For him, the only faith that matters is a deeply held religious conviction that allows you to affirm his politics and his world view and actions. And i think that is something that hes increasingly sensitive about in these weeks or months following this christianity today oped and attention from some he might be receiving from the evangelical and Catholic Community who are stepping back and saying is this what our faith featurteaches us to back. I wish more people were questioning among his supporters. They sat there in the white house listening to him impugn mitt romney, cheering, applauding. And did they get a reporter to call and distance themselves or herself or put out a statement saying, look, i support the president , but i dont approve of these attacks on mitt romney. Would that be so hard to do . Apparently it is. Theyre so intimidated. It is astonishing. Its on a whole different level from the normal, i dont want to take on the president unnecessarily. Especially considering the number of things that were said about romney that werent true. The president said romney has never talking about his faith before today. The idea that mitt romney has never talked about his faith before tuesday is on absurd to anyone with a 4yearold idea of politics. This is the man who was the president ial nominee, those people in the room know him, know him well, he was the governor, the nominee, hes a colleague of many of them now. The cabinet members know him now. Its a human matter, you would think they would say thats ta bridge too far. Im sorry the president said that. Its not fair. But they couldnt even say that. It shows how utterly trump and trumpism has taken over the Republican Party and the conservative movement. What you say about some of the evangelical leaders and other leaders who arent in office, where were they . They all see impeachment as a political victory, a pivot point. Mitch mcconnell was quoted by saying that in each of the vulnerable races hes tracking, its made the republican candidate stronger. I want to read something from the editor of america the catholic newspaper. The president s speech at the National Prayer breakfast was disgusting. Selfserving, meanspirited and targeting his enemies. It was the opposite of prayer. At the heart of the believers relationship with god is a profound humility before the lord. He goes on. And at the heart of the christians relationship with jesus christ is a reverence for his teachings including love your enemies. And the last place one should flaunt ones vanity is in the setting of prayer. It goes on. Its worth reading. Thank you all. Thanks for writing about this. Important to have all of you here today. The senate report, are we better equipped in this years president ial contest . Perhaps not. Youre watching Andrea Mitchell reports. Stay with us on msnbc. Can startg wherever you are even on the bus. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Othroughout the country for the past twelve years, mr. Michael bloomberg is here. Vo leadership in action. Mayor bloomberg and president obama worked together in the fight for gun safety laws, to improve education, and to develop innovative ways to help teens gain the skills needed to find good jobs. Obama at a time when washington is divided in old ideological battles he shows us what can be achieved when we bring people together to seek pragmatic solutions. Bloomberg im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. The Senate Intelligence committee releasing a bipartisan report criticizing the Obama Administrations response to the initial reports of russian hacking in 2016. While recommending that the president of the United States should take steps to separate himself or herself from Political Considerations when handling issues related to foreign influence. That issue, of course, central to the first article of impeachment, abuse of power involving ukraine. Richard burr also says that the Obama Administration was frozen by paralysis of analysis. Obama officials debated courses of action without actually taking one. Joining me now an msnbc security analysis and justice analyst. Lets talk about the senate report, first of all. One of the Obama Administrations rebuttals has been as we were afraid of it being we were putting our thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton as well as Mitch Mcconnell pushing back into anymore public denunciation of russia. I think they were in a difficult position. I think they were trying to do the right thing. They wanted to push back forcefully and i think you can in good faith criticize them for not doing more. But i think the concern they had which is a real one, if you had a Republican Party that was united and not being willing to call out foreign interference and its not just Mitch Mcconnell, look at donald trump, had been welcoming foreign interference. When you have a Republican Party doing that, anything that president obama said would be instantly seen as political and wouldnt be treated with credibility. I think in hindsight, they probably all wish they would have done more, but i think the real problem is, we in 2016 and still today are in a country where only one party is really willing to confront foreign interference and the Republican Party wasnt willing to confront it then and not willing to confront it now. At the same time you have the president its the fbi who has got to be on the lookout for foreign interference and this is what the president had to say about yesterday about the fbi in his denunciation of his perceived enemies. These are the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people ive ever seen. They said mrs. Struck, hilary should win. If i didnt fire james comey, we would have never found this stuff. When i fired that sleaze bag, all hell broke out. They were ratting on each other, they were running for the hills. The way he described the fbi, how does that affect the bureau . It makes it very difficult for them to have legitimacy in terms of any source of investigations. Imagine if youre in a very trumployal part of the country, youre trying to run a case of any type, its difficult to get people to testify and foreign cooperation. Foreign cooperation. Its overwhelming, the fbi still to this day, even with this new policy in place about the department of justice authorizing this investigation, but just the fbi in general, when would they get started on foreign influence in the election . What is their mandate . How would they contact any of these political campaigns at this point and for those political campaigns to think, okay, this is a legitimate concern, yet ive seen the president say, dont trust the fbi. Ive seen the president if i get information from a foreign country, i might not take it to the fbi, i might keep it. Thats very contradictory. It was striking to see the attorney bill barr as part of the cheering section at that Campaign Rally in the east room, theres no other way to describe it. Yet hes issued this judgment that Going Forward there will be no investigation of candidates that is not approved by him. In a perfect world, that would seem rational that you should at the highest level approve any kind of potential explosive investigation. But knowing bill barr i think thats right. I think the policy on paper is an appropriate one. The fbi has its own biases both political and institutional, but other agents have had at times. And there should be supervision at the highest level, presumably the attorney general works for an administration that can be voted out of office. And it comes back to the biases hes shown in running the justice department, hes killed investigations into the president , not allowing an investigation into ukraine to go forward, hes spun the results of the Mueller Investigation and hes launched investigations into the president s political opponents and its not just the durham probe but its also a leak investigation thats been started on jim comey that looks like very flimsy evidence and of course the fact that andy mccabe someone the president has called for to be charged for years is still not out from under the gun. You cant trust bill barr to run this policy in a fair way. Disturbing, obviously, very disturbing to anyone looking for equal justice under the law. Matt miller, clint watts, thank you very much. Coming up, a made for tv state of the union, an acquittal, a long speech, how history may remember this whirlwind week. Lwind week only pay for what you need with Liberty Mutual. Lwind week con Liberty Mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. Only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. As parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. vo why the aceves family chose verizon. We all use our phones very differently. These two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. And my oldest is learning to be a pilot. We need a Reliable Network because i need to know hes safe. cause as soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. Mama laughter vo the network more people rely on, gives you more. Like plans your family can mix and match starting at just 35. So, everyone gets the plan they need. And apple music on us. Plus, iphone 11 on us when you buy the latest iphone. 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In sharp contrast to president clintons expression of remorgs after his impeachment 20 years ago, President Trump was out for revenge in a blistering at times profane attack on his opponents to celebrate his acquittal. Now going after National Security council Lieutenant Colonel vindman. Joining us, steve inskeep. Well talk about your book in a moment. It was one of the first instances of a celebrity couple creating a political career out of what they had done through their own popularity. A lesson to be learned for today as well from history. Lets talk about the president s response and now going after vindman. Pelosi was asked about it coming off the floor and said that was really a shame, that she thought he was a patriot and she would be looking into it but there would be little they could do about a pentagon and military man being transferred back to the pentagon from the white house. Were not terribly surprised by this given that the entire impeachment drama has included personnel moves that people would disagree with. One of the things that happened in ukraine was yovanovitch, the u. S. Ambassador was removed and although there are some indications people privately defended her within the administration, she was not publicly defended in any way, and as we know has resigned from the Foreign Service even though she had an opportunity to get another ambassadorship, perhaps later. Its not too surprising that vindman would be asked to go. It doesnt mean hes out of work. It means he would be tfrransferd somewhere else in the defense department. It is remarkable that the president and the president s spokesperson has said directly, publicly, should there not be retribution here . Its not unusual for people to seek political retribution. Its amazing to openly say thats what youre doing. Against his twin brother as well. He has an identical twin brother also working in the nce. We dont know whats going to happen to him, but theres been suggestions from the president himself he might also be taken out. Well, there were a lot of people who testified in ways that the president would find negative. And i want to be clear these are people who were Public Servants who felt they were telling the truth. William taylor just to give an example, the man the charged affairs, the acting ambassador in ukraine after yovanovitch, as now been removed because his presence was inconvenient, but this is a guy who although he spoke critically of what the president did, testified critically of what the president did, was in ukraine to enact the president s policies and to serve the United States. Now, in your book imperfect union, you write about the mapping of the west, and you write about political demagoguery and racism. All kinds of issues that seem awfully prescient when you talk of the 2020 race. Exactly. Its a kind of earlier version of the story were living now which is what draws me to history. Its a story of a man and a woman, a married couple, John Charles Freemont was a western explorer in americas west ward expansion to the pacific. He didnt discover much that was new but came home to washington and wrote bestselling books about his adventures with the aid of his wife, Jessie Benton freemont. Its a story of exploration and adventure, but also generating fame because in making the west more famous, they also made themselves more famous, and yeah, freemonts name ended up on everything. Theres a street in las vegas and there are mountains named after freemont. Imagine a guy running for president because hes famous and seems like a hero and knows how to get publicity on many things, imagine that happening in america. Imagine that. Thats why we love you and your histories and you as cohost of morning edition. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking time for us. Glad to do it any time. Great. Well be right back. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr, a oncedaily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. Xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. Xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections like tb; dont start xeljanz if you have an infection. Taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra can increase risk of death. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. As have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, and changes in lab results. Tell your doctor if youve been somewhere fungal infections are common, or if youve had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Needles. Fine for some. But for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. Ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. An unjection™. Wild thing, you make my heart sing. 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And then theres a husband, and then theres me. Thats a lot of clothes. [ fastpaced drumming ] thank you for being with us. Well be in New Hampshire next week. This weekend, next week, monday and tuesday bringing you all the best reporting from the New Hampshire primary campaign. Follow us online on facebook and twitter at mitchel reports. Well see you monday and tuesday on the road. Heres chris jabsing. Weve been to many of New Hampshires. Do you remember it being quite like this before . I mean, its crazy whats going on. And the news just keeps turning out. Well, actually, 1992 was pretty crazy if you remember. Ill give you that. If you remember what happened to bill clinton, but its amazing and here we go again. Thank you, andrea mitchel. Ill see you in New Hampshire. Im chris jansing. Tonight the most consequential debate for the democrats yet. All seven president ial candidates, and as a stunning new boston globe tracking poll shows just how much this race is changing. Bernie sanders, Pete Buttigieg in a virtual dead heat in New Hampshire. Just as they were in iowa. But for joe biden and elizabeth warren, a slide. And if theyre going to reverse it, tonights debate may be their biggest opportunity. That debate comes against the backdrop of the democratic party