Michael Sheir News Today

Key republican senator lisa murkowski said she was, quote, disturbed, to hear mitch mcconnell say he was working in, quote, total coordination with the white house for the senate trial. so what does her disturbance mean? joining us now, our political analyst sun min kim and michael sheir for "the new york times." great to have both of you here with us. sun min, what does it mean? what do you take away from lisa murkowski saying that out loud in an $view? >> it underscores how mitch mcconnell has...

All right. the iowa caucuses are a little more than one month away. and the ad wars, well, they are heating up. politico reporting that billionaire candidates tom steyer and michael bloomberg have already spent, get this. a whopping $200 million on tv and digital advertising. that is more than all of the other candidates combined. back with us to discuss this seung min kim and michael sheir. this is an unprecedented amount of money. they are dwarfing the field. they havent broken out. what is or...

Figure out the number of hours for the opening arguments and punt that question of witnesses further down the line. and recall that while mcconnell clearly doesnt think witnesses are necessary, he hasnt ruled out that option. and perhaps that would be enough for, you know, the folks like romney and collins to side with mcconnell on the procedural steps at least at the outset. but obviously well have to wait and see how much the pressure builds on them in public for bringing some of these witness...

Also sort of distanced herself from how mcconnell said he was in total coordination with the white house. but certainly by far lisa murkowski is the plomost explic of the criticism. she was candid about how she saw or how concerning she found president trumps phone call with the ukrainian leader. shes been a wild card for us to watch for some time now. just a little bit about her history, she has a fiercely independent streak. shes not someone prone to arm twisting by senate party leadership. sh...

And remember jeb bush spent $55 million as well and he clearly languished until he eventually dropped out early in the race in 2016. >> i mean, heres one possible metric. heres one of the latest national polls, michael. you see here that bloomberg, okay. hes only at 4%, however, this is an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. he has leapfrogged all of these people. castro, gabbard, booker, yang, that have been doing a lot more of the, you know, old fashioned just shoe leather retail politics tha...

Told him. shoot them in the legs. michael, what does that tell you about the presidents thinking? >> well, look. i mean, what that passage is part of is a broader effort that started, frankly, in rhetoric form as he was campaigning for the presidency. then the minute he got into the oval office, this president has tried every which way to slow the flow of migrants in this country to stop them if he could and slow them down. and what our story suggests and our book goes into more detail about is ...

>> as for was i on the phone call? i was on the phone call. had the phone call was in the context of now id been the secretary of state for a year and a half. i know precisely what the american policy is with respect to ukraine. >> i was on the phone call. would have been a sufficient answer to martha raddatz. >> seems easy enough. joining us now michael sheir. michael, i mean -- we still dont know why he didnt give that one sentence answer to martha raddatz ten days a ego. >> its the honest ans...

Hopefully our book will do this but also that people will see kind of how things play out, theyll make their assessment about her. >> michael sheir, the book again is "border wars: inside trumps assault on immigration." thank you for sharing it with us. >> thanks, guys. americans have only faced impeachment of a president a handful of times. were joined next on how history could give us a road map for what lies ahead or not. saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven better on p...

That question will not go away. those kinds of formal press conferences that you just saw a piece of are a difficult place to have follow-up questions. but members of congress are going to be able to follow up when they -- you know, if they get him before them or if they put that question to him over and over again. as our reporters are over and over again. so hes going to have to answer kind of the more important questions that follow from the admission that he was on the call. >> michael, i th...

Go inside his cell in robben island. heres what he wrote. on behalf of our family, were deeply humbled to stand where men of such courage faced down injustice and refused to yield. mandela represented and i think michael sheir among others pointed out in the "new york times" today the kind of hope that would become the theme of the presidents first campaign. what has been his influence on barack obama and his leadership? >> well, actually, that photo you just took of obama in june of 2013, that ...