That have won every election theyve been in are the women. More before the votes are cast in iowa. Winter storm warning. A dangerous system begins its crosscountry march. Al has new information on the timing and where the snow and ice is headed. All that, plus, tough questions. How on earth did a delta flight dump fuel over multiple schools in los angeles . My head was hurting first. But then my eye itched. How the kids are doing and the investigation ahead. The afterlife. Duchess meghans first appearance in public since leaving the royal family. And who is the g. O. A. T. . The greatest of all time. Ken jennings takes the title on jeopardy s ultimate showdown. Today, wednesday, january 15th, 2020. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb, live from studio a 1a in rockefeller plaz. Hi, everybody. Good morning. Welcome to today. Nice to have you with us on a wednesday morning. We want to get right to what is going to be a very big day in politics. After weeks of delay, the impeachment proceedings enters a new phase. In the democratic race for president , a bit of new drama after last nights debate. We have both sides covered. Well start with nbcs White House CorrespondentPeter Alexander on the impeachment front. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. We want to take you to capitol hill, give you a live look where we will within moments hear from House Speaker nancy pelosi, announcing the houseman jerusalem. The lawmakers who will prosecute the case against the president. It comes ahead of the vote where theyll formally turn over the articles of impeachment to the senate. Meanwhile, House Democrats have been trying to press their hand, try to reinforce their case, releasing new documents. Pelosi arriving earlier today, saying that the president has, quote, fought tooth and nail to keep thousands of documents away from the public. Documents she says shows the president was at the center of that campaign to pressure ukraine. Reporter President Trump bashing the democrats ahead of the democrats handing over the articles of impeachment. Democrats are wasting the American Peoples time. Reporter its been a longanticipated trial. Mitch mcconnell says itll begin next tuesday, likely with opening arguments. Still refusing to commit to calling witnesses. If the existing case is strong, theres no need for the judge and the jury to reopen the investigation. Reporter democrats want to hear from several key officials, among them, former National Security adviser, john bolton. A trial without witnesses and documents is not a real trial. Its a sham trial. Reporter theyll need at least four republican senators to Cross Party Lines for that to happen. A few gop lawmakers expressing openness to bolton testifying. Hes someone i would want to hear from. Presumably, i get the chance to vote for that after the opening arguments. Reporter mcconnell says both sides will have their wish list if they call witnesses. Which means the republicans can call joe bidens son, hunter, to testify. House democrats are trying to pressure republicans to allow new ed, releasing a trove of documents from a documented associate of rudy giuliani, the president s personal attorney, who had been working with ukrainian officials. Including this handwritten note, that reads, get ukraines president to say that the biden case will be investigated. A reference that the president s Pressure Campaign to get ukraine to dig up dirt on his political rival. First, we hear from pelosi, then the formal delivery of the articles of impeachment, something thats only happened once before. Thank you. We are joined by nbc news political analyst and former senator Claire Mccaskill and National Review editor, now a nbc news political analyst. We have both aisles covered, and lets talk about this. It is a new phase now. The president will go on trial in the senate. Republicans control the senate. So most people are assuming this will not result in removal of the president. How do republicans approach this . What do you have to gain and lose . Thats the key question. Everyone knows hes not going to be removed. The threshold question, is there anything that would come out or fundamentally change minds, in that 20 senators want to nuke a president of their own party . The answer is no. Both sides will jockey for advantage. Theyll make the case that trump did this and it was wrong in terms of hurting him in the election. Republicans will want to protect him. Lets talk about the republican senators. Some are up more reoelection i swing states. How does the calculus change for them, and is that what democrats are hoping, to peel off some of them . They need four votes to call witnesses, four republican votes. That the threshold of victory for democrats, to get witnesses to testify in. Thats what the delay has been about. To build public pressure for witnesses and documents. The documents that came to light yesterday just reinforced that case. We need to see what was written down in real time, and we need to hear from the real time factual witnesses. I believe theyll get four republicans to call witnesses. The question is, who will be the witnesses that will be called . Will they go off on this tangent and, frankly, call hunter biden or joe biden . Lets talk about it. John bolton, former National Security adviser to the president , certainly a conservative voice but somebody who broke with the president , said, im willing to testify. It kind of puts the Senate Republicans a bit in a box. Do you think they need to call john bolton . I think mcconnell has a pretty good political case. If the actual and testimonial record that exists was good enough to impeach a president for the third time in the history, it is good enough to make the decision whether or not he should be convicted. I dont think anybody knows how the debate over witnesses will play out. At the end of the day, we probably wont see them. Itll be a mutually assured destruction aspect of it. Youre not just getting bolton without a hunter biden or somebody the white house wants. Do the democrats have something to fear if someone like hunter biden testifies . I dont think so. They control the senate. They could call a hearing and call hunter biden if they really wanted to. They could use the Rule Making Authority they have as a majority to do that. I disagree with rich. I think it is a big problem for the republicans if they try to shut this down without witnesses because trump has blocked everything. Unlike other impeachment trials, not a single shred of documents have been produced. Thats unprecedented. And this is supposed to be a trial. Thats what the word trial means. Rich, thank you very much. Youre not done, senator. We want your take on the next story. The democratic race, six candidates facing off before the iowa caucuses. A lot of attention is on what didnt happen at the end of the evening, this moment between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Kristen welker has that story. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. That awkward moment did come at the end of the debate, when senator warren seemed to reject a request by senator Bernie Sanders to shake his hand. That came after the two clashed over issues of gender and electability. Its the he said she said that sparked fireworks in iowa overnight. The rare, progressive family feud coming after senator Elizabeth Warren confirmed reports that during a private conversation with senator Bernie Sanders in 2018, he told her, a woman could not beat President Trump, a claim sanders firmly denied. Announcer this is an nbc news special report. Res chuck. Good morning, everyone. It is just after 10 00 a. M. In the east, and we are coming on the air to bring you live coverage right now. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be attacking the next step of impeachment, naming managers. Lets take a listen. As you know, i reference temple markers that a s that o founders, poets, and others used over time to places in time to emphasize the importance of time. Because everything is about time. How we use it. How we mark it. Today is an important day because today is the day that we name the managers, we go to the floor to pass the resolution to transmit the articles of impeachment to the senate. Later in the day, when we have our engrossment, that we march those articles of impeachment to the United States senate. As ive said, its always been our founders, when they started, when in the course of human events it becomes necessary when. Abraham lincoln, four scores and seven years ago, promised these are the times that torment souls, the times that found us. Again and again, even our poets. Long sq longfell l longfellow. Listen, my children. 18th of april in 75. The ride of paul revere. It is always about marking history using time. On december 18th, the house of representatives impeached the president of the United States. An impeachment that will last forever. Since december 18th, there have been comments about when are we going to send the articles over . Well, we had hoped that the courtesy would be extended that we would have seen what the process would be in the senate. Short of that, time has revealed many things since then. Time has been our friend in all of this because it has yielded incriminating evidence, more truth into the public domain. Since we passed the articles on december 20th, two days later, new emails show 91 minutes after trumps phone call with president zelensky, a top office of management and budget aide asked the department of defense to hold off on the ukraine aid. December 29th, revolutions emerged about the omb director and acting chief of staffs role in the delay of the effort by lawyers in the administration to justify the delay. The alarm this is very important the alarm that the delay, time, caused was in the administration. On january 2nd, newly redacted pentagon emails which had been subpoenaed and the president blocked raised serious concerns by the Trump Administration officials. By Trump Administration officials. They were concerned about the legality of the president s hold on the aid to ukraine. January 6th, former trump National Security adviser john bolton said hed comply with a subpoena to testify and that he has new, relevant information. On january 13th, reports emerged the russian government hacked a recurring gas company, burisma, as part of their ongoing efforts to influence u. S. Elections in support of President Trump. Just yesterday, the House Committee, two of our chairmen here, chairman nadler of judiciary, chairman schiff of intelligence, chairman eliot engel of foreign affairs, and chairwoman maloney of government reform, they released new evidence pursuant to a house subpoe subpoena for an associate of rudy giuliani, proving the president was a central player in the scheme to pressure ukraine for his own benefit in the 2020 election. This is about the constitution of the United States. Its important for the president to know, and putin to know, the american voter, voters in america should decide who our president is, not Vladimir Putin and russia. So today, im very proud to present the managers who will bring the case which we have great confidence in in terms of impeaching the president and his removal. This further evidence insists that. We wouldnt be in this situation had we not waited. Insist that there be witnesses and that we see documentation. Now you see some of that change happening on the senate side. I hope it does for the good of our country and to honor our constitution. So today, on the floor we will pass a resolution naming the managers, as i mentioned, appropriating the funds for the trial, and transmitting the articles of impeachment of the president of the United States, from trying to influence a Foreign Government for his own personal and political benefit. Chair adam schiff of california, lead manager. Chairman schiff, as you know, chair of the permanent Insight Committee on intelligence is serving his tenth term in congress. Excuse me. Before congress, mr. Schiff was a california state senator and served as a federal prosecutor in the u. S. Attorneys office in los angeles for six years. Most notably prosecuting the First Federal fbi agent ever to be indicted for espionage. Chairman jerry nadler, chair of the house Judiciary Committee, is serving his 15th term in congress. Mr. Nadler served as the top democrat on the judiciary subcommittee on constitution, civil rights, and Civil Liberties for 13 years. Before congress, mr. Nadler served in the new York State Assembly for 16 years. Wow. Chair of the House Committee on house administration, which has jurisdiction over federal elections, is a Senior Member of the house Judiciary Committee. Ms. Loughlin is serving her 15th term in congress. This is chairwomans third impeachment as a Judiciary Committee staffer from the nixon impeachment, as a member of the Judiciary Committee on the clinton impeachment, and now as a manager in this impeachment of the president , trump. Chairman Hakeem Jeffries is a member of the Democratic Caucus and serving his fourth term in congress. He is a member of the house Judiciary Committee. Before being in congress, he served in the assembly of new york for six years. An accomplished litigator in private practice before running for elected office. Mr. Jeffreys clerked for the honorable judge in new york. Congresswoman demmings of florida is a member of both the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence and the house Judiciary Committee. Ms. Demmings is serving her second term in congress. Before congress, ms. Demmings served as the Orlando Police department for 27 years. Part of that time as the First Woman Police chief in orlando. Congressman jason crowe of colorado was a member of the House Armed Services committee. He served our country bravely as an army ranger in iraq and afghanistan before running for congress. Mr. Crowe was a respected litigator in private practice in colorado. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia of texas. Congresswoman garcia is a member of the house Judiciary Committee. Before congress, ms. Garcia served in Texas State Senate previously. She was the director and residing judge of the houston municipal system and was elected city controller. Ms. Garcia was later elected the first hispanic and first woman to be elected in her own right to the Harris County commissioners court. As you can see from these descriptions, the emphasis is on litigators. The emphasis is on Comfort Level in the courtroom. The emphasis is making as strong as possible case to protect and defend our constitution, to seek the truth for the American People. Im very proud and honored that these seven members, distinguished members, have accepted this serious responsibility. Again, to protect and defend for the people defending our democracy. When we leave here a little later, at noon, well go to the floor and pass the resolution naming the managers officially. I wanted to say more about them here and say the decision to come down in favor of litigators is necessitated by the clear evidence that we should have witnesses and we should have documentation. We have to make the strongest prosecuti prosecution, not only of our strong case but all the evidence coming since. Well take a few questions. Reporter if time has strengthened your case, why wait until after christmas . Couldnt you stretch this out longer to get more information you say only bolstered your case . I will say we had the strong case for impeachment of the president and removal of the president. Anything more would be in terms of where we go in the senate. I yield to the chairman. We always felt a certain urgency about this impeachment, given the president was trying to get foreign help in cheating in the next election. As soon as we took up and passed the articles, Mitch Mcconnell made it clear he didnt want a trial in the senate. He didnt want to hear from witnesses, he didnt want documents. This time has given us the ability to show the American People the necessity of a fair trial, to expose the degree to which mcconnell is working hand if hand with the subject of the impeachment, the president , to essentially turn what should be a trial into a sham. The time has been, i think, very effective in not only bringing new evidence to light and the evidence was already overwhelming, but also forcing senators to go on record. Do they want a fair trial, one fair to th