whistleblower, or the informant is now missing? >> congressman jamie raskin on how hunter biden called james comer's bluff, and what we are learning about negotiations for an extension of the truce as 16 more hostages are released by hamas. when all in starts, right now. good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. we're under 50 days from now iowa caucus, republican primary voters, their first shot to choose a presidential nominee. last time most of the country went to the polls, after the big national election, the 2022 midterm elections, a little over a year ago, and if you might remember, republicans delivered a pretty shocking underperformance in those elections. it was an empty performance those particularly pronounced among the trump aligned candidates. we saw this early in that election night and it just kept going. the kari lake in arizona e and the herschel walker and the tv doctor mehmet oz in pennsylvania. in short, modulus to begin 2022. as a result at the time there was a real feeling that people understood that on trump's political potency had waned, that he was an albatross, and arago, would be a good idea to get someone new as a republican standard bearer in this standard bearing contest. and we might be in for a competitive republican primary in 20 23 to 24. that's why you saw some candidates decide to run against donald trump earlier this year. of course now with the benefit of hindsight, things have not really turned out that way. , florida governor ron desantis who was of course widely seen as the most viable alternative to trump has delivered one of the worst campaign performances of all-time. truly one of the most stunning cash burning operations in recent american politics. at the start of this year, santos was at least feasibly competitive with trump. by the time he announced in late may, much later than many observers thought he should, trump had opened up about a third 30-point lead in the polling average. in that time the desantis campaign, affiliated packs, has spent nearly $50 million on an advertising only see to has his numbers sink lower, to near single digits, while trump's lead widened to about 45 points. you're going in the wrong direction, ron. i think it's fair to say that this is not where florida governor ron desantis wanted to pick up. i think it has dawned on a lot non-trump loving parts of the republican party, and there are those elements, but there is one last chance, 50 days out from iowa, one last chance for competitive primary, barring for some huge unforeseen circumstance. given that the table as it is set right now, one last chance to have it out over the future of what the party, a voter can party, and whether it's going to fully align itself behind the man who wants to end american democracy and whether the republican party is gonna continue to be a party that's woven into the fabric of the constitutional republic. that's the choice for the party. and the way to make that happen will be a one-on-one contest between trump and former south carolina governor and u. n. in bassett are, nikki haley. anything other than complete consolidation of the non trump forces in the race are only going to help trump by splitting them. i suspect that is at least partly why we see former vice president mike pence and south carolina senator tim scott suspend their campaigns, fairly abruptly, actually. maybe other republicans in the race, not named nikki haley, will take the lead. it's clearly on a majority view of primary voting republicans. but there is definitely a contingent of the republican party that would like to, if they could, they like to move off of trump. and these folks are not particularly well represented anymore. the conservative media is basically filling the tank for maga, most of the never trump republicans have become parts of the democratic party coalition, especially in the biden era. so there really is no one out there in the world who speaks for this group of people. they really do exist. there really are literally millions of them. they show up in polling. around 20% of the republican party disapproves of donald trump. for these people who don't like the democrats, they're not democrats, their conservatives, but who also don't like trump, nikki haley appeals appears to be their best shot. we've seen a succession of headlines in just the past few days the demonstrate -- haley's affiliated super pac spent almost $9 million this month, nearly as much as both trump and desantis's packs combined and you've got jamie dimon the billionaire ceo of jpmorgan chase who has been talking up haley to anyone who will listen including during an event earlier today. >> i did come out make a nice statement about nikki haley. he did. very liberal democrat and i urge him to help nikki haley as well. decide on the republican side might be a bit of the trump. >> also it was reported by america's prosperity, the infamous arm of the koch network would be no backing haley as well, providing access to -- the political network run by charles koch, one of those powerful men in the, earth as has had one almost a malignant influence on america. life in one way it's unlimited amounts of untraceable money backing things like the tea party paved the way for donald trump, brought us to the moment wherein. and also, just be absolutely fair, i don't like, at all, nikki haley's politics. i think it would be a bad thing for the country if she were elected president. she would pursue a plan that would negatively impact americans. and also i don't think nikki haley would prove to be an existential threat to the very framework of our representative democracy like donald trump clearly would be and is. listen to her the first primary debate, dressing down vivek ramaswamy over ukraine. >> ukraine is a front line of defense. putin has said, if russia, once russia takes ukraine, poland or the baltics are next. that's a world war. we're trying to prevent war. look at what putin did today. he killed prigozhin. when i was at the u. n., the russian ambassador suddenly died. this guy is a murderer. and you are choosing a murderer or a over a pro american [applause] -- >> doesn't sound crazy. it's sort of, i don't know, normal american foreign policy. something even democrats have. in politics, at least in my view, particularly these days, it's often the lesser of two evils. it's about harm reduction. sometimes even it's about choosing the battle that's cataclysmic. from that perspective it's undoubtedly a good thing but code network is making this, a positive thing that a wall street executives are telling people they should back haley for the good of the country. it's to the benefit of american democracy for there to be a strong faction of the republican party, one of the two major ones we have, committed to defeating donald trump. to be clear, they have a strong case to make. it's been fairly well shown, now, that haley would be a strong general election candidate. the polling reliably shows us that. in lots of polls she's the one canada point above trump in head to heads. you get the experience, foreign policy experience, more cynically, polls show she is a formidable nominee. recent poll from -- shows haley beating biden by -- this also poetic justice of play. here's the reality. nominating anyone other than donald trump would almost certainly rip the party is under. it might even break it in its current name and form. trump within set himself to the goal of the total destruction of the republican party, just like he did against as american as a whole, should they nominate anyone other than him. the fact of the matter is, that's probably what the republican party deserves. if i'm writing the script here, it could be destroyed by the monster that enabled for the better part of a decade. nikki haley included, as you know from the opening. and they all know that threat hangs over them. so anyone who takes up the effort to defeat trump, to really go after, to try to beat him in this republican primary anyway deserves support. i'm joined now by a staffer of the lantern, author of a new book the trajectory of the republican party, a reckoning. i was thinking about your book, your excellent book today, and i was thinking about the idea of a lack of representation of, literally, i would say tens of millions of non-trump republican voters. these are not like, i hate that guy, i will climb over broken glass to get rid of him, but they are also not like going to rallies and they're also not like i love him. i love everything about him. they're like as, i really don't like the guy. i'm a republican. i would like someone else. there are tens of millions of those people. if someone could actually get them together. >> no question, and i think the numbers even bigger than that 20% you showed earlier. that's 20% that has an unfavorable view of donald trump in a lot of republicans would like to move on from donald trump. even if they'll vote for him and even if he'll defend him in conversations from time to time, but we don't talk about them and there's a couple of reasons for that. one, you noted in the, top the conservative media has gone full maga. there is no representation for the non-trump republican voice anymore. mitt romney, who would, i, think comfortably fit in the kind of conservative anti trump world that doesn't exist, he doesn't get any voice on fox news or conservative talk radio. people like him don't get invited on anymore. so there is no voice for them. nikki haley represents a lot of them. i sat in on a republican focus groups earlier this year, and what was interesting wise, this is in the midst of the desantis boomer. there are lot of people to hear bout how much they light desantis, and he's the guy to go with if you don't like trump. but when nikki haley came up, it was almost all positive comments. what i will say, as most of them, said she would make a great running mate. so they weren't ready to go to her at that point but they liked her. i think that's a good starting point for someone like haley. >> the thing is, i guess my feeling about this, and again, a dog in the fight and the partisan sense about the republican party, in the inter factional dispute, is that i just think people shouldn't give up. there's a little bit of this fatalism. you see this fatalism time and time again for republicans where it's like here we go. . who keep added, guys. this is important stuff. >> well, we in the media also, i think, sometimes contribute to that. i have to say, when i have been asked over the last three years, what are the chances of donald trump losing, again and again i'll say oh i don't know i doubted. i think it's because we were all burned from that 2016 experience of competently predicting that he wouldn't win and then he did. . some things have to happen. the field has to narrow. the establishment has to choose nikki haley to get behind. or but it's happening. i think that one thing that is happening now that we have to keep our eye on is, a ray of backers for nikki haley, you notice some of them at the top, charles koch, jeremy diamond, mitt romney's former chief fundraiser spencer zwick recently joined the nikki haley campaign. these people represent almost the last stand of the old republican establishment. it's almost like all the people who want to spare the party from a long term commitment to trumpian politics are making one last go of it. and when i think would be good and healthy for the party, and frankly, healthy for the country, is if more country joined in more people saw this as kind of what it is, which, is i think, an existential battle for the republican party. you might be right that donald trump, if he loses the nomination will dedicate his life to distraught destroying the gop. i think that's possible. i also think it's possible he won't succeed. but my point is, if you just give up -- then you have nothing to point to when the ruinous consequences of his nomination and possible election play out. >> that's my point here. it's not a predictive point. i think that's part of what has made this here. if you're trying to like bet money, if you're trying to say it's much more likely donald trump will be the nominee. i think we all agree with that. but that's a different. the football metaphor is, you've got the ball down to score five minutes. get out there. start throwing some passes. run the know-how dull. let's go. let's give it a shot. stranger things have happened. >> and maybe this is the hail mary. rallying around nikki haley 47 days before the iowa caucuses is the hail mary passed of the establishment needs. but it's worth making the pass. you're totally right about that. i think also, one more note, this country needs to healthy political parties. i don't the nominating nikki haley will make the republican party healthy necessarily, but it will make it a lot less unhealthy than if donald trump wins the don nomination again. i think that's worth fighting for. so white and house republicans chicken out of the hearing they have been demanding? next. colors and patterns will sell out! go to blendjet.com and take advantage of our black friday sale now! hi, my name's steve. i lost 138 pounds on golo and take advantage of our and i kept it off. so with other diets, you just feel like you're muscling your way through it. the reason why i like golo is plain and simple, it was easy. i didn't have to grit my teeth and do a diet. golo's a lifestyle change and you make the change and it stays off. golo's changed my life in so many ways. i sleep better, i eat better. took my shirt off for the first time in 25 years. it's golo. it's all golo. it's smarter, it's better, >> if you've not been watching it will change your life forever. fox news, you may not be aware of the drama and intrigue day in the republican allies have g and up around the presidents son, hunter biden. you should know that while you've been following news on all kinds of subjects, the fox cinematic universe has been attacking president biden and his son all day long, day in, and day out. this line of attack could infuriate b or b's theory be effective, but they are working with bad material. they keep running into absolutely humiliating dead ends. now they have hit perhaps the most humiliating one yet. the right-wing campaign against hunter biden has been going on for years, even before joe biden took office. biden's political opponents seized on his sons well-known and wild in alleged personal problems, including his struggle with addiction, as well as his foreign business dealings. a lot of people thought they were not great. in an attempt to disparage the president. they built up a whole narrative and promised that hunter was the key no brain. amidst the scrutiny hundred disclosed in the summer of 2020 that he was under investigation by justice department related to his tax affairs. a publicans than complain the doj was not charging biden until they did indict him this year on gun charges related to his drug use. to be clear, these are charges that many prosecutors and the defense lawyers who practice in the federal bars say would never be brought against someone without that last name. this is a special case. republicans were also incensed by the lack of the special counsel on the case, that is, until attorney general merrick garland appointed a special counsel in august. this year house republicans also launched their own probe into the biden family held by james comer of kentucky. they expand that. along with two other committees in september. comer and his teams have now spent months putting in a district state steady stream of anti biden contact, doing everything they can to promote an impeachment story, impeachment new segments on fox, sure short of voting on impeachment because, well, they don't have enough support to pass that. of course a large part of what is driving all of this is a revenge for the two impeachments of donald trump. trump has ordered them to impeach joe biden and we know that he they do what he orders them to do. trump wants to even the score, facts be dammed. they haven't uncovered any evidence to support impeachment of joe biden, but the committee on are some peña-ing hunter. someone in hunter biden were closed-door transcribed interview. now, hunter biden has called their bluff. yesterday, through his lawyer, hunter biden told republicans, sure, all come in to talk to you. not just that, i will come in and testify, live, in public, before the whole committee. you know, you would think that would be precisely the thought of dramatic confrontational moment republicans have been waiting for. they're trying to produce cable news for the friends over at fox after all. but instead of declaring victory and putting -- dave comer just folded, claiming a public hearing would not suffice. >> we need to ask him hundreds of questions. if he comes in for one hearing with 24 members having five minutes each to ask questions, with the democrats yelling and screaming like they do every hearing, we probably would get about 30 to 35 questions in. >> after years building up his climactic moment, the opportunity to grill hunter biden under oath and finally country, republicans retreated from their own battle? this has to be the most humiliating loss for james comer yet. a judge was democratic counterpart on the oversight committee, ranking member jamie raskin, next. after advil. feeling better? on top of the worlddddd!!! before advil. advil targets pain at the source of inflammation. when pain comes for you, come back fast with advil liqui-gels. >> i thought we might be here today on the matter that the chairman declared his top priority, the crusade to find evidence of wrongdoing by president biden. but now the majority's long promised star witness turns out to be a fugitive from american justice. like every other attempt to concoct a scandal about president biden, this one is a complete and total bust. >> democratic congressman jamie raskin, ranking member of the oversight committee, is calling out his republican colleagues for epic humiliation because chairman james comer reje an opportunity to question hunter biden publicly. congressman jamie raskijos me now. congressman, were you surprised by comer not wanting to go through a big showy public hearing? >> well, on the one hand i was not surprised because chairman comer and his staff understand the cupboard is empty. they've been at this for ten months and they know there is nothing there. they're wild goose chase has produced no geese at all. but i was surprised in this sense. i thought that word would leak out quickly and all the members of the republican side would be very excited because this was the holy grail and now they would have their opportunity to offer their devastating cross-examination of hunter biden. marjorie taylor greene would finally get to nail him about all the pornographic pictures and so on and so forth but the cooler heads understood there is nothing there that would've exposed all of them to a great humiliation and this having the pulpit was this confession, that there is nothing there. >> that understanding, i think, by comer and other folks, speaks to the basic dynamic, as i see it. i'd like to hear what you think. they don't have the votes. they don't have the votes. the reason they don't have the votes is because they haven't turned up evidence of any impeachable crimes, and there's enough swing voters in that caucus who don't want to walk the plank and won't vote for this because some of them think it would be against, basically their oath and principles. but they have to keep producing impeachment content. so they get this weird thing where they have to make impeachment content without actually impeaching, which is the strain kind of world your committee is ian. >> i think that you've got it right