Democrats made a mistake in forging ahead with impeachment without key testimony from bolton and mulvaney. Democrats are pushing for those witnesses at the senate trial, but they need four republicans to agree to it. And it remains unclear whether House Speaker nancy pelosi will formally send the impeachment articles to the senate. President trump is spending this holiday week airing his grievances about the process complaining that democrats have treated him unfairly. The president s Reelection Campaign even launching a campaign with talking points for his supporters this holiday season. We begin with Kristen Holmes live in palm beach, florida. Reporter good morning. President trump is not a man who takes any sort of dissent well. Particularly when it comes from a member of his own party. Youll remember two months ago when mitt romney criticized the president and then President Trump spent days on twitter slamming romney and calling him names. And this is a critical point here. President trump has been spending days touting party unity within republicans. He even talked about the impeachment house vote members at rallies. So any sort of crack in that gop wall is likely to not go over well. When it comes to President Trumps impeachment trial, one senator giving the first seen that all republicans may not be ready to fall in line. Senator Lisa Murkowski who could be a potential swing vote expressing her discomfort with Mitch Mcconnells decision. There will be no difference between the president s position and our position as to how to handle this. In fairness, when i heard that, i was disturbed. I happen to think that that has further confused the process. Reporter murkowskis comments coming as mcconnell expects unity in his party to control rules in the upcoming trial. Mcconnell is open to going straight to the senate floor without support from democratic leadership. As minority leader Chuck Schumer pushes for more witnesses and documents. How we will deal with witnesses i think remains to be seen. Reporter the moderate lawmaker was also critical of House Democrats for not going to the courts to compel testimony from Key Administration officials like john bolton and mick mulvaney. I think they tripped over themselves to get to shot cuts to get this to the senate before the end of the year. And now theyre realizing that maybe they didnt get everything that they needed. So they put it in the senates lap. Reporter democrats hopeful more republican senators are willing to enter trumps trial impartially. I hope were all going to find a way as we go into this impeachment trial, were going to look at the facts and all protect the democracy that we love. Reporter House Speaker nancy pelosi still has not sent over the articles of impeachment to the senate as she wants to know how the Gopled Senate will conduct the trial. She is doing the right thing and she has proven herself to be an incredible leader. Reporter meanwhile, President Trump confident mcconnell will produce another no vote on impeachment and acquit him. Were in a very good decision. Ultimately that decision is going to be made by Mitch Mcconnell and he has the right to do whatever he wants. Hes the head of the senate. Reporter trump lashing out at the process in tweets late last night. Once again complaining about pelosis oversight on what he calls a, quote, scam impeachment. She hates the republican party. She hates all of the people who voted for me. Shes going a tremendous disservice to the country. Shes not going a great job. Reporter and any sort of back tracking or criticism is a problem for mcconnell for several reasons. You talked about that house vote excuse me. That senate vote on the floor setting the procedure, setting the rules. He needs a majority there. He can only lose about two republican senators. Very important he keeps everyone in line. I do want to note if youre thinking there might be an impasse before january in this standoff over this trial news, dont hold your breath. Congress is not back into session until early january. It does seem theres still an impasse. Thank you for that reporting. So could any republicans be convinced to allow witnesses at the senate trial . We will discuss that next. Im tom steyer and i approve this message. Climate is the number 1 priority. I would declare a state of emergency on day 1. Congress has never passed an important climate bill, ever. This is a problem that continues to get worse. Ive spent a decade fighting and beating oil companies. Stopping pipelines. Stopping fossil fuel plants, ensuring clean energy across the country. How are we going to pull this country together . We take on the biggest challenge in history, we save the world and do it together. Rowithout the Commission Fees and account minimums. So, you can start investing wherever you are even on the bus. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Male anchor . An update on the cat who captured our hearts. Female anchor how often should you clean your fridge . Stay tuned to find out. Male anchor beats the odds at the box office to become a rare nonfranchise hit. You can give help and hope to those in need. 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 handled part of President Trumps impeachment process. And we heard a little bit of criticism when the focus shifted to the senate. 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. She is someone who lost her republican primary in 2010, was kind of ditched by her own party leadership. But won reelection by the strength of her own campaign. She does have a lot of loyalty to leadership. Yeah, that was a fascinating race. She won reelection as an independent on a write in. Michael, my question to you is when you look at the list of senators who could be persuadable, the real game and theres, you know, three democrats and i think weve got around eight republicans listed there. The real question is whether theyll vote for witnesses. In the two impeachment trials, no president has been removed from office. What do you think the levers are that we could see here that would say we should see more witnesses like in the past . First i would inject a bit of skepticism here. The kind of procedural votes were talking about whether or not to have witnesses, what the procedures will look like are generally the kind of votes that Party Members stick with their leadership on. On the procedural steps, they tend to stick together. That in the end they may stick with mcconnell at least on the procedural moves. But i think the one wild card here is President Trump. Look, President Trump has been all over the map. But there have been times where he himself has been pressing on twitter and in comments for witnesses, for a robust trial that would somehow, you know, sort of lead to an effort, a public effort to defend him. Thats what he wants to see in a trial. So there is the possibility at least that if that expression of interest puts that pressure on mcconnell, you could see some movement on that front. But i guess id put myself in a skeptical camp at this moment. Another i think key senator to watch is mitt romney. As we know, he hasnt been in lock step with the administration. Cory gardner also in a tough district. So lets listen to what they had to say about this and you guys speak washingtonese. So youll help us parse this. Listen. Would you be okay with it if it was a democrat asking a Foreign Government for help to investigate . Jumped to a very partisan serious use of a tool in the constitution. Ultimately we may well become a jury. And if thats the case, i think people want to make their own decision and not jump to any conclusions at this early stage. Okay. Do they want witnesses or not . Its unclear right now. I would say from those comments gardner might be more likely to stay and toe the and stay with the rest of the party than perhaps mitt romney here. It is going to be a question that these republican senators are going to have to answer for or going to have to address in the next couple of weeks. I think mcconnell will be able to persuade enough of his members by saying, look, we are doing what the senate did in 1999 which is basically agree on the easy stuff first. 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 witnesses on board. Michael, taking into account your skepticism about the possibility of any republicans peeling off, do you think theres any new information that could cause republicans to move . Is there any bright line that would cause them to question this president and the need for witnesses . Well, i mean, i suppose so. You know, theres not the house has said that theyre continuing to keep the investigation open to the extent that new information comes in. But i think, you know, theyre in a quandary at the moment because the new information is likely to come from the very people who they want to call who the administration is blocking at the moment. And look. Part of what gardner and romney and others that are in these kind of more moderate facing these more moderate electorates, what they need to prove is they are engaged in a fair process. Because their electorate doesnt want them to be participating in something they think is sort of a sham trial. And so i think thats their interest. Thats when they give those equivocal answers with the message theyre trying to send especially to their sort of independent minded voters is, look, im going to be pushing for something that is seen as fair and even handed. And senator mcconnells comments about being in lock step obviously dont support that. So theyre trying to walk that fine line. So that theyre seen as fair minded by those independent voters. Thank you for that translation, both of you. Very helpful. Stick around. We have more questions for you. All right. Now, if youve watched any tv the past few weeks, youre bound to have seen an ad for one of these two democratic candidates. Were going to discuss the massive and i mean massive amount of money the billionaires are spending on campaign advertising. Thats next. Sometimes, the pressures of todays world can make it tough to take care of yourself. But natures bounty has innovative ways to help you maintain balance and help keep you active and wellrested. 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Breakfast in bed just add Ground Coffee for a carafe, or pop in a pod for a freshly brewed cup. Exactly how i like my coffee. Youve got your carafe. Ive got my light roast. Were brewing the love. Quitting smoking is freaking hard. St, like quitting every monday hard. Quitting feels so big. So, try making it smaller. And youll be surprised at how easily starting small. Can lead to something big. Start stopping with nicorette [ drathis holiday. Ahhhhh ahhhhh a distant friend returns. Elliott. You came back and while lots of things have changed. Wooooah woah its called the internet. Some things havent. Get ready for a reunion 3 million light years in the making. Woohoo yeah 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 could be the impact of this mammoth spending . Well, thats yet to be seen, clearly. But it is certainly a major amount of money. You see kind of the strategy that particularly the former new york mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to take here because hes trying to use his mammoth wealth and fortune to boost his standing and really focus on those super tuesday states. While it is yet to be seen, there is a scenario where the first four nominating contest could have four separate winners because of the volatile nature of the race so far. Michael bloomberg could sweep in on that super tuesday where hes focusing so much of his ad spenting. The thing is whats happened whats helped bloomberg here a little bit is that by spending so much of his own money, hes helped kind of set his own narrative and be able to tell his own story about his experiences in, for example, combatting Climate Change and working on issues to or working on ending gun violence. But it is a question how far spending can actually go. In the politico story, theres a person quoted there saying, you know, same after you see the same ad ten times, what kind of impact could it have at the end of the day . 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 than he has. Absolutely. Money can buy you name recognition. That is, you know, if that werent true, people wouldnt be spending hundreds of millions of dollars in president ial campaigns ultimately on advertising. There are two things that it generally cant buy you. Having spent a lot of time in iowa and New Hampshire and the early states, the people who vote in the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary reward the people who have been on the ground, who have been in the house parties. And, you know, who have been at the small rallies talking to voters. At least our historical experience suggest that people who come in at the last minute or people who only, you know, spend ad dollars generally arent rewarded. And the second thing the early states generally do is provide momentum. You know, in past contests and every contest is new and this could be, you know, a different scenario as seung min says. If there is no momentum coming out of the early states because everybody has won one and nobody has gathered that kind of momentum, it could play to mayor bloombergs strength. Generally that hasnt been the case. Generally there has been somebody who emerges having a lot of momentum from winning one or two or maybe three states. And in that case, its hard to see how even all of this ad spending could sort of rocket you to the top if by the time it gets to the super tuesday, you havent been part of the action. Thats all looking forward. Lets talk about whats happening right now. Brand new article, washington post, fascinating about the downstream effect of the crisis on morale in the state department. I want to read the opening paragraph because its a stunner. The new russia adviser in the white house, it says, the third in just six months, has no meaningful background on the subject. The only expert on ukraine has never spoken with President Trump. Only been mocked by him publicly. The u. S. Embassy in kiev will soon be without its highest ranking diplomat for the second time in a year, as another ambassador is undermined by the u. S. President and his personal staff. What are you hearing about morale in the state department and how the president may be affecting perceptions of the u. S. Overseas . Well, i mean, this has been such a this has been such an issue for this administration. Not just in the state department, but in so many other key agencies. We have seen the issue of acting officials, the turnover at major agencies particularly at the dep