Plus, new reporting on the confrontation that led the House Speaker to warn a reporter not to mess with her, and now she is hith back at the president who accused of her of having a nervous fit. And the former Vice President challenges a iowa voter to a pushup match and an iq test and did not hold back when the man brought up his son hunter. What the Biden Campaign is saying this morning. It was quite a 24 hours or so, everybody, good morning, it is friday. Yes it is friday, december 6th. Im yasmin vossoughian. Jeff bennet is in for amin this week. We begin with this historic step forward in the impeachment investigation as House Speaker nancy pelosi directs the committees conducting inquiry to bring formal charges against the president by drafting articles of impeachment. She made the announcement early yesterday morning and defended her decision in a series of events taking questions from the press at a Weekly News Conference and a town hall last night. Here are some key moments. The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own perm political benefit. At the expense of our national security, by withholding military aid and crucial Oval Office Meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival. Our democracy is what is at stake. The president leaves us no choice but to act. Because he is trying to corrupt once again the election for his own benefit. Let me just say this. This isnt, were saying ukraine, the ukraine was the vehicle of the president s action. Asking the president of another country to make an announcement that he was investigating the president s political opponent. And withholding military assistance that was voted by the congress of the United States. Unless and until he did sox the president did so. But this isnt about ukraine. This is about russia. Who benefitted by our withholding, withholding that military assistance . Russia. It is about russia. So sometimes people say, well, i dont know about ukraine, i dont know that much about ukraine, well, our adversary in this is russia. All roads lead to putin. Understand that. This is the first president who has committed all of these things, as the constitutional experts said yesterday, nobody ever even come close, not richard nixon, even came close, to his dishonoring his own oath of office. They him peached bill clinton for personal in discretion and misrepresenting about it. Impeached him. Some of the same people saying this doesnt rise to impeachment. Right there in impeachmenting bill clinton for being stupid in terms of Something Like that. Now, the house speak were not say findings from the Mueller Report will make it into the articles of impeachment. Meantime, the House Judiciary Committee says it will hold its next impeachment hearing on monday to discuss the evidence collected by the Intel Committee and the judiciary committee. Speaker pelosi did not announce a deadline for committees to write the articles of impeachment or when the full house would vote on it. One Democratic House member tells nbc news they were told to not make plans december 21 or december 22, and thats the weekend before christmas. So the president and the white house of course are respondsing, when asked, if shes worried that impeachment would, if he is worried that impeachment would sting his legacy. The president said no, not at all. The white house released a statement writing in part this, Speaker Pelosi did exactly what she always does, ignore the needs of the American People, and advance her selfish political desires. Democrats sham impeachment is a blatant, purely partisan attempt to overturn the results of the free and fair election. Hoo ser reaction from Republican Leaders on the hill. The speaker gave a speech on National Television to push forward her rush and partisan impeachment, not one word, not one word on the outstanding legislation the American People actually need it. Is all impeachment. All the time. This is the day the nation is weaker. Because they surely cannot put their animosity or their fear of losing an election in the future in front of them. All of the other things that the American People want. Joining us now is msnbc legal analyst Danny Cevallos and from washington, you have white house and washington reporter for politico, daniel litman. We know earlier this week the white House Counsel was huddling behind closed door, talking strategy and what are they planning to do . What kind of defense are they planning to mount when this entire process reaches the senate . So theres actually a deadline on friday, today, if they plan to participate at all in the house process. But in the senate, you might have President Trump actually testify under oath, which would be the biggest moment in his presidency, to say he did nothing wrong, and they would have a more managed process, more to their liking, because the senate is controlled by republicans. But there is a, they might be able to call some witnesses, theyre going to say that he was just conducting foreign policy, and that he had a right to demand that american money going to ukraine, which has a history of corruption, was not being misused. But i think the thing is that Mick Mulvaney admitted that there was a quid pro quo for political reasons. Yes. Danny cevallos, so hearing part of what Daniel Lippman was talking about with regards to what republicans are going to be hearing from the entire process and i imagine he took that from some of the legal experts we heard from in the testimony on wednesday which is this is a rushed process, thats from the republicans point of view, what would be, at this point, the president s best defense going into this impeachment process . Its actually very different from the republicans, and their position weve heard this week. If you look back to professor turley, the lone republican witness this week, his defense was twofold. It was number one, there is insufficient evidence. In other words, there is some evidence of bad conduct, but insufficient to rise to the level of impeachable offenses. Part two was process. The procedure here is flawed. And thats the kind of argument that sometimes you can have a guilty defendant, but if the procedure is flawed, the defendant goes free. The president s position is very different. He cannot use a not guilty defense. He has to use an im an innocent defense. And that too is twofold. Number one as to all of the other folks who arent near the president , dont know nothing about them, gordon sondland, i dont know those folks, i barely know you. But i have talked to him numerous times. I have talked to him numerous times but he has to sell i know nothing about them. And as to what he has admitted to, the four corners of the statement he has adopted, whether a transcript or a memo or whatever you want to call, it he will look to that, as to that, nothing to see here, i didnt do anything wrong, everything in there is authorized by my article two power, it doesnt matter that hunter biden is related to my political opponent, hunter biden is corrupt, thats his defense, and even if he is 1 tiny bit corrupt, then i was discharging my duties under article two to enforce the laws as the executive. It is a hard sell. The problem with the president s defense, everything we have seen so far does not support that defense. Go ahead. I will also say that the line that you hear constantly is that because there was no Public Statement from the ukrainian leader, announcing an investigation, and the money eventually got to ukraine, because they kind of gave it in through the whistleblower complaint, that it was, if there was a crime, it didnt actually happen, and so are we going to kind of criminalize, you know, thought crimes, things that actually havent taken place, and so thats something that im sure that they will be talking to as a republican defense. Daniel lippman, thank you. Stick around. Danny cevallos, thank you as always my friend. Former Vice President joe biden is defending himself after a voter questioned his overseas business dealings during a campaign state in iowa. We all know trump has been messing around in ukraine. You, on the other hand, sent your son over there to get a job and work for a gas company that he had no experience with in order to get access to the president just like he was. Youre selling access to the president just like he has. Thats a damn lie, man. No one has said my son has done anything wrong, and i did not in any occasion, and no one has ever said, it not once. I didnt say you were doing anything wrong. You said i set up my son to work in an oil company. Isnt that what you said . Get your words straight, jack. So after that, heated exchange, the 83yearold retired farmer who refused to name himself, said that senator Elizabeth Warren was his top choice in the democratic primary race. Biden weighed in on the confrontation when asked by nbc news if similar situations concern him leading up to 2020. Well, if you notice, it is the first one youve heard, it is a, look, it is what it is, i feel confident about this whole investigation that is going on of trump. This isnt going to be a campaign thats going, you know, be really in a general election, it is going to be meaner, and we all know where trump is going to come from, and the fact is, that youve heard me say it a bunch of times when youve been with me is im not going to let the focus be changed from what the problem is. I can only imagine the campaign trail is going to get much more contentious over the next year or so. Absolutely. Still ahead, everybody, nbc news has confirmed, Rudy Giuliani is in ukraine conducting interviews as part of his investigations into the bidens, and his bid to undercut the credibility of the impeachment investigation. Plus, why u. S. Officials are concerned russia may have known about President Trumps attempt to have ukraine investigate a political rival months before the effort was exposed by a whistleblower. Those stories and a check on the weather when we come back. vo the flock blindly falls into formation. Flying south for the winter. 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All against big odds you can beat him. Im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. [ dramatic music ]ing ] ahhhh ahhhh elliott. You came back wnba welcome back. The Washington Post post reports that the president s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani met with one of the ukrainian figures working to build a Corruption Case against hunter biden. According to the post, the ukraine lawyer says during their meeting in kyiv, he pressed giuliani in a need of setting up an investigation in corruption in ukraine and giuliani tweeted hours later, that quote, the conversation about corruption in ukraine was based on compelling evidence of criminal conduct by then vp biden in 2016, that has not been resolved, and until it is, will be a major obstacle to the u. S. Assisting ukraine with the anticorruption reforms. That tweet is based on zero evidence. Now, a source directly involved in giulianis trip to europe has confirmed to nbc news that giuliani is currently indeed conducting interviews as part of his investigation, what he calls his investigations, into the bidens and his bid to undercut the credibility of the impeachment investigation. Well, giuliani has so far declined to confirm the trip to nbc, the individual says giuliani conducted interviews yesterday and has scheduled more indeed for today. A list of names that includes the former ukrainian prosecutor general victor shole, Viktor Shokin two men at the heart of the investigation. And two officials telling the Washington Post that President Trump routinely spoke with giuliani and others using cell phones vulnerable to monitoring by foreign intelligence services. Phone records released by the house Intel Committee, this week, showing Extensive Communications between giuliani and others involved in the effort to pressure ukraine, and a blocked number that investigators suspects belongs to President Trump. And the paper raised the possibility that russia was able to learn about aspects of trumps attempt to get ukraine to investigate a political rival months before that effort was exposed by a whistleblower report and the impeachment inquiry. Now, according to the post, former white house chief of staff john kelly and intelligence officials made a concerted attempt back in 2017, to get trump to use secure white house lines. But when trump realized that this enabled kelly to compile daily logs of his calls and the identities of those that he was actually speaking, to trump became annoyed and reverted to using his own cell phone. Lets get a check on your weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Good morning. We need a nice weekend. Two weekends before christmas. A lot of activities going on. Last weekend was a mess with the big huge storm. So we have another coast to coast storm, this one is a little bit different. It doesnt have a lot of cold air to work with. With a widespread snowstorm. So you can see how huge it is, though. It is a massive storm. Highest impact is going to be in california. As you go throughout the day today, and tomorrow, and then we will take the storm all the way to the east coast by monday, of next week. So here is the timing on this, for this evening, airport problems possible around san francisco, and thats where the heaviest rain will be, and the north bay especially, thats where some of the fires were about a month ago. So theyre worried about. So debris and the mud flows and things like that. So there is a Flash Flood Watch that has been issued. Then friday night, into saturday, i mean talk about a great start to the ski season, the northeast has a ton of snow and now all of the rockies, and this is the second big storm in the last two week, the sierra could see anywhere between 36 to 48 inches of snow, at the high elevations, so that is gold heading into the big, you know, ski holiday, from christmas all the way to new years. And on sunday, this storm breaks out into the plains, late sunday, snowstorm, from montana to the dakotas, and then the storm quickly moves to the east, expect a very rainy, warm monday. We will melt a lot of the snow in the northeast. And anyone with travel plans on monday in the northeast, significant delays but the rain and maybe some flooding issues, too, if we melt enough of that snow quickly. How much snow will we talk about . It looks like in areas from the mountains of colorado could get up to 18 inches of snow with. This the plains are really talking about three to six. Minneapolis could get some snow out of this. Same with wisconsin. And a little bit here, in areas of upstate new york and some lake effect stuff but overall, yasmin, we could deal with a warm rainy storm compared to all of the others and it looks like dc is just going to be wet, too. In the meantime yasmin just booked a flight to colorado to do some skiing. How did you know . I know you will. Thank you, bill. Still ahead, why the white house is blocking a senate bill, coauthored by the president s foe turned friend ted cruz. Were back in a moment. Who doesnt love a deal . I do. Check out the united explorer card. Savin on this savin on this savin in here. Rewarded learn more at the explorer card dot com. cause no matter how far away for you roam. Ys. When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze. For the holidays you cant beat home sweet home. The United StatesPostal Service goes the extra mile to bring your holidays home. 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