This case is about carmen. This case is about nick. Thats all for this edition of dateline. Im natalie morales, thank you for watching. Good morning on this sunday morning. Im Frances Rivera at msnbc world quarters. Its 6 00 in the east, 3 00 out west. Heres whats happening. The impeachment battle intensifies. The latest on the timeline an the strike that vi for both sides. Plus, the new effort to unmask the whistleblower. A political pressure on the other side to delay and stone wall as long as possible. If they do impeach the president , the senate doesnt vote to convict, imagine what kind of a presidency youre going to have. The American Public is very smart and they will understand if the story is told and in a simple way. Also, the new report about Hillary Clintons emails and how the Trump Administration is still investigating them. And they are back. The gang at sn all right. Returns poking fun at the president and his personal attorney. Spenl this morning, the battle lines as impeachment ramps up. Nancy pelosi Telling Democrats In Texas Last Night that she feels public support is shifting as the Investigation Presses ahead. In the public, the tide has completely changed. It could change fast. Who knows . But right now, after seeing the complaint and the i. G. Report and the cavalier attitude that the administration had toward it, the American People are coming to a different pelosis latest comments will show the Public Opinion turning
favorably towards impeachment. A survey showing 49 approval for adults towards impeachment. The white house doubling down on defense saying theres nothing there when it comes to the president s call with ukraine. This is another in a long line of ridiculous behavior by the democrats. The president has done nothing wrong. They pushed a lie about russia on the American People without evidence and theyre doing it all over again. Whether its cluollusion or kavanaugh or a coverup. The president making his own direct pitch to voters as he points the finger at democrats. Whats going on now is the single greatest scam in the history of american politics. The democrats want to take away your guns, they want to take away your health care, they want to take away your vote and your freedom. They want to take away your judges and everything. Theyre trying to stop me because im fighting for you,
and ill never let that happen. Another investigation intensifying this morning. The Washington Post reports the Trump Administration is investigating emails of dozens of current and former Senior State Department officials who sent messages to then Secretary Of StateHillary Clintons private emails. Current and former officials telling the paper, as many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators. Nbcs hans nichols joins you with more from the white house. Well get to that story in a minute. We saw reaction from the white house on the Impeachment Inquiry. Whats the latest . Reporter the strategy seems to be to appeal to the president s base. You saw that in the video you just played. In a twreet from laura trump, the president s daughterinlaw. You also have these attacks on the whistleblower. A couple days ago, the president was suggesting hes a partisan
operative. They continue to repeat the line that the whistleblower didnt have the information firsthand. Listen to how it was put. This whistleblower has clearly not been given the appropriate amount of scrutiny. This person wasnt on the call, this person was using secondhand information and the third hand accounts were from media hit pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post and cnn. What are his spirits . How is he doing . Hes doing very well. What the democrats arent talking about are guns, infrastructure, health care, borders. Theyre not doing anything that they were elected to do, which is work for the American People. The president shows up every day and does his job. Now, as the president s spirits, it was bolstered by Lindsey Graham who was on the golf course with the president yesterday. Normally they dont say hes golfing. On a rare occasion yesterday they did. Clearly impeachment is on their minds. From the golf course a tweet from senator Lindsey Graham, hes really focusing on this hearsay aspect. In america, you cant get a Parking Ticket based on Hearsay Testimony. But you can impeach a president . I certainly hope not. So frances, those are the tracks the white house defense, the idea of appealing to the base and questioning the whistleblower and introducing the idea that its Hearsay Testimony and there isnt direct evidence. Hans, yesterday we were talking about impeachment and now the headline is talking about clinton emails. What do you know about this story and the white house looking into those emails again . The State Department is conducting a review. Its ongoing on to some of the emails sent to State Department official, Career Officials and they were sent to the private email server from of hillary clinton. Its obviously an incredibly important issue and the 2016
campaign. What we dont know is if this was directed by the white house or a standard state Department Procedure and if theyre wrapping up the administration. At a certain point, the Washington Post seems to be saying theyre wrapping up, excuse me me, the investigation. Whether or not this is ongoing is going to be a key line. Certainly the case many are asking. I want to bring in politics reporter with the daily beast and scott wong, Senior Reporter with the hill. Thank you both for being with me this early in the morning. Good morning. Good morning. What is up with this interest in Hillary Clintons emails now . Well, the State Department will say that this is simply normal protocol, that this is that its taken 3 1 2 years to investigate, pore through the thousands and thousands of emails that were on Hillary Clintons private server. A key issue, as hans mentioned
in the 2016 campaign and what many people point to as perhaps the reason why Hillary Lost To donald trump in that election, but democrats are saying that this is a highly suspicious time just as the ukraine story rears its head and democrats launch into their Impeachment Inquiry. Were once again talking about Hillary Clintons emails. People think that this could be politically motivated on behalf of the Trump Administration and are extremely concerned. Before this report, hanna, we would have been talking about impeachment and inquiry. Now were talking about the emails once again . How do you make of the timing here . Yeah. I think what scott said is spoton. Theres nobody arguably that President Trump is more obsessed with than hillary clinton. I mean, i worked on the story with the daily beast where we
talked to nearly a dozen clinton staffers from the campaign in 2016 who were basically watching in horror and we asked them specifically with regard to bidens team, what advice did they give to him, its a similar sort of line attack that we see trump using towards the Vice President as he personalizes that frontrunner status. He basically said, you know, this is so much ptsd for us. This dominated the headlines like scott said in 2016, that we would just advise him to look straight ahead, to not engage in it. One former Clinton Campaign official who dealt very directly with the email scandal as if were at the time, do not accept the premise and just keep doubling down on the facts of your campaign. That is certainly, i dont think bidens campaign. I dont think many of the other 2020 democratic campaigns would have thought that Hillary Clintons emails would dominate
the 2020 Election Coverage at this point. Here we are. Well have to see how much longer were talking about it. Lets move forward. The Impeachment Inquiry. House democrats are scheduling depositions from five Senior State Department officials over the next two weeks. Scott, talk about the expectations on capitol hill over these hearings and what importance do these particular individuals bring to this as a whole . Well, they are aware of the conversations that were happening between the president and the ukraine the president of the United States and the ukraine president and other world leaders. Specifically, Congress Just set off on a twoweek recess. So things are dying down, quieting down quite a bit, although the investigating committee, foreign affairs, intelligence, oversight and some others are working through the recess. Thats when some of these closed door hearings will be taking
place in involving kurt voelker who is the he just resigned friday night. He will be testifying later this week. Also, Michael Atkinson will be returning to the hill. He is the Inspector General for the intelligence committee. He will also be testifying Behind Closed Doors before the intelligence committee. So there will be a lot of activity happening on the ukraine front in this Impeachment Inquiry. However, it remains to be seen whether any of these testimony will be will happen in front of the public and in front of the television cameras. Thats the big question. How much cooperation in this hanna, especially when it comes to mike quigley who told msnbc this about what he actually is expecting from the officials. Lets take a listen. I dont expect cooperation. I expect the same sort of either
obstruction or stonewalling. Thats unfortunate. To the extent that we can, well have the witnesses willing to come forward testify. The rest of it unfortunately will be a continued court battle. After hearing those concerns, how important is it for the democrats to get to the open hearings and can they get this without cooperation. Thats a good question. I think for democrats, its all upside for them and very little downside. One of the things i think that nancy pelosi obviously in her caucus is dealing with and its trickling over to the Campaign Side among the 2020 democrats, is transparency and so as democrats on the road obviously hoping to take on trump as the eventual nominee, they want to see this process unfold as much as possible and a prior shift to what we were seeing earlier is that impeachment after this is more popular based on polling. So the more popular that it is, i think the more pressure on pelosi to push for increased transparency and for the democrats as they go out on the campaign trail, nearly 20 of them are still campaigning. To be able to tell voters specifically, this is what we as a democratic party, as united as we can be, this is what were standing for and pushing for on the hill. Nancy pelosi has been vocal about that each last night saying its not about politics, its patriotism. She spoke in texas that holding the president accountable is more important than the politics. Lets hear from her directly. People say i take a Political Risk doing that. That doesnt matter. That doesnt matter. Because we cannot have a president of the United States undermining his oath of office. His loyalty, to his oath of office. Undermining our National Security and undermining the
integrity of our election. So you have it there, scott. Pelosi saying it isnt about Political Risk. But how much Political Risk is there surrounding this . Well, pelosi knows that there was Political Risk. She was trying all year to stave off this Impeachment Investigation from happening in the first place. She believes that it would put some of her frontline democrats, vulnerable democrats, the Majority Makers who handed her the majority and the Speakers Gavel Last Fall in serious jeopardy. However, we are starting to see some of that polling reflect renewed support for you impeachment. Especially among those voters in the middle, independents. So right now its about 50 50 with some movement in the middle towards impeachment. Democrats say that this is a good issue for them in terms of being able to make the case that
impeachment was the right call. They believe this was an easy this is an easy narrative for them to tell an convince voters that impeachment is the right decision for them to make. They believe its an open and shut case. That remains to be seen. Because were seeing republicans push back very strongly in favor of the president , defending the president. Very little daylight between republicans and the president right now. Very little cracks in the wall. What youre hearing, we heard it earlier from the White House Deputy press secretary, putting the situation in the same category as the russia investigation. Here we go again, the democrats are doing it all over again. How that message playing with the American People . How long will that defense last and resonate with them, hanna . That remains to be seen. I think, like scott said, independents are the ones to watch on this. Theres a little bit of movement and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds on that front. I mean, the democrats, i dont
think they necessarily wanted this impeachment cloud to hang over their campaign and the 2020 election. They wanted it to be more about what they stand for and not what they stand against. But in that sort of on the other side of that, most of them are running as a stark contrast to President Trump. They want voters to see them in that light. I would argue the more that they sort of talk about this and answer voters questions as it comes up, i think the fewer questions there will be about the following steps and just showing that stark contrast, arguably that democrats who are senators who are running. Five or six of them are in a better position as they hit the campaign trail. Theyll be able to interface oneonone. The investigations are happening in the house. Just having that sort of institutional washington knowledge. I guess, in a Campaign Cycle that is typically folks used on
grassroots up raising and not washington insidery. In this case having washington knowledge might come in handy. Your perspective is always welcome this early in the morning. Thank you. Rudy giuliani is lashing out. Hes mentioned 31 times in the whistleblower complaint. Why hes taking issue with footnotes in that document. A legal look up next. And in last nights Saturday Night Live season premiere, alex baldwin called his buddy Rudy Giuliani in a flurry of worry over the whistleblower case. You got to relax, mr. Trump. We got nothing to worry about. Nobody is going to find out about our illegal Side Dealings with the ukraine. Good. We tried to cover up those Side Dealings. Great. We plan to cover up the coverup. Ride, where are you right now . Im on cnn right now. Let me put you on speaker. Rudy, get out of there. Whatever you do, stay off the phone. I got another call. Okay . Who is this . Its attorney general barr. Okay. Im really starting to worry. I know things look bad right now, but i got our top guy on this. Good. Lets get him on the phone, too. Hello. Oh, hey, mr. President. Not still on cnn, are you . Of course not. Im on the joe rogan podcast. Fights cancer, repairs shattered bones, relieves depression, restores heart rhythms, helps you back from strokes, and keeps you healthy your whole life. From the day youre born we never stop taking care of you. groans hmph. Food Grunting Menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight Heartburn Fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums red lobsters endless shrimp is back for just 15. 99. Get all the shrimp you want, any way you want em. Like new srirachahoney shrimp, savory grilled teriyaki shrimp, classic Shrimp Scampi and more red lobsters endless shrimp is 15. 99. Hurry in. My dbut now, i take used tometamucil every day. Sh it traps and removes the waste that weighs me down, so i feel lighter. Try metamucil, and begin to feel what lighter feels like. Wenit gave me a leafput in the names a