Great perks of working at 30 rock. Does not disappoint. Awesome. Are you done now, do you get to go have turkey . It is turkey time. I hope youre not far behind. One hour behind. It is 9 00 a. M. Out west, high noon here in the east. The president hes a big decision to make. Will he take House Democrats up on their offer to have his lawyers or him be part of the impeachment inquiry next week, or would it just give legitimacy in their eyes to a process republicans continue to write off as a sham . Sunday is the deadline for a response to the invitation from judiciary chairman jerry nadler for trump or his attorneys to represent him when hearings resume next wednesday. If he says yes, it remains to be said which of his attorneys would represent him. His personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is making headlines outside of that question. The New York Times, the washington post, and the wall street journal all reporting that when giuliani was in ukraine trying to dig up dirt on the bidens, he was also trying to drum up business from ukrainian officials. Giuliani is denying those allegations in a tweet. Quote, i did not pursue a Business Opportunity in the ukraine as they misrespected. I could have helped them recover 7 billion in stolen money but i didnt, was paid zero. Joining me from florida, nbc News White House correspondent kelly odonnell, washington suntimes reporter. Kelly, is there any sense about whether the white house is planning to participate in next weeks hearings, is there a serious debate going on, what are you hearing . Well, at most at this point theyre saying theyre considering this offer from chairman nadler to take part and one of the things being offered is the chance for lawyers for the president , whether that be personal lawyers or lawyers from the White House Counsels Office representing the presidency to question witnesses who will appear on the panel next week. And they are scheduled to be academic type witnesses to talk about the constitutional grounds for impeachment. Very different than what we saw in the intelligence hearing public phase where we saw fact witnesses who could talk about specific interactions they had that might relate to the president or foreign policy. As you outlined, chris, one of the Big Questions is a major talking point for the president and his allies, is to undercut the legitimacy of this inquiry altogether and say it inherently treats the president unfairly so to take part would in some ways undercut that argument. At the same time, not taking part would mean they were given an opportunity and neglected to be involved and to represent the president s interests. We dont have a clear picture yet. The telegraphing that has taken place so far is by branding it, labeling it, and deriding the process as a sham and partisan should sort of prepare us to expect they would not take part. That could be very different than if there is and again, walking ahead a few steps, if the democraticled house were to impeach the president and a senate trial is required that is controlled by republicans who dominate in the senate, that might be a different venue where the president would feel better about having his interests represented. At a minimum there would be republicans on the committee who would be able to speak to some degree for the president. The president himself is expected to attend a nato summit in europe next week so he wouldnt be physically likely to appear. The question about whether he will send lawyers is still an open one. Lets talk about the giuliani reporting, lynn, is the white house at all concerned . Certainly there are members of the administration in the past who have had a lot of concerns for a while, theyve been very colorful in their descriptions of Rudy Giuliani. Do you think these latest allegation move the needle at all, though . Well, within the white house, it doesnt move the needle in terms of what theyre saying, because no one can get ahead of the president. So now the changed story of the president , chris, is that he hardly knows him. What he said the other day. Yet you have the phone call where hes sending people like president zelensky to talk to rudy. So there actually isnt a lot that the white house could do or say or even worry about because you dont know how it will be contradicted by the president. And thats why i think when it comes to letting jerry nadler know by 6 00 on sunday if theyre going to have representation or not, i think there might be a third way and say they will keep the option open and if we want to send someone, they will submit a name. And it will not be Rudy Giuliani. I want to bring in ambassador chris hill who is at the university of denver, former ambassador to iraq. Always good to see you, ambassador. Weve got Rudy Giuliani, private citizen, running this kind of policy channel along with what weve been calling the three amigos, or they call themselves the three amigos. The New York Times has seen documents showing that while giuliani was pushing trumps agenda with ukraine officials who, got to say this, needed u. S. Support, desperately wanted u. S. Support, giuliani was also exploring financial agreements with members of that very same government. What do you make of that . Well, i think, you know, this is sort of ukraines fate with the Trump Administration. First of all, the Trump Administration has wanted to follow this russian line that somehow it had nothing to do with russia and everything to do with ukraine. This is part of a broadbased russian effort to weaken the ukraine state so trump was quite happy to go along with that. And then of course giuliani is second to none, since 9 11, in terms of enriching himself from security issues. So i think that has continued, and the president seems to have had full trust in him. So of course if youre an ambassador out there, in any country dealing with this kind of weird stuff going on, and you cant get your secretary of state on the line, there are a lot of problems. And i think it really speaks to the fact that the world is kind of watching us. But i think increasingly theyre looking at this whole country that, you know, maybe were unindicted coconspirators by selecting this guy, and maybe electing him a second term. Chris, the ambassador brings up a good point. If you are a diplomat, if you actually are working for the u. S. Government, there are ethics laws and so on that would cover Something Like what this report apparently says Rudy Giuliani did. But he is a private citizen. So i dont know, what does that mean . What does that mean in terms of what could happen to him even if it did turn out to be true as we wait for the details of this report to be made public . Every senior official in the u. S. Government has to fill out ethics forms and explain income and at request, provide taxes, provide copies of the tax return. This is a clear thing that everyone is used to. But in the Trump Administration theres clearly a new normal and of course everything gets pushed to the Supreme Court and no one knows when that will ever happen. So in the meantime you have a sense of an administration that has been willing to politicize every single instrument, every Single Department in the government. It started with the fbi, its continued now with the military. Its of course gone through the state department. So this gross politicization of these accoutrements of our democracy. The answer is that thats a deep state. Im not sure what they mean by deep state, no one really knows. It seems to be those of white house took an oath to the constitution. This is a case where the American People and maybe the Republican Party should wake up and decide whether we want to live like this, because the world is looking at us and were not looking very good. So john, against this backdrop of what seems to be something new in the headlines coming out every day, next week does look like the last big push for the democrats, if there are any minds to be changed, this is the opportunity, with the Judiciary Committee now holding its own hearings. Im wondering, the democrats youre talking to, what are they expecting next week and what are they hoping for, realistically . Theyre going to lay out the constitutional basis for impeachment. With these public hearings in the House Intelligence Committee, theyve been gathering the facts. And millions of americans have been watching, not the full public. Somewhere around 11 to 14 million americans were watching. Now they really need to help make sense of these facts in terms of americans, are they enough to impeach and remove a president , is there an historical and constitutional basis for impeaching and removing a president. I think theyre concerned about public opinion. When the impeachment inquiry began, we saw an uptick in support for impeaching the president. This was in late september. Since then, support for impeaching has kind of plateaued. Its hovering around 50 . And thats not a good number for the president , that means roughly half the country thinks he should be impeached and possibly removed. The calculus here for democrats has to be how can we convince the public that we have enough evidence to impeach and possibly remove a president , a very historic action . And they have to think about whether or not the impacts of this on 2020, but also, you know, do they want to set a precedent in which a president can abuse power and use congressionally allocated military aid paid for with u. S. Tax dollars as bribery for foreign election interference. Do they want to set a precedent in which that is ignored . So lynn, he makes a good point, obviously what weve seen about impeachment, the numbers supporting impeachment have plateaued, and yet i was noting that kentucky Democrat John yarmuth said hes not so sure, he thinks once the hearings are actually focused on the articles of impeachment next week, he think its going to actually move the needle by as much as 4 to 5 points. Are any democrats youre talking to thinking that way . And even if it did, would it change anything . I think the next step this is not going to be a totally linear process here, because the next thing to really watch out for is the report from the House Intelligence Committee that should be out by the beginning of next week and transmitted to the house Judiciary Committee. If they write this in a simple and informative way, it could help very much tell the story to the public, which is crucial in making people understand whats going on without getting into a lot of the weeds of this and that detail. If they write it in a clear, simple, and compelling way, that could help the Judiciary Committee now fill in the blanks of what will be articles of impeachment. Obstruction of justice seems one very likely one, maybe abuse of power. Whether or not they bring in issues from the mueller probe. All this, its like a recipe for a stew here, and how the stew comes out depends on what you put in it. Dont discount that with new information coming forward all the time, the House Intelligence Committee still might have the right to have more hearings and we also still have to see if there will be a speedy resolution of the court case dealing with don mcgahn testifying, which is something that house judiciary chairman jerry nadler very much wants. That would address clearly the obstruction of justice issue. And then on this backdrop, the Judiciary Committee even allows trump and his team to give written answers if theyre not there in person. No shortage of moving parts. Happy thanksgiving to all, appreciate it. Still ahead, back to back controversies now for Pete Buttigieg who says he can relate to the black struggle because hes faced hate as a gay man. What his critics are saying and what it means as his Campaign Gears up to head to states with large populations of black voters. If youre one of the millions traveling this holiday storm from coasttocoast, that travel could be pretty darn difficult. Were also live in manhattan were the winds didnt ground the balloons at the macys thanksgiving day parade. Any comments doug . Yeah. Only pay for what you need with Liberty Mutual. Only pay for what you need with Liberty Mutual. Con Liberty Mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. Only pay for what you need. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Nongmo, made with naturally sundown vitamins are all sourced colors and flavors and are gluten dairy free. Theyre all clean. All the time. Even if sometimes were not. Sundown vitamins. All clean. All the time. employee half a millionar sales preowned vehicles,er most with tech features like blind spot detection, back up camera. [kristen gasps] employee because you never know what might be behind you. kristen bell does the sloth come standard . kristen bell vo looking to buy . Enterprise makes it easy. Are Critical Skills for scientists at 3m. One of the products i helped develop was a softer, more secure diaper closure. As a mom, i knew it had to work. There were babies involved. And they werent saying much. I envisioned what its like for babies to have diapers around them. Thats what we do at 3m, we listen to people, even those who dont have a voice. At the end of the day, we are people helping people. Right now wind and snow alerts are making Holiday Travel anything but easy for a lot of people. Out west, check this out, 23 Million People under weather alerts from california to michigan, and the other half of the country is facing high wind alerts. Joining me here in the studio, meteorologist michelle grossman. Okay. To grandmothers house we go. Where are the trouble spots . Theyre pretty much everywhere. I think a better question is where are there no trouble spots. Were looking at travel trouble at least since last tuesday into this sunday. Its pretty much from west coast to east coast. Were looking at a coasttocoast situation here. Lets talk about the snow first. We have lots of colors on the map indicating some snow out there. Winter storm watches and warnings, even a blizzard warning in rapid city. Great news for the skiers, theyre probably loving this on a holiday. Just not great news for travelers on the road and in the air. Satellite radar, snow falling, thats the blue. Green, heavy rain in the southern plains. Pinks and purples showing us the icy mixes, thats the toughest to travel on. The big story are the winds in the northeast. This is going to be travel trouble today in the northeast because were seeing winds gusting up to 55 Miles Per Hour as some of those airports have a wind advisory. In the northeast, two storms that weve been talking about. Well have a third storm come ashore from the west on saturday. That will impact the east coast later next week. Lets talk about in terms of the airports where we may see some delays, may not see some delays, likely in boston. Also in new york, philadelphia, along the i95 corridor. Also out to the west. We do have some travel troubles out west as well, chris. Happy thanksgiving happy thanksgiving. Youre going home to get your turkey now, michelle, thank you for that. The beloved balloons, because this was the big thing about the weather here, the beloved balloons at the macys thanksgiving day parade were given the all clear just before the parade kicked off. Handlers were under orders to keep those massive balloons lower to the ground than they might usually. Lets go to nbc news correspondent Gabe Gutierrez along the parade route here in new york. Things are clearing out already, gabe. Reporter hi there, chris. Happy thanksgiving. What a difference a few minutes makes. Last hour, we were talking to some of the people enjoying the parade. As you can see, the parade is wrapped up, so the cleanup effort is under way. Within the next few minutes, the streetlights, authorities will have to open the streets back up. It was quite a day here in manhattan. Those balloons, as you mentioned, 16 large balloons, did fly. Although they were held a little lower than usual. Authorities were checking to see if those sustained winds topped 23 miles an hour or wind gusts topped 34 miles an hour. Thankfully the weather cooperated, and police gave the all clear so they were able to fly. Where are you guys from . Springfield, new jersey. Reporter what did you think of the parade . It was awesome reporter what was the highlight . What was the best part . Shes speechless, chris, im just telling you. How was spongebob . Did you see him . Yeah. Reporter that was the highlight for me. What about astronaut snoopy . That was awesome. He was in his helmet. Reporter that was great. Where are you guys from, same place . Were all from springfield, new jersey. Germany. Reporter you came all the way from germany . Im an au pair. Reporter thank you so very much, i appreciate it. Chris, ive got to tell you, we were talking to somebody from australia earlier, people from california, all over the country, enjoying what has obamaca become an american tradition, the 93rd macys thanksgiving day parade. This was the first time i witnessed in in person. I was really glad to see those balloons. And on a scale of 1 to 10 . Its like a 25, right . Reporter come on, chris, its at least a 12 or 13, i was going to say, but yes, 25, youve got to come. Its amazing. Gabe gutierrez with the key assignment today. And now you get to go have turkey. Thank you, gabe, much appreciated. Reporter you bet. Back to politics. The president has long claimed his 2016 campaign was spied upon. Still ahead, new reporting that the very investigation he called for will prove the exact opposite. But first, hate versus hate. Do the struggles of gays and africanamericans relate