Today jerry nadler unveiled articles of impeachment against President Trump. The articles include abuse of power and obstruction of justice. In the articles, nadler writing that the president abused his office by, quote, soliciting the government of ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects, and influence the 2020 United States president ial electi electionally, offices and officials, not to comply with those subpoenas. The first order of business for members of congress is the solemn act to take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. The articles will show that we will defend the constitution and that our oath means something to us. Republicans responded by accusing democrats of abusing congresss power to investigate. This is not a day that america will be proud about, not a day that history will write that anybody wants to repeat. 16 members of the House Judiciary Panel had already vote indeed favor of impeachment before this process started. This is a clock and calendar. This is not about facts. This is the fact they do not like this president. The abuse of power is by the democrats, not by President Trump. The how Judiciary Committee is expect to do vote on articles this week e. Sending it to the floor for a final house vote. I have an allstar cast. Heidi, to you first, walk us thus these articles. The has are filled with holiday cheer, so lets just go with it. The short document, theres two things they were trying to demonstrate here, first that this is a unique moment in the, quote history of the republic, and second the president as actions show a pattern. They laid these out because they wanted to show like any other impeachment, the history violated all three ways that the founders set out for conditions for impeaches a president , the first being all of them falling under abuse of power. First using the office for personal gain, soliciting interference in an election by a foreign negotiation, seeking to influence the 2020 election to benefit himself. Secondly betraying the National Interesting of the country and corrupting our election, and then c, proving corrupt intend, soliciting this foreign power to harm a political opponent with opposition research, showing that there was corrupt intend. He knew he was fanning conspiracy theories, so they also cite i think this is important, both in the case of on instruction and the abuse of power, that this is part of a pattern by the president , that he, on obstruction ordered all of his most closest deputies to defy congressional subpoenas that were lawfully issued, and that this was just a blanket obstruction, as much as the president obstructing his own impeachment when the constitution says the sole power of impeachment lies with congress. Heidi, are these finalized articles . Could we see them change any way . Highly doubt theyll change in any way. What will happen is the managers will be picked. Theres a lot of work to be done here. You with ask joel about this, i think there were 30something managers chosen. So we know that adam schiff will be one of them. They will be building out their case, but this framework will stand. Maya, help us understand the specifics here that the democrats are zeroing in on. Yeah, i think heidi summarized it well. At its core, what democrats are saying is impeachment is unique. Its not something thats supposed to happen every day, its rare, but with credible evidence of very serious wrongdoing, its appropriate. What theyre zoning in on is serious, its serious because only the president has the powers that donald trump used to, as in the words that they use, create this scheme to interfere in our elections and undermined our National Security. Theyre really honing in on, forget the words bribery, forget extortion, forget all the legalisms that got the American Public torn up into this debate among part sans, and just focused directly in on the conduct, and the conduct is himself, using his office, for his gain, even when it was to the detriment of the country, both in terms of our elections, in terms of our National Security, and in terms of our balance of powers between congress and the presidency. The only play where we see bribery is where they are quoting the impeachment clause of the constitution itself. Other than what the president did technically constitutes bribery. Bribery as it presently exists on our federal statutes, so i think it was smart that instead of inviting a debate about whether his conduct technically constituted bribery, or whether it was extortion, whether it was just coercion, they avoided that altogether by simply saying it all, regardless of what you call it, it all constitutes an abuse of power. From this old trial prosecutors tactical perspective, i think that makes sense. Which article do you think has a stronger case, jill . I think theyre both very strong one thing thats not been said so far in this discussion, is one of the references in both counts is to the fact that the president remains a threat to our democracy in the election. I think thats important to keep in mind why action is needed now instead of waiting until after the election. He has does something, and remains a threat. I would also like to have seen references to the obstruction of the mueller investigation, and i would have liked to have seen references to the obstruction of congresss oversight role. Not to the impeachment power, but the oversight role. The president has resisted all cooperation with any investigation of any of his policies, including children in cages. I think that is a serious threat to democracy. I think that the American People and that the members of congress could have handled more specificity in those regards. Maya, the articles have very specification language no president has ever ordered the complete defiance of an inquiry, and obstructioned the house so even if thats true, if theres no consequence to the president s defiance, if in fact it works to that the democrats dont get the documents, cant speak to mick mulvaney, cant the white house say work for me. Part of the danger here, in terms of what happens in the senate, right in voting articles of impeachment that includes the obstruction means the house at least will be able to set a bar that says it is impeachable, something we can if you this ward our possible that essential if theyre ability a you dont have which i think theres sufficient evidence, and then at the same time they essential set up a situation where any president quickly can literally just avoid impeachment, no matter what. So lets say they do that, glenn kirshner, john roberts will preside over the senate trial. What position does that put him in . In part it depends on how much authority the senate gives them. It only takes 51 senators to vote on all sorts of procedural rules. You know, this is not what we think of when we think of with the traditional trial, where the judge controls the proceedings. In a very real sense, 51 senators control the proceedings. Now, i dont want to just say the republicans control the proceedings, because i dont think theres any guarantee that all republican senators will necessarily vote the exact same way on every procedural issue that comes up for debate, that comes up for a possible vote, what witnesses to call, what what items of evidence to receive as part of the trial. But, glenn, you think that Mitch Mcconnell is going to set up a sonar wrote where he relinquishing any control he doesnt absolutely have to . The answer is no. But i think there are some still patriotic, sufficiently independent, lawabiding members of the senate who will not go along with everything that they view as Mitch Mcconnell shenanigans. But Mitch Mcconnell is the one setting the stage. He makes the rules. He makes the rules, but they have to be voted on. Whether some of these rules are going to be adopted for purposes of how to conduct the senate trial, some of those rules have to be voted on and passed by 51 of the senators. So im not counting out that there are still some patriots in the senate. All right. Thank you all solve. Definitely heidi, maya, jill and glenn, thank you. Our own Pete Williams just sat down with attorney general bill barr on this historic day. Why barr disagrees with the Inspector Generals reporter about the fbis russia investigation. Youre watching aing advisory velshi ruhle right here on msnbc y velshi ruhle right here on msnb gold nice rock. Its time to drop gold. Go digital. Go grayscale. We di didnt have to call an ambulance. And i didnt have to contact your family. Because your afib didnt cause a blood clot that led to a stroke. Not today. Wed discussed how your stroke risk increases over time, so even though you were feeling fine, we chose xarelto® to help keep you protected. Oncedaily xarelto®. Significantly lowers the risk of stroke in people with afib. Not caused by a heart valve problem. In fact, over 96 of people remained strokefree. Dont stop taking xarelto® without talking to your doctor, as this may increase your risk of stroke. While taking, a spinal injection increases the risk of blood clots, which may cause paralysis the inability to move. You may bruise more easily or take longer for bleeding to stop. Xarelto® can cause serious, and in rare cases, fatal bleeding. It may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. Get help right away for unexpected bleeding or unusual bruising. Do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. Before starting, tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. And any kidney or liver problems. Be sure youre doing. All you can to help protect yourself from a stroke. Ask your doctor if its time for xarelto®. To learn more about cost and how janssen can help, visit xarelto. Com. Welcome back, william bar speaking out in a new exclusive interview in the wake of the impeachment inquiry, and the bombshell report, confirming that the fbi had, quote, authorized purpose to investigate any potential ties between President Trumps 2016 campaign and russia. Nbcs Pete Williams pressed the attorney general on those very findings, and a lot more. Inch why do you say the fbi opened the investigation of the trump campaigns on the thinnest of suspicions . Im glad to get into that issue, but let me start by saying, we have to put it in context. The heart of the igs report focused on how the igs investigation was conducted. That is especially the very serious abuses of fisa that occurred, much of which has been in my view not accurately reported by the press over the last day, but one area i do disagree with the ig. That was whether there was sufficient proceeded indicatied he guess on the one hand you could sea its on the other hand you could say its a president ial campaign, we have to be careful. Well, i think probably from a Civil Liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government use the apparatus of the state, principally the Law Enforcement agencies and intelligence agency, both to spied on political opponent, but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcountry of the election. Farce im aware, this is the first time in history this has been done to a president ial campaign, a use of counterintelligence techniques against a president ial campaign. So the Inspector General says he found no evidence to indicate that the fbis decision to start this investigation was based on a political bias. Do you agree . What he actually i think you have to understand the igs methodology. I think its the appropriate methodology for an Inspector General. He starts with limited information. He can only talk to people essential there as employees. s information, but his approach is if i get an explanation from the people that im investigating not unreasonable on its face, i will accept it as long as theres not contradictory testimonial or documentary evidence. Its a deferential standard, in other words. All he said is people gave me an explanation, i didnt find anything to contradict it, so i dont have a basis for saying there was improper motive, but he hasnt decided the issue of improper motive. Have you . No. You have outlined a newspaper better, and so does the Inspector General, with problems on how the fbi handled the investigation. Are you confidence that chris wray can fix it . I ask that in light of the president s tweet this morning. With that kind of attitude, hell never be able to fix the fbi. Practically speak, i think chris has been working hard to address the problems of the past. We have worked well together. The people involved in the past are no longer there. Hes brought in a new team that i think is a good team. I have confidence in that team, and i think he has set forth a number of specific proposals as to how to address those problems. I think what the president was getting at, and i feel the same way is we could ignore the abuses of the past and appear to be justifying them or minimizing them. We have to focus on getting it right going forward. So you have confidence in chris wray . Yes. Nbc justice correspondent Pete Williams joins me now. Pete, based on what we just heard, it seems like attorney general bill barr is trying to have it both ways. Hes defending Christopher Wray and the president. Just a few hours ago, the president was going after Christopher Wray. Reporter well, i think what the attorney general is saying is that the problems he was concerned with happened in essence under old fbi management. Thats what hes most critical of. He seems to say that chris wray is on the right track trying to fix those problems. Its not just the attorney general, but the Inspector General was worried about how the fbi kept processing this warrant application to survey carter page, conduct a wiretapping on him. Thats where the Inspector General focuses most of his criticism, the fact that the fbi was ignoring in its submissions to the court things that would cut the other way. He spoke at length about john durham, running a separate investigation into the origins of the russia probe. Tell us more about that. Yes, he said the advantage in his mind to the durham investigation is, unlike the Inspector General who basically looked inhouse at what the fbi and Justice Department were doing, john durham has freer rein. He can talk on other parts of the department, and as we now know, most notably, to other governments, to the extent they were involved in collecting information that ended up in the hands of the u. S. Government. Now, i did ask him whether it was appropriate for durham to put out a statement, given that his investigation is still under way. Its a grand jury investigation, to put out a preliminary statement as he did yesterday, saying he too disagrees with the Inspector Generals finding on whether the investigation should have been opened in the first place, and the durham investigation is nowhere near done. All right, pete, great interview. Thank you so much. Next, President Trump attacking his own fbi director. He did it on twitter yet again. The bigger question is, what harm does this do to the Intelligence Community at large . Coming up well look at whats next in the inquiry, but Sheila Jackson lee, a member of the house Judiciary Committee, were going to dig into that and more. Youre watching velshi ruhle. More youre watching velshi ruhle. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Oh no,. A cougher. Welcome to flu season, karen. Is a regular flu shot strong enough. To help prevent flu in someone your age . There are standarddose flu shots. And then theres the superior flu protection. Of fluzone highdose. Its the only 65 plus flu shot. With 4 times the standard dose. And its free with Medicare Part b. Fluzone highdose is not for those whove had a severe allergic reaction. To any vaccine component, including. Eggs, egg products,. Or after a previous dose of flu vaccine. Tell your healthcare professional if youve ever experienced severe muscle weakness. After receiving a flu shot. If you notice. Other problems or symptoms following vaccination,. Contact your healthcare professional immediately. Side effects include pain, swelling. And redness where the shot was given. Other side effects may occur. Vaccination may not protect everyone. If youre 65 plus, dont settle for a standarddose flu shot. Influenza. Going down. Move up to fluzone highdose. See your doctor or pharmacist and ask for it by name. The best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The ninja foodi Pressure Cooker, the Pressure Cooker that crisps. Great riches will find you when Liberty Mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Wow. Thanks, zoltar. How can i ever repay you . Maybe you could free zoltar . Thanks, lady. Taxi only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Welcome back to velshi ruhle. This morning fbi director Christopher Wray was asked about the report and its findings. Based on the findings in the Inspector General report, was the fbi part of some deep state . I think the label thats a disservice to the 37,000 men and women who work at the fbi. Thats not a term i would ever use. So the fbi did not spy on a campaign . Thats not a temple we use to describe our work.