Great. You said it and i agree. I wish you and your family a great thanksgiving. Thanks and bye. And thank you for joining us on this thanksgiving eve. I can tell you theres lot going on. S new hints to Donald Trumps impeachment hearing. Our special report later this hour on Speaker Pelosis evolution on impeachment and new reports about Rudy Giuliani that may shed light on donald trump distancing himself from his lawyer and what has become his ukraine fixer. So all that and later, as i was telling katy we have Something Special planned on how to pursue a meaningful thanksgiving. Something for everyone to think about on a night like tonight. But we begin with real news and raevlutions about president trump. That he knew about the then whistleblower complaintb when he made a change in his ukraine plot and are leased that countrys military aid. It adds to the evidence that reason the white house backedau extorting ukraine was not some Second Thought or some attempt to avoid doing something wrong, but rather as so many have stated, they backed off because they got caught. They wanted a damagecontrol mode. The New York Times reporting on the developmentings. Its part of a larger effort to avoid, according to reports, the trump aids wanting any part of the plot being exposed. An echo of what looks like an odd denial that he didnt want a quid pro quo. But that was when it was secret and no one was using the term, pro quo, bribery, in the first place. And well head right to the first jaishiary committee on impeachment and theyre going to focus on what exactly makes for an impeachable offense. Nadler has invited donald trump and his attorneys to participate. Theyre say it may be a boycott and argue the whole process is simply unfair. The prospect of a president known for his Communication Style to say nothing of his ratings ubsuddenly sitting out the chance to confront the evidence and speak to the some 70 Million People who have watched part of the hearings to date likely to tune back in as Congress Gets closer to impeaching donald trump. If his team doesnt show up, they wont be able to collect the evidence, which will be analyzed for impeachable offences by the Judiciary Committee. This president believes he is above the law, beyond accountability. And in my view there is nothing more dangerous than an unethical president who believes they are above the law. He richly deserves impeachment. Hes violated the law six ways from sundays. But thats not the question. The question is can we develop enough evidence to put before the American People . Im joined by New York Times columnist and michael eric dyson, a professor of georgetown with a new book called jayz, made in america. What do you think bout these reports that feel familiar because people say, well, right. We didnt think he backed down. He was defending on the white house lawn. And yet for what congress is doing, this does seem like important evidence. Theres already a mountain of circumstantial evidence that trump only released the aid because congressbegun its investigation because, as adam schiff has said multiple times, because he got caught. But because they have boycotted the Intelligence Committee hearings, theres still small details about how the plot went down. Not the substance of the plot itself but some small details that have yet to be filled in. So this fills in one more of those details. That two of the republican defenses have been both what trump toads Gordon Sondland no quid pro quo and that aids was eventually released. So no harm, no foul and this was an ordinary process that happens all the time. And this reporting punctures both of those. If youve been accused of a quid pro quo, thenyou defensively say no quid pro quo, its not evidence of a clear conscience. Right. And margaret, on this program last night wea leading washington conservative defending the president saying well, they got the money anyway. It would seem the question is why did they get the money . Its not in his view to give up the goods. Asthma shell says these Little Details are coming in to confirm what we already think we knew. And this impeachment is the opposite of watergate. Its as if nixon delivered the tapes before the Supreme Court hearing, which said heto. Trump admitted everything at the beginning by releasing the transcript. So we are just filling in the details. Professor dyson, i dont know if youve evera student who said if theymore time they would have got their report in. And report still doesnt come in. Donald trump today, we reported saying maybe they wont send the lawyers at all. This is one of his prime complaints up until they opened the door. Take look. Look. These crooked politicians, not giving us due process, not giving us lawyers. We which were allowed any rights. Tampering is when a guy like shifty schiff doesnt give us lawyers. Those guys are shifty schiff. Dont forgive, you cant have due process, you cant have lawyers. Yet you can have lawyers, professor . Yeah, hes stuck in 80s hiphop with the shifty schiff melee melanomaen clayture there. You know, my great friend Johnnie Cochran comes to mind. If you cannot extort, you must proceed to abort. This is what happened. You coup extract the concession from the president. Successfully because it was not done secretively. As a result of that, the potential exposure forces his hand. Jen then the generation of these excuses are par for the course. But it does show the level of mendac ify and complicity and we are told this is an orwellian loosen of the anchors of language. Like stuff doesnt mean what its supposed to mean. And the purpose of these Political Forces that are holding him to account that are in congress is to make sure is that words mean something, that the historic legacy of the constitution is held forth and people have common sense explanations for why this president has done the kinds of things that hes done. And i think once we, you know, really barrel down on this, and then get to the heart of the matter, to mix metaphors, the issue here is, are we capable of finally announcing through circumstantial everyday, through the asterisks that legal you know courts make when they say, look, it cant all be somebody saw it directly. But when you talk about the mountain of everyday as Michelle Goldberg did, its pretty clear that what is happening here has happened and now were getting the drip, drip, drip, of the final details that makes sure and make it plain that this is what occurred. And you could mix metaphors any time you want, professor. Your mixed metaphors are welcome here. Margaret, this also goes to a process that the house has been bearing down on quite seriously and the president is all over the place. And so, in the clinton example weve shown, you had the lawyers come in and it did add to the quantum of evidence for the public if you take this seriously. Heres a democratic member of congress basically saying you cant take the boycott, because you never know what they will do until the day of. Take a look. I never make the mistake of speaking for the president or his council and i think its well established that its unpredictable. They were initially sent out signals that they may not. I would encourage him to participate. Let the American People see his side. Let them ask questions. We are supposed to know by sunday evening is the dead 7 39. I dont believe in deadlines until were actually sitting in that hearing. Margaret. You know, ari, ari, in this case, he is, i agree we debbie, he is unpredictable. In this case, he may prefer that jim jordan be defending him and not have how far theres no lawyer i know other than Rudy Guiliani whos going to go as far as jim jordan will go if defending trump. So, a lawyer might hold trumps defense back. So, this may be one which he follows through. You know, he wants to mock the system. He doesnt want to dig fify it. And so in that regard, he might not send a lawyer. He wants to be at a rally leading a chant, that the children cant watch. And then im not going to quote, since its thanksgiving. But you know, he has no respect for congress, a coequal branch of government. He wants to show it every way he can. And you know his impulse control is so slight he may deprive himself of a lawyer in order to do that. Hmm. Michelle. Well, i think i actually think that its probably you know from his own narrow self interested point of view, which is trump can only kind of succeed to the extent that institutions that constain him from discredited. It probably makes sense for him to do exactly what margaret just said hes going to do. Right . To let jim jordan be the slobering attack dog. Kind of let jim jordan go all in on bad faith and misinformation and hold himself aloof because and pretend to the kind of people who go to his rallies or people that watch fox news that this is such an illegitimate process that he cant participate in it. Ba us the only way that donald trump has been able to last as long as he has lasted is to sew doubt about owl of the institutions of american democracy and the rule of law. Its a great point when you lay it out like that its where, yes, they backed off the money to try to not get caught in the short steterm. In the long term, its the same macroantidemocratic strategy, its using the foreign investigation to undercut the investigation. Refusing to let the fbi have oversight, refusing the navy to cut their military judicial paroles sa processes. Its a py higher bar. He was in hot water this week and a congress that has rules that seen this before and provides a mechanism. I want to put up the numbers we have, because there are seens the public doesnt buy it. 50 of the American Public now saying trump should be impeached and removed from omplts thats before you even get to looking at what the articles of impeachment out of the Judiciary Committee. With the 30 seconds i have left, professor. Anything you want to st. About your brand if you book and why its relevant today in this world we live in to viewers who might not be as hard core of a sean conner fan as you or i . Well, jayz said i would write it if you could get it but being intricate on the internet theyre like you should spin it. Im saying you should buy it. Its Good Business. Its Good Business for his lyrics. Its good for my books and Good Business for donald trump if he looks at that book to see when a hustler speaks his mind and amplifies the worst instinct of marine culture before getting redeemed. Wow, he did fit it all n. Consider the metaphors is mix and remixed. Professor, margaret karlsson, Michelle Goldberg, happy thanksgiving to each of you. I yielded my time to jayz. Right. Sometimes its worth it. Worth it. Total ply. Its jayz, made in america. Coming up, explosive new reporting on guilianis conflicts of interesting, trying to get paid by ukrainians, also an attempt to patch things up, after all that talk of insurance policies, well get into that later. We have a special tonight, something we have not done yet. Digging into the archives of how Speaker Pelosi got to yes on impeachment, what it suggests how she will act next week at those key hearings. Plus coauthor tony schwoorts is here for a special segment. Im here on the beat. Im ari melber. Melber applebees new sizzlin entrees. Now starting at 9. 99. Now thats eatin good in the neighborhood. For the holidays you cant beat home sweet home. We go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. Im a verizon engineer, and im part of the Team Building the most powerful 5g experience for america. Its 5g ultra wideband for massive capacity and ultrafast speeds. Almost 2 gigs here in minneapolis. Thats 25 times faster than todays network in new york city. So people from midtown manhattan to downtown denver can experience what our 5g can deliver. woman and if verizon 5g can deliver performance like this in these places. Its pretty crazy. Just imagine what it can do for you. Im announcing the house of representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law. That was the moment when the most powerful democrat in washington flipped the switch on impeachment, sparking a process that led to two weeks of these often stunning hear hearings. More stunning than last. Now next week a report from chairman schiff and then the Judiciary Committee begins its process which can lead to the actual articles of impeachment against trump. All reminder how powerful the speaker is. Nancy pelosi can hold things back or let them loose. It was not out of character. Remember when she made history in 2006. She was the first speaker in american history. She faced a very cover republican president under policy for the iraq war. Also serious allegations of abuse of power like warrantless spine and torture. But she left no doubt she was not going to turn her speakership into an impeachment march against president bush. In some quarters, folks will think that you are a San Francisco liberal who has nothing said on your mind unleashing your tenants and impeach the president. I have said and i say again that impeachment is off the table. Off the table. Pelosi laying down that marker explicitly because so mr. On the left were demanding it, reporters repeating those questions as you heard. 38 members of Congress Introduced a specific resolution pushing for an impeachment inquiry against bush and back in the day, steern Stephen Colbert laid out the reasons why he was urging the democrats his character opposed to impeach bush. I mean the republicans impeached bill clinton. I mean, dont you want to get back at them for that . I mean, wouldnt that feel good . After all, the president has been baiting you guys for six years, wmds, iraq, katrina. Valerie blaplaim, signing statements, torture, wiretaps, secret prisons, u. S. Attorneys. Now, Speaker Pelosi was making what she thought was a Bigger Picture decision. To avoid impeachment and years later she actually laid out why. Yes the argument against president bush was about a president and an administration that sent us into a war based on a false representation of the threat of weapons of mass destruction in iraq. I do think people could have made a case about president bush but i did not want to go down that path because of what it would mean for the American People. Didnt want to go down that path. Because of what it would mean. This is really interesting as everyone gets ready to try to understand what the house does next week. Because it cuts against these depictions youve probably heard that pelosi is always occupying the far left or most aggressive wing of the party n. A trump presidency, pelosi and her point person in all this, adam schiff, were very cautious when the Mueller Report first dropped even though it had substantial evidence of obstruction in the report. If a majority of your caucus wants to go forward with a new impeachment inquiry, would you go for it . Its not even close in our caucus. Eventually. Why are we speculating on hypotheticals . Has it brought you closer to an impeachment inquiry . I dont know. The constitution provides impeachment as a remedy. It doesnt compel congress to act and impeach whenever there are groups for impeachment. What we want to do is have a methodical approach, not any one issue is going to trigger oh, now, well go do this. Pelosi and schi were holding back. Judiciary committee nadler, though, was often seen as a law maker driving impeachment about obstruction. A Washington Post poll right after that report came out showed about 37 backed impeachment. After pelosi announced the probe in september, its jumped 21 points to 58 . There are obviously two factors driving that. The facts of the particular ukraine scandal and then what happens when the democrats go fully on offense with pelosi behind them. In a cynical world that treats so many choices as a matter of optics, note that this shift involves a factual ill logical point. Some democrats, including Speaker Pelosi, were arguing that you should skipiment people. And just stop donald trump in the next election. I bet youve heard people say that. Right . But the ukraine scandal did something very different to Speaker Pelosi. It undercut that very logic with the everyday that trump is abusing power to cheat in the next election. Corrupting that very check and balance and that is why so many Top Democrats said trumps actions basically left them no choice. We had no choice but to go forward. Were not fooling around here. We see the actions of this president being an assault on the constitution. Where is Speaker Pelosi headed next . I am back with a very special guest when were back if 30. K w guest when were back if 30. For the holidays you cant beat home sweet home. We go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. At bayer, were more than we help farmers like john. By developing digital tools, so he can use less water to grow crops. At bayer, this is why we science. We are back with mark thompson, you are your thoughts on the speakers impeachment . Thank you, ari. I think you put it well for the argument to have been to wait and let the election handle it, when, in fact, what he was doing was going to impact the election i think left no choice. I think shes been very methodical about it and thats how she operates. Her daughter Christine Pelosi written a new book, the nancy pelosi weigh in, she describes her mother sitting at a loom, no