and a programming note as you make your new year's eve plans. ring in 2020 with anderson cooper and andy cohen. two best friends, one epic night. new year's eve live begins at 8:00 p.m. right here on cnn. top of the hour now. hi, everyone. i'm jessica dean in for brooke baldwin today and you're watching cnn. the goodwill president trump called for this christmas didn't last long. hours after he urged a "culture of deeper respect this christmas" he tweeted democratic leader nancy pelosi is "crazy." that insult part of a stream of messages in which he rages against his impeachment and the impasse over it, and the tweets show while he may be on vacation in flab, president trump has yet to take a break from washington, and what waits for him when he returns. right now it looks like he'll face the ongoing uncertainty

about when the senate impeachment trial will start. house speaker pelosi is withholding the two articles of impeachment from the sflenate amitts kearns the trial won't be fair. defending the speaker's action. >> she making the right decision. the house of representatives is not absent from the senate trial. we're not sort of bystanders to it. we have to appoint impeachment managers and organize the case around the structure that the senate arrives at in order to present our case in the most compelling way. determining who the impeachment manager is in part is determined how the senate organizes the trial. senator mcconnell needs to stop playing games. he has an important sont under the constitution. not just defend the president but conduct a trial until a dignified and open and fair fashion. when he's willing to do that then obviously we will appoint managers and send that

information, the articles over. >> cnn the sara westwood standing by. trump staffers are anxious how to use the unstructured time in florida. appears concerns warranted with a twitter rant this morning bhan are you hearing? >> reporter: right, jessica. so far seems like president trump is using at least some of his time to demonstrate how agitated he is about the uncertainty surrounding his senate trial. he is clearly eager for his symbolic day in court. while president trump is in-patient for this to get started senate majority leader mitch mcconnell still signaling he is not eager to get this ball rolling. this week said he is not anxious to get started and continued to make the argument speaker pelosi is not exercising leverage withholding something from the senate senators would rather not deal with but that's putting pressure on president trump.

he not only wants acquitted he wants vindicated. a chance in his eyes to make his case to the american people in a way the white house feels it was not given the opportunity to do in the house. as you mentioned, some white house officials were a little concerned about, whether the duration of the president's trip down here to mar-a-lago would affect senate friel preparations, because while the president's at mar-a-lago it's a little more unstructured environment, his informal aides, allies, advisers, friends, they have access to him in a way they just don't at the white house. officials had feared perhaps these people could play to his instincts perhaps convince the president he should abdicate for live witnesses in the trial, which mcconnell worked hard to convince the president he should not support for his trial. the president clearly wants to get the trial started but caught in an intense standoff between congressional democrats and republicans, jessica. >> yeah. all right. keep an eye on that for us. sarah westwood in west palm beach. thanks so much. do the deep dive on all

this. lauren fox, cnn congressional reporter. cnn contributor michael deantonio who's written several books on donald trump and jennifer rogers, former federal prosecutoecuto prosecutor. thanks for being with us. and lauren, alaskan senator lisa murkowski is disturbed by the coordination between mitch mcconnell and the white house on the impeachment trial. what kind of pressure are moderate republicans like her under to go along with mcconnell, and how will the majority leader keep his party united in all of this? >> you have seen president trump, jessica, sort of tweeting about these moderate members including susan collins in reerchs day-o reasons days, launching a charm initiative to keep members with him. and lisa murkowski has an independence streak. motivated voters back in alaska. she didn't just criticize

mcconnell but also the democratic process in the house of representatives. she voted against the president's interests in the past voting against brett kavanaugh and repeal of the affordable care act, twos very important issues to president trump. pie will tell you she is one of the moderates to keep an eye on. susan collins, the other one from maine and cory gardner in colorado. thom tillis in north carolina. all of those three up for re-election in 2020, jessica. >> going to be interesting to see how that plays into all of this. michael, since you've written several books on president trump, i'm interested to hear from you. today's twitter rant follows the president's christmas message urging americans to what he said strive to foster a culture of deeper understanding and respect. also it comes a week and a half after that blistering six-page letter where president trump questioned speaker pelosi's faith. someone who's studied donald trump is this solely about impeachment for him or is there a deeper anger the president feels towards the speaker and being in this position?

>> well, i think it is about a very deep and long-standing issue that he's always had. especially as it regards authority and women in authority. he's never been comfortable with strong, independent women. he loves to go after them, but it's also difficult for him, because he has frouple, you know, making it stick with someone like policy. she's very powerful, and she's demonstrated that she understands how the system works. she understands that the house of representatives is an equal partner with the white house in governing the country and is not afraid to use her authority. so this is both about impeachment but also a demonstration of who he is and who he has always been, and it really would have been a christmas miracle if he hadn't done this. this is how he is. this is the nasty, brutish,

difficult man that he's been all his life. >> he kind of exerts his power that way. jennifer, to date the president pointed out democrats held an impeachment vote citing urgency in the 2020 election. heard that from democrats as their reason for pushing forward but the president noting they're not holding up transferring these articles of impeachment to the senate. do you think that move by speaker pelosi undermines the core argument that could be used at trial, that we're trying to do this because we have a sense of urgency? >> i think she can get away with it for a short while, because what thamp sey're saying is we a fair trial. knop point in moving forward right now if the senate is going to insist on a show trial that's just an automatic acquittal and we all move on. they really want witnesses. they want to be able to present their case, present more evidence, evidence that has been denied them by the white house and the administration. i think they can play that out a little bit, but i think you're

right. at some point it becomes, this is an election security issue. here's a man who not only has committed grave misconduct, that puts our election at risk, but he has made extremely clear he will continue to can do that. so at some point you do have to press ahead and say this is an urgent matter. it's just that, if it's all just a big show and a pre-determined result, there's no point in pushing it out. yes, she can push. at some point it has to come to an end. >> essentially saying she has a little time to work. anything legally, though, that's keeping mitch mcconnell from just starting this trial without that formal handoff of the articles? >> there's not a lot of detail in the constitution about how this process works, but it seems clear that he can't just start ton his own. the house has to actually present the articles of impeachment to the senate for the trial. so he doesn't hold those cards right now. nancy pelosi does. he has to wait to conduct the trial until she hands it over. >> lauren to you.

look at this tweet from president trump. it says, "why should crazy nancy pelosi just because she has a slight majority in the house be allowed to impeach the president of the united states? got zero republican votes. there's wa no crime. the call with ukraine was perfect with no pressure." you hear him there talk about a slight majority for the democrats. fact check that for us and how much of majority the democrats actually have, how much power they have when it comes to the house as opposed to the senate where republicans hold power? >> a striking win, jessica, in 2018 when democrats took back the house of representatives. by the popular vote they won in a range that was bigger than anything we've seen in a midterm election since nixon. they did win a significant number of votes in 2018, and not just to mention the number of votes they won, 31 of the democrats came from districts that president donald trump won in 2016. so this just wasn't liberal democrats winning.

this was some moderate democrats winning in places that donald trump had won in 2016. so i think that this was a tough vote for many of those moderates. you saw many struggling with it, and also saw many wanting to discuss any other issue bus impeachment. i will tell you this was anything but just a slight majority, jessica. >> yeah. michael, some democrats have said here to fearful if acquitted in the senate president trump is going to be emboldened moving forward in a 2020 election. what is your sense about that? was that letter or the tweets, any of that, a preview of more behavior to come? ip know from your perspective intrinsically this is his personality? >> the letter was, i think, a signal about what's to come. but he is quite desperate to be re-elected. there are a number of things on the table for him, including his legacy. rudy giuliani may not care about his, but i'm sure that donald trump does care about history's

regard for him. he's already stained and humiliated by impeachment, which puts him in a very small club of presidents who suffered that fate. and i also think he's concerned about crimes that he may have committed that he will not be prosecuted for as long as he's president, and he'd like that period to run out for a full eight years. so there's a desperate quality to this, and that means that 2020 actually will likely be worse than 2016, when we think about the awful rhetoric, the nicknames, the nastiness, what what he demonstrated then i think is not even half of what we'll do to whoever is nominated by the democrats in 2020. >> all right. we'll have to see. what lies ahead in the next year. lauren fox, michael deantonio and jennifer rogers, thanks so much to all of you. still ahead, the next

democratic nominee for president could come down to how much money harry oh she can raise. $200 million already spent between just two of the candidates. how will the others keep up. plus, phase one complete. president trump following through on his word to work with china and bring down tariffs on american goods. who will benefit in the end? the in-laws have moved in with us. and our adult children are here. so we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. anybody seen my pants? #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide.

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- even our competitors - so you can be confident you're getting the right flight at the best price. kayak. search one and done. they have already spent a combined $200 million in their quest to win the white house and not a get vote cast. talking michael bloomberg and tom steyer, billionaires who jumped into the 2020 race long after many better known politicians, in a year of big money and progressive democrats. will their investment pay off? cnn political commentator and "washington post" columnist who's with us. great to see you.

bloomberg has spent about $120 million. steyer spent just over $80 million of their own money by one report. closest candidate to those two, pete buttigieg spent $19 million. what do you make of all the money being spent? specific to these two candidates and what they're trying to do or is it where the political landscape is headed for the cycles to come? >> i would say most candidates don't have pockets quite as deep as these millionaires. right? why they're called billionaires. a lot of money to throw around. absolutely unprecedented. whether anybody else could come close to emulating those ad blitzes is quite unlike loy. i'm not sure the overall messaging that is coming off of these vast sums of money is particularly helpful. particularly in a primary in which there doesn't seem to be a lot of clamoring from the base

for, you know, deep pocketed billionaires on the ticket. what these candidates are trying to do, of course, is to just saturate the airwaves, buy a lot of support, and maybe that will get them more name recognition at the very least. the optics of it, these huge amounts of money i'm not sure will be particularly helpful. >> effective. yeah. bloomberg particularly skipping early states in favor of all-in on super tuesday hoping all of these tv commercials inundated flooding the airwaves will get him where he wants to go. for the record, that strategy has never been successful. why did bloomberg think this would work this time jl because of the 20209 race and how fluid it's been? >> i presume necessity. if he'd made the decision to run early on, earlier on that he was going to run, his strategy probably would have been

different. would have been going after the early states in ad buys just as tom steyer has and the other candidates with smaller sums of money have done as well. this is his only chance. jumped in the race too late, of course, to have a hope of winning iowa or new hampshire or the likes so he's going after the big super delegate states, super tuesday states, that might award him enough votes. it's still a very unlikely strategy at this point, but even if he had jumped in the race earlier, tom steyer's experience, his record so far suggests it may not have been a winning strategy there either. tom steyer hasn't spent quite as much as bloomberg but still spent a lot. >> a lot. >> as the other candidates have spent, a lot more. >> and on the ground in iowa. interesting to see how it shakes out. thanks for joining us this afternoon. >> thanks for having me. up next, progress with china. president trump making good on his flan to cut down chinese

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s first of a deal between n china and the united states imminent. slashing stair tariffs on the c

and commit to them to buy other products. whatevered afterward a major geopolitical question. jeffrey sachs, economist and director for center for sustainable development at columbia university joins me now. great to see you. >> thank you. >> thanks for being here. president trump says a deal is near. beijing hasn't shared specifics but a signing ceremony set for next month. what exactly does phase one mean and who will benefit from that? >> what trump was doing, raising tariffs on chinese goods and china retaliating hurting both sides. trump was going into elections and so he decided to stop the useless policies he was pursuing. there's no victory here, except stopping what was stupid,

basically. trump's whole policy towards china has had no benefits. it's been costly. it created a lot of uncertainty. fortunately there's a truce, because trump realized he didn't want to go into the 2020 elections with all of the uncertainties that his own policies had created. so there's nothing momentum here except trump has stopped doing dumb things that were hurting the world economy. >> did it seem to you like a return to neutral? not going forward, just taking us back to neutral? >> it is. it doesn't take us quite back to neutral but a good description you're making. it's basically taking us back before trump was hitting the u.s. head against the wall, as it were. but we still have lots of pressures that trump is still creating, even as the tariffs are coming back he's telling other countries, don't buy chinese goods and so forth. there's a lot of uncertainty he's created most of which is on

completely misunderstood, basic economics. the u.s. runs a big trade deficit with china but run as big trade deficit all over the world because we spend so much and because we have tax cuts and the tax cuts that give americans and businesses money to spend so we spend more than we produce and run trade deficits. then trump says that's because others are cheating on us. it's just we're spending a lot. kind of an economic illiterate but it ends up resulting in silly policies he has to suspend. >> i want to talk about your op-ed for cnn.com, too. in that op-ed you suggest the president is intentionally ignoring dangers of climate change in order to win votes in the upcoming presidential race. how do you see the climate crisis impacting the 2020 elections? as we head into 2020. >> all over america peopler suffering. they're suffering from droughts,

forest fires, extreme storms, flooding. we've had $100 billion or more of losses from climate damages. what does the president do? not only not do anything, he does worse, which is trying to promote more fossil fuel emissions of carbon dioxide, coal, oil and gas, instead of what the american people want, which is renewable energy. why does he do it? because big oil and big coal funds the republican party. and because he's trying to carry a few coal states on the line that he's telling them that this is go for them. it's not good for them. it's not good for anybody but he is endangering all of us in the united states. it's very sad and very worrisome. >> yeah. and i hear you saying that, but it is an effective message to some in his base that to your point do live in these states and politically is advantageous for him.

>> yeah. but the real point is not even the base. the point is the money. exxon mobile, chevron, conoco, philips, koch industries. funding mitch mcconnell and republicans in the senate. that's the real story here. this is about corporate greed that is destroying the climate and hurting americans, and the vast majority of americans know, but don't necessarily understand how the money is flowing from big oil to the republican party. >> all right. jeffrey sachs, your op-ed on cnn.com. thanks so much for being with us this afternoon. and we'll be right back. >> great to be with you. thank you. it looks like cheese but it smells like barf. with tide pods, you don't need to worry. the pre-treaters are built in. nice! if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide.

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newsroom. an avalanche at a ski resort in the swiss alps. cell phone video you see the beginning of the avalanche on a ski slope. six able to free themselves from the snow. helicopters brought in to rescue two people with minor injuries. rescue teams still searching that area for more skiers. it's about 70 miles south of zurich, switzerland. from the college admissions scandal to a high-profile kidnapping and celebrities in court, cnn's jean casarez is counting down the top nine crime stories of 2019. ♪ >> reporter: a celebrity hoax, a multi-millionaire suicide, a college admissions scandal and more gun violence. all part of the top nine crime and misconduct stories of 2019. number nine. in thor hours of january 29th,

"empire" star jussie smollett called a momo phobic slur and n word and attacked by two men who put a noose around his neck. >> i see the attacker. masked, and he said, this maga country -- punches me right in the face. >> reporter: one problem. law enforcement determined it was a hoax. >> why would anyone especially an african-american man use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations? >> reporter: charged with felony disorderly conduct for reporting a fake assault. in another twist, the state's attorney kim fox later dropped all of the charges against the "empire" actor. number eight. a mormon family massacred in a remote area of mexico, ambushed by gunmen thought to be affiliated with a drug cartel. more than 200 rounds fired at

the caravan killing three women and six children. several children survived including 13-year-old devon langford who walked more than 14 miles to get help telling abc news -- >> it felt real scary and felt like a lot of bullets. >> reporter: his father says his surviving children are living mee miracles. number seven a former dallas police officer on trial for murder tearfully testified she thought she was in her own apartment when she shot and killed her neighbor. >> i was scared this person was in my apartment was going to kill me. >> reporter: that neighbor, a young black man. he was sitting on his couch when amber guyger shot and killed him after mistakenly entering his apartment. the jury didn't buy it. breaking news out of dallas, texas. a jury just found a former dallas police officer guilty on murder charges. >> can i give her a hug, please?

>> but gene's brother showed grace hugging the defendant. sentenced ten years in prison. number six, a 13-year-old girl in rural wisconsin kidnapped by a man stalking her for weeks. the assailant snatched jamie claus from her home in the middle of the night after murdering her parents. >> suspect had specific intentions to kidnap jamie. >> reporter: 88 days later, january 10th, jamie escaped wearing own pajamas and her captor's shoes she approached a neighbor walking her dog ngts told me who she was i figured she must have left in the a hurry. >> reporter: the community rejoiced. jamie was alive. jake patterson convicted and sentenced to two life terms for the murder of jamie's parents and 40 years for her kidnapping.

number five. r&b artist r. kelly's world came tumbling down this year as criminal charges piled up. his is facing indictments in illinois, new york and minnesota on charges that include recruiting women for sex and buying back tapes that purport to the show him having sex with underaged girls. kelly pleaded not guilty and passionately proclaimed innocence to cbs's gayle king. >> i didn't do this stuff! this is not me! i'm fighting for my [ bleep ] life. >> kelly's trial in chicago and new york are set for next year. number four. from new york to california, hate crimes hit a 16-year high according to the fbi. >> we are following breaking news. reports a of shooting at a synagogue north of san diego, california. >> it's felt in communities like poway where a synagogue was targeted by a white teenage gunman on the final day of

passover. >> more shots came, running right at me. >> reporter: a member of the congregation lost her life saving others. in november, a milwaukee man charged with a hate crime after allegedly throwing acid on a hispanic man following a traffic altercation. >> burning really bad. >> suffering burns and scarring. the suspect clifton blackwell, facing 35 years in prison accused of telling a u.s. citizen born in par roux to eru to his country. number three. >> power, money, sex, potentially dozens of underaged victims. >> federal prosecutors say behind-the-scenes multi-millionaire jeffrey epstein ran a sex trafficking enterprise pacing underage girls to have sex with him and other powerful men. >> the alleged behavior shocks the conscious.

>> cutting a deal with prosecutors in 2008, the investment banker's luck ran out. >> epstein, held without bail. >> brought him up to 75 girls from eighth grade to ninth grade at school parties. >> reporter: however, there will be no trial. weeks later, epstein found hanging in his jail cell. the medical examiner ruled it a suicide. a judge gave victim as chance to speak at a hearing after epstein's death. >> he continued to rape me. i cried myself to sleep that night. >> reporter: number two. a scam involving some of the country's most prestigious universities, exploded into a national scandal after federal prosecutors filed fraud and money laundering charges against 50 people including actresses felicity huffman, lori loughlin and her husband. >> lori, anything want to say? >> reporter: the mastermind, william singer.

ceo of a college prep company. he coordinated with parents to either rig sandized test scores or bribe college coaches and officials to accept their children as elite athletes. even if they had never played that sport. >> between roughly 2011 and 2018 wealthy parents paid singer about $25 million in total. >> reporter: some parents pleaded guilty including huffman who served 11 days in prison but 19 parents including lori loughlin continue to fight the charges. and the number one crime and misconduct story of 2019 -- unprecedented gun violence. >> we begin with two american cities reeling today and a nation devastated. a pair of mass shootings frrt el paso, texas, to dayton, ohio. >> horrific bloodshed taking place in a span of just over 13 hours. >> reporter: as el paso's

walmart filled with shoppers in late august, a lone gunman opened fire with an assault-style weapon. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: the 21-year-old suspect told police he was targeting mexicans. >> he shot eight more bullets. i counted them, because i said, one of these is going to be mine. >> reporter: 22 people were killed. and hours later in dayton, ohio, another mass shooting. >> shots fired outside a walmart xlts shots fired. >> reporter: crowds of people run from the shots. police respond within seconds. >> wearing body armor and use add .223 caliber high capacity magazine. >> reporter: police said the gunman who later died was stopped. despite their quick action he was able to kill nine people. in the end, 31 dead.

still ahead, one more thing standing in the way of president trump and his wall along the southern border. homeowners. are they willing to give up their private land? i talked to a journalist who went to the border to find out. (man and woman) [burst of talking to animals] ♪ (vo) it feels good to give back. (attendant) thank you so much. (woman) oh, you are so welcome. (vo) you can choose the aspca to get two hundred and fifty dollars from subaru when you get a new subaru, like the all new outback. (vo 2) get 0.9% during the subaru share the love event. that will makeout washington insiders very uncomfortable:

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turns out democrats are not the only barrier to trump's border wall. some private land owners are also putting up major

resistance. one of them told the "new york times" this -- "forget deplorables. deplorable americans. you're disposable americans if you happen to be on the south side of the wall." that land owner becky jones part of an in-depth piece by the "times" written by my next guest. thanks for being with us. a great piece. as you write in your piece, access to private land may be the biggest barrier standing between the president and his wall. tell us about the situation along the border and what you found in your reporting. >> well, the trump administration is behind schedule. they have a deadline. president trump has set a deadline to have 450 new miles of border wall constructed by 2021. thus far, the administration has about 93 miles built. most of that wall is in places where there was some type of barrier or vehicle barriers

which is different than border wall. but that was present before. the other thing is those 93 miles are all on federal land. so adding to the challenges. that being a funding challenge. as you've said. disagreement on the hill, as well as investigations into the contractors actually doing the building. you have to look at the people who live on the border. and who the administration needs to convince to either voluntarily offer their land or be taken to court. >> yeah. there's a lot of those people who do live there. in fact, you interviewed one man. so interesting. he had lived on this beloved land with his family but sold it to the government because he figured they would end up taking it anyway and said construction would make his life a nightmare but supports the president. it's a complicated issue for people who own this land, who may support the wall. who may support the president, but will also have to give up their land.

>> that's right. i mean, you're referring to richard as well. right? richard is somebody who told me over and over again he supports border security nap he supports the mission of customs and border protection and supports president trump. but for him, it was the idea that the actual border is not going to be built at the u.s./mexico border. it's actually built, in some places, a mile within the united states. so, for richard, that means now having the wall divide his land, land that his grandfather bought in the 1920s, that he built a house on, but also he has a business on. now there will be gates in that wall and he will be able to access it, but for him, he came to this decision now knowing that he will now have wall that is south of the border wall. to him, once you build a wall,

that becomes the border, in essence. >> right. i thought it was interesting, because you interviewed -- you spoke to him and others about what a difference it makes, where exactly they do put that border wall. because once they lay that marker down, to your point, that will change how they get around. >> one woman, becky jones, mentioned, you know, we have a lot of workers on the south side of where the wall would go. what happens if there's an emergency, a fire? richard, a supporter of the president, said look i often hear the politicians talk about the cartels and other individuals south of the border. would my land now be subjected to that? and i should also mention that for each of these individuals, it very much was choosing the

better between two evils if you will. they don't have many options. >> right. >> for them it was do i offer the land voluntarily and work with the government or do i go to court and fight this for years. >> years. >> right. zolan kannan-youngs, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> up next, it's been a year of scandal and missteps for britain's royal family. we'll take a look at the crown's bumpy 2019. with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living.

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during her annual christmas message, queen elizabeth took the extraordinary step of acknowledging 2019 has been quite bumpy for the royal family. some candid words there, but they only scratch the surface. c cnn's max foster reports. >> reporter: it's been a tumultuous and unsettling year for the british royal family, with three senior members stepping back from public life. the duke and duchess of sussex did so voluntarily and only temporarily, after a series of run-ins with the media. in march, cnn revealed the palace staff had to beef up their social media operation amid a rise of racist abuse targeting the duchess. then in october, the couple

revealed in a documentary with itv how difficult they were finding life in the spotlight. i never thought that this would be easy, but i thought that it would be fair, the duchess said. they also went on the offensive over what harry described as a tabloid campaign against meghan that mirrored the treatment of his mother, princess diana. the duchess sued the mail sunday, alleging that it illegally published a private letter to her father. the duke launched his own legal proceedings against the daily mirror and the sun against hacking. all the publications deny all the charges and have vowed to fight them vigorously. the queen's second son, prince andrew, also retreated from public life at the end of the year, but this may be longer term. it followed an interview he did with the bbc and the media backlash that followed it in which he talked about his association with the convicted pedophile, jeffrey eppstein. eppstein had allegedly

trafficked virginia dufray when she was 17 years old and forced her to have sex with the duke of york and others. he said he had no recollection of ever meeting her but failed to express sympathy to eppstein's victims in the interview or any regret for his relationship with the disgraced financier. he only did so in a follow-up statement in which he said i continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with jeffrey eppstein. his suicide has left many unanswered questions with his victims and i deeply sympathize with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure. he has stepped back from his roles after a meeting with his mother. the queen remains firmly in charge of the family, we're told, and has no intention of stepping back from public life herself, despite heading into her 94th year. max foster, cnn, london. a programming note now as you make your new year's eve

plans. ring in 2020 with anderson cooper and andy cohen. new year's eve live begins right here on 8:00 p.m. on cnn. erica hill fills in for jake tapper on "the lead." it starts right now. keep throwing haymakers on boxing day. "the lead" starts right now. hours after christmas message about understanding and respect, president trump unloads on speaker pelosi, as the battle over what, when and how of the senate trial continues. information warfare. a new report details a military's plan to launch a counter cyber attack, a brush of messes with 2020 as it did. how benjamin netanyahu is trying to pull a trump to hang on. welcome to "the lead." i'm