those right now. so i don't think that's just going to turn around tomorrow. >> that's a great point. both of you come back. let's do this again soon. >> thank you. that is "all in" for this evening. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts right now. t now. the drama is deepening around the former mayor, tv lawyer and accused bag man for donald trump.ag the latest allegation is that rudy tried to loosen six figures from the ukrainian government while he was there as trump's back channel, the latest on what rudy is saying. a report on the "washington post" calls into question the phone call between trump and sondland where the president insisted nond quid pro quo. all evidence to the contrary. also tonight, the lights come up as impeachment hearings ramp up again a week from today. what do the democrats have planned, all of it as "the 11th

hour" gets underway on this thanksgiving eve, wednesday night. good evening, once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 142 of this trump administration. new information continuing to squirrel tonight around rudy giuliani after he was found to be conducting some sort of foreign policy, while not remotely connected to the u.s. government.ne "the new york times" and "washington post" are reporting giuliani was pursuing business in ukraine while pushing for investigations that could have benefitted president trump. the post reports giuliani negotiated to represent ukraine's top prosecutor for at least 200 grand. quote giuliani began negotiations with lut serhsenko he sought to regain.

the agreements were never executed and there's no indication giuliani was paid. giuliani for his part told the "wall street journal" he was in talks for ukraine for more money than that. lutsenko asked him to represent the ukrainian ministry of justice and lutsenko on two matters. giuliani subsequently drew up two retainer agreements for a total oftw 500 large and gave tm to lutsenko. the next day, giuliani decided he couldn't represent lutsenko personally because he thought doing so would cause conflict with his representation of the president. giuliani said he declined the administrative justice contract and was never paid a penny for that. on sunday, giuliani denied any financial interest ukraine. >> i have no financial interest in the ukraine. i'm not going to financially profit from anything that i know

of in the ukraine. >> as we mentioned last night, according to reports from nbc news, abc news, and "washington post," giuliani has either done consulting work, done speeches or represented clients and governments in 19 countries. in september, giuliani insisted that his contacts with ukraine were solely at the request of our state department. >> i never talked to a ukrainian official until the state department called me and asked me to do its and then i reported every conversation back to them. right here. the first call from the state department. >> meanwhile, "the washington post" tonight is also reporting about another important impeachment witness. according to the paper, there are new questions about a phone conversation that gordon sondland said he had with the president on september 9. remember sondland testified that during the call the president saidng he wanted no quid pro qu with ukraine.

immediately after sondland's testimony, the president highlighted that atst the white house. >> i said to the ambassador, i want nothing, i want nothing, i want no quid pro quo. tell zelensky, president zelensky to do the right thing! but tonight the "post" reports this quote no other witness testimony or documents have emerged that corroborate sondland's description of a call that day. trump himself in describing the conversation has referred only to the ambassador's account of the call. and the white house has not located a record in its switchboard logs in a call between trump and sondland on september 9th. that talking point that there was no quid pro quo even though it's on the call summery and sondland testified to a quid pro quo, it has clearly been adopted by trump nation as they

positively chanted it in unison with the president last night. >> i want no quid pro quo, i want nothing. >> we're also learning information aboute' that highly anticipated internal review of the russian investigation. "the new york times" reporting that according to people familiar with the draft of the report, the doj inspector general found no evidence the fbi attempted to place undercover agents or informants inside the trump campaign in 2016. this will certainly bump up against they president's frequt and repeated claims that he was spied upon. >> there was spying, there was spying on our campaign. >> i think there was spying on the trump campaign. you can't say it any better than that. >> i'll go a step further, illegal spying, unprecedented spying. >> the fact is they were spying on my campaign, using agencies, intelligence agencies to do it. >> it went right up to the top,

and everybody knows it. spying, surveillance, trying for an overthrow. >> that kind of thing, here for our leadoffth discussion on thi thanksgiving evening, annie karni, white house reporting with the "new york times," katie benner, justice reporter with the "new york times" and jonathan allen, our own national political reporter. annie, what reporting have you on the current state of the trump giuliani friendship, relationship for starters . >> well, there's two prongs to it, trump himself seems to be standing by giuliani now while thegi rest of the white house h wanted him thrown under the bus as long as he's been on the bus. he has been causing problems. they view him more as a friend who's freelancing, that's how they viewed him than a defense lawyer that's part of an

overarching strategy. he has been causing problems for the white house. trump for a variety of reasons seems to every time he's asked him call him the greatest mayor new york city ever hades and a great lawyer, and it might just be that he's too close to lose at this point for trump but there's no signs that he's doing the usual i t barely know him stick with giuliani. >> katie benner, people were surprised at the kind of supplement the attorney general turnednt into once he was on th job but then the subject of spying came up a few months back at the hearing on the hill. people were stunned by the answer. i want to play the exchange. we'll talk about it on the other side. >> i think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. >> you're not suggesting, though, that spying occurred? >> i don't -- well, i guess you

could -- i think spying did occur, yes, i think spying did occur. >> katie fast forward to two weeks ago, we see waiting for the president to depart from the white house a kind of animated discussion going on in the oval office, including that man, the guy you cover on a daily basis, the attorney general, whags the chan -- what's the chance, thinking out loud, the ag gave his brother an early look at the ig report, it's not going find it's spying. >> i'm not going inside bill barr's head. >> i tried. >> but he's the attorney general and briefs the president on a variety of topics. we're showing the report coming out december 9th, we have reporting that arose the argument that there was the kind of spying trump has been alluding to weeks if not months that there was a n mole inside e

campaign, there was somebody inside taking notes and delivering the information to the intelligence agencies. that is going to be knocked down in this report. whether there was surveillance, a wiretap of former trump campaign f adviser, yes, but th idea there was somebody inside the campaign trump has been alluding to for a while, that is not the case. >> whjohn, if the sondland phon call trump story becomes unwound in a more concrete way, will that cost republicans support? >> i'm not sure that it will cost republicans support in terms of members of congress, brian, but, you know, the veil that the president has over the idea that there was not a quid pro quo, that there wasn't briar r -- bribery, extortion, that there was not a relationship between what he was seeking and the money held up has all but disintegrated already. that's the one read that exists for them. sondland's call going away would

be perhaps important to some of theta voters out there, particularly if democrats in congress can explain that to people in an effective way, and you know, the other thing i will look at with that is even with son sondland talking about that call, even if that call said that, we already know from months there was no explanation of the freeze on the money, and then once the president, once the white house was aware of the whistleblower s complaint, once they were aware o that the apro y -- appropriates were asked about the money, then the president is supposed to have the question with sondland, no, no, no i don't want a quid pro quo,no the time element is clea in this. >> he has categorically denied allegations of misconduct. might this on top of the testimony or this alone put his

posting in jeopardy? >> not if the pattern the president has followed with all me too allegations holds, which is that president trump has consistently when it's an ally of any sort taken the position of i believe the denial. so if he broke that pattern here, that would be a first. there will be attention here between trump saying i beliehis and he has said i i barely know gordon sondland, we'll see how those two play together but this president haspl consistently ani believe the woman moment culture said i believe the man. >> katie give us a status report on the branch youtu cover, that doj, there has traditionally been an invisible wall between presidents and their department of justice. that kind of gave way for a good long while in this administration. are things going back to

traditional enormous as they're a bit more distance now between barr and the president and their official roles between doj and the west wing. >> i think there's speculation about a distance between barr and trump. barr was one of the people who advised trump release the transcript of the ukraine call. any distance, i think, was collapsed a week ago, when barr gave a speech firmly arguing that presidential power is vast power, a and that nothing trumps done broke constitutional norms. if there was distance between he his boss, that would have posed it. while that relationship has been healed, the rank and file justice department, many, peop have said they are concerned about the speech because they don't necessarily agree with the attorney general's interpretation of the constitution, and the oversight role that for example, congress, they believe should play over the executive branch which plays

into impeachment, you see there's discontentu even as th relationship and e the top of t department, the t white house seems to be healed. >> and in a way, we're just getting started. of course, the next day, jonathan, i'm going to put on the screen, the headline from theto op-ed that the former nav secretary wrote in the "washington post." i was fired as navy secretary. this was a shocking and wr unprecedented intervention and a low level review. it was a reminder that the president has very little understanding what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices. john, would you agree that this is an example of two opposing ideas at the same time. what happens when you cross trump and you can cross trump and love to tell about it. >> i think that's right. i mean, what happened here is

the navy secretary was bounced out of government and that liberateden him to tell what he believes is the truth, andto yo know, the words that he didn't quite use there, but i think are very important at this moment as the house is considering impeachment and the senate very likely will have an impeachment trial is rule of law. and what he's talking about right therehe is that the president in his view doesn't have respect for the rule of law and what that means is the rule of law adds apublplicability to everyone, does not have applicability to the president himself. >> one final question of someone we have seen in q photos on the white house grounds all three business days ofe this holiday shortened week and that's jeanine pirro of fox news, what's going on here? >> that's a great question. she actually sometimes shows up

at the white house to surprise many people who work there. she's a, you know, one of trump's most loyal defenders. three nights in a row she's broadcasting from the white house. i don't know if f he has more interviews with her, but she often arrived there unannounced is the truth of the matter. >> annie karni, katie benner, jonathan allen. coming up, the strategy for trump's legal team seems to be run out the clock. how has that worked for them thus far. a former federal prosecutor is here to talk aboutfo it with us later, we're one week out from a second round of public impeachment hearings, how will the democrats tell the story this time around as "the 11th hour" is just getting started on this thanksgiving eve. this thanksgiving eve. surprise!

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today a federal appeal ko's court put a hold a judge's ruling that don mcgahn much testify before congress. "new york times" reporter charlie savage points out that even though trump keeps losing in court incrementally, his legal strategy is winning anyway, like a football team up late in a game whose defense hangs back to prevent big plays

while letting its opponent make sure gains. mr. trump's legal team is looking to run out the clock, putting forth aggressive legal theories often backed by scant president. the strategy risks periodic bad headlines in the short-term and could lead to definitive rulings that hamstring future presidents but it is demonstrably advantageous for consuming time. let's talk about this. back with us again tonight, paul butler, a former federal prosecutor and georgetown law school professor. you'll forgive me, a "new york times" giants fan, so all this talk about protecting a lead didn't make sense to me. perhaps it will to you. you can see that this is working, tell us how courts and/or democrats in the house could try to combat this and put a stick in the spokes. >> so yeah, ryan, trump is winning by losing. when he goes to court, he most

often loses, so on monday, the federal judge ordered don mcgahn to testify. here's the thing, it took her four months to decide she wrote a 120-page scholarly opinion and now the case goes to the court of appeals and then the supreme court. this case might not ultimately be decided, the issue of which witnesses testified in the impeachment proceeding until june when congress most certainly will have already decided the impeachment issue, and that's how trump wins, by keeping these vitally important witness testimony from the american people. congress doesn't have a whole lot of options because of the tragedy of running out the clock, so what speaker pelosi has said is they're going to count this against trump in the impeachment debate, including possibly an impeachment article

about instruction of congress. >> and paul, let's call it the mcgahn case, what if the mcgahn case ends up at the supreme court, what's your prediction. >> you know, again, i don't think that trump has an ideological stake in this. there are serious questions about the scope of presidential power, executive power, other presidents have made these same claims, trump is really looking out at it for his own interest. we know this because other presidents have tried to compromise. trump hasn't tried to compromise, so the thing is even though he often loses on the merits, what else has he done. one reason that the republicans are sticking by him is because he has packed the court. he has packed the supreme court, he has packed the federal appellate courts, and some of these judges might have an ideological stake in the idea that the president of the united states does have these extreme

powers including some of what trump's arguing, for example, we know that trump has said that the president is not subject to any kind of legal criminal process while in office. he can't even be investigated. and that's an extreme point of view. if we look at where trump is getting his judges from, the federalist society, this radically conservative right wing group. a lot of those folks share the same extreme ideas, he might lose in all the appellate courts but might win based on this conservative white wing supreme court that he's packed. >> professor as usual, you have given us a lot to think about. we have a long holiday weekend to do that thinking. happy thanksgiving to you and yours, thank you very much. >> thank you, happy thanksgiving. >> returning to the broadcast tonight. and coming up for us, will impeachment follow members of congress home for the holidays, as they say, more on that when we come back. ck with so many changes, do you know if your plan is

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when the founders provided a mechanism in the constitution for impeachment, they were worried about what might happen in someone unethical took the highest office in the land and used it for their personal gain, and i think we need to consult our conscience and our constituents and decide whether that remedy is appropriate here. >> house members are all back in

their home districts this thanksgiving week where they have a chance to hear from constituents in some cases, whether they want to or not. democrats are trying to determine on how to proceed on possible articles of impeachment, with the latest polling showing americans remain split on the issue. with us tonight to talk about it, karine jean-pierre, chief public affairs officer for move on, and an alum on the obama campaign and obama white house, also happens to be the author of the new book "moving forward a story of hope, hard work, and the state of america" and david jolly, who has since left the house and his political party but he's with us. we win all around. i know the work of move on, your organization, in the past, are there plans to mobilize your organization into subgroups around impeachment the way we saw on health care and actually

the way the right organized in the field at the tea party movement. >> i'm so glad you asked that, brian, because there is, we have folks on the ground in key districts and also in key senate races where you have vulnerable republicans like in colorado, with cory gardner, susan collins in maine, we're going to be loud and clear with our message, is the president of the united states above the law or not. and so this is definitely very similar to what you just said, brian, to the stopping the repeal of aca, so we will be out there for the recess period. >> congressman, this is probably my weekly chance to ask you the same question and that is anything on your radar, anything of the known unknowns, the conceivable possibilities in this case, that would change republican minds?

>> i don't think in the house. i think we got an indication from the hearings over the past two weeks that republicans are going to vote to a person, to oppose impeachment articles. i think the senate is still in question and to karine's point, some of the republican senators who will choose to decide with party over country will likely lose their seats in the next cycle. forecasting a bit what this may mean, the one political consequence is the republicans may lose the senate in 2020. you may have democrats controlling the house and senate in 2020 which makes the race for the white house that much more pivotal, this simple decision that has historic consequences could actually stack the deck for democrats all across the board in 2020. >> and karine, back to your point, i remember the look on grassley's face at a town hall meeting when the tea party movement was coming up. these were folks to the right of him, and he was shocked by the

volume and the anger of the crowd on a subject of health care so i'm just remembering that degree of shock, and incumbent republican from his right. >> i agree with you. i remember that as well. i was actually working in the white house the first two years, 2 1/2 years of obama's presidency, and i remember those tea party kind of town halls or showing up at the town halls at many many congressional districts and senate town halls as wellment lo. look here's the thing, brian, there was a poll that showed 70% of americans believed that the president of the united states did something wrong. you can't get anybody to agree that today is wednesday nowadays, that's how divided we are. and so that is what republicans are going to have to deal with in some of these districts and some of these states is the president of the united states above the law or not. and clearly some districts will have different conversations,

but this is where we are. and we do have people who are watching, who were watching the hearings or moving more steadily, closer and closer to impeachment, and that's just the reality of the situation. >> and karine, just a quick answer to this, what's the viewer's guide to the judiciary as they take intel, it's safe for everyone to admit they were rather embarrassed during the cory lewandowski appearance when they were last on live television. >> now we're in the judiciary hearings phase of in, and now they are going to lay out the legal case, right, they are going to lay out the constitutional argument and we're going to see history here. we have never seen a president get impeached for a national security. and so that's the articles of impeachment that we're going to see. and so it is going to be probably a month long process, and it's going to get voted,

they're going to present the articles of impeachment, and it's going to get voted out of the house and we're going to, i believe, we're going to see a president who will be impeached on national security. >> and david jolly, forgive me, mike pence came out for impeachment, i should probably add for clarity, the impeachment of bill clinton. this was reprinted today, an op-ed he wrote back then where he said the challenge for the republican congress lies in the fact gnthat the polls may be right, the american people may deeply wish to move on and put this unpleasantness behind us, regrettably, the constitution does not permit such a national denial. congressman, what do you make of that? >> hypocrisy but we know that after three years from mike pence and all republicans. the political vulnerability for republicans right now that the american people can see is by denying as republican leaders that donald trump did anything wrong, they don't get to argue

for a lesser sentence. when bill clinton obstructed justice, committed perjury, democrats admitted he shouldn't have done it. what we're seeing from republicans is an unwillingness to suggest it was even wrong but to the impeachable. that's a vulnerable place to be when 70% of the american people think the president did wrong. it's okay, the consequence is republicans would be on stronger footing but they won't even get there. in doing that, and frankly what we're going to see in judiciary, they suggest a show trial and refuse to participate, brian, it's not now donald trump who's undermining the basic institutions of democracy, it is republicans. congressional republicans are tearing down the united states congress. if he refuses to show up, doesn't participate, tit's the republicans in congress who allow him to do that, refuse to stand up for the articles of

authority. tearing at the fabric of democracy in realtime in 2019. >> you have given us a lot to think about, as usual, let's resolve to take tomorrow off and with that, karine jean-pierre, to david jolly, very best and happy thanksgiving to you. >> same to you. >> the shift in strategy expected next week during this next round of impeachment hearings. a capitol hill based preview when we come back. come back.

do you expect the president or his counsel to show up. >> i don't make the mistake of speaking for the president or his counsel. >> even members like congresswoman debbie dingell, democrat of michigan don't know whether the president will send a representative to next week's impeachment hearing.

melanie zanona is back with a preview, she is congressional reporter for "politico" and a returning veteran on this broadcast. melanie, give folks at minimum, a kind of viewers guide how will these hearings that we've become used to now in the intel committee, how will it seem different in judiciary? >> this phase is going to look a whole lot different when it shifts to the judiciary committee. the intel hearings were focused on fact witnesses, gathering evidence, and putting it on the table. when the judiciary committee takes over, they are putting this into context. the first hearing they are going to try to define what is an impeachable defense, they are going to bring in constitutional and legal experts, and democrats know this is their last chance to move public support in support of impeachment. i think both sides are going to be coming in guns ablazing. you have members on both sides who are fierce fighters for their representative parties. you have members of the freedom

caucus on the republican side, members of the progressive caucus on the left, and keep in mind, brian, this is the hearing or the committee where earlier this year one of the members brought in a bucket of fried chicken as a problem to try to mock bill barr for not showing up and calling him a chicken. we are expecting fireworks. at the end of the day, this is a political fight and the last chance to put a bowen of evidence. >> i'm glad you mentioned chicken, every time i mention it, i catch hell on twitter. two things are true, we continue to learn facts every day thanks to our colleagues in the news media. secondly, the democrats are up against a clock, but that's of their own making, of their own calculation. talk about this because the two may collide, they may call an end to this stage of impeachment while we're still learning things! yeah, that's absolutely the case, brian, in fact, there is a court ruling going on right now about whether don mcgahn has to

testify or not. it's been put on a temporary stay after a judge initially ruled that he does have to testify. democrats are not interested in waiting around, and in fact, the hearing, the timing that we're hearing on capitol hill is there's going to be two weeks of hearings in judiciary, followed by a week of voting on house floor on articles of impeachment. there are a lot of decisions that need to be made, how many articles of impeachment. is it going to be limited to ukraine, they have to decide how many hearings and what the rest of the hearings will be focused on. a lot of things need to be happening but it looks like democrats are on the fast track to get this wrapped up by the end of the year. >> one more procedural question. let's say john bolton has a moment at the thanksgiving table and decides to start talking in addition to tweeting and says he's ready to come in, what's the mechanism to take more testimony of an important witness like that while it is

going on. >> intel has said they are open to the idea they may be taking more closed door depositions while the rest of this is going on. there's speculation maybe he could be hauled in for the senate trial and that's where you could hear him speak. honestly at this point democrats don't know what to expect, he has been a wild card, dangling the idea in front of democrats that he might have something to say. he's also promoting a book. we'll have to see what happens. >> happy thanksgiving to you and yours. >> thank you, brian. >> melanie from "politico,". reflections on a person who took on the president of the united states and won, although it did take a moment or two. s a it did take a moment or two. yes" ready? absolutely not. see, having the wrong coverage can mean you get the wrong care, or you're paying more than you have to. that's why i love healthmarkets, your insurance marketplace. they make sure you have the right coverage, health insurance, medicare, and yes, dental too.

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not my thing. here is where we stand, the president has offered a compromise designed to circumvent a court order which would have required him to turn over the secret tapes to a federal judge. he has lost his attorney general in a dramatic resignation.

mr. nixon then tried to get the deputy attorney general to fire the special watergate prosecutor and when deputy attorney general wouldn't do it, he was fired, nothing like this has ever happened before. >> john chancellor, nbc news and a studio just feet from where we are now, the deputy attorney general who held his ground during the watergate controversy was william republuckelshaus di today. he was awarded the medal of freedom by president obama back in 2015, even that seems like a lifetime ago. as his "new york times" obituary put it, quote, for many americans the deeds of mr. ruckelhauk, were eclipsed by the role of a single night in 1973 as the political dirty tricks and cover up conspiracies of the watergate scandal closed in on

his boss, beleaguered president clinton. john meachum happens to be the author of "impeachment" an american history. john, in addition to learning that the early '70s were a bad era for television earphones that stuck out on camera and that mr. chancellor preferred copy on paper to the teleprompter in front of him, tell us about the man i heard a historian talk about ruckelshaus about a patriot's patriot. tell us about the mark he left on society. >> that's a great description. he was part of a vanished breed, a moderate republican, of the rockefeller president bush school of republicans who believed in fiscal probity, but

wanted to protect the environment and the rule of law. what i would hope tonight and going into tomorrow is every self-described republican supporter of donald trump would read that obituary very carefully. and imaginatively project themselves to that ultimate moment of reckoning. do you want said of you that when the constitution was under ferocious attack you stood in the breach and stood for the work of madison, hamilton and jay or do you want to be seen as someone who took a dive which easily could have happened on that october saturday in is t'7. ruckelshaus believed in the law, and ultimately fired archibald cox that night, that's a separate debate for another night, but i think someone like

ruckelshaus, and we are almost exactly a year from the one year death of george h.w. bush who belonged to that company of men and women who believed in the system. they believed in the constitution. and they knew that at some point however imperfect they were, however ambitious, however many things they got wrong, they believed at the end of the day that the system, the country, was the thing that had to come first, and their own ambition, however much they worked and driven through the arena with it had to take a second spot. >> let's fast forward to a week from today, second round of the hearings and a new and different committee for television viewers opens up. tell us what high crimes and misdemeanors may look like in 2019 because the only thing your

profession has in common with say a supreme court justice or a legislature is trying to figure out what the framers might have meant then as it applies to now? >> very interesting. gerald ford famously remarked, was about to become vice president in that same era, ford said that a high crime and misdemeanor is defined as whatever a majority of the house of representatives decides it is at any given moment, and that's true. but it's a phrase from the english common law. it's an ancient phrase. it was one of the checks and balances on article two on executive power. very interesting that so much of the conversation in the intelligence committee hearings focused on the term bribery. that is the offering of a favor in exchange for something else. and so in the constitution, there are three things listed

for impeachment. treason, which has to happen in a state of war, bribery, the exchange of the now famous quid pro quo, the first time latin has been, you know, used this widely since rome. so there is one benefit here, or high crimes and misdemeanors. i think you're going to see more and more focus on the bribery as the judiciary committee takes over. the judiciary committee is where the fabled watergate hearings unfolded. peter rodino, and then republicans like charles wiggins of california, walter flowers of alabama, conservatives, who wanted to stick with nixon but at the very end of the day, they were moved by the facts of the matter and the question we're confronting now is will the facts of the matter move those who have pledged their allegiance to president trump. >> and do you see in the 30 seconds we have remaining any reason for movement among republican senators provided

that's where this is headed? >> i don't. i have been struck by that. i like and i understand the juror defense. they have to hear out, you know, they're using that as a block to buy some time, but to get 67 senators to agree to go to lunch is almost impossible. and to see that significant a break with the president of the republican caucus will be highly unusual. here's hoping that there are some profiles in courage there who want an obituary like the one we're reading tonight. >> i happen to know your loved ones, to them and you, wishing you a happy thanksgiving. thank you very much for coming out. >> thank you. coming up for us, it happened last night, but we are betting you are going to want to see it here tonight. it's time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed.

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last thing before we go tonight, we have done this for so long, for so many years, and more decades than i care to remember in this business. some of our viewers have actually come to expect it from us, at this point in our thanksgiving eve broadcast, this is where we say 55 million of you are traveling this thanksgiving. this is where we remind you that this coming sunday is the single worst travel day of the year. this is where we show you the live radar satellite overlap of this country by way of saying we

are so sorry if you're waiting for someone at home. we're so sorry if you're watching this on a seat back tv on a plane on a tarmac or worse yet in an airline terminal because here this is the live graphic showing all the flights aloft over the u.s. right now. you have a lot of company up there in the sky. so that's the topic of thanksgiving. what we really want to end on tonight is something that went by too quickly. some of the overlooked verbal stylings of our president at his rally last night in florida. he started out with the throwing of the red hats because trump fans love them some red hats. they love their merch, and come to think of it, who among us doesn't love free merch, the president got right to business, including celebrating a big week for something called the slop

brothers. ♪ because there ain't no doubt i love this land god bless the usa ♪ >> you believe it, i'm president, look. i know we just set another stock -- you saw that right, the stock market, everybody's getting rich and i'm working my ass off. having a good time getting up in the morning, all you do is find a new job and you'll get more money most likely. and i opened up an apple computer plan. they make the new beautiful mac, whatever. and some day soon we will land an american astronaut on the surface of mars. that's what we're seeing, the space force. the deranged impeachment, think of this, impeachment, impeachment. a perfect phone call. it's a perfect call. i want no quid pro quo.

i want nothing. what happened to hunter? i don't want to go into it too long, but all i'm saying is it's a terrible hoax. you went into the hospital, and it's true i didn't wear a tie. why would i wear a tie. if the first thing they do is say take off your shirt, sir, and show us that gorgeous chest. i always thought ron was a little heavy. ig he was a little overweight, and then i see him without a shirt one day, and this guy is strong. and remember this, the republican party is the party of abraham lincoln. abraham lincoln. >> the 18th republican president since abraham lincoln, donald trump bringing our broadcast to a close on this thanksgiving eve 2019, and so that is our wednesday night effort. we wish you all a happy thanksgiving. thank you for being here with us. good night from our nbc news

headquarters here in new york. q. moments ago, nbc confirmed what was reported by "the new york times," the highly anticipated inspector general report, the fbi's handling of the russia investigation is expected spied on. a person familiar with the draft copy of the report confirms that in t concluded that the fbi did not spy