some things are too important to do yourself. get customized security with 24/7 monitoring from xfinity home. awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. simple. easy. awesome. call, click or visit a store today. happy holidays, here is ali vels velshi, sorry, we ran a little long. it is always my pleasure, andrea, you have yourself a great afternoon and week. hello everybody, it is friday, december 20th. president trump is attacking a magazine run by one of his biggest supporters, the evangelicals, why there are now bad blood between the president

and christianity today. congress approved funding for research of gun safety for the first time in decades. how this could be a major safety for gun safety advocates. 6 and the new starlighter just failed its test. president trump is lashing out after calls for removal of his office. billy graham blasted the president for his actions saying "the president of the united states attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to discredit one of the president's political opponent, it is profoundly immoral." the editorial goes on, this president dumb downed the idea of morality in his administration. he's hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted

criminals. he has himself admitted to moral actions in business and relationships with women about which he remains proud. his twitter feed alone with a string of mischaracterizations and lies and slander is a near perfect example of a human being who's morally lost and confused. i adds t it adds, the impeachment hearing, this damaged the institution of the presidency, damaged the representation of the country and the spirit and the future of our people. none of the president's positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character. it is time to call, to say no matter hands we win in this political game, we are playing with a stacked deck. just when we think it is time to

push all our chips to the center of the table, that's when the whole game will come crashing down. >> joining me now,christianity, the editorial. ma mark, thank you for joining us, strong words for the president. >> you spoke out then. researchers found that 81% of evangelicals still voted for him. what's different about now? >> well, what is different about now is the impeachment hearings probably. it is true that his record of tweets and his choice of working for some months or years, it had

been my judgment that dealing with donald trump is like a woman who's married to a man who's verbally abusive, he's a great provider and a good father and his children. she weighs that in the balance and says i can deal with that. then the husband turns physically violent and all of a sudden, the balancing does not make any sense. the wisest thing to do is not to balance the book to say the one hand or another but to have it leave the home. for donald trump of the longest time there is a reasonable case to make. he's done some good thing for pro-life. he's done good things for religious freedom. a lot of my conservative friends continue to support him for those reasons.

we don't like his behaviors and morals but he's doing balancing things. it is my judgment in the last couple of weeks that balancing no longer works. what we are talking about now, someone or one may say or continue the analogy of morally abusive in a dangerous way. the scales don't work anymore and it is time for him to leave the house. >> you said something to your conservative friends. the president tweeted this in response to your editorial. a far left magazine or progressive that some would call it which has been doing poorly and had not been involved with the family for years. christianity knows nothing about reading a perfect stript of a routine phone call.

do you believe donald trump had done anything good? >> we try to picture ourselves as center and we have center left and right readers. and so that's just a simple misunderstanding of what we are about. he seems to imply that we are a political magazine primarily, we rarely comment on things political unless the moral states are raised very high. there were something said in the intro of your show shows some of the comments in america. christianity today is a magazine of the evangelicals, all evangelicals in america must subscribe to it and look to it. the fact that it is not true.

they're people who we share a faith with and profoundly and impressive people in terms of the types of things they do in their community. they all subscribe to christianity. we don't represent them, we are leadership. when we are talking about evangelicals, we do have to do a little more discussion or division about which types of evangelicals and who are you talking about exactly? >> you got a warning for trump supporters and you write to many of the evangelicals, we may say this, remember who you are and whom you serve. consider what an unbelievable world it would say. let me ask you this, mark, are you worried about how evangelicals, i think you make a

valid point. it is a diverse group of people. are you worried of the effect that had members of the evangelical community if they support donald trump? >> yeah, i do so because his characters are so blatantly troublesome. and so here we are going to go out in the world and tell people they should support the pro-life cause because it is righteous and moral and good thing to do. at the same time, we are blinking or looking the other way when our president is doing things that are not unconstitutional but blatantly immoral. how can we have any credibility on the issues that we find so important or beyond moral issues or social or political issues. we are christians who believe that the highest goal in life is to get one self to jesus christ and serve him. how are they going to take us seriously of that if we are

winking at x and words of immorality that everyone seems to recognize of a certain groups of conservatives. it strikes me as an odd situation. >> i am told your website crashed after this editorial came out. what's the response been so far? >> frankly i am quite surprised. on a normal day we may get 300 or 400 people on our website. after the site is fixed, we are getting 15,000 or 17,000 people on the website. >> wow. >> that means, i touched the nerve that i had not anticipated it was there. we had some angry e-mail a threat or two there. mostly if i am surprised of the passion with which people have said, thank you, thank you, they run a string of 50 exclamation

points, there has been apparently that i am not quite in touch of, a deep passion for someone in the evangelical community to come out and speak this way and a way it is straightforward and not interested bashing my conservative brothers who differ with me on this. one of my jobs is to go online and say no, this is where we are to stand. not where you are standing. >> mark, thank you for joining me to talk to me about this. i appreciate it. mark galli is the editor and chief of christianity today. joining me now is joe watkins, pastor of the lutheran church who often makes the point that he thinks sometimes is unfair in the media that evangelicals are all lumped together and they are very different in their believes, including you, joe. you remain conservative and had been a conservative and been a

republican. so it would not come as a surprise that an evangelical publication would have a view about president trump, how big of a deal is the fact that this editorial appears in christianity today? >> it is a big deal. it is a real departure, you have to remember that the magazine was found in the mid 1950s by billy graham. billy graham is certainly a great name for many christian people around the country and around the world. he was largely silent of the issues of civil rights. he was not there to help martin luther king and certainly not in the magazine or publicly in support of people of color who suffered during that movement. the magazine did in the lat late '90s say something about the clinton's impeachment.

this editor is trying to do the same thing here. he represents a small percentage of the community which is likely to vote in large number. the white evangelicals community with donald trump. >> evangelicals are overwhelmingly supportive of president, 75% approved of the jobs he's doing and among catholics of 53%. can people of faith, particularly christians put up with donald trump's moral shortcomings if mark and i were talking about, he's delivering on certain long-term things that community calls close including judges and support of some of the decisions that's been taken in certain states about abortion and the second amendment. >> it depends on who you are. if you self identify christians, you are likely going to vote for

the democratic nominee of who ever that person is in 2020 with different degrees of enthusiasm. if you are black and christian, you are not going to vote for donald trump in 2020. if ru whiyou are white and evangelical, you are likely to vote for donald trump and you are going to say the judges and the economy and his position on gun control and other issues of what he's done for religious freedom, all those things they'll say to stick in that co column. i think the president retains the strong support especially in the south and not likely to win the strong support of black christians nationwide. >> you are a pastor, you and i talk about a lot of things. we don't talk about religion itself. a republican congressman compares the impeachment inquiry of donald trump to what jesus christ went through right before

he was cruicified. let's listen today. >> during that sham trial, pontiff afford more rights to jesus than the democrats affor s to this president. >> president trump said the salem witches got more rights and more process than he got. something that people in salem said that he should read more history on it. >>. >> nobody should compare themselves with jesus. jesus was who he was and still is. it is a huge mistake when people try to compare themselves to him or what he went through to provide eternal life for anybody. it is a big mistake on the part of republicans or democrats who tries to make that.

>> joe watkins, thank you. a new ruling struck down part of the affordable care act, we'll take a look at what it means for healthcare of millions of americans. seven democratic candidate contenders were head to head on the debate stage last night. we'll bring you the highlights and who stood out, next. you are watching "velshi & ruhle," live on msnbc. you are watching "velshi & ruhle," live on msnbc. and i'm still going for my best, even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'll go for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. what's next? sharing my roots. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop.

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welcome back to "velshi &

ruhle." last night seven candidates got their last chance up to 2019 to make a case to democratic voters nationwide. candidates went head to head on a los angeles stage. amy klobachar looking for a chance to break out and vai jjo biden looking for a chance to break away. >> great leaders make decisions seven generations from now. this president does not keep his decisions for seven minutes. >> this president is not against i immigration? >> fewer than 5% of americans don't need to political campaigns. disposal income. >> go back and talk to the middle class neighborhood you grew up in. >> the mayor just had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and

served 900 bottles of wine. >> if i pledge of never be in the company of a progressive democratic donor, i could not be up here. >> senator, your network is 100 times mine >> we are living in a nation that's increasingly becoming an oligarc oligarchy. we have millionaires spending hundreds of millions of dollars buying elections. joining me now is john. >> what stood out to you here? >> the big thing is klobachar trying to arrest pete buttigieg rise in iowa. this is one of the last opportunities for them to get some broadcast attention.

pete buttigieg is leading the polls in iowa and they want to stop them. we saw that clashing going on and pete buttigieg defending himself and pushing back and particularly on klobachar, a real fight among those three that's been brewing for a while and exploded on stage last night. we remember one of the earlier debate, kamala harris went after joe biden, looks like she gained a lot out of that. joe biden continues in the number one spot, bernie sanders continues in the number two spot. warren is still up there in the top few and pete buttigieg has been makiing great end roads. based on what those top candidates needed to do, what did they achieve? >> well, i think in terms of that question of pete buttigieg

and whether there is an effective argument against him, number one, i think he did a pretty good job of pairing and showing that he can defend himself. on the other hand, there were some weaknesses that exposes there that he has to deal with long-term. kamala harris went after joe biden for bussing issue, that was a 40 years old issue. with pete buttigieg, that's an issue with woman senator and amy klobachar saying look, he does not have experience, he's dismissing the experience of others and the fact that this woman achieved something and the men on stage achieved something and getting elected of some of their policies. i think that's something he's going to have to contend with. >> folks who did well, joe biden did not have to fight with anybody. everyday is a good day for joe

biden. >> let's take a look at the poll average of what's going on in iowa. and puts it into relief. pete buttigieg who's not in the number one spot in a lot of national polls, the polls of eye wi io iowa. elizabeth warren is a close four. they are not all in the margins of error, those four candidates are the one who's winning in iowa is decisive. mostly other candidates are not looking for a win in canada. they're looking to place well. >> i think that's true. we have seen over the course of time that things can rapidly change course everyone though this race has been static across the course of the last year and by and large. what we see in the last 45 days

in iowa over the years is that candidates can go up and down. john kerry in 2004 surprising the field and mike huckabee winning iowa. there is a lot that can go on in the last days of a race in that stage particularly in democratic caucuses which is an unusual and specific of electing somebody. stay tuned. >> john, you recall last saturday i was in pittsburgh with the candidates talking about public education, joe biden, the first time i remember after an extensive article came out about his stutter actually deliberately stuttered on stage to make the point of how difficult things was in his life. sarah huckabee sanders tweeted and making fun of joe biden's stutter. i work my whole life over coming my stutter, it is called

empathy, look it up. tell me what you make of that incident, is that much to do of nothing? >> she recognized that and apologized for it and everybody is better if we just move on. >> john allen is an nbc news political reporter. breaking news, house speaker nancy pelosi officially invited president trump to deliver the state of the union address on february the 4th, the spirit of respecting our constitution, you will remember in past years there had been issues about this. boeing has a new spacecraft and it is having issues. we'll talk more about the star liner's failed mission and whether it is safe to fly ahead. first, obamacare individual mandate and it could affect millions of americans. how it can affect you, you are watching "velshi & ruhle," live on msnbc. watching "velshi & ruhle," live on msnbc if you have moderate to severe psoriasis,

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another blow to the affordable care act. the individual mandate. on wednesday, a federal appeals court in louisiana struck down the mandate declaring that it is unconstitutional.

so the question is, what does this mean for obamacare. how do we get to this point? the individual mandate requires most americans to have health insurance starting in 204 when it went into effect. the key here is those who did not sign up for health insurance would be forced to pay a penalty for the federal government on their income tax. even if you are young and healthy, you would be ve incentivize to sign up otherwise, you would have to pay the penalty. the individual mandate was debated in the parties. john roberts joined the four liberals on the court in upholding obama finding that it was a legitimate use of congress's power to impose. president trump signs into law his first tax bill and republicans set a tax penalty of obamacare to zero, removing

element of the law that was essential to the mandate. the entire obamacare law was unconstitutional. congress wiped out the tax. a federal district in texas heard arguments in that case and agreed. >> all this brings up to wednesday's ruling in a federal appeals court. it is unconstitutional for people to be required to have health insurance.

into which parts of obamacare can survive without the individual mandate. it is a lot. i know. it is important. joining me now is dr. patel, she helps develop the affordable care act in the obama administration. she's now a fellow at the brookings institutions. camila, it is good to see you now. what's your sense of how this unfolds. >> unfortunately, it is going to kick this can down the curve for a year. i know democratic attorney generals are trying to -- the supreme court can expedite or do anything it wants to. it is highly likely it is going to keep going on well-pass the november 2020 elections and to your point, it leaves americans, millions of americans because it

is in limbo. it leaves the healthcare infrastructure and doctor hospitals and insurance companies and everybody including patients in limbo of what's going to happen to the affordable care act. >> this was a major matter in the 2018 midterm election. you had republicans would clearly voted to invalidate obamacare running on the fact that they're fwoigoing to prese preexisting conditions which was absolutely untrue. >> this is definitely the top reason that people promoted >> absolutely, if you are a savvy democrat, you will take this opportunity to talk about how much the republican party is taking down their rights to healthcare and continuing to

play the narrative. it is worth reading the descending opinion of the carter 2-1 ruling, it kind of strikes these abominations of the upholding of the two judges and i think it is worth taking a look at it and democrats should play to that. to be candid, republicans, it will be interesting to see how they react and it was not lost on me, it was all very during the impeachment decisions and some could argue it is political of itself. republicans are going to have to do a lot to reassure the american republic that they have healthcare and if they want to continue to have healthcare then the republicans are going to work to keep it. the trump administration have flip-flopped in the issue deciding they were for or against it and now they're for it. >> obamacare does continue.

the affordable care act is still there. there are people on the exchange, open enrollment have closed. but the bottom line is it does exist. you remember five dozens or so times, the concept was repealed and replace. i was excited to see what the replacement would have been. i would have liked to study it or see it. >> there was not a replace. >> there was no replacement and in fact what you saw is what existed today, the trump administration managed executive order to tear down so much of the aca that you just have these bear bones requirements and again it is an opportunity for democrats to come back to say that the spiraling cause, the uncertainty of healthcare, it needs to end, we need security in our own health which is kind of again to your point of an ultimate voter issue in 2020.

>> dr. patel, thank you. a new bill is sitting on president trump's desk, one that's puts millions of dollars on guns research. first, boeing's new star liner, failed. what they are saying about that next and nasa, you are watching "velshi & ruhle," msnbc. you ar "velshi & ruhle," msnbc. to become part of our family. man: that's why our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. the chevy price you pay is what we pay. not a cent more. family is important to us. and we'd like you to be part of ours. so happy holidays. and welcome to the family. the chevy family! get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey.

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welcome back to "velshi & ruhle." today a timer error has prevented a new unmanned boeing astrona astronaut. the 100 star liner successfully launched this morning, the timer error meant that the capsule burned its fuel too soon from reaching the orbit that would have put on track to meet it at the international space station. the capsule is aimed to return to earth and it is estimated to land in new mexico on sunday. >> tom costello is with us. >> reporter: for boeing as a company is a big deal. this is as company weathering a year of terrible headlines related to the 737 max and the

max have been grounded now worldwide. give everybody something to cheer about on a positive note. they had a spectacular launch. 6:36 a.m. we saw starliner roaring off the sky and breaking from a 17,000 miles per hour run to the international space station. about 31 minutes into the flight as you are suggesting, they had a tiny problem and the mission timing clock, that suddenly caused the space capsule to burn too much fuel. what that means is the crew on board, the station will not be getting their recent supplies of food and clothing and christmas and hanukkah gifts we are told.

boeing and nasa got to run some really good experience to see how this aircraft will perform. there is no doubt about it. this is a very big black eye for boeing that had hoped for a big win today, not just for a space division but for the entire company whether it is just a rough year. the spaceship itself is safe and nobody was on board. it was an uncrew mission, the spaceship will come back to new mexico, the issue will be will nasa allowed. will they run another test mission before they put astronauts on board. >> thank you as always, tom costello for us. we have breaking news right now. two carnival cruise ships collided near the port of cozumel, mexico this morning. take a look at this video. reports say only one person was

injured. we'll continue to follow that. we could see iowa caucusing all over the world. chris jansing spoke with iowans who are leading that effort. gun safety approved by congress for the first time. is the president going to sign the bill that lets it happen? you are watching "velshi & ruhle." live on msnbc. you are watching "velshi & ruhle. live on msnbc. we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan.

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this week congress had a gun safety reform activist in the united states of a major victory. a new spending bill sitting on president trump's desk for the first time in decades would include substantial funding for research of gun violence. $25 million. i am going to show that you to. $25 million, the house and the na senate approved this bill after lawmakers struck a bipartisan bill on monday ahead of the deadline. while much attention is focused on washington to make change. the biggest efforts to combat gun violence in this country are happening at the state levels.

18 different states as well as washington, d.c. past common sense gun safety legislation in 2019 and in 2018, more than a thousand gun-sense candidates were elected to office. activists helped push 20 states to pass prevention bills including laws of abusers and force background checks and these so-called red flag laws. last year, colorado, hawaii and nevada and new york and along with d.c. bringing the total number of states with those policies up to 17. despite these achievements, this year the united states, there had been more than 38,000 deaths due to gun violence and 399 shootings. joining me now, shannon watt. you do want to point out which is why we set this out. you want to point out there has been remarkable success.

there is a lot of failure at the federal level particularly with the united states senate not taking up background safety legislation which the house has actually passed. there is actually a lot of progress on the elected front and on the state front. >> it is so important to remember that we are winning. it prevents people from getting people off the sideline. i weould not do this as a volunteer everyday if we were not winning. you with making huge strides electoral electorally. our organization out spent the nra 8-1. now we are going in january and pass stronger gun laws. this is how it gets done. what i have learned in the last ev seven years is congress is where it ends and not where it begins. we need to keep doing this work in state houses and border room

and courthouses. i am confident that we are close to getting what we need to safe america lives. >> let's talk about this funding for gun safety for p, why is this important? what does this change? does thi? >> we have been asking the government to fund the cdc, to look into gun violence in this country. what is our crisis, what's the extent of it, how do we solve it. for seven years now through petitions and calls and e-mails and meetings and rallies, and finally they listened. the democrats got together with the republicans and they agreed to allocate $25 million. now, that's not all we asked for, but it is a good start. and now we can actually start applying this kind of research to this crisis that kills over a hundred americans every single day. imagine if anything else was killing americans at that rate, it would be considered a priority, and now finally, we are getting the research funding we need. >> and there are people at the cdc who have said this kind of research leads to important things. they often use seat belts as the

kparch example, when you study the effect of what soobeat belts yo save lives. about saying to what degree do guns pose a health and safety challenge to americans. >> that's right. that's exactly right. how can we fix this crisis, what laws work. what laws don't, and that's exactly why the nra has opposed it for so long because they don't want any law at all. i mean, i have been doing this work for seven years. i have never seen the nra come to the middle and say that law looks like it would save lives, let's pass it. they see any law as an infringement on the second amendment and ultimately something that might tamp down their profits. god forbid that happen. this is about saving americans lives, do what americans want to do, letting the lawmakers make laws, not the gun lobby. >> you said seven years. tomorrow is seven years and one week, from the sandy hook

massacre. are we better off or worse off with respect to guns than we were then? >> we are so much better off. the bills the nra had in mind, the agenda they have guns anyone, anywhere, anytime, no questions asked, that was sailing through the nation's state houses. we have passed over 300 good gun safety laws since sandy hook, and on top of that, we have a 90% track record of stopping bad nra bills like stand your ground and arming teachers every year for five years in a row. and don't forget, the nra gave donald trump $30 million, they expected to turn around and pass the legislation day tried to pass for so long. and they failed. they have had no return on investment in that $30 million they invested in donald trump. we have gotten so good at playing defense, and i really believe that 2020 will be the most pivotal year for our issue in the history of the movement, and so that's why we need everyone off the sidelines so that we can elect a gun sense

president and senate, keep the house, and keep flipping the makeup of state legislatures. we are so close. >> good to see you as always. shannon watts, the founder of moms demand action. next year iowa will be able to caucus in 1,000 places outside of iowa, even paris, france. you're watching velshi and ruhle live on nbc. c. gold. gold! right, uh...thank you, for that, bob. but i think it's time we go with gbtc. it's bitcoin exposure through a traditional investment account. nice rock. it's time to drop gold. go digital. go grayscale.

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welcome back to velshi and rule, after weeks of waiting, eligible voters will be able to caucus at nearly 120 other places including paris, france, and for the first time, caucuses will be held in mosques some of them. it's part of a plan to increase turnout. msnbc's senior national correspondent has the story. starting on the streets of los angeles. >> who have you gone to see? >> it's a long list, elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar, bernie sanders, pete buttigieg. >> reporter: allison engel keeps a list of the presidential candidates she has met, 13 from the iowa state fair to town halls. >> a day doesn't go by that i don't get three or four texts from the presidential campaigns. >> reporter: she has invested countless hours to make sure she makes the right choice. >> then you can't go to the caucus. >> which is unfortunate. >> reporter: here's iowa's

problem. allison fleas the cold winter temperatures, unlike snowboards, she can't vote with an absentee ballot. to caucus you have to be in your precinct on a certain night. >> reporter: troy price has heard years of complaints that the caucuses are inaccessible to large numbers of voters. >> shift workers or folks who live or work or serve outside of the state or country, people with disabilities, and people in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. >> reporter: this year for the first time ever, another option. allowing satellite caucus sites wherever groups of iowa democrats need to organize them. applications flooded in, 136 were considered, and this week, 99 approved, including three outside the u.s., france, scotland and the republic of georgia. plus 13 states and d.c. 71 sites within iowa alone. including one from emanuel smith, a disability rights advocate. >> i have brittle bone disease which carries with it a lot of

different barriers that really prevent me from easily being able to access the traditional caucus. if you haven't been to a caucus, it's very loud, it's very packed, often very chaotic. people on the spectrum, i have issues with crowds. for me, a safety concern. having a smaller, more intimate caucus is a nice alternative. >> reporter: when you talk to them, has it been yes, yes, yes, yes. >> people are excited. >> reporter: back in california, allison engel is ready to go, spending $160 of her own money for a satellite caucus she estimates could bring in 50 people. >> so many people we know on a scale of one to ten are a ten. they have put in a lot of time volunteering, putting up signs, knocking on doors, having field organizers living in their basement. >> reporter: you want to be a part of this process. >> that's exactly right. >> critics say even with the changes, caucuses are still going to keep too many people from voting but switching to a

primary would mean iowa loses its first in the nation status. we'll stay on top of that story for you. we are not that far off from the iowa caucuses. thank you for watching, i'm going to see you at 3:00 p.m. eastern and so p.m. eastern and as the decade comes to a close, we want to know what you think the biggest story of the last decade was. go to nbcnews.com/decade stories, and tell us what you think and then katy tur is going to tell us what we're going to do when we collect all of that information. >> we are going to declare one person the winner and tell everybody else they're absolutely wrong. >> it was not the best story of the decade. >> is it obvious to you, it's obvious to me it's the story of the decade. it's the election of donald trump. >> i think if impeachment is not the biggest. >> it was in the last ten years. >> the election, i could see that. i don't know. >> katy and i