could try to impeach president trump a second time. the possibility came up other whether or not don mcgann can be compelled to testify. the drgsoj said the last impeachment was moot, and then they said if they're supporting the conclusion that president trump committed impeachable offenses they will proceed accordingly. considering whether or not to add new offers for impeachment. let's break this down a little bit and get the sense are they serious about another wave of articles of impeachment if in fact don mcgann is compelled to testify. >> i can't speak to whether or not their serious or not, is it likely or not? highly unlikely, right?

very extremely unlikely there will be more impeachment proceedings brought forward. this is a legal maneuver. they're trying to make the case for don mcgann, that the impeachment trial rendered this whole thing. will it really relate in the house judiciary committee about the president related to the obstruction of justice? i think any observer has to look at that and say not. so i don't want to say, but it is worth noting that this filing happened and this this is the argument, they put it in black and white, this is coming from the attorneys. we may consider articles of impeachment if there is don

mcgahn democrat. >> let's talk about the current impeachment saga playing out. any movement on the delay of transmitting the articles of impeachment to the senate side so the trial could get under way. >> there really has not been any movement. both sides are moves in. they are set to hold a visit you conference. he is down here in south ef mar-a-lago. i think last year the president did something similar. there is no indication. as the president gets ready to begin this video conference, and i want to know will he give any

owning to either side here, particularly the democrats, of movement. that would be an indication. if the president indicates he is open to movement, then maybe mitch mcconnell will be open. i think the likelihood of that is fairly slim based on what i'm hearing from the white house. >> i do think that after the new year you may start to see some movement on negotiations. right now every indication from mitch mcconnell publicly, from chuck schumer and more, it is that everybody is feeling like they're in their positions, they're not going to move, and they want to hold their spots here and see if the other side will budge in any way.

>> okay, you have a standing invite to come back and talk to us if the president starts that press conference. and we have our guests joining me now including john allen, and julian manchester reporter for the hill. barbara, let me begin with you and ask you legally speaking, can democrats keep adding impeachment articles as long as they want to, is there anything that prohibits them? >> they can add as many as they want. the constitution is spare on the instructions of impeachment. it is not uncommon would issue a

sup superce superceding indictment. and there was no special counsel here, it was the house that under took this investigation. so if they stumble on evidence, i think it is appropriate for them to add additional articles of impeachment. >> let me ask you about don mcgahn. remind us if you can why is democrat is so con academy shl. >>. >> he talked robert mueller, and they spoke about it and it was the most egregious. he was instructed to fire robert

mueller and then create a false document to deny that fact. that is clear obstruction of justice. now it is a question by question basis. that is the subject of the justification. it seems fairly likely that there was one based on the obstruction of robert mueller's investigation. >> i want to play you one. >> at the very minimum, we will require votes from all of the senators on each of the witnesses about each set of documents. i don't think my colleagues democrat or republican, are going to want evidence in such a

important trial. >> the importance and the significance of getting these witnesses out into the open and out into the american public, the likelihood of that happening with don mcgahn and senate eor schumer. >> on the point about the witnesses and the documents and democrats bringing those during the trial, that is immensely important. they would like i will be acquitted with the republican majority. you have the entire nation watching this. i think democrats understand this from a public reso this

could impact that as well, but they want to make it seem like this is not political. that there are facts behind all of this. on the issue of don mcgahn, i think the likelihood of him playing is a long shot. it is something that we can ponder and think about in the next couple weeks. and the president's impeachment inquiry in terms of how long this will take and such and we really don't know. the house gets back, the senate gets back, and it is in limbaugh right now and we can only just speculate right now. >> i would like your political analysis on this, did the democrats mishandle this impeachment process by not going to the courts to try to

impeachment. john bolten, how would you rate the articles of impeachment, and at the same time saying now that they want to get these witnesses to testify. >> they face a real dilemma. they could gate blanket denial of preventing them from showing up. they were going forward without some of these things. and so they try to go through without them and in the case of mcgahn they testify. and i don't think you can rule out the possibility that they will say it is a bad idea to create incentive for the president of the united states to block witnesses and it is

unreasonable to blanket block witnesses. they have decided to go forward on a completely separate topic. so you know, my sense is that they didn't have a lot of choice here. if they waited until the end of the term, it would be interfering in the upcoming election. they might interfere without ever having witnesses or documents come forward, so the incentive created is pretty significant. >> hey, john, by the washington post analysis, 37 senators are going to vote against impeachment, that means it is impossible for him to be removed from office. knowing that is something that weighs on the minds of the senators, perhaps even house --

speaker of the house nancy pelosi, do democrats have any leverage that could change that dynamic? ? >> new information can always change dynamics, but i think part of what is going on here is the democrats want to put republicans on record. this is a pretty weight any moment, the charges against the president are extremely seergs and sort of, you know, actual treason, what he has been accused of is as serious as it gets. so i think they want to make sure there is a vote on this at some point. that the folks who are doing this have to put up and say that they're willing to accept this as behavior on the part of the president of the united states. >> i'm curious to get your thoughts. on chief justice john roberts,

he could be a game changer on all of this, the procedures of the trial himself. >> legally he is there to make the decisions, but the senate has the ability to overrule with 51 votes. i think the more important question is that is justice roberts, she a conservative justice. can they overrule him. for example, if he were to rule on the admissibility of the documents like a john bolton, does it look so political that they don't want to take that political hit. i think that could be interesting and it could come in that impeachment trial. >> final word to you, is there any political calculation how

long nancy pelosi can hold out? does she run a risk here? >> we don't really know. viewers of this are wondering when he will do this. if he have ever actual dloi this. whether or not mitch mcconnell and the republicans will black documents. it is too soon to tell how it will play for her, but we'll see it in van. >> thank you both very much. barbara stay with me for a little more of this conversation after the break. breaking news, police and protestors are crashing right now in hong kong, dramatic live pictures as we speak. going there live. e pictures as we speak going there live so we built a snow globe. s r

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. breaking news right now, police and protestors clashing in hong kong. molly hunter has been monitoring the riots for us from london. what do we know about what is happening and what triggered this latest round of protests. >> it looks like things are happening in two different locations right now in honk congress. the -- hong kong. and protestors went into one of

those shopping malls. they said they felt like it was a good opportunity to go inside shopping malls when there is a lot of people and it got very violent. we have seen protests for several months, but it is lower intensity. you see the batons out there and property tests, and we got this from so many different angles. police moved in and they're really kind of kicking off the most violent protests we have seen were mid november, we have not seen that scale sense then. . >> it is the video you started with, this is much more recent. we have a lot of downtown

tourists. heavily populated by foot traffic we're hearing a lot of the same slo begans. it is late at night, christmas eve, and we will be keeping a close eye on this. >> molly hunter tracking it all for us. joining me now is the former syria and lebanon director at the white house national security counsel. great to have you with us. first let me get your reactions here. no end in sight, what is your reaction to what is developing here and what is developing with it. >> i don't expect it to be developing any time soon, the chinese government and the hong kong governor took too long. i remember clear think is a pattern of regimes where they don't want to give in to prop

testers. it ends up further angering protestors. they started with remauving a bill that would have extradited them to face the justice system there. prodemocracy, anti-government protests, and it is hard to swree there is an end in sight, things are going to take awhile to be fixed. i got president trump to do the right move by signing the passed by congress for their human rights abuses. it is good to side with democracy, but it is a tough decision. that is something that you may see the effect of on our end. i'm sure we will. i imagine it was a decision

china, japan, south korea, meeting to discuss the threat and the risk coming out of north korea. at the same time nbc news obtained satellite images showing that they will continue with their missile development program including the long-range missiles. what do you think the view is from the inside of the national security council. the president has been touts his success. and it is very little to show for it. the last summit you had between president trump and kim jong un, not much came out of that, so if trump is not going to see a lot of achievements i think that is maybe why he stopped talking about it so much.

i think the policy is to pressure and isolate them as much as possible and to fight for denuclearization and trump said that they promised this to him. but that said, it feels like it is faltering. >> but people are warning the president about it. it is the third meeting that took place, but the summits have been taking place with very little to show for it, and they have been warning them about it, undermining the policy of engagement. >> i was not -- i didn't really believe that it was a big deal. to kim jong unit is a big deal. you two heads of state that

can't come to anything. of course they're not going to come to an agreement. you know, i just never really saw how it could go beyond that. for kim jong un now to command that i want sanctions by the end of the year or else, that is part of his threat to the christmas gift to the u.s. he likes tests and provocative measures. he thinks he has the upper hand and he doesn't. bob mcbrian said that there are other tools in the tool kit. now while that is true, there are other tools in the tool kit, when it comes to this issue and other national security issues, usually the u.s. government is picking the least bad option and military force is a bad option.

>> we'll see what happens tomorrow. let me switch gears to another topic, that is the conviction of five men for the killing of jap japan -- jamal kashoggi. >> the fact that this has been a sham or a mockery, right? they targeted these five wijss for seasons. tornado watch is not typical of even other autocratic countries.

they have the leadership of the master minds behind this, who authorized it, who ordered them go and do this. are they throwing people under the bus, right? are they going to say you are chon rated. this was also an extrajudicial killing, right? . and you don't seep it for anybody. for them to be extradited for turkey to be there. number one if there is a investigation into mohammed. so they don't get away with things like this, or exploiting twit tore place their spies

there. >> should be implications? >> i certainly think so. i understand why we had this "special relationship" with saudi arabia for as long as we have had, but i think we're at a opponent now that for the president to see the information now and see what are we getting out of there, it is not as much as we get from us. i think that it merits a review of that relationship. >> certainly something a lot of members of congress are calling for as well. >> they have also identified the soldier killed in afghanistan. michael j.gable died, he had a bronze star, the incident is under investigation. it brings the number killed this year to 20 more than died in the

nearly 18 year war in that country. coming up, troubles for tulsi. why the latest to 20 candidate is coming under attack. straight ahead. ad billions of mouths.

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so the buses have stopped rolling, the microphones off, and the campaigns are quiet for the potential last time. joe biden breaks from the trail in the most comfortable position. a solid 10 point lead over sanders. last week's debate it appears barely moved the needle at all, joining me now is michael hopkins, he worked on campaigns for hillary clinton and john delaney. they have a chance to recharge and redouble their efforts. andrew yang might be even further down. what changes can you make to get

out of the gate come thursday. >> you're going to be hoping that the focus will shift away from iowa and washington. because every day that is lost there, it is a day they can't recapture to have a breakthrough moment. in terms of the retooling message, the battleground states, starting with iowa, it is frankly not just poll movement, but when you get to february 3ed, it is likely you will look at sub freezing temperatures on caucus night. and they will come out to stand for those that they believe in. it is probably bad news for joe biden who has less passion going behind his base and support. better news for bernie sanders and mayor pete. so ir think the messages will be

the same. there was a segment about tulsi and her trivals. but i think all democratic contenders look at how the impeachment hearings go on. >> so you brought up sutulsi tulsi gabbard. she is not in the top six, but she topping the headlines consistently. but a democrat called fer her to resign from her seat in congress. she rented a home in new hampshire, she plimissed more t 85 vo 85% of votes, is this a fair criticism on is this a backlash by the accomplishment that has

not been staying in line and did not vote to impeachment president? >> i think it is absolutely fair. they let you know where they stood on the issue. it was just an abdication of her duty. so if she doesn't want to show up to do her job, if she doesn't want to do it, she should leave, she should quit. >> it seems that they have taken on the democratic accomplishment. how long do you think she can continue to stay in the race and does her presence shake things up a little bit? does it move the needle in one direction or another? >> i think her days are clearly numbered. it is described as the progressives and the centrists. and the impact they have on

that. it is not just who wins and who loses, but the cumulative vote. if you look at 2016, hillary clinton and bernie sanders are in a dead heat. i think that is the tail of the tape, a hope that someone like mike bloomberg might have. that there is a collapsing narrative for the centrist can diss and now they are looking for an alternative, that might be mike bloomberg on super tuesday. >> i want to bring in a business insider, let's talk about the diverse they has been the first to go. it is a political representation, if you will, from the more progressive wings,

and at the same time, we're not getting any diversity. how concerning is that. are we going to see a remergenc of someone like corey booker. >> i think we're seeing candidates like pete buttigieg roll out imkbrags plans. but certainly that was something that was a criticism towards the last debate that it was virtu virtually an all-white state version of andrew yang. i think it is early to say that diverse city going to continue to be an issue. so i could see candidates like corey booker reemerge as the iowa caucuses come up in the next few months.

i think that generally that is why bernie sanders and pete buttigi buttigieg, we're seeing candidates push out towards more diverse voting blocks. >> adam goodman, michael star hop kins, thank you very much for joining us. as you mentioned at the top of the hour, president trump has been talking to troops and is now taking questions from the press. >> and forgive me, i'm watching the president speaking now live from mar-a-lago. they took questions from reporters including on imetchment and it looks like they're walking out of the room,

and i'm narrating to you live, he took about six minutes of questions, but a couple of topics, let me get you the highlights here, if you want to play it back, he talks about impeachment. he is still going and yelling back to reporters, whether or not he thought nancy pelosi would hold the articles of impeachment. he talked about his poll numbers, he said that we believe, the white house, the republicans, he said that this will be up to senate republican leader mitch mcconnell to decide. they talked about hay, maybe we'll see some daylight and improvement from president trump, i'm not sure.

and another big story that could potentially happen this week is that north korea has been threatening a christmas gift. a holiday surprise, potentially in the next few days and weeks, that has military officials on edge and concerned that they will have a long range missile test over the holidays as his posture has become increasingly more antagonistic for the united states. the president said he is not worried about a christmas gift. he said maybe it will be a beautiful vase instead of a missile test. he said he will take that has it comes. he dismissed a question about president vladimir putin and russia. he said to him, about this propaganda essentially that the kremlin is trying to spread, that it is ukraine's fault, and as you know experts testified that the election interference was conducted and put on in a wide spread way.

the president dismissed that saying i don't know what you're talking about, you're putting words in my mouth, and he asked about a pardon for roger stone, and that was similar to what we heard from the president in the past. so this is something that the president did last year. we are seeing it again this year, and i think that it is not necessarily providing documents, but i should note that he also took questions on a part of the troops, and they asked what the president is getting the first lady for christmas, he said a card, love, and he is still working on a present.

>> he certainly has the resources to full off a present in the last few hours. as someone that travels with the president compared to what we see on his twitter rants. you get the sense that he issage stated by it, he is angry, he yells about it, he uses caps and exclamation points, but how would you judge his demeanor. aids will tell you when you have these conversations like i have, that the president different u doesn't yell and scream as people seem to think he does based on the impression that folks have of him on twitter.

he is not rallying donald trump the way we would see him at this keep america great rallies. where he is yelling to the ground, engaged, this is a back and forth with reporters. at times in the past, the president clearly doesn't feel like he has to be willing to move here. he feels like here, we have our position, and democrats felt luke they were in the reaction. the question is who blinks first. >> let me ask you about that point. who is driving the process on that side. you have mitch mcconnell talking a couple days ago on foxx news saying they're in line step by step with the white house coordinating this with the white house, do you get a sense that it is the white house telling

mitch mcconnell that we welcome witnesses or that goes the other way around. what is driving this process? >> he came on tv and he said. >> right, there are back channel explanations. that does not mean officials are willing to say this. similar to what you heard from the president, they want to at least -- and let me pull back, my analysis is that white house officials want to publicly make it seem like they are deferring to mitch mcconnell here, right? if they call and say we want x,

that will vm some weight. >> i'm going to let you prepare for your show at the top of the hour, more to talk about coming up. >> rudy giuliani unplugged. his defense for those who say he committed a crime, straight ahead. (vo) the moth without hope, struggles in the spider's web.

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so moments ago, the impeachment hitting the white house. rudy ghoiuliani is exhausting a options. he took shots at the southern district of new york's investigation into his nnl -- financial dealings, he claims that ma re yovanovitch, who was forced out of her job, joining me now is barbara mcquaid. good to have you with us, a very

good but disturbing into view there with rudy you'giuliani, w do you make of him trying to draw attention to anything but impeachment and going on what some are saying an anti-se metic attack. >> yeah, i read that interview and it was sad. he is clearly not the man that he needs to be. he really portrays a man that lost his faculties. i don't know how accurate the interview is, but it is astonishing to me that he is continuing, she a one-man wrecking ball. he says things that are embarrassing and legally harmful. maybe he likes the distraction of it all. people talking about rudy are not talking about president

trump's misconduct. it is the interview, he had ideas for going after the credibility of witnesses and asked if anyone has checked on the guy that overheard the telephone call suggesting that he didn't have his ear piece in and questioned his age, his hearing and whether he is a paranoid schizophrenic or even an alcoholic. does giuliani still have a chance at a role in representing president trump? i mean, what could possibly be the strategy of having somebody like giuliani on your side? because trump certainly supports him, he praises him whenever he gets a chance to. he doesn't distance himself from him. >> i would be surprised if rudy giuliani ends up in the senate trial. handling a trial like this requires an ability to marshal facts and make legal arguments that are thoughtful and i don't see rudy giuliani having the ability to do that. i think what rudy giuliani does best is play offense and go on

television and talk about bombastic things. president trump thinks the more you're attacking and counterpunching, the more you're winning, so i can see giuliani being the pr man and talking on television. >> quickly, giuliani says he has some evidence to back up his claims and trying to muddy the waters. is he going to have an impact, politically speaking, on the 2020 race with the kind of information he's trying to spew out there? >> i don't know. if there's evidence, let's see it. but the other thing about rudy giuliani is if there really were some legitimate corruption that were occurring in ukraine relating to the bidens, there is a formal process for dealing with that. the fbi has relationships with his counterparts in every country in the world that is an ally. there's something called mutual assistance treat he's that allow

us to secure documents and witness testimony to put together a case if it exists. you don't hire a private attorney to go talk with some people to try to gather that information. it's not the most effective way to do it. >> thank you so much. happy holidays to you, barbara. thanks. >> same to you. >> a spring of climate events have changed the world. al roker takes a look back at some of the most powerful weather events that impacted the climate in 2019. >> reporter: when you're talking temperature, 2019 was one for the record books. this was the hottest july ever for the planet. five countries hit all-time national heat records. hottest month ever, not just july. across the globe, the hottest june, july, and september. and the second hottest august, october and november in recorded history. i travelled to southeastern

greenland where the arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. that heat melting glaciers, sea ice and greenland's ice sheet, which lost 12.5 billion tons of ice in a single day. something scientists didn't expect to happen for at least another 50 years. the extent of ice melt here in greenland will actually help determine just how high sea levels will rise. all this ice that's fallen off has been since we've gotten here. we've been hearing it and seeing it falling off and it's going into the ocean. what happens? >> we are on the first step of a domino effect. >> because what happens in the arctic doesn't stay in the arctic. >> we've only had about 7 inches of sea rise globally in the last century. doesn't sound like much, but it's already profoundly shifting the frequency and intensity of

coastal flooding. >> those rising sea levels and warmer oceans fueling more powerful hurricanes like dorian, which devastated the bahamas. and wildfires, alaska, 2.5 million acres burnt. >> the link between climate change and drought and wildfires is very, very strong. >> in the amazon rainforest in brazil, wildfires caused by slash and burn techniques raged at a record rate, triggering worldwide concern over the fate of the rainforest. one of the biggest absorbers of carbon on the planet. we hit a record of 415 parts per million of carbon dioxide, a new record high. the winds right now gusting at over 55-60 miles per hour. >> reports will climate and predictions for the future.

the u.n. announcing there could be as little as 12 years for humans to mit grate catastrophic global warming. their recommendation, burning fewer fossil fuels, changing the way we produce food and planting a billion trees. australia downgrading their outlook for the great barrier reef from poor to very poor. and the national audobon society said that global warming threatens two-thirds of birds in the united states with ex extinction. and it's threatening a way of life for an entire group of people we visited in alaska. >> the ice is not forming as it used to. much thinner, more dangerous. >> but in the midst of all these records and reports and disasters, perhaps 2019 will be remembered as the year the

climate movement reached critical mass for a planet that's on thin ice. al roker, nbc news. >> wow, a sombering report there from my colleague, al roker. coming up, those super popular dna tests could pose a major security threat. the warning from the pentagon this morning. hi, i'm dave. i supply 100% farm-fresh milk for lactaid. it's real milk, just without the lactose, so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive.

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sending it back for more news to florida with my friend, hallie jackson. >> aman, thank you. good morning from a windy west palm beach. where i'm on a siebment covering president trump, where he is making news, telling reporters at mar-a-lago he thinks he's in a good position ahead of a senate impeachment trial. publicly leaving it up to mitch mcconnell to figure out how this plays out. but democrats want something else this christmas eve, not gifts but the presence of white house officials at a trial. chuck schumer says mitch mcconnell is, quote, hiding the truth. so with the president making his position clear and speaker pelosi not budging on her next step, refusing to send articles of impeachment to the senate until she knows what a trial would look like, all signs point to negotiations. i've got a team to break down the developments. we've got white house correspondent and politico's congressional brew chief and we