i am paul gigot. all eyes on george as we await president trump's appearance tonight and rally for republican senate candidates. the much-anticipated visit to the peach state coming as control of the u.s. senate hangs in the ballots. as the president continues to press his claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. what should we expect when president trump takes the stage tonight? what is at stake in the pair of ronettes scheduled for january 5? dan henninger and columnist, kim strassel and bill. bill, where do these races stand? bill: the polls that are out show they are pretty close. i think that close but we had an editorial suggesting that if they don't win, donald trump be blamed. i would say the president has a greater interest in almost anyone seen these republicans win. one is, he's going to get blamed if they lose. second, immigrants promised basically to be the anti- trump, undo all his stuff and they will resort to really radical steps like abolishing the filibuster or packing

paul: yeah. and, kyle, this does put the republicans in a position in the house, certainly, to be able to retalk it because -- retake it in 2022, because new mexico city pelosi -- nancy pelosi only has about a 10-seat majority which doesn't give her much room to maneuver in the house. >> right. and it definitely puts them in a position as well this coming year, this next two years to push the legislation in the house in a better direction. you know, a 10-vote majority by nancy pelosi is a whole different ball game than if it's 20 or 30 votes. gives her a lot more room to maneuver. paul: all right. let's turn to dan. you've got your own big with story, what is it? >> well, my big story, paul, are the protests that ensued after the death of george floyd while he was being arrested in minneapolis on may 25th. after that we had extraordinary protests across the country, cities, scores of cities, and it was accompanied, indeed, in many cities by looting and violence. stores, businesses were ransacked.

paul. you meet paul where? >> i met paul at his house in glen cove. >> reporter: jurors heard him tell police his version of what happened the night of the murder. >> so he gets in your red blazer. who's driving, you or him? >> i was driving. we were driving up toward where his residence was, where catherine still lived. >> reporter: sherwood said paul told him to park about a mile away from catherine's house and wait in the car. >> about how long is he gone from the car? >> over an hour. >> and what does he say when he gets in the car? he said "it's done." he had said that the chloroform didn't work, "i had to strangle her," and something about hitting the gas line to ignite. >> so you knew the house was on fire? >> yes. >> reporter: as scott sherwood's story played in the courtroom, the prosecutors pointed out how remarkably similar it was to michelle lafrance's. >> did he say where he strangled her? where in the house. >> in the basement. >> reporter: prosecutors felt these matching stories were powerful but

this is bloomberg. ♪ paul: i am paul allen in sydney. we are counting down to asia's major market open. kathleen: i am kathleen hays in new york. welcome to "bloomberg markets: asia." jack ma go back to its roots as a simple payment pr

paul: dan. dan: i am giving a very tiny almost microscopic hit to oregon, portland, oregon mayor ted wheeler, he became famous during the protest this summer while mayhem and anarchy roared across to portland for doing basically nothing. this week he allowed the police to move in on a house in a black neighborhood that have been an armed occupation for three months and allowed them to clear it out. i would not say portland has cleared the corner but at least the intersections being cleared. paul: remember if you have your own hit or miss be sure to tweet it to us on fnc. that is it for this week show, thinking to my panel into all of you for watching i am paul i hope to see her next week. ♪ ♪ ♪ lou: breaking news, president trump is calling on the fbi to go after former leaders james comey and andrew mccabe for their roles in trying to subvert his presidency. the president tweeted this: andrew mccabe was exposed for who he is today in the u.s. senate. he was totally destroyed, an ignorant

paul: all right. kyle. kyle: a hit to alexander in a week of heated congressional debates, republican, 80-year-old ray hogan sat down at a piano in the atrium of senate office building and played christmas carols, hark the herald angels sing, the crowd gathered and then the democrat tim kaine came out with the harmonica and the two of them did a duet ago telling on the mountain. just a little bit of christmas spirit in a town not known for that sort of thing. senator alexander is retiring in january, a nice way for him to leave town. paul: dan. dan: fasten your seatbelt, folks. i'm about to give a hit to representative alexandria ocasio-cortez. that's right, aoc. a podcast this week, she said she thought it was time for nancy pelosi to step aside and give the younger generation shot at the top. i agree with that whether it's the presidency, senate or house of representatives. the school of thought aoc would like to get out of the house and move up to the senate in which case chuck schumer, call your fundrai

paul: yeah. lemonis: i want to summarize the debt, as i understand it. it's made up of bank loans, legal bills, the build-out loan for this place, taxes, and payables. you said that you -- man: ah, farrell's crowd, look this way! 'cause i got something very important to say! lemonis: so, the total amount of debt... [ drums beating ] you want to hear something funny? that's the reason people don't come back here. shauna: i know it is. lemonis: it's actually annoying. it can be done in a more elegant way. i don't want to come here and enjoy a meal if it's not my birthday, 'cause i don't want to listen to that nine times. $1,940,000 is the total debt for this entire company, and you have no cash. i mean, it's just -- it's like a train wreck. paul: yeah. lemonis: out of their five locations, three are making money, generating profits of just over $600,000 last year. but when you look at the two remaining locations, their losses take that profit down to just about $250,000. and then you factor in serv

paul: yeah. bill, you know, there's a lot of people now who are saying on the republican side bill barr should appoint a special counsel to investigation this now. obviously, with the biden administration coming in. do you agree with that? >> no, i as you know, or i'm not a fan of special comes -- [laughter] so -- counsels, so i don't think he should. he's also being create sized for not -- criticized for not leaking news of this investigation, but his job isn't to leak news. actually, his job is to not leak. so i think that's a mistake, and i think, as kim said, i think that the justice department did the right thing in this case. but the press not only ignored the stories, they deliberately ignored it. they turned their backs on it. they wouldn't examine things, and they gave joe biden softballs. i mean, when he was first asked about husband son's role on burisma -- his son's role on burisma, ukrainian energy company, when he had no background in ukraine or energy, you know, he basically said m

deal this is like oh i meant $250.00 but the $250000000000.00 for paul tudor jones is the way you and i would think about lunch money right now i mean but that's that's who is now attracted to the big coin universe and that's what he's saying is that you know it should be $8910.00 trillion dollars in value because it is para pursue with gold and i through use that word purpose to appeal to paul tudor jones because those are wall street guy i know he likes to hear words like purposes because it sounds so frickin elegantly european banker like and so yeah we're going to 500000 going of course and you know i like i was saying guys like nuria roubini it's not that he's wrong anymore because clearly he is wrong but he's become humiliated in that sat he's he's become humiliated shell of himself desperately spewing nonsense into the wind that's because he's an academic and academics can afford to fight the market the markets can be wrong in their mind because it doesn't match their paper so the bankers like larry fink and hedge fund managers like paul tudor jones cannot fight the market pric

paul: well, i would like to hope so. the thing to say is also about the biden team and generally the ground shift, i believe we are going to have a brief, hopefully not too brief, period of euphoria once there is a vaccine, but underlying, we are still in an economy work we are only able to achieve full employment with very low interest rates and with substantial deficits, so the need for some kind of basically continuing fiscal stimulus over the medium-term and of course the need for lots of public investment -- infrastructure, climate change, education -- all of those things will remain. so the case for a much more market, but also prob let's fill in where the market doesn't do it -- attitude on the part of government can i would like to think it has been vindicated by events over the past few years including the pandemic. joe: we don't know who is going to control the senate, but it is very plausible that it will be republican-controlled, in which case passing anything will be very difficult, which is leading people t

senator son, rand paul. rand paul has been, of course, publicly entertaining the idea of becoming the republican senator who would be needed in the congress to join with trump-supporting republican members of the house to sabotage the electoral vote count that proved -- to formalize the fact that joe biden beat trump in the presidential election. rand paul has been publicly ruminating about how he might be the senator to join in that contest, to join in that effort to screw up the electoral vote count. and apparently at that same time, he's been advocating for a pardon for the guy who helped bribe his dad into better political prospects in the 2012 republican presidential primary. see, it's all very clean. it's all the best people. and definitely everybody who's telling donald trump what he wants to hear right now about how he didn't really lose the election, and there's definitely ways that he could definitely get a second term and this whole biden won thing is all a ruse, it's definitely not the case that

paul? paul: let's get more on the markets now. look at how the u.s. relief bill may help. expected impact to be limited. great to have you on the show again, we have that stimulus bill that passed just waiting for the president's signature now. markets rather tepid in response. you do wonder whether that stimulus is a, enough, and b is it getting to where it needs to go. >> both of those, paul. in addition to that, the question is, is it coming very late? they have gone around for several months about how much they have amount should be and who should get the benefit and now it is underwell. ing. we are talking about $600 per adult, maybe $,200, one shot farc married couple who do not have a high enough income. but thereafter you're talking about $300 per month of unemployment ben 23i9 from the federal side and given that many of these households have had to get into debt and they have been without income and employment for several months, i simply don't think this is going to be enough. we

you soe: paul, thank much. paul donovan from ubs wealth management, we will talk about the bank of england, pboc, and i hope to get to stoxx shortly. hour, we later this talk about the state of european banking and his outlook for 2021. this is bloomberg. ♪ francine: vladimir putin, russia's president, at his year newsd of the conference. this is an annual event. we can see a bit more socially distant reporters attending inappropriately masked. have speaking engagements this year, a remote one, due to the pandemic. of course, journalists will be appearing together, as you can see. what we are expecting, you know, or a lot of questions on foreign affairs, on joe biden, the new administration, and maybe russia's handling of the coronavirus, as new cases, i believe, have surpassed 25,000 today. bank of england making a final positive decision of the year today. the central bank is expected to see policy unchanged for now. still with us, paul donovan of ubs wealth management. brexit,en you look at what does it me

timothy: thank you so much, paul. well, since you and i are both lawyers, i will approach this in l argument, in the way the anti slavery constitutional did, and i want to emphasize, this is an aspect of american history that has been unfortunately downplayed to the point that a lot of people, including law students, graduate from school unaware that there even was a tradition of pro-constitution, anti-slavery thought in the years leading up to the civil war. the foremost famous of this being fredericton, close but he wasn't the only one. even john quincy adams, or charles sumner, or chase were to one degree or another were adherence to this pro-constitution anti slavery view, and unfortunately, today's history distorts the record by emphasizing the abolitionist which was the group of , abolitionist who thought the constitution was an evil pro slavery document, and therefore it should be abolished. these people had very little influence on american political and legal development in the civil war era, and i think it's

paul: i am paul allen in sydney. we are counting down to asia's major market open. kathleen: i am kathleen hays in new york. welcome to "bloomberg markets: asia." jack ma go back to its roots as a simple payment mustder, pboc says ant rectify [indiscernible] tokyo, nationals and foreign residents are no longer exempt from a 14 day quarantine. democrats plan a house debate monday on bigger covid relief checks pushed by president trump. republicans are unhappy with higher government spending. paul: let's take a look at markets. u.s. futures coming online and we see them ease off a little, as the future of stimulus in the united states hangs in the balance, with president trump refusing to sign that bipartisan bill from congress, over the size of the checks that will go to individuals. futures off .3%. nikkei futures as well. the u.s. dollar catching a bit against the yen. now.8 crude moving to the downside, it off .75% as.23, now uncertainty swirls around stimulus. kathleen: jack ma's ant group has been halted by regulators and told to return to its roots as a provide

paul had seven grandchildren. christine predeceased paul. i just want to talk a moment about the partnership between senator sarbanes and senator mikulski. they had different styles. i think most people would acknowledge that from the beginning, that paul was very much stately and represents the traditional, i guess, misdemeanor that you would expect from a united states senator, and i love barbara mikulski, but no one would ever accuse her of having that type of misdemeanor. but the two of them are an incredible relationship together. they were called the diner democrats because paul's father's family ran a diner, and barbara mikulski's family ran mikulski's bakery, as we all know. they worked together in true partnership over so many years. it was a friendship that was really one of total trust and respect. and i had a chance to communicate with senator mikulski and she, because of covid, cannot be with us to join us tonight, but i would ask unanimous consent that her statement be made part of the record of these proceedings. the presiding

orthodox economic thinking is from the white ivory towers of you know of the new york times of the paul krugman of the nobel economist of the rhodes scholars like rachel maddow so they only have those who confirm all their bias and stuff like that so we have been open to people who aren't experts who aren't snowball economists who aren't rude scholars who are brave and. heterodox thinkers and just doers and entrepreneurs and building companies and building systems like you were like some harvard economist ph d. who then went and created the hollywood stock exchange you were an entrepreneur so you know there is a certain difference between an expert who is an expert like a rhodes scholar a nobel economist and an expert who who's like elon musk or max keiser just build stuff and doesn't achieve stuff so there is a huge difference between experts in their orthodox thinking and expert and heterodox thinking well i'm trying to make it easy for them i mean they can call me an expert if they wish and that be fully qualified to be termed in such a way but yes whether steve jobs max pfizer we're

paul castellano was the boss. [newsreader] paul castellano, the boss of the gambino family, identified as the man who presides over commission meetings. the boss of all bosses. he had one rule, no drugs, the penalty was death. you had to say paul castellano was a business man. he was not a showy, flashy guy with a pinky ring. kept a low profile and it was really about maximizing his control over legitimate businesses. [newsreader] next in line were 20 capos, or captains, the skippers who ran the crews of soldiers. [bruce mouw] when we first started investigations into the gambino family we identified all the players. we also identified a rising star a then-captain named john gotti. he may have been just a street kid from the bronx, but he had wild ambition from the start. he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted and what he wanted was power, even if that meant breaking the cardinal rule of his own clan. he didn't care. john gotti inspired a lot of loyalty from his crew and because of that he felt comfortable

living in rhode island can identify with does my vote matter paul go ahead. what's been. reported margin in georgia. under 20000 votes it's very very very you vote absolutely true. yeah the population is measured in people and the map is measured in acres so i think that that's where the majority really doesn't rule but you've heard the president he barely took a breath for most of an hour when he phoned in to fox news saying this election was rigged this election was a total fraud disappointed as they may be by the presidential outcome people i see posting on your blog that you tell me texas dot com are cheering the republican down ballot wins including the $36.00 new republican women in congress $33.00 of them just elected so paul which is it if trump calls the election bogus isn't he disqualifying the entire vote or do you make room for the possibility the trump's tweets and antics just got old with a lot of republicans and make room for the possibility that the normans number of ballots or them are for elections were marked only in the presidential race and none of th

that's right, let's meet your obsessed opponent, paul feeno! hi, paul. >> hi, how are you? >> jimmy: say hello to miley. >> hi, high lrks i how are you? >> i hope you haven't lived your life doing everything that i do. it's very controversial, some of those activities. [ laughter ] >> it could definitely get me in a bit of trouble. but it's totally worth it. >> jimmy: paul, does your mom cut your hair? >> no. >> jimmy: okay, all right. >> my mom can cut yours. >> oh my god, please, would she? >> it would look sickening on you. >> jimmy: paul, i want to show a photo, this is paul's first convert as a young boy. you were headed to see miley where? >> hannah montana best of both worlds tour. it was the moment. it honestly was the moment. >> jimmy: all right, well listen, this is the moment. this is where it all happens. this game is very simple. i will ask a series of questions about miley cyrus, if you know the answer to the questions, i was thinking you'd hold up a shoe, but miley, you don't have any shoes. >> oh. >> jimmy: okay, good, great. >> i got it. >> jimmy: all right

>> it would look sickening on you. >> jimmy: paul, i want to show a photo, this is paul's first convert as a young boy. you were headed to see miley where? >> hannah montana best of both worlds tour. it was the moment. it honestly was the moment. >> all right, well, listen, this is the moment, this where are it all happens. this game is very simple. i will ask a series of questions about miley cyrus, if you know the answer to the questions, i was thinking you would holdup a shoe, but miley you don't have any shoes. >> they say miley. >> we love. >> i play games but i don't play games. you know? >> yeah. >> whoever raises the shoe first, i will call on. a correct answer is worth ten points if you are wrong your opponent gets a chance to steal, here we go. are you ready? >> i will not know any of this, i have smoke lot of weed, buttock. >> jimmy: miley. >> it's a dream catcher. >> it is, you have to raise your shoe, paul. you have to raise your shoe. for god's sake. do you have a shoe? >> i'm sorry. >> jimmy: all right, here we go. how many tattoo does miley currently have? paul? >> 27. >

and end this information whereas over at the new york times paul krugman said big queen is a ponzi scheme and it's inferior to the dollar because the dollar he said his words is backed by men with guns rachel maddow also she never told you about because she never told you about how to liberate yourself and she instead was telling you that we are a benevolent empire and back us we're going to invade yemen and save the women and children there we're going to invade syria and save the women and children there we're going to invade libya everywhere like it's all about violence and relentless pessimism that they sell you this whole time i think about this for a 2nd so we started talking about decline of the dollar back in 2011 we've been pushing it telling people about a 10 dollars 300 dollars 2000 dollars 10000 dollars it's still a buy at these new all time high prices and the new york times washington post a.b.c. c.n.n. were all pushing their rusa phobic conspiracy theories and dissuading folks from watching our show as a result many people around the world mexico latin america asia everywhe

the president has just pardoned paul manafort. paul manafort is a name that's been in the headlines for ai long time. he's one of the come padres of roger stone. he served as trump's former campaign manager. the president has just pardoned him as well. i hate to interrupt you, but this just came across the nbc news desk. so, what do you make of this latest pardon? >> well, this is just one of his many pardons on the start, all abusive because what he's doing is either benefitting cronies or trying to excite his base. what i should point out about this pardon though is it's not a pardon that wipes out manafort's conviction. it's a pardon that's after conviction. so, his conviction stands. but now his rights been restored. and if we has any more prison time to do, then that i take it is being commuted by this pardon. >> so, also more breaking news, also on the name of the president's latest pardons is roger stone, who is a long-time partner of paul manafort and charlie kushner. why might that name sound familiar? he is, of course, t

he's trying to erase the mueller investigation with pardon of paul manafort. his former campaign manager serving seven and a half years for numerous financial crimes including tax and bank fraud. he also pardoned roger stone. his longtime friend and adviser after already commuting his sentence earlier this year for lying to congress and witness tampering, but manafort and stone join the others connected to the mueller probe including michael flynn, who have now all been pardoned. along with manafort and stone trump yesterday also pardoned his son-in-law's father, charles kushner. the 66-year-old kushner was convicted of tax evasion and retaliating against a witness. that witness happened to be his own brother-in-law whom kushner admitted he tried to entrap with a prostitute in order to blackmail him against his wife. charles kushner's sister, cooperating with the state. does that make sense? it's complicated. here the chris christie, who was the attorney who prosecuted kushner describing the crime. >> i just think it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted. i m

paul manafort, the black book turned out to be a fraud. pa >> have you thought about pardons or commutations at all? >> i'm always thinking.

paul: good morning, i'm paul allen in sydney. we are counting down to asia's major market opens. shery: i'm shery ahn in new york. u.s. lawmakers cleared the last significant obstacle to a new relief deal. mitch mcconnell confirmed the agreement being reached, meaning the $900 billion draft can move to a vote. the u.k. faces christmas chaos with london under tough new virus restrictions and europe closing the door to british travelers and brags it is just days away with no deal in sight. -- brexit is just days away with no deal insight. beijing says washington has abused export controls to suppress foreign business. we have just opened up for trade for the new week in australia. to sophie in hong kong for a check on what's going on. sophie. sophie: we have a change slightly to the upside after its worst session as this sydney outbreak weighed on sentiment. at the index managed a weekly gain and they don't see the pickup and virus cases derailing the performance of aussie stocks next year. the aussie dollar holding above pressure, falling this morning. mightrains of the virus hamp

a service is under way at st paul's cathedral to mark the end a service is underway at st paul's cathedral to mark the end of national grief awareness week and remember those who've lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic. hello. it's being called v day, the long—awaited start of the uk's vaccination programme. at half past six this morning at a hospital in coventry, 90—year—old maggie keenan made history when she became the first person in the uk to be given a coronavirus vaccine outside a clinical trial, and that wasjust the beginning. in the hours since then, hundreds more people have been given the jab as the national health service's biggest vaccination campaign gets underway. borisjohnson has thanked health workers and scientists, but urged the public to remain cautious. uk has an initial supply of 800,000 vaccines to be given over the next few weeks to people on the high priority list, including the over—80s, care home workers and nhs staff. 50 hospitals in england have been chosen as vaccination "hubs", sites where the jab will be administered. in scotland, there will

paul sarbanes kept his course. he was unyou aed by opinion -- unawed by opinion, unseduced by flattery and undismayed by disaster. he instinctively knew that america was not like a blanket. one size, one shape, one texture or one color. but rather and instead he realized that the america that we all love is so much more like a quilt. different shapes, different sizes, different

paul: and i'm paul allen in sydney. asia's major markets have just open for trade. our top stories this hour -- investors assess the virus relief bill in washington with congress to go to in the coming hours. it ends months of deadlock as lawmakers had home for the holidays. bloomberg has crunched the numbers on the best him worst places to ride out the coronavirus and some results are rather surprising. the u.s. hits china with new restrictions over alleged human rights abuses. secretary of state mike pompeo says they are tied to repression in that. shery: japan and south korea coming online. let's get to the market action. headed japanese stocks for a third day of losses. we are keeping and i on robo advisor state news -- in tokyo it was the biggest ipo for the exchange this year. the yen staying at little changed. they are likely to see range bound trade and macy recovery after the issuance included an increase in the 40 years own. let's check on the open in south korea where the prime minister has said the government is to close ski resorts from christmas eve to

paul is the director of the thomas a. row institute for dmek policy studies at the heritage foundation. prior to returning to heritage, paul served as the deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. he was also the deputy director of the domestic policy council and the director of budget policy. all at the white house. paul also chaired the deputies committee that oversaw the execution of all domestic policy at the deputy secretary level throughout the entire administration as well as interagency policy coordination. paul led the team responsible for the office of management and budget. at the white house, paul was responsible for develop and executing the president's executive order to establish a comprehensive plan for reorganizing the executive branch. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your moderator, paul winfrey. >> thank you for that introduction. i'm joined today by sam greg who you already heard from and jim otison, the john t. ryan professor of business ethics at the university of notre dame. as sam

paul: i'm paul allen in sydney. asia's major markets just opened for trade. story, an agreement between london and brussels that includes an agreement on fishing, but it could collapse. in the u.s., much of southern new england headed for new curbs. and china aims to rely on domestic consumption to insulate the economy from external shocks, however household spending recovery seems to be uneven. with check market action soul coming online, sophie kamaruddin. regional index up 14% this year with pandemic pieces. up, by the most since 2009. the yen little changed after halting a three-day drop. jgb is moving lower. let's check south korea, the be ok set to release its financial stability report follows that following the policy board meeting. it is not related to a right decision. trading the korean yuan at 11 no six, the kospi adding he, dws's sean taylor saying is liking old economy cyclicals in south korea. this morning you have australia early, zealand closing stocks rising to fresh highs in wellington, asx in wellington .1%, u.s. futures pointing higher wh

matt: paul, thank you for joining us. paul markham from newton investment management. coming up, as investors continue -- wech crypto foam a will discuss that next. this is bloomberg. ♪ this is bloomberg etf iq europe, everything you need to know about the funds and the flows. i'm matt miller. point has made all kinds of records lately, crossing the $20,000 mark and then $25,000 just days later. sunday.on in europe, crypto etf's have been taking advantage. simone, what is the scale of the european crypto market? simone: matt, a year ago we were at less than one billion euros of crypto exchange rated products. now the top four crypto exchange rated products are about -- are worth about 2 billion euros. this of course led by bitcoin tracker eur based in sweden, the largest crypto exchange rated product around the world, but in fact there are six products that all have more than 100 million euros apiece. those are based in switzerland, germany, and in sweden. simone foxman talking to us about the big bitcoin runoff. let's round off an eventful year by hearing from some

paul manafort was convicted as pa rt paul manafort was convicted as part of the special council enquiry into russian interference in the presidential election of 2016. he had previously commuted roger stone's offence for the criminal offence of lying to congress under oath. lets go live to our north america correspondent. how is all this going down? this all underlines the president's determination to eradicate the prosecutions that resulted from the special council's investigation into russian interference on the 2016 presidential election. mr trump has railed against that enquiry, of course, consistently, calling it a hoax and now, he has announced pardons of further people that we re pardons of further people that were prosecuted as a result of that investigation. you mentioned there paul manafort, the former campaign chairman, one of three campaign chairman that donald trump had, and paul ma nafort that donald trump had, and paul manafort a short while ago tweeted this, saying mr president, my family and i humbly thank you for the presidential pardon you have bestowed upon me, words

so, there still -- there still are consequences to paul manafort. they're just not commensurate with the extensive criminality that he was convicted of and pled guilty to. >> and, andrew, i was just re-reading an operative section in your book, which i have right here. and the pardons were not some abstraction during your investigation and dealings with paul manafort. they played a central role and, in fact, during the whole process, even after he was convicted and was supposed to be cooperating with you, you felt that he was angling for a pardon. behaving in a way, to get a pardon. lying to you, in some cases, you felt, to get a pardon. >> absolutely. and i think evan got it exactly right. which is, the president used his pardon power during the investigation, in order to thwart cooperation. in other words, for people who are thinking they should cooperate with us because, otherwise, they might spend a long time in jail. this president was saying, not so fast because if you hold fast and you don't do what michael cohen did, you will get a pardon. a

. >> let's go to the source, chief meteorologist, paul heggen, good night, paul. >> yes, those chances go up and up, and it is basically 100% chance of rain on christmas day. it is going to bring. let's take a look at future cast between now and then. first we will see a gradual increase in cloud cover, a few high clouds the day tomorrow, filtering the sun. and more clouds and sunshine on thursday, some of the forecast model data now hinting at a few showers trying to make a run, at least towards the coast, by late thursday afternoon. that is christmas eve afternoon. a lot of this is going to evaporate, but we will keep an eye on it, making sure you don't have to adjust any christmas eve plans. dismissed a plans? anything outdoors, keep a plan b in mind. we will track that rain, starting to approach the coast, by late morning. some showers sneaking into the northbay by late morning, and the bay will make its way in as we head toward early afternoon, with that really spreading out as we head farther into the day. this is going to continue into christmas day evening and overnight. we wil

paul, thank you so much. and don't forget, we have loads of content relating to disability at bbc 0uch!, which you can find at bbc.co.uk/ouch. also, a reminder that clicker 20, a live celebration, is happening this thursday at 1230 gmt. exciting! and if you want to be in our live online audience, then do send us a direct message via twitter or instagram at @bbclick. and later in the week, we'll be sharing a link for you all to click on if you'd all like to watch. that is it for this week, though. thanks so much for watching and we we'll see you soon. bye— bye. well, the chilly weather is here to stay for the next few days. it's not desperately cold but certainly cold enough for some of that snow to still hang around in the hills and the mountains. for most of us, sunday is actually going to be quite a bright day and, yes, a few showers in the forecast. low pressure is close by so hence there will be a fair bit of cloud in places from the morning onwards. but more significantly we still have that current of