was asked about this and asked whether he supported moving the military money to the border wall, and he said, yes, he does, because defending the southern border is also part of protecting the homeland and getting support from the cabinet members. brooke. >> jessica, thank you. thank you for being with me. i'm brooke baldwin and "the lead with jake tapper" starts now. beginning the final chapter of impeachment and the final showdown before iowa, slow news day. "the lead" starts now. about to get served. minutes ago the senate majority leader announcing when the impeachment trial could begin as speaker pelosi says she is going to hand over the articles tomorrow. tonight is tonight live on cnn and the last debate before the first votes, and it is coming as the feud between two candidates with similar fan bases could erupt on stage, plus, the shifting stories on the iran strike that the trump administration is going from the

attack was imminent to, no, no, this is part of the long-term this is part of the long-term strategy. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com welcome to "the lead." and a huge 24 hours ahead in the trump presidency. and nancy pelosi is set to send the articles of impeachment to the senate tomorrow and hold a vote on which lawmakers will manage the impeachment case. mitch mcconnell expects the senate trial to start tuesday. hours from now, the democratic presidential candidates will take the stage in iowa for the des moines register debate and the final showdown before the final actual iowa caucuses, 20 days from now. the polls are indicate nag the caucuses are essentially a jump ball at this point, and these two stories are about to collide, because three of tonight's debate participants are senators, who will be jurors in the coming trial, and they will need to be in washington,

not on the campaign trail. and potentially the first fight they and their senate colleagues are going to wage is whether the senate and the american people are going to hear from additional witnesses. democrats are arguing that if the president has nothing to hide then the white house should want the officials such as john bolton or mick mulvaney to testify, but the democrarepublie warning the democrats be careful what you wish for. kaitlan collins has this report. >> reporter: after waiting nearly a month, nancy pelosi says that the house will wait until wednesday to send the impeachment charges to the senate against the president. >> and there is a full consent of the caucus that those articles of impeachment will be transmitted to the senate. >> reporter: following a closed-door meeting with the caucus, pelosi issued a statement saying that the american people deserve the truth and the constitution demands a trial. but there are still questions about what that trial will look like. pelosi offering no hints today about which democratic lawmakers

she'll choose to serve as prosecutors and announcing that, too, will have to wait for tomorrow. >> that is a question to be addressed by speaker pelosi. >> the vote is going to kick off trump's long-awaited trial in a matter of days. >> next tuesday. >> reporter: and jump starting a clash of the republicans and the democrats over the demands to include new witnesses and evidence. >> there is no constitutional exception, for a house majority with a short attention span. >> reporter: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell argued against both. >> the house cannot be so robust that it was enough to impeach in the first place and also so weak that the senate needs to go fishing. >> reporter: but after the white house blocked the house democrats from gaining access to crucial witnesses and key documents. >> who has ever heard of a trial without witnesses and documents. >> reporter: democrats say it is necessary for a fair trial. >> and these witnesses by the way are not what republicans say they are democratic plants.

they are the people appointed by president trump. >> reporter: as moderate republican senators debate whether to include the witnesses, the president's allies are warning that it can go both ways. >> i think that if we want to have a fair trial and witnesses from everyone that would include hunter biden, joe biden and really the whistle-blower. >> and the white house aides are insisting that trump is not worried about new witnesses and despite he is going to invoke presidential privilege against former national security adviser john bolton. >> and i hate to talk about hypotheticals here, but the president is not afraid of a fight. >> and now, jake, if the trial is started tuesday as mcconnell predicted earlier, the president is slated to be out of the country, and slated to go to the economic forum in switzerland and while he canceled it due to the white house shutdown, we know that, jake, this is a president who does not like to travel out of the country anyway, and certainly not when

there is big news about him. >> and kaitlan collins, thank you so much for that report. and now, a listen again of what majority mcconnell said on the senate floor today about the democrats. >> the house democrats' case cannot simultaneously be so robust that it is enough to impeach in the first place and also so weak that the senate needs to go fishing. if the existing case is strong, there's no need for the judge and the jury to reopen the investigation. >> how do the democrats counter that? >> mitch mcconnell is so smart to be such an obvious hypocrite here. he knows that the white house prevented people from testifying in the house. he knows that the house had no choice but to go forward without testimony from key witnesses. and that a key witness namely the former national security

adviser josh bolton has offered to come and give more information to the senate. so i think that it is just theater that he is doing, and obviously, look, we have to own it, and theater that the democrats are doing, too, and, you know, the american people need to see that it is the republicans at this point trying to keep information from them. >> are republicans going to be able to prevent the witnesses, and seems like a majority support for the witnesses out there in the polling indicates and also republican senators who say they want to hear the witnesses. >> obviously, we need 51 members of the senate to make that decision, but the overall consensus from those in the senate, they want to hear, and let's hear the case and hear both sides and at that point make a decision of whether or not we want to hear more witnesses, but to hillary's point, the reality is that if nancy pelosi was so certain about these articles of impeachment, and she was so certain it is time to pass these articles, then she would be rushing to the senate to put it on the floor and the fact that

she delayed it for three weeks in my mind says she was not confident with this, and her idea and her decision to slow roll this has really backfired. she is one of the most strategic people in washington, and for her to slow roll it to this degree was a calculated gamble, but she did not win. >> karngs i karen, i know that to play with this, but listen to the exchange, because it is on point to what was said. and manu raja talked about this specifically with nancy pelosi about holding it weeks on weeks. >> why did she ultimately say that she released the articles if they are not going to have a fair trial? >> well, she is going to be doing, and you know, she has thought about it carefully in conjunction with the committee chairs who have been responsible for this, and she will, you know, make her case and proceed forward. >> i didn't get an answer there,

really. what did pelosi accomplish here? >> what are we talking about right now, whether or not there should be witnesses, and this is what we are talking about for several week, and looking at the poll, 7 in 10 americans think that the president should let the people come forward and those who were not able to testify in the house proceedings and testify. they have important information, and we know that. and the only reason to not let them come forward is because you have something to hide, and i guarantee you that is what a lot of people think that we have all watched the crime shoppes and they all tell you that when the person does not testify in their own behalf, what are they hiding. in this instance, trump, because he has penchant for lying, it is hard for them to make a credible argument as to why not have john bolton go ahead to testify, and there are certainly things that you can hold confidences and protect the national security and that does not mean that you can't answer a simple question like, did you say, and i forget about the quote of it being a drug deal or what have you, and

what is wrong with being asked that question. >> what about the idea of the republicans saying, and 1078 republicans are saying, okay, maybe witnesses, and that means that we get to call the witnesses, too, and rand paul say hunter biden and joe biden and the whistle-blower. >> i am mystified by pelosi's plan on this. the house controlled one part of the process and the senate controlled the other part and everyone knew this when we began and she remains with no leverage and this is why they are handed over and the way to get witnesses is that the republicans will get witnesses that they want to hear, and they could and have and should have subpoenaed people like bolton in the house to determine what is national security concerns and they decided not to do that, and what is the argument? because they had to get it done super, super fast, and apparently not, because it is three weeks later. >> it is disingenuous that she sat on it, because it is over the holidays and the senate was out of session, and if they had delivered the documents they would not have started the trial. >> and you think that pelosi has

accomplished nothing. >> yes, she has created a conversation that did not exist before, and karen is right on that, but whether it is john bolton or anybody else, it is the president's behavior on trial and not joe biden's behavior and it is not hunter biden's behavior, but it is whether or not the president used the power as a president to withhold already congressionally sponsored money for political purposes, and it has nothing to do with why he might have done it, but that he did it. >> and it is mitch mcconnell's decision to moving forward and nancy pelosi had her chance and now it is mitch mcconnell's. >> i agree with that. >> and how people could theoretically benefit most from the senate impeachment trial and why the top republican is suggesting that today. and the sharpened attack lines are coming in to set the tone for the democratic debate only on cnn. stay with us. so bob, what do you take for back pain?

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in the politics lead, the vote is to send the impeachment articles tomorrow to the senate, and the trial is going start on tuesday. joining me is new jersey senator bob menendez who is going to be as will all of the colleagues a juror in the upcoming impeachment trial. senator menendez, thank you for joining u ap, and do you really believe that senate leader mitch mcconnell is going to allow witnesses? >> i don't think up to his own volition he will be allowing witnesses, but it will depend if my colleagues express a desire to hear witnesses, and if they vote that way. if they do, then there is going to be witnesses, and the obl way that we don't have witnesses is if the republican senators at least a few of them don't join us to have certain critical witnesses. we are not looking for a lot of

witnesses, but looking for critical witnesses that can shed light on some of the essential elements of the house's impeachment articles. >> john bolton, mick mulvaney and who else? >> john bolton, and the former national security adviser who 2/3 of the people want to see testify, and mulvaney, the chief of staff and some of the people at omb who got the call after president trump spoke to the ukrainian president putting a hold on the monies, and these are essential people who need to testify, and some essential documents that have proved the case. we have begun a series of correspondence and e-mails that have come out by virtue of the litigation in the courts and imagine all of the documents to deduce what happened here. and most of the americans know that if they are a juror or been a participant in it, includes witnesses and documents. >> and obviously, the democrats

controlled the house, and in the senate they don't. so senator rand paul wrote about the witnesses and saying that my colleagues can't have it both, if we give a platform to the witnesses that the democrats command i want to force votes for hunter biden and many more. i know that you understand that hunter biden is not germane and the whistle-blower does not need to testify, but is that a trade that you are willing to make given that let's be honest the democrats don't have the votes, and you need the republicans to join with you. >> well, i think that some of the senators who i have spoken to, and i hear publicly expressing concerns about the witnesses don't want to turn it into a circus, and there is a difference of having witnesses who have substantial and substantive information and can shed light on the issues of the charges that the house has brought to their impeachment articles and then creating a

circus. if we want to create a circus, that is a different thing, and the republicans run a risk if they want to have a hunter biden or others that have no substance on the articles of impeachment that at the end of the day, it'll be seen as a circus, and it won't be the fair, full, honest trial that the american people want to see. >> listen to house minority leader kevin mccarthy arguing that by holding back the articles until now, speaker pelosi essentially helped joe biden in the presidential bid. let's roll that tape. >> nobody questions what she gained which is nothing, but if anybody gained for this, it is anybody who is running for president who is not in the u.s. senate. with iowa quickly upon us, and early february, those four senators who are running for president will now no long ver a voice. >> mccarthy called on biden to suspend his campaign while the trial is going on and what do you make of that? >> well, it is pure politics.

look, if, you know, president trump has elicited and had rudy giuliani to go to ukraine and now the russians are in the midst of doing what they did in his last election, looking into bur reece hriz ma a burisma and what was done there, and the sanctity of the house's efforts were preserving an opportunity in the senate to leverage the opportunity for witnesses and documents. i think that the documents that have come out that make a compelling case and witnesses that even some republican senators are saying that they want to see, and are to the benefit of what she has done. it is not about the politics of joebld or anybo joe biden or anybody else, but it is the sanctity of the process that the house took. >> thank you, senator menendez. the candidates have arrived at

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that is a live look at the cnn democratic debate stage in des moines, iowa, and the 2020 lead tonight, and tonight at the des moines "register" debate, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren are going to be feet apart since the first major public conflict which is touching on the issues of sexism and electability which is causing some progressives to panic, and our reporter filed this report. >> reporter: multiple clashes are brewing before the debate tonight. first, a major divide of the top two progressives with bernie sanders and elizabeth warren engaged in a personal battle. warren says that sanders thought that a woman could not win, and warren confirmed that he said that a woman could win, and he

said he didn't. >> so they got the wires cross and the difficulty of running for women running in the era of trump, and those conversations can be sometimes misconstrued. >> reporter: the crisis with iran thrusting foreign policy front and center. joe biden sees his experience as an advantage, but sanders is trying to turn his long record into a liability saying that he was on the wrong side of history on the iraq war. >> well, you can make that decision. all i know is that i knew that it was wrong and when you have an administration itching to go to war, and everybody was itching, you don't give them the authority, but you vote no and that is what i did. >> reporter: and biden is trying to keep the attention on trump, and the stress of electability. >> reporter: tonight's debate stage is the smallest yet and the least diverse, and democratic contender deval

patrick is asking for the change of the criteria, and saying that the rules have not demonstrated to democratic voters or to the nation the depth and breadth of the diversity of the field, but the dnc is not budging. >> we had the most diverse field in american history and i'm proud of that. what we have said every month is that the closer we got the iowa, we would do what we have always done which is to raise the bar. >> reporter: now while this battle is brewing between elizabeth warren and ber sni sa -- bernie sanders, an aide of elizabeth warren said that she is not looking for a debate with him on the stage, and she is not interested in discussing that conversation in further detail with bernie sanders. jake, back to you. >> thank you, arlette. look, the conversation was that they got the wires crossed and what senator sanders was

trying to say is that trump is going to exploit misogyne andis exism a-- and sesexism is what trump will exploit. >> they said that the little woman misunderstood. so it is not in the interest to take it on. >> it does not help either one of them, because, you know, they need to stop joe biden and they need to stop pete buttigieg, and so they are better off collecting as many delicates among the two of them than dividing them, so i imagine that this is going to go away pretty quick, but we won't forget it. >> and she may not be going on the debate stage looking for a fight with sanders with this, but she is going to get one, because it has occupied the oxygen in the newsroom, and despite how it came out, she has put him in the heels talking

about this at a critical time, and so from the strategic standpoint, she has been successful in getting him off of the message at a critical time, and he is three points ahead of her in iowa, and in is a critical final stretch to the caucuses, and for her to get him off message, that is a good thing for her. >> and that is a good point, and even if she does not go after him, and she can stay quiet and this is an opening for amy klobuchar to talk about women, and joe biden to talk about his support of women, and other people may end up doing this without her. >> and it is the question of, did you say it or not? she says that you had the conversation and you said that you didn't say it, and what happened. >> i will try it again, because sanders does not have supporters here at the table. >> i can jump in. >> and here is the idea and the argument, that i have heard plenty of democratic women say that they are afraid that a woman cannot win. i am sure that you have heard that if not maybe even said it at one point or another yourselves, and sanders has his

certain blunt style, and maybe it came out wrong. is that possible? >> well, i am willing to believe a lot of very bad things about bernie sanders. actually, it does not ring true to me that he would genuinely not believe that a woman would run and win and he was clobbered by hillary last time around, and so, like, that is not ringing exactly true to me. and likely, he is handicapping the race in a clumsy way. and another thing is that like these folks are going to fight each other, and it is like going on "bachelorette" and looking for friends. that is not what they are doing here. they are competing against each other, and looking for votes, and frankly, there were two people in the room, and my colleague senator warren has a history of stretching the truth, and one of the actual lies, the dna actually contradicts her. >> ooh, that is a low blow, but she pretended to be a native american which is not true.

>> and so, what may have happened in the conversation is that bernie came into the legacy with the bernie bros who were known to have been horrible to women online and i know plenty of women who would say things like, and there were secret groups of women who did not want to have to deal with the bernie bros, and so they would not engage online and the bernie bros are, again, obnoxiousk and misogynistic and sexist. and so it is part of the reason why he endorsed yuger and then had to walk it back. so he came in with an impression and women feeling raw from 2016 about the fact that, you know, he didn't stand up for hillary or have her back or campaign for her as vigorously as he could have, but also, you know, he never took on the bernie bros and said, let's calm down a little bit. >> that is not true, because i did interview him and asked him about the bernie bros and he said that nobody should be doing that. >> jake, it is not the same thing as saying that you should not be threatening people, and you should not be --

>> when it comes up, he does ignore it. but you are right, continue fronted by a respectable journalist, he will say the right thing. but bernie, generally, and i think that he thinks of this as identity politics and the same way that he does not engage people of color or engage women or think about -- >> he thinks in terms the of class. >> in terms of class. not in terms of other demographics, and so i believe that he said that to elizabeth warren, but i also think that this is part of a larger problem that elizabeth warren is struggling with, and amy klobuchar are struggling and democratic women are struggling. >> ugh, ugh -- >> same panel coming back with the same conversation, and stay with us. he is on the stage with five other democrats and what joe biden may be foe used can on someone else. stay with us. i want nutrition made just for me. but i also want great taste. so i drink boost for women. new boost women with key nutrients to help support thyroid, bone, hair and skin health. all with great taste. new boost women.

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lead, hours before he takes center stage at drake university at tonight's cnn" des moines register" debate. there is a new super pac ad called consequences, and biden in the ad is loeti iletting don trump do the talking. >> biden. >> biden. >> he has biden on his mind, because he knows that biden is going to beat him in pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin, and the states that we need to take back the presidency. >> let's chew over all of this and what do you think, mary kathryn? >> that is the most solid argument, i'm a plausible guy that you know and like, and yeah, i fumble up the words sometimes, but i can beat trump

in the specific states where we have to beat him and that a fairly good argument and one at the top of democrats' minds. >> and if it is not broke, don't fix it. i am the candidate of all of the people on the stage who has the credentials to take on donald trump, and he is leading in a lot of the national polls, specifically further down the primary and caucus calendar, and that is strong. so if this is a message that has worked for him up until now, no reason to change it. >> and should he be talking about anything other than electability, and never the united states is now a pundit and in some other countries as well, i think. so should he be talking about how he is best on the economy and best on health care, and what do you think? >> well, two things. i don't think that he talks about electability. i think it is a different message to say vote for me and i will calm this country the "f" down and that is the message. and it is not that i am the most electability, but the safest.

so this week with iran bodes well for him, and it is going to be interesting to see how much of that coming up tonight, because people do see him as an experienced commander in chief. >> and so, let's talk about that because the dem skratic candidates have used the background of the tensions with iran to debate the foreign policies, and biden has been embracing it, and bernie sanders has been stepping up the critiques of joe biden's votes in support of the iraq war, and continuing it on twitter saying when you are looking at my record versus joe biden, and this is sanders talking, i don't believe his he is going to bring the energy that we need to defeat trump. and also the fact that biden had advised obama not to go with the osama bin laden raid, and you have a quote from former secretary gates that he has been wrong about every foreign policy for his entire career. this is an area of vulnerability for him potentially. >> and some people would credit him with also the going all-in

on counter terrorism strategy and that is a good call. if i remember back to the beginning of the iraq war and he talked about don't try to make all of the people who agree and get along to be one country, and he is one of the few who had an idea of how to let each faction be their own entity, and this is the closing argument if you are a member of the senate before the iowa caucuses start. two things that you have to do tonight, and one is that you have to be presidential, because if i am going to go and caucus, and you know, it is hard, and it takes a long time, and i have to be passionate that you are my person, and you are the best person to lead the country and you can be the commander in chief, because no doubt as hilary was saying that from the polling, people are afraid and how people are concerned about how trump handled iran and what is happening and what the impact is going to be and looking for who can be the commander in chief, and who is going to be repairing the relationships around the world, and calm some

of this down, and who can be tough enough to take on russia, iran and china. so, you know, i think that the conversation about the iraq war, we know that we will have it, and ultimately, and even bernie has to do this, what is the future and what is the vision and how do you move us forward is what people want to hear. >> and this is where biden's opportunity is, i am the plausible guy and i check the boxes, and moving on, how far do we go down the isolationist road, bernie. bernie is going to be happy to lay out the whole plan on the pretty far-out position there which is going to make some democratic primary voters agreeable to this. >> and it is how you fought in the early parts of the bankruptcy bill when elizabeth warren was a professor, and how biden is in the corporations pockets and credit cards, and et cetera, and this is hurtful for him. >> well, that is an attack that she will use, and he loves to

say that the elites are the boogeyman. and he is going to be attacked by sanders with regard to the vote of the iraq invasion, and bernie sanders was right on that, and joe biden was wrong on that, and we have the benefit of hindsight with that, but he can make the case having been a vice president under barack obama that he has the skillset and the mindset in order to lead when it comes to the foreign policy stage, but going into this, and you are right, that you have to make the case tonight to get people to commit to caucus. there are 1,600 caucuses in iowa and you have to get people to go out there to commit to vote for you, and bernie sanders has the benefit of the 2016 playbook and well ahead of the others and they have to make up ground tonight. >> watch tonight's cnn" des moines register" democratic debate tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. and now, we will talk about the strike that killed iran's top general and how the reasoning is looking to a former cia officer.

that is next. stay with us. mb: by the way,

i'm the only candidate in the race who doesn't take a penny in contributions from anyone. no big donors, no special interests, nothing. the party rules prevent me from debating, if they change the rules, i'll be happy to join it. in the meantime, i'm traveling the country, speaking, taking your questions, and making the case that donald trump has to go. and we're gonna beat him. i'm mike bloomberg, and i approve this message. ♪ ♪ everything your trip needs, for everyone you love. expedia.

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in our world lead, the trump administration is pivoting away from the initial core defense of why it is necessary to kill the iranian general qassem soleimani, and you can recall that secretary of state mike pompeo called about an imminent attack. >> if you are looking for imminent, you have days leading up to it. >> this is an intelligence-based assessm. >> no doubt that there were a series of immanent attacks. >> in the last 24 hours, the administration is refraining the argument of it being a larger strategy of deterrence. >> president trump and those of us in his national security team are re-establishing deterrence. real deterrence against the islamic republic.

>> established deterrence and responded to attacks that had been already committed. >> and joining me now to discuss is republican congressman will hurd of texas and former cia officer and currently serves on the house intelligence committee, and congressman, good to see you. as always, no dispute here among the reasonable people that soleimani was horrible person and the blood of innocents on his hands, but does it matter what the government gives as a justification for such a strike? >> i would agree with that in using precise language is important. i don't know if deterrence and immediacy are that far away from the reason for doing this strike. but i think that it is important to use precise language especially when it comes to really important and sensitive intelligence for two reasons. one, if this intelligent source is ongoing, and it is so good that if the bad guys get, you know, find out what that

information was, they might be able to understand that source, and as we say in the intelligence business, that source gets burned. so using precise language on to protect the sources is ultimately important, and then i believe that a lot of folks would love to see this intelligence know what was in the intelligence, but i would agree with our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general milley, when he said that the intelligence was clear in what was going to happen and the potential loss of life. i would concur with that initiative, but i think that we can say that the what happened to qassem soleimani as head of the largest terrorist organization and most well financed terrorist organization in the world that, that is deterrence and we know that the army war college did a report on

activities in iraq since i believe it is after 2008 and about 2018, that when there is consequences to iranian behavior, they stopped doing negative behavior. so i think that all of the things can exist at one time. >> sure. i mean, the reason i ask is that president trump tweeted that it doesn't matter whether the attacks were imminent, and congressman justin amash, a former republican and now independent, one of your colleagues wrote on twitter, that contrary to president trump's opinion, it does matter. and a president cannot order any strikes except pursuant to the congressional order or unless it is responsive to imminent attack. again, soleimani is a horrible person, but does the administration have to prove an imminent threat 2or to be subjet to a congressional authorization? >> well, it matters if he is

just part of the foreign government or leader of a terrorist organization. qassem soleimani under obama and under president bush, he had a number of sanctions put on him. the irgs, the quds force was designated a foreign terrorist organization, and so was the broader irgc. >> right. >> so you can't in my opinion, you cannot hide behind a uniform of your country to prevent you from being determined as a terrorist. so, the attack on qassem soleimani, he was in iraq which is, a hot battle zone. he is an identified belligerent within that war, and there was intelligence to suggest that there was going to potentially be a loss of american life and allies' lives. >> thank you, congressman will hurd, republican, from texas.

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impeachment where hunter biden served on the board. and so now, we are learning that nancy pelosi wants to know what cybersecurity and intelligence officials know about the hack that has according to area one, the exact hallmarks of russia's 2016 election interference campaign. >> reporter: the playbook is familiar, but the target is new. this time, russian hackers accused of breaking into burisma, the ukrainian energy company that joe biden's son was on the board of which is at the center of the president's impeachment proceedings. >> burisma. >> burisma. >> the bidens and bur reeisma. >> reporter: and it is the same company that was used to get

into the hillary clinton campaign. >> it is what is known as the credential harvesting and phishing campaigns which is attempts to steal passwords and user names. >> reporter: and web sites were set up to lure the employees for them to get inside and it worked, but it is unclear what the russians were looking for or what they got. with the uproar of the bidens, the signs are pointing for the russians pointing to dirt on the bidens which the president is also accused of looking for. >> and we expect the cyber actors to continue on until they are successful and to accomplish the goal. >> reporter: hillary clinton today tweeting that this new attack is show nag the russians are back at it and once again to benefit donald trump. >> similarly, at it again, and with the eye towards helping the president. >> and no word from the white house, but joe biden is responding that we know that

vladimir putin now sees joe biden as a threat, and any american president who had not repeatedly encouraged foreign interventions of this kind would immediately condemn this attack on the sovereignty of the elections. and we asked both russia and b r reece ma for comment, and they did not comment. a and they are accusing the u.s. government of not doing anything to protect the integrity of the elections. >> and this is not alone. >> no, we heard from the top elections person shelby pearson who said along with russia, you have china and north korea and others who are the hacktivists. >> and the spirit of those who are not saying anything about it today could be targets tomorrow. >> right. >> and you can see the cnn debate tonight in partner with

"des moines register" only here on cnn at 9:00. and you can follow me on twitter or facebook or twitter. our coverage continues right now, and i will see you now, and i will see you tomorrow. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com iowa for the cnn democratic debate and the final debate for the contest of the democratic primary. while wolf blitzer is preparing to moderate the debate, i am standing in for him, i'm anderson cooper. and now, the candidates will have one last chance to make the case to the voters on the stage behind me. and the house democrats are finally prepared to send over the articles of impeachments and nancy pelosi is ready to reveal the team of lawmakers who will present the case against the president. senate majority leader mitch