thank you for being with us tonight. that is going to do it for us for now but i'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the "last word" with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening, rachel. we are going to begin tonight with yet another amazing thing that nancy pelosi has done. and i'm not someone who's been tracking amazing things done by nancy pelosi over the years, but this year she has had a year. she has really had some moments, and this is one that you didn't have room to include in your hour in that press conference, you know, when she was leaving the room. >> aechoh, yeah. >> and she did that turn around on a reporter who yelled out something that he should not have yelled out at nancy pelosi when she was leaving that room.

we're going to full that drama as it plays out. and i'm once again just stunned by how she handled it. it's an unscripted moment, so she had no idea it was coming. it's like that moment in the white house when she stood up to president trump in the cabinet room. unscripted moment. it was provoked by the situation. and it -- it's just something that it feels like only she can do this. >> yes, and it was sort of an indelible moment. and i will say as a catholic seeing her invoke her catholic faith in that moment at the apex of that confrontation was sort of a heart stopping thing. >> yeah, and it's -- it's all there. i mean you really -- she delivers those moments like no one i've ever seen in washington. >> well-done. can't wait. >> thank you, rachel. today in new hampshire pete buttigieg said something that many people including me criticized as soon as it was reported on twitter by a boston globe reporter. and hours later reporters asked pete buttigieg about it again. and he changed what he had to say, but he did not correct what

was wrong. what was very, very wrong in his first statement today. we're going to take some time at the end of this hour to show you all of that because at the heart of that story is a very important political lie, a political lie that has been told by republicans for generations. well, as i was just saying to rachel, nancy pelosi did it again today. it was like that electrifying moment where she literally stood up to donald trump in the cabinet room. it was unscripted. it was provoked by someone else, but she seized the moment. as dramatically as any fiction writer could have provided for any fictional politician in a movie scene. and i am sure that she got a silent cheer from some people working at fox news today when she did that. and she did that after making history first thing this morning. and we begin tonight with that history. we begin tonight with an

historic statement by the speaker of the house without any warning the night before the speaker scheduled an announcement for 9:00 a.m. with a hint that it would be something momentous because it was not scheduled for the press briefing room where she and other house members usually make announcements and take questions from reporters. about 5:30 a.m. this morning reporters first got the word that speaker pelosi would be making an announcement in a majestic location in the house of representatives near the speaker's office. not a place she usually does this. and when the speaker made her entrance and stepped up to the microphone, she began at the beginning. >> good morning. let us begin where our founders began in 1776. when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for

people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another. with those words our founders courageously began our declaration of independence from an oppressive monarch for among other grievances the king's refusal to follow rightfully passed laws. in the course of today's events it becomes necessary for us to address among other grievances the president's failure to faithfully execute the law. our democracy is what is at stake. the president leaves us no choice but to act because he is trying to corrupt once again the election for his own benefit. the president has engaged in abuse of power undermining our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections. his actions are in defiance of the vision of our founders and the oath of office that he takes to preserve, protect, and defend

the constitution of the united states. sadly but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for america, today i am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment. i commend our committee chairs and our members for their somber approach to actions by which the president have made necessary. by signing the declaration of independence our founders invoked a firm reliance on divine providence. democrats too are prayerful, and we will proceed in a manner worthy of our oath of office to support and defend the constitution of the united states from all enemies foreign and domestic. so help us god. thank you.

>> and with that nancy pelosi guaranteed that donald trump will be the third president of the united states impeached by the house of representatives. the house judiciary committee will write and vote on articles of impeachment. those articles of impeachment will pass in the committee and then be voted on by the full house of representatives and some or all of the articles of impeachment will pass the house of representatives, and donald j. trump will take his place in history as an impeached president. we don't yet know the exact timetable for all of that, but it could happen before christmas. the house judiciary committee has its next impeachment hearing scheduled for monday when they will consider the evidence in the house intelligence committee's written report of its impeachment investigation of the president's solicitation of help in his re-election campaign from the president of ukraine by asking the president of ukraine to investigate joe biden. after making her historic announcement this morning, the speaker of the house went about her regular duties including

conducting, later, her regularly scheduled press conference about house of representatives business in which she discussed the 275 bills that she has passed through the house of representatives with bipartisan votes that are all now on mitch mcconnell's desk in the united states senate where he is ignoring them and refusing to allow them to come to a vote. and then when the speaker was leaving that press conference, a reporter decided to shout out a question. the reporter is james rosen who spent almost as much time working at a fox news as disgraced sexual predator bill o'reilly and who left fox news, according to "the new york times," quote, after the network began scrutinizing sexual misconduct allegations against him. james rosen now works for a much less prominent right wing so-called news organization. and he asked nancy pelosi the kind of question that would have

made his former fox boss, sexual predator roger ales, very, very proud. >> do you hate the president, madam speaker? >> i don't hate anybody. we don't hate anybody, not anybody in the world. so don't be accusing me -- >> i did not accuse you. >> you did. >> i asked a question. representative collins yesterday suggested democrats are doing this simply because they don't like the guy. >> let me just say this i think the president is a cowered when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence. i think he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our dreamers of which we're very proud. i think he's in denial about the climate crisis. however, that's about the election. this is about the e -- take it

up in the election. this is about the constitution of the united states and the facts that lead to the president's violation of his oath of office. and as a catholic i resent your using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me. i don't hate anyone. i was raised in a way that is full -- a heart full of love and always pray for the president, and i still pray for the president. i pray for the president all the time. so don't mess with me when it comes to words like that. >> i wanted to let you see her walk away from that microphone and walk out of that room so that you could feel -- you could feel the power of the silence that she created in that room. rooms full of reporters in washington are never silent. i've never seen anything like that. i've never seen any member of

congress ever leave a room full of tough capitol hill reporters in stunned silence. james rosen cowered in that stupstu stunned silence and did not dare throw the word hate at nancy pelosi again after she crushed him in front of every capitol hill reporter. and now the millions of people who have watched james rosen get crushed in that video. like so much nancy pelosi does in her unscripted bursts of eloquent moral indignation, this one was multidimensionsal. there she was standing up against hatred as her catholic religion has taught her to do since she was a little girl. and there she was standing up for the constitution as she has sworn an oath to do, and surely, surely there were some women still working at fox news today who silently let out a cheer for nancy pelosi for standing up to

one of the men who thrived at fox news during the roger ales, bill o'reilly predatory rein of terror. the most powerful elected woman in the history of american government once again today did something that only she could do. leading off our discussion tonight are democratic congressman peter welch of vermont, ambassador wendy sherman, former under secretary of state for political affairs in the obama administration. she is an msnbc global affairs contributor. and mieke eoyang is with us. a former staff member of the house intelligence committee and an msnbc contributor. and congressman welch, i want to begin with you. how she handled that challenge from the prop ganlda siaganda s news media of what you in the

house of representatives are doing in this impeachment proceeding which over there on the right-wing side of the world they want to claim is all about hate. >> i found what she did and how she did it both moving and reassuring. in her announcement, she really laid out what the question is. it's the debate we're going to have about the preservation of the presidency of donald trump, or is it about the preservation of the constitutional principle of the rule of law? and that question for mr. rosen demeaned the significance of the question that congress is going to face. and when he used the term hate, it was stunning to me. nancy pelosi has an immense amount of energy, but i've never seen her have energy -- waste an ounce of energy on hating anyone. and actually that's what makes her i think so intimidating to some of the folks who are her

adversaries. she is totally focused straight ahead and this is a debate on the preservation of the constitutional principle that no person is above the law. >> wendy sherman, i'm so glad you're with us tonight because on historic nights like this, to have people who think -- we get to think we've seen it all in washington, and then days like this happen and realize, well, we haven't seen it all. and that's partially because nancy pelosi hasn't done it yet. this was one of those days. your feelings about what you saw today both in her announcement for what's to happen in the impeachment proceeding and, again, how she handled that challenge. >> well, i'm a baltimore girl, lawrence, and i've known nancy pelosi for a very long time and known her family and her dear brother who just recently passed away. and my heart is completely filled with pride. how can we not be as the congressman said, she moves with such dignity, with such grace,

with such moral authority. and i think as to her responding to rosen who is really no reporter at all as you point out, i think her daughter christine pelosi, one of her five children and she has multiple grandchildren, she knows how to multitask, god knows. christine said don't mess with mama, and i think she's got it just right. over all the twitter sphere tonight there are many, many, many women who are speaking out and saying you go, girl. you tell it like it is, and you do it with such dignity, such incredible dignity. >> mieke eoyang, i think one of the important things about her answer to that challenge was it gave her the opportunity to make this very clear distinction about what the election is about, which is about trump policies that she sharply disagrees with and what the impeachment is about which is trump violations of the constitution which can only be

addressed through impeachment. >> yes, and she's been very clear about this. there's been members of the caucus eager to impeach the president over family separations, over some of the policy things he's doing. and she's very clear here that's what an election is for to deal with the policy differences. but what she and adam schiff have so eeloquently laid out the danger the president poses to the 2020 election, even though you may not have every single last jot of evidence you might want to take to trial, the evidence is clear enough. and the risk the president poses that he might do it again, his lawyer in ukraine today means that they feel like they need to move right now. this is about improving our system of government. >> and congressman welch, donald trump tweeted something today i think he actually firmly believes about this. he says she says she prays for the president, i don't believe her, not even close. donald trump there's reason to suspect has never prayed in his life. and there's reason to suspect he does not believe anyone really

does actually pray. and so he may very well mean every world of that honestly, that he doesn't believe she prays. but it's one of those moments where donald trump is actually seeing something happen that there's no level of it that he understands. >> you know, i think that's exactly right. i think he's bewildered by nancy pelosi. she's centered. she's grounded. she's truthful, and she's focused. and he's erratic. he's all over the place. and he doesn't understand that she means what she says. and the fact that she's totally committed to this constitutional principle of the rule of law, that no person is above the law, and she's absolutely committed to this concept we have three branches of government that have to be a check and balance on each other bewilders him. he's not accustomed to dealing

with a person who's as centered and grounded as she is. and i think that's what's giving us some moral confidence going forward. this is not about donald trump. it's about the preservation of the rule of law and fore swearing the crumbling of our system of checks and balances. >> as we see this case move into the judiciary committee we're going to see something again we've never seen before. here's the house intelligence committee supplying basically the first draft material of articles of impeachment that will be written by judiciary. this is an intersection we've never seen before. >> indeed, it's quite unusual. the first time as you said and it will be very interesting to see who the speaker chooses as the managers to present the case to the senate. i think i've heard the speaker say more than once that when benjamin franklin came out after the signing of the constitution he was asked do we have a

monarchy or do we have a republic, and he said a republic if we can keep it. and what speaker pelosi is all about is keeping that republic. those are the stakes that are in front of us. >> mieke, what do you expect in terms of what ware going to hear in the testimony next week when its the intelligence committee findings being brought to the judiciary committee? how will they present that? >> we're expecting to hear the committee counsel, mr. goldman who we heard before during the question present that house intelligence committee report released this week and go through step by step all the different stages that the president took to try and put this investigation forward that would benefit him politically, the pressure that he brought to bear against ukraine, all these different steps in setting up this channel, and then how he has tried to stymie this investigation by withholding key witnesses and refusing 71 different document requests that the investigators asked for.

i would expect a fairly compelling case to be laid out by the councils and so i would expect a fair recitation but the facts are compelling here. >> thank you all very much for starting us off tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. and when we come back neal kattpyal says there really is only one piece of evidence the democrats really need in drafting articles of impeachment against president trump. it's the smoking gun. he has it. he'll join us next. smoking gun he has it. he'll join us next applebee's new sizzlin' entrées. now starting at $9.99.

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with the house of representatives now ready to begin drafting articles of impeachment after speaker pelosi's announcement this morning former obama administration acting solicitor general neal katyal offered some help this morning in which he suggests that they begin with the smoking gun. the white house transcript of president trump's phone call with ukraine's president zelensky in which neal katyal says there are two acts of bribery clearly specified in what president trump says to president zelensky. neal katyal reminds us that president trump's language in the phone call is so blatant that at first republicans had no idea how to defend it.

we do have some video here. i guess we don't have it. neal, i was going to show this video that you remind said us of. it's 60 minutes video in which kevin mccarthy is asked about the, you know, we need you to do us a favor, though, and kevin mccarthy says he didn't say though, he didn't say though. he understood immediately how important that word was, and he had to tell him oh, no that's what's in the transcript, that's what he actually said. >> exactly, lawrence. i wrote that "the washington post" and indeed my book "impeached" that came out last week because of the central point, which is all you need to understand whether donald trump should be impeached and removed is to read the transcript of the july 25th call. because in that call you see not one but two different quid pro quos. the withholding of aid and the holding of a -- the prevention of a white house meeting all

until that favor is done for the president so that he can get dirt on his political rival. and, you know, the essence of impeachment has always been as was said by a congressman in 2008 when a president puts his personal interests above those of the american people, and that congressman was mike pence then sitting in congress now the vice president. that'sa always been the standar. this july 25th phone call transcript -- we don't even have the full transcript but just what the president himself has released is so damning. and this president and his allies throw up chaff and distraction. and witness yesterday all the stuff happening at the hearing. there's only one thing you have to look at. it's the transcript, and it's a core impeachable offense. >> and neal, it's rhythmically strange for people who grew up on the architecture of the watergate investigation as the classic washington investigation

or on all tv drama throughout history. the smoking gun is never revealed in the first act. this is one of those cases where we got the smoking gun very early in the investigation at a point where someone in the white house apparently convinced the president that putting out this transcript could actually help him. >> exactly. and, you know, that was obviously a huge miscalculation. and the republicans have been trying mightily ever since then to come up with any defense. i mean yesterday, lawrence, the hearing the republicans had one witness a guy named jonathan turley and i'm certainly not going to attack his motivations or anything like that, but i will attack his consistency. because this was their one witness. and this witness is the same guy who said there was a low standard for high crimes and misdemeanors when clinton was being considered. a really low standard. and indeed when president obama was in office he said, oh, you

don't need to commit a crime in order for an impeachable offense. and then he goes and turns around and takes all of that back in yesterday's testimony and then says a whole bunch of outlandish things. like for example he says this is an unprecedented investigation in terms of the speed of this impeachment. it's never happened before. you know, it's been 75 days for this investigation. the andrew johnson impeachment, three days between act and impeachment. you know, and the clinton one which he himself, this guy turley worked on that impeachment, that was 75 days. so, you know, there was a lot of stuff there that was really problematic. and you just asked about the watergate analogy. i think the most telling thing in yesterday's testimony was jonathan turley was asked has any president ever stone walled a congressional impeachment inquiry like this and prevented every witness and every document from coming forth, and he said i don't know i haven't studied

that. well, the answer to that is obvious. it's no, no president has ever done this. and that's why not just as there's this smoking gun about the july 25th transcript, but the way the president has reacted to this is itself impeachable. you know, the watergate phrase it's not the crime, it's the cover-up, boy that applies here in spades. we have never had a cover-up like this in which every single executive branch employee has been -- >> are you arguing there's one article of impeachment that is about the phone call? >> i think the phone call actually sets up two different articles of impeachment itself. one just interest abuse of power and the second for bribery which is an impeachable offense in the constitution itself. but then article 3 must be obstruction of justice because if this president is allowed to say on his own oeflt i think this impeachment inquiry is illegitimate, and i'm just not

going to turn over anything and prevent the entire executive branch from turning over anything, any president could do that. president obama could have done that. a president elizabeth warren or bernie sanders could do that. that is the complete destruction of our separation of powers. and the stakes here are immense. and so even for those americans who can't really figure out what's going on with ukraine or this or that, i think the simple question they have to ask is do you really want a world in which a president on his own can say when the solemn -- when there's something as solemn as impeachment, i don't have to participate, i'm above all of that? and the answer to that from james madison and ben franklin and all those founders you were just talking about earlier on your show is absolutely not. that's not the american way. it may be the russian way. it's not the way we do things in america. >> neal katyal, the author of the new best selling book "impeached, the case against donald trump." thank you very much for joining

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you never cease to amaze me, maya. see how investing with a j.p. morgan advisor can help you. visit your local chase branch. donald trump is a problem like washington has never seen before but so is mitch mcconnell. there has never been a senate majority leader like mitch mcconnell who provides himself on doing nothing. here's what the speaker of the house said about that today. >> and we have 275 bills that are bipartisan on mitch mcconnell's desk.

the grim reaper says all we're doing is impeachment. no, we have 275 bipartisan bills on your desk. >> donald trump is the worst most dangerous president in history because mitch mcconnell allows him to be. donald trump has illegally seized the house and senate's power to control tariffs by citing nonexistent national security issues in raising tariffs on countries around the world including our closest allies. mitch mcconnell and the senate could stop that in a day. trumpism thrives in washington only because mitch mcconnell allows it to thrive. and now comes mitch mcconnell's most important moment in the trump spotlight and what has now become the trump controlled united states senate, and that is of course the impeachment trial of donald trump, which will probably be conducted in the united states senate chamber in january. mitch mcconnell can now establish the rules for the senate impeachment trial, which might or might not be similar to the previous impeachment trial rules. and based on mitch mcconnell's

service to donald trump so far, mitch mcconnell writing the rules for the impeachment trial is the same as donald trump writing the rules for the trump impeachment trial. this is the subject of a new article by robert whose latest piece asks and answers the question, who is worse, donald trump or mitch mcconnell? and joining us now is the former secretary under president clinton and former professor at the university of california at berkeley. he is the author of "the common good." professor reich, your case about mitch mcconnell and who is worse? donald trump or mitch mcconnell? >> i think it's a toss up. it's very close. donald trump is worse. and you already indicated donald trump would not be nearly as bad if there were not an enabler, the enabler in chief, someone right there allowing him to do whatever he wants to do, putting

up no fuss at all, acting as if there's not a separate branch of government called the congress, and that is mitch mcconnell. and mitch mcconnell, it's not just that mitch mcconnell as nancy pelosi has said today has made a graveyard of bipartisan legislation coming from the house, but also mitch mcconnell has given donald trump everything that donald trump wants. and what donald trump is going to want with regard to this senate trial, well, it's probably going to be a showcase for donald trump. >> and the rules about these trials are established for each trial, which is needless to say unusual. and mitch mcconnell's been there when perfectly reasonable rules have been used indeed for example the clinton impeachment trial. those rules were agreed to by the senate, the republican leader and the democratic leader of the senate. the chances of chuck schumer being able to agree with mitch mcconnell procedurally here just seem unimaginable. >> it's totally unimaginable.

and in 1999 you may recall those rules for handling bill clinton's impeachment were agreed to by democrats and republicans unanimously. i mean, they came to an agreement behind closed doors, and they understood that the interests of the country would be best served if there was unanimous agreement. the chances are -- now i hope i'm wrong about this, lawrence, but the chances mitch mcconnell is actually going to seek any kind of democratic input is about 0. he's got 53 republican votes and he can do any rule he wants, and i wouldn't be surprised if he came up with a rule that said, sure, we're going subpoena hunter biden. or we're going to have mike pompeo tell donald trump's side of the story, or maybe we're going to have a rule that says only republicans can interview and ask witnesses, and one of our witnesses is going to be donald trump. i mean, it's anything goes. and that is the attitude of mitch mcconnell, and that's been

the attitude of mitch mcconnell all along. >> and on the confirmation process which mitch mcconnell is so proud of, confirming judges, mitch mcconnell could have done that and at the same time said to the trump administration they have to be qualified, send me more qualified judges. i'll run them through just as fast if not faster the better the qualifyings. b but he hasn't done that. he's taken whatever donald trump has sent down there for confirmation. >> remember that said essentially to barack obama i'm not going to even have a vote on your nominee to the supreme court. this is unheard of. he changed the senate rules so that instead of 60 senators having to agree to a supreme court nomination, once donald trump was there, no, it could be done simply by 51 votes which gave trump two supreme court justices.

again, there's no principle there, absolutely no primp. this is where mitch mcconnell and donald trump are bedfellows. they basically don't care about the constitution. they don't care about the rule of law. all they care about is getting what they want. and what they want is power, and they want their party to be paramount, and they want to entrench their power for the future. >> thank you very much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, lawrence. and coming up, what was rudy giuliani doing in ukraine today? y giuliani doing in ukraine today?

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rudy giuliani is back in ukraine tonight. our next guest recently returned from ukraine where he was reporting on rudy giuliani's earlier attempts to interfere with ukrainian government affairs. rudy giuliani's presence confounded the newly elected ukrainian president and his team. franklin fore is a staff writer at the atlantic and joins us now. what did you find about -- because we all imagined what it'd be like for this newly elected administration to suddenly be dealing with possibly one of the craziest people in america who's not the president of the united states. >> right. and everybody who saw rudy giuliani coming to ukraine knew that it would be bad for ukraine. ukraine has managed to have bipartisan support in the face of russian -- the russian

invasion of the country. and they knew that rudy was coming to interfere in the election and to stoke a partisan narrative, and they knew that his presence would be bad news. so they all advised zelensky to stay away from rudy giuliani. and by a stroke of almost dumb luck, he avoided having to meet with him last may. but here is rudy giuliani returning to kiev again. he's been there many times over the years. and when you look at his schedule, you can see why he's so confounding to ukrainians because he's confounding to americans, too. nominally he's recpresenting th president of the united states, and he's going there to collect reporting for this counter narrative that they've tried to spread about joe biden, about ukrainian influence in the election. but the people that he's meeting with in ukraine on the ground are representatives of

oligarchs. they're some of the more shady politicians in the country. and it begs the question, who is rudy giuliani actually working for as he descends in ukraine, and who is he working for as he spreads some of these narratives? we know he's working for the president, but we also know he's getting paid by other people. and he just doesn't disclose his client list. we have no idea how much money rudy giuliani is making off the donald trump administration. >> now, is this an instance where it's sort of the trump play book of when you are suspected of or accused of wrongdoing you then publicly do more of the wrongdoing? like the moment trump is out in the driveway and asks china to also investigate joe biden. because if i'm doing it publicly, it can't possibly be wrong. has giuliani adopted that theory? >> yeah, i think it's something like that. it's also they've been fairly successful in holding the republican line during impeachment proceedings by

muddying the waters when we know that it was russia who interfered in the election. they're adamant that it was actually ukraine that did it. they cling to these false narratives, and they won't let go of them because they're actually serving exactly the purposes that they were spread in the first place. and, you know, it's a very putin-esque tactic they've been using which is to sow as much confusion, to muddy the waters as much as possible. >> do the officials in ukraine get american television input on this? do they get the american news media take on this so that they can see the perspectives that we have on it? >> you know, i think that at the elite level they're actually relatively confused. and it's -- they see rudy giuliani go on fox news, and they see him talk about ukraine. they hear donald trump talk

about ukraine in an incredibly disparaging way. they know that -- they've heard gordon sondland quote him as saying that ukraine is a country filled with terrible people. and, you know, right now zelensky is on the brink of meeting with vladimir putin for the first time. he's having to negotiate the terms of peace in eastern ukraine. and normally the ukrainian president would feel like he had the united states at his back. he knew that there was a major power in the world that would support ukraine, but in this instance as he travels to meet with putin i think he's incredibly anxious. he sees that his ally is potentially abandoning him. and so i think he's going to feel like he's going to be in a very soft position as he negotiates with vladimir putin. and he's probably going to give more than he would in normal circumstances if donald trump was a normal american president.

>> thank you for joining us. really appreciate your invaluable perspectives on what's going on in ukraine. thank you. >> thank you. and when we come back the pete buttigieg rapid response team has been rapidly responding to what i said about pete buttigieg at the beginning of this hour. and they've sent me a statement that they really hope i read. when we come back after this break. i'll read it during the break and i'll decide whether i'll read it when we come back. i'll l read it when we come back. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved

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the pete buttigieg rapid response team has responded to what i said at the top of the show tonight that sounded critical of pete buttigieg because it is. i want to talk about what he said in new hampshire about democrats and deficits and a history of democrats not worrying about deficits, which isn't true, to put it mildly. here is the statement they want me to read, which i have decided to read it for them. it is a strange statement. pete has spoken about in his lifetime democratic presidents have reduced the deficit while republican presidents haven't. the point he was making today is that despite this history, it is remarkable when other candidates haven't spoken about definite reduction in this election. pete believes we should be confident in achieving aggressive roles and doing so responsibly because democrats have proven we can do it. that's the rapid response team.

i'm going to show you after the break everything, everything pete buttigieg has to say about democrats and deficits in new hampshire today. guess what he doesn't say? president obama or president clinton, so this statement is not true. we'll be right back. true we'll be right back. starting at $15.99. treat yourself to the perfect gift today, because the aussie 4-course won't last long! and now, get a $10 gift with every $50 in gift cards. i looitaly!avel. yaaaaass. with the united explorer card, i get rewarded wherever i go. going out for a bite. rewarded! going new places. rewarded! anytime. rewarded! getting more for getting away. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com. and get... rewarded!

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(woman) and if verizon 5g can deliver performance like this in these places... it's pretty crazy. ...just imagine what it can do for you. ♪ pete buttigieg said something very strange about democrats and deficits today. >> my party is not known for worrying about deficits and the debt too much. but it is time for us to start getting into that business because what we have seen in washington is that the party that talked a lot about the definite when they were trying to kill off programs, when it came time for this corporate tax cut turns out they don't care. there is a trillion dollar deficit now. and created under republican administration. which means if my party doesn't start getting interested and debt, nobody will. >> in the middle of that, he

attributed just the current trillion dollar deficit to the republicans but twice, twice he criticized democrats about the deficit saying democrats are, quote, not known for worrying about deficits. and he said, if my party doesn't start getting interested in deficits. both of those lines are lies. they are republican lies. that for some reason pete buttigieg decided to tell today. during pete buttigieg's entire lifetime, republicans have increased the deficit and democrats have worked hard to decrease the deficit and taken grave political risk in doing that. pete buttigieg was 11 years old when bernie sanders and the house of representatives and joe biden and the united states senate cast politically brave votes on deficit reduction bill that no republicans voted for because it included tax increases as well as spending cuts. bernie sanders lost a lot of

democratic colleagues in the house of representatives who cast that vote because they were defeated in their re-election because of that vote. and the democrats lost the house of representatives because of that vote for the first time in 40 years. the democrats lost the united states senate after that vote. those were tough votes for democrats that they cast out of their sense of responsibility about the deficit. they cast those votes because they were worried about the deficit. pete buttigieg sure wasn't interested in the deficit then. when the republicans got the white house back under president george w. bush, the definite and the debt skyrocketed, again because republicans and their reckless tax cuts. then when president obama took office, finally the president was worried about deficits again because the president was a democrat. and president obama managed to force a vote in a congress by republicans to raise taxes even with mitch mcconnell in control of the united states senate

because president obama was worried about the deficit. two presidential candidates voted for that deficit reduction. she was worried about the defic deficit. and she stands on that debate stage beside pete buttigieg who has never done one thing in his life about the federal budget deficit or the national debt, not one thing. and he criticized democrats today who have made tough political choices to control the deficit. three hours later, three hours after what you just saw him say, reporters caught up with pete buttigieg again and asked him again. and this time surely after some consultation with his rapid response team, he put the republicans first. >> yeah. so there were two things to think about. the first is republican hypocrisy. i believe it's been an examples

of growing under republican government and shrinking under democratic government. >> he couldn't stop at the part he got right, the republican hypocrisy. he had to go on to criticize his party and to tell democrats they've got to get more comfortable talking about this issue. pete buttigieg literally doesn't know what he's talking about when he talks about democrats and the deficit or he's deliberately lying. and i'm sorry, but those are the only choices. i'll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point and let him plead ignorance now. but as someone who stood on the senate floor in the middle of the night in 1993 as a democratic senate staffer and watched with pride as only democratic senators cast that brave vote on a deficit reduction bill which later cost some of them their re-elections, i will always fight the republican lie about democrats and deficits. there are plenty of things to

criticize democrats about. this isn't one of them. and every informed democrat knows that. pete buttigieg, like all the presidential candidates, is invited to join us on this program at any time convenient for him to discuss this and the other issues in the presidential campaign. that is tonight's last word. the 11th hour with brian williams starts now. tonight, the speaker has spoken. nancy pelosi instructs her committee chairman to move forward on articles of impeachment and knocks down a question about her motives while invoking her catholic upbringing. donald trump tells the republicans if you are going to do this, let's get on with it. plus, while the feds are watching, investigating what rudy did in ukraine, rudy is in ukraine doing what one does, investigating the bidens. speaking of whom, the