ask john bolton, okay? the situation with iran where we unilaterally left with allies, and could have put pressure on iran to back them off, how they involved themselves in the middle east and developing bl g ballistic missiles and as a group come together to work to make sure that china started living up to trait ruleses. doing it alone and implications and damage will have to be calculated over a few years. it's unbelievable. >> adding to that is this impeachment inquiry and you have career officials now coming out and testifying and's how much does it bother you, anger you, that it took a whistle-blower speaking up and out to blow the lid off this thing? >> well, i mean, the call was, you know -- maybe it would have been shelved but it wasn't. we have whistle-blower because they can come and do things and need to be protected. if all of a sudden knows who they are and they're lives are turned upsidedown and people say if you're challenginging the president people ought to know who you are. somebody in th

will john bolton testify? he's likely to follow the same strategy his deputy is following which says a judge should help me make this decision. i've been told by the white house not to talk, by the house to talk. i would like a court to decide for me. my guess is john bolton would follow that ruling if there was one to be had. so he's the one people look most forward to hearing from. >> yes. >> as long as we hear from him soon, we'll see some momentum going on this inquiry. >> let's talk momentum. you've written a book and the momentum for the democrats on this inquiry is moving a lot faster than impeachment inquiries in the past. look at this. when nixon, the first media report of the watergate break-in happened it was not until 597 days later there was an inquiry open. when it comes to clinton 265 days from the first media report of the affair before the house vote. 44 days between the first media report of the whistle-blower complaint to open the inquiry. why is it moving so much faster today? >> one thing

how important is it to you to hear from john bolton privately? >> well, first privately, find out what he has to say, what is it that he knows, what first-hand information does he have available. he may very well be one of the witnesses in the public hearings that will inevitably take place here. in any case, he is extremely important. he was there, he was the national security adviser, and so right at the heart of the matter. and whether he had good relations with trump or not, obviously those fell apart over the course of his work. >> this obviously has heightened interest, given the deposition from the acting ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor, which we learned about. feels like a lifetime ago, just a few days ago. you are recently back from a trip to ukraine, i understand, and you had a chance to speak with the acting ambassador specifically about these text messages. i assume about his interactions with people inside and around the white house. tell me what you heard from him. >> well, first of all, we heard that ukraine desperately needed t

he was seen as a john bolton guy. he's been known throughout his career as a hard core hard core hard core national security conservative and in particular a real hawk on nuclear issues. he served until today as the senior director for europe and russia at the national security counsel. npr was the first to report his resignation today. and i do want to underscore today per npr's report, quote, morrison is expected to leave his post imminently. meaning he's gone, which is important because his scheduled testimony for the impeachment proceedings is tomorrow morning. so tim morrison, a senior director at the national security council with spaubt for europe and russia tonight resigning in advance of his testimony tomorrow morning. now, john bolton himself recently fired donald trump's national security advisor. it's always seemed interesting to me that bolton was ousted as national security advisor basically the same time donald trump was forced to relent and let that military aid finally go through. that all happened se

john bolton should testify. i think he owes it to the country to testify. >> former national security adviser has yet to make an appearance on capitol hill, but bolton's name sure has been kicked around and evoked in connection to his impeachment inquiry -- this impeachment inquiry. and not in a way likely to be helpful to the president, his former boss. a reminder that trump's former top aide in ukraine has testified it was bolton who objected to the pressure campaign and to the notion of withholding military funding approved by congress. fiona hill relayed that bolton told her, quote, i am not part of whatever drug deal ambassador sondland and mick mulvaney are cooking up, adding, rudy giuliani is a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up. still with us here tonight, maya wiley and bill kristol. maya, what does bolton get you if he goes all the way, and is sondland in a heap of trouble anyway? >> so let's start with sondland because that's easy. sondland is in a heap of trouble because if -- i mean we d

bolton himself being considered right now to head to the hill. speaking of which, the inquiry ongoing and the "washington post" has new reporting about what house republicans focused on during the depositions. republican lawmakers have used the congressional impeachment inquiry to gather information on a cia employee who filed a whistle-blower complaint, press witnesses on their loyalty to president trump and advance kpir torial claims that ukraine was involved in the 2016 elections. dan yes, ma'am, back to you. the witnesses corroborated most of the whistle-blower complaint. >> if you look at this line by line as was done. -- almost every line has been confirmed. and so this is kind of a fallback mechanism by republicans who really don't have a great defense given that mick mulvaney, the acting chief of staff went on television and basically confirmed that this happened. they're left to tear down the credibility of the whistle-blower even though that will have the effect of discouraging future whistle-blowers in any administration of speaking ou

john bolton has a book deal, so it's literally all going to be in the book. i think the idea that the white house can kind of contain or craft the narration of what actually happened is an idea that's beginning to slip away for them and it's a real challenge for them in terms of how to move forward. you can see we obtained some of the exchanges between fiona hill's legal team and the white house ahead of that testimony, and right up until the last minute, the white house trying to make the case that some of what she might want to be asked about would be covered by privilege, that the impeachment inquiry itself was not an impeachment inquiry because there wasn't a vote. the white house really trying to figure out how to try to contain what happens when current or formers are asked to appear, and so it's not really a matter is it their choice to appear. they're now being asked to appear. there could be legal repercussions if they don't. their business could be affected in the case of someone like a hotelier gordon sondland, either a desire on their part to test

>> i've always been a big fan of john bolton. secondly, the second most important story in washington. the national, david ignacious. he's going have one of those national things drinking beer. >> baby, they're 3-0 in the championship series. we don't get this in d.c. we have a punch of politicians and we have to look at it and we have a great baseball team. >> a great baseball team. man, they are on fire, aren't they? great pitching the first couple of games and just great hitting last night. >> they won 8-1 left night and the game was never close. they were up 7-0 and went up 3-0 and they can finish it up tonight with a sweep in washington at home in front of those fans and then they would have a week off before the world series as the yankees and astros battle it out today. >> all right. >> by the way, willie, david said we're going to the world series and i've heard other people in washington say that. can you remind them and i'm not saying this to be a jerk -- >> oh, man. >> remind them what happened in 2004. every time peop

. >> natalie, john bolton testifying potentially, his lawyers are in contact with the house committees. what do you think, natasha, not natalie. it's 10:00 on a friday and i have a sick baby at home, so you're going to have to forgive me. >> no explanation needed. >> what do you think of john bolton potentially testifying in front of house committees? and what could that do to the president's defenses. >> yeah, it's a huge escalation if it does happen because, of course, john bolton did not leave on the best terms, and he has not been shy about speaking out against the president and his policies in recent months since he was kind of unceremoniously fired or resigned. i guess it depends on who you ask. there's a new wrinkle in this just being reported as of a few minutes ago by "the new york times," which is bolton eats deputy filed a lawsuit trying to compel a court to tell him who he has to listen to, the white house or congress. does he have to listen to congress when they subpoena him for testimony or does he have to listen to the white house when they tell him he can't testify? the

they don't really know what john bolton is going to say. and part of that is because they're refusing to cooperate with this investigation. the white house doesn't even know what exactly is said in these hearing rooms. and as a contrast to the mueller investigation, where the white house was cooperating, where every witness from the white house who went in to talk to w mueller went in and talked to the white house counsel's office, the lawyers between those witnesses and the white house counsel's office were tn coordinating, were discussing. they had a clear picture of what was going on. because the white house is not cooperating in this, they do noh have a lawyer in the hearing room and the white house lawyers cannot exchange any information at all with the witnesses who are going forward.it >> shannon, what an excellent point. and going into another day tomorrow, they again don't know exactly what it is we'll be reporting on 24 hours from now.h hey, andrew, since we've been on the air, three other guests on this broadcast, carol leonnig,

learned that bolton's legal team says that bolton is not willing to appear voluntarily but his attorney tells us, david, that he is ready to accept a subpoena. david? >> all right, mary bruce tonight. mary, thank you. >>> and now to the deadly gunfight between mexican police and a narco militia, protecting el chapo's son, who is wanted in the u.s. authorities say police had detained his son when cartel operatives ambushed them, turning the streets into a war zone there.the ce forced to ret. at least eight people were killed. the mexican government tonight now defending that decision to call off the raid, saying they did so to save lives. >>> back here at home and to your health tonight and a new lawsuit against juul alleging 1 million contaminated vaping pods were shipped out. former executives are suing the e-cigarette giant saying the company knowingly shipped out mint-flavored nicotine pods that were con tam nated and he was let go as retaliation for being a whistle-blower, he says. juul firing back tonight, calling the claims baseless and that the company determined the product met

ncs and were stuffing bolton somewhere in the basement. mike pence, the vice president, was supposed to be at president zelensky's inaugural celebration and in a snub the president did not let him go. instead, rick perry was sent. rudy giuliani has been running around, doing this since at least january. mick mulvaney is on in. rick perry decided to leave the administration after being involved in some of these meetings where gordon sondland was told by the president any meeting with me and the prefz ukraine has to be approved by rudy giuliani. if you're a republican on capitol hill, how can you take any more? >> michael steele? >> well put, a.b. >> you're laughing. let's take a minute and talk about america's mayor. >> yeah. it's disappointing on a lot of levels, especially those of us who have known and worked with giuliani and his brand of politics. to watch him, like lindsey graham, throwing it all away at the service and pleasure of donald trump is something astonishing. i'm going to weigh these two men at any given point in time befor

john bolton, let me ask you about him. we heard he was not very happy with rudy giuliani and this president and what was going on in ukraine. and he expressed those concerned with fiona hill who told congress about that. do you think john bolton will testify next week? he has been subpoenaed. >> i have no idea. up sure he will do whatever the law requires him to do. i don't blame you for asking the question. but we are operating on the basis of opening statements given by witnesses and answers that the democrats have chosen to leak to the press. we are not seeing all the evidence put together in its entirety. we are operating on the basis of what they have chosen to tell us. and i assure you what they are leak is favorable to the theme and narrative they have chosen. trish: will that happen if there is a formal impeachment inquiry vote? will america get the chance to see what's going on down there? >> eventually they will have to do something public and go to the floor and vote on articles of impeachment and eventually the

john bolton. who is great white shark circling the white house waiting to bite back. >> talk about that. >> i know him from the bush white house. he's a lifetime republican. but the toughest bureaucratic fighter there is. he knows everything about everything including this president. efs not treated well on the way out. i guarantee there will be pay back. >> wow. >> one of the white house aid who has agreed to defy instructions not to cooperate morrisson testifying next week. is a bolton guy. so this will be interesting barometer to see what he says. he may corroborate the damming material that taylor has alleged at this point. he's also known to be a loyal party guy. so i don't want to elevate expectations too much. it will be interesting if it looks like he's turning on trump. that could mean -- >> morrisson. >> brought in by bolton. this is interesting for whether bolton himself could be the next -- >> i was listening but with one ear and trying to read. charles cupperman. the report from the "

national security advisor john bolton has become the highest profile former official to testify but has no i says he won't unless a subpoena is issued. reports impeachment investigators are eager to question john bolton the former national security adviser to president trump was a central figure in the administration's policy toward ukraine and one who said to have used colorful language to describe efforts to compel ukraine to investigate trumps political opponents a drug deal is what bolton's assistant said her boss called a july 10th meeting between ukrainian and u.s. officials at the white house the assistant testified bolton walked out of the meeting after sensing other u.s. officials had an agenda apart from solidifying the relationship between the 2 nations to get ukraine to investigate trumps domestic rivals i think that we've heard over the last several weeks a lot of lower level people and now the house is going to start moving up the food chain but bolton's attorney said late wednesday his client will not accept the invitation to testify democrats will likely issue a subpoena

we're talking about giuliani, bolton, mulvaney. these are the key figures in president trump's orbit. there have been a lot of questions of late about john bolton, the national security adviser who departed only a month or so ago very abruptly and on bad terms with president trump. there have been questions about what he might know, what he might have witnessed, what he might have been aware of regarding the conduct and the relationship with ukraine, both president trump's, but also his attorney, rudy giuliani. and now we're starting to get a clearer picture of all of that. this revelation, this testimony from fiona hill today, has to be troubling for the white house. it also points directly to the white house chief of staff, the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney. we know from our reporting a month or so ago that it was mulvaney who withheld the military aid for ukraine at the direction of president trump. so he was involved in this scenario in that moment with the decision about the military aid. but now we're learning that he

in fact one assistant to bolton testified earlier that bolton walked out of meeting with him which that that was discussed and he called it later a drug deal and he called giuliani a live hand grenade now bolton left his job at the white house in september it's still up to debate whether he resigned work or into trouble was fired so there certainly is some bad blood between the 2 however bolton has been very quiet since he left that post he's a lifelong republican and though many are saying that democrats see him bolten perhaps even an impeachment hero it's unlikely that he will appear in fact his attorney just said in the last hour or so that bolton will not voluntarily accept this invitation but that the attorney is waiting for a subpoena to arrive paula. give us a sense of the bigger picture here will be impeached. right now that's actually the easier question because there are enough house democrats to vote to indeed impeach president trump but what that really means is that he will be indicted in a sense will be formally accused the bigger question in the suspense really comes in o

well, actually john bolton claiming he was resigning. donald trump claiming, i fired you before you could resign and you're stupid, was basically donald trump's exit gift. john bolton, we know, is the kind of person who would have a very strong personal reaction to that kind of exit. >> absolutely. and, you know, i just, as we read these stories, the more we learn, i think it's interesting that what's emerging is this picture of washington as this is happening. certainly in july, after july as well. but really, everyone in washington seems to have known about this and how problematic the president's approach to ukraine was and his holding of this military aid. you had officials in the white house even before the july 25th call who are concerned about it. they heard the call. they were even additionally concerned. officials at omb knew and were concerned. officials at the cia were concerned. congress was concerned. and we're all learning about this. the american people are learning about this, too, now. as the president continues to try t

his lawyer also represents bolton. what does that mean for possible testimony from bolton himself and overall what do you think of this? >> it would be useful to have legal cover, especially because the white house is trying to block people from coming forward and documents being released. if they're people that work in the white house and otherwise. it could be useful to have a precedent. hey, this is b.s. and i imagine that he might be soliciting this kind of judicial ruling precisely for that outcome. yeah. you can imagine that bolton -- again, is testing the waters here, or at least watching closely what will happen. >> you called him a what? >> big white shark. >> it is a circus. >> they're going to need a bigger boat. >> listen. in is a clip from -- speaking of a circus, the upcoming episode of "the circus," where steve bannan was asked about bill taylor's testimony. >> i was in the skiff. i had the pleasure of being with brother schiff. i know how they roll down there. i would like to have taylor at a committee

i'll take one of those at a time, the bolton thing. i read that and was surprised, john bull never complain to me about it and no one nsc ever complained and i did not see the testimony which is another story entirely. when he said bolton never complained to him i think they would be on a hill is the one that testified. she complained to her boss. john bolton who did what. >> who told her to lead to a lawyer at the nsc inc. to complain. >> john bolton did not say anything to anybody. doesn't that raise a red flag. let's go to the first thing, the president's phone call, at the end of the day that's what this is about. the presidents phone call with ukraine. you've done the same thing with many news outlets. do me a favor, immediately go to the bidens. look at the transcript and the conversation. look at the d&c server, they talk about you corruption of ukraine and rudy giuliani, the president of ukraine gets on and talks about a close cooperation between the countries and corruption in a new ambassador to the u.s. and the president get

that's how she describes what john bolton said. >> exactly. and that suggests that -- we've already known that trump and giuliani have been working together on this. this suggests that trump has been trying to implicate, if you will, deliberately or not, as many other people as possible. you already have the secretary of state, the energy secretary, the vice president, and now we have the chief of staff getting involved. these are people who the house can try to call to testify, putting the white house in a difficult position of whether to stonewall and pay a political price for it or to allow these very senior officials to testify and risk that they will tell the truth. >> elliott, each day we're getting new information if someone is testifying on the hill, but when you look now as these pieces of the puzzle are being put together, what is sort of your overview of what's happening here? >> what you're seeing is the remarkable discipline of the house democrats. even look at yesterday with fiona hill's testimony, the very few leaks that came ou

house committees have summoned donald trump's former national security advisor john bolton to testify next week bolton departed the white house last month after reported policy disagreements with the president to other national security council aides have also been asked to testify several house committees are looking into whether the president pressured ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden and his family in exchange for military aid. ok to d.c. now that's where correspondent oliver salat is standing by for us he's been reporting on the impeachment inquiry for us now oliver what do democrats hope they can learn from bolton's potential testimony well john bolton was president trump's former national security advisor and of course he will be one of the most senior figures to testify if he decides to do so in the impeachment inquiry so he was very close to the president and could therefore play a vital role in the inquiry now they have been many testimonies the inquiry is really picking up speed these days and according to other officials that have already testified john

what does john bolton want? do you have any idea? >> i don't know what he wants, but i can assume what he could want which is retribution. i mean, he -- remember, he went out of the white house in a typical trump administration fashion which was it was not pretty, it was not amicable. they were, you know, fighting over twitter. and john bolton was not happy. and was not happy on a policy level. was also not happy on a personal level. he was not getting along with some key people in the white house. and he felt that he was right. so if he wants to grind that ax, there is no bigger platform and no more important stage for him to do it. >> there was also reporting he was ousted from the white house. he was frustrated about the ukraine stuff. he might not just have an ax to grind, he might have an actual policy principle he wants to get across. >> listen. i'm far from a john bolton fan, that being said this guy is a true conservative when it comes to foreign policy. he is an ideologue. we've got a purported republican president in the wh

we don't know whether or not bolton will appear. when he served as national security adviser, his number two, his deputy was charles cupperman. cupperman brought a lawsuit in response to his request to testify to the impeachment committees. cupperman asked a judge to intervene to tell him whether or not he should obey the white house instruction not to appear or the congressional that says he must appear. that will be before a judge tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 eastern. kuperman was the deputy until september when they both left and were pushed out. john bolton shared a lawyer with mr. kupperman on these matters. maybe john bolton will try to predicate his own behavior and answer to the impeachment proceedings on the results of that legal action. we don't know. who knows. maybe john bolton will say yes i've been waiting to testify. can i bring my notes. the impeachment committees have scheduled bolton for his testimony next week. even though these impeachment proceedings are still at this point behind closed doors, the drama still inc

he was also number two under john bolton. bolton was greatly alarmed over the pressure put on ukraine to conduct political investigations. instead of sitting up there in front of house committees and revealing what he knows, kupperman filed suit asking a judge to decide if he should follow a congressional subpoena or the white house directive to stand down. the democrats running this impeachment inquiry say the lawsuit is no excuse for

with regard to john bolton and rudy giuliani, i heard mayor giuliani say john bolton doesn't have a good understanding of the work he was doing in ukraine and he doesn't understand the connection of ukraine to the origins of collusion in 2016. is that the white house take, that john bolton doesn't understand the investigation here? >> i haven't had a direct conversation with president trump about john bolton or any conversations that fiona hill talk to democrats in the least secret hearings and backdoor meetings that she had the last couple of days. what i can tell you is that conversations the president and i have about this center around a much broader problem, that is the fact that there are several people in the federal government who consistently and dangerously leak information about our national security to the press. it puts people's lives at risk, it's got to stop. it happens all too often, we have seen so many of the president's calls leaked whether it was with mexico or australia, obviously ukraine was an issue. it isn't just these shadowy people in the federal government, it'

bolton as a witness. so they can get his own words that have been memorialized and that are so damning about the hand grenade and the drug deal. then there is, of course, mr. sondland. he's slated to testify on thursday. and there are reports already that he's planning to say -- to say to the congress under penalty of perjury that trump told him directly there was no quid pro quo with ukraine, exchanging say military aid for dirt on biden, but sondland quick to emphasize he doesn't know whether that's true. he doesn't know whether the president was lying. he's distancing himself from that one written defense. and while the pentagon and the office of management budget are refusing to comply with some of these subpoenas, the house committees expanding their witness lists deep into those departments which allege that the military aid quid pro quo theory is a focus. they've asked two pentagon officials to testify. one scheduled to appear friday. they're also asking for trump's budget director to appear. so th

>> absolutely this is a test case for bolton. democrats on the hill are eager to have bolton testify, but they have to make a decision whether having him come or pushing for him to come and taking it through the courts depending on how this hgoes is what it will cost. courts do notha nancy pelosi and democrats have said. initially they said they want to get this wrapped up by thanksgiving, now christmas is more likely and there are political reasons for that. the longer this goes, the more it runs into that 2020 election and the harder it is to make this case that this isn't a matter that should be decided by the voters in 2020. >> at the world series game last night, we saw the president come out and he was booed by a number of people, people were chanting -- >> lock him up! >> -- there you hear it, lock him up. listen to this reaction this morning e morning from the democratic senator chris coons who, when asked about this, i found his answer very interesting. let's go to the chairman of the house intelligence committee, adam s

>> kupperman is the deputy of john bolton. we know from previous testimony that john bolton had deep reservations of the policy of ukraine. and also the fact that rudy giuliani was so deeply involved in this, congressional investigators wanted and interested in kupperman. is kupperman is ever going to show? he's saying he's between a rock and a hard place. he does not want to defy his former boss. he does not want to defy the congress who's come peming him to testify. he puts the questions into the courts. the democrats have no patience for the courts. they'll file this some sort of bucket and using it as more evidence that the administration is trying to withhold information from congress. >> let's talk about somebody who did show up over the weekend. that was phillip reeker. what did he have to say in his testimony on saturday? >> his job was to oversees the ukraine policy for the united states, he was stationed overseas. his first week on the job was back in job of a smeared campaign being run by rudy giuliani in conservati

john bolton would make them back in their comfort zone because they would say i fired bolton. he didn't like when i fired him. he's disgruntled. if john was doing that, i didn't know. i don't know what he was doing over in his office. i'm glad i fired him now that i know that he was doing all this. that is a better argument, like look, i'm no liz cheney fan but if you have liz cheney saying lay off people like vindman and people like mitch mcconnell saying i don't want to talk about the patriotism of these folks who are parading in to testify, they want to go somewhere that they are used to. no matter what kind of brother in arms bolton has been over the years in wanting to go into iraq or two into iran or all the crazier things he wants to do remove the top ten floors of the u.n., they will turn on him if he becomes a useful foe. at the same time, he will do them some good because he will say look, i didn't agree with this but you have been after him for two and a half years. he will do a lot of their talking points. i mean it will be rough but frankly i'm not sure it wouldn'

you spent time with bolton. based on what you know about him, do you think he will testify willingly, and if so, what kind of a witness would he be? >> that's like the $64,000 question. i mean everybody in washington is wondering about that. i think, you know, on one hand he knows everything. he had total visibility and, you know, he left on bad terms with trump. trump said, i fired him. he said, nope, i quit before you could fire me. but on the other hand, he's always been -- you know, he's a partisan. he's always been a stalwart republican, and he came from fox news. he came from that whole thing. so it's really hard to tell. i think potentially what's so interesting is if he does testify to what other people have said that he did and he believed and he said, then i think it's potentially devastating for the president just because of his stature as one of the premier republicans in the republican establishment. >> what do you think it comes down to? i mean, again, it's impossible to really get inside somebody'

he works for john bolton. john bolton works directly for the president, and he is the person who was in charge of coordinating ukraine policy. and he, of all people, should know what the real terms of the relationship were. was it american national interest? or was it the president's political agenda, his personal, political agenda, the key factor in the relationship. >> he looks like he's david gregory tall. >> he's that tall. he's that tall. >> that tall, david, or maybe taller, i don't know yet. >> nice to see people of normal height. >> tim morrison also announced his resignation. it's not immediate. he is still -- when he testifies, he'll still be at the national security council, still working in the white house, but he announced it's imminent. and so the feeling is that will free him up, i guess, to speak more candidly. >> and we don't know that that means that he's going to go out of his way to criticize the president, but i do think it's stunning to see a parade of witnesses, particularly those who ar

and potentially bolton himself's testimony with this reporting. quote, from the man who described the president's chief of staff -- i'm sorry, this is something we've already read. let me get right to the reporters, though, covering this breaking story. robert costa, what is the significance of this vote in congress? how does it sort of take away one of the republicans' talking points against the process itself, which seems to be what they have landed on in 30 days, not a single dispute of the facts in the whistle-blower complaint or any of the testimony we are hearing from capitol hill. >> this democratic impeachment process is moving forward like a ship, and many republicans are very unhappy about it because it's being done in private. but what speaker pelosi is doing with this decision is pushing back against republican criticism and say hold on a minute, we are going to hold a vote to formalize this process. if you're complaining about the process, we will formalize it. and she is also saying to them if you read the resolution and the reportin

security adviser john bolton. they are confirming now that bolton's lawyers have had talks with investigating committees about a possible deposition.

lawyer that bolton is not willing to appear in front of congress voluntarily. keep in mind, he could be subpoenaed. >> all right hallie jackson, thanks. >>> just in this evening, the surprise announcement from twitter ahead of the 2020 election. the social media giant saying it will no longer allow political ads on its platform. that is a sharp contrast to facebook, which has faced backlash for the policy on not fact-checking political ads placed by candidates. >>> for the third time this year the federal reserve cut interest rates today. the quarter-point drop comes as the economy slows and trade tensions remain high the fed chair said no further cuts were likely unless the economic conditions were to change >>> ic divide in this country. the top 10% of americans have 7the wealth whie bottom 50% have barely 1% we are taking a closer look at how people are around the country are doing in this economy. nbc's kate snow now with the money you make >> reporter: 5:30 a.m. lucy wilson gets her two dozen more 7:00 a.m. the school day begins. >> what is this? i used to

that of john bolton. for the first time, house democrats expecting an official from inside the white house to testify in the impeachment inquiry. tim morrison, a top russia and europe adviser on president trump's national security council who listened in on the july 25th call with ukraine's leader is scheduled to appear next week. sources telling cnn he's expected to corroborate key elements of top u.s. diplomat to ukraine bill taylor's testimony tuesday. >> bill taylor's testimony was devastating to the president. and bill taylor essentially laid out a quid pro quo between the trump administration and the president with the ukrainian leader. >> reporter: two sources telling cnn morrison will contend he didn't see anything wrong with what the trump administration did although one says there will be, quote, nuance. sources say republicans worry his testimony could fuel the democrats' push towards impeachment and they hope it will lack first hand knowledge of the president's actions. they are negotiating wi

very much so it's material that it's john bolton that it's fiona hill who are raising these concerns and these aren't generalized concerns these aren't partisan political concerns these are concerns that go right to the core of a well functioning government you know the united states has a law that prohibits soliciting foreign powers interference in domestic electoral politics the entire ukraine episode is in fact a violation of that law and what we're going to see is a level of culpability for that conduct that will start at the core of that and will will extend outward will see how far the culpable how far the culpability ring extends but it certainly is significant that it's john bolton it's fiona hill it's. we seem to have lost christopher christopher a senior fellow at the atlantic council joining us from tampa florida where mexico's president has called on people to lie down their arms and not solve their problems for violence after 2 mass shootings the attacks happened in 2 of the most violent states where drug gangs battle for control of smuggling routes reports from mexico c

national security advisor john bolton has become the highest profile former official to testify but his lawyer says you won't do so unless a subpoena is issued. reports. impeachment investigators are eager to question john bolton the former national security adviser to president trump was a central figure in the administration's policy toward ukraine and one who 'd said to have used colorful language to describe efforts to compel ukraine to investigate trumps political opponents a drug deal is what bolton's assistant said her boss called a july 10th meeting between ukrainian and u.s. officials at the white house the assistant testified bolton walked out of the meeting after sensing other u.s. officials had an agenda apart from solidifying the relationship between the 2 nations to get ukraine to investigate trumps domestic rivals i think that we've heard over the last several weeks a lot of lower level people and now the house is going to start moving up the food chain but bolton's attorney said late wednesday his client will not accept the invitation to testify democrats will likely iss

why are investigators eagle took eager to question john bolton in particular. well the law in his role as the president's national security adviser which he had until last september he was a central figure in the administration's handling of ukraine and according to previous impeachment inquiry witnesses bolton refused to take part in what he and others have called this the shadow campaign of foreign policy toward ukraine in which other members of the ministration and the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani were trying to get ukraine to open investigations into trump's political rivals and notably bolton according to previous testimony from his assistant called this shadow campaign drug deal and his worth and so that giuliani was alive a hand grenade now bolton left his post he claims that he resigned and trump says that he was fired as national security advisor back in september and he has remained relatively quiet since then so it's really an open question whether or not he will appear for this invitation to testify next thursday at this point it's no

nbc news is reporting john bolton the former national security adviser now out of a job, that john bolton, knew it was a bad idea even before trump called the new president of ukraine. this report reads in part, quote, three officials said bolton argued against trump calling ukrainian president zelensky on july 25 because he was concerned the president wasn't coordinating with advisers on what to say and might air personal grievances. now there is growing and aunls and understandable fear bolton and his allies out in the world talking might inflict damage on this president after they've exited. quote, they know where a lot of the bodies are buried, one person close to the white house said. officials also said bolton was among senior officials including mike pence who did not listen in on the call. for more, i am joined by the aforementioned carole lee an nbc news correspondent. why did bolton know so well to oppose the call and is what we're seeing here kind of that conditional courage where former trump people speak out a little bit about the trump administration in the rear view mirror?

former national security adviser john bolton. "the new york times" reporting that impeachment investigators are negotiate with bolton's attorneys for him to testify as well in private. and as the impeachment inquiry continues, centered on a request by the president for a foreign country to investigate his political opponents here at home, we are learning that