i think we can infer from the white house opposition to dr. kupperman's testimony that they believe that his testimony would be incriminating of the president. it is also, i think, very plain additional and powerful evidence of obstruction of congress and its lawful function by the president that yet again and even after a court decision affirming the right of congress to proceed with this impeachment inquiry, the white house has obstructed the work of a co-equal branch of government. if this witness had something to say that would be helpful to the white house, they would want him to come and testify. they plainly don't. after hearing the testimony or reviewing the written opening statement of ambassador taylor, one can easily see why the white house does not want further evidence to come before the congress. i found it remarkable i have to say that the republican members of our three committees, including ranking members on oversight committees, took a position effectively of endorsing the white house obstruction that the president in an imp

the white house. nancy pelosi has been very clear she's not going to succomb when it comes to white house pressure when it comes to pushing for a full house vote on the full house floor to authorizing an impeachment inquiry. she's not ruled it out in the past but she does not believe she's required to do so. many republicans are arguing for a full house vote. arguing that a potentially give them more power than they have right now. potentially giving them even chance to subpoena their own witnesses. subpoena their own information here. this letter most likely tonight not only just essentially will throw a lot of more fuel on the fire for democrats and the white house have made it clear this only adds to this case they are building. this white house stone walling just adds to their case about obstruction which they say will factor in to articles of impeachment. >> thank you. joining me now is congressman a democrat who serves on the judiciary and foreign affairs committee. thank you so much for joining

last week the white house announced the white house itself and federal offices will and incursions restrictions the washington post. >> i think they will be okay. >> does that make your job broadly as reporters more difficult when news sources are ended or criticized in that way by their decision not to? >> the washington post and new york times you a lot of their business online now. the washington post i know it free subscriptions to government employees. we have a.gov or an email address, you can get a free subscription so i don't think it really materially damages them and subscriptions to that tradition of the paper. and there's kind of a dual game that goes on with this administration. the president wants to feed on us and use us as a prop in his political rallies but we have not been kicked out of the white house, we have not been kicked out, we're still in proximity to the president all the time. he talks to us a lot. there's a lot of news that comes out of the white house and a lot of people in his administration talk to us area and they work with us as the press. they understandthe va

that was in the white house. they were the rogue operation they broke into the water gate and elsewhere looking for dirt on president nixons opponent. this according to the times is a rogue operation involving the highest officials in the land. the chief of staff of the white house the president himself of course. and bolton wanted to alert the lawyers. what did he expect white house lawyers to do? call the cops? read the president his rights. you have a right -- that may happen some day. not yet. it's amazing. i believe that this conventional wisdom we thought was right. the house would impeach but the senate would never convict with the republicans. it maybe wrong. the senate can convict if this keeps going. >> interesting. the new reporting says that according to today's testimony. bolton told hill to tell the white house lawyers that i am not part of whatever drug deal rudy and mulvaney are cooking up. and we're also learning more about mick mulvaney involvement and working with giuliani. what do you make of

backing you. >>> house speaker nancy pelosi hitting back at the white house. she says any efforts to hide the president's abuse of power will be considered evidence of obstruction. joining me to discuss now, john dean, douglas brinkley. gentlemen, good evening. good to see you. i just want to read this. this is from article 3 of the articles of impeachment drafted against richard nixon. it says, in his conduct of the office of president of the united states, richard m. nixon has failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the committee of the judiciary of the house of representatives and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. john, is this where we're heading now? >> well, it might be, but it's not a very good place to go, don. that happens to have been the weakest article against richard nixon. the committee barely got a majority. it was a 21-17 vote. not all the democrats actually voted against nixon on that. so it was a weak read, and a lot of members didn't even want to take it to the f

and i'll be honest, we can take the headline, white house stymies congress, white house refuses to hand over information, we could run that same headline every three months in this administration began. so i don't think for once the democrats are not shocked and amazed that the white house is lying or not providing information. they can have this vote whenever they want. here's the other key part about this. every piece of information that they have asked for, that this administration refuses to come forward with can be part of a complaint about obstruction of justice into an investigation of inappropriate behavior the president has already admitted to. that's their option, to take everything that donald trump is doing now and make that a part of their case in a stronger case that for once, according to the polls, not only are people in favor of the impeachment inquiry, but we have now moved to a point where americans are actually recent polls show, americans are in favor of donald trump being removed from office in a vote. that's something that works in the democrats' favor. >> interes

he's still a white house employee. but he was most important to this conversation because he was on that phone call between president trump and the president of ukraine that kicked off this entire impeachment inquiry. so he could speak to the phone call. he could also to speak to bolton, who they want to get in here, reacted to it. but he's now the first person to take this issue of the bat the between congress and the white house to the courts this is not his battle to decide essentially. he wants the judicial branch to weigh in on whether or not it's appropriate for him to follow a congressionally mandated subpoena or the guidance of the white house, which is not to come testify. you heard adam schiff saying that's not good enough. they are going to put his lack of forthcomingness to speak to the committee in a bucket that says he's obstructing and he must thehave something damning say. they are hoping to essentially move on with the inquiry. >> there has been, as you know, a fair amount of consequential testimony al

and he was at the white house yesterday. is he or is he not based on your reporting going to serve as an outside council on impeachment to the president? >> maybe. most likely. but there were reports last night that trey gowdy had lunch we the president yesterday. there were reports several hours later that he was on board. the way it has been described to me is number one, i think people got confused in the initial reports in not understanding that he was not ever supposed to be part of the white house apparatus. it was always going to be an outside counsel. somebody r number two, it's said a an offer has not been made to gowdy yet. but it wasn't a done deal as of last night. as you know, until these things are done in trumpland and even then they're not necessarily done. he will likely be there. i think they will welcome his help. i think they would welcome his help on a number of fronts including a public facing defense. but it is not quite there yet. maybe that'll change in the next couple of hours. but as of last night,

white house to defy the white house and come and testify in this inquiry. and so that suggests that there will be many more and that it would be hard for the white house to stop oerps such as former national security adviser john bolton who clearly have important information to bear from coming forward number one. number two. >> yes. >> this testimony, it really tends to implicate the president very directly. i'm struck by that. you know, in watergate in the nixon era, you essentially had months and months even a couple of years worth of inquiry that was asking the question well what did the president know and when did he know it? but president trump by contrast in this ukraine plot was really directing and very much involved and at the center of the action. all of these people are testifying in various ways about things that the president personally did, for example, he personally ordered gordon sondland, the eu ambassador, the ambassador to brussels be involved in ukraine policy, according to what sondland told fiona him. he said well butt out because don

according to this white house counsel. even a conversation with someone who never worked for the president is privileged or could be, according to white house counsel. even a conversation in which two people, neither of them are the president, may be privileged. it's unrecognizable. our conversation may be privileged, according to the white house counsel. reporter: i hope not. mr. schiff: i hope not too. [laughter] it goes to show the legally insupportable position of the white house. and indeed you see this now reflected in court decision after court decision after court decision where judges have said the administration's legal arguments hold no water. but what they are succeeding in doing is building a case involving obstruction of congress. reporter: the white house said it's not cooperating in part because there hasn't been a vote to formalize this impeachment inquiry. why not hold a vote and call the white house's bluff? mr. schiff: i'll let the speaker respond to that. i think the constitution is very clear. the hou

kelly o'donnell at the white house. thank you. >>> today is a milestone in the road to the white house. 100 days from today the first true measure of who is ahead in the democrats' race for president. iowa voters begin caucuses february 3rd. three weeks later, south carolina will hold its primary. it will be the first in the south and today several candidates, you can see on the right, are at the same event in the capital city of columbia, south carolina. senator amy klobuchar expected to take the stage at this presidential criminal justice forum. a live picture there from columbia. candidates introducing plans to reform the system all day long and a bit of controversy, i should mention, involving the schedule and senator kamala harris. harris initially pulled out of the forum at a historically black college after only a limited number were allowed to attend and given an award why in same event. nbc news reporter joins us from outside that forum. curious about one thing. senator harris is now, has now decided to rejoin

that's alarming to this white house. each senator, as they walked from the train up to their office to the vote, they would tell us, sorry, can't comment. i'm not going to be a juror in this possible senate trial. and you have a lot of unease behind the scenes among those senate republicans because they don't know the facts. every day's a new day. bringing another ambassador, another national security official, who is not singing in unison with the white house when it comes to the president's conduct. >> and jeremy bash, witnesses who are active duty or retired military also bring a bearing and an ethos that a lot of civilians don't have. chiefly, chain of command. this guy is prepared to testify that twice he kicked it up the line to the chief counsel in the nsc. he is the kind of witness, it appears, who could do some thorough damage. >> lieutenant colonel vindman is a soldier, a wounded iraq war veteran, combat veteran, someone who clearly is not a partisan actor and doesn't really even have a policy ax to grind. he's

, white house declares war on impeachment. i mean, the basis of this claim from the trump white house was this sort of astonishing letter signed by the white house counsel, a letter to congress telling congress that the entire administration, the whole executive branch would be carrying on as if impeachment wasn't happening. they would not be responding to any document requests. they would not be allowing any witness from any point in any part of the administration to come forward and cooperate with the impeachment inquiry because the impeachment is illegal. it's unconstitutional or illegal or very bad or something. i mean, the letter was -- it started off, quote, i write on behalf of president donald j. trump in response to your numerous legally unsupported demands made as part of what you have labeled contrary to the constitution, a scare, quote, impeachment inquiry. and then it's sort of downhill from there. president trump and his administration reject your baseless unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic proce

a criminal acts, that's a white house official. people in the white house saw that it wasn't a perfect phone call. in fact, it was so far from perfect that a slew of people who had heard it were worried immediately that the law had been broken. here with me now one of "the washington post" reporters who's written about the relationship with ukraine greg miller who's also the author of "the apprentice, trump, russia and the subversion of american democracy." what have we learned to how central sondland was to this entire affair? good he shows up over and over to this crinology as you just laid out. he is basically really trying to impress the president. he donates a million dollars as you noted through hidden channel tuesday the inaugural committee so that he can get a position like this in government. and then as people in the white house told us even though he's ambassador to the eu, he is shuttling back to washington with such frequency seeking face time with the president they started joking he's more ambassador to the west wing

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so there is a chance that the white house was more aware than we have initially believed. whether the president was aware, that is the question. but also this is really been something that has kind of consumed the president so far. he talks about it constantly. all of the time wanting to know the identity of the whistle-blower because he believes it is just someone who has essentially a bone to pick with him and that is the questions to focus on the identity of the whistle-blower. >> and let me just ask you, briefly there is this huge campaign to smear alexander vindman and has shrapnel still in his body because he was hit by an ied in combat in iraq, going after him as a dual citizen or a covert agent for ukraine, et cetera, et cetera, is there anybody in the white house concerned, boy this looks bad. even liz cheney is saying this is shameful. >> that is something everyone was paying attention to in the white house. it wasn't just liz cheney, she was the first and people were surprised she came out so forcefully about that and john thune and mitch mcconnell talking about

is the white house saying criticism on that front? i think there will be criticism alayna: not pulling troops completely as the president had said i was a campaign promise. i think most people are of the mind we are seeing republicans being some of the most outraged over the issue. they want people there, they isis and thee that other terrorist organizations fill this vacuum with troops in place so we do not fall back into a pattern of what we saw over the past few years. i think there's reports we have seen from the new york times and wall street journal overnight that some troops may be capped there to help defend the kurds and tried to prevent isis from researching. it will be interesting messaging for the white house. jason: some of the oil wells there are a place the troops would protect. alayna: we've seen the president referred to protecting the oil fields in syria frequently throughout. people have raised eyebrows saying is that what we are protecting? not the kurds? that is definitely a location that the president has been wa

at the white house tonight. and that would be news in its own right just like that, but it's a particularly intriguing piece of news given that tomorrow morning that same official, tim morrison, is due to give testimony behind closed doors in the impeachment proceedings against the president. i don't know if we're going to get an opening statement or any other read out from morrison's deposition tomorrow, but watch this space. and that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for the "last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. question for raja krishnamoorthi. a member of the committee that will be hearing these depositions tomorrow. we'll see if mr. morrison shows up. >> that's one way to sort of curtain raise on your testimony, resign the day before you do it. >> thank you, rachel. >>> we'll be joined tonight by someone who served as a juror in the impeachment trial of the president of the united states. former democratic senator russ feingold of wisconsin will tell

i'm either leaving the white house. i'm going to the private sector or i'm becoming a whistle-blower. i'm sharing information with the whistle-blower. but i do think that helps explain some of the behavior of current and former officials, how they're reacting to an environment that they often at times find quite alarming. >> look -- >> go ahead. >> i was going to say, there's quite a difference between something that's crazy and frighting which this new "new york times" story is about, and something about personal president self-interest and subordinating american policy. >> right. >> one is one that maybe the voters voted for in 2016 knowing some of the -- >> yeah, on display at every maga rally. >> the other self-interest, done in secret, trump's plan was to do all of this with ukraine in secret. indeed, his justice department hid all this evidence from the people and took this whistle-blower to have it come out. that's something that's fundamentally different. that's what i think why the impeachment thing has such le

costa. >> house democrats are appalled by the white house in this administration. their decision to block witnesses in addition to blocking all of these documents. we're seeing the beginning of a drawn out fight that is almost unprecedented in american history. congress being tested as an institution. >> only because it is such a unprecedented day, so surprise that democrats are appalled. >> i would love to send ambassador sondland to testify but he would be testifying before a compromised kangaroo court where rights have been taken away and true facts are not allowed out. importantly his tweet which few reported i think you're incorrect about president trump's intentions, no quid pro quo s quos of any kind. i want to share a tweet by chris hayes. the reason sondland is so dangerous is he was speaking directly to the president. >> so unfortunately the president is not playing out any sort of legal argument in the constitution. it say most where that you don't have to comply with congressional requests. if you don't like what the questions are or if you this it is a

it is material which purports to have originated at the white house. the stuff was apparently sent over from the white house to secretary of state mike pompeo's office in may of this year via his secretary, ruth. congressman raskin today described it as a packet of propaganda, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, indicating he does not think highly of the content of this pact of information. nbc news has published some of the images. these pages appear to bolster that description of this being conspiracy theory stuff involving ukraine. but based on the timing and conse content of this material and the weird way it was delivered from the white house to secretary of state pompeo's office and then it ended up in the hands of the inspector general who ultimately felt like congress needed to see it given the impeachment proceedings underway, the forst emerging here is that this stapled and calligraphiednd a highlighted stack of nonsense printed out from the internet may have been the grounds on which mike pompeo and the state department basically fired

the white house aides sought a cost for. if all those methods failed, the president suggested that soldiers to shoot migrants on the legs to slow them down. president trump denied this earlier today. nbc has reported the plan included reinstated the family separation. using border agents to conduct a asylum interviews. that one actually went through. i want to note one thing. if you are remembering, ali, the interview that ivanka trump did with abc news where she referenced the child separation policy being a low point in the administration. i wonder where ivanka trump's first daughter senior advisor to president trump feel now since it has been brought up again. >> he was the custom and border protection chief at the time. in a new interview. he expressed among other things of his frustration that his own department is being used for a partisan immigration agenda. he maintains operational control of the dhs and told "the washington post" what i don't have control over is the tone, the message and the public faith and approa

closely with the white house vecounsel. of course, the leader there. that would be my anticipation. i think you did hit the nail on the head here, ari. right now the administration feels it has a strong argument to make to say, look, administration officials cannot testify because they would undoubtedlyld be testifying abo material they're arguing is protected by executive privilege. that argument getsby tougher to make once this vote takes place. thatke doesn't mean they're not going tosn try to block testimo. for example, all eyes are going to be on john bolton. if he's subpoenaed, will he show up? his attorney is saying he's not going to show up unless he's subpoenaed. what legal recourse would the administration have given that this vote would basically say, look, the white house could bring its, own counsel into the proceedings, ari. >> senator, you look like you might want to get ngin. int wanted to note that we have thet triple zeros. you can explain how this works. we have no time remaining, but a lot of voeks bmiss

whether or not they can shake anything loose from the white house. >> got it. keith, i want to ask you, too, about this. just yesterday the trump doj, justice department, argued a watergate ruling a judge allowed congress to see a secret grand jury report on nixon was incorrect to which the judge, also noteworthy, the judge responded, wow. the department of justice is taking an extraordinary position in this case. i mean, you laugh, everyone else does like, hearing this judge write how she, what she said, but they are basically arguing, my interpretation, this president is above the law? >> they are extremely bold comments. and that judge's reaction is reflective on how lots of lawyers including jumps are likely to react to the kinds of arguments the administration is now mustering. i think increasingly the administration is in the territory where really it's making political arguments not really legal arguments. they're not arguments that are designed to persuade lawyers that there's some kind of decent constitutional grounds for what the administration wants

it was amazing that the white house then in response to the furor, the white house released this documents, the notes of that call proving that that's in fact what the president had done. the whistleblower was right. but the most chilling thing about it was what president trump said on that call about one particular u.s. government employee. while he was speaking with this foreign leader seeking help on his re-election effort, the president brought up a senior state department official who he had just fired, who he had just recalled as ambassador to that foreign country. according to the white house's own notes from the call, which they released, the president told that foreign leader, quote, the former ambassador to the united states, the woman, was bad news. he then told the ukrainian president, quote, well, she's going to go through some things. that was chilling. in fact, that ambassador, that woman, as the president puts it, a 33-year veteran of the u.s. state department is now going through some things. we're starting to realize she may have been the wrong person to mess with, though

and yet today the white house is struggling to get specific. what specifically, for example, has house speaker nancy pelosi leaked? my colleague peter alexander pressing gidley earlier today. take a look. >> what evidence does president trump have that nancy pelosi has ever disclosed national security secrets in the past? >> well, i mean, we literally have a litany of hearings going on right now in which democrats are selectively leaking that information. >> evidence by nancy pelosi. nancy pelosi. one example of nancy pelosi. >> you guys are the ones who get the leaks. you tell me. >> i have no examples. that's why i'm asking you. >> is it because you won't reveal your sources? or because you know it's not nancy pelosi? >> no one has identified an example of nancy pelosi -- >> there have been many examples of democrats leaking information selectively to members of the media. >> chris, part of this just underscores how tense things are right now between the white house and capitol hill. particularly, house democrats. as this impeachment inquiry

the house, the senate, the white house. rather than attack patriots maybe what they should do is disentangle themselves from a very unpopular president who has been caught confessing to impeachable acts. this is how illogical they are behaving because they are so afraid of, i don't know, a mean tweet or perhaps a primary challenge that they have adopted a strategy that is entirely counter productive for them and is probably making things a lot worse. >> and quickly before we go to break here, in the senate trial if there's a majority vote to remove donald trump from office, it only takes a few republicans to switchover to get to majority vote, that would be a devastating judgment about donald trump entered into the record. if they can get mitt romney and two, three other republicans that would be quite a significant historical statement against donald trump. >> it certainly would be, lawrence. i think it would be a majority to convict in the senate. as you point out, it's not enough for removal. it will wound him politicall

white house te house -- cnn white house talked about the scramble. how worried were they about what president trump said? >> reporter: very worried according to sources to speak to our team with this story. we were told in the immediate aftermath, after the call with president trump and president zelensky of ukraine, in was a scramble behind the scenes that was pretty isolated in the nfc and the white house counsel's office and we're told through sources that at least one nsc staffer actually raised the concern upwards to the nsc lawyers about the call. the concern being that the president asked the ukraine president to look into joe biden and his son. and after that concern was raised up the ladder, the lawyers put that transcript of the call into the code word server that we have reported on extensively. now, this only backs up what has been put out there in this whistle-blower complaint about nsc concerns, the lawyers putting it into the code word server. i'm told by source there's were a couple reasons the lawyers did that. one, they wanted to ma

on the white house strategy, this has caught the white house off guard. it caught a lot of us off guard, but the white house was not prepared to be in this situation right now. and so the strategy the is basically the president's twitter account. he is leading his own defense. it's vastly different than what we saw in the clinton impeachment where clinton himself tried to act as though he was governing, act as though he was doing things on behalf of the american people. trump all in on impeachment. he is going to be leading his own defense. i think the big question for the white house is about their practical cooperation with congress. if they choose to stonewall on documents, on interviews, that actually guarantee it is his impeach. , and if it focuses on an obstruction of congress is a definite for democrats. chris: josh, you are our senate expert as the foreman chief of staff to mitch mcconnell. let's assume the house votes sometime november, december, whatever to impeach the president, they need 67 votes. there are 47 democrats, that means that you wo

if i were pompeo or the white house right now, i'd be a little worried on that front. with respect to your question about the dam starting to break, i think it's very possible. i think anyone with a conscience right now, especially career diplomats, are really thinking about whether continuing on really equals complicity, and second, whether they can actually do their jobs. pompeo has failed to come to the defense of ambassador yovanovitch. his silence has been deafening on that front. but president trump has criticized am gas dorns throughout his tenure. president trump met with vladimir putin and said that he'd consider letting former ambassador mcfaul speak with russian authorities, so, this is just a pattern for president trump and pompeo is silent when it comes to ambassador yovanovitch, but he is essentially coming to the defense of ambassador sondland and preventing various people have testifying because perhaps he thinks that's damaging to him. >> pompeo, of course, brought mckinley in and "the post" is reporting that part of mckinley's job was taking the tempe

the "times" writes, quote, that he told house impeachment investigators on tuesday that the white house transcript of a july call between president trump and ukraine's president omitted crucial words and phrases, and that his attempts to restore them failed. the omissions included mr. trump's assertion that there were recordings of former vice president biden discussing ukraine corruption and an explicit mention by ukraine's president of burisma holdings, the energy company whose board employed mr. biden's son, hunter. now, remember something important here. the record of that phone call that the president keeps referring to as the perfect call, the record we all got to see, that one on the screen was not a transcript. it was a summary. in some of the places where we see an ellipses, three dots in the text, the lieutenant colonel says there, that's where the president was saying things that the lieutenant colonel tried later to put back into the record but was rebuffed according to his apparent testimony today. this lieutenant colonel is the first impeachment witness who actually listen

the first is the actual nuts and bolts of the impeachment inquiry the white house, the white house counsel's office has made clear their opposition to pretty much agreeing to anything, whether it's witnesses, whether it's documents, anything at all is based on the fact they don't believe it's a valid or legitimate inquiry. this makes clear or gives democrats something to point to, saying it is exactly that. why does that matter? that will be helpful as they move forward when it comes to trying to get witness testimony, trying to get documents. obviously there's still a fight going on right now. there are subpoenas issued today for three new trump administration officials. no expectation they're actually going to show up. now they have this to point to the others. john, you noted, republicans have made a central part of their argument the fact there was never a full house vote taken on an actual impeachment inquiry. this goes directly in the face of that, undercuts that completely. you can bet press release after press release, public statement after public statement from democrats from here

he's live at the white house tonight. and jon, you're learning that president trump actually gave speaker pelosi a copy of that letter at that meeting late today? >> reporter: david, the president handed out several copies of the letter, according to a republican member of congress that was there, the speaker took her copy and put it facedown on the table before reading it. the white house gives a much different version of what happened. they say that the president, quote, was measured, factual and decisive and that the speaker's decision to walk out was baffling. they also point out that other democrats at the meeting stayed behind. >> jon karl tonight. thank you. >>> and all of this comes as the impeachment showdown intensifies tonight. all eyes tomorrow on the u.s. ambassador to the eu, expected to testify. gordon sondland was negotiating with ukraine, along with the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, even though ukraine is not part of the eu, obviously it was sondland who wrote in a text to a senior america

but what's also so depressing about the trump white house as somebody who's worked in the white house. these are hard jobs. and, yet, everybody there is stabbing everybody else in the back. nobody can trust the guy in the office or the woman down the hall not to be screwing them to the press. and that-- there's this sort of sense of, you know, everybody trying to destroy everybody else. and trump being the one that you don't know if you're going to come into work one day and, you know, halfway through the day he tweets that you're gone. >> trevor: let me ask you this. let's talk about, for instance, syria. if you were advising in and around syria, and the military decisions that are being made right now, donald trump has bee >> it's not about "i." the whole problem with trump is it's all about "i." it's not an america-first foreign policy. it's a me-first foreign policy. the united states-- ( cheers and applause ) the united states of america had an understanding with the kurds, which he has honored for two and a half years. and, yes, it began under president obama. we worked with the

the white house because the white house counsel, pat cippollone believes precedent is important here. other three times president has faced impeachment proceedings johnson, nixon and clinton those, all three of those were preceded by votes in the full house. so they think they are on solid ground here. >> bret: okay, john, thank you. the first administration official coming on just moments away about this and other topics. president trump, meantime, is refusing to allow one of his ambassadors to voluntarily meet with lawmakers pursuing impeachment. correspondent catherine herridge on capitol hill has that part of the story tonight. >> just 90 minutes before ambassador gordon sondland was scheduled to square off with congressional investigators over ukraine democrats said they learned the state department pulled the plug. >> president and secretary of state are taking actions that prevent us from getting the facts. >> sondland's name appears in the whistleblower complaint as a key figure in the president's dealings with ukraine after the july 25th phone call with its newly elected pres

wolf. >> abby phillip at the white house, thank you. now to the breaking news on the federal investigation of rudy giuliani and his business ties to ukraine. our political correspondent sara murray is working this part of the story for us. what are you learning? >> we're learning there's a counterintelligence component to this investigation surrounding the president's lawyer. i learned this from a lawyer who said lawyers approached him months ago. much earlier than we learned of these indictments. they were asking questions about rudy giuliani and his relationship and his business dealings with lev parnas and igor fruman. it means that this investigation goes beyond just questions about this campaign finance came that they were involved in and could potentially include questionswi was part of an influence operation, perhaps from ukrainians, russians or others to get information in front of the president. >> and yet another rudy giuliani associate was physically arrested today. >> that's right. this is one of the men who was indicted, da

the white house counsel does not matter because this president thinks white house con sell belongs to him. he acts like these people that work in the branches of government that are public employees get taxpayer money to do their jobs belong to him. like they belong to the trump organization and that's the way he acts because here's a guy that puts out regularly opinions that masquerade as facts. that's the hardest thing to ever come up against. i see governor weld, sanford, joe walsh b. how are they going to do this? how do they make the case that this guy isn't right. vote for news the primary. it gets hard to do when on the regular, president trump just lo loob looks at what's happening on the cables. wow, people are feeling this way r or that way. so it's a touch and go strategy. the white house com shop. these aren't the best and brightest. these are people just happy to be there and banking on the fact they'll get high paying jobs later like the obama administration. >> every day, the white house press secretary would have to stand up in front of a room f reporter and answer que

cnn's sarah westwood is back at the white house. so tell me more. >> well after that remarkab pre conference from mick mulvaney, a source familiar with the reaction inside the legal team said people there are a little stunned after watching what happened. one of the president's lawyers said the legal team wasn't involved in preparing mulvaney for that briefing and the source said that the legal source did not view what they saw as helpful to the president's efforts to try to fight these impeachment inquiry charges. sources also tell evan perez that justice department officials were angry and confused while mulvaney was explicitly tieing the president's desire to see investigations to the decision to suspend the aid so what we're seeing just a lot of shock from the people who are supposed to be defending the president against this very allegation of quid pro quo right now. >> thanks. keep us posted on any others. more on our breaking news. senators are speaking out against the president's spin of his great victory involve iing so-cal

i've heard from one source in the white house the president really likes his white house counsel and though he doesn't have that experience behind him as a chief of staff, that he would consider him. but i don't know. i tend to agree with what you have said, but there's one thing you have to remember about president trump which is he really does look at what is playing on television and how that appears and the publicity around it so if he feels that mulvaney has really giveren him that publicity, he might let him go. >> tim, in all fairness, president obama had four chief of staff in his first term. does that high turnover rate tell you anything about what the dynamics are inside the white house? >> well, i think the most, i think the key question for us right now is whether the chief of staff has any capacity to reign in the president when the president is is about to do something that is misconduct or impeachable. mick mulvaney apparently had no such ability to restrain the president. indeed, the way in which he respondeded to the media this past week indicates that he actually is

. >>> defying the white house. let's play hardball. good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. defying an 11th hour bid by the white house to block her appearance former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch is still testifying to congress right now after nearly nine hours. she is delivering a damning account of the administration's handling of foreign policy. yovanovitch served in ukraine for almost three years and her abrupt removal back in may was among the earliest red flags in the trump ukraine scandal. speaking today of her firing, you vyovanovitch said quote thee would be a concerted campaign against me. she denied multiple unsubstantiated allegations that have been leveled against her calling them fictitious and she said she was, quote, incredulous that the u.s. government chose to remove an ambassador based as best i can tell on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives. her scathing rebuke of those who targeted her comes as we learn the scope of the lobbying campaign that rudy

will the white house strategy work? and our own ali velshi joins us with new reporting overhe as with the foreign of qatar. rust usaa more than any other company out there. they give us excellent customer service, every time. our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family... we're the rivera family... we're the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. get your auto insurance quote today. ♪ head in now for applebee's new pasta & grill combos starting at $9.99. the way you triumph over adversity. and live your lives. that's why we redesigned humira. we wanted to make the experience better for you. now there's less pain immediately following injection. we've reduced the size of the needle and removed the citrate bu

back to you at the white house. that the president is escalating attacks on former ambassador bill taylor had ground-breaking testimony saying today secretary pompeo made a mistake calling him out of retirement to be the top diplomat in the country. what did you make of that? >> well i mean, this is another -- as soon as someone criticizes president trump, the response is always to find a criticism of him and this wasn't the president's mistake. he didn't make any mistakes along the way. it was pompeo's mistake hiring him and this is his game plan, his m.o. we see that at the white house. we see that this week at an event in pittsburgh which was part event, part rally and they're going to keep -- he's going to keep doubling down and fighting. we've seen him using the strategy at recent rallies. they are passing out, reporting on "wall street journal" dotcom passing out call sheets to people waiting in line to call members of congress and urge them to give up the impeachment proceeding, support the president and impe

there's a fight going on between the white house and the house over that. the white house has basically said that because the house has not had a vote on an impeachment inquiry, that should not have to be turned over. the house has said that the white house has no and the justice department have no ability to demand or shape the impeachment process in the house. if a court rules on the side of the justice department and the administration, you might see some different opinion from nancy pelosi. but for the moment, i don't think she's in the mood to accede to the demands of the president on how her branch of government should operate with impeachment, which is outlined in the constitution as the sole power of the house of representatives. >> both of our guests are going to hang out over this break. when we come back, we're going to do the impossible. we're going to discuss rudy and bernie in the same segment. we think that may be a first in this building. >>> the day richard nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day that he was subject to impeachment b

the white house bombshell. the stunning exchange today, the white house acknowledging a quid pro quo with ukraine. acting chief of staff mick mulvaney acknowledging to our jon karl u.s. military aid was withheld from ukraine in part to pressure them to investigate the democrats. mulvaney saying, "get over it. this kind of thing happens all the time." and just before we came on the air tonight, mulvaney this evening trying to walk back the comments. and late today, the other headline, the cabinet member now resigning. >>> also breaking tonight, president trump celebrating what the u.s. is calling a cease-fire involving turkey. a week and a half after president trump talked with turkey's president, announcing he was pulling u.s. troops out and that turkey would be moving in, the president now calling this is "great day for civilization." and tonight, turkey is not calling this a cease-fire. >>> the deadly nor'easter. a half million without power tonight. winds gusting up to 90 miles per hour. and the new system w

house speaker nancy pelosi told trump in that contentious white house face-to-face all roads lead to putin. turkey and russia are meeting this week. what is likely to be forged or perhaps even solidified? >> more than anything else, what i think these countries want is greater influence and, you know, kind of unilateral ability to be involved and dominate the middle east. the biggest obstacle has been the united states. so by america withdrawing, what it means is it gives russia a free hand, it gives turkey a free hand, and many of these places have interests in the united states. the united states will have to get comfortable with the middle east. it looks a lot less amenable to the middle east, israel's security to stability of air flows and such. they have always been able to shape the geopolitical balance in the mideast to make sure those things have been taken care of. now we'll be a spectator. >> fareed zakaria, host of "fareed zakaria gps," thank you so much. >>> this breaking news out of fort stewart, georgia where three soldiers were injured in a training accident. the injur

hill's lawyers wrote to white house attorneys. as republicans continue to protest impeachment inquiry -- >> look, three days out of testimony and all behind closed doors, three unique perspectives that the american people didn't get to see in this partisan and unfair process -- >> reporter: the investigation continues today with testimony from george kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for european and uroasian affairs. >> and george kent is still testifying and as manu reporting, rudy giuliani does not plan to show up and he's had other headlines coming out. today. he has parted ways with his attorney who brought on to make the decision about whether or not to show up in front of the impeachment committees and said via twitter he doesn't need a lawyer any more but, wolf, as you know two associates have been indicted and charge with campaign finance crimes and giuliani's own activity are under scrutiny so we'll see how long he lasts on his own. >> we shall indeed. sarah m sara murray reporting. and let's go to kaitlan co

none of these thing happened with the obama white house and most normal white houses. we're in a different world with donald trump. what he may be finding out now is that the laws of gravity apply thoim. it's all catching up to him. >> ben rhodes, a safe distance from the west wing, as far as he can get, in los angeles. thanks for joining us tonight. >> thanks, brian. >>> what rick wilson has to say about the republicans speaking out about trump's syria decision when we come back. s syria decisn when we come back. we're reporters from the new york times. this melting pot of impacted species. everywhere is going to get touched by climate change. they're america's biopharmaceutical researchers. pursuing life-changing cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs... like a way to fight cancer by arming a patient's own t-cells... because it's not just about the next breakthrough... it's all the ones after that. i'm working to make each day a little sweeter. adp simplifies hr, benefits, and payroll for magnolia bakery, so employees like sarah can

also breaking, house democrats subpoena the white house for more documents