john bolton was a brand. and i think, to understand what he is to republican foreign policy, he is what scalia was to conservative judicial philosophy. i mean, he is the standard bearer of conservative -- i think he wrote a book during obama years that -- he is, and he was viewed as i think almost too conservative by some people even within the bush administration. but in terms of going into this white house, he legitimized an otherwise reckless and ignorant and uninformed president. >> the republicans put an awful lot of their bets on the hearsay phrase that it's all hearsay, it's all second-hand, it's all third-hand. john bolton was in the room trying to undo what the president had, as you said, seemingly unilaterally declared we were going to do. and john bolton can speak to the details to the timeline to motive. there is a lot here if bolton decides to do the right thing. >> aaron blake, this reporting stopped me in my tracks. and rebecca's done some great reporting on bolton so i want to get both of you

just in my office talking about john bolton. despite all of the white house folks, former white house folks subpoenaed, he has yet to be subpoenaed. do you think -- >> something's going on. >> what's up? >> he wants -- seems he wants to talk. it seems he's also waiting for something. as was said, a million different ways to get the word out there. what he has to say could be so important. i come back to tim morrison testifying earlier in the proceeding saying there came a point where bolton had a one-on-one with donald trump, because bolton was trying to convince him to release the foreign aid and morrison doesn't know what happened inside the room but when bolton came out basically the reaction was, he, trump, is not ready yet. i want to know what happened in that room. that is crucial. >> it is. worth noting, john bolton is a hard-liner. he's a hawk. not a criminal. so his testimony or him speaking up in whatever phora could be interesting, because number one, speak about the security impacts of what president trump did, how d

the first news reports of john bolton's memorable -- john bolton's inevitable book appeared this weekend. viewers of this program knew that john bolton was working on a book deal the day he left the trump white house since i announced it here on this program that night because it was wicked obvious. reports indicate that john bolton is getting a $2 million advance for his book from simon & shuster. in order to get a book advance like that, the author has to tell the publisher what the publisher is paying for, what the publisher is getting. therefore, there are people at simon & shuster tonight in midtown manhattan who already know what john bolton is refusing to tell the impeachment investigation. joining us for a discussion now is chris lu who served as a senior aide to president obama. before that he was chief counsel over the oversight committee. john heilemann is back with us. i have a congressional subpoena. i'm going to go bring a lawsuit to ask a judge what i do with it. >> i think it's fair to say none of this is on the level, lawrence. this is a case of mick mulvaney wanting to

on john bolton what do you think? >> john bolton's tweets struck like lightning bolts. like zeus throwing this down at a key moment. he didn't tweet this out a few days after the impeachment inquiry or hearings took place. it was the day after. it was timed for effect, and clearly john bolton has a story and he wants to tell it. >> on your point about diplomats rocking. you know, all of these career diplomats sounding the alarm an the damage done to our national security as a whole. how much damage has been done and how do we fix it? >> talking about the damage, i think that was evident in these hearings about how the staff has been demoralized, and in effect, what we're seeing is an effort to really gut the national xurt security counsel and call out individual members of our national security structure and expose them to this political process, question their loyalty, question all parts of their personal background that have no bearing on this inquiry. who's going to want to serve on the national security council after having seen what jennifer williams what lieutenan

just got another teaser tweet from john bolton. read it for everyone. he says, probably goes without saying our country's commitment to our national security priorities is underattack from within. america is distracted our enemies are not. we need to make u.s. national security a priority. seems he has something to say. >> sounds like he has something to say but what he is saying there is not too far from what the president has been saying. over the weekend, remember, the president retweeted one of john bolton's tweets. i think you could read that tweet from john bolton a couple of different ways. one, that, yes, seems to be eager to testify. a lot of those critics say enough with tweeting. how about testifying? the other thing, brooke, you know, is at this point what does john bolton gain inside the party if he goes to capitol hill and testifies? going against about 99% of the gop if he goes up there and offers damaging testimony against the president. even though there are national security officials who worked under john bolton who cooperated, fiona

so why is john bolton hiding behind fiona hill's skirts? well, part of it is money and he lives behind this right wing echo sphere. these are his supporters and they donate to his super pac. he's trying to be very cute and stay in the public eye, but at the same time he's not doing his patriotic duty. he's not helping to get to the bottom of this. so in that case he's really enabling donald trump and indirectly vladimir putin. >> his lawyer seems to be helping him as well. john bolton's lawyer in on november 8th said bolton was personally involved in many of the events, meetings and conversations in which you've already received testimony -- i'm sorry, as well as many relevant meetings and conversations that have not yet been discussed in the testimonies thus far. so i sort of get the fact he's trying to make money out of the whole thing, but he does seem to be constantly baiting somebody into saying you need to talk to me. do you think there's material information that he has because mulvaney, bolton and giuliani actually know what happene

i think john bolton has book and apparently a book deal. he is giving speeches to investment banking groups and making a lot of money. so he's making money off of his story and if he tells that's story for free under oath to congress, it's not worth that much. i think part of this was greed, financial greed. the notion he has to get permission from court is nonsense. gordon sondland didn't get permission. all of these people knew that any order from the white house was based on a bogus absolutes immunity edefense and they did their patriotic duty. part of it is money and part of it is because he lives within this right-wing atmosphere. these are his supporters, the people who donate to his super pack. so ei think he's trying to have it both ways, be cute and stay in the public eye and maintain his credibility. that same time he is not helping get to the bottom of it this and in that way he's enabling donald trump and indirectly vladimir putin. >> his lawyer appears to be helping him as well. john bolton's lawyer said bolton w was personally

we did hear from john bolton today as wolf mentioned in a series of tweets. it's what we may hear from him in weeks ahead that could cause upheaval in this inquiry. he's been one of the ghosts like mike pompeo and rudy guilliani and others who didn't testify but john bolton could know more than all of them about the allegations president trump abused his power to leverage investigating the bidens. >> john bolton was one of the biggest starring players in this episode with ukraine and yet was an offstage character almost the entire time of the impeachment probe. >> reporter: today, after two months of silence, a tease from john bolton accusing the white house of blocking his access to his personal twitter account. the white house denied. >> of course not. i actually had a good relationship with john. >> reporter: in a tweet, bolton was asked whether the white house blocked his twitter access over fear of what i may say? he loomed as his top aide, fiona hill talked about it. >> saying rudy guilliani was a hand grenade and blow everything up. >> reporter: bolten

bolton -- john bolton wasn't taking personal digs at the president. he was really trying to make the argument that it is all about a policy approach. and how successful foreign policy is about persistence and consistency. and to carol's point what the president is doing ad hoc looking at each individual country like a specific real estate deal is the opposite of how you should handle foreign policy, an immature approach. would you agree? >> well, it is a little bit iconic that john boltp boebola calling for a more conventional approach because i think one of the things that people observed in the way he ran staff is that he did not rely on the usual tools of meetings environment. and of course when you operate in that more informal environment, the different influences on the president from family members, from outside advisers, those all come into play much more when you are not relying on more established przs like the national security council. process seems to be massively important to john bolton. while we don't know what john billi bomb t bolton

in a new letter sent by bolton's attorney to capitol hill, he reveals that john bolton has information on events, meetings, conversations about which you already received testimony, but about meetings and conversations that have not been discussed in the testimonies so far. and this was revealed in a court case in which democrats have essentially said they weren't going to fight to get john bolton to come and testify because his attorney said if he were subpoenaed, they would fight in court, about his client, a separate client that served under john bolton. democrats have no desire to go prolonged court fight, they're signaling they're not willing to go this route. john bolton's attorney says if he were to come would provide this information. first they want a court to rule and decide whether or not he is required to come and testify. that creates a big complication here because democrats want to wrap up the impeachment probe in the coming weeks, potentially by end of the year to impeach this president. but if they were going to pursue john bolton that could have key evidence that coul

john bolton is in exactly the same position as fiona hill who used to work for john bolton in the white house. john bolton and fiona hill are both ex-white house employees, now private citizens, who were asked to testify to the impeachment inquiry. president trump, who has absolutely no power over them as private citizens now, told them both not to testify. so they had a choice to make. fiona hill chose to tell the truth and john bolton chose silence. >>> david holmes is a career foreign service officer stationed at our embassy in ukraine and his boss, secretary of state mike pompeo, told him ton testify. told him that he could defy the committee's subpoena as other state department employees have done. at mike pompeo's urging. but david holmes did something that no one working in the state department thinks they will ever have to do. he refused to obey the secretary of state because david holmes felt an obligation to respond to the congress, a constitutional obligation. they all took an oath of office. david holmes, fiona hill, john bolton took an oath of office. every member hearing t

baker, he calls john bolton a patriot. that's the first compliment he's paid to john bolton who left with a blast on twitter at him. they've been going back and forth with bolton saying he was blocked from his personal twitter account when he left the white house, so there was a lot of tension there. but this is potentially a signal that the president is trying to make peace with john bolton, who knows a lot, peter. >> yeah, certainly he was happy with what bolton's lawyer said today. he was happy that john bolton was going to continue to abide by the white house wishes, which is that he not testify. so of course the president wants to make sure he keeps his former security adviser as happy as possible, i suppose, as long as he's taking that position. of course you and i both know, we've seen this before, if ambassador bolton were to take the other position, if he were suddenly to say something or agree to testify, i think you might hear a different tone from the president about his patriotism. but you're right, for the mo

when will john bolton reswlevea what he knows. he wasn't subpoenaed by house democrats but might have to testify as a senate impeachment trial, or bolton's first revelations could come in a new book he's writing which is due out next year. sometime before the election. brine todd, k brian todd, cnn, washington. >>> and earl lewis is back with us now. earl, do you think bolton is intentionally hanging on to some things here or just champing at the bit to get it out? >> i think both are true, frankly, christi. he wants to talk, clearly, but it's in the nature of things like book contracts that you save the juicy stuff in exchange for a big, fat advance and clearly that seems to be what john bolton is angling for. >> but if the juicy stuff affects an impeachment inquiry? >> he's timed this very well. people have to remember about john bolton he has served in the justice department, served in government in a wide range of agencies, a wide range of positions. he is a bureaucratic in-fighter of the highest degree. he is not going to let

he appeared to throw john bolton under the bus. i wonder if that changed your calculation about his importance as a witness. >> well, what's important to gordon sondland is not always what's important to us. what's important to us is to understand what the president did and what he was thinking and what it meant and to hold him accountable for it. and that's our primary focus. look, you know, john bolton's day is coming. so is mick mulvaney. so is secretary pompeo's. so is everybody who thinks they can run fast enough to escape the scandal and taint of this administration. i'd refer them to roger stone and paul manafort and paul gates and michael cohen and others in the past who thought they were clever enough or slick enough to evade the truth, to lie to congress, to intimidate witnesses. but the one who matters is the president of the united states. there are other people who i think have a lot of tough questions to answer. it bothers me that ambassador bolton is selling a book deal when three of his deputies were up here at risk

the specter of john bolton loomed over the impeachment hearings. in accounts his top aide, fiona hill, gave of bolton's concerns about the trump team's pressure on ukraine. >> he then in the course of that discussion said that rudy giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up. >> reporter: hill said bolton physically stiffened at a july 10th white house meeting between u.s. and ukrainian officials when eu ambassador gordon sondland first linked a possible trump meeting with ukraine's president to ukraine investigating the bidens. hill said bolton immediately walked out of the meeting and gave her an ominous directive afterward. >> the specific instruction was that i had to go to the lawyers, to john eisenberg, our senior counsel for the national security council, to basically say you tell eisenberg, ambassador bolton told me, that i am not part of this, whatever drug deal that mulvaney and sondland are cooking up. >> reporter: and american diplomat david holmes testified that bolton met with ukraine's president in august and warne

but john bolton has been mostly silent until now. what the former national security adviser is saying, that's next. >>> plus, carter page was a minor role in launching the russia investigation. we'll explain why the justice department is now saying the fbi made mistakes its investigation of him. into a base you can empty once a month. and unlike standard robots that bounce around, it cleans row by row. if it's not a shark, it's just a robot. fduring the kays friends and family event. come in and get 25-50% off of everything. like this diamond necklace, now only six hundred dollars. every best gift ever begins with kay (vo) thewith every attempt, strto free itself,pider's web. it only becomes more entangled. unaware that an exhilarating escape is just within reach. defy the laws of human nature. at the season of audi sales event. so bob, what do you take for back pain? before i take anything, i apply topical pain relievers first. salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, non-addictive relief. salonpas lidocaine. pa

remember john bolton being upset. we took a picture. it was great. he went upset. she doesn't say exactly the same thing as lieutenant colonel vind mvin vindman, but she does move the dial to vindman's side away from sondland on this. she says no, his back stiffened. that was the kind of detail that is enough to say sondland was not being forthcoming on what i saw in thatom meeting. and this is important to your point. it does put john bolton right back in the middle of this. and most substantively and importantly saying this was wrong. this was a drug deal, i want to make sure lawyers know i'm not down with this. i want to make sure i knew what was said. i know things are being said about trading, meeting with the president for investigations, and that goes directly to what this impeachment hearing is ng about. >> claire, the i politics of th seems to have broken down on republicans leaning heavily on the lack of firsthand witnesses, a lack ofse -- adam schiff said yesterday republicans are looking forpu magical word

former donald trump national security adviser john bolton says he's now willing to testify in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against his old boss. i'm adrian finighan this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up south sudan's rival leaders agreed to a 100 day delay in forming a unity government. for better seclusion as a crime against humanity said 30 years of imprisonment. the international criminal court sentences a former congolese rebel leader for war crimes including murder rape and using child soldiers. in a prominent camp odeon opposition leader is frustrated in his efforts to go home to campaign. former national security advisor to the us president donald trump says he's willing to testify in the impeachment inquiry john bolton says that he'll defy the white house and appear in federal court to testify is reportedly going to talk about his alarm at the ukraine pressure campaign if a federal court clears the way for his appearance let's go live now to washington as alan fischer can tell us how significant is this allan. i would think the chances of john bolton giving evidence

the reality is we don't know more exactly what john bolton has. his lawyer says he has firsthand knowledge of some meetings and conversations that were had with president trump. so, that is the key here. but we also know he is not going to comply and go forth until there is a judge that makes a rule in this legal fight between the white house and the house right now. >> what do you make of the bolton lawyer? >> i think john bolton is a very interesting character here simply because we don't know where he will land on the question of whether or not this is perhaps an impeachable thing. he could very well complicate the picture for the democrats, come in and say, look, i was unhappy with what rudy guilliani was doing. i thought that was a very bad thing, that guiliani was playing role here. in the end, it's the president's foreign policy. he can do whatever he wants. keep in mind, john bolton is no friend of democrats. over the years they've treated him very badly. if i were the democrats i would not assume john bolton is going to come in and delive

no, i actually had a good relationship with john. >> the specter of john bolton loomed over the impeachment hearings. in accounts his top aid gave about concerns over trump's pressure on ukraine. >> he then in the course of that session said rudy giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up. hill said bolton immediately walked out of the meeting and gave her an ominous director after. >> the specific instruction was i had to go to the lawyers to basically said you tell eisenburg, ambassador bolton told me, that i am not part of this drug deal that mulvaney and sondland are cooking up. >> and david holmes testified that bolton met with ukraine's president in august and warned him what it would take to lift a hold on u.s. military in ukraine. >> but bolted yont could know so much more. two weeks ago, his lawyer wrote a letter to congressional leaders saying bolton was involved in many relevant conversations and meetings than have been discussed thus far. >> john bolton can could have had more relevant conversations with the president of the united states more than anyone els

john bolton drawing a lot of attention to himself not only on twitter but out in public. one big bombshell that could drop in this impeachment inquiry nobody thought would come is whether john bolton testifies on capitol hill. that could change everything. >> it certainly could. he could be a critical witness. joining us now, an expert on intelligence and the committee. what do you think? john bolton, former national security advisor is teasing the white house is worried about what he might know. shouldn't they try much harder to get his testimony? i think they could be close to getting it. >> thanks for having me on. you're right, his subordinates at the hearing did testify he had significant concerns about what was happening on this irregular policy channel of rudy guilliani to investigate his rivals. at this point, we need to quickly conclude this particular inquiry if for no other reason if not to stop the wrongdoing happening right now in our foreign policy at the white house. as you may have seen on my questioning of some of the witnesses, they can't rule out the sa

you know john bolton, i worked with john bolton in the administration. this is not his first rodeo. while he was obviously aware of the fact this was closed press, meaning people like you and me weren't in there with our notebooks and cameras, he knew he was in a crowd of people he did not know. what do you think it means that he is -- those are serious warnings to conservatives. if you are a conservative, a an john bolton is warning you that jared and ivanka will basically get -- i think he named a name, right, lawrence tripe he will appoint if he's given a second term. and the warning about nato, give me a little more on that. that's unbelievable. >> the nato piece is actually significant, because john bolton served for president trump, he's been in and around these issues for a really long time, he's steeped in them, and the idea that he genuinely believes that president trump may pull out of nato, which has been talked about for some time, but it hasn't really gotten serious traction, is really significant. and i think one of the things that people in the room said is that he re

>> should john bolton be disappointed? >> some people think he's going to blow the lid off this and some think you don't know what you're going to get. >> i mean you don't know what you're going to get with bolton. we don't know. it's 2k5i67gerous and to tell you the truth i'll let other people reliable and credible do the talking. >> always interested to get your spective. why wouldn't you want a malcolm nance book? my saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. steven could only imaginem 24hr to trenjoying a spicy taco.burn, now, his world explodes with flavor. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day all-night protection. can you imagine 24-hours without heartburn? these days we're (horn honking) i hear you, sister. that's why i'm partnering with cigna to remind you to go in for your annual check-up. and be open with your doctor about anything you feel. physically, and emotionally. body and mind. too shabby! t

why don't you ask john bolton to testify? >> call in rudy giuliani, call in john bolton, call in the vice president, if you like. it's an interesting challenge as we go. we'll continue to follow that. if you have any questions about this impeachment process or anyone else at the table, them better than me, please. we may answer your questions at the close of the show or in a podcast. >>> republicans sharing the love at a judicial meeting yesterday. >> we have a lot of great warriors. senator john, no one is beating you. >> mr. president, this is one of the many ways you are helping to make america great again. for all of the heroes who serve us, t-mobile is here to help serve them. that's why we're offering 50% off family lines for military, veterans and first responders. so they can stay connected, on our newest, most powerful signal ever. and now, we are also offering half off our top samsung phones for military, veterans and first responders. our service is just one way we say thank you... for theirs. there's a company tha

and john bolton chose silence. david holmes is a cull rear foreign service officer stationed at our embassy in ukraine, and his boss secretary of state mike pompeo told him not to testify, told him that he could defy the committee's subpoena as other state department employees have done at mike pompeo's urging. but david holmes did something that no one working in the state department thinks they will ever have to do. he refused to obey the secretary of state. because david holmes felt an obligation to respond to the congress, a constitutional obligation. they all took an oath of office. david holmes, john bolton took an oath of office. every member hearing the committee took that oath of office. it's essentially the same oath the president takes. it is an oath to defend the constitution of the united states. it is not an oath to a person, not an oath to a party. it's an oath to the constitution, an oath to defend the constitution. i took that same oath when i served on the staff of the united states senate. and if

a no show that was no surprise to the democrats they expected john bolton's lawyer saying it's up to a judge to decide whether he does appear before these intake from proceedings but this is tantalizing stuff in this letter from his lawyer saying that essentially john bolton has personal information remember this is someone who met with the president on a daily basis about relevant meetings and discussions that haven't yet been heard or discussed in these in the print inquiry so that dangling a very big carrot on a very big stick here because we don't know if john bolton will turn up or when this legal process and the judge will decide will actually happen but we know from other reports in other testimony that john bolton was said to be exasperated with these alleged attempts of the trumpet ministration to withhold military aid in return for dirt on a political rival in fact it's reported that john bolton said at one point that rudy giuliani the president's personal lawyer someone accused of running a shadow foreign policy was a hunger an aide that's going to take everybody down so c

she goes and relate this is to then national security director john bolton. and he goes tell the lawyers. he sends her because he knows it's troubling. it's a hugely dra make it mome. it was like in a movie. robert: it was a culture that was revealed inside the trump administration. was it about predent trump himself did sondland and others really reveal the president in his own involvement? >> in many wayse h did. fiona didn't necessarily apologiz toondland. but she did say after hearing his testimony, it was even more clear to her that he wasn't -- he thought he was doing his job. she understood that because she thought he was orating outside the system. she realized he was operating thin the system. i think the sum total of effect of all of tse testimoni is that with the exception of one ddiefense line st almost every line of defense for the president's decision-making or his behavior rationale tt it was no quid pro quo, it wa a perfect call. he had reason to believe that there was ukraine meddling, system maticlyas taken apart by these witnesses.nk >> i t

clearly john bolton would be an important witness in these proceedings. it is not yet clear whether he will appear, whether a judge will hear the case. most people are looking forward to wednesday, when we get the first public open investigations, one for the first time, americans will see key people with first-hand knowledge of the phone call to the ukrainian president live on television. nonetheless, potentially an important development. >> a lot of policies being played around. donald trump says it is conspiracy, an attempt by the democrats to get him out of office. at the same time, the house could have subpoenaed john bolton, but decided not to, why? >> there's a lot of moving parts. they can do subpoenas, or they can ask people from the trump administration to turn up. i think at the moment, democrats are focused on three very strong testimonies that will be seen in public on wednesday through the rest of next week. they essentially know the people like john bolton won't turn up, and even with a subpoena, it may not turn up. those are the political

he mentioned john bolton, pompeo, and many other. he continues to say it's a democrat scam adding that whatever happened to me should never happen to another president. it's a dizzying level of spin from president trump considering that this decision by the judge jackson relies on a tremendous amount of precedent. he specifically mentions a judge, pa district judge deciding that officials in the george w. bush administration were not exempt from testifying to congress because of executive privilege. we will likely see this white house continue to try to block and delay despite what the president says on twitter. keep in mind this appeal filed by the department of justice could take weeks if not months to resolve, likely long after this impeachment process ends, kate. >> talking about precedent. she goes back to the federalist papers, there is some precedence for you. boris, thank you so much. we will be keeping a reminder on the tweets of what mike pompeo says and is asked in that state department briefing. let's go over to capitol h

let me read from john bolton this morning. he says, "glad to be back on twitter for after more than two months. for the backstory, stay tuned." why in your mind is john bolton so essential and what the blank is he doing this morning with this tweet? >> it sure does feel like we're being trolled, doesn't it? or maybe it's an epic book promotion on his part. he's reportedly signed a book deal for more than $2 million, while leaving his former subordinates, his employees, fiona hill and alex vindman among others to do the difficult work of facing the cameras in front of the house, having been subpoenaed and doing what fiona hill yesterday described as her legal and moral obligation. john bolton apparently doesn't have the same legal and moral obligation as his own employees. no, i actually -- i find this to be unbelievable. and really quite unprecedented, even in the nixon era, in the clinton era, you know, administration officials were required to testify. and in this case, he's absolutely a crucial witness. first of all, he was

in the same way john bolton's would. >> i want to get to john bolton in a moment. i want to ask you a question, peter, on mick mulvaney, more papers linking him to this, asking omb for a legal justification. what's the story behind that? >> well, look, you know, this was done of course, at the president's direction. the president told mick mulvaney to have the aid frozen. mick mulvaney told his staff to have that done. it was mentioned on a conference call across the government. all of them were stunned. none said they got any reason why the aid would be withhold. not had it been approved by congress but the relevant agency said, yes, it meets the criteria. the idea that they should go ahead with it without explanation raised alarm bells. you can see that the email seemed to be suggesting in the aftermath of that they were looking for a post-facto way to justify it. the white house is saying look there's a request for legal opinion once we freeze money and that that's simply routine. either way, i think that's one more reason why congress would like to hear from mi

. >>> former national security adviser john bolton has important details about the ukraine scandal that haven't come up yet in the impeachment inquiry according to his lawyer. will he testify? >>> getting in the race. former mayor michael bloomberg expected to file for the alabama presidential primary and at any moment now growing what had been a shrinking field of democratic contenders and we'll talk about with cory booker joining us live this hour. >>> and anonymous warning, excerpts from an unnamed administration insider new book paint a damning picture of president trump and top aides so disturbed business hi behavior they considered a mass resignation. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room". >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> breaking news. this hour significant new details of discussions inside of the white house ahead of president trump's controversial ukraine call. newly-released testimony shows white house officials alexander vindman and fiona hill describe president trump's blatant push for ukraine to investigate political rivals in exchange for a white

they're not hearing from mick mulvaney or john bolton. is there a concern for the party and for the country that there is long-term damage done to not waiting and utilizing the power that congress has to compel and waiting for the courts to decide about the documents and witnesses being compelled to testify? >> we don't know when that's going to happen. democrats have political concerns. there's a belief the closer we get to the 2020 election this could become more problematic. that's assuming that public opinion stays at 50/50. we'll wait and see next week how the public is viewing this. with the majority makers, the democrats from the districts president trump won, they're looking at the process nervously and want to get it over with as fast as possible. >> ladies, thank you very much. it's been quite a week. have a nice weekend and nice ho holiday. >>> still to come adam schiff compared this investigation to watergate. he said the comparison is between this congress and that one. we'll speak to someone who was a member of congress duri

john bolton is very important because, remember, john bolton -- hardly a friend to the democrats -- john bolton is reported to have said when he heard about the whole donald trump giuliani thing, he called it a drug deal that he didn't want to be any part of. so i think it's important for the american people to know what john bolton's concern was with this holding up of aid to ukraine, the holding up of a white house meeting and all of the other stuff that happened. chris: right. let's talk about the rules that the house approved this week. i know house democrats say, well, now the process is going to be very open, very transparent. one of the rules you passed says that once it gets to open hearings in the house intelligence committee that you're a member of, that the republicans will have the opportunity to subpoena any witnesses they want at -- but subject to the approval of the chair, adam schiff. i asked one of your republican colleagues on the committee about that this week. take a look. do you think that schiff will block gop subpoenas? >> oh, i'm certain he will. i know that there

among them, will former national adviser john bolton testify? also undermining the president, that's what former u.n. ambassador nikki haley claims former secretary of state rex tillerson and john kelly tried to do. the stunning revelations she's reportedly making in her new book about their attempts to "save the country." >>> and center of attention, new fights emerging among 2020 democrats in the moderate lane which may get even more crowded. we'll get into that in a moment. >>> we start this morning with the house getting ready to bring the impeachment fight straight to the american people. democrats set to bring in multiple career diplomats to help them make their case for impeachment to the public. let's go right to the action. down in d.c., joining me now msnbc's garrett haake on capitol hill. nbc's geoff bennett is at the house. and mr. haake i'll start with you, it is going to be a very busy week there. one question, one of many questions, i should say, that still lingers, perhaps the biggest right now, will's former national security ad

. >> i'd love to hear from john bolton. >> i'd love to hear from john bolton. so this actually bolsters the argument that people critical of the process have made which is that it's more political than it is about the substance. what do you think about that? >> everyone has said even his own people have said this was quid pro quo. i mean, i don't know what more else we need than that, danny, except for maybe furry sleeves. >> carol, i do think that -- look, i understand the political argument democrats -- house democrats like the whole bunch of the moderate democrats weren't for impeachment with mueller. or saw this and said, okay, but this is it. they want to keep it narrow. and efficient i guess. >> yes. that's a good word for it. >> you're sitting here looking at all this. it -- it -- it -- you would think it's hard to walk away. >> well, there is -- nancy pelosi's under some pressure from outside groups, from democrats, from some within her own caucus to not just -- and there was pressure to make it broader, which she chose to make it narrower. but also, no

does she think john bolton does too? >> i don't know. >> do you? >> i'm just her mouth piece today. [ laughter ] >> i think he should be there. i'll answer for her. >> let me just pursue this as -- you have worked in government. when your -- and i think tom friedman wrote this about mike pompeo. when your soldiers are on the battlefield, is it honorable to leave them out there taking arrows from people like devin nunes? >> i worked in government. you worked in government. i think one of the most important points she made yesterday was that what was happening with gordon sondland and rudy giuliani and the president according to sondland's testimony, is that they basically co-opted u.s. foreign policy making national security decisionmaking for political purposes. she said that sondland was on a domestic political errand. and you've been in government, you know that when you're in high office your goal is to advance the interest of the united states. it's not to advance the interest of any particular u.s. politician. and that was what was so pernicio

you broke that great story about john bolton. >> thank you so much. it is tuesday, november 12. coming up, the fate of the dreamers hangs in the balance as the supreme court hears the trump administration's case for ending the program. we'll be speaking with one dreamer who is a plaintiff in the case. and we have brand new 2020 polling. we'll tell you who is leading in the all-important state of iowa right now. plus new exclusive reporting on how a senior trump official faked her resume and "time" magazine cover. what we know about this woman and why she has been

notably john bolton, mr. trump's national security adviser has let it be known he has significant information but is uncertain whether any congressional subpoena for his testimony would be constitutionally valid. he wants a judge to decide. what is the potential impact of a similar ruling in the cupperman case which is the one filed by lawyer shared by mr. bolton and his deputy, mr. cupperman? >> that case has a whole other issue which is the house has dropped the subpoena of cupperman. his lawyer wants the judge to rule on it any way to get some clarity on this issue. he knows it will hang around and he knows that bolton is hanging out there. the house has decided not to subpoena bolton. i'm not sure exactly why they did that. it will continue to delay this and mover it months and months ahead. assignments li it seems like they want to move quickly. they have scheduled things next week. they want to move this to the senate. the problem is that speed slows -- that speed moves them ahead quickly but really hur

message is very much like john bolton to say that. i suspect he has criticisms to make of the president's policies in some areas but i suspect that this president has bolstered spending to rebuild the military and he is with them all the way on that. colton, it's a very interesting case here because if you're looking for a single witness who had the best views of what trump was doing on ukraine, it would be his then national security advisor john bolton. throughout most of the period in question that people are concerned about. his lawyer and to some extent, he himself had been giving hints about what good testimony he might have if called. of course they have decided they're not going to try to enforce a subpoena against him and that leaves an impeachment investigation without the testimony of the person who could be the best witness. it's an interesting position for the democrats seeking impeachment to put themselves in. nancy pelosi has said several times that this impeachment is being undertaken solemnly and prayerfully enter look

we have this curious tweet from john bolton. i think cryptic. this one is the clearest one yet that we have. he feels the presidency is under attack from within. he is suggesting there are other powers play. when he said it's presidential and house elections that decide the presidency or decide the fate of the country. to me that's an indication he's not overly willing to turn on the president. that said we have what he attorney said. if a court compels john bolton to testify, he will honor that and testify. >> yet in his series of tweets today and we only have a few seconds the president wrote john bolton is patriot and may know i held back the money from ukraine because it's considered a corrupt country. >> reporter: also mention that was the other public reason if with holding is they want countries to do more. we'll see if he confirms that or contradicts it. when you look at the house stated schedule, you look at the political calendar. it seems as though those gears will move more quickly than the gears of the courts especially when every d

john bolton's lawyer said today that his clients, that mr. bolton, the former national security adviser has significant insights into matters involved in the impeachment inquiry but he will not testify until a court resolves whether or not he has to comply with the subpoena. should you, democrats leading the inquiry wait until you could have bolton testify? it sounds like he knows a lot. >> right. right. so i'm a former prosecutor and i would love to track down every single lead and every single witness. but in this case, all of the damning evidence really came out pretty early. we have the sum vised call transcript and ambassador volker's text messages released showing diplomats under about the quid pro quo. we know that donald trump froze critical security aid to ukraine. essentially this is a lot of undisputed facts. we would love to have john bolton come in if he is going to wait for a court order, that might take months and months and we're not going to way months and months. >> is it your believe that the rough transcript of the convers

john bolton didn't show up last week. there is a lot of excitement. he might learn something new from the interactions. how satisfied are you? how safd do you think lawmakers will be with the focus of this investigation being so narrow? are you content saying john bolton may not testify because he is waiting on the courts? put that in obstruction camp, we can move on without him? >> i don't think it's totally clear how narrow it will be. this set of hearings will be narrow. we >> tony: even how narrow -- what goes on before the intelligence committee, then to the judiciary committee to draw up the articles of impeachment. it could tpoepblly broaden at that point. there is value in keeping it narrow up front because it is -- the value of this story, or the reason that this is kind of a dangerous story for the white house is because it's simple. and the more you look into it, there are further and further complications and republicans are trying to complicate it. they are trying to send people down various rabbit holes, to unpack conspiracy theories. if

john bolton would do that. john bolton isn't saying he'll never, ever ever testify, he saying i want a judge to resolve this matter before i testify and that quote from his lawyer you just read, that's quite a tease. i need a judge to decide, but if i testify, i know a lot of stuff you don't even know yet. >> martha: everybody is trying to get inside of that and trying to figure out, where is john bolton really on this whole thing? when you read -- some of what he's putting out there, a lot of fund-raising for republican candidates, not like somebody -- he's obviously a very strong conservative. he's a person whose very independent minded and speak his mind. he clearly was upset that rudy giuliani was at the center of all this. he wanted the money to fly to ukraine. the bottom line is what john bolton said there at the table on the hill and when asked a question, do you thing the president broke any law, or the president meant that he was going to hold up this money come in the body knows how he's going to answ