we turn to leon panetta. he was president bilton's chief of staff and later served as director of the c.iy . and secret defense for president obama. and former florida representative bill mccollum, who was a republicber of the house judiciary committee and served as one of the house managers for presidenton's impeachment trial. welcome h of you. leon panetta, secretary panetta, i'm ing to start wityou. taking everything we've heard so far in the last week and a half, have the ats strengthened their case, have they weakened it where do they stand? any question but that, when you look at all of testimony that's been provided, a lot of it by people w are professional and civil service, who are committ to their jobs, but if you take all of the testimony, i don't think there's any question but that the weight of the evidence makeslear th the president, as president, president, the president of ukraine, to conduct an investigation into a political opponent, joe biden, and, inul exchange, get a visit to the oveal of

leon panetta, i will start with you. taking everything we've heard so far in the last weekend a half, have the democts strengthened eir case? where do they stand? >> i don't think there's any question, but that when you look at all of the testimony that has been provided, a loty of it people who are professional or civil service who are committed to their jobs, but if you take all of the testimony, i don'ts think there'y question, but the weight of the evidence makes clearen that the pres as president, tried to get a foreign president, the president of ukraine, to conatct an investn into a political opponent, joe biden, and in an exchange would get a visit to the oval office and the $400 million in foreign aidor military assistance that was being held up. i think those points were hill, who i think made an fiona excellent point that what the president did is, rather than focusing on the broad national security issues that are involved with the ukraine and what russia is trying to do to thene ukr and the assistance we nee

let's talk about that with leon panetta. he served as cia director in the obama administration and white house chief of staff during the bill clinton administration. thanks for joining us. let's get right to the breaking news. what stands out to you? a man of incredible experience from the account by lieutenant colonel vindman. were those actions by the lawyer appropriate? >> well, there's a couple of things that stand out from that testimony. number one, that a white house lawyer clearly saw in that transcript of the call a concern that the president may have violated his oath of office by asking a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent. that's number one. there was clear concern about what was in that transcript. secondly, the fact that he told vindman not to talk to anybody raises additional concerns that this individual was trying to make sure that vindman would not be able to confirm that with anyone else which raises an obstruction of justice issue that people ought to look at here. >> what about proving th

panetta made the announcement. it w only in 2016 that all o those roles were open to women. it is still little by little. there are a lot of physical and bntal endurance tests women need to go throuore they can hold these positions.s i think thismething we are seeing more and more across the board in different roles. still, it is something that is relatively new. laura: lynsey addario, thanks so much for being with us. lynsey: laura: women on the front lines all over the world. remember you can find much more , of the day's news on our website. to see what were we rking on, do website. check us out on twitter. i am a laura trevelyan. thank you for watching "bbc world news america." narrator: fundg for this presentation is made possible by... babbel, an online proguam designed by la specialists teaching spanish, french and more. rrator: funding was also provided by... the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation. pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs s

briefing now and some of the other stories making the news at this hour chile's president abbas leon panetta condemned the abuses of security forces saying sessile worse have been used against protesters during anti-government demonstrations it's the 1st time he's openly criticize police brutality some protests began a month ago more than 20 people have been killed thousands have been injured in those clashes. haiti's president has called the deteriorating situation in his country a humanitarian crisis he's asking for international support his government has been the target of widespread protests since august 'd which would destabilize he's already weak economy one in 3 haitians relies on international aid just to survive . russia will return 3 captured naval vessels to ukraine that according to russian media those vessels were seized by russia last year as they tried to break through a russian blockade that closed access to a number of ukraine ports ships return comes ahead of talks between the 2 nations to discuss the conflict in eastern ukraine. this is still to come on the show t

. >> laura: leon panetta, another person who knows better -- set the record state for the whole country not to understand, is it illegal to keep the whistle-blower's identity secret from elected officials or the public? >> this is not a close call, it's truly not. there is a statute that does prohibit retaliation, for you to take action against someone who is a whistle-blower but i've got to tell you, i 100% agree with professor dershowitz, i have serious questions as a prosecutor for a long time about whether this person is qualified -- is a whistle-blower from the get-go. i don't buy it, i don't see it. >> even if he is, the whole idea that my student jeffrey toobin and others get on television without checking the statute books. these are guys who would flunk out of law school if they got into my class and they said "it's a crime to do x" and i say where in the statute does it say that and they say it sounds wrong so let's make it a crime. in 1815, the united states supreme court abolished common-law crimes and said as a matter of constitutional law, you have to have a statute pass i

i want to go to the former defense secretary, leon panetta. i appreciate your time, secretary. always great to have you with me. rudy giuliani's attorney came out and said his client, giuliani, has nothing to hide. when you see this, these subpoenas, how much trouble do you think giuliani could be in? >> i think it's pretty clear that they're facing a lot of trouble from the prosecutors in the -- obviously the u.s. attorney's office that are looking at a number of issues here. the other prosecutions that are going on with regards to his associates. i mean, you're looking at several things. number one, this effort to take over the natural gas company in the ukraine. the effort to get campaign contributions from the ukrainians that they funneled into pacs in this country and the whole issue with regards to what was his involvement in the ukraine affair, particularly with regards to ambassador yovonovich. >> it's not just giuliani. the washington post is reporting tonight, i don't know if you saw this, they're reporting that the white house counsel's office found emails between th

we're just getting more information about whether or not there really was a bribery, to use leon panetta's term. to say we're not going to give this aid congress appropriated unless you do this investigation, but we know because of the president's only comments on the lawn of the white house, because of his comments in the phone call with the ukrainian leader, he did ask for that. and what we see in the excerpts we're starting to read through now, ambassador volker says really clearly how unusual, how basically inappropriate it was and how much it hurt the relationship with ukraine. >> stand by all of you, if you will. we are looking at transcripts of two key depositions in the impeachment inquire is. cnn's special live coverage continues after this. you may be learning about, medicare and supplemental insurance. medicare is great, but it doesn't cover everything ...only about 80% of your part b medicare costs. a medicare supplement insurance plan may help cover some of the rest. learn how an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company might be th

during the impeachment hearings they blamed ukrainian and let's talk about this and more with leon panetta and served as cia director during the obama administration as well as white house chief of staff to president clinton. mr. secretary, thanks so much for joining us. what is your message to the republicans including the president who continue to promote this debunked conspiracy theory that it wasn't russia, it was ukraine who interfered in the election? >> i think it is really important for the president and the republicans -- and the republicans and the democrats for that matter -- to think seriously about what is in the interest of the united states of america when it comes to our national security. and what is in interest to our national security is the intelligence that we have that makes very clear that russia is an adversary. they're primary goal is to undermine the united states of america. and that if there are those in this country who basically peddle the russian effort to develop this conspiracy theory about ukraine which everyone, including our intelligence people have made

panetta, say that this meets a clear definition of bribery. i respectfully disagree. i don't think that is the case at all. and language like what is likely to occur or what is presumed to be involved here is not sufficient to prove what you would have to prove, under these circumstances, would you be an explicit quid pro quo. you know, when i hear everybody, you know, jumping up and down to say that this is a clear case of bribery, this is clearly impeachable, and the evidence is overwhelming, i think everybody, again, should take a step back and actually look at what he said, and also, congressman nunez is correct, go back to the call itself, if you look at the call, and you look at the context of the call, there is not enough -- >> laura: read the transcript. >> write, read the transcript, there's not enough that there is clear and unmistakable evidence that criminal activity was a foot. >> laura: the idea you are going to impeach a president -- forget the roaring economy and all of the other challenges we face with china -- a year out from

leon panetta, former defense secretary, was on cnn this week and he said that democrats should just use the word "bribery," that that's what it is, that's what quid pro quo, the latin term, means in english, something for something else, which is bribery. so what you just heard from eric swalwell, you're right, speaks exactly to what laura was saying, which is that this is it, this is the whole ball game, the beginning of these public hearings, and the whole notion of impeachment has to do with public opinion. nancy pelosi didn't want to bring impeachment up for months and months and months because she said the public is just not there. they weren't there before this ukraine situation happened. but they fundamentally believe and hope that these public hearings help to bring the public even further behind, not just the democrats who support it, not just some independents, but perhaps some, you know, disenchanted republicans. that's a tall order, though. >> laura, i want to talk about how the president and his allies have attacked the whistle-blower as part of their offensive strategy. th

panetta, father of mr. panetta on this committee, were two of the bipartisan bicameral leaders of the fledgling hospice movement on capitol hill almost 40 years ago. in 1982 this very committee held a hearing on the legislation that would create the medicare hospice benefit and was introduced and supported by over 200 folks including representative bill without their early leadership in advancing hospice the benefit would not be here today and without your leadership the benefit will not be where it needs to be tomorrow. for many people hospice provides the level of care for people at the end of life and is hospice is every thing we want healthcare system to be. it's person centered, compassionate. most people assume hospice is a place, not a place but a type of service. it's usually delivered to people in their home. hospice also cares for people as people. many people where they are in one of the things were proud of is that we honor veterans programs and you see the pin here and i urge you all to support