hill to tell white house lawyers. that is devastating. >> yeah. >> this entire story here really putting things in perspective. certainly ms. hill's testimony today, according to this story in "the new york times," is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. this is -- this quote from her "drug deal -- i'm not going to be part of whatever drug deal rudy and mulvaney are cooking up." this obviously brings bolton into the center of this. we need to hear from him. >> they're reporting that bolton called rudy giuliani a hand grenade that would blow everything up. she said that during an earlier conversation. frank, i want to bring this in -- bring you in because he's quoting what they said here. bolton told fiona hill to report to giuliani's rogue operation to the white house, to white house lawyers saying, i'm not part of whatever drug deal rudy and mulvaney are cooking up. to tell white house lawyers, according to the testimony. what do you make of that? >> this language is extraordinary. this drug deal. rudy giuliani is a han

the white house will refuse to cooperate with it. this comes after the state department brought gordon soundland the u.s. ambassador to the european union from speaking to three house committees informing him of that decision just hours before he was scheduled for a deposition today. ambassador sondland is among the three diplomats who exchanged potentially damning text messages about a possible effort to leverage the government of ukraine last summer. and according to republican senator ron johnson sondland told him over the summer the release was contingent on ukraine pointing a prosecutor who would quote get to bottom of what happened in 2016. house intelligence chairman adam schiff made clear the administration's stonewalling represents obstruction of justice to him. >> the failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of congress, a coequal branch of government. >> in a tweet this morning the president took persona

show of defines by the white house. the key sentence reads and and i quote the white house should be warned that continued efforts to hide the truth of the president's abuse of power will be rartds as further evidence of obstruction. earlier i spoke with two members of the house quiet committees leading the inquiry. he will more holmes norton on the oversight committee and raja krish th -- >> the white house clearly refuseding to cooperate, stone calling at the least. what are you and fully democrats doing in response. >> this is not unexpected, anderson. when the white house stone walls, they commit a grievuous error. you notice in an ordinary trial if you subpoena somebody or are called for a trial and you don't appear, then the presumption is against you. and you could be found guilty. it is the president's prerogative not to appear. but it's not our prerogative to say he doesn't appear there must be nothing here. remember, anderson, when we already have a great deal. we have two whistle-blowers whose -- whose commen

subpoenas the white house and the white house says no, because you don't have aan impeachment inquiriy going on. let it go to the court. in the past the courts have ruled the house was in a more powerful position if they had allege inquiry. lou: i can't imagine the american people buying that position because it's fraudulent from the beginning to what i hope is an end very soon. byron york. great reporting as always. everyone uses their phone differently. that's why xfinity mobile lets you design your own data. you can share 1, 3, or 10 gigs of data between lines, mix in lines of unlimited, and switch it up at any time. all with millions of secure wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. it's a different kind of wireless network, designed to save you money. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus, get $250 back when you buy an eligible phone. that's simple. easy. awesome. call, click, or visit a store today. lou: joining us tonight, former chairman of the house oversight committee, jason chaffetz. also best-selling author and fox business contributor as wel

instructed by the white house not to appear what on earth their lawful obligations and came forward area did their lawful duty. we appreciate the courage they had shown. and that other witnesses will show you are scheduled to appear. the lawsuit that doctor government filed in district court has no basis in law. a private citizen not soon the congress to try to avoid coming in when they're served with a lawful subpoena . we expect that the court will make sure short shrift of that argument. but nonetheless we move forward. doctor cooperman testimony, we believe would corroborate the allegationsof misconduct other witnesses have made . but we move forward and we will obviously consider as we informed doctor cooperman's counsel of his failure to appear as evidence that may warrant a contempt proceeding. in terms of where we are, we have had a full schedule. up until this point we got a full schedule from this point . i think we can infer from the white house opposition to doctor kupperman's testimony that they believe that his testimony would be incriminating of thepresident . it is a

subpoenas the white house and the white house says no, because you don't have aan impeachment inquiriy going on. let it go to the court. in the past the courts have ruled the house was in a more powerful position if they had allege inquiry. lou: i can't imagine the american people buying that position because it's fraudulent from the beginning to what i hope is an end very soon. byron york. great reporting as always. hmm. exactly. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ do you want me to go first or do you want to go first, brea? you can go first. audible reintroduced this whole world to me. so many great stories from amazing people. makes me wanna be better. to connect with stories that i'm listening to- that's inspiration. with audible originals, there's something for almost every taste in there. everything you ever wanted to hear. our ability to empathize through these stories can be t

i want to go now to hans nichols at the white house. hans, in just about 25 minutes from now, we may hear from the president. he has been very defiant this morning, perhaps unsurprisingly, as the white house hits this deadline to maybe defy these house requests for documents. >> there are two things happening in the white house this morning, maybe a third when we hear from the president in a little bit. number one, is white house are all but daring congress to change this and make it a more formal impeachment inquiry. the white house's view is that that triggers a certain level of legality that requires more responses, but it also gives the white house access to what capitol hill has, to congressional documents. and then you have the president trotting out this new line on twitter and he appears to be making a distinction between investigating someone for what he says is alleged corrupt behavior and investigating a potential political opponent. i'm going to read you the tweet. as president i have an obligation to end corruption, even if

i think that's what the white house is trying to do. the white house thinks that if they cooperate and if they have hearings -- what this tells you is that they know the facts are bad and if they engage in the process with hearings, it's going to get worse for them than if they obstruct. they'd rather take the hit on obstruction. >> that tells you a lot. >> it tells you they know how bad the facts are. >> in the nixon impeachment there were a federal judge who ruled among other things that grand jury testimony had to be turned over to congress. this was part of the so-called road map for impeachment proceedings that came out of the watergate era. in court yesterday there was a department of justice lawyer who argued that he would rule differently. >> i think the preposterous position that the judge indicated by saying wow, you half expect barr to open up an investigation into nixon to see if he can exonerate him at this point. i think that's simply wrong legally. one thing we have to be careful of for the public is a lot of times we tal

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,

so why is the white house claiming victory tonight? plus two major court hearings tonight that could change the course of the impeachment investigation. what we're learning from inside the courtroom. and a rising democrat embroiled in a scandal delivers a blistering farewell speech and tonight she leaves congress pointing fingers. let's go "out front". >>> good evening. i'm pamela brown in for erin burnett. "out front" tonight, the breaking news, the impeachment investigation now in high gear on this historic day when the house of representatives voted to move forward with the impeachment of president trump. another crucial witness testifies of a quid pro quo between trump and ukraine. tim morrison, a top white house adviser now the fifth person under oath to back up allegations of a deal military aid to ukraine in exchange for dirt on trump's political enemies, something the president has denied over and over again. >> no quid pro quo. >> no quid pro quo. >> no quid pro quo. no quid pro quo. no quid pro quo. >> well, tonight, white ho

that's in the white house statement. and that this still doesn't grant the president his due process rights. how do you respond? >> we have been proceeding in a serious and solemn and sober fashion, consistent with our constitutional responsibilities and will continue to do that. this impeachment inquiry from the very beginning is simply about following the facts, applying the law, being guided by the united states constitution and presenting the truth to the american people. and the resolution that we will be voting on thursday is consistent with that direction. >> any doubts whether or not it will pass? do you have the 218 votes for sure that you need? >> it is my expectation that the overwhelming majority of the house democratic caucus will support our effort to continue to move forward to this next phase of the impeachment inquiry which will allow for the public presentation of evidence as well as give the president the opportunity to present any exculpatory information that he may have, which, by the way, wolf, has

the white house orders the e.u. ambassador not to testify before lawmakers and said it is done playing nice. now house democrats say they'll subpoena the ambassador. >>> calling trump first. cnn has learned that the e.u. ambassador called president trump during the four-hour gap before he responded to a text message from another u.s. diplomat who warned that holding up aid for ukraine for help with a politic campaign was, quote, crazy. >>> and favoring the inquiry. a new poll shows a majority of americans support the impeachment inquiry and more republicans may be breaking with the president. will public backing for the impeachment inquiry change how republicans respond on capitol hill? wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna kieler, you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> the breaking news this hour, a significant escalation of the impeachment battle between the trump administration and house democrats. white house lawyers have written a letter about to deliver telling house speak

the white house press secretary stephanie grirnl saying the white house democrats are wasting time and money with these requests for information, although we should point out this is not a request. this is a subpoena and it's something they have to comply with. we should point out in that statement coming from the press secretary, john, they're not saying we're not going to cooperate with this. that same sentiment goes for the vice president's office. they also released a statement this afternoon because they had been requested that they turned over information relevant to this investigation and they're saying they don't take this seriously at this point and don't see it as a serious matter. but, again, in that statement they're not saying they're not turning over information. that's important. >> it is important. jim, to what extent is the white house concerned with the release of these text messages which plaint as clear a picture as you can get of a quid pro quo. >> i think they are concerned about this, john. i think that is why you saw the president in almost a roboticic fashion,

adding the white house aid was shaken. >> now, despite the white house insisting they will not cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, they are gearing up for it. the white house is hiring the former south carolina congressman as a lawyer. he's not expected to join the administration officially but will be advising from the outside. he met with the chief of staff mick mulvaney. >> i want to bring in cnn legal analyst. and cnn senior political analyst. to talk about all of this. crazy and frightening and tray gowdy made an entrance. president's reprieve we had. stone walling is done, full stop. that seems to be over. is that going to stop the bleeding now? >> i don't think so. they're trying to to do two things. one to prevent the democrats from having any additional facts because they do realize that the facts they did release the read out of the phone call, not a full transcript. and the whistleblower complaint really did open up -- they thought it might stop impeachment from going forward. of course quite the opposite happened. new people came forward, enormous amount of facts were ava

so that also makes him a concern to the white house. yeah, awful terms in some of the statements coming in from official white house press people suggesting this guy was completely unqualified for this important position. jeffrey toobin, how do you see all of this unfolding? >> i don't think there is much legal ground in which to object to his testimony. this cupperman case seems sort of silly to me. this is a subpoena. it's a valid subpoena. all the other witnesses have responded to the subpoena. the idea that when you get a subpoena, you have to go to court and say, judge, should i comply with this? i just don't get that. the fact that the white house counsel has raised in this eight-page letter this blanket objection, that doesn't seem to have any legal base at all, and the fact that these others have come through and testified about these conversations, i can't imagine that a judge would say, you, john bolton, don't have to testify about the very same conversation. >> do you agree? >> i'm sorry, wolf, i couldn't hear what he was say

peter alexander is over at the white house. mike, tell us what you're hearing from your sources inside biden world. >> reporter: hallie, what i'm hearing is this what they saw in terms of the split screen, this contrast between the president and their view increasingly unnerved and unhinged as he's feeling the weight of the pressure of this investigation on capitol hill and now legal troubles closing in on his lawyer, rudy giuliani, versus the statesman like way that you see the former vice president talking about the issues that matter to voters. this is a point biden made in a tweet directed at the president. he said while he was at the forum in los angeles yesterday talking about the fundamental dignity that all americans deserve, the president is, as he put it, showing little respect he has for anyone else. america is so much stronger than your weakness. now, hallie, it's also interesting we talked the other day about the speech the vice president gave in new hampshire, much more direct taking on the president on these issu

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

carry on the squeaky clean white house that we had at the obama white house. and no one around me will be involved in any foreign operation, period. end of story. >> biden answering no family member would have an office in the west wing or sit in on meetings, as if they were a cabinet member, a shot at the trump white house. >>> a video of a fake president trump, shooting, assaulting and stabbing members of the media and his critics were shown at a pro-trump conference last week. the video shown at the group american priority, held at trump's miami resort. cnn cannot verify the video and has chosen not to show it. one part of the video, shows a fake trump's head edited on to the body of a man opening fire on what is labeled the church of fake news. cnn said, sadly, this is not the first time that supporters of the president have promoted violence against the media in a video they apparently find entertaining. but it is by far, the worst. the images depicted are vile and horrific. the president and his family, the white house and the trump campaign need to deno

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

and white house not getting along. you go to fast and furious, benghazi, lots of push back from every administration to the congress on all oversight investigations. this is no different. >> well, but the white house at some point and the president said it today, anderson, you pointed out at the beginning of the show, the president said today, you know, i really want you guys to get into the details here and stop talking about process and start defending me on the phone call because it was a beautiful phone call. >> he said he wanted to talk to mueller and he wanted to be interviewed. >> exactly. >> what one says publicly is not what one wants. >> exactly. now the republicans have a conflict here, because the president, at least he says, wants them to talk about the phone call and how it was perfect and it was fine for the president to ask another president a political favor. and the republicans are still screaming about the process even though nancy pelosi has said, okay, fine, here it is. she called their bluff. they

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

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

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

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

house -- one of many that the white house has to answer. they're really at an inflection point here. the quote you put up from jason miller, viewers should understand that jason miller has been one of the stout trump defenders for several years here. to hear him on the record questioning the white house strategy is significant. we reported at the "wall street journal" a few days ago that it was the white house freedom caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers who are the staunchest trump supporters in congress had to go to the white house and say, hey, we're not hearing enough from you, we're not having enough messaging, we don't understand the strategy, and that led to a daily phone call between lawmakers and key lawmakers on the hill and senior white house aides. the white house is stuck between trying to say that they did nothing wrong, that they don't want to participate and their allies saying you have to do more, you have to participate, you have to help us help you. >> mithanks to both of you. appreciate it. >>> still ahead, the whit

nancy cook is white house reporter for politico. thanks to both of you. >>> white house computers could be at risk of an attack from bad actors. that is according to a new report from axios. it cites a memo that doubled as a resignation letter from the branch chief of the white house computer defense network. bet you didn't even know one of those existed. it warned the administration that if the office tasked with protecting white house computers doesn't change direction, it is, quote, posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again. i am joined now by the reporter who broke this story alexi. what's the gain here in the white house not being the most fortified computer system in the country? >> that's what a lot of cybersecurity officials, current and former officials are asking themselves as they are seeing these mass departures from these cybersecurity teams across the board sort of happening and that have been happening for at least a year now but especially in the last few months. the interesting thing that i am hea

i was at my desk at the white house booth. you know it is like the size of a guest bathroom, like teeny we share. while i'm writing, a mouse dropped into the lap. i didn't think it was real. i pushed back and said bleep, it's a mouse. went to the producer and i haven't seen her since. >> you thought it was fake until -- >> oh, my gosh. that is not okay. that one got us good. >> i knew that was going to happen and i still screamed. >> to be honest with you, that's about how big it was. >> it's furry. oh, gosh. look at that tail. >> oh, my goodness. >> i've been down in the set for about an hour. when did y'all do that? that's impressive. >> still to come today -- >> good news bernie sanders on the mend. we have dr. oz here this morning. most importantly, how not to have a heart attack on the set. dr. oz will give us the warning signs everyone should look out for. >> we talked about how that segment was going to go. >>> possible milk alternatives, soy, but celebrities are drinking milk where a camel. >>> we are back on this satu

the white house bombshell. the stunning exchange today, the white house acknowledging a quid pro quo with ukraine. acts 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 turkey would be moving in, the president now calling this a 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 we're now w

the white house announced the white house itself federal offices will end subscriptions to the washington post, new york times . their competitors of your that bloomberg. >> i think they will be okay. >> does that make your job more difficult when news sources are ended or criticized in that way by their decision? >> the washington post andthe new york times do a lot of their business online now . the washington post gives free subscriptions to government employees. if you have a.government email address you get a free subtraction so i don't think it damages them and subscriptions to that paper. and there's sort of like a dual game that goes on in thisadministration . the president likes to be on us and use us as a prop in his political rallies but we have not been kicked out of the white house, we've not been kicked out of air force one. we're still in close proximity to the president, he talks to us a lot. thereis a lot of news that comes out of the white house and his and ministration talks to us, they work with us as the press. they work with thepress and understand the value of the p

house and the residence of the white house? those are the pictures that the elements of the picture we don't yet have. the question is whether or not democrats will need that or not to proceed. certainly this white house wants to have a better picture, though, are exactly what all of these current and former officials are saying. >> and laura, an open question whether or not we'll ever find out this information. mick mulvaney is not likely to ever testify before the hout impeachment inquiry privately or publicly. they'll exert consecutive privilege. the trump administration tried to block in of these individuals such as bill taylor and others from testifies and the house democrats had to subpoena them. >> a big question. one that some members raise today which is at what point do we stop with the behind closed doors testimony, depositions and move everything to being public so that we can proceed with the investigation, with the proceedings, impeachment proceedings. right now it appears as though the timeline for whether or not

house, the subpoena for the white house to hand over documents that it sounds like from our reporting that they are not going to do that. that they're preparing a letter, kaitlan collins said, that they will make the argument, that first nancy pelosi has to vote on the impeachment inquiry before they hand it over because they don't recognize that the impeachment inquiry is happening. parallels? >> the real parallel is that the nixon tapes are somewhat the equivalent of those conversations summaries that are now in that highly-classified locked digital lockbox. they are somewhat equivalent because what we've seen of one summary suggests this conspiracy. suggests this high crime perhaps by the president of the united states. and nixon was ordered to turn over his tapes because of those kinds of suggestions. so there's some real comparisons of evidence that is being withheld now, that the watergate investigators were able to obtain. >> and which they were not, became article three, which is to say you're not giving us what we want. >> that's exactly right. and that became another part of

house lawn, on the south lawn of the white house, the president asked china to investigate the bidens. is that okay? >> you know what? if you don't want to interview me, then interview yourself. >> i'm asking you a question. >> i don't understand. thanks for doing the best you could. >> where do these people come from? do you ever wonder that? president trump for his part went after the lieutenant colonel in a different way, saying over twitter, quote, supposedly according to the corrupt media, the ukraine call concerned today's never trumper witness. and how many more never trumpers will be allowed to testify about a perfectly appropriate phone call when all anyone has to do is read the transcript? keeping 'em honest, there's no efrd whatsoever that lieutenant colonel vindman is a, quote, never trumper, whatever that means exactly. by the way, never trumpers are what the president also referred to as human scum. we do, however, know that he served presidents both republican and democrat over his distinguished two-decade career of service to this country. the president's defenders on

before the white house provides any documents? >> no, the white house needs to provide the documents right now. they've been subpoenaed. and they have no right to withhold those documents. and the united states house of representatives ought to go to court if they're not there. and on the other hand, i think there needs to be an acceleration of the investigation. we can investigate the crimes of donald trump for the next four or five years and if we do we will be going into a second term. this president committed impeachable offenses in 2017. i believe he should have been impeach by the united states house of representatives in 2017. it is two years later. so yes, they can continue to gather evidence. but there does need to be a vote. it needs to happen very soon. with the vote on articles of impeachment against this president and send this for trial in the senate. this evidence is overwhelming against president trump. this is not a close case. it's overwhelming evidence. if they let it go on too long and get too close to the elec

everyone testified the same thing that white house aid white house meeting with the newly elected ukrainian president shell e zelensky and u.s. military assistance to ukraine was contingent upon ukraine launching these investigations into the biden's burisma and 2016 interference. so what the democrats are hoping to do now is keeping up this momentum continuing to call witnesses who further corroborate all of this. so far as i mention the only outlier seems to be sondland who said no one raised alarms internally about the back channel that he, guiliani and curt volker were pursuing. what democrats are doing now is focusing all of their attention on the ukraine scandal as a part of the impeachment story because it's the simple story they can tell the american people. when you tell the simplest story, you opposition. >> the tore is simple. david. and the story has a lot of evidence drawn from people who are trump loyalists. as natasha mentions, mr. sonlands may have cleaning up to do or disagree with others. but this army officer, diplomats, appointed to key depositions by trump, john bolton,

more now from jim acosta at the white house. >> christine and dave, the white house is on a collision course over the impeachment inquiry. the president's legal team has fired off a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi refusing to cooperate with the investigation. the president is stoking those tensions, declaring he won't cooperate with what republicans are calling a kangaroo court. cnn has also confirmed the c nni he calls it crazy and frightening. he was left shaken by what was said on the call and that's why adam schiff says they must get to the bottom of their investigation. here's what he had to say. >> the failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents, we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of congre congress, a co-equal branch of government. >> and administration officials held a conference about the letter to the house speaker. officials w call what democrats would have to do in order to secure the cooperation of the white house. one official said the white house did not want to get into hypothetical

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

. >>> tonight the blowup at the white house. the photo shows the speaker standing up to the president right before she walked out, saying trump had a meltdown, indicating the already isolated president is not well. for his part the president insulted and diminished the kurds who fought and died alongside americans. the same kurds who are now on the run and being killed by the turks because of trump's actions. and along the way he also managed to insult general james mattis. meantime, in congress the impeachment inquiry is moving fast. another insider spoke up today. another rudy associate was arrested today as the heat is now on trump's friend and lawyer. and the letter proudly released by trump today that people just assumed was a fake. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a wednesday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. and this indeed was day 1,000 of the trump administration. and tonight by all accounts an increasingly isolated president facing furious pushback from

is the white house making a winning argument here? does it not necessarily hurt bill taylor's credibility but hurt the argument that the this when bill didn't actually hear that from the president himself? >> it's a specious argument which has surface appeal, but when you dig down underneath it, it's nonsense. here's why. >> you'll have to define specious. >> specious is, you know, it sounds good, but it ain't good. that's specious. >> ah! there you go. now you're talking to us. >> here's why. number one, hearsay is not admissible in a court of law. there are about a thousand exceptions, so trust me, i'm going to get that hearsay into evidence. but there is a rule that says it's not admissible in the court of law, but it is admissible in a grand jury hearing, and that's what's going on, or the equivalent of it is going on right now in the house. it's an impeachment hearing. remember little thing called that tape between linda tripp and monica lewinsky? that was hearsay. that was used in the clinton impeachment hearing. so, hearsay is

but what are you picking up from your white house sources? >> i'm really picking up that they're all over the place and they're not on the same page and there's a lot of finger-pointing. but it's really, you know, it's more disjointed than ever. you saw yesterday president trump coming on and saying we actually can't hire trey gowdy for the job that we just announced we were hiring for as outside counsel because of lobbying rules he can't start till january. this is a job they wanted him on helping in an impeachment inquiry that they expect to be wrapped up by december. that there's internal finger-pointing about why they got themselves in that mess in the first place and whose fault it was. no one knows who's in charge, people don't know what they're supposed to be doing. but there is also sort of a sense that overall a confidence that president trump is going to barrel on in his re-election campaign and that confidence and the weakness of the democratic field that they think that overall he is going to win a second term. >> all right. well,

the white house taking credits for putting the green light. but that temporary ceasefire in syria is raising a lot of new questions at this hour. >>> also as that crisis an impeachment, donald trump goes all in on another conflict of interest and one of his own properties saying that his golf resort in florida is the perfect place to host the world. he might even invite putin. and remembering a giant on capitol hill and a key figure in the impeachment inquiry. congressman elijah cummings dead today all too soon at 68. we will be right back. right ba you should be mad at people who forget they're in public. and you should be mad at simple things that are unnecessarily complicated. but you're not mad, because you're trading with e*trade, which isn't complicated. their app makes trading quick and simple so you can strike when the time is right. don't get mad, get e*trade and start trading today. >>> did the president direct you or anyone else to work with rudy giuliani on ukraine? >> um, yeah. the, um, when is it, the may meeting and i think this

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

house is refusing to comply with the white house impoo impeachment inquiriy. what's next? paul begala has some thoughts on that. (kickstart my heart by motley crue)) (truck honks) (wheels screeching) (clapping) (sound of can hitting bag and bowl) (clapping) always there in crunch time. i used to book my hotel room on those traalways a catch.here was like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's just here on the hilton app. just available to the public, so... book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay. it also has the highest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take

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

who is the white house most worried about them talking to? >> i think they're certainly going to be very worried if john bolton comes forward and testifies. they're worried about gordon sondland's testimony, because he's been dragged through the mud the last several weeks and he's made clear in the letters his lawyers have issued, he's pretty upset in the way the state department has been treating him on this, in that they tried to block him from testifying. they actually did block him from testifying, now he's going to be testifying under subpoena from congress. any time you have folks disgruntled, either because they've been ousted from the administration in a messy situation or they feel like other officials in the white house or state department are throwing them under the bus, they're going to have an incentive to try to tell their own story and reset the narrative in a way that's beneficial to them, and that's most likely not going to be beneficial to the president. >> david jolly, for several weeks now, the impeachment probe has put pr

the white house just subpoenaed. democrats say the president's actions have left them no choice, the impeachment probe escalates tonight. plus make pence slamming a request for uk's documents from him. it doesn't appear to be serious. really? and the other breaking news this hour, doctors are revealing moments ago bernie sanders did have a heart attack. let's go out front. >>> good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight, the breaking news. president trump's white house up subpoena. house democrats issuing a subpoena to the white house moments ago. this is part of the impeachment inquiry. they say they're left with, quote, no choice after the white house refused to hand over documents related to trump and ukraine. this as congress this hour has obtained now documents in the whistle-blower complaint against president trump. the intelligence community inspector general deemed it both urgent and credible today, spent nearly seven hours behind closed doors on capitol hill. he gave documents showing how he worked to

following white house discussions late into the night. just moments ago the state department has told gordon sondland, the ambassador, not -- not to testify this morning. just over an hour before the u.s. ambassador to the european union was set to appear before three house committees in closed door deposition. >> he flew in from europe for this. his lawyer said sondland wanted to testify, traveling to washington from belgium, but he will follow that order because it is coming from his employer. the state department. sondland was set to answer questions over his role in president trump's dealings with ukraine, including trading a white house visit for an investigation into the bidens. >> we'll hear from congressional democrats in just a few minutes on this as we wait for that, let's go to capitol hill. our cnn national correspondent suzanne malveaux joins us. the question becomes, once again, blocked for information by this white house, what are democrats going to do? will they move to hold the administration members in contempt? >> and t