inquiry in week. the witness list for today appears to have gone from four to zero. cnn has learned all four white house officials who were scheduled to testify today will not be showing up. in fact, most of the witness scheduled to testify this week plan to stonewall. investigators -- plan to stonewall investigators. it is not clear whether former national security adviser john bolton will appear. and then there's this new development. lawyers for the whistle-blower who triggered this whole impeachment inquiry say their client is willing to answer written questions from republicans, but that may not satisfy gop lawmakers who want to hear from him in person. and the president and his allies also demand the whistle-blower's identity be revealed. but let's begin with harry entin with these new battleground poll numbers. what do you see, harry? >> i think it's very interesting what we see. let's give you a reminder and set the stage here. in the 2016 presidential campaign, what did we see?

we saw nationwide, hillary clinton beating donald trump 48-46. but in the six closest states that trump won that helped determine the electoral college, arizona, florida, michigan, north carolina, pennsylvania, wisconsin, trump won by a point. so let's take a look at these new battleground polls and compare them to what we're seeing nationally. we see a trend line consistent with what happened in 2016. nationwide, if you take a look at the average poll for 2020 from october, we see biden up by eight, sanders up by six, warren up by five. but take a look at these six closest states again that trump won in 2016, according to new polls from "the new york times" siena college. if you average across the six, what did you see, we see biden plus one, we see sanders actually losing to trump by one, and we see warren trailing trump by three points. the president is leading warren in those six battleground states by three points. let's break it down a little bit further in terms of those battleground states, particularly. so i've broken them down into the northern battlegrounds and the southern battlegrounds. what do we see in the northern

battlegrounds? in michigan, which of course is a very key state, we see biden up by one, see sanders leading by three, but we see donald trump beating elizabeth warren by four percentage points. that's a big difference between those different candidates. what about in pennsylvania. obviously, scranton, joe, normal joe, all that stuff. joe biden leading in pennsylvania by one point over donald trump. sanders, trailing by a point. we see elizabeth warren trailing donald trump by two points. how about in wisconsin, another key state. hillary clinton didn't visit wisconsin. what do we see? we see joe biden up by two points, a tie with bernie sanders. but warren again trailing by two percentage points. this is something consistent, where warren is running behind joe biden. what about in these southern battlegrounds? what do we see there? well, arizona, florida, north carolina. in arizona, we see biden up by two, but we see trump leading bernie sanders by four points, a

tie with elizabeth warren. florida, key battleground state. we see joe biden up by two. but both sanders and warren trailing two points. donald trump is ahead in florida. warren down by four to the president. and in north carolina, take a look here. all the democrats are trailing. that's not too much of a surprise given that north carolina tends to be the furthest right of these battlegrounds. one last little nugget from you, from the state of iowa, which is a state that used to be democratic, but seems to be running to the right, all of the leading democrats are trailing. they also polled pete buttigieg there, who's down by four points, but elizabeth warren, again, down by six, despite the fact that she was leading last week in that iowa caucus poll among likely iowa democratic caucusgoers. >> harry, very interesting findings. we'll dig in more throughout the program. four trump administration officials were scheduled to give depositions today in the house impeachment inquiry, but cnn has learned they will be no-shows. cnn's suzanne malveaux is live on capitol hill for us with the latest. so what happened, suzanne?

>> reporter: good morning, alisyn. it was going to be a busy day, but not. these are the four white house witnesses that were going to be testifying, all of them, citing reasons, executive privilege, defying subpoenas, saying they want their own white house attorneys. those individuals, robert blair, senior adviser to the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney, john eisenberg, nsc top legal adviser, michael ellis, deputy legal adviser, and brian mccormack, the director of the office of management and budget. what is most significant is john eisenberg. he is the one that fiona hill, trump's top russia adviser and colonel alexander vindman, the ukraine expert, approached over their concerns about trump's telephone call with the ukrainian leader. he is also the one who told vindman not to discuss this call. and he's mentioned in the testimony as someone responsible for taking that phone transcript and moving it into a classified server. what was he trying to hide?

what was behind that potential move? now, democrats are trying to play this down, saying they don't need the testimony from these individuals. obviously, they're disappointed, but they say they're now ready to move forward in a new phase of the investigation, that would be the public testimony, alisyn. >> suzanne, thanks so much. please keep us posted. meanwhile, a really important development in the impeachment proceedings. republicans including the president seeming to retreat to what could be their final defensible position arguing against impeachment. what is that? we'll discuss, next. that life of the party look walk it off look one more mile look reply all look own your look... ...with fewer lines. there's only one botox® cosmetic.

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with dovato is right for you. new this morning, cnn has learned that four white house officials who were scheduled to testify today, they're not going to show up. we appear to be in the final stretch of closed-door depositions as house democrats will soon begin public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into president trump. joining us now, cnn political commentary, joe lockhart. he was president clinton's press secretary, and bianna golodryga. and we have agreed to do today's panel sitting down, because bianna basically won the new york marathon yesterday. >> i cannot move this morning. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> thank you so much for being here. >> so i think there was a huge development over the weekend in the way that the white house and republicans are talking about impeachment. kellyanne conway was on with dana bash yesterday, and basically retreated to the last defensible position that the white house has, which is, you know what, maybe there's a quid pro quo, i don't know.

it doesn't matter. listen to this exchange. >> so you feel totally confident that at the core of this, the heart of this, there was no quid pro quo? >> here's what i feel confident about. i feel confident about the fact that ukraine has that aid and is using it right now. that it's because of this president that they have it. the last administration -- >> kellyanne, you very notably won't say yoees or no. >> first of all, i just said to you, i don't know whether aid was being held up and for how long. >> "i don't know if aid was being held up." if she did know, it was being held up, she would have. you coupled that with the president's statement over the weekend. senators saying the president may have done a quid pro quo, but it doesn't matter. there's nothing wrong with that. it's not an impeachable debate. >> why are we even debating whether it was held up. we know it was. >> now you have republicans across the board, even the white house admitting, it happened, it's not impeachable. there's nowhere else for them to go. i think that movement over the last few days is important. >> it is. and it's the republican party and those close to the president realizing that they have nowhere

else to go other than acknowledging that there was, in fact, a quid pro quo, which is why they go back to the fact that the money was released. we know the money was released after pressure from the u.s. congress. the money was, in fact, given and agreed to be given when the prior ukrainian president was in office, petro poroshenko, who had agreed to go along with some of these investigations and conspiracy theories and work with rudy giuliani in ways that president trump was worried that zelensky would not work along with him on. so this is an administration whose back is up against the wall, who knows that they have the majority of republicans supporting this new line of thinking. and their statement being that, yes, in fact, even if there was a quid pro quo, we do this all the time in the u.s. government. the money was, in fact, given. we are fighting corruption. the flip side of that, obviously, is that this was not corruption that would benefit u.s. foreign policy or u.s. national security. it's corruption that, in fact, would help the president run against somebody like joe biden. >> so we heard matt schlapp trot this out on friday, who was on our program. he's a big president trump supporter. a conservative, obviously.

and he said, not illegal. he just kept saying, not illegal, not illegal, not illegal. obviously, high crimes, which is -- this is a political process, not a legal process for impeachment. but high crimes is open to interpretation. >> yeah, no, it is a political question. and it is an open question whether this would be illegal and the person would be prosecuted, unless he's president. but we've been down this road before. the president won't be indicted under this justice department. i mean, this was, i think, where they were going eventually anyway. we've talked a little bit about this. yes, i guess it happened and he shouldn't have done it, but it's not impeachable. they have one problem with that, which is the president. because, you know, he doesn't necessarily follow conventional strategy. and he will be out there, he's been saying it as recently as the weekend, it was still a perfect call, it was a good call, there's nothing wrong with it. i think they're going to have to move the president into a place where it's in line, you know, with the new thinking. >> why? why, when he says it's a perfect

call, that nothing illegal happened. i was doing my job. why can't he stick with that? >> well, he's not going to have a lot of support for that. i think republicans, i think the reports in "the washington post" are true that the senators, republican senators are looking for a place where they can stand. where they're fine. and it's not that it didn't happen, because the depositions will prove that it did. and remember, they only turn the money over after they heard there was a whistle-blower complaint. >> right. and who are they going to believe? are they going to believe a president who is new to politics, who is an unconventional president versus all of the diplomats that have been in public service, that have been ukraine experts, that have followed these types of negotiations and deals with regards to money and aid to ukraine and other countries for decades. and they all raised red flags. and said, this is not normal. so republicans know better. and i heard over the weekend many going back to the argument, well, zelensky said that there was no pressure, so even he acknowledged that.

of course he's going to say that. what else is he going to say? they need this aid desperately. >> and even if the president hasn't acknowledged wrongdoing, his campaign kind of has. if you look at his ad, they basically try to make something positive out of this, which is, they say, he breaks the rules, but he does it for you, because washington is broken, and, you know, so i think this is the beginning of finally a consistent message from the republicans. >> look, it's the president saying, it doesn't matter, it's not an impeachable event. he doesn't get to decide that. congress does. >> thank you, both, very much. and ice, i would say. a brand-new poll -- brand-new polls, i should say, showing how the leading democrats are faring against president trump in six key battleground states. there are warning signs here for democrats. we discuss that, next. we're reporters from the new york times.

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breaking news. we have brand-new polls in six battleground states that show the presidential race, at this moment, is extremely tight. >> wicked tight. >> wicked tight. president trump trails former vice president joe biden, but he beats senator elizabeth warren among likely voters. joe biden is the only democratic candidate at the moment that beats president trump in five of these six battleground states. joining us now to talk about all of this, we have cnn contributor, frank bruni, a columnist for "the new york time times", and cnn political reporter, arlette signs. great to have both of you here in studio. this is a wake-up call for any democrat who thought that this was going to be an easy race or who thinks or who sees national polls and think that president

trump is struggling. not in these battleground states. >> no, it's a huge wake-up call, because these numbers are coming in the wake of weeks of probably the worst news of his presidency. i mean, he's on the cusp of impeachment. let's be clear. he's going to be impeached. we have been learning about some of the worst behavior we know of his in the oval office. and yet, still in these battleground states, he's within the margin of error behind joe biden and he's beating elizabeth warren. if democrats don't take a careful look at this and remember, this is not a national election, we know that. hillary clinton won the national popular vote by 3 million, this is a state-by-state election and in the electoral college, trump is still wicked strong, to use your adjective. >> and there are two major headlines here. number one is that president trump incredibly strong or competitive in the battleground state, and the other headline, arlette, is that joe biden is doing better against the president than the other democrats. basically, across the board here. and that's something that i know is at heart of the entire biden candidacy. >> exactly. and that is the core of joe biden's message. is that he is the one most

electable, most able to take on the president. you've heard the campaign over and over for the past several months, even biden himself, citing these polls where he is leading. and those polls do show that among registered voters, he does enjoy a little bit of a bigger margin. likely voters is a little bit tighter. but this is certainly something that they're going to continue to stress. when i was in se wiiowa with hir the weekend, that is something that he kept hammering away, that electability is a factor and experience is a factor. >> let's poll up the new "new york times" poll, so we can make a point. when you look at joe biden, you see all the blue column where he is beating president trump, not by much. one point, two point, two point. then look at elizabeth warren and let's look at michigan. president trump beats her by four points. look at florida, president trump beats her by four points. what message does this send elizabeth warren? >> well, it says to her that the

questions that have been raised about her electability, the word that no one likes to use, aren't coming from nowhere. the qualms about how she would fare in a presidential election against donald trump, those are not made up. but let's also acknowledge one other thing. she is the least well known, if we're pulling back and looking at it from a distance, bernie sanders ran in 2016. joe biden was vice president for eight years. elizabeth warren, as much attention as we in the news media have given her in recent weeks, she is still not in voters' minds as firmly as those other two. and that possibly influences these numbers somewhat. >> the flip side for joe biden is that he is still leading. if this were to hold, this would be a blowout win for joe biden. >> but only for joe biden. >> only for joe biden. >> but it does show, you know, voters know him, warts and all, and he is still leading the president. >> we have to give joe biden his due. so many of us in the pundit class -- and i raise my hand high -- have been saying, he's going to fade, he's not going to be the nominee, et cetera. since he entered this race, he has led the national polls among

democrats and the latest round of polls, he still leads. that means something. his margin hab shrimay be shrint he has had some terrible debate performance but he remains in the lead. it may be that joe biden does get this nomination in the end. i still don't think that, but we have to acknowledge that possibility and a lot of us have moved on to warren. >> joe biden has been scoffing at people, publicly, who suggest that he's not the front-runner m. he says, come on, man, i'm the front-runner in that biden way. so he has seemed, publicly, at least, to feel confident and not feel defensive. is that how the campaign feels? >> i mean, that's right. they continuously point back to these types of polls and also, these states are the states that they say that biden can win. scranton joe from pennsylvania. they point no wisconsin. they also -- though, i think the tricky thing here is that heading into iowa right now, it is incredibly, incredibly tight. and there is no guarantee that

joe biden can win iowa or new hampshire. the campaign kind of downplaying those expectations as well, kind of saying that he has a broad-based coalition down in south carolina in some of those super tuesday early states. but you can't deny that if someone else wins iowa and new hampshire, they're going to have some big momentum behind them. and it's going to make biden's path a little bit trickier. >> that point is so key. these battleground states we've just been looking at, they're not the ones that vote first. iowa votes first. and looking at polls now, biden could come in fourth in iowa and overnight you would see this race change in terms of his prospects in the states to come. >> frank, arlette, thank you very much. coming up in our 8:00 hour, we will have democratic presidential candidate pete buttigieg. he's joining us live from iowa. what does he think about all of these developments? president trump set to host the world series champion washington nationals at the white house today, but not all the players will be there. dana-farber cancer institute discovered the pd-l1 pathway. pd-l1. they changed how the world fights cancer. blocking the pd-l1 protein,

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less than a week after winning their first world series, the washington nationals will visit the white house today, but not every member of the team will be there. cnn's joe johns live at the white house with a look ahead. joe? >> good morning, john. yeah, we can get used to this here in washington, d.c. the hometown team coming here to the white house to celebrate their big win in the world series against houston. the president of the united states expected to greet them. one of the questions, of course, is who's not going to show up. that's become a sort of traditional question with these national teams that win the big game. we do know of at least one player, that's sean doolittle, a

pitcher with the nationals, he says he's not going to show up. he says there's a lot of things, policies that he disagrees, but at the end of the day, it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and the widening the divide in this country. as much as i wanted to be there with my teammates and share thae today with meet with the president. but it really is a sign of the times. however, the president of the united states does not have that rocky relationship with major league baseball that he seems to share with, say, the national football league or the national basketball association. alisyn, back to you. >> joe, thank you very much for the view from the white house there. president trump continues to insist that the isis leader, abu bakr al baghdadi was, quote, whimpering and crying as u.s. special forces cornered him. but trump's defense secretary, the chairman of the joint chiefs and the regional commander of the operation all indicate they

are not sure what the president is talking about. cnn's barbara starr is live at the pentagon with more. so, does the pentagon just see this as president trump's kind of usual fudging of the truth or embellishment or is there something more here? >> well, i think embellishment is probably a good word. top officials really trying desperately to sidestep the whole issue. >> reporter: abu bakr al baghda baghdadi's last minutes alive, described by president trump in explicit detail. >> the thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the american forces bearing down on him. >> reporter: trump emphasizing baghdadi's emotional state. >> he didn't die a hero. he died a coward. crying, whimpering, screaming. >> reporter: but increasing questions on what the president based this statement on. how did he know that? so far, this remains unanswered

among top pentagon leadership. >> i'm not able to confirm anything else about his last seconds. i just can't confirm that one way or another. >> i don't have those details. the president probably had the opportunity to talk to the commanders on the ground. >> i don't know what the source of that was, but i assume it was talking directly to unit members. >> reporter: the white house has not responded to cnn's inquiry on whether the president spoke to any members of the military team. multiple defense officials told "the new york times" that they had seen no after-action reports, situation reports, or other communications that support trump's claim. the white house press secretary telling "the times" that we are not going to get into any of the operational details of how the president receives information. and aides ignoring questions on how the president knew al baghdadi's emotions in his final moments. >> how did the president learn about baghdadi whimpering and crying in his final moments? >> yeah, i'm not going to talk about specifics on technology of

what we do during those moments. >> reporter: cnn did learn that trump told it was a tough speech after the raid according to one source. officials who worked on the speech the night before told colleagues the version trump delivered on sunday did not resemble what they had put together. trump was changing his words until the last minute. one defense official tells cnn, it's not likely the president's comments are based on him hearing baghdadi's voice inside "the situation room" where he monitored the mission, unless special arrangements were made. the raid is a success against isis without any embellishment. and for the hundreds of u.s. troops still in syria, the danger may be growing. a short time ago, we received this statement from the u.s. spokesman there and i want to quickly read it to everyone. it says, on november 3rd -- that was just yesterday -- a u.s. patrol in northeast syria witnessed multiple artillery strikes landing within a

kilometer of the road they were traveling on. the patrol was not hit. but look at that statement. the artillery strikes landing perhaps a half mile away from u.s. forces on patrol in syria. who has artillery there? the russians, the syrian regime, and the turks. not good news for u.s. troops there. john? >> yeah, those are really important developments, barbara. as we see these military leaders caught in the crosshairs here, trying not to lie, and also trying not to contradict the president of the united states. thanks so much for that report. >> sure. new this morning, cross atlantic discomfort. is president trump taking the special relationship with the uk too far? the british government squirms as the president pushes to investigate his political opponents. this is your wake-up call. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. humira can help stop the clock. prescribed for 15 years,

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british officials say they're shocked by a trump administration official request to help to discredit tb findings in the mueller report. nic robertson is live in london with the details. what are they saying, nic? >> reporter: well, this seems to begin right after brothers johnson became prime minister. within two days, he gets a call

from president trump, within a couple days of that, attorney general william barr is visiting the uk. and that seems to have set on trail what is now bringing about deep concern about the special relationshi relationship. >> boris, it's only my opinion. >> i'm not going to -- >> reporter: behind the smiles, there's tension in the special relationship. president trump wants boris johnson to investigate his political opponents, figure out if mueller and others tried to smear him. a day after his controversial call with the ukrainian president in july, and just two days after johnson became prime minister, trump called him. now parliament wants details. >> did the prime minister, as today's "times" reports, receive a request from president trump for help in trying to discredit the mueller report? >> the prime minister is not going to comment on the discussions with president trump that are held in private. but i can -- i can give him the

assurance that, of course, neither the prime minister or as then was the foreign secretary, nor any member of this government, would collude in the way that he's described. >> reporter: both the white house and downing street published brief notes on that conversation. neither made any mention of the investigation that trump is demanding. days after the trump/johnson call, attorney general william barr was in london for a meeting on intelligence cooperation and moving trump's investigation forward. veteran uk diplomatic journalist kim san gupta says his british sources were shocked at the requests coming from washington. >> the way it began to emerge in their eyes was that this was the u.s. government asking for information, not about the russians, not about the chinese, not even about the french. you know, it's about their own intelligence services. >> reporter: barr has also been to australia and italy, in what

is now a criminal investigation into the origins of the trump/russia investigation, and intelligence it used from overseas. the italians had nothing to offer barr. on his agenda, the role of this maltese academic, who vanished two years ago. he told acquaintances that the russians had dirt on hillary clinton. one of those acquaintances, george papadopoulos, relayed miftsa's claim to an australian democrat, alexander downing in london. then there's the dossier written by a former uk intelligence officer, christopher steele. steele worked at this london address. he compiled a dossier during the 2016 elections suggesting trump was vulnerable to kremlin blackmail. it was his dossier that helped initiate the mueller inquiry. san gupta's sources understand the london focus, but worry

about the implications. >> the apprehension, the impression that i got, was apprehension is that they may get drawn into or are getting drawn into american politics. >> president trump's obsession with discrediting mueller could cost america the trust of its allies. >> and this comes at a very sensitive time for the uk, as well. elections are four, five and a half weeks away. president trump is a factor in those elections. talked with one of the party's candidates just a few days ago, suggesting a tie-up between him, who's a right-wing politician, and prime minister boris johnson. the prime minister's rejected that. but in essence, president trump is such a figure in british -- name and figure in british politics at the moment, that it polarizes people. so any association in a negative context for the prime minister or anyone else becomes an issue

in the elections as well. >> it will play in the election. the question is, how over the next five weeks. nic robertson, great to have you on this morning. thanks so much. so for the first time since december, the new england patriots lost a football game. >> what?! >> yeah, i know. >> they lost. >> i'm sorry, john. how are you even here this morning? >> well, you know, no undefeated patriots team has ever won the super bowl, so i'm looking at this as a good thing. the ravens crushed the patriots last night. the ravens are very good. andy sholes more in the bleacher report. lamar jackson is a good player. >> i like how you spun that. the patriots had won 13 straight games, including the playoffs coming into last night's game, but the run coming to an end thanks to lamar jackson and traichbthe ravens. the patriots allowed just four offensive touchdowns in eight games. well, jackson and the ravens scoring four touchdowns in this game loalone. jackson just 22 years old is

already an mvp candidate. ravens win this one, 37-20. the 49ers now, the only undefeated team left this season. all right, on the other side of things, the dolphins are no longer winless. miami putting a beat down on the jets and their former coach yesterday winning 26-18. what do you do when you win your first game of the year? you give the coach a gatorade bath. that's what the dolphins did for brian flores. his first win as a head coach in the nfl. jets and dolphins, the same record, 1-7. tough times for the jets. all right, the celebration tour continuing for the nationals last night. the capitals game, shirtless on a zamboni with the world series trophy. they also took a combo team pic with the capitals who won it all two years ago. good time to be a sports fan right now in d.c. the nationals are going to head to the white house later today, guys, to celebrate their championship. what will they be eating? that's always a good yes. president trump sometimes goes with the fast food. they'll have mcribs and popeye's

chicken sandwiches. >> we'll have popeye's chicken sandwiches here later on the show. >> stick around until 8:45, you can watch us remotely eat a popeye's chicken sandwiches. >> but we will have shirts on. >> well, we don't know yet. brand-new polls show president trump's approval rating is struggling nationally, but he is strong in key battleground states. anthony scaramucci says the president is in free fall. it sure doesn't look like it, anthony. scaramucci will provide his evidence, next. (thud) (crash) (grunting) (whistle) play it cool and escape heartburn fast with tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tu-tu-tum tums

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president trump is pushing back this morning against a report that a growing number of senate republicans are ready to acknowledge that the president did commit a quid pro quo. "the washington post" reports that the gop's last-ditch argument will be that the quid pro quo did happen, but the president's actions were not illegal and do not rise to the level of impeachment. joining us for now for reaction to this and so much more is anthony scaramucci, president trump's former white house communications director. that's the reporting they're going with. yes, that's a quid pro quo, we saw the transcript of the phone call, but it's not impeachable. >> well, we know it's completely impeachable and completely illegal, so -- >> well, they say not illegal. and by the way, they also say -- >> it's a -- you can talk to preet bharara. we know it's pry ma fascia illegal. we can argue whether they'll vote for it or not.

what will be the crisis in our democra democracy. if they decide they want to do that, that will be a disruption in the system. that could happen. i think what the good news is, and i see the swing state poll numbers, but the good news is is that the differential of the american electorate in general is increasing for impeachment and removal, and i predict that as these things become more public, those numbers will go up into the high 60s. >> you're talking about the national polling on impeachment, but the state, the battleground state polling on impeachment shows that they're opposed to it. and as we know, the battleground states matter more for the election. >> okay. so, stay with me for a second. because back in august, i was a lone operator in the republican party, basically saying that this guy is going to go down. there's going to be a full-blown meltdown. and over the next three to six

months, you'll see this happen. what i got wrong is, i was surprised by the cowardice, frankly, of the republican party in general, staying close to this guy. because he's -- the repetitive lying is out of control. the level of illegality now is completely out of control. and now they're admitting that there was a quid pro quo. so he's doing what he does to everybody. he's moved the goalpost one more time. and now they're going to say, well, there was a quid pro quo, similar to what mick mulvaney was saying two weeks ago. but that's okay, too, we're going to leave him in power. so again, all of those things may happen, but i predict that they won't. you're looking at the swing state numbers. i'm looking at that 49% number and i'm going to predict here, like i did in august about the meltdown that that number is going to go into the low 60s. >> but i guess i would just reiterate that for the election, it doesn't matter what the national polling says. it only matters what the battleground states say. >> it will matter to those senator who is want to keep the senate. and it will matter to mitch mcconnell who would like to keep

his job and be the senate majority leader. assuming that mitch mcconnell has one more term left as the quote/unquote senator, i don't think he's going to want to be in the minority. and i think he will jettison president trump the minute those differentials start to happen and they are moving. they've moved six points in the last month. >> yes, the national polls in terms of desire for impeaching and even removing have moved, you're right, towards the public getting comfortable with and approving of and wanting an impeachment process. but not in the battleground states. hold on a second. i want to ask you about what you tweeted yesterday. the truth is coming out and potus, the president is, in free fall. what's your evidence the president is in free fall? because if you look at it tlau differe through a different lens, he had a good end to the week. >> what was the good end to the week. >> i'll tell you. tim morrison, who went in to be deposed, said he heard the call, he didn't hear anything illegal happen on the call. the battleground states do not

support impeaching the president. not a single republican in the house voted to even -- to even move forward with the impeachment inquiry. >> a lot of that's predictable. >> this morning, he has successfully blocked four nsc officials, top officials, who were subpoenaed from going to give depositions. that's the reporting that we have. they won't show up. that seems -- all of those seem like a win for the president. >> one, they'll likely be compelled to show up. let's go back to the other side. i'm a numbers person. a six-point move on 40 points is a very big move. that's a 15% move in the polling. that happened over a four-week period of time. what's happening is, the facts are starting to come out. and once they move to a public hearing, alisyn, i really believe that it will be irrefutable. that's sort of what happened during the nixon situation. once you get into the public hearings, that wall of republican support crumbled. and i see that happening.

i don't see how they're going to allow this level of lawlessness. and you know there's other things that are being reported now. whether it's the jared kushner/khashoggi thing that one of the whistle-blowers mentioned or other elements of illegality. and so for me, again, i'm a numbers person. plus 15% on the polling. i think that's pretty damning. and i think the bad news is yet to come for the president. i mean, we're just getting started. >> what do you mean, the bad news is yet to come? what else is going to come out? >> well, you've got three or four whistle-blowers and you've got people that have heard direct testimony. and you're going to have a public hearing of those people. there'll be a right for the president's people to cross-examine those people. but i think the evidence is irrefutable. pry ma faprima fascia evidence people who like justice is pretty compelling. >> i don't know if this is wishful thinking in your part or

if you're seeing it. but you're predicting it's going to happen. >> i'm predicting it, because here's what i saw in august. and i have to confess, it did clamp up a little. what i saw in august was a very large group of people in the republican party, elected officials saying, okay, this is totally unsustainable and very crazy. then when the impeachment stuff came out, a lot of those people have gone into an intimidation mode, where they've been intimidated by the president and by people around the president. and they've been, you know, given favors by the president to keep silent. but i predict, now that those things have happened. and one of those things i didn't get right, which is that i thought that those republicans who were saying all of those things. >> would speak out. >> yeah, all of those things to journalists and people at cnn and other people, would eventually speak out. they didn't do that. >> quickly, i want to ask you, what do you think about the president calling for the whistle-blower to be unmasked. calling for his identity to be revealed. >> it's more ridiculousness.

it's more rank illegality on his part. if you understand the constitution and the whistle-blower protections, what he's asking for is a complete breach of all of that. so it's once again, it's this like outright rank lawlessness that the republicans are accepting. so, again, they may do that. they may defy all levels of practicality and sense of fairness and justice. they may do that and that will put the country in a very, very difficult period of time. here's the thing i'm pointing out to you. you've got a 15% move. you'll have another 15% move. i believe in the laws of compounding. and when this thing gets into low 60s, these guys are gone. >> anthony scaramucci, do you want to stick around for some laughs? >> i think i need some laughs after this last segment. >> quickly. quickly. >> hard rap, anthony. >> like my seventh grade science teacher. the hero k-9 that was injured in the mission to kill the leader of isis will be honored soon by president trump in the white house, but conan the dog already got his own

press conference on "saturday night live." here are your late-night laughs. >> the white house has not held a formal press briefing in almost eight months. we've kept our new press secretary in hiding because our past ones were mocked, humiliated, and forced to regain their dignity on "dancing with the stars". >> so we're going to take a few questions and then conan's going to meet with president trump to explain the situation in syria. yeah, you, ma'am? >> hi, conan. thank you for your service. >> it is my honor, i do this job for two reasons, one, i love my country, and two, belly rubs. >> yes, you were involved in a terrorist raid. was that scary for you? [ dog barks ] >> a little, sure, but it could have been worse. the terrorists have guns and explosives, but at least they don't have vacuum cleaners. yes, you, ma'am? >> so, just for the record, if you're keeping score at home,

conan the dog and anthony scaramucci have more press briefings than stephanie grisham. >> yeah, right now. that probably will maintain the case. conan only lasted 1/11th of a mooch. >> the math that we now use. all right. well, we award you 100 mooches right now. so thank you for being here, anthony. >> all right, significant new poll numbers in key battleground states paint a very different picture of this election than we've seen. "new day" continues right now. the series of brand-new polls from the six battleground states that determine the outcome of the election in 2016 -- >> if the best democrats can offer is business as usual, democrats will lose. >> ladies and gentlemen, the vision i have for this country, there's nothing small about it. >> it was going to be a busy day. >> the whistle-blower is making himself available for written questions. >> quid pro quo, yes or no.

>> i just said to you, i don't know whether aid was being held up. >> we're going to release these transcripts for people to see. we will get to the bottom of this. >> this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> beautiful sunrise there. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day." we want to start with breaking news for you. brand-new polls in six key battleground states that could determine whether president trump wins a second term. "the new york times"/siena college polls gauge voters in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, florida, arizona, and north carolina, states that carried mr. trump to the white house in 2016. voters were asked to choose between the president and each of the leading democratic contenders in head-to-head matchups. the results are very interesting. only joe biden beats the president in fooive of those si states. harry entin will break down the numbers in a moment. >> four witnesses were scheduled to testify in the house impeac