the white house white house directed them to have come in and they will end up if kniss-oknisthis sphere. three witnesses expected to testify next week and all pointed to mick mulvaney's role. heard a discussion mick mulvaney's role as laid out by fiona hill related to a specific deliverable for a white house meeting's that being investigations according to eu ambassador gordon sondland and mick mulvaney's direct real to suspend u.s. security asivsistae to ukraine. what occurred, and what democratic lawmakers want and say they need. that said, they've made clear they're moving forward no matter what. anytime the white house decides not to send anyone up here or obstruct it becomes more evidence for the article of impeachment they're considering along with several others related to obstruction. jake? >> thank you. >>> i want to sdrus transcripts with two former federal prosecutors. and the former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. john bolton is all over these transcripts expressing dismay, being upset about what's going on. and he has yet to comply with the house reques

let's get more from jeremy diamond at the white house. >> reporter: the white house has been conducting an internal review of president trump's decision last summer to withhold nearly $400 million in security aid to ukraine. according to "the washington post," that review is turning up hundreds of documents to suggest that white house officials and officials in the management and budget, were trying to draw up a legal justification for that move after the facts. this was another instance of a scramble by officials to catch up with another one of president trump's decisions. the office of management and budget, though, is denying that anything improper took place. here's a statement from a spokeswoman for the office of management and budget, rachel semmel. she said, to be clear, there was a legal consensus at every step of the way that the money could be withheld in order to conduct the policy review. "the washington post" also has an early august exchange between mick mulvaney and the acting head of the office of management and budget, russ vogt, in which mulvaney asks for an update on

at the time, the white house, when ty cobb was the lawyer who was coordinating the white house response to the mueller investigation, the president was allowing people to testify. the president has not allowed people to testify before this congressional investigation, or any congressional investigations. so the question is will don mcgahn continue to honor the president's current ruling or go by either the district court opinion that came down today or his previous instruction to cooperate with mueller? that's really up to mcgahn. >> it's a pretty lengthy decision by this federal judge. >> right. i think the most important thing the judge is saying, just because you work for the president and work very very close, at the top of the food chain there at the white house doesn't mean you don't have to show up for what is a lawful subpoena. a part of it, as a matter of law, senior level current presidential aides including white house counsels must appear before congress if compelled by legislative process to do so. this means that such aides cannot defy a congressional subpoena on the basis

let's go to our chief white house correspondent. the president just spoke to reporters, answered a few questions. >> reporter: that's right. the president was just a few moments ago rallying against the impeachment process, sounding inkrei incredulous to how he could be impeached when the economy is doing so well. the president continues to lead a deeply divided country on the subject of impeachment. >> reporter: top aides are preparing for what may be inevitable. >> i'm prepared for the president to be impeached. i'm priepared for the votes to not go that way depending on what the evidence says. >> reporter: saying at some point i'm going to sit down. fra perhaps as a fireside chat. it's a straight call. >> you can't impeach a president who did nothing wrong. the gentleman that came in yesterday, morrison, he was terrific. he was supposed to be their primary witness. he was terrific. he said he didn't see anything wrong with it. >> reporter: that's despite more damage testimony in the inquiry. the latest administration official to

that's something that the white house has sort of invented. you think of the white house counsel and you think of privilege. we think of a lawyer and privilege and privileged communication. first of all, white house counsel is the counsel for the president, office holder of the president. he has his own personal counsel, rudy giuliani. >> heard of him. >> you might have heard of him. that is his private counsel. there is no absolute immunity for this person. also if there was immunity, the president has waved that immunity. he let mcgahn testify many times to mueller. if there was privilege, he waved that privilege. i think that's what the judge will rule in this case. why that's important for the judiciary committee is they want mcgahn to testify about what he told a colleague, a friend, about what trump told him, what he said. i want you to fire mueller. he said mcgahn said to this colleague, i felt like it was going to be a saturday night massacre, recalling nixonian times when that's what happened in nixon times. the judiciary committee wa

and coming up, it was supposed to be a simple white house photo-op, but nothing with this white house is ever simpm. so the photo-op became a two day story that once again sparked a discussion about the trump white house's about to be truthful, their credibility. house's about to be truthful, their credibility. it's tough to quit smoking cold turkey. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health proble

one is that second call was actually orchestrated by the white house. guiliani calling up president trump's personal secretary and saying that he couldn't get in touch with pompeo. then pompeo putting the two of them in touch. so this undermines any kind of argument that the white house was unaware of what guiliani might have been doing this ukraine. the second thing is it really ties pompeo to all of this. we have to keep this in mind. this is coming after we learned from the ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland, that pompeo was involved. of course i want to say that is alleged. this is his testimony. but that these top officials knew about this. so this really draws pompeo in deeper, while he has been trying himself to distance himself from all of this. >> that is pretty interesting stuff. kristen holmes, thank you very much. >>> let's talk about this a little bit more and i'm joined by now former federal prosecutor, shan wu, to do just that. good morning to you, shan. >> good morning. >> let me start with john bolton. two weeks ago bolto

house was saying is we want investigations in return for a meeting in the oval office of the white house. it was only later on in later -- in august and early september that the white house then began to say that we have to have those investigations if you, president zelensky, want the meeting at the white house and military assistance. so that's point number one. point number two, it's wrong to say that zelensky was not aware of this. when president zelensky met with vice president pence in warsaw on september 1, it was the first issue he raised about military assistance. i think there's a certain amount of deflection here and trying to throw a little bit of confusion about what exactly happened here. finally, one last point, if you're the ukrainian president and you see american sport as so important, particularly as you're getting ready to sit down with vladimir putin for the first time ever, you're not going to come out and contradict the president of the united states. you're not going to say hat the was a quid pro quo, there was pressure. there's no advantage for president zelensky

robert: yamiche, you just came white house, thell did with pbs' coverage. what was the white house's straasgy? or it just the president lashing out? yamiche: the white house strategy was to have a rapidse respeam that was supposed counsel staff, directors,se legislative affairs and assistants. we saw the president become the number one person talking for the white house and the esident responding i realtime to a public hearing in a way we hearings.blic in think of robert mueller and special counsel, personal, attornchael cohen, they came bore congress and had high-profile public hearingsut the preside really went after ambassador yovanovitch and said this is a bad ambassador andad really it personal and defended his tweets even ashe republicans onill were saying what the president did was not really right. liz cheney,hi the ranking republican in the house. she said the president shouldn't have tweeted that.ji jordan, who was put on the house intel to defend the pres,ent, later said, h you know what, ambassador yovanovitch ieo s who is a tough woman, i prais

house or in the white house? >> i certainly heard along with colleagues that in the most recent sort of big story of the week which is impeachment that the communication between the white house and that he'll hasn't always been as robust as some republicans would like. i can't really testify from my own't reporting to the general feelings among senators and lawmakers on the hill because it isn't my beach and i don't have as much time there as many of my colleagues that have more of a beat then i have. but it's not surprising to me. i mean it doesn'tme come acrosso me as something that hard to believe. >> what i hear but i hear a lotm republicans is essentially i actually kind of agree with the president is trying to do i just wish he would intuitively that he is doing it and that is what i hear from a lot of the republicans in congress. and i think they recognize that in 2016, president trump then candidate trump put his finger on or maybe put differently walked through a door and foundd the result of the country

house -- to the white house call and the white house meeting, there was a quid pro quo. and we should note there has still been no white house meeting for the ukrainian leader. so it is interesting how the white house and the republican allies are picking certain parts of the testimony to focus on but ignoring everything else he said which is there was no secret there was a pressure campaign and the secretary of state was involved and the vice president, he discussed it with, the chief of staff, the energy secretary, just encompassing everyone who surrounds the president. and so that is the question here. as the democrats are saying -- or republicans are saying he didn't explicitly say it. based on his other testimony it didn't seem like he needed to. >> it is interesting, kylie, because ambassador sondland, you can't say he's a never-trumper or deep straight. he's a political appointee someone named by the president to be the ambassador to the eu, someone who donated a million dollars -- a million dollars to the trump inaugural committee. >> that is right. he's not folk

>> the president's allies in the white house and outside of the white house have been advocating for this entire month-long impeachment for the white house to consolidate around some sort of communication and legal strategy that might help guide their own efforts to defend the president. and we are learning a little bit about how the white house is cooperating with some members of the house to learn more about these closed-door depositions. we hear that representative jim jordan and representative mark meadows, they have been informally advising the white house counsel's office on some of what's been going on in these depositions. mainly guiding the white house in how they respond to what's been publicly reported about what is said behind closed doors, helping them wade through whether there are any mischaracterizations. helping to sort of formulate a way to respond to all of this. now, the impeachment inquiry is entering a new phase. that is why the house voted this week on some ground rules and how they're moving forward. one of the main arguments against the impeachment inquiry co

it was part of this quid pro quo in fact was the fact the white house was holding up a white house meeting according to numerous current and former officials. here is the president tonight when he was asked whether zelensky would be coming to the white house. >> i think he'll probably come but i would certainly say i'd invite him. he is a nice man. i spoke to him twice. i think i spoke to him two times. i would love to have him come to the white house if he'd like to come and i think he'd like to come. i think he'd be here very quickly. he is a good man. he was elected on the basis of corruption. corruption is incredible in ukraine, which bothered me a lot and it also bothered me very, very much that germany, france, and all of the other countries aren't putting up money. >> reporter: ana, the question is what is indeed the hold up? the president has the ability to invite the president of ukraine. we know that the ukrainian president has been seeking a white house meeting since he was inaugurated last spring. in fact, he pressed the president when he met with him in person at the united na

>> as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. >> the president and many republicans have dismissed all of this as yet another conspiracy, another effort to push him out of office, but one after another, witnesses have said no, there really was an improper deal to benefit trump politically by using power power abroad. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> and as we've reported, a house impeachment vote could come by christmas. so we went out and asked voters what they think about all of this. vanessa brings us some opinions across the swing state of pennsylvania. >> and good morning, everybody. talking a little politics. we want to know what you think about the impeachment hearings. >> the morning rush to philadelphia with impeachment on the mind. >> it's a big show. i think we're just wasting taxpayer money. >> no matter their political party, voters here in the suburbs are paying attention. from the air waves -- >> it would be thrown out in any courtroom. put it that way. >> nothing there there, huh? >> no. >> to

we could abandon the efforts to schedule the white house phone call and a white house visit between presidents trump and zelensky which was unquestionably in our foreign policy interest, or we could as preside t had directed, and talk with rudy. we chose the latter course not because we liked it, but because it was the only constructive path open to us. over the course of the next several months, secretary perry, ambassador volker and i were in communication with mr. giuliani. secretary perry volunteered to make the initial calls with mr. giuliani given their prior relationship. ambassador volker made several of the early calls and generally informed us of what was discussed. i first communicated with mr. giuliani in early august, several months later. mr. giuliani emphasized that the president wanted a public statement from president zelensky committing ukraine to look into the corruption issues. mr. giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election, including the dnc server and burisma as two topics of importance to the president. we kept the leadership of the state department and the nsc in

the code word server in the white house is a big deal. there are very few people who have code word access. i probably doesn't even have code word access so they're just trying to hide it. one of the reasons they're trying to hide it and also we now know it was apparently altered. the ellipses, the magical ellipses, what was behind them? this will come out as things come public. it came out with the colonel and his testimony and we're going to see more of this sort of thing as it becomes public, as the live tv starts and then you're going to see some serious squirming from -- today the -- i mean the republicans, oh, it's an unfair process end the democrats are being mean to us, the -- what was passed by the house today is exactly what the republicans passed for the clinton impeachment. almost the same words. >> so then why the double standard? sorry. let's move on. it's staring us right in the face. >> it is and it was released by the white house and think about this, not a single witness in all these closed door witnesses are democrats.

as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white housens meeting, ther is yes. judy: u.s.mbassador the european union gordon sondland has explosive testimony that he to work with rudy giuliani and implicates secretary of state pompeo and vice president pence in the pressure campaign against ukraine. we look at the highlights of this headline making moment in the impeachment inquiry. and taki the stage. with less than three months to go before votes are cast in the first presidential primary contest, what to w tch out for inonight's democratic debate. onall that and more tonight's "pbs newshour." announcer: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- ♪ ♪ announcer: moving our economy the engine, bnsf, that connects us. consumer cellular. supporting social entrepreneurs and their solution to the woobd's most pressing prms. skoll foundation.org. the lemelson foundation. on the web at level.org. -- lemelson.org. supported by the john d and kathryn foundation. more information at mac found.org. these institutions.support of th progr

>> it's one thing to try to leverage a meeting in the white house. it's another thing, i thought, to leverage security assistance, security assistance to a country at war, dependent on both the security assistance and the demonstration of support. it was much more alarming, the white house meeting was one thing, security assistance was much more alarming. >> now, ambassador taylor, in your opening statement, you outlined a very detailed timeline. in fact, we have a written copy here and you included some phrases and words in quotations. did you take notes of this conversation on september 1st with ambassador sondland? >> i did. >> did you take notes related to most of the conversations, if not all of them, that you recited in your opening statement? >> all of them, mr. goldman. >> what are those quotations that you include in your opening statement reflect? >> they reflect my notes on the exact words that i heard on that call. so it was -- if i put those in quotes, it meant those are the words used on that phone call or in that conversation. >> did y

let's get straight to cnn's jeremy diamond at the white house. and the president's tweets don't exactly line up with the reason the department of defense gave for secretary spencer's firing. >> as ryan just laid out, there are three different versions of this story out there right now. three different versions why richard spencer was forced to vezine in the wake of this eddy gallagher controversy. let's read what the president was saying. he says i was not pleased with the iwith way navy s.e.a.l. gallagher's trial was handled by the navy. despite this was completely exonerated on all charges and like wise large cost over runs from past administrations's contracting procedures were not addressed to my satisfaction. therefore secretary of innavy richard's services i have terminated by secretary mark esper. he then goes onto thank richard esper for his service and he says he plans to nominate the ambassador to norway who is a retired admiral of the navy. the president calls him a man of great achievement and success. now, what's also notable in to p

as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is, yes. mr. giuliani conveyed to secretary perry, ambassador volker and others that president trump wanted a public statement from president zelensky committing to investigations of burisma and the 2016 election. mr. giuliani expressed those requests directly to the ukrainians, and mr. giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us. we all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the right white house meeting reflected president trump's desires and requirements. within my state department emails there's a july 19th email. this email was sent -- this email was sent to secretary pompeo, secretary perry, brian mccormack, who is secretary perry's chief of staff at the time, miss kenna, who is the acting -- pardon me, the executive secretary for pompeo, mr. mulvaney and mr. mulvaney's senior adviser rob blair. a lot of senior officials. a lot of senior officials. here is my exact quote from that email. i talked to zelensky just now. he is prepared

he was honored at the white house. here's kristen dahlgren. >> reporter: in a surprise ceremony, the combat canine getting a hero's welcome at the white house. >> conan came over from the middle east. just arrived with some of the great people from the special forces >> reporter: the belgian m alamo a was involved in the killing of the isis leader. he received a medal and a plaque along with some pats on the head >> the dog is incredible actually incredible. we spent some good time with it. and so brilliant, so smart >> reporter: the world first learned of conan in a tweet after the raid the president then teasing the white house visit. but could 1600 pennsylvania avenue be a permanent home for the pooch? >> melania, do you want to adopt the dog for barron >> no. >> reporter: so his future may not be his first pup, but in many minds, he is definitely top dog. kristen dahlgren, nbc news >> all right he's a lot of our first pups >> that is so cute i am so surprised melania didn't want a loyal companion in the white house

these misses are significant in the white house understands this -- and the white house understands this. witnesses arehese those that were in the law office of the national security council and those who work for mulvaney, either in the chief of staff's office or the office of management and budget, our first-hand witnesses to of serious misconduct, vis-a-vis military aid and the effort to use that as a lover to do ukraine to do these political investigations to help the reelection campaign but also in efforts to potentially hide the evidence of the presidents misconduct placing that call record in a classified system that would be beyond most testimony. very relevant to the others who have come forward and we may infer by the white house obstruction that their testimony would be further incriminating of the president. i will say this. we fully expected this. we have seen a series of shifting and ever-changing rationales for this campaign of obstruction. first there was the argument we won't comply and don't have to apply until there is a formal vote. we had a formal vote on the house f

i'm no longer a white house employee. i think i have things to say that are unrelated to executive privilege. he could claim -- he's an attorney. he knows there is a crime/fraud exception to any of his conversations where if he has knowledge of criminal activity, he can go in and testify about it. so if he wants to, he can come forward and do so without this later case that he is connected with and another judge in the same court, and he could proceed. it's an excellent opinion incidentally, john. it's a strong opinion. she says, we've been here, done this before, and we're not going to mess around with it. >> jennifer, i want to read you another quote from this opinion. she writes, stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded american history is that presidents are not kings. now, that is stark. it's also right from the federalist papers by the way, so she's quoting, you know, high school education to the white house legal team here. what did you make of that? >> well, it's really about separat

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house and white house officials including gordon sondland. this all has to do with the alleged bribery or alleged quid pro quo where president trump has been -- the people around him have been demanding investigations, for ukraine to carry out investigations into the bidens in order to secure that $400 million of security aid. he will be critical, he will be able to speak directly to what it was like, what he interpreted on that july 25 phone call between trump and zelensky. host: talk about the pairing. at 9:00, it is he and jennifer williams, aide to vice president mike pence. why that pairing in the morning and then the second pairing of kurt volker and tim morrison? scott: republicans have had a chance to submit their list of the initiald witnesses will be democratic witnesses. the second group with volcker and tim morrison will be republican called. the reason republicans want to call these individuals is because they want to ask them, was there anything illegal on this phone call that you heard, was there anything that -- have you had s

house, about the disorganization inside the white house. having said that, and you having read the whole book, is there anything in there that's surprising, that could move the needle? >> you know, chris, what's surprising is just how completely sort of damning and chilling this portrait is of the president and the fact that it's authored by somebody who is identified as having worked as a senior official in the administration. so it's not an outside observer making these judgments, it's not a scorned person like omarosa making these judgments, but somebody, said to be a senior level in the white house assessing the president in this way. clearly this author hopes to move the needle with public opinion. the call is essentially a call to action for the american people in the 2020 election to not reelect this president because of the litany of misconduct that is alleged in the book. >> phil rucker, great to have you here. kristen welker, geoff bennett, mack mclarty, nick burns, great to talk to all of you today, thank you so much. >>> coming

house counsel, don mcgahn, a very influential man, somebody who was in the white house from the early days, will be called upon to testify before congress and that the subpoenae does count legally. don mcgahn of course is someone who was very useful to the former special council robert mueller and his investigation into allegations of collusion between the trump campaign and russia. mr mcgahn famously told robert mueller that he had been told by the president in a late—night telephone call to his home to get onto thejustice department and sack mueller himself, the special counsel, and when that story became public, the president had called on him to hold a press conference and deny there was any truth to it. what this could all do now is lead to renewed calls from the democrats for other former senior trump administration officials to be brought before congress to testify, not least of them of course the former national security adviserjohn bolton. but that said, this ruling by this federal court in washington, dc is expected to be appealed by the white house. the us navy secretary

as i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. >> reporter: and it wasn't just the white house visit at stake. the president was withholding nearly $400 million in military aid. >> it became your clear understanding that the military assistance was also being withheld pending zelensky announcing these investigations. correct? >> that was my presumption. my personal presumption based on the facts at the time. nothing was moving. >> reporter: but sondland acknowledges the president never told him directly. >> i don't recall president trump ever talking to me about any security assistance, ever. >> is this kind of a two plus two equals four conclusion that you reached? >> pretty much. >> it's the only logical conclusion to you that given all of these factors, that the aid was also apart of this quid pro quo? >> yep. >> reporter: republicans pounced. >> so, no one told you. not just the president, giuliani didn't tell you, mulvaney didn't tell you, nobody, pompeo didn't tell you. nobody else on this planet told you

and the white house. how far it goes is something we're waiting to hear play out here. >> joining us from washington martha and john roberts here in new york city. martha, i'll bring you in first. what we heard repeatedly there was that there was a quid pro quo. he asked the question in his opening statement, was there a quid pro quo? yes. he testified that everyone was in the loop. his words. he repeatedly said in his opening statement that they were taking orders. he was taking orders -- following orders on multiple other occasions through the questioning and the opening statement from president trump. your takeaways. >> there is a lot here, sandra. one of the early things that gordon sondland wanted to establish was that he and the so-called three amigos, mr. taylor and mr. volker, did not want to work with rudy giuliani. he said that several times. he said it became clear to him that was the only way that it was going to go forward. the only way they were going to get the meeting. the president insist

house or inside the white house? >> guest: i've certainly heard along with colleagues the most recent sort of big story of the week which is impeachment that the communications between the white house and the hills hasn't always been as robust as some republicans would like. i can't really testify from my own reporting to the general feelings among senators and lawmakers on the hill because it isn't my beat and i haven't spent as much time there as many of my colleagues who have more event across town beat then i have, but it's not surprising to me. i mean it doesn't come across to me as something that's hard to believe. >> guest: what i hear a lot from republicans is essentially a kind of agree with the president is trying to do, i just wish he wouldn't give it de way that he's doing it. that's what i hear from a lot of the republicans in congress. and because i think they recognize that in 2016 president trump, then candidate trump walked through a door and found there was a lot of the country that agreed with stuf

the white house is ramping up its route reach to senate republicans. one senator said the subject of needing republicans to better defend him did not come up. this after mitch mcconnell advised the president stop attacking republicans. one of his staunchest reporters is steve bannon, even though he left the administration, he has now begun a daily syndicated radio on podcast call "war room impeachment" which gives you an idea of the kind of political combat he expects and is participating in right now. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> first of all, what do you make of the white house's strategy thus far? >> look, it has a strategy. president trump believes he didn't do anything wrong. he is adamant about that. i think he is busy running the country. he has usmca, the chinese, what's happening in syria. he's got a day job. i think he feels he's got the team, a solid team, it's a good team. >> you think he is not focused on this? you think he is running -- he seems very focused on in the twitter world. >> i think he focuses on this the

francesca chambers is the white house correspondent. kim wailly served as an associate of bill clinton. she also wrote the book, how to read the constitution and why. how do these emails impact the impeachment case against the president? >> some of it is how it looks, it's just optics, i can tell you in the past this has been a problem for the president as well, and the white house. the president often says or does things on twitter, and then the white house finds out about them, and they have to find the justification for doing those things, they're often surprised and blindsided by the president's actions, i think what you saw is another example of what is routinely happening at the white house. >> sources told the post about this interagency argument over withholding military aid. so you have the state department and national security council were protesting it. but omb was pushing back saying it was legal because they labelled it temporary aid. why would that make it legal? >> it looks like this money was appropriates back in septem

if he sits there in the white house he won't testify. the committee is not going to force him to testify. there are any number of white house officials who said, i'm not coming. the committee is leaving them alone. mulvaney can do the same thing. i don't understand why he feels obligated to go to court when the fact of going to court -- he still will not testify one way or the other. it's very strange. i wish i could explain it. the only thick i suspect, totally my suspicion, it's connected with a certain degree with mulvaney being on thin ice with the president after that disastrous news conference he had a couple weeks ago, the president asked a couple times and support for mulvaney is lukewarm at best. >> i think it is a result of the precarious situation the white house finds itself in. there is no legal provision that prevents somebody like mulvaney from going and complying with a congressional subpoena. that's been revealed with vindman and laura cooper and current official after current official has denied the president and gone a

ok heidi this post of there from capitol hill let's go now to the white house our white house correspondent kimberly how get kimberly the key words. from ambassador solomon i followed the directions of the president talking about the man in the house right behind you. that seems to be the beginning and end of all of this what do we know about what the white house is is watching is paying attention to. well the u.s. president is expected to leave the white house momentarily he's trying to shift directions away from the headlines on capitol hill to austin texas where he's headed to tout creation of jobs at an apple plant that he says is a direct benefit as a result of his policies but there's no question that what most people are going to be focusing on is this testimony that has just taken place on capitol hill and i should note the last few minutes as you were talking with our correspondent joe castro the chair of the house intelligence committee adam schiff spoke to reporters very briefly i did manage to catch a feed of some of that coming from capitol hill and he said that essentially thi

we could abandon the efforts to schedule the white house phone call and a white house visit. residents trump and zelensky. which was unquestionably in our foreign policy interest or. we could do as president trump. we chose the latter course. because it was the only constructive path open to us. over the course of the next. acid or volcket and i. we're in communication with mister giuliani. secretary perry volunteered to make the initial calls with mister giuliani given their prior relationship. ambassador volker made several of the early calls and generally informed us of what was discussed. i first communicated with mister giuliani in early august several months later. mister giuliani emphasized the president wanted a public statement from lenski committing ukraine to look into the corruption issues. mister giuliani ssecifically mention the 2016 election. including the dnc server and very smart as 2 topics of importance to the president. we kept the leadership. of the state department and the nsc informed of our activities. and that included communications with secretary of

as i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. mr. giuliani conveyed to secretary perry, ambassador volker and others that president trump wanted a public statement from president zelensky committing to investigations of burisma and the 2016 election. mr. giuliani expressed those requests directly to the ukrainians and mr. giuliani also expressed those directly us to. we all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the white house meeting reflected president trump's desires and requirements. within my state department emails, there is a july 19th email. this email was sent -- this email was sent to secretary pompeo, secretary perry, brian mccormack who is secretary perry's chief of staff at the time, miss kenna who is the acting -- pardon me. who is the executive secretary for secretary pompeo. chief of staff mulvaney, and mr. mulvaney's senior adviser, rob blair. a lot of senior officials. a lot of senior officials. here's my exact quote from that email. i talked to zelensky just now. he

house official tim morrison was beneficial to the white house. they say that's because, according to sources, tim morrison said that the transcript of the ukrainian call released by the white house generally and accurate reflection of what was said in the conversation, the white house believes it was good for the president. process even though morrison corroborated key testimony from bill taylor and others that 9 president was putting pressure on ukrainian officials to announce a investigation into the bidens. the white house struggling to put together a strategy. touting the economy this even though yesterday we saw the historic impeachment procedural vote in the house. >> absolutely. great to see you thanks so much. >>> we see how impeachment is polling nationally as i mentioned. and see the same picture on the ground in the key battle-ground states, states that could decide the election? harry anton here has been looking into this. all right, my friend. looking at the mood toward just the impeachment inquiry -- start there -- >> let's look rig

the white house. that lawyer, john isenberg is scheduled to testify before house investigators next week. >>> joining me now, a senior reporter for business insider and daniel lipman. reporter for the washington reporter. this new headline about vinman, is he the most damaging witness so far on this impeachment inquiry? >> it's difficult to say, it seems like every new witness is the most damaging witness so far. considering the revelations we've heard. it started with bill taylor, the chief envoy to ukraine. alexander vindman is unique because he was he was one of the officials who directly listened in on this phone call. and so he was able to corroborate you know significant portions of the whistle-blower's complaint. now in addition to that we're seeing the "washington post" reporting that vindman was told to conceal details of the phone call from the top lawyer on the national security council. so it's interesting because he is central to both the phone call itself and subsequent efforts to cover

house over a new reported insider's view of the president and the white house. nbc news has confirmed the department of justice is demanding in a letter to the publisher, of the new book "a warning" copies of the author's nondisclosure agreement. or the dates of the author's service and the agencies where the author was employed, all in an effort to undermine the author's credibility. joining me now is msnbc legal analyst danny cevvala. >> individuals have no first amendment right to public classified information that's what the courts have held for some time. to that end members of the intelligence community are routinely required to sign these nondisclosure agreements, which not only prevent them from disclosing classified information, but for their lifetime, require them to submit any publications for p prepublication review. and what's interesting about this is that the courts have held that even if the document, the thing submitted for p prepublication review, or something not submitted and published without review, even if it contains nonclassified informa

cnn's pamela brown starts us off at the white house. pamela, we want to start with your reporting on this information pipeline run from the scif, the secure room on the capitol, to the white house. what are you learning about this? >> reporter: john, my colleague jeremy diamond and i have learned that a pair of the president's closest gop allies are quietly offering guidance to white house lawyers responsible for crafting the president's defense strategy. congressman mark meadows and jim jordan have been informally helping white house lawyers in the counsel's office here sort through publicly reported aspects of the testimony to the extent that they can under house rules according to four administration officials. now, meadows and jordan are two of the only gop members we're told from a source that have been in every closed-door testimony until the end. and their conversations here with the white house, we're told, is primarily aimed at helping the lawyers here get a better grasp of the allegations being leveled at trump that are leakin

the white house blocked the witnesses that could have drawn the line to the president. >> the white house is saying there's no direct tie to the president. think about this interaction with gordon sondland and members of the white house. he was making the inference that military aid was being tied to these white house meetings. then he said mick mulvaney is in a position to know firsthand. that caused adam schiff to remind everybody about mick mulvaney's public press conference in which he talked about these two things being tied to one another and told everybody to get over it. there was quite a bit of clear evidence that showed that this was a policy being driven by the president personally. to the extent the republicans are going to try to go all in on s suggesting this is a bunch of people freelancing and this was not the president directing this, they'll have a hard time justifying why they're preventing people like mick mulvaney, secretary of state mike pompeo, what are they so afraid of? >> so, jackie, john bolton is back on twitter. >> certainly is. >> two months off. not going to

let's go to the white house. our white house correspondent jim acosta is working the story. the president is speaking out about the impeachment crisis that is clearly hanging over him right now. >> reporter: that is right, wolf. president trump was not in the mood to take questions from reporters at the white house about the impeachment inquiry but was on fox news this morning where he unleashed a tor ents of falsehoods to skirt accusations that he tried to shake down ukraine for the dirt on joe biden and facing the likelihood that he will be impeached he is daring democrats to put him on trial in the senate but there is one wild card in the mix, john bolton. still stinging from a week full of damaging testimony in the impeachment inquiry, president trump has dug in. one top white house official tried to stop us from asking the question. [ overlapping speakers ] >> fiona hill said that the idea that ukraine meddled in 2016 is false. can you respond to that? >> president trump -- [ inaudible ]. >> we're done. you're done. >> reporter: the president would not respond to testim

can you elaborate on what the white house is responding? one of the things he said about the three previous president to faced impeachment, he said he had done nothing. shifty clear in trying to that. they are going after the process. say they are not getting a chance to defend themselves. it's very clear in making a case, even if there was some kind of quid pro quo, the president has every right and the responsibility to inestigate corruption ukraine. it's interesting that nancy pelosi is making the comparison to richard nixon. whateversaying happened in that call, whether or not there was withholding of aid, that is the president's right to do that. everything has shifted in the past week. hearingsow gone to that will be held in public. the democrats are figured how they are going to go about this. the republicans are starting to hunchback and say -- hunchback -- punch back and say the president has every right to withhold aid. allegations. the is talk about richard nixon. ins is going to be right president trump's wheelhouse. he is going

normal policy structure of the white house. this is not normal. i worked in the white house before. i worked in two different white houses. these views have been abhorrent. it should not be accepted by any americans. >> you have members of congress who called on stephen miller to resign and dismiss from his job. all have signed onto that letter. bannon was never dismissed on it. donald trump relies on stephen miller to help him make policies towards immigrants. he worked for jeff sessions, excluding all three of us from this table, from coming into this country. it does not appear that the white house is going to have high morality on this. is there a way for him to be moved? >> what donald trump does not like is someone to get more credit for the work that's getting done at the white house. what steve bannon was able to do was get on top of that magazine. there is been concerns of efforts to profile steve miller, he'll bring in someone else. disclose who steve miller was. the more we can cover and expose him to the american public, he's the one that's the puppeteer. thank you both

today, he was at the white house. here is kristen dahlgren. >> reporter: in a surprise ceremony, the combat canine getting a hero's welcome at the white house. >> conan came over from the middle east, just arrived with some of the great people from the special forces. >> reporter: the belgian malinois was injured in the raid that killed the isis leader last month he since healed and returned to active duty but today was accepting accolades, receiving a medal and a plaque along with some pats on the head. >> the dog is incredible actually, incredible we spent some good time with it. and so brilliant, so smart. >> reporter: the world first learned of conan in a tweet after the raid the president then teasing the white house visit. but could 1600 pennsylvania avenue be a permanent home for the pooch? melia, do you want tt the dog for barron >> no. >> reporter: so his future may not be as first pup but in many minds tonight, he's definitely top dog. kristen dahlgren, nbc news. >> good dog, indeed. >>> that's "nightly news

the white house is appealing it. is it a good idea to go forward while the white house is in that appealing part or should they proceed by writing a report and giving to your committee? >> i thought the decision was abundantly clear, eloquently written that 250 years of american history schools us that presidents are not kings. this judge could not imagine a more serious set of obstructive circumstances. i'm paraphrasing on that line. but what i do know is what we've been doing all along. we recognize that we have a constitutional duty of oversight, that in the face of the obstruction by this administration, its historic obstruction, the framers i don't think even anticipated that those who worked for the administration would carry out the obstructive nature of not coming forward following a lawful subpoena. >> so you don't need it. >> we have no choice but to go to court. we have tremendous evidence already. we will continue along that course, recognizing the important decision that it was. it's not just mcgahn who

this white house is no stranger to high-profile public hearings. what happens next week is different because of what's at stake. possible impeachment. this white house is fully well versed how public hearings can have is a far greater impact on both this president who pays close attention typically and the public on what is transpired so far in the impeachment inquiry with closed door testimonies. so that is a big reason why you're seeing the white house bring on two people ahead of the public testimony next week to help with the communications strategy. >> i was surprised pam bondi. as you said, former attorney general of florida is the one after the pulse nightclub shooting pretending to be a champion of the gay community and so caring, when, in fact, her office which actually went to court to say that gay people in florida getting married was actually a threat to the people of florida. >> reporter: right. i remember that interview well that you did with her at the time. you pressed her on that. >> she has -- likes to stick to talking points. i g

congressman, let me start with the no-shows from that white house. four official, i believe, did not appear today citing, i think, executive privilege. the white house not wanting them to appear. what's your reaction to that? >> thank you, chris, for your question. the american people should be asking what is the white house trying to hide? if they really thought that this was a perfect phone call, as donald trump alleges, then they would be happy to have the white house officials come and explain about that phone call, explain what the message was with regard to ukraine. instead, they're obstructing witnesses, they're telling them not to come and it's very unfortunate we're not going hear their stories today. >> what do you make about the revelations in marie yovanovitch's testimony that at one point the secretary of state says that he will call sean hannity to try to find out what

pamela brown is back with us from the white house. what more do you know about the president's trip to walter reid. >> reporter: the president's visit had a series of anomalies. for context, erin, the president had his annual physical this past february during the workweek and it was announced a hi owed time that was going to be happening. by contrast, erin, the president went to walter reid went by mode tore cade, not marine one as is standard practice weather permitting. medical staff at walter reid didn't even get any advanced notice about this visit. typically medical staff would get notice about a vip visit to the center, notifying some closures at the facilities for security protocols. trump can get lab work done here at the white house, but a walter reid visit may indicate he needed certain testing like images. white house press secretary stephanie grisham is denying that this has anything to do more than just getting a partial physical exam out of the way. he was there for a couple of hours. she said he had a free day and so t

. >> -- from the white house today. do you think it would help to hear them testify to the public -- >> that's their call. >> that's the white house. >> thank you guys so much. >> would you like to hear from them? >>. >> seven hours after it started this morning, today's house intelligence impeachment inquiry wraps up with testimony from u.s. ambassador to the european union gordon sondland. also a major fund-raiser for president trump's inauguration in 2017. we will stay outside the hearing room. this is the longworth house office building. it's possible we'll now hear from some democratic members on that impeachment inquiry hearing. but we're only halfway done through the set hearings for today. another one, we understand, scheduled for 5:30 eastern coming up with two witnesses. laura cooper, the deputy assistant defense secretary for ukraine and also david hale, who is the under secretary for political affairs. that hearing 5:30 eastern. we'll have that live here on cspan 3. as we wait for that to get under way, we'l