chris was alluding to that complexity. >> i would. >> it it's remarkable. the first thing that goes through my mind is why is rudy giuliani talking to anybody? what capacity does he have in any facility. why is he there? does he have some kind of status as a government representative? it just blows my mind every time someone mentions rudy giuliani and i imagine i have the same reaction that a lot of world leaders do which is why is the president's personal lawyer talking to me. what's going on here? >> is there any precedent to this? >> presidents have always used a back channel for important communications. in a very limited way. for example, during the cold war, we would -- a president would send a business person or well known member of his party for one or two discussions to say on behalf of the president, i'm just transmitting some ideas here. this is quite different. this is rudy giuliani kind of racking up shadow secretary of state miles. flying around talking foreign leaders. in my view there's no precedent for this. this is really a remarkably irre

first of all, welcome back, chris. we're happy to have you back. >> thanks, glen. >> when you think about, maybe donald trump was a political novice when he was running the first time, so maybe that's why he said, "russia, if you're listening," he didn't know any better. then we spent two years -- that in part gave birth to the mueller investigation. he knows better now. and what does he do? hey, ukraine, if you're listening, i want dirt on biden. then he stands on the white house lawn and says, china, i want you in, too. now, do you think china maybe started its own spearfishing expedition after he said that? i mean, it really is beyond the pale to suggest that he doesn't know any better and he's just being donald trump. he's dragging the country through this all over again. >> in a story just breaking right now, "the washington post" is reporting that trump's effort to pressure ukraine came, quote, as he was being urged to adopt a hostile view of the country by its regional adversaries, including -- here it comes --

>> shepard: just for you, chris and for synergy and the fox world, this weekend on fox news sunday, chris wallace talks with a different secretary, mark esper and the secretary 's first sunday show interview, very first one and also senator chris van hollen the democrat of maryland, he and the republican senator lindsey graham have a bipartisan plan to punish turkey for attacking kurdish fighters in syria. that is this sunday on your local fox station. check your local listings. how was that? >> that was very, very good. you know what masson come i think you have a future in broadcasting. [laughter] >> shepard: thank you. this does not make you dad. dad's at home watching right now, hi, dad, it is chris's birthday but we don't care, dad. he is saying hello back. he is 91. >> not quite there make yet. [laughter] >> shepard: i mean, good luck, chris. >> thank you. >> shepard: you are the man. i appreciate you. wildfire alert and there it is, just look at this, this is from a chopper way up in the air. can you see how high the flames are leaping above the trees? there is absolutely no stoppi

so, yes, this is mess, chris. and it's a mess because that part of the world i don't just your viewers may quite get the contradictions and paradoxes involved here. in the last few days we've heard a lot of people say for example, the kurds, america's allies are being betrayed, and they are. but at the same time turkey is also an ally of nato and hosts 50 u.s. nuclear weapons on its soil. u.s. nuclear weapons. this idea of trump giving erdogan his blessings to invade syria and then you have iran and israel -- iran and israel together saying no, no, this is bad thing, this will lead to more problems. take another example, chris, you have anti-war lefties saying american soldiers shouldn't be on the ground in syria, it's illegal, there's no congressional approval for this, it's a good thing trump is winding down the war, but also don't want to see kurds slaughtered as american forces pull out. there's a bunch of contradictions and paradoxes involved in every level of this mess. >> and lindsey graham talking out of b

i mean, it's just so obvious, chris. it's not actually -- it doesn't require much creativity to figure out what exactly donald trump is trying to do. he's trying to intimidate this witness and others. and it is typical of his behaviors which is that he is not only a bully but he also is actually obviously motivated by fear which is that the fear that this whistleblower is going to come forward and give credible information which is already deemed on its face to be credible by the i.g. that is going to lead to an inevitable conclusion which is the impeachment of donald trump. >> let me ask you your big thoughts about the range and scope of what's going on right now. i said in an earlier segment i thought trump was in this for himself and now he's got the attorney general in cahoots with him, secretary of state pompeo in cahoots with him and all working together and it seems now to the nasty business of opo research all run by the president with these men behind him. they're not just sinkofants like lindsey graham. >> it's

i'm chris matthews in washington. powerful new testimony from an army lieutenant colonel who listened live to that notorious july 25th conversation between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky. it delivers a striking blow to the president today. shattering one of his main lines of defense. in a sworn deposition house investigators heard from lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, a directed iraq war veteran who's currently the top ukraine expert on the national security counsel. vindman testified that president trump's demand -- that's his word demand dates of political dirt from ukraine was so damaging to national security that he had the duty to relay his objections up the chain of command. most importantly he's the first witness to have listened in on president trump's call with ukrainian president zelensky as it happened and he reacted in realtime to what he heard. according to his prepared remarks today vindman told congress that i did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investi

i'm chris hayes. the scandal that is threatening to swallow donald trump's presidency hole just keeps getting bigger. a ton of news today. first the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani was issued a subpoena from house democrats demanding he turn over documents relatele to his attempt to pressure ukraine into investigating joe biden. democrats alerting giuliani to their demand in a letter to pointing to, quote, an investigation into credible allegations you asked as an agent of the president are by abusing the power of the office of the president. also today "the wall street journal" reported secretary of state mike pompeo took part in that infamous july phone call in which president trump pressured the ukrainian president, which raises new questions about the state department's role in both the crime and the cover-up. a week ago pompeo was asked about that very call, and pretty much pretended he just knew nothing about it. >> "the wall street journal" is reporting that president trump pressed th

i'm chris hayes. it has only been a week since speaker of the house nancy pelosi announced an official and informal impeachment inquiry to donald trump. and since then things have been moving at a blistering pace. but the basic facts are not changed, the president corruptly abused his office to coerce a foreign state to come up with dirt against a political rival and then he and his white house tried to cover it up. it is just one instance of a president using the entire machinery of our government to his ends. exclusively with no regard whatsoever to public interest or the national interest, and that is what the scandal of donald trump writ large is really. that is what secretary of state mike pompeo is trying to do at the state department. it is lest i have to say this, not mike pompeo's state department. it's not donald trump's state department. it is our state department. today pompeo pushed back on house democrats demand to interview key state department officials as early as this week calling it

back to chris. not unexpected. you think all of those that have been named will get a similar request at one point or another. >> absolutely. the breaking news to me, today, is that the -- fox has gotten ahold of the 11-page statement, opening statement by kurt volcker yesterday in a closed session. he was the special envoy from the administration to ukraine. he was very involved in all of this. this 11-page opening statement is quite devastating to the president and rudy guliani's case. it basically says that volcker, who all sides agree was an honest broker in this whole thing, was very disturbed by the information, he thought disinformation that various ukrainian officials were sending to rudy guliani, the president's private lawyer and that rudy guliani was then spreading that information in washington and that might be a reason why the president was so reluctant to meet with zelensky and also to, of course, push zelensky to investigate in that july 25th phone call both potential involvement in the 2016 electio

. >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews. back in washington while under armed attack by russia the people of ukraine were denied american arms unless the president of ukraine declared that he was investigating joe biden. well, this is the powerful testimony today of chief u.s. diplomat to ukraine bill taylor who drew a direct line between trump's delivery of needed weapons to that country and his demand of personal political assistance from a foreign power. ambassador bill taylor is wrapping up his closed door testimony right now. it's lasted over 9 hours. according to members who were in the room with him, his testimony represents a sea change that's the phrase in the investigation and elicited sighs and gasps. the president's tweets today compared the lawful impeachment inquiry against him to a lynching. and a little later i'll be speaking to michael moore and amy klobuchar about the state of the race for president and unseating donald trump. we begin with bill taylor who appeared under testimony by subpoena for a private

i'm chris matthews in washington. flustered and defiant president trump is throwing caution to the wind tonight giving congress even more grounds to impeach him for extorting a u.s. ally. answering the question he refused to address yesterday, trump today gave a detailed confession of the misconduct of some center of his call with ukrainian president zelensky. trump said his goal in that conversation was to get ukraine to deliver dirt on joe biden. >> mr. president, what exactly did you hope zelensky would do about the bidens after your phone call? >> well, i would think that if they were honest about it, they'd start a major investigation into the bidens. it's a very simple answer. they should investigate the bidens. >> simple and incriminating. that's what trump wanted from ukraine as he withheld u.s. military support from president zelensky conditioning that support with these infamous words, i would like you to do us a favor, though. under increasing scrutiny trump is brazenly admitting in public now to the favor

>> there's two separate things, chris. first of all, when trump said he's ending the wars in the middle east, this is a flat lie. he actually increased the troops since may by 14,000 by which 2,000 of them were sent recently to defend the dictators of saudi arabia. so the war in yemen is a disaster and catastrophic war led by saudi arabia and enabled and endorsed and helped by the trump administration. this is a different war. the iraq war was a war of choice where the united states led a regime change in iraq with motivation that we all were critical of. the syrian uprising, this is a different issue. the people of syria, the nation, the syrian people stood up in the streets in 2011, demanded democracy and dignity. the syrian people themselves the overwhelming majority don't want the assad regime. they were calling on the international community to defend them. this is -- if we would call that intervention, it's simply our responsibility to protect the civilian exactly like kosovo. this is a comparison. >> final question

i'm chris hayes. hold on, it has been quite a day. right now we are in the midst as you might know of an impeachment inquiry into the president of attempting to use the full force of american foreign policy to get a foreign country to meddle in our election by manufacturing dirt on his political opponent. that's the high crime, the constitution's words he's accused of that basically he's admitted to. tonight we have new reporting about the scope of that pressure campaign because it wasn't just one phone call. "the new york times" reporting that two of president trump's top envoys to ukraine drafted a statement for the country's new president in august that would have publicly committed ukraine to pursuing an investigation sought by mr. trump into his political rives. one of those two men, the former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker testified on capitol hill today. he also turned over some incredibly incriminating text messages to that committee. we'll show you in a minute. when he repeated the crime publicly, he went before the ca

and chris buskirk, editor of the conservative journal and web- te "american greatness." he joins us from phoenix. hello to both of you. we thank you for joining us on nk you "newsnaur". r flake, let me start with you. do you believe the -- what we know about the president's conversation in that phone call with the president of ukrainehi warrants impeachment inquiry? >> i do. i do. i think that conversation, just from the transcript, not descriptions of the transcript, but the transcript itself is damning enough to launch inquiry, so, yes. >> woodruff: chris bukirk, what do you believe based on what we know about that conversation? >> no, you know, i've read that transcript. it's got to be at least five times. what's more is i'm not connced that even nancy pelosi thinks that it warrants it. i mean, my understanding of this hat this is really a part of 2020 election campaig that t it's not a serious attempt to remove the president from office because nobody realieves that the senate will convict. >> woodruff: but i mean on the facts, chri chris buskirk, quic, the facts of

good evening from new york, i'm chris hayes. this is how bad things have gotten in the wake of donald trump's decision to abruptly with no warning pull u.s. troops out of northern syria and give turkish strong one the u.s. was forced to bomb its own base. here's how "the wall street journal" described our military, quote, carried out air strikes to destroy the syrian headquarters of the american campaign to destroy isis after rapidly pulling americans from the base. we bombed our own headquarters in the fight against isis because they were about to be taken over pie turkish backed forces. with this situation rapidly deteriorating the president is having what the speaker of the house called a melt down right before our very eyes. trump wept before the cameras today to offer up a series of completely nonsensical and incoherent defenses for his decision to abandon kurdish allies and that kurdish militants are actually worse than isis in many cases and that it does not really matter at all one way or the other what happens in northe

you stated it perfectly right, chris. this is corruption of his public office for private ends, and that's what he was doing with the foreign emoluments begging millions of dollars of foreign governments from hotels and resorts, what he's doing when he spending federal taxpayer dollars at mar-a-lago and the golf courses and hotels. that is the meaning of constitutional bribery and quid pro quo -- >> look, nobody is counting votes right now. we're in an unprecedented posture right now. the president of the united states tried to use the military and national security muscle of our country to shakedown a foreign leader in order to obtain political leverage over an opponent to get him to produce dirt on joe biden. that is an absolutely scandalous and untenable situation we're in, and now we're seeing his mental state rapidly unraveling on a daily basis where he calls american citizens traitors and liars and spies and uses profanity. so it's an alarming situation. i think before this is over we're going to have significant de

chris, pretty slow news day. not sure what you can do. >> a deluge of developments, and certainly the devil is therein. we have mikey sherrill. she's one of those new democrat members of congress. she was in the navy. she's a lawyer. she was one of the ones that signed on to that letter saying okay, now we have to impeach. what do they see? what does she see in today? what matters most in these developments? and how does it make a case for impeachment? now, on the other side we have mark wayne mullen, republican. and he's going to make the case that everything today doesn't change the calculus and there is nothing impeachable in it. we're going to have tests on both sides. you get to decide. well, not you. you'll be home doing something else. >> no, i'll be at home watching, coughing. chris, thanks very much. i'll see you in about five minutes. coming up next, breaking news in yet another whistle-blower complaint. >>> on this busy night there is breaking news on another whis e whistle-blower complaint. the "washi

i'm chris hayes. even as more witnesses come before congress and the cast of characters grow, the central core facts of the ukraine story do not change. we know from documents the white house itself released and through statements by the president himself that the president of the united states corruptly abused the power of his office to coerce an occupied country into manufacturing dirt on his political opponent. the president of ukraine told trump he wanted to buy more american weapons. president trump responded i want to ask you a favor, though. that is what the whistle-blower warned congress about, that is what led house democrats to open an impeachment investigation into the president. what we learned from that investigation hasn't been any better for the president. the third current or former trump administration official testified as part of that investigation and it was another marathon session after former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch testified friday, fiona hill testified tod

you can't have it both ways. >> gloria, what do you make of chris's point? >> i agree with him and apparently kelly had promised the president that he wouldn't write a book until the president left office, but that wouldn't stop him from getting together with mattis or tillerson or mcmaster and coming out and telling the american public what it is like to work in that white house. and, you know, he has described it as wrestling with a bear every day. well, it may be a little worse than that, particularly when you have a president who believes he's his own best chief of staff, who doesn't much take advice anyway and you have mulvaney there now who just kind of gets out of the way apparently. so i think it's a difficult situation and when he's unbound, as chris is saying, it can really be problematic and these people are not speaking up. you know, we're going to have a book by anonymous coming out soon but that doesn't do anybody very good. >> i absolutely, chris, take your point. while he was in there, look what he allowed for. and it begs the question what d

i'm chris hayes. having been caught red-handed secretly attempting to abuse the office for personal gain the president has pivoted back to his own mode of operating which openly abusing the office for personal gain. one day after the house delivered president trump an enormous rebuke for his feckless response to the invasion of northeast syria pie the turkish government, the same turkish government his bag man, rudy giuliani, appears to have been working for in some way, and on the day one of the key figures of the corrupt ukraine scheme, the s of the impeachment inquiry appeared for a deposition, donald trump sent his acting chief of staff mick mulvaney to speak to the press apparently to do two things. one to announce the world a new impeachable offense which is that the president of the united states will be requiring the united states federal government and foreign governments around the world to give him money. president trump will be hosting the g-7 at his own dural resort in miami next year. du

i'm chris hayes. for just the fourth time in all of american history, house representatives will formally proceed with a formal open impeachment inquiry into the president of the united states. the house resolution to be voted on this thursday reveals the scope of the inquiry as it proceeds into a public phase. this was the statement issued by the four house committee chairs leading the probe. quote, the house impeachment inquiry has collected extensive evidence and testimony. and soon the american will hear from witnesses in an open setting. the resolution introduced today in the house rules committee will provide that pathway forward. the resolution provides rules for the format of open hearings in the house intelligence committee including staff led questioning of witnesses, and it authorizes the public release of deposition transcripts. the resolution also establishes procedures for the transfer of evidence from the judiciary committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment and it sets

>> right, chris. a lot of the depositions and other testimony we have heard so far have indications that officials in the white house and the administration started learning about this secret plan to influence the ukrainians outside the normal diplomatic channels over the summer, more into june and july, but now we're learning that this started much earlier. that by mid-may, when president zelensky was being inaugurated right here in kiev, back in washington, fiona hill was hearing about these concerns, how he was already very upset about what giuliani was pushing him to do to mix up that board of the gas, and also specifically about the involvement of lev parnas, and egor fruman. this was happening a few weeks after joe biden had announced his presidential campaign. as you mentioned, sondland, the ambassador to the eu, also pushing the new president of ukraine to try to take his suggestions for who should be an influential posts. so this information came to fiona hill via a former u.s. diplomat who h

>> i'm skeptical, chris. from this contemporaneous memo that was released today, we learned something we didn't know before. mapely that this call was interpreted, that president zelensky was not speaking english. so there's been a lot made of the fact when you actually read the transcript, it doesn't amount to 30 minutes, it amounts to 15 to 20 minutes and i think that sumulltaneous interpretation explains that. we should actually refer to the document the white house appears to have released. i think there have been some theories out there there's maybe more, there are ellipsies, oddities in this transcript. but i would be skeptical. and now there's an explanation for the relative brevity of this. i think there is so much that's damning in this transcript and so much that speaks to betrayal that we really don't have to look any further. we don't have to be conspiracy theorists to think there has to be something out there. this could well be it. >> thank you both. >>> up next, after enabling every whim of th

i want to hand it over to chris and "cuomo prime time." chris? >> thank you, anderson. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." we have more breaking news on our watch. another one of the president's top guys is about to tell all. he could back up most damaging impeachment testimony to date. what does it mean? what do you say? let's get after. it. all right. here's what we have to get into tonight. bill taylor's testimony may be about to get some backup. a current white house official named mois i

>> chris, i think what the house is doing is exactly right. basically this is a very simple case where the president admitted to seeking help from a foreign government in his own campaign. s i think the house is right. hamilton says what is impeachment about? it's about abuse of the public trust. it's about putting your interests above those of the people whom you serve. and so, yes, it's really -- it would be interesting to talk about all of the obstruction of justice that mueller found or even all the stuff with doral and the emoluments and things like that. those are certainly offenses that could be looked at but here this is a very simple open and shut case and i think the house is right to focus on that open and shut case. >> it does strike me two other things you've indicated, the idea that the president is receiving payments, whether they're domestic or foreign in a constitutionally dubious manner and obstruction of justice. both of those do also obtain to abuse of power, particularly obstruction of justice. it's what he did to obstruct

good evening, i'm steve kornacki in for chris matthews. new deposition ness the house's impeachment inquiry threaten to undercut president trump's defense amid the unfolding ukraine scandal. fiona hill, the president's former top adviser on russia and europe, she is still testifying to congress at this hour under subpoena. this in a closed door hearing that began at 10:00 this morning. nbc news reports that hill was expected to tell lawmakers that rudy guiliani and eu ambassador gordon sundland circumvented the national security council and the normal white house process to pursue a shadow policy on ukraine. we already know that guiliani worked through american diplomats and others to pressure the government of ukraine to carry out investigations that would benefit the president politically and he continued to do so as the president froze u.s. military aid to that country. when it comes to that military aid, we are also learning from "the washington post" that gordon sondland's testimony which is scheduled for thursday, quote, will raise t

. >>> i'm chris hayes. in the way he's never done before. he's dealing with that reality in a very concrete way right in front of us. while theism peachment inquiry is focused on his actions for ukraine, the implications of thf investigation are beginning to weigh on the entirety of his presidency.ve it's beginning to crack. on thursday he sent his acting chief of staff mick mulvaney out to say he was committing his most brazenly corrupt event at his own doral resort in miami. just two days later, two days, trump announced doral was out blaming democrats and the media but the washington post reports trump was forced to abandon his report, quote, after it became the move had alienated republicans swiftly becoming part of the impeachment. yesterday mulvaney was dispatched to trump tv to clean things up but didn't exactly make it better. >> at the end of the day he considers himself to be in the hospitality business.id he saw an opportunity to take some of the biggest leaders from around the world and wanted to put on the best show, the best vi

>> chris, let's set impeachment aside for a second. there's a simple pass-fail test for republicans here. is the president's conduct acceptable or not? and a lot of those voters in suburban districts have swept democrats into power in the house last year are looking for how republicans are answering that question. and up until now very few are passing the test, very few are stating the obvious, that whether he should be impeached or not, it's unacceptable and it's wrong for any president of the united states to invite a foreign government to participate in any way in our electoral process. it's wrong for the president of the united states to use the power of the state and turn it against any individual citizen especially someone running for public office and who might be running against him in november of next year. and so i think a lot of republicans really need to start taking this seriously. i know that privately they express a discontent, discomfort, rejection for a lot of the president's conduct. i think it's time for them to star

plus insight and analysis from our powerhouse roundtable with chris christie and rahm emanuel. we'll break down the politics, smoke out the spin. the facts that matter this week. >> announcer: from abc news, it's "this week." here now, chief anchor, george stephanopoulos. >>> good morning and welcome to "this week." we come onto the air after a rare last night retreat from trump, bowing to fierce criticism and the prospect of a new front in the fight over impeachment. trump fired off a tweet shortly before 10:00 p.m. announcing that next year's g7 summit would not be held at his miami hotel after all. the original announcement made thursday at that stunning press conference where acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney, admitted what the president had been denying for weeks, that military aid in ukraine was conditioned on that country pursuing a political investigation for president trump. >> but to be clear, what you just described is a quid pro quo. it is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happens as well. >> we do that all the time with fo

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i'm chris hayes. the impeachment of president donald j. trump is taking another major step forward today. the house rules committee is preparing vote on a resolution laying out the procedures for the next big steps in the inquiry including public hearings. they are literally convening right now to do that as we speak. the full house is then expected to vote on the resolution tomorrow. legislators have already heard dossens of hours of private testimony that continues to be more and more damning for the president. we already know from president trump's own words and phone call notes released from the white house the president corruptly attempted to coerce an occupied foreign country to manufacture dirt on an american citizen, indeed his possible political opponent. when the ukrainian president said he was ready to buy more american weapons, that is send the aid, we're standing by, president trump immediately responded, i would like you to do us a favor, though. though. the bad news for trump is that the phone call itself is incriminating, b

but, chris, here's the deal. as we now transition to the more public phase of this, as we begin to transition away from the investigation phase, i suspect the republicans are going to have a much more difficult time because here to for they've been objecting on everything on the grounds of process. they have demanded and called for exactly what we did today which they then all voted against. and now we're going to get into the more substantive part of it. what are they going to argue when ari actually dealing with the substance? any value to date suggests he did exactly that, shakedown ukraine and threaten to with hold military assistance to a vulnerable strategic partner. and then what are they going to argue? we don't like that we get to cross examine? i think they're going to have a pretty tough time with this. >> cynthia, i want to ask you about a trial here, and this is basically the grand jury part of the trial. we're putting together evidence that in the back room like in a grand jury, we're going to have

i'm chris hayes. well, here we are. the white house is now openingly defying congress' power to investigate the president for high crimes and misdemeanors. just tonight white house counsel cept an unhinged eight page letter to nancy pelosi and the democratic house chairs investigating trump. it accuses them of violating the constitution and rule of law by depriving trump of his rights during a trial. even though, to be clear, an impeachment trial is not what's happening. it wouldn't take place until much later in the senate. and that's not how any of this works. the letter asserts, quote, president trump cannot permit his administration to participate in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances. of course, participation isn't really optional. the constitution is pretty plain on this, the house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment and this is the latest assertions he is fundamentally above the law. the state department ordered a key witness, a trump appointee in the growing ukraine scandal n

>> yeah, chris, you're exactly right. fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, we've seen this story before. the politics are just as important as anything that's happening militarily. if you're creating conditions or not doing anything to prevent conditions from arising, that make groups feel marginalized and more susceptible to extremism and terrorism, then the problem's going to perpetuate itself.and of course unfortunate, too, is the only thing apparently that could convince the president to stick with anything in syria is this notion that we would say there for the oil. >> yeah. >> which is, of course, exactly what the narrative of isis has been, that we're out there to get their oil. >> medi, let me ask you about that. it is bizarre. the president talking about the oil. he said we'll make a deal with exxon. the geneva convention is quite explicit on this. you cannot just go take people's resources no war of conquests. not that that stops anyone. the president seems to have a knack for taking leftist anti-imperial critique and then making it

. >> woouff: chris buskirk, what do you believe based on what we know about that conversation? >> no, you know, i've read that transcript. it's got to be at least five times. what's more is ti not con that even nancy pelosi thinks that it warrants it. i mean, my understanding of this is that this is really a part of 2020 election campaign, that it's not a serious attempt tosi remove the pnt from office because nobody really believes that the senatewill vict. >> woodruff: but i mean on thect chri chris buskirk, quickly, the facts of what was said in that conversation,um president asking the president of ukraine to help o joean investigation int biden, a foreign leader. >> yeah, no, i me -- no, that's right, because what joe biden did while vice president is highly questionable, and he's bragged about this in public, that way he threatened with ukraine with withholding a billion dollars of aid if theye didn't f prosecutor. that requires something looks into, if he s selling his office while vice president, he of course kneeled the assistance of the ukrainian government to get to

i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." a first-hand witness to the president's phone call on ukraine is due to testify tomorrow. brand new reporting, this man may solidify what should be an obvious point. what do you say, let's get after it. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> all right. so now we're expecting a new testimony tomorrow. we're just getting in information in. we are trying to understand what it will mean for us. but, look, a white house national security official, all right, the main ukraine expert, he is called the top

good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. for ten days now running in fact this president has attacked and attacked the whistleblower who dared tell the american people what trump was up to in trading u.s. national security for something he could use against his political rivals. it is all about trump trying to hide his wrongdoing now by making this about how he was caught in the wrongdoing. unable to justify his betrayal trump's attacking the messenger of course. like a boss in the rackets he calls the whistleblower's sources spies and obsesses about finding out the person emphasis true identity which the law says should be protected. trump today tweeted why aren't we entitled to learn ininterview the whistleblower and also the person who gave false information to him. trump is caught and refuses to admit. the fake whistleblower he tweets, isn't holding up and says he or she isn't a whistleblower after all. well, it's all about part of what "the washington post" characterized as an increasingly frenetic counter assault targe

i'm going to hand it over to chris for cuomo "primetime." chris? >> thank you very much. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." i can't believe it, but there is another dossier in the mix. the irony is staggering and troubling. we have new information and people to test what they're going to do about it. what do you say? let's get after it. another crazy day. the president happy to answer all kinds of questions about how bad the whistle-blower is, how bad the democrats are, all the things that they did and all you need to do is look at the perfect call. but when he got asked about that call, listen to this.

good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. powerful new evidence tonight in the impeachment investigation. nbc news is reporting that lieutenant colonel alexander vindman testified yesterday that u.s. military support to ukraine was indeed contentioned on ukraine's willingness to dig up dirt on political apoinants. and that's according to two people familiar with vindman's testimony. to draw a direct line between the hold up of military aid and trump's demand of political assistance from a foreign power. this comes as the impeachment committees today heard from two foreign service officers with information about the shadow campaign there was waged to influence policy towards ukraine. house investigators are also summoned former national security advisor john bolton among others to testify next week. bolton's lawyers said he would not appear voluntarily, but added, i stand ready at all times to accept service of a subpoena on his behalf. amid all of this we're also getting new details about the democrats' plan forward on impeac

>> good evening, chris. and thanks for asking that because that was the most important thing that happened. was that ms. cooper, a public servant, came forward. she was ready to testify at 10:00 in the morning and despite this stunt that you describe, she stuck around all day, and when she was asked to she raised her right hand, told the truth, gave us new information that is helpful, fills in our timeline and also helps us to understand who was involved and who was not involved in the shakedown scheme. yesterday, as you noted, this in part motivated this effort by the republicans to obstruct. ambassador taylor as you read in "the washington post" and i think that statement in "the post" shows indeed there was a shakedown scheme but it wasn't just a sharp straight down line to donald trump to giuliani you see it was also donald trump to ambassador sondland. you have donald trump with these directives trying to use your taxpayer dollars to extort the ukrainians for his personal benefit. >> do you think -- wha

i'm chris hayes. the president has been caught covering up an attempt to extort a foreign leader to investigate his political rival. and he is melting down in front of all of us as he tries and fails to explain that away. today house speaker nancy pelosi and house intelligence chair adam schiff laid out their plan. >> in that telephone call the president undermined our national security because of his -- what he had done a few days earlier. >> we want to make it abundantly clear any effort by the secretary or anyone else to interfere with the congress' ability to call before it relevant witnesses will be considered as evidence of obstruction of the lawful functions of congress. >> here's the thing about adam schiff and nancy pelosi's constitutional position and their political position, it has nothing to do with donald trump and his base. they do not depend on him or his followers at all. there is nothing that donald trump could do to nancy pelosi or adam schiff or say about them, and it is driving th

i'm chris hayes. there was absolutely explosive testimony on capitol hill today. the most damning testimony so far against the president of the united states in the house impeachment investigation. bill taylor, the u.s. chi of mission to ukraine currently who wrote the famous smoking gun text, quote, i i think it's crazy to with hold security assistance for help with a political campaign. that man showed up to congress today with a 15-page opening statement democrats says was backed up by lengthy notes and documentation. i should note bill taylor went in to testify at 9:30 this morning and got out less than an hour ago. and thanks to his testimony there is no longer any question whatsoever that president trump's ukraine policy was a corrupt abuse of power that did center around a quid pro quo. before we get into all that, a quick introduction to bill taylor. as he says in his opening statement he was a west point cadet before becoming an infantry officer in vietnam, and then a career state department official who served under both democratic in important locations