brings john bolton the former national security adviser who is now in a legal scuffle, i guess, or stand-off with congress about whether or not he will appear. but his voice and his concerns are coming through loud and clear. he expressed concerns about giuliani and ukraine. this is someone who was in the room with john bolton, someone who was an eyewitness to giuliani's influence. and just go a little deeper about how these witnesses sort of piece together what is a very clear picture of -- i think it was john taylor who testified to an irregular policy process. >> well, the two witnesses today. one was catherine croft. one was chris anderson. they are both career foreign service officers, people who have served democratic and republican administrations. they even took pains to say the testimony that they work for the united states of america advancing our interest abroad. what they saw what they witnessed and testified today was the irregular policy channel that ambassador to kiev bill taylor had talked about in his very detailed testimony last week. in that irregular channel, ru

access to testimony from two figures at the center of the scandal. john bolton and his deputy charles kupperman, an attorney representing both men issued this statement, quote, bolton is not willing to appear voluntarily. i stand ready at all times to accept service of a subpoena on his behalf. bolton and his deputy likely to leave any decision about their testimony up to the courts. but with or without bolton's testimony, a devastating timeline coming into sharp relief today from national security officials who served alongside john bolton, a current senior official from donald trump's national security council is behind closed doors this hour after announcing yesterday that he plans to step down to pursue other opportunities. that official tim morrison corroborating what is largely thought to be among the most incriminating accounts delivered to date. that's the testimony of diplomat bill taylor who described under oath last week a quid pro quo directed by donald trump himself from "the washington post" report on morrison's testimony, quote, morrison said that he alerted taylor to a

tomorrow. >>> happening now, breaking news. bolton to testify. cnn learns that john bolton has been asked to appear before lawmakers conducting the impeachment inquiry next week. >>> omission questions. the first white house official to testify in the meach said he was alarmed by omissions in the administration's rough transcript of the president's call with the ukraine leader. >>> new raid video. the pentagon said to release images that led to the death of al baghdadi as they predict isis will announce a new leader within days. >>> and raging wind and flames. new wind whipped wires erupt in california forces tens of thousands more to flee homes as thousands more acres burn. >>> i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> key new developments in the impeachment inquiry including a source telling cnn that former national security adviser john bolton has just been invited to testify next week. that comes as the state department official told lawmakers that bolton warned of president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani's influence on ame

leadership. fiona hill describes corruption in the ukraine policy. she said her boss john bolton called ukraine a hand grenade and told her to inform house lawyers. >>> plus a battleground in ohio. health care and guns among the certain flashpoints. >>> hunter biden acknowledges his foreign business dealings but denies his last name is what opens doors. >> what do you say to people who believe this is exactly why people hate washington? a vice president's son can make money in countries where your father was vice president. >> i made a mistake in retrospect as it related to creating any perception that was wrong. and so, therefore, i'm taking it off the table. i'm making that commitment. i will see if anybody else makes that commitment, but that's the commitment i'm making. >> we begin with a very important night and event in the 2020 democratic presidential race. the debate featuring 12 candidates, a record right there in that hall in westerville, ohio near columbus. it is the first gathering of the democratic contenders since speaker nancy pelosi labeled house officials of president t

john bolton. according to the testimony from one of bolton's deputies, fiona hill, a russia hawk who worked for donald trump until this summer, bolton claimed, "i'm not part of whatever drug deal sondland and mulvaney are cook bing b i cooking up." mulvaney. and sondland, of course, donald trump's ambassador to the eu who's in the middle of trump's pressure campaign against the ukrainian leader. the source tells me today that sondland was, quote, trying to deliver hunter biden to trump in hopes of being considered as a secretary of state candidate in a second trump term. fiona hill in more than ten hours of testimony yesterday testified that bolton described rudy giuliani as a, quote, hand grenade who's going to blow everybody up. according to a source close to hill, she expressed flashes of anger during her testimony at the spread of conspiracy theories and told house investigators that the only person who benefits from those efforts is vladimir putin. hill has also said bay this source to have testified that there was, quote, absolutely a quid pro quo for the meeting with trump. me

in all of this. a man named john bolton. also poor judgment, but not unethical. vice president joe biden's hunter speaking out as the president and his allies continue their unsubstantiated claims about his foreign business deals. it is an issue that could come up tonight as the 2020 democratic hopefuls take the stage in their fourth debate showdown, and there's more dire headlines emerging from syria, the white house changes course on a situation that the president again-lit. is it too late? we'll dig into that in just a moment. >>> right now a key player in the impeachment probe is being grilled by investigators behind closed doors on capitol hill. it's the latest in a parade of officials set to testify every day this week as part of the trump-ukraine impeachment probe. we'll leave that on the screen so you can see all the documents, all the depositions that are supposed to drop this week, all that coming on the heels of ten-hours of explosive testimony by the president's former top aide on europe and russia. here to help us keep track of all of it, make some sense of some of it,

national security adviser john bolton "cautioned that mr. giuliani -- the president's personal attorney -- was a key voice with the president on ukraine which could an an obstacle to engagement with ukraine" and croft said millions of aid being withheld from ukraine said the budget office "reported that the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney placed an informal hold on security assistance to ukraine, the only reason given was that the order came at the direction of the president." so we start on capitol hill with manu rauch nhu and manu, what is going on based on the depositions? >> reporter: and catherine croft is done testifying. she talked about the decision to withhold that military aid approved by congress that ukraine desperately sought that came just as the president was pushing for those investigations into were his political rivals. she did say that there was an informal hold that was placed on the release of that aid by mick mulvaney, acting white house chief of staff, and she said it came at the direction of the president. now, she also indicated, we are told, t

john bolton was so alarmed what was going on he pushed for an attorney to get involved. start there with cnn's political correspondent sara murray and so let's start with fiona hill and all of her testimony, nine hours' worth, yesterday, in washington, d.c. what did she tell the house committees? >> reporter: right. the president's top advisers on russia and laid out the concerns in the trump administration about these various back channels of foreign policy including rudy giuliani. talked how her boss john bolton referred to giuliani as a hand grenade who was going to get everyone blown up because of his efforts. she laid out for lawmakers the concerns she had and bolton then the national security advisers had about the way u.s. policies with ukraine was being conducted and believed there was wrongdoing going on there. people bringing um investigations. the biden investigations and bolton told her go and report this to the national security council lawyer. now, so much of this, brooke, you know, drives back to rudy giuliani and his efforts and the way he really bought in to this ca

schedule every day. john bolton will not testify voluntarily. that's what his lawyer said today in response to a letter from the house impeachment investigative committees requesting john bolton's voluntary appearance of the deposition next thursday, november 7th, at 9:30 a.m. john bolton's lawyer, charles cooper, told nbc news, quote, bolton is not willing to appear voluntarily. and then the lawyer added, i stand ready at all times to accept service of a subpoena on his behalf. but that same attorney, charles cooper, represents charles cupperman who was subpoenaed by the impeachment inquiry, and that lawyer then brought an unprecedented lawsuit to ask a court to clarify whether his client should obey a lawful subpoena or obey the president's demand not to testify even though his client no longer works in government. donald trump's no longer his boss. he is a private citizen just like john bolton. and the president of the united states has no legal authority to issue an order to a private citizen. but all private citizens are subject to subpoena. and so the lawsuit that john bolton

security adviser to testify next week. this as we're learning more about john bolton's concerns that politics was influencing mr. trump's ukraine policy. >>> transcript omission. new questions tonight about the white house record of the president's very controversial phone call with ukraine. a major witness revealing that key words were left out of the transcript, including a reference to joe biden. >>> isis raid images. the pentagon just released the first video from the u.s. raid that led to the death of the terrorist leader abu bakr al baghdadi. what do the images reveal? >>> and hurricane force. ferocious winds stoke california's rapidly growing wildfire disaster. the flames threatening thousands of homes and coming dangerusly close to the reagan presidential library. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in theuatithe "situation room." >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following breaking news on what could be one of the most important witnesses yet in the impeachment investigation. sources tell cnn

secretary that there was concern from john bolton down the way the ukraine was being handled by rudy giuliani. john bolton the formerrenade na security adviser referring to him as a hand grenade. and that instructing the officialsls to go to white housy lawyers with what they were yes learning.te you also have then testimony yesterday by an official who hao experience in ukraine saying he. was told to lie lowow when he raised concerns about rudy ite u giuliani. do youugu have concerns about w was happening at the white thee house? >> first of all, i want to say that there has been a pattern be my democratic colleagues to tryi

national security adviser john bolton into this mess. what can you tell us? >> yeah, essentially what this story says, don, fiona hill, as you said, testified all day today, ten hours of testimony, just coming out that she -- that bolton had expressed concern over what he called -- what the story calls a rogue operation and that lawyers on the national security council, bolton adviser to notify lawyers on the national security council that giuliani, rudy giuliani was working with mick mulvaney, who is the white house chief of staff, on what the story says was a rogue operation with legal implication. >> so let's start from the beginning here because "the new york times" is starting off by saying here, shimon. they said that the effort to pressure ukraine for political hope provoked a heated confrontation inside the white house last summer that so alarmed john r. bolton, then the national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert white house lawyers, house investigators were told. but they're saying that he -- this alarmed him so much that he started sounding the alarm about a rogue o

impeachment investigation into him. nbc news reporting former national security adviser john bolton's lawyers have been in contact with committee officials amid reports of ongoing negotiations about a date for a closed-door depositions. investigators have already heard about bolton's concerns about the hijacking of ukraine policy for political aims through the testimony of one of bolton's top and most trusted deputies, fiona hill. she said bolton called the administration's actions around ukraine a, quote, drug deal. but hearing it from bolton himself could be a game changer. bolton is also the white house official who sent one of his deputies, hill, to report the misconduct of other white house aides to the white house counsel's office and through the testimony of hill we know that bolton expressed himself sometimes in colorful terms. at one point describing rudy giuliani as, quote, a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up. politically speaking, hearing from a conservative fixture like bolton could represent a light-out moment for donald trump on process and on substance bolton's par

lawmakers there were concerns from her and john bolton what they saw as wrongdoing in u.s. policymaking when it came to ukraine and at one point bolton her boss encouraged her to go to national security council lawyer and report her concerns ps some of those concerns this talk of investigations going on, the idea the bidens should be investigated as part of this u.s. policy. of course, a lot of this prais s traces back to the president's attorney rudy giuliani. a shadow way feeding the president misinformation essentially wrongdoing on behalf of the ukrainian ambassador at the time, maria yovanovitch, none proven to be true and encouraging the president to press for dirt on the bidens. all in the run-up to the president's call with the ukrainian president. rudy giuliani wasn't the only one who had sort of per in addition to go rogue here. fiona hill told lawmakers and sources tell us she described to lawmakers gordon sondland, ambassador to the european union and his efforts with acting chief of staff mick mulvaney. sort of this spin-off operation that john bolton said was

today that john bolton said rudy giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow them all up. that and much more. corey lewandowski will respond to the veteran news anchor that's just called some trumped voters ignorant, we will talk about that and much more. >> they will follow him to hell or wherever he is going, they don't know about the facts or care about the facts. these days, we're all stressed. (honk!) i hear you sister. that's why i'm partnering with cigna to remind you to go in for your annual check-up, and be open with your doctor about anything you feel - physically and emotionally. but now cigna has a plan that can help everyone see stress differently. just find a period of time to unwind. a location to de-stress. an activity to enjoy. or the name of someone to talk to. to create a plan that works for you, visit cigna.com/mystressplan. cigna. together, all the way. visit cigna.com/mystressplan. billions of problems. dry mouth? parched mouth? cotton mouth? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath oral rinse and lozenges. help relieve dry mouth using natural enzymes to

john bolton got the call to testify and just before air time his lawyers told cnn he would not appear without a subpoena. and tim morrison announced he will be leaving his job soon. he was on the july 25th call with ukraine's president. take alone any one of these items is significant. taken together, they all speak to what the president said today he apparently wants to talk about. quoting from his tweet, republicans, yes, that's how he spelled it, go with substance and close it out. in a sense, republicans have not been talking substance. they've been crashing hearings that many of them were entitled to be at anyway, ordering pizza and arguing process or avoiding questions about the evidence so far or the central question, do they believe it's right or wrong for a president to demand, in his official capacity on the global staigs stage, political favors from a foreign country. it's unclear if this is the type of substance the president wants to discuss. however, we'll take him literally and seriously and talk substance tonight. we begin with one of the lawmakers who has been hearing

impeachment inquiry reaches out to john bolton for possible testimony. the president's former national security adviser reportedly called rudy giuliani a hand grenade and likened his foreign policy to a drug deal. >>> plus a flip-flop for joe biden. he began the campaign with a promise not to accept help from big money superpacs. but now he has a superpac green light and his writings call hypocrisy. >>> and elijah cummings funeral in baltimore. on hand, two former presidents and the former secretary of state. >> his integrity and character, his can-do spirit made him a guiding light in the congress. he pushed back against the abuse of power. he was unwavering in his defense of our democracy. he had little tolerance for those who put party ahead of country or partisanship above truth. >> presidents clinton and obama to speak at that ceremony, that funeral. we will take you there when that happens. as well, president trump speaking outside the white house. we'll bring you that as soon as we can. we begin the hour with the impeachment inquiry list and the possibility of adding a

giuliani was dumbfounded by it. i said what do you think about the possibility that john bolton didn't like, didn't like what was going on, didn't like how he felt increasingly shut out, if you look at the timing, july 25 was the call. i do not believe, but correct me if i'm wrong, i do not believe john bolton was on that call. by september 10, the whistlele blower's complaint had been filed shortly thereafter, i believe john bolton left the white house. not under the best of circumstances. all that said, is there any reason to believe that john bolton as "the washington post" is asking tonight would want to inflict any kind of harm on the administration? the "post" piece is entitled the revenge of john bolton, question mark. >> i would say this first. i don't consider "the washington post" the fount of reliable news. i wish that were the case. trish: giuliani is saying john bolton and fiona hill apparently told all of you goes that john bolton wanted her to go to the lawyers. he says that doesn't make sense to me. he said i wasn't working with megan we were friend enough that he could

. john bolton has been asked to testify for the impeachment inquiry. kaitlan collins tell us about that. >> he's been asked to testify next week on november 7th. house impeachment investigators have invited the former national security adviser who has been famously silent as all of this ramped up so the issues surrounding this call, a call that john bolton was not on but that his deputy was on instead. someone in kind of a bind of his own deciding whether or not he's going to appear. so right now we don't know if john bolton will appear. they have not issued a subpoena for him to appear yet but right now that is an invitation made and the question is is he going to take them up on it and if does he, what does he say? that is incredibly significant for all of this because of course we've seen all of the people going and testifying on capitol hill and not a lot of them had interactions directly with president trump. john bolton, of course, someone in the oval office almost every day and while he and the president soured in their relationship at the end, he knows a lot because he was

national security advisor john bolton to testify. plus policing in online hate speech the german government announcing new proposals to stop the spread of extremist views on the internet. i'm called aspen welcome to the program chile has called off 2 major international summits it's a new setback for embattled president sebastian pinera who says he needs to focus on restoring calm amid days of mass protests at least 18 people have now died during the unrest now new venues will need to be found for the cop $25.00 climate summit and the apec trade summit which was scheduled to bring together world leaders including u.s. president donald trump and china's xi jinping. days chile's capital santiago has resembled a war zone. protesters throwing rocks and stones at police. they responding in kind with water cannon. tear gas and more. it's against this backdrop that chile's embattled president has taken a decision he must regret. to cancel hosting not one but 2 upcoming international summits sent the most 11 that will throw food we deeply lament the problems and the inconvenience that th

. we heard from brett mcgurk yesterday. he is there. probably john bolton is, too, even though i don't agree with his views on a lot of stuff. we all know representative pompeo, when he was in the house, would be incensed with this defiance of congressional prerogatives. when he ran the benghazi hearings, many believe, extremely unfairly and in a partisan and biased way, he wanted everything to come out. now he's ducking, hiding. we need representative pompeo back here, the one who said things should be made public when it was a different administration. , not onlytters worse is secretary pompeo ducking, but maybe he is complicit in all of this. his name has surfaced on multiple occasions in the tail of the administration's very questionable dealings with ukraine. for instance, ambassador taylor's written statement states on august 20 ninth, at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton -- on august 29, at the secretary of national security -- at the suggestion of national security advisor john bolton, the state department stonewalling creates the appearance that the secre

mitchell reports," fiona hill testified that john bolton said rudy giuliani was a hand grenade who was going to blow everybody up. >> there was an official foreign policy attempting to counter corruption in giuliani and then there was rudy giuliani. >>> the russians are coming. russian ground troops filling the vacuum in kurdish areas of northern syria left by the departing u.s. military after the president's abandonment of the syrian kurds. >> this isn't america first. this is america alone. the sad part of this thing, the saddest part for me, is that it was totally predictable. >>> and speaking out. hunter biden finally breaking his silence as he tries to combat the president's smear campaign against him hours before tonight's debate. >> i'm a human. you know what? did i make a mistake? well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah. but did i make a mistake based upon some unethical lapse? absolutely not. >>> and good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in new york. top diplomats are telling all, exposing an unprecedented shadow diplomacy they say was created to help the president p

national security adviser, john bolton. sources say bolton's lawyers are in negotiations right now for an interview. this hour, i'll talk to congresswoman pramila jayapal, a democrat on the house judiciary committee. first, let's go to our congressional correspondent up on capitol hill. phil, break down with this new ruling for us on the mueller grand jury materials and what it means for the impeachment investigation. >> yeah, wolf, there's no question. it is a major victory for house democrats on a number of different levels throughout the 75-page opinion, the judge actually undercuts directly several of the key defenses the white house and congressional republicans have given for not complying or not being willing to cooperate with the inquiry democrats have been running for a little bit more than a month throughout this process. throughout that opinion, the judge notes that democrats are, in fact, having a legitimate impeachment inquiry. something that the white house, the white house council's office, has said is not the case, given -- using that as their rationale for not complyin

heard national security advisor john bolton express concerns about rudy giuliani intervening in this part of u.s. foreign policy. and you'll yawny's calls for ukraine to perform some sort of investigations that might benefit president trump. christopher anderson was succeeded in his job after he left this summer by catherine croft, she's another foreign service officer. she squeeded this summer in july. he also testified today in the impeachment proceedings. among other things catherine croft confirmed the details of a meeting that happened july 18th, soon after she took up this key post. and this july 18th meeting is one of the key moments ambassador bill taylor testified about to impeachment inquiry last week. bill taylor was sort of the seat change witness for the proceedings going on so far. and you might remember one dramatic moment. he said, quote, in a regular national security counsel a secure counsel call july 18th there was a hole on security assistance to ukraine but could not say why. towards the end of an otherwise normal meeting a voice on the call, a person offscreen s

president trump was violating -- >> investigating what was up with withholding. pivot to john bolton for you. lawyering for bolton are in talks about a possible closed-door deposition keeping in mind also swirling around this period of time john bolton let go from duties as national security adviser. some republican sources admitted bill taylor's testimony was a game-changer but bolton would be next level. why? so i think that bolton kind of encapsulates why this is not what happened with the mueller report. the mueller report was about kind of these indirect and not establishable contacts between the trump campaign, at least trump himself and russia. the witnesses coming in wb often hostile and not wanting to come in or if they did they could be characterized as biased like michael cohen under criminal investigation themselves. ultimately about conduct during the campaign. this is all very different. these are trump's own people. his own appointees, republicans voluntarily coming in. they are not under clouds of investigation themselves. show it's harder to say, oh, they're trying to ge

spot in my kitchen next to my picture and i'm going to put john bolton's next to it. >> no. >> because anybody that can come out way quote like that, which is, hey, how ya doing? >> you're backing into the news again. >> it's the only way to do it. >> mika, you know that. >> first of all, you can talk about the hand grenade, but how about the declaration immediately when he hears the quid pro quo, said i'm not going to be part of mr. sondland's and mr. mulvaney and mr. giuliani's drug deal. >> yeah, i mean -- >> we've heard that before. but go ahead, willie. that's pretty amazing, isn't it? >> that's from the testimony of fiona hill yesterday, extraordinary testimony that we'll walk through. we've got to look at it from behind closed doors. where she reported that the national security adviser said i want nothing to do with this drug deal he's called it between rudy giuliani and the ukrainians. you'll remember that john bolton was resigned or fired depending on who you believe over this question. >> i've always been a big john bolton fan, as everybody on "morning joe" knows

u.s. government. fiona hill quoting john bolton as saying this about rudy giuliani, calling him a hand grenade that is going to blow up, blow everybody up. and by the way, to keep in mind, "the wall street journal" is now reporting that rudy giuliani is now under criminal investigation, facing that. so, let's begin right now on capitol hill because there is a ton to get to. cnn manu raju is there. manu, what is expected there today? >> reporter: well, george kent is behind closed doors. he's been there for a little bit under two hours, about an hour and a half or two. we expect this to be a full day's session. we are now learning that he had just been hit with the subpoena to testify today. now, this comes in the after math of the state department seeking to block his testimony, other peoples' testimony under the direction from the white house, and democrats moving to subpoena a range of witnesses whose testimony could be limited in any way including fiona hill who was subpoenaed yesterday in the after math of concerns raised by the white house claims breeching privilege. also mar

of john bolton's and use those words to illustrate the threat that he faces to his presidency john bolton serve ery very briefly as national security advisor to president trump and then resigned or was fired depending on your choice of word but john bolton recently was disclosed to have said that he doesn't want to be any part of a quote unquote drug deal that mick mulvaney and gordon someone we're doing with ukraine john bolton is a republican and a conservative one of that the fact that john bolton was so deeply concerned about the nature of the conduct that is driving the current impeachment inquiry ought to deeply concerned the president and those aides around him just all on the christopher of course the president is dismissed this is a democratic he says it's a coup but does it actually make a difference now that it's not democrats that are being critical the usual they are about john bolton we've also heard from the on the hill in whose testimony and she was working for donald trump she was he's russia expert and critical of what she saw unfolding in you in ukraine does this

alarmed john bolton, then national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert white house lawyers, house investigators were told monday. quote, i am not part of whatever drug deal rudy and mulvaney are cooking up, mr. bolton told fiona hill to tell white house lawyers, according to the testimony. phil, you have reported on the frenzy that followed the first word of the whistle-blower. it seems to me it has nowhere to go now but to continue, as this is all ukraine, all the time. >> yeah. i think that's right, brian. this is incredible reporting tonight by "the new york times." congratulations to them t takes you right to the belly of the beast. we're not talking about intelligence officials, national security council members whose names we do not know. we're talking about giuliani, bolton, mulvaney, the key figures in president trump's orbit. there have been a lot of questions of late about john bolton, national security adviser who departed only a month or so ago, very abruptly and on bad terms with president trump. there have been questions about what he might know, what

inquiry into president trump gets underway. the former top aid, john bolton was a no show on capitol hill. kupperman asking a judge to rule whether or not he was ordered to testify in front of congress. dr. kupperman takes no position on whether the command of the legislative branch or command of the executive branch should prevail. now earlier house intelligence committee adam schiff calling kupperman's failure to appear in court is deeply regrettable. >> we can infer to dr. kupperman's testimony that they believe his testimony would be in criminating to the president. we believe his testimony would corroborate that other witnesses have made. we move forward and we'll consider as we inform dr. kupperman's council. his failure to appear as elements we contempt against him. >> this morning, president trump accusi accusing adam schiff of a crime. >> we had a good conversation with the ukrainian president. a conversation that was perfect. they don't talk about the conversation. it started with a whistleblower and now they don't want the whistleblower. i told republicans who are really t

said he and bolton worked together in the past and had a good relationship. if john had told me i was like a hand grenade, i would have said, well, you are like an atomic bomb. he said it didn't make sense that bolton wouldn't just pick up the phone, give him a ring. it didn't make sense if people thought he was working with mick mulvaney. private closed door testimony, scott perry, he's a member of the house foreign affairs committee. let me first ask you, in these hearings are you hearing anything that is causing you some alarm and second of all, are you hearing things that are so classified the rest of the world shouldn't hear them? >> of course you probably know that even though this is in the skiff, none of it is classified. that's verified over and over again. so the fact that it's being kept from anybody and everybody is a mystery to all of us. that having been said, you also probably know that none of us are supposed to be talking about what's happening in those depositions. those are the rules of the house. the fact that i am hearing from some ever beige from d verbiageo

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legitimate? >> chris: john bolton -- >> jessica: a deep state democrat like john bolton? >> lisa: jessica, the reason why i made that previously, but i think ultimately 2020 is going to come down to -- i think most americans look around and say, "a pox on everyone's house." no one has the moral high ground. my party doesn't come either. >> harris: they don't get things done on capitol hill, we get that. >> lisa: nobody does preultimately comes down to which candidate will advance the position i want advanced. the same thing 2016 came a doctor because that's what 2020 will come down to. all these conversations, "you did this, you did this, yada yada," and that's what 2020 will be about. >> harris: and ethics suggestion. your last word? >> jessica: chris, you want to stop laughing like that. if you put donald trump versus joe biden up there and you asked for some kind of question about their morality of their ethics, or level of corruption, considering what's going on, right now come with corruption relating to ukraine, you're going to get joe biden by a mile there. donald trump was corrupt

. he testified today that at white house meetings he heard national security adviser john bolton express concerns about rudy giuliani intervening in this part of u.s. foreign policy. and giuliani's calls for ukraine to perform some sort of investigations that might benefit president trump. christopher anderson was succeeded in his job after he left this summer by catherine croft. she's another foreign service officer. she succeeded him in july. she testified today in the impeachment proceedings. among other things catherine croft confirmed according to her opening statement the details of a meeting that happened at the white house on july 18th soon after she took up this key post. in this july 18th meeting is one of the key moments that ambassador bill taylor testified about to the impeachment inquiry last week. bill taylor was the c change witness for the um impeachment proceeding so far. you might remember a dramatic moment from his testimony. he said, quote, in a regular security counsel secure video conference call i heard a staff person from the office of management and budget say t

now about former national security adviser john bolton. they're not administration any words or wasting any time. they want him. this is new tonight as soon as next week. bolton is the man they reportedly said he didn't want to be a part of a quote drug deal in the ukraine plot and basically was warning people at the white house about doing this. right now we don't know his response, this is a brand-new summons, is he going to narrow or avoid the deposition? he is certainly a big fish. they are getting closer to donald trump's inner circle, which is why we are hearing about the sullimoning of these key aids, there aren't many left above bolton. the house is preparing its first ever floor vote on impeachment issues tomorrow. tomorrow, members are debating the very resolution that will lay down these official and new rules for potentially impeaching donald trump. >> article 1 of the constitution gives the house the right to investigate the president. and we are taking that responsibility seriously. >> if you think this is fair. this is not fair at all. >> in my view it's not a fai

was a know show in court today. kupperman served as deputy national security adviser as john bolton's number two. past witnesses have testified the former national security adviser john bolton was greatly alarmed over the pressure ukraine was under to conduct these political investigations. kupperman was also listening in on that critical july 25th phone call between president trump and his ukrainian counterpart. instead of revealing what he knows today in front of these committees up on capitol hill, his lawyer filed suit asking a judge to figure out how he should get out of this historic rock and a hard place. should he follow a congressional subpoena ordering his testimony or follow the white house directive to stand down? here was the president today as he compared his case to the one involving jesse smollett, the actor accused of faking being the target of a hate crime. >> then you have the case of this wise guy, jesse smollett, and he said maga country did it, maga country. okay? that's a hate crime. that's a hate crime. and it's a scam. it's a real big scam. just like the impeachment

york times" reports that the former national security adviser john bolton is in negotiations to testify. bolton has been described as alarmed by the alleged quid pro quo with ukraine which he described as a, quote, drug deal. also house democrats are formulating potential articles of impeachment. we will tell you how wide they will cast the net. >> that was a cornucopia. >> or a plethora. or that word i won't use. >> thank you. also attorney general bill barr's investigation into the origins of the 2016 trump russia investigation is now a criminal matter. that designation allows federal prosecutors to subpoena witnesses and file criminal charges. democratic chairman adam schiff and jerry nadler responding to this overnight saying that that raises profound concerns that the justice department has lost its independence and is being used for president trump's political revenge. but let's begin all of our coverage live on capitol hill. there's a lot happening. >> reporter: there certainly is. democrats are continuing to push forward in their rapidly growing impeachment hearing sched

released a slate of new witnesses they want to hear from. the most consequence could be john bolton who called the ukraine pressure campaign a drug deal. eisenberg is believed to be the one who moved the call to the secret server. all three have emerged as key figures in the investigation. joining me is garrett hague, white house correspondent and msnbc political analyst peter baker, staffer mika oyang and assistant secretary of state joel reuben. not one republican voted with democrats, an independent did, but not one republican. you compare that to the clinton impeachment inquiry in 1998, 31 voted with the gop to launch the inquiry. what is the difference between then and today? >> it's not quite an apples to apples comparison. so much has been done behind closed doors, what we know about it comes from opening statements or by leaks. the tables are different. the presidents behind the scenes have handled them differently. the vote to watch will be when we get to that stage of voting for articles of impeachment. democrats did not push as hard as they could at this point knowing that we

, and that's just before people like john bolton or rudy giuliani or that kind of detail, that isn't even out there yet and it's all coming. so the politics are going to change, and that will change some, not all, but some of the republicans on, is this about a red hat? or is it about the constitution? >> right. how does this work? once it becomes public? we know that the doors swing open and everyone will be able to bear witness to this, but we don't know scope, we don't know timeline, who else would testify. how does it work, joe? >> that's going to be up to adam schiff who runs the intelligence committee and nancy pelosi the speaker of the house. as the republicans like to say, since 206, elections have consequences. 2018 had consequences. democrats are ruining the show. i think the interesting thing about today's vote was that this was kind of a free vote for everyone, because it wasn't about the underlying actions of the president. it was about the process. so republicans can say, i am keeping an open mind and what to see what evidence says. democrats are being unfair and i don'

turning point. the president's former national security adviser john bolton is now in talks to testify according to a source. if a testimony about a quid pro quo from trump's diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor was a game changer from some republicans, the testimony could be game over for others. remember that bolton and trump had a contentious relationship and they had a disagreement and he let bolton come to work the next morning and they were going to talk it through and he informed him by tweet and i informed bolton his services were no longer needed at the white house and he matters big time now. he was in the know and he was in the room and he was on the call. bolton was concerned that a call between trump and the ukrainian president would be, quote, a disaster. it makes it clear his first-hand account could be what trump claims again and again and again. here he was today. >> a perfect conversation with the president of ukraine. this was a perfect conversation. i have a perfect conversation. the conversation has been perfect. it's one conversation that i had with the presid

that paid hunter biden and a former nsc official testified this week before congress that john bolton was so disturbed by the way you are directing people to work with rudy giuliani he said, i am not part of whatever drug deal, speaking metaphorically the u.s. diplomat and mulvaney are cooking up. no question you are following the president orders, but your fingerprints are all over linking aid to ukraine with investigating the finance. >> that is not true. i'll take one of those at a time, the bolton thing. i read that and was surprised, john bull never complain to me about it and no one nsc ever complained and i did not see the testimony which is another story entirely. when he said bolton never complained to him i think they would be on a hill is the one that testified. she complained to her boss. john bolton who did what. >> who told her to lead to a lawyer at the nsc inc. to complain. >> john bolton did not say anything to anybody. doesn't that raise a red flag. let's go to the first thing, the president's phone call, at the end of the day that's what this is about. the presidents ph

damning testimony out of the impeachment testimony, john bolton describing rudy giuliani as a hand grenade and the pressure on the campaign to describe rudy giuliani as a drug deal. >>> and joe biden's son hunter speaking out for the first time, admitting bad judgment vovinvolg his work overseas, though insisting he did nothing improper. >>> u.s. forces are angry at president trump, accusing him of betraying the kurds. >>> a lot has changed since the last faceoff. an impeachment inquiry, a new frontrunner and a heart attack. the hill is alive now with the sound of investigations todayment congress is back in full session today, both the house and the senate getting back to work. the three house committees did not observe the break as they worked on the impeachment investigation. the house intelligence, foreign affairs and oversight committees heard testimony yesterday from fiona hill. she's a former top adviser to the president on russia. today another diplomat is testifying. george kent. he is the deputy of assistant secretary of foreign affairs. he prevented on you crane from bei

but cnn just learned moments ago that john bolton's deputy charles kupperman has been advised by his attorney not to appear today as he awaits instructions from a trol judge on whether he should comply with a house subpoena to testify. here political analyst john after lava lon, bianna gol la dre ga and chief legal analyst jeffy toobin. >> i win. >> you win. kupperman is not coming today. >> correct. >> to testify. his lawyers want to wait for a judge. frankly i think we all thought we were going to see many more fights like this from the witnesses who have been called to testify before congress how does it resolve? >> it's sort of a clever move, i think by kupperman's legal team, which is i'm not fighting it, i'm just asking for a judicial resolution of the conflicting advice that i'm getting. now, the real answer, it's probably going to delay his testimony perhaps into oblivion because the courts don't work very fast. he will have, if he wins or loses, there will be a written appeal to the d.c. circuit, all of which could easily eat up a month and the democrats want to be done

testimony brings trump's chief of staff into the scandal what did john bolton know? >> john wasn't in line when what we were doing. >> former national security advisor susan rice joins me to talk impeachment, trump and the situation in syria. >> this is bat ple[ bleep ] cra. >> and house democrats return with a formal impeachment inquiry on the table. >> let's impeach the president, isn't that a good idea? >> when "all in" starts now. good evening from new york. i'm joy reid. chris hayes is in ohio covering tonight's debate. well, at this point it's not a question of if the president of the united states, donald trump, committed an impeachable offense. he's already admitted to it in public statements and in documents that the white house itself released. we know that when the president of ukraine said that he wanted to buy more american weapons to protect his country from military aggression by russia, donald trump immediately responded, i want you to do us a favor, though. and then he proceeded to ask that ukraine investigate former vice president joe biden's son and give life to a n

former national security advisor john bolton to testify next week bolton departed the white house last month after reported policy disagreements with the president to other national security council aides have also been asked to testify several house committees are looking into whether the president pressured ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden and his family in exchange for military aid. ok to d.c. now that's where correspondent oliver salat is standing by for us he's been reporting on the impeachment inquiry for us now oliver what do democrats hope they can learn from bolton's potential testimony well john bolton was president trump's former national security advisor and of course he will be one of the most senior figures to testify if he decides to do so in the impeachment inquiry so he was very close to the president and could therefore play a vital role in the inquiry now they have been many testimonies the inquiry is really picking up speed these days and according to other officials that have already testified john bolton was alarmed by f. ford's taken by t

national security adviser john bolton at the time that was not on the call, scrambling to get a transcript of the call to figure out what had transpired and other officials are ordering this into a highly classified server to get it out of visibility. >> one other point here, you talk about gordon sondland who they pulled from testifying this week who had been a big donor to the president and was then the ambassador to the european union and he started bringing stuff up with joe biden and the debunked conspira conspiracy theories about ukraine's role in went ballisti >> yeah. >> was john bolton ballistic because he being not believe this was happening and had a problem with it? >> i think bolton, as controversial as he was as a national security adviser, he was very critical of russia and very supportive of ukraine and he saw what jewel yaen was doing and what these two ambassadors were doing as derailing what he regarded as a very important policy, and he blows up over that meeting in particular because there's a reference. lo sondland, they're meeting with a ukrainian delegati

. house democrats have now summoned former national security adviser john bolton, to a closed door session. >> i'm hoping that he really wants to testify, to show the courage that the others have so far. >> reporter: but bolton's attorney says he won't appear without a subpoena. multiple administration officials have testified bolton was concerned about trump's perm attorney rudy giuliani, pushing ukraine for political favors. including lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who according to two sources at his deposition tuesday said bolton told him to prepare a memo to the president by august 15, saying military aid needed to be released to ukraine as soon as possible, but vindman testified the president refused to give up the money. even after meeting with billionton and other cabinet officials. >> we are going to continue to learn more about what mr., colonel vindman said, for instance, from mr. morrison. >> everything i've seen has been consistent with the whistle-blower's allegations. >> reporter: today's impeachment vote will formalize the next steps, including permission for p

security adviser john bolton who according to other witnesses had serious concerns about this rogue trump white house policy regarding ukraine. >> reporter: one of the biggest names at the center of the impeachment inquiry, john bolton has so far been mysteriously quiet. that may soon change. a source tells cnn that lawyers for president trump's former national security adviser are in talks with the three committees leading the inquiry about being deposed. >> he made some very big mistakes. >> reporter: bolton was fired last month, the president mocking him as a tough guy. sources tell cnn that a former top deputy testified that bolton called the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up. >> it corroborates a lot of the other information that we had previously about mayor giuliani freelancing -- >> reporter: the ieng -- the inquiry will ratchet after others on the july 25th call between trump and ukraine president zelensky in which trump asked for a favor and brought up the 2016 election and the bidens. >> if you have somebody directl

national security adviser john bolton referred to rudy giuliani as a hand grenade. and in just a moment, we're speaking with congresswoman jackie speier in the room for the deposition. we've got the team following the reaction from capitol hill and the white house. i want to start with nbc's geoff bennett over on the hill. geoff, i know had you a chance to try to ask questions of george kent. when we say jam-packed week, we are not kidding with that? >> reporter: you are right about that, hallie. you're right, george kent the state department official responsible for ukraine just showed up here 20 minutes ago for the closed-door testimony. i asked him a handful of questions, he chose not to answer. the reason why kent is connected to this, you raised this, he is the one that raised red flags about the smear campaign that rudy giuliani launched that was targeted against marie yovanovitch. she's the ambassador who raised concerns about the influence campaign that rudy giuliani was trying to run as he tried to manufacture damaging information about the bidens. so there's that happening tod