They were asking us what to do. They didnt want to do this. They didnt want to get involved. They couldnt figure out where the aid was. They really wanted this meeting. We couldnt get the aid. They wouldnt give it to them. The guys on the phone with the president shouting so loud hes got the phone out here. Hes saying, yeah, the president doesnt care about anything but the bidens. What happened and why is clear. The question is the consequence. Right. And people who didnt necessarily know each other. Right. I mean they may have heard of each other, worked at the same place, but they didnt know each other and theyre all pretty much corroborating what the whistleblower said. Heres an interesting conversation that i had or im going to have it later on because, you know, you and i talk. Jk skbohn kasich and i talk occasionally to try to figure out what is going on in this world. He believes and i believe this as well, that maybe over this holiday, people are sitting at home in front of their televisions. The tvs on cnn or fox or on msnbc. Its on in the background. You may have a Football Game on now and then. But people are going to start tuning in to this, and people are starting to Pay Attention to this now. Before, theyre taking care of their families. Its all just in the background. Like you said, too many names, too many different departments. But i think it is snowballing. Theres a domino effect where people are starting to say, wait a minute. Theres another person. Theres a decorated war hero. Theres someone who is serving her country in a different way, who seems to be credible. Theres another person who seems to be credible. Theyre saying the same thing. Whether or not they think it requires impeaching the president , they certainly do think its troubling. It is troubling. Yeah. Finally someone is finally people are starting to say it. Why it happened is obvious. Now, you know, we know the range. We got it in our families. We got it in our friends. Some people are saying what were saying right now because theyre just watching it. Theyre open. Other people are looking at it through the red or blue lens, and its either this guys got to go, or its theyre all like this. Theyre just out to get him. So im just praying for a lot of trip tow fan for those families so they can go to sleep and not start fighting with each other about this because we got bigger problems. But what happened and why, im telling you don, a first week law student could pass this test. Yeah. Its about the consequences. Thats the debate to have. I grew up in a very ruby red state who has reelected a democratic governor. John bel edwards. The president had been down there three times. The Vice President was down there once. My mom said, they work the women especially africanamericans, but especially black women work their butts off, and she says actually trump was on the ballot. She a they are sick of the division and all the rhetoric. I come from a ruby red straight and i have friends who are trump supporters. Theyre not happy about that. They believe what you just said. The democrats, its a witch hunt and theyre going after this president. So whether the coming week is going to convince them, we shall see, my friend. They can say its vindictive, but theyre not going to be able to say its a witch hunt because these are all ruby red americans. These are redblooded americans serving their country who are saying these things. John kasich is coming up. You dont want to miss that conversation. I dont. But i dont like how you put me in the same category as him. You said, you and i talk, i talk with john kasich. Thats what i am to you, another kasich . No. Hes better looking. Better pedigree. Better for the country. And hes a nicer person. But he doesnt buy you lunch as often, i promise you that. Thats i mean. Hes smarter. Have a great show. Thank you very much. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Really the hits keep on coming for this president. It is the eve of a huge week of impeachment testimony. We just talked about it, and this is our breaking news right now. Transcripts released just tonight from the closeddoor testimony of bill taylors aide. His name is david holmes. And state Department Official, another david, whos name is david hale. Were going to dig into both of them. We just got it a little while ago. Chris had some of it. Phil mattingly is up on capitol hill. Hes going to go through it a little bit more with you. But just stay tuned. But i want you to listen to this from holmes, talking about the call that he apparently overheard sondland and the president and why it was so shocking. This was an extremely distinctive experience in my Foreign Service career, he says. Ive never seen anything like this. Someone calling the president from a mobile phone at a restaurant and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. Theres just so much about the call that was so remarkable, that i remember it vividly. When Something Like that happens, something is remarkable, it stands out in your mind. And then there is this. Making it clear that the ukrainians knew exactly what they were dealing with in Rudy Giuliani, and i quote here again. They viewed him as a significant individual in terms of their relationship with the United States. Holmes laying out the whole shakedown in just one sentence here. Quote, i think the ukrainians gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something in exchange for the meeting and the Security Assistance hold being lifted. That was his testimony. That is his testimony. And then theres the testimony from state Department Official, another david as i said, david hale, who says that secretary of state mike pompeo, who just cant seem to defend his own department, that he called fox news, sean hannity, about hannitys promotion of a narrative against thenambassador marie yovanovich. Quote, it did come up at some point with the secretary. I understand that he did call sean hannity. Pompeo also apparently called Rudy Giuliani. I dont believe this is a quote. I dont believe this at the time, but he did make two calls to mayor giuliani. A lot more to come on all of this for you, and were also learning tonight about what looks like an awful an awful lot like a campaign to take down witnesses as the impeachment threat grows and the president lashes out. Sources telling cnn that he wants to fire witnesses who still have white house jobs. His advisers warning that that could be seen as retaliation, especially in the wake of the president s realtime attack remember that on former ambassador yovanovich as she testified on friday, an attack that adam schiff called witness intimidation. But now in what may be an effort to placate the president , aides are exploring whether they can send some witnesses back to their departments ahead of schedule. That as were learning tonight that several republicans were more shaken by the testimony of David Hale David holmes, i should say, about that trump sondland phone call, than they let on. You remember holmes describing the conversation he heard between the president and the Eu Ambassador, and multimillion dollar trump donor gordon sonde lawn on the terrace of a crowded restaurant in kiev. Sondland telling the president that ukraines president zelensky his words, these are not my words loves your ass. The president asking, so, hes going to do the investigation . Then sondland replying, hes going to do it, adding that zelensky will do anything you ask him to. Tonight were going to take you to that restaurant, to the kiev restaurant where all of this went down. That is interesting. See some of the pictures there. That as this is shaping up to be the biggest week yet in this impeachment inquiry. Nine current and former government officials testifying on live tv. Millions of people listening from coast to coast. Buckle up, buttercup, because theres one thing that we have learned from the first round. Its that bombshells can come at any moment. And with so many witnesses set to testify starting in just a few hours, by the way, we can expect to learn a lot about who knew what and when in this ukraine pressure campaign. Heres what to watch for, okay . It all begins tomorrow morning at 9 00 a. M. Jennifer williams starts it off. Jennifer williams is an aide to the Vice President mike pence and a career Foreign Service officer. She testifies alongside Lieutenant Colonel alexander vindman. You heard that name before. Thats a ukraine expert on the nsc, the National Security council. It looks like vindman may be the subject of a campaign to discredit him as exnsc official tim morrison i know its a lot of names and senator ron johnson are raising questions about his judgment. A source telling cnn tonight vindman is prepared to answer those questions in his public testimony tomorrow. Two Trump Campaign advisers telling cnn they hope the president doesnt tweet about vindman tomorrow. Good luck with that. And expect fireworks if there is a repeat performance by republicans who ask questions that seem designed to out the whistleblower during vindmans closeddoor testimony. And then there is this Jennifer Williams that were talking about, right, who sure got under the president s skin with her closeddoor testimony released over the weekend, saying that his request on the july 25th call for investigations was unusual and inappropriate. The president , true to form, lashing out and calling her a never trumper even though she works in the Vice President s office and was handpicked by his own National Security adviser. Shes a never trumper who works for the administration and the Vice President. Okay. One white house official telling cnn williams is, quote, the most professional person in this building, and that is just the morning session that i told you about. At 2 30, were going to hear testimony from kurt volker. Youve heard that name before too. Hes the former special envoy for ukraine, who quit one day, just one day after the release of the whistleblowers complaint. He testifies side by side with tim morrison. Volker, one of the three amigos with Gordon Sondland and rick perry, who ran a rogue policy in ukraine along with Rudy Giuliani and Mick Mulvaney. A rogue policy that bill taylor, the top diplomat in ukraine, called highly irregular. I encounted an irregular foreign channel with u. S. Polymag, that included then special envoy kurt volker, u. S. Ambassador to the European Union gordon saund land, secretary of energy rick perry, white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and as i subsequently learned, mr. Giuliani. And testifying side by side with volker, tim morrison, the former nsc aide who resigned on the eve of his closeddoor testimony just last month. He told sondland told him he was acting at the direction of the president when he urged ukraine to announce the investigations the president wanted. Sondland himself testifies wednesday morning beginning at 9 00, and he can expect to face a lot of uncomfortable questions about his suddenly recalled meeting september 1st, a meeting with a top zelensky aide where he said ukraine would not get that desperately needed 400 million until they announced the investigation the investigations the president wanted. Remember, he suddenly remembered that, not to mention questions about that phone call with the president in that kiev restaurant. And if sondland learned anything from the trial of roger stone, hell be very careful to tell the truth. The whole truth, and nothing but. Hes got a lot to lose. That afternoon, pentagon official laura cooper testifies. Along with state Department Official david hale. Thursday morning i know you need a scorecard for all of this, right . Thursday morning it is former nsc official fiona hill, who we learned tonight testified that she knew in may that ukraines president felt pressured to investigate joe biden and his son. David holmes testifies alongside her. So, whew, thats where we are tonight, on the eve of what could be the biggest week in the impeachment inquiry. All of it live on tv. Listen carefully and remember to focus on the facts, not the shiny objects, not the people trying to diversit your attenti, right . Remember, focus on the substance. Facts first. A lot more details tonight from that trump sondland phone call in the middle of a kiev restaurant and why david holmes was so disturbed by it. Weve also learned a brandnew name in the investigation. Phil mattingly, john dean here to discuss next. Frequent heartburn . Not anymore. The prilosec otc twoweek challenge is helping people love what they love again. Just one pill a day. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Because life starts when heartburn stops. 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Shark iq robot deepcleans and empties itself into a base you can empty once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around, it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. So here is our breaking news happening just a little bit ago. It actually happened on chris show and were going through these transcripts now from bill taylors aide david holmes released just tonight. Its full of stunning details about that phone call that he overheard between the president and ambassador Gordon Sondland. He also testifies about someone whose name we havent heard before. Phil mattingly, john dean, catherine rampell, max boot are here to discuss. Good evening one and all. Phil, you had the breaking news earlier first here. We have these two new closeddoor transcripts tonight. Lets start with david holmes testimony, and were getting some more color on this trump sondland restaurant call. What do you know . I think one of the Big Questions we had on friday when we got the Opening Statement from david holmes that laid out in explicit detail how this conversation actually occurred was how is it possible sitting at a restaurant you can hear what the president is saying to the u. S. Ambassador to the eu, and holmes actually goes through that in his testimony. He said he was in the restaurant, sitting at a small table. He said he was so close to sondland they were actually sharing an appetizer. He said when the call connected with President Trump, quote, sondland sort of winces. He moved his head away of the phone, and moved the phone away from his ear because the volume was loud. For the first portion of the call, thats how he was listening to it, then he stopped doing that. I dont know if he turned the volume down and got used it or it changed. The point is when you look at how this actually occurred, you recognize it was the sheer volume of things, and based on his rex as we dig through this 200 plus pages of text, he has a very clear understanding of what the president was explicitly saying and thats why this was so important when it was u unveiled last wednesday in ambassador William Taylors testimony and why it was so important in the closeddoor deposition and why it will be so important on thursday when david holmes testifies publicly. He said he didnt know if he turned the volume down or just got used to it. I dont know what happened but for the first part he was pulling it away from his head. Phil, at a certain point, am i correct that holmes took notes in his phone . Is that right . Yes. This is another interesting development. We were wondering how he had such a clear recollection. Obviously this was a vivid conversation that would be difficult for anybody to forget, but it turns out he testifies that when he realized that this was a diplomatic conversation going on, one that he could actually hear, remember, hes a notetaker by trade to some degree at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine. He actually took out his phone, hit the notes app, and started tapping out what he was hearing both on the ukraine side of things and also the further conversation about the possible release of a ap rocky, the rapper that had been detained overseas as well. He started tapping all this out. Thats why he has such an explicit recollection of what was said and thats why he was able to relay it to lawmakers. Who would have that a ap rocky in is madness. John, holmes talks about his impression after overhearing trump he said ive never seen anything like this. Someone calling the president from a mobile phone at a restaurant and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. Theres just so much about the call that was so remarkable that i remember it vividly. As phil said, vividly. So holmes in his Opening Statement said that sondland told him trump didnt give an s about ukraine. Whats your impression of holmes as a witness, john . I think hes a wonderful witness. That question about the president not giving an s, ive made it through about 70 pages of the transcript in the short time ive had it, and i read that section, and theyre actually leading questions. He asked sondland if the president gave an s, and the sondland responded back, he didnt give an s. Don, one of the other interesting things that i was alert to was the fact that holmes reported that russia either owns or has a stake in all three of the mobile Telephone Companies in ukraine. So they could be listening. No question they have a record of this conversation. So we may hear a recording of it one day. Yeah. I want to read this, max. Its from david holmes testimony. He was asked about the Security Risk at the restaurant. He said, did that cause you any concern about the security of the phone calls we were just talking about, right . It was surprising to me, he says, that he yes, in my experience, generally phone calls with the president are very sensitive and handled accordingly, and making a cell phone call from ukraine, is there a risk of russians listening in . And the answer is i believe at least two of the three, if not all three mobile networks are owned by Russian Companies or have significant stakes in those. We generally assume that mobile communications in ukraine are being monitored. Listen, john dean just brought that up. This is really stunning, and it really shows how all eyes will be on sondland when he testifies publicly. Do you think sondland will tell the whole truth about the conversations with this president . I think hell have the choice between telling the whole truth or risking the kind of repercussions that roger stone suffered last week, and that was a very fortuitous verdict against roger stone because thats a demonstration of what happens when you lie under oath. And just coming back to this phone call that david holmes witnessed, don, i mean this is really kind of an example of scandal fatigue because theres so many scandals here, we lose sight of the smaller ones. This is one of the smaller and more significant ones. Remember, in 2016, President Trump, thencandidate trump, spent the whole year saying lock her up. Why did he want to lock up Hillary Clinton . Because she allegedly transmitted confidential or secret material on a nonconfidential or secure medium via email. But what is donald trump doing here having these conversations on a mobile phone that the whole world can listen in on, and from what we know, this is not an unusual occurrence. Trump does this all the time. By the way, the Hillary Clinton thing was proven from investigators, that that did not occur. Right, exactly. She was ultimately exonerated. Catherine, i want to bring you in on this. I think the ukrainians gradually began to understand they were being asked to do things in exchange for the meeting and the Security Assistance hold being lifted. He was saying ukraine was aware of the shakedown, no . Zble, i think thats explicitly what hes saying. And what were seeing is this administration or people who are either in political appointments or career officials are unable to keep the many lies straight that trump is asking them to continue perpetrating, which is presumably why trump, when he was when he submitted his answers to mueller, for example, he just said, i dont know over and over again or i dont recall, i dont recall, i dont recall. I dont remember, which helped him of course not have to remember what the lies were. But youre seeing members of this administration having to tie themselves into knots and were still finding that theyre contradicting each other right and left. Sondland, as has been brought up, may yet have to amend things that he said. Volker may yet have to amend things that he said given that the statements made under oath by some people have been contradicted by statements made under oath by other people. Yeah. Everyone, stay with me. Our breaking news tonight, the house releasing more transcripts of closeddoor testimony in the impeachment inquiry. Sean hannity. Why did sean hannity come up . Next. Introducing new Vicks Vapopatch easy to wear, with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. New Vicks Vapopatch. Breathe easy. Nyquil severe gives you powerful relief for your worst cold and flu symptoms, on sunday night and every night. Nyquil severe. The nightime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. Well you remember what happened last year. You cant bring a backup thanksgiving to my sisters house. Its not like were going to walk in with it. Well bring it in as we need it. Phase it in. Phase it in . Yeah, phase it in. So here is the breaking news at this hour. Were talking about transcripts that were just released tonight from the closeddoor testimony of diplomats david hale and david holmes. Back with me, phil mattingly, john dean, catherine rampell, and max boot. So, phil, the other testimony out tonight is state Department Official david hale. What are we learning . Yes. One the things ive been struck by in reading more pages of depositions than i ever wanted to in the history of my life is how when you go through these depositions of individuals who may have worked together but didnt know each other that well, worked in different agencies, different parts of the government, how much specific details line up with one another. On this specific issue, david hale talking about the freeze of the u. S. Security assistance to ukraine. He says, quote, and i advocated strongly for resuming the assistance as did every other agency represented there with the exception of one, which was the omb. And the question it asks, and did you have confidence that the aid would be ultimately released . He responded, well, omb said that when asked by someone, perhaps charles kupperman, who was the deputy National Security adviser, they said they had guidance from the president and from acting chief of staff mulvaney to freeze the assistance. So i went back to the office and sent a note to the secretary, secretary pompeo, through staff reporting this, and saying that it seemed to me this was going to have to be resolved at the principal level and that it was unlikely that the omb would be willing shifting their position at the principal level given what we had just heard. And therefore it would have to be resolved, if he wished to have it resolved, directly with the president. So i left it at that, and time passed. Let me explain what that actually means here. The office of management and budget has made clear to several different agencies that the president himself ordered the acting white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to tell the omb to freeze the assistance. This has been corroborated by several witnesses, making clear there is a direct line from the freeze from the president on down. How that actually happened, why the rationale for that still is a little bit of a dark spot here, but theres no question about it, and hale backs that up once again. This order came from the president through Mick Mulvaney down to all of the government agencies, and thats why the nearly 400 million in u. S. Security assistance was frozen. Wow. So a lot of reading for phil. A lot of reading for john. John must have taken that eflven woods Speed Reading class. I did. You did actually . It worked because youre already 70 pages in. There are people on the panel who are probably too young to even remember that. John, when you hear that guidance from, you know, the president and mulvaney, what are you thinking . Well, what my immediate re action was, hale is a gop witness, as is morrison and volker, and it doesnt sound like hail le is going to help t out a lot given his testimony. And he obviously knows how to the stop occurred and thats not favorable to mr. Trump. Catherine, were learning from hale that pompeo spoke to hannity about yovanovich, spoke to giuliani twice. What does that say about pompeo, speaking to them but declining to publicly support his ambassador . I think it says that not only are there lots of vacancies throughout the federal government, but apparently our Foreign Policy has been outsourced to the president s private attorney and his favorite tv anchor, which is a bit disturbing. I dont remember the senate having advise and consent responsibilities for those particular appointments, but there you go. Clearly the president and his most senior underlings all trust people like sean hannity much more than they trust their own senateconfirmed appointees. Yeah. Max, i just wanted to read this tweet from cnns brian stelter. He said earlier this month hannity told me through a spokesperson, i have never been contacted about ukraine by secretary pompeo or anyone else at the state department. He denied it again tonight by the way, that he ever talked to pompeo. What do you think about this . Well, based on Sean Hannitys record of veracity or lack thereof, its a shock that hes not actually serving in the administration because everybody in this administration seems to lie like crazy, including mike pompeo and sean hannity fits right in. I mean this is just such a disgusting spectacle, don, whats going on here, that, you know, the president hijacked u. S. Foreign policy. He extorted ukraine into trying to help him politically. He held hostage military aid that congress had appropriated. They smeared and fired one of the most distinguished ambassadors the United States has, ambassador yovanovich, who testified last week. And at the same time they were plotting with people like Rudy Giuliani and sean hannity. This is truly a mindboggling corruption of u. S. Foreign policy, and im sure john dean can confirm this. This is off the charts. This is well beyond anything that Richard Nixon or any other u. S. President ever possibly did. Thank you all. Get some sleep. Got an early day. Phil, rest up. Eight yo eat your wheaties. Sources tell cnn that some republicans are, quote, shaken by some of the testimony released tonight. Is john kasich also shaken . Im going to ask him there he is next. Applebees new sizzlin entrees. Now starting at 9. 99. [narrator] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. Shark iq robot deepcleans and empties itself into a base you can empty once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around, it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. Theyre americas bpursuing lifechanging cures. In a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. Wh fake gagging noises its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. Were learning tonight that several republicans were shaken by the testimony of david holmes about the trump sondland phone call than they admitted, more sharken than they admitted. Joining me to discuss, former Ohio Governor john kasich. Good to see you. Thank you so much. This is what republican sources are telling our jamie gangel, that holmes testimony has shaken gop lawmakers more than they let on publicly. Never mind the whole security lapse in the restaurant, he heard the president directly talk about investigations and that president zelensky would do whatever President Trump wanted. Its devastating to this president , no . Well, don, listen. The politicians in the party right now in washington, as i talked to some friends about, they are they are not leading indicators. Theyre lacking indicators. As you and i talked about a little earlier today, i think people are beginning to kind of a little bit of this now. Most americans as we talked are taking care of their kids and putting food on the table and doing their jobs. I happen to believe and i said this to you last week the attack on yovanovich, when the president was tweeting and everything, i think thats something that people say, that doesnt sound good. President s shouldnt be doing that. And theres been a steady we talked about this from the very first day. Theres a steady reporting on all of this, and now a guy who overhears a phone conversation, everybody can relate to that, right, don . Were on the phone. I mean, my wife says i can hear you talking all the time. Can you be quiet . When you can hear the person on the other end. People can get that, don. They understand it. And when these things become more understandable and what were they talking about honey then i think people start to kind of wake up. And as that happens, well see where it goes. But the politicians are always going to lag. Theyre never going to be in front, very few. Theyre going to be lagging, and then its going to be the public. Its going to be the people that have to move this thing along. Yeah. The former secretary of state Rex Tillerson was asked about President Trumps attempting to shake down ukraine. Listen to what he said. Asking for personal favors and using United States asset as collateral is wrong. Theres just no two ways about it. So if youre seeking some kind of personal gain and youre using whether its American Foreign aid or american weapons or american influence, thats wrong. And i think everyone understands that. Wow. So he says everyone understands that, but not a lot of republicans are saying so, john. Again, don, theyre lagging indicators. Theyre people that are going to lag behind the public opinion. Thats pretty strong from tillerson, and, you know, the attacks that were made on kelly, the same thing, the former chief of staff who said, you know, youve got to have somebody there thats strong. I mean its interesting that those people are speaking out. And then i heard today that the secretary of state, who i dont ive never met. I dont know him, but refused to sort of directly say that his people are doing a great job in the state department, kind of defers. You know, i have a hard time with that, don. I try to put myself in a position like that and think about what would i do. Its easy to be up in the stands, but, look, i wouldnt have gone in the administration under any set of circumstances. So if youre in there and you see these things that are happening and you know that theyre wrong, why do you keep hanging around . You know, its just why do you keep hanging around there . I dont know. And give these people credit who have gone to testify. You know, they put their necks on the line. They deserve a lot of credit. Okay. Listen, why do you say because, you know, heres what i think. I think that people watch a whole lot of television during the holidays. Thanksgivings coming up, christmas coming up. People are home, right . They have some time off. I told you this. Television is on in the background. You got the news. You got cnn. You may have fox, whatever, msnbc, whatever you want to listen to. You got a little football maybe. And football. Right . So you got that. But then you have people you start paying attention to things that you dont when youre in your regular routine, when youre on your grind as they say. And so what leads you to believe you called me and said, i think people are starting to Pay Attention. Why do you think people are starting now . Because theres some things that have happened that just kind of have hit social media in such a way that people can get it. Its like yelling at that or attacking that woman, distinguished woman ambassador. People are like, thats not right. And then overhearing a phone conversation, and then tomorrow vindman is going to be testifying, and hes going to have you know, hes going to have his uniform on. Hes going to look terrific. These are the kinds of things are you hearing people talk about it, though . I heard you on that when you said about the witnesses. I think ill tell you what i hope will happen over thanksgiving. I hope people will gather together. Theyre not going to yell at each other about trump, although thats happened. I hope theyll sit down and say, what do you think about it . Because theyre more and more aware of it. Don, i talked to a guy today who told me that 40 of the public is just not engaged. Theyre not really reading much in the newspapers. Theyre not watching much of this. I believe, because i can feel it, i can hear it thats my intuition. Thats what i do. Thats what ive done all my life. Im getting the sense now that people are saying, theres something not right here. Now, where theyre going to go and you know what i think probably at the end . Republicans are going to say see if this will be borne true. Republicans are going to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, this was all wrong, whatever, but let the people decide. Thats why pelosi put that memo out today saying that we have a responsibility when we see things that are wrong. But i think a lot of republicans at the end are going to say, lets wait till the next election. Thats where i think its going. Were out of time. I hope we get this somewhere in the show, but i want to talk about, you know, president obama with this about not rebuilding the system. Thats a big, big story. But i got to run. We got to do that the next time. He said people want to improve america or the system. They dont want to tear it down and start over. Thank you. Lets talk about that sometime. Thats an important, very important discussion. Thank you, don. Have a good night. The president wants impeachment witnesses out of his administration, but hes also publicly attacking them and trying to smear their reputations. But does that add up to witness intimidation . Should have seen this coming. A stampede unleashed 55 years ago. Built for freedom, power and rebellion. And just when you think you know where theyre going. They do something unexpected. Something that moves us all forward and holds nothing back. The allelectric mustang mache. The newest member of the family. The allelectric mustang mache. But he wanted snow for thelace holidays. So we built a snow globe. Ill get that later. Dylan but the one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with homeowners insurance. What . 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Testifying tomorrow. She was on the july 25th phone call where he pressured the ukraine president to investigate joe biden. Calling the request unusual and inappropriate. He doesnt like shes now going to answer questions publicly so hes trying to intimidate her the tweeting, tell Jennifer Williams whoever that is to read both transcripts of the president ial call to see the just released from ukraine. And meet with the never trumpers who i dont know and never heard of and work out a better president ial attack. Intimidation tactic. Attack against people he considers partisan. Lieutenant vindman is the National Security counsel top ukraine expert who also heard the july 25th call testifying publicly tomorrow as well. The president accused hem of being a never trumper as well after his closed door testimony. Two advisers say they have their firngs crossed that trump doesnt tweet about vindman tomorrow because he is the recipient of a purple heart and ta tacks on him have fallen flat. Last week hours before ambassador taylor. At the top here. And state Department Official george kent at the bottom here. They were the first to testify publicly. Trump tried to intimidate them by tweeting out never trumpers. Again. In capitol letters. And finally marie yovanovitch. The former ambassador to ukraine who was ousted by President Trump earlier this year. And she was testifying publicly on friday. The president attacked her in a tweet saying everywhere yovanovitch went turned bad. That prompted this response from intel chairman schiff. You saw today witness intimidation in realtime. By the president of the United States. Once again going after this dedicated and respected public servant. In effort to not only chill her but others who come forward. We take this witness intimidation and obstruction seriously. The president is attacking you. Realtime. What affect does that have on other witnesses willing to come forward and expose wrong doing . Well, its very intimidating. The loyal soldier to President Trump the secretary of state pompeo refused to specifically defend ambassador yovanovitch and taylor. I always defend the greatest Diplomatic Court in the history of the world. Proud of the team. The president made a tweet. Everywhere she went turned bad. Is it an assessment you agree with. I dont have any to say. Ill defer to the white house. I dont have anything to say about the proceedings. Trying to intimidate witnesses is not unusual. He has a pattern of behavior of threatening people he deems disloyal. After his lawyer and fixer cohen turned on him. He tried to influence the judge in the case and intimidate his family. Cohen asked the judge for a no prison time. You mean he can do all of the terrible unrelated to trump things have been to do with fraud, big loans, tax etc. And not serve a long prison term . He makes up stories to get a great and already reduced deal for himself and get his wife and fatherinlaw who has the money off scott free. He lied for this out come and should in my opinion serve a full and complete sentence. Not the first time the president tried to intimidate people he sees as disloyal. Our breaking news tonight Congress Releasing closed door testimony from two impeachment inquiry witnesses and were learning ability the president s call with the Eu Ambassador that has republicans shaken. Well have all the details. Next. Whole thanksgiving . Well you remember what happened last year. You cant bring a backup thanksgiving to my sisters house. Its not like were going to walk in with it. Well bring it in as we need it. Phase it in. Phase it in . Yeah, phase it in. Phase it in . [narrator] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. Shark iq robot deepcleans and empties itself into a base you can empty once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around, it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. Hey, our workers comp insurance is expiring. Should i just renew it . Yeah, sure. 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After a day of chasing dogs you shouldnt have to chase down payments. vo send invoices and accept payments to get paid twice as fast. danny its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. Hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. Only with xfinity xfi. Download the xfi app today. This is cnn tonight im don lemon. Were hours away from the next round of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry and we have breaking news. New transcripts released testimony from a u. S. Diplomat in ukraine who told investigators he had never seen anything like the phone call