unprompted in that exchange. i think that's significant. it's something that is going to be the cause for further scrutiny, frankly, moving forward. the president also defined, as you were talking about before the break, talking about leader mcconnell, i talked to him, he said there was nothing wrong with the phone call and also taking aim at biden saying, that he is scamming the u.s. a little bit of a preview of what we can expect to see moving forward. >> we are less than 90 seconds away from being able to see and hear from the president on the south lawn. i want to quickly bring in somebody who worked in the state department under president george w. bush, ambassador nick burns, former undersecretary of state and former u.s. ambassador to nato. we're probably about a minute away so i will ask you quickly here the president now directly linking this favor that he asked of the ukrainian leader to an investigation of his political rivals. how significant is that to you? >> i must say, i think this is corruption. this is corrupt by the president. he's abusing his office.