Opponent. I think this is the most serious charge against the president. Tonight, what we know about what the president has already done. And as new purchase buildings in the house. We may have crossed the rubicon here. Will democrats try to stop donald trump. When do we say enough is enough and we have to hold him accountable . What happened when the world convened in new york to address the climate catastrophe . We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money. And fairy tails of eternal economic growth. How dare you. [ cheers and applause ] all in starts right now. S. When it comes to the president s actions with ukraine, we dont have all the facts or access to the whistleblower complaint, which is still being withheld from congress in an apparent violation law. We dont have the transcript of the conversation, even though he said, quote, i hope you get to see it and i hope you get to see that soon. Take that with a grain of salt. But what is clear now is that the basic contours are essentially agreed to by all parties, including the president. The reporting and over time President Trump himself acknowledging in a phone call that donald trump pressured the head of ukraine to investigate his political rival, joe biden, with the possibility hanging over his head the u. S. Would not release hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid the country says it needs to defend itself against the russians who have already invaded. All of that has essentially been copped to. Weve gone through this before, just not quite as short a time frame. First the president denies it. And then Rudy Giuliani gives an interview giving away way more than anyone expects. And then, lo and behold, President Trump once caught, pivots to a so what defense, confirming that he talked to the ukrainian president and he said they talked about, quote, unquote, corruption, which of course we know is used the same way they talk about cooperation with the russians in 2016. Thats just a code word for this very specific ask. Use the official instruments of ukraines Justice System to wound my political rival. The president also conceded that the money the u. S. Had appropriated to give ukraine was at issue. To make it easy for us, he did all of that in front of cameras earlier this morning. What did you tell the ukrainian president about joe biden and his son during your phone call. Youre going to see because what we are doing is we want honest. We deal with a country, we want honest. I think with the new president , youre going to see much more honest in the ukraine. Thats what were looking for. Were supporting a country. We want to make sure that country is honest. Its very important to talk about corruption. If you dont talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt . One of the reasons the new president got elected is he was going to stop corruption. So its very important that on occasion you speak to somebody about corruption. Very important. So throughout the day he hit all three major parts of the contention, an investigation pertaining to biden, or you dont get the money. And that is an obviously impeachable abuse of power. A President Union laterally hijacking American Foreign policy and public dollars as a tool for extortion, bribery, and blackmail of a foreign country to get them to sabotage a likely opposing candidate. And its mostly confirmed. Thats where we are. Now, theres more we should learn. New york times reporting indicates that the substance of that whistleblower complaint that kicked this off actually involved multiple actions. Washington post reports trumps interaction of the foreign leader included a promise that was regarded as so troubling, it prompted an official in the u. S. Intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint. That complaint was later seen as urgent by the Inspector General of the intelligence community. So we should see it all, right . At this point we should see the transcript of the phone call with the keanu president. Whats the point of keeping it secret anymore . Its mostly out there. Giuliani and trump are running around saying its right. The actions of trump are not surprising anymore. Ive used this metaphor before, but when youre watching a Football Game and the defense cant stop the offense from running up the middle, will offense will keep running the ball up the middle. Trump and his cronies are going to keep running the same play. In the case of donald trump, soliciting, accepting, and aiding a Foreign Government in smearing your political opponent as hope leslie corrupt. Its shocking and appalling, but its not surprising. In fact, look when the phone call happens. Its the day after the mueller testimony. You can just hear the president thinking, okay, i got away with it. Get me that ukrainian president. Lets do some colluding for real. Joining me now, Julian Castro of texas who sits on the House Intelligence Committee that is demanding to see the whistleblower complaint. Before we get to the details of the whistleblower complaint and the sort of questions around that, in broad strokes, what is your understanding of what happened and how serious an infraction it is . I sit on the Intelligence Committee and cant speak to what we were beefed on last week by the Inspector General, but between donald trump and Rudy Giuliani, they basically confirmed about 75 of the reporting. And i believe that the speaker has laid down a gauntlet and ask that the whistleblower information be brought to congress by thursday. If that information is not presented on friday we should move forward with a formal impeachment proceeding. Wait a second, so you think thats it . Thats essentially the straw that breaks the camels back, which is if they dont provide the whistleblower complaint, its not a subpoena or fight in the courts, the compelling requires it moving forward formally with impeachment . Right. I proposed opening an impeachment inquiry before based on the obstruction of justice issues during the russia investigation. This is another matter unto itself. The idea that the house of representatives would sit idly by while a president abuses his power and tries to intimidate or coerce a foreign president into opening an investigation into a Major Political rival, for us to sit back and do nothing about that, it goes beyond democrats and republicans, honestly, even beyond donald trump. If you do nothing, you are normalizing his behavior, youre encouraging him to continue doing things like this, and youre encouraging future president s to take the same liberties and abuse power in the same way. So at some point it becomes not a matter whos going to they didnt even congressional district. Even the presidency in 2020, i know as tough as that sounds politically, it becomes bigger than that. Its a matter of what kind of country and what kind of democracy were going to have. That is what is at stake right now. Is there a universe in which some kind of deal is struck in which some limited number of folks like the gang of 8, for instance, are briefed on this complaint that get access to it . Can you imagine something between total refusal or it gets put out into public . Yeah, i think thats quite possible, sure. It could be the gang of 8 sees the information, that thats a negotiation, and the rest of the intelligence meet and the rest of the congress are not allowed to see it. But, again, even from the reporting and matching that up against what donald trump and giuliani have already said, theyve confirmed about 75 of that reporting. It appears as though president on eight occasions pressed the ukrainian president to open this investigation. Its obviously political in nature. Its meant to benefit him, and this is a version of the 2016 call for russia to find Hillary Clintons emails. Its the same thing. Its asking a Foreign Government to do his dirty work for him. You just mentioned giuliani. I want to go through the time line. In some ways, like many things the president did, its half out in the open. In may, Rudy Giuliani meets with the ukrainian diplomat in new york. In june in paris with the office that would reopen the investigation. August, the ukrainian president s aide in madrid. September, he admits he asked ukraine to look into biden. Independent of what the president s doing, is what giuliani doing appropriate and should we hear from him on capitol hill . Yeah, i think we absolutely should. Whatever proceeding, whether its another hearing, whatever were doing, hes an important piece in understanding what exactly happened because we know hes working for the president , hes working on the president s behalf and at his behest. Rudy giuliani is not a private citizen who decided to go travel and meet with some foreign leaders. Hes acting very specifically at the command and at the order of donald trump. Congressman Julian Castro who sits on the Intelligence Committee, thank you very much for your time tonight. Thank you. Joining me for more on the implications of President Trumps actions, barbara mcquade, msnbc legal alice. David leonhardt, New York Times oped columnist. Several undisputed facts about President Trump, including pressuring a foreign leader to interfere in the election and he urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 president ial election. Barbara, let me start with you. The infraction seems to be bigger than the law because its the kind of thing that really only the president could do. So the laws as we think of normal statute tory laws, i dont know they dont envision intimidating a foreign leader. How how did you do you see this in legal terms. This is an act an order citizen couldnt commit, but it really does echo the demanding a thing of value in exchange for the performance of an official act. In my district, the former mayor of detroit was convicted of an extortion scheme that was very similar. He would withhold contracts, public works contracts that were worth millions of dollars unless he got a demand met and received a thing of value, that was his friend getting put on all these contracts, to cash in on some of the proceeds of those contracts. I see this in a very similar way with parallels to bribery and extortion. Unlike the kinds of crimes mueller was investigating of obstruction, there is reference to be right back in the institution as a grounds for impeachment explicitly. David, one wrinkle that is also interesting, the oath of office, this little detail about these funds, which are sitting there in ukraine is expecting. By august, congressional appropriators had lost control over the process to the Office Management and budget. An executive office run by mick mulvaney. For weeks it said the o b announced shortterm holds on ukraine funds. There was never an express reason except the administration was kaukt vague inneragency review of the funds. What do you make of that. Were at the point where the president s violated the constitution and the law as barbara was just saying so many times, that its clear the solution for this has to be political. Im one of those people whos been somewhat skeptical of impeachment because i didnt really see how it helped make the case against trump, but its hard not to look at this. Those details you were putting on screen or the brazenness of what he did today. Ask yourself, if the democrats dont impeach him, isnt he just going to do this again and again and again . Although impeachment brings political risk, i dont really see what alternative the democrats are going to have soon. What do you think about that argument, barbara . I think at some point nancy pelosi and others need to think about what is their duty here . Is it just to elect democrats to the white house and to congress . Or do they have a further obligation to govern to the american public, because at some point if they let President Trump get away with all this misconduct, theyre setting the standards and norms for future president s. They have to ask themselves , what do we want to tolerate in a president , and theyre drawing that line or not drawing that line with their action now. Part of the issue, david, as we saw with the Clinton Emails that the president was able to among his base point the light back to clinton. Which then became its own s. Heres the president today talking about biden. Hes pushing ukraine to investigate biden. Take a listen. The conversation i had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we dont want our people like Vice President biden and his son. Ive seen marco rubio, down the line republicans and trump tv and rightwing media, they are intent to make this a story about the other side. Yeah, its the classic deflection strategy. What they hope is by throwing on enough smoke that people will just say everyones sort of just the same, right . Yet what we know is that everyones not the same. Everyone whos looked at the biden thing and looked at it in a nonpartisan way has come away saying theres no there there. There clearly is a there to the president of the United States trying to use the power of his office to help his own Reelection Campaign in concert with a Foreign Government. One of the reasons theres a there, barbara, is this reminds me of the trajectory of Stormy Daniels and those payments. It was deny, deny, didnt happen, i dont know anything about it. And then when they were caught, when they were backed into a corner, when it was a matter of record, it was, yes, so what . They were pursuing trump tower moscow much later. They had lied about how long they were pursuing trump tower moscow. And when they were caught, the president says, of course, what am i going to do, not do a deal isnt that thats the indicator of a guilty mindset, barbara. It is. In fact, there is a doctrine in the law under a rule of evidence that prior bad acts are admissible if they tend to show this is your m. O. , that its admissible to prove thats what youre doing in this instance. Whats interesting about it, is sometimes they say theres the adage like insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result. This is insanity that makes you crazy like a fox because they are doing the same thing over and over again and its been working. At some point one hopes that the strategy, people begin to see through it and it no longer works. David . Yes. Oh, i think its clear from trumps behavior and some of the things people around him have said, he doesnt want to be impeachment. Yes, 100 agree with that. This is a political this is not going to be a legal proceeding. This is going to be a political battle. And so i think democrats should ask themselves, if President Trump doesnt want to be impeached and they believe hes a threat to the wellbeing of this country, as they do and they should, doesnt that suggest that impeachment might, in fact, be the right move for them . Its a good point. Barbara mcquade, david leonhardt, thank you both. Will this be a breakglass moment . Well talk about the reactions from members of congress with al green in two minutes. Not again were seeing a doctor when we get home. Myrbetriq treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions, like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. If experienced, stop taking and tell your doctor right away. Myrbetriq may interact with other medicines. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. Common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold or flu symptoms, sinus irritation, dry mouth, urinary tract infection, bladder inflammation, back or joint pain, constipation, dizziness, and headache. Looking for a destination that isnt always the bathroom . Ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you. And visit myrbetriq. Com. Ive been noticing really interesting reactions to this unfolding story about donald trump pressuring a foreign country, ukraine, to help his election in 2020 by investigating one of his rivals. Those reactions are coming from the senate, which has by and large stayed mum about the issue of impeachment. It doesnt originate in their house. What is impeachment for if not for this. Senator murphy tweeted, quote, if he demanded a Foreign Government to do his political bidding, thats when he crossed the critical threshold. No need to overthink this. And then theres senator Elizabeth Warren running for president who is already on the record supporting impeachment, sending a message directly to House Speaker nancy pelosi tweeting after the Mueller Report congress had a duty. By failing to act, congress is complicit in trumps latest attempt to solicit foreign interference to aid him in u. S. Elections. Do your duty and impeach the president. Pretty direct. Thats whats going on in the senate. The house, the tally for impeachment for the democrats was 134 before today when minnesota democratic congressman dean phillips came out surprisingly in favor of impeachment saying, quote, if the reports are corroborated, we must pursue articles of impeachment and report them to the full house of representatives for immediate consideration. Another of his minnesota colleagues, democratic congresswoman angie craig, also following suit. I should tell you both of those minnesota democrats, theyre from swing districts. And they are now in favor of impeachment. This could be the breakglass moment, but it remains to be seen if the rest of the Democratic Caucus agrees. Here with me is someone whos been an outspoken advocate of impeachment before the current news, even before the Mueller Report, democratic congressman al green of texas who induced articles of impeachment against donald trump unsuccessfully three times. Congressman, what do you make of both this story and whether it constitutes high crimes and misdemeanor and the statements of your democratic colleagues in the wake of it . Thank you so much for having me on, mr. Hayes. This is an important story. It could be the straw that will break the camels back for a number of people who havent come on board. As you know, a good many people have already decided that we should move in the direction of impeachment. Its my belief that were seeing a rerun of what happened with mr. Comey. If you will recall, mr. Comey, the president fired him and went on television, national tv, prime time, and said that he was thinking about that russia thing at the time he fired mr. Comey. So this is nothing new in the sense that the president does this quite regularly. Hes done it with other things, and hell continue to do it. With reference to my colleagues, were at the cross roads of accountability. Either we will hold the president accountability or we will be held accountable. There are people who literally believe now that we are aiding and abetting the president , not in the league sense, but in the sense that our inactions allow him to continue his actions, his invidious actions, i might add. The public expects something from Congress Given this circumstance. For those who say you have to wait on the public, i am so pleased that rosa parks didnt take a poll. She wouldnt have taken that seat on that bus. If john lewis had taken a poll before they crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge, im not sure they would have crossed on bloody sunday. Thank god dr. King didnt take a poll before having a march on washington. The great issues that have to be dealt with are not dealt with based on polls. Theyre based on principles. Let me ask you this. Theres a sense, right, that theres political danger for members of frontline districts in moving in some formal sense towards impeachment. And i wonder if you think its significant that those two minnesota members who are in swing districts who arent safe streets came out today based on this information. I think youve made a salient point in referencing them. I do believe, mr. Hayes, that they should be saluted. I commend them for putting principle above politics, for putting the people above our party. This is what has to happen. This is not about democrats and republicans. Its about the democracy, government of the people, by the people, for the people. And whether were going to save our republic. They have done the righteous thing, not just the right thing, but the righteous thing, and i commend them and hope they will continue to encourage others to do so. By the way, i think youll see more people coming out. The momentum now is in the direction of impeachment. I think the president will be impeached and i think youll see many more come out within the next week or two. Tomorrow theres going to be a house caucus membersonly meeting at 4 00 p. M. This will be one of the agenda items with trade and the president s efforts to ratify a nafta 2. 0 and whether the speaker will put the muscle behind it. Do you anticipate a lot of this will be hashed out tomorrow . Well, i would hope so in this sense. I think we need to have a discussion about what impeachment really is. Your prior guest, i believe his name was david, he made an important point when he said that this is political. If we are going to make this a trial where you have to have guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, clear and convincing evidence, were doing the constitution a disservice. They didnt intend for us to have a criminal offense. This is misdeeds were witnessing, and they made it possible for us to impeach a president for his misdeeds. When he spoke to the president of ukraine and he by virtue of the circumstances was extorting him, you dont have to have extortion in the legal sense. Right. You just have it in the sense of a misdeed. This is political. There would be no appeal to the supreme court. We dont have to tell anybody why we voted to impeach. This is all about doing what we would do if we were the Corporate Board members of a company, and the corporate chief executive officer was misbehaving in such a way as to hurt the company. The president is hurting the country, and we have a duty, responsibility, obligation to take that to the senate. If they dont impeach him, the senators will have to answer. Congressman al green thank you so much for your time. Next, Greta Thunberg shows no mercy in her u. N. Address today. Her powerful testimony after this. This is all wrong. I shouldnt be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet im one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. And our ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you. [ cheers and applause ] that was 16yearold climate activist Greta Thunberg chastising World Leaders at the kickoff of the u. N. Climate action summit. There are reports that many possibly all of the worlds countries are poise today miss even those paris emissions tarts, sometimes by a wide margin. At least those countries have targets. The one country, the one country on earth that pulled out of paris is our own with our withdrawal effective in 2020. Today when the day started, it looked like donald trump wasnt even going to bother to show up at the Climate Summit. But just a tiny nod to the fact that the politics are changing, even trump, who advertises his own contempt for concerns about climate change, couldnt quite get away with just not showing up. No, he popped into the Climate Summit for 14 minutes before leaving for an event focused on religious freedom. Trump was unfortunately not present when Greta Thunberg was speaking. Look at the visibly annoyed thunberg. Im joined by the former administrator, gina mccarthy, president at the Harvard Kennedy school. Good to have you here. Nice to be here. If it were not this president at u. N. Week, but another one, say, barack obama or a president whos committed to the basic facts about climate and paris, what should the u. S. Leadership role this week look like . Oh, lord. We should be playing the leadership role. It shouldnt be a 14minute dropin. It should have been we give the speech that drives the rest of the world to take action on the climate crisis. It should be talking about what our cities and states are doing, we should be talking about what the president of the United States is doing to lead the way. It should talk about why we need to do it for jobs and economy, not just for the planet, but for the health of our communities and our citizens. Thats what it would have been under barack obama. Theres an argument that you see made now by republicans increasingly who i think have come to realize that outright denial is embarrassing and a political loser, to this more arrangement about futility where were 20 global emissions, and if we do anything, china and india are going to eat our lunch. Most countries are not. How do you respond to that argument that the rest of the world isnt doing their part either . Would it surprise anyone to know that the United States who is the second leading Greenhouse Gas emitter in the world is out of the picture . I think that under president obama we knew that we had to take strong domestic action to have the credibility we needed to lead the rest of the world to a Global Solution on climate change, which is what is necessary. And we took those steps and we were able to go to paris and we were able to actually lead the world to get a resolution that mattered, one that people would stand behind. If the countries of the world taking a pass right now, its because the United States is absent from the discussion. And we need to get it back, we need to get it back quickly. You were the administrator of the epa. I wonder both in your role there and in your career afterwards if you have relationships with other folks that have similar kinds of obligations in other countries, environmental administrators, and how they view this and how they view their own domestic politics in dealing with it. Heres the shortest answer i can give. When i talk to people, i always begin with a little bit of an apology for the United States right now because were not at the table, never mind leading. And then they always say, gina, everybody has had an administration that theyre not particularly behind, and maybe not even proud of. But dont do it again. And thats really their answer to me. Once is okay, twice is a disaster. And i think thats pretty much the going theme. Because we are losing time, we have about 11 years to really make some serious effort on climate change. We have the students out there begging for us to take action. My favorite sign was if the adults cant do it, we will. And thats what theyre poking us at. And we have to step up. Its time. This administration clearly isnt going to do it this term and its not going to do it any future term. So its up to the folks in the United States to decide who they want to stand behind. One of the things this administration is doing is actively rolling back regulations that reduce emissions. Theyre trying to get rid of methane emissions, a powerful Greenhouse Gas that stays far short duration than carbon. Theyre also blocking a pact with california for increased efficiency. How big a deal this as this su even threatening to sick the Justice Department on them. How big a deal is this story as it continues to play out . Well, i think the california thing is a big deal if everybody wasnt a little bit snickering at it. You think its so preposterous. Its absolutely preposterous. I mean, california has a right in the law to do what theyre doing. And theyre doing it in a way that made four of the Biggest Car Companies join them to protect themselves against this administrations rollback. And then the administration stood up and they proposed their rollback, and there wasnt a single automaker standing with them. Does this tell you anything . You know, what it should tell you is the world knows were moving to cleaner cars. I know that gm is responding to china because they are the biggest driver of the Auto Industry right now. I know where the world is heading. Were not heading in the direction this administration is trying to deny it. It is absolutely contemporary to reality. So gm, when they model 20 years from now and think of hundreds of millions of chinese car owners, they dont think those people are going to be driving fossil fuel combustion engines they dont. Right now theyve already invested and they have the supplies purchased for cleaner cars that are more fuel efficient just like the Obama Administration was requiring of them. And they know that if that gets all rolled back that the world is tossed up in a way that provides instability to them. They dont want it. So as much as this president thinks that all the stuff was really bad for the industries involved, hes not talking to the industries involved. Hes just playing some kind of an i told you so game. Everything you did was bad, and were going to roll it back with total disregard for what it means for those industries, but more importantly what it needs for you and me and our kids and their future. Former epa administrator, thanks forring here. Still to come, what democrats risk if they dont take action. And tonight, thing 1, thing 2 starts next. I have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. Because i can still make my own insulin. And trulicity activates my body to release it like its supposed to. Trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes. Its not insulin. I take it once a week. It starts acting in my body from the first dose. Trulicity isnt for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. Dont take trulicity if youre allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, or severe stomach pain. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. I have it within me to lower my a1c. Ask your doctor about trulicity. Thing 1 tonight, the cautionary tale for president ial candidates as things heat up on the primary trail. There are so many ways things can go wrong at foodrelated campaign events, from the awful variety of deep fried things you have to eat to the dangers of being photographed with a corn dog, to the actual physical danger of flipping pancakes. Whoa oh, no candidate missing in action. Yes whoo who said this wasnt going to be an exciting event . Hes fine. Dont worry. That was republican candidate gary bauer at a New Hampshire pancake breakfast ahead of the 2000 election. Most foodrelated campaign mishaps dont end in physical injury, but a lot of them do result in some seriously hurt pride, which brings us to this weekends polk county steak fry. Thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. Of course i have ever since i started renting from national. Because national lets me lose the wait at the counter. And choose any car in the aisle. And i dont wait when i return, thanks to drop go. At national, i can lose the wait. And keep it off. Looking good, patrick. I know. vo go national. Go like a pro. clients voice remember that degree you got in taxation . danny of course you dont because you didnt your job isnt understanding tax code. Its understanding why that. Will get him a body like that. Move . That. Your job isnt doing hard work. Here. Its making her do hard work. And getting paid for it. vo snap and sort your expenses to save over 4,600 at tax time. danny jody. Its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. The democratic president ial candidates flocked to iowa for the annual steak fry. The extra fun thing about the steak fry is everyone makes a really grand entrance. Joe biden came in with a fire truck and a marching band. His supporters shouting, fired up, ready for joe. Cory booker carried an iowa state flag as he led in a crowd of his own, chanting, we will rise. Julian castro brought along ape mariachi band and showed off some moves. A drill team with dancers and drummers led Kamala Harris and her supporters into the steak fry. The senator couldnt resist joining in the fun with them. Amy klobuchar also had a drum line joining her for her entrance and some interesting moves as well. Now, Elizabeth Warren on the other hand, she was all business. Here she is flipping steaks on the grill, which of course triggered the soy boys over at breitbart because, oh, i thought dems hate me. For the record, veggie burgers were available for the two vegan candidates, cory booker and tulsi gab asbard. My name is only three letters. It makes it really easy. They can also make yam. Yam. May. They can make may. Then they can make yam. Yeah, were very versatile. Yeah. Ersatile yeah E Post Office they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps. Com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the Amazing Services of thE Post Office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps. Com tv and never go to thE Post Office again on wednesday, President Donald Trump is going to meet with the new president of ukraine, volodymyr zelensky. Hes a fascinating guy, a comic and satirist who played the fictional president of ukraine on a tv show. Then he ran for president , won, and became the actual president in may of this year. And as president of ukraine, hes got a pretty tough job because youll remember russia took part of their country, crimea, back in 2014. They are still occupying parts of eastern ukraine. The countrys caught in a kind of tugofwar on the front lines between russia and the european union, nato allies and the u. S. The ukraine is in the midst of a postrevolutionary environment in which theyve already gotten sucked into american politics before. Plus this previous russian stooge leader of ukraine was paying Donald TrumpsCampaign ChairPaul Manafort tons of money. Imagine how this looks from the ukrainian side of things. Heres the new president of ukraine, who it appears is basically being extorted by the u. S. , and donald trump has essentially tried to get the ukrainian president to do a thing that would in any other circumstance be viewed as unacceptable, a demerit on the global stage, ginning up an investigation into a political rival. The president s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has also admitted he asked ukraine to investigate joe biden. And while the United States is putting all this pressure on the ukrainian president to do this corrupt thing for President Trump, what hangs in the balance is hundreds of millions of dollars for military aid which the ukrainians need to keep russians at bay, 250 million of which they expected, the rest being a kind of cherry on top who is not really well explained. On wednesday, all this will be before our eyes. President trump will be meeting with the man that he apparently pressured in that abuse of power, which is why we can expect trump with the ukrainian president right there beside to say in front of the cameras, issue really investigate joe biden, kind of like he did in front of the cameras the last time around. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. 30,000 emails that are missing at comcast, we didnt build the nations largest gigspeed network just to make businesses run faster. We built it to help them go beyond. Because beyond risk. Welcome to the neighborhood, guys. There is reward. Beyond work and life. Who else could he be . There is the moment. Beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. When Robert Mueller testified before congress that his report did not exonerate the president , trump claimed it did. He even said it was, quote, a great day for me. And the very next day in the midst of a per semgs that maybe hed just gotten away with it, trump gets on the phone with ukraines president and apparently pressed him to investigate joe bidens son. The problem for democrats is how you bind the behavior of this guy, who seems utterly confident that he can get away with anything. If trump is doing this kind of thing now, trying to uncover dirt or manufacture it on a political opponent with the Election Year more than a year away, whats he going to be willing to do in september 2020. I want to bring in michelle goldberg, who has a new piece out today, titled Nancy Pelosis failure to launch. Former congresswoman Elizabeth Holtz man, and david jolly, former Republican Party from florida who has since left the party. Michelle, this feels qualitatively different than things that come before. Why . What do you think . Well, i think because even people who have been very resistant to impeachment so far are starting to find Nancy Pelosis position untenable. So until now theres been a couple of different lines from people who want to avoid impeachment. Theyve either said that we have to protect the front line members, right, that this isnt that making them take this vote will endanger them. That changes when those front line members themselves start coming out for impeachment. Then theres been this argument that youll sometimes hear from pelosi allies that this has to be bipartisan. And i think that that has created such anger among the grassroots base that built the blue wave, right, that they put pelosi in power and now shes basically giving, you know, a criminal syndicate veto power over whether its boss gets indicted. Although it is the case, to speak to your perns, right . I mean bipartisanship was a real obsession of the judiciary committee. It was a real concern, and in fact it was bipartisan coming out of the Committee Really did mean something. Yes, but it didnt start out being bipartisan because there were no republicans when we started who announced for impeachment. Howard baker wasnt for impeachment or didnt think nixon was involved in the coverup until the Senate Watergate hearings took place. Right. The difference today with the democrats or some of the democrats is that they think that they cant go forward until everything is done. In other words, they have to have the end of the story before they get started. They dont believe in a process that will persuade the democrats, that will persuade some republicans, and that will persuade the american people. But i believe that can be done, has to be done. Is persuasion possible . Honestly im watching the reaction to this, and im thinking to myself, like no. This seems so clear and im watching people spin it away, some people who i think are rather smart, sophisticated folks. In part because donald trump has had basically license to completely control the narrative for the past four or five days, because we have not seen that moment where democratic leadership you know, i suggested today hold a prime Time Press Conference and explain why this is an impeachable moment. Also lets be honest, democrats, you are never going to convince republicans to impeach donald trump. Thats not happening. You have to choose your course based on your own convisictiono you know, we heard al green, and we heard other people say, look, this is not about politics. Its about principle, and i respect that. Even congressman castro said that. But it also is about politics. And not impeaching is also about politics. Right. But the idea that like if you interviewed those 40 front line members or if you interviewed 13 democrats who are in, if im not mistaken, mccain, romney seats, they dont want to vote on impeachment. I think its worth noting that maybe theyre correct about their own political fortunes and that making them do so would tangibly and materially harm the chances of the democrats for taking the house. So first of all, some of them arent going to have to vote on impeachment. Democrats can get to a majority without making all those members some have said they want to vote for impeachment because they have the same feeling about the ethical obligation of this moment in american history. But i also think that the idea that this is necessarily i agree with you that they know their seats, you know, certainly better than a pundit bloviating on television. But the idea that, you know, political dynamics change, right . And the idea that months and months of televised hearings into the comprehensive corruption of this extraordinarily hated president is going to somehow help him, right, you dont need to persuade the entire country. The people that you need to persuade are the people who disapprove of donald trump but are not yet convinced that impeachment is the right course. I agree. You dont have to persuade all the people. You just have to persuade a majority of the people, and that can be done. By the way, there are also people who are willing to take risks for principle. Thats right. I know congressman jolly says were not going to be able to persuade any republicans. It may not be zero, so maybe its but the point is we had southern democrats that we had to persuade on the house judiciary committee. You had governor wallaces Campaign Manager voted for impeachment. That was an act of courage. He didnt know what was going to happen in his district. Congressman mann from south carolina, he had no idea what was going to happen. So between a good case, a solid case, and there is a case to be made now. Theres no question about that. And a good presentation and trying to persuade republicans, and some of them were persuaded by the facts, some by the fairness of the process, and some by the people in their districts who themselves were persuaded by the evidence. Thats also part of the dynamic. So its not just fox news. Its not just the Republican Party. Its going to be the whole process. Chris, you had democrats lose their seats over voting for the clinton tax bill because they thought it was the right thing to do. When the house passed obamacare, it was polling at 40 . People walked the plank for it. It was the right thing to do, and they lost the house over the right thing to do. This is the moment the founders feared, where a president crosses an impeachable moment. The secretary of state admits this weekend that the state department enabled the president s lawyer to do so. The director of the Budget Office froze the funding in the midst of this, and the attorney general of the United States is coordinating a coverup of all of that. This is why the house was given the tool not to punish but to charge. The question is should the house charge . And for those who say, well, the senate wont convict, would you rather live in a world in which nobody tries to hold this president accountable or at least the house does . Well, and the final point i would make here to sort of go back to arguing the other side is the idea the politics of 2020 are separate from the president s actions is a little bit blown up by this because if he can do this and go around the world i mean hes going to call up Mohammed Bin Salman and say, what do the saudis have for me . Who can you hack . I mean honestly whats to the argument against impeachment has essentially been, no, the only way you remove him is in 2020. And thats true. But i might need impeachment to at least curtail his cheating in 2020. Right. If he feels that he can get away with whatever he wants to do, hes going to keep doing it, and thats going to affect how the election goes. Thank you all for joining us. That is all in for this is a. 11th hour starts right now. Breaking tonight, the fallout from President Trumps call with ukraine, late reporting the president ordered his chief of staff to put a hold on military aid to ukraine at least a week before trumps fateful phone call. Also, the Washington Post reports tonight Speaker Nancy Pelosi is sounding out democrats on impeachment. An all hands meeting tomorrow at 4 00 p. M. And pressure is building at this hour including from seven house freshmen who have defended this country saying these allegations if true are a National Security threat. The 11th hour on a monday night starts right now