that s outpacing disapproval in most of the polls. all but one of the polls you re seeing here, so impeachment is more complicated politically than just the inquiry. but these numbers for trump, these numbers are significantly higher than they have been before at any other point in his presidency. the ukraine story has brought support for impeachment into the mid-40s. it was not there before. how does this compare to two other presidents. first of all, this was richard nixon, polling from when the house began an impeachment inquiry, in february 1974, and this is, they want nixon impeached as the inquiry began, it was 38%. by the end, a few months later, all the hearings more revelations, smoking gun tape, that approval number was in the 50s and 60s by the time nixon was compelled to leave office. clinton started at 31 when the impeachment inquiry began. never really changed from there.
interest. they were not what we would define legally as whistle-blowers. having two whistle-blowers now who are providing what will amount to evidence where that sntd trial is important. whether any of them come out and speak in public and can be in the trial as witnesses who we see and hear from on television is a second question. but it s certainly legally powerful to have a growing list of individuals who are not only witnesses but witnesses who are not stonewalling the way some of mueller s star witnesses did like don mcgahn. you mentioned the mueller report and a couple of people who got ensnared by the mueller investigation are now doing hard time. you look at this ukraine story. you ve got the secretary of state, you ve got the attorney general william barr, the energy secretary rick perry now, even vice president mike pence. so you ve got several people close to the president. we know that several people close to nixon faced legal consequences. do you think these officials he
a slip-up by the president, a change in direction by the president on a phone call can undo months and months of diplomatic work towards a u.s. policy goal. larry pfiefer, good to talk with you. i ll look forward to speaking with you again. thank you so much. thank you, alex. now to what might have been a shock to some late yesterday, a republican ally of the president shutting down to some degree his no quid pro quo on the ukraine story. republican senator ron johnson claims in a new interview, a u.s. diplomat told him the military aid was linked to the president s request for ukraine to investigate the bidens. that diplomat, u.s. ambassador to the eu, gordon somblin, who donated $1 million to the president s inaugural committee. nelson cunningham is a former federal prosecutor and a clinton white house lawyer who is voluntarily advising the biden campaign. welcome back. we saw you last weekend. here we go again, nelson. based on your diplomatic experience, why would sondeland b
nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 985 of the trump administration. here is our president from justice tonight. and we, quote, as i learn more and more each day, i come to the conclusion what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a coup intended to take away the power of the people, their vote, their freedoms, their second amendment, religion, and god-given rights as a citizen of the united states of america. it appears the ukraine story has broken through and is causing some real early damage. the second note came tonight from the associated press following up on the president s comments there by reminding its rewards, quote, a coup is usually defined as a sudden violent and illegal seizure of government power. the impeachment process is laid out in the u.s. constitution. be that as it may, and undeterred by definition, it s something our president invokes regularly. this was an attempted coup.
president tried to extort election help from a foreign leader. we know this. so that is new jersey democratic congressman tom malinowski. is his seeming confidence that they are starting to tell this story not in the letter a but closer to the letter lmnop, is that confidence founded, do you think? i think when democrats have to be careful of here is to make sure they re not sounding too confident and too political. i think we re hearing that from some of the more moderate democrats in those swing states really being careful in how they approach this. the way they re talking about it is that this is an inquiry, this is an investigation, we re going to see, you know, where the facts lead us, seeing similar language from speaker pelosi and the people leading the democratic congressional committee, the democratic senatorial campaign committee, people on those fronts are being more cautious. both of our guests have agreed to stay with us. coming up, with everything