Today on inside politics, republican candidates get busy bruising each other in a debate marked by insults, prepared oneliners and plenty of pettiness. Plus the speck call starts. Today is day one of the Impeachment Inquiry into joe biden. Republicans promise a show and tell. The democrats retort, wheres the evidence. And danger knocks, President Biden is in arizona to warn the country and rerevive a 2020 and 2022 Campaign Theme that democrats believe worked. That maga extremists are a singular threat to american democracy. Im dana bash. Lets go behind the headlines and ininside politics. Up first, A Chaotic Cross Talk filled debate that gave us more questions and more insults, but little clarity about who, if any, of these candidates can truly challenge donald trump. The front runner was not there again, but you could sense the desperation among those on stage to find a breakthrough moment. You could see and hear that more and more Donald Trumps republican rivals realize they wont win by playing nice with the former the president and time is running out. You know who else is missing in action . Donald trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. This is where President Trump went wrong. He focused on ftrade with china. He didnt focus on the fact they were buying up our farmland or killing americans. My former running mate donald trump actually has a olympian to start to consolidate more power in washington, d. C. Youre duck ing these things. Let me tell you whats going to happen. No one is going to call you donald trump anymore. Were going to the call you donald duck. We got insights into Policy Dimpss On Ukraine and abortion, but the tone, sharp and personal was more prominent. I ien hoppestly every time i hear you, i feel a little dumber for what you say. And what we you have gone and will make medicines in china and not america. You want kids to get on social media thats dangerous for all of us. You were in business with the chinese that gave hunter biden 5 million. We cant trust you. Joining me now to share their reporting and their insights is jeff zeleny, David Chalian and cnns Phil Mattingly. I hit the panel jackpot today. Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you so much for being here. I should say that jeff and david, you and i were up late last night. I know were not going to complain about lack of sleep, but it was very interesting to be there and to kind of get a sense of what it was like here in california. I want to start with you, David Chalian. Can you just give an overall analysis of what we saw and why it matters . We saw several people on the debate stage thirsty for attention. That was really clear in how they presented themselves last night. And what we didnt see, again, for the second time in a row now, was a front runner on that stage. So these debates are becoming this exercise where we are now just over 100 days from the Iowa Caucuses for one of these candidates to start being able to consolidate enough support in the nontrump supportive wing of the party to actually emerge as an alternative to donald trump. And so this is a process. You dont expect that to happen overnight with one debate. But you can see how they were all behaving. And with different strategic um pertives in mind, how much they wanted to opt muse their talk time for that kind of direct conversation with voters. I would just note, i thought there was little that occurred on that stage that actually is going to alter the trajectory of this race. Donald trump clearly is still a dominant front runner in the race. And theres very little last nugt that occurred with all that cross talk you noted that was chaotic at times thats going to up end that position for the front runner. Yes, it seems that that was very likely the case, but jeff zeleny, at this point, you know this better than most of us because you have been most recently out talking to voters in these key the Battleground States in early voting states, and at this point, it is to be heard to breakthrough. Its also to keep the money flowing. And to look like somebody who can potentially stay in there for a bit, particularly for the antitrump sector of the republican party. On that note, nikki haley was really trying to kind of stand out just like the first debate, she did. Lets listen to some of those moments. Okay. I dont i think we have that sound byte. I will just tell our viewers about the gist of what she did. She went after ron desantis on fracking. She went after tim scott in a very big way. We have known each other a long time, but he hasnt done any thoof. They have only given four budgets on time in 40 years. A win for russia is a win for china. I forgot you like china. Jeff zeleny . Those were certainly memorable lines. Particular ly when she was directly picking up where she left off at the first debate going after Vivek Ramaswamy. Saying famously well remember this for a long time. Everything you say makes me feel dumber. Going after tiktok on policy. But every single i critique and attack haul hale did was rooted in her strategy. It was not simply to throw darts, it was because shes trying to sort of have the lane in South Carolina to herself. What she didnt say last night to her fellow south carolinian is i put you in that seat. When she was governor of South Carolina, she appointed congressman tim scott to fill the senate seat of retiring senator demint. But that certainly was showing that she is trying to have that lane to herself. But i think overall, you hit the nail on the head about donors and money. Were at the very final days and even hours of the month of september. And the Third Quarter fundraising period. It wasnt just voters in iowa watching this debate, it was also the donors who were sitting on the sidelines waiting to jump in to help fund and support a trump alternative. So thats was a key audience as well. Thats certainly one she was playing to. Tim scott was as well. He came out with a new sense of energy and a bounce in his step, if you will, going after Vivek Ramaswamy and back at nikki haley and on abortion. He was the most improved, perhaps of the night, but overall, Florida Governor ron Desantis Center stage, he also had a very strong night. He is the leading alternative in some peoples minds. A lot of voters minds and he solidified that to some degree. Lets talk more about tim scott. You and i covered him for many years on capitol hill. And jeff just talked about the moments that he had had. Lets listen to one of them on the debate stage. America has suffered because of slavery. But we have overcome that. Black families survived slavery. We survived poll taxes and literacy tests. We survived discrimination. What was hard to survive was johnsons great society. You want to restore hope, you have to restore the family and put americans back at Work Together as one american family. Our nation continues to go in the right direction. Its why i can say i have been discriminated against, but america is not. Phil, before i bring you in here, we were talking about the back and forth between the south carolinians, nikki haley and tim scott. I talked to senator scott right after the debate. Listen to what he said about that. I was surprised by the vitriol. This is like a football game. You put the uniform on and play to win. People if youre happy and youre a warrior, sometimes there are issues that you must defend. What do you think . What i think is most interesting is if you frame what the senator told you afterwards, which best capture he would know, of what actually happened last night with tim scott in its entirety. A lot of the moments we have seen play out throughout this morning or in the wake of the debate, tim scott came out of the last debate with a lot of criticism about standing on the sidelines and not willing to engage and not doing enough in terms of Throwing Elbows around. He did that last night, but i thus the sound you played at the, that was his biggest moment of the debate. When i was talking with republicans this morning, they will all acknowledge to a person that moment when he went straight to camera talking about his personal experience. Thats a moment that you see on the campaign trail. Jeff shas seen it. It resinates. Its the moment where voters or people watching about hum or learning about him say, wow, okay, this is a different kind of candidate. This is a candidate that has a real story that im interested in. And i think that was what when i was talking to republicans throughout the course of the morning, they were saying that was the moment. Yet everyone was talking about whether or not he could throw elbows and the back and forth with ambassador haley. And thats kind of the difficulty to some degree he has in this moment. Donors will give him a ton of money. People who know him think highly of him within the party. But to get attention in this moment, when youre 30 or 40 points behind the front runner and theres that many people on stage, you have to try other things. Whether or not he can be both the happy and the warrior, he tried to demonstrate it last night, but its a challenge. He was clearly try lien more into the warrior part of the happy warrior label he so proudly wears. David, meanwhile, donald trump, its pretty clear from cnns reporting that he is not going to go to the next debate. Not a surprise. He was doing his counterprogramming thing in michigan. And he said effectively that he doesnt seen seethe anybody on the debate stage as his Vice President. Thats the way hes framing the debate that happened without him last night. They are all job candidates. They will do anything. Secretary of something. Does anybody see a vp in the group . I dont think so. Better to hear from him than to hear me talk about it. Go ahead, david. I dont think so. A little warning to the rest of the field. Nobody is in his eye as a potential vp. Donald trump is trying to do two things here. Hes trying to elevate himself to be perceived as an all but presumptivive nominee and starting to frame a general election contest with joe biden, as he was trying to do in michigan. And yet what you just heard in that sound byte that you played, hes well aware that there is still a Nomination Race to. Happen here. Voters have not weighed in. He cant just take it for granted. So he will return to iowa this weekend. His campaign has said they will be back in iowa several times throughout the month of october. Because they cant lift their foot off the gas pedal on trying to put the Nomination Race to bed, even as he wants to portray himself as the all but certain nominee. He has to do those two things simultaneously. And youre right, i dont think anybody could begrudge him on the politics of it for not showing up on the debate stage. Its been two debates, and i dont think we see any evidence hurts him not to be there. You know where he did just show up . He showed up on a list. Theres one that came out with donald trump aes name on it. We just learned that the former president maybe compelled to take the stand in his new york civil fraud trial. Its slated to start next week lets get more on that from kara scannell. The Witness Lists have come out from both the new York Attorney general and trumps defense team. Both of them have put donald trump, his adult sons, on the list as potential witnesses that both sides might call in this case. They are defies in the case. They are at the center of the case. The issue of the inflated financial statements, which the judge earlier this week ruled were fraudulent and said that the company and these individuals had engaged in persistent fraud. Now the question is, will they actually be called as witnesses. These Witness Lists are put up there because if they dont put someone on the list, they cant call them. There certainly was a lot of eagerness for trump to testify that he wanted to. But this can change always as a case is playing out. And given that the judge has found against the trump organization, theres a question of whether he would want to testify in his own defense. The a. G. Could compel had him to testify. He also sat for a video tape deposition. He said he had little, if any, role in compiling these financial statements. Thank you so much for that report. In washington, a shutdown is 72 hours away. But what are Kevin Mccarthy and matt gaetz talking about . They are talking about influencers and pay you haves and were going to explain all of that from a testy exchange, after a quick break. This morning new tensions exploiding into the open between House Republicans with just three days left until a Government Shutdown. House speaker Kevin Mccarthy went toe to toe with had matt gaetz. That happened inside a gop meeting. Manu raju was outside and got all the scoop about what happened inside. What happened . Yeah, thats right. This has been percolating for some time. Matt gaetz has been making clear that he may push a vote seeking the ouster of this speaker, if the speaker does not heed some of his demands, including over the fight over to keep the government open past saturday. Gaetz has been concerned because he believes the speakers allies have been promoting negative posts on him on social media. Paying conservative influencers, bash him on social media. Gaetz con ffronted the speaker about that this morning Behind Closed Doors and asked him about this. The speaker said he has other things to worry about than this issue. I asked gaetz about it afterwards, and he confirmed a all this happened. I asked if are you ready to move ahead with the speaker to be ousted, he indicated thats not going to happen, but thats something that continues to remain on the able to taubl. This comes as the fight over keeping the government open continue ss to play out among republicans. Particularly on the house side. The speaker is making clear he plans to have a vote tomorrow to keep the government open for a short period of time, but he does not have support among his own republicans. They have hardliners are opposed to it as Well Incollude account matt gaetz saying they dont want to keep the government open for a short period of time. I talked to one congressman this morning, eli crane of arizona, someone who is aligning himself now with that matt gaetz strategy saying he will not support a spending bill. He also made clear to vote to oust the speaker. The shutdown is the speakers fault for the way he handled the bill . In my opinion, it is. Youre the leader. You take credit for the wins. You take ownership and accountability of the losses. And quite frankly, i dont believe blased on what i have seen there was any real effort to do the appropriations process. Thats what i believe. Would he be out of a job . I think members should be looking for stronger leadership. Quite frankly i know people in my district that i represent want to see stronger leadership. Im all about it. And dana, therein lies the problem for spooker mccarthy. If he cuts a deal, hes going to face a vote pushing for an ouster. They have the votes. So the speakers calculation now, trying to get republicans to keep the government open. Republicans arent there. Even the senate is moving on a different course. Something that the speaker opposed. Thank you so much for that. Phil mattingly is back with me, along with leann ald well from the washington post. Phil, we have seen this movie so many times before. And we know how it ends. We know that there has to be a bipartisan vote in the House Of Representatives in order to overcome this. The question is, not how much pain, but what flavor of pain will be extracted. Most important lly by the amerin people, but politically inside the congress in order to get there. Yeah, just to underscore the point, its not a pa jortive. Thats a compliment. I think the former is the most important, the latter is what everybody is trying to figure out right now. The former being this has a real impact on real people. While i dont think this has a sense of matching the shutdown that we all went through in 2018 and 2019, the scale of both the macroeconomic effect, but also on individuals and contractors that didnt get back pay paed back, its significant and shouldnt be ignored. On the latter point, the difference between now and every other time we have seen this movie is i dont know how the process to get to the end. We always know theres a lot of pain in a back and forth. Lets pass some things to get in the room and still end up in the same place. They cant even do that in the House Republican conference. We have such great robeporting about a situation that doesnt have any precedent. They are trying to move your Spending Bills that have no impact on the actual stopgap bill they need to do, but they are trying to do those in order to build trust so you can vote on a stopgap bill. They dont have the votes for the full year bills. The bills would be dead on arrival and never be signed by the president. If that sounds confusing to people watching this, it is. Its completely nonsensical. Its tethered to nothing thats going to move this process forward. Were now at two and a half days until the shutdown. I mean, i just remember john boehner, merlot in one hand, cigarette in the other saying you have to work the process out. The process worked him out. I think hes probably very happy about it at this point. Lets just kind of look at the math here and the numbers that make it so clear that Kevin Mccarthy veeventually is not gog to be able to do anything that funds the government without help from the democrats. He has a fourseat majority. Theres a list of hard noes, that is longer than four. Then likely noes, longer than five. Thats absolutely right. Hes trying to negotiate with people who are never going to come to the table.