Including ph fbiincludefiona hir senior advisor, Michael Mckinsey and the president s ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland. More interviews are scheduled for next week. Lets bring in Dan Henninger, Kyle Peterson and kim strassel. Dan, what did we learn this week from the impeachment proceedings and a lets start with the witnesses on capitol hill. Well, we pretty much learned what the democrats want us to learn and what theyre handing out to the press. Again, the hearings are being held in secret. I mean, you had to love nancy pelosi, just the most hutspah saying she appreciates the support of her caucus, pursuing this the way they have in fairness. Do you think the white house considers it fair, holding the hearings in secret . All were learning is that indeed state Department Officials were upset at the idea that they were being pressed in ukraine to include an investigation of joe biden and possibility the idea that ukraine was involved somehow in the 2016 election because they were trying to work on ukrainian corruption and this was distracting them from that. That is the story that is being conveyed and presumably this is being into an article of impeachment against the president. Paul kim, anything else coming out here . Because the narrative that the democrats are building is in fact that this was an attempt to help the president s president sn and tarnish jojo. Joe biden. We dont have ale details. If you go back to what the original supposedly Impeachable Offense was is that the president said quid pro quo, you cant have your money unless you do an investigation of joe biden. Gives us dirt. Whats notable about this week is that even what leaked testimony we have got does not necessarily support that. Nothing has actually provided evidence of that. It wasnt in the transcript and nothing that these people have said, even the stuff that democrats are putting out that can be most damaging, theyre still not hitting what that point. We see goal posts being moved a little bit where suddenly the question is, well, did you say that you would withhold aid for anything. Thats a quid pro quo. Its obviously not. The United States makes demands constantly and threatens to withhold aid for demands from other countries. That would be the takeaway. Paul kyle, nancy pelosi seems not to be under too much pressure to actually hold an authorization vote, unlike both the nixon and the clinton impeachments. And the secrecy thing, the press corps seems to be going right along, which i do find extraordinary, since were all supposed to be about transparency and democracy dies in darkness as the Washington Post likes to say. How is she getting away with this . I think thats the answer right there. Theres not a lot of pressure on her. Its possible they intend to rectify this later on and theyll recall witnesses and redo witnesses they already did. Paul in public. Exactly. I think thats the biggest weakness right now. If youre in her shoes, i would think you would want to present this as very nonpartisan affair, being conducted fairly. I think you would want to play by the same rules that the nixon impeachment process and clinton impeachment process went by. But there seems to be theres not a lot of pressure on capitol hill to make her do you that among her caucus. I think the strategy is to try the president in the court of public opinion. I mean, shes got these members of her caucus, the 30 or so that were elected from republican seats in the midterm elections, most of whom dont want to take this vote. Theyre building this case. A lot of publicity the past week has been bad for the president. Paul no question. And they keep building this up as far as the press. Theyre kind of part of the prosecution. Theyre happy to take this stuff of theyve been fighting with trump for two years. So this is part of an look, this impeachments has been going on since the day donald trump was elected. Right . And it was inevitable. S is anyone surprised we have reached this point. Paul i want too talk about mick mulvaney, we have a sound bite of something he said at the white house this week. I was involved with the process by which the money was held up temporarily. Okay. Three issues for that. The corruption in the country, whether or not other countries were participating in the support of the ukraine and whether or not they were cooperating in an a Ongoing Investigation with our department of justice. Thats completely le legit mitt. Paul the r portrayal of this is that he conceded there was in fact a quid pro quo and, therefore, that this is essentially signing the confession statement as one of the democrats put it. This is what we got to just earlier when we talked. I mean, is it a problem for an administration to say theres accusations you meddled in our election in 2016. We need you to p cooperate with our department of justice probe and explain what you did a couple years ago. Forgive me if im wrong. I think we tasked Robert Mueller to do the same thing for three years, say what was russias influence in our 2016 election. They are now asking for the same thing. Now, he did say that they threatened to withhold aid. He also made the point which didnt get as much attention on tv that nobody suggested it was an Impeachable Offense when the Trump White House said to Central American countries, were not going to give you aid unless you deal with some of the immigration problems that are happening or helps us with our immigration problems on the border. This is somewhat diplomacy. Paul you know what they ought to do . They ought to have it in public so everybody can inspect and see the real facts and let it all play out. When we come back, tensions between President Trump and nancy pelosi reached a boiling point this week as the House Speaker walks out of a white house meeting on syria. Well take a closer look at the political fallout from the president s troop withdrawal, next. I took a lot of heat from a lot of people, even some of the people in my own party. [phone ringing] how are we doing . Fabulous. I wonder how the firms doing without its fearless leader. You sure you want to leave that all behind . Yeah. Stay restless, with the icon that does the same. The new rx crafted by lexus. Lease the 2020 rx 350 all wheel drive for 439 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. No, just a sec. What would it look like if we listened more . Could the right voice, the right set of words, bring us all just a little closer . Get us to open up . Even push us further . It could, if we took the time to listen. The most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories. Download audible and listen for a change. Beyond the routine checkups. Beyond the notsoroutine cases. Comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. All working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gigspeed network. Because 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. Two to one, the republicans voted to oppose what he was doing in syria. He just couldnt handle the kind of engaged in a meltdown. Paul tensions between President Trump and House Speaker nancy pelosi reaching a boiling point this week with Top Democrats walking out of a white house meeting on syria and each side accusing the other of having a meltdown. The drama followed a house vote wednesday on a resolution condemning the president s withdrawal from Northern Syria with 129 republicans joining their democratic colleagues and supporting the measure which passed by an overwhelming vote of 35460. Before we get to that, i want to hit some Unfinished Business from the first discussion. And that is, one of the things we did find out this week i think from the testimony is that there were a lot of state department and nse officials really worried about Rudy Giuliani and the president running a kind of back door operation with ukraine. Right. So the u. S. Ambassador to eu testified that the president told him to talk to Rudy Giuliani and Rudy Giuliani told him that the president was very worried about corruption in the ukraine and wanted an investigation into 2016 and wanted some looking at the barisma. Rudy giuliani knew hunter biden was working there. Thats why you dont have the president s personal attorney freelancing on Foreign Policy. He may soon see the underside of a bus. Paul i think this is the biggest problem and poor, poor judgment on the president s part. I agree. If there is one thing you single out and you say this was a big mistake was letting Rudy Giuliani go over and act outside of the use misse the use missess of the state department. What was he doing there in any event . Thats why we have a state department. He was over there to push them to investigate joe biden which at least supports the quid pro quo fair at this moment it. It makes it difficult to deny it. Paul it was a terrible idea thats now backfiring on the president. Lets talk about the showdown at the white house, the backlash on syria. How serious a problem is this for the president s Foreign Policy . I think its a pretty darn serious problem because its the first time that trump has gotten this kind of pushback. There was a vote in the house, a lot of republicans supported it. Over in the senate, senator Lindsey Graham along with chris holland, a democrat from mayor maryland, are creating a bill that would impose heavier sanctions on turkey and erdogan than the white house imposed. I think Lindsey Graham says he might be able to get 80 votes for this. What it adds up to is finally the trump Foreign Policy approach and agenda is getting puckback from official washington. I think thats a good sign for the president at this point. You watch it to what weve seen about ukraine. Its piling up and you feel people are pulling back a little bit from the president s Foreign Policy. Paul tremendous dysfunction, i cant remember in my time covering washington that there was this kind of lack of even political decorum of even the most basic kind between a president and a House Speaker. Well, look, can we be surprised really . Theyre sitting down at a table and theyre facing off and a hes looking at this woman who has commenced an impeachment inquiry into him. It just says something about the toxic nature of that event and how we are unlikely to have any comedy, any civility or any progress on any issue in washington. Paul if youre the president , shouldnt your goal here be to marshall a defense on impeachment and then separate that out from your agenda and be able to and put pressure on nancy pelosi and say all right, youre going to do impeachment but lets what are you going to do for the American People . Are you going to pass the usmca agreement . Are you going to do something on the rest of your ayou jen da or not . Agenda or not . You see brief moments where he seems to be interested in doing that. A couple weeks ago he gave a speech on health care and said look, the democrats are not doing anything for you here. We need to make fixes and changes, heres what im doing, putting a spotlight on their failings. But its as if the discipline doesnt last for very long. I agree. I think its bad on both sides. 120 republicans buck the president s side here. Hes come down on republicans in the past like a ton of bricks. They live in fear of the tweet, maybe not so much any longer. On the other side, he wants nancy pelosi to help pass the usmca trade deal. If he doesnt get it, he talked about maybe well rip up nafta. I dont think its good for the president s reelection. Paul ill undermine the economy im running on for reelection if they dont pass the usmca, that would be suicidal. Its not all politics. The president took this decision to pull 1,000 troops back from the turkish border, the turks made the decision to move into Northern Syria. The president presumably has been taking a lot of advice from senator rand paul who is indeed an isolationist. So you cant just do these things on the assumption that there will not be any consequences. There are real substantial consequences. The russians moved soldiers into the area. Erdogan is meeting tuesday with Vladimir Putin and youve got the possibility of isis people being released in the next year. There could be an isis event, maybe possibly in europe. And the president will pay the price for anything like that happening. Paul thank you all. When we come back, as the u. S. Brokers a temporary cease fire in syria, a look at who benefits most from the deal with turkey and the damage already do you recall, not long ago we would walk on the sidewalk all around the wind blows we would only hold on to let go blow a kiss into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss into the sun we needed somebody to lean on all we need is someone to lean on mom youve got to [ get yourself a new car. G ] i wish i could save faster. Youre making good choices. Youll get there. Were you going to tell me about this . I know i cant afford to go. I still have this car so you can afford to go. I am so proud of you. Thanks. Principal. We can help you plan for that. Start today at principal. Com. To the wait did frowe just winners. Prouders everyone uses their phone differently. Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. Now you can share it between lines. Mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. Its a different kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 250 back when you buy an eligible phone. Call, click, or visit a store today. A week after Turkish Forces crossed into syria, turkey and the United States of america have you agreed to a cease fire in syria. It will be a pause in military operations for 120 hours. While the United States facilitates the withdrawal of ypg from the affected areas in the safe zone and once that is completed, turkey has agreed to a permanent cease fire. Paul that was Vice President mike pence announcing a temporary cease fire in syria. They agreed thursday to pause military operations for five days while the United States facilitates the withdrawal of the kurdish Led Syrian Democratic forces from a 20mile safe zone along the border. President trump taking a victory lap following the announcement even as fighting on the ground in syria reportedly continues. Kurds are very happy, turkey is very happy. The United States is very happy and you know what, civilization is very happy. Its a great thing for civilization. Paul mark duvowtiz is chief executive for the foundation for democracy. Nice to see you again. The president called it an aa macing outcome, everybodys happy, how do you see it. I wish it was you true but i dont think thats correct. I dont think the kurds are happy. I think the United States has abandoned them for potential slaughter. I think that the its true that the russians, the iranians and bashir assad in syria are happy because theyre now going to extend their control over the country. But i think for u. S. Al lies and u. S. U. S. Allies and u. S. Partners around the world, i think the United States has reinforced a warning from irans force leader that america always abandons its friends. Paul lets talk about the cease fire specifically. This is now said to have created at least a space for the kurds to be able to get out of that zone where the turks are shelling. And then give some time to negotiate a larger agreement that would protect the kurds and also protect the turkish interest. Is that is there a chance that that happens . Well, i just think its a lot more difficult to do that than it was a couple week ago. A kim weeks ago we had u. S. Special forces on the ground working closely with the kurds. We had u. S. Air power there. We were controlling a part of syria with most of syrias oil reserves, that gave us leverage for negotiation was th negotiate russians and assad regime. You now we withdrew the special forces. Assad and the russians are moving into the territory. Unfortunately, i think were in a worse position now with less leverage to negotiate any kind of agreement or settlement on this issue. Paul the president said that erdogan, the president of turkey, made this concession on the suspension of hostilities for five days because of the poe ten potential damage from the economic sanctions and other sanctions that the president announced. I guess is that true . And why did erdogan give this five day reprieve if thats what it is. I think erdogan realized hes getting everything he wants. I think he was facing significant resistance from the kurds and probably realized he wasnt able to push further south, given the Kurdish Military forces there. So instead, he took the five day pause which is really not a cease fire. Its an opportunity for him to consolidate his gains and faces the sanctions that the president imposed on turkey and erdogan were not very effective. They had little impact. In fact, the president has been resisting tough sanctions congress put in place over the years. Paul so erdogan did this as a kind of hes getting what he wants is what you argue and the president and the United States isnt getting all that much. What about the