May have used the power of his elected office to obtain something of personal or political value from a Foreign Government. Perhaps by means of extortion. And again, wherever a court or congress may come down on that the president , himself, has now admitted to some elements of it, saying, yes, he did talk with ukraines president about criminally investigating joe biden and his son hunter. The conversation i had was largely congratulatory, largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we dont want our people like Vice President biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the ukraine. The president s surrogates are trying to claim whatever the president may have said his concern was corruption in the ukraine as he was just talking about there. There is no evidence of anything having to do with joe biden or his son. The president is speaking as if there is. The president is hoping you will get distracted by that. That if he repeats it enough itll start to seem like a fact. Its not. What hes trying to do is distract you from getting caught saying something that is improper and possibly illegal for a sitting president to do. Pressure a foreign leader into criminally investigating an american political rival, someone the president is worried about losing to in the next election. When the story first broke the president himself flat out denied anything inappropriate. Last thursday he tweeted, quote, is anybody dumb enough to believe that i would Say Something inappropriate with a foreign leader while in such a potentially heavily populated call . Sunday he admitted he had and this morning connected it to the 250 billion in military aid to ukraine. It is very important to talk about corruption. If you dont talk about construction 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 it is very important that on occasion you speak to somebody about corruption. It is very important that on occasion you speak to somebody about corruption. We should point out this has not been a big topic the president has publicly discussed. Corruption in countries around the world. You might believe it is simply a coincidence he says he is concerned about corruption in ukraine. Even if you believe that according to the reporting of the wall street journal he certainly seems focused on the bidens in the ukraine. According to the journal he brought up the bidens around eight times in that conversation back at the end of july. Several weeks later the president blocked that military aid package to ukraine that had already passed congress. Parts of ukraine as you know are under russian occupation. The money would have gone to defending against further russian aggression. So its not trivial stuff and certainly not for ukraine. The president finally relented to bipartisan pressure and approved the aid. The president has publicly claimed he wants us all to see the transcript of the call. I hope you get to see the call because your question you will see i did not ask for i did not make a statement that you have to do this or im not going to give you a. I wouldnt do that. Wouldnt have to do that either. It seems clear what he is saying there but in the last several days hes been really playing cat and mouse on whether he will release the transcript. Does this sound familiar . He said hed love to. He also said he might not. Today he said both in a single sentence, perhaps he will. Perhaps he wont. It is similar to what he has said about releasing his tax returns or being interviewed by Robert Mueller in person. Hed love to, he would say, but the lawyer says he cant. Whatever the case may be we do not know precisely what was said on that call but it certainly is possible he made no explicit threat about withholding aid. Again, did he really need to spell it out . Especially with his personal attorney Rudy Guiliani who for weeks has been meeting with ukrainian officials pressuring ukrainians to investigate the bidens which is of course not normal, not for any president and any party ever which the president s treasury secretary must have known yesterday even as jake tapper asked him this. Let me just close by asking, if, for instance, president obama had pressured a foreign leader, putin or the president of the ukraine and said, i want you to look into donald trump jr. Or i want you to look into eric trump, international businessmen, both of them. Would you not find that inappropriate . Again, im not going to speculate on that. Itll certainly come up in the conversation tonight on that and the whistle blower complaint apparently connected to it. First, breaking news just in. A new action tomorrow in the house concerning the investigation. Well go to the united nations. What do you know about this democratic, the meeting among democrats, plans tomorrow for a meeting . Reporter anderson, this is really interesting. Were learning that House Democrats are going to meet tomorrow afternoon. This is in addition to the meeting they typically have in the morning to discuss run of the mill issues, trade, what not. Theyll meet especially tomorrow afternoon to talk about the next steps theyre taking in their investigations. Of course, one of the topics is likely to come up during that meeting is going to be the white house refusal so far to turn over this whistle blowers complaint to congress, something the law mandates that the Inspector General if the Inspector General does deem it urgent, which we should note he has and also comes after the questions after nancy pelosi said if the white house didnt turn it over it was going to lead to an escalation with congress. That is noteworthy because so far she has been hesitant to make any calls or pushes for impeachment. So far there are questions about whether she is softening that stance and that is what people are going to be watching for coming out of that meeting tomorrow which we should note is also for members only. No staff so far based on what were told is going to be invited to that meeting. How are people in the white house viewing this . The president himself admitted to bringing up the bidens in his conversation with the ukrainian president which is why the wall street journal reported it. Yeah. As the president was admitting that leaving the white house yesterday his aides were on tv insisting, no, he did not pressure the ukrainians in that conversation. He didnt make any mention of that aid package. When the president today was making clear he thinks if he did bring up the aid package in relation to this investigation that he wants to happen into joe biden and his family, he thinks it would be appropriate. Right now aides are dismissing it saying this is just how the president speaks. They are watching closely to see what the reaction is going to be not just among republicans but also are new democrats going to call for his impeachment . Theyve been dismissing it publicly but theyre going to be paying close attention to that meeting tomorrow afternoon to see what it is the House Speaker says after meeting with the caucus. If congress doesnt get a transcript or recording of the call, is there any chance the white house would actually release it . I know the president has said at some point i would like to. Thats what he said about tax returns and the mueller interview. Reporter yeah. And he waivered back and forth. Really the president has been the only person who has said, yes. Hed like to see this transcript released. So far people in the white house tng would create a dangerous precedence and lead to lawmakers asking for transcripts of calls with Vladimir Putin and other world leaders. It is really up to their discretion whether to release it but the question is whether to release the whistle blowers complaint not to the public but even the Intelligence Committee as the law mandates. That is something theyre even waffling on saying it would set a dangerous precedent. With that it doesnt come down to the precedent but it is the law for them to release it. Thanks very much. Adding to the pressure on the white house upcoming testimony in the whistle blower portion of the story. The acting director of National Intelligence is due in front of the house Intelligence Committee on thursday behind closed doors. A growing appetite among House Democrats for impeachment. Just before air time i spoke with the tennessee democratic congressman steve cohen. Congressman, how much does the situation with President Trump and ukraine change the calculus in the house . I mean, youve been pushing for impeachment since 2017. Has this latest controversy taken things to a new level among your fellow democrats . I think it has. Of course, it depends on the facts as they are developed. And if they are very close to what weve read in the reports from the washington post, of him basically leveraging military aid to the ukraine that they need to defend themselves from russian invasion, on their investigating allegations about joe bidens son hunter, then if theyre close i think itll bring us to a new place where well have another article of impeachment and maybe an article we can all get on and agree is something the republicans should join us on and if they dont, hopefully so be it. It doesnt matter to you if there is not any, you know, no way it would pass in the senate because of the lack of the republican support. You think the house should still go ahead and do this . I most certainly do because i think we have a duty. We take an oath of office to uphold the constitution. We are given the power to sanction or counter veil a president through impeachment who we feel the facts show has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. And some of that is just the inability to operate as chief executive of the nation. And when somebody uses the powers of the government, the powers of the nation for their own political benefit, and does it in a way that appears to be a bribe to a foreign official, we have a duty our oath to take action. Even more than that, i think as a history student its important that history record President Trump in the same category as andrew johnson, a president who was impeached, not convicted, but impeached for good cause. And history should note he is in that same class. There is an argument that of course among some democrats that this will ignite or rev up the president s base and obviously there are concerns about the 2020 election. Should that be taken into account . I dont see it. Number one, we have a duty. Number two, the president is going to lie no matter what we do about things weve done and about things we havent done and about things he imagines and things that are underneath rocks that dont even exist. So you cant base any of your actions on what the president might do because the president will do anything that he possibly can to be reelected. He learned at the foot of roy coen who was one of the most despicable human beings ever to disgrace the earth. Speaker pelosi still hasnt publicly endorsed impeachment proceedings and says the situation with the whistle blower and ukraine could precipitate what she called a whole new stage of investigation. Do you need her onboard in order to move forward with impeachment or is there willingness to do this with or without her blessing . We need her onboard to get the 218 votes to have the house officially impeach him which would put the senate on the spot and cause several senators to have to show the American People are they with the constitution and the rule of law or are they with donald trump. For republican senators that are in difficult seats to defend, and i would suspect that is arizona, maine, colorado, could even be texas, itll be important to see whether they uphold their oath to the constitution or go down as trumpers. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Anderson, good to be with you. Much more ahead including the reaction from republicans and criticism plus a republican strategist take on why that is so rare. Also tonight the president s lawyer Rudy Guiliani a familiar face in a familiar role. At verizon, were building the most powerful 5g experience for america. Thats why the nfl chose verizon. Because they need the massive capacity of 5g with ultra wideband, so more screaming, streaming, posting fans. 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Run with us. Search john deere 1 series for more. Welcome back. We have been looking at the white house reaction to all the coverage about the president s conversation with the ukrainian president. Tomorrow apparently the democrats are going to meet to discuss next steps in the investigation of the president. Far less attention has been put on the republican side. Here is a healthy piece after fairly small sample of republicans talking about this. It is regrettable that house Intelligence Committee chairman schiff and senator schumer have chosen to politicize the issue. I would like to have the whistle blower come and talk to me so we know what his story is. I dont want to hear it second hand. I believe President Trump is going to blow you away with his willingness to disclose and transparent about this phone call, because i think he did nothing wrong, and he has nothing to hide. The bottom line is i dont think he should have done it but thats a far cry from what some people around here are claiming to know as fact that frankly we dont know as fact. I think there are people in the Intelligence Community and other parts of our government that just have it out for the president. Mit romney is one of the few to openly criticize the president tweeting if the president asked the president of ukraine to investigate his political rival it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the facts to come out. Our guests may differ on the wording. Our political analyst and cnn commentator and former Bush Campaign media adviser and dana bash. What are you ha ergo from republicans on the hill . Certainly not saying much publicly. What are they saying privately . Nothing. What you just heard publicly is what is going on privately, which is nothing. Except for the condemnation of the, quoteunquote, hysteria of democrats on what they think could be a very big problem, what is a very big problem on its face, the president of the United States admitting that he made completely inappropriate comments to another foreign leader about a political opponent. That in itself should be a green light for the trump appointed Inspector General to be able to give a report or just a complaint rather, just a complaint to congress because thats the way it should go. But what you are hearing is crickets from republicans and ive even talked to some democrats, anderson, who have, you know, kind of private conversations with some of the potential republicans who would poke their head out of the hole on Something Like this, and even for them, they are hearing nothing. Im wondering where you are on this. I mean, if and on republicans reaction to it. If president obama had done this and pressed a foreign leader to investigate mitt romneys son ahead of the election i wouldnt be surprised, i imagine republicans would have taken immediate steps to impeach or at least spoken out about it. What do you make of this . Yeah. Obama would be in a gulag somewhere, anderson. What i make is that most republicans now with a very few exceptions like romney have concluded theyre working for president houdini and they just saw that the that we spent 32 million on a twoyear investigation with the toughest prosecutor in america and couldnt scratch a flame. So i think theyre looking at that saying this guy is bullet proof and there is no reason for us to get out over our skis on this so lets at the very least wait and see. The thing thats most bothersome i think, anderson, is the point dana was raising, which is President Trump is just going further and further about thwarting the laws of this country and in this case a trump appointed Inspector General is the guy who said, hes supposed to be the filter to say, is this worthy . He is saying not only is it worthy hes saying it is urgent and the law says you have to give that to congress and theyre saying, nope. Dont have to. Cant make me