Trump into his political rivals. There is also new reporting as well that President Trump ordered the ambassador to ukraine removed because the president s allies, including lawyer Rudy Giuliani said she was interfering with the president s efforts against biden. Also, late word that kurt volker, the president s special envoy for ukraine told house investigators today that giuliani was warned about the ukrainian sources of the Biden Allegations that he was peddling. The message to giuliani, that he was being fed, quote, untrustworthy information. Additionally, cnn has learned that volker told house investigators he warned ukraines leadership not to interfere in u. S. Politics. This was after the call with President Trump at the end of july. In other words, he told them not to do what the president and giuliani and later the Vice President pence and others were pressuring them to do. There is yet more reporting from volkers appearance today. Text messages, including one from the top u. S. Diplomat to ukraine at the time telling american colleagues, quote, i think its crazy to withhold Security Assistance to ukraine for help with a Political Campaign. And finally, on top of all that, there is new word tonight of another whistleblower, this time at the irs, alleging political interference involving the president or Vice President s tax returns. All of this at the end of a news day dominated by President Trump openly doing what he has loudly denied doing in private and what he says was his perfect phone call with the president of ukraine. Today the president standing on the south lawn of the house asked president zelensky of ukraine and chinas president as well to criminally investigate joe biden and his son hunter. Mr. President , what exactly did you hope zelensky would do . Well, i would think that if they were honest about it that so they would start a Major Investigation into the bidens. Its a simple answer. They should investigate the bide dense. And by the way, likewise china should start an investigation into the bidens. There it was. A u. S. President openly pushing two foreign governments to criminally investigate his leading political rival. Just within the last couple of hours, cnn has learned about a call between president s trump and xi, a call that was stored in the same code word classified system as that call with the ukrainian president. So lets begin with that. Cnns pamela brown joins us. So talk to me about what youve learned about this call. Well, anderson, we have learned that during this phone call with chinese president xi back in june, President Trump raised joe bidens political prospects as well as those of senator Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls. This is according to two people familiar with the discussion. So it shows the president mixing Foreign Policy with domestic politics. And in that call, anderson, trump also told xi that he would remain quiet on the hong kong protests as trade talks progressed. Now sources tell me, anderson, that the president believed that china would not be able to reach as good as a trade deal with biden or warren as it would have with him because he was fearing that they were going to hold out until after the election to strike a deal. Now the white house record of that call were told was later stored in that highly secured Electronics System used to house that now infamous call with ukraines president and which helped spark the whistleblower complaint that has led democrats to open an impeachment inquiry. White house secretary stephanie gri grissam said were not going to start comments with every conversation President Trump has with World Leaders other than to say his comments are always appropriate. Has there been reaction from china about this call in june or what the president said on the south lawn today . There has been quite a reaction, anderson. After the president boldly called on china to investigate the Biden Allegations, were told that chinese officials were basically sent into scramble mode. One of them, a diplomat saying this is quite chaotic. We do not want to get into the middle of u. S. Politics. Now one trump ally outside the white house described receiving a message from Chinese Government officials asking hey, is President Trump serious when he suggested china open an investigation into biden . The response, investigating corruption is an easy way to earn goodwill with trump. Now the chinese did not immediately clarify if they would be launching an investigation or if they would make it public this they do. There is no evidence, we should note, anderson, that the former Vice President received money from china. And last week one of Hunter Bidens lawyers told the Washington Post that he hadnt received any return or compensation on the account of the investment or his position on the board of directors. So his lawyer basically dismissing these allegations. But it is significant that in the wake of the impeachment proceedings by the democrats because of the president s call with ukraine, the president called on china to investigate biden, and now were learning that in june, the president raised biden in the conversation in the context of domestic politics. Anderson . Pamela brown, appreciate it. A lot to get to. We should note that just moments ago, president ial candidate and senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted her reaction to the reporting. Trump can say what he wants about me, but its outrageous any president would sell out the people of hong kong behind closed doors. We need a leader who will stand up for our values. Now more new reporting, this from the wall street journal on the role that Rudy Giuliani and others played in the president s order to remove the ambassador to ukraine, the one whom he later badmouthed on that call to ukraines president. Joining us for that reporting is michael bender, who shares the wall street journal byline on the story. He is also cnn special analyst. Michael, youd lave out what you learned about the president s involvement in the removal of the ambassador. Just explain the latest information that you have. Sure. The headline on this story and the news that we were chasing on this is that President Trump is the one who in fact ordered the removal of the Ukrainian Ambassador earlier this spring. And the reason he did that was that he was getting information from Rudy Giuliani and others outside the administration that the ambassador was antitrump, was talking poorly about the president , and was also blocking Rudy Giulianis efforts to push ukraine to investigate joe biden, who is obviously a 2020 president ial candidate and a potential rival to mr. Trump. We should point out, President Trump, he didnt deny it, but he said that he didnt remember if he had her removed or somebody else did. But Rudy Giuliani doesnt deny that he was badmouthing the ambassador, career professional to the president. He told you and your colleagues that he told the president that his supporters were concerned about the ambassador as well. Is that right . Thats totally right. The president was asked why he wanted the ambassador out earlier today, and he said he couldnt recall he couldnt remember if he recalled her or somebody else. Im not sure what he meant there. The ambassador never talked to the president and never talked to actually mike pompeo either. So i think if hes talking than direct, direct conversation, thats definitely true. But we have sources around the administration telling us that it was in fact the president who was adamant about removing her. And not only that, but Rudy Giuliani tells us in our story that he reminded this has been going on for a while. His investigation, his pursuits in the ukraine have been going on for a while. He says he reminded the president in the spring that the president in fact had wanted her out. And that set off a cascade of phone calls that included mike pompeo and Rudy Giuliani talking about how to get rid of the ambassador. So is there any indication that secretary pompeo did anything to defend the ambassador who by all accounts really hadnt done anything wrong, other than apparently not supported this idea of investigating the bidens . And did he push back against this . Well, thats a good question, and two important points there. As we also say in our story, no one from the white house or the state department or anyone in government can say point to any actual proof that the ambassad ambassad ambassador yovanovitch was a problem. Even they go on television, joe digenova and some of these other allies they never have information to point to say she was a problem. As to the question whether pompeo defended her or protected her, giuliani says that he talked to mike pompeo to tell him that the state department was protecting her, that the president had wanted her out for the better part of a year, and she wasnt out. How she was protected its unclear, but i can tell you with certainty that at the end of the day, mike pompeo agreed with the president and agreed that she had to go. Michael bender, fascinating reporting. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Joining us now is cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin, Obama White HouseCommunications Director general sake, david gergen, and maggie haberman. Maggie, you and your colleagues at the New York Times have reporting about the president in the ukraine. What is it . Our understanding is there was a draft of a statement that was done by the ambassador of ukraine, Gordon Sunland in addition with kurt volker, the state Department Official who was on the hill today testifying behind closed doors about this whole issue. The statement was presented to staff, to the ukraine president zelensky as something he could say publicly that they would investigate this company that hunter biden had worked for and commit to investigating what they believed was involvement by the ukraine in the 2016 elections, or what they believed could exist. Ultimately the statement was never issued. But it does, again, show a desire to try to bend Foreign Policy to the president s political needs. And i believe that this is something that came up on the hill today. So this is the the u. S. Ambassador who is involved in this, this is the person who replaced the ambassador who had been removed by President Trump . Right. And gordon sumland was a big contributor to the president , was somebody who you know, there were Text Messages about this statement that they were drafting that they were hoping to get zelensky to issue publicly, because it would be a commitment, basically, to an investigation that hadnt been made previously. And the text message is im not sure if there has been so many different stories today. Im not sure if its the times that has them, but i saw Text Messages from, this and i guess volker was one of the people on the Text Messages, which is how they came out. In which it seems to indicate the current ambassador was concerned, essentially saying that this is theyre holding up aid in order to advance, you know, an attack against the president s political opponent, and the ambassador to the European Union essentially said thats not the case, and lets take this discussion offline. Correct. And excuse me. I should be clear. Sumland was the ambassador to the eu, and i misunderstood you before you were talking. And he said yes, lets not continue this back and forth over texts. Said there is no quid pro quo and was explicit about this. But again, it is still going to raise questions about why the aid was being held, what the goal was in getting this statement in front of staff to president zelensky in the hopes that he would actually make a public concession that would then be apiecing to the president and to Rudy Giuliani. David, i mean this reporting, does it make it seem like the president s personal political agenda is essentially under pressure being promoted by certain members within the state department, at his urging, including the ambassador to the new ambassador to ukraine . Absolutely. The president s pressure for this result is ensnared in now one official after another, one cabinet officer after another. It does go in the state department. I think standing back from today, i must tell you, anderson, there are not many days in washington that one can call historic, even though they may be eventful. But todays came darn close. This is a calling out and inviting china, our chief rival to interfere in our elections by opening an investigation that would further Donald Trumps political interests, to bring china into the middle of this after bringing russia in. Remember, during the campaign telling the russians to go ahead and hack hillarys emails. Right. That was said to be a joke. That was said to be a joke according to his supporters. Yeah, bad joke. But then telling the russian officials in his office that he didnt really care whether the russians were interfering with our elections. To tell that about both of our chief rivals in the world is so deeply offensive to the spirit of the constitution, to what hamilton was talking about in federalist 68. What madison said in his notes, that they believe that the gravest threat that could be posed to the United States by a foreign power would be to interfere in our elections of a president. And here the president is just doing this cavalierly, openly. He is sort of daring the house to impeach him. Right. And jeff, whats fascinating about this, Vice President pence during the election, during the debate, he looked at the camera and a sort of said with great solemnity of course its absolutely impossible to in any way think that its okay for a foreign power to interfere in an american election, now seems completely on board with it because his boss wants him to, and hes going along with it. Well, the fact that the Vice President is a toadie is not is not news or a surprise. But what really is extraordinary here is that the i mean, david i think got to it. The facts are increasingly not in dispute. Basically, the president has acknowledged that it is official u. S. Government policy to encourage, demand that ukraine assist his Political Campaign by finding dirt on joe biden. I mean, thats just increasingly clear. And the question is what are the consequences of that. Is the president going to be impeached . Is he going to be removed from office . Because the facts increasingly are not really in dispute. The only thing thats in dispute are what are the consequences. And i still think thats very much up for grabs. You havent heard really anything from republicans in any way saying, wow, thats really outrageous. The president appealed to china. Jen, as if china has a great legal system and a strong unbiased investigative levers of government. The idea that exactly. America is appealing to china to investigate an american citizen and company, the whole thing is its nuts. It is completely bananas, nuts, every fruit or vegetable or nut you can think of. You know, i think thats a really important point, anderson. In this case, the lessons that trump has learned, when he made that he calls it a joke, but when he made that call for those emails to find those emails, we know now from reporting and from the Mueller Report that the Russian Intelligence Agency were listening. They sprang into action. They sprang into action, right . And so the lesson hes learned is that this works. And he as also learned as jeffrey said there arent really consequences. As it relates to china, he went out there overtly today. I think were all still a little bit in shock about this, and called on china to look for dirt on biden, publicly. China, as you said, they dont have the same standards of free and fair elections. They dont have the same values that we have as United States historically or at least that weve had historically. Whats to stop them from doing this . And next week there are negotiations. They have every reason to do this. Thats the thing. Trumps supporters will say look, there is no quid pro quo with china here, but yes there is, and it doesnt even need to be stated. There are negotiations, incredibly high level, incredibly important negotiations going on over trade. And the message to china is, you know, you do me a solid here, investigate biden. Who knows how maybe it will grease the wheels here. Exactly. Theyre coming next week. These negotiations, there is a great deal of money, tariffs on chinese goods, not to mention how much this is impacting farnellers and agriculture in the United States. But the chinese want these negotiations to go well. They want these tariffs to go away. They have every reason to listen to what the president of the United States is saying. Yeah. And try to deliver. And david gergen, just very briefly, the message to china which