Meeting. And ill ask her what unfolded behind closed doors. Also tonight, how important has Rudy Giuliani been in this growing scandal consuming trumps presidency . Pressuring ukraine leader to get involved in a domestic political fight. And how are republicans in Congress Reacting to the historical announcement. Hes what the House Speaker said to the american public. This week the president has admitted to asking the president of the ukraine to take action which would benefit him politically. The action of the Trump Presidency revealed dishonorable betrayal of the oath of office. Betrayal of the National Security and integrity of the elections. Therefore today, im announcing the house of the representative moving forward with official impeachment inquiry. Im directing the six committees to proceed with the investigation under that umbrella. Of impeachment inquiry. The president must be held accountable, no one is above the law. Lets get the big picture now. With frank bruni. Laura coates, danny weiss. Form former chief of staff. This is an important day in the events are really moving swiftly. The headlines are unbelievable. President trump look at this. Look at the headlines. President trump says he will release the ukraine call the transcript now. Cnn is reporting the whistleblower complaint could go to congress as soon as tomorrow. What do you think . This is historic. I have heard monumental. This is the line that had to be crossed. For us to move towards impeachment. I dont see how we dont end up with an impeachment vote. This is enormous. And the stakes are huge. Democrats have made the argument nancy pelosi made it that enough is muff. This president is behaved in a way you cannot ignore and must kind of censure in the sternest way. Impeachment inquiry. What happened so quickly. She said no she wasnt doing it. A couple things. She wasnt going to do it before the detail of the ukraine call. Which is egregious. And doing that after hes been investigated for inviting a foreign power to meddle in an election. She saw her caucus moving. Just in the last 24, 36 hours a bunch of freshman moderates said we think impeachment inquiry possibly impeachment is in order. I dont think she felt she could any longer stand in the way of the very passionate sentiments of people. Interesting. The administration went to Great Lengths to shut this down. You know it. You have been reporting on it. The New York Times reporting that they are in negotiations to allow the whistleblower to testify. Why do you think the sudden change of course . I think clearly they were pressured in want sense they knew they didnt have much of a recourse or choice. Because the president of the yis made statements to confirm the allegation of the allegations he tried to solicit help from a Foreign Government having learned nothing from the trump power meeting. Not knowing anything about why he was investigated or his campaign for two and a half years. Decides hes em boldened enough to do this and his recourse is i have done this behavior. In many respects they are hoping that perhaps theyll be able to explain away the behavior o or the complaint doesnt actually tarnish him the way its projected to do soz and maybe its a last ditch to say im being transparent because i have done nothing wrong. Interesting. Speaker pelosi went ahead and announcing impeachment inquiry before congress having seen the transcript or the whistleblower complaint. So you were her former chief of staff. What she thinking . She clearly was very concerned. And it remains concerned about the information that we do have at this point. About the president actions with regard to ukraine. A president contacting a leader of a foreign country and asking the leader of the foreign country to take action so intervene in american election. The president has already admitted thats what he did. Its not like we dont know anything. We clearly need to know more and one of the reasons for going ahead with the impeachment inquiry is to make sure that congress does get the whistleblower complaint. It will not be sufficient to see the redacted or the complete transcript of the phone call. Because it has been reported that the whistleblower complaint contains allegations of imprommer activity that go beyond a single phone call. The president admitting to a left her no other choice . I believe it left no choice. You have a number shes a master of reading her caucus. She saw what was happening. Some people are giving clert for the way shes handled this until now. She has had the best interest of the country in mind as she goes forward. And its been a juggling act. She sees a growing call within her caucus for action and a egregious action the president admitted to. He admitted to taking this action. And i believe she felt there was no alternative for the good of the country. Shes taking obviously bold is not enough of a word. Momentous. As you have said this is a huge deal. I want to ask you why now . You heard his version of kwhy now. Today, tomorrow. Maybe she believes they force a hand. Especially for the actual complaint to come out. I dont know why today or tomorrow or yesterday. This phone call changed everything in a bag way. The caucus was moving. One thing i dont think changed and im sure if she was here shes well aware this remains politically risky. Thats why she was delaying. Thats in her mind and worrying her now. None of it changed. Well talk in coming days about what happened in 1998 with clinton and what the political fall out is. We have to remember this is a much different president. A much different era. There wasnt social media. And a different set of offenses. Nobody knows down the road whether this will bite democrats or be the final nail in trumps coffin. And we have to realize that this is completely foreign terrain. What is this impeachment inquiry mean Going Forward for the white house . Will it be forced to legally comply from congress . Strategy or not, benefit of the doubt or not. People have been wondering if not this then when. The white house concern they are going to have to have they have already had their hands forced. You have watched for two years complete stone walling by the administration and bh the actual impeachment inquiry has been initiated from the mouth of the nancy pelosi. Within hours theyre going to comply with terms . This is the actual road and domino effect it will take place here. How transparent in the long run without the courts involved or attorneys or the white house counsel. Remains to be seen. They have set the wheels in motion. Just by using that formidable term impeachment. Which is why it was so important to have it. Remember we cant conflate the idea of an impeachment inquiry with the removal of a president. You have so many steps in between then. To even get to the conviction let alone a trial in the senate. What you have is a political move to suggest that look, the American People dont actually think that contemplation and strategy should replace the separation of power. It got to the point where she saw that theyre being perceived as paralyzed opposed to strategic. Particularly when the president admitted to behavior we have agreed is a problem. Danny, we saw how Corey Lewandowski stone walled congress. Last week. Now that this speaker announced impeachment inquiry, will democrats have a better coordinated approach for hostile witnesses now . And maybe more leverage. This appears to be much more serious. People take impeachment proceedings more seriously. Yes. I would agree that the Corey Lewandowski hearing was not the finest moment for Judiciary Committee. Its not exactly clear who the committee will be calling. They are looking for documentation and information thursday of course the Intelligence Committee will have the director of national intelligence. Im not aware of anybody scheduled to appear before the Judiciary Committee any time soon. Were into a fact finding on exactly what was the role of giuliani with the state department. What was the role of giuliani with the white house. A lot of incredible reporting taking place on that. And both the Foreign Affairs committee and Intelligence Committee and oversight sent letters to the white house and the state department asking for documents related to giulianis role in that. Right now you might not be in a period of high profile witnesses coming before committee. You youre in a high profile moment in terms of information that will be collected. I would say to the point about the politics. Hes right that we dont know which way this will go. I would point out that two things about this. One, no matter what the truth is, we know that President Trump will say whatever he wants to for his case. He will continue to talk about the allegations around biden which have been discredited. He will talk about that. The previous guest talked about that. They will talk about that. The other thing about the politics is there hasnt been a poll on since the ukraine issue the call to a foreign leader by our president. Has become such a big deal. Well see if thats had impact. The trump voters tend to be supportive of him despite whats taken place. As far as independents and the country this could have a big impact on thinking. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I want to bring in cnn president ial historian. What a day. This has been a historic day by any standards. President trump could be the fourth president in history to face impeachment proceedings. After nixon, clinton and Andrew Johnson. How significant this moment . Enormous day. Speaker of the house nancy pelosi essentially gone to war with donald trump. She has the majority shes counting votes. And theyll take the test to trump. When the founders talk about whats impeachment and high crimes and misdemeanors. High on the list is extortion, betrayal of the National Security. Bribery. And donald trump is in a deeply difficult position now because hes going to have to cough up a transcript that cant be doctored. Youll have now a whistleblower coming forward. A household name the way butter field and john dean over night became famous during the nixon years. Hold on. What do you mean it cant be doctored . Pardon . The transcript. Well, they will be under legal jeopardy if thats doctored. Im worried about it. Im worried they will say these are a memory notes and see what it comes out tomorrow. See if anybody has a recording. Since 1974, with the nixon tapes. Most president s claim theyre not recording things but a recording would be best. The tapes are what dammed nixon in many ways in the end. Well get some kind of transcription here. Well have to see what the whistleblower has. So i think the nixon parallels will be large here. Except for the fact nixon had a select committee. People like sam irvine and howard baker. This is going to be nancy pelosi trying to jam this through as fast as she can. Working in a stealth fashion before you get into the caucus and primaries in early 2020. Interesting. Nixon resigned before he even made it to the house vote. Clinton and johnson were impeached by acquitted by the senate. Is what were seeing similar to whats happened in the past . Or is this New Territory . I think its New Territory. I find it to be the worst the President Trump doing a drone attack on americas political system. Thats a lot different than clinton having extramarital affair. And perjurying himself. It what it has in common is i think its containable the story. People get what donald trump did trying to get dirt on joe biden. Using hunter biden going to a foreign power. The whole Mueller Investigation got so tangled we had to do charts and webs. And it lost a loft people. This to me is a clear that donald trump has made an Impeachable Offense and would be a dereliction of duty if the democrats werent pursuing impeachment at this time. But probably like clinton the congress will have it will be partisan. And congress will move if they can get the act together and impeach him and the senate will have the trial of trump and try to become a hero out of that. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Julian castro calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Ocalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Ncalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. E calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Ocalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Fcalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Tcalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Hcalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Ecalling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. Fcalling for im proceedings. Hes here, next. Ircalling for i proceedings. Hes here, next. Stcalling for i proceedings. Hes here, next. First calling for impeachment proceedings. Hes here, next. I mean, if you havent thought about switching to geico, frankly, youre missing out. Uh. The mobile app makes it easy to manage your policy, even way out here. Your marshmallows. Get digital id cards, emergency roadside service, even file a. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa oops, that cheeky little thing got away from me. My bad. Geico. Its easy to manage your policy whenever, wherever. Can i trouble you for another marshmallow . music plays throughout nature, ambient sounds, birds in flight, Running Water car horn barely audible car horn increasing in volume and intensity car horn loud jane, this is jim from onstar. Ive contacted help and theyre on their way. O. K. Dont worry im going to stay with you until help arrives. Thank you. That deer, it just, just came out of nowhere. Cnn learned the white house is preparing to give the whistleblower complaint to congress. After that happened after the house speerk nancy pelosi opened an impeachment inquiry. Lets discuss now. With democratic president ial candidate Julian Castro secretary of housing and urban development under president obama. Secretary, thank you. First of all i want your reaction to the breaking news the white house is preparing to release the whistleblower complaint. What changed here . Its clear is that the president is backed into a corner. Backed himself into a corner. Because hes admitted to the main facts of the charge. That he tried to strong arm the ukraine president to investigate in a bogus way investigate joe biden and his son. For political advantage. And little by little his case is falling apart. Hes already back peddled more on this than the Mueller Report. Because he has this play book and part of the play book is to try and subsume the main argument. He tried it in the beginning of this to subsume it and say it doesnt matter what i said. Or it was normal conversation. But now, this is diverging from his play book because he certainly wasnt this forthcoming in the Mueller Investigation right away. And i think that once this impeachment inquiry gets going, well learn a lot more about what happened. And i have a feeling that this time where theres smoke theres fire. You have been calling for impeachment proceedings well before this latest ukraine reporting. What makes this moment so different that the House Speaker was now willing to launch a formal inquiry . I think this is something that people out there can understand. This is the facts of this hes trying to strong arm a leader into investigating a political opponents by with holding aid. It harkens back to what he did in the 2016 campaign. Asking russia basically to locate emails. Its the same play book to try and dirty up the political opponent with false accusations. But the American People can get this. This sound like the corrupt action of some neighborhood politician. Any town in america. Thats the kind of thing ha people are used to politicians doing. And so i think that the American People can understand not only that this kind of behavior is consistent with what donald trump does, but that the facts as they have been laid out the falkt hes admitted to doing this make it a very compelling case for impeachment inquiry. In a way that as your previous guest said with the Mueller Report even though there were ten instances where he either ob strucked justice or attempted. That was more challenging for folks to follow. So, theyre going to get going with the impeachment inquiry. What do you think what should it focus on . The president pressuring the ukraine president to investigate the former Vice President s son . What happened on the phone call. Or should the house go beyond that. Because depending on which democratic you talk to they have different ideas or definitions of what it means Impeachable Offense means. The way i took Speaker Nancy Pelosi remarks today that its going to be fairly wide ranging. It will include what happened with his conversations with ukrainian leader. But the fact she talked about the six different committees and the investigations they have under way. Thats going to be coordinated. To me it seems like it will be broader than that. And truth be told it should be as broad as it needs to be. Theres a slew of potentially illegal activity that donald trump and his family have engaged in. So i believe that they should let the facts bare themselves out and under take the investigations in full. And it maybe that in addition to what we have seen with the Mueller Report and the reports about his dealings with ukraine leader. There are other issues that warrant impeachment. Secretary castro, thank you for your time. Good to be with you. Discussions when democrats met behind closed doors and what will they do next.