Favor from the u. S. Government for a former ukrainian official, he wanted to give the official a visa and in exchange he wanted political dirt on democrats. This according to testimony under oath from career diplomat george kent. According to sources familiar with kents testimony this week, the Senior State Department official told impeachment investigators that giuliani asked the state department and the white house to grant a visa to the former ukrainian official, the guy that joe biden pushed to have removed when biden was Vice President. This comes as President Trump is trying to sell an alternate reality as he goes to bat at least publicly for his embattled chief of staff Mick Mulvaney seeming to insist that mulvaney never up ended the request that the president withheld hundreds of millions in military aid in order to pressure ukraine to investigate his political opponents. Just listen to the president. Mr. President , do you want to clarify what Mick Mulvaney said yesterday . I think he clarified it. Okay. Trumps not alone in this world he is now creating. Here are some of his staunchest supporters. Today youll hear an echo here. What do you think of the acting chief of staff. What he had to say yesterday. He clarified his remarks. I think mick was very clear in cleaning up his statement, that there was no quid pro quo. Lets be clear. What mulvaney did was not to clarify or clean up. Heres the key line. There was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian Military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. That is not a clarification. It is not clearing up, but it is a denial and a complete about face, a hope that people will believe it because it is strongly worded even though it says it is the opposite of what mulvaney said in front of millions of people with the cameras rolling repeatedly, combatively and proudly. The demand for an investigation into the democrats was part of the reason that he wanted to withhold funding to ukraine. The look back to what happened in 2016 was part of the thing that he was worried about. What you described is a quid pro quo. It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happened, as well. We do that all the time with Foreign Policy. Theres no clarifying or cleaning it up because, you know, he said what he said and frankly all that mulvaney did was say what trump said himself in the transcript of the phone call with the president of the ukraine. The president brought up military aid and trump asked for a favor investigating the democrats and joe biden. Trump actually said this on camera. Mr. President , what exactly did you hope zelensky would do about the bidens after the phone call, exactly . Well, i would think if they were honest about it that would start a Major Investigation into the bidens. Well, i mean, okay. Investigate the bidens. He said it. In the face of the fact, trump continues to sell this alternate reality. You know, that Mick Mulvaney has cleared all this up. A reality that is based now on President Trumps most trusted defense. This is a terrible witch hunt. This is so bad for our country. Ahh, the witch hunt, as one republican congressman who hails from a district trump won by 21 points said, quote, im very mindful of the fact that back during watergate everyone said it was a witch hunt to get nixon. Turns out it wasnt a witch hunt. It was absolutely correct. Manu raju is on capitol hill. What are you learning about kents testimony and what he said about Rudy Giuliani . New details about Rudy Giulianis efforts to try to dig up dirt on joe biden and use his influence to change a decision made by the federal government. In this closeddoor testimony we are told about four sources familiar with the matter that george kent, to get a u. S. Visa and former ukrainian prosecutor general to travel to the United States and biden had actually pushed to get shulkin removed from that position and the state department did not grant that visa and then giuliani went and appealed that decision to the white house. The visa never came. Giuliani conducted subsequent interviews and those skype interviews records were turned over in the hopes of investigating claims and many of them unsubstantiated about joe biden and hunter biden and marie yavanovic who the president later badmouthed and that its thats caused a range of controversy over the days and weeks ahead. Giuliani has not commented for this story, but in the past hes told our colleague mark warren that he did want to interview shokin to get dirt on the democrats and erin, all of this, giulianis efforts formed the basis of not just the whistleblower complaint and also the impeachment probe that is now threatening Donald Trumps presidency. Manu, thank you very much. Boris sanchez is out front of the white house. You now have testimony, we understand, you know where giuliani is wanting to get a visa in exchange for political dirt. We should point out President Trump did mention george kents testimony today and at one point the president trying to spin details about what kent told investigators regarding joe biden, trying to cast this favorably for the white house and again attacking his potential 2020 rival. The president at one point adding that he has never met kent and he doesnt really know him, but saying in this case his testimony wont be fake news. It does not appear the president would be aware when he said that kent ultimately testified to regarding the president s personal attorney. Of course, in the past the white house has stuck by Rudy Giuliani even evens as the president has acknowledged that he doesnt know everything that he was doing related to ukraine. We saw the acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney in the White House Press room saying it was totally appropriate for the president s personal attorney and someone not officially a part of this administration to be handling his Foreign Policy,ier sn erin . Thank you very much. I want to go to Jerry Connolly who sits on the House Oversight and reform committee, one of the committees heading up the impeachment investigation. I appreciate your time. My pleasure, erin. You know, what did you think when you heard this part of the testimony about giuliani trying to get a visa in exchange for dirt on political democrats. Im not going to comment directly on testimony behind closed doors, but let me just say the picture painted by mr. Giuliani by a number of witnesses and by what we know in the public is one that is very disturbing and i think giuliani in collusion with President Trump is turning the oval office into a cesspool. Giulianis contacts in ukraine are with the shadiest of shady characters, shulkin, leschenko, and other oligarchs not committed to institutions and are corrupt figures in their own right and his association with those kinds of characters claiming to represent the president of the United States when he interacts with them and not being contradicted to trump is very troubling. A request like this, if Rudy Giuliani goes and says excuse me, im sorry, congressman, ill try to get you this visa if you give me political dirt, would that be illegal . In my opinion, if its tied to extortion the way the president tied military aid to that cooperation, yes, thats extortion and extortion is a crime. So do you think the president of the United States was aware of this, something of this level of granularity and the visa for the dirt . My sense is mr. Giuliani keeps donald trump informed of his salacious activities because the president takes interest in it and gets pleasure with hearing the detail, but with respect to any specific activities who knows how much donald trump was made aware . But i dont believe donald trump is an innocent operating in the dark victim here. I think hes a colluder with giuliani and i think he aided, abetted and empowered him. The president today was talking about the kent testimony, that it was good for him, right . That maybe this would be the first nonfake news, obviously it was before he heard this report. Perhaps what he did here, though, is what we understand is that kent said he raised concerns in early 2015 when biden was Vice President , that that kent had raised concerns about his son being on the ukrainian board and not directly to the Vice President , but to a staffer who turned kent away and said, look, his other son is battling cancer. He doesnt have the bandwidth to deal with this. It doesnt sound like from kents testimony that it ever got to the Vice President , but there was a concern about this. Does that concern you that there were people involved who did think it was inappropriate for joe bidens son to be on that board . Well, thats not my recollection. My recollection is that concerns were raised about whether Vice President biden should go to ukraine and represent the United States at that time, and the reaction was the man is in deep grieving with the illness of his son and the ultimate loss of his son and this is not the time to confront him with the appropriateness of his representing the United States government as hes been asked to do, but again, i cant comment on direct testimony, but my recollection is different from what you described. I appreciate you sharing yours as we go through this reporting. I want to ask you one more question if i can, before you go, and the president saying Mick Mulvaney clarified his remarks and you heard jim jordan and theyre all coming out, kevin mccarthy, im sorry. He was cleaning it up and he was clarifying it, that he didnt admit to a quid pro quo even though he did. Are you clear on what happened . I think all of us are clear on what happened, and i think you kind of put your finger on it in your reporting on it in just a few minutes ago, erin. We heard it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears and theyre gaslighting, the classic gaslighting and dont believe what you witnessed, believe what i tell you and theres an orwellian quality to this that is mind blowing, but he said what he said. He admitted flat out in public in front of lots of witnesses there was a quid pro quo and then he went on to say get over it, and i dont know how you walk back or take back those words. All right. Thank you very much, congressman. I appreciate your time. My pleasure, erin. Thank you. Next, trump allies reportedly telling the president he cant fire Mick Mulvaney, why . The reporter breaking the story is out front. An influential candidate in support of impeachment. Will others follow . Two women making history 250 miles above earth. For us, this is really just us doing our job. With advil, you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. The unbeatable strength of advil. What pain . Thats ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. Its a situp, banana bend at the waist im tryin keep it up. Youll get there. Whoahoahoa 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. Be right back. With moderate to severe Crohns Disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. Is she alright . I hope so. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. 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Heres the thing about managing for your business. S when youve got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds things can get a bit cloudy for you. But now, theres the Dell Technologies cloud, powered by vmware. A single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. That should clear things up. New tonight, the impeachment inquiry may save Mick Mulvaneys job. Allies are trying to convince the president that he needs to keep Mick Mulvaney part of team trump. A former white house official says trump, quote, will be feeling the pain of having pushed out former National Security adviser john bolton at a very inopportune time. He wont make the same mistake with mulvaney however frustrated he might be with them. Now their interests are aligned. They sink or swim together. Out front now the former correspondent for the atlantic who broke the story. Elena plot, former nixon counsel john dean and nick brower, assistant director of the fbi and a former state senator in nevada. Let me start with you, elena, is trump scared that Mick Mulvaney can turn on him if he fires him . Erin, i havent been told of a specific fear of mulvaney. What i have been told is allies are telling trump that what happened with bolton which is to say details leaking of him, you know, issuing scathing criticisms of trump and his Foreign Policy behind closed doors have, in fact, rattled him and made him rethink his policy of flippantly casting off advisers and then trashing them by tweet as he polls advisers inside and outside the white house, whether he should keep mulvaney. This is what theyre responding. Do you want john bolton redocs . And at this press conference we know how much Mick Mulvaney knows about everything that has happened too that phone call to the ukrainian president thus far. Thats certainly true. By the way, we dont even yet know how much damage john bolton can do. Exactly. To your point the risks here could be extremely big. John, you, of course, is the person who told the truth about president nixon and as elena points out trump has fired a lot of people in nasty and derogatory ways. Will someone with big information here flip . Well, its hard to know for certain. Ive been hopeful for several people coming out and telling the truth. It hasnt happened, but i think he is in a hard and very difficult position for mulvaney who knows a lot more than what hes said in the press room and in my own experience, nixon could not remove either me or his chief of staff and his top domestic adviser because i told him i really wouldnt go unless they went. I knew that was necessary to solve his problems. So he is in a difficult position. So, greg, you know mulvaney issued the order or the formal order and now he said that that order was a quid pro quo. How much more could mulvaney know about . Erin, there is more that he needs to know as the chief of staff should be at the middle of virtually everything thats happening in the white house and everything that the president is doing and thinking, so he should know everything and this clearly was a quid pro quo and the idea that he tried to walk it back is obviously not passing the smell test or believeability, the believability test with anybody, but just think of how dysfunctional a white house would be if the chief of staff, the acting chief of staff is only there because the president is afraid to fire him . I mean, thats dysfunction at a level that is hard to imagine. Its unsustainable. David, what do you say . Unsustainable and does President Trump need Mick Mulvaney now more than mulvaney needs him . I think its unsustainable to have him there on that point. On balance, i think its a tough call what the president does and theres certainly a strong case for letting him go. Clearly, this was his First Press Conference with the press as elaine has reported and it certainly should be his last and the president if the president doesnt have confidence in him it is hard to keep him. I would think, on balance i would say keep him and there are a couple of reasons and one is, this is a white house that is a dysfunctional place already to replace the chief of staff in the midst of this crisis