Off in their next debate. We have breaking news and i want to get straight to it. Happening moments ago, President Trump exacting revenge on Gordon Sondland who was a key impeachment witness. Hes been fired. He released a statement reading i was advised the president intends to recall me Effective Immediately as the United States ambassador to the european union. Another impeachment witness, Alexander Vindman has been fired from his white house job. A source telling vindman, a decorated veteran, was escorted out of the white house today. His twin brother was also fired from the white house supposedly because hes his twin brother. What drew the president s ire . Why are we now getting all these firings . Heres what Gordon Sondland said under oath. I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. And Alexander Vindman, he was on that july phone call that President Trump had with ukrainian president zelensky. What did he say under oath . Listen for yourself . It was inappropriate. It was improper for the president to request, to demand, an investigation into a political opponent, especially a foreign power where theres at best dubious belief that this would be a completely impartial investigation. Fired. Theyre both fired. Now, it was purely president ial pay back according to a statement from vind mans attorney. He writes, quote, there is no question in the mind of any american why this mans job is over, why this country has one less soldier serving at the white house. His honor and commitment to right frightened the powerful. He did what any member of our military is charged with doing every day, followed orders. He obeyed his oath. He served his country even when doing so was fraught with danger and personal peril. For that, the most powerful man in the world has decided to exact revenge. When you think about the people who have testified, you had two of them fired today, the brother of one fired today, two others that immediately retired. Its incredible. Lets go to the white house now. Kaitlan, what else can you tell us about these firings that are happening today and were just moments ago finding out about ambassador sondland . Reporter what we are seeing here at the white house is the president wasted little time in getting retaliation against two of the most prominent witnesses in the democratic impeachment inquiry. Of course Gordon Sondland and Alexander Vindman, the ukrainian expert at the National Security counsel. We are just finding out moments ago about sondlands departure after he returned back to bru s brussels working as the ambassador despite he had the damning testimony against the president. It also comes directly on the heals of that firing this afternoon, not only just of one impeachment witness but also his twin brother who is also an attorney for the National Security counsel. That is the two vindman brothers who are expected to go back to the Defense Department. What you are seeing is a president who feels em bold pbo by the fact he was acquitted this week. And now he is going after two witnesses he complained about the most since they testified last fall about his relationship with the ukrainian president essentially saying they believed he was undermining National Security. Thats when vindman testified about the phone call that the president had where he asked that ukrainian leader to bring up those investigations into the bidens and of course sondland who we should remind viewers donated 1 million to the president s inauguration, not certainly a stranger of the president. And he has been recall frd his post in brussels tonight because of what he said in that testimony. He draws a pretty clear line to it in his statement to the president but also goes on to thank the president and the secretary of state for his time here. So, essentially, erin, the question the are any other witnesses going to be fired. We are checking on that right now because there are several others who went forward and testified against the president. We should also note when the president got back here at the white house today from north carolina, he did not answer our clearly audible questions about if this is retribution for these witnesses testifying against the president. I do want to know one thing in wake of that. We did have a Defense Department official, laura cooper, who was testified about when the aid was witheld had, t withheld, the questions she had about it. We do not have an answer yesterday. But the defense secretary said will will not be retribution in his eyes. Laura cooper seems to be the only one. The question is tonight and right now are there going to be more witnesses who will be fired . All right. Thank you very much kaitlan. As i know were all trying to get more information on that. I want to go straight now to democrat from illinois on the House Intelligence Committee which of course heard from all these witnesses when it was broadcast to the country, when you heard vindman, sondland, yovanovitch, everyone else, taylor, morrison, holmes, williams. They appeared before you. Let me get your reaction. We just found out moments ago, ambassador sondland fired. The president obviously waited for his vindication in the senate. Do you think things would have gone any differently had he gone ahead and fired these people for the vote, done anything for the senators who seem to willing to support him . Its a rough day after a bad week for our country. I feel like someone should apologize to colonel vindman. He testified twice before committee. What was striking to me is what he said when he said i knew i could come forward because i knew in the United States the truth matters. Well, i guess the president is showing him. And as far as ambassador sondland goes, it took him a while, but its never too late to do the right thing. He did to the right thing. He told the truth. Lincoln had his team of rivals a. Parentally this president wants a team of sycophants. Lets talk about sondland. He testified that zelensky was willing to do whatever trump wanted including investigations. He said there was a quid pro quo. We all remember the president , of course, you know this was a guy who donated a Million Dollars. Right after the testimony, trump was buing. Now hes gone. Vindman also said the same thing. There was a quid pro quo. The president wanted investigations and that his actions were inappropriate. His twin brother was also fired, his twin brother. Is there anything that can be done about this or is this just some people might be outraged, some people might not care and we move on . You know, i hope that the senators who said that this was a minor matter or that the president has learned his lesson, no he hasnt. What i would tell the republican senators b senators who covered up this case is you have emboldened a president who borders on autocratic presidency. You have given him this opportunity to feel like he can do absolutely anything. And that ought to be very scary because the president has very tough decisions to make in the best of times, now more critical than ever. But its clear theres nobody out there who can say no to him. Whats clear is what the senate has said is if youre a president in the future and you have the senate in the majority, if your party is majority in the senate, then above the law. All this does is enforce hes going after the witnesses in the house and would have had it been a fair trial in the senate. Now, of course, you know, his defenders perhaps said earlier about colonel vindman and im sure some will say about sondland that this is his right. People work for him. They work at the discretion of the president. And if they dont say things he likes, then this is within his rights. What do you say to them . Sure. Do you really want a president of the United States that just wants people who tell him whatever he wants . That forces ambassadors like yovanovitch who are doing a good job out of the way so he can do his dirty work, move forward with the scheme to go after his political rivals, cheat on the next election just because he has a legal right to do something doesnt make it morally right. And i hope this is education for the entire American People. Just what took place this week, this is the aftermath. This is shakespeare at its worse. Thank you very much congressman quigley. A appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. And next our coverage of the breaking news continues, trumps friday night purge. Is this just the beginning . Three people who testified under oath about the quid pro quo fired tonight. And here in New Hampshire tonight, no clear leader when it coms to the top candidates. So, coming into the debate where we are in New Hampshire and biden shaping up the staff, will it be enough . His Deputy Campaign manager is out front this hour. Can my side be firm . And my side super soft . Yes. With the sleep number 360 smart bed, on sale now, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. Can it help me fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. So, you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. 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So, it was already, you know, vindman being fired and his twin brother being fired who is a lawyer for the National Security counsel for the white house and now all of a sudden Gordon Sondland, a guy trump loved. A Million Dollar donor. Listen, this is one of those situations where he technically he officially has the right to do all of this, the president , right . Of course he does. And that was actually one of the core arguments that the a lot of people who were supporting him made about firing Marie Yovanovitch. He has a right to decide whos ambassador and who isnt. This is obviously a much different scale. The timing of it is hes trying to send a signal. Its not like hes being subtle here. The president is sending a signal, you mess with me, you testify against me, you cant work for me. And in some ways you can understand if hes donald trump or anybody else why would you want to have people working for you. But at the same time, you also have republicans on capitol hill promising that the president learned a lesson and that now this is just another example from the, you know, rally in the east room to several other things that hes done since he has been acquitted. This shows he doesnt necessarily its not a signal that he learned his lesson. In a sense its terrifying because everything dana says is true. The reality is these people all said the same thing. If you were a republican senator, you could decide it didnt rise to the level of impeachmentbility or it wasnt a big deal. But you cant say they all lied. Hes not making a factual argument. Hes saying impeachment was not a question of the country or a question of the members of the state department saying the facts as they saw them, he was saying its a referendum on him. Hes saying a culmination of those rhetorical efforts. He is saying now that im acquitted i am able to which again within his power, to fire those folks immediately. Th that is not just trying to send a signal. That is a clear message to anyone but also to his base. They have tried to say this was a deep state attack, that these were members of the state department orchestrating against the president. The president has taken that view and acted on it even over the concerns and historical norms and facts as mentioned. I hope people listen and realize these people, especially the one who is had spent their careers working for the government, they did so because they love their country. Ive talked to several of them as have all of you with all of your testimonies. They are general winuinely doin they think is right every day. When they talk about their testimony, telling the truth, heres what a few of them have said. As a young man, i decided i wanted to spend my life serving this nation that gave my family refuge from authoritarian oppression. It was with great pride and conviction that i swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution. I come before you as an american citizen who has devoted the majority of my life, 33 years to, service to the country all of us love. It has been a privilege to serve our country and the American People for more than 50 years. This is the truth. Yeah. Theyre doing not only what they thought was right but what they were taught as Civil Servants to do, to speak up if they think somethings wrong, to go to congress which has Oversight Authority over the executive branch and to tell the truth in front of congress. Thats what youre trained to do as a government employee. I think its useful to think about if this were a foreign country and we were watching this play out, how would we view this . Its easy to sit here and think about everything is democrats and republicans. If this were happening in europe somewhere, we would be pretty shocked by it. This is the president sending a message to everyone in the executive branch that loyalty is the utmost quality that you need to have if you work in the executive branch and that you can forget about congress as an institution that you can go to to tell the truth because that wont protect you in the end. And this is probably not the end of this, right . There are plenty of people who were involved in this that still have jobs in the executive branch. What are they thinking tonight, right . Should they be going to work on monday monday . So, look, if republicans, especially leading republicans like Chuck Grassley who spent his entire career as someone who cares about the rights of whistleblowers, if they wont speak up on this behavior without consequences, then this will continue. You know what i was thinking as you were laying out what has happened in the last day with these people being removed is that there is a difference between Gordon Sondland and colonel vindman and his brother or Jennifer Williams or Marie Yovanovitch who are career Civil Servants as you said. You know, maybe the president and his supporters call them the deep state. But theyre people who have devoted their lives to the service of this country. Obviously in the case of the colonel vindman he has shrapnel in his body because he, you know, paid a really hard price serving in war. Gordon sondland was a sycophant. He was a political appointee. He so, in that case, you could almost understand more that, you know, he turned on the president. He was supposed to be the president s guy. Yep. The other cases are different and more troubling. You know, i spoke to one of the people not one of the people fired today but someone else who testified after. The person told me the struggle they felt about the oath they took to the person they serve and the oath they took to the country. And do you make a decision . Do you go to congress . Do you speak . And how hard and gut wrenching that was. U ultimately they decided to go and testify and speak the truth. And now you look at the price that they might pay for that. A personal price, a political price. We are seeing a president who has not cared about kind of norms and deference on this front. Saying even if you disagree with me or speak against me, i understand theres a larger thing at work here. Theres systems of government that must be protected here so i