Its him injecting himself into the process. Six house committees now tasked with investigating the president under this umbrella of an impeachment probe. The white house has been trying to dismiss it all as political theater, but the fact remains donald trump is just the fourth president in u. S. History to face an impeachment inquiry. Joining me now is abigail spanburger. She is one of those who threw their hat in for impeachment inquiry. Thank you for being with us this morning. So much as happened over the last few days. Even the last few hours. I want to start where we are most currently. The white house says it will are lease a transcript of the phone call between President Trump and president zelensky. The president claims it will release the whistleblower complaint to congress. Now, all of this is going through the filter of the white house itself, so we dont know how much or how theyll distribute this. But as a former cia case agent, someone whose a anl iessed evidence in the past, what are you looking for in these releases . So im looking for any array of information that will provide with certainty what did or didnt happen. The purpose of the oped you mentioned that we wrote was to outline for the American People and our constituents that the allegations facing the president , that he would use his political position and power as president to pressure a foreign nation to provide information, dig up dirt on a political opponent. And he would use Security Assistance dollars to do it are unthinkable allegations. We need to use all of the tools available to congress to get to the bottom of that. And so whatever evidence we bring forward, we can find, you know, im looking for irrefutable evidence to demonstrate these allegations are true or not true. The president himself and his guy Rudy Giuliani, theyve already admitted to some degree or another some of the allegations here. The president has admitted he spoke to the leader of ukraine about joe biden. Rudy giuliani has admitted to pressuring ukraine to investigate joe biden. What more do you need to see in the transcript for the whistleblower complaint . Looking at something as serious as the potential impeachment of a president , i think it is our duty as members of congress to present as full of a case as possible to the American People if and when we determine that we must move forward with articles of impeachment. That is also necessary that the case that we send over to the senate be as full and complete as possible. So the fact that the president has made these admissions, that the president s attorney has confirmed his efforts to pressure ukraine demonstrate we are doing the right thing by further digging into this investigation by further ensuring that we are using every Congressional Authority we have to get to the bottom of what happened and to be able to determine with clarity if, in fact, these allegations are true. And thats what we intend to do. Are those admitted facts alone, are they enough for you to support impeachment . Im a former cia case officer as you mentioned in the leadin and a former federal agent. I believe the more facts and evidence we can bring together, the better. I think that what has been said by the president and by Rudy Giuliani is certainly validation that our concerns are well, well founded. That these allegations are, indeed, as grave as we believe them to be. But i see every benefit in ensuring that we get all of the facts and evidence available to us and possible before we move forward. The flip side of that is asking it this way which is what some supporters of the president say. What if this whistleblower complaint doesnt have damning details . Or more specifically, what if it does prove a quid pro quo. Is that exculpatory in your mind . The quid pro quo element doesnt need to be there for this to be a crime. Its a violation of federal law for anyone to ask for foreign assistance in an election. It is beyond the pail for the president of the United States to use any privilege he may have to pressure a foreign government. It sets a terrible precedent in the world in terms of what it is that a president may or may not be willing to do. And what level of political power the president is willing to exert. So this is a National Security concern because it is dealing with the president. But i think at the end of the day, if we are at a place where we see that this these allegations are not true, then thats a path that we move forward as well. I think that its incredibly important that i restate that the purpose of this inquiry is to prove these allegations to be true or not true. And i would hope that any colleague entering into this process would want to get all of the facts available and would want to determine the real truth here. I think Everyone Wants the facts and to get as many of them as possible. Theres some irony there disproving what the president has admitted to and what Rudy Giuliani has admitted to. Because you say that in isolation is of concern. You stuck your neck out along with other freshman members of congress who had been wavering or at least not there on the impeachment process. Is the process as announced by nancy pelosi, are you supportive of the way shes doing this . Is this everything you hoped it would be . So as it pertains to potential proceedings towards impeachment of the president , i have no hopes or preconceived notions of what that should be. My goal, my priority is to make sure that we as a congress are collecting all of the available pieces of evidence that we can so that we can make a case one way or the other to the American People, to the United States senate. And so that we know that we are doing our due diligence. And the allegations as they were laid out as we wrote in this oped are so deeply, deeply concerning from a National Security perspective that i believe we had a real requirement, a duty to work to uphold and protect our constitution. And that meant drawing attention to the severity in and the National Security risk inherent in these allegations. Would you rather they be voting on launching an impeachment inquiry rather than declaring it to be so . I have no real preference on that. What i want to do is ensure were getting all of the facts and evidence. This hasnt happened many times in history and theres not a strong precedent of how it must proceed. We have moved into a place of inquiry and that means that were going to be heads down at work collecting information so we know if these allegations are true or not true and at the same time focusing on all of the pieces of gun violence prevention, health care, infrastructure, trade, the issues that are really important to the people back home in our districts. Congressman abigail sp spanberger, thanks for being with us. We dont know what were going to get and weve got to analyze whats there so thank you for being with us today. Thank you for having me. But the white house has suggested we will get it today. They said theyre open to it. I dont know what it is. I just dont know what it is. Its the transcript, they say, of the phone call. But by whom . And how much are they putting in . I predict the transcript will be unsatisfying for people looking for a smoking gun. However, theyve also promised theyll release the whistleblower complaint. But a whistleblower complaint that could hurt the white house is currently in the white house being filtered by the white house. Were about to know more because joining us now is jim acosta and jeffrey toobin. Great to have you here in studio. Great to be here. You have new information on how the president is reacting to all of this. Right. Youve heard that the president has said, well, this could be for me. This impeachment process could work for us and help the republicans. The Trump Campaign was saying last night this is going to energize our base. I heard from someone who regularly talks to the president who said he does not want to be impeached. Has been worried about this since last december when the democrats took the house. And that this has been on his mind for some time. This source looked at what happened yesterday where all of a sudden we are going to see the transcript. And we are going to get the whistleblower complaint. Well find out in what form and so on. That is being viewed as signs that the president is concerned about this. My understanding is theyre going through a disclassification process right now. And so itll be interesting to see what form it comes out in. But as for this call transcript which alisyn, you were mentioning a few moments ago, that could be revealing. I talked to two white house officials last night who said prepare to be underwhelmed by the transcript of that phone call between the president and president zelensky of ukraine. Were going to have to wait and see. That would put a lot of focus on the whistleblower complaint. I talked to a white house official last night who is essentially starting to lay the ground work for undermining the credibility of this whistleblower. This white house official referred to this person as the socalled whistleblower. So a sneak preview of coming attractions. This whistleblower may also be speaking to congress at some time in the near future. Adam schiff has said the whistleblower says they want to testify. Theyre trying to work that out right now. Ive heard you on tv say youre a champion of facts in this case. You heard Abigail Spanberger on moments ago saying shes going to look at this from the facts as well. But theres been a fair amount admitted to. There has. These stories tend to get more complicated, not less complicated. Just going back, way back to last week when this story broke, the wall street journal said that the president mentioned biden eight times to the president of ukraine. First of all, is that true . Is it just a mistake by the wall street journal . But is this phone call the only communication they had . No. They talked in april. See . Again, you want to know more about what the communication really was. Thats one area of inquiry. The other issue is the whole question of the aid between that the United States was going to give ukraine. And why it was put on hold, why it was released. Did that have anything to do with the offer of help on you know, getting dirt on biden . Thats a story the white house has put out different versions of. You want the full story there. Rudy giuliani, what was his story in all this . Was he putting pressure on behalf of the administration . He says yes. He says yes, but he also says he was doing it at the instigation of the state department. What was that connection . What are the facts there . All of that is worthy of investigation. Plus simply just a timeline of what happened when. Thats always important in an investigation. Ive been predicting this morning that the phone call transcript will be underwhelming. Thats not just a humpnch. Thats after reporting on donald trump from all of these years. He doesnt speak in explicit overt demands. Its sort of always couched in what he employs his charm offensive. He doesnt speak like, im going to need this or youre not going to get the money. Thats not how he speaks. But are you struck by what he decided to do yesterday . I mean, the idea that he did promise to release the transcript of this phone call and the whistleblower complaint. After all these years of whenever democrats wanted anything they stonewalled and forced the democrats to go to court. They could have done that with this. Why did they change that yesterday . I think what changed the game here is nancy pelosi finally took action. This is something the democrats have been urging her to do for months. And launching this impeachment inquiry has shaken things up. We were at the United Nations yesterday afternoon when the president suddenly arrived at trump tower and the White House Pool said hes having some executive time right now. What that meant was he was watching nancy pelosi on television and then imploding. Because what you saw after that is he started to have this tweet storm on twitter where he was tweeting out his frustrations about what was going on. How could the democrats launch an impeachment inquiry without looking at the transcript and so on. Remember what has happened over the last 48 hours. Unlike what happened during the russia investigation where the president would say no collusion, no obstruction. Over the last couple of days he said, yes, i did pressure the ukrainians to pressure joe biden. And yes, i did hold up that money to ukraine. First we wanted to get to the bottom of corruption and now we wanted the europeans to chip in their fair share. Which they do. Hes been shifting up his rationale for holding up that unmany. What the congressman was just saying a few moments ago was important. I think nancy pelosi touched on this yesterday. Do we want a situation in this country where its okay for the president of the United States to go after your political adversaries . Thats the state the president is trying to set right now. Theres also another thing that happened yesterday. It was a busy news day. You had the senate including the republicans say we want to see the whistleblower report. This is something very unusual in trump era washington. To have republicans say they want an investigation or any sort of fact about the trump administration. That had to put a bit of fear into them. And thus we think the whistleblower report will be released very soon. Got time for a fivesecond answer. Youve been resistant to say it would change the political dynamic. App whole bunch of stuff changed after this. Politically, no question. Legally, i still think that courts are going to evaluate issues of executive privilege more or less the same based on an oversight investigation versus an impeachment investigation. Wow. This has been interesting. I told you. Were going to need water and a deep breath today. Because things are moving at a dizzying pace. 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Richard nixon resigned before that full house could vote on impeachment. How will the process work this time . Joining me now is someone who knows. Hes been reporting all night on how this will work out. Manu raju. If i can, let me start with what isnt happening or at least not yet. The house did not vote to launch the official impeachment inquiry. Why not . Is it crucial and will they . Republicans say that they are required by house rules to essentially move forward and have a vote to establish an impeachment inquiry. That is something that has happened in the past. But democrats say the actual term impeachment carries no real legal meaning in that it doesnt matter to the courts one way or another if theres an official inquiry and theres nothing requiring congress have an impeachment vote. Whether they vote on articles of impeachment to try to impeach this president. Thats the significance of what may have to happen. Thats the argument the democrats have been making to court as well. That theyre actively consider impeaching this president. So actual vote moving forward say they doesnt matter. That could spare a tough one on the floor. Some of those vulnerable democrats may not want to do just that. Theres nothing in the constitution about a full vote to launch the inquiry. Theres just nothing there on that subject. All right, manu. How is this going to work . Six separate committees doing what . And then what . Substantively theyre doing pretty much what they have been doing for the course of this year. These committees have been investigating all aspects of the trump presidency. Theyve looked into the past. Theyre going to continue their investigations and then ultimately they will have to make a decision and probably before the end of the year to decide whether or not to move forward with articles of impeachment. When they do, the House Judiciary Committee will vote on the articles of impeachment before they will vote. A majority would have to vote to impeach the president. The third president in history to actually have been impeached by the house. Substantively, what theyve been doing. But the difference here is the politics and the messaging. Now that Speaker Pelosi has gotten behind the idea of an inquiry, it makes it likely theyre going to go down the route of impeaching this pre