That is textbook abuse of power. But will the American People agree . Democratic caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries joins me next. Plus, united front. Every 2020 democrat now backs the impeachment inquiry. But just months before the voice are cast, how will the uproar in idential campaign. The president ial candidate cory booker joins me in moments. Hello im jake tapper in washington, where the state of our union is in turmoil. The mood in washington is different this morning after a momentous week in american politics. And now congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle are preparing for what could be the most bruising political fight in decades. The possible impeachment of a president. President trump is already in defense mode, railing on twitter about the quote, new and most recent witch hunt, unquote, while Speaker Pelosi is defending her decision to move forward with an impeachment process after more than a year ago after saying such a thing could hurt the party politically. This would this pattern of behavior were to prevail, then its over for the republic. We will have the equivalent of a monarchy. So the times have found us. The house of representatives is already moving forward quickly on the impeachment inquiry. Subpoenas were issued on friday to secretary of state mike pompeo, demanding documents and witnesses related to the ukraine scandal, while the House Intelligence Committee chairman, adam schiff, tells cnn that hearings and more subpoenas could come as soon as this week. Joining me now, a key member of Speaker Pelosis leadership team, House Democratic caucus chair, Hakeem Jeffries of new york. You said this week, quote, its clear as day that donald trump betrayed his oath of office. Does that mean youve already seen enough, even before hearings, even before evidence, to support articles of impeachment . No, but ive seen enough to support an impeachment inquiry that has been launched by Speaker Pelosi with tremendous support within the House Democratic caucus. There are three areas of real concern. President donald trump has been caught redhanded, with his hand in the taxpayer cookie jar, by withholding, without justification, 391 million in aid that had been approved on a bipartisan basis to the ukraine. The president has also been caught redhanded trying to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election by pressuring a foreign leader to target joe biden, an american citizen, for political gain. Finally, the president has been caught redhanded trying to cover up all of this wrongdoing by moving the rough transcript of the july 25th phone call to a topsecret server that is used for covert operations, such as the attack or effort to try to get osama bin laden. This is serious evidence of wrongdoing. The president has betrayed his oath of office. The president has abused his power in a matter that undermines our National Security and the integrity of our elections. President trumps defending himself by pointing out that ukrainian Prime Minister zelensky said earlier this week that he did not feel pushed to investigate the bidens. Take a listen to mr. Zelensky. Are you sure that we had, i think, good phone call. It was normal, we spoke about many things and so i think and you read it that nobody pushed me. In other words, no pressure. Does that hurt your argument . Not at all. The evidence of wroingdoing is clearly hiding in plain sight in the form of the july 25th rough transcript. Lets take a step back and look at what happened. The United States of america is the strongest country on earth. We are perhaps the only thing standing between Vladimir Putin and russia totally overrunning ukraine. The United States is strong, ukraine is vulnerable. And yet the president , without explanation, without justification, withheld 391 million in aid, that would undermine the safety and the security and the ability of ukraine to defend itself. So when the president of the United States says in a phone call that he wants to see an investigation into a political opponent in the context of aid having been withheld, that is what you call a highpressure tactic. It was an offer that the ukrainian president could not refuse. You said in march that the most important condition for moving forward with an impeachment process would be that, quote, public sentiment around impeachment is bipartisan, unquote. A new poll out this week shows that only 6 of republicans support the impeachment inquiry. You are moving forward with virtually no support from republican voters. And i dont think much support among republican members of congress. This doesnt seem very bipartisan, as of now . Well, in the midst of an inquiry, well see where we get with respect to articles of impeachment at the end of the process. Were going to follow the facts and apply the law, were going to be guided by the constitution and present the facts to the American People. What we do have, we know, is bipartisan support within the United States house of representatives, at least one republican is on record. There are others who, i believe, will support us moving forward, who havent come public yet with their perspective. But its bipartisan within the house of representatives. Even more importantly, there are more than 300 National Security professionals who work for both republican administrations and democratic administrations, who have publicly said, we support the impeachment inquiry. These are troubling allegations. Theres evidence of wrongdoing. The president solicited foreign interference in the 2020 election. You know, sir, that a dozen democrats in your caucus still do not support an impeachment inquiry. The vast majority do, but a dozen dont. And theyre in districts that President Trump won in 2016. I want you to take a listen to one of them, democratic congresswoman, Jeff Van Drew from new jersey yesterday. The odds are very high that its not going to bear any fruit. The odds are very high that this president will continue to be the president. The people of the United States of america are going to have an election now in a year. They can go ahead in the ballot box and impeach if they desire to do so. Thats a democratic congressman, sir. How do you respond to congressman van drew . Well, the house is a separate and coequal branch of government. We dont work for this president or any president. We work for the American People. And we have a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance on outofcontrol executive branch. So we are going to do our duty. And these issues are serious. The security and the National Safety best interest of the American People have been subordinated by a president who then evaluated his own personal political interests. We need to investigate that, get to the bottom of it, and present the information to the American People. Let me ask you, sir. In may, the ukrainian prosecutor general told bloomberg news, quote web quote, we do not have any grounds to any there was any wrongdoing by joe or hunter biden, so these charges that the president keeps pushing have no basis in evidence. But senator harris, Kamala Harris yesterday said that she probably would not be comfortable with the child of her Vice President sitting on the board of a Foreign Company, such as hunter biden was on. Do you agree with her . No. At least three different ukrainian prosecutors have uncovered no wrongdoing with respect to the joe biden situation. Its my understanding that authorities in Great Britain looked into this situation, found no evidence of wrongdoing, no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged here in the United States of america. And, so, ill leave it at that. All right. Thank you so much, Hakeem Jeffries, congressman and chairman of the democratic caucus, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you, jake. Coming up, a handful of republican lawmakers are calling the president s conversation with ukraines president troubling. Could they be the first cracks in the president s support . Ill talk to the president one of the president s biggest defenders in the house of representatives, congressman jim jordan of ohio next. And the impeachment inquiry throws a wrench into the 2020 campaign. Senator cory booker, democrat of new jersey, will join me, coming up. Some great paint. Thats some great paint. Behr ultra, ranked 1 in Customer Satisfaction with interior paints. Great paint, new low price. Starting at 29. 98. Exclusively at the home depot. 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. With pronamel repair toothpaste, more minerals enter deep into the enamels surface. You have an opportunity to repair whats already been damagedits amazing. You have an opportunity to repair whats already been no, just a sec. What would it look like if we listened more . Could the right voice, the right set of words, bring us all just a little closer . Get us to open up . Even push us further . It could, if we took the time to listen. The most inspiring minds, the most compelling stories. Download audible and listen for a change. The one thing you learn pretty quickly, is that theres a lot to learn. Grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. Putting your business on the map, connecting with customers, and getting the skills to use new tools. So, in case youre looking, weve put all the ways we can help in one place. Free training, tools, and Small Business resources are now available at google. Com grow stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate i switched to miralax for my constipation. The nerves in your colon. Miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. And it doesnt cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. Miralax. Look for the pink cap. Welcome back to state of the union. Im jake tapper. President trump called on all republicans to stick together. But in the days since House Democrats launched their impeachment inquiry, a handful of republican lawmakers have been voicing concerns about the president s conversation with ukraines president. Joining me now is the Top Republican on the House Oversight committee and one of President Trumps biggest defenders in the house, congressman jim jordan of ohio. Thanks so much for joining us today. You bet. Good to be with you. A number of republicans have expressed concerns, too. Take a listen. This remains deeply troubling and well see where it leads, but the first reaction is troubling. Theres a lot of disturbing allegations. I want to say to the president , this is not okay. It is that conversation is not okay. Thats your fellow ohio republican, mike turner there. The list goes on. Republican senator ben sasse called it very troubling. Republican governors phil scott and Charlie Baker support the impeachment inquiry. Do you have any problem with a u. S. President asking a foreign power to work with his personal attorney and the u. S. Attorney to, quote, look into his political rivals . A couple of things. I dont have any problem with the call. Weve now seen the transcript. The president of ukraine said there was no pressure, he was not pushed. Look, if democrats want to impeach because Rudy Giuliani talked to a couple of ukrainians, good luck with that. I dont think the American People think thats the appropriate course of action. I think they see this for what it is. This is just one of the many unending attacks the democrats have leveled against this president. The democrats just put us through three years of this phony russia collusion investigation, and now on the heels of that, they come right back with this. Weve all seen the transcript. Theres nothing there. So i respectfully disagree with my colleagues who think that there needs to be a further inquiry here. Well, lets talk about the transcript, because in that transcript, President Trump says, this is with the ukrainian president , who desperately needed hundreds of millions of dollars of aid, including military aid, to beat back russian aggression, President Trump says, theres a lot of talk about bidens son, that biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, thats not accurate, but in any case, so whatever you could do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging, stop the prosecution, if you could look entitle, that would be great. Again, the description of the matters is inaccurate, but you dont have any problem with the president of the United States leveraging his power to push a foreign leader to investigate a political rival . What i have a problem with is what the democrats are doing. Understand what happened here, jake. You had a bureaucrat who didnt like the president wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you talking about . We know he didnt like the president. We dont know that. The Inspector General says theres arguable political bias. Thats washington speak for this guy didnt like the president. Lets go into that. I have a statement up here. Let me finish my statement. A bureaucrat says that the president did something wrong on a call. This guy wasnt on the call, someone else told him about the call. So the white house actually released the transcript. We see the transcript, theres nothing there. But the democrats say, we dont care. Were going to move towards impeachment. They dont care about the facts, they dont care about the truth. And you know why we know that . Because nancy pelosi did a press conference the day before skpan said she was going to move towards impeachment, the day before she even saw the transcript. That just shows you that these folks are bound and determined to go after this president , no matter what. They put the country through three years of this false trump russia collusion issue, all the way through. And it was Michael Cohen didnt do it, the john dean hearing didnt do it for him, the bob mueller hearing fell apart, the Corey Lewandowski so now they come with this. The latest attack on the president. So theres a lot you said there. Theres a lot of people that would look at whats in the Mueller Report and say, thats not nothing. You watched the mueller hearing. Lets talk about today. Lets talk about today. You just described this individual, this whistleblower, and im really actually surprised, because ive covered whistleblowers when you were on the committee during the obama years, and there was a lot more reverence for whistleblowers during that period from republicans than im hearing today. You said that he was a bureaucrat who hated the president or disliked the president , biased against the president. There is no evidence of that. Let me read from the Inspector Generals report. It says, although the icig, thats the intelligence communitys Inspector Generals political review unveiled some indicia, such evidence did not change my determination that the complaint related to the urgent concern appears credible. So first of all, that could mean that he interned for john mccain 20 years ago. We have no idea what it means. Second of all, he says that in same sentence, that it did not change his determination that could complaint is credible. Thats a trump appointee saying that. Two ninthings you look at. Im on the oversight committee. Two things you look at to determine the credibility of a socalled whistleblower. First, did they have firsthand knowledge . And second, what was their motivation . Was there some kind of bias . This individual has problems on both of those counts. He had no firsthand knowledge, he heard something from someone who may have heard something from someone no, no, his sources were firsthand sources. But he has no firsthand knowledge. And second, he has a political bias. That should tell us something about this guy who came forward with this claim. And now the democrats are saying, because of this whistleblower, were going to impeach the president. I say, look at the transcript, and the transcript gives you no reason to impeach this president , who overturned an election where the people spoke loud and clear. You know as well as i do, that you do not need to have firsthand knowledge to be a whistleblower. Well, you dont now because they changed the form. You used to. Theres no evidence of that. And we looked into this. I know what youre talking about, youre talking about that federalist story. Its not clear that thats accurate. And even so, experts ive seen the form it has never been true it has never been true that you need to have firsthand knowledge to be a whistleblower. But its something thats critical when youre assessing if theyre credible. Thats a major determination. So listen to this. Heres what the complaint says, okay . Quote, this is from the whistleblower. The president used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests, namely, he sought to pressure the ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president s 2020 reelection bid. Now, the acting director of National Intelligence