Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20190920 : vi

The planet. What could be the biggest day of climate demonstrations in world history. Well talk to the Trump Administration officials who resigned in protest over the crisis. We start with breaking news in the politics lead. The president urging ukraine to investigate joe bidens son hunter multiple times, according to the wall street journal in a breaking news story just minutes ago. Sources telling the journal that President Trump made the request about eight times on a july phone call. And told the president of ukraine to work with Rudy Giuliani. The president s personal attorney. Who just last night admitted to asking the ukrainians to investigate biden. Cnns Kaitlan Collins joins me live from the white house with this breaking news. Kaitlan, what are we learning . Reporter the president today said he did not deny discussing joe biden during the last known phone call with the president of ukraine. A phone call that came at the end of july. But now the wall street journal is reporting that during that phone call about eight times the president pressured the cranan president to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani who you saw on our air last night on a probe looking into joe biden because according to the journal the president told the ukrainian president that people in washington wanted to know if the allegations were true or not. That comes after just hours ago in the oval office the president said he didnt know if it that was phone call that prompted a whistleblower to complain. President trumps second state visit overshadowed today as he faced questions about a whistleblower complaint he made an alarming commitment to a foreign leader. It is just another political hack job. Thats all it is. Reporter the president accused the whistleblower of being political but conceded he doesnt know who it is. I dont foe i dont know the identity of the whistleblower, it is a partisan person. Reporter he blasted the complaint as ridiculous even though he hasnt seen it. No. I havent. Everybody laughed at it. Reporter and maintains it was aboveboard. It was a appropriate conversation. Reporter but not sure which one the whistleblower is talking about. Well figure it out. Youre supposed to be the media. Figure it out. Reporter asked if congress will get to see the complaint, trump waved away the question. There is nothing. It is nothing. Reporter while he downplayed the matter, the president didnt deny discussing joe biden with the ukrainian leader, it doesnt matter what i discussed but i will say this, somebody ought to look into joe bidens statement. Reporter that is what his attorney Rudy Giuliani was going to do before canceling a trip to ukraine after facing backlash. Giuliani wanted to discuss bidens potential role in the governments dismissal of of a prosecutor dismissing his son and rambling on thursday night Rudy Giuliani denied and then admitted seconds later he asked the Ukrainian Government to investigate the family. I didnt. I ask ukraine to investigate the allegations there was interference in the le the election of 2016 for the benefit of Hillary Clinton for which there is already you never asked anything about hunter biden or never asked anything about joe biden. The only thing i asked about joe biden is to get to the bottom of how lo senko who dismissed the case against so you did ask ukraine to look into joe biden . Of course i did. You just said you didnt. Reporter the conversation Rudy Giuliani did have with officials including the president s representative are now under investigation by three different house committees who were demanding information while some republicans say it is overblown. I think there are people in the Intelligence Community and other parts of our government who just have it out for the president. Reporter now, jake, we should note that this report about President Trump pushing the ukrainian president is published in the wall street journal, a paper backed by Rupert Murdock a close ally of the president and this is coming days before the president is scheduled to sit down with the ukrainian president in new york next week, a meeting the white house confirmed is still on today. Kaitlan collins at the white house with the breaking news. Thanks so much. Cnns Alex Marquardt has been digging into the president S Communications with ukraine. Reporter it was a long list of foreign leaders that President Trump communicated with in the weeks before the whistleblower spoke up. But the Washington Post reports that the complaint, which the Intelligence Community Inspector General said is of urgent concern, centers on ukraine which the president has had controversial deals with. Just two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed on august 12th, the president spoke with his ukrainian counterpart. Trump today insisting it was all aboveboard. Ive had conversations with many leaders that are always appropriate. Reporter at the time the white house said the two president s discussed strengthening the relationship without giving specifics. But ukraine said they talked about the investigation of Corruption Cases which inhibited the interaction between ukraine and the usa. In may the president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he was going to ukraine to push the new president to investigate joe biden and his sons links to a gas company. He canceled the trip but then in july went to madrid to meet with an aide to talk about biden. Then the next month 250 million in military aid for ukraine was put on hold by the white house. On september 1st, Vice President mike pence met with zelensky. When asked about the efforts to get dirt on joe biden, the Vice President danced around it. As President Trump had me make clear, we have great concerns about issues of corruption. And fortunately pretzelenski was elected on an anticorruption message. Reporter whatever the alleged promise that the whistleblower said the president reportedly made, democrats in congress are vowing to get to the bottom of those claims. They deserve a thorough investigation. That is what were intent on doing and come hell or high water that is what were going to do. Reporter chairman adam schiff saying there is a real sense of urgency about this whistleblower complaint that can not wait and looking into Legal Options that he could take in court if they arent given access to the complaint. Now the acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is due to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee next thursday. And will have to explain why the white house and the department of justice have told him not to hand that complaint over. Jake. Alex marquardt. And that money to ukraine, the 250 million has been approved. Thanks so much. Lets discuss with steve hall, the former cia chief of Russian Operations and Elliott Williams who worked as a federal prosecutor in the justice department. So first i want to take a step back. The wall street journal is saying that in that phone call there was no offer of a quid procould. In other words the president was saying to ukraine he was not saying to ukraine 250 million in foreign aid depends on you investigating the bidens but he was talking about the bidens and that 250 million was obviously something that everybody knew was outstanding. Take a listen to what Rudy Giuliani, the president s attorney who is part of the whole ukraine thing said on cnn to chris cuomo. The reality is that the president of the United States whoever he is has ever right to tell the president of another country you better straighten out the corruption in your country if you want us to give you money. He wasnt saying that happens but providing a potential preemptive defense of the idea if President Trump did say root out corruption and we know his definition of corruption is find out dirt on my political opponents, that hes allowed to do that. And even if he wanted to tie the money, even though the wall street journal said that did not happen on the phone call according to the source, is this against the law if he did if there was a direct quid pro quo. The tiny sliver in which Rudy Giuliani has a point is that the president of the United States has broad latitude to conduct Foreign Affairs of the United States. Now, if hes specifically exchanging something for president ial action, if you do x then i will give you foreign aid, that is a criminal offense. That is on a service what is called Honest Service violation. What if it is vague. We could have a better relationship if you root out corruption and let me tell you about corruption, the bidens are corrupt, blah blah if it is hinted at but not expressly set. Hey, congress, are you listening. To paraphrase the president. Then it becomes a question of is this a violation of the president s oath of office, is he using the power of the presidency to influence and frankly to go after his political rivals which hes already demonstrated hes willing to do and did with the clintons, Hillary Clinton. And this is a question for congress and oversight and if it reaches that point, impeachment. That is the remedy here. Steve, having worked in intelligence for so long, if somebody in the Intelligence Community, because we do not know yet 100 what this whistleblower was alarmed about, but if a whistleblower heard a president of the United States pressuring a foreign leader who desperately wanted hundreds of Million Dollars from the United States in foreign aid, pressuring that person to give him dirt on a potential political opponent, would that alarm the average Intelligence Analyst to the point that they would try to file a whistleblower complaint and go to congress . Yeah, i would certainly see how it could. There is a lot of conversations going on now that this is a partisan move on some intelligence officer. I dont know how many times the deep state thing is ridiculous. Career Intelligence Officers like myself, were never political in our jobs. And this whole idea this is somehow a partisan thing seems to be is just ridiculous. I have served for 30 years in the Intelligence Community. I never knew of a whistleblower. It is a very dangerous thing to do despite the legislation to protect them. But it could have real negative impacts on your career. So that is that doesnt seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. To top it all off, the Inspector General seems to agree. Remember one of the Inspector Generals roles is to weed out policy differences. Intelligence officers are taught from day one you provide intelligence to policymakers and cannot be what is called policy prescriptive and you cant suggest or comment on policies is not something that is done and if a whistleblower sawing this like that, i could see how he or she could be concerned enough to file that complaint. And what the white house is saying to shut down the whistleblower and keep him or her from talking to congress or congressional leaders or have the complaint shared with them is this is not an intelligence matter. Is it an intelligence matter . You know, i think we need to know more about the phone call and precisely what was said before we foe specifically whether it was an intelligence matter or not. But again, the i. G. Said this is a valid complaint from inside of the Intelligence Community. When the white house comes back and says the constitution gives broad powers to the president to run foreign policy, which is absolutely true, you still have to ask yourself does that mean the president could say absolutely anything he wants to a Foreign Government . I dont think so. This president has a particularly bad record, back to the oval Office Comments where he shared Sensitive Information with Russian Foreign minister has a terrible reputation for saying the wrong thing to foreign leaders. That is what the real issue is and what is going to be focused on here. And also theoid that the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community has deemed this threat to be or deemed this whistleblower complaint to be urgent and credible, and also underlying this has to do with the overall definition of what the Intelligence Community is supposed to be doing, in other words protecting the National Security of the United States. Just to piggy back on steves point, these are Intelligence Community officers are the least partisan and political people and this is an individual who devotes his entire career to answering these questions of is something a credible threat, is this a gross violation or whatever. And so we ought to give that certainly far more credence than the political people who have taken this over to some extent of the administration. So absolutely when he he dealt or established that something seemed amiss, i think hes entitled to some to some deference there. The Inspector General is almost a whistleblower himself. Hes launched a complaint that the Trump Administration is keeping him from doing his job. Steve hall and Elliott Williams, thank you for your expertise. As the world wonders about the contents of this alleged call with a foreign leader, the House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy claims hes only heard rumors about it. Really in thats next. At fidelity, we believe your money should always be working harder. Thats why your cash automatically goes into a Money Market Fund when you open a new account. And fidelitys rate is higher than e trades, td ameritrades, even 9 times more than schwabs. Plus only fidelity has zero account fees and zero minimums for retail brokerage and retirement accounts. Just another reminder of the value youll only find at fidelity. Open an account today. There are three words when you live with migraine. I am here. Aim to say that more with aimovig. A preventive treatment for migraine in adults that reduces the number of monthly migraine days. For some, that number can be cut in half or more. Dont take aimovig if youre allergic to it. Allergic reactions like rash or swelling can happen hours to days after use. Common side effects include injection site reactions and constipation. Aim to be there more. Talk to your doctor about aimovig. Only marcos can deliver. Americas most loved pizza. Hot and fresh, and right to your door. Every day at marcos, get two medium, onetopping pizzas for just 6. 99 each. Hello to the italian way. Hello primo. Thanks to priceline working with top airlines to turn their unsold seats into amazing deals, Family Reunion attendance is up. Were all related yeah, i see it. And because priceline offers great deals by comparing thousands of prices in real time, sports fans are seeing more away games. Various yeahhh is that safe . Oh, y. Ahh not at all. No, maam. Nope. And more people than ever are enjoying romantic getaways. romantic music thats gross priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Thats gross tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. More coverage its a network that gives you freedom from big cities, to small towns, were with you. Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. Plants capture co2. What if other kinds of plants captured it too . If these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. Carbon capture is Important Technology and experts agree. Thats why were working on ways to improve it. So plants. Can be a little more. Like plants. Theyre americas bpursuing lifechanging cures. In a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. Breaking news in our politics lead, the wall street journal reporting moments ago that President Trump asked the ukrainan president to investigate joe bidens son hunter around eight times during a july phone call. President trump was asked twice today if he asked the Trump Administration<\/a> officials who resigned in protest over the crisis. We start with breaking news in the politics lead. The president urging ukraine to investigate joe bidens son hunter multiple times, according to the wall street journal in a breaking news story just minutes ago. Sources telling the journal that President Trump<\/a> made the request about eight times on a july phone call. And told the president of ukraine to work with Rudy Giuliani<\/a>. The president s personal attorney. Who just last night admitted to asking the ukrainians to investigate biden. Cnns Kaitlan Collins<\/a> joins me live from the white house with this breaking news. Kaitlan, what are we learning . Reporter the president today said he did not deny discussing joe biden during the last known phone call with the president of ukraine. A phone call that came at the end of july. But now the wall street journal is reporting that during that phone call about eight times the president pressured the cranan president to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani<\/a> who you saw on our air last night on a probe looking into joe biden because according to the journal the president told the ukrainian president that people in washington wanted to know if the allegations were true or not. That comes after just hours ago in the oval office the president said he didnt know if it that was phone call that prompted a whistleblower to complain. President trumps second state visit overshadowed today as he faced questions about a whistleblower complaint he made an alarming commitment to a foreign leader. It is just another political hack job. Thats all it is. Reporter the president accused the whistleblower of being political but conceded he doesnt know who it is. I dont foe i dont know the identity of the whistleblower, it is a partisan person. Reporter he blasted the complaint as ridiculous even though he hasnt seen it. No. I havent. Everybody laughed at it. Reporter and maintains it was aboveboard. It was a appropriate conversation. Reporter but not sure which one the whistleblower is talking about. Well figure it out. Youre supposed to be the media. Figure it out. Reporter asked if congress will get to see the complaint, trump waved away the question. There is nothing. It is nothing. Reporter while he downplayed the matter, the president didnt deny discussing joe biden with the ukrainian leader, it doesnt matter what i discussed but i will say this, somebody ought to look into joe bidens statement. Reporter that is what his attorney Rudy Giuliani<\/a> was going to do before canceling a trip to ukraine after facing backlash. Giuliani wanted to discuss bidens potential role in the governments dismissal of of a prosecutor dismissing his son and rambling on thursday night Rudy Giuliani<\/a> denied and then admitted seconds later he asked the Ukrainian Government<\/a> to investigate the family. I didnt. I ask ukraine to investigate the allegations there was interference in the le the election of 2016 for the benefit of Hillary Clinton<\/a> for which there is already you never asked anything about hunter biden or never asked anything about joe biden. The only thing i asked about joe biden is to get to the bottom of how lo senko who dismissed the case against so you did ask ukraine to look into joe biden . Of course i did. You just said you didnt. Reporter the conversation Rudy Giuliani<\/a> did have with officials including the president s representative are now under investigation by three different house committees who were demanding information while some republicans say it is overblown. I think there are people in the Intelligence Community<\/a> and other parts of our government who just have it out for the president. Reporter now, jake, we should note that this report about President Trump<\/a> pushing the ukrainian president is published in the wall street journal, a paper backed by Rupert Murdock<\/a> a close ally of the president and this is coming days before the president is scheduled to sit down with the ukrainian president in new york next week, a meeting the white house confirmed is still on today. Kaitlan collins at the white house with the breaking news. Thanks so much. Cnns Alex Marquardt<\/a> has been digging into the president S Communications<\/a> with ukraine. Reporter it was a long list of foreign leaders that President Trump<\/a> communicated with in the weeks before the whistleblower spoke up. But the Washington Post<\/a> reports that the complaint, which the Intelligence Community<\/a> Inspector General<\/a> said is of urgent concern, centers on ukraine which the president has had controversial deals with. Just two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed on august 12th, the president spoke with his ukrainian counterpart. Trump today insisting it was all aboveboard. Ive had conversations with many leaders that are always appropriate. Reporter at the time the white house said the two president s discussed strengthening the relationship without giving specifics. But ukraine said they talked about the investigation of Corruption Cases<\/a> which inhibited the interaction between ukraine and the usa. In may the president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani<\/a> said he was going to ukraine to push the new president to investigate joe biden and his sons links to a gas company. He canceled the trip but then in july went to madrid to meet with an aide to talk about biden. Then the next month 250 million in military aid for ukraine was put on hold by the white house. On september 1st, Vice President<\/a> mike pence met with zelensky. When asked about the efforts to get dirt on joe biden, the Vice President<\/a> danced around it. As President Trump<\/a> had me make clear, we have great concerns about issues of corruption. And fortunately pretzelenski was elected on an anticorruption message. Reporter whatever the alleged promise that the whistleblower said the president reportedly made, democrats in congress are vowing to get to the bottom of those claims. They deserve a thorough investigation. That is what were intent on doing and come hell or high water that is what were going to do. Reporter chairman adam schiff saying there is a real sense of urgency about this whistleblower complaint that can not wait and looking into Legal Options<\/a> that he could take in court if they arent given access to the complaint. Now the acting director of National Intelligence<\/a> Joseph Maguire<\/a> is due to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee<\/a> next thursday. And will have to explain why the white house and the department of justice have told him not to hand that complaint over. Jake. Alex marquardt. And that money to ukraine, the 250 million has been approved. Thanks so much. Lets discuss with steve hall, the former cia chief of Russian Operations<\/a> and Elliott Williams<\/a> who worked as a federal prosecutor in the justice department. So first i want to take a step back. The wall street journal is saying that in that phone call there was no offer of a quid procould. In other words the president was saying to ukraine he was not saying to ukraine 250 million in foreign aid depends on you investigating the bidens but he was talking about the bidens and that 250 million was obviously something that everybody knew was outstanding. Take a listen to what Rudy Giuliani<\/a>, the president s attorney who is part of the whole ukraine thing said on cnn to chris cuomo. The reality is that the president of the United States<\/a> whoever he is has ever right to tell the president of another country you better straighten out the corruption in your country if you want us to give you money. He wasnt saying that happens but providing a potential preemptive defense of the idea if President Trump<\/a> did say root out corruption and we know his definition of corruption is find out dirt on my political opponents, that hes allowed to do that. And even if he wanted to tie the money, even though the wall street journal said that did not happen on the phone call according to the source, is this against the law if he did if there was a direct quid pro quo. The tiny sliver in which Rudy Giuliani<\/a> has a point is that the president of the United States<\/a> has broad latitude to conduct Foreign Affairs<\/a> of the United States<\/a>. Now, if hes specifically exchanging something for president ial action, if you do x then i will give you foreign aid, that is a criminal offense. That is on a service what is called Honest Service<\/a> violation. What if it is vague. We could have a better relationship if you root out corruption and let me tell you about corruption, the bidens are corrupt, blah blah if it is hinted at but not expressly set. Hey, congress, are you listening. To paraphrase the president. Then it becomes a question of is this a violation of the president s oath of office, is he using the power of the presidency to influence and frankly to go after his political rivals which hes already demonstrated hes willing to do and did with the clintons, Hillary Clinton<\/a>. And this is a question for congress and oversight and if it reaches that point, impeachment. That is the remedy here. Steve, having worked in intelligence for so long, if somebody in the Intelligence Community<\/a>, because we do not know yet 100 what this whistleblower was alarmed about, but if a whistleblower heard a president of the United States<\/a> pressuring a foreign leader who desperately wanted hundreds of Million Dollars<\/a> from the United States<\/a> in foreign aid, pressuring that person to give him dirt on a potential political opponent, would that alarm the average Intelligence Analyst<\/a> to the point that they would try to file a whistleblower complaint and go to congress . Yeah, i would certainly see how it could. There is a lot of conversations going on now that this is a partisan move on some intelligence officer. I dont know how many times the deep state thing is ridiculous. Career Intelligence Officers<\/a> like myself, were never political in our jobs. And this whole idea this is somehow a partisan thing seems to be is just ridiculous. I have served for 30 years in the Intelligence Community<\/a>. I never knew of a whistleblower. It is a very dangerous thing to do despite the legislation to protect them. But it could have real negative impacts on your career. So that is that doesnt seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. To top it all off, the Inspector General<\/a> seems to agree. Remember one of the Inspector General<\/a>s roles is to weed out policy differences. Intelligence officers are taught from day one you provide intelligence to policymakers and cannot be what is called policy prescriptive and you cant suggest or comment on policies is not something that is done and if a whistleblower sawing this like that, i could see how he or she could be concerned enough to file that complaint. And what the white house is saying to shut down the whistleblower and keep him or her from talking to congress or congressional leaders or have the complaint shared with them is this is not an intelligence matter. Is it an intelligence matter . You know, i think we need to know more about the phone call and precisely what was said before we foe specifically whether it was an intelligence matter or not. But again, the i. G. Said this is a valid complaint from inside of the Intelligence Community<\/a>. When the white house comes back and says the constitution gives broad powers to the president to run foreign policy, which is absolutely true, you still have to ask yourself does that mean the president could say absolutely anything he wants to a Foreign Government<\/a> . I dont think so. This president has a particularly bad record, back to the oval Office Comments<\/a> where he shared Sensitive Information<\/a> with Russian Foreign<\/a> minister has a terrible reputation for saying the wrong thing to foreign leaders. That is what the real issue is and what is going to be focused on here. And also theoid that the Inspector General<\/a> for the Intelligence Community<\/a> has deemed this threat to be or deemed this whistleblower complaint to be urgent and credible, and also underlying this has to do with the overall definition of what the Intelligence Community<\/a> is supposed to be doing, in other words protecting the National Security<\/a> of the United States<\/a>. Just to piggy back on steves point, these are Intelligence Community<\/a> officers are the least partisan and political people and this is an individual who devotes his entire career to answering these questions of is something a credible threat, is this a gross violation or whatever. And so we ought to give that certainly far more credence than the political people who have taken this over to some extent of the administration. So absolutely when he he dealt or established that something seemed amiss, i think hes entitled to some to some deference there. The Inspector General<\/a> is almost a whistleblower himself. Hes launched a complaint that the Trump Administration<\/a> is keeping him from doing his job. Steve hall and Elliott Williams<\/a>, thank you for your expertise. As the world wonders about the contents of this alleged call with a foreign leader, the House Minority<\/a> leader Kevin Mccarthy<\/a> claims hes only heard rumors about it. Really in thats next. At fidelity, we believe your money should always be working harder. Thats why your cash automatically goes into a Money Market Fund<\/a> when you open a new account. And fidelitys rate is higher than e trades, td ameritrades, even 9 times more than schwabs. Plus only fidelity has zero account fees and zero minimums for retail brokerage and retirement accounts. Just another reminder of the value youll only find at fidelity. Open an account today. There are three words when you live with migraine. I am here. Aim to say that more with aimovig. A preventive treatment for migraine in adults that reduces the number of monthly migraine days. For some, that number can be cut in half or more. Dont take aimovig if youre allergic to it. Allergic reactions like rash or swelling can happen hours to days after use. Common side effects include injection site reactions and constipation. Aim to be there more. Talk to your doctor about aimovig. Only marcos can deliver. Americas most loved pizza. Hot and fresh, and right to your door. Every day at marcos, get two medium, onetopping pizzas for just 6. 99 each. Hello to the italian way. Hello primo. Thanks to priceline working with top airlines to turn their unsold seats into amazing deals, Family Reunion<\/a> attendance is up. Were all related yeah, i see it. And because priceline offers great deals by comparing thousands of prices in real time, sports fans are seeing more away games. Various yeahhh is that safe . Oh, y. Ahh not at all. No, maam. Nope. And more people than ever are enjoying romantic getaways. romantic music thats gross priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Thats gross tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. More coverage its a network that gives you freedom from big cities, to small towns, were with you. Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. Plants capture co2. What if other kinds of plants captured it too . If these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. Carbon capture is Important Technology<\/a> and experts agree. Thats why were working on ways to improve it. So plants. Can be a little more. Like plants. Theyre americas bpursuing lifechanging cures. In a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs. Like a way to fight cancer by arming a patients own tcells. Because its not just about the next breakthrough. Its all the ones after that. Breaking news in our politics lead, the wall street journal reporting moments ago that President Trump<\/a> asked the ukrainan president to investigate joe bidens son hunter around eight times during a july phone call. President trump was asked twice today if he asked the Ukrainian Government<\/a> to investigation his political rivals the bidens. Take a listen to his answers. Did you discuss joe biden or his son or his family with the it doesnt matter what i discussed. But i will say this. Somebody ought to look into joe bidens statement because it was disgraceful. Did you talk about joe biden during the conversation. I dont want to talk about any conversation other than to say other than to say great conversation. Totally appropriate conversation. Couldnt have been better. We should point out this reporting about President Trump<\/a> talking to ukraine comes from a Rupert Murdoch<\/a> backed newspaper, the wall street journal and murdock seen as a close ally of the president. Lets chew over this with the panel. Jane, let me start with you. The president said it doesnt matter what i discussed. It matters quite a bit. It does matter. It is interesting, because there is what matters politically and what matters legally. Legally hes on slightly firmer ground. There has been some interesting writing in terms of what you can actually ask someone to do for you. If there is no evidence of quid pro quo, hes on firmer legal grounds with regard to this. But politically, it looks really bad. And think think youre going to hear a lot of people, specifically folks on the right saying this is good for trump because we can focus in on hunter biden. But there is a sense of trump does this. He has call for an investigation into virtually everyone and everything with which with whom he finds objectionable. So you heard the same thing when he was tweeting about Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> and the clintons. This is kind of more par for the course. But i cant see an argument how this is a winning argument for him to be asking eight times in one phone call which is a lot of times to be asking anyone for anything in one phone call. That is a lot of times. But we already know from early on when the president was asked by george testify an on list in an interview, if you were going to get information from a foreign entity on an opponent, would that be okay and he said, yeah, i would take that, that would be fine. So we know this man has no skupl skuples scruples and i was thinking about the days on the dang map and about alabama and the hurricane and you have to believe that a man who is willing to not only do that, but to then talk about it for eight days and actually force an agency to put out misinformation to correct to make sure that he looked okay, who knows what he did. It is very believable and it is believable not only given the pattern that weve seen with them, that just throw lots of stuff out there and let the rest of us try to to take it apart and figure out, okay, what is legal, what is not legal. What is political. Of course he did it. And, kevin, the journal reports that they do not think their sources do not think that President Trump<\/a> brought up the 250 million in foreign aid that ukraine wants on that phone call where eight times he talked about hunter biden and how they should investigate him but that is the context of the relationship. Ukraine wanted that money and congress and the president had been holding it back. I guess maybe that makes him on legally firmer ground but its still pretty damning, no . Jane said something, you were joking and saying republicans see this as a good thing. That is probably right. Or that is not that is going too far but they are not afraid of this. They wouldnt mind this fight. Because if you think about it, first of all, i know it is the New Washington<\/a> scandal but it is settling into all of the typical sequence that we see of all of the old wash scandals with this president , which is it starts to divide along partisan lines, the white house quickly engages in combat with its opponents on the left and the media, and then they point to the fact that and then they keep bringing up the fact that biden has something here to disprove in a way that will ultimately tar their political opponent. So youll see them do that over and over again. So i think the other thing is usually you would see Something Like<\/a> this sort of send a panic through the allies up on capitol hill. Theyre perfectly willing to defend the president on this. In fact, take a listen to Kevin Mccarthy<\/a> talking this is a question talking about what he his response to it all. He said, quote, he, talking about the whistleblower, he could have come to congress who is the whistleblower . Is he still working . Because i dont know anything about him. I heard rumors it is someone that left. Why he did he leave. Im concerned about the video with joe biden influencing someone who was fired in ukraine. That is the response of the Republican House<\/a> leader. He could have come to congress. The white house is preventing the whistleblower from coming to congress. Does he not know that . He knows that but this is the gop playbook. You muddy the waters. People at home arent following the playbyplay on this. So you just sort of say there is something mysterious about joe biden and the president said he is partisan and you tar the whistleblower and put out negative messages of joe biden and dont focus on the underlying charge which is the president said something and the wall street journal reporting he basically called for an investigation of his political opponent by a Foreign Government<\/a> and not ome called for it once but eight times said this needed to happen while also with Holding Millions<\/a> of dollars of military aid from this same country. So that underlying charge, that original charge gets lost in the message and the republicans change the focus and change the narrative and the president sort of goes on offense and changes and makes this much more of a muddied water situation. And just real quick, giulianis defense last night of the president was that is a perfect summary. It is not so much about arguing the facts or the details. It is show case combat with the media, show case combat with the president s critics and again bring up the allegations against joe biden over and over. Over and over again. And also acting as if it is normal and the definition of normalizing is as a vice reporter said on twitter today, the definition of normalizing is like acting as if this is what president s do. But i think the role that the media plays in normalization is we could get out in front of it. I think that there is a sense that there are people on the right who even if they are not trump supporter, there is an idea that everything about trump is baked in and Everybody Knows<\/a> hes sketchy. There are many millions of people who dont know. Who have no idea of the impact that some of this is taking were going to talk about border wall funding and people dont know how much that is pulling from needed military updates so i think there is a sense where, yes, it is becoming normalized but normalization only happens when we let it. Stick around. We have more to talk about. Form former Vice President<\/a> joe biden just responded to President Trump<\/a> and the ukraine news. That is next. With sofi, get your credit cards right by consolidating your Credit Card Debt<\/a> into one monthly payment. And get your Interest Rate<\/a> right. So you can save big. Get a nofee personal loan up to 100k. Agerelated macular man ivdegeneration,sed with which could lead to vision loss. So today i made a plan with my doctor, which includes preservision. Because its my vision, my love of the game, my open road, my little artist. Vo only Preservision Areds<\/a> 2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute<\/a> to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. Man because its my sunset, its how i see my life. Its my vision. Preservision. So, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work. The United States<\/a> Postal Service<\/a> makes more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. Ecommerce deliveries to homes yes hey sean hey dan these are the highest sanctions ever imposed on a country. Weve never done it to this level. And it is too bad whats happening with iran. It is going to hell. Were going to continue with the ukraine story in a second. But first, President Trump<\/a> today announced what he called, quote, the highest level of sanctions on iran because of the attacks on saudi oil plants. The president meeting with the National Security<\/a> council today to discuss options insisting hes showed great restraint by not doing what he calls the easiest thing, using the military option. Cnns Dick Robertson<\/a> gott a firstland look at one of the Oil Facilities<\/a> attacked in saudi arabia. Reporter jake, it is astounding. This is ground zero of what really strikes you, we went to ab qaiq and 18 drones were able to target 18 different small pieces of equipment there and that is what really struck me. That you have these long lines of towers and inside of the plant and the drones hit them this was sophisticated, it was coordinated and designed to take down some of the key elements at the early stages of the refining process, but that is the clue here. That is really the clue. Because what was taken down in the strikes is going to be relatively easily repaired. The fires were put out within hours and ramco who owns the company was proud of that fact. But the reality was that these strikes on ramco and the saudi leadership know this, could have targeted huge oil storage facilities, could have targeted areas or royal wells themselves that could have burned for days and days and days and not been so easily contained. So this is huge. It was big. It will be relatively easy for the government to get it back up and running to full speed by the end of the month, they say. But then that leaves even bigger question and the harder problem, rebuilding International Faith<\/a> that this was a oneoff strike and not a precursor to the beginning of a wider war. So this site, huge. The impression left on us by what we saw, huge. But the reality of what this means for the saudis going forward, even bigger, more staggering. Nic robertson, thanks so much. Some breaking news for you now. Joe biden reacting to President Trump<\/a>s comments concerning the former vp and ukraine and his son hunter biden. That story next. Stay with us. 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I want wine with lunch. Its 11am, cindy. Thanks, captain obvious. Dont hatelike their trip, book yours with hotels. Com and get rewarded basically everywhere. Hotels. Com. Be there. Do that. Get rewarded. Id breaking news, former Vice President<\/a> joe biden responded moments ago to President Trump<\/a>s comments and also the wall street journal breaking story about the ukraine phone call with President Trump<\/a>. Take a listen to biden. Wait a second. Wait a second. Not one single credible outlet has begin any credibility to his assertion. Not one single one. And so i have no comment except the president should start to be president. All right. Lets chew over all of this. Your response . Hey, if you are leading in the democratic primary because people think youre the guy who can take on donald trump, you want to be attacked by donald trump. And i think he did fine. I would worry if i were a biden supporter this is waving a red flag at the trump folks and that what happens is it wouldnt it wouldnt be because they dont think anything is there but because he is not going to be wellpositioned to combat donald trump. But then in the context of what is happening today, being attacked and having a back and forth with trump in the couple of days about this, this is good and what you want and within a couple of hours hell have a more robust response. It is going to invite more aggression from the white house. Im surprised, jane, that biden wasnt moro more offended about going after his son hunter but about the president trying to get a foreign leader to dig up dirt on him and his son. I think that is the focus of his upcoming remark. You got the comment that the president should be busy being president and if you are supportive of joe biden and we see this in the numbers, joe biden promises a return to normalcy where this wasnt what we did all day and if that is your pitch and this is joe biden and you spend most of your time having donald trump yell at you about various things and allegedly calling a Foreign Government<\/a> to try to get information on your family, and you keep making the im normal and well go back to the way things used to be when you didnt have to think about the president all that much, im normal pitch, that could prove to be a surprisingly effect. I think the ins and outs of the scandals are the kind of things that well discuss and people who are involved in politics will discuss but the existence of cand scandal and whose name is involved matters to voters but there are voters who wont change their minds one way or another based on one particular scandal or another but theyre saying im tired of this. Im tired of all of this. Im tired of the president of the United States<\/a> taking up such a large swath of my mental space and i think that bidens response is very much like why isnt the president off president ing. It is worthwhile from his perspective. And toluse, the president didnt deny he talked with the president of ukraine about the about joe biden and his son. But he did say, quote, i dont know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear it is a partisan person menning it meaning it comes from another party but i can say it was a totally appropriate conversation. It was actually a beautiful conversation. Now we know that the conversation was at least a big chunk of it was about i need you to investigate my potential rivals son. And even when the president was saying it was a beautiful conversation, he wasnt acknowledged which conversation he was talking about but saying all of my conversations are appropriate and i know other people are on the calls with foreign leaders and i never say anything appropriate. And how democrats respond to this and you see the response from joe biden and they have the power to hold the president accountable and the house and whether they decide to keep sending nasty letters or take action to hold the president responsible for what a growing number of democrats are saying are impeachable offenses. Youre seeing that angst in the party with certain democrats saying we should be doing more than we are doing now. But people will tay focused and adam chiffschiff, they will let it go. This is the precedent. The whole point of a whistleblower is to come forward and raise your hand and say im concerned about something so the obstruction from the white house and the justice department, that cant stand. So that one i think for sure theyll have to keep pursuing. I also think this is definitely who can rid me of this meddlesome moment and those end bad for everyone involved but well learn more over the weeks about the ins and outs of the story but the entire point of this, one, when you heard from Republican Leaders<\/a> saying why havent we heard this in congress, well the white house is why we havent heard this in congress and if the white house is so very interested in getting to the bottom of who this person is and what the story is, then let them testify before congress and then we can all learn together. There will be. There will be more investigations. Youre all right on that. And the white house is going to simply say there they go again. And just for those who didnt get janes reference of who will rid me of this meddlesome the idea that the president said somebody ought to look into joe bidens statement, somebody ought to look into this, an invitation for ukraine or somebody to drop the dirt. Russia, if your listening china thanks. More than 1 million new york students were given permission to skip school today. Well explain why next. Every day at marcos, get two medium, onetopping pizzas for just 6. 99 each. Hello to the italian way. Hello primo. Be right back. With moderate to severe Crohns Disease<\/a>, 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<\/a> after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Tmobiles newest signal reaches farther than ever before. With more engineers. More towers. More coverage its a network that gives you freedom from big cities, to small towns, were with you. Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. Look at that. Youre looking at live pictures from new york city, hong kong, new delhi, johannesberg and bangkok and sydney, australia, a massive show of solidarity today with huge global protests, protesters wanting to protect the planet and young people and activists looking for action on the Climate Crisis<\/a>. This is happening in 139 countries in what might be the largest environmental demonstration in the history of the world. Cnns bill weir is with protesters in new york city. What are you seeing on the ground. Reporter behind me, greta thunberg, the famous swedish teenager is speaking to the crowd to chants of greta and huge cheers. Fans in the trees as she puts the numbers here in new york city to 250,000 today and over 4 million worldwide. Those are the organizers numbers yet to be confirmed officially but no doubt this is grown exponentially since last summer and she sat in front of the parliament in stockholm, sweden and demand the countries meet the paris accord targets and that is about a 15 reduction in co2 a year which is a massive lift for the richest countries in the world and yet i talk to so many kids here today who are so frustrated with the lack of urgency and what they what resonates the most from thunberg is here just cleareyed, brutal blunt honesty. And in a way that isnt con descending or insulting that connects with them. They say this is just the beginning. Unlike protests once a year, this is a weekly thing for the kids and today the numbers grew bigtime. Bill weir in new york city with environmental protests and young activists. Joining me now is senior Intelligence Analyst<\/a> rod skoonover and quit his job after the white house blocked his written testimony warning of the catastrophic effects of humancaused Climate Change<\/a> from being delivered to congress. They didnt want to let him do that. Thank you so much for being here, rod. What was so damning in your remarks that the white house didnt want you to share it. So thanks for having me here. The nature of the Risk Assessment<\/a> that my bureau prepared for congress was first to assess the risk from to characterize the rick from Climate Change<\/a> and then to talk about the implications from Climate Change<\/a>. And so part of the Risk Assessment<\/a>, the characterization on Climate Change<\/a> is necessarily based on Climate Science<\/a>. And so it was that inclusion of Climate Science<\/a> drawn from federal science agencies like nasa, noaa, the u. S. Global change, research program, National Academies<\/a> of science, drawn from that scientific basis the inclusion of the science in this testimony was that is what was yeah. So in your view how dangerous is it that we have a white house that is trying to block the presentation of science by Government Official<\/a>s like yourself, former Government Official<\/a> now, to congress . Well, i mean, it certainly is unusual. This was the House Intelligence Committee<\/a> asking for an assessment on Climate Change<\/a> from one of the 16 elements of the u. S. Intelligence community. It is very unusual for any kind of white house interference in that relationship. And so it was i think rather unprecedented for this intervention. How many people do you think there are in the Trump Administration<\/a> still in the Trump Administration<\/a> who are experts on Climate Science<\/a>, experts on the Climate Crisis<\/a> worried that President Trump<\/a> is not only doing nothing but actually making the matter worse in their view, but theyre not resigning, theyre not coming forward . That is hard for me to judge the government is quite large. Too many people. There is a lot of people scientists devoted to studying Climate Change<\/a>. So i would say it is a significant number. Rod skoon over. The frightening video just in of a car driving through a mall in illinois. That story is next. Youve had quite the career. I like working. What if my Retirement Plan<\/a> is i dont want to retire . Then lets not create a Retirement Plan<\/a>. Lets create a plan for whats next. I like that. Get a plan thats right for you. Td ameritrade. Like very high triglycerides, can be tough. You diet. Exercise. 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Were there. So you can be too. My Car Insurance<\/a> to geico. This is how it made me feel. It was like that feeling when you pull your green sock out of the dryer and then the very next sock is the other green one. And then you pull out two blue ones. And you keep going till youve matched every single sock in perfect order. And the owner of the laundromat is so impressed, he hangs a picture of you next to the dryer. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance<\/a>. Hi. Maria ramirez mom maria Maria Ramirez<\/a>. Mcdonalds is committing 150 Million Dollars<\/a> in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs. Prof Maria Ramirez<\/a> mom and dad Maria Ramirez<\/a> to help more employees achieve their dreams. Audreys on it. Eating right and staying active . On it audrey thinks shes doing all she can to manage her type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but is her treatment doing enough to lower her heart risk . [sfx crash of Football Players<\/a> colliding offcamera. ] maybe not. Jardiance can reduce the risk of cardiovascular death for adults who also have known heart disease. So it could help save your life from a heart attack or stroke. And it lowers a1c. Jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast or urinary tract infections, and sudden kidney problems. Ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. A rare, but lifethreatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. Stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction. Do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Lower a1c and lower risk of a fatal heart attack . On it. With jardiance. Ask your doctor about jardiance. On it. With jardiance. Plants capture co2. What if other kinds of plants captured it too . If these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. Carbon capture is Important Technology<\/a> and experts agree. Thats why were working on ways to improve it. So plants. Can be a little more. Like plants. Breaking news in our national lead, sheer panic in an illinois Shopping Mall<\/a> this afternoon as video shows a person driving an suv inside of the mall. A source telling cnn the car made it to the center court of the mall in schaumburg, about 30 miles outside of chicago. Police have one suspect in custody. Officials say there are no reports of injuries so far. And we have more breaking news in our sports lead. The new England Patriots<\/a> have released wide receiver Antonio Brown<\/a> amid Sexual Assault<\/a> accusations from the former trainer Brittany Taylor<\/a> saying, quote, we appreciate the hard work of many people over the last 11 days but we feel it is best to move in a different direction at this time. Calls for brown to be removed from the patriots roster have been growing. Nike dropped his endorsement deal yesterday. Brown tweeting just moments ago, thanks for the opportunity. Brown has denied the allegations made against him by his former trainer. In our politics lead. The Trump Administration<\/a> reversing course and announcing it will allow undocumented immigrants to apply to stay in the United States<\/a> if they have a severe medical condition and are relying on medical treatment here in the u. S. The Trump Administration<\/a> originally decided to end that process this summer. It sparked a massive outcry and an emergency hearing on capitol hill where various impacted children essentially begged congress and the Trump Administration<\/a> for their lives. I dont want to die. I dont want to die. If i go back to honduras, i will die. One undocumented immigrant maria isabel tells cnn, while we have not received any official confirmation that our deferred action case will be approved were cautiously optimistic about this news, unquote. And of course we have even more breaking news today in our politics lead. President trump urged the president of ukraine to investigate joe bidens son multiple times in a phone call earlier this summer according to the wall street journal in a breaking news story just about an hour ago sources telling the journal that President Trump<\/a> made the request about eight times on that july phone call and told ukraine to work with Rudy Giuliani<\/a>, the president s personal attorney who just last night admitted to chris cuomo on cnn that he asked the ukrainians to investigate biden. Joe biden just responded to all of this, take a listen. Wait a second. Wait a second. Not one single outlet has given credibility to his assertion. Not one single one. So i have no comment except the president should start to be president. Tune into cnn sunday morning for state of the union and ill talk to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee<\/a> democrat adam schiff about all of this. Plus well have treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin<\/a> to talk about new sanctions on iran and the u. S. Economy. It is 9 00 a. M. And noon eastern on sunday. Follow me on fact, instagram and twitter at jake tapper and our coverage on cnn continues now. Thank you for watching. Ill see you sunday morning. Happening now, breaking news, refusing to answer. A new report said President Trump<\/a> pressed ukraines president to investigate joe bidens son. But mr. Trump says it doesnt matter what he discussed in the call and dismissing a whistleblowers complaint about him as partisan. Even though he admits he doesnt know who the whistleblower is. Breaking the law, House Speaker<\/a> nancy pelosi said the refusal of the director of National Intelligence<\/a> to turn over the whistleblower complaint to congress ask illegal as the head of the House Intelligence Committee<\/a> vows to get it, quote, come hell or high water. Demanding action. 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