Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We start with the politics lead and the strategy of the white house and allies of spinning, dismissing and outright lying to the American People on full display today as the impeachment investigation expands. Democrats slap brandnew subpoenas on the trump administration. Today the three house committees leading the charge on impeachment, intelligence, oversight and Foreign Affairs subpoenaed both the president s defense secretary and his budget chief, not only demanding documents about his interactions with ukraine and his with holding of hundreds of Million Dollars in military aid for ukraine and also information on the Rudy Giuliani and the ways in which giuliani pressured ukrainian officials to investigate joe and hunter biden on behalf of President Trump. Kaitlan collins kicks off our coverage from the white house. Reporter as House Democrats ramped up peach tod the impeachment inquiry today, President Trump tried to turn the fire storm around on them. Accusing House Speaker nancy pelosi of treason. Insisting shes the one who should be removed from office, not him. Though members of congress cant be impeached. The president is shifting his defense. Still insisting that call with the ukrainian president was perfect. But now claiming it was Energy Secretary rick perry who urged him to call zelensky. Absolutely, i asked the president multiple times, mr. President we think it is in the United States and in ukraines best interest. Perry said he wants trump to call zelensky, about energy, not the bidens. Not once, not once as god is my witness, not once was a biden name, not the former Vice President or his son ever mentioned. Reporter the Energy Secretary wasnt on the july call at the center of the impeachment probe but democrats may still want to talk to him. In addition to the new subpoenas for the pentagon and Budget Office today about that hold on the Ukrainian Military aid package, two more key witnesses are expected to testify this week. The president spent the weekend firing off dozens of tweets. As republicans struggle to defend his actions. When i asked the president about that, he completely denied it. He adamantly denied it and vehemently angrily denied it. He said i wouldnt do that. Reporter not a single white house official went on television on sunday leaving the task up to republican lawmakers who struggled with this shaky defense. You really think he was serious about thinking that china is going to investigate the biden family . Even the white house hasnt claimed trump was kidding when he suggested china should investigate the biden. I dont know how to [ inaudible ]. Reporter and cnn confirmed during a senior staff meeting Mick Mulvaney predicted if President Trump does get impeached by the house he will win 45 states in the 2020 election. It was a statement that surprised some officials in the room and that is confirming axios reporting but followed cnn reporting that President Trump was sensitive to the ideas they were forming some kind of an impeachment response in the white house, conversations that we should know Mick Mulvaney was part of. Kaitlan collins at the white house. Thanks so much. Lets chew over this with our experts. Chairman rodgers, you led the House Intelligence Committee and part of the subpoena for the secretary of defense includes documents related to President Trumps call with the ukrainian president and, quote, the identity of all individuals who listened to, participated in, assisted in preparation for and transcribed, took notes during, reviewed the call record or transcript or received information, unquote. So break that down for us. What are the democrats looking for here . Well theyre going to try to substantiate what exactly happened on the call. The part that was released was someones interpretation of the call. It was not a transcript of the call. So theyre going to look for the transcript. And they want to talk to people around the call . Was that when you first had any suspicion something was funny going on and was that all of that is going to happen. And my guess is that list was generated because of the conversations with the whistleblower candidly. So that whistleblower likely gave names of somebody that fits those descriptions and that subpoena includes who the whistleblower believed would have further information and probably supported the whistleblower as complaint would be my guess. And jen, a second whistleblower now according to mark zaid the attorney for both and he said this whistleblower went to the Inspector General and has firsthand knowledge and he doesnt need to file a separate complaint and it is part of the original complaint but backs it up. Right. And i think as mike was saying, as much as they could make this about putting together the facts and the details of exactly what happened, it becomes less about the personality of the whistleblower. I think democrats are assuming that the whistleblowers name will become public. We certainly hope not. But that will likely happen. And it will become a character assassination effort against them. But if there are multiple people which there seem to be that seems to be building who are putting together the details and firsthand witnesses with specific details of the relationships, the conversations with giuliani, the call, it becomes less it becomes much more challenge challenging to make this against the whistleblower. And they are demanding documents from the pentagon that have to do with Rudy Giuliani and whether he pressed ukrainian officials to investigate among other things, quote, matters related to burisma holdings, that is the gas company that hunter biden was an adviser. Paul manafort, joseph biden, Hillary Clinton and or any u. S. Persons or entities. Democrats warning they might subpoena three of giulianis associates if they dont cooperate. So theyre really going after rudy right now. Right. Because weve talked about this before. We just dont know what Rudy Giulianis role has been. Is he private citizen . Is he state Department Envoy . Is he attorney to the president and trying to hide behind his relationship as an attorney with the president to get out of having to submit documents but a lot of these are getting at the fact that Rudy Giuliani is a core figure in this, that going back to a number of ties to ukraine and so on. And so it is very much in their interest to see what they can find out. And it is very narrowly tailored and this is not a scatter shot of requests for Rudy Giuliani, theyve iterated everything they need and will see what turns up. And Rudy Giuliani has been out there with a lot of unsun stan she at unsubstantiated allegations and barr were telling them off the record they were annoyed with what rudy was doing but now it seems the Administration Officials are kind of following rudy down this rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Yeah, it is interesting. I certainly think that it is interest to watch how pompeo has reacted to this. Because, yeah, you didnt get a sense up until this moment that mike pompeo and Rudy Giuliani were in lock step on what was going on and if Rudy Giuliani would be some state Department Envoy but the way pompeo has responded, the way hes gotten his back up, hes bristled at the requests, i think that does kind of put him right in line with the president and with Rudy Giuliani. It is telling, that is not how everyone across this administration has responded. But it certainly tells you where mike pompeo is in all of this. And elliott, because of the phone call, could the white house make any legal case against turning over the documents, executive privilege. They are trying. And the President Trump is entitled to privilege around conversations core to the functions of the presidency or whatever. But theyve expanding the definition of executive privilege. Going back to the beginning of this administration. To the first days that almost Rudy Giuliani is claimed executive privilege even though hes not even a white house employee. Now the interesting thing is they are the administration is flirting with another impeachment article for obstructing the inquiry if they dont if it is found that there are claims of privilege are lawless or gone too far, then congress could just file another article of impeachment for obstruction. And congressman rodgers, what do you make of axios that Mick Mulvaney said if impeachment goes forward it is good for him and he could end up winning 45 states in the 2020 election. Do a lot of republicans think that . No, but i will say that outside of the bubble of washington, d. C. , people are exhausted by all of this. And if theyre not tuned in, they think it is political. And i think youre seeing that. I saw a clip on cnn where a democrat member went back and was getting guff from her constituents. Thats going to happen. And the same way republicans say this is all political, help me get reelected to fight this cause and people rally to that. It is granular for everyone at this table and people inside of d. C. But people worried about getting their kids on the bus and making sure they have a job like a lot of people are in michigan today, it doesnt have that same weight. It is a partisan fight, not a substantive fight. Until that changes, i think people it will have an impact on politics, im not sure it will turn out the way Mick Mulvaney predicted but i do think it will have a politic impact. If you are referring to the el isa slot kin, she did raise the point and got some flack but when she said standing up for oath of office she got 25 seconds of applause from the audience. So yes, there is the partisan element but people want to know that members of congress who dont swear an oath to constituents, they swear an oath to protect the constitution. And ive been to lots and lots of town halls, are hardly indicators of where people come because they are angry and very rarely do they come because they are happy. Stick around. Well talk more about this. And a fourth senator republican just spoke out about President Trump asking china and ukraine to investigate the bidens. Is this the beginning of something then, President Trump making a major move half way around the world and some in the senate calling him to reverse course. Stay with us. No one more bite kraft. For the win win. Heres the thing about managing for your business. S when youve got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds things can get a bit cloudy for you. But now, theres the Dell Technologies cloud, powered by vmware. A single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. That should clear things up. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. 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Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. If you take asthma medicines, dont change or stop them without talking to your doctor. So help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. Were back with the politics lead. This afternoon a Fourth Senate republican called out to a degree President Trump for pushing china and ukraine to domestic his rival joe biden and rob portman of ohio said the president should not have raised the biden issue on that call, period. Mild, sure. But most republicans remain unwilling to say anything at all. When utah senator mitt romney criticized him, trump attacked him and that is serving as an example to others in the gop. Reporter most republicans are so unsure about how to play this, theyre in virtual hiding. And the few who are speaking out, well, listen to house gop leader Kevin Mccarthy this morning. You watch what the president said. Hes not saying china reporter actually, he did. China should start an investigation into the bidens. Reporter some republicans tried to explain that with deflection, claiming trump was just kidding. Well i doubt if the the china comment was serious to tell you the truth. Reporter cnn contacted more than 80 gop congressional offices about the president inviting china to investigate his political rival. Barely a handful responded. Most notably, mitt romney who said the president s brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and to ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling. In response, the president went after romney calling him pompous and a fool. Clearly intended as a warning to other republicans weighing whether to speak out. It didnt stop Maines Susan Collins who did criticize the president. Which plays well with democrats. She needs to win reelection in her blue state and said the president made a big mistake by asking china to get involved in investigating a political opponent. But she also echoed trumps loyalist pommeling the House Democrat leading the impeachment probe. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee misrepresented and misled people about what was in the transcript. Reporter Mitch Mcconnell also on the ballot in 2020 is raising money for his kentucky race with the promise to protect the president. All of you know your constitution. The way that impeachment tops is when the Senate Majority with me as majority leader reporter mcconnells Campaign Aides argue that impeachment is galvanizing the gop base as much as the 2018 kavanaugh nomination which contributed to several Democratic Senate defeats. Collin powell all but called republicans cowardly. They need to get a grip and when they see things that are not right, they need to Say Something about it. Reporter some republicans like rob portman of ohio are now starting to follow a road map laid out by Foxs Tucker Carlson who penned an oped admitting the president should not have encouraged a foreign pleader to investigate his political opponent but that is not a impeachment defense. And he thinks the president s call to ukraine leader and comments about china were, quote, totally inappropriate. But he also told me he isnt ready to say that publicly because he knows that hes not sure, he said if there