Deal with the messaging on the ukraine, on all the scandals going on. Harris josh kraushaar, Political Editor for the national journal. Great to have you. Thank you very much. I am harris. Here is dana. Dana President Trump said to speak any moment as the fight over impeachment hits a new level. Hello, everyone. Im dana perino and this is the daily briefing. President trump is about to hold a joint News Conference with the president of finland but the big focus right now obviously, impeachment. The president attacking what hes calling the donothing democrats, accusing them of wasting time and not focusing on other issues. President trump also going after the whistleblower who reported on his july call with the ukrainian president. They come up with this impeachment nonsense and everyone knows. All based on one phone call that
i had. There was no quid pro quo. The whistleblower was so dishonest. The whistleblower said terrible things about the call, but i then found out he was secondhand and thirdhand. These are bad people. These are dishonest people. When the American People find out what happened, its going to be a great day. Dana all of that after House Democrats threaten to subpoena the white house for documents on the president s dealings with ukraine. They say the white house has left them no choice. Democrats also accusing the president of trying to intimidate the whistleblower and other potential witnesses. They also say hes trying to change the focus. Lets not make any mistake here. The president wants to make this all about the whistleblower. People that come forward with evidence of his wrongdoing, are somehow treasonous. And should be treated as traitors and spies. This is a blatant effort to intimidate witnesses. Dana will have complete coverage this hour and as we wait for the president , lets
begin. Chief White House Correspondent john roberts in the east room. We heard a lot from the president but this is a formal Press Conference where they are sure to be more. Number of times President Trump has done this. He goes into the oval office with a leader, in this case the finish president Sauli Niinisto then takes more questions. Sometimes during the Press Conferences, fewer questions than they took in the oval office but theres no question, data, that the president really is hot under the collar about this whistleblower and despite the fact that his own acting director of national intelligence, joe maguire, believes that the Inspector General of the Intelligence Communitys acting properly by protecting the identity of the whistleblower. President trump wants to know who he is or she is. Also wants to know who gave that person the information, saying that what was included in the transcript of the Telephone Call was completely different than what the whistleblower wrote in their complaint. The president wondering if the person is a whistleblower at all or simply a leaker. Listen to what he said in the oval office a short time ago. The whistleblower wrote not that conversation. He wrote a vicious conversation. In other words, he either got it totally wrong and made it up or the person giving the information to the whistleblower was dishonest and this country has to find out who that person was. That person is a spy. In the oval office with the finish president , the president saying that never in a million years did anyone think you would actually release the transcript of that Telephone Call when you remember, dana, after the transcript came out, then Many Democrats it said it reinforced their worst fears about what the president spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky about. President trump ten choice words for House Intelligence Committee chairman adam shift after schiff after the Opening Statement wite director joe maguire basically giving his own interpretation of what the whistleblower complaint said really adding his
own adam schiff embellishment. Heres the criticism the president had for him today. He should be forced to resign from congress, adam schiff. Hes a lowlife. He should be forced to resign. He took that conversation which was perfect, he said i cant read this. So he made up a conversation and he reported it and set it to congress and to the American People. It was more about he said. And that was supposed to be coming from me. But it was all fabricated. He should resign from office in disgrace and frankly they should look at him for treason. President trump also Ripping Schiff for criticizing Secretary Of State mike pompeo because pompeii was on the call was latimer zalewski. Democrats in Congress Calling him a fact witness in the very fact that pompeo, i dont want to say hes stonewalling but slow walking the idea to get people to congress for depositions. Democrats are saying because
hes a fact witness, anything he does to try to slow walk access to congress to members of the State Department would be seen as obstruction of congress and in intimidating witnesses. The president saying to schiff, how can he criticize somebody like my pompeo, first of his class at west point. The president going so far as to say that adam schiff could not hold pompeos blankstrap. Dana im going to try to figure out what that is during the commercial break. I dont think you have to try too hard. Dana the white house is no stranger to subpoenas from congress for documents or information or witness testimony. They havent always complied. Why would that be different this time . Well, i dont think it will be different. Thats one of the questions that you want to ask the president. During the Mueller Investigation, the president was really bragging on the idea that the white house was being
completely transparent and cooperative and document production and making people available for interviews with muellers team. Dont forget that was an intraexecutive branch investigation. This crosses branches. Its an article one investigation of an article to a branch. The president might not be so inclined to cooperate as he did during the Mueller Investigation but certainly a line of inquiry we will pursue this afternoon when the president and the president show up. Dana looks like they are going to be there any moment. Lets bring in Martha Maccallum, anchor of the story and Juan Williams, cohost of the five. We await the president and the finnish prime minister. Its easy for the foreign leader there with a president dealing with a domestic issue. They have issues or talk about. Chinese telecoms, huawei, the arctic. But this story really is sucking up all the oxygen. Martha i kind of felt sorry for him in the prior appearance, the president of finland sitting next to the
president as he gets a barrage of questions. At one point the president turned to him and said i guess they are not that interested in finland. Im very interested but the reporters are not. A story thats crossing now from the New York Times moments ago, it says the whistleblower originally given early version of his complaint to a house aid to adam schiff. This cia officer wanted to pass along this information to this congressional aide who is with adam schiff, that they didnt see the actual full transcript or his notes or complaint. According to this report, they advised him to go through the process and fill out a form and make his whistleblower complaint, go through the formal process. Nonetheless, this is going to raise questions obviously. Its interesting that nancy pelosi in her 60 minutes interview, criticism towards her was that she went ahead with this impeachment process before she had seen the call. During that examines interview, she said we had already seen it which is a little bit odd. I dont know she got her timeline messed up. It raises questions about dana it does. Thank you for checking the wire wires. Joe maguire, acting director of national intelligence, when he testified in front of Congress Last week, he said he believed the whistleblower and the Inspector General had followed the process to the letter of the law. I dont know if thats inappropriate to talk to a house aid. Maybe its the right thing to do, then for the house aid to say youve got to go through the process. Juan, any thoughts about that or the news that we had that the House Democrats plan to subpoena the white house documents and officials and those of the State Department. Juan i think what john roberts that is important here, you have a difference in terms of the nature of the investigations. Previously it was, as john described, an intraagency
activity because mueller technically was appointed from the justice department. The president is in charge of the justice department. Now you have the congress of the United States engaged in impeachment and it changes the way that the court system would view a subpoena. It makes it far more dana interesting and a good point because Progressive Democrats would want at this process to get underway sooner were frustrated, saying we would be able to get more information quickly if nancy pelosi would go ahead and pull the trigger. Now that trigger has been pulled. I think its pretty interesting if you look at the room, the president has the bully pulpit but he also has the pageantry. You have the white house, they are in the east room. I wonder about the president focusing on something bill clinton did which helped bill clinton which was to focus on the fact that im just here trying to do my job for the American People. He has labeled them the donothing democrats. Weve heard donothing congress
before but donothing democrats. If you say it enough times, he could stick . Juan i think it sticks with republicans, with his base. I dont see much erosion in terms of the polling but i dont because working with most people who are tremendously concerned about the nature of the phone call and the idea that he of course would be putting pressure on a foreign leader based on u. S. Military aid to stop russian incursions into the ukraine. Dana Speaker Pelosi and her comment said i think i think shes aware being labeled the donothing congress doesnt help her politically either. She even says we are willing to work with the president on lowering drug prices. She brought up infrastructure. She wants to give it another go. Martha its going to be interesting to see if they feel the pressure to get something done. To prove they can get something done during this process. Perhaps usmca is able to get through this situation because really they democrats are going to need we didnt put the brakes on everything. We got some important things
done. That may ironically open a pathway to a few things, perhaps drug prices as well. Dana yesterday it was reported that nancy pelosi wants a narrow focus on impeachment, on this ukraine call. But Chuck Schumer in the senate to say no way. Broaden it. Make it bigger. If they are not on the same page, why does it mean in terms of democrats and unity of message . Juan if and pelosi clearly needs to narrow and specify the focus. You had several Committee Chairman who wanted jurisdiction here. I think she settled pretty much on adam schiff in the Intelligence Committee versus going to jerry nadler and judiciary or even finance committee, maxine water and the like. I think thats the nature of her challenge. The challenge in the senate is a little different. You heard Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell said he would have no choice but to proceed with a trial if, in fact, the house goes ahead and impeach as the president. The challenge areas is the Senate Majority leader a republican who has been very
loyal to the president , trying to limit the scope in order to speed it through and make it seem like it was a pro forma process. Schumer on the other hand wants to broaden it. Its a different arena. Dana martha, what about the Congressional Republicans who you have some of the president s supporters out there or defending but theres a lot they dont know. There seems to be some hesitation and letting the president take the lead as he seems happy to do or willing to do, seems like the safer bet. Martha youve got that situation on both sides of the equation. Democrats and trump districts and on the republican side with people who might be forced to take a vote that might be more difficult for them and perhaps because of their electorate theyre going to be more cautious. On the senate side, cory gardner, thom tillis, martha mcsally, Susan Collins all in very difficult races as they look ahead. Just one thing, if i may, going back to what you are asking about Nancy Pelosis focus. I think shes focusing on the one element of the conversation that i think a lot of people agree is problematic. She doesnt want to lose focus on that because i think in the president s words when you break it down in terms of potential liability, most of the phone call was what he calls perfect but when you get to the part about joe biden and Rudy Giulianis involvement in the process, i think thats the avenue for them where they see that as abuse of power with regard to the election. Its behavior thats easier to explain to people. Martha Weeded Out Panel Last Night with a group of young people. Dana i loved it. Martha thank you. It was very eyeopening. They were bright and up on Whats Going On and they didnt really focus on exactly what the issue is. Well, if people are unhappy they should be able to impeach the president. Thats where this is going to end up. Most people are not going to be able to tell you. Dana as we keep reminding people, impeachment is a political decision. There is no legal definition. Martha and juan, if you will stick with me, we will wait for the President TrumpPress Conference. The State Department, Inspector General holding an urgent meeting in this next our Briefing Staffers from key committees in the house and senate about ukraine. She Congressional Correspondent mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. If you could catch us up on that while we wait for the Press Conference to get underway. In addition to Congressional Correspondent the briefing, there are a number of faces that we expect who are invited to appear on capitol hill in the days ahead. Lets show them to you. Special envoy for ukraine kurt volker expected to give an interview to several committees. Monday Deputy AssistantSecretary Of State george kens. Tuesday a counselor. Thursday, ambassador gordon sumlin, american investor to the e. U. Former ambassador recalled from ukraine in may expected to
appear a week from friday though its not entirely clear how many will show up, we know Secretary Of State mike pompeo is fighting some of it. Stay tuned. We will let you know who appears on capitol hill. Speaker nancy pelosi earlier today said shes trying to be fair to the president in this Impeachment Inquiry Process but some republicans counter that they think shes trying to be fast and not fair. Dana what about the threats to subpoena the white house . Is that in the realm of fair . There you go. We expect the oversight chairman, elijah cummings, of baltimore, maryland, saying that he is prepared to subpoena the white house on friday saying the white houses Flagrant Disregard of multiple voluntary request for documents combined with stark and urgent warnings from the Inspector General about the gravity of these allegations have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena. T National Security republican told us he thinks its a fishing
expedition. Democrats will never be satisfied but all indications are this will be battled out in the courts. Dana mike emanuel, keep us updated. We will want to know more. Bringing back Martha Maccallum and Juan Williams, as martha was gracious to be checking and bringing us the news, the New York Times just reporting that apparently according to this report adam schiff, chairman of the intel committee, had seen a copy of the whistleblowers initial complaints days before the whistleblower filed with the cia, the actual form. The question about the whistleblower now is at the top of everybodys mind. The president saying the