also that there were other officials, like ambassador gordon sondland, who said that there was a quid pro quo and that that directly came from the president. >> yeah, well, and like mick mulvaney, acting white house chief of staff, who then quickly walked that back. but michael, from a historical perspective, when you hear the white house's counternarrative here, the allegations that have been leveled against democrats, what strikes you most about how president trump is handling the impeachment process? >> well, he's doing it in an aggressive way, obviously, rather than in a passive way, which doesn't surprise any of us. and it does have some echoes in history. when richard nixon was campaigning against the possibility of being impeached in 1974, he said that the impeachment was actually an effort to reverse the mandate of 1972, in other words, the fact that he had been re-elected by a landslide. it was an effort to overturn that. and he even on occasion used the word coup, which has been