Opponent. I think this is the most serious charge against the president. Tonight, what we know about what the president has already done. And as new purchase buildings in the house. We may have crossed the rubicon here. Will democrats try to stop donald trump. When do we say enough is enough and we have to hold him accountable . What happened when the world convened in new york to address the climate catastrophe . We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money. And fairy tails of eternal economic growth. How dare you. [ cheers and applause ] all in starts right now. S. When it comes to the president s actions with ukraine, we dont have all the facts or access to the whistleblower complaint, which is still being withheld from congress in an apparent violation law. We dont have the transcript of the conversation, even though he said, quote, i hope you get to see it and i hope you get to see that soon. Take that with a grain of salt. But what is clear now is that the basic contours are essentially agreed to by all parties, including the president. The reporting and over time President Trump himself acknowledging in a phone call that donald trump pressured the head of ukraine to investigate his political rival, joe biden, with the possibility hanging over his head the u. S. Would not release hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid the country says it needs to defend itself against the russians who have already invaded. All of that has essentially been copped to. Weve gone through this before, just not quite as short a time frame. First the president denies it. And then Rudy Giuliani gives an interview giving away way more than anyone expects. And then, lo and behold, President Trump once caught, pivots to a so what defense, confirming that he talked to the ukrainian president and he said they talked about, quote, unquote, corruption, which of course we know is used the same way they talk about cooperation with the russians in 2016. Thats just a code word for this very specific ask. Use the official instruments of ukraines Justice System to wound my political rival. The president also conceded that the money the u. S. Had appropriated to give ukraine was at issue. To make it easy for us, he did all of that in front of cameras earlier this morning. What did you tell the ukrainian president about joe biden and his son during your phone call. Youre going to see because what we are doing is we want honest. We deal with a country, we want honest. I think with the new president , youre going to see much more honest in the ukraine. Thats what were looking for. Were supporting a country. We want to make sure that country is honest. Its very important to talk about corruption. If you dont talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt . One of the reasons the new president got elected is he was going to stop corruption. So its very important that on occasion you speak to somebody about corruption. Very important. So throughout the day he hit all three major parts of the contention, an investigation pertaining to biden, or you dont get the money. And that is an obviously impeachable abuse of power. A President Union laterally hijacking American Foreign policy and public dollars as a tool for extortion, bribery, and blackmail of a foreign country to get them to sabotage a likely opposing candidate. And its mostly confirmed. Thats where we are. Now, theres more we should learn. New york times reporting indicates that the substance of that whistleblower complaint that kicked this off actually involved multiple actions. Washington post reports trumps interaction of the foreign leader included a promise that was regarded as so troubling, it prompted an official in the u. S. Intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint. That complaint was later seen as urgent by the Inspector General of the intelligence community. So we should see it all, right . At this point we should see the transcript of the phone call with the keanu president. Whats the point of keeping it secret anymore . Its mostly out there. Giuliani and trump are running around saying its right. The actions of trump are not surprising anymore. Ive used this metaphor before, but when youre watching a Football Game and the defense cant stop the offense from running up the middle, will offense will keep running the ball up the middle. Trump and his cronies are going to keep running the same play. In the case of donald trump, soliciting, accepting, and aiding a Foreign Government in smearing your political opponent as hope leslie corrupt. Its shocking and appalling, but its not surprising. In fact, look when the phone call happens. Its the day after the mueller testimony. You can just hear the president thinking, okay, i got away with it. Get me that ukrainian president. Lets do some colluding for real. Joining me now, Julian Castro of texas who sits on the House Intelligence Committee that is demanding to see the whistleblower complaint. Before we get to the details of the whistleblower complaint and the sort of questions around that, in broad strokes, what is your understanding of what happened and how serious an infraction it is . I sit on the Intelligence Committee and cant speak to what we were beefed on last week by the Inspector General, but between donald trump and Rudy Giuliani, they basically confirmed about 75 of the reporting. And i believe that the speaker has laid down a gauntlet and ask that the whistleblower information be brought to congress by thursday. If that information is not presented on friday we should move forward with a formal impeachment proceeding. Wait a second, so you think thats it . Thats essentially the straw that breaks the camels back, which is if they dont provide the whistleblower complaint, its not a subpoena or fight in the courts, the compelling requires it moving forward formally with impeachment . Right. I proposed opening an impeachment inquiry before based on the obstruction of justice issues during the russia investigation. This is another matter unto itself. The idea that the house of representatives would sit idly by while a president abuses his power and tries to intimidate or coerce a foreign president into opening an investigation into a Major Political rival, for us to sit back and do nothing about that, it goes beyond democrats and republicans, honestly, even beyond donald trump. If you do nothing, you are normalizing his behavior, youre encouraging him to continue doing things like this, and youre encouraging future president s to take the same liberties and abuse power in the same way. So at some point it becomes not a matter whos going to they didnt even congressional district. Even the presidency in 2020, i know as tough as that sounds politically, it becomes bigger than that. Its a matter of what kind of country and what kind of democracy were going to have. That is what is at stake right now. Is there a universe in which some kind of deal is struck in which some limited number of folks like the gang of 8, for instance, are briefed on this complaint that get access to it . Can you imagine something between total refusal or it gets put out into public . Yeah, i think thats quite possible, sure. It could be the gang of 8 sees the information, that thats a negotiation, and the rest of the intelligence meet and the rest of the congress are not allowed to see it. But, again, even from the reporting and matching that up against what donald trump and giuliani have already said, theyve confirmed about 75 of that reporting. It appears as though president on eight occasions pressed the ukrainian president to open this investigation. Its obviously political in nature. Its meant to benefit him, and this is a version of the 2016 call for russia to find Hillary Clintons emails. Its the same thing. Its asking a Foreign Government to do his dirty work for him. You just mentioned giuliani. I want to go through the time line. In some ways, like many things the president did, its half out in the open. In may, Rudy Giuliani meets with the ukrainian diplomat in new york. In june in paris with the office that would reopen the investigation. August, the ukrainian president s aide in madrid. September, he admits he asked ukraine to look into biden. Independent of what the president s doing, is what giuliani doing appropriate and should we hear from him on capitol hill . Yeah, i think we absolutely should. Whatever proceeding, whether its another hearing, whatever were doing, hes an important piece in understanding what exactly happened because we know hes working for the president , hes working on the president s behalf and at his behest. Rudy giuliani is not a private citizen who decided to go travel and meet with some foreign leaders. Hes acting very specifically at the command and at the order of donald trump. Congressman Julian Castro who sits on the Intelligence Committee, thank you very much for your time tonight. Thank you. Joining me for more on the implications of President Trumps actions, barbara mcquade, msnbc legal alice. David leonhardt, New York Times oped columnist. Several undisputed facts about President Trump, including pressuring a foreign leader to interfere in the election and he urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 president ial election. Barbara, let me start with you. The infraction seems to be bigger than the law because its the kind of thing that really only the president could do. So the laws as we think of normal statute tory laws, i dont know they dont envision intimidating a foreign leader. How how did you do you see this in legal terms. This is an act an order citizen couldnt commit, but it really does echo the demanding a thing of value in exchange for the performance of an official act. In my district, the former mayor of detroit was convicted of an extortion scheme that was very similar. He would withhold contracts, public works contracts that were worth millions of dollars unless he got a demand met and received a thing of value, that was his friend getting put on all these contracts, to cash in on some of the proceeds of those contracts. I see this in a very similar way with parallels to bribery and extortion. Unlike the kinds of crimes mueller was investigating of obstruction, there is reference to be right back in the institution as a grounds for impeachment explicitly. David, one wrinkle that is also interesting, the oath of office, this little detail about these funds, which are sitting there in ukraine is expecting. By august, congressional appropriators had lost control over the process to the Office Management and budget. An executive office run by mick mulvaney. For weeks it said the o b announced shortterm holds on ukraine funds. There was never an express reason except the administration was kaukt vague inneragency review of the funds. What do you make of that. Were at the point where the president s violated the constitution and the law as barbara was just saying so many times, that its clear the solution for this has to be political. Im one of those people whos been somewhat skeptical of impeachment because i didnt really see how it helped make the case against trump, but its hard not to look at this. Those details you were putting on screen or the brazenness of what he did today. Ask yourself, if the democrats dont impeach him, isnt he just going to do this again and again and again . Although impeachment brings political risk, i dont really see what alternative the democrats are going to have soon. What do you think about that argument, barbara . I think at some point nancy pelosi and others need to think about what is their duty here . Is it just to elect democrats to the white house and to congress . Or do they have a further obligation to govern to the american public, because at some point if they let President Trump get away with all this misconduct, theyre setting the standards and norms for future president s. They have to ask themselves , what do we want to tolerate in a president , and theyre drawing that line or not drawing that line with their action now. Part of the issue, david, as we saw with the Clinton Emails that the president was able to among his base point the light back to clinton. Which then became its own s. Heres the president today talking about biden. Hes pushing ukraine to investigate biden. Take a listen. The conversation i had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we dont want our people like Vice President biden and his son. Ive seen marco rubio, down the line republicans and trump tv and rightwing media, they are intent to make this a story about the other side. Yeah, its the classic deflection strategy. What they hope is by throwing on enough smoke that people will just say everyones sort of just the same, right . Yet what we know is that everyones not the same. Everyone whos looked at the biden thing and looked at it in a nonpartisan way has come away saying theres no there there. There clearly is a there to the president of the United States trying to use the power of his office to help his own Reelection Campaign in concert with a Foreign Government. One of the reasons theres a there, barbara, is this reminds me of the trajectory of Stormy Daniels and those payments. It was deny, deny, didnt happen, i dont know anything about it. And then when they were caught, when they were backed into a corner, when it was a matter of record, it was, yes, so what . They were pursuing trump tower moscow much later. They had lied about how long they were pursuing trump tower moscow. And when they were caught, the president says, of course, what am i going to do, not do a deal isnt that thats the indicator of a guilty mindset, barbara. It is. In fact, there is a doctrine in the law under a rule of evidence that prior bad acts are admissible if they tend to show this is your m. O. , that its admissible to prove thats what youre doing in this instance. Whats interesting about it, is sometimes they say theres the adage like insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result. This is insanity that makes you crazy like a fox because they are doing the same thing over and over again and its been working. At some point one hopes that the strategy, people begin to see through it and it no longer works. David . Yes. Oh, i think its clear from trumps behavior and some of the things people around him have said, he doesnt want to be impeachment. Yes, 100 agree with that. This is a political this is not going to be a legal proceeding. This is going to be a political battle. And so i think democrats should ask themselves, if President Trump doesnt want to be impeached and they believe hes a threat to the wellbeing of this country, as they do and they should, doesnt that suggest that impeachment might, in fact, be the right move for them . Its a good point. Barbara mcquade, david leonhardt, thank you both. Will this be a breakglass moment . Well talk about the reactions from members of congress with al green in two minutes. Not again were seeing a doctor when we get home. Myrbetriq treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions, like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. If experienced, stop taking and tell your doctor right away. Myrbetriq may interact with other medicines. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. Common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold or flu symptoms, sinus irritation, dry mouth, urinary tract infection, bladder inflammation, back or joint pain, constipation, dizziness, and headache. Looking for a destination that isnt always the bathroom . Ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you. And visit myrbetriq. Com. Ive been noticing really interesting reactions to this unfolding story about donald trump pressuring a foreign country, ukraine, to help his election in 2020 by investigating one of his rivals. Those reactions are coming from the senate, which has by and large stayed mum about the issue of impeachment. It doesnt originate in their house. What is impeachment for if not for this. Senator murphy tweeted, quote, if he demanded a Foreign Government to do his political bidding, thats when he crossed the critical threshold. No need to overthink this. And then theres senator Elizabeth Warren running for president who is already on the record supporting impeachment, sending a message directly to House Speaker nancy pelosi tweeting after the Mueller Report congress had a duty. By failing to act, congress is complicit in trumps latest attempt to solicit foreign interference to aid him in u. S. Elections. Do your duty and impeach the president. Pretty direct. Thats whats going on in the senate. The house, the tally for impeachment for the democrats was 134 before today when minnesota democratic congressman dean phillips came out surprisingly in favor of impeachment saying, quote, if the reports are corroborated, we must pursue articles of impeachment and report them to the full house of representatives for immediate consideration. Another of his minnesota colleagues, democratic congresswoman angie craig, also following suit. I should tell you both of those minnesota democrats, theyre from swing districts. And they are now in favor of impeachment. This could be the breakglass moment, but it remains to be seen if the rest of the Democratic Caucus agrees. Here