Fresh backandforth between democrats, republicans, and the white house on this day 49 of the impeachment inquiry. First to democrats pushing back on House Republican demands seeking hunter biden and the anonymous whistleblower speak publicly during hearings that begin in just three days. Gop Intel CommitteeRanking Member devin nunes sent the gop wish list for at least ten witnesses to intel chair democrat adam schiff on saturday. Schiff responding sharply, making two things abundantly clear. First, the impeachment inquiry and the committee will not serve as vehicles for any member to carry out the same sham investigations into the bidens, and schiff says the Committee Also will not facilitate efforts by the president to threaten, intimidate, and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm. Nunes responded. The ink wasnt even dry on the letter that we sent to the democrats this morning before they blasted out that press release to all of their cohorts in the media that then ran and said, well, these are you know, calling, as if theres something wrong with us calling hunter biden, someone who is receiving 50,000 to 80,000 a month. Its well documented that something definitely happened there. The fact that the democrats are already not letting him testify all right, let as of right now, theyre going to give us no witnesses. This comes just days before the first public impeachment hearings are set to begin after weeks of testimony behind closed doors. Career state Department OfficialsWilliam Taylor and george kent are expected to speak on wednesday, and testimony of former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is set for friday. Democratic congressman andre carson will be in those hearings this week, too, and heres what he told msnbc about what he expects to hear from those witnesses. I think that they will highlight the fact that President Trump did, in fact, attempt to misuse taxpayer dollars, your and my taxpayer dollars that have been approved by both the house and the senate to use as leverage to force the Ukrainian Government to investigate a political rival, i. E. , joe biden. We know, of course, President Trump will be watching the proceedings very closely, and hes been in new york this morning after being cheered on by a friendly crowd at the Louisiana State alabama Football Game last night. Once again, trump struck a familiar theme on his feelings about impeachment. This is a witch hunt at the highest level, and its so bad for our country. But heres the deal read the transcript. Youll see the call. Now ill give you a second transcript because i actually had two calls with the president of ukraine. So youll read the second call, and youll tell me if you think theres anything wrong with it. But never in history has anybody gone through this. Its a witch hunt and it should never happen to another president. Joining me now is msnbc White House Correspondent hans nichols. Hes at trump tower here this morning. The president is back amid these fastmoving developments in the impeachment probe here. What is the latest from trump tower . Reporter well, what the president did yesterday was really two things. Number one, he wants to keep this conversation just on the transcript, so he set a timeline, saying that hes going to release that second transcript on tuesday monday or tuesday, because of monday being the holiday, it may come tuesday. Listen to how the president uses his language to insist that he did nothing wrong based on the transcript. Read the transcript. Its all about the transcript. Theyre having people i never even heard of some of these people. I dont know who they are. And by the way, its all thirdhand knowledge. But regardless of whatin says, read the transcript. Reporter and then the president was on twitter, and i think thats the second phase of what he did yesterday. And for the first time, he appeared to directly attack one of the potential witnesses, Marie Yovanovitch. He suggested on twitter, retweeting a transcript of hers from one of the House Republicans on the committee but suggested that she was a liar. Joe, thats different from what the president in the past has said about Marie Yovanovitch. He said she seems like a nice lady. Hes basically tried to maintain that he didnt really know a lot of these people, whether its tim morrison, Marie Yovanovitch, gordon sondland, even though he had obviously had conversations with them. So, in this next phase, this public phase that were going to get on wednesday, well see to what extent the president directly attacks the witnesses that are giving testimony against him. Now, you mentioned the backandforth between House Republicans and House Democrats. Clearly, House Democrats are not going to let House Republicans call either hunter biden or the whistleblower to offer testimony. Those are nonstarters. The question then becomes is, will the republicans call anyone or will they simply try to claim that they were shut out of this process and allow the president to continue to use this argument that it was a sham process . J jo . We also know that it wasnt thirdhand knowledge here. As you look ahead to seeing the transcript that the president is promising, what do you expect to actually get on tuesday . Reporter you know, im reluctant and hesitant to speculate on this because the president seems as though hes read it, and he thinks hes fine and hes exonerated. If you look at the second transcript, the one from july, tg was a more formalized call when theyre trying to hash out certain things. The initial calls tend to be more congratulatory and more pro forma, and that was from back in april, before a lot of this stuff and a lot of giulianis freelancing really had matured. So we just need to wait to see if the president decides to release it and whats in it. Importantly, Mick Mulvaney, the white house chief of staff, is putting up legal road blocks from testifying. So it seems as though the universe of witnesses that we have is basically frozen and that we will go forward and the house and the senate will go forward based on the facts as we know them now. Now, there could be dramatic moments in the public testimony aspect and republicans could still decide to call some of their witnesses. And real quick, jo, lsu won the game. Guys . Lsu did win the game. A lot of people celebrating that this morning. Maybe a little hung over this morning, too. Hans nichols outside trump tower in new york, thanks so. Hannah trudeau is with the daily beast and Danielle Strauss with politico. Daniel, good morning to you first. Good morning. The requested witness list offered by republicans, we have that right here, includes the anonymous whistleblower and hunter biden. Whats interesting is that in the letter, nunes says President Trump should be afforded the opportunity to confront his accusers. What does that tell you about the gop approach here to the public hearings . I mean, look, this is part of the main strategy. Like hans said, hunter biden going on stage and testifying is a nonstarter. And we already know that republicans have been intent on criticizing the entire process of this investigation by saying that nothing has been fair, that the proper witnesses have not been brought forward, that the procedures involved in doing this are really problematic, and thats why the whole thing is a nonstarter. Do you think realistically any of the names on this list will these people actually appear, or is schiff going to say, nope, im rejecting all of them, and can he do that . I mean, ivan a feeling were going to see some people on this list come forward. Right. I am loath to guess which ones. I think that either way, the gop will make big deals about who is and isnt coming forward. The aminity of the whistleblower remains a major flashpoint, because just the fact that what we dont know about this person allows both sides to really play with the imaginations of the public. Hannah, what about the negotiation tactic of this . Do the republicans put out this wish list saying, okay, democrats or republicans eject and use this as a negotiating tool so they can talk about how the process isnt working for them. I would guess that thats probably likely. I mean, like daniel said, this is kind of a nonstarter with a lot of the people on this list, so i would assume that, you know, the more people that democrats refuse to put forward, the more ammunition against republicans i mean, its important to kind of keep in context the broader atmosphere that were working with. Obviously, we have President Trump at the top and hes running a Reelection Campaign right now, so this is all part of that political ammunition, at least from the republican side, and they see the democrats sort of as more fodder, you know, to use in potential campaign aids or just talking points as the president continues to go about on the trail. Daniel, we also had President Trump throwing out this, dangling this yesterday. Listen. Now they want to have a transcript of the other call, the second call, and im willing to provide that. Well probably give it to you on tuesday. Monday being a holiday. Well probably give it to you on tuesday. But we have another transcript coming out, which is very important. They asked for it, and id gladly give it. Daniel, why does the president think that contents of an earlier call is going to change anything from the one we already know about here . I mean, what is the strategy behind this, do you think . Im not really sure. Its a little puzzling. But obviously, the president thinks that an earlier call will demonstrate that his relationship with the ukraine government has always been germane. I mean, i havent seen the transcript of the call yet. Right. But it sounds from what the president has said that the argument will be, see . In this call, i did not say to the ukraine government, if you dont investigate hunter biden, were going to withhold all u. S. Aid to the country. Therefore, nothing happened. But hanna i guess thats what hes going to say. Is it possible for that logic to actually work out for the president here, looking at what we know as just the facts . No, because i dont think the logic really makes much sense. I mean, weve seen other i think whats important is, as the public testimony ramps up, i mean, this is a chance for people to really get a sense, sort of a birdseye view and not so much of the nitty gritty of whats going on. So, i think that sort of defense or that rationale that President Trump has outlined there doesnt seem to make much sense, and i think as the public testimonies become more prominent and in full view for people to see, its going to make less and less sense as that kind of continues because it doesnt sort of jive with the facts as they stand currently. Okay. I want to also get to this other big headline out this morning, some good news for Michael Bloomberg, whos thinking about getting into the race. A new Morning Consult poll out today shows the former new york mayor, whos weighing that run for president , he would lead President Trump by six points in a hypothetical headtohead matchup. Bloomberg originally said he would not run, but news broke this week that hes reconsidering that because his adviser says hes, quote, increasingly concerned that the field of current or the current field of candidates is not well positioned to beat trump. Now, this morning, consult polls shows that if he does not officially throw his hat in the ring, bloomberg would enter the race in sixth place between Kamala Harris and andrewening. And of course, joe biden at the top of that heap there. So, hanna, how do you interpret this poll . Is this realistic in your mind in terms of what the field actually looks like on the ground . Its interesting. You know, i think we see a lot of democrats right now currently beating trump, so he would be one of, you know, almost two dozen who are still in the race. But you know, i think a lot of democrats have kind of rolled their eyes to be diplomatic about it with the possible entrance of bloomberg, including joe biden, who in particular would kind of sort of occupy that same moderate lane. Of course, hes had many more fundraising struggles, so i think hes looking at Michael Bloombergs 50 billionsome that hes worth and thinking, you know, this could be a potential threat to me. But in terms of the other candidates, i mean, everybody, you know, is kind of intent on running their own campaign. Thats what a lot of these aides and strategists say. But i think, you know, its definitely ruffled a few feathers and just, you know, potentially shaking up the race in a way that nobodys sort of saw coming at this point. Daniel, do you think that bloomberg potentially weakens the democratic field by getting in . I mean, theres always this worry that more candidates in the race will split the vote. For moderates and skeptics of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and the wing of the party that sees an ultraliberal candidate as the antidote to donald trump, bloomberg is a welcome face. The fact that he has a deep war chest, that hes always styled himself less as a hyper liberal and more as a moderate and that hes incredibly competitive in a primary probably gives moderates a sense of relief, especially since joe biden, while leading for the entirety of this race, has still not been able to scare away most of the democrats hes been running with. All right. Daniel strauss, it is extremely early central time. Thank you for joining us. Hanna trudo, also thank you for getting up early in d. C. We appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. Next in the impeachment inquiry, President Trump wants Mick Mulvaney to testify, but does he really . And scapegoating the three trump allies who could become the fall guys. P allies who cldo the fall guys. 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It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the democratic server happened as well. We do that all the time. Id love to have mick go up, frankly. I think hed do great. Get over it. Theres going to be political influence in foreign policy. Id love to have him go up. The president is now on defense saying hed now prefer to have his acting chief of staff testify before the houses impeachment inquiry. After facing new questions about his efforts to block current and former white house officials from testifying with 11 noshows just last week. Mulvaney was one of those 11 and is now requesting to join an ongoing federal lawsuit on whether he should comply with his boss, the president , or the houses subpoena. Joining us now to discuss this is msnbc legal contributor and trial lawyer katie phang and former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst glenn kirshner. Good morning. Glenn, does the president really want mulvaney to testify. No, he doesnt. Rarely can we take President Trump at his word. If he didnt want him to testify, he could say raise the right hand, swear to tell the truth and then incriminate the president , which is likely what all of these witnesses would do. I actually think its a smart move on mulvaneys part to join the suit that is differently going on in federal court to determine how to break the tie between congress issuing a subpoena and demanding testimony and the president telling people, do not testify. I dont really think its a tie, because i think the way this thing should be handled is the witness should appear, should answer questions, and then if there are questions that conjure up notions of executive privilege, thats when the witness should invoke it and only those narrow issues should then move into the courts to be decided. So, this is nothing more than sort of delay and try to keep