Just nine days unless he gets the money to continue. Much more on that coming up. Were going to start this hour with explosive new details on this whistleblower story involving the president and ukraine. The wall street journal reports late yesterday that President Trump, quote, repeatedly pressured the president of ukraine to investigate democratic president ial candidate joe bidens son urging Volodymyr Zelenskiy about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani, trumps personal lawyer. Rudy giuliani reportedly has been pushing for ukraines government to investigate the Vice President and his family. A story that has prompted a fresh standoff between congress and the white house and threatens the president with a slew of legal issues that started wednesday. The Washington Post first reported an official within the u. S. Intelligence Community Filed a formal whistleblower complaint involving the president over a phone call the president made to a foreign leader who has since been identified and press reports as ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The president pushed back and attempted to deflect blame on his political opponent. It doesnt matter what i discussed, but somebody ought to look into joe bidens statement because it was disgraceful where he talked about billions of dollars hes not giving to a certain country unless a certain prosecutor is taken off the case. Somebody ought to look into that. Today former Vice President joe biden responded to the president s comments. Trumps doing this because he knows ill beat him like a drum. Hes using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me. Everybody looked at this and said theres nothing there. This is an evermoving story. Liths go to hans nichols at the white house. Hans, what is the latest . Reporter back from his golf course. They had a late night last night at the australians state dinner. Theyre trying to figure out what the president s intentions were, what he actually said, and what he was driving at when according to the wall street journal eight times he pressed his ukrainian counterpart to go ahead and cooperate with Rudy Giuliani into this investigation into joe bidens son, hunter biden. They clearly want to keep the attention on the biden side of things, but there are serious questions on their side. You have george conway, the husband of kellyanne conway. Its the president of the United States not simply a private citizen. You got Rudy Giuliani out there trying to muddy the waters. At the end of the day you have the white house that has an opportunity to clear this all up by either releasing notes of the call or the transcript of the call, and so far what the president is saying, nothing to see her, i didnt do anything wrong, its a totally appropriate conversation. All right. Thank you so much, nbcs hans nichols at the white house live for us. Thank you, hans. Lets go tower the only, New York Times reporter julian barnes, and former u. S. Attorney in the Eastern District of michigan and msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade. Julian, youve been following this story for the New York Times here. Lots of moving parts. What do we know in terms of the latest of the story specifically, the whistle skbloer what the whistleblower may have said . Well, we dont know all the details of the whistleblowers complaint, but what we do know is that it involves ukraine and it involves President Trumps pressure on the Ukrainian Government to investigate joe biden. Were all focusing on this july call, this call where mr. Trump told the ukrainian president to talk to Rudy Giuliani. He repeatedly made that demand and he repeatedly he at least once said youve got to investigate the biden family, specifically hunter biden. Barbara the legal issues around this because the reporting come out about quid pro quo, describe the nuances and whether it makes a difference if this did happen. Certainly the facts are important. I know you appreciate that. But if this did happen, it could absolutely amount to a crime of bribery or extortion. Bribery is sort of a promise. Extortion is sort of a threat. But essentially the same kind of crime which is when a public official demands a thing of value, in this instance, the information about joe biden that would be harmful to his campaign, in exchange for the performance of an official act, that is, the release of this military aid. And so weve all learned that a sitting president cannot be indicted, but bribery is a high crime misdemeanor that is specifically included in the constitution. This idea there was no quid pro quo discussed in the same phone call is not necessary. Ive prosecuted lots of cases where the transaction was done before with a wink and a nod. People had an understanding based on the full context of the relationship. And so even if it wasnt an explicit this for that, if that was the understanding and the intent of President Trump and the understanding of the ukrainian president , then thats sufficient for bribery or extortion. Is the white house listening to experts as they lay out what happened and are they concerned . Rudy giuliani cease shenanigans as they relate to his foreign work, specifically ukraine, have been creating rumblings among the Democratic Caucus on capitol hill for several months now as we reported at the daily beast months ago. Democratic lawmakers and investigators have been looking for weeks if not months to open a probe into what Rudy Giuliani has been doing with regards to ukraine. And they recently opened that probe officially. This was before this all exploded but this very dramatic way with this whistleblower complaint. In terms of your question of how the white house and President Trump and his outside legal Team Including giuliani are planning to handle this, theyve made it very clear, both publicly and privately, how they are going to handle this. Even if the most damning version that democrats are currently speculating on does come true and is born out by all the facts or transcript or the complaint or whatever, President Trump and his allies and senior officials are fully prepared to say so what, like, theyre going to claim theres no crime here and even if the worst version materializes, theyre not going to give an inch and keep attacking the bidens over and over and over again. House democrats, a lot of lawmakers have expressed to us their frustrations that when they want to keep that in check and hold President Trumps feet to the fire on this, that theyre sort of betrayed by a house speaker, nancy pelosi, who is right now still even at this point refusing to give an inch on impeachment. Shes against with Going Forward with serious proceedings on that matter where increasing numbers of people in the democratic field and the Democratic Caucus want the exact opposite. So as this story unfolds more and more, well see if she budges an inch, but it doesnt look like shes going to be doing that. Lets build on what you were saying in terms of the issues of the daily beast and your reporting on Rudy Giuliani. To you on this, julian, as goes Rudy Giuliani, so goes the president here, i guess, and what is he doing as the personal lawyer of the president right now in terms of going to ukraine . What sort of risk does he face based on what you know here . Well,i mean, the issue here is this military aid, 250 million in congressionally mandated aid. In july the Trump Administration froze it. Now, the ukrainians didnt learn about that until august. Mr. Trump didnt mention it on this call. But this is what hes holding over him. And exactly what Rudy Giuliani said about that aid is critical. Now, giuliani is denying that he ever mentioned that, that he was just making the case for a bind investigation in another paul manafortrelated investigation but exactly what rudy was saying, he only got to an aid, not the president. That is one thing the democrats three panels of democratic committees in the house that are investigating it, thats what they want to know. One question on Rudy Giuliani, whats his legal jeopardy . Two, for the whistleblower, what sort of legal rights does this whistleblower have moving forward . What sort of Legal Defense does this whistler blower have . With regard to Rudy Giuliani, its very interesting. You know, there is the statute known as the logan act that cwih regard to michael flynn. Its a crime for civilians to engage Foreign Policy or foreign discussions with foreign leaders. The idea youre not supposed to go outside the apparatus of the government. With Rudy Giuliani, although he relates donald trump, he represents him in his personal capacity. Though he most certainly is seen by the Ukrainian Government and over governments as a represent or agent of the president of the United States. Hes really playing with fire and itll be interesting to see whether his acts can go imputed to President Trump. The whistleblower finds him or herself in a dicey situation because the language of the whistleblower protection act has a very narrow, precise definition of what gets covered and it appears not to cover i am proceed pryties by the president. He finds himself in the same scenario. The whole Intelligence Community is watching. What do you want people to do when they have that information . Do you want them to leak it to the press or do you want them to go through proper channels . And i think that if we silence this whistleblower in this instance, its going to send a really damaging message to the people who work in government about what path they ought to take when they find themselves confronted with a similar situation. Whats the reporting in terms of what the white house may or may not be doing in terms of assisting or not assisting the release of this report about the whistleblower . Well, i think its fair to say that the White House Counsels Office led by pat sip loanny is more than prepared to go to the mat on this. Theyll keep doing what the president s inhouse Legal Counsel and outside legal team have been doing for many months when it comes to legal challenges and subpoenas and other attempts of accountability from democratic lawmakers and applications and stonewall, stonewall, stonewall and take it to court and possibly have him tangled up for years. And democrats need to be prepared for that. Quickly, barbara, where might that legally end up. Its been disturbing to see, for example, congress has sought to enforce subpoenas that the Trump Administration has been able to stall, stall, stall, and push the ball down the road, perhaps even beyond the 2020 election. And so that slow walk definitely is to the benefit of the trump campaign. Slow walk to the Supreme Court . Yes. Thank you so much. Julian barnes, as with an, and barbara mcquade, great way to start the show. Thank you for your expertise. Still ahead for you, cory bookers call to action, a passionate plea to his supporters to go all in on his campaign or hell have to leave the race. Ways a catch. Ways a catch. Like somehow you wind up getting less. But now that i book at hilton. Com, and i get all these great perks. I got to select my room from the floor plan. Very nice. I know, im good at picking stuff. Free wifi. Laptop by the pool is a bold choice. And the price match guarantee. How do you know all of this . Are you like some magical hilton fairy . Its just here on the hilton app. Just available to the public, so. Book at hilton. Com and get the hilton price match guarantee. If you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25 off that stay. Thats ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. Its a situp, banana bend at the waist im tryin keep it up. Youll get there. Whoahoahoa 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. Paneras new warm grain full of flavor, color,. Full of woo full of good. So you can be too. Try our new warm grain bowls today. Panera. Food as it should be. Were pretty different. vo everyone in your family is different. Thats why verizon lets everyone mix and match different unlimited plans. So you only pay for what you need. Switch now to verizon. New plans start at just 35. Thats our lowest price for unlimited, ever. The network more people rely on gives you more. The word is its the largest in history, not the number of candidates per se in iowa today, its the stakes. 10,500 steaks, all of them mostly grilled, plus vegan options for two of the candidates there. 12,000 tickets have been sold to chomp down on all that good stuff, but there are the 17 democratic contenders attending whats being called as mentioned iowas largest poke city steak fry. The grill the steaks. More on that in a bit. Each candidate tries to get people to put down their knives. Agsd to t the next if you wefundraising ds nine days away. Nbc obtained a memo written by cory bookers campaign. The message, they need to raise 1. 7 million before september 30th. Thats deadline. Or he is out. Cory booker addressing the issue himself this afternoon in iowa. We may not have as much money as some of these folks who are raising more than us. But weve got more heart, more hype, more hope, and we are going to show them what the future of the Democratic Party looks like. [ cheers and applause ] joining us now on the ground in des moines, iowa, are vaughn hillyard, josh lieberman, also with me, nbc news political reporter alex so much wald who first reported on the campaign. Tell us what was the tone, was it desperate, confident . Did they feel they were going to make it to the finish line that was laid out there . Cory booker was very straightforward, saying that he doesnt believe its a matter of his messaging. I said do you need to change anything about your campaign here in the last 135 days . He said, no, its just a matter of finances. He said for any campaign to sustain not only through iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, nevada, but also through super tuesday, you have to have the resources. And he said that any campaign that does not should be evaluating their future. I want to play a bit of an exchange when i talked with cory booker and asked him about our reporting earlier today. What are the stakes of these next week two weeks . Im notsds win the nomination and beat donald trump. So if you believe in my campaign, if you believe in my voice being on the stage, this is a determining moment for us. We either are going to reach 1. 7 million to stay in the race or well have to make tough decisions. Two things. 17 candidates are taking the stage at the polk county steak fry. A poll released this week nationally democrats say that just 9 say they are firm in support behind a certain candidate. That means about 90 of voters say that theyre still up for grabs. Talking to voters here, its a similar sentiment. Richard . Lets head to alex. You originated this reporting for us, alex. As you know so well, it takes money to run these campaigns. The question is for the campaign, how much they have cash on hand, how much debt do they have out there, all these unfortunate realities. It means they cant buy plane tickets or pay their staff. Thats reality. Cory booker saying hes not able to expand what he needs to do as we head into this home stretch before voters actually head to the polls. And hes saying he doesnt want to stay in the race for the sake of staying in the race. He only wants to stay if they can build this Larger National campaign thats going to be necessary to compete. Not just in iowa and new hampshire, but youre talking about california, texas, big, big states. In this memo that i obtained from cory bookers campaign manager, he said theres only four candidates right now in his estimation that have the resources to do that, and thats joe biden, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, and pete buttigieg. He basically said everybody else might run out of gas before we even get to the voting next year so that if democrats out there want to have more options, if they want to see more of these candidates sticking around, they cant wait. They need to start supporting them now. Yeah. Win knowing by the wallet, as often it does happen. Lets go to josh in ghoides moi. This forum has really been a display of how so much of the energy animating the Democratic Party right now is on the far left among those who are really attracted to those progressive economic pop y issues. Elizabeth warren busting the Agricultural Companies in iowa. Julian castro talked about reversing the president S Immigration policies. Congresswoman ilhan omar who has attracted a lot of ire from the president giving a red meat speech here. I think the question a lot of democratic strategists have is are the Democratic Candidates backing themselves into a corner on some of those progressive Economic Issues that are going to play very differently once me move into the general election. Thank you so much there, josh. Alex as well, thank you. Vaughn, i have to ask you while we have new des moines. Just because im a steak fan here, they dont actually fry these steaks, they grill them. Why d