Busy week. Are these hearings done . Reporter we think so, stephanie. I feel like we should put question marks on all of our graphics and caveats and everything we say about the calendar as we move forward. Here is what we think is going to happen. Hearings appear to be done for now. No more witnesses are scheduled for democrats. The hope is that now staffers on the democratic side can prepare a report, a summation of everything theyve learned, hand it off to the judiciary committee, the committee that has the responsibility for drafting articles of impeachment if, indeed, there are more than one. Judiciary committee will have their own hearings, a markup. Theyll write the actual documents, the charges, articles of impeachment some time in december, we believe, then hand them on to the full house, which will have days of debate on them and vote on them, democrats hope, before the end of the year, kicking things over to the senate, which would have a trial, they think, starting in january. Thats a prescribed constitutional office. You can think that have as a calendar with no dates on it. The process will be the same. As we learned the last two weeks, we never know who the next witness might be revealed, what the next new piece of evidence might be. So we know what the process looks like, but there are still a lot of potential moving parts. Peter, the president has absolutely been talking about the hearings but doing it in very safe places, fox news, twitter, where he doesnt get any pushback. Behind the scenes, is he actually preparing for the trial . Thats a whole different scenario. Reporter nearly an hour he spnt on his favorite cable news channel, which is not msnbc. Really . Fox friends, detailing, as he described it, frankly, i want a trial but he said they never, ever should impeach. Sort of talking outside of both sides of his mouth. If i dare democrats to hold a trial, telling me the president would want to hear from some of the key witnesses he says are the real ones responsible for the corruption, like adam schiff and hunter biden and joe biden, but privately this white house is sincerely preparing for the potential of an impeachment trial, senior white house official telling me yesterday there was more than a handful of republican senators who met behind closed doors with the president yesterday, including senators cruz and lee, Lindsey Graham has been part of this process as well. They were talking about the possibility that impeachment trial in the Republicancontrolled Senate could be limited to just two weeks. The idea is to find a trial that would appear to the American People to be thorough but not too long to drag this process out further than they wanted. A couple of takeaways that we heard from the president that were particularly striking, stephanie. The president again reiterating his argument that ukraine was, in fact, responsible for interference in the 2016 election, which is striking, given the fact that it comes just hours after the fact that we heard from the president s former top russia adviser, fiona hill, the britishborn american citizen, the daughter of a coal miner, who so powerful described that as a fictional narrative, in her words, that was being used in effect by the russians to try to undercut the united states. Peter, garrett, thank you. Now weve got the what. Lets dig into what it all means. Barbara mcquaid is currently a professor at the university of michigan law school. Natasha bertrand of politico and elise labott, school of foreign service, a very swanky title, which i would love to have one day. Barbara, lets go to you. In your mind, we have seen the evidence. What articles of impeachment do they support, if any . I think you could very easily support articles of impeachment for three crimes, bribery, obstruction of justice and abuse of power. On bribery, its demanding a thing of value in exchange for the performance of an official act. Demanding the investigations in exchange for releasing military aid and a white house meeting qualify and theres sufficient evidence of that. Trump supporters are complaining they need more evidence. They need look no further than trump himself, they refused to produce other witnesses like mick mulvaney, mike pompeo and all the documents that even Gordon Sondland said would have been representful to refresh his recollection. This is not a crime on the books but impeachable conduct, inviting foreign interference into our elections. Withholding military aid, after our congress voted to approve 400 million to fight off russian aggression in ukraine, harming not only Ukraines National Security but American National security. So i think theres a strong case for all three of those articles. Republicans have spent a ton of time justifying the president s actions by saying he was absolutely right to be suspicious of ukraine, but i want to share with what dr. Fiona hill said about that very point yesterday. Some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its Security Services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propulgated by Russian Services themselves. I would ask that you please not promote falsehoods that so clearly advance russian. She just said brother, please. This is one of the foremost experts of russia and Eastern Ukraine and she was before she agreed to join the white house. Why did she join . To help President Trump navigate some of these issues on russia and help with the russian relationship. Lindsey graham now sending a letter, senator graham sending a letter to secretary of state pompeo, looking for documents to prove that ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. You can see that this is going to be the republicans argument when this goes to a senate trial, that President Trump was completely within his rights and duties within president because it was actually ukraine that interfered. But, i mean, i think all the other witnesses and the own Intelligence Community report kind of bears out that this isnt true. Natasha, dr. Hill also made a very interesting point that i want to be sure doesnt get overlooked about the russian reasoning for interfering in the 2016 election. Take a look. The goal of the russians was really to put whoever became the president by trying to tip their hands on one side of the scale under a cloud. So if secretary, former first lady, former senator clinton had been elected as president , as indeed many expected in the runup to the election in 2016, she, too, would have had major questions about her legitimacy. And i think that what were seeing here, as a result of all of these narratives, this is exactly what the russian government was hoping for. Has that not gotten enough attention . Because if thats the case, if russia just wanted to sow chaos and doubt and interfere with our election, with our democracy, then that could and maybe should get a lot of bipartisan support to stop it. Yeah. So what we saw from the social media campaign, of course, that the russians waged in 2016, is that they were targeting both sides, trying to inflame tensions on both the left and the right in order to sow that chaos, promote disinformation, discourage people from voting. All for the final goal, really, of getting americans disillusioned with the democratic process. He had the ultimate goal of electing donald trump because he didnt want Hillary Clinton to be in office but short of that, because no one really thought that donald trump was going to win, but short of that an accomplishment for him would just be to show his own people that the american style system is inferior to what the russians have, for example. But what i also think fionas point here really underscores about her is the fact that she is so nonpartisan. This is someone who her colleagues dont even know what her political affiliations are. She managed to stay at the white house over two years even though she was not seen as a trump loyalist, even though she really had no good things to say about trump during the election, because she kept her head down and was such a professional and people really respected her. John bolton, when he came in, was under a lot of pressure to fire her. There were some people in the white house who saw her as part of this deep state. Former National Intelligence council officer. There were a lot of forces in the white house that were trying to get rid of her but ultimately they couldnt because they saw she was a consummate professional who was nonpartisan. And i think it shown through her testimony. John bolton sent out a tweet this morning that was very cryptic. He wrote for the back story, stay tuned. You know bolton. Youve traveled with him several times overseas. He keeps teasing whether its private speeches and now he has this cryptic message that he has so some. What hes doing is playing all sides here. You see what he has done with with the president. Hes not really challenging the white house argument that he shouldnt testify. Hes trying to get the courts to figure it out. And when the democrats said, you know, okay, no thanks, john bolton is dying to testify. I think obviously he has felt very strongly about russian interference. You heard from fiona hill. Fiona hill is really a proxy for bolton, for his frustration, for his incredlous for what Rudy Giuliani was doing. He as also teasing it out. He wants to go through proper channels and is also a constitutional expert. He wants the courts to decide. Make no mistake, john bolton wants to testify. He wants to tell his story and i dont think it would be very favorable for the president. Barbara, is it bolton, or are there any other cards that democrats can play in the senate that could change this dynamic . I think we need to keep in mind theres two phases here, right . The senate is where the trial is. Are we ready to vote on articles of impeachment . I think yes. This is like the charging phase in a criminal case, grand jury. All you need is probable cause to believe that you are advancing to the next phase. So, in the next phase, thats where you can have additional witnesses like a john bolton come testify. So there with a subpoena, perhaps, he could be a powerful witness. But i dont think they need him at this phase. I think the time has come to call to question, as you would say in parliamentary procedure, a vote on the articles of impeachment. Theres probable cause to believe that the president has committed an impeachable offense, be impeached. The president could call these witnesses. He has an opportunity to call his own witnesses. I think well hear from a broader list of witnesses at the senate phase and perhaps to include john bolton. What does it say if the president doesnt call mick mulvaney, rick perry or even a john bolton . Thank you all very, very much. So much more to cover. Next, including this key question, has the last two weeks of public testimony changed anything, anything in the court of Public Opinion . But first the impact on 2020. Were talking to voters in the critical battleground state of florida and the early primary state of New Hampshire. What theyre saying about the impeachment battle might actually surprise you. T battle t actually surprise you. Does your broker offer more than just free trades . Fidelity has zero commissions for online u. S. Equity trades and etfs, plus zero minimums to open a brokerage account. With value like this, there are zero reasons to invest anywhere else. Fidelity. There are zero reasons to invest anywhere else. Cologuard colon cancer and older at average risk. Ive heard a lot of excuses to avoid screening for colon cancer. Im not worried. It doesnt run in my family. I can do it next year. No rush. 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The impeachment inquiry has completely overtaken washington, d. C. , but the big question in that one could have a major impact in 2020 and beyond is how are people outside the beltway reacting to the inquiry . We look at the front pages from newspapers across the country, we see most of them leading with the latest on impeachment. Road warrior ali vitale has been talking to voters in florida. How are they reacting . Reporter right after our debate in atlanta i started driving south to northern florida, a really red part of the state, pockets of blue and really swingy counties, like where i am now, in jackson county. In my conversations here and just a little bit closer to tallahassee, its clear that voters, regardless of how they felt about the president going into it, are watching. Opinions, though, not necessarily being changed. I think that the thing here thats been striking is the power of these public hearings, and the fact that they really do feel, at least from voters perspectives, that this hearing is everywhere. Theyre catching it on the radio. Theyre catching highlights on television when they get home at night. One of the things that voters said to me that struck him was this. Listen to what he got out of these hearings. What seems clear to me is that he has used his position of authority to try to help him in the election thats supposed to be a democratic process where everybody has our rights to vote. And, steph, regularly we talk about what the impact is on 2020. This other voter said to me that this is what he thinks is going to happen in the upcoming election. The truth is, i think there are a number of them that can beat donald trump. I think all of them can be beat by donald trump, too. I would not be shocked if the president , as an incumbent, wins again. I would not be shocked if he absolutely got wiped out of a by a wave of a United Democratic party. Reporter could go either way. Thats what i hear. Yes, impeachment is overshadowing a lot of these 2020 candidates but the voters are trying, as much as they can, to Pay Attention to both, steph. Paying attention. That is key. Ali, thank you very much. I want to bring in james n pindel, former executive director of the new york state democratic party, democratic strategy basil smythe. First, how are voters reacting to these hearings . The democrats want him impeached and many want him removed from office. What i find interesting are republicans and independents. Among republicans there are clearly shifting articles of defense for him. Obviously you see that playing out on fox news as well. Now youre hearing republicans say, yeah, he did something wrong, but how big of a deal is it, really . Weve been having investigation after investigation. For the independent voters, you know, some obviously lean one way or another, and thats going to cloud their judgment but there is a line in the middle. I think the president may be winning right now, which is this idea that, you know, its all a game in washington and that were not going to take any of these allegations as seriously because its simply just a game and a power game. Im not exactly sure how this applies to my life. Now, of course, New Hampshire is a swing state. Democrats are probably have my gut is that theyll probably do just fine. Hillary clinton, of course, won their narrowly. The president has won the state. There are so many questions about not just how this process is going to play out on capitol hill but how exactly this is going to work politically over the next year. Basil, did the American People, who were already outraged, get more outraged or did actual opinions shift . Did anything change . Because it didnt with house republicans. You know, whats interesting . I actually think that the impeachment hearings didnt persuade a lot of people over the course of time to change their position. Whatever you went into these impeachment hearings believing, youre pretty much stuck there. Two things that i would say, though, for all of those democrats who really wanted nancy pelosi to go forward with with these hearings, concerned democrats were being too cerebral and not engaging emotion i think they got that. They got the emotion that i think is prevalent with the base that i hope will continue into the primary cycle. Two, when i talk to a lot of white women about these hearings, theyre reacting to the testimony of ambassador yovanovitch to fiona hill. Maybe among suburban white women that might be a persuadable group that democrats can recapture. That may be the one important impact from these hearings. The caveat, however, there is going to be time thats going to pass between now, between the whats going to happen in the senate and when ballots are cast in the primary cycle and then into the general election. So the real important concern for democrats is, can you keep the momentum going . Can you keep that energy going over the next few months to make sure that people are engaged not just on the coast, not just in new york and california, but in pennsylvania, wisconsin and in michigan . Lets go back to New Hampshire. James, wednesdays debate, a lot of people are still talking about it. There are a few new polls out of New Hampshire, showing mayor pete is among the top four candidates there. What do you make of this . And is it reflective of those voters you talked to . Yes. Mayor pete certainly has a lot of energy right now. Clearly, in the debate he did not receive the attacks that many of us thought he would get as the person who has all the momentum right now. He is not in first place in New Hampshire. Theres one poll, an outlier right now that says that. He is definitel