Murray, thanks to both of you. Thanks for watching our msnbc special. Find me on weeknights. Its the beet, 6 00 p. M. Eastern. It started as a 30minute phone call between two president s. It erupted into a fullscale scandal that now threatens to bring down donald trump. Today im announcing the house of representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. Our president sacrificed our National Security and our constitution for his personal political benefit. Theyve been trying to impeach me from the day i got elected. And you know what . They failed. Youve seen the headlines. Tonight well dive deep into the part of the story you havent heard. And key players will reveal for the first time what really happened. As we go on assignment. The conversation just after 9 00 a. M. On july 25th started out friendly. President donald j. Trump calling his newly elected counterpart, ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. This is from the official notes of the phone call released by the white house. Congratulations on a great victory, we all watched from the United States and you did a terrific job, President Trump tells president zelensky. You are absolutely right, mr. President , zelensky responds, we did win big and we worked hard for this. We worked a lot but i would like to confess to you that i had an opportunity to learn from you. It was actually the first
real conversation between two president s. This was ukraines Foreign Minister for five years. He left office at the end of august. He says for president zelensky, it was a High Pressure call. I understand that for zelensky, it was extremely important simply to build up a kind of personal thing between them. You can hear what sounds like zelensky doing his best to get on trumps side. We are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country, says the ukrainian president , you are a great teacher for us in that. President trump responds, well, its very nice for you to say that. He is trying to establish a personal rapport with President Trump. That is obvious given all the flattering language. Before being elected president earlier this year, Volodymyr Zelensky was an actor and comedian. His most notable role was
playing a president on tv. He won office in a landslide with a Campaign Promise to fight corruption and to end ukraines war with its vastly more powerful neighbor, russia. Zelensky knows u. S. Military aid is vital to his country, and hes eager for it to continue. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next stages. Specifically, we are almost ready to buy more javelins from the United States for defense purposes, he says. Javelins are shoulderfired antitank missiles ukraines army needs to fight off russianbacked forces. So far, so normal. Talks of bilateral relations and defense. But this is President Trump. His response to the request for javelin missiles is personal. One white house official reportedly called it crazy. I would like you to do us a
favor, though, President Trump says, because our country has been through a lot and ukraine knows a lot about it. All you have to do is look at the transcript that the white house released where the president of ukraine says, we want to buy more javelins. And the next word is the president saying, id like to ask a favor, though. President trump has a very specific favor in mind. It involves his old nemesis, Hillary Clinton, and a baseless Conspiracy Theory propagated on the fringes of the internet that claims the hacking of democratic computers during the 2016 election was not carried out by russia to help the trump campaign, as u. S. Intelligence agencies universally concluded. But instead, was the work of ukrainian operatives to help Hillary Clinton and frame donald trump and russia. As with much of the republican conspiracy thinking about the origins of the mueller
probe, the origins of the steele dossier, theres not a lot that ive found that really backs this up. The wild allegation has no factual basis. Its been completely debunked. I believe its weird. I believe its simply weird, and anybody understanding something about cybersecurity would tell you its weird. President trump continues, i would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people, and i would like you to get to the bottom of it. Zelensky responds, we are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and ukraine. Sleepy joe said that hes running President Trump then turns his attention from hacking in 2016 to a possible rival in 2020. Former Vice President joe biden. And what trump claims was his role in a Corruption Investigation in ukraine five years ago. Theres a lot of talk about
bidens son, that biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great, says President Trump. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it, it sounds horrible to me. We will take care of that, zelensky says, and well work on the investigation of the case. Once again, President Trump is asking for proof of something that didnt happen. There is no evidence biden tried to stop a prosecution in ukraine. Not only was trumps request highly irregular, analysts say it put the ukrainian president in a difficult spot. You have the president of ukraine say, i want to buy more weapons, were in a war, were trying to defend ourselves, you promised that youd support us. You have president responding, id like to talk to you about your doing a favor, then he goes into his request for dirt on biden. No leader in the world is in a position to refuse when the
president of the United States asks you to do a favor. But the president of ukraine is especially vulnerable given that he is fighting a war against russia, and he needs the United States to be on his side. Reporter at least a week before the two men spoke over the phone, President Trump had blocked, in spite of recommendations from the pentagon, a 391 million Military Aid Package to ukraine. When you read that partial transcript, do you think that President Trump was putting pressure on president zelensky . Indirect pressure is definitely there. The president basically was cutting off these weapons until he got agreement from the ukrainian president to help him with his political request. President trump doesnt just ask zelensky to investigate biden, he offers highlevel help, namely, his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and
william barr, the Attorney General of the United States. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man, says President Trump, he was the mayor of new york city, a great mayor, and i would like him to call you, i will ask him to call you, along with the Attorney General. After the call, white house aides placed the records of it in a topsecret computer server. It might have stayed there, except for a whistleblower. Someone at cia heard about the phone call and warned his superiors that the president may have been acting illegally. The white house released the notes, apparently believing they would exonerate the president. Trumps critics didnt see it that way. So here we have the president of the United States engaged in a shakedown of a foreign president. Rudy giuliani is negotiating, apparently on behalf of the president of the United States, but in effect potentially
betraying our national and security interests. President trump and his supporters claim the whistleblower is a plant from what they call the deep state, the shadowy american leftleaning establishment they say has been trying to unseat President Trump since the beginning. A partisan hit job does not make you a whistleblower just because you go through the whistleblower protection act. Raise your right hand in congressional testimony, the president s own Acting Director of National Intelligence called the whistleblower credible and the process lawful. I think the whistleblower did the right thing. I think he followed the law every step of the way. The whistleblower was wrong. At first trump seemed to see the whole situation as yet another chance to take down a political rival. Bidens son is corrupt, and biden is corrupt. Two months after the call, president s trump and zelensky
met in person. Reporters questions were all about the call. Zelensky said he didnt feel he was being forced to do the president s bidding. We spoke about many things. And so i think, and you read it, that nobody pushed pushed me, yes. In other words, no pressure. But former ukrainian diplomats and investigators we spoke to told us there was nothing else zelensky could say. President trump, after all, was holding his feet to the fire. Weve been investigating on a personal basis through rudy and others, lawyers, corruption in the 2016 election. Back home in ukraine, president zelensky denied any contact with giuliani. Were you ever approached by or did you meet with Rudy Giuliani . Ive never met Rudy Giuliani, never. And never had any phone calls with him. But pressure is mounting, and
investigators are digging deeper. Revealing that months before the call, u. S. Diplomats had already begun a campaign to pressure ukraine to investigate the bidens and validate trumps false belief that ukrainian officials helped Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections. And now another whistleblower has come forward. As the days turn to weeks, the march toward impeachment is clearly getting under the president s skin. Did you hear me . Ask him a question. I will, but ive given you a long answer, ask this gentleman a question, dont be rude. No, sir, i dont want to be rude, i just wanted you to have a chance to ask the question that i asked you. Ive answered everything. But theres an underlying question. Why . Why does President Trump seem obsessed with ukraine . Why has a former Soviet Republic become so central to American Politics . The riot police have now withdrawn from this area in central kiev i was there, and i can tell you how the story really went down. Stay with us as we show you how a revolution in kiev ended up reaching all the way to washington. Port. Finally something more powerful than the funk. Tide sport removes even weekold sweat odor. Its got to be tide. You may have gingivitis. When you brush, and the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums, and possibly. Tooth loss. Help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. Parodontax. Itso chantix can help you quitd slow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. Chantix reduces the urge so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or lifethreatening allergic and skin reactions. Decrease alcohol use. Use caution driving or operating machinery. Tell your doctor if youve had Mental Health problems. The most common side effect is nausea. Quit smoking slow turkey. Talk to your doctor about chantix. But she wanted someone who loves with the cats. Ng. So, we got griswalda. Dinners almost ready. But one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with our Renters Insurance. Yeah, switching and saving was really easy drink it all up. Good
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capital kiev, demanding immediate democratic reforms. And the overthrow of the corrupt russianbacked president , viktor yanukovych. The protesters had washingtons blessing. U. S. Diplomats went so far as to visit the demonstrators and hand out food. Ukraine and its people just didnt want to be part of that close russian orbit anymore. They were looking west. As the world watched, things got ugly. I was there when the street protests erupted into pitched battles with riot police. And soon central kievs main square, the mydan, was on fire. The protesters here put themselves in the center of a ring of fire and say they will hold this square even fit costs them their lives. For many it did. President trump yanukovych ordered his troops to open fire
with live ammunition. Around 100 protesters were killed. Opponents of yanukovych were shocked, but not surprised. Viktor yanukovych was trying to monopolize corruption in ukraine. He treated the state as his own personal family business. I spoke recently with doreen that, ukraines iding anticorruption campaigner, not a fan of the former president. In his youth he was convicted for robbery of hats. He stole peoples hats . He stole peoples hats. He was a lowlevel petty criminal . In the soviet union, there was fashion for hats because of the fur. So they were expensive. And he was convicted for that. He served his term in the prison. So everyone treated yanukovych as a criminal. Amid growing pressure and with blood in the streets, the hat thiefturnedpresident threw
in the towel and fled to russia. Celebrations broke out across kiev. But Vladimir PutinWasnt Going To Stand By and let a Popular Uprising go unchallenged in his own backyard. While putin was extremely upset, i think he thought this was a fateful moment where he was about to lose ukraine to the west. Michael mcfaul was the u. S. Ambassador to russia at the time. Thats why he invaded, thats why he went in. Days after the Closing Ceremony in sochi, the russian president launched a Stealth Operation to occupy ukraines strategically important crimean peninsula. It was a bold and new type of invasion. Soldiers with unmarked uniforms, known only as little green men, blocked roads, took over army bases, took over strategic posts, quietly, efficiently,
without violence. Russia denied any involvement. Only later would putin proudly acknowledge the invasion was carried out by russian commandos. I watched as prorussian supporters tightened their grip on power and gave the people a vote. But no real choice. These men and their russian backers now run things here, and many crimeans believe the upcoming referendum is just a rubber stamp for takeover by force thats already happened. And sure enough, when the results of the hastily organized referendum were announced, crimea voted to become part of mother russia. Its true many people consider crimea part of russia, but its part of ukraine. Seizure of territory by one nation by another is against the rules. It was the first Hostile Takeover Of European Territory by a neighboring country since world war ii. Vladimir putins Approval Rating skyrocketed after the
annexation of crimea. It was an extremely popular war, portrayed so people understand on russian airwaves as a battle not between ukrainians and russians, but between russia and the west, russia and the United States. Putin worked hard to make his new acquisition irreversible. He ordered the construction of a bridge to connect crimea to the russian mainland. Russianbacked militias then took over large parts of eastern ukraine. The country was being occupied piece by piece. With Vladimir Putin, thats are real gut issues. When he gets angry, feels that hes being dissed, his countrys being dissed, he can react very sharply. Journalist David I