Night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1,005 of the trump administration, and including the jeopardy currently being faced by those closely around him, this president is under intensifying pressure now. Just this morning Speaker Pelosi distributed a fact sheet outlining what her office calls a gross abuse of president ial power regarding trumps dealings with ukraine, calling it a shakedown, a pressure campaign, a coverup. A few hours later during a cabinet meeting, trump was back on the attack, armed with a handwritten note that read, in part, no quid pro quo. So this is a phony investigation. The republicans have to get tougher and fight. We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election. Theyre vicious, and they stick together. They dont have mitt romney in their midst. Kind of went on like that. Trump also fired a broadside toward republicans who do not support him. Those people might be worse than the democrats. The nevertrumpers. The good news is theyre dying off fast. Theyre on artificial respiration, i think. The aforementioned mitt romney, one of the few republicans to publicly hint that he might consider impeachment, today repeated his concerns. I think most people are looking at whats going on in the house with interest, obviously with concern. But ultimately we may well become a jury. Holding up funds to a foreign nation, particularly one thats under military threat in order to fulfill a political purpose is a real problem. Not even a full month since we learned of the ukraine call, investigators have now issued 12 subpoenas and have heard 53 hours of closeddoor testimony from six witnesses. Tomorrow they hear from u. S. Ambassador to ukraine bill taylor. That gentleman, the man who raised alarms about the White House Holding back military aid to ukraine. On wednesday, theyll hear from laura cooper, the pentagon official overseeing russia and ukraine. Two officials working on the impeachment inquiry tell nbc news that another state department official, ambassador phillip reeker, is expected to testify in a closed session this coming saturday. One thing democrats wont get is a response to a subpoena issued to omb, the office of management and budget, acting director russell vogt declared this morning, quote, as the white house letter made clear two weeks ago, omb officials, myself, and mike duffy will not be complying with deposition requests this week. One more note from the hill. Tonight the house voted along party lines to table or kill a republican resolution to censure adam schiff for how he has handled the impeachment inquiry as chair of the Intel Committee. Well have more on that later on in the broadcast. Trumps impeachment battles have been compounded by the uproar over his bid to hold the next g7 summit at his doral golf resort near miami. He abruptly reversed the decision over the weekend. Nbc news reports that during a Conference Call with House Republicans saturday, they were actually urging him to move the summit to another location. That doesnt happen often. But today trump was still promoting his resort as he addressed a number of related grievances. Its new. Its been totally rebuilt. Its new. Everythings new. Got massive meeting rooms, right next to the airport, miami international, one of the biggest airports in the world. But the democrats went crazy. Even though i would have done it free. But i give away my president ial salary. They say that no other president has done it. Im surprised to be honest with you. They actually say that George Washington may have been the only other president. I dont think you people with this phony emoluments clause and by the way, i would say that its cost me anywhere from 2 billion to 5 billion to be president , and thats okay, between what i lose and what i could have made. Before we go any further here, the emoluments clause is real. Article 1, section 9 of our constitution. Under it, president s are not permitted to use office to enrich themselves. As the Washington Post points out, quote, trump said the presidency was costing him between 2 billion and 5 billion, though there is no evidence for such a claim, and his own disclosures show he has continued to profit while in the oval office. The president said only George Washington had given away his salary like trump does though historians say john f. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover donated their pay as well. No matter what a lot of people are saying about the airport in miami, its 15th on the list. Tomorrow may bring fresh hell for this administration as the ceasefire expires and now nothing will hold Turkish Forces back. As u. S. Troops were pulling out of northern syria, civilians in kurdish areas there hurled vegetables and insults. Theyre angry that their fighting partners, the americans, are leaving them. At the white house, trump had this response to the kurds. Where is an agreement that said we have to stay in the middle east for the rest of humanity, for the rest of civilization to protect the kurds . Theyre no angels. But we helped the kurds, and we never gave the kurds a commitment that wed stay for the next 400 years to protect them. Tonight the Washington Post is reporting that a limited number of troops will indeed remain in syria to secure the oil as the president puts it. And this afternoon secretary of state pompeo seemed to indicate get this the president might be willing to commit to military action in the region if it becomes necessary. We prefer peace to war. But in the event that kinetic action or military action is needed, you should know that President Trump is fully prepared to undertake that action. Here for our leadoff discussion on a monday night, philip rucker, pulitzer prizewinning bureau chief for the Washington Post. Kimberly atkins, senior washington correspondent for wbur, and peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Good evening, gang. Welcome to you all. Peter, id like to start off with you. Im going to ask the same question of your colleague, mr. Rucker. Do you believe, based on power of observation, that the president feels hes in control of any of this narrative . Well, look, you know, he dominates our conversation like nobody else. If anybody can control a narrative, it would be him. But right now i think hes in a position he hasnt been through most of his presidency. Hes in a position where he is, in fact, seeing other actors on the stage, in this case the House Democrats, you know, putting out more information each day. Hes making his own mistakes as he did with the g7, doral idea which he quickly retreated on in the face of not just democratic and media criticism but republican criticism. And the syria conversation, the syria decision where he basically abandoned the kurds who had been American Allies hurt him with his own republican base, the people he needs right now more than ever in order to defend himself against this impeachment effort. Phil, the same question. Hes casting about. Hes using some wellworn talking points, some new ones. At one point on the miami airport thing today, he said there are some people who believe its the number one biggest airport in the United States. Its not. Its just not. Yeah. No. I mean he is not in control right now. In fact, id say this is a season of weakness for him on a number of fronts because hes got republicans on the hill who are speaking out about his syria decision. Hes got his own Administration Officials who are defying his wishes by going up to the hill to testify as part of this impeachment inquiry. The polling is not in his favor here. Growing numbers of American People and in many polls, majorities of American People now believe this impeachment inquiry is appropriate, support the inquiry, support the investigation. The courts have been ruling against the president on a number of fronts, including over his tax returns. And he has no control over the media narrative. He doesnt even have control over fox news right now. Were seeing more and more commentators on the air and hard news reporting at fox that is insufficiently protrump in the president s mind. Kim, you might know this feeling. Im sitting here thinking, where did i read a brilliant piece on this season for the president this weekend . Oh, it was ruckers piece from the Washington Post over the weekend. Hey, kim, the president is now going after romney. Mitt romney appears to have gone to loosening up finishing school over the past few days. He appears to many people to be a different man. Is he affected by the incoming attacks by the president , do you think . Well, he really isnt, not in the same way that other republicans on the hill are. Mitt romney is somebody who hes already been a president ial nominee. He will never be on a ballot with donald trump. He is popular in utah where the president is a lot less popular, especially for a red state. So he is in a position where he feels that he has the bandwidth to speak out against him and folks who are republicans i talked to over the weekend says that he really sees this as a moral duty. Now, recall when senator romney came to washington, it seemed really unclear. He made a he did an oped saying that he would speak out to donald trump sometimes. But if he agreed with him, he wouldnt. And we really didnt know what role hes playing here. Now he seems to be, through interviews, through his actions, through statements, really setting out a space for himself as somebody who could lead a gop insurgence. The question is will there be any other gop troops behind him if he leads that to do enough to make the president change his behavior or to vote to impeach him . Peter baker, you just coauthored a book on the subject of impeachment. You and i lived through one of them. The house today, the democrats appear to be narrowing in, informed by the relative failure of the messages of mueller to come through clearly. Narrowing in their impeachment case on something finite and perhaps more understandable. Is that about how you read it . Well, i think its about right exactly. I think Robert Muellers report was damning in many ways but wasnt presented in the way that had the kick that democrats hoped it would. He didnt present it as an impeachable offense. He said thats basically up to another part of government, by which he meant the house of representatives. That didnt if that was meant to be a subtle message, it didnt get through. Now you see, you know, political professionals taking the lead in this case, and therefore they risk looking partisan. Thats always a problem for Opposition Party taking on the president in the white house. But theyre framing it in a more digestible way for the American Public. Theyre creating a narrative that the public can understand better about abuse of power, about going to foreign governments in order to help against an enemy, political enemy at home. And i think that that has been their you know, their main strategy. The question for them is do they leave it at that . Do they eventually draft articles of impeachment strictly along the lines of the uk manner or do they try to wrap in anything else . That debate i think is yet to be had. Phil, kim raises such an important issue. Mitt romney is one of the most politically bulletproof politicians in modernday america. Two things could happen here. The resistance could attach all of their hopes and dreams to him like a christmas tree. But also he could give skittish republicans, people who have some mileage on them and perhaps are safe back at home, some air cover to actually speak their mind here. He certainly can. Mitt romney feels liberated clearly to be able to say what he wants to say during this moment. Trump has tried to throw every arrow at romney, and romney is still standing. Hes still the senator from utah. He very well could get reelected as the senator from utah. He doesnt care what trumps going to say about him, and therefore he can make arguments both publicly in the media but also privately in those lunches that the republican senators have in favor of impeachment, in favor of a conviction, explaining the sort of historical choice that could potentially await these senators as jurors. And there are a number of other senators who are, you know, while they may not say so publicly, are close to romney. They owe debts to romney. Romney campaigned very hard and raised money for people like martha mcsally, joni ernst, and you could potentially fast forward a couple of weeks and see a romney coalition emerge within that Republican Senate conference. Did the doral reversal surprise you . It did because we almost never see the president fold in the face of public criticism. His instinct is to dig in, and i just assumed that this decision was final when it was announced by the acting white house chief of staff last thursday. But the pushback from republicans was so fierce, it wasnt all that public although some spoke out publicly. But it was very intense in private calls to the white house staff, messages that were relayed to the president that this was a big mistake. Hed crossed a line here. Theyre not able to defend him because in their view, choosing your own property to hold an International Summit is frankly indefensible. So the president had to fold his cards. Hey, kim, can you handicap the chances that mr. Mulvaney will hold his current job by the end of this week in four Business Days . I think thats tough. I mean i never know exactly what the president will do. I think we have a sign from the fact that Mick Mulvaneys title is acting chief of staff. That is not a senateconfirmed position. The president can choose who he wants to, so he purposely always had that hanging over Mick Mulvaneys head to say, you are not safe in this spot. He did have people rallying around him from within the administration today, mulvaney did. But we know this. Wa president wants to have the people around him who he is comfortable with, the people who he thinks are succeeding. So i think theres a big question mark over mulvaney right now. Peter baker, tell us what the state department discovered about Hillary Clintons emails and can we just assume from that the president will regard it as a lost cause and move on . Well, the answer to the second question is no. The answer to the first question is they put out a report after all these years of investigating saying there were some people at the state department who were culpable of introducing classified information to an unclassified server inappropriately, but they didnt find any evidence of a systemic disregard for the security rules. In fact, they basically were saying, you know, no harm, no foul. In effect, things shouldnt have been done this way but there wasnt some grand conspiracy to expose the nations secrets. That doesnt mean the president will accept it. He will take no doubt the critical parts of this report and there are critical parts of it and highlight those. Just the other night i was with him, as was phil in dallas, where he raised this issue again with his supporters. Remember the emails, he said. And, yes, they did. They remembered the emails. So even though this is years in the past at this point, i think youll continue to see this being a talking point for the president. Straightup allstars, the big three who started off a new week for us. Phil rucker, kimberly atkins, peter baxer, our sincere thanks. Coming up, democrats are said to be narrowly focusing on this impeachment inquiry, being careful not to rover reach. Tonight how they might go about building a case of abuse of power. And later, a battlefield veteran of middle east is here tonight to talk about the sight of americans leaving the fight and what we may be looking at down that road as the 11th hour is just Getting Started on this monday night. What are you doing back there, junior . Since were obviously lost, im rescheduling my Xfinity Customer Service appointment. Ah, relax. I got this. Which gps are you using anyway . A Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. My whole body is a compass. Oh boy. The my account app makes todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Not my thing. An inside look at democrat strategy when it comes to impeaching this president. Our own Heidi Przybyla reports that according to multiple people familiar with deliberations and this is important House Democrats are, quote, zeroing in on a framework for their impeachment case that will center on a simple abuse of power narrative involving the president s actions regarding ukraine. The report goes on to say, and we quote, still under debate is whether leaders will roll potential obstruction charges related to muellers investigation into the same article that deals with ukraine. The one person we wanted to talk to about this tonight turns out is available. Former u. S. Attorney joyce vance, who spent 25 years as a federal prosecutor. Joyce, talk about this because it seems directly informed by the density and complexity of the mueller report, no less a document, but it just wasnt digested and understood by the American Public. Its a sack ril edge, but ive been saying had it been a twitter thread of 20 items, people may have come away with a greater understanding of it than that. Also talk about the temptation as they say about legislation, when they start adding amendments, it becomes a christmas tree, the temptation to throw other stuff in the