Fight for the california coast tonight. Its brutal. Its hand to hand. And nature is winning. As of right now. As the 11th hour gets under way on this monday night. As we start a new week, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1,012 of the trump administration. And just tonight from the New York Times, we have learned that theres every indication tomorrow will be another very bad day for this president and those around him and its the result of another insider choosing to come forward to tell the truth about what they saw and heard on the inside. Nbc news has obtained tomorrows Opening Statement from Lieutenant ColonelAlexander Vindman who will be testifying behind closed doors. As his title may indicate, he is active duty u. S. Army. A ukraine specialist specializing in that country and the region. Inside the white house at the National Security council. He is an immigrant of this country and a decorated veteran of the iraq war. He makes clear in his Opening Statement he is coming forward for duty and honor and country. He describes the july 25th phone call writing, i listened in on the call in the situation room with colleagues from the nsc and the office of the vice president. As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said. I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a Foreign Government investigate a u. S. Citizen and i was worried about the implications for the u. S. Government support of ukraine. Vindman goes on to say, as he will in his Opening Statement tomorrow, i realized that if ukraine pursued an investigation into the bidens and burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine u. S. National security. Following the call, i again reported my concerns to nscs lead counsel. Vindman goes on to say hes not the whistleblower but he also details other discussions he witnessed in the white house. Another white house official, timothy morrison, who serves as the nscs russia and europe director, is expected to say similar things about that call. Hes coming up on thursday of this week. Today, we also learned the house is planning to vote thursday on a democratic resolution laying out the next steps in the impeachment inquiry. Nbc news reports the language of the resolution has not been released but its expected to detail procedures going forward, not formalize it. Intelligence Committee Chairman adam schiff released a Statement Today that the resolution establishes the format for open hearings. That means we could soon see public testimony in this impeachment investigation. It also means, importantly, we could soon read all those depositions that have been given in private. Today, the president s former deputy National Security adviser Charles Kupperman failed to appear for his deposition in the inquiry despite having been subpoenaed. The white house wants to stop his testimony and on friday, kupperman filed a lawsuit asking in effect for air cover. It asked a judge to rule on whether or not he had to testify. Here is chairman schiffs take on that. I think we can infer from the white house opposition to dr. Kuppermans testimony that they believe that his testimony would be incriminating of the president , but we move forward and we will obviously consider as we inform dr. Kuppermans counsel, his failure to appear as evidence that may warrant the contempt proceeding against him. Thats in the house. What about the senate . As all of this moves full speed ahead, robert costa and phil rucker of Washington Post report Senate Republicans are getting anxious. They write, in hushed conversations over the past week, gop senators lamented that the fastexpanding probe is fraying their party which remains completely in trumps grip. They voiced exasperation at the expectation that they defend the president against the troublesome picture that has been painted with neither convincing arguments from the white house nor confidence that something worse wont soon be discovered. It feels like a horror movie, said one veteran republican senator. Meanwhile, the republican today was in chicago taking up that u. S. Military raid on baghdadi that was announced over the weekend. Heres some of what he had to say when announcing the death of baghdadi sunday morning. He died after running into a deadend tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. He was whimpering, screaming, and crying. And, frankly, i think its something that should be brought out so that his followers and all of these young kids that want to leave various countries, including the United States, they should see how he died. He didnt die a hero. He died a coward. Crying, whimpering, screaming, and bringing three kids with him to die. This afternoon, trump declassified a photo of the military dog that the outfit says chased al baghdadi into that tunnel where he detonated a suicide vest as you heard the president reference, apparently with three of his children around him. Peter baker of the New York Times shares a byline on a report that says, mr. Trump was clearly eager to claim credit for the raid even as it became clear that military commanders had to rush the operation to execute it while sufficient american troops were still in place. While he used the occasion to defend his withdrawal decision, critics said the raid actually reinforced the need for an American Military presence in the region. All of that brings us to right now, our leadoff discussion on a monday night. Jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon. Notably former chief counsel to house intel. Anita kumar, White House Correspondent and associate editor for politico. Jonathan swan, National Political reporter from axios. Robert costa, reporter for Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Robert, id like to begin with you. You and phil rucker, 6 00 a. M. Dropped this story on the growing concern, the sickening feeling especially among republicans in the senate, especially among the vulnerable republicans in the senate. Well, look at whats going to happen tomorrow. A guy who the president would be fond of calling central casting. A Lieutenant Colonel, active duty, u. S. Army, decorated veteran, specialist within the nsc. Brian, the political moves by House Republicans over the past week have gotten the headlines. Storming in the impeachment hearing room. You have matt gaetz, the congressman from florida, mark meadows from North Carolina all rallying to the president s side. Yet when phil rucker and i were reporting on the senate gop over the past week, a totally different scene. Thats alarming to this white house. Each senator, as they walked from the train up to their office to the vote, they would tell us, sorry, cant comment. Im not going to be a juror in this possible senate trial. And you have a lot of unease behind the scenes among those Senate Republicans because they dont know the facts. Every days a new day. Bringing another ambassador, another National Security official, who is not singing in unison with the white house when it comes to the president s conduct. And jeremy bash, witnesses who are active duty or retired military also bring a bearing and an ethos that a lot of civilians dont have. Chiefly, chain of command. This guy is prepared to testify that twice he kicked it up the line to the chief counsel in the nsc. He is the kind of witness, it appears, who could do some thorough damage. Lieutenant colonel vindman is a soldier, a wounded iraq war veteran, combat veteran, someone who clearly is not a partisan actor and doesnt really even have a policy ax to grind. Hes there at the National Security council on detail from the United States department of defense. His primary duty of loyalty is to the country, to the constitution, so he can be trusted to tell it straight. And im kind of interested to see how the republicans will try to characterize him as a member of the deep state or democrat or someone whos not patriotic or someone who doesnt like donald trump. Donald trump celebrated him to be on the prestigious nsc staff. I think his testimony tomorrow is going to carry a lot of weight and a lot of credibility. What he said was the president acted improperly and that it violated principle tenets of National Security. Jeremy, you just raised the mob movie parlance, how are they going to come after him . Im glad you did. Im going to run a clip from something we noticed. Laura ingraham on fox news over the last hour, im going to play this for you, it appears to be an opening salvo in character assassination and perhaps you can let us know what theyre talking about here on the other side. Here we have a u. S. National security official who is advising ukraine while working inside the white house apparently against the president s interests and usually they spoke in english. Isnt that kind of an interesting angle on this story . I find that astounding, and, you know, some people might call that espionage. Jeremy bash, there you have it, what are they getting at . I think theyre alleging the u. S. Army colonel is a traitor and the fact he and his family emigrated from the former soviet union, they know more than anybody about the evils of the russian federation. Hes probably a very antirussian hawk and his views are probably at odds with the way trump has pursued Foreign Policy against russia so here we have the followers of donald trump doing what i think is absolutely despicable which is claiming that not only is he against trump, but hes unamerican and i dont think republicans, democrats, anybody who cares about our country are going to stand for that. So anita kumar, there it was and presumably they will get more air support out of fox news. The republican talking point has been about procedure. Basement room. Secret proceedings. But that suddenly has a shelf life. And theyre going to lose the ability to argue that as these hearings and transcripts come forward. So is there a daytoday Defense Strategy for this hour tomorrow night when we learn more of what it is this gentleman has to say . Well, brian, youre exactly right. Weve seen for the last month that there hasnt really been a strategy. The sole strategy has been whatever the president wants to say at that exact moment. Several times a day. You know, people in the white house, people close to the president , close to the campaign, dont really know what that one Cohesive Strategy is. They just, as you mentioned, recently, have been talking a lot about policy and how theres been no house vote and how everythings been behind closed doors. So thats been what theyve sort of been rallying around and they were taken aback today by the speakers announcement that there actually would be a vote and you saw just a couple comments about it but not a whole lot from republicans close to the president because they dont really know what to say yet. They want to see how this vote goes. They want to see what comes out. Theyre going to have to kind of shift gears here and figure out Something Else to say. Jonathan swan, lets talk about a little bit of irony here. This is a president who, indeed, loves the phrase, kind of dated as it is, central casting. This is a president who likes to physically mime the characteristics of military bearing. This is a guy with a title from the nsc who would normally appeal in all kinds of credible ways in normal times to a Lindsey Graham and, yet, here we are, these people with terrific resumes, with jobs on the inside, are coming forward one after one. Yeah, and, look, you might see, you know, you played that clip from earlier, you might see some house members attack this army veteran. I dont expect based on my conversations with republican senators that youre going to see much of that in the senate. I would echo what bob costa was saying earlier on, Republican Senate as a whole, not speaking for all of them, but the vast majority are deeply, deeply uncomfortable with the substance of whats happened here and thats why you saw that very timid resolution last week. The backstory to that was Lindsey Graham wanted to put out a fairly bombastic letter to nancy pelosi that would have basically been a middle finger, sign of solidarity, were not going to go down this impeachment route. He got blown right back at the republican lunch when he pitched it. They thought it was a stupid idea because it would create an instant enemies list for trump, anyone who didnt sign it would be on the enemies list. Number two, if they didnt get enough signatures, it would be a sign of weakness. They come with this watered down document, basically a process argument. I think tomorrow is important because of who he is, hes a veteran, as jeremy laid out, a wounded veteran from iraq. Going to be very difficult to paint him as a partisan hack and his concerns are going to carry more weight than some of the other testimony that weve heard so far. Robert costa, what is your knowledge of what went into the idea to bring everything up in the house on a vote, at least for a base line benchmark resolution . Theres a push by House Democrats to bring more witnesses to the table. Theyre building a case relatively quickly, privately as they make this behind the closed door investigation, but Speaker Pelosi wants to get more witnesses to the table and to do that, she needs to break down the white houses argument and get more witnesses beyond these National Security officials to testify. And to do that, shes saying to pat cipollone, the white house counsel, were moving forward with a formal vote and so now when we make a request, if we subpoena an official, they better come up. One quick note, brian, on ms. Ingrahams point, is this as a reporter, i wonder, is this really the line the republicans are going to take, conservative critics, of this impeachment inquiry, that someone whos an immigrant and has served this country is now a questionable person without any kind of evidence to the to make this case . Does this mean now immigrants cant serve in the cabinet . Arnold schwarzenegger, we have to worry if hes loyal to austria, if hes governor of california. On a logical level, i dont see how as a reporter this argument holds that ms. Ingraham made tonight on fox news. Yeah, just to put it in brackets, that was former Deputy Attorney general john yu who said out loud, quote, i find that astounding and some people might call that espionage. So, anita kumar, lets talk about those Senate Republicans for a moment. A lot of them are in a box. Some of them are in a vice. Again, this is a tellable story. Mueller came and went. No one reads the report, but give people a phone call with understandable white hats and black hats and language and this is a story the democrats hope they can tell. Right. Theyre very uncomfortable with this as you said. And, you know, the resolution that jonathan mentioned that even though it was watered down, you had some people onboard with that and theyre say, well, theres no need for that now because the house is going to vote and it was all about the vote for them. So, yes, i mean, they have to sort of figure out what to do. Theyre trying to keep their heads down but the president really wont let them. He is pushing them to support him even though hes come out and said exactly what the democrats are saying which is he made this call, weve heard, seen at least a partial transcript. Weve heard from the acting chief of staff and so all of its sort of been out there. Were going to hear more when this becomes public. Each day that goes on, it grows a little bit harder for them to talk about this and figure out what to say. Its going to be even more difficult when these things become public. Jeremy bash, im reminded that this weekend happened. Please contrast your memories of the Osama Bin Laden raid and its announcement with what we witnessed this weekend. Im reminded the president thanked the russians first and im reminded the russians were aware of the raid before our speaker of the house. Well, first, on may 1st, 2011, when bin laden was killed, president obamas statement i remember was very restrained. In fact, i was in the white house situation room that night when he directed the whole team, you know, were not spiking the football, were not doing any end zone dances, were just going to be very clear with the American People about what this was. Were going to set it in a broader strategic contrast. Contrast with the president s remarks yesterday, they were okay, but there were clear moments where he wanted to do a big victory dance, wanted to hot dog it a little bit, amp the rhetoric, unbecoming of commander in chief who just conducted a very significant counterterrorism raid, he appropriately lavished praise on intelligence and military professionals who conducted the complex operation. But the rest of it was sort of unnecessary. And i think could potentially undermine the ability to get allies in to fight with us against isis on the resurgence because of President Trumps policies. Jonathan swan, the president wanted to remind everyone that in his view, baghdadi was bigger than bin laden. To paraphrase, bin lade