Gets underway on a thursday night. Good evening, once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1,092 of the trump administrati administration. That means we have 292 days to go until the 2020 president ial election. Donald trumps impeachment trial is underway right alongside his Reelection Campaign and even as we continue to sort through a mountain of new potential evidence from a man initially described as a bad man for Rudy Giuliani lev parnas. Parnas has been indicted in the Southern District of new york, the feds in new york on Campaign Financial charges. In his telling of what happened and what he was up to. What hes describing and off the book shadow Foreign Policy run by a former big city mayor at the direction of the trump white house, it reads if true like elements of some sort of criminal enterprise, yesterday parnas talked to Rachel Maddow, last night he described in great details how trump directed him through rudy to pressure ukraine to open in vipvestigations on j biden. He offered new details in part two interview going against trumps claims he was concerned of corruption and ukraine. Parnas describes how there were efforts to stir conversations with president zelensky, ukraine officials towards the topic of the bidens. They would walk it back. There were corruption. I am saying thats not what we discussed. He said the name biden. Both. Parnas also straight up alleged tonight that former Secretary Energy rick perry have been told by rudy to convince the ukrainians to announce an investigation into joe biden. Parnas described those around the president as a cult. He spent two years in washington and never left the trump hotel. He said he was with trump when he argued the firing of our ukraine ambassador. Today the president says he does not know and never met this lev parnas. Whats your response to lev parnas . I dont know him. I dont know him other than i had pictures taken which i do thousands of people including today i did not meet. I dont know him at all, dont know what hes about. Dont know where he comes him and nothing about him. Hes trying to make a deal with Rudy Giuliani. I guess he attempted i took a picture with him. I take thousands of pictures with people. Thousands during the course of the year. I dont know him or perhaps hes a fine man or i know nothing about him. It is more than just taking pictures. I dont know him. Trumps friendly daily mail of all places took the liberty put a photo collage of some of the photos of the two men together. Tl lawyer p the lawyer of parnas released this video back in maralago and parnas offered new details of what the president repeated effort to fire our u. S. Ambassador, marie yovanovitch. He fired her at least four our five times. He even breaks down and screams to fire her. And then he said there president , i could not do that. He was drirecting the state department to remove her and the state department refused. He spoke once or twice and he fired her at dinner which was the most surprising. Tell me more. Basically at that dinner we had a conversation, there was lie like six of us there. At the white house . The trump hotel, a private area there. If president was there . Yes, absolutely. The president was there and his son don jr. Was there. Lets backup. There was another big headline today. We learned the Nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded the Trump Administration broke the law when it ordered a months long hold of the military aid. This is an extraordinary finding by an agency like the gao. There was this and let us not forget how this day got underway for the third time in our nations history, an impeachment trial is underway. Here is some of what he witness. Here hear ye, hear ye, articles of impeachment against donald trump, president of the United States. The managers on the part of the house will now proceed. Donald j. Trump, president of the United States is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, the house adopted the following resolution which would permission the senate i will read. President trump compromised the National Security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process. Well administer the oath to our chief justice of the United States. Will you place your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand . Do you solemnly swear that all thi th thin things pertaining to the trial impeachment of donald trump, president of the United States now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution of the laws, so help you god. I do. Will all senators now stand or remained standing and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear all things pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of donald j. Trump, president of the United States now pending, you will do impartial justice of according to the constitution of the laws. So help you god. Again, thats how this day got underway. Here for our lead off discussion on a thursday night, annie carney and Ashley Parker for the Washington Post and shannon, senior White House Reporter for us here at nbc. Good evening and welcome to you all. Annie, i would like to move to your new reporting on what was going on inside the white house as that was getting underway. As that was getting underway, donald trump had on his schedule a public event in the oval office where he was supposed to be celebrating, announcing a new rule on pair rairie schools. That was delayed for an hour because john roberts was being sworn in and senators were going through role call. When he came out, we saw someone who said basically said this should be the week where we talk about my china trade deals. Instead, hes bogged down in what he calls a hoax. Hes trying to dismiss and say there is no story here. While the end result of this senate trial, most people are assuming hes going to be acquitted, there is a lot of unknowns and donald trump is very aware of that, hes been talking to allies expressing concerns of his own legal team and whether theyll look at a televised trial. Hes concerned of not being able to call witnesses even though hes following Mitch Mcconnells advise to keep the trial short. Those witnesses are more unknown. H hes worried in general of republican senators are not defecting. He needs one more to say we do want to call witnesses and hes scribn nervous of it happening. There is a lot of unknowns and hes feeling uncertain. Ashley parker, last night must not have been a great night as lev parnas dropped the Vice President s name like a led balloon. Tell us about your new reporting on that front. Our new reporting sort of takes what lev parnas said and it is poworth allies of the president , chief of staff called into question his credibility. What hes been saying is backed up by a trove of documents. What we can see from that is what starts off assort of an irregul irregular Shadow Campaign to pressure ukraine to do trumps bidding. It is happening outside the traditional corridor. There comes a moment where that intersects with the official u. S. Policy and that moment is when President Trump orders Vice President pence to cancel a trip that was planning underway for president zelenskys inauguration. To be clear, i talked to Administration Officials say the Vice President does not know why his trip is cancelled. When pence decides not to go to ukraine, thats the moment when the ukrainians who were skeptical of parnas and didnt know who he spoke on behalf of realized that these people, these unofficial channel is quite serious and it is official channel. You have Rudy Giuliani over taking and assuming u. S. Foreign policy and diplomacy with ukraine and pence. Unfortunately for him it is sort of in the middle of that and whether or not he did anything wrong. Shannon, we have staffers on the hill, senior staffers working 12 to 24 hours shifts waiting through the parnas material and getting it ready for potential senate trial. What are the republicans you speak to in the trump camp saying about these two elements, the timing of what lev parnas have put out there . Well, i actually spoke to a few republican allies of the president today and they at least on the surface said theyre not too concerned of lev parnas actually. They said first of all, hes repeating a lot of what witnesses have already said. They dont feel that much is necessarily new. The stuff about the Vice President may be a bit new. Some of the things he said about rick perry are now. They feel in line of the narrative thats are already out there. Republicans feel that the narrative out there is not hurting the president s support with republicans and for the most part split 50 50 between independence. A couple said they think they can use it to their advantage if lev parnas was called as a witness because they feel like republicans would be able to crossexamine him and attack his character that could backfire on democrats. Bringing the fact that hes indicted and shady past and reiterating the argument that they made for other witnesses that he does not have firsthand knowledge or firsthand contact with the president. Tonight we seem to get a sense of him being at dinner and having more of firsthand contact. I dont think they think it changes the dynamic too much. Annie karni, whats happening in the past to members of the trumps circle when he makes a decision to hit the button and distance himself from a slew of different people in his life. I never met putin. James comey, i hard linly know man. I dont know paul manafort. Michael cohen, tell me about his relationship with him . He was a lawyer for me one of many, not somebody that was with me that much. Let me just say i hard lino the gentleman. What conversation did you have with lev parnas and fruman . I dont know those gentlemen. What was that about of that aspect of this mans personality and his being . It is about survival. And it looks like someone close to him is going to cause him trouble, hes going to cut them off. One person he has not pull the i hardly know him ever is Rudy Giuliani who caused him a ton of problem and not just back to ukraine but the part of the Stormy Daniels story. Rudy gotten in a lot of trouble and he always continues to be close to rudy. This is the general pattern of when someone gets in trouble with the law whos close to trump, trump distances himself. Ashley, the parnas telling of the numerous attempts by the president to have our ambassador to ukraine, yovanovitch, fired kind of border on pathetic in the telling of lev parnas. Why do you think there were repeated attempts by the guy at the top of the administration that were unsuccessful, why was he rebuffed in his efforts having made the decision that she had to go . Well, i think he was rebuffed because a number of people in his administration including some who recently went up on capitol hill and testified under oath about this felt it was a very bad or if not dangerous and problematic idea. Thats one of the reasons he was rebuffed. In lev parnas, just of how this Administration Functions and operates generally. When luke you look at some of t people where parnas said trump told to fire the ambassador. Hes not going to the state department, hes turning to his personal assistance a young woman in her 20 and telling her to fire yovanovitch. Shes turning to a white house political aid at the dinner of the trump hotel and telling him to to fire yovanovitch. People understand around the president , he says things when hes frustrated and sometimes their job is to ignore him and diffuse the situation and hope that it will ultimately goes away. In this case she was recalled. Shannon, a critical question that speaks to the people you spoke to today. In your reporting, is the thinking inside the white house, inside the trumps circle migrating from if there will be witnesses but with witnesses, wholl be called . I think privately which witnesses will be called . I think there is an increasing certainty that there will be a vote on witnesses and i think it is probably split 50 50 whether or not those witnesses are called. While the white house is trying to portray this public image that there will not be witnesses, allies in the senate are preparing for witnesses and trying to think of wholl be called and how theyre going to manage that. If it was a long day for us here. I know it was a long day for the three of you, great thanks to the throw of yee of you for joi. Annie, ashley and shannon. Coming up for us. The president tries to keep a nation focused on his reelection and not his impeachment trial in the senate and later accused felon lev parnas says he should be the senates number one witness but is there proof for all the things hes saying and for that matter, again, what about witnesses . The 11th hour is just getting underway on this thursday night. Underway on this thursday night. [sneezing] you dont want to cancel your plans. [sneezing] cancel your cold. The 1pill power of advil multisymptom cold flu knocks out your worst symptoms. Cancel your cold, not your plans. Advil multisymptom cold flu. Man whats my my truck. Is my livelihood. So when my windshield cracked. The experts at Safelite Autoglass came right to me. Tech hi, im adrian. Man thanks for coming. With service i could trust. Right, girl . Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Wean air force veteran made of doing whats right,. Not whats easy. 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You are a liberal hack. I am not going to talk to you. Reporter you are not going to comment . After that abruptly change, the trump posted its own video of the encounter with the caption that read three cheers for senator mcsally, this is how you handle fake news cnn, donate to martha right now. Theyre using her remark as a fundraiser vehicle for a reason. Marklely has 13 million in the bank and mcsally is far behind with 7 million. Do you regreat what you said . No. I do not. I said it again. You are a hack buddy. You know i mean these cnn reporters, many of them around the capitol hill, they are so biassed, theyre so incant sta the president and they run around and chasing republicans and asking trapping questions. With us, our white house correspondent, tamyra keith, manu is one of those few the reporters whos well liked by, i guess we can exclude by the arizona senator, well liked by the vast majority of the people on the hill who surfed there and covers the news there. For a senator who once marketed herself as a moderate republican and as a kind of cautious conservative, this is a new look and i guess shes taking the chance that this will sell back in arizona. Manu raju has something in the hallway of capitol romance for john mccain. Not only is she looking at a general e llection in arizona. There could be a primary. The filing deadline is not until may. And so for a lot of these republicans who are running for reelection, there is this big question of how do you deal with President Trump and the impeachment time particularly. Putting space between yourself and a popular president and the Republican Party does not really help you reelection chances. Tell us about your current understanding of the Current Trump campaign plans to deal with the rare confluence of a Reelection Campaign during an impeachment trial. What is their plan . The same time the impeachment trial is happening, there are primaries, kau invictcaucus is iowa and primary is coming in New Hampshire. The campaign is going to be in both of those states with a big presence. Really what they are saying, they have been doing Rapid Response and private communications essentially for three years. Three plus years. And so you know for President Trump, he has a very wellfunded organization and outside organization, his campaign that can amplified his message and push his own message and run an ad during the super bowl that could if the trial goes more than the two weeks at the white house could well be an ad thats played in the middle of impeachment. By going to iowa and New Hampshire on the eve of democratic primaries, hell get media and time and attention and a platform for his views. Something that you know well is that all the political reporters are going to be in iowa right before the caucasus and New Hampshire before the prima primaries. The