Whats going on. Koujter terrorism is on this. Authorities have responded to a shooting incident. As soon as get more information, we will bring that to you. For now, a very good day to all of you from msnbc World Headquarters in new york. Im alex witt. Thank you for joining me. High noon in the east, 9 00 a. M. In the west. Welcome to weekends with alex witt. Another wild 24 hours of impeachment developments, including gripping testimony at a critical hearing. A leading democrat talks about how much closer congress is to the truth. Theyre pursuing an illegal, invalid, and unconstitutional bull [ bleep ] impeachment. Yep, ugly language. The president resorts to coarse language again at his latest rally. So, whats this a sign of . After midnight, how one call from the Trump Administration tried to stop a key impeachment witness and why that call failed, for now. Disappearing act. Some of the president s closest aides stopped talking as the impeachment inquiry unfolds, but why . New details this hour on this day 19 of the impeachment inquiry into the president and democrats are moving at quite a rapid pace. Lawmakers now looking ahead to a very busy week of depositions and deadlines, all part of the partys new offensive. Even more explosive testimonys expected this week as trumps former top aide on russia and europe, that being fiona hill, and u. S. Ambassador to the eu, Gordon Sondland, are set for hearings. Democratic lawmakers this morning giving new reaction as this investigation unfolds. We had testimony from a very credible witness for eight hours. So im looking forward to looking at all of the details of that testimony, seeing how its connected to the full picture, which, obviously, with the arrests this week i mean, he had a bad week, not just with the arrests, he had a terrible week in the courts as well. Thats right. So, well see as we go back on tuesday, i think that were going to step this up. We have an issue that u notes the caucus, that unites the American People, and that points out some of the illegal behavior of this president that will result in his impeachment, that we need to focus on that. Meanwhile, politico now reporting that trump advisers have been privately trying to get the president to sideline his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, this according to three people familiar with that conversation. The latest Development Comes as the New York Times reports Rudy Giulianis under federal investigation to determine whether he violated lobbying laws. Giuliani tells nbc that hes unaware of any probe. Two of giulianis clients this week were arrested and charged with conspiring to violate Campaign Finance laws. Meanwhile, as the democrats are ratcheting up the inquiry, the white house tries to find its footing on the issue. So were going right to the white house right now. Nbcs hans nichols is there for us. So, this administration, hans, is it fashioning some sort of a defense . Reporter well, yes and no. I mean, its clearly driven by the president. We saw this week that they finally put out a letter from the White House Councils office that questioned the entire legitimacy of the impeachment inquery. What you see from the president , him sort of test run ideas and test run rhetoric, and then you hear him in the rallies say it more explicitly. At the end of the day, theyre getting to the point of questioning the patriotism of their impeachment accusers. Well, i thought we were going to have some sound there from the president of the United States, but we had a frozen Rudy Giuliani, which is, indeed, rare, because we know he likes to talk. But alex, im glad we had giuliani up there, because when you look at what the president said about giuliani on the south lawn yesterday before departing, he almost suggested that he wasnt actually his partner and his attorney anymore. I believe we have that sound for you now from the president. So lets have a listen and play it in its full glory. I used to think she loved the country. She hates the country. Because she wouldnt be doing this to the country if she didnt. She hates the country. Reporter so, thats the kind of a sense of the rhetoric were hearing from the president , especially when hes in front of a firedup and friendly crowd. Now, i do want to show you what the president tweeted about Rudy Giuliani earlier. Now, he did hint yesterday, as i was saying, that he didnt know if he was still his attorney or he said, look, he was my attorney and he has been i talked to him just yesterday. Heres what hes saying about this the New York Times report. So now theyre after the legendary crime buster and the greatest mayor in the history of nyc, Rudy Giuliani. He may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy and a wonderful lawyer. Such a onesided witch hunt going on in the usa. Deep state. Shameful. So, that appears to be an endorsement of his attorney after appearing to walk away from him just a little bit today. So, the president is out at his golf club. He speaks later tonight in front of another friendly crowd, so we may get more rhetorical flourishes from the president. Fact is, those two certainly go way back, and were told the president really likes his combative style. Reflects both of them. All right, hans. Thank you so much from the white house for that. Joining me now, california representative ted lieu, democratic member of the Foreign Affairs and judiciary committees and a frequent guest on the show. Welcome to you, sir. Lets get into what Speaker Pelosi did yesterday, which you know, holding that House Democratic caucus call. What can you tell us about that in regards to impeachment and where things stand . Thank you, alex, for that question. Im not going to talk about internal caucus deliberations. However, what i will say is that our focus is going to remain on the ukraine scandal, and thats because no one is above the law. And in this case, its very clear that donald trump put himself above the law by running this shadow Foreign Policy where he was leveraging the halting of military aid to ukraine as well as a meeting with the ukrainian president , both things that ukrainian leader really wanted, in order to get ukraine to target an american citizen for political purposes. That is wrong. Thats a betrayal of our values and abuse of power. Okay. What about this coming week . Lets look ahead to that because i know your committees expecting testimony from former nsa official fiona hill and also ambassador to the eu, Gordon Sondland. So, what do you want to find out from these two . So, we want to know how extensive was this Pressure Campaign on ukraine. We know it was more than a oneoff conversation between the president and the ukrainian leader. We know it was the use of diplomats, the use of trumps private attorneys to do this multiprong Pressure Campaign on ukraine to get them to interfere in our elections. I also note that it is quite striking that former ambassador yovanovitch came in, that ambassador sondland has agreed to come in and that fiona hill is coming in, even though they have been directed by the white house not to come in. I think they should share their story with the American People and we need to hear it. How much longer do you expect the official inquoory to continue . How close are we to a potential vote for articles of impeachment . If were going to proceed with impeachment, i believe it has to be done before the end of the year. Speaker pelosi and her caucus will make a decision before the end of the year. What i do want to say is theres already enough evidence thats come out. Weve got the call record from the white house showing that right after the ukrainian leader talks about military aid, donald trump immediately asks him for a favor, though. And one of those favors was to target trumps political opponent. Weve got Text Messages. We have testimony from these ambassadors. So, theres already enough information out there to draft articles of impeachment. But are there areas that you still need to fill in the blanks . We would love to fill in additional blanks, but there is already enough to draft at least one article of impeachment on the ukraine scandal. Theres already enough to draft one article of impeachment of obstruction of justice on the American People. We will continue investigating, but were not going to basically keep on investigating forever. And just to confirm, you only need one article of impeachment to go down that road, correct . That is correct. Lets talk about what was going down yesterday with the former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, who gave more than what, nine hours lots of testimony there. Lets listen to what republican congressman lee zeldin had to say about it. Heres that. You should know every single word that we just heard, but instead, you heard none of it, the American Public heard none of it, because chairman schiff instead chooses to put his own spin to it. And thats outrageous and the American Public are fed up with what they are watching. Im curious your reaction to that argument, because notably, he is not talking about substance there. Hes talking about the process. Whats amazing to me is that republicans keep talking about process, and really makes some really stupid arguments. The courts have referred to congress as acting like a grand jury when were in an impeachment. And grand jury proceedings, theyre not open proceedings. The public doesnt get to see it. Essentially, what were trying to do is build a case for an indictment. The open proceedings happen at the senate trial. So, right now, not only should we not have open proceedings, because we dont want witnesses to know what other witnesses have said, but its not really the function of how you do these investigations. But despite that, we give republicans every opportunity to cross examine. They are in these exact depositions and they get to have their hour and the democrats have our hour and then we flip back and forth. So i dont really know what zeldin is talking about. What about yovanovitchs testimony yesterday . Did you learn anything new . What we did learn, again, is that you had this shadow Foreign Policy happen where you had an ambassador serve under six american president s do an outstanding job, have her boss tell her she did nothing wrong, and then Rudy Giuliani shows up with his associates and theyre able to get donald trump and the state department to remove her because, apparently, she wasnt going along with their plan to try to get ukraine to do all sorts of things that benefit trump personally and not the American People. The president has spent the past couple of nights really slamming democrats. It was happening during a pair of campaign rallies. And id like to take a listen to a little bit of the flavor, the tenor from one of those events. Here it is. The donothing democrat extremists have gone so far left that they believe it should not be a crime to cross our border illegally, and it should be a crime to have a totally appropriate, casual, beautiful, accurate phone call with a foreign leader. I dont think so. Care to weigh in on the president S Performance over the last couple of nights . Yeah, right. The president continues to make things up. In terms of his allegation about democrats doing nothing, exact opposite is true. Weve passed legislation to reduce the price of generic drugs. We have passed legislation for universal background checks on guns. We have passed legislation on the violence against womens act reauthorization. All of that is bipartisan. Weve got dozens and dozens of bills sitting before the u. S. Senate. Mitch mcconnell has not taken that up, so its really a Republican Senate problem. All right, congressman ted lieu, my hometown congressman, i might add. Nice to see you again. Thank you so much. Thank you, alex. Joining me, natasha bertrand, National Correspondent for politico and msnbc contributor, also john harwood, cnbcs editor at large. Both frequent guests here. Lets get into it with you, natasha. Headline you heard from representative lieu . Did you hear something there . Yeah. I think that his comments about what marie yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine, said, its pretty striking. Its in line with whats been reported so far. But i think the big headline to come out in the last day or so is the fact that Rudy Giuliani, who tried to get yovanovitch ousted, is now potentially under investigation by the Justice Department for violating Foreign Agent registration act and violating foreign lobbying laws. I imagine that mashi yovanovitch told congress the efforts that were taken to remove her and the efforts that were taken to smear her before she was ultimately recalled earlier than she was supposed to be. But the news that Rudy Giuliani was potentially cooperating with a foreign official, this prosecutor, in order to get a u. S. Ambassador removed is so it just so black and white and so straightforward that it just seems very obvious that Rudy Giuliani has made himself a huge target here by contacting government officials, including the state department, contacting media outlets, including john soloman at the hill to discuss and basically spread dirt about this ambassador in direct violation of what the Justice Department says you have to do when youre dealing with these foreign contacts. How about you, john . Did you pick up anything from congressman lieu . Well, i noted his assertion, again, of the timeline for articles of impeachment in the house. He was making the case that they believe it needs to be done this year. Right. If the house is going to do it, to get it before the 2020 campaign and then put it in the lap of the United States senate. I think that is, in fact, what is likely to happen, and i think, as he said, democrats believe they know enough right now to put an article of impeachment on the floor and to pass it. Theyre not going to do it right now, but theyre going to do it within a number of weeks. I think then were going to find out whether republicans in the face of polls weve seen, showing some erosion in the president s base are they going to stand up and affirm the president and his conduct, things that natasha was just talking about, or are they going to break with him . And thats the drama that awaits us. Okay. Guys, thank you for wrapping up that conversation with representative lieu. Were going to take a commercial break and talk more on the other things on the other side of this break, impeachment and the like. But meantime, secretary of state mike pompeo refusing to answer a question about Rudy Giuliani. Is he among those congress will be looking at as the impeachment inquiry expands . Youre going to hear what pompeo said next. Going to hear what po said next. I cant believe it. What . That our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost . Hey jill hey kurt movies . Ill get snacks no, i cant believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our Car Insurance with geico. I got snacks ohhh, i got popcorn, i got caramel corn, i got kettle corn. Am i chewing too loud . Believe it geico could save you fifteen percent or more on Car Insurance. Hed be proud of us. Protect your family, your business and everyone who counts on you. See how lincoln can help. So you dont have to stash antacids here. Tc and take control of heartburn. Your business and everyone who counts on you. Here. Or here. Kick your antacid habit with prilosec otc. One pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. Somand with the xfinityreen is stream app,reen. Which is free with your service, you can take a spin through on demand shows or stream live tv. Download your dvrd shows and movies on the fly. Even record from right where you are. Keep what you watch with you. Download the Xfinity Stream app today. Because Xfinity Stream tv week is here. Watch shows like south park and the walking dead now through october 13th. Is Rudy Giuliani still your personal attorney . Well, i dont know. I havent spoken to rudy. I spoke to him yesterday briefly. Hes a very good attorney and he has been my attorney, yeah, sure. That was an interesting response to the president , who was appearing to distance himself from his own attorney at the white house. But shortly after that comment, giuliani told the Washington Post he is, in fact, still representing the president. Natasha and john are back, as promised. So, john, you first here. Whats your read on the president s reaction to giuliani and that question there . Even though today hes coming out in his defense. Well, we know one thing about donald trump, his chief loyalty is to himself. And in any situation, if he finds someone who all of a sudden either has become hostile to him or gotten in trouble, he will distance himself from that person. Somebody who he embraced as his close friend one day is a moron, an idiot, and incompetent the next day. Rex tillerson, secretary of state, now hes dumb as a rock. Thats all about donald trump. Its not about the people hes talking about. In the case of Rudy Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani had two associates arrested as they were attempting to leave the cou