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hearing after being subpoenaed by house lawmakers to testify behind closed doors. hunter says he will not sit for a private deposition. >> house republicans, they're investigating hunter in order to investigate his father, president biden. part of the impeachment program republicans are pushing against president biden. hunter biden went after in his statement today after the republicans leading the charge, he admitted his own failings and he defended his father. >> my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of burisma, not in my partnership with the chinese private businessmen, not in my investments at home nor abroad and certainly not as an artist. and in the depths of my addiction i was extremely irresponsible with my finances, but to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd.

it's shameless. there is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen. >> all right. we are all over this dramatic moment from every angle on capitol hill. cnn's evan perez and manu raju. first to you, evan. you were right there to hear hunter biden's statement. >> that's right, john. look, the goal today by hunter biden's team was to keep the republicans guessing, and he did right up to the moment he walked up these steps here to deliver that very forceful, that very defiant statement that you heard just a part of just now really answering for the first time in -- in the best way he could some of the questions that republicans have been throwing his way. it is essentially the statement that he was probably going to be able to read to republicans if

he had sat for that closed-door deposition. instead, he said he preferred to do a public hearing and so he showed up here on the senate side. the republicans were sitting over on the house side. he showed up here at what is called the senate swamp to deliver that statement. a lot of it is very, very personal talking about his personal struggles with addiction and also defending his father, defending the fact that he says that there is no evidence to indicate or to show that his father benefited financially from any of his very messy financial dealings. those financial dealings, he got paid millions of dollars working with a company from ukraine, one in china. of course, that's one reason why this inquiry has been ongoing over five years and of course, john, what makes this even more complicated for hunter biden is just in the time since the republicans sent him that subpoena, since that time, he has been indicted with tax

charges in california where he is now facing two trials, right? one for tax charges in california and another one for possessing a gun during a time that he was addicted to drugs and should not have been able to possess one in delaware. so now this is now a political problem obviously for the biden campaign and republicans have threatened that they're going to hold him in contempt and so now it's up to them to see what they do next. john? >> evan perez for us on capitol hill. evan, thanks so much. >> let's now go to manu raju on capitol hill as usual chasing after reaction, in this case from republicans. what are you hearing? i know we heard from james comer who was trying to explain why this was happening in the first place. what are you hearing there? >> yeah. james comer, the house oversight committee chairman making clear that he wants a private deposition with hunter biden that eventually they'd be

willing to have in public, but the way the investigation is going, people need to be deposed first and then there could be a public hearing and they are threatening to hold him in contempt of the house for not appearing behind closed doors. we expect that process to play out in a matter of several weeks and this could be expected for years, and i also caught up with a number of republicans on the senate side of the capitol including some of them who were involve in the hunter biden battle. some of them over his father and the business dealings and the like. they made clear that they believe that hunter biden has a rid to make a statement, but they also say that he should say it under oath. >> hunter biden just made a statement saying that he's done nothing wrong and it was as president and the father was not financially involved with the business dealings and willing to testify in public. what do you say to him?

>> you know, he has a right to make a statement, and i think some of the facts are contrary to what he says, but the main thing is to have a process. he's being indicted. if i were him i would likely do the same thing. >> he said his father was not financially involved in any way with his business. do you accept that? >> i'm going to take the same position i've taken that all i can say is there's some indication of maybe some compromise with china particularly, but i have no evidence of it and i'll just follow the facts where they are and the facts haven't taken me to that point where i can say that the president's guilty of anything. >> this comes as the house is planning to have a vote tonight to authorize an impeachment inquiry into joe biden even as

many republicans will acknowledge that they have yet to prove that joe biden acted corruptly to aid his son in any way with those overseas business dealings, but republicans are planning to vote for it even the ones that are skeptical because there is more power to find the evidence to actually go to court if they have to and the like. so we do expect that vote to happen this evening and getting to the point of impeaching the president and a completely separate matter, a lot of those vulnerable republicans in particular, ones from swing districts are uncertain about whether or not they will go to that length to impeach the president and making it the fourth in american history to go down that route, but at the moment, at least the investigation plans to go ahead as they weigh the next steps with hunter biden's defying the subpoena, as well. >> manu raju, we are in strange and unprecedented times. thank you very much for your reporting. >> joining us now is former republican congressman adam kinzinger. he served, think on the january

6th congressional committee. what did you think of hunter biden today? >> i thought mrit politically a message wise it was a brilliant move. they have made it clear they are willing to testify in public. manu in his report some of the senators were saying that's great and he needs to do it under oath. he can do it under oath and public. he has made it clear. his concern is look, when we go behind closed doors the republicans in the house have made it clear. they've deemed him guilty. they've deemed the president guilty on no evidence. as they said, no evidence. this vote tonight potentially for an impeachment inquiry will be the first time in american history that they're using an impeachment inquiry not to get to, you know, justice -- hesitate, but we have to get to justice, but as a way to go on a fishing expedition. you will all day on cnn the so-called moderate republicans saying they don't know if he's

guilty, but they have to do this to get to the answer of some things. this is the first time in history that will happen and a lot of them will take that approach because they want to satisfy the maga base at the moment and vote for the impeachment and while trying to look reasonable and say we're all for justice. look, if you have evidence of the president having done what you're accusing him of then open this impeachment inquiry and impeach him, but they don't have evidence of that and they're desperate to find it because they have determined the outcome before they've even gotten the facts. >> a couple of things on that. we've heard republicans speak out after hunter biden made his comments. they're not happy. they're not going to stop their investigation, as we know. one thing we heard from judiciary committee chairman jim jordan is this, he said, when congress asks you to come testify you are supposed to come testify. as someone who served on the committee who issued a subpoena

to jim jordan which he defied what are people supposed to take from this? >> well, they're supposed to take that jim jordan is an absolute hypocrite. jim jordan in front of the rules committee when we were talking about holding steve bannon or somebody in contempt he said in front of the rules committee that the department of justice and the fbi should be the ones investigating donald trump and that would be their role. now, of course, he's against the department of justice and the fbi investigating donald trump. he's for the sanctity of the subpoena by u.s. congress until he's the one that gets subpoenaed by u.s. congress and he also votes against enforcing subpoenas against people like steve bannon and against people like mark meadows. this is the -- the hip ok rhysy is mind numbing. i am less concerned on people's views on positions and what their idea is on policy as much

as i am with there is just open and blatant and unashamed hypocrisy where it's all about winning. it's all about power and truth and justice really has no role in what they're doing. if you have evidence that joe biden, not hunter biden, but that joe biden broke the law, bring it forward and if it's impeachable, impeach him, but you don't have that evidence so you go on a fishing expedition and all of a sudden, you raise the flame of justice and congress like you're so concerned like the congressional subpoena when you are the one that ignored it the whole time. >> on this vote that's to formalize the impeachment inquiry, tom emmer, he's the minority whip and he side most clear low to voters, voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment. do you think there is a scenario where this inquiry is launched and it doesn't end in articles of impeachment against joe

biden? >> look, if i was in vegas betting i would put all of my money on no matter what this ends in impeachment and i said this in the beginning of the year. keep in mind, marjorie taylor green who is the de facto head of the gop entered articles of impeachment in his first day in office before anything was accused or known. so they've made it clear that they have to impeach him. the base is demanding that which is why people like tom emmer and all these so-called moderates are voting for this inquiry because they think and this is a mistake everybody made in congress my whole time there. you think if you give the maga base a little bit they'll lay off of you and then you can go on other news channels and look reasonable saying i'm not sure we need to impeach. no, your enabling the impeachment of joe biden potentially based on nothing. if you come up with evidence, fine, right now you don't have evidence, but will move forward with impeachment.

have no doubt it's the beginning of impeachment and it's not a desire to get to the truth. >> adam kinzinger, thanks for jumping on. job? >> nikki haley just sat down for an interview with dana bash and made news. dana will be here and tell us what she just learned moments ago. an exclusive new cnn reporting. we have new audio of kenneth chesebro, pro-company attorney, what he says happened at an oval office meeting and what it could now mean in the federal case against donald trump. emotional testimony as women open up about sexual assault they said they faced at the coast guard academy and the treatment of they received after they reported. >> senators, my main perpetrator is currently a lieutenant commander in the coast guard. he is thriving in a career that i had hoped for.

just in, a brand-new rare interview with republican presidential contender nikki haley fresh off her endorsement overnight by new hampshire governor chris sununu. there was a sweet older woman who has come to a lot of events, and i saw her coming in here, and she said so, are you going

to finally endorse nikki haley for president? you bet your ass i am! let's get this thing done! >> all right. cnn's dana bash just sat down with both governor haily and governor sununu for a joint interview and dana bash joins us and this is the world premiere of the interview you just did with the two governors. >> that's right. i'm still standing out of the governor's home which is right behind me here in concord, new hampshire. look, the two of them, as you showed, were having fun on the trail last night. they've been doing, stumping already today. they've been are been doing a lot of local radio and they will continue to do it throughout the day and the big question. one of the big questions for the two of them is going to be how their connection and they do appear to have a connection will appear with voters where the new hampshire primary is coming very, very soon and everyone was

vying for chris sununu's endorsement and the question is how is she going to catch up with the former president who is still far and away the front-runner here in new hampshire. in an interview that she did earlier this week with abc news, she said that she actually believes even though she doesn't think donald trump should be president. she thinks she is fit to be president. i asked her about that and this is part of her answer. >> let me just say this. you know, anti-trumpers don't think i hate trump enough. ? that's true. >> pro-trumpers don't think i love trump enough. what you see is what you get. i just call it like i see it, and wouldn't it be nice if you weren't gauged on whether you love or hate somebody and instead where you think the country should go? so the media loves to sit there and say, but you're not hating him enough or you're not loving him enough. look, at the end of the day i look at it policy by policy.

i don't look at the personal side. i don't look at the political side. >> so that was an interesting answer. she also, john, clarified that comment that she made about donald trump being fit to be president, that she was specifically talking about his mental capacity, his physical capacity and that last answer that was her elaborating on my question about what about his policies? what about his personality? what about his character, john? >> any sense, dana about how she, along with governor chris sununu ae..ed to try to consolidate the not trump vote in new hampshire and maybe beyond? >> well, he -- the governor says that it is now a two-person race between donald trump and nikki haley here in new hampshire. that is certainly what he is

clearly hoping now, but that is not actually the reality here on the ground because ron desantis is still playing, but most importantly, chris christie is still playing and he is getting a sizeable chunk of the non-trump vote, and so the big question is whether or not they can consolidate using your word, john. i asked governor sununu whether he thinks his friend and they are friends chris christie should drop out and he wouldn't go that far, but clearly, the hope in obviously, inside nikki haley's campaign, but even inside of the governor's world is that at some point soon, if it looks like this endorsement and other factors and there are many other factors here for nikki haley, whether that is taking hold and she is climbing and whether that would put pressure on the chris christies of the world to drop out, but

there is no sign that that will happen and you know this as well or better than i. not uncheer how donees arements, and kim reynolds who is a popular governor and the needle didn't move at all and we'll see with the organization. even sununu said he's not sure how long it will bump and he'sese been elected four times here and his spun orders see he doesn't support donald trump and she's the one they want to win. >> dana bash, thank you very much for joining us from concord, new hampshire, for the world premiere of some of the sound of that interview. we should note the full interview with dana bash with nikki haley and chris sununu will air in just about 36

minutes. >> very accurate. cnn has obtained audio from one of donald trump's georgia election race and what he said donald trump was told about the election. stay with us about this reporting.

new reporting exclusive to cnn, kenneth chesebro turned state's witness after a plea

deal with georgia prosecutors he's heard on new audio obtained by cnn describing a pivotal oval office meeting that happened a month after the 2020 election, a meeting where chesebro says trump was told he'd lost the election. cnn's marshall cohen, cnn's caitlan polantz have all of this reporting. marshall, let me start with you. donald trump -- what was donald trump told in this meeting that we are talking about here specifically about wisconsin. why does it matter? >> yeah. hi, kate. chesebro described this as a photo-op gone wrong. this was in december 2020. trump had just lost his election challenge in wisconsin. the lawyers from that state who worked on that case were in d.c. and they got a meet and greet with the president in the oval office. they were supposed to just, you know, take pictures and do some handshakes, but it turned into a pretty elaborate discussion about the election. they were told before they went in, kate, do not get trump's

hopes up about overturning the results and his lead attorney from wisconsin toed the line and he delivered the bad news. that man is ben tropeus, and here is ken chesebro about what was told about wisconsin. >> clear that he told the president there was zero hope in wisconsin. as part of this message crafted to get him to see this long-shot challenge. so there was a -- there was a conscious effort to deflect him from the sense of any possibility that he could pull out the election. >> so, that's the bad news. there's no chance you can win. we all know what happened, though, kate. trump continued to contest the results in wisconsin and the other states. this is big and important evidence possible for special counsel against jack smith. that is loaded with exames of trump being told by his lawyers and by his advisers that he lost

and it doesn't mention this oval office meeting so these new revelations against the existing evidence against trump. >> he said that's not the only thing that happened that's gone bad in this oval office meeting. what happened next? >> after they talked about that, the conversation moved to arizona and this is when chesebro chimed in and this was the first time he was ever meeting president trump. remember, he was told don't egg this on, don't indulge trump's hopes of overturning the results and that's exactly what he ended up doing. listen to chesebro describing that moment. >> i ended up explaining that arizona was still hypothetically possible because of the electors had votes in, and i explained because the elector his voted we had more time in litigation. so it was, i think, clear in a way that maybe hadn't been before that we had until january

6th to win. >> so he went off-script. he told trump you can keep fighting and apparently trump embraced that. he heard what he wanted to hear and continued contesting the results all of the way through january 6th, as we all know. the problem for chesebro is he wasn't supposed to do that and the fallout was immediate. reince priebus, the rnc chairman who helped this meeting get arranged because he was also from wisconsin. he was in the room. he was livid, and really lashed out at chesebro after they all walked out. here's chesebro describing the fallout. >> right after the meeting troupeus said that reince priebus was extremely concerned about the real headline being

january 6th and that he was going to do damage control. reince was going to follow up and i was trying to mitigate whatever optimism i guess i created. >> so, kate, it was supposed to be a meet and greet and a photo-op and it turned into an impromptu briefing about fake electors and how to keep fighting about january 6th. >> caitlan, let me bring you in now. there's more to this, as well and you have chesebro talking to investigators there, but what does this all mean, then for federal prosecutors and their case against donald trump? >> well, it means that there is another example out there of how donald trump was being told he lost in each of these investigations. there is a michigan investigation and several other state, there's the georgia case, there's the federal case. all of these turn on who was

being duped and who knew that the election lies were false? who made the conscious choice to continue pushing this information about the election? in the federal case the prosecutors are saying it was trump and he had co-conspirators and some of those co-conspirators were people like ken chesebro who knew that there was no chance for donald trump to win the lech after the votes came in and yet they continued to push this idea that there could be a way for him to eke out a win and this is what ken chesebro recalls from that period of time. it is another example. now whether that means that the special counsel's office is going to want to call ken chesebro or even talk to him at this point. we just don't know, we have no evidence of that right now. he's also a co-conspirator in their case and they're ready to go to trial against donald trump and we may not hear from him in

that venue and this underlies that this is something ken chesebro has to say just as many people in the political world around donald trump have also said he knew, he lost and he knew it. >> great reporting. kaitlan, thank you. marshall, thank you. thank you both so much sara? >> stunning testimony on capitol hill. several women recount their sexual harassment and assault at the coast guard academy after a cnn investigation brought all this to light we are hearing from top senators who they say has been a culture of cover-up. >> this testimony is some of the most powerful i've heard in my entire term in the united states senate, and i've heard a lot of powerful testimony. it is horrifying and heartbreaking.

a deeply emotional hearing on capitol hill after several women who were victims of sexual assault at the coast guard testified yesterday before a senate subcommittee. lawmakers upon hearing it blasted the coast guard for mishandling and covering up sexual abuse for years. we may not have heard about all of this until cnn started reporting on this and our chief investigative correspondent pamela brown and her team has been working on this and telling these stories. pamela, you and your team exposeded this to the public, but this had been going on for awe very long time and there was an investigations and what can you tell us about what to expect going further? >> that's the big question. there are four investigations going on right now. we do expect more to come out of all of this, but in terms of the

hearing, sara, it is so rare to give bipartisan agreement in washington these days that both senator richard blumenthal and ron johnson middle this was the most powerful testimony they have heard and that's because four brave women agreed to tell their stories of sexual assault including a current cadet at the u.s. coast guard academy. cnn uncovered a long history of rapes and other sexual assault about the coast guard that were mishandled and hidden and when the coast guard did a years' long investigation they kept the results a secret. that meant the coast guard didn't fix its issues and the coast guard had ordered sweeping changes since our first report five months ago and the women who testified represent decades of service in the coast guard all from different eras and most of them faulted coast guard leadership which in the past made it difficult to report sexual assault. they spoke about having to work

alongside their attackers and not being protected and the victims were punished if alcohol was involved and sometimes they were set free and promoted. keara was raped by a fellow cadet on campus and while the reporting process has improved and she was given a victim's advocate and counselor, she still had difficulty with leadership. >> we are always told that you just have to say no, but no to him was an invitation to try again. i was 19. what i didn't know then was that after making an unrestricted report out of fear for my safety i would be thrown into the darkest year of my life. my classmates stopped talking to me as i spiralled into a deep depression. we always talk about how trauma stems from the assault, but the reporting system continues to

revictimize and causes trauma of its own. ? yet on that note, another witness who testified that i spoke to yesterday said the investigation after she reported the assault was worse than the actual assault she experienced. for so many of the women who testified in the dozens of other seamen we spoke to the fact that the coast guard has never dealt with the culture within the coast guard made it worse and the women dealt not only with sexual assault and then as coast guard members, years of daily sexual harassment and abuse and it can have devastating impacts. let's listen. >> for some, including myself, when the abuse becomes so unrelenting, so omnies frpresen so insufferable. we risk suicide. i surviveded my attempt and tragically, many, many of my shipmates did not. >> this was such emotional

testimony, sara, but one of the woman who testified said it made her feel stronger and it gave her her voice back, sara. >> that was incredibly powerful t to hear from those in the court guard and those currently serving and the punishment they received after being victims of sexual assault. let me ask you if you have some sense of what's going to happen next? are there going to be changes? what should we expect? >> that's a big question, the women i spoke to are skeptical that there will be changes because there have been past reports and last year the coast guard released the result of its own 90-day review and it's vowing to make a series, and the coast guard hasn't held many of the perpetrators responsible and so there is, you know, looking ahead, there are a lot of these survivors are wondering are they going to be held accountable and what's going to happen to them. the coast guard said in a

statement to cnn after this testimony we recognize and applaud the tremendous courage of the witnesses who came forward and the reflekctions an recommendations that include our prevention and response policies and once again, the coast guard did apologize to these survivors, sara. >> pam brown, such excellent reporting from you and your team, thank you for letting us all see what is going on there and for the changes being made. john? >> fresh after getting a big endorsement in new hampshire, inc nikki haley just sat down with dana bash for a new and revealing interview. stick around.

first time i connected with kim, she told me that her husband had passed. and that he took care of all of the internet connected devices in the home. i told her, “i'm here to take care of you.” connecting with kim... made me reconnect with my mom. it's very important to keep loved ones close. we know that creating memories with loved ones brings so much joy to your life. a family trip to the team usa training facility. i don't know how to thank you. i'm here to thank you.

new developments in the battle for more funding for trukraine. the white house signalled it's open to major policy changes on the southern border in an effort to get republicans on board finally with pushing aid forward to ukraine in its fight with russia. that if congress fails to pass an aid package it would give russian president the greatest christmas gift. joining me now is petro poroshenko, the former ukraine president. you have the support of the president, that's clear. hearing from the speaker of the house, he said, look, if there's no clear winning strategy, he does not necessarily support giving money. what do you say to him? >> look, everybody should

understand what is here. this ballistic missile attacking civilian objects in kyiv. 53 persons including children were heavily wounded because of this missile attack. yesterday the russian missiles also attacked kyiv. one of them was 500 meters from my house because of the ukrainian defense. and every single day of delay, this is the civilian and new victims with their situation. and we kindly ask you, first of all, please do not delay. second, please do not make ukraine as a hostage. especially hostage for their internal discussion.

because ukraine now, this is the question. ukraine is the question for freedom, it's the question for democracy. behind me, this is the drone, which tomorrow we delivered to our troops, which fight. why we use the drone? because we have a lack of -- with that situation, we should do our best to demonstrate to putin he never has any chance. and i want to use this opportunity to thank president biden for his leadership to the united states congress for the bipartisan support. it should demonstrate ten years already. they can help us to stop putin because putin is afraid bipartisan support.

>> that is true. you talk about the drones behind you. what is going to happen if you don't get the money? >> we will continue to fight. we do not have this any other option. the price we pay would be much higher. and the price you pay would be much higher. you can one dollar to stop ukraine, you should send $10 to stop putin outside of ukraine. that's the best investment and it's cheaper. >> former president petro poroshenko, thank you for taking the time to give us that view of the drones there. appreciate it. thank you for joining us. >> it's been a jam-packed cnn "cnn news central." breaking news all over the place. coming up on "inside politics," cnn's dana bash has an interview with nikki haley and governor

sununu fresh off his endorsement for haley last night. don't go anywhere.

today on "inside politics,"