say also what is needed is more of a police presence in these orthodox communities. in addition to that, the new york city mayor's office has also opened an anti-hate crime prevention office. that is something that should help as well. >> more police needed. you wish they wouldn't need to be, but that is needed right now. thank you, jason, for shining a light on this. thank you so much. and thank you all so much for joining me today. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. thank you, kate, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. a top secret spy drama grips washington. did president trump make a reckless promise to a foreign leader? a whistleblower thinks is to and the inspector general who deemed the complaint urgent is on capitol hill right now giving select members of congress a classified briefing. plus, two big shakeups by struggling 2020 democratic contenders.

kamala harris goes all in on iowa and bernie sanders juggles staff as he, too, tries to find a path to victory. it's unclear whether they can find an agreement on gun laws. but beto o'rourke has it on the campaign for 2020. >> hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15. >> thankfully we have senator tom cotton on our side. we begin with a power struggle over a giant unknown. what did the president promise a foreign leader that prompted them to blow the whistle? he says he knows people in the foreign government listens to all his phone calls. quote, i would only do what is right, anyway, and what is right

for the usa, the president says. but nothing in his tweet to help us understand what this is all about. no specifics, either, from the intelligence community who was up on the hill this hour. it was might atkinson who labeled this whistleblower, quote, an urgent concern. atkinson so far providing no details about the whistleblower or the specifics of the complaint. what we do know, cnn confirming, "washington post" reporting from last night that an intelligence community official red-flagged a communication between president trump and a foreign leader. two intelligence officials telling the "washington post" that the communication included a, quote, promise so troubling it sparked the still unnamed and unknown official to file that formal complaint. we don't know the leader or the alleged subject matter. we do know the inspector general told congress of the complaint after the director of national intelligence ignored a deadline for notifying lawmakers about such issues. let's get straight up to capitol

hill and cnn's manu raju. the i.g. agreed to come before the committee but apparently not agreed to say anything. >> yeah, he is laying out the process for how he handled this complaint, i am told, but he is not getting into the substance of that complaint, according to multiple sources. now, he's essentially telling lawmakers behind closed doors that the law -- he's not permitted under the law to detail exactly what the complaint says, because under the whistleblower act, the director of national intelligence actually has to submit this complaint to capitol hill before the inspector general can talk about the substance of that complaint, and that complaint has not been sent to capitol hill because the director of national intelligence's office says it does not meet the threshold for sending it over to congress. now, democrats contend the director of national intelligence is violating the law. they want to bring in the acting director next week to testify. he's agreed to come in open

session. expect that to be a very contentious affair. the office says they are absolutely following the law, so they're pushing back. right now what lawmakers are getting on the intelligence committee, a briefing of how the complaint was actually handled, but there are questions, ample questions, john, about who this foreign leader the president apparently communicated with was, exactly what promise allegedly the president gave, as well as whether the president himself intervened in any way to prevent this complaint from coming to congress. those are questions that at the moment it appears the committee has not yet answered, so expect members to come out demanding more information, because at the moment they're getting a briefing of how this was handled but they still don't know exactly what was in that complaint, john. >> it seems like a frustrating circle, if you will, at the moment. manu raju will come back if we get any developments. for their insights, kathy lucy with the "wall street journal," the "washington post,"

politico's lisa nerno and the washington times. it's a stunning thing to say in the sense that if you look at the president's tweets this morning, you knew this playbook was coming. i didn't do anything wrong and there are people in the intelligence committee that don't like me. that's a summary, but that's what the president is getting at. the president has laid the predicate, i didn't do anything wrong and the intelligence community with whom he's been at war with from the beginning is out to get him. this is serious if the i.g. says this is an urgent concern. now you have an acting dni for the president, after he pushed out his former dni, says i'm not telling you. >> that has legal implications as well as political implications, if you hear my washington colleagues reported that this is about a call he had with the foreign leader and the fact the inspector general says it's an urgent concern and a whistleblower is coming forward

to tell complaints about what inspired during that call, it is politically damaging to the president, although we don't know what the substance of the complaint was. it's also a legal issue when congress feels like they have the right when the inspector general says it's an urgent concern, congress is right to get a full breaching of what happened, and the fact they feel like they're being stonewalled on this issue and other issues is why this will be a legal battle between congress and democrats. >> one of the chief arguments for impeachment is it will strengthen their legal hand in court to get documents they're unable to get. i can tell you democrats are growing ex as operated with the stonewau stonewalling this week with corwin lewandowski and they need to make a decision. >> you have an administration that says no. congress says, what day is it? the white house says no. i don't say it as a joke. this is a very serious matter,

and some of these oversight issues are a very serious matter. the white house just says go away. then you have democrats in congress, not knowing what they're talking about, say impeach. just step back. they'll argue now over the semicolons in the law, and the whistleblower law. someone has filed what the i.g. determined to be an urgent, concerned complaint about the president of the united states. we are at a point where there is such distrust and lack of cooperation between the branches of government that the director of national intelligence just wouldn't go up to congress and say, i can't tell you everything, but let me at least give you a baseline, let me give you a threshold, we're investigating this, gone. the town is broken. >> that's definitely true, and part of what i'm curious about is whether there are fractures within kind of the coalitions here. when the president calls a foreign leader, generally speaking, it's not just the president and the foreign leader on the line. it's being recorded, there's people from the white house, so who else was on this call, who else heard what was said? did they raise any red flags

internally? what's going on there? also the republicans. we have seen the rare moments when the republicans have broken with the president, has almost entirely been over foreign policy, so how did they handle this? how does that party move forward? >> it actually raises a really good point about the way these calls are documented and reported, because while we don't know the content of this call, specifically we have heard these concerns about the president's communications with foreign leaders before. you remember there were transcripts leaked early in the administration of calls with mexico and australia. there were also concerns after the meeting with vladimir putin last year where there were just translators present and even sort of high-ranking officials where they didn't exactly know what was discussed in the meeting. and there have been efforts by the white house to limit what's put out about these conversations. >> i covered the white house almost ten years, democratic and republican administrations. the president has a phone call with the leader of pick your country.

sometimes it doesn't tell you much, it's a couple paragraphs, but at least you have on the record that there was a conversation. we don't know which leader is at issue here. we do know around that time frame the president spoke with five leaders around the time the complaint was filed on august 12th. he spoke with vladimir putin, the russian president, kim jong-un, the north korea leader, the dutch minister and the leader of cutter. obviously the anti-trump crowd says, aha, putin. we don't know that. again, you have a whistleblower complaint against the white house that declines any comment. and the president saying, i did nothing wrong, doesn't tell us what it's about. i suspect he knows what it's about. where do we go? >> the president has a long history of giving things over to putin in long conversations. in 2017 the president says we're going to set up a joint setup with the russians. there is a lot of concern of people close to the president,

that when he gets into these one-on-one conversations with putin, he gives away the store. it's not clear yet exactly who he was talking to, but it was something he said that caused this whistleblower to go forward, make a complaint to the i.g. and now there is a stonewalling with the white house that has a most expansive view of executive privilege of anything weaver se've seen in te house. >> and you're left with a whistleblower who complains and expects a general -- a trump-appointed inspector general. let's be clear about that. a trump appointee says this is an urgent concern and wants it acted on. the i.g. is the one who told congress when the director of national intelligence did not. the i.g. believes the director of national intelligence is supposed to do that. the director of national intelligence says there is a dispute about that.

jim hines is a member of the committee. he says, i'm not sure. >> it could be anything, including nothing. not all whistleblower complaints are about serious stuff. the point is, of course, it's up to congress to decide that because the law says these complaints will be transmitted to the appropriate committees in the congress. >> the i.g. will say nothing but the acting director of intelligence, mr. mcguire, is set to testify next week. do they cut a deal by then? or does he sit in a chair and say, i agreed to come but i won't tell you anything. >> it's probably that. they've already subpoenaed the information and haven't gotten it. if behind closed doors the attorney general isn't giving it, i doubt that appointed i.g. is going to give any information, either. this is a question, especially if we don't get any information about this complaint and about this call. i think the public is so

desensitized. in the mueller report, there was so much misinformation, and that's the frustration right now, trying to move that middle area to their side now. >> the president knows what it was about. he's tweeting this morning he did nothing wrong. great. release the transcript of the call. this could be over by nightfall. simple. easy. won't happen, but it could be settled by nightfall. saudi arabia airstrikes. what it could mean in the iran region. that's next. more coverage! it's a network that gives you ♪freedom from big cities, to small towns, we're with you. because life can take you almost anywhere, t-mobile is with you. no signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected.

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welcome back. an escalation in tensions today between the united states and iran. iran's foreign minister sending a sharp warning to the united states and saudi arabia. this, of course, after last weekend's attacks on saudi oil facilities. both the saudis and the united states blame iran. listen. >> what would be the consequence of an american sounding a military strike against iran now? >> we don't want war. we don't want to engage in a military confrontation. we believe a military confrontation based on deception is awful. we'll have a lot of casualties. but we won't blink to defend our territory. >> tough words there from foreign minister zarif. senior officials here in the united states say trump's national security team meeting again today to discuss their

options to respond to those attacks on saudi oil structures. secretary of state mike pompeo heading back from the region after urgent talks with leaders from saudi arabia and the arab isle emirates. the president says he doesn't want a military confrontation, but he says it's possible. >> reporter: why did you tweet "locked and loaded" if you didn't want to go to war? >> we'll see what happens. if we can have a peaceful solution that's good. it's possible that won't happen. >> cnn's kylie atwood joins our discussion. iran is the bad actor here. he called it an act of war. what is his recommendation to the president? the president has gone back and forth. he says possible, could be a big hit, but that's not what he wants. >> secretary pompeo did call this an act of war yesterday, but he also specifically said it was an act of war against saudi arabia, not against the u.s., echoing what president trump has

sa said, that this was not something targeted at the u.s., that it was an attack on saudi arabia. we also heard from secretary pompeo today dying back any military rhetoric and talking about building a coalition, talking about a peaceful resolution. these are not the words of drumming toward war. these are kind of, okay, let's take steps back. he also acknowledged what we heard from foreign minister zarif saying there would be an all-out war if there were a military strike. so pompeo, trying to seem like the u.s. is the balance actor here, the one who is trying to pull in the countries in the region to come up with a solution that's a diplomatic solution. not indicating a military solution right now, but all options are still on the table. >> to your point, let's listen to secretary pompeo because the words matter here, not just the words saying all out war potential. could be a heavy strike, but sometimes people get muscular to try to get leverage in negotiations. if there were such negotiations, here's the secretary of state.

>> i think it's abundantly clear and there is an enormous consensus in the region that we know precisely who conducted these attacks was iran. we are still striving to build out a coalition. i was here in an act of diplomacy while the foreign minister of iran is threatening an all-out war to fight the last american. we're here to achieve skpaand a peaceful resolution is my mission. >> the question is how do you achieve a peaceful resolution if there are no talks with iran. iran has ruled that out. sometimes they'll go through third parties but there's none of that at the moment. he's talking about a reasonable co li coalition. now you have this confrontation. are the europeans or not with the trump administration? they haven't been in recent months because they're mad at the president for pulling out. can this president, whether it's at the united nations or elsewhere, build a coalition when he has, in the views of

many people, broken and busted previous coalitions? >> it's going to be very hard. the president does have the ru y rubrik of what happened in north america, the president was tackling them publicly. there is this war of words with iran where they attack each other publicly and eventually they sit down and talk. this seems a little bit different where the world is not navigating and focusing on making sure the world is altogether with the president. there is a lot of dissension of what to do with iran. it makes it much more difficult with the u.n. general assembly next week to have a global contention. >> everybody will condemn iran if they see and believe the intelligence that the united states says proves iran is

responsible. but they also charged the jamal khashoggi killing. he says, let's increase pressure with iran and says, here's a way out. >> we did not leave a negotiating table. there is a negotiating table. the united states is welcome to come back to that negotiating table. >> reporter: what do they need to do to come back to that table? >> they have to respect their signature. leaving that deal is not a willful act, because that deed is not a deal between iran and president obama, it's not a deal between iran and the united states, it's a security council resolution. >> the president is not going to list ton that, president pompeo is not going to listen to that,

but that's a smart play to people mad at the trump association and ripping up a deal that took months and months to negotiate. >> the president was trying to think of ways to build a coalition, build support, work through the u.n., potentially, but they've done a lot of consistency violations. the president is pfgs the way we see him perform on the world stage. when he comes down to it, he is not that interested in military intervention. >> not that interested in military intervention, and in the case of north korea where he has had direct negotiations, no evidence that he would get the results in the sense that in north korea north kor, he had t and nothing happened. kamala harris laying down a fresh campaign.

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san francisco's e-cigarette protections. say no to juul, no to big tobacco, no to prop c. a big change of strategy today from kamala harris. her campaign's version of win or go home cracked the top three in iowa. harris campaign officials say today that's the finish they need to give the california senator a chance heading onto the later contest, especially super tuesday. the plan now, commit harris to iowa at least once every week in october and to add 60 organizers in the state.

the harris reboot is for obvious reasons. she's in single digits in national and most early state polls and she's not alone in looking at the polls and the calendar and deciding it's time to shake things up. the bernie sanders campaign just this week juggling its teams in both iowa and new hampshire. so 137 days until iowa votes, but -- i keep saying, gee, that's a long time, that's 19.5 weeks, that's forever. except it's not if you're a campaign. what do we make of this? harris entered the race. a lot of people were thinking the potential rising star in the party. female senator out of california, california moved up its primary, and now all in iowa which, no offense to kamala harris, we've heard from people before, always when they're struggling. >> i mean, 137 days until the first votes. what has happened over the last 137 days? we've seen the poll numbers for senator harris fall sort of precipitously and not very many people moving in these polls but

harris has moved and warren has moved up. the fact she's sort of slipping in the polls, especially since that first debate, means they have to figure out a way to restrategize the idea of going into south carolina and having that as a firewall doesn't really seem to be holding up right now, so she does need to hold up in iowa and try to change things, and specifically in south carolina. if south carolina voters don't think she looks viable in iowa, they're not going to give her much of a chance. >> show the poll numbers up there. if you go back to march, she was at 11%. in june she spiked back up to 15% and then back down. the obama administration was thinking, where do we go? we'll go to south carolina. it was viability in iowa when he won that was, boom. can she do that?

somebody will surprise us in iowa. somebody will surprise us. will it be kamala harris? >> there is a definite fourth ticket out of iowa, right? if the race stays as it is now, you have -- >> they just laid the marker that that's three. >> if bernie sanders is able to expand his base of support, which is an open question, and you have warren, you have biden, there is a third or fourth ticket. i mean, look, this is a reboot. clearly she's not doing well in the polls but i also think it's an admission of reality. in a crowded race, a race this historically crowded, you can't hang out and wait until south carolina and then it's all going to come together. it's just not going to work that way. it's not how politics work or momentum works. >> there is only so much time and it's not like no one else has been in iowa this whole time. a lot of them have spent huge amounts of time in iowa. elizabeth warren, for one, has built a massive organization. many think she'll be strong that night.

you'll see this weekend there is a repeating event, the steak fry, there is the democratic dinner coming up. people will show up in an army of volunteers and all kinds of things to show their strength. there is some time but there's not that much time. >> some of these people have been in the state since before the primary. elizabeth warren had people in there during the midterms. cory booker actually has a very big operation. we'll see whether he gets traction from that. but organization does matter. >> and there is time, and some of the lesser known candidates or some of the more regional candidates have known for some time. i want to show the des moines register scroll of candidates whov who have been to the state. john delaney was the first to get in the race and the like. he's struggling, too. harris is 15th in terms of the democratic candidates as of today. that does not mean she can't turn it around. my question is how? in the sense that elizabeth warren and bernie sanders are the progressives. joe biden, i was barack obama's

vice president, i'm the centrist candidate. kamala harris, who is she in the race? what's her card? >> i think she's trying to straddle a little of both and that's part of her struggle, right, especially in a spraulg fie -- sprawling field. it's difficult in a crowded field but her strategy doesn't seem to be a messaging shift, though. she's more focused in getting on the ground in iowa. she's been fundraising, it's taken away from the trail, but now she's had to refocus. >> people are concerned with biden perhaps there is an age issue, maybe he's a little loose-lipped. since he first ran in 1988, there were concerns about elizabeth warren's electability in terms of her idealogy and that goes the same for bernie sanders. harris has to show that she is

the most electable alternative to those three people and it's not exactly clear what her path is. >> she'll spend more time in iowa, you have more close encounters with voters, what does she say? up next, why president trump says he's moving, quote, very slowly on gun legislation. i didn't have to shout out for help. i didn't have to get you a lift. and i didn't have to call your wife to meet you at the doctor. because you didn't have another dvt. not today.

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top of the hour, political radar today. sources telling cnn that the democrats house judiciary committee now considering contempt violations against corwin lewandowski, the campaign manager. this because of his refusal to answer questions this week. his answers angering democratic leaders. sources note today the contempt process would take weeks. the president today, get this, suing his own accountants, that in an attempt to stop them from handing over his tax returns to new york prosecutors. the president's personal attorney jay sekulow confirmed to cnn he has filed legal action

just this morning. silas manz demanded that trump turn over eight years of taxes. the fed lowest interest rates are at a quarter point but stopped short of stating another cut in the near future. he says the president has no guts but he can keep his job. >> so you're worried he's putting sort of a wet blanket ahead of 2020? >> i think what he does is i don't think he knows how to play the game very well. >> is jerome powell's job safe? >> yaureah, it's safe. sure, why not? >> the president revealing very little on where he stands with possible gun legislation. this after hbill barr said they

would be addressing the issue. the proposal received a tepid solution according to a source up the hill. the president says he's not endorsing that plan or anything else just yet. >> we're not moving on anything. we're going very slowly in one way because we want to make sure it's right. we want -- we're doing a very careful job. we're working with the democrats, we're working with republicans. our attorney general has done a fantastic job in so many ways is also in on it. i don't want to have crazy people have guns, i don't want bad people to have guns, but we're going to do nothing to hurt the second amend skpment a what we want to do is see if we can come up with a compromise. >> what are we looking at? it's been six weeks since the el paso shooting and immediately the president says they'll do background checks. now there is a tweet, but you talk to republicans on kacapito hi hill, and they're not even sure, is this president trump's plan

or bill barr's plan? >> we know he's trying to review what policies are available, going through a whole range of things, and they are trying to put together some kind of package the president could get behind. and yers, the ag was up on the hill with an idea around background checks similar to the toomey legislation, it's on commercial sales. but everybody has basically an idea they're floating, they're workshopping it. the president has not signed off on it. >> the risch irrelevantthe issu talking to lawmakers, they're talking to democrats, they're talking to republicans. at some point the president actually has to make a decision what he gets behind, and what we're hearing very clearly from republican lawmakers is they're not doing anything unless it has the clear backing of the congress. s so they're hoping bill barr backs off when they say they don't want it.

>> there is this endless feedback loop when the president says, i'm waiting to hear from republicans what they want to do, and republicans say they're waiting to hear from the president, so no resolution goes forward. the longer it hangs out there, the more likely it's going to be killed. republicans are already mobilizing against this, the nra has come out against it. i don't know where they go from here, but it does not sound like republicans are backing this whatsoever. >> it's the same question we always have. the president needs to say, i want this and i want it now or else it's not going to happen. pete buttigieg shows his plan of medicare for all, and you may heard it before. shrimp yeah!

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mayor pete buttigieg today adding his plan to the 2020 democratic debate over health care. medicare for all who want it, as buttigieg calls it, would build on the obamacare plan, also known as the public option. anyone could enroll in the plan. he would automatically enroll low-income americans into that plan or into medicaid. it would expand obamacare subsidies. price tag, $1.5 trillion over a decade. buttigieg says his plan is all about choice, meaning if you like your compliment. but is it the right place? if you're pete buttigieg, you're struggling a bit in the race, you're trying to find your spot. is that the sweet spot? >> look, i think he's trying to

present himself as an alternative to biden, and while reports of biden have been vastly overstated so far, i think people in the buttigieg camp think there will be moments that shake up the race, there generally are in this business, and they want him to be in the spot to best capitalize on those. the purely generational argument which he was making earlier in the race really wasn't getting him there. they would argue he's still in the process of introducing himself to voters and wants to be more in the centrist space. >> he said on facebook, medicare for all will create a public alternative, but it doesn't dictate it to the american people and risk polarizing them. i would say in the short term this almost helps biden. saying, see, pete buttigieg is with me, i like his plan, but if biden collapses and struggles, buttigieg can step up and say, i'm the centrist here.

>> you're also seeing more of these democratic candidates sort of back away from the full bernie medicare for all. kamala harris says she supports medicare for all but she wants to do it over ten years. she doesn't want to soak the middle class as much. you see other candidates saying we support a different medicare for all, maybe not as expense sifr -- expensive or expansive. now you have buttigieg saying we support something that is not as much of an overhaul of the medicare system, so he's saying medicare for all that isn't quite as expensive and it doesn't upend the current system right now. >> it shows how far do you go left? this is an interview with joe biden. senator sanders decided to post this again today. you decide why. >> joe biden will generate

little excitement. in order to beat trump, you need a massive voter turnout. i just don't think joe's agenda is the agenda that will create the kind of excitement you need to have a large voter turnout. i think it's hard to make the case that joe biden can create the energy. >> i think he said it enough times to get the point. what's that about? says the candidate who -- he has a terrible cold. that's tough, it's tough campaigning for candidates. he has a loyal group of supporters but he's been kind of a flat line in the high teens, low 20s. >> he's trying to make the argument that his policies, his ideas can excite people in a way that a more moderate pitch in the middle can't. you certainly saw in '16 when he really was the only candidate with this approach, the kind of crowds he got, the kind of enthusiasm. the question is this time he's not the only person playing in that space. you see warren, you see others, and so whether he's the person to make that argument or not is

not really clear. >> we talked about this campaign shakeups, tougher, sharper elbows there. look at the calendar. it may seem a long ways off, but it's not. we just talked about mayor buttigieg's health care plan. he's going to be jake tapper's guest on "the liedead." up next for us, is president trump really delivering on his promise to build that wall? the president touting a big goal by the end of 2020. >> our goal is that by the end of next year, we will have completed over 450 miles of wall construction all told across the entire federal government. right now we're at a pace of about a mile a day, and we'll see that continue to go up. [ tires screech ] mom, you've got to get yourself a new car. the car's fine. [ car horn honks ] i wish i could save faster.

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a few other political stories to get through quickly before we go, beginning with the president's border visit yesterday and what looks like a perfect 2020 photo op. >> this is all brand new miles up mountain here. you're seeing this goes miles down in this direction. >> they said about 14 miles so far. just here. >> this section is 14, but we're building many that are 50 and 40 and 17 and different areas. we're building on many different sites all up and down along the border. >> now, the term "brand new wall" can be a bit deceiving. this map here shows the border areas with barriers back on august 17.

that map stands today. 36 months into his presidency, the trump administration has repaired and replaced more than 60 miles of barriers but has built zero new barriers. now 110 miles is officially in the plan. the administration transfers pentagon and other funds. as of today, zero new miles of wall along the u.s.-mexico border. can the president say i kept my promise? where they have repaired and replaced, you saw it there, it's higher, it's tougher, it's stronger. he can make that claim. but the idea i'm going to build a lot of new wall that wasn't there when obama was president, as of today that's zero. >> he's certainly going to try to make that case to his voters. this is a huge issue for his base, something he ran on. in fact, he signed a wall with a pen the other day. i don't know if it was the same sharpie he used on the hurricane map, but obviously this is something he's going to try to sell in 2020 leading up to the election. he's taking other moves to show he's building a wall, including

taking money from military construction projects, but i don't know if they're rushing. >> this is the president on air force one last night showing how humble he is. what are you going to say in your speech to the un on tuesday? i'm going to say the united states is the greatest country in the world. it's never been stronger and it's never been better. and they certainly have one of the great presidents in our history. >> there were guffaws and lafrs in the u.n., so i wouldn't be surprised if the president tries to brag about his presidency and gets met with derision. >>i it's always a sales pitch with him. >> okay. thank you for watching "inside

politics." brianna keilar starts right now. have a good afternoon. i'm brianna keilar live from washington's cnn headquarters. underway right now, president trump asks, quote, is anybody dumb enough to believe i would say something inappropriate tie foreign leader? as the intelligence community's internal watchdog raises a red flag for something alarming trump said to a foreign leader. after cory lewandowski took a wild ride for his hearing, speaker pelosi said he should have been held in contempt, so why didn't the democratic chairman of the committee agree? iran threatens all-out war if the u.s. mounts a military response to