welcome to "inside politics." i'm dana bash. john king is off today. president trump is at the u.n. this hour where he was greeted by questions about his controversial summer call with the leader of ukraine. in a united nations meeting between the u.s. and iran is off for now. president trump won't completely close the door on that. and house democrats say they're reaching a tipping point on impeachment. >> how seriously are you taking this impeachment -- >> not very. it's just another here we go

again. >> at the moment the president is chairing a session on religious freedom. the u.n. general assembly will be marked by big issues like how to navigate tensions from iran and important debates on the climate. the president just made a last-minute appearance, actually, in the audience of a major u.n. climate summit. but we begin this hour over the ugly fight of the whistleblower complaint that followed the president to new york. >> i had a phone call with the president of ukraine. the one who has the problem is biden. you look at what biden did, biden did what they would like to have me do, except one problem. i didn't do it. what biden did is a disgrace. what his son did is a disgrace. >> so the president is continuing to say the quiet part out loud, that yes, he did talk about investigating the bidens with ukraine's leader. a growing number of democrats hear the admission, one that adds another reason to impeach. more on that dynamic in a few minutes. the president first is going to

meet with the ukranian leader on wednesday. so between now and then, the white house is trying to convince americans that an extraordinary ask of a foreign leader is just a normal part of being president. >> it's very important to talk about corruption. if you don't talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt? one of the reasons the new president got elected is he was going to stop corruption. so it's very important that on occasion, you speak to somebody about corruption. very important. >> let's get straight to new york and cnn's kaitlan collins. kaitlan, our white house team has some new reporting right now about the transcript of this phone call. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, dana, we're told right now there are conversations happening inside the white house about whether or not they should release this transcript because some people are arguing that, yes, it could just help dispel some of the drama around it as they are maintaining the president didn't say anything inappropriate during that late july phone call with the president of ukraine.

but others are pushing back, saying they released one transcript of his call with the world leader that then it's going to lead to a flurry of other requests from lawmakers, some democratic lawmakers wanting to know what he says when he's on the phone with vladimir putin and other world leaders they have questions about. that is the conversation happening right now about the transcript. there are also conversations about whether or not they're going to release this whistleblower's complaint. you heard the treasury secretary say on cnn yesterday that they don't want to release that because he believes it would set a bad precedent, but of course the statute about a whistleblower, especially one in the intelligence community, is that that complaint, if deemed urgent, should go to the intelligence communities on capitol hill, that so far they've been blocked from doing. we're going to see not only the complaint but the transcript as well. all of this is going on as the president confirmed that, yes, he did bring up joe biden and his family during that last known phone call with the president of ukraine. as you saw the president just there defending it as he bounces

between meetings here at the united nations where he's going to be spending this week. not only is the president confirming he did speak with him about it, he's defending it. he's also now on twitter questioning the identity of this whistleblower, asking if it's someone who is on the country's side. we should note, the last time we heard, trump said he didn't know the identity of that whistleblower. >> kaitlan, thank you so much for that reporting. we'll get back to you. if you get any news from up there here wi there. here at the table is nia-malika henderson, diplomatic analyst john kirby. let me start with you, admiral kirby, and i want you all to look at the tweet that kaitlan was just referring to there at the end of her report by the president, which he sent between going in the front door to the u.n. and stopping by that climate summit, i should add. the very thing that they are

accusing president trump of doing, which i didn't do, was actually done by joe biden. continues to be a double standard. he's quoted devin nunez. this is the president speaking. who is this so-called whistleblower who doesn't know the correct facts? is he on our country's side? where does he come from? >> very troubling. i mean, look, whistleblower complaints should be treated seriously, all of them, regardless of who submits them. and the whole idea is it should be anonymous and that individual's identity should be protected. i'm very troubled by this, because aside from the incident here that we're talking about, it could have a very chilling effect on whistleblowers going forward. people are going to be perhaps afraid of lodging complaints or expressing concerns about this president and this administration if they think they're going to get called out by the president of the united states. >> which is 100% his goal. there is no -- it's completely clear, it's completely transparent that he's trying to scare this whistleblower, future

whistleblowers, but also maybe more importantly now just completely, you know, rip up the credibility of this person before the congress gets the report. if they do, and if they actually release the transcript of this call. >> we've seen this play out before, right? this shouldn't be a surprise to us how the president and his aides handle this. they did this throughout the mueller investigation where their strategy was to undermine the credibility of the people making the allegations. it was to deflect the kinds of criticisms that he was receiving and essentially make the claim that, in fact, others in the case of others -- in the mueller investigation he tried to deflect to hillary clinton and her activities with the emails and the like instead of maintaining the focus on him. this is the strategy. it's the same playbook he's used for a long time, and the question will be, you know, is the congress in a mood to give him the time to kind of continue

to run that playbook, or does this all reach a point very quickly that they move into a phase that doesn't allow him to do that? >> we're going to talk about that in the next segment. i want to just zero in on one other thing kaitlan was talking about. cnn is reporting there are active conversations going on inside the white house counsel's office about releasing the transcript of that phone call. you heard steve mnuchin, the president's treasury secretary, say on the air to jake tapper yesterday, bad idea. >> i think that would be a terrible precedent. conversations between world leaders are meant to be confidential. and if every time someone, for political reasons, raised a question and all of a sudden those conversations were disclosed publicly, and when you disclose them to congress, lots of times they leak into the press, then why would world leaders want to have conversations together? >> john kerry, who was secretary of state, is familiar with the

process here. on the other side of the aisle was on another network this morning saying the opposite. >> mr. president, show america what that beautiful conversation was. let us see how beautiful it really was. let us know whether eight times you turned around and tried to extort from the president your campaign opposition research. >> yeah, and the thing is, the president on one hand has called this a beautiful conversation, right? he's also essentially admitted to what everybody is reporting, the idea that he talked to the leader of ukraine about the bidens, about corruption, and he keeps advancing this story, a false story, about biden and his son hunter biden and their engagement with folks in the ukraine. so, yeah, if his argument is that there is nothing wrong with it, then you would imagine, listen, let the public see what this conversation was all about, let the whistleblower complaint be seen by folks in congress,

but we'll see. i think these next couple of days will be a tipping point, and you can talk to this certainly better than i can in terms of congress and what they do. what republicans do as well. that's the big question. so far they've been willing to run cover and interference for this president. >> i think we should be careful not to conflate two very different things here. the question whether the white house is going to release this transcript of the phone call, and whether congress is going to get the actual complaint from the whistleblower. you can see a scenario where the white house releases the transcript and says, see, there is nothing clear here, nothing to see, whereas they could think that would be their way out of giving this complaint to congress. and before we talk a little bit more about the politics, i just to want ask you because you're the one at the table who has experience with foreign leader calls. what's your take given your work at the state department, at the white house, the pentagon and

the military about releasing this transcript? >> i think secretary mnuchin does make a good point. you don't want every transcript or every call released. it would inhibit the confidentiality of these talks. that said, this is an exceptional case. >> release the transcript! >> you never know when he's going to stop and talk. >> he did exactly the right thing. this is an exceptional case. even if they don't want to release them to the public, at least sharing them with the intelligence committees so that you can see for sure exactly what was said, as well as the whistleblower complaint. what i'm struggling with is if this was such a beautiful conversation, why not at least let the intelligence committees take a look at the whistleblower complaint and the transcript, and then you can make a follow-on decision about public release later on. so this is a very unique situation. >> can i also just add real

quickly, the irony of this administration relying -- you know, making an argument based on precedence that they don't want that shattered, and this administration has shattered just about every norm. >> including this phone call, right? >> we just have to remember, the inspector general, it wasn't just the whistleblower saying something happened on this call, the inspector general looked at this complaint and said it was an urgent concern. so they would say, yes, conversations with a foreign leader should be private, but this is a different situation. >> we're on the brink of them talking about impeachment. i don't know how much more unique you can get with giving as much transparency as you can, even if it's just with members of congress. >> we're going to talk in a second about the growing number of calls. as i do, i just want to show you and the viewers part of the editorial this morning. reminding us of as you talk about shattering precedents,

nothing is as it seems with the trump world. there is the failure of mr. trump's critics to appreciate that to millions of americans this all looks like russia redux. that melodrama started with intelligence acquisition and see dubious unmasking of americans that we later learned came from the obama administration officials. that doesn't justify mr. trump's request, but it does explain why republicans aren't joining the rush to judgment. it's probably what you're hearing when you talk to republicans on capitol hill, concern even from the trump campaign -- maybe not concern but a sigh of relief right now that the voters just see this as more noise. sdp >> democrats have been trying for months, weeks, to try to move the needle on impeachment. so republicans are hopeful this will not move the needle per se on that. this just speaks to how invincible trump feels right now. the mueller report came out, 10

different areas of obstruction of justice he named out. trump was named as the top finance person that sent his former lawyer to jail. you have him coming out and openly offering foreign leaders to stay at his trump hotels where he will benefit financially. he feels invincible right now and a lot of that is what we're not seeing in congress right now. >> we'll talk about that. if you have a story for today's political stories at the table, you can tweet us. we might answer your question at the end of the show or on our podcast. up next, new cnn reporting. democrats say they have reached a tipping point on impeachment. what that means for the immediate future and for the 2020 election. stay with us for that. geico makes it easy to get help when i need it. with licensed agents available 24-7, it's not just easy. it's having-jerome-bettis- on-your-flag-football-team easy. go get 'em, bus! ohhhh!

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welcome back. brand new reporting from my colleague, manu raju, who says house democrats are nearing a tipping point on impeachment. the key here is that he's hearing this is not just from progressives but also moderate democrats who have been reluctant to go there. this is all about the trump administration blocking congress from seeing a whistleblower complaint about a presidential phone call with the ukranian leader. again, a call in which the president now acknowledges he discussed his political rival joe biden. now manu is reporting about potential change in the democratic caucus comes as the

house speaker is likely not surprised. in fact, i was told over the weekend that she was closely coordinating with the house intelligence chairman adam schiff. after those discussions, pelosi issued her most stern warning yet to the administration saying in a dear colleague letter just yesterday, if the administration persists in blocking this whistleblower in disclosing to congress a serious positive breach of constitutional duties by the president, they will be entering a new grave chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation. and chairman schiff told jake tapper he's getting much closer to supporting an impeachment inquiry. >> we cannot afford to play rope a dope in the courts for weeks and months on end. we need an answer. if there is a fire burning, it needs to be put out, and that's why we're going to have to look at every remedy, and if these two issues are, in fact, one issue and relates to deplorable

conduct, a violation of the oath of office and a cover-up in terms of this whistleblower complaint, then we'll have to consider impeachment as well a remedy here. >> back with the panel. alex thompson with politico joins our conversation. welcome. so much happened over the weekend. i know you all were reporting on it, especially you, rachael. let's just look at a couple of key dynamics here, maybe part of the possible game changer. aoc, alexandra ocasio-cortez, tweeted, at this point the bigger national scandal isn't the president's law-making behavior, it's the democratic party's refusal to impeach him for it. so the pressure not on just the democrats to push but also really, you know, having some tough language. then you have -- she's always somebody who has been for impeaching. then you have the other side of the democratic spectrum, james

carville, someone who looks at this with a much more practical point of view, not aidealogical point of view. he told the washington times that, let the senate republicans stew. >> i mean, this could clearly be a game changer. at the very least we're seeing an escalation right now. yes, people like aoc, these folks have always spd impeauppo impeachment. but the difference now is they're saying we look weak, we look feckless, and by not doing anything, we're emboldening the president. there's definitely been a shift. pelosi's quote about whole new stage of investigation, i'm not convinced she's there yet. she's close with adam schiff and we saw the clip of schiff saying going to the courts is not enough right now. as you mentioned, they talked over the weekend. apparently they coordinated talking points on this. clearly they're looking at doing

something else additional, especially if they can't get this whistleblower complaint by this thursday deadline that they have set up. i'm not convinced it's impeachment yet. i've also heard they're talking about inherent contempt and fines right now. pelosi has dismissed that before, but clearly she's feeling pressure right now and she's going to have to do something different. >> i totally agree with you. pelosi is not there yet. she notably did not use the "i" word in her statement. she didn't even go as far as adam schiff. really interesting interview this morning with jim himes who is on the intelligence committee, talking very sort of astutely about where pelosi is and the fact that she is, quote, super finely attuned to public sentiment. the speaker doesn't want to do something that would assist in the president's reelection. listen to how he described that. >> the presidential election is the single and only way that donald trump will leave office. it comes down to a couple of states. it comes down to michigan,

pennsylvania, wisconsin and a couple other states. and if you do something that in those states, not in connecticut or new york or california, but that in those states significantly reduces your chances of beating donald trump, you increase the chances of a second term. it is not fear of donald trump, it is fear of a second trump term. >> and i think you should really watch what joe biden is going to do in this situation, because he's also joined pelosi in not calling for impeachment. his campaign just sent a memo yesterday equating to this as potentially bigger than watergate, but i think they're also joining the fact that they're going to see what's going on, despite the fact that other 2020 democrats have called for impeachment. it's also interesting that no other 2020 democrat is trying to pile on or trying to insinuate thats anything else went on. they're all rallying around biden on this issue.

>> there is 2020 on the trump level and 2020 on the house level, right? a fascinating thing about manu's reporting this morning is he's talking to the front liners. people haven't wanted to talk because they're innocent his district. that could be huge. >> that is who nancy pelosi has been looking at, right? think of folks in texas, think of folks in south carolina, georgia, pennsylvania. those 40 or so democrats who made the difference in terms of the democrats taking over the house. those are the folks she's been looking at. they're going back home. they're getting a feel for what folks in those districts want them to do, and so far it has been not impeachment. do at some point they start to feel differently, feel a little more like aoc, and you heard himes there. that talking point is kind of an old talking point, this idea of michigan, this idea that impeachment could basically juice the president's chances to

get reelected sdrks th, does th the calculus? it is different. it's the president of the united states getting on the phone talking to another leader to insert themselves into a democratic election, right? that's a big deal. >> it is, but the other dynamic here is where are the republicans? so far it's been crickets. mitt romney said that in a tweet yesterday, if the president asked or pressured ukraine's president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme. critical for the facts to come out. >> the pelosi question is interesting because she is more careful than anybody else in her caucus. we all know that, right? she's very careful. and what we have here, as we've all said, might be explosive. nobody has seen the transcript. but ilt's one phone call.

and the democrats have, over the last several years of the mueller report, latched onto lots of stuff that ultimately even a hundreds-long-page report, the result of a massive government investigation, didn't provide enough energy. i think in pelosi's mind it's hard to imagine until you actually see something -- she doesn't want to put all her eggs in this one basket of this one phone call. >> it's a rare day when nancy pelosi and the "washington post" editorial page agree. now it sounds like they do. before we go to break, as a proud jersey girl, i would like to note that today is bruce springsteen's 70th birthday. given all the 2020 campaign talk of what is and what is not too old, i want to share a tweet from "inside politics" regular and bruce springsteen diehard paul cane. bruce string stepringsteen just

after midnight. i'm really struggling with the fact that he's in the same age decade as mitch mcconnell, pelosi, biden, bernie, warren, mitt romney. we'll be right back. i know i can't afford to go. i still have this car so you can afford to go. i am so proud of you. thanks. principal. we can help you plan for that. start today at principal.com. they give us excellent customer otservice, every time.e. our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family...

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elizabeth warren is surging in iowa. in a new des moines register poll, she is at 22% while joe

biden is at 20%, so they're essentially tied if you tack tore in the mar -- factor in the margin of error, a tie that puts them ahead of the pack. what's to note here is warren's rise. she is 7 points over sanders himself right now. over the weekend, most of the field visited the annual iowa steak fry. here's how the top contenders rallied the crowd. >> i'm elizabeth warren, i know it's broken, i know how to fix it and we're building a grassroots movement to make it happen. >> i was labeled and i got elected as a senator as a 29-year-old kid as an optimist and an idealist. i'm more optimistic about america's chances today to lead the world than i've ever been. >> always fun to see a steak fry. those who don't know what i'm saying, look it up.

elizabeth warren, let's just dig deeper on the rise that we're talking about in this poll. if you look back to march, she was at 9%. june, 15%, and now she is at 20%. joe biden, he's lost 7% which isn't that much considering the fact he came in with a huge name and now people are getting to know him, and that's why we're at this statistical tie. >> this is a huge danger, though, for joe biden. his numbers have just been going in the wrong direction since he got into the race. his problem is if you base an entire campaign on electability, what happens when you lose iowa? and since warren neighbors new hampshire, what happens if you lose iowa and new hampshire? what does that do with his electability argument if he's counting on the firewall. there's no guarantee it will be there if he loses iowa and new

hampshire. they're sthathey're going to pu least 115 staffers in iowa by the end of the month. that will put him on par of where warren's campaign is, according to my reporting. it's interesting, you'll see a huge investment of resources from both camps in these last five months, because i think biden realizes she's an existential threat. >> you mentioned red flags. these are flags the biden campaign has seen coming for a long time, which is why they've been doing background discussions with reporters, saying, iowa, new hampshire, they're important, but we ever the money, we have the re resources, the name i.d. it's not as important. >> they're saying if they won two out of four states, they would be in good position. bernie sanders, my goodness. the conventional wisdom about bernie sanders and his supporters are they're

essentially ride or die bernie sanders. they've essentially flipped, right, and you see warren just essentially taking his supporters, running with his supporters. she's good on everything in terms of raising money, the crowds, the enthusiasm, a lot more enthusiasm there among her supporters than the other folks. i think if you're bernie sanders, if you're pete buttigieg, you've got to worry as well. certainly for biden. i think we always knew iowa was going to be a problem for joe biden. we'll see if he's somebody who thinks he can win this on nomination. can he actually win it by losing iowa, possibly coming in second in new hampshire, and then just relying on the african-american vote and older voters as well, and moderate voters. >> the thing we all have to keep in mind is another data point in this poll which is how fluid even these numbers that we're looking at are. likely caucus goers are asked whether they're minds are made up. warren only has 14%. the person who has the best numbers in this is joe biden,

and that's only 26%. elizabeth warren, if you look at the other side there, the other side of the column, 31% of people who support her say they could be persuaded to vote for somebody else. >> it's really, really early. i mean, you know, we all have been covering this campaign now for a while, and feels like a lot has happened. but yet we're still five or six months away from the first voting. a lot is going to happen, and the truth is that we always -- i think you always expected that at some point, the sanders/warren vote is going to consolidate. will it consolidate around her, will it consolidate around bernie? it seems like it's moving toward her. joe biden also has a path that is not only his own voters but other candidates still in the race that are also taking up that space as well. so at some point, is the race going to consolidate into two large camps that are competing, and will joe biden kind of get some advantage from candidates that have to drop out of the race that are in that kind of

wing of the party? maybe. so far it's a warning sign for him, but months to go. >> all right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break, and as we do, a campaign flashback. it was on this day 1987 after allegations of plagiarism that joe biden told the washington press corps he was ending his very first presidential bid and turning his focus back to the senate. >> i made some mistakes. but now the exaggerated shadow of those mistakes has begun to obscure the essence of my candidacy and the essence of joe biden. i have no questions. i appreciate your consideration. i appreciate you being here, and lest i say something that might be somewhat sarcastic, i should go. in pennsylvania,

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i want to take a moment to remember groundbreaking journalist cokie roberts. hundreds gathered at st. matthew's cathedral here in washington this past weekend to say goodbye to a woman whom

house speaker nancy pelosi called a national treasure. it was cokie roberts' husband of more than 50 years, fellow journalist and my former professor, steve roberts, who articulated why his wife's passing hit so many so hard, especially reporters like me indebted to her for smashing the glass ceiling decades ago as one of the first female reporters, but more importantly, making it her life's mission to guide other women coming up behind her. >> weav've heard directly from thousands of people who are mourning cokie. but some of the most poignant notes come from young women who were helped by cokie as they navigated their way through the journalism business, even as she climbed the ladder of success, she always reached behind her to help others. >> he joked that cokie has been a critical link in the old girls' network. thank you, cokie roberts, for that and so much more. you are already missed.

we'll be right back.

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welcome back. iran's foreign minister is shutting the door today on a meeting between iran's president, hassan rouhani, and president trump. rouhani is scheduled to arrive at the u.n. today.

just yesterday foreign minister mohammad javad zarif said the meeting was a possibility if the u.s. dropped sanctions on iran. today, not so much. listen. >> will you meet with president trump? >> no! >> cnn's nic robertson joins us now from the united nations. so, nic, even if there is not a formal meeting, is there a sense you're hearing from sources that there could be progress made on the sidelines there? >> reporter: you know, i think it's going to be very difficult for two reasons. number one, president trump is under huge pressure from his allies like saudi arabia and the united arab emirates in the gulf not to do anything that smacks of appeasement or at least changing a hard and tough position with iran over the attacks in saudi arabia over the past week. i think that's one thing. and i think also the difficulty from the iranian perspective. we have heard from iranian

president rouhani on his way over here saying the reason he has decided to come because he says it's clear the united states doesn't want iranian delegations here, and that is reason to come and talk about how the u.s. sanctions on iran aren't working at all. when you hear rationale like that, that is a rationale to a domestic audience showing the difficulty of a position that the president of iran is in if he essentially has to give excuses for why he's coming to this international forum. so i think on both sides, it is a difficult position, but president trump under a lot of pressure from his golf friends and others not to have any kind of meeting right now at this critical moment in the gulf with iran. >> all politics is local for everybody, no matter where you are on the globe, but you are at the u.n. there are leaders from around the world there, including key u.s. allies not in the gulf. how could that lplay into this? >> reporter: it plays in this way. saudi arabia right now believes

very firmly iran had a hand behind the attacks on those two refineries saturday a week ago. they firmly believe that they have the evidence that can show their allies, particularly european allies, britain, germany and france, and they've invited them to join the investigator teams and britain and france have agreed to do that, that they can show them that iran was involved and, therefore, they hope that these important european allies who are still signatories to that multi-national nuclear deal that the united states was pulled out of, that they can help firm president trump's position, a position that they hope won't vascillate on change. this is a huge worry in saudi arabia, that one day they wake up to president trump and his administration says one thing, and the next day they may say another thing. right now the saudis and the gulf partners there believe the united states must be very clear and very firm with iran, because if it doesn't, they believe that

iran will strike back again at saudi arabia or take other military opportunities, and that very quickly would lead to an escalation. so they need a strong, consistent diplomacy from president trump. >> nic robertson, thanks, as always, for that great reporting and analysis. appreciate it. up next, one retiring house republican has some salty language about why he's leaving washington. that's next in our lightning round. we could help lower emissions. carbon capture is important technology - and experts agree. that's why we're working on ways to improve it. so plants... can be a little more... like plants. ♪

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time now for a quick lightning round. rachael, you've been all over the house retirements. they are growing. you have this great quote from paul mitchell. we are here for a purpose, and it's not this petty, childish b-t. mitchell, of 2, said in an interview in early september. pence's office declined to comment. >> if you go back to when the president was inaugerated, 40% of congress has left, either because of the election or they're just sick of this and know they can't speak out because of the president. mitchell said he was disturbed by trump's tweet saying congresswomen of color should go back to their home countries even though they were u.s. citizens and three of them were

born here. he tried to get through to pence's chief of staff and nobody would let him through, and after three weeks he said, screw it, i'm out. >> michael, you were at an event where modi, the head of india, was praising the president. let's listen to that and talk about it on the other side. >> we have a very special person with us. his name is familiar to every person on the planet. very popular, friendliness, warm, energy. he promises all to make america great again. >> know your audience. >> modi apparently does not speak in english very much, so that was rare, and it was clearly a big wet kiss to trump.

he's known for hugging politicians, modi does, all the time. he didn't, i think, give trump a bear hug, but he went on and on and on. i had thought earlier that trump's going to that was because he wanted the love and add adoration of the 50,000 people in the stadium. it turned out the love and adoration of the guy standing next to him was more important. >> the president stopped by briefly at the climate summit, which is a huge summit at the u.n. while modi was speaking, and he didn't stay for very long. he wasn't going to go in the first place. pete buttigieg on the campaign trail is already jumping on this. i think we have a photo there saying, this is what the end of american global leadership looks like, nia saying, wait a minute, this guy just stopped by, he didn't speak, but he did it because modi was speaking, probably. >> yeah, you got people like buttigieg not doing so well, he

has to make some noise. he's been doing pretty good about sticking it to trump, sticking it to the vice president. he's pretty quick on his feet, so he's trying to take advantage of this moment and bust out of the pack. >> thank you very much for joining us. thank you for watching "inside politics." brianna keilar starts right now. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. underway right now, the president admits to talking to ukraine about investigating his political rival joe biden, effectively requesting that a foreign country meddle in the 2020 election. so now the question is, what are democrats going to do about it? and did the moscow mitch talks spark the senate majority leader to change his mind and give states more money for election security? after an attack on saudi infrastructure, president trump moves military reinforce mments into the