tv Smerconish CNN September 28, 2019 6:00am-7:00am PDT
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get the most from your amazing new iphone 11 pro on at&t, america's fastest network for iphones. more for your thing. that's our thing. listen here, babe. the king, you best not miss. >> you come at the king, you best not miss. omar little, hbo's "the wire," kind of sums up the week, does it not? michael smerconish in philadelphia. democrats have an impeachment inquiry against the president squarely in their sights after a newly released transcript shows the president asking the ukraine president to look at the bidens, and even more democrats called for an impeachment inquiry after the whistle-blower complaint about trump was released showing
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allegations of a white house cover-up. today i've got five questions. question number one. how will the whistle-blower withstand the scrutiny? now, you would think anybody cleared to have worked in the white house in an intelligence capacity and his complaint suggests he relied on multiple sources for the information. again, there is that opinion solicited by acting dni maguire, which had a sentence focusing on indicia of political bias and favoritism toward a rival political candidate. but the complaints and allegations are credible. question two, can congressional democrats resist the temptation to focus on more than ukraine? speaker pelosi has suggested that the house intel committee will take the lead, but there are some strong personalities who chair the other five committees working toward impeachment. figuratively speaking, if democrats use a shotgun approach
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instead of a finely focused lens, if this becomes about the cost of jet fuel in scotland or even the mueller report, it might play right into the president's charge of witch-h t witch-hunt. my question number three, what does senator richard burr think? with with regard to senate republicans this case won't hinge on mitt romney, ben sasse, or susan collins, but if the chair of the intel committee regards the president's actions as troublesome, the president will immediately be vulnerable. question nourfour. how will the media cover the continued attacks on hunter biden where the president defends himself with former vice president biden and his son raises an interesting question for journalists, how much to dw delve into those. and question five, how is this playing in the heart land?
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the impeachment inquiry is a five-alarm fire in the nation's capital and along the acela corrid corridor, but it's too soon to know how impactful this is in middle america. one early indicator, an npr marist poll just released say 49% of americans approve, 46% disapprove of the house beginning an impeachment inquiry. house members, they represent districts drawn largely along partisan lines. their votes are predictable. the senate is where the battle will be won or lost and no doubt its members will pay close attention to the will of the people. go to my website, smerconish.com and answer how does this impeachment inquiry end. donald trump will not be impeached by the house. donald trump will be impeached by the house and convicted by the senate. mike pence will become president or donald trump will be impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate. with me now is someone who's been pushing for trump's
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impeachment for two years, tom steyer, also a democratic presidential candidate and will be one of the candidates on stage at the next cnn "new york times" democratic debate on okt 15th. you got what you want but are you concerned that if he's not impeached you will hasten his re-election? >> well, michael, i believe at this point that he's going to be impeached. when you see over 220 house members pursuing an impeachment inquiry, i think that there's a strong likelihood that they will vote to impeach and in fact that the movement which i started two years ago to get the american people to understand how corrupt this president is and to try to hold him to account will in fact take that important step of impeaching him and sending him to trial in the senate. >> so i should be more precise. what if he's impeached by the
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house but he's not convicted by the senate just on the cusp of the 2020 election in the same way that arguably bill clinton was strengthened after the intern scandal and the impeachment process? might the same ham with donald trump? >> well, michael, i think the important thing to remember in this case is the court that matters is the court of public opinion, that, in fact, what the american people learn and how they judge what they learn is really what is at stake here, that, in fact, you're asking about these senators, if the american people get the evidence and see how corrupt this president is and come out with that decision, then it is going to be very, very hard for any senator to go against the will of the american people. and i can tell you after two years of talking to people around the country about impeachment, when you show them the evidence, they all say the same thing. they say i didn't know that, he's a liar and a crook, if i
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did that, i'd go to jail. i think the key thing here is get the evidence in front of the american people, the grassroots. that's what i've been pushing for. that's why 8 million people signed up. let the people of america decide. we've been leading the people inside d.c. for two years. the reason this happened is the grassroo grassroots. that's where the action will be going forward too. >> should the impeachment inquiry focus only on ukraine or on the issues you've been speaking of for two years? obviously, we only learned of the ukraine issue recently. >> well, michael, to me, obviously two years ago, i thought it was extremely clear this is the most corrupt president in american history and that the evidence was there. i also said if you don't believe me, just read tomorrow's paper, because it's only going to get worse, and that's exactly what the ukraine scandal says. it only got worse. when you ask how much should you include in the inquiry or in the presentation, i agree, the most
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important thing is to make a presentation to the american people that is clear and that goes right to the heart of his corruption and let us decide. that is going to be the key question about what to include. i agree with you, it should be focussed, because too much is going to be too confusing. >> okay. what then is the specific high crime or misdemeanor? >> well, i think it's clear that he was implicitly using the money of the american people, the aid to the ukraine as a lure to get a foreign power to wade into american politics on his behalf. so he was putting himself above the american people. he was using his position for his own personal benefit, which is absolutely wrong. and let me say that, it is absolutely consistent with what this very corrupt president has
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done since day one. and then he tried to cover it up, which is very consistent with the obstruction of justice that mr. mueller showed characterized his whole presidency. so i think this is a very clear example of the corruption and the cover-ups that have characterized this most corrupt president, and i think the american people need to see it because i trust the american people will do the right thing, will draw the right judgments. and, michael, if that happens, this is a triumph for democracy. this is the american people's will being recognized. that's really what we're seeing. the american people are what counts, that we go back to of, by, and for the people. if we can do this with this corrupt president, there's no telling what we can do. we can break the stranglehold of the government. this is a great time for america. >> thank you, tom steyer.
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>> michael, thank you for having me. >> what are your thoughts? tweet me @smerconish or go to my facebook page. what do we have, katherine? come at the king and you best not miss does not describe a situation where the president is betraying his country. well, look, the clinton reference that i just made to tom steyer i think is indisputable. the impeachment process that we went through in the mid-90s had the impact of strengthening his hand politically, and i think omar, some would say shakespeare, got it right when they said when you aim for the top, you best not miss or there will be ramifications, in this case, perhaps emboldening, perhaps emboldening the president headed into the 2020 election. just time out when this all will likely resolve. one more if we have time for it. if democrats did not cry wolf since 2016, maybe the heartland might have cared about this. just another witch-hunt.
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rudy, when everything is an impeachable offense then it's much harder or what i mean to say is cast as an impeachable offense, then no doubt you're right thashg it right, that it's harder to get people's attention focused on one set of circumstances. there's truth in your assertion that the democratic opponents of the president need to convince people, wait a minute, this is really serious, even compared to the other things we've been telling you about. listen, everybody needs to go vote at my website right now, smerconish.com. answer the survey question. how does it all end? how does this impeachment process end? donald trump will not be impeached by the house. donald trump will be impeached by the house, convicted by the senate, mike pence becomes president. or the president will be impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate. up ahead, how does legendary executive editor of the "washington post," marty baron, navigate this media climate?
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i asked him at lehigh university where he once was editor of the student newspaper. and the president's obsession with hunter and joe biden ignited an impeachment inquiry. the biden campaign has demanded that the media refer to the story as debunked. is that definitive tily the cas? here's what bill maher said about it last night. >> i don't think he was doing something terrible in ukraine, but why can't politicians tell their [ bleep ] kids get a job, get a damn job? this kid was paid $600,000 because his name is biden by a gas company in ukraine, this super corrupt country, that just had a revolution to get rid of corruption. it just looks bad. if you're 65 or older, even if you're healthy,
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where president trump defends himself by pointing a finger in the direction of former vice president biden and his son, hunter, it raises an sxwr interesting question for journalists, how much to delve into those business practices? this was joe biden's reaction about it when he was asked last week. mr. vice president, how many times have you ever spoke on the your son about his overseas business dealings?
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>> i've never spocken to my son about his overseas business dealings. >> so how do you know -- >> here's what i know. i know trump deserves to be investigated. he is violating every basic norm of a president. you should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader? everybody looked at this and everybody's looked at it said there's nothing there. ask the right questions. >> just hours after that, the campaign released a memo dictating how the media should frame the story, saying any coverage would be misleading if it didn't point out that trump's claims of biden's influence were unsubstantiated. and you've heard it reported here that cnn's reporting shows no evidence of wrongdoing by either joe biden or his son. sunday the biden campaign released a fund-raising appeal on twitter asking, quote, will media see through trump's sleazy playbook or fall for it again? i spoke to the director of the
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school of media and public affairs at george washington universi university, the author of "ask more." hey, frank, let's remind folks, you were the cnn bureau chief during the intern scandal. so you've had some dealing with this type of an issue. >> sure. we heard from the clinton house all the time. they had a special adviser in to dump documents on fridays when we were trying to ride the news cycle. i got calls from people at the white house screaming that we were covering something in the wrong way or unfairly. look, candidates and politicians want to spin their message. and it's gotten harsher and more public. but you have to go where the story goes and sometimes that means asking or re-asking questions that the politicians and others would like you to leave alone other wise. you can't do that. >> so how specifically should members of the media respond to the allegations about hunter biden? >> look, the president of the
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united states is going to keep that out there. jewel jew rudygiuliani will keep that out there. all media have a responsibility to look at it, the record, what is known. there are legitimate questions this raises. the biden campaign's comment about, you know, insisting that coverage should show that there was no connection or no connection that's been revealed between what the then vice president did when he went to ukraine with respect to the aid and the role of his son. that's fair. there needs to be accurate coverage and the coverage should be proportionate in its nature. you don't harp on this hour after hour. the story is trump and his call to the ukrainian president. the story is not fundamentally biden. but those elements are there, and ignoring them would not be responsible either. >> i can already hear the tip-tapping on computer keys right now of people tweeting at me, tweeting at you perhaps and saying it's a false equivalency.
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>> it could be a false equivalency if it's done wrong. but, look, ask john kerry about swift boat. ask hillary clinton about benghazi or the computer. trying to ignore something and make it go away doesn't make it go away. if there's an issue out there, candidates and the media need to confront it. they need to be able to answer the questions and answer them well. that doesn't let the media off the hook, though, michael. here's where i agree about those who would scream about false equivalency. if you're going to harp on this and fall into someone else's narrative because they want to distract you from the real story, that's another issue. these are impeachment investigations and they're about donald trump, not about joe biden. the story is there and no one should lose sight of it. but this is an element of the story and we shouldn't lose sight of that either. >> have the questions about joe biden and his son hunter on this issue been asked and answered? >> they appear to have been
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asked and answered. they appear -- the main connection about whether this was sort of a quid pro quo e when biden goes to ukraine and is leaning on the government there to fire the attorney general because the attorney general is investigating his son and the gas company where he sits on the board. there has been no indication in any of the reporting or any of the public comments or documentation except for the former attorney general, who is largely discredited, although that still raises questions, but that there's a "there" there. that doesn't mean there aren't additional places to look and probe, but good responsible reporters will look, probe, investigate, dig. if there's something, they add it. if there's not, you don't. getting deniability is not justification for putting a story out there. long way of saying, yes, i think they've been asked. i think most of them appear to have been answered but that doesn't mean we don't continue to see if there's more.
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>> thank you, frank. that was excellent. >> appreciate it, michael. good luck. >> let's see what you're saying on my smerconish twitter and facebook pages. facebook. what do we have, katherine? hunter broke no laws. why destroy him? very sad and unfortunate. sonja, i think frank just said it right, which is to be accurate and be prorer portion gnat, but you can't ignore it. most of the issues with hunter fall in the cheap shot category. we're one degree of separation from those same issues. be accurate and proportionate. up ahead, there's an elephant in the room for 2020 democrats and it isn't a republican one. the president's actions concerning one of their leading candidates, joe biden, spur the impeachment scandal. how are they to address this
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elizabeth warren stumbled about it on tuesday. >> can you say whether or not under a warren administration would your vice president's child be allowed to serve on a board of a foreign company? >> no. i don't know. i mean, i'd have to go back and look at the details. >> do you think that would be a problem? >> i'd have to go back and look. >> and of course there's a debate upcoming, the cnn/"new york times" debate october 15th where 12 democratic candidates share the stage. how should the 2020 candidates handle what will become an unprecedented situation? with me now is national political reporter with "the new york times" lisa lair. lisa, m.j. lee, our colleague at cnn, caught up with elizabeth warren on this subject again just yesterday. here's what senator warren said to her in response to a question. >> just really quickly, obviously the president has gone after joe biden and his son. do you think his conduct, his business dealings, hunter
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biden's, should be off limits in this campaign? >> i believe that this issue is about donald trump, and that's where we need to keep our focus. >> a more polished answer than she gave earlier in the week. my hunch is that's probably what we'll hear from all the democratic candidates. what does your reporting reveal? >> yeah, that's the sense i have from talking to folks in the various campaigns, that no one sees a particular judgment side to directly going after joe biden. i mean, look, whether democratic voters want to pick joe biden as their nominee or not, there's certainly a lot of goodwill and i think democrats feel warmly towards the former vice president. so, you know, the chances that such an attack could backfire feel pretty high to a lot of these campaigns and they're looking what houlian castro did in the last debate going after joe biden's age and it backfired, he took a lot of flak for that. i don't think we'll see a lot of candidates going after the former vice president but they don't have to. the charges are out there and
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they don't need to make the case. >> my hunch is, and your reporting discussed some of this, that the impact will be greatest on the second and third tier candidates on that stage because this whole impeachment inquiry has really taken all the oxygen out of the room. it will be very hard for anybody to emerge against this backdrop. >> right. i mean, we've already seen the resettling into a certain kind of form where you have a top tier of candidates, joe biden, elizabeth warren, maybe bernie sanders, and then you have sort of a second tier and then you have a third tier that's not even making the debate stage. it's been really hard for candidates to jump and stay from that second tier to the first tier in part because it's hard to get air time. donald trump eats up every story that comes in front of him and swallows news cycles whole, and that will be worse with impeachment dominating the news. in a way, bild bijoe biden is t
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candidate who gets out there on this because his family is so involved in these charges. but i think if you're a cory booker or a kamala harris, it will be really hard to get the kind of attention you need to get your numbers to rise in those polls. >> might this actually provide joe biden with a great opportunity? he's been showing great vim and vigor on the campaign trail. we showed a clip of something he said to a fox reporter. it shows him to be feisty and focused and on his game and under attack from an unwarranted challenge. >> sure. or it might not. the truth is we're an unprecedented political terrain here. we've never had impeachment proceedings with a primary going on. so no one really knows. that question is really a source of great debate in democratic circles. there's an argument being made, particularly by folks who are allies and aides of joe biden that this is great for the former vice president. it shows him in the kind of one-on-one matchup, he's tough,
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he can take on president trump, that his supporters want to see and his campaign has been trying to set up for months. the flip side of that is people talk about hillary clinton, and hillary clinton was dodged by these charges about her family foundation and about the emails. and bernie sanders didn't really have to explicitly make that case to have those be damaging for her in the primary. there's a concern that could end up playing to elizabeth warren's hands. >> the only thing we know for sure as i've said here before, we really don't know what's to come. i think that was proven again by the events of this week, that none of us could have anticipated. lisa lair, thank you for your expertise. >> thanks. >> let's check in on your social media tweets, facebook comments. this from facebook. the dems need to focus on the next election and what their platforms are for the american people. the impeachment investigation is going to be their downfall. it's turning independents off that might go dem. that's not kellyanne conway, is
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it, katherine? joking. too early to tell. we just don't know. as i say, i'm trying to get out of my bubble on the acela corridor and figure out how is this playing in the rest of the country and also, it is a fire hose of information. this story has changed so much day by day, and i'm sure it will change again by tomorrow. we just don't know. i hope that you're voting on today's survey question at my website, smerconish.com. how does the impeachment inquiry end? three choices. donald trump this wiwill not be impeached by the house, he will be impeached by the house and convicted by the senate and mike pence becomes president or won't be impeached by the house. cannot wait to see the results. still to come, does the president talk about the media the way he does because he believes it or it's politically advantageous? i ask the executive editor about his biggest nemesis, the
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"washington post," marty baron. we spoke at lehigh university. and as presidential scandals go, will the whistle-blower scandal end up being president trump's watergate or his white water? i'll e, plain. here's what one of the president's most ardent supporters actor jon voigt said of the situation. >> war. this is war against truth,s. let us all stand with our president trump in a time of such evil words trying for impeachment. so many moisturize. but one blows them all out of the water. hydro boost with hyaluronic acid to plump skin cells so it bounces back... neutrogena® and for body... hydro boost body gel cream. so it bounces back... my body is truly powerful. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes. it's not insulin.
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the impeachment inquiry now under way represents only the fourth time the nation has faced such a challenge. with regard to presidential scandal, i employ a watergate versus white water test. watergate was a burglary. we all get that. we don't want anybody breaking into our home. white water was a complicated land transaction that never gained traction as a political issue because it couldn't be explained. what began as white water morphed into the intern scandal and those underlying facts plus the lying, everybody was able to follow. where viewed through my prism does the ukraine controversy fit? simply stated, like watergate or too complex to resonate like white water? well, it depends. you can certainly condense the underlying allegation into a sound bite, something like this -- the president leveraged our tax dollars to prod a foreign leader to advance his
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own personal political ageneral da. but it runs the risk of getting complex. what is the treason, bribery, or other high crime or misdemeanor required by article 4 of the constitution for impeachment? some will say a violation of the public trust alone is sufficient. unlike burglary or perjury regarding a sex act, this could very well get lost in the weeds over the defining of thing of value or understanding the hobbs act. whether this is all understood at home is critically important because in the end, though the senate will act as the jury, it's the court of public opinion that will matter most. still to come, back in the day, "the washington post" exposed watergate and led to a president's resignation. and it remains one of our leading news organizations with the whistle-blower coverage only the most recent example. i got to speak with its legendary executive editor, marty baron, at our shared alma mater, lehigh university, where he learned his trade as editor
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of the student newspaper, "the brown and white." i asked him about dealing with criticism like this from the president caught on tape by bloomberg this past thursday. >> these animals, they're animals. laims are so confusing. america's most reliable network. the nation's largest and most reliable network. the best network is even better? best, fastest, best. enough. sprint's doing things differently. they're offering a new 100% total satisfaction guarantee. i mean i think sprint's network and savings are great, but don't just take my word for it. try it out and decide for yourself. switch to sprint and get both an unlimited plan and one of the newest phones included for just $35 a month. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com. ♪ (music plays throughout♪ ♪ ♪
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as the tumultuous events of this week showed, journalists remains a crucial pillar of our democracy but it's being lambasted by our president and other world leaders. what does the future hold? i posed the question and others to marty baron, executive editor of "the washington post," which has been on the forefront of so many important stories. you may remember that liev schreiber played him in the oscar-winning spotlight about baron's time leading the "boston globe" expose about abuse in the catholic church. we met this week at our mutual alma mater, lehigh university, where baron has been editor of the student newspaper, "brown and white," celebrating its 125th anniversary and lehigh welcomed him back for an event called the future of journalism. >> "brown and white" is turning
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125. you're back on campus to be honored. you were the editor of the paper in your era. give me one recollection from your stewardship of the newspaper. what comes to mind? >> the investigative work we did at that time. i think the university wasn't accustomed to that. we had a number of people on our staff who were good at it, a good friend of mine, jeff bloom, was terrific at it and we shook up the administration in a lot of ways, obtained information that they did not want us to obtain. >> sounds familiar, by the way. shaking up administrations, getting information they don't want you to get. >> it was very good preparation for the rest of my career and my life. >> what parallels do you see between the role that your newspaper is playing today amidst this current impeachment inquiry and the historic role that the post played during watergate? >> well, i don't think back to watergate. i think of what we have to do
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today. i recognize that our job is to provide the public with the information it needs and deserves to know in a democracy. so i think that's what our mission is. i think that's what we have to do is make sure we fulfill that mission, that we focus on it, that we don't get distracted by the attacks on us, by the polarization in american society, but recognize that the reason that we have a first amendment in this country, the reason the founders wrote that amendment was so that there would be a check on government. >> you referenced the criticism. the president i think just today referred to the media as scum. he calls fake news, he refers to the media as being corrupt. do you think he does that for political advantage or because that's how upset he is with the coverage? >> i think he does it largely for political advantage, frankly. i think he does it because he knows it's helpful to have an enemy. he knows that the press is not beloved in the country, and so they make a very convenient enemy. and we wants to position the
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press as being the opposition party so that the press will not be believed, so he can undermine the credibility of the press. that's what he's trying to do. he's trying to disqualify the press as an arbiter of fact so that there's only one person, one institution that is believed, the white house and himself. so that the public will only believe him and believe no one else. it's not just disqualifying the press as an arbiter of fact, it's disqualifying the courts as an arbiter of fact, the intelligence agencies, the scientists, historians as an arbiter of fact. any independent source of information is being disqualified as an arbiter of fact or would be if he had his way. >> you defended two "washington post" reporters recently, phillip rucker and ashley parker saying in part the president's statement fits into a pattern of seeking to denigrate and intimidate the press. it's unwarranted and dangerous and represents a threat to a free press in this country.
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what kind of a threat? a physical threat, a censorship threat, a combination of both? >> it's a combination certainly. there have been physical threats with his language. he's stirred up his followers as a result. major news organizations had to take special precautions to protect the security of the people on their staff. an it's a very serious matter. it creates the conditions for potential more forceful action against the press should he choose at some point to take it. >> i sauvey ya tww via twitter, security of reporters overseas. will you speak to that? >> yeah. i'm very concerned about i think that we've soon the rise of autocratic, dictatorships in other countries. they have moved against
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journalists in their countries. but ours face risk from those autocratic regimes and you count on the u.s. government to stand up for their journalists, to make sure they are safe. and what we're finding now is that the u.s. government is not the vafd cadvocate for a free p around the world as it was in the past. what we've seen in the instance of "the new york times" is when the government was counted on to intervene on behalf of their journalists working overseas at risk, it couldn't necessarily count on this administration to come to their aid. >> it sounds to me like you worry the president doesn't have your back. >> he does not have our back. >> phillip bump, one of your reporter, wrote a piece at the end of the mueller probe where he noted that he thinks it landed with less of an impact than it would have had had there not be so much solid investigative journalism,
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because by the time the mueller report came out, we kind of knew all that. might we be headed in the same direction in the impeachment inquiry, that whatever shape it takes, when it ends, by the time we get there, we read it in "the washington post" or "the times" or cnn? >> well, possibly. i'm not sure we can have the luxury of thinking about that. i think we still have our jobs to do. i think one reason the press was cites do often in the mueller report is because we had done such a good job of investigative reporting. mueller report actually, contrary to what the president said, validated so much of the reporting that was done. sure, there were some errors along the way. i can't predict, i can't be a pundit. all we can do as an institution is do our jobs. >> democracy dies in darkness. that's your mantra. what's the condition of our light? >> well, we still have a democracy, i'm happy to say. there are some threats to that
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democracy. i think the institutions in the country are being tested in a way that they have not been before. the press is one of those institutions. the courts are another institution. congress is certainly being tested as to whether it's willing to assert its rights. we have a situation where more power has been aggregated within the executive branch. that's not unique to the trump administration. that's happened over a longer period of time and every president has tried to accumulate more and more power. and so i think the institutions of the country that are designed to sort of -- there's supposed to be a tension between those institutions. that's how this democracy is built. but i think those institutions are being tested in a major way. >> thank you. and congratulations on being honored at your alma mater. >> thank you very much. good to see you. >> marty baron, lehigh class of '76. still to come, your best tweets
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and comments. have you voted yet? how does this impeachment inquiry end? choice one, donald trump will not be impeached by the house. two, trump will be impeached by the house and convicted by the senate, mike pence becomes president. choice three, donald trump will be impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate. comr been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. woman: what gives me confidence about investment decisions? rigorous fundamental research. with portfolio managers focused on the long term. who look beyond the spreadsheets to understand companies,
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well, this will be interesting. time to see how you responded to the survey question. how does the impeachment inquiry end? choice one, donald trump will not be impeached by the house. choice two -- choice three, he'll be impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate. survey says -- wow! 15,599, impeached, not convicted, 72%. impeached convicted, pence, president, 23%, house doesn't -- the 5% that there won't even be a house impeachment grows increasingly unlikely, but most saying 72%. i tell you, we'll repeat this survey question just to see whether there's a change in attitude. but some say it will fall short in the senate. who knows.
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here's some of what came out in social media. smerconish, the senate obviously won't convict trump. not a single republican has enough of a spine to go against him. what did i say earlier? keep your eyes on burr, senator burr. if burr sees something, that will be a real tell. what else? i hope the democrats and media stay overwhelmed by the ridiculous impeachment. this will surely bring down biden and re-elect donald trump. joe, i had at the beginning of the show my guest john steyer who's been calling for the people of donald trump. the inquiry is now under way and that was one of the questions i asked him. that's why i played the cut from omar on the wire at the outset of the program. you come for the king, you best not miss. yes, i know.
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well, good morning to you. i hope saturday has been well to you so far. it's saturday, september 28th, in fact. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. you are in the "cnn newsroom." we're starting with the increasing pressure by democrats to accelerate their impeachment inquiry into the president. secretary of state mike pompeo has been subpoenaed after missing two deadlines. they're hoping he can share
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