evening. the back-to-back town halls begin tonight at 7:30 p.m. on cnn. thanks for joining me. "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. the feds indict two rudy giuliani employees. the indictment are key sources in ukraine. how democrats already want to question them in their trump impeachment inquiry. as the president calls the impeachment a partisan witch hunt, his own government again gives credence to the case against him. first the attorney general

backed up the whistleblower's account. now they're labeled as crooks the man who, through rudy giuliani, helped stoke the giuliani/ukraine obsession. what it tells us about the company rudy giuliani keeps and how it factors into the impeachment case against the president. just this is head-snapping. the president's own justice department indicting clients of his personal attorney, rudy giuliani. those clients were arrested at dulles airport outside of washington yesterday. spent the night in jail. are due in federal court later today. they are accused of violating campaign laws by laundering foreign money through a u.s. entity and illegally into american campaigns. they are accused of violation in ukraine. now the justice department alleges they are criminals. rudy giuliani telling cnn today he cannot comment at this point.

kaitlan collins is live at the white house. shocking. what's the word at 1600? >> reporter: they have not said a word on this so far. we've asked them for comment. nothing from the white house yet. we are getting a statement from the president's outside attorney. that's jay sekulow. he told jim acosta in a statement, quote, read the indictment. nor the candidate nor the campaign have anything to do with the scheme these guys were running. that's jay sekulow, the president's outside attorney. if you do read through this indictment as jay sekulow is telling you to do, you'll see how this is only going to up the pressure that is already facing this white house over the democrats and their calls for an impeachment inquiry, and it continued the impeachment inquiry into the president over his calls with the ukranian president and their actions there. john, we're also hearing from the pro-trump superpac these guys godonated to. it was a six-figure donation,

$325,000, and then shortly after the news broke today, they said they had not touched that money yet. they put it in a segregated bank account, because they said shortly after the two men made that donation from the energy company they both own that somebody filed an fcc complaint, alleging campaign finance violations, so they say they haven't used it yet. we should point out that statement was issued by a former white house aide, kelly sadler, who is now a pro-trump superpac who also has the former business administrat administrator, linda mcmann, on the board and the press secretary. there will be a lot of questions facing this white house, john. what the answers are going to be remains to be seen. >> a lot of questions for sure. we'll see how this plays out and watch the federal court hearing. to cnn's michael warren now just how these men came to know rudy giuliani. what is the back story? >> reporter: we've known for a couple weeks that rudy giuliani told cnn that les parma and

freeman helped make the connection with ukranian officials that helped provide them information that he says really does need more investigation. of course, we know that information has gotten to rudy giuliani's client mr. trump. the house-led democratic committees have subpoenaed giuliani for those documents and the conversations those three men were having. we also know les was in a completely separate civil case and subpoenas down in florida that the plaintiff's attorneys were looking for documents, any documentation of past -- of business relationships between parnes and giuliani. john? >> complicated story. michael, i appreciate you helping us connect some of the dots. with me in the studio, vivian

with the new york journal, paul holtz with the "new york times," federal prosecutor sean wu and evan perez. sean, i want to start with you. it has nothing to do with the democrats as they build their impeachment case. even the president's own attorney who said nothing to see here. nor the candidate nor the campaign has anything to do with the scheme these guys were involved in. so the president's own attorney calls them schemers. these schemers are a key source of information to the president's personal attorney who passes it on to the president who repeets ats it ale time although much of it we can prove to be false and unfounded. what does this tell you? >> this really tightens the noose on rudy giuliani. if i were him, i would be thinking about taking the fifth real quick, because you never know where it's going to go with these folks. they're likely to become cooperating witnesses, and if they become cooperating witnesses, they could yield very

valuable information on giuliani or what impetus they had, or direction, from trump himself. >> no indictment per se to anything involving the president or the impeachment inquiry, but they gave money to a congressman and try to get the congressman to get rid of the ambassador of ukraine, which is on the witness list. they did not like this talk of using the united states to advance the president's personal political vendetta. at or around the same time parsen met with congressman one and caused congressman 1 to remove the u.s. ambassador to ukraine. parnas' efforts to remove the

ambassador were conducted. >> he wrote this letter saying he had a problem with her. people were really confused as to why that was. we see now this is money being fundraised by these two guys and others, apparently, that went to him and they were lobbying him to try to make that happen. there is also another interesting thing. on page 12 of the indictment, it talks about how these men were involved in fuchndraising for other candidates, and there is a rally that is a trump rally, by the way, on october 20, 2018. thf this was a rally the president attended. it was a fundraiser for other candidates, but they were there raising money for those candidates. nothing direct to the campaign here, no direct tie to the president or his campaign, but it does show you how, you know, intertwined all of this became with president trump, simply because of rudy giuliani's involvement and the fact that,

you know, the two men are so close. >> it does get directly to the idea of the company you keep and the credibility of the company you keep. i want to read a little more from the indictment, again, just to connect some of these dots here. shortly after that meeting, two other men who were indicted in this case began to formalize the business venture with foreign national 1 to fund their lobbying efforts. but took steps to hide number 1's involvement in the business venture, including any political contributions associated with the business venture, due to, in kukushkin's words, his russian roots and current political paranoia about it. they claim ukraine, not russia, interfered in the 2016 election. that gets in the president's head through who? rudy giuliani. then he comes back with his biden accusations. >> we sort of see it manifesting in some of the policy decisions whether or not it was directly related to the president's decisions at the end of the day,

we still don't know. obviously we've seen pictures of these two individuals now with don jr., the president's son. we know that he has had dinner -- they've had dinner with the president, and so what we're going to see in the next coming weeks is the white house essentially, and the president's lawyers, trying to shield him away from any of these activities to say these guys were acting independently, perhaps they had some sort of relationship with rudy giuliani, but he is the president's personal lawyer. this has nothing to do with his actions as the president, and his activities as the top government official, essentially. >> this is very similar to what they said about michael cohen as well. to think you're right where this is a complicated thing, but i think it's also simple, and it's going to seem simple to people on the outside. the white house is trying to brazen this out, nothing happened in ukraine, and now all of a sudden people are being indicted for this. and i think people say, well, maybe there is something sketchy there. i think this really hurts the white house there. i think it's also one of these things when we talk about these investigations lead to new

developments and things pop up to change everything. well, this is an example of that. this is not very good for the white house. and it's also, you know, now it draws house republicans into this, even though he's gone. mr. sessions has been talking about running again. we'll see how that affects his plan. >> and it draws another spotlight on giuliani, and again, the question of whether you can trust him, number one, and two, the people he gets his information from who, again, the trump justice department now calls crooks and chiefs. that's what's fascinating to me. jeffrey berman is rudy giuliani's former law partner. it is signed off on by the attorney general of the united states who a lot of democrats believe is trying to do everything he can to protect the president. well, in this case bill barr signed off on this, right? >> he did, and it goes to your point which is for months people have been trying to tell the president, actually, for more than a year, tell the president to stay away from rudy giuliani. bill barr took that advice himself because he was briefed on this investigation back in

february right after he became attorney general, and the justice department has certainly made every effort to stay -- to have him stay away from rudy giuliani, to keep giuliani away from the justice department, away from bill barr, with good reason. i think the question is, why hasn't the president taken that advice? >> to that point, we'll do more on this case, the specifics of this case in just a minute, but sh sean, this breaks on the day of the bloomberg article. he helped persuade the justice department to drop a case against a turkish man familiar to rudy giuliani. help me understand that. this is the president's personal attorney not on the government payroll asking the president of the united states to get the secretary of state to help a client and quash a criminal investigation. he's still the president's personal attorney and now he's involved in all this ukraine stuff. help me.

there are ethics rules, aren't there? >> that is a classic abuse of power. and the president's team and he could spin some legal theories that he's the head of the executive branch and can ultimately do anything he wants. but that's exactly what our structure is in place to guard against, which is to have the president of the head executive branch give his cronies' clients help by putting his fingers on the scale of criminal action. >> we're talking about the president using the oval office, right? he has special access to the president. tillerson walks into the room, i'm told, and he confronts mike mccabe, the former attorney general, and rudy is sitting there. the president says, gentlemen, tell us what you'd like him to do. and this idea of a swap for this man who is facing charges and is actually being convicted now in new york for this pastor the turks were holding hostage,

essentially. where does rudy giuliani's personal business interests align and how do they intertwine with u.s. government policy and is that good? the president seems comfortable mixing those two things. tillerson was very unhappy about that. he said no. rudy and mckazy tried to bring this up with the justice department, and they said no. they basically said this is not something we do. >> and rudy giuliani is calling everyone else corrupt. we'll be back with this case, including the role of that former fellow congressman, pete sessions. new pasta and grill combos starting at $9.99. only at applebee's. pain happens. saturdays happen. aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol.

when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong.

to severe plaque psoriasis get clearer. and tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. don't use if you're allergic to tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to.

serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. get clearer. janssen can help you explore cost support options. janssen can help you explore plants capture co2. what if other kinds of plants captured it too? if these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees 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. ♪

this is the family who wanted to connect... to go where they could explore and experience adventure in unexpected places... ♪ who were inspired by different cultures ♪ and found that the past can create new memories... leading them to discover: we're woven together

by the moments we share. for everywhere you go, expedia has everything you need, all in one place. the rudy giuliani associates are learning more about that indictment that say the two men helped funnel foreign money into the congressional campaign of former texas republican pete sessions. let's go live to capitol hill to manu raju. what do you know? >> the former house committee chairman had been urged by these two rudy giuliani associates to seek the ouster of the then u.n. ambassador to ukraine at the same time these rudy giuliani associatesbankrolling his campaign. this indictment shows the two individuals, les parnas and

freeman, had met with him in 2017 at the same time they committed to raising money for congressman sessions and sought his assistance. they sought his assistance to urge the removal of the ukranian ambassad ambassador. we learned sessions himself played a role in trying to get the ambassador removed amid concerns she had not been loyal enough to president trump and she had been criticizing president trump. at the same time this pro-trump superpac went down to spend more than $3 million on sessions' behalf in the 2018 midterms. that's according to fcc records. sessions we asked for comment. he declined to comment. i do want to comment on one major piece of breaking news.

the three committees that are pushing on this impeachment probe have just announced they issued subpoenas for the same two individuals who we've been talking about all morning, saying that their subpoenas are demanding documents from le les parnas and igor freeman as giuliani's associates. they are the ones that have been arrested today. so this letter that just came out, literally as i was coming on air, calls on them to turn over key documents by october 16th. it says they have not complied with their request. even though they have been arrested and indicted, john, the house democrats believe this is a key part of the impeachment inquiry. they want to get that information, and they also want to talk to the ukranian ambassador who is, at the moment, scheduled to come tomorrow, john. >> we'll see what happens with her scheduled testimony. one would expect the state department will try to block it. manu raju, appreciate it on both

fronts. matt joining us for our conversation. you now have the trump justice department bringing to court and potentially putting on trial in the near future, although these things can get delayed, two people where some of this information might come out in court that the democrats would probably be stymied to get just asking for it. they did not plan a voluntary request for this information, and manu says it's now subpoenas. before they made a voluntary request. they want they supposedly were asked to investigate hurnd bnter biden as position on the board. rudy giuliani wanted the former ambassador recalled. didn't think she was helping

him, convincing ukranian officials to do what he wanted to have done. now you have these men involved as well. mind-boggling. >> in some ways we've seen this movie before. a lot of this seems very similar to what we lived with in the russia scenario. in that case you had bob mueller who democrats would sort of put a lot of faith that he's going to investigate. now it's the house democrats and they've launched this impeachment inquiry already, and now they're going after people who don't fall under the trump administration. so the trump administration had sort of stymied house democrats. these two have less legal standing to do that. >> much less legal standing. john dowd, who used to represent the president, now represents parnas and frewman. he said, your request for documents and communications is overly broad and unduly

burdensome. the subject matter of your requests is well beyond the scope of your inquiry. he probably knew what was going to happen on wednesday and thursday with the justice department, which raises the stakes here again. >> and john dowd was arguing maybe the congressional investigators shouldn't get their information because they were working with giuliani who was working with the president, so there could be privilege issues. so they are directly connected to president trump and the efforts to get dirt on joe biden and his son. one question i have about this, though, is will there be a claim that they can't possibly cooperate with congress or turn over documents because now it's an ongoing investigation? >> right. they'll say we're on trial so you have to wait, if anything. let's try to step back if we can, and it's hard when these things are breaking, to the idea of rudy giuliani, once an icon in the united states as mayor of new york in the days after 9/11. he became a global institution. now he is at the center of so many questions, again, as he

goes on and accuses others of corruption about using his personal access to the president, his international business clients, some of them with pro-russia ties. it's well documented who he works with. kamala harris, who is running for president, of course, says he should still testify under oath. >> the republicans were going to call him in the senate, and i think their idea at that point was to give them a chance to have a platform to implicate joe biden. i think those plans may change now for mayor giuliani. he doesn't want to get up there. and he's also incriminated himself. his constant talking, even his sku discussions of the idea of maybe helping getting that person, the gold trader, off. we'll probably see less of rudy giuliani. >> but the president is the ceo of the operation. there are a lot of republicans saying rudy is doing harm to the president. if the president pays any attention to the news, and we

know he does, he has known for a long time about this and he doesn't waiver in his love for giuliani. >> and we can go to the secretary of state adamantly objecting to giuliani. he wasn't in the administration yet and giuliani continues to be an outside adviser to the president because he remains truly loyal to the president, and that to him is a priority. >> rex tillerson objects to something illegal and he's gone. i'll let you fill in the rest of the sentence there. up next, a list of officials who think the president made a big mistake in syria. and...whatever this was. because we make our meat with the good of the deli and no artificial preservatives. make every sandwich count with oscar mayer deli fresh.

but she wanted someone who loves with the cats.ng. so, we got griswalda. dinner's almost ready. but one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with our renters insurance. yeah, switching and saving was really easy! drink it all up. good! could have used a little salt. visit geico.com and see how easy saving on renters insurance can be. to severe plaque psoriasis get clearer. and tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly

clearer skin. don't use if you're allergic to tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. get clearer. janssen can help you explore cost support options. janssen can help you explore ayou listen to advyour client's goal ofen. sending her daughter to the music school of her dreams. and you help her turn it into reality. principal. we can help you plan for that. start today at principal.com. that could allow hackers devices into your home.ys and like all doors, they're safer when locked. that's why you need xfinity xfi.

with the xfi gateway, devices connected to your homes wifi are protected. which helps keep people outside from accessing your passwords, credit cards and cameras. and people inside from accidentally visiting sites that aren't secure. and if someone trys we'll let you know. xfi advanced security. if it's connected, it's protected. call, click, or visit a store today.

today several defense officials telling cnn sidelining u.s. troops in syria effectively gave a green light to turkey and effectively ends the fight against isis. remember, u.s. special operators fought side by side with the kurds, our allies. but they weren't referred to that way last night. >> have you personally thought of viewing the igp as turkish allies? >> they have a terrorist threat

to their south. >> the kuturkish invasion still raging at this hour. they say casualties are quickly piling up and u.s. officials say there are signs on the ground that gains against isis terrorists are coming undone because of all this. clarissa ward is there on the ground. c clarissa, what are you seeing? >> reporter: john, we were up at the turkish border. it was pretty much deserted when we arrived. there had been artillery strikes earlier that morning. then we came across a small group of people who were protesting, planning to walk up to the turkish border to show they would not be cowed but very quickly they were told by kurdish fighters to get out. that's when more artillery started hitting the area. we saw them build huge piles of tires and set fire to them to create an effective smoke

screen. there is a lot of confusion here, john, about what exactly turkey's end game is and what this military operation is going to look like. we saw a lot of our military coming in. we also saw a few rounds going out from kurdish forces into turkey as well. that was just one town. this is a huge swath of border, more than 200 miles that turkey ostensibly wants to try to clear and create this buffer zone. no sense, though, really how they're going to do that without avoiding civilian casualties. already we're hearing reports on both sides of the border of a number of civilian casualties. turkish forces did appear to be targeting fighters' positions as opposed to civilian areas. as you well know, john, the minute you have artillery going on back and forth both ways, you run the risk of civilian casualties, and certainly we've seen a lot of civilians displaced from their homes, but they don't know where to run, where is safe in syria for

america's former allies, the kurds, john. >> i appreciate your live reporting and i appreciate you being in the middle of this at this very sensitive time. vivienne salama is still with us. you know the area very well from your previous assignments in the middle east. this is said it will strain relations with the kurds. he know its, this person said of the president. they're just not his priority. why? >> the president believes he made a campaign promise to his supporters, to the entire country that he was going to get out of wars in the middle east and elsewhere. he really doesn't have any appetite for it. we know this now a couple years into his administration. what he believes is that getting them out, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the consequences, he is fulfilling a campaign promise here, and so he wants to go ahead with it. >> and his language yesterday was quite striking. just list ton the president at

the white house saying here's one reason why we don't need to stay with them anymore, even though many of them died helping us. >> the kurds are fighting for their land, just so you understand. they're fighting for their land. as someone wrote in a very, very powerful article today, they didn't help us in the second world war. they didn't help us with normandy, as an example. they named different battles. but they're there to help us with their land, and that's a different thing. >> i think the brits were fighting for their land and the french were fighting for their land. i don't quite get the history there. >> i'm not even going to address the historical inaccuracies of it, but one of the important things to note is this is going to hit really close to home for a lot of veterans, including veterans who voted for the president. those who fought in the iraq war blooef believed that the kurds were essential not only to their success but to their survival. the kurds lost their land to

isis but continued to battle alongside the americans, so this is going to hit close to home for a lot of those iraq war veterans. >> you mentioned the veterans because they have a code of honor. you fight on a battlefield and you don't turn your backs on them. the national security adviser just said this at an event. i know it feels good to some people to think, let's just disengage from that and worry about ourselves, but if we did that, we become very vulnerable. we have to remember the human cost, the financial cost as well associated with the catastrophic attack that occurred on 9/11. clearly not naming the president there but clearly not happy with this decision as well. coming up, new questions being raised in who was involved in freezing the usa to ukraine. i'm really into this car,

but how do i know if i'm getting a good deal? i tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if i'm getting a great price. this is how car buying was always meant to be. this is truecar.

when you're looking for answers, it's good to have help. because the right information, at the right time, may make all the difference. at humana, we know that's especially true when you're looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan. that's why we're offering seven things every medicare supplement should have. it's yours free just for calling the number on your screen. and when you call, a knowledgeable licensed agent-producer can answer any questions you have, and help you choose the plan that's right for you. the call is free, and there's no obligation. you see, medicare covers only about 80 percent of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. that's why so many people purchase medicare supplement insurance plans, like those offered by humana. they're designed to help you save money

and pay some of the costs medicare doesn't. depending on the medicare supplement plan you select, you could have no deductibles or co-payments for doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency care and more. you can keep the doctors you have now, ones you know and trust, with no referrals needed. plus you can get medical care anywhere in the country, even when you're travelling. with humana, you get a competitive monthly premium and personalized service from a healthcare partner working to make healthcare simpler and easier for you. you can chose from a wide range of standardized plans. each one is designed to work seamlessly with medicare and help save you money. so how do ya find the plan that's right for you? one that fits your needs and your budget? call humana now at the number on your screen for this free guide. it's just one of the ways that humana is making healthcare simpler. and when you call, a knowledgeable licensed agent-producer can answer any questions you have, and help you chose the plan that's right for you. the call is free and

there's no obligation. you know medicare won't cover all your medical costs, so call now! and see why a medicare supplement plan from a company like humana, just might be the answer. ♪ hey. hey. you must be steven's phone. now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today.

topping our political radar today, president trump signalling possible progress or at least hope for progress in u.s.-china trade talks, a short time ago announcing he'll meet personally with china's vice premier at the white house. expectations have been low as chinese and u.s. negotiators

kick offer their 13th talk this morning. there are doubts beijing is willing to make any major concessions. congresswoman representative lowey announcing she will not seek reelection next year. she is 83 years old and is looking guard to spending time with her family. a freeze on the vital assistance to ukraine. cnn's sara murray joins the conversation. sara, this is essential to the democrats' impeachment case, that he held up his aid in exchange for favors. what are you learning? >> that's right, and they just subpoenaed the office of management and budget because they want more nfrgs informatio this, who made the decision to freeze aid to ukraine? there was actually a political assistant who signed a number of

these documents to freeze aid to ukraine, and the reason this is unusual is because it's usually a career budget staffer who would sign off on this. a source tells me one of the reasons it was not a career official is because career officials thought they would be afraid of running afoul of the law if they did not move guaford with these funds congress had already appropriated. the staffer's only concern about this was president trump didn't like foreign aid and that's the reason he was involved. but as you pointed out, there is no doubt this will be of interest to congressional investigators as they try to follow the paper trail and the money trail, and it's worth noting an omb spokesperson said it was ludicrous that the trump administration appointees would not be involved in a decision like this. >> i think you just made a key point there. sara murray, appreciate the reporting. to renee marsh as well.

a former campaign is now 0 rivals. plus free premium delivery when you add a base. er is now targeting the media and his 2020 rivals. let me tell you somethin,

i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse mortgage loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio and so much more. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back. find out how reverse mortgages really work with aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage guide. with a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait,

and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. discover the option that's best for you. call today and find out more. i'm proud to be a part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. joe biden suddenly going offer on both fronts. his twitter going last night,

criticizing the president on his son and his business dealings. quote, are you truly blind to what you got wrong in 2016 or are you deliberately continuing policies that distort reality for the sake of controversy and the clicks that accompany it. he made his first public appearance in days, using a speech in new hampshire to slam the president, and for the first time to directly call for his impeachment. >> in the full view of the american people, donald trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed the nation and committed impeachable acts. to preserve our constitution, our democracy, our basic integrity, i believe he should be impeached. i'm not going to be distracted by his lies, his distortion, his name calling. none of these attacks are true, and i'm going to stay focused on your lives. that's what this election is about, your lives. your kids. your children.

your family. >> the direct call for impeachment puts him much more in touch with the democratic base. he had been much more cautious on that issue. is that what this is about, or is it because it's personal because trump and giuliani keep going after his son? >> i think the campaign had been in this space for a while, but the candidate had not. joe biden is lagging in polls, in some enthusiasm and fundraising. this is sort of a way to reorient the campaign a little bit. you saw ha yesterday. the crowd was into it, he was sharp, and he was really aggressive with president trump. and i think that's what his campaign wants to see from him. whether that works, and you saw trump, you know, yesterday afternoon sort of push back pretty aggressively at joe biden, and it's a new kind of campaign for them where they're embracing this more than they had been. but we should say, and you pointed this out, this was his first public event of the week. biden has not been as aggressive in his campaign schedule, which maybe we'll see.

>> i want to play a piece of an interview with wbz when he was in new hampshire. it's a television station. he's right. a lot of the things the president says and rudy giuliani say about his son are just reckless, unfounded, wrong, some of them disproven. and yet his son was at this ukranian energy company at the time the president met with ukraine. he asked the president of ukraine to look into those issues. >> i don't discuss business issues with my son. i didn't know that was the case and i found out after the fact. and because i don't discuss things with my son and my family because i don't want to be accused of, well, you talk with your son, or you talk with your whomever. >> if you're the vice president in an administration that is proudly boasting it's the most ethical administration in history, isn't that backwards? you might be holding him to a

different standard. there is a lot of people who trade in on their political connections and family connections in washington. you don't talk to your son? don't you need to know, so you can say i can't go to ukraine, my son has business dealings there, you need to send somebody else. am i wrong? >> i don't think biden him earl? and as president, how can the american public be sure your son is not going to presenting an appearance of conflict of interest. i don't think he's fully addressed those questions yet. >> if you read that "new yorker" profile of hunter biden which came out a couple weeks ago, they talk about this. they talk about hunter biden used to be on the board of mbna or worked for mbna, and as a senator, he had a lot of bills related to banking. there's been a history of hunte joe biden's work and there being a policy in the family that they

don't talk about it, they just talk about family. >> impeachment gets him closer in touch with the democratic base. the candidate who has the most favor with the base right now or at least throughout the summer has been elizabeth warren. joe biden says this. >> america has enormous possibilities. they're limitless. i want to take that vision, and yes, take the plans. but that's not enough. it takes proven ability to get things done. we're not electing a planner. >> hello, senator warren. right? >> i think it shows that thaey'e reading the polls we're seeing and that's his challenge there. he has to separate himself from her a bit. on the other issue, i think it is concern among democrats, and the hope among some republicans, is that joe biden will be collateral damage in all this impeachment talk, and they're trying to forestall that. >> that's certainly what the president wants in his attacks. he doesn't want the impeachment part of it, and a lot of it has

been reckless against joe biden, but that answer, i'm not sure up to snuff. trump against fox news after they do a daring thing like publish an impeachment poll. wayfair's got your perfect mattress. whether you're looking for a top-brand at a great price. cla rissa moving in. moving on up. or making big moves. deliveries ship free and come with a 100-night free trial. no matter your budget. or your sleep style. we have quality options for everyone. so search and shop. save and snooze.

and rest easy, knowing that we've got your back. literally. that's what you get, when you've got wayfair. so shop now. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand.

you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. you wanna see something thatamazing?ing. go to hilton instead of a travel site and you'll experience a whole new range of emotions like... the relaxing feeling of knowing you're getting the best price. these'll work. the utter delight of free wi-fi... . oh man this is the best part. isn't that you? yeah. and the magic power of unlocking your room with your phone. i can read minds too. really? book at hilton.com. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay. expect better. expect hilton.

this is breaking news. president trump taking issue with his favorite network today. that would be fox news, of course, because fox released a poll this morning showing support for the president to be impeached and removed from office is up to 51%. that's a 10% increase in fox

news polling since january. it's a perfectly legitimate poll, but the president tweeted, i never had a good fox news poll. whoever their positivellster is suck. fox news is so different than they used to be. oh, well, i'm president. see you at the big rally tonight. that would be minnesota. the president thinks fox news is supposed to be a cheerleading operation, not publish a poll that's bad news for the president. >> they also have a very reputable polling system, so he hasn't really -- it hasn't really sunk in with him the fact that they can put out critically pol -- critical polls of him and they can be fair. he wants to see familiar and friendly faces like sean hannity and tucker carlson who we know the president also speaks to privately. anything beyond that, and he with see him even lashing out at the white house correspondents

when they ask him tough questions. he doesn't really handle criticism well. >> i assume you won't see this from now on on fox news. 46% americans said he is more corrupt in september, 51% say it now. he thinks you're supposed to pick sides in our business, and he thinks if fox says anything . >> he is definitely d branch of fox. he's made it clear in tweets that he shephard smith's show because he's been known to contradict the president's line. traditionally he is talking about news that is blatantly trump. for instance, they filed a friend of the court brief for the president in the fight over jim acosta's press credential.

>> that's -- i won't say anything. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." br have a great afternoon. this is "cnn breaking news." . i'm horace sanchez in for brie anna keilar and we start wh explosive news. we know how the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, tried to dig up dirt on joe biden, and to that point they tried to dig up dirt in ukraine for the trump administration. they tried to buy access to and are linked to an unnamed congressman. cnn has learned that texas republican former representativ