good evening from otterbein university in westerville, ohio, site of tomorrow's democratic presidential debate. there's new polling on the democratic race. we'll have that as well as a preview of tomorrow's debate coming up. but we begin tonight with president trump trying to spin a win out of what people on both sides of the aisle are calling a colossal foreign policy mistake in turkey and syria, a mistake which he is the sole author. the president appears to be scrambling to fix things after the major political backlash he's experienced from both democrats and republicans alike. president trump spoke to turkey's president erdogan again today about de-escalating the fight. he also announced new sanctions against turkey in response, raising steel tariffs by 50% and halting a proposed $100 billion trade deal. president trump also now says a, quote, small foot print of soldiers will remain in southern syria. and one more thing, vice president pence is now being sent to turkey to try to broker the kind of deal to safeguard

our allies or our onetime allies, the kurds, and contain isis. the kind of deal we already had really until last sunday. all of this began a week ago sunday with a much different telephone call with turkey's president. what was said remains unclear. but we do know the president agreed to pull out u.s. troops from the region, essentially giving the green light to the long-planned turkish invasion of northern syria. this left our kurdish allies, key allies in the fight against isis, who fought and contained isis alongside u.s. forces -- well, it left them stunned and surprised and exposed to turkish aggression. republicans never ones to rock the boat were vocal in their denunciations. the question is did that bother the president? it must have because two days later he announced he was inviting turkey's president to the white house, which is not something you normally do with people you are angry with. that same day, he tweeted, quote, in no way have we abandoned the kurds, and yet we

had. still the denunciations kept coming. thus began a period of alternately saying he would definitely do something, then criticized the kurds with his favorite kind of accusation, the baseless kind. >> now, the kurds are fighting for their land just so you understand. they're fighting for their land. and as somebody 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 mentioned names of different battles. but they're there to help us with their land, and that's a different thing. >> well, even this morning he was tweeting about the kurds releasing isis fighters, which according to the official within the president's own defense department, is not accurate. over the weekend, the president said this was a them fight, not an us fight. but tonight he seems to have changed his tune, perhaps due to the pressure he's receiving from within his own party. i want to talk about it with jim

acosta, who is at the white house for us tonight. jim, what is the latest on what the president is now proposing to kind of make up for what's happened? >> reporter: anderson, the president is calling on turkey to impose a cease-fire in its operations in syria at this point. it's not clear whether or not that's going to happen. but as you mentioned, they are imposing these new sanctions on turkey. they're sending the vice president along with the new national security adviser. in the immediate future is how they're describing it, to talk to the turkish officials there, including president erdogan presumably about just how to stop all of this. it is unclear whether any of that at this point is going to result in turkey suspending this operation. keep in mind the white house is saying, yes, they're going to keep some sort of small force in southern syria, but not the same force that was in northern syria that was in part preventing all of this from occurring in the first place. and one other carrot that is still being dangled over president erdogan of turkey is the fact he still may be able to come to washington, anderson,

and meet with the president next month. the president extended that invitation last week. apparently it was accepted, and at this point the white house is not saying whether or not that is still going to take place. it hasn't been called off at this point, and so that seems to be sending another green light to erdogan, and that is that he hasn't, at least yet, paid a huge price for what's happened in syria. >> i mean that would be extraordinary if allegedly an administration says there's going to be tough sanctions against turkey, and yet you're allowing the leader of turkey who has just launched this incursion into northern syria against the kurds, you've abandoned our allies, the kurds, who lost 10,000 people in the fight against isis, a fight we have asked them to lead essentially. >> reporter: that's right. >> and erdogan would still be invited to the white house? >> reporter: and, anderson, at the same time that the president is threatening to -- and he said this again today -- destroy the turkish economy if things

continue to escalate, and so it's very strange -- it is a confusing mixture of messages that is being sent not only to turkey and to kurdish allies in syria, but to republicans up on capitol hill, who have been very concerned about all of this from the beginning. keep in mind, anderson, vice president pence -- and they're very sensitive to this criticism. we heard this earlier this evening. vice president pence was saying, no, president trump did not give erdogan a green light in syria. a senior administration official just held a conference call with reporters a short while ago and repeated the same talking point. but, anderson, keep in mind, remember what the administration says at the beginning of all of this about a week or so ago when it said that turkey will now be carrying out this operation in northern syria. it didn't say, don't do this. it didn't draw a red line. it essentially did provide that green light. it sounds as though the president is trying to make, you know, the green light to syria in terms of what turkey is doing in syria not be his red line in syria, but it's not at all clear

whether or not anybody accepts that conclusion here in washington. at this point the president is continuing to apply pressure. he says he's going to continue to talk to the turkish president according to administration officials over here. one other thing we should point out, anderson. during this conference call with reporters -- ask this has been a huge concern not only in washington but in europe -- administration officials were asked whether or not any isis fighters who had been detained have been released. and according to senior administration officials talking to reporters just a short while ago, there is good evidence that some of those detainees have been released and are now at large, anderson. >> jim, thanks very much. sounds very much like the president has painted himself into a corner. joining me is cnn senior political commentator david axelrod, nia-malika henderson, gloria borger, and david chalian. david axelrod, the idea coming from the administration right now that the president didn't green-light this turkish incursion against the kurds

is -- >> absurd. >> it's absurd. >> yeah. >> it was that phone call, and he took out the special forces troops, who had been essentially protecting the kurds from the turks all this time. >> either he didn't know what he was doing and opened the door to all of this because he didn't consult with his national security team, the defense department, and so on, or he did know what he was doing and has opened the door to bashar al assad to stream back into that territory to the russians. they've been the big winners. >> right. russia, iran, you know, obviously the assad regime. >> but i think those are the two choices. either he willingly opened the door for them, or he didn't know what he was doing, and it's not a very appetizing choice. >> you know, or he was so vague, which would fit under the "he didn't know what he was doing" part. but he was so vague in his phone call. i think as "the new york times" reported, so vague in his phone call that it wasn't clear what he was saying.

and of course erdogan took that as a green light. >> but, david chalian, the idea that he didn't know what he was saying, he has said he wanted to get all troops out of syria. he has said this repeatedly. this is delivering on that, and this is also the consequence. >> yeah, precisely. i think he campaigned on this, not this specific issue necessarily but removing the united states from the region. he didn't want to be involved there at all. this was part of his mission throughout the entire campaign. so for us to be surprised, i think, is ignoring what he has been saying. i think what is surprising is he somehow didn't anticipate perhaps the backlash from his own party, which is why i think we see some scrambling right now from the white house. he's trying to at least get his own party back with him in some way, which i don't know that's going to happen just yet. >> i think in his own mind -- and he may not be wrong about this. when he says, we're tired of the

endless wars, this is their problem, they have to resolve it and so on, there's an audience out there. >> yeah. >> sure. >> for that. i think he felt some confidence that even -- he said the other day, well, you know, the people in washington may not like this, but there are a lot of people out there who know what i'm saying. >> yeah, and he clearly was trying to sell that message over and over again, sort of a contradictory fact was that they were sending troops into saudi arabia, 2,000 or so. so the idea that we're withdrawing all troops just didn't help. what was also, i think, surprising to a lot of folks who might not have been following syria so closely was how quickly things deteriorated, right? it was so -- you know, the call was on sunday, and then, you know, just immediate, a calamity there. >> it also emphasizes -- i mean if there were 100, you know, u.s. special forces and support in northern syria or in this area with the kurds, it shows you what just the presence of 100 u.s. forces -- >> yeah, they were keeping -- >> the difference that makes. this wasn't a withdrawal of

10,000 troops. >> this was removing the brick from the wall. >> that's why i think trump was so surprised. even though his own national security advisers were saying no, this is the president -- it's more of trump unbound, on the phone, sort of vamping, saying what he wanted to say, unscripted. we've heard that before, say ukraine. then you have this calamity. >> to say that he's surprised, a, it implies either that he cares or that he understands the problem enough to have been surprised by a different outcome than he expected. i mean does anyone really believe he had sort of strategized the outcome and the ripple effect? >> i don't believe so. when campaign rhetoric or rhetoric as president that is just very simple meets up against very complicated and complex national security issues, i think you see exactly why the simplistic trump line on things presents real-world problems when it meets up

against far more complex -- >> i think that's an interesting point because it also kind of explains why people from the homeland security department have left. kirstjen nielsen, the latest director of homeland security. again, when simplistic rhetoric meets reality on the ground, the people have to execute that reality. they end up leaving. >> one of the reasons i always felt donald trump got elected was that he -- and barack obama was elected because people felt he understood the world. he got the complexity. he could deal with that complexity. i think after eight years, they were tired of complexity. here comes a guy who says, you know what? forget all that. i'll just take care of it. and i think people bought into that. certainly the people who voted for him. you know, if you spend any time either covering the white house or working in the white house, you understand just how delicate all of this is and how easy it is for things to go sideways in a really tragic way. >> also, nia, it's understandable people would say, look, what are we doing in syria

to begin with if isis is allegedly defeated 100%, which the caliphate is gone as the president has continued to say, though clearly there's thousands of isis fighters still there in a prison. but it also has ripple effects in terms of other of our allies now wondering, well, i mean if we betrayed the kurds who lost 10,000 lives, who won't we? >> and they've seen this president basically coddle dictators and coddle strongmen and not do the same with our allies. i mean that is part of this president, you know, essentially arguing that he can do it in a different way. he knows better than everyone else and better than sort of the approach that foreign -- that american presidents have taken to our allies. >> if only the kurds had been able to dig up dirt on the bidens, maybe there would have been a deal that was possible. i'm going to talk to senator chris coons, who sits on the foreign relations committee about what he believes needs to be done to rectify the

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more now on our breaking news. president trump calling for new sanctions on turkey and sending vice president -- the vice president there in hopes he can work out the kind of deal that his knee jerk statecraft blew up about a week ago. joining me now is democratic senator chris coons, a member of the foreign relations committee. senator coons, thanks for being with us. to people who have been following this region closely, it is not stunning how quickly this situation has deteriorated after the president made the decision that he did. when you hear people in the administration sort of pushing the idea that it was not the -- the president did not, in effect, green-light turkey's attack on the kurds, do you buy that? >> i don't buy that at all. frankly, this is what happens when an untested, unconventional president, who doesn't rely on

the advice of his diplomats and military advisers, wanders into a very complex region and engages in erratic and ill informed foreign policy. frankly, after this development, many of our enemies are encouraged and some of our closest allies alarmed. i am gravely concerned, anderson, about what this means not just for the kurds, who fought bravely alongside us in the efforts against isis, but for our -- the extent to which our allies in the region of the world view us as reliable. it was about, i think, six months ago that president trump made this same tragically mistaken decision, and as a result, his secretary of defense, decorated former four-star marine corps general, jim mattis, resigned in protest. so he had ample notice that if he made me move to withdraw our troops from northern syria, that it would undermine our alliances, that it would encourage erdogan, and that it might very well result in chaos. we've seen that unfold faster

than anyone might have expected. >> well, also, i mean, if there's a deal with the kurds and the assad regime, then effectively the assad regime gets to retake the one-third of the country that has been out of its control, which is not only a victory for a dictatorial killer, it's also a victory for russia and iran, who have been supporting the regime, and of course for turkey if they get this buffer zone. >> that's right. and one of the things i'm most concerned about, anderson, is that hezbollah and other militias supported by iran and the irgc gain even more of a foothold in syria, gain even more of a highway to send troops and material and resources from iran across iraq, through syria, and into lebanon. this destabilizes the region. the winners here frankly, as you put it, vladimir putin of russia, bashar al assad, the murderer of baghdad -- excuse

me -- of adamascdamascus, the d of syria who has mastered huge numbers of his own civilians, and iran. so on balance, this is a tragic day for the united states. all of us our urging president trump to reverse course and to take forceful action. sanctions will not make enough of a difference soon enough. the only thing that will make a difference here is for president trump to reverse himself on this tragic and ill-informed decision. >> the question is, is that even possible at this point? i mean, again, if -- >> it's very difficult. >> if the kurds have seen the face of this administration, if they can make a deal with assad and assad gets that territory back, i mean u.s. troops -- would they be welcome? i mean even if the u.s. wanted to send, you know, several hundred special forces back in, it's not clear that they would be allowed there. >> in talking with some contacts, some friends who serve

in our armed forces, i heard that throughout what has been a long and difficult campaign, where 10,000 kurdish fighters died in the work against isis, it was often a struggle to make sure that they trusted american troops who fought alongside them, that we wouldn't withdraw, that we wouldn't abandon them given how hard erdogan and turkey have pressed for the united states to abandon the ypg and our other allies in the region who fought so hard alongside us. i heard this directly from a member of the delaware national guard. i agree with you, anderson, the premise of your question. trump may very well have shattered any hope of our regaining their trust and of regaining this critical foothold in the region. only direct and forceful engagement with erdogan, a frankly clear threat that this would undo our relationship, our strategic partnership of many decades as a nato ally might be enough to stop the turkish

assault. but frankly in terms of russia and syria and iran gaining a critical foothold and the kurds losing all faith in us, that damage may be irretrievable. >> senator coons, i appreciate it. thank you very much for being with us tonight. i'm going to get the reaction to new polling in the democratic race for the white house coming up. but first, multiple breaking news stories on rudy giuliani. a witness on capitol hill today testifies about giuliani's role in shadow diplomacy. also "the wall street journal" says federal prosecutors are now examining rudy giuliani's business dealings in ukraine and his banking records as well. that's next. this is the family who wanted to connect...

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more breaking news tonight. we're getting new reporting on that testimony that just wrapped up on capitol hill from the president's former top russia adviser, a woman named fiona hill. cnn's lauren fox joins us now. what have you been learning? this has been going on for, i think, at least eight to ten hours, right? >> reporter: yes, more than ten hours, anderson. i just saw fiona hill leave capitol hill, and one thing that we have learned in the last few minutes is basically she was telling lawmakers about her concerns with rudy giuliani sort of shadow foreign policy. that is one of her top concerns that she raised today. we also know that she raised concerns after marie yovanovitch, the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, was reassigned from her position, and we learned while she was not on the july 25th phone call between president trump and ukraine's president, she did prepare for that call.

she helped with preparations for it. so those are just a few top-line numbers that we're hearing today. but i will tell you this was a long testimony, and there's a longer week ahead on capitol hill, anderson. >> so i understand -- i mean house republicans, some of them were not happy that the house intelligence committee issued a subpoena for fiona hill to testify today. why is the committee -- why was the committee so intent on getting her to testify? >> well, one of the concerns that democrats have had all along is basically they get to the night before these depositions or these closed-door testimonies, and then someone in the state department or the trump administration tries to block them. that's what happened with gordon sondland last week, so this was basically a preemptive piece of subpoena here. they were basically just trying to ensure that she would have the ability to testify today. so that's what democrats are saying. they're saying so many times in the past, the trump administration has either tried to stop or limit what

information can be shared in these depositions. so this was preemptive. now, republicans have been complaining about this process, anderson, for quite a while. it started with the fact that they wanted nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, to hold a formal vote to open the impeachment inquiry. that's something that nancy pelosi has said she's not required to do by the constitution or house rules. but this is part of republicans fighting back, of course, over what has been a very rapid slew of developments as democrats have been trying to move forward with their impeachment inquiry. anderson? >> yeah. you mentioned the rest of the week. u.s. ambassador to the eu gordon sondland is set to testify thursday. those text messages that were released. he's a big supporter of the president. do we know what he plans to say in part? >> reporter: according to "the washington post," he plans to tell lawmakers behind closed doors essentially that he called the president to get some guidance on what to text back. and one thing that we're hearing is that that text message where he said there was no quid pro quo was something that the president was guiding him to

say. of course there's a long gap in that text message chain, nearly five hours, anderson, between text messages when there was some concern about the fact that there had been nearly $400 million withheld in military aid to ukraine. a state official wanted to know why that was happening, and there was that five-hour gap. so he's expected to talk more a little bit about what the president's guidance was there, anderson. >> lauren, thanks very much. there's more on the giuliani front as well. "the wall street journal" reports that federal prosecutors in new york city are taking a look at giuliani's business dealings in ukraine and examined his bank records. this according to people familiar with the matter. on the byline, rebecca ballhouse. this is not the first time that we've heard investigators are looking to giuliani, but you have new details about what specifically is of interest to them. >> that's right. we've been hearing a lot in the last couple of days about what exactly investigators might be looking at, and there have been a lot of reports since two of

giuliani's associates, lev parnas and igor fruman were indicted last week, that investigators were looking specific lip at those two men's dealings with giuliani. "the new york times" reported that investigators are looking at whether he might have violated foreign lobbying laws. and what we're hearing is that they're looking specifically at his business dealings in ukraine. so that includes his finances as they related to his work there, meetings he might have held there, and specifically work that he did for a mayor there is what we're told. >> do you know who the government is talking to about all this? i mean are there potential witnesses? >> we do know that some witnesses have been questioned so far. we're not yet able to report details of who exactly they're talking to. and i would say that given the indictment came just last week of these two men, that it seems like this investigation is only now starting to sort of come

into the open. so we might expect some escalation of that in the next couple of weeks. >> and has giuliani said anything about this? >> giuliani has denied wrongdoing. he has said he has not been informed of any investigation, and today he told us they can look at my ukraine business all they want. so he is at least projecting that he's not concerned about any possible investigation. >> all right. rebecca ballhaus, appreciate it. thanks very much. perspective from former federal prosecution jeffrey toobin and former nixon white house counsel and cnn contributor john dean. jeff, giuliani certainly knows what goes into an investigation from the southern district. should he be concerned? >> he should be very concerned. i mean this is such a weird situation that the former u.s. attorney in the southern district is now being investigated by the southern district. however, i do think it's important to point out that no one has accused him of any crime, and the two associates of

his who were indicted last week, they are charged with essentially illegal campaign contributions. there's no evidence as far as i'm aware that giuliani has engaged in any sort of campaign contribution work. what he probably has to be more concerned about is the issue of failure to register as a lobbyist and all the work in connection with ukraine, whether that is a violation of the law. but he hasn't been charged with anything, and he may never be. >> john, first of all, i understand it is your birthday, so happy birthday. it's also the birthday of one of our top producers, kirk mcdonald, so we wish him a happy birthday as well. i hope you've got something lined up later that's more fun than talking about rudy giuliani. but if investigators have examined giuliani's bank records, obviously the line from -- you know, the movie version, the president's men, follow the money, giuliani says

he's not concerned. it seems his dealings in ukraine do seem pretty complex, though, and they go back many years. >> that's true. it looks like to me, trying to read the tea leaves of the best reporting i can find, including cnn's, that there are like three investigations going on. one is his relationship with these two men, lev and igor, who have been charged and arrested, and that's a general conspiracy to violate the campaign laws. there's also the possibility of the foreign registration act. but when they get into his finances in ukraine, that's just katie by the door. we don't know where that's going to go, and it opens up all kinds of potentials. the fact he has not been told he's a target of the investigation, the fact he has not been interviewed by the fbi suggests he might be a target. so while i'm hopeful, i couldn't

wish anybody to be in criminal trouble. it looks like he does have some trouble. >> jeff, just on the legal front, is it possible that lev and igor are -- i just really wanted to say their names -- could be potential witnesses, i mean that they could flip if they have any information? >> absolutely. i mean, you know, prosecution 101 is always to work your way up. and rudy giuliani is certainly a higher value target than these two formerly obscure businessmen. just one other point to mention about giuliani. i mean the big problem for donald trump is giuliani's role as potentially running this shadow foreign policy. you know, was american foreign policy operating in the interest of the american people, or was it designed or operating to get dirt on the president's political opponents? rudy giuliani is a key witness

there in an impeachment investigation. that doesn't have to be criminal. that doesn't have to be a crime in order to be impeachable. that's well established constitutional law. so giuliani's value as an investigative target is probably more important in the impeachment situation than it is for any possible exposure he has. >> yeah. david axelrod, certainly the whole idea of sort of this shadow foreign policy by rudy giuliani and president trump, i mean it's bizarre and fascinating, and he obviously is a witness folks in the house would love to talk to if -- >> he and, and then there's another element of this story which may goes to the foreign registration, lobbying registration. that is the prosecutor in ukraine wanted the ambassador removed because she was seen as an obstacle. >> mm-hmm. >> and these two guys, lev and

igor as we call them, they were actively pursuing her removal as well back here. so there are a lot of different strands that sort of come together here, and this has to be not just unsettling for rudy giuliani but for the president himself. >> don't forget, rudy giuliani was being paid by them -- or one of them. i'm not sure which one it was. but he was on their payroll. so i think if you're congress and you want to investigate who was he -- why was he being paid, who was he really working for? was he working for them? was he working on behalf of the president of the united states? was he doing both? and if i were the secretary of state -- i'm obviously not -- i'd be asking those questions. >> well, he also -- >> and mike pompeo is not. >> he also, to your point, has had business dealings -- you know, he tried to have a security contract with clichco, who became the mayor of kiev,

you know, former boxer, ended up with another contract in another city. i mean he's got a lot of kind of -- >> balls in the air? >> sure. >> and he's -- by the way, is rudy giuliani using the president of the united states for his own personal -- >> that's what's so fascinating about this. >> this is why he couldn't be secretary of state, right? this is what he initially wanted to do, but he had all of these foreign entanglements. >> apparently he was. >> jeff toobin, john dean, thank you very much. everyone else stick around. on the eve of tomorrow night's democratic presidential debate right here in ohio, there's new polling out tonight that shows the democratic presidential race tightening. we'll give you the numbers ahead. government by and for all the people -

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well, this time tomorrow night, a record 12 candidates will be on the stage right here in westerville, ohio, for the cnn/"new york times" democratic debate. on the eve of the crucial debate, there is polling from quinnipiac university. among potential democratic voters, senator elizabeth warren

leading with 30%, while former vice president joe biden is 27%. given the poll's margin of error, that amounts basically to a tie. senator bernie sanders has dropped to 11%. back now with our political panel. do these polls mean much at this point? >> listen, i think if you're biden, your whole argument was electability. your whole argument was that you were the one who could beat trump. i think over these last couple of polls we've seen a tightening. we've seen elizabeth warren obviously have this major surge. kamala harris seems to be slipping. she's at 4% in this poll. you look into the numbers. biden is still doing quite well with african-american voters. i think he's something at like 50%. warren is at about 19%. i think it confirms what we've been seeing, these trends over these last couples of weeks, which is that warren is surging and that biden seems to have sort of plateaued if not taken a bit of a dip. but also seems not to be, so far taking any hit around the ukraine stuff. >> i guess the question i would

have is biden's support -- is warren's support at the expense of biden, or it's coming from other quarters? >> it's mostly coming from others. it's coming from bernie sanders largely, but also from some of the other candidates who have deflated a little bit here. we should point out that national polls have value, and they do detect trends, and she's certainly been on a rise. but, you know, this is a sequential process, and what's even more encouraging for her and i think daunting for biden is that elizabeth warren is showing real strength in ohio and new hampshire, the first two contests. and to nia's point, if he's the guy who can take trump on but starts the race by losing the first two contests, perhaps the third in nevada as well, then is he going to be viewed in those terms then? so, you know, elizabeth warren steps on the stage tomorrow night at least as a co-front. >> reporter: and perhaps as the

front-runner in the race. >> gloria, for bernie sanders this is his first major campaign appearance since being hospitalized. how important is it for him to -- >> it's important. it's very important. he has to show that he's okay and that he's strong and vigorous. vigorous would be key here. but also as david was saying, i think at some point, he and elizabeth warren are going to have to get into it a little bit. and he did, in an interview just today, yesterday, where he said that, you know, that she says she's a capitalist. >> yeah. he said a capitalist to her bones. i'm not, he said. >> he didn't finish the sentence about what he is. >> i'll tell you what. i would pay her -- i would pay him if i were her to say that again tomorrow night on that stage. >> yes. >> it really serves her political project to be moved just slightly toward the center.

>> yeah. >> listen, you know, bernie sanders, i understand he may have said that line in an interview. he has not been about taking on elizabeth warren in some way. >> not at all. >> even though from the very beginning of this race she presented a real threat to his coalition of voters. now, they don't have an identical coalition, but she clearly has dug into some of his voters, especially young people, which is a critical part of his coalition. so he hasn't yet shown that he's really willing to sort of take her down a notch. i'd be very surprised if that's what he showed up to do tomorrow night. >> the real question with sanders is after this health problem and given his age, can he grow his support, or do people see him more as a symbolic candidacy now than a real threat to be the nominee? i think that's a real possibility. >> because he was in trouble even before the heart attack. basically sort of losing support to biden as well as warren. we've seen that. it's hard to know where he expands at this point. >> i also think it raises age as an issue again. that's something that biden is going to have to deal with as

well tomorrow night. i wouldn't be surprised, and of course biden is going to have to deal with ukraine and hunter. >> right. >> but, you know, bernie sanders is going to be important to watch tomorrow night and see how he reacts to -- >> i'm not saying anything because i'm involved in debate prep. it is important to note, you mentioned ukraine. this debate tomorrow night, anderson, is taking place in a new political context. impeachment is now this dominant political force in washington. it's consuming so much of the oxygen in this campaign while totally engaged in the early states in those sequential contests that david talked about. in terms of the sort of national presence, has been sidelined somewhat. yet it's a really crucial time in this campaign because we see that elizabeth warren and joe biden are in a tier unto themselves in this race, and it's a critical moment as voters are starting to pay more and more attention.

we're just a few months away from the voting beginning, and yet there's this looming trump story line out there about impeachment and how the democrats are handling that, that is just hanging over what otherwise was a race that was progressing somewhat normally. >> i want to thank everybody. the cnn/"new york times" democratic presidential debate kicks off 8:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night right here on cnn. still to come tonight, an up close and pretty disturbing at times look another those fighting for their lives in syria. i had always heard stories about my great grandfather,

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i want to check in with chris, see what's he's working on for "cuomo primetime." >> rudy giuliani, anderson. big political implications where you are, very important. rudy giuliani is not about politics. this investigation is about law and fact and it involves this president, involves abuse of power, but this is the closest

to a road to ruin that we have seen in this administration and we will show you why tonight. >> all right, chris, look forward to that about seven minutes from now. see you then. we'll be right back. there's more news ahead. welcome to fowler, indiana. home to three of bp's wind farms. which, every day, generate enough electricity to power over 150,000 homes. and of course, fowler. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. and of course, fowler. i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

can a banana peel fuel your flight. bp and fulcrum bioenergy think so. together we'll reduce emissions and landfill waste by turning garbage into jet fuel. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. as we reported at the top of the hours, there's breaking news on the situation in northern syria with turkish forces aggressively entering the country, fighting against the kurds. as many as 10,000 kurds have died in the fight. the president says now he wants to quell the violence and propose new sanctions and said there will be new sanctions on turkey and plans to send the vice president to the region. thursday will mark the 1,000th day of the trump presidency.

obviously being free leader of the world is a very difficult job and involves many competing forces and difficult decisions. this is a decision clearly that was made without a great amount of forethought and we are seeing the results of that now. we want to show you some images that we have been seeing coming out of northern syria tonight. the images are stark and disturbing and some of them are tough to watch. several videos, including this one, appear to show at least one man on a roadside whose lifeless body is being fired upon repeatedly. the man's hands appear to be tied. cnn cannot independently verify the videos, partly because the situation in the area is so chaotic. a media activist on the scene told "the new york times" that two men who appeared in this video were both killed by a faction allied with the turkish-backed militia. the u.s. backed democratic forces are also blaming turkish-backed militants for the killings. it's the same area where a

prominent politician, members of the kurdish secured forces and several civilians were found dead over the weekend. the president seems to be trying to stem the violence with sanctions on turkey. the fear is it may be too little too late. tens of thousands of civilians are already on the move according to the united nations and the fear is many lives will be lost and the political ramifications for the region and for the united states are yet to be clear. don't miss "full circle," streaming live weekdays at 5 p.m. or at any time on demand. tomorrow night the action takes place here in westerville, ohio. 12 candidates will take the stage. there's never been a debate with 12 candidates on the stage at

once. we hope you tune in starting at 8 p.m. eastern time. i'll turn it over to chris. >> i'm proud of the job you'll do in advance. we have new information on the criminal investigation surrounding rudy giuliani. this is the worst situation this president has had to deal with. why? let's get after it. the irony, the same federal office rudy giuliani once led is leading a criminal investigation into him. according to "the wall street journal," prosecutors in manhattan are examining giuliani's business dealings in ukraine and elsewhere, along with his personal finances. they report investigators have been talking to witnesses since at least august. one question is how will the d.o.j. wind up dovetailing with congress? they're looking at the same situation. a short time ago fiona hil