excelling because of the amazing opportunities this country provides. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer. erin burnett up front starts right now. up front next breaking news the intelligence committee moving full speed ahead on impeaching president trump. the chairman tonight not ruling out more hearings as the white house says bring it on to a public trial. plus, more breaking news, the president of the united states still pushing a lie about ukraine despite an intelligence briefing we've learned telling it's not true. and michael bloomberg dropped a jaw-dropping amount on money and ads. good evening. out front tonight, cnn is learning that democrats are looking at multiple articles of impeachment against president trump. they include abuse of power, obstruction of congress, obstruction of justice, and bribery. this is house intelligence chairman adam schiff says his committee has begun writing its

impeachment report. all of this is picking up speed right now. we're learning more about where we go tonight. the democratic house aides we now know will spend thanksgiving week preparing that report. and hearings now are expected to begin in the judiciary committee on the first week in december. the plan is to then hold the vote before christmas. chairman schiff also isn't ruling out the possibility of even more hearings. maybe because a key potential witness is breaking his silence for the first time since the inquiry began and he's placing the blame on the white house for his silence. john bolton breaking his silence on twitter today tweeting we speaking up since resigning as national security advisor, the white house refused to return access to my personal twitter account out of fear of what i might say? to those who speculate i went into hiding, i'm sorry to disappoint.

out of fear for what he might say. will he who knows all appear at the last minute? it's a huge question for the president who, tonight, is trying to act like he has nothing to fear. >> frankly, i want a trial. you know, i think i could have it be whatever i want. >> you want a trial? >> oh, i would. >> as of right now, it certainly looks like trump will be impeached. that's the simple math, right? democrats have the votes which means the senate will hold a trial, whether trump wants it or not. does he really want it? like he says, does he really want it? it's funny because the more president trump says he really wants something, he would love something to happen, history has shown the more the truth is the exact opposite. he really doesn't want it. >> i want to release my tax returns. >> are you going to talk to mueller? >> i'm looking forward to it actually. >> i'd love to have mick go up frankly. i think it'd do great. i'd love to have almost every

person go up when they know me. >> of course, he never released his tax returns. he never spoke to mueller. and he has not let mick mulvaney or any other single person testify in the impeachment inquiry as he just said he wanted to there. so he says one thing. he means the opposite. katelyn collins is out front at the white house and, katelyn, the president says he really wants a trial. fact? or fiction? >> well, erin, it may not matter either way because if the house votes to impeach the president, a trial in the senate is all but guaranteed. something majority leader mitch mcconnell has made crystal clear to the white house in recent weeks saying this is coming whether you want it or not so you need to get ready. that seems to be what changed. the president is coming to terms with the fact this is actually happening. something he had been in denial about for several weeks according to people who had been speaking with him. so the question now is what their defense is going to look like. and the president has said he wants it to be aggressive. though, it's likely to look like what you saw this morning in that interview attacking democrats and of course floating

those conspiracy theories about ukraine that these intelligence officials have said just are not true. and that's convoluted at best according to republicans who are the ones having to defend the president here. but, erin, it's not the only convoluted thing happening here at the white house tonight because john bolton, the former national security advisor was arriving back in washington and is continuing to insist tonight that the white house blocked his twitter account for the last two months preventing him from being able to say anything. offering an odd excuse saying he believed the white house had attached some software to it and then removed the software. that's what he was telling the reporters there. but refused to answer questions about whether or not he's going to testify. instead, just focusing on getting that twitter account back. >> thank you very much. tonight, i want to go to democratic congressman ted lieu. congressman, great to have you with me tonight. house intel chair adam schiff says he's working on the report. they have started that process, which of course they have to do

to technicalry formally hand it to you. he, though, is not ruling out more depositions or hearings. do you think, congressman lu, that more public hearings are needed at this point? >> thank you, erin, for your question. let me first say that impeachment is one of the greatest powers of congress, second only to our power to declare war. it must always be our last option. now, the evidence that's already come out certainly looks very bad for the president. but let me clarify no decision has been made as to whether or not we impeach the president. we're going oh get a report from intelligence committee. we'd love if ambassador bolton would decide to testify. we would love it if mick mulvaney would come and testify. but we're not going to wait months and months for a supreme court to make a decision on whether or not we can compel them to testify before we move forward. >> all right. so the president says today that his party is strongly behind him. here he is in that interview. >> i don't think i've ever seen support in the republican party

like we do right now. >> and congressman, on a lot of levels it looks like he's right. no republican in the house has said they'd vote to impeach. consistently and repeatedly said there was a quid pro quo at the direction of the president. in fact, congressman will hurd, who is retiring and the most moderate republican on the intelligence committee. a lot of people thought he could be someone who could go for impeachment. he has now said the president's call was quote inappropriate, misguided foreign policy. but then he went on to say this. >> an impeachable offense should be compelling, overwhelmingly clear, and unambiguous. and it's not something to be rushed or taken lightly. i've not heard evidence proving the president committed bribery or extortion. >> do you think he can get any republicans to vote for impeachment? >> one of the greatest

disappointments i've seen are current elected members of congress who happen to be republican who seem to look at the facts in a very partisan manner. what these two weeks of hearings showed is the president of the united states solicit foreign interference in our elections. that's illegal. he then made it worse by using the powers of his office to withhold critical military aid to ukraine, to withhold an important white house meeting to pressure the ukrainians to launch two bogus investigations into the bidens and the dnc. we had former reagan speech writer today write an op-ed that basically said the president and his defenders have no real good defense for what the president did. i wish my republican colleagues in congress would see the sap thing. >> so you have john bolton in this context, right? you saw his tweet today blaming the white house for blocking him from his twitter account and he questions whether they did it quote, out of fear of what i may say. this is the big question. you said you don't want to wait into the new year. but do you think that getting

somebody like john bolton or mick mulvaney is now essential to get somebody like congressman hurd on board? and is it even worth it? >> i'm a former prosecutor and what happens in these investigations is often times, you'll get a lot of evidence and then you'll realize to get the next trench of evidence, you might have to wait a very long time and make a decision as to whether or not there's enough to go forward. but it doesn't mean the investigation stops. the investigation is gonna keep on continuing so if at any time ambassador bolton wants to do the right thing and come to congress and tells you what he knows, we're going to gladly take that. >> go ahead with your vote, do you think you could still fight it in court and have him appear sometime next year? as oversight, you could still have him come in and deliver his testimony or no? >> right. so unfortunately, ambassador bolton's attorney has said that he will fight the subpoena in court, which means they'll go all the way to the supreme court. and it will take a very long

time for that decision. but ambassador bolton could just do what his staff has done and come forward and tell congress what he knows. that will be the patriotic thing to do. >> the house minority leader kevin mccarthy is going even farther than the president's team. they think there won't be a vote for impeachment. but mccarthy telling manu raju they're going to get every single republican to vote against impeachment and i think we're going to gain dems. they think democrats are going to come over to their side. are you 100% sure democrats will all vote to impeach? even for the inquiry, you didn't have 100%. >> that's correct. for the inquiry, there are two democrats who did not support the inquiry. justin amash -- and based on the facts, the president abused his power. now, what members of congress do with those facts it's going to be up to our conscience that

this -- we represent. and then we're going to make a decision in december. >> in december. all right. thank you very much. congressman, i appreciate it. >> thank you, erin. >> up front next, breaking news. intelligence officials warned this was not true. >> ukraine hated me. they were after me in the election. they wanted hilary clinton to win. >> plus, more breaking news. the fbi cleared in a report about the launch of the investigation into russian election meddling. it found no anti-trump bias at the top of the fooibi. so what will the president have to say about that? and biden taking a big-time swing at a new opponent. >> friday night on erin burnett out front. brought to you by pfizer. it slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting.

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there's a company that's talked than me: jd power.people 448,134 to be exact. they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room. breaking news. cnn learning u.s. intelligence officials warned senators telling them in a classified briefing that putin is engaging in a years-long campaign to frame ukraine for his attack on

america's 2016 election. but that is not stopping the president from pushing putin's story. here is trump just this morning. >> ukraine hated me. they were after me in the election. they wanted hilary clinton to win. >> the president pushing the debunked claim that ukraine meddled in the u.s. election. just a day after his former top russia advisor fiona hill warned against it. >> this is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the russian security services themselves. >> up front now, malika henderson, carl bernstein, who is part of the washington post team, and carrie. carl, republicans obviously most prominently the president of the united states have been pushing this conspiracy theory even though they have been warned by american intelligence officials as recently as weeks ago that it

is b.s. and it plays right into putin's hands. why? why are they doing this? >> because there's very little interest in the truth by the president's republican defenders, which is a really terrible thing given the grievous nature of the president's corruption, his illegal acts that have now been demonstrably made apparent through the impeachment hearings. the republican party is really also on trial in -- in -- in the senate. and we'll see if there's any breaking of ranks. and right now, it doesn't appear that -- that there is going to be. but i think it will be many, many years that the republican party will be judged for what it does in this trial of donald trump. but also, to your point, mr. bolton, who earlier in the program you were describing his twitter situation. there are no shackles on his

mouth. just on his twitter account. and there's no reason he can't go before the committee, just as fiona hill, his deputy did, yesterday. and say this is nonsense, this disproven allegation about the -- that ukraine was responsible. >> right. which, of course, tom vosserd. carrie, what do you think of this, though? that the president continues to do this? that some of his republican allies continue to do it. of course, we heard devin nunes do it just yesterday in the hearing. when they've been told it's a lie. not only is it a lie but it is a lie that is helping vladimir putin. >> right. well, there's so many different angles to this. first of all, we knew going into the hearings that this theory was bunk. that ukraine was responsible for the -- for the election interference. we knew the considered assessment of the intelligence community was that it was russia behind it and that the ukraine story was just a conspiracy

theory and was -- and had been debunked. so what's interesting now is who actually, in government, has received these briefings that then go the stepfather farther really there is intelligence information indicating this line of theory is actually putin talking points or russian talking points. and so the -- the new reporting tonight from "the new york times" is really interesting because it says at least some members of the senate have been briefed. so what i'm curious about is has the president personally been briefed on that intelligence reporting? has members of the house intelligence committee been briefed on that? because if they were briefed and went out in open hearing and actively trafficked in this conspiracy theory, then that's sort of a whole next level. and now, now that the report is out, one would think that starting this moment, anybody in a government position of responsibility would stop doing this. and yet, they're not. they're continuing to spread

this information. >> so, you know, this ws just a part of trump's interview today in which he said things that do not align with the truth. listen. >> this guy, sondland, he was really the european union ambassador. and all of a sudden, he's working on this. >> i worked with mr. rudy giuliani on ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the united states. >> the ambassador, the woman, she wouldn't even put up. she's an obama person. >> i joined the foreign service during the reagan administration and subsequently served three other republican presidents. >> and i will tell you this about joe biden. i never said it specifically on him. >> you heard the president of the united states ask the president of the ukraine to investigate the bidens, is that correct? >> yes, sir, he made a request. >> and that's, i guess, the tip of the iceberg. but it makes the point. he just blatantly went on television and lied about three

things everyone else testified to under oath. does he just think if he keeps saying those lies, people will believe him? >> i think -- i think that's right. and the proof of that is what we saw in those hearings. hours and hours of hearings where the house republicans were essentially parroting some of these conspiracy theories that he himself has been trafficking in about ukraine, for instance. that last bit where he says that he never really said the bidens, well, he's been instructing everybody to read the transcript in the transcript. the bidens come up, right? so, you know, this is i think his whole strategy. it's been his strategy from the time he announced that he was gonna run for president that he could create his own reality. create his own truth and be so ♪

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>> tonight backing pompeo big time, the secretary of state who knows a lot about trump's actions on ukraine and who has so far stayed silent and loyal. trump wants to keep it that way and he's pumping up pompeo and would win a senate race if he ran. this is how big he was on the quid pro quo. kylie atwood is out front. >> it's a subject the secretary of state has repeatedly dismissed. >> even while all of this noise is going on, you all are fixated on this. >> i'm not going to get into the

issues surrounding the democrat impeachment inquiry. >> but now one of his own ambassadors has placed him squarely in the middle of the story. >> everyone was in the loop. >> gordon sondland, the u.s. ambassador to the eu told lawmakers pompeo knew about the quid pro quo with ukraine and claimed he did nothing to stop it. >> we kept the leadership of the state department and the nsc informed of our activities and that included communications with secretary of state pompeo. >> sondland came with proof, multiple e-mails he sent to pompeo. in one, he laid out a plan to get president zelensky to commit, quote, on those issues of importance to potus and the u.s., meaning investigations which would politically benefit president trump. sondland hoped, he told pompeo, that this proposal, could break the logjam.

pompeo said yes. pompeo was in brussels, pressing disinterest. >> i didn't hear a single thing. i was working. sounds you might not have been. >> gordon sondland never told secretary pompeo that he believed the president was linking aid to investigations of political opponents. any suggestions to the contrary is flat-out false, but in october pompeo admitted he was listening in on the now infamous trump zelensky call on july 25th where trump made that ask. pompeo, an ardent defender of president trump saw nothing wrong with that call and has alleged election interference by former vice president joe biden based on no evidence. >> america can't have our elections interfered with and if that's what took place there, if there was that kind of activity engaged in by vice president biden, we need to know. >> last month when asked about holding up foreign assistance for a political initiative, the

exact thing that sondland believes pompeo knew about, he said this. >> i never saw that in the decision making process that i was a part pf. >> pompeo has made a decision not to defend career foreign service officers by name even after trump smeared marie yovanovitch with a tweet erroneously claiming that everywhere she went turned bad. >> i don't have anything to say. i'll defer to the white house about particular statements and the like. >> one possible offer for pompeo. >> they love him in kansas. >> the president appearing to give pompeo an exit strategy. adding to the speculation that pompeo will leave his job to run for senate. >> if he thought there was a chance of losing that seat i think he would do that and he would win in a landslide. >> now republicans are fearful that they could potentially lose that kansas senate seat to the democrats if pompeo doesn't jump in the race and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has been

up front with the fact that he wants pompeo to run and he was promising to revitalize the department and boost the morale and there are fears that if he leaves now, the fact that he hasn't defended career foreign service officers could have a negative impact on his long-term legacy. erin? >> thank you very much, kylie and next, joe biden on the attack against rich guys running for president. this as michael bloomberg drops $30 million in one fell swoop on an ad. and the face of an impeachment inquiry. just one of the most memorable moments observed by jeanne. for the win win. ♪'cause no matter how far away for you roam.♪ys.♪ ♪when you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze.♪

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>> so, look, i like deval. i really do. he's a good guy and he's a solid guy. >> all right. biden is not wrong about morehouse. that is the image of the empty room at morehouse college where patrick was supposed to speak. the event was canceled after only two people showed up and the event was scheduled with almost no notice an hour before the democratic debate. keith boynkin and former clinton white house secretary joe lockhar lockhart. >> appeal is he brings people together. he ended up complimenting deval. they know each other well and it's kind of a cheap shot and the bigger picture for biden as he goes around and talks about how much support he has in the african-american community which is true, but he's -- he's got to earn that support, and you know, taking a shot at deval, i think, was off brand.

>> off brand, keith. here's the thing to his point about the black vote, he is giving this interview with don in south carolina and 50% of the voters are black and it was a slam to pete buttigieg and oliver davis is one of the longest-serving black council members in south bend, indiana and comes out and endorsesed bien and he's struggled to win over communities of color and it's a consistent issue that's not going away. is joe biden in a bad spot? is he betting on black voters in the third state to vote to -- for him? >> well, i mean, that's a gamble you take, when you make that risk and calculation but i'm not sure that we'll see the results we have right now in february when we have the iowa caucused. we've seen this in every four-year election cycle where you have a front-runner for a month or two and changes and pete buttigieg is the flavor of

the month. who knows who will be the flavor in december and january. i think in terms of reaching black voters pete has a lot of work to do. biden's appeal is primarily he is electable especially for older black voters and he's connected to barack obama but for younger black voters he has to offer something more. something new to appeal to them. so far he hasn't done that. >> that's going to be the big test, right? certainly especially if that group, younger black voters take another look at pete buttigieg now that he's been surging in polls. joe biden also jumped at the chance -- this case it was a punch but not the first punch, it was a counterpunch at michael bloomberg. let me play this part. >> someone in his campaign said or someone said specifically he has specific concerns about your ability to carry this through to the finish line. what do you say about that? >> watch me. watch me. the idea that i'm not in better shape than mayor bloomberg

physically and otherwise -- >> what i like about -- to be fair, bloomberg had laid that out there so biden was punching back there but take the the age issue by the horns. bloomberg is nine months older but statistically it is an insignificant statistic. >> it is within the margin of error. >> both 77 as of two days ago but they're fighting about this. >> yeah, listen, i think the broader point that bloomberg people were making is that the field -- democrats are not excited about the field. that's not true. every poll has shown there is excitement. i actually think bloomberg getting in helps biden for two reasons. one is he's going to spend a lot of money and he's going to spend a lot of money doing two thing, one, attacking donald trump. two, attacking the ideas that he believes are out of the mainstream but the ideas that have been espoused by warren and sanders and the most progressive

part -- >> basically paying to do joe biden's dirty work. >> i don't think that's what bloomberg is but that may be the effect. >> they agree on those points. you're talking about more moderate points and taking on donald trump. keith what, about this, though, the money? biden tonight saying, well people think if they have a billion dollars they think can beat trump and said obviously -- a veiled -- not a veiled but swipe at bloomberg for spending $29 million on an ad buy but money can buy you a lot. >> it can't buy you everything. it can't buy you love. or votes. i've been saying this for awhile. i don't know why like bloomberg is running. i don't think he has any chance of winning. i think it's wise that joe biden is taking him on and i disagree with joe in the sense that even if bloomberg does sort of make the same message that biden wants to make, bloomberg is an

imperfect messenger. he does not resonate with the base. he turns the base off, i think, so i don't think he is a good person to -- >> i like the battle of septuagenarians. now you've got warren and trump and you got sanders and biden and bloomberg. >> about 300 years between them. >> you can watch more of don's interview, a great one, with joe biden on cnn tonight starting at 10:00. next public impeachment hearings played for laughs. >> he called you, quote/unquote, the gordon problem. >> that's what my wife calls me. there's a company that's talked to even more real people

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the impeachment inquiry in the words of the witnesses sunday at 8:00. the impeachment inquiry part two as seen by jeanne moos. here's jeannie. >> reporter: it could leave you in stitches. wonderful day crocheting and watching the impeachment as they needle each other. >> asinine theory. is donald trump your friend? >> i remember the first girl i kissed. >> he called you quote/unquote the gordon problem. >> that's what my wife calls me. >> reporter: ambassador gordon sondland was laughing, drinking,

drinking and refilling his drink, fidgeting in his seat but generally jolly. one body language expert said he was signaling his emotional relief. >> the president tweeted that you are a really good march and a great american. one month later he said let me just tell you, i hardly know the gentleman. >> easy come, easy go. >> reporter: it didn't look easy for ranking republican devin nunes. when the committee took a break, so did his face. many found it impossible to curb their enthusiasm for the fashion hit of the hearings, a bow tie and pocket hanky, loving george kent's bow tie and the guy known for the extra long red tie chimed in. >> wonderful bow tie. maybe i'll get one for myself someday. >> reporter: don't tell that to judge jeanine on fox news. >> the bow tie. >> reporter: forget fashion.

noou nunes bashed the democrats repeatedly. >> they got caught trying to obtain nude photos of president trump. >> reporter: it's true. two russian trapgsteres did get through to adam schiff offering naked trump pictures. schiff's spokesman told the atlantic the call seemed bogus and alerted law enforcement but just the thought struck fear into those who have glimpsed those naked statues of the president. there were taunts that it's nunes who is obsessed. the internet obsessed over a reporter caught guzzling coffee behind lieutenant colonel vindman. >> we're at that point. >> reporter: emma told slate luckily i didn't miss my mouth as thee gulped down the last bit. enthusiastic spectators when you get put on the jumbotron at the impeachment hearing. the star witness of the hearing seemed almost giddy. tell the chairman, call a break. sondland was worried he'd miss

his flight attendant. now, that's an impeachable expression. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. ♪ >> thank you for joining us, anderson starts now. the president's own justice department on the president's own orders investigating the president's own conspiracy theories about the 2016 russia probe and largely debunks them. john berman in for anderson. it is breaking news and it is big. the justice department inspector general's report on the fbi's cross fire hurricane investigation is done. cnn was first to learn that a former fbi lawyer is under criminal investigation for allegedly altering a document related to the 2016 surveillance of trump campaign adviser carter page. tonight, there's more. much more. in "the new york times," this is the lead, a highl