there is somber, but also the expectation as a voter that you perform your job objectively. >> another historic day. more to come. thanks very much for watching. cnn special coverage continues right now with erin burnett outfront. next, breaking news. democrats present their case for trump's impeachment and tonight meeting behind closed doors as they prepare the articles of impeachment. a highly anticipated report of the launch into the fbi russia probe knocks down years of trump's talking points. the former acting director of the fbi, a target of the president is out front. did the saudi national who killed three in a florida naval base act alone? we have new information as president trump continues to defend the saudis. let's go outfront. good evening. tonight the breaking news. a clear and present danger.

democrats painting a damning picture of lawless president of a ten-hour impeachment hearing that wrapped up moments ago. one witness saying the evidence is overwhelming at times. frankly watching this the hearing became a complete circus, a partisan circus. a hearing that paves the way for the house to move full steam ahead with the formal articles of impeachment against president trump. the first vote on those articles could come any day out of that committee. house speaker nancy pelosi is meeting with democrats behind closed doors tonight. after ten hours of hearings, they're not waiting until tomorrow morning. they are meeting tonight the map out the next steps. that's how you aurgent the situ is. this hearing wrapping up. i know there's votes and then what's next? >> reporter: it's when we expect the final language to be drafted. that could happen in a matter of -- as early as tomorrow we could see some language maybe

even slip into wednesday. we do expect the votes in the house committee to occur this week. we're getting a sense talking to the members of that committee, they're not expecting anymore hearings. the next steps is votes. the next step is determining what the language looks like. behind closed doors it is nancy pelo pelosi's call. she will determine how many articles of impeachment there will be. we'll stay focused on ukraine. that's something she's discussing with jerry nadler and also adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee and it will be multiple meetings. meetings with different groups of members. tomorrow will be meeting with the full caucus. on wednesday i'm told there's a meeting that the speaker is convening also with the full caucus and telling potentially no topic has been announced on that meeting for wednesday. we'll see if they brief the full

membership of the house democratic caucus but the details of the articles of impeachment. we could be getting into the votes by wednesday , if not by thursday, that could be one or two days before we see the full house action next week and that will undoubtedly make president trump the third american president to get impeached by the house. >> there's your latest timing.i. >> reporter: the fiej pnal publ hearing. >> the president welcomed foreign interference in our election in 2016. he demanded it for 2020. then he got caught. the evidence shows that donald

j. trump, the president of the united states, has put himself before his country. >> at the end of the day, all this is about is about a clock and a calendar because they can't get over the fact that donald trump is president of the united states. >> reporter: the hearing spotlighted counsel for both sides arguing their clashing cases. democrats counsel described president trump's efforts to convince ukraine to investigate the biden as a threat to american democracy. >> his persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security. >> reporter: while republicans counsel portrayed it all as a ploy to remove a president democrats don't like. >> to impeach a president who 63 million people voted for over eight lines in a call transcript is balogna. the day long debate erupted into

disputes over process and the witness list. >> is this we just hear staff ask questions of other staff and members get dealt out of the whole hearing for the next four hours. you'll try to overturn the results of an election. >> the gentleman will suspend. >> reporter: republicans railed against democrats refusal to call adam schiff as the main witness. since schiff authored the 300 page impeachment report sent to the judiciary committee last week. >> where is adam? where is adam? it's his report, his name. you're a great attorney kbrour not adam schiff. >> reporter: republicans pressed their own competing narrative blasting joe biden. in the process to get them fired to stop an investigation into burisma. >> joe biden is the only one that's done a quid pro quo.

yet we're sitting here pretending this is not happening. >> reporter: republican counsel tried to validate claims ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. >> contemporaneous news articles noted how it led kiev's wider political leadership to do something they would have never attempted before. intervene, however indirectly, in a u.s. election. >> reporter: something the intelligence community concluded is not true. republicans also seized on the speedy space at which the impeachment inquiry has proceeded saying it's rushed. >> obviously we all wish there was an easy button. congressional investigations of consequence take time. >> reporter: democrats though urge time is of the essence. >> the integrity of our next election is at stake. nothing could be more urgent. >> reporter: democrats are laser

focused on pressing their points that impeachment is necessary since president trump put himself before the country and abused his power but as we saw, republicans repeatedly interjected their complaints asbest about the swift pace and tried to muddy democrats message by arguing this process isn't fair. as we know it could be a quick turn around. democrats expected to bring forward the articles this week which could mean debate and possibly a vote by week's end. >> thank you very much. tonight, a member of the house judiciary committee steve cohen. he was in the room for all of today's ten hours in that hearing. i appreciate your time, sir. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> obviously it sounded as if this was the closing argument that democrats made as your chairman concludesed that hearing. do you have enough evidence now to impeach president trump? >> i think it's unquestionably plenty of evidence to impeach m

him. i think everybody feel he's biassed his power, betrayed his oath. the founding fathers laid out as special nation formed in the 1700s for the rest of the world, a beacon of hope and liberty where the people, not the king determine who their leaders were and if he get the election process, you lose that special privilege. he used a bipartisan congressional mandated military funds to help ukraine defend from russian aggression and used that for his personal benefit. that's just plum wrong. >> obviously you're talking about ukraine here. i know you've said were you running things here, you would include evidence from the mueller investigation. are you going to push for that behind closed doors as your committee drafts the formal articles? >> we'll talk about it and i think he obstructed justice.

i think mueller made it clear obstruction of justice but he couldn't indiets hct him. you can't indiect a president. i think we can do it. there's two schools of thought. one is to keep it fight. the other is to put everything in it. it's not going to make any difference. we probably won't get any in the house. we might lose a couple of democratic votes if we go that way. i think that we don't want to lose democratic votes. we don't want to hurt democratic members. it's important for the future of the country for minimum wage, for prescription drug prices, for all kinds of important laws, we need to have majority in the house and senate and a democratic president. that's important if america will move forward and have a good future. >> which i understand your point on what that would mean for not including mueller in this.

i understand you're meeting with your committee. how quickly do you go from here? do you anticipate having draft articles ready in the next day or so? what's your plan? >> i'm not sure what the timeline is. i would expect wednesday or thursday. articles will be presented and we'll have a mark up. >> by wednesday or thursday. the president was not in office for a year before you had originally introduced five articles of impeachment against him including one for his pardon of sheriff joe arapaio, certain words attacking news anchors. republicans say democrats have been out to get him from day one. here is what they said today. >> we know from day one, the day that donald trump put his hand on the bible to take the oath of office they wanted to impeach him. >> they've been archdiocese this president since to 2016. >> thaifr beey've been out to g president since the day he was elected. >> i was not for his impeachment

from day one. i didn't think he was a good human being when he came up with the trump university stuff. he's been a bad person for a long time. it wasn't until he went to charlottesville and said there were fine people on both sides. i represent a district that's the majority of african-american and klans men aren't fine people. i'm jewish and the nazis are not good people. the self-dealings of the trump hotels and office towers. jud calli ining them hispanic judged not americans. he give him a $25 million decredecree for defrauding students. i didn't do it until november because i waited to get it done the best i could and the most

timely and try to get add much support as i could is because trump took these actions. he did not put his moneys into a trust. he did not take himself out of decision making. he took his daughter and his son-in-law and put them in the white house and they took care of 666 fifth avenue. >> all right. i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. next, the house speaker meeting with democrats tonight and the judiciary committee meeting. they are full steam ahead. how many articles of impeachment will there be? democrats saying rudy giuliani is one reason they have to act immediately against trump. >> the president's personal lawyer spent last week back in ukraine. the highly anticipated inspector general report. the one the president said on the russia investigation was going to blow the whole thing open. it contradicts him and his

attorney general. >> i think there's a spying did occur. i think spying did occur. >> he thought wrong. the former acting director of the fbi is out front. forget about vacuuming for months. the roomba i7+ with clean base automatic dirt disposal and allergenlock™ bags that trap 99% of allergens, so they don't escape back into the air. if it's not from irobot, it's not a roomba™ skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease

into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. talk to your doctor about chantix.

a former army medic, made of the we maflexibility to handle. members like kate. whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa the wait is over. t-mobile is lighting up 5g nationwide. while some 5g signals go only blocks, t-mobile 5g goes miles... beyond the big cities to the small towns... to the people. now, millions of americans can have access to 5g on t-mobile. and this is just the beginning.

t-mobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. (children playing) (dog barking) ♪ (music building) experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment.

the democrats lawyer on the house intelligence committee trying the make the case against president trump in today's impeachment hearing saying there's clear evidence that the scheme in ukraine.nd a quote, >> we are here today because donald j. trump, the 45th president of the united states abused the power of his office, the american presidency, for his political and personal benefit. the president's scheme is quite simple. the facts are not seriously in

dispute. >> now, cnn political analyst david gregory and abby phillip. you agree the facts are in dispute? >> no. >> they really shouldn't be since they are in black and white. you say there's evidence for what you think are three articles of impeachment against president trump. >> i think the first is abuse of power and when the framers talked about high crimes and mismi misdemeanors they mean a president that would threaten our democracy. i'm in favor of going broad because there is about constitutional obligation and not politics. there's an obligation of congress to defend itself. when it comes to obstruction of congress, the blanket refusal to cooperate with any a pekts of this investigation. the president threatening a witness in the case of the former ambassador.

all of those things suggest the obligation of congress to have a second article about obstruction of congress and the third is we need to look again at part two of the mueller report. doj has a policy that says sitting presidents can't be criminally indicted. if that's the policy there's no choice. >> abby, this runs into the politics. he wants mueller in there but seemed clear you couldn't put mueller in because you would lose democratic votes. >> democrats in purple districts where trump won are very nervous about this. they know it runs right into trump's talking point that they are trying to get through this with as little political damage

as possible. it's made difficult if the case for impeachment broadens beyond ukraine into the mueller investigation which from a political perspective is sort of viewed as litigated already in the public and the president is already claimed vinds indicatic. some of these democrats are right to say we can't go back there. we're handing him talking point he will deploy as he has been that says you have been trying to get me from day one. >> at this moment or very soon, nancy pelosi meeting with democratic leadership. you have the house sjudiciary meeting after ten-hour hearing. they are not waiting a day. they're going. do you go broad or narrow.

they put out forto get two. n nixon, they put out five to get three. you don't get everything you put out there. does that argue for just putting the one you know you can get which is probably abuse of power in ukraine or going broader on the obstruction? >> i think the power of abuse of power is that it's particular to the president and it's timely. when republicans are saying they are in a rush to impeach because they always wanted to do it and they don't want to let the voters decide and that's a danger for democrats. they are saying the president wants to actually undermine the 2020 election just like the russians tried to undermine 2016. we can't let him do that. we have to remove him now. these are all set pieces. there's nothing spontaneous in the past nine hours. chairman nadler nadle, that was to roll. here is your clip now. >> put that out in front of the public.

>> i think they go narrow. i think it will be a robust discussion. they want as much party unity as possible. they wnant to keep it focused o something that americans can understand which is there is a clear and present danger represented by the president. that's their argument who is trying to undermine the election. he didn't succeed but that's what he tried to do. that last point is important because republicans will say over and over again. they said it today, these were words. he didn't do anything. i think that will hang up republicans. i think it will be a problem for democrats. he talked about doing things that were wrong but he didn't get away with it. >> we can say he only released the aid two days until he found out the investigation into him. they have got their talking points. this was said about the democrats case against the president.

i want to play this particular point. >> they'll try to convince you that the trump administration, the same administration democrats regularly accused of being incompetent orchestrated an international conspiracy at the highest levels. >> does that work as a defense? >> no because we have seen the evidence. smoking gun was there out front and the read out of that phone call. what you saw there was a president trying to use a foreign power, the president of the ukraine to influence a u.s. election. it's the paradigm of abuse of power. what you saw throughout the hearings and it all came together today was corroboration of the fact we're not reading the common sense reading of that phone call is not a mistake. it is exactly what it looks like. it's a president using a foreign power to try to really benefit himself and that's not about one high crime and misdemeanor, pits an assault on the office. >> any young person were taking

the s.a.t., they would see that's what the call said. next, president trump defending rudy giuliani's trip last week to ukraine. right there, right now to dig up dirt on joe biden. >> he says he has a lot of good information. i hear he's found plenty. plus the report on the or gi -- origins russia investigation is out. the report the president said it will expose this huge deep state. it said the exact opposite. andrew mccabe is mentioned more than 200 times in the report. he's outfront. clearly, velveeta melts creamier ♪

♪ ♪

choose the longest lasting thiaa battery...son (music) energizer ultimate lithium backed by science. matched by no one. ♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪♪

we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. at chevy, we're all about bringing families together. this time of year, that's really important. so we're making it easier than ever to become part of our family. that's why our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. the chevy price you pay is what we pay. not a cent more. family is important to us. and we want you to be part of ours. so happy holidays. and welcome to the family. all: the chevy family! get the chevy employee discount for everyone today.

[ dramatic music ]ing ] ahhhh! -ahhhh! elliott. you came back!

house judiciary chairman jerry nadler claiming rudy giuliani trip to ukraine is not a mistake. it was last week. nadler says it's proof president trump is an ongoing threat. >> the president's personal lawyer spent last week back in ukraine meeting with government officials in an apparent attempt to gin up the same favors that brought us here today and force congress to consider the impeachment of a sitting president. this pattern of conduct represents a continuing risk to the country. >> every one is back with me. david, is rudy giuliani, i mean p it's pretty incredible. my jaw dropped that he's meeting with political who are making the same arguments now. does this help democrats make

their case this is not pass, it's ongoing? >> the audacity is such that i don't know that they need more help to make their case. at the same time in such a partisan environments, republicans will use that boldness, that audacity of rudy giuliani and try to build up their defense of trump. trump is standing by him because he likes how bold he is. he likes how shameless he is in defending him on these matters so he'll encourage him to do it. what we know based on the evidence, based on direct testimony that people who the president put in place thought rudy giuliani was out of control. we know from reporting in the washington post today that even bill barr, who couldn't be any closer to the president, is saying this guy is a liability. out there enriching himself and undermining your administration. >> the president is standing by him saying i think he found

plenty of stuff. some of the president's most die hard republican fans are not standing by him on this one. let's just play what they've been saying when they found out. here are mr. collins. >> do you have any concerns about rudy giuliani continue in this effort? >> i don't have any comments. >> it is weird he's over there. >> when you lose the most stand your ground -- staunch defenders. >> republicans know there's only so much they can defend some of this conspiracy theory plunging that rudy giuliani is doing. it doesn't help them because it's paper thin. it has been ripped apart numerous times in these hearings and public by trump's own administration officials. people he appointed to their positions. rudy giuliani is doing this because he thinks this is the

direction to go in to defend the president but people who have to be in halls of congress answering these questions do not want to answer for some of these characters that he's been paling around with in ukraine. people that are known to be bad actors or suspected of corruption and other things that have made them on the ousts for the u.s. government for years. trump is standing by him for now. he stands by people when he thinks they are being loyal. the question is how long will that continue especially when there is this parallel track in the southern district of new york that is completely separate from all of this and it is criminal. >> he can also say what rudy was doing, i wasn't always aware of. what's hard when you have more testimony when the president se says talk to rudy. he's my point man on this shadow foreign policy. >> rudy has been saying he's the president's attorney but republicans are saying that rudy is acting on his own. >> the president just this weekend about rudy giuliani says he has a lot of good

information. he's not told me what he found but it's clear he doctor and directing him. i think he wants to go before congress. i hear he's found plenty. >> rudy giuliani is a walking argument for this impeachment. if you don't stop the president now, you don't bring these articles of impeachment about obstruction of justice, abuse of power, he will keep doing it. rudy giuliani is showing that. he continues to go to the ukraine and continues to lie about these fake conspiracy theories and it's sort of walking argument for what happens when you leave power unchecked. >> abby, here's the thing. you have these moments in this when today from mr. castro where you say what's going on. there's some basic facts here. still this guy was unable to say it was a fact. let me play the exchange. >> sir, would you agree that joe biden was a leading democratic

contending to face president trump in 2020? >> i wouldn't agree with that. >> you disagree. it's your testimony -- >> it's too early. >> that president trump did not view president biden to be a legitimate contender? >> i don't know what he believed or didn't believe. it's too early. >> this is a basic fact. in every single poll joe biden was the run away front-runner. >> he didn't say the leading contender. he said a leading con tenter. i happen to be covering president trump during this time when he was tweeting about joe biden on a regular basis talking to reporters about him regular i ly, attacking him regularly. you could literally, as long as you weren't under a rock, you were aware the president thought joe biden was the guy that he was likely to be up against or one of them, it was unbelievable. if you look on his face, it's

like he couldn't believe what he was saying with his own words. he had to say it. >> there is on a serious level a stunning moment when you can't even accept a fact like that. >> i think there's a bigger point to be made. there's no room for anything other than being in total lock step on these questions. it's a real problem in our politics now. it's one of the reasons why people who were central like john bolton who was opposed to what was going on will not come out and testify. i'm sure part of that reason is how he would will vilified if he would be seen as aiding the democrats. that's the political moment we're in and it's a dangerous one. >> and a sad one. thank you all very much. next, the justice department's inspector general destroys what trump and his allies have been claiming. >> they spied on my campaign. >> they were spying on the campaign. >> but there wasn't.

why is president trump's instinct to defend the saudis again? i am all about living joyfully.

♪ hello. the united explorer card hooks me up. getting more for getting away. rewarded! going new places and tasting new flavors. rewarded! traveling lighter. rewarded. haha, boom! getting settled. rewarded. learn more at the explorer card dot com. and get... rewarded!

a more secure diaper closure. there were babies involved... and they weren't saying much. that's what we do at 3m, we listen to people, even those who don't have a voice. we are people helping people.

itreat them all as if, they are hot and energized. even those who don't have a voice. stay away from any downed wire, call 911 and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. breaking news, a long awaited report from the justice department inspector general finding the fbi's launch of the russia probe was valid and unbiassed. valid and unbiassed. the report also says there was no spying on the trump campaign

which is a conspiracy theory that trump has pushed since taking office. >> all of their spying. spying. >> they actually spied on my campaign. can you believe it? >> there was spying. they were spying on our campaign. >> they were talking about spying on my campaign. it's a story bigger than watergate as far as i'm concerned. >> except for it was false. a man named more than 200 times in this inspector general report, former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. i appreciate your time. the bottom line conclusion, the inspector general report, the one the president said everybody should watch and be ready for has concluded the russia investigation was launched in a legal and unbiassed way. what's your reaction tonight? >> a lot of people have asked me today have am i relieved? am i happy? the answer is no. i expected this result.

i was there. i know that we didn't do anything wrong. rather than do something wrong, rather than plot the coup that the president and the reaso republicans have been talk about for two years, we did our job. we opened the investigations and pursued them the way the american people would expect us to. >> you mentioned this has been going on for two years and it has. the president has made it about you for that amount of time saying things like this. >> the people that started that investigation are mccabe. >> when you look at what happened at the fbi at the top levels with mccabe and the dishonesty. >> on a personal level since he's been going after you personally, do you feel vindicated tonight that this report concludes you did the right thing? >> as i said, i've known all along that we did the right thing. not just me but the group of people that i worked with at the fbi. it's been disgusting to watch

how the president talks about all of us. how he debases and degraded our organization. how he and the attorney general have levelled all kinds of false, baseless accusations about the work we did. it's been a long time coming. >> he said the report proves there was an attempted overthrow of the government and i think this is really interesting. the guy trump put in the job. let me play what they both said today. it is jarring. >> this was an overthrow of government. this was an attempted overthrow and a lot of people were in on

it. they got caught red handed. >> the inspector general did not find political bias or improper motivations impacting the opening of the investigation. >> wray is clearly willing to stand up to the president on the truth here. >> he exposes the troouth for wt it is. he's an honest person in charge of an honest organization then that's what he has to say regardless of the fact it pits him against the president and maybe against the attorney general. the fact is the president's position on this has been false nar ti narrative from the very beginning. i know it's politically important to him so he'll probably continue to say things like that but it's not true. >> you have the headline here that it was unbiassed and that it was proper and valid. there were mistakes made and the report does go through those in

detail. 17 significant errors or omissions in the fbi applications to monitor carter page, the trump campaign adviser. it admit ted -- includes the steel dossier. it includes over stating corroboration of the things that steel put many that dossier. you and other senior leaders couldn't be expected know about those errors. this would have happened at a much lower level. director wra acknowledges mistakes and says he's taken steps to correct them. do you acknowledge mistakes? >> absolutely. i have no reason to disagree about those factual inaccuracies. they were not something that i or anybody that i spoke to around the decision making the case had any idea about. let's be honest. the fbi needs to be right about

every fact that we present to the pfizer court. it appe -- fisa court. we got 17 mistakes brought out by the ig. that's something that needs to be rectified and people need to be held accountable by that. you can't forget this is an organization of human beings and people make mistakes. they should not have on this case or any fisa application but these things happen and that's why we have investigations to find out how well we did and correct those mistakes. >> right. i think it's important know there were mistakes but that doesn't change the fundamental conclusion is the probe into russia was valid and unbiassed which is important so people don't confuse those two things. i want to take a break. if you could stay with me. the ig report is putting bill barr at the center of this and the attorney general's credibility in question tonight. how much trouble could barr be

in? saudi arabia sending the teams to help saudi nationals after a deadly attack. president is sticking by the saudis. it's time to make mopping history.

introducing the new braava jet m6 robot mop. with an adjustable precision jet spray and advanced pad system braava jet breaks up messes and gets deep in corners. braava jet. only from irobot. i was on the fence about changing from a manual to an electric toothbrush. but my hygienist said going electric could lead to way cleaner teeth. she said, get the one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's gentle rounded brush head removes more plaque along the gum line. for cleaner teeth and healthier gums. and unlike sonicare, oral-b is the first electric toothbrush brand accepted by the ada

for its effectiveness and safety. what an amazing clean! i'll only use an oral-b! oral-b. brush like a pro. 1 in 4 of us millennials have debt we might die with. and most of that debt is actually from credit cards. it's just not right. but with sofi, you can get your credit cards right by consolidating your credit card debt into one monthly payment. including your interest rate right by locking in a fixed low rate today. and you can get your money right with sofi. check your rate in two minutes or less. get a no-fee personal loan up to $100k. skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. get a no-fee personal loan now with 25% more concentrated power.

nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! so attorney general bill barr, trumps hand-picked head of the department of justice, released a statement about the ig report today saying, quote, the inspector general's report now makes clear that the fbi launched an intrusive investigation of a u.s. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that in my view were insufficient to justify the steps taken. it's sort of a bizarre other worldly thing to say in the face of the inspector general investigation and report, which concludes that there was no evidence of political bias behind actions taken in the investigation. i am back with the former fbi deputy director, andrew mccabe. as i said, deputy director, you're mentioned in this report many times and you know all about what happened. so now we have tonight the top law enforcement officer in the country, bill barr, coming out

and saying his own inspector general report is wrong and basically calling it a farce. seriously, can you believe this? >> i can't, erin, i really can't. i've never seen anything like it. typically at this point an attorney general would step forward and acknowledge the work of his or her ig and then immediately address what steps they were going to take to address the recommendations in the report. in this case, attorney general barr has decided instead of doing any of that to attack the report and then to continue to flog this false narrative about fbi leadership malfeasance and suggestions of echoing back to all the worst tropes of the deep state conspiracy. look, we have to acknowledge the fact that he does this for one reason. it is a narrative that is politically important to the president. and the attorney general has indicated with a statement today that he is willing to keep supporting that narrative, despite the facts. >> look, the facts, right, the report says that despite

mistakes made, which as you and i have discussed there were some. >> there were. >> the fbi did have a, quote, authorized purpose to monitor carter page. so they're saying there were all these mistakes made in obtaining that warrant, and yet the conclusion of the report is that the fbi did have an authorized purpose to do exactly what it got permission to do. and yet here is what barr said to congress. >> i think there is spying did occur. yes, i think spying did occur. >> and then in "the wall street journal" he gave an interview. he said government power was used to spy on american citizens. given what he's saying tonight, it doesn't sound like he's going to take those words back and admit that he's wrong. how much damage is he doing to the country by talking like he's talking now? >> well, he's doing a lot of damage to an institution and the people in it that the people of this country rely upon to protect them and support the constitution. the attorney general, if he didn't know it then, and i suspect he did, he certainly has

to confront now that his accusations of spying, calling the men and women of the fbi a bunch of spies, something thaerthat he should be apologizing for and not repeating. >> on the steele dossier, obviously you were unaware of any mistakes that were made and the report concludes that there was an authorized purpose to monitor him. you're quoted in the report, though, as supporting the dossier being included in the fisa warrant. you said i hear you, i understand, but we can't pull any punches and we've got to do it and let the chips fall where they may. do you have any regrets about including that dossier in the warrant now? >> i don't. you know, we felt and i say we, the investigators and the fbi, felt very strongly that we had enough factual predication to go up -- to request fisa coverage of carter page even before we had the dossier. some of the lawyers in the justice department disagreed and so the package didn't go forward. once we had the dossier, we felt that those were the facts that essentially put us over the

threshold and that was the decision, that was our position and doj agreed with that position. they wrote the package, they included the infamous footnote that explained the provinence of that information and so i don't regret moving forward with that package. >> thank you very much, deputy director. i appreciate your time tonight. >> my pleasure. next, president trump's defense of saudi arabia alienating him from members of his own party, members that he desperately needs right now in congress, following the deadly attack at pensacola naval base. ( ♪ )

tonight tensions rising between the u.s. and saudi arabia after the navy base shooting in which three servicemen were killed in pensacola, florida. the saudis sending a high-ranking diplomat and lawyers to deal with the fallout of an attack the fbi is investigating as an act of

terror. brynn gingras is live. >> reporter: investigators are working with up to a dozen saudi nationals who are being confined to the military base, the naval base behind me by their saudi commanding officer. we're hearing that they want to leave base. tensions are rising really between the two countries, so much so as you said a high-level saudi attache has come to work with military officials and deal with this issue. this as the president almost every single day since the attack has almost praised the saudi kingdom about their response to this attack, even stim as investigative threads are the possibility that this gunman was radicalized and even as his own allies have been more condemning on the saudi government that the president has not done as of yet. >> all right, thank you very much. brynn gingras live in pensacola. thanks very much to all of

you for joining us. we'll see you back here tomorrow night. "ac 360" with anderson cooper starts right now as nancy pelosi is meeting with house democratic leaders as i speak. good evening from washington tonight. a stunning rebuttal of virtually everything that president trump has said again and again for years about what he calls the russia hoax. that and impeachment hearings today that saw the president described as a clear and present danger to free and fair elections. it doesn't get much bigger than that. we begin with a report from the justice department's inspector general that exposes the president of the united states as fundamentally dishonest about the russian investigation and the people who conducted it. in a moment i'll talk with one of those people, former fbi director james comey, whom the president fired has attacked relentlessly ever since along with the men and women who work for him and continue to work at the justice department and inside the intelligence community. the inspector general's report