thanks very much for watching, i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." you can follow me on twitter and instagram @wolfblitzer and tweet the show @cnnsitroom. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. out front next, breaking news, opening statements on the articles of impeachment begin in just 24 hours setting up a major vote. this as the president pushes for a long senate trial that mitch mcconnell doesn't want. mitt romney is open to convicting president trump, is he serious? president trump invites a top russian official to the white house today. tru trumps they talked about election meddling and they say absolutely they did not. good evening. i'm erin burnett out front. the breaking news. we are learning that the judiciary committee will take up the articles of impeachment tomorrow night live, exactly 24

hours from now. the committee members will make opening statements on the two art i articles of impeachment, abuse of power and they will speak life tomorrow night and each will make their case to the nation and this coming after a historic day, democratic leaders standing before the american public to announce that president trump will become the fourth president to face impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. according to the resolution, president trump abused the powers of the presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal political benefit. he has also betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections. president trump responded a few moments ago. >> they put up new articles that frankly, are very weak and they're very weak. >> the full house of representatives could vote on those article, however you may

describe them in a matter of days. manu raju is live on capitol hill. huge development. we will have these opening statements and we will have this live for the nation and the world to hear, what more are we learning is next in the process? >> it will move pretty quickly in the house after the opening statements on wednesday and then they'll be on thursday, the committee will begin the voting on those articles of impeachment and that will be a messy affair, a day-long affair when the republicans will be offering amendment after amendment trying to undercut the articles of impeachment and trying to cut back the articles and it may be a contentious debate. it may not go all day and there say ball that the white house is hosting at 7:00 p.m. eastern that members want to attend and perhaps it could be done by then and by that point in the evening, thursday night the judiciary committee is expected to approve those articles of impeachment and send it to the full house and the house next week will vote to make president trump the third american president to be impeached by

that bod oat two articels. one on abuse of power looking at the president's handling of relations of ukraine and the democratic allegations that he leveraged the power of his office to push for that country to open up investigations into his political rival. erin, behind the scenes there's been considerable debate about adding a third article of impeachment and that on obstruction of justice seeking the president to seeking to undercut that investigation. a number of democrats believe he should have been charged with obstruction of justice and behind the scene, nancy pelosi did not favor going that way because moderate members, and freshman members wanted to be focused strictly on ukraine, and that was a clearer case to make to the american public and some of the issues are still tied up in court and the democrats decided they'll punt on that issue even though they would send a message to the president they would not send that, and this is focused strictly on the

issue of ukraine warning the president not to go this vout and after the house votes next week to impeach the president and that's when the senate trial will begin and that will take up much of january and at the moment the president is expected to equip the president and we'll see if anyone in the congress will defect. >> i want to go to democratic congresswoman sheila jackson-lee. she's one of five members who also served on this committee during the clinton impeachment and i appreciate your time tonight. >> thank you. >> and obviously, you're ready tomorrow night. you'll be giving an opening statement, i presume, along with everyone else on that committee. do you know yet what you'll say? >> first of all, good evening to all of your viewers, and thank you for having me. in addition to having served during the moment of the 1998 impeachment, i knew leon jaworsky, and as well the maiden holder of the seat was the honorable barbara olsen involved in the nixon proceedings.

i believe i have gleaned from the whole time of trying to hold a president accountable is that now we're at the point of conscience and we're at the point of morality and we're at the point of asking the question of what the american people expect from a person who holds the highest office and the responsibility of congress, the duty of congress to hold this president accountable. this is not something i campaigned on and this is not something that i wish to be part of the congress' agenda, but if we are to offer to the american people and the world that looks to this great democracy for not only inspiration, but leadership, then we must hold a president who is willing to sell the national security or to exchange or to ask someone, a foreign entity to, in essence, find information or investigate a political opponent and so that is to jeopardize the national security of the american people

for his own private or political gain, then that is a constitutional violation of the law, and he must be held accountable. >> so according to manu raju, there is a group of house democrats from districts that president trump won in 2016 and they met yesterday. they wanted to talk about how to avoid a full-on impeachment trial and the suggestion they had was an official censure of the president. you can vote for that and get the democrats to vote for it, and you can perhaps get some democrats. i know you supported censuring bill clinton and not impeaching him when you were there for his impeachment trial as a democrat. could you get behind that idea this time? >> well, i think without fully going into the issue of sencens during 1998, they were not acts of government and governance of the nation and they were private matters although criticized and this is far distinctive. this is high crimes and

misdemeanors. these are constitutional crimes. i think it's important for the american people to know that the constitution is a law. it is the law, and therefore, you can have constitutional crimes. the presidents had perpetrated a constitutional crime that equate to high crimes and misdemeanors by violating the trust of the american people by abusing his power, by offering to have a foreign entity both in the 2016 election when he asked for any russians listening and wanted them to go get e-mails and by asking china, were they listening and to also go and interfere with the election, and i consider this a continuing threat to the 2020 election, for that reason there is no room for censure at this time. i certainly welcome members of congress who have their own opinion, to offer different suggestions and i'm sure they will be considered and right now we're moving today the process

that we're engaged in. no, the articles of impeachment are moving, and i hope this will be a moral choice between republican, democrats and independents. >> in the obstruction of congress, and abuse ever power and obstruction of congress. you explain the president did this in part by directing other executive branch agencies to defy lawful subpoenas and withhold the production of documents and records from the committees in response to which the department of state office of opg, department of energy and the department of defense refused to produce a single document or record. team trump withheld 12 witnesses you asked for telling every single employee not to testify and they withheld 71 documents that you asked for mike pompeo said all of this is counter factual. >> the state department has fully complied with all legal requirements and we will continue to do so and we've had a number of officers testify. we've asked every officer who moves forward who testifies

under oath to do so fully, completely, accurately, truthfully, and that remains the expectation that i have for both the officers of the state department as well as for the things that we need to produce do you means in response to appropriate congressional oversight. >> is he lying? >> let me just say that we can say that that is inaccurate. the secretary of state knows full well that the witnesses that came before the impeachment inquiries came voluntarily and some of them have their own lawyers. he knows that for a fact. he knews ambassador taylor flew from ukraine on his own desire. the ambassador to ukraine came on her own and dr. hill came on their many and many, many others. he knows for a fact that the president of the united states unlike any other impeachment, including nixon and clinton, of course, blocked every white house official and officials that would listen to him. he asked every single one of

them not to appear and there were many documents that were not presented, particularly in ambassador sondland's testimony. he clearly said he was not able to access e-mails. >> yeah. >> so the secretary is creating a distraction. i think this is going to be a time of one's faith, a time of one's love for their country, a time of patriotism, and a time of respect for the dignity and the constitution and democracy. there will be disagreement. i know that, but the facts are undisputed. our friends on the other side of the aisle have not disputed one single fact and they have not defended the president. all they've talked about is process. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much, congresswoman, as always. >> thank you for having me. >> next, mitt romney says he is open to convicting president trump, to removing him from office. really? plus the president claiming tonight he spoke to the russian foreign minister about election meddling, but did he? and trump goes to war with his

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tonight, republican senator mitt romney open to impeaching president trump. romney telling our manu raju, quote, i'm keeping an open mind until that process is completed. of course, he's referring to the entire house situation and the trial in the senate. president trump is already preparing for a senate trial. he's clashing with the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who will, of course, be the one in charge. trump wants, a quote, dramatic event after opting out of participating in those. ameri mcconnell is pushing back, making clear, no. he wants to get it over quickly and floating a ten-day minimum and waiting until after the new year. gloria borger, our chief political analyst and michael

isikoff, correspondent for yahoo news and author of the book "russian roulette." as i say here, trump wants to make this a dramatic event, right? he wants to make it pomp, circumstance, a circus and a scene he scene. he thinks the best outcome is to drag it out and make it a spectacle. is that right? >> you can see this coming, right? it reminds me being a young lawyer when you're winning just sit down and take the win. i'm not sure trump is going to be willing to do that. i think one could see him saying wait a minute, i might actually have the chance to subpoena people? i might have the chance to subpoena hunter biden? well, heck -- >> he'll be salivating. it sounds like a great idea and i'll have a chance to put on witnesses and put on evidence, yes, but you still need a majority of the republicans to go along because even though the chief justice presides over a senate trial, this is run by the republicans and mitch mcconnell has the majority, but it's a thin majority and so you need

enough republicans to sort of sign up to kind of go along with this plan. >> right. and to make it clear, gloria, we know mcconnell made it clear to the president he didn't have enough votes to dismiss this as a trial and there are people who take it seriously and don't want it turned into a spectacle and a joke, but mcconnell is not giving into trump. trump wants it right away and dragged out and mcconnell is going, we're going to make it quick and by the way, we'll wait until after all of the bowl games are over in the new year season was the answer he gave. these are pretty specific things to say. he's ruling out taped depositions from witnesses which trump doesn't want. i mean, he's clearly defying the president on important things here. >> he is, and he controls the senate, and i think the president may listen to mitch mcconnell. he has on occasion in the past, and if mcconnell were to say to the president, look, mr. president, do you want to keep control of the senate after 2020, then listen to me and let me handle this the way i want to

handle this, and mcconnell, of course, being an institutionalist is going to look back at the clinton impeachment and the most recent impeachment and he will see that democrats and republicans did not turn it into a circus. they turned it into a somber, sedate affair and i think, if given a choice mcconnell would like to do that in and in doing so he probably feels he'll get more votes to acquit the president? >> will mcconnell give into trump's demands for a spectacle or will the president listen to him in the end? >> i don't think that mcconnell wants a spectacle. look, there's one big question that overhangs this trial and that is what happens if the house democratic managers presumably led by adam schiff call john bolton as a witness? and what do the senate -- do the senate republicans vote on that? does chief justice roberts rule

on bolton's relevance and how does bolton respond? if it's the chief justice of the united states who authorizes and says it's okay, he wants bolton to testify or it's a valid subpoena. bolton can try to go to court, but he ends up before the chief justice at the end anyway. so i think that's the big of the question and i think that's the one only game changer i can see on the horizon here, dramatic testimony from john bolton about his direct communications with the president. >> what odds would you put on that? >> very, very, very little. as michael knows, in the clinton proceeding, the sen at sort of set the rules and there are procedural ways that mitch mcconnell can sort of control this issue going to the chief justice, and under the senate rules in any case, it would be up to the chief just toys decide whether to make the decision himself or leave it to the

senate. i think it's very, very unlikely, that the chief justice inserts himself where the senate doesn't want him. >> mitt romney says he has an open mind about voting to convict trump and he's expressed his displeasure and says it's inappropriate what the president said, however, he says he has an open mind now. you know him. you've sat down with him many times and do you think he will vote to impeach or remove, i'm sorry. >> he said this in the past and said this in october that he has an open mind. it's a convenient way to a lot of senators to not commit themselves and say i have to be on the jury so i will not give you a verdict before i go and sit on the jury and i think that is what mitt romney is doing. having said that, let me also say that the mitt romney that i've cover side somebody who really cares about presidential character, and character in general, and i think that will weigh heavily in his -- in his decision making, and it will on a lot of other senators' minds,

as well. if i were in the white house i would be worried about mitt romney, but i wouldn't count him out. so, michael, romney says it's, quote, way too early for him to say whether the case is made to impeach trump and gloria has completely made up their minds and they have the perception of being impartial jurors. is it possible that romney believes that it is way too early that he doesn't have enough information or is it just him basically hunting? >> i think romney is trying to see which way the winds are going to be blowing in a couple of weeks when this gets to the senate for a trial. look, you know, there's going to be a vote next week by the full house. we know what the outcome is going to be. the question is what are the polls going to look like in early january next month when this goes on trial and you've got to say, look, right now you have a divided country.

the needle hasn't moved. you still have barely 50% and most of the polls now show a little less than 50% who believe that for all the conduct we've seen that it justifies the removal of the president and that is a big problem for the democrats as they go forward with this. >> all of you stay with me. next, breaking news. president trump claims he talked about election meddling with the russian foreign minister at the white house on the day the articles of impeachment are launched and the president meddling with the foreign power he meets with the one who did meddel and why does the russian foreign minister. and aking in bad faith in launching the russia probe. a understand rue mccabe who was there part of the launch, is out front to respond. sfx: [sneezing]

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breaking news, the president claims he talked to a top russian official today about russian election meddling, but did he in in a tweet tonight trump says, quote, just had a very good meeting with foreign minister sergey lavrov and representatives of russia. discussed many items including trade, iran, north korea, inf treaty, nuclear arms control and election melding. look forward to continuing of our dialogue in the near future. president trump warned about interference in the elections. it's not really what lavrov is saying. here's what he said about the discussion with trump. >> you know, we haven't actually discussed elections. >> huh? kaitlan collins is out front from the white house.

kaitlan, what's the story here? >> well, erin, this is notable because let's also keep in mind this is lavrov's first meeting back in washington, his first official one the date after the president fired james comey and now here's this meeting today, of course, the day of the articles of impeachment and now there's confusion over what exactly was said and who said it? the white house put out a statement that yes, the president did warn against any attempt of russian interference and when asked he said they didn't discuss elections and later on during the press conference at the russian embassy in embassy, the white house said in their readout that you did discuss election interference the two of you so can you clarify that. that's when lavrov said he did bring up mike pompeo's claims where they clashed over election interference and he did bring it up to president trump, and essentially saying yes, they did bring it up in the meeting and just how much the president went

into this warning about election interference because we know in the past the president has been hesitant to do so. he's down played russian interference in the election and even during calls with vladimir putin and the white house would not answer whether or not he bought it up and he's pushing the baseless theory that it was ukraine that interfered in the election over russia and something we saw that was relevant today as bill barr, the attorney general was essentially not contradicting or defending the president when he gave an interview. what we're left with, erin is still a lot of questions over what exact exact what exactly was said. >> gloria, trump says he talked about russian med willing with lavrov and this is a very formal, his tweet, he capitalizes the "e" and the "m" and it's a thing for him to even admit, i suppose and the white house readout said he mentioned and lavrov at first says it didn't come up and then he says

he's the one that brought it up. what's going on here? >> well, we don't have any journalists who were present, and i'm presuming that the secretary of state or the national security adviser both were in that meeting, so maybe they would give us a readout or maybe say we're not going to talk about what was discussed in this -- in this meeting in the oval office. it seems clear to me that pompeo did raise it. >> yes and what lavrov is being a little cagey here is that maybe he complained about pompeo to donald trump about raising election meddling and that's how it came up. so i'm not sure we're at the bottom of this one. >> if that's the case that's obviously completely different picture than the one that the president is putting on here. michael, democrats say the president is a clear and present danger to the 2020 election, right? to this election, and yet here he is. the last meeting he had was the day after he fired jim comey when he talked to lavrov about it in the oval office and yet

here he is today. >> i think all you need to know is just look at that big smile on the president's face with lavrov standing by his side which pretty much tells you that if he did bring up election meddling, you can wonder how stern a warning it was for lavrov. >> there's the picture and we're showing it now which the president is proud of this picture. >> not exactly the photograph you want to have out there if you were giving a stern don't you dare do it again warning to lavrov. i mean, ross, here's the thing. the last time trump met with lavrov, the last time was the day after he fired jim comey in the oval office. according to yo"the new york times," i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy, a real nut job and i faced great pressure because of russia and that's taken off. that's the last one-on-one

conversation he had with lavrov. >> if it wasn't intended as a message today, it seems to, you know, be a clear message that the president is going to conduct foreign policy as he wants to conduct foreign policy, impeachment be damned. he's going to do what he wants and he has the power to do it and this visual sends that message. >> gloria, the optics here are stunning. you've got this picture. he's doing this meeting on the day the democrats announced two articles of impeachment regarding the brz's request to ukraine, right? to investigate his political rival to help him in the 2020 election and he has this meeting today. i mean, it is -- it is brazen, and it's hard to imagine that it's a coincidence. >> well, it's not, and of course, the meeting with lavrov came before the meeting with president zelensky, and so is that a signal to ukraine? in the official readout from the

white house, the readout says president trump warns against russian attempts to interfere in the united states election and urge russia to resolve the conflict with ukraine. so that was notable to me that that was in the readout, but most notable to me was that it was lavrov standing there and not the president of ukraine. >> right. well, that was -- the optics there are very interesting. so, michael, what do you make, though, of what happens, you know, next here? are we going to get to the bottom of this? are we going to know exactly what happened? as you pointed out and gloria points out, it's clear mike pompeo brought up the issue and aggressively so, it's clear that did not sit well with lavrov. >> i think we have a pretty good idea of what happened in 2016, and it's laid out with incredible detail in the mueller report of exactly how the

russians hacked democratic party e-mails and funneled them to wikileaks for political effect and proep state election systems. the question what are they and other foreign actors, the iranians and incheese ease and north koreans. what might they do in 2020. i think everyone fully expects something. you know, the question will it look like the same srt of cyber attacks or will it be something more clever that we're not fully expecting. it's the latter that keeps people up at night, and the latter is what they would be aping to do, the horsers out of the barn. president trump attacking his own fbi director. what does this mean for chris wray? and bill barr ramping up the attacks. he's the attorney general, and he's now attacking america's top law enforcement agency.

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president trump slamming his hand picked fbi director christopher wray for accepting the facts that were laid out in the inspector general report on the russia investigation which, of course, concluded that it was launched in an unbiased manner and it was valid. the president tweeted, quote, i don't know what report current director fbi director christopher wray was given, it wasn't the one given to me. with that kind of attitude he will never be able to fix the fbi. what did wray say to get the president to slam him in he reiterated the facts. >> it's important that the inspector general found that in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization. >> out front now, the former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe and as you and i were talking

about last night. you were mentioned in this report 200 times and you were there in the beginning and christopher wray is coming out and stating the facts of the report. >> yes. there were mistakes made and i own those. >> that's right. >> i put in things to try to pick those, but the bottom line conclusion is the most crucial conclusion, right? >> that's right. >> now trump is slamming him. is wray's job on the line here? is trump starting down that path? >> i think wray's job has been on the line since the day he took the job as is the case with every high level member of the president's team. the fact is when you stand up for fact and those facts diverge from the president's preferred narrative that puts you in a very tough spot. i think it's also worth mentioning that christopher wray is a very smart guy, and he knows that he has the eyes of the fbi workforce on him at all times. fbi people are very sensitive and protective of the independence of the work that they do. so any time they sense that decisions are being made that

are influenced by politics or things like that that affect their work you run the risk of losing the faith and confidence of that workforce, which is absolutely essential for a director of the fbi. so i think what chris did yesterday was to stand up for that workforce, stand up for the principles that we believe in, that people are held accountable and that the rules -- >> and essentially say he's willing to be fired for doing it and he's fighting back on every single level. >> that's right. the president has been saying that ukraine meddled in the election, that not only did tom bossert say it was completely false in a conspiracy theory is everyone else has said it is a completely false theory is chris wray says it's false. here he is. >> we have no information that indicates that ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential legz. . >> his tone there is resigned, but factual. i can't believe i have to sit here and say this, but i'm going to say it. he knows his audience is the

fbi. >> of course. >> he knows that audience of one is watching. >> that's right. you have to choose if you're director wray you have to choose. are you going to stand up for the truth and therefore stand on the side of your workforce or are you going to support the president's narrative in the same way that members of congress are and chris wray made the choice they think is deeply appreciated by the men and women of the fbi. >> earlier today we were showing the picture. the president met with the foreign minister of russia, sergey lavrov and trump said he brought up election meddling and lavrov said he didn't and lavrov's exact comment was we haven't really even discussed collections. what do you think happened? do you think that the president of the united states after years of denying russian meddling, some fat person in a basement were his words, do you think he's now suddenly bringing it up in a serious, meaningful way. >> really, really hard to

imagine, right? the bigger point here is that administration has such a terrible record of transparency and readouts from important phone calls and meetings in the white house and of course, a terrible record of dealing with the truth that when you have a meeting and an incredibly important statement like this that they claim to have made people can't help, but step back and say i'm really not sure if i believe it happened the way they say it did. >> you were there in the beginning of the russian investigation and it was valid and an unbiased launch. >> the president obviously, we've had years go by here that he called it a witch hunt and a hoax and he meets with lavrov. the last time he met with lavrov was the day after he fired jim co comey. after everything you know do you believe there is something truly off about trump and russia? >> there's no question there's something deeply odd about the way this president interacts with russia. we have never seen anything like this before. you go back to the helsinki meeting and all of the claims that you just made denying

the -- or at least downplaying the effect of russian meddling in the last election. that is behavior we've never seen from a president. russia is our most significant enemy on the world stage and you have to be on your game with each one of your interactions and i don't think we've ever seen a photograph out of the oval office along the lines like the one we've seen today with lavrov almost standing behind the president, behind the resolute desk and it's remarkable and maybe like the one lavrov took in the oval office which was taken by his own photographer because we didn't have one there. >> here they are and that was the meeting last time. >> stay with me please, out front. bill barr is doubling down on a claim which has been proven false by the justice department's inspector general. >> it was clear. that's where electronic imbalance is. >> nancy pelosi has two announcements and is trying to walk a very fine line, but can she?

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new tonight. attorney general bill barr accusing top intelligence officials of bad faith and saying this -- >> that's electronic surveillance is. >> the problem is trump's current fbi director says well, that's not true, and that what happened in fact, the surveillance as he calls it was legal, not spying. >> so the fbi did not spy on the trump campaign? >> well, that's not a term at the fbi we use to describe our work, and the inspector general found that the fbi did not use any human sources or undercover employees to go inside the campaign or to task them to report on the campaign, and i think that's important. wray, of course, is referring to the inspector general report which concluded the investigation was valid. the former deputy director of the fbi is back with me.

why is barr saying this? he knows what these words mean. >> he does. he's smart enough to know. he's also smart enough to know that court-authorized electronic surveillance is not spying. nobody who does that activity and none of the people who actually put their heart and soul into that work will ever consider that to be spying and i think he's smart enough to realize. >> that's legal and authorized and above board and that's not sneaking in and surreptitiously stealing something which is what he's trying to imply. he's also continuing to criticize for the dossier for monitoring carter page. here he is on that. >> these irregularities, these misstatements, these omissions were not satisfactory explained, and i think that leaves open the possibility to infer bad faith. >> okay. you tell me last night, brett, putting the dossier is >> but the attorney general of the united states is saying

others but also you. acted in bad faith. >> that's absolutely false. there -- it didn't happen. i know that. i didn't need the ig to tell me that. but it's good the ig reported there is no situations of that what so far. i think the attorney general has done here with the last reference you showed is he is actually proactively misrepresenting the whole -- the findings of the report. the comment of -- there wasn't a satisfactory explanation given was what the ig said with respect to the fact that he found no evidence that the investigative level personnel responsible for the error did so intentionally. he said he didn't get great explanations for why they didn't include that fact or this fact. >> but they didn't do it out of bias. >> didn't do it out of by as. >> and never intentionally misled the court. for the attorney general to get on television and suggest that the mere absence of a perfect

explanation is an indicator of malice or ill will or intentional misconduct is really really unfair to those people. >> who do you think he considers his ultimate loyalty right now, the president. >> there is no question about florida. yeah, sure. he is the president's lawyer. in a way that i don't think i've ever seen certainly in my life or my career. and i've worked with several attorneys general. i've never seen an attorney general put himself that far out there to defend the president at all costs in contradiction to clear fact and reality. it's markable. >> thank you very much. deputy director. i appreciate your time tonight. >> pleasure being here. >> nancy pelosi gives washington whiplash going after the president and hours later handing him a major victory. >> we would be delinquent in our oath of office if we didn't impeachment. i'll tell you this agreement is much better than nafta. this holiday season

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house speaker nancy pelosi today announcing a major trade deal that president trump wanted hours after she announced articles of impeachment against him. well, she is certainly walking and chewing gum. tom foremanen is outfront. >> that is not a point of order. >> it is a point of order. >> well i made a point of order. >> in a rough week amid tumbling times nancy pelosi is walking a tight rope on government. >> they're not having a shutdown. >> on that new trade deal. >> the trade agreement is much better than nafta. >> and on the impeachment probe of donald trump. >> if we did not hold him accountable, he would continue to undermine our election. >> that's really bull [ bleep ]. >> it's been a linc time coming for the speaker of the house. just nine months ago pelosi dodge the idea of impeaching trump even in the face of intense pressure from progress he was argues it was too

divisive for the country she told the "washington post" he is not worth it. >> you look at the call. it was perfect i didn't do it there was no quid pro quo. >> by early fall as the ukraine scandal boiled up polls showed even independents warmed to idea that trump should be removed from office. yet pelosi would only say that the white house could be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness. then came the formal vote on impeachment inquiry. team trump's effective pledge to stone wall congressional oversight and pelosi told a cnn townhall she has had enough. >> if we were not to proceed it would say to any future president, whoever she or may be, democratic or republican that our democracy is gone. the president is king, he can do whatever he wants. and in vials of the law and and ignoring the acts ever congress, undermining our system of checks and balances. >> i i just hope no congress

ever repeats what we are going two through throughed to. >> to plunt republican talking about being obsessed with impeachment and giving fellow democrats cover she seems to be elsewhere. policy, the work of washington how she deals with donald trump. >> how would you describe your relationship with the president. >> progressional. >> and hitting hard at anyone who suggests she simply hates him. >> i pray for the president, i pray for the president all the time. don't mess with me when it comes to words like that. >> she is striking a very fine balance on a very high wire to be sure, trying not to alienate the political left or center by working too willingly with this white house on the legislation. and at the same time doing battle with the president who right herely misses a chance to give hero a shot from the right. erin. >> thank you, very much, tom. >>en a thanks very much to all of you for joining us as always. as i said 24 hours from new will

be watching the live statements from the members of the house judiciary committee in the historic time as they formally have the statements to begin discussing and debate on those two articles of impeachment set for a house vote on impeachment next week. ac 360 starts now. good evening, thanks for joining us. any citizen can say the president did something wrong only 435 elected represent he was have the sole rate and the awesome responsibility for saying a president should be removed from office for it. today some of the lawmakers spoke. they put it all on paper in formal articles of impeachment for only the fourth time ever. nine pages containing two articles drafted by democratic members of the house judiciary. accuseding president trump of abusing his power and the language of the drafters to corruptly solicit election help from ukraine and to obstructing congress's investigation into the affair. now tomorrow evening the committee utterly divided along party lines will