[♪] [♪] lou: good evening, everybody, the adam schiff phoney baloney roll i can go frolicking medicine show rolled on to capitol hill in fuel view and cameras and microphones of six major networks and it would have been easy for any viewer or listener to lose sight that this was the house intelligence committee. and chairman adam schiff not trotted out center ring. the marquee witnesses had not

heard or seen much from the president themselves. they had few credits to offer as star witnesses, but here we go. no way out, both witnesses, senior state department official george kent and acting ambassador to the ukraine bill taylor left discom discomfitted. and the zeal seems dampened and displaced by obvious disappointment. >> i heard a staff person from the office of management and budget say there was a hold on security assistance to ukraine. the first i heard of the call was with a phone call with tim

morrison. what i can do today is tell you what i heard from people. in this case it was what i heard from ambassador sondland. lou: what he heard and repeated all said but not heard and seen by the eyes and ears of these star witnesses from the schiff production. if the next few days performances don't improve, schiff and pelosi shouldn't expect a long run at all. let's go to chief white house correspondent, john roberts, for the latest. reporter: in a news conference this afternoon with turkish president erdogan the president said he knew nothing about the july 26 telephone call that bill taylor reviewed in this testimony today. president trump: i know nothing about that. the first time i heard it.

the first thing i have seen that sondland said is that he did speak to me for a brief moment and i said no quid pro quo under any circumstances. and that's true. i never heard this. this is more second-hand information but i never heard it. reporter: the white house dismissed the testimony as hearsay of hearsay with no evidence of a quid pro quo. pointing out the president mentioned the investigations in his july 26 phone call. the message from the white house, the democrats based this entire sham on what amounts to a game of telephone. the president didn't see much if any of the hearings. president trump: i didn't watch. i'm too busy to watch it. reporter: the administration was pushing back against every piece of evidence extracted from the

witnesses. criticizing taylor for relying on' hearsay and conjecture insisting george kent contradicted the democrats' assertion there was a quid pro quo. at the news conference this afternoon president trump announced tomorrow he will release the memorandum of his first telephone call with president zelensky on march 21. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who works at the national security council said he found nothing wrong with that call. lou: john roberts from the white house. our first guest tonight was in the hearing room with a ringside seat. he was witness to the dimms charade. republican congressman louie gohmert, congressman, great to

have you here. i think i made it fairly clear at the open of this broadcast what i thought of it. a lot of political theater, and far more comedy than drama. what did you think? >> i thought it was great to hear from the department assistant gossip monger, mr. taylor. i thought jim jordan had the best yes to him when he said, this is sondland's testimony. ambassador day lower that i told mr. morrison that i conveyed this message on september 1, 2019 in connection with vice president pence's visit to warsaw. jim said we have six people and four conversations. you just tell me this is where you got your clear understanding and you are their star witness. it is outrageous that the democrats would try to eliminate an elected president based on

quadruple hearsay. and it wasn't even accurate. taylor even said in his written testimony he read that he thought it was unfair of the president to ask about investigation into corruption. are you kidding me? lou: we are not kidding you and i know you are not kidding us. great minds think alike. the sentence you have chosen is the sentence i'd heard, and it took me back to the 6th grade and my english teacher teaching us to diagram sentences. folks at home. here we go with with congressman gohmert was talking about. reconstructing four different folks within a sentence. see if you can diagram it. here it is. >> you were on the call, were

you? you didn't flins on the call. >> i did not. >> you never spoke with mulvaney. >> that's correct. >> you are their star witness, you are their first witness. >> i don't consider myself a star witness. my understanding is only coming from people that i talk to. lou: people that he talks to. that's their star witness. my teacher might have bench rapping me over the knuckles. it was clear why the republicans wanted congressman jordan on that committee today. he sparkled. as did the minority counsel. i have to give him credit. he was as sharp and clever as any attorney. i have got to tell you, congressman. the minority counsel can

represent me in anything any time. he was i thought a star today. what did you think? >> yes, he was quite good. i thought every one of our republican members on the committee, they each had their approach and i thought they were all superb in bringing out what a farce this is. it would have been mr. ellis in my 9th grade class in addition to my mother who was big on diagramming, too. it's outrageous these guys dividing the country with the democrats being their willing allies. they don't have any direct information. all of the direct testimony money, all the direct information says the president didn't do anything wrong. this is from democrats who have been screaming for months, gee, we can't believe that the republicans are not more upset

about a foreign country trying to influence our election. well, the president is trying to get to the bottom of that. and there were ukrainians who tried to influence our election. even taylor and kent made clear they believed zelensky is an honest, honorable person trying to reform things, why wouldn't we want to know about ukrainians who were corruptly trying to affect our election. it's what a good president should want to know. lou: and what a good president did want to know. we are giving thanks to a lot of good journalism and leg work from a lot of people working for the president. we are getting a clear picture of the extent of corruption in ukraine and the relationship to the democratic party and to others as we go forward. we are confident revealed. long connecticu -- congressman ,

great to have you here. >> the never trumpers are outing themselves. once we get beyond this we'll clean house and have a government of the people, for the people and by the people. lou: get rid of the rascals first and that's what we'll have left anyway. we have good people if we can get them better company. louie gohmert deserves better company. it was a record-setting day on squall street. the dow closing up 92 points. the s & p up 2 points. and its 20th record close of the year. and the 100th record close under president trump. how do you think he's doing? he's sitting here watching

these -- fill in the blanks, try to impeach him, for crying out loud. how is he doing? it's extraordinary. while they play at this nonsense, he's work. the nasdaq down 4 points. you can't win everything every day. the fed chair jerome powell on capitol hill saying the fed will likely keep interest rates steady for a while unless the economy were to deteriorate or new risks were to emerge. none of that has shown its ugly head yet. a reminder to listen to my reports three times a day coast to coast on the salem radio network. up next, the national left-wing media all too eager to have these first public hearings and to watch and watch carefully. >> this going to be a courtroom

drama tomorrow with star witnesses, people like bill taylor and kent and later on yovanovich will stand up there to the pressure of the other side. >> i'm told by a democratic source familiar. if americans tune into the first hour. the first hour is dee signed to be a blockbuster. >> this story in the house, the impeachment inquiry holds its first public hearing what donald trump's presidency on the line. witnesses facing the cameras and the country with the presidency in the balance. lou: the presidency is pretty balanced and it's the left-wing national media and the radical dimms who seem to be a little off balance. well, more than a little off balance. the media can't be too excited after what they watched today. leading attorneys victoria toensing and joe digenova are

here next.

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carefully orchestrated media smear campaign. it seems you agreed witting or unwittingly to participate in a drama. but the main performance, the russia hoax has ended and you have been cast in the low-rent ukrainian sequel. lou: congressman devin nunes putting everything in its absolute perfect perspective. republican steve castor a solid defense of president trump and making his case against the radical left's impeachment theatrics. president trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani in a wall street open said dispelling the phoney claims about a quid pro quo writing this, mr. trump offered nothing to you a crane in return tore cleaning up --

nothing to ukraine for cleaning up corruption. if you doubt me, read the transcript. i have and he's right. a report that i.g. michael horowitz is getting ready to release his report on the russia interest force investigation. if it is released it would conclude a 20-month long process. acting ambassador to ukraine william taylor today seemed at times dismayed when discussing special envoy to ukraine kurt volker's allegiance to the united states. >> we have ambassador koa -- am,

a man of unquestioned integrity. >> that correct. >> somebody with incredible knowledge of the region. >> very good knowledge. >> and the best interests of the united states. >> i'm sure that's right. >> and the best interests of ukraine. >> his first priority is clearly the united states, and to the extent ukraine has an implication for that, yes. lou: obviously a little concerned about mr. volker being more concerned beautiful s. interests than ukraine's. but there you have. joining us tonight victoria toensing, former department assistant attorney general, joe digenova, founding partners of digenova and toensing law firm.

great to have you both with us. victoria, i happen to think castor, the minority counsel turned in a terrific performance today. i wanted your professional view of that? >> don't put me on the spot. you are only supposed to ask one question at a time when you ask questions. he was asking two or three questions at a time. but the members were terrific. lou: you disagreed with me. my turn. >> you know the history. the republicans in the past, i have had two whistleblowers. as soon as they come out, the democrats start attacking them. so much for their worshiping whistleblowers. they just worship theirs. then the republicans start to

back off. because they wouldn't make false statements about people. today they stuck together and they were great. lou: and they didn't make false statements. >> no. you don't have to do that to win. >> i was very impressed with the members. but the hearing itself for the democrats was a cadaver. this was a robert mueller-type hearing. there was no john dean, no ollie north, no sparks, they were boring and uninformed witnesses. witnesses with no first-hand knowledge. this was an embarrassment for the democrats. they went away from the hearing with their tails between their legs. this was a bad -- a bad day for the democrats and a great day for the president. lou: and a great day for castor.

>> he did a great job. lou: let's go to ukraine. rudy giuliani, i love the fact he's defending the president in an op-ed. all the work he has done. i hear all the testimony today at least from those who want to quiet him and quiet the president, and try to state that they think this is outrageous that people should have truth and justice in far away places like sue crane. crane -- places like ukraine. what do you think, victoria? >> that what rudy giuliani has been doing since he has begun representing the president. he called me earlier this year to tell me what he discovered about ukraine.

he was told that these people in ukraine were working to frame the president. you. our sweet ambassador told everyone not to talk to us, and so did george kernt. kernt -- george kent. he flew into kiev to do that. lou: as i watch and i'm thinking, i am going to give them credit for being well intentioned public servants. but for all the world it was because they weren't in the special super duper irregular chain and no one patted them on the back or had a sip of tea with them. that's what they seemed upset about. it was outrageous to me that they have this sort of petty

reaction to not being in the regular chain as well as the irregular chain. and it didn't seem either were too disturbed by it. george kent is a separate issue. his motives seem peculiar to me. john solomon reported in march that george kent pressured ukrainian investigators to back off an investigation from the anti-corruption center that george soros group sponsored. this is a complicated deal here. and it seems he wanted to keep an investigation of ukrainian corruption with limits on it, even as he answered questions today. >> there is no doubt that george soros controls a large part of

the foreign service part of the state department and the activities of fbi agents overseas who work with ngos. that was very effort in ukraine. kent was part of that. he was a big protector of soros. his testimony today shows his stern kind of discomfort with not being included in certain discussions. but george soros had a daily opportunity to tell the state department through victoria newland what to do in the ukraine. soros ran it. he corrupted fbi officials and foreign service officers. george soros wants to run ukraine and he's doing everything he can to use every lever of the united states government for business purposes.

>> his organization is anti-competitive. it goes after people who compete with george soros in the name of anticorruption. lou: it was quite a moment in which he walked right up to the boundary but wouldn't say this should be a comprehensive investigation of these activities that of course is precisely what the president of the united states made clear to president zelensky that he wanted, bringing in the u.s. justice department to work with the ukrainian authorities and government. victoria and joe, great to see you. i'll be glad to mediate any discussion of counsel castor's performance today. >> next week in d.c. lou: up next, one of adam

schiff's star witnesses freezes up during today's hearing. ed rollins, the savant himself right after these quick words. [school bell rings]

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>> in this impeachment hearing today where we impeach presidents for treason or bribery or other high crimes. where is the impeachable offense in that call? are either of you here to assert there was an impeachable offense in that call? shout it out. anyone? >> let me reiterate. i only have a minute left. >> the witness asked a question. lou: this is something else. ratcliffe as usual doing his usual terrific job today. the congressman drawing virtual

silence as you saw from the radical left's two star opening anti-trump witness. ratcliffe one of two republicans today exposing the sham schiff inquiry. joining us, ed rollins. your takeaway? >> republicans killed it today. i thought schiff was the biggest loser of the day. if i were the speaker i would have his tail in my office. the statement i don't know hot whistleblower is, i never met the whistleblower, i don't know the identity. he's either a liar or incompetent or both. i think the republicans were fabulous. i thought castor did a fabulous job, the counsel. jordan basically jumped all or

it and made it very effective. at the end of the day, there was no crime thrown out there, two reputable men from the state department argued there was an alternative system set up, two ambassadors, the secretary of energy and the president's lawyer the former mayor of the city of new york. the two ambassadors. that's a pretty regular channel and certainly no president can say that wasn't a first-rate group. lou: i thought the republicans and counsel did a terrific job. this was a minor item. it's not like it was going on for years with two diplomats. it was out of proportion for them to react the way they did. we still don't have license to

reveal which what most of the public knows already, the name of the whistleblower and the national media is frozen up around this issue. date was uttered the name was uttered by the -- after dan bishop did so yesterday, congressman of north carolina. today by kentucky's august senators, rand paul. mentioning on radio on wmal. >> i know who he is, you know who he is. when you know his background. it's clear he was anti-the president and pro biden. i won't name him because fox doesn't want me to name him. but at the end of the day he will be named. lou: the preposterous level is

not entirely explicable. it's not necessarily sufficiently so. >> three things came out in the president's favor. one is ukraine is one of the most corrupt places in the world. lou: his concerns were legitimate. >> biden's kid was in and out of drug addiction. basically paid off to take care of his father to gotted admission. lou: the dimms refused to bring him on as a witness. >> no question the company he was on the board of was a corrupt company. my sense is the republicans gained today and if this is their show, people will get very bored with it and ratings will

fall. lou: did you say ratings will fall? >> not us. lou: you have got to have that exception. next much more on today's sham impeachment theatrics on capitol hill.

>> i have seen church prayer chains easier to understand than this. ambassador taylor recalls mr. morrison told --ing this is

i swear and affirm -- i told mr. morrison and i conveyed this message. this all happens, by the way in warsaw where vice president pence meets with president zelensky. lou: they were back to that diagramming that sentence. congressman jordan trying to follow the trail of bill taylor's hearsay information. it was quite a circle of confusion. but in one sentence, that was one long complicated sentence. google just fresh from a health and human services investigation into their gathering of healthcare data from millions of americans without their approval, knowledge and in violation of their privacy. now wants access to your bank account. google will offer check

accounts. their project is code named cash. it's in partnership with citigroup. former acting u.s. attorney general matthew whitaker. matt, great to have you with us tonight. >> what a day, lou. first your impressions of how this went to your mind and judgment. >> well, first i thought congressman jordan did a fantastic job like you played at the beginning. hide old u.s. attorney colleague john ratcliffe did a fantastic job. two sets of facts were very important. ukraine received lethal aid, unlike the obama administration in 17, 18 and 19, and i would expect so in 20. there was no disruption in the aid. the second thing pointed out is there is --

lou: if i may interject, from an obama final year baseline of $20 million of non-lethal aid escalated to $1.5 billion under president trump. >> that's an important fact to remember. the aid increased and become javelin missiles that can take out russian tanks. the second issue i thought was critical was rat cliche' and jordans ability to demonstrate there is no impeachable offense. no crime was dmitd. no high crime and misdemeanor. ukraine received the aid, no was no investigation announced or started into the bidens. we are talking about a big nothing right now. i think it's a big waste of time of and i think the american people should be asking some serious questions about this congress. what are you doing on behalf of the people? lou: that's a question that

should be asked every damn day, in my opinion. this president has had an answer every day since he was elected as far as i'm concerned. i want to go to the questions that aren't being asked. why in the hell did not the obama administration respond to the taking of crimea by russia? if you are talking about this nonsense, and there is -- there are crickets from the incursion by russian special forces into the eastern ukraine. they take all of crimea and nobody does a thing. not even a word is mentioned. >> there was some discussion during this questioning by the ambassador to suggest the ukrainians were oh fenltdsed that candidate trump suggested neighbor crimea should be looked

at. no mention, no discussion of obama let them invade and take over and claim for their own the warm water port of crimea which is very necessary for russia to project strength worldwide. as i watched this hearing i felt like the world had turned upside down. lou: it was bizarre and intriguing look into the minds of two members of the diplomatic corps. the star who said he was neither for or against impeachment of president trump. he seemed far more comfortable with the left than the right in that room. the other, a person who didn't want to see george soros

non-government organization investigated in the midst of corruption. very peculiar moments. your thoughts about what we now are told is the imminent release of the inspector general's report at long last after some 20 months. >> i was reading today that they are showing it to individuals that are mentioned in the report. those that may have criminal exposure or embarrassed by the outcome. i'm excited about this. we are finally going to have not only a picture into the carter page fisa and the basis for that and how much or how little which we know the steele dossier was the main element to support that fisa application. but this is a real chance to reform the fisa' project. lou: are we going to have

another process of flat egg land on the desk 300-400 pages? >> no. with the career civil service you need a report or firing before you can take employment action. this will be the report i think individuals that we have been mentioning along the way but for some reason are at the department of justice will finally be held together for their behavior. lou: from your lips to god's ears. up next, new reports that china has been caught carrying out a cyber attack against the national manufacturers group. gordon chang joins me on how this plays with a good faith trade negotiation.

lou: this just in, breaking news. a federal appellate court ruled house democrats can have access to 8 years of president trump's tax records. tonight's order from a three-judge panel.

one of them a reagan judge. two of them strum judges, giving the president as well 7 days in which to file an appeal to the u.s. supreme court. a new report claiming the chinese carried out a cyber attack against the internal network of the national association of manufacturers. this while trade talks go on between the united states and china. they are stealing, carrying out cyber attacks, business as usual for the chinese and we are operating in good faith and staying optimistic, right? a cyber security firm reportedly determined the national association of manufacturers was hacked over the summer. it remains what date was stolen. the "wall street journal" reporting today that two headlines on chinese tariffs that have served an interesting

impact. the first headline saying tariffs in china imports emerges the hurd many to trade agreement. other saying u.s.-china trade talks hit a snag over farm purchases. both a problem. how much of a problem? we go to gordon chang, gordon, how big a problem. tariffs? who knew? >> the chinese are reneging on the arrangement they reached with president trump. with the chinese viet premier standing next to our president. if the chinese didn't think there was a deal then, they had an obligation to say something then. lou: they also have an obligation not to steal a halfville dollars from us every year and not expanding and

building islands in the south china sea in violation of promises made to u.s. presidents the last 30 years. they say wto will make our rules. we have a developing ask country. >> china never honors its obligations. >> i think what we should be doing is increasing the tariffs until they stop stealing our stuff. if they don't stop stealing our stuff, you just raise the tariffs again. they will not honor their obligations. this attack on the national association of manufacturers is a direct violation of the prej president xi jinping gave to president obama in the rose garden in 2015. it's also a violation of federal

law. lou: maybe it's a reminder of what the national association of manufacturers has been about. most of its term is shipping jobs out of the united states and calling it clever business on the part of corporate america. the idea that the chinese are hacking them is sweet irony. i'm nonetheless annoyed as an american. i think we should respond powerfully against the chinese. we haven't, we won't it's a shame. what happens now? >> there will be more are negotiations and we won't have a phase one trade deal. phase two and three is impossible. xi jinping does not want to have a deal with us. he's not talking to us in good faith. there are a lot of elements in the united states that want him

to cave but he's not going to do it. lou: today peter navarro, trade czar, said every day we talk to the chinese ambassador robert lighthizer. he's doing a great job. the president said we are on a path to a phase one agreement. as the president said, i will wait as will you, gordon, i'm sure, for the president to speak on this. robert lighthizer made it clear that the white house is not going to get involved in the day-to-day nonsense discussing a trade deal that is not resolved. we are coming right back. any comments doug? yeah. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liber♪y

[♪] lou: adam schiff's sham impeachment extravaganza started, at least the public part, today. his two star witnesses sharing their hearsay and congressman jim jordan pressing him on his knowledge of the identity of the whistleblower. >> you are the on member who knows who that individual is and your staff is the on staff of any member of congress to talk with that individual. when might that happen in this proceeding today. >> i do not know the identity of the whistleblower and i'm determined tdetermined to make t

identity is protected. lou: the battle lines are drawn. shf. cheryl: two big hearings on the hill but the chaos didn't stop the markets from jumping into l rally mode. the s&p hit the 100. hillary100th highunder presiden. lauren: can walmart keep its streak going with competition from amazon and the grocery aisle, going head to head with target for your holiday dollar many will walmart when it reports this morning. cheryl: are the golden years dimming. why more americans are working longer. maybe it has something to do with the new okay, boomer trend. it is thursday, november 14th. "fbn: a.m." starts right now.