[♪] lou: good evening, everybody. this is day 57 of the hellish impeachment farce produced by adam schiff and the radical difficulties. 57 days since the radical dimms started this latest effort to overthrow president trump. with each passing day the party of 8 looks worse, fares worse and still they press on, bound by their fury and hate. ambassador to the european union gordon sondland, the special guest of the radical dimms today. he testified before the house intelligence committee longer than any single witness so far. and he may well have set a

capitol hill record of self-contradiction. his testimony was full of hearsay, conflicting accounts, ambiguity and contradiction. discovered missing in the 20-some odd pages of his opening statement were the word of the president. something that went to the heart of the hearing. something president trump declared today rendering the dimms impeachment inquiry to be over. sondland recalled a phone conversation he had with president trump. >> i believe asked him, what do you want from ukraine. i keep hearing these ideas of theories. what do you want? it was a very short, abrupt conversation. he was not in a good mood. an just said i want nothing. i want nothing. i want no quid pro quo.

lou: he wants nothing, he wants no quid pro quo. end of story. should be end of hearing, end of impeachment inquiry. we all know it won't be. that would make too much sense. sit would be too honest a conclusion. as sondland himself said earlier. he's not a friend of president trump. what kind of friend would leave out such ex-culpa for i -- ex culpa tore i statements. onland led his testimony with a contradictory opening statement. in those remarks he explained was indeed a quid pro quo between the white house and ukraine. but as was plaster any point out by congressman john ratcliffe,

his testimony was based on his perception and sensitive feeling and no facts. >> it's been reported in the papers this was blockbuster testimony about quid pro quo and new evidence. on the part that relates to military assistance. you don't have direct evidence from president trump on that. that's your 2 plus 2 equation. >> correct. >> you understand also that others disagree. yesterday we heard from mr. more on and ambassador volker they testified they didn't see a quid pro quo. reasonable people could look at all of this and come to different conclusions. >> correct. lou: other parts of sondland's testimony were quickly shot down by three federal government agencies. ' vice president pence's office

ws an alleged conversation about ukraine investigation, the vice president's office said they it never happened. the department of energy said sondland lied about secretary perry, interactions and so-called conversation with rudy giuliani. and the state department saying ambassador sondland's testimony that he was barred from accessing his documents in the state department was also false. that he had absolute access. and the list frankly goes on. joining us tonight is mark short, the chief of staff for the vice president. mark, first of all, good to have you with us. this an extraordinary moment in hearing history to see one witness of his standing, ambassador to the european union, contradicted by the state department, by the energy department, by the office of the

vice president. what in the world has happened here? >> well, thanks for having me on. i think this is ones more chapter in this crazy book on impeachment. it's been going on not just the last few months. it's been going on ever since donald trump won elections in 2016. it's been three years an endless investigation now we an i am neevment pursuit of a crime. i was in the vice president in poland for the entire time. there was never a moment when ambassador sondland was alon with the vice president. nobody recalls any conversation with sondland suggested today that he had in that environment. so it's dismissed by our office. but the greater shame is what's actually not happening in congress today. it's not just promises democrats

made to work with the administration on infrastructure or drug prices or usmca. tomorrow the president will be forced to sign another continuing resolution to keep our government open because they haven't passed the most fundamental right to fund our government. in that bill is a pay raise for our military. the democrats are having impeachment hearings over delaying funding for ukraine. and in the bill that needs to be passed they are tying up to dome peachment hearings has funding for ukraine. lou: the usmca between the u.s., canada and mexico is far larger than the united states and china. for nancy pelosi to adamantly

refuse. it's stunning to watch this unfold because the president and the vice president i must say on the road today, i think i saw his schedule, two separate events today, the president going off to texas as well. i mean, they seem to be the only ones in this government working perhaps the judiciary i should take a greater count of, but i'll give them an exemption today. >> the vice president was in wisconsin where theed a -- the admin surprised created tens of thousands of new jobs. and usmca is vital to states like wisconsin. it's important to open dairy markets. as you know from polling today, in wisconsin, support for impeachment continuing to decline and new polling has president trump leading all

democrat contestants in wisconsin which is a remarkable data point to what's happening in the backdrop of these impeachment hearings. lou: we are looking at a poll from "politico" asking, do you support the impeachment inquiry. that number opposing among independents continues to rise. the democrats are losing perhaps i think most of us could argue, the independent vote here will be the most important in 2020. the polls showing 47% outright opposed to this farce. ways your judge the about the impact of the way this inquiry as the dimms like to refer to it. how is it going and how is it going to play? >> i think our nation is pretty polarized. but i think what most americans can't tolerate is congress

pursuing an effort to overturn the will of the american people when an election is less than a year away. they are not doing things americans care about. what accomplishment can the democrats point to. when they traveled the country they said we'll pass new healthcare legislation. we'll work with the administration to lower drug prices. we'll work the administration to pass structure. we'll work with them to pass trade deals. they have nothing to show since 2018. here we are and all we are doing is more endless investigations. i think the american people are tired of it. they are frustrated. they look at the record of this administration and they see all-time low unemployment. 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. 7 million jobs created since this president was elected. the markets at an all-time high.

the president doing more to secure our border and growing our military. the record is not something they can run against. voters will be frustrated when they have nothing to show for the time they have been in power. lou: the president's record is historic and overwhelming electorally and the democrats understand that, and this is their sorry last resort. mark, thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. thank you. mark short. the operation driving the rise of china's remarkable economy. china owes you a thank you because it's all come at the expense of the american taxpayer, working men and women. yes, corporate america and wall street as well. they have some short-term

profits, but the long-term cost has been overwhelming. we'll take that up with the secretary of the navy. richard spencer joins us tonight. the left-wing national media, puppets of the radical left. they are supporting the latest farce impeachment hearing. look at these headlines. >> i think today changed everything. >> the blow torch testimony this morning. >> taking a blow torch to every defense donald trump offered. >> i can't emphasize how explosive this is. >> ambassador sondland exploded all the defenses you expect the republicans to mount. lou: blow torch and explosive. it must have been some testimony. we'll show he all of that and much more.

lou: on wall street stocks closed lower. the dow down 115 points on disappointment when word came from the white house that we may not see phase one of the trade negotiations between china and the united states until next year.

the s & p dropping 12. volume on the big board pick up to 12.1 billion shares. gold and silver basically flat. a new poll shows strong confidence in the trump economy debts spite the radical dimms ongoing impeachment inquiry it's a record. a gallup poll showing 57% of americans now approve of president trump's handling of the economy. that's with tariffs for more than a year. the economy booming, the markets booming and so is confidence in the trump economy. and remind tore listen to my reports coast to coast on the salem radio network. congressman jim jordan cutting through it owlr all and through ambassador sondland's claim of a quid pro quo and he did it in

spectacular fashion. >> when did it happen. >> when did what happen. >> the announcement? when did president zelensky said the investigation was going to happen. as in your opening statement. the answer is yes there would be a public statement from president zelensky. when the chairman asked about the security assistance dollars you said there needed to be a public announcement from zelensky. when did that happen? >> it never did. >> it never did. they got the call july 25, but they got the money on september 11. when did the meeting happen again? >> never did. >> do you know who was in the meeting he which meeting. >> the meeting that never happened? who was in it. do you know how zelensky announced it? did he tweet do a press

statement or press conference? do you know how that happened? you have got all three of them wrong. they get the call, they get the meeting, they get the money. it's not 2 plus 2. it's 0-3. lou: with that you wrapped up adam schiff's so-called impeachment inquiry. the joke is on the radical dimms as they attack this president and attempt to overthrow him. joining me, congressman scott perry, member of the house foreign affairs committee. your colleague, jim jordan put on a bravera performance and took sondland down to the souls of his shoes. this is pitiful. the dimms were beside themselves with glee talking about quid pro

quo before that. >> sure they were, lou. the blow torch is there are more presumptions. that's the blow torch you just referenced. ambassador sorndland, nice guy. he says he's got questions. let's sort all this out. i will call the boss. he makes the call specifically to the president to sort it out. he said for his testimony i'll ask an open-ended question. mr. president, what do you want from ukraine. he said i want nothing. he said that doesn't square with what i heard. he just hangs up the phone and continues to presume all of these rumors are incorrect. the one place where he has direct knowledge and evidence that adam schiff has is ambassador sondland talked to the president and said what do you want and the president said i want nothing. i want him to do the right thing. i want him to do what he ran on,

stomping out corruption. lou: were even you shocked when adam schiff took a break 0 go out and hold a press conference claiming basically victory over president trump and raising his spear high with a war cry that we have know choice now but to impeach the president of the united states because we have sondland who has had almost none of his testimony correct or unchallenged made that horrible lapse in his opening testimony. >> right. that's exactly right. why would we be surprised biabout adam schiff doing -- about adam schiff doing this? then he did exactly what he's accusing the president of by collaborating with people from russia that we have posing as

ukrainian on a telephone call about dirt and trump. then he comes in fronts of the american people and lies about what the president said on the telephone call. then he says he doesn't know anything about the whistleblower. so of course we expect it from adam schiff, year used to it. he just made things up. lou there are is within this something of an explanation for his conduct. but some context that we should attach here. and that is, the ambassador to the european union, sondland, acknowledging that his family is being threatened, the left is attacking him everywhere it can web's from oregon, his hotel is there apparently being boy cod. demonstrators are trying to intimidate this man. when adam schiff stood there and talked about how he was going to

be the great defender of ambassador yovanovich, he didn't say a word about defending sondland at all. even though he is obviously under immense personal pressure and i think perhaps that pressure explains some of his extraordinary lapses and contradictions. >> we believe ambassador sorndland's attorney is an expert at perjury traps and i think that's not by happenstance. he understands that adam schiff and company, they can destroy everyone around the president. so they are right to be careful with these people because they don't care whose life they destroy in pursuit of their goals. they want toned this presidency

under any means that they can. lou: i think they are ending any chance their party no matter how remote, might have been able to be competitive in the 2020 presidential election. i don't think any fair-minded american watching this ignorance from the radical dimms will do anything but support the president they attempted to carry out subversion against since he announced he would be running for president. it's always good to see you. i thank you for giving us part of your time. >> it's exactly right. they were voting for impeachment before they saw the evidence or heard the testimony. they just cannot -- that's mayor platform now for the 2020 election. impeachment. that's their platform. lou: scott perry, thank you. we would like to hear your

thoughts on all of this. there is a lot of all of this. follow me on twitter @loudobbs, follow me on instagram @loudobbstonight. fred fleitz and robert jeffress among our guests tomorrow. we hope you will be with us. the american people are seeing right through the radical dimms' impeachment farce. and we'll show you the numbers that prove just that. that and much more. ed rollins joins me after these quick messages. here's to the straggly ones.

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>> no one on this planet told you president trump was tying aid to investigation, yes or no. >> yes. >> so you have no testimony that ties president trump to a scheme to withhold aid from ukraine in exchange for these

investigations. >> other than my own presumption. >> which is nothing. lou: which is nothing. as congressman turner made very clear. nothing. i love the way he said it. it turns out there was something in little rock, arkansas. dna testing apparently established with scientific certainty that joe biden's son son hunter is the father of a-year-old child in arkansas. he had the child are a 28-year-old woman most likely while she was living in washington, d.c. but that's pure speculation. the president's campaign congratulated vice president biden on his new grandchild. that's the latest development on that story. a new gallup poll find president trump's approval rating has risen to 43%.

the same approval rating he had in september before this so-called whistleblower complaint set off the radical dimms impeachment inquiry farce. so he's doing better with it than the dimms are. joining us republican strategist and savant ed rollins. was that mean of the trump campaign to send joe biden a congratulatory -- >> he's a busy young man. his father doesn't want to pay much attention to what he does. he's a womanizer. he's make millions from an energy company he knows nothing about. obviously he has problems and his father will have problems too before itles' all said and done. lou: it appeared sondland

stepped in it a bit because he was not in any way doing anything other than suggesting the president had a quid pro quo in his presumption. adam schiff calls a press conference to tell the people of the press how wonderful a day he was having. here are some of the resultant headlines if week see those, please. -- if we can see those, please. the "new york times" saying gordon sondland leaves us with no other option. the case is simple, and the evidence supporting impeachment is now crystal clear. "politico," quote, a real bombshell, democrats seize on sondland's quid pro quo charges. cnn, five takeaways from gordon

sondland's bombshell testimony. "the washington post," gordon sondland just made this scandal a whole lot bigger. the daily beast, gordon sondland just made -- provides the john dean moment of trump's impeachment. and guess what. it all blew up in their face. >> idiotic witness. he had no business being involved in any of this stuff. >> at the end of the day -- lou: that doesn't give them the right to trips through the tulips with nonsense. he twisted himself 14 different times. my sense is by the end of the

day there was no case to be made, but he put headlines out early on and the reality is i still say if they think as the chairman said, we have him on bribery. what has trump gone the out of this? basically nothing. they got their money,er going to get their meeting. >> it sounds like everybody is a damn lawyer. the fact of the matter is it's b.s. this is pure nobody sense. the american people understand that. they don't need fighting the u.s. code and all of that crap. >> the polls are starting to show the president's numbers going up. lou: if they say it's 43%, you know it's 63. >> gerald ford says impeachment is whatever 218 votes say it is. lou: but the fact of the matter

is there is still the american people and they know this is pure horse maneuver piled high and adam schiff is the one with the shovel. >> unfortunately a couple of our people stumbled through this thing. lou: which people. >> some of the witnesses. the republicans on the panel have been extraordinary and put out all the hypocrisy. the lieutenant colonel -- lou: i don't think you can call him our people. >> the story that's not told is the person he reported to was the whistleblower who had the same job he had on the security council. the reality is he will be out before long. lou: i love adam schiff basically outing the

whistleblower yesterday. >> so i think the president has gained by this because there is no there there. our republican side has done a superb job. lou: i think devin anyone's has certainly been -- has stood tall in all of this along with many of his colleagues. this is noonan on hunter bind, the whistleblower, the republicans and what their intentions are. we don't have it? no time? that's a shame, i'm told by our producers he's been relieved -- no. ed rollins. thank you. how prepared america's navy is to deal with the worsening threat of china. we'll take it up right after these quick messages. these quick messages. stay withñ??w

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>> this morning we transmitted a letter exercising our rights to subpoena documents and witnesses. we need to subpoena hunter bind and the whistleblower or closed door depositions as well as relevant documents from the dnc, hunter biden's firm, and the whistleblower. lou: the ranking members of the house intelligence committee,

devin nunes, getting the hearts of the radical dimms started there with his call for the testimony of hunter bind and the whistleblower. that means our producer is back with us and all ends well. the abraham lincoln carrier strike group completed transit through the strait of the shore mus for the -- through the strait of the hormuz. the u.s. deploying additional forces to the middle east including bombers and air defense personnel to act as a deterrent against further provocative conducts of its forces. joining me is the secretary of the navy. i want to start with the strike force going into the middle east. in response to specifically

iran. >> lou: great to be here. the aid has been on station in the fifth fleet since april. what you see your navy doing is the forward deployed away game. we are always maneuvering. we call it dynamic force deployment. you will see our carrier strike groups on the moved to keep the maritimes open for the global trade. lou: the secretary of defense saying it's not the united states who wants a cold war with china, but china continues to be threatening in its rhetoric and expansive to say the least aggressive in the south china sea. is it your judgment at this point that they wanted a cold war themselves, the chinese? >> lou, i always say there is a place for china at the global

table of commerce and life in general. if in fact they acknowledge an order-based society. to date they have not. so we are in competition with china. it's an interesting competition. unlike the cold war we had with russia. china is a major trading partner of ours. that being said we need a whole of government approach which is what we are attempting to do here when we are dealing with china because the competition is immense. we have to take department of defense, commerce, it's a all-government approach. >> i don't know that most americans realize how depleted the military, the u.s. military was as a result of the i would call it the passivity of the obama administration over the course of 8 years and of course how expensive the military and i will call it adventurism of previous administrations were,

whether it was the middle east or in stations around the world, taking on such an onerous burden for reduced forces whether talking about ships, aircraft other service members of our nation. your thoughts? >> lou, i'll tell you when i arrived august of '17, our services never say no. they are the most resourceful people we have out there. we are lucky to have all we have. we have flown the wings off the planes, we have sailed the bottoms off the ship. through the help and guidance of president trump and congress giving us the money for the 2017 raa and two budgets 18 and 19 were back in good place. your united states navy is ready to deliver the fight tonight. but it took a lot of repair and it's expensive.

>> there is so much to restore. >> it's true. there is the recapitalization that goes on everybody day, and the modernization we have to do to keep current to keep our technological and physical gap ahead of our competitors. lou: an issue that is near and dear to your heart, taking on the issue of our federal retirement agency and the idea that suddenly we'll open up for half a trillion dollars of' retiernltd one of the s. federal employees for investment in china. give us your thinking. >> we all know what china has been up to. the very interesting thing about socialistic community and a communist organization is they publish their plans. and china has published where it wants to be by 2049, and the

technologies it needs. it has been picking unblind for many many years. one of the things we gap them on is the depth and breadth of our amazing capital markets. we have let them come in here, china in particular and have access to these capital markets almost giving them a benefit above the companies that list temperaturer. they have preclusions for listing and reg-s. pcaob which is our overlook organization for accounting has 43 organizations that would be in this index that it cannot bring up to their standards and we are letting this happen. but the investment of the federal retirement -- the decision to open up the index to include these chinese companies, i have to question their fiduciary responsibility. our kids money will fund the weapons that will come back at

them. it's absolutely ludicrous. lou: i commend you for picking up the fight. i think you cannot be more correct. god bless and thanks for doing so and all the rest that you do. thank you very much. appreciate it. america needs a message in support of pro-democracy demonstrators in hong kong. we take that up and more after this quick break.

lou: a new shocking senate report find the united states has failed to stop china from stealing intellectual property from american agencies and america lacks any strategy to deal with the ongoing threat. the report shows 10,000 foreign born researchers work a u.s. agencies last year where some signed secret side agreements china to steal u.s.-funded research and send it back to china. not only that, but to also recruit other researchers who would carry out such espionage. the house of representatives approved a resolution supporting the pro-democracy protesters in

hong kong. the house voting 417-1 in favor of the hong kong human rights and democracy act. the lone may from thomas massie of kentucky. that legislation goes to the white house for president trump's assured signature. 200 demonstrators were charged in the university standoff. joining us is derek scissors. derek, good to have you with us. let's start with the situation in hong kong and the demonstrations. it looks like the response has been more constrained than some of us feared. on the part of the hong kong police. your thoughts about the way they are dealing with these demonstrators and the chaos that has ensued over these -- well,

past several months. >> i think it has been more constrained because the demonstrators have shown a lot more staying power. yet the police stayed out of it. one reason the police stayed out of it is warnings from the u.s. congress starting with senator mcconnell. the congress is doing the right thing telling the chinese, you stay out of hong kong. it doesn't matter how long the demonstrations go on, these people have a right to protest. i guarantee you president trump will sign this because it's the right thing to do, and it's a signal to the chinese we are not going to let the trade negotiation hold american policy hostage. lou: the president has made it clear to president xi he would take into account hong kong heavily in deciding what he what do in the contact of the trade

negotiations. i want to turn to what we are seeing now. this document from the senate investigations subcommittee. the threats to u.s. research enterprise, china's talent recruitment plans and the threat it poses. is there any corner of our society, our economy, that the chinese are not assaulting right now? >> they are not assaulting the stuff they don't want. but the report is spot on, the administration started by identifying this problem in the summer of 2017 soon after they took office. what we haven't done, what the failure has been, as you mentioned in the previous segment perfectly by the secretary of the navy, we need a whole of government approach. the chinese don't confine what they are looking at, just this sector or just surnd the coach one u.s. government department.

we need defense, treasury, commerce, a whole government approach to respond to the chinese. they take a whole of party approach. lou: and a whole of nation approach as point out by the senate subcommittee on investigations led by rob portman. they don't go after what they don't want which is on one level flippant and on the other intriguing. i can't think much anything they don't want. every aspect of our manufacturing, telling, our r & d, cyber attacks from commercial banking to the united states government and our science labs. it just does not end. why do we not have a response? even ad hoc response rather than a whole of nation response. >> we had ad hoc responses.

the trade conflict started with u.s. identification of china forcing coercive technology transfer on american first and we have taken some steps to respond. i think it's exactly what you would spec. there are people who benefit from this. lou: forgive me. if you can stay there for just a couple minutes. we'll take this commercial break and come back with you if we can impose. more with derek scissors. 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

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lou: we are back with china and trade expert derek scissors. the american people are willing to pay the price to balance trade and contend with the threat of china. what's it going to take? >> well, i think we have interests that i agree with you. i think people are ready to do that. that's one of the reasons the president wanted to do that in 2016. there are members of congress who stepped up and offered valuable legislation. but there are pockets in the tech and business community who don't see china as a evening. we don't have -- china as a big challenge. and we need a consensus to stop

china stealing american technology. lou: tomorrow lauren: it's 5:00 a.m. here are your top stories. round five of the democratic debates in the books. candidates divided on progressive platforms like a wealth tax and medicare for all. is there a clear favorite? cheryl: it's been a rocky start for retailers reporting this week with a few bright spots but today we're going to hear from macy's, gap and in orde nordstr. lauren: santa will not be delivering to offices this holiday season if millennials have their way. the christmas classic they're trying to ban. it is thursday, november 21st. "fbn: a.m." starts right now.