>> brennan: welcome back to "face the nation." we go now to a democrat on the house intelligence committee, california congresswoman jackie speier who joins us from palm springs. welcome to "face the nation." >> thank you, margaret. >> brennan: there are just eight working days left before the thanksgiving break. congresswoman, when will these public hearings actually begin? >> i think they will begin very soon. we have one more week of interviews that will take place and then i'm pretty confident we're going the move into a public hearing setting in which the health, the house intelligence committee along with the foreign affairs committee and the oversight committee will start to place in

the public's hands the information. i also think the transcripts are going to start to be released next week, and that's going to give the american people an eye on exactly what we have heard, and what we have heard is growing evidence of grounds for impeachment. democrats are going to hold strong in terms of defending the democracy we have, and the questions for the g.o.p. is are they going to put donald trump ahead of our country? >> brennan: well, when will those public hearings actually start? are you talking a week after next? you said you have more depositions scedz yield this week. next week do we start to see the public hearings? >> i think the following week is likely to be when we will start having hearings. of course, once our work is completed, the investigation, then it will move to the judiciary committee. but it's really important to point out that, one, the republicans complained about the process, but the process was very equal. they had equal number of

members, almost 50 members that were part of these three committees that could participate in these depositions. they had an hour to question their side, and then we had an hour, and then 45 minutes it was equal all the way down the road. >> brennan: one of your fellow intelligence committee members, joaquin castro, tweeted this week that he believes one of the individuals who testified under oath, ambassador gordon sondland, he's the u.s. ambassador to the e.u., has committed perjury. do you believe that? >> i think that there are inconsistencies in his testimony based on testimony we've heard from other witnesses. and it will probably be appropriate for him to come back and have him interviewed again. >> brennan: is there a date for that? has he agreed to come back and answer more questions? >> i don't know that that decision has been made yet. >> brennan: but it is something you think is necessary at this point? >> i do believe it is. >> brennan: but the "perjury" word is too strong for you?

>> at this point it is. >> brennan: you mentioned that there will be testimony made public in the coming days. i mean, how are we going to receive this? how many pages? who is first out to be released? because the accusation is of course that all of this is cherry picked. >> no, i think you're going to see all of the transcripts that are going to be released probably within the next five days. i don't know if they're all going to be released on the same day, but they're going to be very telling to the american people. there is no question now whether there was a quid pro quo, and now the question the republicans are trying to throw out, well, was there corrupt intent. well, corrupt intent is defined in part by whether or not the president has lied, and he has lied over and over again that there was no quid pro quo. there was no this for that, but this was a this for that. he was withholding money from ukraine. here they are defending themselves against the russians, holding as much as $400 million,

waiting for them to come out publicly and say that they would investigate the bidens and look into this phony server issue. so it's first time we've seen this kind of abuse of power by a president for personal gain, and that's what's so remarkable about all of this. >> brennan: and, of course, the allies in the white house point out the aid was ultimately released and the investigation into the bidens was not ultimately open. but for you, i want to know, who do you need to see come forward and answer questions before you move into these hearings. john bolton, the former national security adviser, we know theres of him. is he actually going to show up? is he your star witness? >> well, i think we've had a lot of star witnesses to tell you the truth, but we would like the hear from mr. bolton. we would like to hear from mr. eisenberg. but whether or not they are

going to respect the subpoena i another question. i would like the -- to also remind your view there's we have sought information from the state department that they have not made available to us at all. there has been an effort to prevent us from accessing information that we rightfully have the ability to have under the constitution as the oversight function in article one. >> brennan: quickly, do you think the articles of impeachment will ultimately include things other than ukraine? >> i'm not sure. i mean, it could include obstruction of congress. i think that you can make a case for bridery now. i think that discussion needs to be seriously developed and considered, because there was an effort to try to get something of value from mr. zelensky, the president of ukraine. >> brennan: you're speaking us to from california.

we know your home state has been just ravaged by some of these wildfires. the president tweeting about it this morning and has seemingly been blaming your governor for, as he put it, failing to clean the forest. the president said, though, that california won't get any more federal money for help. what's your response to that? why should taxpayers make up for what the president says is the state's self-made problem? >> well, it's not a self-made problem. i mean, it's a national disaster when you have winds of over 100mph and you have a utility that turns off the electricity and then turns it back on and it sparks and creates yet another fire. you know, the president has a serious problem with california, because they didn't support him, and so now he's trying to take some actions against them. >> brennan: all right. congresswoman, thank you very much for joining us this

>> brennan: it's time now for some political analysis from our panel. david nakamura covers the white house from the "washington post." nancy cordes is the chief congressional correspondent here at cbs. john hudson is also at the "washington post," covering national security, and david truck -- druecker is a senior political correspondent at "the washington examiner." let's start with impeachment.

the president has been tweeting quite a lot in the past 36 hours or so about the whistleblower today. right before our panel he said that the whistleblower should be revealed. nancy, what is the strategy here? >> well, the strategy is for republicans to try to focus on this whistleblower, because they believe that there's evidence that he had a political bias, so focusing on him creates the appearance that the entire investigation is somehow tainted, but it's kind of a red herring, because all of these witnesses who have come in and given depositions have essentially backed up what it is that he said initially and given far more detail. so the whistleblower, democrats argue, is kind of irrelevant at this point. everything that he has said for the most part has been checked out, and they say they have got witnesses who are much closer to the action that they're going to rely on, not just in these depositions but in the public hearings to come. >> brennan: as we reported here, leader mccarthy didn't answer really, was that now the

offer is being made by the whistleblower to say, i will answer questions. i won't go through democrats. you can ask questions directly of me. why isn't that going to be good enough? >> well, i think republicans are going to continue to hang their hat on a faulty process, because it doesn't necessarily appear, at least up to this point, that they have the substance to knock down the narrative that the democrats have created with a lot of the leaks coming out of the hearing behind closed doors. after your story broke, margaret, i spoke to some senior republicans who felt as though zaid, the lawyer for the whistleblower, was engaged in what they referred to as a sunday narrative ambush, in other words, let's make this offer, it will be discussed on the sunday morning news shows, and that will put us in a better position, and that's how republicans are choosing to deal with this. they feel like this has just created to put them on defense. the interesting thing here, and i was able to -- >> brennan: so they don't have interest in actually asking questions of the whistleblower in writing at all?

>> they didn't say, that but it appears as though what they're saying is this is just more obfuscating. this is a way of creating a reason why we're not really avoiding the committee. what republicans are saying is that the whistleblower is avoiding the committee. the democrats are shielding him from us on the committee. we might be able to ask some real questions to get to the heart of a conspiracy to essentially try and get the president out of office prematurely. i think for the president himself, and i was able to speak to him with my colleagues a few hours after that impeachment vote, he feels like everybody is out to get him with something that is not true, and the interesting part of this debate is everybody keeps talking about transcript, and that includes the president. so democrats point to the summary transcript of the telephone call with zelensky, and they say, this is exactly the problem, and the president points to the transcript and says, this is exactly not the problem. and i think this whole thing is going to boil down to which side can convince the american people broadly that they're right about that transcript. >> that's why the president put

out the transcript, but we have seen over the past couple weeks -- >> brennan: the call record. >> a summary of the call, but we have seen with all this testimony on the hill, behind closed doors, which has come out, in pretty detailed fashion, that as much as the president wants to create this idea that the whistleblower is politically motivated and may have worked during the obama administration, which many career people do, the number of people have come forward and testify include a former military officer in alexander vindman, a retired diplomat came out of retirement in william taylor to become the ambassador of ukraine at the request of mike pompeo, the secretary of state, people with credentials that go beyond democratic partnership, tim morrison, a republican, testified this week. the president will and has had trouble establishing the idea this is a partisan witch hunt, even though he calls those who testify against him never trumpers. >> brennan: what's significant about those firsthand accounts.

these individual, morrison and lieutenant colonel vindman, were on the call versus the whistleblower, who was not. but that is who the focus is being put on right now. i asked about the former national security adviser john bolton, who is repeatedly referred to the in the testimony so far as someone who was not comfortable with this and advised his deputies to go to white house lawyers about this deal that was being floated to ukraine. is he going to show up to testify? >> that's the big question. i mean, he is scheduled for thursday. that's when democrats want to see him. and he's also someone who has a closer seat to power than everybody else has previously. >> brennan: he wasn't on the call, though... >> wasn't on the call, but as we know, very much aware of what was going on, very much expressed scepticism according to many of the people who have testified so far, described it as a drug deal according to one

official, described the president's attorney as a hand grenade that's going to kill us all. so we know there's a lot of discomfort. at the same time, we also know that ambassador bolton wants to remain relevant in republican politics. he has relaunched his super pac. it's not so easy easy to remain relevant in republican politics while going after the president. so i think there should be some scepticism he's going to be the newest member of the resistance against trump. clearly he has some axes to grind in the administration from his time while he was in power, but that's very different from going after the president directly. >> i believe the release of these transcript, which are coming and congresswoman speier talked about are going to be a major inflection point in the impeachment effort, because republicans insist that once the transcripts are out we're going to see a fuller picture of what has been talked about, and it's going to in a sense reset what everybody is saying about the president, whether he did something wrong, whether he did something just unseemly, and

democrats that i have talked to say in effect there's nothing republicans can do to try and make this better. once you see the transcript, in fact, it's going to get worse for the president. i think that's going to go a long way toward shaping where this is headed. >> i think part of that is true. but the other thing that's true is once we see the release of some of these transcript, let's remember, these are hours upon hours upon hours of testimony. there's going to be a glut of information to cherry pick from from all sides, and so while it is true there is this steady undercurrent of officials who have really established what we have seen as this quid pro quo allegation, there's also going to be other things, such as officials saying, well, we were concerned about hunt biden taking a seat to be board whom will win the information war? it will be a full-on battle. >> margaret, that's why democratic leaders like steny hoyer are so vague about next step, because they're trying to figure out how to craft these

public hearings in such a way to sort of shrink all that informbl they like to see a large panel of people with great reputations sort of all confirm what the other has said, lay out the facts, but at the same time, they don't want to overwhelm th" so do they have multiple witnesses on one day? do they try to spread it out? how many hearings do they hold? those are all the things that they're trying to figure out right now. many of them tell me they'd like to move to hearings the week after this one, but it is not completely nailed down yet. >> brennan: were you surprised that leader mccarthy said the only person he wanted to ask questions of was adam schiff, not call any other witnesses. >> brennan: >> i was surprised because you have heard some republicans say they want to call hunter biden. that's exactly why democrats say that they at the end of the day want the make the final call on some of these witnesses. they say that republicans are going to try to bring forward people who, you know, take the

conversation in an entirely different direction than the one that they want to focus on. and furthered moore, they say these rules are very similar to what we saw during the nixon and clint impeachments. but republicans argue that they're being steam rolled here, that they couldn't all listen in on these depositions and now they can't pick their witnesses for the hearings either. >> brennan: we'll take a quick break and come back with more. there are things happening other than impeachment. we'll tell you about them. more from the panel in a moment.

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>> brennan: and we are become with our political panel. you know, one of the few moments of joy in this town this week were the nationals bringing home this championship. we now know it's going to go political real quick. the players are -- are invited to the white house. at least one player will not attend. >> the nats finished the fight on the field, but the political fight could arrive tomorrow when the president does a quick turnaround inviting the team, because they're here in washington. they were at a parade yesterday. everybody is in town. but sean dolittle, a prominent pitcher, has been active in syrian refugees and lgbtq issues and other affairs has said publicly and gave an interview to the "washington post" that he objects to the president's rhetoric and many of his policies. he's not going. he says he respects teammates who will go. we have not heard of any other teammates who have opted out yet. we will see tomorrow.

we know these moments have been very politicized in the trump era. even in the spring, the boston red sox who won the cyr last year were invited, most of the minority players chose not to attend. the white players did attend, and it was very stark. it wasn't addressed at the event, but we saw president trump congratulate the nationals and he of course went to the game a week ago, but he heard a lot of boos at the park. abinteresting moment tomorrow. >> brennan: do you think any other players will follow, david? >> i the we could see a couple. i think the nationals have done a remarkable job of not getting caught up in the politics of the building behind us and everything that we're involved in day to day. they play baseball. their comments have been focused on baseball. i think the owners have handled it just right, no lecturing. and it's enabled everybody in town to embrace them and really enjoy this win. and it was a great win. >> brennan: feels good. nancy, in an interview with bloomberg this week, speaker pelosi weighed in on what she

thought the party should focus on, and things like medicare for all, proposed by, you know, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, she was not too encouraging of a tax on billionaires, et cetera. she said, focus on what resonates in michigan, not just in san francisco. is anyone listening to what the speaker's advice is here? >> that's interesting coming from someone who has been pushing for single payer longer than probably anyone in that democratic field, but she is, like many democrats, worried about the general election, and she sees what you see in every primary, but especially in this very crowded, enormous field, which is candidates all moving to the left, because they are trying to win the progressive voters who are most active and most energized. and it's difficult to get your voice out there when there are 20 candidates. so she's just trying to remind these candidates, hey, you know, you've got to worry about the general election. you have to worry about michigan and wisconsin.

but elizabeth warren sort of came back and said, you know, those days are over, and we've got to talk about what we believe in and we've got to energize people and we can't beat around the bush. so this is something you see in every primary, but i think it's notable that nancy pelosi herself is issuing that message. >> brennan: the liberal from san francisco saying, hold on here, that's not going to work for you on the campaign trail. but david, what about the less ideological voters. that's the gamble, that's the bet being placed, that you can get someone who tried out president trump in 2016 to vote for elizabeth warren or bernie sanders this time around. >> that's not an easy way to go. so i think, you know, for the democrats, they're trying to get these issues into the public space, but i think it's difficult. i mean, as you said, when steny hoyer was here, you know, it's hard to see what's happening, and i think that's the message that's been given to voters

aside from the fighting and the focus on impeachment. >> obamacare is finally popular. if you propose taking away health care plans that republicans like. republicans were on defense on this last cycle. this could totally flip the script and pelosi understands that. >> brennan: and elizabeth warren this week detailed her $20 trillion medicare for all proposal, which is what kicked this up. joe biden hitting back, saying, you know, she's making it up in terms of these numbers. that's pretty strong punch. >> sure, and her response is, you know, well, let's see his numbers. let's see his details. but clearly this something that even elizabeth warren herself was worried about, because she waited this long to actually put those details out there. and she refused for such a long time to admit that it might mean taxes would go up, because she knew how that would play, even if she's arguing that in the long run everyones cost go down, at least people in the middle class, because they pay less for health care.

so it's clearly something that was a concern for the candidate herself for a while. >> brennan: on ukraine and joe biden, his name constantly being used by the president, using this as an attack point, i mean, what are the odds that hunter or joe biden are actually called over here to capitol hill to answer questions? >> that's the big question. and it matters if the republicans are going to actually engage in this process. if they want to call witnesses and choose to take the advantages that this process affords them, then we might start seeing people like this, should they be willing to testify. >> brennan: democrats would because they're in the majority, would be able to say, yes or no. >> absolutely. but the event that they start shutting down, the republicans just as they begin to engage in the process, as we know, they haven't been engaging. your interview with leader mccarthy, he basically made process arguments the whole way through, saying this is a completely corrupt process. that would totally take away that talking point, the moment

democrats start disallowing the republicans to play a part in this. so that gets really interesting if you get a moment where the bidens have to deal more with this family story, more with the questions about whether or not his son should have had a seat on this previously obscure ukrainian energy company. >> you know who could call the bidens to testify is lindsey graham. he's chairman of the senate judiciary committee. he keeps getting asked russia you going to do it, yes, no, maybe, we'll see. >> brennan: can he ask rudy giuliani, as well, and that's a yes, no, maybe, too. thanks to all of you for helping us digest another really busy week in washington. we'll be right back. grow with google is here to help you with turning ideas into action. putting your business on the map, connecting with customers, and getting the skills to use new tools. so, in case you're looking, we've put all the ways we can help in one place.

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impeachment fury. with the inquiry moving forward, president trump today makes new demands for the identity of the whistle-blower. >> the whistle-blower gave false information. hello des moines! >> also tonight, democrats who want to be president fight for votes and campaign survival in iowa. murder mystery. this missing couple was found buried on a texas beach. so who drove their rv to mexico? crash tests show new automatic brakes are causing unexpected stops. recycled roads. why plastic may pave the way to the future. >> looks like regular asphalt, but it'ssnation's highest mility