robert: impeachment testimony goes public and a blue wave sweeps the suburbs. >> we will begin our open hearings in the impeachment inquiry next week. robert: ahead of public testimony, transcripts reveal new details about the president and his advisers and democratshe make case. >> we have not heard a single witness come in and proviy testimhat would suggest this was anything other than defense dollars for dirt. robert: republicans balk at the process, dismissing suggestions of quid pro quo. president trump:otverything he in that report was a lie. my phone call was a perfect. the whistleblower, because of robert: plus, eleion results show suburban challenges for the g.o.p. all as the democratic race is

roiled by a late entry. next -- announcer: this is "shington week." funding is provided by -- >> there's a moment, a moment of where everything is clear. at fidelity, wealth planning is about clarity, knowing who you are, where you've been, and where you want to go. that's fidnaity wealth mament. >> additional funding is provided by -- koo and pricia yuen, through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasng. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert:good evening. this week, transcripts of closed door testimony detailed how the president and his personal

lawyer, rudy giuliani, along with the support of administrationsufficials, prd the government of ukraine to investigate the and the 2016 eleion. witnesses testify that those efforts were linked to critical security assistance neede by ukraine to combat russian aggression. essentially, a quid pro quo, which the president has repeatedlyenied. joining us tonight, sheryl gay stolberg, congressional correspondent for the "new york times." jeff zeleny of cnn, senior washington correspondent for cnn. anita kumar, white house correspondent for politico, and josh dawsey of "the washington nsst." in tipt after transcript, giuliani's role was pivotal. as josh reports, "top officials needed to cater to him" and gordon sondland, the to the european union, said in his testimony, "rudy had bad ises with ukraine and until rudy was satisfied, the

president wasn't going to change his mind." josh, when you open your notebook, what does your reporting show? josh: time after time this week, giuliani's name came up more than 500 times in various witness testimony and what essentially was a nexus, as the esident is frustrated with ukraine and these various officials of the state department -- ambassadors, top folks in pompeo's orbit, all understand, if we don't pacify rudy giuliani, the president won't be happy. and they're reluctant, they're no thrilled about working with an outside personal lawyer who has the portfolio of ukraine. but they all wanted to mollify him. they all wanted to appease him, because he said, without rudy being hap, the president won't et with the ukrainian president, the president won't have a phone call, the president's not moving forward atil rudy convinces him these concerns have beeviated so what we saw with every witness w thk, they said we have to talk to rudy, what does rudy

think, we have to set u meetings for rudy. so rudy serves as the about the's outside lawyer but when it came to ukraine, rudy was a key player in all of this. robert: inside tte house, was anyone countering rudy giuliani in this alleged rogue foreign policy? >> you have heard a lot of president should get rid of rudy giuliani and at the time i don't think people understood the extent of his role. that's one of the things that we're hearing from this really get it.that people didn't it was a small circle of people. a lot of them career people, not political people. didn't feel like they could come upnd say anything about it. but now, since it's been coming out, you've been seeing a lot of people saying to the president, please, it's time to cut ties with him, he is not doing anyt yng good for. and the president has resisted. robert: why where has he >> they've had a long history together, the two of them, both being from neng yor kno each other forever. i think at this point with people like mick mulvaney, his

chief of staff, and rudy giuliani, they know so much about this, they're in it together. robert: you had colonel vin man, his testimony released along with fiona hill, two top staffers in the national security council, implicating mulvaney with giuliani in this tempted quid pro quo. sheryl: there's nobody closer in the white house to the president than the acting chief of staff, so i think democrats are really trying to narrow in, if you will. ey're trying to get closer and closer and closer and closer to the president, to show that he was really behind this. and that's going to be their. main challen they are going to have the burden of proving that it was the president directing this operatlin and repns feel that they haven't proven that yet and we're going to hear a lot from republicans about that. robert: josh?

josh: mulvaney declined to testify today. he was subpoenaed, didn't show up. mulvaney's ally, o.m.b. director, hasn't shown up.er ne in the orbit is stewalling the democrats. they're not showing up, g they'e nong to testify, not handing over democrats. that's a test for the democrats, as well. if you say we're not coming, the president puts out a letter and top officials don't show up, are the democrats going to challenge us? >> they're going to pursue obstruction, use that as evidence of obstruction. robert: even if mulvaney doesn't show up, there's aot of evidence evidence on the table. jeff: as i travel aroundun the y talking to voters, listening to developments, it's confusing but the rough trscript of the call from the conversation with president trump and the ukrainian president as well as the whistleblower' report is the guiding principle so the facts haven't changed but have been

amplified by every bit of testimony from capitol hill and next week wn there are public hearings, that is what will come out. but the reality is, most people, i believe, have made up their minds about this. if you like the president, you do notelieve this is a worthy process. if you don't, you do. but don't get lost in the weeds here. the reality is, the president td ask him fort. the question is if it's impeachable. robert: your point about voters is so important. is this breaking through across e country? so far it's closed door testimony and transcripts ne week, the house will begin public impeachment hearings and at the center, adam schiff. sheryl profiled him in the "times." "schiff is aorschach test for american politics. there is little room for error for mr. schiff."th

sheryl's absolutely right. adam schiff is in effect the anti-trump, that isisow h casting himself. he is calm, measured, unflappable. he's a former feral prosecutor and he knows that he has to approach these hearings in a very solemn way. he wants to keep things calm and eveneel. he wants the democrats to look like they're engagin in a very serious endeavor. robert: who is his k? witne sheryl: his key witness will be bill taylor, the top diplomat in ukraine, who is also, in a way, kind of the public mirror image of adam schiff. taylor is a military veteran, vietnam veteran he's a respected career diplomat. he has served in ery administration, republican and and he is the one who has laid out in the clearest terms this quid pro quo charge that the president was withholding

military aid from ukraine and withholding a white house meeting with the ukrainian president in excnge for the ukrainian president's announcement that he was going to investigate the bides. robert: what about beyond taylor? we had gordon sondland, ambassador to the e.u., retract some of his previous testimony from lt month and now lean into this attempted quid pro quo. inside the white house, how are they prepared to counter what happens next week in this public phase, if you have ambassador taylor a also this new testimony fromonand. anita: that is a great question and they have had at the white house six or eight different strategies right now. robert: what's the strategy right now? anita: it's all ove the place. it's president trump thinking and just kind of saying what he sees when he's watching tv, when he's reading sething. that's why you've seen "'s no quid pro quo, it's russia 2.0." the message changes every dayon and that'of the things that's so frustrating to

republicans who support this president. allies that want him to survive this and survive the campaign. they want h to have one message, which, as you know with this president, ishi a tough for him to do. but they want him to have a message and they want the white house to tell others. rrogates, what that message is. and they have not done jeff: i think a central message is also to discredit the procesi and leo the call. look at the shirts on trump supporters at rallies.e theyot backing away, they're saying he made the pho call. but the reality is, when the president watches those hearings onsday, on thursday, how he reacts, we don't know the answer to that. so this has consumed this white house, without question. they're acting like there's nothing to see here but, of, courhere is, and it's getting under his skin. josh: what's interesting is that the president even from private does not believe whe call wrong and has aued repeatedly to other republican senators, you can't say i did anything

wrong, that call was perfect. he wanted that tracript put out because he thought the american people would read it and inoculate him. anita: it's onof the oddest things about this. everybody agrees about the facts. but they disagree on whethwa it right or wrong. robert: if the republicans are not really engaging on the substance of the facts her let's go inside what their strategy is. i was at the senate this week talking to lawmakers in forceful defense of the president were few and far between. the emerging argument seems to be that the president's intent and actions were erratic and inappropriate bup -- but not impeachable. >> they were incoherent, incapable o forming quid pro quo. rort: as written in "politico" magane, "who will betray

trump? his presidency could depend keepingetrators -- keeping traitors at bay."i sheryl spent much of this ek in texas in the district of willur a republican, a rare critic of prident trump. he and other critics of trump, fred upton michigan and adam kinzinger in illinoiav all voted with house republicans in rejecting the plan for the impeachment hearings to go forward. question is, will they hang with thent presi if they stick with the president going forward, then republicans can just write this whole exercise off as a partisan impeachment, soviet style impeachment inquiryhey like to call it. but if those republican critics of the preside break, we could see one of two things. americans could actually view this as more of aegitimate process, legitimate congressional exercise of

oversight over the presidenc and other republicans could follow suit. robert: jim jordan, member of oversight, is being shifted over by kevin.o mccarthy,. leader, to the intelligence committee. why is that significant? josh: jim jordan in the president's eyes is one of his most vociferous warriors, he thinks jordan is willio t defend whatever accusations he's charged with and the president wanted him on the intelligence committee. he's o of the most effective defenders, in the president's mind, who are willing to take on his criti and the president has had one more defender on the atelligence committee to questions, to interrogate witnesses, to do the president's bidding. robert: what about john bolton? his lawyers say he has a lot to share but is waiting to see if the courts decide if he can

break from executive privilege. do democrats need bolton? anita: i think the democrats feel they have a solid case, a good case. that's w they're moving forward with public testimony and they're going to say every person who doesn't come is just obstruction. that could be an article of impeachment. they don't need those other people and they're not going to wait for them. josh: i thinkhe bolton testimony could help the democrats with selling this to the american people. i thought it wasascinating today tt johnolton's lawyer said he has relevant information lawmakers do not know. he could have said mr. bolton will wait until we hear from th lawyers. robert: why is he saying that? >> i thinkr. bolton is a great communicator, one of the most communicators in town. he wanted to, i think, add his information to the top of all this as we go into the public hearings next week that there was more out there. so i think it's giving an

entree, as sheryl was talking about republicans, i remain spectacle of a big republican break here because it has n happened to this point. sheryl: it's not going to happen. anita: the one thing the president has been saying. this president off.ning wil set the thing he wants right now that he's been so upset about is week in these last couple of weeks, he wants more republicans out there speaking about him, defending him, suppor hng him and hen't had that. robert: could be hard to predict where republicans go. s we haven'tn bolton testify. we haven't seen ambassador taylor put his hand in the air. josh: the president doesn't have the warmest relationship with senate republicans one of them -- the presidentma s incredibly popular with the republican party but he doest have institutional ties with senate republicans and bob, you go to the hill more than i do. you talk to these people.

you know they're skeptical of this president.et r they're willing to publicly break is a different question. rort: sheryl? sheryl: they need a lot of republicans to break in order to senate if he does get impeached in the house, which looks likely. do you think doug jones, democrat up for re-election in alabama, is going to w breakh the president? or joe mansi, he just won-e ction, so maybe he's ok. robert: are they willing to break at all? sheryl: they don't want to talk about it right now, especially the moderate republicans, like e susan collinses of the world and arryers, both in tough races. they don't want to talk about it. they say i might be a jor in this case so i better not address this. robert: every time i go up to senator alexander of tennessee, he says, i'm a injury -- juror,

i have nothing to say. sheryl: but he's freeecause he retiring. robert: let's finish tonight talking about all of this -- the politics, campaign trail. kentuc democrat andy beshear has claimed victory over republican governor matt bevin who was boosted by president trump in that rede tate on the the election. president trump: if you lose, they're going to say trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world. you can't let that happen to met >> last the election ended. it endednd it's timeo move forward with a smooth transition hthat we ae to do so that we can do the people's business. robert: inalking -- democrats had a big night. winning control of the virginia state legislator. they ran against the president and g.o.p. efforts to block the expansion of medicaid. jeff, you were talking to voters all week on the campaign trail. what did tuesday tell us about

2020? jeff: tuesday tells us the same story from the 2018idterms is that is there is trouble in the republican brand and among the president's supporters in the suburbs of america. look at the suburbs of ncinnati, of memphis, as philadelphia, as pittsburgh, as you were saying, certainly suburbs in washington, virginia. there is republican erosion. i think the kentucky governor's race, yes, the president went down there at the end. he probabl helped him a little bit, notnough, of course. governor bevin had a variety of essues. he lost because picked a fight with the teachers unions and a variety of things over state pensions but off-year elections, we tend to rea too much into them but onehing we can reado, i what is happening in the suburbs of america. the trump campaign realizes this and they're motivating their own supporters but the president in and of himself, he knows there are ctain places will not be able to go as much in 2020 but the suburbs are going to be

the story -- gun control and otr issues, a central issue. sheryl: one place the president won't be able to go v isginia. virginia came out of these elections as aid s democratic state. it was a democratic sweep. it completed the transition of virginia from red to pure to blue and as for bevin, i coveredy -- covered bevin's race in 2015. bevin was trump before trump. he was an outsider, he was brash, said he was beholden toar no and he made republicans nervous and i have to wonder if part of the a backlashinst bevin was against his personal style, as jeff said, he picked a fight with the teachers. i think he called them thugs something. you do wonder, will g voter turned off to trump's personal style? will they turn against him the way kentuckians --in robertde the white house,

when you look at kentucky, do they see bevin as an island in and of itself or do they spo ntial problems, maybe losing political capital with republicans? josh: i think they see bevin as more of an isolated incident. tefolks in the w house said results in virginia and how that's trending did not look good for the president. the points they make on the other side are worth hearing. they say there are a lot of trump voters whoom don't out in off-year elections and they only care about trump and they think theyan get a lot of these people out. they say the president doesn't have an opponent yet and one ofs the the was effective in 2016 was demonizing his opponent. he went into the election day withn approval rating below 40% and still won. whether he can recreate that, i don't know, but that's worth considering. robert: those points are muddled by the impeachment discussion. the political strategist for the chamber of commerce.s therlot of positive news

about president trump's good evening on the economy but overwhelmed by the drama. from "the post" earlier this week. the stock market hitting a record high this week,s progr in the china trade talks but problems in the suburbs. what is the white house doing to address the suburban slide? anita: there are people telling president trump if he could just stick to the, econo stick to those good points right now, he could do very well. his problem h is that as you know, goes off and talks about other things. there's thempeachment. he's getting mad at people. if he could stick to the economy, he's going to probablom announcehing on china in the coming weeks. have -- that could get them somewhere. you've seen them talk a little bit about issues like gun control thinking the could use that and in the end he didn't go there. robert: let' pause on gun control. one of the biggest advocates for gun control in 2018, michael bloomberg, former new york mayor. he sees his party moving too far the left and is jumping in the race. what does it mean for the democratic contest?: je is a big unknown.

he surprised a lot of people. he has said repeatedly he would not run. he filed his paperwork in alabama late friday. the reason, alabama, they have an f earlying deadline. look for him to do the same in new hampshire a week from todayl we son't know if he's running but he's planning do so but he's also going to f skip thst four early voting states -- iowa, new hampshire, nevada, south carol i do not hear a lot of clamoring among democratic primary voters for mike bloomberg. there are a lot of people on his payroll who look at the math of this and saye's exactly t person who could beat president trump but they have a lot of data, because of the gun control efforts he funded in the virginia suburbs and other things. we can't count him out bute do not know if he'll be the right messenger in a democratic primary. his candidacy is hinging on joe biden collapsing and that hasn't voters.d yet in the eyes of it has for some strategists buts machine resilient and it

helped elizabeth warren this week,ll as josh: mike bloomberg is not a natural campaigner. he doesn't light up a crowd. he's not necessarily exciting, enthusiastic speaker. he's a technocrat. he sees a path as, i'm 77 years old, i think my party isot heading in the right direction, i think he's issues deserve mort atn, if not now, when. you talk to people around him, they don't necessarily see the path that he does but bloomberg, it seems like this is a last chance. give it a go, effort. sheryl: do democrats really want an old white man as their nominee? we're seeing those questions raised with bernie sanders, who had a heart attack and questions about his health.oe with biden, questions about his acuity, whether hs lost a step. and the democratic party is moving toward a younger base, people of color, women.

robert: and more liberal. sheryl: and mor liberal. my other thought was if bloomberg became the nominee, we'd have a subway series, right? robert: whs not a new yorker in american politics anymore? does t white house sit back and go maybe thinking about senar warren or senator could be bloomberg.e and now it anita: i don't think they think it's bernie sanders. all attention has been on elizabeth warren lately. they thought it was joe bid and they felt the situation with ukraine and his fund-raising has pushed him out and the person to look at is elizabeth warren and they are reallyappy about that, obviously, because she's so pgressive, on the left. they feel they can fight her and push back. against h jeff: one thing it says above all, this race is muchore unsettled than we think in washington. voters want someone who can win. ey don't know the answer to that question. that's what bloomberg does to m th, he mixes it all up. the next few months before the

iowa caucuses are fe cinating beca the unsettled nature of this. two-thirds of people are wilng to change their minds. josh: i think you have a president who is also willing to get in the mix and g his hands dirty early. that's one of the things i'ms watching a white house correspondent, how does he try to shape the pmaries? there are people telling him to stay out and let d theocrats beat themselves up but this is not aerson who does that and that's the x-factor. robert: it was wild news. bloomberg may be getting in, impeachment -- what a week. next week, "pbs newshour" will begin special live coverage of the house impeachment hearings on wednesday, november 13, at 10:00 a.m. eastern. l check yoal listings and make sure to check out our "washington week extra" on social media and on our website. i'm robert costa. good night.

is annoorcer: corporate funding f "washington week" is provided by -- ditional funding is provided by --tr koo and ia yuen through the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differenc in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributionto your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.] c

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