robert: impeachment testimony goes public and a blue wave sweeps the suburbs. >> we will bin our open hearings in the impeachment inquiry next week. robert: ahead of public testimony, transcripts reveal newetails about the president and his advisers and democrats make their case. >> we he not heard a single witness come in and provide testimony that would suggest this was anythg other than defense dollars for dirt. robert: republicans balk at the process, dismissing suggestions of quid pro quo. wrote in report was a lie.g he my phone call was a perfect. the whistleblower, because of that, should be revealed.rt roplus, election results g.o.p.uburban challenges for the all as the democratic race is

roiled by a late entry. next -- announcer: this is "washington week." funding is provided by -- >> there's a moment, at of where everything is clear. at fidelity, wealth planning is abouclarity, knowing who you are, where you've been, and where you wanto go. that's fidelity wealth management.dd >>ional funding is yuovided by -- koo and patricia yuen, through th foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. ank you. once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. robert:good eving. this week, transcripts of closed door testimony detailed how the president and his personal

lawyer, rudy giuliani, along with the support of administration officials, pressured the government of ukraine to iestigate the bides and the 2016 eleion. witnesses tesfy that those efforts were linked to critical securi assistance needed by ukraine to combat russian aggression. essentially, a quid pro quo, which the president has repeatedly denied. joining us tonight, sheryl gay stolberg, congressionalfo correspondent 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 post." in transcript after transcript, giuliani's role was pivotal. as josh reports, "top officials needed to cater to him" and gordon sondland, the ambassador to the european union, said in his ttimony, "rudy had bad issues with ukraine and until president wasn't going to change

his mind." josh, when you open your notebook, what does your reporting show?ft josh: time time this week, giuliani's name came up more than 500imes in various witness testimony and what essentially was a nexus, as the president is frustrated with ukraine and these various officials of the state department -- ambassado, top folks in pompeo's orbit, all unders dnd, if we't pacify rudy giuliani, the president won't be happy. and they're, relucta 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 appeaseim, because he said, without rudy being hap, the president won't meet with theai uan president, the president won't have a phone call, the president'sot moving forward until rudy convinces him these concerns have been alleviated so what we saw with every witness this week, they said we have to talk to rudy, what does rudy

think, we have to set up meetings for rudy. sos rudy servese about the's outside lawyer but when ia me to ukraine, rudy was a key player in all of this. robert: inside the white house, countering ru giuliani in this alleged rogue foreign policy? >> you have heard a lot of people now saying that the president should get rid of rudy giuliani and at the time i don't think people understood the extent of hisole. that's one of the things that we're hearing from this testimony, is that people didn't really gett. it w a small circle of people. a lot of them career people, nol political p didn't feel like they could come upnd say anything about it. but now, since it's been coming, ou've been seeing a lot of people saying to the president, please, it's time to cut ties wi him, he is not doing anything good for you. and the president has resisted. robert: why where has he resisted? >> they've had a long history together, the two of them, both being from new y knowing each other forever. i think at this point with people like mick mulvaney, his

chieta of, and rudy giuliani, they know so much about this, they're intot ther. robert: you had lieutenant colonel vin man, his testimony released along with fiona hill, two top staffers in the national security cncil, 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 o chieff staff, mick mulvaney. so i think democrats are really trying to narrow in, if you will. they'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 they are going to have the burden of proving that it was the president directing this operation and republicans feel that they haven't proven that yet and we're going to hear a lot from republicans about that. robert: josh?

jo: mulvaney declined to testify today. he was subpoenaed, didn't show up. mulvaney's ally, o.m.b. everyone in the orbit isp. stewalling the democrats. they're not showing up, they're not going 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 th democrats going challenge us? >> they're going to pursue obstruction, use that as evidence of obstruction. robert: even mulvaney doesn't show up, there's a lot of evidence evidence on the table. jeff: as i travel around the country talking to voters,o listening developments, it's confusing but the rough transcript of the call from the conversation with preside trump and the ukrainian president as well as the whistleblower's 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 when 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 president, you do not believe this is a worthy process. you don't, you do. but don't get lost in t weeds here. the reality is, the president that.k him for the question is if it's impeachable. robert: your point about voters is so important. is this breaking through across the country? so far it's closed door tstestimony and transcr releed to the public. ne week, the house will begin public impeachment hearings and the center, adam schiff. sheryl profiled him i the "times." "schiff is a rorschach tt for american politics. there is little room for error for mr. schiff."

sheryl: that's absolutely right. adam schiff is in effecthe anti-trump, that is how he is casting himself. he is calm, measured, unflappable. he's a former federal prosecutor and he knows that he has to approach these hearings in a very solemn way. he wants to keep things calm and even keel. he wants the democrats to look like they're engaging in a very serious endeavor. robert: who is his key witness? beryl: his key witness wil bill taylor, the top diplomat in ukraine, who i also, in a way, kind of the public servant mirror image of adam schiff. taylor is a military veteran, vietnameteran. he's a respected career diplomat. he has served in every administration, republican and democratic, since 1985. and he is the one who h laid ouin the clearest terms this quid pro quo charge that the president was withholding

withholding a white house and meeting with the ukrainian president in exchange for thera ian president's announcement that he was going robert: what about beyond taylor? we had gordon sondland, retractor to the e.u., some of his previous testimony from last month and now leanto his 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 ylor and also this new testimony from sondland. anita: that is a great question and they have had at the white house six or eight different strategies right now. robe right now?he strategy anita: it's all over the place. it's president trumpnk tg and just kind of saying what he sees when he's watching tv, when he's reading sething. quid pro quo, it's russia 2.0." the message changes every day an that's one of the things that's so frustrating to

republicans who support this prident. allies that want him to survive this and survive the campaign. they want him to have one message, whi, as you know with this president, is a tough thing for him to do. but they want him to hav a message and they want the white house to tell others.t surrogates, w that message is. and they have not done that.i jeffhink a central message is also to discredit the process and lean into the call. look at the shirts on trump supporters at rallies. they're not backing away, they're saying he made the phone call. but the reality is, when the president watches those hearings on wednesday, on thursday, how he reacts, we don't know the t answ that. house, without question.s white they're acting like there's nothing to see here but, of course, there is, and it's getting under his skin. josh: what's interesting is that the president even from private does not believe the call was wrong and has argued repeatedly to other republican senators, you can't say i did anything

wrong, that call was perfect. he wanted that transcript put out because he terught the an people would read it and inoculate him. anita: it's one of tddest things about this. everybody agrees about the facts. but they disagree on whether it was right o wrong. robert: if the republicans are not really engaging on the substance of the facts here, let's go inside what their strategy is. i was at the senate this week defense of the president were few and far beten. the emerging argument seems to be that the president's intentac anons were erratic and inappropriate bup- but not impeachable. >> they were incoherent, incable of forming quid pro quo. robert: as written in "politico" magazine, "who will betray trump?

his presidency could depend on keepingetrators -- keeping traitors at bay." pesheryl: i much of this week in texas in the district of will hurd, a republican, a rare he and other critics of trump, fred upton in michigan and adam kinzinger in illinois, all have voted with house republicans in rejecting the plan for the impeachment hearings to go so the question is, will they president?he if they stick with the president going forward, thenepublicans can just writehis whole exercise off as a partisanac iment, soviet style impeachment inquiry as they like to call it. but if those republican critics of the president break, we could see one of two things. americans could actually view this as more of a legitimate process, legitimate congressional exercise of

oversight over the psidency. and other republicans could follow suit. robert: jim jordan, member of the house judiciary committee in oversight, is being shifted over 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 willing to defend whatever accusations he'h ged with and the president wanted him on the intelgence mmittee. he's one of the most effective defenders, in the president's mind, who are willing to take on his critics and the preside has had one more defender on the intelligence commiee to ask questions, to interrogate witnesses, to do the president's bidding. robert: what about john bolton? his lawyers say heas a loto share buts 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 why 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 article of impeachment. they don't need those other t people ay're not going to wait for them. josh: i think the bolton testimony could help the democrats with selling this to the american people. i thought it wasascinating today that johnr bolton's law said he has relevant information lawmakers do not know. he could have said mr. bolton will wait until we hear from the lawyers. robert: why is he saying that? >> i think mr. bolton is a great communicator, one of the most effective conservative communicators in this town. he wanted to, i thi, add his information to the top of all this as we go into the public w hearings nexk that there was more out there. so i think it's giving an

entree, as sheryl was talking about republicans, iemn spectacle of a big republican break here because it has not happened to this point. sheryl: it's not going to happen. anita: the one thing the president has been saying. even one person turning will set this presi off. the thing he wants right now that he's been so upset about this week inas these couple of weeks, he wants more about him, defending him,aking supporting him and he hasn't had rtthat. rocould be hard to predict where republicans go. we haven't seen 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 replicans. remains incredibly popular with the republican party but he doesn't 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. whether they're willing to publicly break is a different question. robert: sheryl? sheryl: they need a lot of republicans to break in order to convict the president in the senate if he does get impeached in the house, which looks likely. do you think doug jones, democrat up for re-ection in alabama, is going to break with the president? or joe mansi, he just won re-election, so maybe he's ok. robert: are they willing to break at all? eryl: they don't want to talk about it right now, especially the moderate republicans, like the susan collinses of the world and cory gardners, both in tough races. they don't want to talk about it. they say i might be a juror iisn case so i better not address this. robert: every time i go up to senator alexander of tennessee, hes, s'm a injury -- juror,

i ve nothing to say. sheryl: but he's free because he's retiring. robet's finish tonight talking about all of this -- the politics, campaign trail. dykentucky democrat beshear has claimed victory overre blican governor matt bevin who was boosted by president eve of the election.ate on the 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 me. >> lasight, the election ended. it ended and it'sime to move that we are here to do so thaton we can do the people's business. robert: in talking -- democrats had a big night. winnin control of the virginia state legislator. they ran against the president and g.o.p. efforts to block the expansion of medicaid. jeff, yo werealking to voters all week on the campaign trail. what did tuesday tell us about

20? jeff: tuesday tells us the same story from the 2018 midterms 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 cincinnati, of memphis, as, philadelphs pittsburgh, as you were saying, certainly suburbs in washington, virginia. there is republican erosion. i think the kentucky governor's race, yes,the president w down there at the end. he probabl helped him a little bit, not enough, of course. governor bevin had a variety of issues. he lost aecause he picke fight with the teachers unions and a variety of things over state pensions but off-year elections, we tend to read too much into them but one thing we can read into, 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 certain places he will n be able to go as much in 2020 but the suburbs are going to be

the story -- gun control and other issues, a central issue.yl shone place the president won't be able to go is virginia. virginia came out of these elections as a solidly democratic state. it was a democratic sweep.om iteted the transition of virginia from red to purple t blue and as for bevin, i coveredy -- covered bevin's race in 2015. bevin was trump before trump. he was an outsider, h was brash, said he was beholden to h party a made republicans nervous and i have to wonder if part of the bklash against bevin was against his personal fight with the teachers.picked a i think he called them thugs or mething. u do wonder, will voters get turned off to trump's pernal style? will they turn against him the way kentuckians --

ourobert: inside the white, when you look at kentucky, do they see bevin as an island in and of itself or do they see potential problems, maybe losing political capital with publicans? josh: i think they see bevin as more of an isolated incident. folks in the white house said results in virginiaow and 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 who don't come out in off-year elections and they only care about trump and they think they can get a lot o these people out. they say the president doesn't have an opponent yet and one of 2016 was demonizing histive in opponent. he went into the election day with an approval rating below 40% and still won. whether he can recreate that, i don' tknow, butt's worth considering. robert: those points are muddled by i theeachment discussion. the political strategist for the chamber of commerce. there's a lot of pe 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, progress in the china trade talks buthe problems inuburbs. 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 economy, stick to those good points right now, he could do very well. his problem is that he, as you know, goes off and talks about other things. there's the impeachment. he's getting mad at people. if he could sti to the economy, he's going to probably announce something on china in the coming weeks. they feel like they could have -- that could get them somewh you've seen them talk a little bit about issues like gun control thinking they could use that and in the end he didn't go there. robert: let's pause on control. one of the biggest advocates for gun control in 2018, michael bloomberg, former ne york mayor. he sees his party moving too far to the left and is jumping in the race. what does it mean for the democratic contest? jeff: it is a big unknown. he surprised a lot ofeople.

he has said repeatedly he would not run. he filed his papnwork i alabama late friday. the reason, alabama, they have an ely filing deadline. look for him to do the same in new hampshire a week from today. we sti don't knowf he's running but he's planning to do so but he's also going to skip the first four early votingat -- iowa, new hampshire, nevada, sout carolina. i do not hear a lot of clamoring among democratic primary voters for mike bloomberg. there are a lot of people on his payrollho look at the math of this and say he's exactly the person who could beat president trump but ty have a lo of data, because of the gun control effort he funded in the virginia suburbs and other things. we can't count him outut we do not know if he'll be the right messenger in a democratic primary. his candidacy is hinging on joe biden collapsias and thatt happened yet in the eyes of voters. it has fortr someegists but he's machine resilient and it

helped elizabeth warren this week, as well. josh: mike bloomberg is not a natural campaigner. he doesn't lig up crowd. he's not necessarily eiting, enthusiastic speaker. he's a technocrat. sees a path as, i'm 77 years is notthink my party heading in the right direction, i think he's issues deserve more attention, if not non. you talk to people around him, they don't necessarily see the path that he doesut 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 raisedbe witie sanders, who had a heart attack and questions about his health. with joe b questions about his acuity, whether he's lostepa and the democratic party is moving toward a younger base, people of color, women. robert: and more liberal.

sheryl: and more 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 the white house sit back and go maybe thinking about senator warren o senator sanders as a nominee and nowet could bloomberg. anita: i don't think they think it's bernie sanders. all attention has been on elizeth warren lately. they thought it was joe biden 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 rutlly happy a that, obviously, because she's so progressive, on th left. they feel they can fight her and push back again her. jeff: one thing it says above all, this race is much more unsettled than we think in washingtonan voters someone who can win. they don't know the answer to that question.'s thhat bloomberg does to the mix, he mixes it all up. the next few months before the

iowa caucuses are fascinating because of t unsettled nature of this. two-thirds of people are willina toe their minds. josh: i think you have a president who is also willing to get in the mix and get hisands dirty early. that's one of the things i'm watching as a white house correspondent, hows d he try to shape the primaries? there areeople telling him to stay out and let the democrats beat themselves up but this is not a person 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 sethe hmpeachment hearings wednesday, november 13, at 10:00 a.m. eastern. check your local 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

announcer: corporatehiunding for "wngton week" is provided by -- ng additional funs provided by -- ho and patricia yuen thro the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differenc in ourommunities. the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national ctioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org.]

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