up. and i love my friend's stunning look today. and so a good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters. it is about high noon here out east, and welcome in to "weekends with alex witt." the president and his team is on the defense while democrats are demanding transcripts and answers. >> listen to me. listen to me. the conversation by the way, it was absolutely perfect and you can't have people doing the false alarms like this. >> why doesn't the president simply release the transcript of that call? >> that is the big question and what this does to the impeachment argument ahead. also, how do they really feel? the new poll to ask americans about the democratic field, and the president and the america for all, and di she say that?

tul si gabbard and her remarks. later today, the prime minister na rrinda modi and als we will talk about a phone call that he said about a phone call with the vice president's son. and this is some say a confirmation of the vice president. >> we had a great conversation. the conversation i had was largely congratulatory, and largely corruption, and all of the corruption taking place. largely that we don't want people like vice president biden and his son already contributing

to the corruption in ukraine. >> this week the spotlight is to intensify, because the president is to meet with the ukrainian counterpart. and then acting director of national intelligence is set to testify in an open hearing in front of the house intelligence committee. that chairman is down playing the impeachment, but he said it may be a turning point for him. >> i have been reluctant to go down the path of impeachment, but if the president is withholding military aid at the same time that he is trying to brow beat a foreign leader into doing something elicit that is providing dirt on his opponent in a presidential campaign, then that may be the only remedy that is co-equal to the evil that conduct represents. >> and listen to the arguments in favor and against releasing the transcript of the phone calls and the different takes of the foreign minister and if he was pressured.

>> i have a problem with congress asking for a transcript between world leaders. those are confidential discussions, and that is a difficult precedent. >> and not if the conversations involve potential corruption or criminality or the leverage being used for political advantage against our nation's interests. >> i think that the ukrainian foreign minister said that there was no pressure applied. >> they made this decision to cut off the aid at any time and this president is nothing if not vindictive. >> this is coming as a new poll of "the wall street journal" is showing troubling signs for president trump with 70% of the voters say they don't like the president personally regardless of how they feel about his policies. the approval rating is consistent to 45% where presidents barack obama and bill clinton stood at presidential approval in their presidencies at this point. so 67% of voters support the

moderate option of medicare buy-in fprograms for folks unde 65. and medicare for all is only 41% approving of that. and we have hans nichols in houston and there is more for what the president had to say about this whistle-blower story, and set the scene where you are. >> well, it is quite loud and i my apologies and ted cruz is speaking, and republican electability is what this rally is about. they are expecting some 50,000 people here, and we have this stadium at capacity, and we know that donald trump likes big crowds. now, you have leading political figures in texas here. i spoke with senator cornyn, and i asked him about the other story today, and remember, we have another split screen presidency, and the big rally here with the lingering questions of what the president

told the leader of ukraine. i asked senator cornyn who is a member of the senate intelligence committee of whether he thinks that congress should investigate, and cornyn said that congress does have a duty to get to the bottom of this whistle-blower complaint, and that is the first time that we have heard a republican say that the congress needs to investigate this. now, at the same time that the president is clearly on the defensive, and before he left, he tried to draw attention to the intention of the whistle-blower. >> this whistle-blower or whoever it was, because it sounds like it is not a whistle-blower, you can't have that happen to a president of the united states. you can't have people doing this. and you can't have people doing false alarms like this. and you know, when a president speaks to the head of another country, he has to be able to speak to those people. and those people don't want to know that they are being recorded or that you have a stenographer working. you don't want to hear that. you can't do that to a

president, and you can't do that to other countries, but with all of that said, we had a great conversation, and very straight, very honest conversation. i hope they can put it out. >> now, senator cornyn did say that he didn't believe that the whistle-blower had first hand knowledge of that conversation. he seemed to be suggesting it is second or third hand and so we have to get to the bottom of that. and senator cornyn is speaking, and i would love to have a more report to you, but it is too noisy and as they say down here, i have to hand it back to y'all. >> okay. hans nichols, thank you. and now, welcoming in tul si

gab be gab bert. and you welcome. you said that you would like to welcome in prime minister modi and it is so nice to see so many indian americans and others there gathered to welcome him. do you believe this is playing into the theater of trump's election with potential 50,000 indian americans in attendance? >> you can see how there continues to be a bipartisan understanding of the importance of the u.s./india relationship. they are a strong trading partner and trading partner and world's oldest democracy, along with president trump there, majority leader steny hoyer there, and bipartisan members of congress there to recognize the importance of the relationship between our two countries. any time that prime minister modi has come, you have seen the large crowds of the indian

americans coming out from all parts of the country who feel connected to their homeland, but also who are really bringing to the forefront the diversity that we have in this country and the contributions that they are making as important parts of this diversity. >> no, i very much appreciate the points that you make, but are you at all concerned that prime minister modi is being used by president trump here? >> i am sure that vice minister modi can handle things himself, but i am concerned that this is becoming politicized. we have seen when president obama was in the white house, he placed a great importance on this relationship, and we have seen through time that this strong relationship has withstood the test of the partisan winds blowing one way or another, and it would be unfortunate for this relationship to suffer or sour because of part san interests

kind of overshadowing the real issues at stake. >> okay. let's get to the whistle-blower complaint reportedly over the president's phone call pressuring the ukraine leader to investigate joe biden's son. the ukraine foreign minister says this say says that he was not pressured and president trump says no there there and yet, the administration is actively working to say that the congress does not learn anything more. why is that? >> these allegations are very, very serious. trump said that at the end of the clip there that he said that i hope they release the transcript or the call, and so release it to congress, because if there is information that they are concerned about being classified, release it in a classified setting. if there is no concern, then there is no concern, but congress has a responsibility to exercise oversight and actually get to the bottom of what has happened, because otherwise, what we are seeing is things leaked or allegations thrown

about and questions raising a lot of concerns. release the transcript to congress, and let's let congress do their job and get to the bottom of this. >> i am curious about what you think of the democratic opponent joe biden getting tangled up in this, because he is in a heated back and forth with the president. who wins here? >> well, the problem here with this kind of thing is that it is the american people who end up losing, because as long as we are talking about all of these allegations and all of these things and not getting the evidence, that means that the american people and their issues and their concerns, and the things they are really worried about are not addressed or talked about and this is where we need to focus our attention. >> okay. let's get to iran, because i would like to play for our viewers part of the message that you posted on twitter this week and it is in response of the president moving into saudi arabia and let's take a listen to that. >> for you the think that you can pimp out our proud servicemen and women to the prince of saudi arabia is

disgraceful. my fellow service members and our, we are not your prostitutes, and you are not our pimp. >> look. you have come out as well against the president increasing the sanctions against iran. short of military action, what more can be done? >> i will tell you what needs to be done is that we need to stop this mutual cycle of retaliation that will only lead us towards an all-out inferno both in iran and across the region. it would be terribly costly for our men and women in uniform and for the people across the region as well as for taxpayers who would see trillions more of our dollars taken out of our pockets to pay for yet another wasteful counter productive war of choice. what president trump needs to do right now is to recognize that his strategy with iran has failed. he needs to re-enter the iran nuclear agreement and get rid of the crippling sanctions, and understanding that every single day that goes by that we do not

re-enter the iran nuclear agreement is another day that iran is closer to developing a nuclear weapon. president trump needs to set his pride aside and focus on what our objective should be. which is the safety and the security of the american people. the decisions that he is making, and the actions that he is taking that began with tearing up the iran nuclear deal have done exactly the opposite and undermining our national security. >> but were you have to be commander in chief right now, would you not help saudi arabia, a u.s. ally, at all? >> again, let's look at how we got to this point. this is yet another response of retaliation from iran that is fw going to escalate, and tit-for-tat and if we do this, iran will respond, and so we have to stop this. look and stay focused on what is our objective. our objective is the safety and

the security of the american people and i have said exactly what trump should do, and if i were president, that is exactly what i would do. and second of all, saudi arabia is not our ally and that is the flatout truth. saudi arabia is continuing to directly and indirectly support al qaeda and other terrorist groups in places like yemen and in syria. they continue to spend billions every year exporting this extremist radical wahhabi ideal that infiltrates groups like isis and al qaeda, and no, we should not send our troops, my brothers and sis ters in unifor the protect their oil and their infrastructur infrastructure. our troops need to be back home and serving the interests of our people and our country elsewhere. >> bold statements there. and now, over to the presidential race which you are and is integral part. and we have a brand-new iowa

poll which has you at 2% support, and you need one more qualifying poll to make the stage for next month's debate. first of all, are you confident that we will see you there? >> we will see what happens. debate or not debating. i will continue what our campaign is doing, and focusing directly on the voters of the country and the voters across iowa who are appreciating to spend time with. we have to remember that it is voters who will decide who our democratic nominee is going to be and who the next president is going to be. we are reaching out to them, and old school campaigning and town halls and door-to-door and sign waving and phone calls as well as social media and using every platform to reach them directly. >> what do you feel is resonating with those who support you and what is not? what is missing the mark and what can you do to reach others? >> there are so many issues that we are facing. what i am heartened by and

inspired by last night that we had the incredible town hall here in des moines. what we are seeing is the people coming together across the party lines. we have democrats and progressives and we have some republicans, and independents and libertarians coming together out of the recognition that in order to make progress, in order to ensure that our government is truly of, by and for the people, we have to come together as americans, and motivated by this love for our country and love for the future and work together to work through the differences, and to have constructive debate and dialogue. this issues that we are talking about today, the issue of iran is one that is very concerning to people. again, across the party lines, because they recognize how devastating the cost of war has been on our troops, our veterans and on every american. when their kids are going to school and, hey, we don't have enough money for the textbooks or the supplies they need or the

money for the health care for all or enough money for the things that we the american people need, but yet enough money to wage a counter productive war in another country that does not serve the national security or the troops tofr people of our country and causes such destruction and pain and suffering in the countries where we wage these wars. it is an issue central to our being able to address every other issue, and it is one that is unifying americans all across this country. >> well, my last question to you, because it is a hot button issue. should this president be impeached? >> you know, i have said all along that i believe that we need to defeat donald trump. i am concerned that pursuing impeachment at this moment is only going to further tear our country apart, and deepen the divides that we are seeing. i am running for president to defeat donald trump. i believe that we need to do our

part in offering a positive vision for our future, and trust that voters will make the best decision to defeat donald trump and so that we can move forward together. >> all right. hawaii representative, military veteran and 2020 presidential candidate tulsi gabbard and thank you so much. so good to see you. >> thank you, alex. good to see you. and the impeachment issue, and how the whistle-blower allegations come into play. and we will also chat about corey lewandowski's testimony this week. t corey lewandowski's testimony this week. at fidelity, we believe your money should always be working harder.

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if there is a fire burning, it needs to be put out. that is why we have to look at every remedy. if these two issues are one issue in relating to deplorable conduct and the violation of the president's oath of office and the cover-up in terms of the whistle-blower's complaint, then we have to consider impeachment as well a remedy here. >> developing this hour, that is house intelligence committee chair adam schiff saying that the democrats may have no other choice but to consider impeaching president trump, if the allegations to pressure the ukraine kryukrainian government so, thank you for joining us, my friend, but congressm maman sch has long resisted impeachment, but from what you have heard, is

that is going to encourage your colleagues to join the pro-impeachment camp. >> well, if it is described by sources of the washington post and other places as true, then it is. i have had an encounter in the first of august with a state department person who told me about the dismissal, and the firing of the ambassador who is highly respected and praised ambassador in may of ukraine, the ambassador the ukraine, and it is about this circumstance. they approached me at a function and called me aside and told me it was a serious breach of protocol, and serious problem in our country. and this is -- >> wait, before you go four tan further, can you tell me specifically what was told? >> it was said that lady who was highly respected was fired because she would not go along with the political activity of the administrations that they were trying to force, and she thought that it was wrong and fired as a point of conscious.

>> were they specific about that? did they talk about what this lady had been asked to do? >> they only mentioned giuliani. that it is the same thing that giuliani was over there about. >> hmm. so you believe it had, it related to this whistle-blower inquiry? >> unquestionably it did, and that is in the beginning of may. they were starting to clear the deck, and do their operation, and this is the main focus. trump does not understand any restraints on his power or limitations on his activities, and as i have said before, no constitutional prohibition or the statutory prohibition or the commandment from the bible affects donald trump. >> look, there has been great pressure to get a transcript of the phone call that was done between the president and the ukrainian president on july 5th, and a lot of pushback from that including from steve mnuchin who appeared on the sunday talk shows, and this is what he had to say about that, and his

reasons for not supporting that. >> i believe it is a terrible precedent, because conversations between world leaders are meant to be confidential, and if every time somebody for political reasons raised a question and all of the sudden those conversations were disclosed publicly and when you are disclosing them to congress, a lot of times they are leaked to the press, then why would world leaders want to have conversations together. >> i want to have your response of a valid concern. >> world leaders are not going to want to talk to the united states, and it is not going to inhibit their part of the conversation. i imagine that the ukrainian president would like it released because it would free him of the burden to choose him from choosing an active of the country's defense or fairness and justice and due process. he has been put in the bind between the republicans and democrats by trump. they come up with all kinds of

excuses. trump claimed that the reason he would not do certain things with the mueller report is because of the future presidents and precedent. they don't care about the precedent, but they care about protecting the lawless president. if mnuchin, and we knew more of what he discussed with the russians when they lifted the sanctions and ended up in the fellow investing in the coal mine in kentucky, then it might be interesting to the public. congress lifted the sanctions and it happened anyway. >> and the foreign acquisition of the phone call, and how do you hold this president accountable f. this information is withheld, what do you have? >> impeachment. the only power that congress has other than, that really has to put the president who is not fit to hold the office and hold him up for sanctions is impeachment. going to court to try to enforce our subpoenas for testimony and for documents is a long process that will end up in the supreme

court sometime in late 2020 and be a limited effect, and i am fearful of what the supreme court would say. they have been appointed at least gor sisuch and kavanaugh trump, and so i have no faith in that court, but a glimmer on robert, but a majority of the court, i don't have faith. >> what about the judiciary committee of which you serve? are you taking up the specifics of this phone call? this situation? >> we have talked about it. it is more within the bosom of the intelligence committee and adam schiff. that is the subject matter and adam is going to pursue it more so than us. it is not directly within our purview except for the fact that it is impeachment coming up in our jurisdiction and we will discuss it again, but we will have to defer to adam schiff who is the chairman of the committee, and it has been

thwarted by the president in what i believe is a illegal action towards a statute of law that be given to congress. >> i want to turn to a showdown that the committee had with corey lewandowski and stonewa stonewalling the questions for the committee's first impeachment hearing. and let's look at one of the exchanges that you had with corey lewandowski. >> i didn't think that the president asked me to do anything illegal. >> you don't think it is illegal for you to ask mr. sessions to drop the investigations, and go ollie ollie in free and you didn't that collusion with russia was illegal obstruction of justice. >> i didn't feel that the president asked me to do anything illegal. >> after a hearing like that, and coupled with the whistle-blower complaint, is there a frustration building

with you and the democrats in the difficulties that you have faced in trying to keep the president in check? >> it is a frustration that we have felt for a long time, and we have had a major meeting of the judiciary committee on, i guess it was friday morning, and all of the members are frustrated. and what the best course to take. several of us, including congressman richard liu, and we should use contempt, but some believe it is not the right process and go forward and use the strongest possible remedy and show the american public that we care and try to get the next witness to tell the truth and not act in a contemptuous act toward congress, because it makes us look awful. >> didn't nancy pelosi say that she would have held corey lewandowski in contempt after that display? >> well, she said it, but it is her counsel or the house's counsel who has said that we can't use inherent contempt, and we have to use inherent contempt. the house counsel is wrong, and

we should go forward and pursue it. if the courts say that we are wrong, then the courts say that we are wrong, but we will have tried and acting on behalf of congress and the constitution, and the remedies to make these individuals which are all coming out of trump stop throwing their noses at congress, and the three separate divisions of government and the checks and balances of the founding fathers gave us. we need to kt aact. this whole administration is acting like no other. like roy cohen would have acted in total disregard of the law and the theories on the run without any precedent. they didt it in the case of th new york's d.a. and trying to get his case. what they said is hoowey, but they are doing it to run the clock out, and we have to act in response to this president in the way they have acted in a forceful manner, and a strong manner and we need to go forward to protect the constitution.

>> with regard to the president and his thought, and take a listen to what he said earlier about all of the democratic investigations. here it is. >> if congress would get back to work, we could work something. but congress is doing all of this nonsense, this garbage that they are doing, and i will tell you what, they don't have any time. the democrats in congress are doing nothing, andly tell you what, they are going to lose the election and you know why? they are not doing anything. >> are you at all concerned that the president's message there could end up resonating with the public if what people mostly hear about and all they see is the word on the investigations that are being pursued by the democrats or can you convince the public they are indeed necessary? >> well, not only are they necessary to protect the country, but we have passed gun laws. mitch mcconnell won't schedule them. we have passed health care laws, and mitch mcconnell won't skeld yule, and minimum wage law, and ethics laws, and voting laws

that will protect the ballots, and we have passed laws to protect the pensions of people who lost them for the butch lewis law, and we have passed all kinds of important laws, and they will not bring them up in the senate. no legislative or administrative body has done more since donald trump has been elected than the house caucus in passing budgets and, we have passed the appropriations bills which the senate has not done and done the work and passed it to the public with a strong agenda, and mitch mcconnell who prides himself on calling himself the grim reaper has stopped it. trump has stopped it. he has not listen toed the bipartisan groups who say they should end the sanctions and the bipartisan groups who say that we should not fund the wall with moneys that congress has appropriated. that is another violation, and so it is in court now. >> a long list of the grievances by you, tennessee representative steve cohen.

thank you for sharing them. good to see you. thanks. >> you are welcome. nice to see you, too. the whistle-blower firestorm, and will the president and the reporters resort to a deep state defense? that is next. deep state defense that is next. ♪ (dramatic orchestra) performance comes in lots of flavors. there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of sheet-metal-kind. and then there's performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. that's the kind lincoln's about. ♪ so, every day, we put our latest technology and unrivaled network to work.

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president trump along with his administration on the defense today as they attempt to take national security concerns surrounding the trump ukraine controversy and flip it on the joe biden's son. take a listen. >> what i do find that is inappropriate is that vice president biden at the time, his son did significant dealings in ukraine and i find that to be concerning and for me that is the issue that is perhaps further investigated. >> i don't understand. so it is okay for donald trump jr. and ivanka trump to have copyrights all over the world, but while vice president biden was vice president his son shouldn't have been able to do business dealings. >> again, i don't want to go into more of the details. >> and a new politico article says that the deflections continues to protect trump's norm busting behaviors. natasha bertrand who is a

security reporter with politico, and ed price, u.s. national security analyst and former spokesperson with the obama administration. and welcome in. you are pointing out that we have been here before, but this situation is raising national security concerns. is there something about this scandal that could force the president's top supporters to back pedal somewhat on defending the president or will they continue to supporting him? >> i mean, we have been here before with the russia investigation, and in many ways, this is actually much easier to understand than the russian probe. you have the president asking a foreign government to give him dirt on his political rival so that he may have a better chance of winning the 2020 election. it is clear-cut. the president acknowledged it this morning and said that he had spoken to ukraine's president about the bidens and alleged corruption about them, and what we are seeing is that just as though this is more easy

to understand especially for the american public, trump's allies are jumping to his defense immediately saying this is a deep state plot. now, the president has also jumped on that bandwagon and also kind of reversed himself and at first saying that there were many people on the call that he had with the prime minister, and that these calls are heavily populated as surrounds the protocol of two foreign leaders and everything that he said was appropriate, and now he is suggesting that the whistle blow ser some type of the deep state operative listening in on his phone calls, and elicitly and that is reminiscent of what he said about obama tapping his phones in 2016. so, we are seeing all of this kind of play out again in realtime, but the difference is that i think that this is a lot simpler. this is very clearcut, and the ukrainians also see right through it. they say, look, we know that what the president is doing here is that he is afraid of biden and afraid that he might lose to

him, and so he is trying to dig up dirt. we know that he is obsessed that the campaign manager paul manafort is sitting in jail and will be for the next six years. so they are not necessarily going to be party to this, but they also realize that they have to maintain a good relationship with the u.s. >> yes. so what, ned, did you make of that answer from steve mnuchin. and jake asks him directly about don jr. and eric, and he says he does not want to get into it, and are there e legitimate comparisons there? >> no, alex. clearly steve mnuchin and mike pompeo were briefed on the strategy that the administration is going to employ going out, and it is a strategy of deflection and strategy of don't look here, but over there, and ignore everything that we know about donald trump from the 2016 context in which according to the well documented mueller report not only did he obstruct justice but more jermaiger main

conversation, his administration tried to collude with russians to find dirt on the opponent. so president trump may have done a remarkably similar thing here, and not to seek dirt from another foreign country that is already in that country's favor, but to urge them to look over there, and actually manufacturer the dirt that the russians were never able to provide to the trump campaign in 2016. so i think that when you see steve mnuchin pressed and he is really looking like a deer in the headlights, clearly they have not thought through this strategy all this much. clearly they have not considered the fact that their administration, the corruption, the double dealing, and the self-dealings, and the pay-for-play, and leaving them imminently vulnerable and clearly, i think that really constitutes a national security

concern that we are going to be hearing more and more members of congress and i hope at least republicans as well speak out against. >> i want to get your reaction to this, ned, because i spoke to msnbc national security analyst craig figliuzzi who is pointing out a damaged national security because of this. take a listen. >> let's not forget that one of the key people who knows exactly what happened in that conversation, and this is the president of ukraine. at any time now the president of ukraine, because he now owns our president can come out to give us the dirt, the details, the skinny on a law that the president may have violated. >> are you concerned about that same sentiment? >> oh, absolutely, alex. this is horrifyingly familiar. this is what we have warned about since early on in the administration about the idea of leverage. the asymmetry of information of what the american public has,

and what you and i have, alex, versus what other countries may have and know about this president's actions. we have previously warned about it in the context of vladimir putin. he knew that the trump campaign at every opportunity was reaching tout his agents to try to get dirt on hillary clinton and vladimir putin knew that when the press was hot on their tail and congress was hot on the tail, they had every opportunity and sought to cover it up. vladimir putin knew that michael cohen was trying to manufacturer this real estate deal well into the campaign of 2016, and despite the fact that the trump campaign had lied about it. so this is what we are worrying about. when foreign counterparts and in the case of vladimir putin an adversary has leverage and nose more information than the american public, the idea of blackmail comes into play. they can use that to their advantage. now, i am not as worried about it in the case of the ukrainian

government and in this case, because they are a partner and not adversary, but it is leaving us susceptible every time this comes into play. >> all right. i'm going to have the leave it there, ned price and natasha bertrand. thank you for the sobering conversation. the president in the polls, and including a new number that is getting a lot of attention. . ♪ ♪ award winning design. ♪ ♪ award winning engine. ♪ ♪ the volvo xc90. our most awarded luxury suv. ♪ ♪ red lobster's endless shrimp is back for just $15.99. get all the shrimp you want, any way you want 'em. like new sriracha-honey shrimp, savory grilled teriyaki shrimp, classic shrimp scampi and more! red lobster's endless shrimp is $15.99.

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news and "wall street journal" and combined 69% of all voters saying they dislike president trump personally, and only 29% said they like him personally and that level of dislike beats every president on record. before now, president george w. bush held that spot at 42% in march of 2006 following hurricane katrina and the response there. and president trump's approval rating stands at 45%. joining me is chris liu who served as the white house cabinet secretary, and now he is a senior fellow at the virginia miller center, and jonathan and susan, and the latter two are msnbc political analysts. so susan, a big difference there of the president's personal dislike number and 69%, and the last record holder of 42. so what is that meaning practically speaking? >> it means that practically speaking a lot of people hate donald trump and how he does his job, but that being said, you

have pointed to another poll that has him at the approval level of the job at 45% which means a lot more people, especially republicans are willing to overlook how much they dislike the personal behavior, the tweets, et cetera, instead of his policies. so they prefer the policies and willing to overlook it up to a point. but it is also important to realize that donald trump has never been above 50% in an approval number with gallop which is the first time that has ever happened in any presidency since they have been tracking it since the 1950s. >> yes, a lot of firsts with this president. jonathan, what are you making with the fact that you have the president's approval rating holding steady despite the dislike record number? >> well, what you have is 25% who are hard core trump, and he could shoot somebody on 5th avenue as he said in 2016 and still be for him. and then you have another 20%, maybe 16 to 20% who don't like

him personally, but they seem to like his policies. the problem with the president and that he has is that when he has a challenger, that challenger is going to be chipping away at his support on the policies, and driving a message that he has not gotten very much done as president. and his recent foreign policy screwups don't help. so you have 20% who are predisposed to not like him, and if they can be convinced that the policies are not good for the country, you could have a very significant democratic victory. >> i want to pick up on the policies, because chris, this poll has numbers on the voters preferences for the two big health care approaches that we have been talking about. 67% of all voters and 78% of the democrats support a medicare-type health program, and for people under 65 could also buy coverage into it, and a buy-in, right. and medicare for all and the single-payer government plan is

supported by 41% of all voters and 63% of democrats, and is there a disconnect between the voters and some of the leading democrats on this issue? >> well, look, the poll is certainly a warning to american support the direction democrats are pushing, whether it's expanding health care or making college more affordable or taking a more lenient position on immigration than what the president has been doing. the problem is, when you go to a certain extreme, whether it's medicare for all or whether it's, frankly, forgiving all student loans, the american people seem to chafe at that. yet, on the other hand, you look at something like, you know, forgiving student loans after 15 years, that's a popular position. the medicare buy-in that you suggested in a popular position, as well as criminal background checks for guns, which other polls show have 90% approval ratings. a lot of this is not necessarily the direction democrats want to take, but really how they frame their policies, how stridently they talk about them.

the other point when you get to a general election is that most general election voters aren't highly engaged policy focused voters. they really vote on a gut feeling. a president who's at a 29% approval rate willing have a hard time getting to majority. >> can i have you weigh on the big poll that came out of the democratic race in iowa. it has elizabeth warren overtaking joe biden by to points. that puts her in the lead. we should note within the margin of error. it's kind of a virtual tie as well. do you think this is specific to iowa or is there a greater story here about the race? >> noo, warr, elizabeth warren the move. she has momentum in the race. that doesn't mean she'll inevitably be the nominee but we could see the beginning of a momentum where she could be the front-runner by the end of the year, maybe sooner. that has its perils but she's running a strong campaign.

it's a contrast to sanders and she's fluent on the issues important to democratic voters. meanwhile, joe biden, there's bad news for him in this poll. he had been holding pretty steady through all these dings and dents he was takening and suddenly it's showing up in the polls. people didn't think he was up to being president. former president jimmy carter's comments that he didn't think anybody over 80 should be president will be relevant in this campaign. >> he said he couldn't do the job at 80 years old. joe biden, should he be worried about these numbers? >> i don't read much into iowa polls at this point. in 2003 dick gephardt was doing well. 2008 jon edwards was doing well. we have a long race to go and this is a relatively stable race. i expect the range-e race to change a little bit about one of the second-tier candidates,

perhaps buttigieg or harris making a run. >> thank you. how television shaped donald trump into the president he is today. that story next.

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we have breaking news out of pennsylvania. three people are dead. four hospitalized after what began as a mysterious situation in pittsburgh. police are now saying it appears to be a mass drug overdose situation. all seven male victims were wearing orange wrist bands. the victims to have appeared to ingested the drugs different from the location where the wrist bands were distributed. four treated, three in critical condition. no word on the nature of the drug. there's another story breaking over the past few hours. nfl superstar wide receiver antonio brown says he'll no longer play in the nfl. that word came down a short time ago. brown was released after one game with the new england patriots amid sexual assault allegations. he made his announcement in a tweet. brown has denied all accusations against them. stonewalling performance on capitol hill last week is calling for a contempt of congress charge against cory

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the white house insisting the president did nothing wrong. 2020 surprise. a new poll puts elizabeth warren at the front of the pack and the other number that could spell trouble for the. the. a call for cash after 24 hours. cory booker's campaign manager explains how many donors have helped out. plus, breaking the truce.

how aoc is reigniting her battle with the democratic establishment. good day, everyone. right here on msnbc world headquarters in new york, welcome to "weekends with alex wi witt." the president is set to talk with narrendra modi and said he is friends with india. in a phone call in july he pressured biden's son. listen to what he said when he left the white house because some take it as a confirmation that he did mention the vice president during that call. >> we had a great conversation. the conversation i had was largely congratulatory, was largely corrupt in all the corruption taking place, was largely the fact that we don't want our people like vice president biden and his son

creating to the corruption already in the ukraine. >> this week the spotlight is likely to intensity. on wednesday the president is expected to meet with his ukrainian counterpart and thursday the national director of intelligence is set to testify in an open hearing. the chairman of the committee has downplayed impeachment however today he said this could be a turning point for him. >> i have been very reluctant to go down the patch of impeachment but if the president is essentially holding military aid at the same time he's trying to brow-beat a foreign leader into doing something illicit, that is providing dirt on a opponent during a presidential campaign, that is co-equal to evil that conduct represents. >> my colleague chuck todd pressured the treasury secretary on why the president didn't ask the fbi to investigate hunter biden instead of going to

ukraine. >> if the president believes an american is committing something -- doing something wrong, why didn't he go to the fbi? why is he outsourcing the investigation to the ukrainian government? >> i wouldn't know if he -- i don't believe he did outsource the investigation. i wasn't on the call. and i don't know what conversations the president has had with the attorney general. he may have had conversations already. >> and this all comes as a new poll by nbc news and "the wall street journal" is showing troubling signs for the president. almost 70% of voters say they do not like the president personally regardless of how they feel about his policies. however, his approval rating remains stable at 45%. that number consistent to where former president's barack obama and bill clinton stood in public approval at this point of their presidencies. when it comes to policy, the poll found 67% of voters support the more moderate optional medicare buy-in program for those under 65 years of age. medicare for all, less popular,

41% supporting that. let's go to houston, texas. hans nichols is following the. the. it was less loud when we spoke to you an hour ago, in addition to the reaction you have from your republican senator to the whistle-blower story. >> reporter: they switched from the guitar to drums so still quite loud. we have a couple updates from the president himself. i think what's important what the president just said, he hinted at the possibility of releasing some of that information from that phone call. now, it was president trump so he hedged it. he has several caveats. he seems to be indicating to turn over to a third-party person to look at what they could release from that call. now, at the same time the president is doubling down on his defense. he's saying, look, i know when i pressure people. i know what that's like. this was not pressure. i think we have someone coming up on stage. that's the president himself. i'm just going to tell you real quickly what senator cornyn told me earlier. that's a strong hint congress will be looking into it.

have a listen. >> i've seen a lot written and a lot said on this. i was struck by the fact that the persons who reported this has no personal knowledge and was based on hearsay. i'm not going to speculate on what may or may not happen. when it comes to intelligence, i'm on the intelligence committee and senate. there's a house intelligence committee that provides oversight. i'm sure in due course we'll get access to the details. right now i don't think any of us know for sure. >> you do expect congress to look into this? >> yeah. i think that's part of our oversight responsibilities. we will invariably get into it. >> reporter: that's an indication this isn't going to go away any time soon and republican senators saying congress will look into it. just a little backdrop. the white house is trying to solidify ties with india. there's talk of a new free trade

agreement they could potentially sign in new york this week. there's a lot of politics here. campaign officials see a great opportunity with the indian-american community. there are over 50,000 people here. that was the expected capacity. it looks pretty full here. we just saw the president get up on stage. since i can't speech much more loudly over the drums, i'm going to throw it back to you. alex? >> i understand. a lourt arena packed with a lot of people. we'll keep an eye on what's being said at the podium from the control booth and bring you any pertinent information. the president make these remarks about the whistle-blower. >> you can't have people doing false alarms like this. and you know, when the president speaks to the head of another country, he has to be able to speak to those people and those people don't want to know they're being recorded or that you have a stenographer worer. you can't do that to a

president. >> let's discuss this with madeleine dean. welcome to the studio. nice to have you in person. >> nice to be with you. >> all of the reaction, i'm curious what you think about the argument the president just made there with regard to the whistle-blower, any kind of a call he needs to have, keep it private between leaders of countries and the like. what are your thoughts on that? >> i think if the reporting is accurate, and it sounds like the president himself is on the verge of confirming it, the day after mueller testified, he called president-elect zielinski as much as eight times, urged the president-elect to listen to giuliani's request to look into biden and biden's son. that's extraordinary wrongdoing. the president is using his position as president to interfere with an upcoming election to investigate a foe. we took a look at the mueller report.

what did they look at there? interfering with a foreign government. imagine the president interfering with the ukrainian president-elect. it's extraordinary wrongdoing. >> you supported impeachment pretty early on. how does this incident play into that support? >> you know, day after day, i think we keep looking at the behaviors of this president and the administration and saying, this is a new low. well, the ukraine investigation, the whistle-blower report, if those two things do converge and confirm that this president tried to have a foreign head of state investigate his political opponent, it is one more extraordinary ground for impeachment. the wrongdoing of a president, whether it's obstruction of justice, obstruction of congress, corruption, pardons, payoffs, falsifying documents, getting people to lie for him, it's absolutely mountainous in this administration. >> how much do you think the fact that the house intel chair,

adam schiff, not supportive of impeachment but did say on the sunday talk shows today, this may be going too far, this may be a turning point for him? how much might that change the conversation? >> he said it might be the crossing of a rubicon. you know from your reporting, he's one of the most thoughtful members of congress. >> i agree. >> extraordinary. on an intelligence committee it's an important place. i respect his thoughtfulness and his measured attempt to deal with the mountainous information of wrongdoing. i think you did hear a shift in his tone that while impeachment is a last resort, it is probably a very important remedy that congress will have to take. >> we watched you in the committee this week and dealing with corey lewandowski who pretty much stonewalled all of your questions. we'll play a little bit of that right now for our listeners. . >> is that source accurate? >> no. >> they're lying, too?

>> it's called fake news. >> another coincidence you're pitching what your client wants you to pitch. coincidence? >> how is this relevant to the hearing? >> i'll ask the questions. >> okay. >> in the last hour, your colleague steve cohen told me he believed it was house counsel preventing any pursuit of contempt for corey lewandowski. nancy pelosi said he should be pursued. what are your thoughts? >> his behavior was connecticte. he was never employed by white house and flanked by white house attorneys and claiming a privilege that does not exist for the president or in law. he proved himself a liar. he feels no obligation to tell the truth to the media.

i think that should disqualify him from talk shows. he confirmed the robert mueller, which he never read. he confirmed what he had done was take down by dictation the notes of the president to tell jeff sessions, the attorney general, to unrecuse and to limit the scope of the special counsel report. that kind of corruptionle and wrongdoing by this failed foot soldier, corey lewandowski, is really what was revealed. obstruction of congress and obstruction of justice by this administration. >> madeleine dean, thank you so much. good to see you. >> thank you. >> appreciate that. >> thanks. at a crossroads one day after the booker campaign announced an urgent need for funds, his campaign manager tells us how much he was able to raise. and slamming her own party, how aoc is taking the leadership to task on impeachment. peachment.

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when donald trump ran, he could still run as reality tv star who was a good deal-maker. he made all these promises. now weave got, you know, i jokingly refer to the rap sheet, but we've got a long list of betrayals and fail policies. and independent journalists have documented over 12,000 lies. >> senator kamala harris in iowa with a message to voters, you pretty much get what you vote for. an author joining me who puts a magnifying on the book "audience

of one." also the chief television critic with "the new york times." really good to have you here and what a fascinating book because among the things you do, are you making the point to voters they shouldn't elect a reality tv star? >> well, that's the voters' call, but i think i'm trying to specify the many ways in which they did elect a reality tv star. not only that, but somebody whose entire public career long before "the apprentice" was foremost about becoming a celebrity, about using the media, about using television to project an image of himself as greater, bigger, more decisive, more successful than he was, in fact, out of the understanding that in a tv and media-based society, appearance is much more important often than reality. >> a lot of what you say strikes

me that you compare it to wrestling. why wrestling? >> donald trump is a wwwe hall of fame member. look it up. he actually has done cameos in wrestling with vince mcmahon. he has thrived in these various environments, these sort of sort of nonfiction, sort of entertainment environments like reality tv, talk shows, pro wrestling where there's a fudzy boundary between truth and fiction. as we see every day in the news, that gray area between truth and fiction is where he lives and where he's had a great deal of political success. >> indeed. something to consider here because certainly you are a television critic but if you look at social media, that has changed the landscape dramatically here. are you at all concerned about how the president has used social media, how his campaign is likely to use it in the 2020 campaign? >> well, certainly it is a --

it's a tremendously powerful platform for disinformation because it allows people to be their own publicist. donald trump loves to be his own publicist. he once impersonated his publicist in the form of john barron. that's how celebrities use social media, politicians have used social media. but it also works in conjunction with tv because, you know, you lie on social media, that gets picked up in other environments and, you know, even if it's being rebutted, it's often amplified through television. so it's tremendously powerful and dangerous. >> you wrote about the stagecraft from the very beginning when the president announced his then-candidacy coming down the escalator. can you envision more of these hyped up stagecraft events between now and november of next year? >> oh, absolutely. i would be surprised if we didn't get them. we've seen them since he's been president. he's often been in sort of an undisciplined as a speaker.

it's like the raw reality television feed. on the other side, the staged summit with the leader of north korea where it did not necessarily produce any measurable results but it set a lot of images into media and television that sort of looked like people's image of a deal. two guys shaking hands. a big summit in a formidable setting. i think he has a great sense for that kind of image and i'm sure we'll get more of that. >> it is fascinating. "audience of one." this is the book. thank you for joining me. it's fascinating. from trump growing up and be a product of television, his mother watching television all the time. it's a really good read. >> thanks. let's go to the 2020 contenders. senators bernie sanders spent some time today as a youth voice presidential forum in des moines, iowa. senator kamala harris was among the congregation at a royal missionary baptist church in

charleston, stk south carolina. other nominees are doing events throughout iowa, michigan, missouri as well. the latest poll of iowa voters shows elizabeth warren pulling ahead, leading joe biden in that iowa poll for the first time. sanders, sanders, buttigieg each losing a little ground. buttigieg is kicking off his iowa bus tour in boone. cory booker is asking his supporters for help as he warns his days in this race could be a bit numbered. the new jersey senator tweeting, we're at a crossroads in this campaign. we need to raise $1.7 million by september 30th to be in a position to build the organization we need to compete for the nomination. and if we can do it, but -- rather, we can do it, but if we don't, we don't see a legitimate long-term path going forward. joining me now, cory booker's campaign manager with a big welcome to you. is that the case? >> pardon? >> is that the case? >> yes. we laid it plain out there in

the tweet, in the memo i put out yesterday. we've actually seen a remarkable outpouring of support. we've raised $363,000 since yesterday. >> $363,000 since yesterday? >> one day. it was the biggest entire fund-raising campaign. a big uphill to go. we think we can get there. it's a stretch goal but we raised $1.4 million in the last ten days. 53% of our donors in the last 24 hours have been new to the campaign. it's want just folks who supported us in the past. we're bringing new people into the campaign. i think it still shows this race is wide open. you saw that poll. there's a lot of movement happening in iowa and new hampshire. cory should be in this race, his voice should be in this race and it will be if folks step up. >> if they don't, and i know you don't want to talk about the negatives but the potential should that, i guess, remaining 1.35 million or whatever it is that you need to raise in the next nine days, if that does not

happen, does that mean he would not stand on the debate stage for which he's already qualified in october? >> here's what i'll say. cory booker is in it to win it. we're building a campaign to win it since we got into this race on february 1st. we have built a campaign to win. we're seeing that momentum in the early states. you see yesterday in what with at the steak fry, a huge amount of support. we have the most endorsements from iowa from state legislators and same in new hampshire. there's a long ways to go. the reality is if we cannot credibly build an organization in the fall, we can't compete to win. this is about winning. cory is not playing for second place. the answer is, if we cannot meet our goalsed in next nine days, we have to take a hard look about what the rest of this campaign may or may want look like. >> this is a bold statement you said, we need it or we're out. he was echoing the same sentiment when he was out on the trail with the steak fry. there are some that are cynics who would suggest, wow, this is an amazing campaign fund-raising tactic. what do you say to that?

it's working. look how much you got in the last 24 hours. >> all i can say is it's not. the proof will be in the pudding come october 1st after we get through this quarter. he wanted to be radically transparent with our supporters. a lot of people out there don't realize there are only three or four candidates who have the resources to really, credibly build an organization. that's what you have to do in october and november to win the nomination. if you're actually running to win, if you're actually running for first place and to be the nominee, you have to put up or shut up right now. we're saying out loud, frankly, what a lot of the campaigns aren't saying out loud, that it's now or never. we expect people to step up. we've seen in the last 24 hours plus people are stepping up and i'm confident we can get there. >> we look forward to october 1st. i hope you come back and talk to me then. let's get more on the whistle-blower firestorm. here's the president a bit earlier today. >> we had a great conversation.

the conversation i had was largely congratulatory, was largely corrupt in all of the corruption taking place. was largely the fact that we don't want our people like vice president biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the ukraine. >> joining me now, abby livingston, washington bureau teach for the texas tribune and jeff mason, white house correspondent for reuters. great to see all three of you. let's get into it here. all of you i want some response on this because some debate on whether the president hinted he did, indeed, talk about joe biden and his son in the phone call. what is your read? what is the significance of this? olivia, you first. >> well, the white house's read out from that call did not mention anything about corruption. ukraine's read out from the call did. this is certainly a new development from the president seeming to hint that they did talk about this.

he said a number of conflicting things on this. i think it's going to be a pretty long slog trying to get any level of transparency on this. he does not want to release the transcripts even though he acknowledges they have them. >> did you interpret the sound bite to mean he spoke about joe biden's synonym. >> i saw him being defensive about what he discussed in that phone call. also he said it was perfect and it was appropriate and then seeming to be indicating as well there shouldn't be transcripts because that gives presidents and foreign leaders more flexibility in their calls. there is a protocol to calls like this. it is pretty standard practice to have transcripts. i think he seems to be building an argument or a case potentially with his supporters, perhaps with an eye towards his attorneys for saying that what he did, if it turns out to be what the reporting has suggested, was okay. >> abby, want to weigh in on

this? >> what i've been most struck with is not the president but chairman adam schiff on the sunday shows. >> yeah. >> i think sometimes viewers, it's hard to know what one member of congress, why they matter versus another. i've seen a number of members come on television and call for impeachment or various actions against the president. but they're often leaders with no followers. adam schiff has followers but he's also extremely close to speaker pelosi who also put out a statement in the last hour calling this a grave new chapter of lawlessness. i think it's key that we are starting to see speaker pelosi and his lieutenants starting to move in that direction. >> i'm just looking at speaker pelosi's statement from this last hour. you're right about that. secretary of state mike pompeo said this morning that it wouldn't be appropriate to release transcripts of the president's transcript with the president of ukraine. but the president left open the possibility of doing so himself.

take a listen to what he said. >> we're looking at that. people don't like that. i don't like it, the concept of it. but we're looking at it. >> what are the prospects of that even happening? what might be holding the president back? >> i think the prospects are probably low. what's holding him back is pretty clear. he doesn't want that transcript to be scrutinized and, you know, whether or not it ends up being exactly how the reportings said it would be or not, there would no doubt be a lot of potential news nuggets in a transcript like that. i've covered president trump for 2 1/2 years. when he says something like, we're looking at it. we report that. you have to report it because the president said it. but i think based on his sort of use of that phrase with a lot of things, it doesn't indicate, to me anyway, that they're probably looking at a very strong one. >> is there any doubt that some sort of documentation of that phone call even exists or is that protocol?

is there definitely documentation? >> well, i don't know the answer to that but i think the fact that people are calling for a transcript and the president is talking about it indicates there is. and as far as i understand, there normally would be. i think that it's pretty safe to assume there is documentation and that's why the administration at this point is sort of getting its ducks in order to, perhaps, prevent that documentation from coming out. >> what tools do democrats have to gain access to this transcript or the whistle-blower report itself? >> they're under a lot of pressure. we saw what aoc said on twitter, i think it was last night, about the democrats' refusal to impeach -- i'm paraphrasing -- being as big of a scandal now as this scandal itself. i think they're under a lot of pressure. it seems like they might have to act. i think one of the lessons

donald trump probably took away from the mueller report and the mueller investigation, they cooperated, they provided a lot of documentation 37 that's what his lawyers advised him to do. and i think that he was always frustrated by that strategy and felt it was backfiring and harming him. i'm not surprised he's more defensive, in more of a defensive crouch now on this issue and less inclined to be transparent and release any relevant documents because of how he felt it went poorly last time. >> what do you make of the president using his old playbook of deny and deflect and then joe biden's on-camera response yesterday when he was not holding back. he went pretty hard back at the president. is that the right tactic? >> i think it both helps and hurt's vice president biden. i think it helps elevate him on a one-on-one level against the president but this is not a positive story. i think hubter biden would have emerged as an issue in the campaign at some point anyway.

it's not a pretty scene regardless on either side. >> from the white house perspective, jeff, is there a double-edged sword nature to this or do they see this as an opening to go after trump -- i mean an opening to go after biden? >> there probably is a double-edged sword but that's been the case for so many things related to president trump over the last 2 1/2 years. he's been quite masterful at using the side of the sword any way in terms of pushing his argument with his supporters that has led people to believe he's in the right. so, i suspect he will continue to do that now. the president and his campaign are happy to have fodder on vice president biden and using it and have been using it. i think that's how they'll portray this as well. >> guys, thanks so much, all three of you. appreciate it. in just a moment, why "game of thrones" might make tv history at tonight's emmy awards. awards

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tonight the big stars on television are hoping to take the staining for the 71st annual emmy awards and take away some statues. let's get to our predictions. we love doing that with dominick patton, chief tv critic for

deadline hollywood. let's get to the picks. we're going do start with the outstanding drama series. what's your pick? >> "game of thrones." it's "game of thrones." it's "game of thrones." it's "game of thrones." they got a record 32 nominations. they won ten emmys at the creative arts membemmys last weekend. "game of thrones" are going out on yet another high. they are winning. >> okay. check, "game of thrones." got that one. outstanding comedy series, which one? >> welcome back to hbo because for the final season and injecting some politics into what is probably the worst fictional president in history, "veep" is going to take this again, as will julia, making a record for her, beating her tie and she will be the most honored prime time emmy winner in history. >> good to know the two of them right there, best comedy and best actress in a comedy series. how about lead actor in a comedy series, who are you picking?

>> i think lead actor in a comedy series is going to be a hard one. i'm going out on a limb. i think it's going to be michael douglas for the "kaminsky method." he has won the golden globes for things like this. this is a show that plays to his strengths and it's a show about acting. he plays a hollywood actor. hollywood loves to award stories about himself. >> very true. what about lead actress in a drama series? a repeat or what's going on there? >> well, i think this is going to be hard but i think it's going to be sandra oh who made history at the golden globes. a lot think it will be her co-star, sandra eaves but i think it will be sandra oh. >> how about lead actress in a drama series? >> a lot of people are calling from bob owdenkirk for "better

call saul" and "breaking bad." i think the work he's doing on "pose" which takes place in the tra transgender community in the '80s in nyc. this is going to be amazing because so many shows are leaving. fox is going to have it on tonight. the interesting thing is, like the oscars, no host. so, way more time to actually talk about the shows. we hear there are going to be quite a few tributes to the shows leaving me. >> i'm filling out my ballot according to your picks. if i lose money, i'm calling you. >> also, "when they see us" will win best limited series and "deadwood" best series. good for hbo. >> "when they see us" was amazing, i agree.

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but we have no intention. it's not set up. >> the president saying it's not set up. "time" magazine reports officials may have been considering some sort of stagecraft involving french president macron talking to iran's president rouhani and p impromptu encouraging president trump to join them. joining me, msnbc contributor, and a welcome to you. what is your read on this, do they both have an interesting in meeting quietly or publicly on the sidelines? >> well, i think there's an interest, certainly. i think that from two different perspectives. president trump would like to meet, obviously, because he likes to have a photo op. he likes to say he's doing something diplomatically with iran that president obama was unable to do. i think the iranians would like to if there were sanctions relief. they definitely want sanctions relief. they've been very clear they're not going to meet with president trump just for that photo op.

in other words, they're not going to give him what he got from north korea. north korea -- in north korea's case, i think north korea also got something. they got a legitimacy for their chairman. iran doesn't want that and doesn't need that. has a completely different population. they will actually lose if they have a meeting with trump and walk away without getting sanctions relief. and there's no indication so far that president trump does want to give sanctions relief other than what was said in france at the g-7 where he did indicate to macron, as you pointed out, that there was the possibility of some sanctions relief in terms of a line of credit or something like that. but that apparently so far has not been enough. >> right. since then he stepped it up. >> yes. >> let's talk about what the iranian foreign minister said this morning about u.s. allegations of iran yaes involvement in the saudi oil attack. listen to this. >> there is no evidence to that effect. the saudis made a show but they could not prove it.

now, at the end of the day, they claimed the weapons were iranian but they couldn't even show that. >> i'm curious what your take on all this because experts widely said this came from iran. does it suggest to you a level of sophistication militarily speaking from iran that it could be still clouded in some level of secrecy? >> well, i think the experts basically are saying -- most experts are saying that the equipment, the missiles and the drones were probably iranian, or iranian made. but not everyone is saying the missiles were actually fired from iran. that's where the foreign minister of iran, that's the nuance in his language, is that -- they're denying it was fired from iranian territory. i'm not saying it was or wasn't. i'm just saying so far even the saudis haven't said that. as secretary pompeo said, if it is true those were fired from

iranian territory, it would be an act of war against a sovereign state. >> so, tell me what's the next step most likely. are we talking about military action or diplomacy and talks? >> i think neither. it appears that president trump does not want military action. certainly not going into the campaign, an election year next year. and it seems like his maximum pressure policy is not working in terms of bringing the iranians to the table for what he wants, which are talks and negotiations and coming up with a better deal. the iranians have suffered through 40 years of sanctions on some level. now they're probably harsher than they've ever been but they have developed ways to get around sanctions and i think they'll continue to do so until the election. if president trump is re-elected, then there might be an opening for talks. i don't think there will be right now. >> msnbc and nbc contributor, thank you so much. breaking the truce. how aoc is reigniting her battle with the democratic establishment. democratic

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could be unavoidable. even house intelligence chair adam schiff. let's bring in adrian elrod. democratic strategist don calloway and carlos cobello. hello, everybody. nice to see you all. adrienne, we'll go ladies first. how big of an escalation is that by congressman shchiff who has been right in step with speaker pelosi up to this point. >> this is a big deal that adam schiff made the declarations he made regarding impeachment. he's been pretty steady and has been able to rise a little bit above the fray and keep this to a very, you know, intellectual argument, but i think even he is seeing that not only is the pressure mounting for impeachment inquiry to go forward but also the evidence is mounting. it's getting to the point where i think pelosi's going to have a very difficult time at least

moving forward, alex, on the very important first step which is to move forward on an impeachment inquiry. that doesn't mean it's going to come to the floor, that proceedings will take place but it starts the process. i think it's getting more and more difficult, alex, for her to be able to avoid that important step. >> and, don, congresswoman aoc tweeted at this point to the bigger national scandal, it isn't the president's law breaking behavior, it's the democratic party's job to impeach. is it now or never to impeach? >> it probably is. i like the word rubicon that chairman schiff used. we have crossed a new rubicon. it's one thing to do as a candidate. all of the impeachment talk or at least most of it centered around the president's conduct with respect to collaborating with russia as a candidate. now we're talking about using the awesome powers of the

president in collaboration with a foreign power conspiring to punish american citizens. this is just simply unacceptable and i think we've reached a new peak in the old parlor game we play, what if obama, what if bush, what if clinton had done x. this is a new level. i think we have reached an entirely new space. aoc is right. aoc's job is to continue to push her party to the left. this is somewhat true to form for her but on the substance of this matter she's absolutely right. if this is not impeachable, ultimately what is? you're setting a precedent for historical precedence going forward. >> congressman, republicans have been missing the reporting of this trying to shift to joe biden. if the reports on the president's call with ukraine's president is true, don't they have a constitutional duty to hold the president to count? >> the first thing they have to do is recognize whether this is legal or not, alex, it is wrong for any president, for any american politician to go to

foreign leaders, to foreign governments and ask them to intervene in our elections. senator pat toomey said that explicitly this morning. it was refreshing. it was good to hear a republican say that in no uncertain terms. more need to step forward. now in terms of the politics surrounding this, i think those are a lot more complicated for democrats than for republicans because for nine months speaker pelosi has tried to keep a very careful balance. on the one hand showing the democratic base that they are investigating the president, that they are heading towards impeachment and at the same time showing or expressing to swing voters those that swept democrats into power in last year's elections that they're not focused on impeachment, they're focused on the economy, health care, other issues that a lot of americans care about. it will be interesting to see how she proceeds from here. >> for sure. adrienne, i'm looking at speaker pelosi who's just issued a new

statement on this whistle-blower complaint. if we face an emergency that must be addressed immediately. if the trump air administration persists in blocking this, we will be entering a new era. >> this is leader pelosi saying, hey, guys, we may move forward on impeachment. >> wow. >> she realizes we have turned a corner here. if this is actually true. i mean, we certainly haven't seen the train script of the call with ukrainian president donald trump, we may not see that transcript. we don't know if it exists. i think she is signaling he has taken this to a whole new level and we may have no other choice but to go forward on some sort of impeachment process as democrats. >> i'm curious, congressman. jake tapper earlier today was speaking with steve mnuchin and he challenged steve mnuchin when he said he didn't understand don

jr., eric trump, ivanka, they can conduct business around the world and yet when the son of a former vice president while in office was conducting business as well, that there seems to be a different standard. what do you have to say to that? >> well, quite frankly, that's a good point. now vice president biden and his team have to understand that the american people, for whatever the reason, have a greater tolerance when it comes to these scandals and these issues with the trump administration. trump is not seen as being from the political world so he's held to a different standard. the vice president is by all means part of the political establishment so he'll be held to that standard. they have to take it seriously. >> i am unfortunately being held to you. carlos, adrian, good to see you both. >> no problem. elizabeth warren pulls ahead in the iowa poll. there's one caveat that should make her feel uneasy. you wouldn't accept an incomplete job from anyone else.

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