so thank you to both of you, radima and carl, we appreciate the work you are doing. >> thank you for bringing us here. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm going to see you back here at 10:00 p.m. eastern for the last word. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace begins now. ♪ hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. from russia if you're listening to ukraine, take out joe biden for me, will you? donald trump making clear that he can't win the presidency without foreign interference and doesn't have any interest in trying. donald trump essentially confessing to the conduct in question admitting that he urged the ukrainians to investigate joe biden and all but confessing to connecting u.s. aid dollars or in trump's words "money k" t the request to investigate biden. here he is with what he discussed on july with the ukrainian president. >> the conversation i had was largely congratatory, 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 ukraine. >> important to note trump is making a wholly unsubstantiated claim when he alleges corruptions by the bidens. there is no evidence of any wrongdoing. in reality joe biden was the one working to purge corruption from ukraine and trump is the one ordering foreign intervention in presidential politics. and here's trump seeming to confirm what we know from press accounts about the whistleblower complaint that put this entire scandal into motion that trump tied a promise to a foreign leader to something of urgent concern. >> it's very important to talk about corruption. if you don't talk about corruption, why would you give money to a country that you think is corrupt? one of the reasons the new president got elected is he was going to stop corruption. so it's very important that on occasion you speak to somebody

about corruption. very important. >> though he'd go on to deny promising military aid in exchange for a biden investigation. trump came awfully close to confessing to the entire conspiracy in plain sight urging a foreign leader to meddle in the u.s. selection and suggesting he would not give money to a country that hadn't properly investigated corruption. except in this case the corruption is fabricated by trump and giuliani and the conduct in question is trump assolicitation of election interference from ukraine. it came after mueller testified about the russia attack on our 2016 election. when the july 24th congressional testimony of special counsel robert mueller deflated the impeachment hopes of democrats, president trump crowed no collusion and claimed vindication from accusations that he had conspired with russia in the 2016 election. then the very next day trump allegedly sought to collude with another foreign country in the coming election.

pressing ukrainian president zelensky to dig up what he believed would be damaging information about one of his leading democratic challengers. and that is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. with us from the "new york times" white house correspondent annie karni. now an adviser to the biden campaign. with us at the table former democratic senator clara mccaskill. former federal prosecutor paul butler. former -- oh, david jolly didn't make it but he's still up here if he shows up. and chief public affairs officer karine jean-pierre. annie karni, let me start with you. donald trump seeming to confirm everything that your newspaper and "the washington post" and the "wall street journal" has reported since friday basically that donald trump called the code red. donald trump asked the ukrainians to investigate joe biden. >> i mean, he hasn't issued a firm denial of any of it. he tweeted about the "wall street journal" had reported

that eight times in that july 25th phone call he asked ukraine to investigate biden. and he tweeted about that today calling it fake news. but he didn't issue a clear denial. one thing that we as journalists need to press him on today as he makes his rounds at the u.n. is on that phone call did he directly tie that foreign aid to an investigation of a political rival at home. that's what we still need clarity on from him, and he does a lot of talking these days in front of reporters and a lot of pool sprachlz. so that's something that we really need to push him on to get a more specific answer. >> paul butler, that's an important thing to know if there was a quid pro quo. about tut would seem we already have what we had in 2016. here's a graphic of how the ukrainian effort in election interference is already worse than the russian attempt, which put in motion a special counsel a 22-month investigation. so on the russia probe, russia approached the trump campaign in. this instance it was donald

trump who approached ukraine. the russia investigation examined a lot of contacts 150 contacts mostly among aides and advisers with the russians. in this instance what is public facing is trump and rudy giuliani driving a ukrainian oppo operation in the russia investigation the mueller report sites donald trump jr.'s ignorance of the laws and accepting foreign aid. post mueller, the whole country is educated in the illegality of election interference. the russia investigation he was a candidate. now with ukraine trump is the american president has the -- of the presidency. in the question from the russia probe, as annie karni just said about a quid pro quo with military aid. >> we've seen this movie before. trump tried to bully the ukrainians into messing with our democracy. he tried to get a foreign national to help him when election to the oval office.

he's on notice that that's illegal. it's a violation of federal campaign laws to solicit a thing of value including opposition research from a foreign national. mueller says that in, in his report. he says one reason he didn't charge anyone with that crime is because at that point it wasn't clear that it was a crime. now he's on notice. as you point out, nicole, it's worse this time because he's sitting in the oval office bargaining with foreign leaders. while you have $250 million in foreign aid in a defense aid to the ukrainians and a conversation where he's mentioning biden eight times. and, remember, michael cohen, if he wouldn't talk about a quid pro quo, michael cohen testified to congress that's not how trump -- he doesn't say, okay, i'm going to prescribe yone to . i don't know maybe by mentioning biden eight times in a conversation with the ukrainian

president and at the same time he's saying unless you do this corruption investigation, you are not going to get your $250 million. >> you know, there's no one to blame but the person who did this, and that's donald trump. but has there been a culture of per missiveness some robert mueller delivered a report that didn't clearly articulate whether things had been. not wrapped in a clear message of whether crimes had been committed. nancy pelosi put impeachment off the table the day after the mueller testimony donald trump gets on the phone and solicits election meddling from the ukraine. >> i'm not sure anything congress does or doesn't have has much impact on this guy. he clearly is using -- i mean, there's two or three things there. first, i used to do circumstantial arson cases. there is so much circumstantial evidence here. he was withholding the aid. >> right. >> i mean, congress was complaining why aren't you getting ukraine the money we

have appropriated them? he was stopping -- i mean one of the things they've got to do is they've got to dig through and see if they can get close to the finger that pointed -- that said hold that aid. i'm betting if we could get there it would in fact be donald trump and rudy giuliani saying let's hold the aid, put pressure on them to go after biden in a way that will help in your election. clearly illegal, clearly a felony. and he thinks executive privilege and classified information is a tool to allow him to break the law. >> well, let me key off something you just said if we can get there. how do we get there? it was rod rosenstein who essentially threw up his hands after andy mccabe had opened up a russia investigation into the president. we have now got bill barr there who is entirely comfortable using the justice department to shield donald trump from any

legal scrutiny. i mean, if there are concerns that a crime was committed, couldn't the intelligence community inspector general refer that to the doj or the fbi for criminal referral for investigation? >> i think the i.g. -- this is a trump-appointed i.g. and that is not mentioned often enough. this guy was appointed by donald trump. he's the one that says this is an urgent matter under the statute, the whistleblower's claims should be reported to congress. if that breaks, then the i.g. is going to have little faith in saying, hey, doj, do something. because guess who told him not to send this stuff to congress? doj. they are the ones he called -- i mean, they gave it to dni, and then dni called doj and donl said no -- doj said no. >> shot it down. so what's going to have to happen here is the courts are going to have to begin weighing in on a wide variety of subjects. and i think legally they are in a worse position on this matter than they are on almost anything

else that congress is taking them to court on. because this statute is pretty clear. what you would have to decide is the statute protects the president even if he's behaving with criminal behavior. >> joe biden called late friday for the transcripts, all the transcripts to be released of donald trump's conversations with the ukrainians, which we know to be from annie karni's colleagues' reporting at the center of the whistleblower complaint. that which caused as claire said, urgent concern from the trump-appointed i.c. intelligence community, i.g., inspector general. what else can biden do? does biden still have bipartisan relationships in the u.s. senate to call on the senate intelligence committee or foreign relations community to demand some more transparency? >> well, look. i think vice president biden's doing what he can do, which is speaking out and making clear what went wrong. look, it's up to congress to decide if it's going to fulfill its constitutional

responsibility. >> haven't they already decided no thank you? >> nicole, i think this could be a game changer. i really do. i think that -- you know, your graphic before i think really laid out why in many ways this is much worse than what happened with russia. the idea that in 2016 maybe trump didn't know what he was doing. maybe he wasn't going to be president, whatever. he is president, he is in the oval office. this is money congress said should go to ukraine for an urgent security concern. the incursions of donald trump's friends in russia, trump withheld that aid. we don't know why. we also don't even really know what's fully in the whistleblower report. i think there's been great reporting related to this call. but maybe there's even more than this call. we just don't know how far this really goes. i think congress has to decide that it is going to issue the subpoenas and it is going to go to court and force those subpoenas, and it is going to get to the bottom of this because this is an abuse of power by the president that really ranks up there. i don't think it's mello

dramatic to compare to watergate. after all, richard nixon didn't go and break into watergate himself. this is trump inviting foreign interveerns into our elections. >> color me cautiously optimistic, i guess, that the sort of landscape has shifted. i don't know that i see it yet. what do you see? >> it doesn't seem like the landscape has shifted. it should be shifting. i think this is a big kind of flag that congress needs to be looking at and acting on. look, the thing that i look at with this is the timing. this happened after the call. the call to the ukraine president happened after the mueller testimony. and so after donald trump saw that congress was not going to act on his past crimes, he clearly started committing new crimes. and it is absurd here because we have to remember that our founding fathers knew this was going to happen. they knew there was going to be

a donald trump. so they put a remedy in the constitution so that someone like a donald trump could be stopped. and it's just absurd that congress is not acting. this is not a popularity contest. this is not a beauty pageant. we are talking about their constitutional duty. we have donald trump who truly believes he is above the law, period, full stop. he's obstructing congress. he is obstructing justice. and nothing he's not going to stop unless congress steps up and stops him. >> one thing that was remarkable, annie karni, this weekend, is the way he's turned the entire cabinet into his personal propaganda machine. i think we're all conditioned to see rudy giuliani on cable news making these out landish claims getting ahead of the michael cohen hush money scheme for the porn store, throwing sand in the gears of the mueller probe. but it was startling to see the country's treasury and secretary of state echoing rudy's message. let's watch. >> if it's the case that there was something going on with the

president or his family that caused a conflict of interest and vice president biden behaved in a way that was inconsistent with the way leaders ought to operate, i think the american people deserve to know that. >> what i do find is inappropriate is the fact that vice president biden at the time's son did very significant business dealings in ukraine. i for one find that to be concerning. and to me that's the issue perhaps that should be further investigated. >> annie karni, just a stunning -- donald trump likes to call his gop primary opponents the three stooges, rudy, mnuchin and pompeo seem like a better fit. but what do you make of the fact that he's using the week of unga, his secretary of state to sort of puppet these ub substantiated allegations against a potential 2020 opponent? >> well, one thing. i mean, if this white house has not been, you know, organized enough to send out talkers or talking points to the administration officials going out on the issues in a long

time. but it certainly sounded like they were reading from a similar script on sunday where both pompeo and mnuchin said it would create a bad precedent to release the transcript of this call and really poured cold water on that. even though while allies on the hill like lindsay graham were saying it would be helpful to look at that transcript and to have it released. and then they were turning this story around and saying like the real story here is biden which is the giuliani line all along. i mean, this is not surprising these two would be -- these are the top tier administration officials. these are the ones that trump trust the most. these are the ones that are with him at unga this week in new york. and that they were left with the task of defending the president. it's why many administration officials have refused to go on the sunday shows throughout the year because it's often a thankless task when you get a

newsy week like this. it'll be interesting to see how these comments play out in four years. he is someone who is widely thought to have presidential ambitions and we'll see how he tries to distance himself from donald trump later when he's running for his own candidacy. so we'll see. >> i understand annie karni has to stare at the trees every day. it's shocking. it's like access hollywood weekend shocking to see the country's secretary of state -- secretaries of state usually stay far, far away from a president's domestic scandals. this is a domestic political scandal. he asked a foreign leader to dig up dirt on the frontrunner's kid. this was debasing the secretary of state, debasing the department of the treasury and to see them was beyond surprising, was shocking. >> and by the way, clearly he was ordered to do this. because he's a good enough talker. all he had to do was pivot and say, you know what, i'm focused on? we have a tinderbox in the

middle east. and everyone would've understood that he would just pivot away from that and go directly to what the rest of the world is talking about. >> the behalfoon in chief practically started a global economic slowdown with his trigger-happy trade war with china. to see those two smearing the bidens was shocking to me. >> will anybody take these guys seriously out in the real world? and by the way, i thought jake tapper did a good job with mnuchin. >> he did a great job. >> ivanka trump got patents from china after her father was president. oh, i'm sure china was giving out those patents. >> rocking her polyester dresses. let me ask you about this idea the prospect of the investigation. three former national security investigators have told me anybody can refer this to the fbi or to prosecutors. how far can that get before bill

barr snuffs it out like a candle? so there's two different documents that congress wants. one is the whistleblower complaint. and the other is the transcript of the conversation that the ukrainian president had with trump. they can claim executive privilege for that transcript. and they might have an argument that, yeah, the president should be able to talk to foreign leaders without it being disclosed. there is a crime fraud exception. so the president is committing a crime, then ultimately that executive privilege would be defeated. but in terms of the complaint, the law is clear once the inspector general certifies that it's an urgent matter of national security and the person who's making the complaint the whistleblower is credible, he gives that information to the head of the agency, in this case the director of national intelligence. that person is an errand man. he's a messenger. his job is to walk that to congress. so when he doesn't do that on orders from the trump administration, the other thing

this has in common with the mueller investigation is obstruction of justice. >> annie karni, this was another weekend that i didn't remember a weekend since the russia investigation was in full swing where all three major newspapers, your newspaper, "the washington post," and the "wall street journal" on saturday morning, on monday morning, and i believe on sunday morning had front-page stories about the ukraini ukrainian scandal. how big is this story of what transpired between donald trump and the leader of ukraine? >> i mean, i think this is potentially as big as we've seen yet. unlike the story about russia and collusion as we've said on this program already, this story involved donald trump directly involved in the phone call. he is on the phone call himself. it's not his son or his son-in-law in the meeting asking for dirt on a political opponent. this would imply that donald

trump was involved himself. the question though is like we know, donald trump tends to not speak, he communicates between the lines. is there really a direct ask, a direct quid pro quo? that's what we don't know yet, and that's what needs to be found out here. if so, this is a huge story. and as we've seen, you know, democrats who were sitting on the fence have moved further towards impeachment in the last few days. we have seen schiff, pelosi, we have seen their language changing. if this is just another case of, you know, it's close but it doesn't quite connect the dots here? then we move along and this was a two-week news cycle. it's still too soon to say. but it's a big story that needs more reporting. >> annie karni, we are going to keep watching your byline and your counterparts and all the papers. you've all done incredible reporting. and we thank you for spending some time with us. after the break, does donald trump's brazen attempt to get

ukraine to meddle in the 2020 election change nancy pelosi's calculation? release the transcript, an idea gaining bipartisan support. how all of this is playing on the campaign trail. mayor pete buttigieg on whether or not congress is complicit in allowing trump's collusion to go unchecked. all those stories coming up. ies. plants capture co2. what if other kinds of plants captured it too? if these industrial plants had technology that captured carbon like trees we could help lower emissions. carbon capture is important technology - and experts agree. that's why we're working on ways to improve it. so plants... can be a little more... like plants. ♪

frustrated that everyday activities cause wrinkles and there's nothing you can do about it? downy wrinkleguard is a fabric conditioner that helps protect you from wrinkles all day. pants washed with downy wrinkleguard and detergent are virtually wrinkle free. try downy wrinkleguard. hey. you must be steven's phone. now you can know who's on your network and control who shouldn't be, only with xfinity xfi. simple. easy. awesome.

i have been very reluctant to go down the path of impeachment for the reason that i think the founders contemplated a country that has elections every four years that this would be an extraordinary

remedy, but it may be that we do have to move forward with that extraordinary remedy if indeed the president is at the same time withholding vital military assistance. he is trying to leverage that to obtain impermissible help in his political campaign. i have spoken with a number of my colleagues over the last week. this seemed different in kind. and we may very well have crossed the rubicon here. even impeachment reluctant democrats warming up to it in light of allegations that donald trump abused his power, the power of his office to coax a foreign government to meddle in the 2020 election. even house speaker nancy pelosi who has chastised members of her party from going there before admitted that if the white house continues to conceal information about the president's conversations with the ukrainian president, quote, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new stage of investigation. and in this weekend's

"washington post" constitutional odd couple, george conway and neal katiel underscore that there could be grave consequences if congress doesn't act fast. and it risks emboldening future presidents who might turn out to be of his sorry ilk. to borrow john dean's haunting metaphor, cancers if not removed only grow. congress bears the duty to use the tools provided by the constitution to remove that cancer now before it's too late. ron and the table are back. claire, what do you think not just about where this conversation is because we've had pretty granular conversations about nadler's handling pelosi's reluctant. but i can't help but tie it back to parenting. you know, and i have a 7-year-old, but if you say no and then the child gets to yes, then the next time you say no, it's a bigger transgression and a bigger one. this would seem like the most

outlandish behavior, the scariest behavior and behavior with real serious consequences for our country. and i know elizabeth warren who we're going to talk about later talked about congress being complicit. do you think that's where we are? >> well, i certainly think that there has been a slowness to reality, a slowness to realize how bad this guy really is. that he actually would knowingly do something like this is startling. now, they have asked for the documents by thursday. the three chairman have asked pompeo for all the documents. then a subpoena will come. then there will be a long fight over executive privilege and the subpoena like we already have going on. there's numerous court cases working through. they have stonewalled everything. it's now all getting litigated. but let me say two words here. rudy giuliani. there is no privilege around rudy giuliani. and so he can't really fight a

subpoena. now, he could go and pull a corey lewandowski and say i won't answer your questions, read it yourself and be one big jerk. i could not tell would be harder for him to do that as a lawyer, as a former u.s. attorney for him to come in front of congress and just be a clown like corey lewandowski was. so i think, you know, and the dni is going to testify about the whistleblower complaint this week. so i think you'll see enough happening this week one way or the other that will reassure the public that congress is not doing nothing. it's just this white house is going further than anybody's ever gone trying to totally block oversight. >> so my brain which i'll admit is a little fuzzy on cold medicine. keeps going to the failure of imagination that we used to talk about 9/11 that it wasn't just an intelligence failure and a law enforcement failure. >> it was a failure to imagine that terrorists could fly airplanes and buildings. and, you know, people like michael hayden have called the

russian attack on our democracy a political 9/11. so i want to ask you not a question whether the democrats are too weak. but is the congress not designed to do this with one party? i mean, are the republicans the ones really failing the nation? >> well, i would certainly say the republicans -- i mean, knowing my republican colleagues as well as i do, i served with most of them for more than a decade. they have to be disgusted at this behavior. so where are they? where is richard burr, rob portman? >> where's lamar alexander? he's not even running again. where are the senators' senators that should stand up and say, you know, if it were only mitt romney in a state where frankly trump's not very popular, that's the only senator who is ever standing up and calling this guy out. and it's disgusting. >> mitt romney tweeted this. if the president asked or

pressured ukraine's president to investigate his political rival either directly or through his personal attorney, would be troubling in the extreme. critical for the facts to come out. he did. we know he did. >> he did, mitt. fire that tweet out right now. i would support impeachment. i mean, the dam has to break. i think one of the reluctance, part of the reluctance is knowing what happens when it gets to the senate. i mean, these guys are all hiding under their desks. >> the republicans if they are not favor -- the speaker of the house is not favoring impeachment. i would make arguments to juries or to judges about why they should sentence someone who violated public trust to prison. and the argument would be if you don't give this person consequences, if you don't make them do the time for their crime, that's going to send a message. that's going to send a message that -- well, the reason you should punish him is to send a

message. but the point is when people don't get punished, that sends a message as well. when there is not impeachment, that also sends a message. and president trump has certainly received that message when, again, there were no consequences to the russian investigation. he does the same thing again. and he will keep doing this until the congress fulfills its constitutional responsibilities starting with the speaker of the house to formally begin impeachment hearings. >> i think this guy's probably been lawless most of his life. i think a good set of prosecutors could go over his bank records. >> if they could just get them. [ laughter ] >> and find all kinds of violations of the law in terms of him misleading lenders and all the different kinds of white collar crime that you're so familiar with. i don't disagree with you. i think the problem is that if you look at the reality they got to get the 218 votes in the house first. i'm sure they're counting. they're getting closer. then they have to have at least

some bipartisanship. there has to be a few republicans. the because if not i think what she's really concerned about is that it just divides the country even more if we don't have someone who has enough character and courage at this moment to stand up and say we don't accept this by a president. and i am hopeful that some republicans in the senate will find their conscience and do that. but that's the big problem because it goes there and then -- >> just really quickly, this president is a threat to national security. >> no question. >> he is using the power of the oval office for his own personal, political, and financial ends. the speaker has a responsibility to act regardless of the politics. >> you know, karine, i hear from political people in my life, former elected officials, this analysis about politics. i hear from all the former national security types in my life on the right and the left this, if x, and y, if he's an

unindicted co-conspirator. >> i think that's exactly right. we just have to do the right thing for our country, which i don't think is happening right now. i mean, you think about it going back again to the founders. they knew donald trump was going to come. they knew that. that's why they added that remedy impeachment. they did not in i that congress would be too scared to act. i think that's the piece that they missed. i don't know what else could be more of an impeachable offense when you have the president of the united states using the power of the presidency to blackmail another country. i mean, i don't know what ulz -- for his own political gain. >> that's even worse. >> and so i'm not sure what else do you need to act here, and it's like they have to move faster and be more active here. >> but you are dripping with exasperation and disappointment. are you optimistic that they ex

disappointment? [ laughter ] >> ron. >> look, i do think a line has been crossed. i think what you heard from schiff that when you started to hear from pelosi, i think things are moving. i understand why karine's frustrated. i'm frustrated too. i worked in the senate democratic leader's office. ooh inwhat it's like to be in the leadership office try to round people up. but i do think you're going to see this week. i think this is going to be a critical week with the thursday deadline with the speaker trying to organize her members. i do think we are going to see more progress. we are kind of stepping in intermediate step. before you reach a final judgment on impeachment, to start an impeachment proceeding so that the house has more leverage to litigate more promptly and get the subpoenas enforced and get the documents and start to build that record. and i really do think that is the next step to take the thing

up one more notch. senator mccaskill said earlier the justice department has failed us, the republicans have failed us. i think the democrats are going to get tougher. and then it's going to come down to court battles over getting the materials to build this case starting some kind of more formalized process to do that will give the democrats more leverage to win those court battles. i think that's going to start this week. >> paul, i want to ask you before we lose you, one question about a conspiracy. we learned through the mueller report that they couldn't prove a criminal conspiracy. i always understood that to mean more than one person. is there any legal exposure? i mean, are there people on this white house staff -- we know about this because a whistleblower sought out the inspector general of the intelligence community. i imagine if the whistleblower saw these notes or knew about this call, the national security adviser probably knew about this call, maybe the chief of staff knew about this call. if we end up with an investigation in congress through impeachment proceedings or any sort of special counsel,

could there be exposure among other people who knew about the president asking a foreign leader to investigate his opponents? >> there could be. we'd have to know more about what the specific allegations are in the whistleblower's complaint. but if there is clear evidence of aquid pro quo that the president put $250 million in foreign aid. remember the ukraine desperately needs this. they are near russia. they're poor. they have to have this money in order to have a viable state. the president saying you're not getting it not saying explicitly but implying you're not getting this unless you help me win my re-election. if folks knew about that and didn't come forward, not only are they unamerican, they might very well be criminals. >> paul butler, thank you. after the break biden strikes back calling for donald trump to disclose that transcript of his calls with ukraine and a full investigation into donald trump's 2020 election meddling effort. that's next. >> woman: what's my safelite story?

>> vo: my car is more than four wheels. it's my after-work decompression zone. so when my windshield broke... >> woman: what?! >> vo: ...i searched for someone who really knew my car. i found the experts at safelite autoglass. >> woman: hi! >> vo: with their exclusive technology, they fixed my windshield... then recalibrated the camera attached to my glass

so my safety systems still work. who knew that was a thing?! >> woman: safelite has service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ so that early retirement we planned. it's going ok? great. now i'm spending more time with the kids. i'm introducing them to crab. crab!? they love it. so, you mentioned that that money we set aside. yeah. the kids and i want to build our own crab shack. ♪ ♪ ahhh, you're finally building that outdoor kitchen. yup - with room for the whole gang. ♪ ♪ see how investing with a j.p. morgan advisor can help you. visit your local chase branch.

trump's doing this because he knows i'll beat him like a drum. and he's using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me. everybody looked at this and everybody's looked at the and said there's nothing there. i know what i'm up against. a serial abuser. that's what this guy is. he abuses power everywhere he can, and if he sees any threat to his staying in power, he'll do whatever he has to do. but this crosses the line. >> if there was any doubt on friday about how forcefully joe biden was willing to defend himself, we've certainly got an answer now. team biden is ready for a political fight. and no matter what happens in the coming days and weeks it's already clear, this is a flash point in the 2020 election. mayor pete buttigieg spoke about it yesterday.

>> i've not seen any evidence of that. i think it's also taking our eye off the ball in just a really shocking reality or a shocking allegation. let's say that. we have the american president whose most shameful back story has to do with interference in 2016 in the middle of what appears to be soliciting interference in 2020. even with this presidency it's something that is hard to picture. and we can't allow that to do what they want it could be, which is to twist it into something that somehow benefits them. >> mayor pete buttigieg is in iowa right now in the middle of a four-day bus tour. but while he condemned the president, he didn't go as far as elizabeth warren did who said congress is complicit for failing to act. >> congress failed to act.

and now donald trump has shown that he believes he is above the law. he has solicited another foreign government to attack our election system. it is time for us to call out this illegal behavior and start impeachment proceedings right now. >> and mayor pete buttigieg is in iowa. thank you so much for spending some time with us. >> good to be with you. >> would you go so far today as elizabeth warren did. do you see this as a green light to donald trump to continue to act in a lawless manner if congress doesn't move toward impeachment proceedings? >> i think he's going to act in a lawless matter no matter what. look, he's made it clear that he deserves to be impeached. we are also in a reality where the senate republicans have completely lost touch with their

conscience. i support the house in taking on impeachment proceedings. i also think that the only real resolution to this will be defeating this president and his enablers in the congressional republican caucuses. look, what's going on here is shocking. the president of the united states confessed to official misconduct. and nothing appears to be changing around that. we also got to be able to do two things at once. i just walked around the town of elkader with the mayor here. they are concerned about making sure that their community can thrive. they are worried about infrastructure. they are worried about keeping their school open. they are interested in health care. we've got to make sure that we deal with this president and also deny him his power to constantly change the subject from the other things that we are delivering on or proposing to deliver on that he just won't. because life in american communities is not getting any better under this president and he hasn't kept any of his promises other than the one about the corporate tax cut. we've got to demonstrate a

better way. assuming that senate republicans won't do their duty in the event of an impeachment, we've got to defeat them. >> is your job of defeating made easier or harder when he simply becomes more emboldened? we only know about his request to the leader of ukraine to help him defeat joe biden, should that be the nominee. is your job of defeating him at the ballot box made easier or harder if the democrats impeach or don't impeach? what's your political calculation on the democrats proceeding with impeachment? is it good for you or bad for you? >> well, i'm not getting any questions about it here in iowa. at least not from voters. it's not that people don't care. it's that people are also focused on what's happening in their own lives. i think our job of defeating this president depends on having a good candidate with a great vision in addition to calling out presidential wrongdoing.

it's explaining how everyday life is going to get better. i think that the house should act. i also think that the house's actions will not have any effect on the conduct of this president. the only way to deal with it given the senate being where it is and they can do whatever they feel is right in the house. i think they should proceed. but the only thing that's really going to make a difference is for senate republicans to experience a loss of power as a consequence of them betraying their own values by being on board with this president. >> i worked for senator john mccain, and i can't help but see a little homage to his straight talk express in that bus tour you are undertaking. what is your strategic objective in being on a bus, being more accessible to reporters and some of perhaps some of your democratic opponents are? what are you hoping to achieve through this bus tour? >> well, we want to demonstrate our values around openness and authenticity. one thing even though he's from a different party that i admired about senator mccain is that he was whering to provide that kind

of access and talk to journalists about whatever the most pressing issues of the day were. as we travel between these different communities, i've gotten an opportunity to speak with the reporters and speak dire directly with people about how this campaign is going to affect them and about what it is we are seeing on the ground. i think it brings us all a little closer to reality and it also demonstrates that the candidate has the qualities that i'm going to need as president, which is the ability to have open, frank, frequent, and honest conversations with the press about where this campaign and eventually where this country is headed. >> where this country is headed would seem that you think is toward really no recourse over this president. you suggested that he'll act however he's going to act regardless of whatever remedies congress applies. it also is apparent from democratic primary polling that voters are hungry for the kinds of full-frontal attacks that joe biden launched on donald trump and his video where he took on the president's conduct in charlottesville. how willing and eager are you to

make trump front and center in your candidacy? >> i don't have any problem confronting this president. but i also think that the more we are talking about him, the less we are talking about us. and it would be a tremendous gift to trump to make this election all about him. no question we're going to call out his lies, we are going to confront his wrongdoing. we are not going to lose sight of the questions that voters are asking about how their lives are going to get different. the questions i'm getting are are you going to keep my kids safe in school. are you going to see to it that the economy's going to grow in a way that eshings actually -- earnings actually get to us in our families. what are you going to do about making sure that health care is available to all of us and that a health care provider stays open in this community? these are the things that are going to affect people's lives. the most egregious failure of this president in addition to the criminal behavior, the deception and all of his other wrongdoings is the fact that he's done nothing to make our country better, nothing on wages, nothing on family leave, nothing positive on health care, nothing to actually resolve the issue of immigration, nothing on

infrastructure despite that deal that he touted. that matters too. and we should not allow this president the gift of getting us arguing about whatever outrageous tweet he just sent at the expense of making sure that we are competing on the turf that we will always win on, which is what the american people agree with us on, which is their actual lives from health care to wages to safety. >> i spent more time on the campaign trail working on campaigns than i have on television. what are we missing here in the national media that you're seeing in the campaign trail, and how important is iowa to your candidacy? where do you put iowa for you? >> crucial for us to do well in iowa. it's a place where we can demonstrate the ability to win elections. we can show the sort of ground game that helped us for example such a great showing at the steak fry, the reporters are saying we won the steak fry, show to speak. that's also a show of organizational strength in terms of the mechanics needed that it

take dolla takes to win your caucus. in terms of what's getting missed in the coverage, theres a lot of coverage asking tough and important questions. but to me it still seems very washington-oriented. a lot of people here aren't asking me about the latest ups and downs among the house democrats or what's going on with proceedings. they want to know how their lives are going to be improved or worsened by the decisions that are being made in those big white buildings in washington, d.c. we must make sure we keep our eye on that because that also happens to be winning turf for us as democrats. the american people are also with us on every major issue affecting this country. that's why we shouldn't get off on arguing about greenland. >> mayor pete buttigieg, don't be a stranger. come back any time. thanks for spending some time with us. when we come back, last year they laughed at him literally during his address to the u.n. general assembly. this year he is embroiled a scandal with ukraine. how is donald trump being

received at the united nations general assembly? that's next. run with us on a john deere 1 series tractor. beacuse changing your attachments, should be as easy as... what about this? changing your plans. yeah. run with us. search "john deere 1 series" for more.

with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's, your plans can change in minutes. your head wants to do one thing, but your gut says, "not today." if your current treatment isn't working, ask your doctor about entyvio. entyvio acts specifically in the gi tract to prevent an excess of white blood cells from entering and causing damaging inflammation. entyvio has helped many patients achieve long-term relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms or sores.

liver problems can occur with entyvio. ask your doctor about the only gi-focused biologic just for ulcerative colitis and crohn's. entyvio. relief and remission within reach.

today i stand before the united nations general assembly to share the extraordinary progress we've made. in less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country. america's -- so true. i didn't expect that reaction, but that's okay. >> that was last year at the united nations general assembly, they laughed at him. kp can't get worse than that, can it? as the hill knows, the controversy followed donald trump to this year's general assembly. gets questions every time he walks by a camera. oh, yeah, by the way, trump is

still scheduled to meet with the ukrainian president this wednesday. joining our conversation, republican consultant and contributor sir michael shelton. so a year ago he was laughed at, literally laughed out. still makes me laugh every time i watch it from a year ago. this year questions about asking a foreign leader to dig up dirt on joe biden, and we only know about that because of a whistle-blower complaint. >> i think right now the united states is the laughing stock of the world, i have to be honest. congress has the duty, they have a sworn obligation to be a check on the limitations and boundaries on the power of the executive. they're not doing that. as far as i'm concerned, republicans notice senate who are maybe afraid of losing elections, i would argue they're colluders. they are allowing donald trump to get away with everything. what's the point of congress? the whole idea of the american experiment might as well be dead

if the body politic does not work. right now it's not functioning, it's not working. for me as a republican, i look to democrats and say, hey, we may have policy differences but, guys, you're the last hope here. and nancy pelosi, with all due expect to madam speaker, she's not doing anything. >> this does not seem to be locked, ron klain, on foreign leaders. your old bosses, my old boss, with foreign leaders and probably my old bosses that were yours to be honest, but looking to the united states around big issues. what affect does this have on our ability to lead a coalition? >> it has a huge effect, nicolle. you spend ten minutes at the climate session and walk out. the ukraine did not just follow him to the u.n., he dragged it with him to the u.n. he went out to the press to talk about it standing in front of the united nations. he's definitely no leader for the world. the u.s. is not leading the

world. that means other nations are stepping up to have more influence. we are seeing chinese influence grow in africa and our own hemisphere, latin america, their influence is growing. make no mistake about it, donald trump's behavior, absence of leadership, has a cost to the united states and the next president, whomever he or she may be, is going to have to spend a lot of time and work to try to reverse that. >> it does seem to be make america great again as become as big of a spoof as any other aspect of trump's presidency. >> yes, i think we need to look around the world and we can ask are we better off? are we safer today than we were when donald trump became president? absolutely not. the world is a more dangerous place, it is more unstable. our allies are no longer confident we are there for them. our enemies see us playing footsie with them. he has elevated kim jong-un. he's given him everything he wants. he's been besties with putin.

and he wants to talk about corruption? give me a break. this is really a problem and i think he knows if war breaks out, he will be the political loser but i'm more worried about war breaking out for the men and women who would have to serve our military and die because of this guy's incompetence in terms of foreign policy. >> it's unbelievable. we will sneak in our last break. ! it has three times the cleaning power of the leading spray to dissolve kitchen grease on contact. and it's great for bathrooms! just keep pumping the power nozzle to release a continuous burst of mist and make quick work of big jobs. it even works on stainless steel. it cuts through 100% of dirt, grease and grime. available with easy-to-swap refills. to get three times the cleaning power, try clean freak from mr. clean. [horn honks] man this is what i feel like when i wear regular shoes, cramped and uncomfortable. we can arrange a little upgrade. which is why i wear skechers... wide fit shoes. they have extra room throughout.

they're like a luxury ride for my feet. try skechers wide fit shoes. like very high triglycerides, they're like a luxury ride for my feet. can be tough. you diet. exercise. but if you're also taking fish oil supplements, you should know, they are not fda-approved, they may have saturated fat and may even raise bad cholesterol. to treat very high triglycerides, discover the science of prescription vascepa. proven in multiple clinical trials, vascepa, along with diet, is the only prescription epa treatment, approved by the fda to lower

very high triglycerides by 33%, without raising bad cholesterol. look. it's clear. there's only one prescription epa vascepa. vascepa is not right for everyone. do not take vascepa if you are allergic to icosapent ethyl or any inactive ingredient in vascepa. tell your doctor if you are allergic to fish or shellfish, have liver problems or other medical conditions and about any medications you take, especially those that may affect blood clotting. 2.3% of patients reported joint pain. ask your doctor about vascepa. prescription power. proven to work. to bring all of these stories thatity i've heard to life. i wanted to keep digging, keep learning... this journey has just begun. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com hi. maria ramirez!

mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. we're late, i have to thank ron shermichael, claire, karine and most of all you for watching. "mpt," my friend katy tur in for chuck, starts now. if it's monday, it's defiance and denial. we'll sort through the president's double speak on his alleged efforts to get ukraine to investigate his political rival. plus, crossing the rubicon with this latest accusation of

abuse of power. have