said tonight, that is yet to be determined. we will keep on reporting the story, so i'll see you again if you tune back in at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. but i wouldn't go anywhere especially on a night like this. "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. impeachment. let's play hardball. good evening. i'm chris matthews up on kopt. today the united states speaker on the house made the initiative to endorse the impeachment of the president. >> enshrined in coequal branches of government serving as checks and balances on each other. the actions taken to date by the president has seriously violated the constitution especially when the president says article 2

says i can do whatever i want. and this week the president has admitted to asking the president of ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. the action of the -- the actions of the trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. therefore, today i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. >> the house of representatives is now committed to an up or down decision whether to pass articles of impeachment on donald trump. the house will vote to impeach him sooner or later or decide to drop all charges. speaker pelosi's decision to form a formal impeachment proceeding marks a decision -- it was triggered by last week's revelation that the president had attempted to trade the power of his office to get dirt from the president of ukraine from a

political opponent, former vice president joe biden. that revelation changed everything for pelosi and seems to have led the way for many democrats. as of right now 188 house democrats back impeachment. that's more than three quarters of the democratic caucus. i'm joined now by congressman denny heck of washington state, u.s. congressman david sill leany of rhode island, heidi with nbc news correspondent, and john meacham of course a presidential historian and coauthor of "impeachment, an american history." let me start with you congressman heck, i remember from writing about niktsen all those years he said i knew i was in trouble when i saw who was running the show up there, in that case my old boss. in this case pelosi seems she's out in front. >> yes, he knows he's in trouble because of the speaker's change

of position. but he also ought to know he's in deep trouble because the senate took action today to unanimously require and demand that the odni cough up the whistle-blower complaint. that ought to tell him we're inching up in impeachment territory on his refusal to follow the law. it says oats not any longer just a question of democrats versus republicans or even liberals and conservatives. this is matter of upholding the law and following our constitutional possibility to provide oversight on an unchecked administration. >> if you could tell your people back home in rhode island what to expect in the next couple of months. what would it be regarding the impeachment proceedings? >> i think there'll be quick action by the intelligence committee. on thursday they'll hear from the acting dni. they expect that the dni will produce the whistle-blower report. if he doesn't, they'll have to take additional action. i think in very short order

we'll get to the bottom of this. but we should recognize the president of the united states has admitted this. he admitted he reached out to a foreign leader and asked him to gin up a fake story against a capped dtd f candidate for president. >> it seems to me for three years the people trying to find out when the president and russia, trying to connect the dots. the meeting at donald trump's hotel in june of 2016, they tried to connect with the president's son and here putin. ites a meeting between two presidents. do you be a sense this story requires a lot of reporting at this point or even a lot of investigation at this point? >> i think the congressman is right that thursday will be another inflection point because either we will see that whistle-blower complaint or we will see how this congress is going to use new tools to come down on this administration or

whether the obstruction itself becomes an article of impeachment. the members that i talked to said that this is a pretty clear-cut case and that speaker pelosi really did draw a distinction in that meeting, chris, between the russia situation where you had the president accepting dirt on a political opponent and this situation where he was actually asking a foreign government to manufacture dirt on a political opponent. because as we've reported on this network and other networks the ukrainians have already disputed these charges. these are bogus charges. the case had been dormant for at least a year, and so in this case he's admitting to it. and asking this government to essentially manufacture something that doesn't exist and withholding u.s. taxpayer dollars, which are meant to guess what? fight corruption. so leveraging taxpayer dollars

then to benefit himself politically. and so both in her mind and in the mind of these nationally security minded democrats who frankly broke the dam last night, this did cross a new threshold. >> john meacham, history here being made. we came to the hill tonight because of it. you can feel it around here. your thoughts. >> you know, i was think about president ford's inaugural address there in the east room in august '74, not to run too far ahead here when he said we're a government of laws not of men. the constitution work, the system works. and i think for so many people who have lost faith in the system of checks and balances, to our own day, this is a day to say the system is showing signs of life. and it's far, far, far from over. but ultimately the checks and balances that have served us for 243 years have a chance now

again of perhaps saving us from our worst instincts. >> as congressman heck just mentioned tonight the u.s. senate unanimously passed a democratic resolution calling for the whistle-blower complaint to be turned over to congress. worst yet for trump he's actually admit today the conduct that could bring his impeachment. now for the first time in trump's presidency he's on the defensive offering a concession that few presidents will willingly make. trump's announced he's authorized the release of the fully declassified and unredacted transcript of his phone conversation with president zelinsky of ukraine and adam schiff said the whistle-blower who sent these events in motion now wants to break his or her silence. that person could testify as early as this week. ditional additionally the director of

national intelligence and inspector general are set to testify on thursday. here we are and i guess the question is if you have to tell your constituents which you have to do as a representative, what do you say if the president goes down on this conduct, mr. heck? >> i would remind them about what the entire 2016 controversy was about where frankly he inkurmged, welcomed and benefitted from russian interference, which is wrong. it's just plain wrong. and then as section 2 of the mueller report so amply demonstrated he obstructed justice in that pursuit of the investigation. and now he's doubling down. now he is encouraging foreign infoi inference in our election and obstructing justice in the form of denying the whistle-blower complaint. he's learned nothing. and chris, understand we don't come to this out of anger. we come to this with great sorrow. the fact is if i may, i've got a marijuana banking bill that we think is going to pass after 6

1/2 years of effort the day after tomorrow or tomorrow. i want to be celebrating this week. i don't want to be doing this. he is compelling this. >> let me ask you about that because you raised the point, congressman, the day after mueller gave his testimony up here, and he wasn't at his best that day, we all know that. it wasn't that great television drama, but the message was pretty clear. don't collude with russians. the next day he colluded with the ukrainian president. he was like saying screw you. >> the conduct of the president is endangering the national security of the united states. he is trying to trade our support for an ally, support approved by congress in order to elicit from the president of ukraine a political benefit for himself. and he's violating the law. he told the dni not to release the whistle-blower report even though that's required by statute. so we have in plain view in realtime the president of the united states seeking assistance from a foreign leader and breaking the law and trying to keep it secret.

as danny said, we don't do this with delight but you have a right to stand up and defend the constitution and rule of law. >> that's the moral question, the historic question, heidi, because i grew up with the captive nations of eastern europe, and countries like ukraine and the idea that a president would stake their freedom from russia based upon whether we get dirt from a president would be unimaginable. it's unimaginable historically. your thoughts. >> well, wouldn't it be ironic, chris, if the russians tried to help get this president into office and a scandal over ukraine helped to bring him down? we're not there yet. but, yes, we've seen many unimaginable moments here. but i think that the congressmen really put their finger on it when they said he has been emboldened every step of the way

here because there has not been a single incidence really of the oversight. and with all due respect to members of congress and the house where they've succeeded in getting a major document or witness other than mueller to come up there and give them information. and even that woupd up being in the eyes of many, kind of a disappointment because he wouldn't go much beyond what was in his report. and even theit was kind of a stilted delivery. so, you know, next week i think by this time next week we will have a very good answer assuming that the dni does come through with this whistle-blower complaint. the extent to which the president and now the reporting is eight times pressured the ukrainians to collect dirt, we'll have a good sense of whether or not that all is true. >> that was the wall street germ reporting eight times president trump brought up his demand on

joe biden with the demand of ukraine. now preparing to release the whistle-blower's complaint itself and the inspector general by the end of the week. these guys, for the first time in his presidency it looks like he's reacting rather than acting. >> i think he feels the heat as he should. i'm looking forward tohering from the dni and seeing the whistle-blower complaint. and let us remember the independent inspector general has deemed the complaint from the whistle-blower to be urgent and definition of the laws is a flagrupt abuse or violation of the law. >> somebody's, man or woman obviously a civil servant in the national security -- >> appointed by president trump. >> well, we -- the whistle-blower. >> i'm talking about the -- >> the person who triggered this watched the pattern of the

president's behavior and something in him said this is urge want and can't be done. >> and i think the action by the senate today has really helped. this is the first time we're seeing our senate colleagues join us in this effort to hold this president accountable and demonstrate nobody is above the law, the president is required to follow the law. and that action today i think has done a lot to help enhance this forward. >> john meacham you're going to get the last word i think in this segment and i'm glad you're on tonight. we've had andrew johnson impeached in the senate. we've had bill clinton impeached. that didn't go anywhere in the senate. that was a partisan issue in many ways. nixon was forced to resign after the house judiciary committee acted. here we are back again somewhere in that vicinity. your thoughts how this fits in history. >> well, all three of those impeachments unfolded at a time there was a deep fracturing of the country and a fundamental almost existential question

confronting us. whether the verdict of the war would actually be implemented. johnson stood in the way of that. he tried to undo the work of linking in many ways. president nixon was impeached at a time of cold war and cultural up heebl. the clinton impeachment unfolds at a moment of generational shift and a continuation of the shifting nature of the parties after segregation and integration. and now we have this question of are we in fact going to have a coherent answer to globalization and the questions that confront us. ip2016 we had a populous spazzism and what we're going to see right now is whether the people that have supported this president for other reasons will in fact follow the facts to their logical conclusion. this is great test for the relevance and role of fact and truth in our politics in the 21st century. >> and of course the strengthen of our constitution in this 21st

century. does it still matter what the limits of power are? thank you congressman denny heck of washington state, david cicilliny of rhode island, and john meacham with history. coming up, much more on tonight's breaking news. speaker nancy pelosi as i said announced a formal impeachment inquiry, a proceeding heading towards an up or down vote at some point on president trump's impeachment. as the flood gates open today with three dozen house announcing just today their support for beginning the impeachment process. >> the very basic idea of getting foreign help to influence the american political process, that is beyond the pail. >> we need to step up and talk about a president becoming more and more chaotic and reckless and this really crossed a line for us. plus seven freshman democrats write in a "the washington post" op-ed column that the president's alleged actions are a threat to our national security. if the allegations are true they say he should be impeached. two of those democrats join me

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the actions of the trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. therefore, today i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment impeachment inquiry. i'm directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry. the president must be held accountable. no one is above the law. >> welcome back to "hardball." after repeatedly urging caution on impeachment the speaker there has now become the leader of the impeachment drive in the house of representatives. politico reports that in a closed door meeting pelosi told

committee leaders to compile their arguments for impeachment and send them to the house judiciary committee which will then review and package it all together before deciding whether to send impeachment to the house floor. the speaker's decision came amid a ground swell of support. as of right now 187 of 235 house democrats support impeachment. i think i changed that -- it's not vulnerable. -- people in swing districts published an op-ed in "the washington post" in support of an impeachment inquiry. they wrote to uphold and defend our constitution congress must determine whether the president was indeed willing to use his power to with hold security funds to win an election.

john lewis gave an impassioned speech saying now is the time to act. >> the future of our democracy is at stake. there comes a time when you have to be moved by the spirit of history to take action to protect the very integrity of our nation. i believe -- i truly believe the time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president has come. to delay or to do otherwise would betray the foundation of our democracy. >> i'm joined now by two of the authors of that "the washington post" op-ed column. thank you both for joining me. what did you make -- that was a rather soulful sermon almost from john lewis there.

what's the moral issue here if you see a moral issue of this president's behavior? >> i think the reason why the seven of us came together is that we have historically in our pasts served in the military, served in the cia, taken the oath of office in the past, we took it again as freshman members of congress. and the moral obligation in taking that oath is to protect and defend. and we are worried in what we've seen in the behavior and possible behavior of our president that he has abandoned that oath of office and we need to find out whether or not that's true. >> this week we're going to get apparently the complaint from the whistle-blower very concerned about this president's behavior and not just apparently in that telephone conversation with president zelinsky of ukraine. and the question is you're also going to get apparently that conversation, the transcript of that. so you're going to know-it-all basically this week. what will that tell you yes or no on articles of impeachment for abuse of power? >> first of all, it's important

we do get because by law it has to be turned over to the intelligence committee at this point. and i think what we're going to see is what the whistle-blower was so concerned about. we know the icig thought it was concerning and met the threshold for turning it over to congress. and we it's been withheld to this point by the director of national intelligence. that must be turned over and i'm glad the president realizes it at this point. and we'll see the details of it. what we know now the president did with hold support from one of our security partners fighting a war to preserve integrity of ukraine and we know the president with hold that, and we also know because he told us that the president talked about corruption with ukraine and the bidens. >> what do you make of that -- you first, congresswoman, what do you make of a trade like

that? the president trading basically our umbrella support -- we've been supporting aenti-communist countries. >> and i served when i was in active dutyiest at the tail end of the cold war so this is a perm conversation for me. we have information this particular president may have exercised corruption, and may have actually in some ways compromised the 2020 elections. and so on all three of those levels we should be concerned, concerned enough we need to get more information and get to the bottom. >> corruption, it always comes down to something very simple. someone has official pow, and they use it for personal gain. that works whether it's zimbabwe or anywhere, china or it's here. here's a president who took his official power to kid whether to release those military aid funds to a very scared country,

ukraine $250 million in arms and he said you can get it apparently if you give me some political help with defeating biden. >> you know i think some of us have been marveling because were we still in uniform this is something we would be investigated about, possibly serve some time for to really work with a foreign power to undermine our election system especially when you're the president of the united states of america, i think that's why we had to stand up. >> hold on there. president trump was asked this morning about the growing calls for impeachment shortly before his address to the united nations general assembly. let's listen. >> i think it's ridiculous. it's a witch hunt. i'm leading in the polls. they have no idea how they stop me. the only way they can try is through impeachment. >> later during a meeting with the iraqi president president trump even suggested a formal impeachment inquiry could benefit him politically. >> look, it's just a

continuation of a witch hunt. it's the worst witch hunt in history, and they're going to lose the election and they figure this is good thing to do. this never happened. if she does that, they all say that's a positive for me for the election. you could also say who needs it, it's bad for the country. >> i think it's just my view watching it -- a closer view telling the people and your constituents this whole thing has got a little diffuse, something like the o.j. trial, too many factors involved and people kpt get a clear bearing on the whole thing. now it's got this clear focus. i know your district a little well because i lived in the burbs there in philly, do you think they get this one? do you think they get what we're talking about here? >> i think there's a couple of things here. one is that this is not political. this should not be political. this is very painful. and the decision we came to as a group was one of the most difficult certainly in my career. so we don't take this with any

glee or joy. my community, though, does deserve the truth and my community i think this is one of those seminal moments where we do have something crystal clear. this is something the president has done while he's in office purportedly. it has to do with the 2020 elections, not the 2016 elections. this is an opportunity for us to dig down and get to the truth. >> do you think your people at home, if it comes down to a vote, will they understand the gravity of this? >> well, that's our job. and that's why we ran for congress and that's why we're stepping up now to continue our service. we have to explain to the american people what we see, why we see such a threat to national security, how we have connected the dots on this behavior and why we think it's important. and so hopefully i can convey that to my community. this has been a somewhat chaotic and reckless presidency. there's a lot of noise coming out of this presidency, so we

are hoping to cut through that noise to just stand for basic american values. >> you were both in the service, right? >> yes. >> when you were in the service how important was it to you you were defending the constitution of our government? >> i not only was in the service but i'm third generation military and have cousins who are active duty right now in harms way. this is essentially not just for the country but also for my family. it's really important you take that oath of office very gravely and seriously. >> when you were in the military itself defending this -- >> not just in the military. we just took another oath in january. we've taken numerous oaths. i took an oath when i was a federal prosecutor. i time and again have sworn to protect this country. and so we have seen this national security threat, and we felt, you know, that we had to stand up. now, do we want to continue working on the things that are really important in our districts? yes. i'm not going to stop working on the gateway tunnel or taxes or

health care. but this was important enough wewe had to take it. >> i thank you seriously and i think everyone up here does. thank you. anyway, coming up now breaking news tonight. of course politico is reporting the white house will release the whistle-blower complaint itself. and the inspector general report this week. there's a lot more to come. we're going to see a lot of information the next couple of days. you're watching "hardball." e nef days you're watching "hardball. 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. ♪

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welcome back to "hardball." tonight president trump confirmed he personally ordered his administration to freeze u.s. military aid to ukraine. multiple reports said that aid was frozen just a few days before he reportedly pressured the president of ukraine to dig up dirt on joe biden. "the new york times" reports that other government officials were left in the dark as well and that staff members at the state and defense departments were puzzled and alarmed by this freezing of the funds of the military aid to ukraine just days before the president basically talk today the president of ukraine about what he needed to do to get the money. today trump attempted to explain why he ordered that aid to ukraine frozen. let's watch. >> as far as withholding funds, those funds were paid. they were fully paid, but my complaint has always been and i with hold again and i'll continue to with hold until such time as europe and other nations contribute to ukraine because they're not doing it.

it's the united states. >> however, "the washington post" reports that u.s. allies are providing aid to ukraine, lots of it. since russia intervened in ukraine the european union has provided $16.5 billion in grants and loans to ukraine. big news from politico tonight. the white house is now preparing to release the whistle-blower's complaint. and the inspector general's report by the end of the week. i'm joined by shane harris, national security correspondent for "the washington post," and frank figliuzzi. the president of the united states is apparently going to release everything. he's now releasing the conversation he had with the president of ukraine, he's releasing the complaint that lays out this guy or woman he thinks is really awful and urmg want that we know about. >> the pressure is building on him. it's incredible how this is has happened in just a week's time. it was just a week ago we found

out what this complaint was about. obviously the impeachment pressure is building on him. we're hearing he may release this information to congress by tomorrow if not the end of the week. of course she's announced impeachment proceedings have begun. so it seems like the white house wants to get this to congress, maybe kind of rip the band-aid off here clearly believing that the information itself is not sufficient to inflict any major damage on the president. they think it's actually going to turn out to be nothing. >> how do you know they're going to find out -- >> we're hearing the president has been pleased to see the way this is playing out in the press and this is going to be something that blows up in the media's face, that it's an exaggeration, a russian media hoax all over again. some of his aids it's important to say do not see it that way and think even the substance of the transcript of that call with the ukrainian president is not going to look good. >> it goes back to the moral

issue, political issue and really constitutional here. does the president of the united states have it within his power to basically condition u.s. military aid defense money to protect a country have that country kicking over dirty material on a political opponent of the president? in other words trading political office and power and office really for political gain? >> chris, we're already seeing the defense starting to play out. and i've seen this before with corrupt public officials throughout my fbi career. i call it the i did it so what defense. i was the mayor, i was the county commissioner, i was the governor, i am the president and you don't understand my authority and how i uperate, but here's the problem with that. he can release all of the things he wants to release, but the law says the moment you a public official solicit a thing of value for personal benefit ipreturn for an official act like releasing a quarter billion

dollars in aid, you have violated the law. and you can do it directly with a stated quid pro quo or you could do it indirectly. the problem here is that if we get all bogged down in the law we miss what's staring us in the face which is that this president decided to solicit the aid of a foreign government to intervene against his adverysary for a re-election. if the american people think that's acceptable, then we've back stepped a long way in this country. and quite frankly our president has lost any sense of shame if he ever had one. the concept of soliciting a foreign power to aid your re-election is a disgrace to the office. and he's going to flaupt it by saying it's okay that i did it. >> there's more breaking news tonight, guys. nbc news reporting that speaker pelosi told members of the caucus meeting this afternoon about calls she had with the president this morning. the president told pelosi according to her he wanted to figure this out.

he wanted to figure this out. pelosi said tell your people to follow the law, three sources tell nbc news. you know, what i think is interesting is that the president thought that ron did nothing wrong. he's talking about pardoning him because all he did was sell the former president's senate seat for a political game he was playing. here's the president tonight down-playing his unfreezing military aid to ukraine to get what he wanted. it seems to be pretty parallel. >> and remember this happened a day after mueller testified and said i'm exonerated, no culugds and then he gets on the phone and officially is inviting foreign interference in the election. it's not clear the president understands why this is a problem, and that seems to be his posture here that i with hold aid -- for all kinds of reasons we've withheld aid and it seems he's not making that connection and i think some of his aids worry about this that what we're doing here is

potentially a corruption of the office and abuse of authority as president. just because you can with hold aid in some circumstances doesn't mean you can do it when you're trying to investigate your political rival. >> one thing that frustrates me about this congress it's been getting into the weeds. and you ought to be able to see like pornography, if you can see it, you can see it. if you don't see it as corruption, this misuse of power by a president, if you don't have more hearings on it, make more document demands but all it time i'm hoping we're hearing they're going to move quickly on this, act quickly based on the information this week and but my worry is they'll hire a bunch of lawyers again, hire a bunch of staff, do a lot more whatever, whatever and put it off. and by the time this thing cools down, nothing happens, not even a vote up or down moch your

thoughts. >> and while that time runs let's understand the national security risk here. the president has conceded that he reaches out to foreign leaders for help for personal benefit. this goes right back to the russia allegation. we can now easily see how he could have compromised himself with russia. we don't know what transpired there, but he's very willing to do this for personal benefit. how much longer will we allow this to go on where he can compromise himself and someone else holds the key to his compromise? don't forget it's not just ukraine that was a party to that conversation? you know who else is listening to that conversation? russia. russia is intercepting the ukrainian president's conversations. they know exactly what transpired. there's another adversary who now comes in and says i own this president. >> and you wonder if it's the same one which is vladimir putin and whether that's the same thing we're watching here, just another chapter in this story. helping out russia by screwing

ukraine. up next, stand by your man no matter the cost. republicans remaining mostly silent yet again on the latest abuse of power. i love this guy pat toomey, he couldn't say over the weekend what was going on. he said i'm not paying attention to it. what's that about? and why aren't more republicans in congress willing to put their allegiance to country ahead of their allegiance to trump? you're watching "hardball." their allegiance to trump? you're watching "hardball. managing lipids like very high triglycerides, 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

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welcome back to "hardball." as news of the impeachment inquiry broke president trump fired off a number of angry tweets today accusing democrats of engaging in another witch hunt and claiming more presidential harassment. with the tide turning against him, however, with impeachment the open question now is whether members of the republican party will do anything. and republicans seem to be burying their heads in it. kevin mccarthy claimed the speaker of the house had no

authority to call for an impeachment inquiry. >> this election is over. i realize 2016 did not turn out the way speaker pelosi wanted it to happen. but she cannot change the laws the of this congress. she cannot unilaterally decide for an impeachment inquiry. what she said today made no difference in what's been going on. >> his senate colleague majority leader mitch mcconnell called the impeachment inquiry a rush to judgment. and earlier he declined to say if he thought it was okay to solicit dirt on an opponent from a foreign leader. >> is it appropriate, though, for any candidate to reach out to a foreign leader asking for help digging up dirt on a political rival? >> well, we're going to find out what happened in the senate through a process preestablished by the intelligence committee behind closed doors initially with the acting director of dni. >> well, devoid of a clear message from their leaders congressional republicans have

had to come up with a range of explanations or deflections for the president's actions. let's watch. >> i'm not prepared to go as far or anywhere near where some of the people around here are going in terms of the things they're saying. >> i think there are people in the intelligence commit community and other parts of our government who just have it out for the president. >> i don't know the context, i don't know what was said. >> i don't know what was said. well, today's republican party is singing a much different tune than they did say 20 years ago the last time a president was impeached. and that's next. you're watching "hardball." d. d anthat's next. you're watching "hardball. pla) panera's new warm grain bowls are full of good.

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you don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic. yet this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role. impeachment is not about punishment. impeachment is about cleansing the office. impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. >> that was former south carolina u.s. congressman lindsey graham back in 1999 during president bill clinton's impeachment hearing. arguing in that case impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office, not exactly a legal issue. 20 years later of course senator

lindsey graham has changed his tune defending president trump's behavior in similar calls. what happened to the republican party is a question and where are they now is another question. i'm joined by michael steele, john boehner, and anisha, white house reporter for npr. i was watching pat toomey about that feeble comment about i don't know what's going on here. i notice john cornyn says well is it a whistle-blower or leaker? they know what they see. >> i'm reminded by former speaker ryan's comment he would wake up every morning and prete pretend not to see tweets from the president. i think you're so seeing reserved judgment, hold back. the president was apparently willing to release a transcript of the call or notes from the call. there are suggestion we may see the whistle-blower report. at least senate intel obviously

will because senate republicans did not object. so it's sort of an odd moment for house democrats to have moved into this new sort of fake impeachment phase when they were getting cooperation -- i think they're doing exactly what they were already doing, they're combining the reports all their committees and jurisdictions are doing, sending them to the judiciary. that's not impeachment. that's collating. >> but it does put them in a position -- >> but it does seem to be getting the president to act, right, which is what he wasn't doing. he was stonewalling and not cooperating at all. and now he's moving very fast. before this was a transcript he was saying he'd release it, maybe, he didn't know, it might be a slippery slope, we don't want to do it -- >> howard fineman called me a little bit before 2:00 today saying guess what, pelosi has moved, they're going to act. and then we start hearing from

the president, the white house -- >> and you saw a shift over the weekend -- >> the president for the first time in his life reacting to the democrats. >> remember there's a split in the white house on this. there are people who believe impeachment is unpopular. almost 2 to 1 against in polling. house democrats are doing a pathetic job building a case against this president in hearing. the president has a lot of advisers who believe he will guarantee his re-election if the house democrats impeach him. >> the fast developments today prompted joe biden to join the chorus of voices holding trump accountable. >> using his full constitutional authority congress in my view should demand the information it has a legal right to receive. if congress does not -- if a president does not comply with such a request of the congress, he continues to obstruct congress and flaunt the law, donald trump will leave congress in my view no choice but to

initiate impeachment. we've always been a beacon to other countries around the world. we know who donald trump is. it's time to let the world know who we are. >> michael, let's go to the elements of this thing that have to be connected. this is not going to be a long-term thing. the president of the united states froze military aid funds to ukraine. a couple days later he calls up the president of ukraine and says give me some dirt. it look like a quid pro quo, whatever you call it. is that impeachable in your lights if that happened? >> i don't know whether or not it makes sense to impeach him for it. there are things that a president could be impeached for that are not necessarily to impeach. >> how do you stop him from doing it if you don't impeach? >> that's the problem. the only acceptable check is impeachment or threat of impeachment. having moved in this direction if they don't go all the way he's just emboldened to do

something worse next time. >> you're a journalist. are we getting here? >> that is an interesting when you talk about does this rise to the level of impeachment? i think that's what makes it a difficult argument for republicans. if it does turn out that he was making pressure in ukraine, if you're making the argument politically, well it was really bad but do you want to impeach him like your trying to thread this needing like we don't approve of it, but this is something that doesn't rise to the level of impeachment -- >> what happens when this president think he's in the room and he thinks calling leaders dirty. we'll be right back. you're watching "hardball." we'll be right back. you're watching "hardball. luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics... ...there's febreze fabric refresher. febreze doesn't just mask, it eliminates odors you've...

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- the tech industry is supposed in invention and progress. but only 11% of its executives are women, and the quit rate is twice as high for them. here's a hack: make sure there's bandwidth for everyone. the more you know. stay with msnbc throughout the night and in the coming days for the latest developments on the impeachment inquiry. tomorrow president trump says he'll release the transcript of his call with the ukrainian president. thursday we'll hear testimony from the acting dni joseph maguire the inspector general in

this case. and at some point this week we might hear the testimony itself from the whistle-blower from the intelligence community who started all this. that's "hardball" for now. "all in" with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on "all in." >> the president must be held accountable. no one is above the law. >> the speaker of the house makes it official. >> i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward aen official impeachment inquiry. >> democrats open a formal impeachment inquiry into president trump. >> i just heard that she'd like to impeach. >> tonight what happened today. >> the time to begin impeachment proceedings against this president has come. >> what happens now. >> this is full-blown impeachment inquiry. >> and what happens next. >> he's got to go. >> when "all in" starts right now. good evening from