>> mainly he sought to pressure the ukrainian leader to take actions to help the president's went 20 re-election bid. >> whoa. >> there it is in a line. >> willie geist. >> did what he's been accused of doing, it's impeachable. >> and that brings us to today, friday, september 27th here at the united states capitol in washington, d.c. this morning we have an exclusive interview with house speaker nancy pelosi, her first since democrats formally began pushing toward the impeachment of donald trump. there are several new developments in the scandal that has brought the u.s. government to this precipice. a white house in panic, the president on attack, and a growing numbers of americans involved in removal the commander and chief from the office. >> willie geist is with us. willie, i must say review of the week was made far more dramatic

than the string quartet you had with the cellos. i am glad you let our viewers now know you are one of the most accomplished celloists. >> people don't know i have a stand up base that i play and move over to play the cello. whatever it takes to drama ties the moment, i the moment, i'm here. >> yesterday was a fascinating day as well. these days seem to drag on and on with news. but yesterday, of course, while we were still on the air the whistleblower report came out and there were hearings, a lot of recriminations going back and forth. interesting enough, i don't know if you know this enough, i was justry mind

just reminded i was in congress once, we went for impeachment and everybody ran to their corners. i didn't quite see that happening yesterday. >> no. you saw it from reliable sources, people in the media, couple senators. but you see republicans either keeping their powder dry or saying yeah, this is important. you had the acting dni that the complaint is unprecedented. he believes, the dni does, that the whistleblower's acting in good faith. you have rudy giuliani scrambling, publishing texts saying did i all of this at the direction of the state department. he's covering his rear end on that saying i wasn't freelancing, it was the state department. and the president of the united states saying that the people inside the white house who provided the whistleblower information were, quote, almost a spy and usithen musing and wag the days we used spy in this

country. >> here we are on capitol hill and we have a pulitzer prize winner eugene robinson. sam stein is with us. also historian, author of solo america. and jon meacham, he's an nbc news and msnbc contributor. with all of that, we showed you happening in just a week's time the political ground beneath the president is rapidly shifting. a new poll that shows a 13-point swing in favor of impeachment. coming just days after house speaker nancy pelosi announced a formal inquiry. the new "politico" morning consult online poll shows a 7 point jump over the weekend while opposition dropped leaving

voters 43 to 43. they said president trump committed an impeachable offense, a record high. half of americans say they back impeachment, up three points since over two weeks ago. and an npr/pbs news hour poll conducted on wednesday also shows support among voters of the house impeachment inquiry 49 to 48%. >> gene, we always look back either at the clinton impeachment. >> yeah. >> or richard nixon's tree treveils and how long it took people to support impeachment. this is just a snapshot of the last two days. there's been a lot of revelations, things may cool off by monday or tuesday, but we never saw a shift like this back in '70 two, '73, and '74.

the past two days have caused an earthquake and you look at the impeachment polls, a dramatic shift with americans pretty much even on whether they support impeachment or not. >> exactly. as you recall during the nixon impeachment, it was very slow. the way the numbers eventually got to where they are now on president trump. and i think it's because this is some easy to understand. this is so clear cut. you know, people believe -- >> some would say it's so wrong. >> it's so wrong and there's nothing that complicated about it, you know. the president should not use united states foreign and national security policy as an instrument to try to gather dirt on an opponent in the election. it's just wrong. >> you have a 4-something page mueller report verses a seven page -- actually verses a memo

from the white house that really spelled it out in very basic terms. >> and it's not in dispute, it's all there. >> from the white house. >> from the white house. >> it's not in dispute. you actually had of course the whistleblower's complaint lining up very neatly with what the white house themselves released. >> right. >> and, sam, i want to go against the grain here a bit this morning where all people are talking about musing about the conventional wisdom is that the risk is with democrats. >> right. >> they're going too quickly in the is what donald trump is trying to spread and trumpists on tv. actually, the real risk seems to me to be with republicans who have seen donald trump lie for the past three years and they've gotten away with it. so jody ernst and others believe that they can say with a straight face, i haven't read a seven, eight-page report.

ask me about ethanol and i'll speak to that. >> with redactions. >> she's in a swing state. here is the against communiinte saying we are deeply troubled where the president of the united states held up military aid to a democracy under attack from russia until he got dirt that was dug up -- >> right. >> as was fwlin bloomberg opinion yesterday, no person in good faith could look at that and not say there's a quid pro quo. people are not as stupid as a lot of these republican senators are acting they are. >> well, to mika's point, there's a simplicity to this that is easy to understand. and to your point you can tell it's not a good thing by republicans because of the way they're reacting to it. they haven't read a nine-page complaint that takes 15 minutes to read. you have some senators saying i can't possibly comment on this because i'm going to be a

potential juror in the impeachment process which which is patently absurd. i will say this. i was talking to people the other day about public opinion and if they were worried about it. they made the point unlike watergate the fact's already out there. watergate you waited for the tapes to be produced and the public went ba nan as. in this case we have the memorandum of the call. it's not like watergate. so these poll numbers, i suspect, eventually they will basically rest where the country is on trump. you'll see something like 50 plus percent for impeachment and low 40s against it, that's just the society we live in. >> this is where we are now, willie, with information from the white house where even people who maybe don't follow the news all the time and totally study history look at that and go, no, you don't do -- that's wrong. you don't do that. >> no, it's patently and plainly

wrong. and the polling that you guys just walked through may explain in part why nbc is reporting this morning that white house officials are scrambling to figure out their next teps fste countering the push for impeachment. there is rising anxiety, unease and concern inside white house that the whistleblower's allegations will seriously wound the president. they described a sense of, quote, total panic over the past week at the lack of a plan to address this new reality. another person familiar with the discussions described the mood inside the white house as shellshocked with increasing wariness that as the impeachment inquiry drags out, the likelihood increases president trump could respond erratically and become, quote return manageable. as if that hasn't already happened. according to the "washington post," trump's adviser are looking at a split screen. he's stepping up his fall

schedule of campaign rallies to galvanize his supporters outside of washington and to portray house democrats as liberal insiders who are focused on impeachment instead of governing. there's a piece here that cites white house insiders and officials and that is that this isn't a story we can tweet away. there's a line if there saying this isn't something we can move on quickly. whenever there's been something bad for the president he's been able to change the conversation. that won't be the case here. >> it won't. and one of the things that's fascinating about the polling in particular is if you get to about half and half in this particular moment, that's the old 60/40, right? 50/50 -- i never can remember that part, but you understand. 60/40 in the old days would now manifest itself as a pretty evenly split country. and that's for all the reasons we know the enhanced tribalism,

the constant partisan media that has returned, the 18th, 19th century model, that's kind of back where we are. the thing i'm looking for, and joe would appreciate this, is the charles wiggins moment. so, willie, try to control yourself with your excitement and mika about charles wiggins being mentioned. but charles wiggins, as my friend has written, was a california republican congressman who was all in for nixon until august 2nd, 1974 when he was given a transcript of the smoking gun tape where nixon tries to use the cia to stop the fbi. and at that point, reading the words on the page, not even hearing it, but reading the words on the page a guy who had been totally for nixon, totally, this is august 2nd, '74, 25 months, 26 months after the watergate break-in he decides at

this point his duty to his constitutional role is to vote for impeachment. this was a pro, pro nixon guy if the was the words on the page. my question is, will the words on the page have a couple of charles wiggins particularly in the senate? >> i was thinking the same thing. >> i've told the story, mika and my father many times before, all in for nixon through woodward and bernstein. and when my dad saw the words on the page, i remember it like it was yesterday. i was -- i think i was maybe 9, 10. and my dad's sitting there reading and he was all in for nixon. and it was all eastern liberal conspiracy. and i remember my dad looking at the newspaper and just saying, if this guy did half of this, he is unworthy to be president of the united states. and just is --

>> it's a sad moment. >> it turned like that. >> yeah. >> and what is so interesting here is we have some of the words on the page now. >> right. >> the white house, though, have their version of, quote, the tapes. >> yeah. >> they moved them. >> to secret service. >> not for classified reasons, not for national security reasons, but to protect donald trump from either politically damaging consequences or from impeachment. and so we actually know where the trump tapes are. >> yeah. >> and the question now is, mika, how does congress get them? are they going to have to go through the courts to get them to get the verbate of that conversation where he lays it all out? >> top democrats are accusing the president of witness intimidation after he attacked the whistleblower's sources. it happened yesterday morning at a private event at the u.s.

mission to the united nations. here is the video obtained by bloomberg. >> i want know who's the person that gave the whistleblower, who's the person that be gave the whistleblower the information? because that's close to a spy. you know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right? spies and treason, right? we used to handle them a little differently than we do now. >> so, gene, the president of the united states, we can't underline this enough, the president of the united states. >> yeah. >> while at the united nations at our mission. >> it's just incredible. >> talking -- talking to civil servants, people that actually work for the taxpayers. >> exactly. >> said of a whistleblower and those who gave the whistleblower information in effect that they were spies and if it were the good old days we could kill them.

>> yes. >> is basically what he said. >> that's what he said. it was a death threat. >> isn't it amazing how it parallels what he said in the campaign where he said in the gold o good old days we could beat them up and take them out on a stretcher? now donald trump is saying, in effect, we should be able to kill whistleblowers. i haven't read the whistleblowers statute. i'm thinking it's probably a violation to threaten -- >> to do that. >> -- death. >> to threaten death. >> retaliation and -- >> it probably is. >> -- long for the days of hanging people. >> and he directly equates whistle blowing, which any president of the united states has to consider a good thing, right? because that's supposed to help us make government honest, to make it run well. >> wasn't there a whistleblower that started fast and furious? just curious? >> yeah. >> did any republicans talk about any of the whistleblowers in the obama administration? >> about maybe --

>> that they should be hanged. >> they were great, they should get the medal of freedom. but whistleblowers against him should get the chair. it is witness intimidation is what it is. it's a very stark and dark warning to people around him who, frankly, let's be honest, who have leaked like sieves for his entire -- >> sometimes it's worth stepping back and putting aside all of complaints and transcripts. having a president who talks nostalgically about executing people is bizarre and scary. >> and it also equates a whistleblower -- >> it's adding up. >> -- to treason. >> as a practical matter, it doesn't serve him well as all in this process, it makes it much more harder for him to fight fee

impeachment and it makes it more difficult. >> let's bring in former acting solicit it general, now an msnbc legal contributor neil. also white house reporter for "the l.a. times" and nbc political analysts eli stokols. "the los angeles times" was the first to obtain the audio of those comments by president trump at that private event. >> so, neil, let's begin with you. talk about the whistleblower complaint and your takeaways from yesterday's revelations. >> yeah, i think legally the most significant thing is that the whistleblower complaint, which we got to all read yesterday, at least beyond the republican senators haven't read it yet, all of us who read it i think we were struck by the fact that this is eerily similar, almost word for word in places, to the readout that the white house issued the day before of the call. so this massively bolsters the whistleblower's credibility. and then we learned two things yesterday. one, that the whistleblower said

that there was a pattern of hiding these transcripts and communications with foreign leaders and putting them on classified servers which is a flat out violation of executive order 1.7, the classification order. then second we saw that remarkable tape that we'll talk about in a moment in which the president is essentially threatening the whistleblower. all of that is not just legally significant and potentially criminal, it's atmospherically significant because i think the entire story, the reason why ukraine has caught on so much is because it feeds something that i think some of us had thought but we never had hard proof of or at least not as much hard proof of, the idea that the president is not acting as the president of the american people, he's acting as the president for donald trump and donald trump alone. >> right. the president puts his own self interests above the country every day he's in the office. and certainly for people that have been saying that for three years, this ukraine story certainly underlines that fact.

neil, let me ask you about the procedure of getting -- you talk about the fact that it is a violation of an executive order. how do democrats, how do americans get transparency? how do they get these transcripts, these tapes of phone calls that the white house intentionally classified incorrectly in violation of that executive order? >> well, i tell you what they shouldn't have to do, which is go to court. they'll win in court just as in the nixon tape case, the prosecutors won there to get that. but that would be, i think, a grave perversion of our justice system to force our members of congress go to court. the whole point here is that this stuff has been misclassified and hidden from not just the american people, but even people within the executive branch. and so i think that it's the executive branch's obligation to

turn that information over to the intelligence committees. and if they don't, i think congress would be well within its right to selectively defund anyone behind this and go after these people. this would be an outage us thing to do to hide this from the american people. >> let's move to the whistleblower comments the president made yesterday talking longingly about the days of people that committed treason were executed and suggesting that the same thing should happen to those that gave information to the whistleblower. what's your reaection to thctiod what are the consequences to that? >> i was so disgusted by that. i had the privilege of defending the last whistleblower in a national security case at the supreme court, and republicans came to his defense. of course this was during the obama administration. so, you know, it was a different thing. people like senator chuck grassley and others saying this is the most proud american

tradition, it goes all the way back to the continental congress. we heard none of that yesterday. instead we heard the president effectively threatening a witness. there's a criminal statute that makes it a crime to threat &en witness before congress. it's despicable and impeachable behavior and it's the last thing we should expect from the president of the united states. >> neil, we know you have to go. thank you very much for joining us on this big day. okay, so eli stoke he wiols are that we need more, but if you could give us some are actireac the room, but also i think we're at the point where the president says something and it's even flip. sure, i would take help from a foreign government if they give me the information, why not? that we might need to take it seriously. >> we know to take him literally and seriously. >> well, that's the whole, you

know, problem with this whole trump administration and this president who their language is always, you know, you're always sort of mystified and then the president wants it to be sort of optional whether or not he's to be taken seriously or literally. and he's the one and his advisers are the one that get to decide that after the fact, if he says something that's damaging to him obviously they're going to say he's just joking. but he's the president of the united states. his words matter. and that's, you know, journalists have tried to hold this president to account with falsehoods or statements that people don't reflect the character of the country. but in this case, the president walks into a room at 9:00 a.m. in new york city, a hotel ballroom for a private event to thank the staff for the u.s. mission to the united nations. these are most -- this is a nonpartisan group. these are people, diplomats who worked to help the president of the u.s. staff during the general assembly this week in new york and they expect maybe not from this president, but

they have generally expect and event like this as a sort of pro forma thank you, thanks for all your hard work and move on. but trump comes in and within about 30 seconds of him taking the stage, you know, it's the same free association stream of consciousness kind of monologue that we're used to from the president. and he let that room know quickly what was on his mind because within 30 seconds of taking the stage he starts going on about the whistleblower. equating the whistleblower to almost a spy, then complaining about the people who are in his administration who may have told the whistleblower the information that is in their complaint. and that really upset the president and you played the clip. and when he said that line about, you know, back in the old days what we used to do to spies and traitors back when we were smart, you know, the room was mostly silence even though there were a few laughs that were audible on that tape. >> this is another case i think where we can't grade on the

trump curve. he says things like this. this is incredibly serious for the president of the united states to muse about execution of spies. and he says the people that provided the information to the whistleblower almost a spy. what does it tell you as a white house reporter, as somebody who covers this president about the president's state of mind right now and where the white house is that he walked into that room in front of the u.n. mission public servants and their families, walked up to the microphones and began to talk about people being almost spies and executing them? >> it tells you he's a bit agitate and i think surprised by the impeachment inquiry. he basically said the other day at his press conference when he was asked about impeachment he said i thought this thing was dead. he basically is telling us that he was acting, he believed, with immunity after bob mueller's report came out, after mueller testified before congress, he thought he was in the clear. but beyond that, it doesn't really tell us much new about this president at all. there are not that many people

left in this administration who can corral the president, keep him focused, keep him off of twitter and keep him from going into a room and saying what's actually on his mind, even if that may be potentially damaging to him. that's where this white house is after 2 1/2 plus years or so. he really hollowed out all the folks in there who used to be brakes on his impulsive behaviors. >> a lot of those folks you described i think he had leave. eli stokols, thank you very, very much for being on the show this morning. >> it really is, the timing of it is extraordinary, is it not, that mueller -- mueller ends and he immediately lurches towards the next one. mueller testified, the next day was the phone call to the ukrainian president. >> it literally was 24 hours.

>> this reminds me, i'm not drawing any moral equivalency. clinton supportersly through t years said people are always after us. why are they always after us? because on so many things they went right up to the line or over the line, right? nobody did that with barack obama. i don't remember scandal after scandal on barack obama, unless of course it was manufactured. and -- but here with donald trump always, he doesn't go up to the line like the clintons. he barrels through it. >> two things on this. it's self-destructive behavior. >> obviously. >> i think there's a general miscalculation on the part of we reported this yesterday. the white house did not anticipate that pelosi would do impeachment. they still think it's a bluff to a certain degree and they are not -- i was told by a senior official they're not even preparing a war room inside the white house to handle this.

>> i keep hearing lindsey say go ahead and do it, let's see you do it. yes, they're going to do it. >> we're there. >> he doesn't have a clue about what's happening on then of pennsylvania avenue. they have no clue whatsoever. and, you know, on the timing, he thought he got away with it. i mean, that's basically -- >> absolutely. >> i got away with it. >> still ahead, there's a lot more on "morning joe." democrats would like to hold the democrats to account on any number of issues. nancy pelosi says this is about national security. >> the inquiry and the consensus in our caucus is that our focus now is on this allegation, now all of the other work that relates to abuse of power, ignoring subpoenas of congress, abuse -- contempt of congress by him, those things will be considered later. >> this morning, we have an exclusive interview with the house speaker on this pivotal

day in american politics. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. . you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro. (logo whooshes) ♪ (logo chiming) - [woman] with shark's duoclean, i don't just clean, i deep clean carpets and floors. so i got this. yep, this too. even long hair and pet hair are no problem. but the one thing i won't have to clean is this. because the shark self-cleaning brush roll removes the hair wrap while i clean.

- [narrator] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans, now cleans itself. now available in our new uplight model. full of tasty, good for you ingredients. fresh and filling. so that you too will be full of good. try our new warm grain bowls today. order now on doordash. wwithout it, i cannot write myl tremors wouldname.xtreme. i was diagnosed with parkinson's. i had to retire from law enforcement. it was devastating. one of my medications is three thousand dollars per month. prescription drugs do not work if you cannot afford them. for sixty years, aarp has been fighting for people like larry. and we won't stop. join us in fighting for what's right. things you can do with schwab: you can earn more when you invest your cash.

♪ you can get a satisfaction guarantee. ♪ you can also wonder why our competitors don't offer that. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. this fall, book two, separate qualifying stays at choicehotels.com... ...and earn a free night. because when your business is rewarding yourself, our business is you. book direct at choicehotels.com welcome to fowler, indiana. one of the windiest places in america. and home to three bp wind farms. in the off-chance the wind ever stops blowing here... the lights can keep on shining. thanks to our natural gas. a smart partner to renewable energy. it's always ready when needed.

or... not. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing. your business can do a lot in 10 minutes. like make a big sale. surprise and delight a customer. or come up with the winning idea. and 10 minutes is all you need to finally give your business the internet technology it really needs. we'll prove it. give us 10 minutes. if we can't offer you faster speed or better savings than your current internet service, we'll give you 300 dollars for your time. call now to get your comcast business 10 minute advantage and take your business beyond. comcast business. beyond fast. there were tsunamis fourtin the world. and once they happened, we were in a major hurry to get to those regions to provide aid and support. it was very humbling to be able to help out all those people. it's my dream now to go into clean energy and whatever the next new fuel source is, that's where i want to be.

i want to be on the front lines of implementation. we want to get back to those surprising poll numbers that new "politico" morning consult online poll shows a seven-point jump in support for impeachment proceedings since the weekend. while opposition dropped six points leaving voters divided 43-43. in a new huff post poll half americans say they back impeachment since two weeks ago. and an npr/pbs poll conducted on wednesday shows support of impeachment of voters 49 to 48%. >> and that npr poll was before the revelations, jon meacham,

that broke yesterday. impeachment, and i said this throughout the clinton impeachment ordeal, it is a constitutional remedy when a legislator believes that a president has -- is out of control. it is a constitutional remedy for when a president does not, in the opinion of the legislative body, is not adhering to constitutional norms. and we've all talked about high crimes and misdemeanors, what a fluid definition that is. that is basically what the people's elected representatives in congress say it is. but you can see here the american people moving quickly in the direction of supporting impeachment. >> and i -- and i think if you start to look for a 60/40 number there or a 70/30, there's a

fool's arir rond in the complicated america 2019. that's a pretty remarkable number given how intrinsically divided we are and how tribal we've become. one question i have for you as a former practitioner of this, let's stipulate that the house impeaches the president just for hypothetical. the house impeeves the president, it goes over to the senate. you need 22 senators to break with the trump world. i keep saying the trump base, it's not the republican base, think that's an important distinction. what do you think the number is, the polling number is for those 20 or 22 senators to break? what's their metric if they're ignoring their duty and they're looking solely at their own political survival, what do you think the threshold number is? >> i think it's all especially for republicans that are running in the primary in 2020 or in

2022, they're actually going to be looking at donald trump's approval ratings among republicans in their home states. and i would suspect that when the '90s melt into the 80s, and then into the 70s, at that point i would think most republicans feel like they have the power and they also have the political ability to explain to their state why the president needed to be empeecimpeached. again, jon, what is so remarkable about this, donald trump is isolated from republicans on the hill. you talk behind the scenes. they loath him. he is -- not only is he not a conservative, he is a guy who spent his entire life giving political contributions to chuck schumer, to hillary clinton eight times, to charlie

wrangell. donald trump contributed to elliot spits, he he contributed to andrew cuomo, anthony werner. is he a life-time democrat who has taken their philosophy, at least what they said on the campaign trail what they said about budgets and created the biggest national debt ever. he's gone back to hooverism, supporting protectionism and turned the republican party away from that. he has denigrated the intel communities time and time again in support of vladimir putin. so, jon, doesn't that seem to be a bit different than, say, what we had when bill clinton was going through this in the 1990s and had relationships not only across the hill with the democratic party, but also with

democratic activists who he had worked with since the 1972 mcgovern campaign? >> and it's very different than richa richard n. nixon, vice president for eight years, nominee in 1960 who campaigned. think of all those house members that richard nixon campaigned for in 1966 as he plotted 1968. most of those members were in the house of representatives who were sitting in judgment of him. so you're right, it's entirely different there. second question, one name that i haven't heard a lot in the past three or four days but which i think is particularly important and might go to this is mike pence. so one of the miscalculations richard nixon made in 1973 after agnou was caught accepting a brown bag of cash, agnou would have fit right in with this

crowd was to put gerald ford as vice president. thinking people can't imagine gerald ford sitting at this desk. he was wrong. is pence's credibility with that base actually a force working against trump in this? that the base might say, you know what? we hate to lose our hero, but we're going to be okay with pence? >> if the base could ever look past donald trump and all the space that he occupies, they would be quite happy with mike pence. i know a lot of conservative friends who were relieved when donald trump selected mike pence as his vice-presidential nominee. and, but mike pence actually his role in this entire ukrainian affair has yet to be uncovered. there was an interesting question posed to him by an ap

reporter in poland back on september the 2nd and the ap reporter asked specifically if mike pence had talked about the ukrainian president digging up dirt on the bidens. and he did not answer that question. it was after there was a meeting in a windowless room where mike pence, the president of ukraine zelensky and john bolton, i believe mike pompeo may have been in there too, they had a conversation at a time when the ukrainians were desperate to meet with the president and to get that military aid. so we don't know what was said in that meeting. we don't know if mike pence delivered the threat for donald trump. this is what donald trump usually does, he has other people deliver their threats for them. we don't know if there was a quid pro quo saying if you --

again, because -- i've got to see what's so shocking about this is the question was asked almost a month ago, willie, the question was asked a month ago by an associated press reporter are you holding up military aid until they investigate biden? mika and i heard almost two months ago from a former d.o.d. official, hey, you really need to check into this. donald trump is holding up military aid until the ukrainians agree to dig up dirt on joe biden. so the question in all of that is, it seemed to be the worst kept secret in washington, d.c., that's why republicans denying a quid pro quo today. >> what else is there. >> is so laughable. but the question is, what did mike pence know? what did mike pence do? what do mike pence say in that

closed-door meeting in early september? guess who knows the answer to that? john bolton. interesting times ahead. >> it is. that timeline you just laid out is laid out in the whistleblower's complaint. the whistleblower walks us through all of that. we can go back to april when zelensky was elected and that first phone call with president trump congratulated him and then moved quickly on to talking about the investigation of corruption, which we all know now is code for looking into joe biden. on meacham's question about the republican senators, jonathan martin in the "new york times" this morning has a piece about mitt romney and how he's the lonely voice in the republican caucus. he says that republican senators will have to look inside their hearts and decide if they want to do the right thing. he's deeply troubled by it. but is he sort in a unique position, right? he's already done all he needs to do in life. he's rich, he's had all the positions he wants to have, if he gets voted out of office u office, which he likely won't, he gets voted out of office.

the question is will more republican senators poke their heads up? ben sasse made a quick poke the other day and said i'm deeply troubled by this, let's not jump to conclusions. what is the breaking point where republican senators don't have a choice but to speak out about this? so far it's been just mitt romney. >> you know, i mean, mika, a lot of times it seems over the past several days some people on the left want these republican senators to set their hair on fire, say impeach, impeach, impeach and jump off the third floor. i think it is sufficient to say what ben sasse and mitt romney said. this is deeply troubling. but you know what? i'm not going to get ahead of myself, we're going to go through the process. >> it's not okay. >> and we're going to see what happened. but, yes, it's very troubling. i think that's sufficient right now. >> yeah. >> they don't need to do more. but they sure as hell don't need to say there's nothing there. >> that's -- >> as unfortunately house

members in an op-ed in the "wall street journal" did saying there was no quid pro quo, this is laughable. they will regret they wrote that op-ed. >> still ahead, we'll discuss one of the more concerning parts of the whistleblower complaints, specifically the allegation that the white house tried to lockdown details of trump's conversation with the president of ukraine. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ukraine. "morning joe" is back in a moment. 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. ♪ when i needed to create a better visitor experience. improve our workflow. attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah, and now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com. at verizon, we're building the most powerful 5g experience for america. that's why the nfl chose verizon. because they need the massive capacity of 5g with ultra wideband, so more screaming, streaming, posting fans... can experience 5g all at once. this is happening in 13 stadiums all across the country. now if verizon 5g can do this for the nfl... imagine what it can do for you.

it's how we bring real hope to our cancer patients- like viola. when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, her team at ctca created a personalized care plan

that treated her cancer and strengthened her spirit. so viola could focus on her future. their future. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now.

well, we're less than an hour away from our exclusive interview with speaker nancy pelosi. and in a new piece for the new yorker entitled nancy pelosi, an extremely stable genius, david rehmnic writes in part, pelosi has confronted trump with a rye fearlessness. it wasn't like they were saying this behavior wasn't kpep able to us. the tapes were dispositive the issue. there was no vote to impeach because it was so clear that he had to go.

but even nixon knew of his responsibility to the country. i'm not sure this person does. just impeaching trump for his bad behavior isn't worth it, pelosi said. but, if he challenges our system of checks and balances as he is doing, if he undermines our democracy, our electoral system as he is doing, if he undermines his own oath of office as he is doing, it is a challenge to our constitution. you have to be very clear and very focused on what would be an impeachable offense, pelosi said. people say you changed your mind. i didn't change my mind. the facts changed the situation. it isn't like we ran into this. he has taken us to this place. he has given us no choice. politics has nothing to do with impeachment, in my view. >> sam stein. >> i agree with everything up until that last line. this is political and you can't

take that out of it. but ils don but i also don't think -- there's a reason the polls switched as quickly as they did. people are following cues. and those are from the house speaker. and although she said they were dragging their feet, in the end it served her well because she doesn't look like an opportunityiope opportunist. it's very telling to me that the ppds of the preponderance of their pushback has been on mitt rockny and hunter bide pent that's where they fear they are vulnerable is when you start to lose republicans. >> yeah. >> that's where you're vulnerable. and they have focused like dogs on a bone on the republican

senator who has stuck his neck out the most. >> yeah. >> this is a big tell. >> and, gene, it's hard for them to brea to preach deep state when all of this was done by the book, following the whistleblower statute, with an ig, an inspector general's report, the inspector general appointed by donald trump, and every part of the process was followed and open to the letter of the law until the attorney general of the united states who is involved in the controversy decided to go deep state with it. >> right. >> and try to bury it. >> so the deep state shenanigans are totally -- it's a -- the interesting thing about nancy pelosi is she did think for a long time that politically it was a loser, that impeachment was a loser. she didn't want to do it, it wasn't worth the time, let's just beat him in 2020. you know, i think i once wrote that she was not going to

impeach him unless he forced her hand. and this forces her hand. i mean, this is just so egregious and so obvious. >> that's true. >> that something has to be done. the thing about nancy pelosi is once she makes up her mind and she starts down a path, that's the path, right? i mean, she's not, you know, she's not -- this lady's not for turning. >> no. >> this lady, you know, she is determined, systematic and totally in control of her caucus. >> i don't know if it's okay to point out the beautiful pink light in washington behind you both but it is beautiful this morning. a lot going on. congress is set to begin a two-week recess today. the chairman adam schiff says the house intel committee will work through the recess possibly holding another hearing next week. we'll have more on that path toward impeachment ahead on "morning joe." ahead on "morning joe." car like i treat mine.

adp helps airtech automotive streamline payroll and hr, so welby torres can achieve what he's working for. (classical music playing throughout)

it's an honor to tell you that [ applause ] thank you. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. i love you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ johnsbut we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

jon meacham down in nashville before we let you go for the weekend to get ready for the tailgate against northern illinois tomorrow getting the first win of the season, let's take a step back and look at what's been a wild week. there's often a race to conclusions and people making up their minds. but take a step back for us. how should we be thinking about what we've seen over the last five days? >> you know, if i were signing a dork weekend reading list, which i know you'll follow my advice very carefully, is read -- i think folks should read the white house conversation, memo of conversation, read the whistleblower complaint, and then read -- just google up, use the google machine, as george w. bush would say, use the google machine and read the preamble to the constitution written by governor morris 232 years ago. we, the people of the united

states, in order to form a more perfect union do ordain this constitution. and ask yourself, is this the person weapon want want as the of the united states to lead us on that journey toward a more perfect union? are his words and actions in the spirit of the way we set out? we're 230 years away from the first year of george washington being president. 230 years ago this fall. he was establishing the office. james madison was in the house, alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson and henry knox were in the cabinet. let's remember how fragile this is. 230 years is not a long time in the great sweep of history and we have to be as careful with that legacy as possible. read what trump said, read the ideal and begin to look at that time that play. >> may shape the way people think about that under this

impeachment inquiry. jon meacham, thank you. coming up, the numbers showing a big swing in favor of impeachment just days after a formal inquiry is announced. and nancy pelosi will join joe and mika on capitol hill in an interview you do not want to miss. we're back in two minutes. iew o miss. we're back in two minutes. i get it all the time. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter...

...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

congratulated me for what i was doing. >> let's show them. they're dated before trump's call with the ukrainian president. >> yeah. the whistleblower falsely alleges that i was operating on my own. well, i wasn't operating on my own. i went to meet mr. zelensky's aide at the request of the state department 15 memos make that clear. i didn't know him on july 19, you see it right there, 2019 at 4:48 in the afternoon i got a

call from volker, volker said would you meet with him? we want you do it. four or five conversations later i met with him in madrid. i reported back to them in a rather lengthy conversation. i spoke to ambassador sunland for times, i spoke to volker eight times. they basically knew everything i was doing. so it was being done with the authorization and at the request. and then i have a final one in which there's a big thank you about how my honest and straightforward discussion led to solving a problem in the relationship. i think i should get some kind of an award. >> oh my god. >> i just -- i don't understand why there's nobody, willie, that can tell rudy to stop talking because the more he talks, the more he hurts the president and hurts the administration. so we -- >> or he could keep talking. >> we've already moved behind

the attorney-client realm. rudy said i wasn't acting as his attorney. so he can't say that the conversations with the president are privileged. or the work is privileged. and now it's like rudy is going down a cliff and he's reaching up and he's grabbing the entire state department. >> yeah. >> and dragging it down the cliff with him saying, if i'm going to fall, everybody's coming down with me. >> he definitely should get an award. >> that's the only explanation is that he's covering his rear end at that point. because i'm watching that thinking, do you think that's better that the state department -- that mike pompeo and the state department directed you to have private meetings with sa saturday lens ski's aide and madrid and other places? that's not better. it's incredible if the goes in the category of we're going to release this category of the phone call we made because that's going to help us.

it's astounding the things and people they're putting out in public that they think will help. >> so, willie, think about this. in the past 24 hours alone you have had the state department dragged into this by rudy giuliani. >> yeah. >> who is now showing texts saying, oh, no, this wasn't just me freelancing. this wasn't me as the president's attorney. this is official u.s. government business that we are all working together to stop a democracy from getting defensive weapons to protect against vladimir putin's invasion until they dig up dirt in the 2020 election. and then yesterday morning who else did we find out that the president was pulling into this conspiracy? >> the attorney general. >> the justice department. the attorney general. so this has already moved from rudy giuliani or even the president doing it to now the state department being involved, the attorney general of the united states and the justice department being involved.

i think nancy pelosi should pray that rudy giuliani will continue talking out there. >> yeah. >> again, the shocking thing, mika, is they don't have a lawyer to tell this guy who actually believe it or not once was a lawyer, i guess maybe he still is. but he's certainly -- stop talking. >> well. >> that's what a good lawyer would do. rudy, stop talking because whatever you're saying is hurting the president's cause and your cause. >> you get feeling that rudy and the president don't know exactly what their job is at this point. we're live this morning from the u.s. capitol where in just about a half hour we're talking live with house speaker nancy pelosi. a "morning joe" exclusive. still with us here on capitol hill is sam stieb and we'ein an bringing in the democratic congressman sean patrick maloney of new york. also with us is proffessor of

practice and distinguished scholar of residence at new york university school of law bob bauer. he served as white house counsel to president obama. let's dive into some of the many important details of the whistleblower complaint. the whistleblower lodged a formal complaint over a belief that the, quote, president of the united states is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 u.s. election. that post, quoted, quote, solic interference from a foreign country if. the complaint includes among other things, pressuring a foreign down the investigate one of the president's main domestic political rivals. it all stems from a july 25th phone call between president trump and ukrainian president

zelensky. multiple white house officials with direct knowledge of that call told the whistleblower that, quote, after an initial exchange of pleasantries, the president used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. the complaint says that white house officials were so, quote, deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call because they believed they had witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain. white house officials and lawyers then intervened to, quote, lockdown the official transcript by removing it from the computer system typically used to store such records. the transcript was instead loaded into a separate electronic system managed by the national security counsel normally used for information that is of a, quote, especially sensitive nature and reserved for code word level information such as covert action.

a white house official told the whistleblower that that is an abuse of the secure system since, quote, the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective. multiple white house officials also told the whistleblower that this was, quote, not the first time the trump white house placed a transcript of one of president trump's calls, quote, into this code word level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive rather than national security sensitive information. there could be much, much more. >> there is much, much more. so a couple things. first of all, we're talking about a whistleblower. congressman, look ago. complaint it's clear that this is not just one person, it's actually a group of people that work in the intelligence community, that work at the white house, that are very concerned that the president --

>> connected with this. >> that is undermining america's national security. what was your takeaway from the whistleblower complaint? >> i can just say i know my first hearing question for mayor giuliani, which is going to be could you speak for the whole four hours? >> go. go. yeah. >> but on your point, i can tell you, you know, i was the white house staff secretary. i'm familiar with these kinds of call memorandum. it's an extraordinary thing that first of all the director of national intelligence would say it's executive privilege. no, it's not. it might be classified. but 'it was classified it would be at the secret level. code word level is for the raid against bin laden. the code word level is for things that are going to get somebody killed if it gets out. things that are so sensitive. so to put it there is a transparent effort to hide it. >> so classify incorrectly intentionally that is an abuse of power, is it a violation of the law? >> there's an executive order that prohibits it. and the whistleblower mentioned it in a footnote that by

executive order it's improper, a violation of law to classify to avoid embarrassment. but to your point, there's all kinds of people down in the sit room and the white house who hand this will in the normal course. they start talking and when all of those people feel comfortable telling the truth, you're going to have a lot of corroboration of this. which is, of course, why the president is making threats. >> and think we should step back and note the rich irony that the 2016 campaign was waged against hillary clinton over her bad record keeping protocol. and here we have a president who is going to be in a world of political trouble because of poor record keeping protocol. the other thing that i think it's worth noting is that, you know, stuff they put out, the complaint and the memorandum and the call, at various points they thought was exculpatory. rudy's talking and putting owl something he thinks is exculpatory. it's clearly not and it's clearly hurting them and this is just the beginning. we're at poll numbers showing 50/50 splits on impeachment. we've gone just to the first stage of the discovery process.

over the next couple weeks and months, as spence ably we'us ste the other phone calls put into the secure location and we'll get more and more location. i information. >> willie geist. >> it's willie geist in new york. there's so much flying around this week. there's so much information and so much to sort. there's been so many smoke screens thrown up by your colleagues across the aisle. boil it down this morning. ha is this story about to you? >> what this story is about is the president using the power of his office to threaten a strategic partner in an incredibly delicate position for a political gain, to smear a political opponent. lying about it, covering it up. having the white house and the juts justi justice department involved in

that cover-up. but now they're caught. what is this is about is the slow unraveling of that cover-up and the exposure of that wrongdoing. we all know that this is the president's course of conduct. we all know that that database has other documents in it that they were hiding to avoid embarrassment. he's clearly not bound by any of the traditional norms or rules. i think it's the beginning of the end, to be honest with you. but it's important that those of us on the committee do this in a thoughtful and open-minded way, that we be fair and thorough. i don't want to take at face value anything that that whistleblower complaint. i want to corroborate it, do it expeditiously but this is serious stuff. it breaks my heart that the president of the united states would engage in this conduct and all americans should approach it with that humility, i think. >> and bob bauer, you served as white house counsel to president obama, you're intimately familiar with how a white house works and how it should work. what have you seen in the last two days first in the summary of the phone call between president trump and president zelensky and then yesterday when the

whistleblower complaint was made public? >> i certainly saw the core of the same offense that the congressman has described. there's no question that it falls within the boundaries of what is a heartland impeachable offense. and in this case not only for personal political gain, but at the sacrifice of national security interests. i completely agree with the congressman about that. what also strikes me is the president's actions are affecting the entire executive branch. he has his personal and political lawyer and associate working with state department officials and it is alleged the department of justice to advance this scheme. he has people in the white house counsel's going around knowing the content of the communication understanding the problem that it presents and looking for someplace to store it so that it cannot be found. so it seems that what's going on here is sort of a viral infection spreading from the

president's behavior and very seriously and adversely affecting the operation of the entire white house complex. >> so, bob, let me ask you, since it's a violation of an executive order, if someone is involved and classifying incorrectly a readout of that conversation and doing it and being part of a process that they're doing it because -- not because of classified information or sensitive national security information inside that document, but because of political embarrassment, has that person committed a crime? >> somebody who goes ahead and stores it in one system over another is going to claim that they were directed by the president who has the power over the classification of material. i think the larger problem is what did they do when they realized the core offense that was being committed here?

that was apparently being committed here. >> right. >> it was not so much where they put it but what they knew about it and what it represented. and you have an entire building that remembering niecognizes, a whistleblower complaint details, that the president was engaged in a systematic effort over time to use the office of the presidency to advance his personal goals that is clearly improper improper, violates some criminal laws and yet they scrambling around trying to erect some kind of defense for that. i think that's the real problem. what's indicated by the desire to hide this material. >> the question is where do they go now? i don't mean to bring up '70s comedies, but i remember when fletch had the commissioner, the l.a. commissioner coming in who was corrupt to the core and he goes, oh, good, the cops, right?

>> yeah. >> so where does somebody inside the white house go if they know that what they have done is a violation of the law? because right now the attorney general and the justice department is involved in this. we saw it not only from the whistleblower, but we saw it from the readout, the president of the united states time and time again was talking about giuliani, but also talking about, hey, you need to call attorney general barr. and, of course, it was barr who, again, you're talking about a deep state act, everybody was playing by the rules in these whistleblower complaints. it was the attorney general of the united states that was the one who tried to bury it inside the justice department. and as the acting dni said, that was unprecedented, it had never happened before. >> we want to show, again, the polling that shows a pretty fast shift in public opinion on

impeachment. a new "politico" morning consult online poll shows a seven-point jump in support for impeachment proceedings since the weekend. while opposition dropped six points, leaving voters divided, 43 to 43. in a new huff post you gov pole half americans say they back impeachment, up three points since over three weeks ago. >> and removal from office. >> and nprpbs poll conducted on wednesday shows support among voters of the house inquiry 49 to 48. >> congressman, are you surprised these numbers moved so quickly in a few days? >> look what's happened in a few days. my god, this inspector general has done more in a couple of weeks than the mueller team did in two years. >> yeah. >> and that's not a knock on the mueller team, it just means the events are extraordinary and the documentation. >> they're very easy to understand, too, what happened. even in the white house memo. >> and the president has

admitted most of it. it's not in dispute for god sakes. >> right. >> and he came out and just said it all and then the documents backed it up. look, i'm watching these republican colleagues of mine, they're off their game. they're on their back foot, they don't know what to make of this. they're waiting to ral leigh rou rally around some talking point from the white house but it hasn't worked. the first was some quid pro quo but that fell apart pretty fast. yesterday they were in the hearing and they were subdued and then they left, they were gone. they were out of the room. so i think you're seeing both republicans in the white house and on the hill pretty shellshocked. i think most of the country is absorbing this. the facts matter and everybody needs to take a breath and we'll have to -- >> we have to bear them out. will you have the ig next week in the intel committee? >> there's a bunch to do, you can see that. obviously the whistleblower needs to be given an opportunity to speak to the committee under appropriate protections. very concerned about that person's security given what the president's saying.

want to make room to are other folks mentioned. think that the state officials that went in to do cleanup on aisle three with the ukrainian president after the president's phone call, probably have some things to say. there's a bunch of threads there and i think we need to look at them. >> but fletch from the '70s -- >> wow, '80s. >> that's a -- talk about impeachable offenses. >> i hate -- >> you saw it? >> boom, that's jail. you got me. >> let's close here with bob bauer. what happens next in terms of the eye of the law? >> certainly, i mean, as the congressman indicated, as speaker pelosi has indicated there are now goes to an intensive fact finding by the house intelligence committee is which is apparently directed, then, to make the fruits of that investigation known to the house judiciary committee. i want to say one thing about the involvement of the department of justice, if i could. because joe asked an important question here, what would you do in these circumstances?

the attorney general has denied that he was told anything about this, that he was asked in any way to participate with rudy giuliani and putting this pressure on the ukraine government. in the normal course, when something like this would develop, the white house counsel would contact the attorney general and say, we have a serious problem here. the president is engaged in conduct that is indefensible from a variety of perspective. so something has to happen. something needs to take place here. some remedial effort needs to occur. and the real question is, did that ever happen in this government? it is not enough for the attorney general to say, i didn't know anything about it. why was he not told? and that's a critical question here. >> well, i'm going to say, though, congressman, the attorney general may not have been told. i mean, he's already perjured himself before congress so i don't know whether we can believe him or not. but the attorney general, whether he was told or not, he saw at the top of the whistleblower complaint the

statement that the whistleblower believed that the attorney general of the united states was involved in this scheme to hold up military money to smear a political opponent. >> yeah. >> at that point, barr is on notice. and what does he do? covers it up. >> it jumps off the page. it's in the second paragraph of the whistleblower complaint. and so, you know, my god, this poor dni, i feel for him, contrary navy s.e.a.l. i think he's a good man trying to do the right thing. he goes to the white house and the justice department, the two people implicated in this complaint in the first couple paragraphs -- >> by the way, i commend his service to this country. i'm grateful for his service to this country. i know he did not expect to be in this position. but i'm sorry, if you're the acting dni and you have an ig

complaint, an ig report that talks about a nature this seriously and it names the attorney general of the united states as being implicated in this possibly, you do not then go to the attorney general of the united states and say, hey, what should we do with this? you do not circumvent standard practices and say, you know what i'm going to do some i'm going to talk to the guy who i'm reading here, i know it's unusual that i'm supposed to go straight to the hill, but instead i'm going to go to the guy who was eimplicated in the first couple of paragraphs in this report. >> you're guarding the henhouse. you don't check with the fox. >> right. >> that's true. >> and let's not let barr off the hook here. barr took the proactive steps to make sure this never saw the light of day. and only by the grace of god and public outcry did it. >> member of the house intelligence committee

congressman sean patrick maloney, thu thank you very much for being on. former white house counsel bob bauer, thank you as well. and coming up, house sheiker nancy pelosi is standing by. she joins us exclusively in a few moms. and as we go to break, speaking to a grand jury a few decades ago, president bill clinton was to careful with his language that he parsed the meaning of the word is. as we all know, that's not how donald trump rolls. >> no. >> we spoke about many things and so i think and you read it that nobody push -- push me, yes. >> in other words, no pressure. said there was no pressure put on him whatsoever, none whatsoever. pressure, i use the word pressure, i think he used the word push but meant pressure but it's the same thing. and he said it loud and clear for the president. you know what? there was no pressure. t. you know what? there was no pressure. ♪

- [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. "have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

on a scale of one to five? wait... one to five? when it comes to feelings, it's more like five million. there's everything from happy to extremely happy. there's also angry. i'm really angry, clive! actually, really angry. thank you. and seat 36b angry. you're clive owen. and you're barefoot. yeah... there's also apprehension... ...regret... ...relief. oh and there's empathy... ah, i got this in zurich! actually, what's the opposite of empathy? but what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling... and then do something about it. you can turn disappointment into gratitude. clive, you got to try this. i can't i'm working. turn problems into opportunities. thanks drone.

change the future of your business. change the whole experience. alright who wants to go again? i do! i do! ♪ i have a really good feeling about this. ♪ there was no pressure. there was no pressure. fights cancer, repairs shattered bones, relieves depression, restores heart rhythms, helps you back from strokes, and keeps you healthy your whole life. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

your business can do a lot in 10 minutes. like make a big sale. surprise and delight a customer. or come up with the winning idea. and 10 minutes is all you need to finally give your business the internet technology it really needs. we'll prove it. give us 10 minutes. if we can't offer you faster speed or better savings than your current internet service, we'll give you 300 dollars for your time. call now to get your comcast business 10 minute advantage and take your business beyond. comcast business. beyond fast.

house speaker nancy pelosi is standing by for our exclusive interview with her. and as of last night, a total of 225 u.s. house members have expressed support for some type of action regarding impeachment. that's 224 out of 235 house democrats plus one independent. and as lawmakers push to keep the impeachment investigation narrowly focused on the ukraine allegations, house speaker nancy pelosi yesterday made it clear the inquiry with not be bogged down by the numerous trump investigations already in progress. some democratic lawmaker and aides tell "the washington post" this morning they believe impeachment articles could be ready for a house vote around thanksgiving. and speaker pelosi joins joe and mika live from capitol hill exclusively next on "morning joe." don't go anywhere. e.

e. ♪ ♪ around here, the only predictable thing >> announcer: morning joe sponsored by bp. at bp we see possibilities everywhere. bp. at bp we see possibilities everywhere. that's why bp is partnering with lightsource, europe's largest solar company. and should the weather change, yet again, our natural gas can step in. to keep the power flowing and the lights shining. no matter the forecast. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. wwithout it, i cannot write myl tremors wouldname.xtreme. i was diagnosed with parkinson's. i had to retire from law enforcement. it was devastating. one of my medications is three thousand dollars per month.

prescription drugs do not work if you cannot afford them. for sixty years, aarp has been fighting for people like larry. and we won't stop. join us in fighting for what's right. full of flavor. color. full of... woo! full of good. so you can be too. try our new warm grain bowls today. order now on ubereats. panera's new warm grain full of flavor, color,. full of- woo! full of good. so you can be too. try our new warm grain bowls today. panera. food as it should be. my body is truly powerful. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to.

trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes. it's not insulin. i take it once a week. it starts acting in my body from the first dose. trulicity isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, or severe stomach pain. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, belly pain, and decreased appetite, which lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. i have it within me to lower my a1c. ask your doctor about trulicity.

all right.

whim back welcome back to "morning joe." live here in washington. joining us now, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> my pleasure. good morning. >> a couple weeks ago you and i stood here and we were talking about the preciousness of our democracy. you have moved forward with this step toward impeachment. how do you plan, though, to handle the republicans who still say there is nothing to see here? >> well, first let me say that this is no cause for any joy. this is a very sad time for our country. the impeachment of a president is as serious as our congressional responsibilities can be, apart from declaring war or something. and so we have to be very prayerful. and we always have to put country before party. but i would say at this time i would say to democrats and republicans we have to put country before party very clearly in the public view. and this is about the constitution of the united states.

the clarity of the president's actions is compelling and gave us no choice but to move forward. our founders in the darkest days of the revolution, thomas payne said the times have found us. well, we think the times have found us now to protect what they fought for, our democracy, our independence, and then a constitution with checks and balances. not a monarchy as ben franklin said, a republican. and all of that is at stake, the separation of powers is a genius of a constitution. three separate coequal branches of government to be a check on each other. this is as serious as it gets when it comes to protecting the constitution of the united states. the oath of office that we take, i think the president violated that oath. but, sadly, we have to take us, you know, follow the facts. and the facts are so dragging but in other words to corow rate

what corroborate what we have heard so we have a comfort level of what we have to do. >> we were talking before and i talked to mika about this when it looked like we were moving to impeachment as a country. and i just -- i went around and it felt like i had been punched in the gut. not because i didn't believe that we didn't need to move in the direction of an inquiry, but because i remember the clinton impeachment, i remember voting for two of the four articles. i remember thinking after the supreme court and the arkansas supreme court had stripped him of his law license because of perjury, at that point i thought, okay, that's fine. it still stuck with me, though, for 20 years because it is such a wrenching process. but, i must say also, that it is in the constitution. our founders looked at this as a

constitutional remedy for an executive that our elected leaders felt was, in fact, abuse the constitution of the united states. >> you and i differed on the clinton because that was personal behavior that he was -- >> involved in. >> punished for. >> but this is about national security. >> this is about the national security of our country. the president of the united states being disloyal to his oath of office. jeopardizing our national security, and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections. it covers so much. so, again, take us where the facts will lead us. i'm very excited -- i'm concerned about some of the president's comments about the whistleblower. one of our chairmen, elijah cummings is a chairman of the governor forum and oversight committee, a master of everything in government, particularly unsurpassed leader on the subject of inspectors

general and the integrity of their work and how much he respects that as well as making sure that our whistleblowers do not have retaliation. those are very important part of uncovering wrongdoing in our government. and elijah has been just -- >> but the president yesterday suggested that they should be treated as traitors and should possibly be executed. >> well, you know, it's really sad. we have to be very prayerful. i pray for the president all the time. i pray for the safety of his family, wish that he would pray for the safety of other families and do something courageous on guns. but i also pray that god will illuminate him to see right from wrong. it's very problematic. so we have a situation where members will have to -- no one ever asked anyone to vote this way or that, this is everyone's individual decisions. and our members came to their

own decisions in their own time about this. but when it was such a compelling national security issue, it's just -- he gave us no choice. >> let me ask you about the attorney general. >> he's going rogue. >> mika and i have had an ongoing debate for years. i've always said the institutions are strong, they will hold, we will be fine. she's been far more concerned. this attorney general now has me questioning had the how do the institutions hold if the attorney general's gone rogue? if there is somebody in the white house this morning watching, and they are watching, and they understand that they violated an executive order and misclassified information for political purposes and could be facing legal penalties, where do they go when the attorney general himself was mentioned in the whistleblower complaint at

the top and buried it? where do they go? >> well, i think where they're going is a cover-up of the cover-up. and that's really very sad for them. and to have a justice department go so rogue, well, they had been for a while. and now it just makes matters worse that the attorney general was mentioned, that the president was mentioned, and yet the justice department directed the director of national intelligence to take this to the white house. >> which he said yesterday was unprecedented. >> unprecedented. and he's a person of great reputation. i felt sorry for him because here is he having to not -- i mean, just -- i don't know what. i think that what he did broke the law. the law is very clear. when this information comes, it's deemed credible and of urgent concern by the inspector general. >> right. >> the director of national

intelligence shall convate information to congress. now, this is my wheelhouse, as i said to the president, 25 years of experience in intelligence, a long time ago starting as a member, being the ranking member, being gang of four even before i was in the leadership. i was there when we wrote the whistleblower laws, i was there when we wrote the law establishtion the office of director of national intelligence. that's only since 2004. shall convey that information to the congress. and poor soul couldn't. >> and instead he took it to an attorney general who is mentioned as a possible part of the contract. >> and a presidential -- the president's lawyers when the president was mentioned. highly -- not highly unusual, unique, wrong. >> well, there are several steps here and i know you're trying to keep this focused. by the way, i also know that you're doing a lot of other things still trying to legislate approximately we'll be talking in a few moments about the effort to lower the cost of

drugs. but what do you make of the movement of these conversations into this more secure server and are you -- i know this is focussed, but are you concerned both ore conversations that might be in there? >> well, you know that's interesting. as part of a cover-up. but i think we have to stay focused as far as the public is concerned on the fact that the president of the united states used taxpayer dollars to shakedown the leader of another country for his own political gain. the rest of it is ancillary. that is to say it shows how wrong they thought it was so they would move it. but what's interesting about this for me now is that people said well this is all people will talk about now. well this is all people were talking about anyway. but with mr. schiff, i mean, we're so proud of adam schiff and this will be focussed in his committee because it is an intelligence matter, national security matter and our other

chairmen are excellent and they have most of their cases are in court now and we're waiting further decisions. we've won at certain levels. but now that that is where it needs to be, on course, we can focus -- the public can understand more about what we are doing otherwise. we promised for the people that we would lower the cost of prescription drugs and that is what we're doing. that we would build the infrastructure in america in a green way and that's what we're hoping to do and that the president will support that and clean our government. there were three things i think we can get cooperation from the republicans on lowering prescription drug prices, i hope so. building the infrastructure of america, i hope so. i don't think we'll get any cooperation on cleaner government. >> well, it's interesting that the president yesterday was complaining that he couldn't move forward on guns because of this impeachment inquiry and yet you all have already passed the legislation like so many other bills, they're sitting on mitch mcconnell's desk. and it's really become a

legislative graveyard for one reform after another reform that you all have passed that actually many of them would be supported by the majority of republicans. >> that's right. and we were not looking for a fight when we put forth our agenda, it was where can we have the most common ground? 90% of the people support gun violence prevention, hr-8 bill. but the president is too cowardly to support gun violence protection to protect our children. if he's too cruel to protect our dreamers, if he's too in denial to understand the climate issue, the list goes on and on. those are matters for the election that have nothing to do with the impeachment. but from our standpoint, while mitch mcconnell may call himself proudly the grim reaper, these issues are alive and well in the public. >> right. >> and there will be a price to pay. we'll make these issues too hot to handle. we're not going away until we

pass legislation to protect the american people from gun violence. >> let's talk about timing. you talked about elections, of course, the iowa caucuses and the presidential primaries start up in february. this is obviously something we don't want to have split screens of people going to vote or going to caucus in iowa while impeachment's being debated on the floor. doesn't that consolidate the calendar since this is a narrowly focused issue? doesn't this need to be completed one way or the other by the end of the year? >> well, i think that we should move with purpose and expeditiously, not hastily, though. and the matter is in the hands of the intelligence committee under leadership of adam schiff of whom we're very, very proud and our members of the committee, i know you had sean patrick maloney on earlier, we're very proud of him. and so they will take the time

that they need and we won't have the calendar be the arbiter, but we do -- there's -- it doesn't have to drag on. and, again, we're in court on many of these cases, whether it's the president's taxes, his bank accounts, his accounting, emoluments, a whole slooe slew other things. who knows the timing of the courts. but it's no use to say by such and such a date. but looking, shall we say, the material that the administration is giving us, they are actually speeding up the process. >> the decision itself to move forward we had kellyanne conway whoa is still at t who is still at the white house saying nancy pelosi did the worst thing a woman in power can

ever do. which is change her mind in a matter of hours on something so significant exceeding to the angry mob insisting that she move toward impeachment. >> why i would have to comment on something she said? but the fact is -- >> that is the correct answer, by the way. >> i didn't even know she was still there. >> that is the correct answer, yes. >> but let me just say this. it wasn't a question of changing of mind. people say that to me, when did you change your mind? i didn't change my mind. the facts changed the situation. and they cannot be ignored no matter how sexist she wants to be, the fact is that the president's -- the revelation of the president's unconstitutional behavior and his own political interest was so -- changed the mind of the public. you see the polls changing. >> it seems like they're trying to make this about you. >> yeah, well, you know. that's fine, i welcome it. i'm ready. i said, all along i said i think this is an important state.

we have to weigh the equities when we're talking about a statement of impeachment. we weigh the equities. i never thought he was worth it to have something so divisive to the country. but really the step that he -- the cavalier attitude, the irrelevant response -- whatever, illegal practically. but the fact is, is that we're talking about our oath of office, to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. checks and balances. this is a very important moment for us because i don't trust what might, could happen in the courts of his appointees as to whether they will rule and say that the congress of the united states does have the right of oversight in the constitution, over site of the executive branch. the president says article 2 says i can do whatever i want. no it doesn't. you're not a monarch. it's a republic if we can keep it. >> a republic if we can keep it.

it's so interesting over the past 20, 30 years we've heard people every couple of years go, this is the year of the woman in washington. this is -- and i'm sitting there going, okay, great, i get it, every three or four years when a couple of women are elected we're going to have this narrative. earlier this week we saw one woman elected in 2018 after another woman elected in 2018 who had served in the military or who was a prosecutor or who had served in the intel community going on and passionately explaining, these freshmen democrats passionately explaining why even though donald trump had won their district and this was not the politically smart move to make, it was the right move to make. and i remember going to bed that night going, my god, this is not only the year of the woman, but we will look back on this like we looked back on for instance the watergate class of '74.

these women are going to change american politics forever and there will be a president or two or three out of these women and daughters like mine will see -- they are seeing, we are seeing this week history unfold before our eyes. >> it's beautiful. and we're so very, very proud of them because they are honoring their oath of office and their national security background informs them as to how dangerous this is. i had said early on if and when we have to do this, we will be ready. and we are ready because of the integrity of our members, because of the leadership of our committee chairs and now in terms of the intelligence committee because of the preparation that we have made. and we'll continue to make that during the periods where people go home and listen to their constituents, listen to their constituents. >> if you could speak to those

who maybe are still struggling with why this was so wrong. and we're talking about the focus of shaking down the leader of ukraine to get information on a political opponent. and, by the way, having hundreds of millions of dollars in aid held up. could you explain to those as to why this is wrong, but also extremely dangerous? >> let me just say that i fully appreciate the need for a president of the united states to have conversations with leaders of other countries and that some of that may want to be held close to the vest as part of his job. but i don't think it's part of the president's job to shakedown leaders of other countries using taxpayer dollars to have them to do something that is in his political benefit. it is wrong for any foreign government to interfere in our elections. and here you have the president

of the united states asking for that. so it is, again, now we're engaged in a cover-up of that. but the cover-up of the cover-up, two wrongs do not make a right. and the president's going to have to answer that. and they know how wrong it is. have to answer that. and they know how wrong it is. by the way, think russia has a hand in this by the way. but we saw what the russian disruption of our election last time, their interference, 100% confidence of the intelligence community, high confidence in the intelligence community that the russians disrupted our election. that was wrong. the integrity of our elections is central to our democracy. so what the president did in inviting outside intervention into our election is -- it goes beyond the pale. so that. and then to use what was in a bipartisan way passed by congress to have this assistance

to go to -- to ukraine. >> right. >> is wrong. so actually we have a double wham minute because he's violating the constitution by overriding an act of congress. which is the power of the purse of congress. so in terms of your question it's a -- it's wrong class in our national security interest. >> so i -- i read a story

earlier this week in final times that struck me personally because i have a son who has type one diabetes. it's about americans that have to actually go to canada to get insulin for themselves and for their children. there was one mother, my god, it broke my heart. she had a son off in college. she actually chose not to pay her electric bill one month so she could afford -- because her son was actually rationing his insulin and very bad things were happening. by the way, it was discovered, insulin, this was -- like i think it was in toronto, the guy that discovered it gave up the patent for like $1. why is it that drug companies in america are still able to stick it to consumers the way that they are? and i understand i want there to be a cure for diabetes so i wan

money to continue that research. this is excessive. what can you do? what can congress do behind us that will force the president to sign a bill to make prescription medication available for diabetics and others whose lives depend on it? >> thank you. i'm so sorry about your personal situation, but fortunately you can afford -- >> right, exactly. >> -- the medicine. and that should be the way it is. >> yes. >> let me say one of the answers is hr-3, our legislation that has been developed by our committees of jurisdiction, ways and means, especially energy and commerce and education and labor. so it has been a deliberative process. what it says is that we will remove the ban or mostly all of the medicines so that the secretary can negotiate for lower prices, that we will have a noncompliance fee if companies do not honor their responsibilities. for example, we have a formula

so that five or six times what we pay versus what other countries pay will no longer be the case. that this will not only be negotiated for medicare but it will be negotiated for all, for all beyond -- beyond medicare. it will be -- it will have transparency. it will have availability. it is transformative. i have seen grown men cry on the campaign trail because they will tell a story that you told except they can't afford the medicine, whether it is for a child or a spouse or themselves, because this is about the financial security of families as well as the health security of families. >> what do you say to mitch mcconnell, who it appears these bills go to him? >> this is so big. i mean the country, every household in america is aware of this. much of the development of drugs, contrary to insulin, have been developed by the public dollars at the national

institutes of health, much of the early basic medical research that then benefits those who go on. and as you said, this is about innovation. there has to be a recognition of the cost of the further research and development as well as a profit there. but the obscenity of it all -- >> right. >> -- the immorality of it all has to stop, and our hr-3 is careful -- now, it is not as where some people want us to go and the rest. it is transformative. it should pass. the president should sign it. public sentiment, lincoln said, public sentiment is everything. with it you can accomplish almost anything. without it, practically nothing, and the public is aware of this. it affects kitchen table concerns, and we're excited about the legislation. >> so -- by the way, just as a side note for people that are watching that don't know this, nih pays a large percentage of r & d in medication. >> and that's taxpayer dollars. >> and it is taxpayer dollars,

exactly. >> we want it available to all. >> so let me ask you. everybody loves to talk about your father. >> so do i, and my mother. >> and your mother is extraordinary. >> exactly. >> but it is always like the speaker learned at the feet of her father. i want to ask you, and i ask this as a dad, i know your dad would be so proud of you but also right now, you know, history has found you and congress, and as lincoln said we cannot escape history. i'm wondering, i know your mom and dad stay with you every day. what has your dad taught you to get you through a time like this? what do you keep in the back of your mind as our constitutional republic literally hangs on the actions that you and members of this house and senate will make over the next couple of months? >> well, you're nice to ask about them. i'm a believer, so i believe

that they know everything that we are doing. i am prayerful about them every single day. but i do think that when i was born, i was born into a family that was deeply patriotic. we loved the flag. proud of our italian american heritage. devoutly catholic and staunchly democratic. >> right. >> we saw the connection of our -- that public service was a noble calling. but it wasn't -- you know, while we were democrats and saw that role of government being for the good of the community, it wasn't anti-republican. it was about advocating your position. so it wasn't ever about disliking anyone. it was always about respecting what they -- how they represented their people, and so even my -- sometimes my brothers and my brother is mayor of

baltimore, tommy delasandro, oh, he was fabulous. the most spectacular person in politics that i ever knew. always say, if they criticize you don't pay any attention. they have to say what they have to say, but don't become them. you have to do what you think is right, and that's what you advocate. so i respect my colleagues. i respect the office that the president holds, but sadly i think i respect the president's office more than he respects it. so that takes me to a place that i hope they would approve of, that says this is the oath we take and we must keep our oaths of office to protect and defend. >> speaker -- >> literally in baltimore, maryland, where i lived -- >> all across. >> -- to get married and have five children and then move to san francisco, which i'm proud to represent. >> you have an incredible story, but the story is here in washington, d.c. speaker of the house nancy

pelosi, thank you so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> for this extended interview. >> thank you. welcome back to d.c. lovely to see you. >> we will be here a lot. all right. we will reset here in washington. willie geist has news out of new york. willie. >> a lot to talk through in that interview with speaker please. we will do that in a minute. more news though. the acting director of intelligence, joseph maguire, appeared before the intel house committee moments after the whistle-blower complaint was released yesterday morning, and he was asked about the's allegations of a coverup. >> would you want to know though, considering you are the director of national intelligence and transcripts are being moved into a secret intelligence system, whether other transcripts, perhaps maybe the president's phone calls with vladimir putin, with mbs of saudi arabia or kim jong-un, would you want to know if those were being improperly moved because the president is trying to cover up something?

>> congressman, how the white house, the executive office of the president and then the national security council conduct their business is their business. >> maguire also told lawmakers he believes the whistle-blower acted in good faith, breaking with president trump who called the complaint a, quote, political hack job. however, maguire was grilled on his decision to first alert the white house to the complaint before the justice department and before congress. >> so you went to the subject of the complaint for advice first about whether you should provide the complaint to congress? >> a couple of things. one, it did appear that it has executive privilege. if it does have executive privilege, it is the white house that determines that. i cannot determine that as the director of national intelligence. >> but in this case the white house, the president is the shouldn subject of the complaint. he is the subject of the wrong doing. >> as i said in my opening statement, i believe that

everything here in this matter is totally unprecedented. to me it just seemed prudent to be able to check and ensure as a member of the executive branch before i sent it forward. >> in fact, speaker please a moment ago telling joe and mika she believes the acting dni broke the law by not first going to congress. meanwhile, white house officials are scrambling to figure out their next steps for countering democratic' impeachment push. one person close to the white house telling nbc news there appears to be rising anxiety, unease and concern inside the white house that the whistle-blower's allegations will seriously wound the president. one source familiar with the situation described to nbc a sense of, quote, total panic over the past week at the lack of a plan to address this new reality. another person familiar with the discussions described the mood inside the white house as shell-shocked, with increasing wariness that as the impeachment inquiry drags out the likelihood increases that president trump could respond erratically and become, quote, unmanageable.

according to "the washington post", trump's advisers are envisioning a split screen strategy in coming notes, the post noting that the president is considering stepping up his fall schedule of campaign rallies to galvanize supporters outside washington and to portray those inside washington as focused on impeachment rather than discovering. it is reported that the white house received advanced notice of president trump's dealings with ukraine, the piece saying even as the whistle-blower complaint was moving through a process meant to protect him against reprisals, according to "the times" by two people familiar with the matter, about two weeks before filing the complaint which offered special protection, the whistle-blower shared anonymous allegations that were shared with white house and justice department officials. joe and mika, let's go back to your interview with speaker please. extraordinary on a number of

counts. obviously focused on the specific matter in front of her with the ukraine where she say, quote, the president used taxpayer dollars to shake down the leader of another country for his own political gain, as simple as that. she said attorney general william barr has, quote, gone rogue. what stood out to you guys? >> those two things. one, this is going to be a narrowly focused impeachment inquiry. and if they move to an article of impeachment, it is going to be narrowly focused on this subject. i think that was the takeaway. i think you can also expect expedited time frame. this is not going to drag into 2020. you are not going to have split screens showing voters in iowa going to the caucuses while people are debating impeachment on the floor of the house. finally, we do have an institutional crisis, not just at the white house but according to the speaker our attorney

general. he has gone rogue. i thought, mika, that was not only compelling, but if you look at the events of the past several days it is an accurate description of what has happened. >> well, the white house has certainly made it easy for the speaker to focus this, having released the memo really describing everything and then the whistle-blower report and the subsequent letters backed everything up. she's very careful not to make this about her, not to make this about anything else but putting the country first. she is appealing to the republicans who still, you know, some of them still actually saying there is nothing to see, even in the white house memo. she is appealing to them to really think about the country first, to think about the possibility that this president is undermining our democracy and our election process. she hopes that can remain the focus. with us at the capital is

pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor at the white house post, eugene robinson, and "new york times" foreign affairs columnist tom friedman, the author of the best-selling book "thank you for being late." joining us is journalist in residence at georgetown university school of foreign service, elise labott. good to have you with us this morning. >> so, tom, let me just ask you. you just returned from china, but i know you have caught up on everything that has happened this past week. what is your takeaway? >> i think the big takeaway i have, joe, is i'm contrasting this to the mueller investigation. that all happened in secret, behind closed doors and the president, later the attorney general are really allowed to characterize the whole thing from the very beginning. what strikes me as new here is we will have independent witnesses. we saw it yesterday with the dni, the director of national intelligence, who came out and a said, no, it is a credible complaint. this is serious guy.

maybe one day we will hear from the whistle-blower personally. this is obviously incredibly courageous person and obviously someone quite astute given the memo he put together. i would say also, joe, there's someone we need to hear from in the story and i hope we will, the u.s. ambassador to the ukraine. >> right. >> yes. >> because she obviously from everything you read was opposing this, resisting this, and they fired her. okay. they sacked her from her job. she is still a state department employee as i understand. >> right. >> that brings, you know, pompeo into the story. why was she fired? now, imagine how the mueller theme would be different if we actually had independent, credible civil servants. that's why those who say, don't go to impeachment, i still want to hear all of the facts myself. >> right. >> but we will have a very independent set of witnesses here that i think will affect the american people. >> so, mika, tom brings up a great point that this is -- you are going to have independent witnesses that are not attached

to donald trump and don't owe their livelihood to donald trump, and you -- but you also have a lot of white house employees now that have to worry -- >> probably worried about themselves. >> you know they're worried about what legal jeopardy they find themselves in. they have seen the president over the past three years throw people under the bus. >> not going to help them. >> his former, quote, fixer is in jail right now. he abandoned manafort. he abandoned everybody. he will abandon them, and they certainly know that. but you not only have those people -- rudy guilliani dragged in the state department. he is showing texts saying, look, the state department, they're involved in this as well. the attorney general involved in it as well according to donald trump. and then, of course, you have the ukrainians. what happens when the ukrainians start talking? >> and they've been holding back. >> that was kind of my thought as i listened to the interview. i thought of them watching at the white house, which of course they were, including one

resident. and i hope they realize this is happening, right. because there has been this sort of sense -- they never thought it would -- that the house would impeach under any circumstances or even open an inquiry. they seemed to be stunned that it was happening. i think it must have sunk in when they listened to nancy pelosi describe in that very calm way of hers what was going on that, no, this is actually happening. get prepared for it. some of them must have thought about lawyering up at this point. >> well, they -- >> absolutely. >> -- need to. those, mika, who improperly reclassified information that should not have been classified but did it only to prevent donald trump's embarrassment, political embarrassment, they violated at least, at the very least an executive order and they need to get lawyers. >> so there are still many more

layers to this, and, elise labott, you know, you wonder what this does to our standing on the world stage. you've been talking to your sources in terms of how this looks from the big picture, from the outside looking in, and how it impacts our standing. >> that's right, mika. i just spent the week in new york at the general assembly talking to a lot of diplomats, and, first of all, what they saw this week was a president that was totally dominated by the impeachment scandal, starting with his speech where he was just totally detached from his words about the u.s. agenda. mine it was a very controversial speech on nationalism and such, but the president didn't even seem to know what he was saying. he kind of seemed a little bit asleep at the wheel. and then in meeting, you know, he was talking about the impeachment and press availability. he wasn't talking about the business of state. you know, over the last year officials, diplomats i have spoken to across the globe, were

thinking, well, we might need to just have to find a way to work with this president. it is very possible he could get re-elected. we need to find a way to work together because the relationship with the united states is so important. now leaders are starting to say, well, you know, maybe -- is he going to be around? are his words now less reliable than they were? finally, it is not just allies. you know, i would be interested to hear what tom has to say here. it is countries like china, russia, iran, north korea, who see that the president could be weak, he could be distracted, and this is a time that they can try to take advantage of the scene and continue to act out. >> well, also he could be blackmailed. i mean it is even more obvious, it appears to some are concerned he could do that. >> absolutely. >> to pick up on elise's point, you are the chinese, in the middle of a giant trade dispute

with global kbriimplications, t would like to do a short-term deem. trump is more vul neshable to that. at the same time they're not going to do a long-term deal with the guy. he has become so erratic in his behavior that he would turn over the table. think it is a concern. now you have the iranians out there. what i picked up talking to people from the arab gulf is that their attitude is don't do anything. we don't want any violence here. they are so afraid of iran now, iran hit saudi arabia, all right. we have done nothing and they don't want us actually to do more. there's one thing i want to add which is speaker alluded to and you did too, mika, which is if the democrats are going to do impeachment now, in the context of the age of social network i think they have to be so focused, make it so tight, hire professional prosecutors. you can't have these crazy scenes of 30 congressmen, whatever -- >> can we just say, i'm just going to say right now

yesterday's hearing was all the evidence -- i was thinking what you just said this morning. >> yeah. >> the democrats need to hire professional investigators. >> exactly. >> because yesterday was mishandled. they were talking about procedure. >> exactly, process. >> instead of the substance. they were talking process instead of -- >> and the dni was actually very professional. they were trying to expose him. that guy actually acquitted himself very well. they have to be so tight about this in the age of social networks. keep it focused and professional. >> just focus on the substance. that was my frustration listening to the hearing yesterday, it was all about the process. >> why did they keep talking about the process when the substance is earthshattering? >> i have no idea. frankly, i didn't like the way adam schiff started the hearing. i am a great admirer of his, but the way he paraphrased what was in the document when all you have to do is quote it verbatim. >> can i ask this, james? why do you paraphrase a document that is that powerful?

>> it is verbatim. >> just read from it. >> read it. read it, that's all you had to do. you know, yes, professional investigative staff, counsel doing the questioning. you know, i don't think speaker please wants to do this, but a smaller, focused, select committee i think would probably expedite matters and make it more professional. >> i want to -- >> the polls are telling us, people are changing their mind. >> that's so interesting. i want to get to witness intimidation in just a second, but really quickly, elise, our relationship with the ukraine -- and nancy pelosi, by the way, said in the interview she feels russia had a hand in all of this. how do this sort of play into the whole problem that we have been seeing with this president, his relationship with putin, and now on the landscape of the russia relationship with ukraine, which is in tatters? >> well, the whole idea that the

president was able to, you know, as you've been -- as nancy pelosi had been saying, shakedown the president of ukraine is because ukraine feels so weak against russia. they need this aid. this is aid that as we've been saying republicans have been pushing. i think although we are talking about a very narrow issue here, we got to say that this is how president trump talks to other world leaders. i suspect that even though they're keeping this very narrow definition for the impeachment, we're going to start hearing about other such calls. you know, there's one whistle-blower but there are other calls in which president trump has given a very similar narrative of, i have done this for you, you need to do this for me. >> guys, in your interview with speaker please a minute ago, i thought it was a fascinating window into how she has viewed impeachment. remember, she has been getting pressure from her caucus for months now, especially from some

freshmen members, to go full speed ahead on impeachment. she held them off a little bit. she had an amazing line when you asked her about that. she said, quote, i never thought he was worth it to have something so divisive for the country. in other words snehe felt like what they had on him sort of wasn't enough, but she knew somewhere down the line he would walk into something that would present her with undeniable evidence and an impetus to go forward with impeachment, and that's where she found herself this week. >> it backs up her point that, quite frankly, this is about national security and about undermining our democracy, you know, our election process, that he brought it to the point where she had to do it because otherwise he wasn't worth it. to elise's point, this bit of news, a spokesperson for the kremlin is weighing in on the white house's decision to release phone call notes between president trump and the president of ukraine. according to bloomberg, the

spokesman said, russia hopes the u.s. doesn't release the transcripts of president trump's conversations with vladimir putin. he says, quote, as a rule the materials from conversations on a level of the head of state are considered secret or top secret. >> so, tom, there is this risk that -- and i was glad to hear nancy pelosi saying, no, no, you know what? we will let somebody else worry about the misclassified calls that don't involve ukraine. we are just focusing on this one call. because if we start sifting through every presidential call, no foreign leader -- >> can of worms. >> -- will ever talk to an american president again without fearing that it will end up on the front page of "the times." >> who would talk to trump now? >> absolutely true. and the fact that the kremlin would issue that statement is remarkable. >> that's like a message. >> isn't it? >> it only tells you the kind of stuff that has been going on

behind the scenes. joe, my view of the whole story is all we see right now is the tip of a giant iceberg. you have rudy guilliani who has been running around, you know, overseas, claiming to speak for the state department. they sacked the u.s. ambassador to the ukraine. do you know how many stories are lying beneath this? >> oh, my god, so many. >> and the number of people involved and the number of people, as gene said, who know what happened and are telling us. read our "new york times" story, the post every day. the voices in the stories tell you the alarm inside and how long will republicans be able to stand and say, oh, nothing there? >> right. >> nothing there. >> i don't know how they do so. >> i don't think so. it is the independent nature of the witnesses this time that will change the character of this story. >> thomas friedman, thank you very much. still ahead, we will play for you the key parts of our exclusive interview with house speaker nancy pelosi including a new sharp focus on the u.s. attorney general. we will be right back. we will b.

i think where they're going is the coverup of the coverup, and that's really very sad for them. and to have a justice department go so rogue -- well, they have been for a while, and now it just makes matters worse. >> right. >> that the attorney general was mentioned, that the president was mentioned and yet the justice department directed the director of national intelligence to take this to the white house. >> which he said yesterday was unprecedented. >> unprecedented. ecedented. >> unprecedented deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. but one blows them all out of the water. hydro boost with hyaluronic acid to plump skin cells so it bounces back... neutrogena® and for body... hydro boost body gel cream.

"have you lost weight?" so it bounces back... of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro. great riches will find you when liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar? thanks, lady. taxi! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

♪ (music plays throughout♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ why fingerstick when you can scan? with the freestyle libre 14 day system just scan the sensor with your reader, iphone or android and manage your diabetes. with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor,

you can check your glucose levels any time, without fingersticks. ask your doctor to write a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network. because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. top democrats are accusing the president of witness intimidation after he attacked the whistle-blower's sources. it happened yesterday morning at a private event at the u.s. mission to the united nations. here is the video obtained by "bloomberg." >> i want to know who is the person who gave the

whistle-blower -- who is the person that gave the whistle-blower the information? because that's close to a spy. you know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right, with spies and treason, right. we used to handle it a little differently than we do now. >> all right. joining us now the dean of johns hopkins university school of advanced international studies, elliott cohen. he is also a former counsellor at the department of state. it is good to have you on board along with gene, joe and me. we were talking off camera. this could get worse before it gets better in so many ways. what are your concerns, especially in terms of foreign policy on the world stage? >> well, look, this is completely unprecedented. >> totally. >> that a president who wants to use a foreign leader to take down a political rival. i think one thing to remember is this is not a man who really knows any moral bounds. so if he gets away with it this time, then the next time mika and joe are traveling somewhere, he is perfectly capable of giving somebody a call and say,

could you give them a little scare. >> exactly. just put them away for a little bit. absolutely. >> could you talk about ukraine specifically? a new president is elected who many western leaders believe is the most pro reform president yet, and he's put in an untenable position, desperate to meet the president, desperate to even have a phone call with the president to talk about the future between the two countries, and in the middle of his negotiations with vladimir putin they -- you know, they even have a prisoner exchange. but in the mild ddle of those negotiations the president of the united states is withholding defensive weaponry. >> yes, and he's completely helpless. so he's going to bend to his will. but, you know, one of the things that this shows is part of our credibility in the world is not just that we deliver on our promises which is critical, but we are supposed to stand for something. this is mafia behavior, and when people see that in the united

states it is not just that they lose confidence in us, what you worry about is them losing confidence in themselves and what they're standing for too. >> can we let people know what is going on behind the story here? i know we read this and it is very obvious i'm sure to you, to me, to so many people that, first of all, you had zelensky who was having to bring up trump hotels, having to do all of the things he had to do because the future of his country was literally at stake. and then it seems you have a lot of state department professionals who found themselves in the terrible position -- and i do not judge many of them. they were doing their best to help zelensky get this aid by treating donald trump like a brattish child that had to have

his ego, his way. >> as far as i could tell what happened is that they were baffled why this deal to give about $400 million worth of aid for anti-tank weapons primarily was blown up, why was it delayed. of course now they know. one thing people should know too is a lot of the staff on the security council, those are not political appointees for the most part. most are career professionals assigned there. they're also wrestling with it. it is not just the state department but the professionals on the staff. they're in an impossible position i should say. >> also with us we have the managing editor of "the washington examiner" jay caruso. jay, i have been following your view very closely over the past several days. i am just wondering where do you think republicans on the hill, where do you think conservatives, whether they support trump or are skeptical

of trump, where do you think they move as this impeachment inquiry goes forward? >> well, it is going to be interesting to see what happens. we have a piece coming out in the latest issue specifically about four senators who are kind of in swing states, martha mcsally, cory gardner, susan collins and tom tillis. as we've seen so far, immediately mcsally and tillis were out of the gate defending president trump whereas gardner and collins were a little -- you know, they were a little more reserved and they wanted to see what facts had come out. i think what you are going to see is as they go through -- and the democrats have to be very deliberate about this. they have to go through this very slowly, let the facts come out. don't get ahead of the story. and when you see that, couple that with what trump is polling like in some of these other states and you may see senators start to -- you may see some

cracks there, but they have -- it has to be deliberate. they can't rush ahead because that will just make it easy for republicans to defend trump. >> you know, i think also you and i are in the same place as far as what -- listening to some members of the media, expecting republicans to light their hair on fire and jump out of third or fourth floor buildings, if mitt romney says he is very concerned about what has gone on, it is deeply troubling and he is going to let the process play out. if ben sasse says that, i think it is responsible. i think it is exactly what they should say if they believe it and actually let the process play itself out. it is a pretty good guide for democrats as well. >> well, you saw that yesterday. i mean you have a serious hearing at the intelligence committee and then you have adam schiff, who is the chairman of the intelligence committee -- you are talking about a process

where you may impeach or remove a president of the united states and he reads a parody of the transcript, the memo, whatever you want to call it. it turned everything into a bit of a clown show. of course you have devin nunez who is an absolute joke as far as i'm concerned. so it brings the integrity of the process down, and that kind of thing has to stop. it is like let's stop with the social media jokes. >> right. >> the wise cracks. >> right. >> it has to be a serious process. >> so, elliott cohen, let's talk about the integrity of our foreign policy. you are the author of "the big stick, the limits of soft power and the necessity of military force." you knew my dad, you know my brothers. when you see read outs like this, whistle-blower reports like this, memos like this from the white house, what are foreign leaders, allies, friends and enemies, supposed to think about the standard of american foreign policy? what's the message that's being

sent? what's the danger if there is one? >> it is not just a message that's been sent. it is a message that's been delivered. i talk to foreign ministers and people like that and their biggest concern is they're no longer sure that they can count on us. many of them think, look, somehow the united states is tremendously resilient, we will come back, but they are no longer sure that they can count on us. one of the points i make in the book is there's nothing more important than those alliances and relationships and the trust people have in us. >> how do foreign leaders see the two potential time scales, putting impeachment aside for a second you have until, you know, january 2021 when the trump era might end or it could be january 2025. do foreign leaders see a difference there in terms of -- in oh, yes. >> -- their stance for the united states but policy toward the nate aunited states and thee

in the world? >> think there are several ways you can answer that, but most i think are viewing this as four pretty weird years. they're sophisticated enough about our politics enough to understand it was a contingent event, his election. if he gets re-elected, i think then the doubts become deep and serious. at the moment they're just trying to get through the rapids and avoid getting damaged by this, and they're kind of waiting and watching. there's damage from this, but the damage from a reelection i think would be much greater. >> right. so, you know, one time it is -- you know, it is on him. >> right. >> then it is on us. >> exactly. >> elise labott, final thought from you on that point especially in terms of the integrity of our reputation and our foreign policy? >> well, i totally agree with elliott that, you know, if it is another four years i think that they -- that leaders are already starting to think about -- and they say to us that they're thinking of ways to maneuver

around. it used to be like we need to get along. now it is french president macron, other world leaders saying, i have to pick up the mantle. you have to look at the role of secretary of state mike pompeo. the secretary of state is supposed to be the key foreign policy adviser along with, mika, as you know the national security adviser, laying out a strategy for u.s. competitiveness, u.s. national security, and u.s. leadership. mike pompeo, you know, is playing it very close to the vest, but, you know, if he's not uncomfortable about what is happening to the u.s. standing in the world and is not advising the president of a different course, then i think you also need to look at the president's advisers around him. he doesn't have a lot that are thinking about that. >> you know, jay, i have seen you and other leading voices as "the washington examiner"

obviously deeply concerned over what happened the last couple of days. i talked about the ramesh ramu article in "bloomberg" opinion where he laughed off the suggestion there wasn't a quid pro quo. i am wondering as we move forward and we have seen some shifts in polling, do you think more conservatives who have always been deeply skeptical about donald trump may begin speaking out, even if they don't support impeachment, may feel more comfortable speaking out and saying what ben sasse and mitt romney have said? >> i think so. again, when you look at that memo, when you look at that transcript -- and i said you can't look at it piece by piece. you have to read it top down. when you do that, it is clear what is going on here. there are people trying to obfuscate saying the favor was trump asking to look into the 2016 election. well, we already know what

happened. but trump specifically says the other thing. so he's -- and that's when he goes into asking them to look into joe biden and hunter biden. it is clear if you read from top to bottom exactly what is going on. if we find out more, if more details come out -- because once, you know, we have the whistle-blower report, if we start to see people having to testify before congress and more information comes out, then you could see that. perhaps more people may come forward and maybe they don't -- maybe they don't support impeachment. but if they speak out enough it could really put donald trump's reelection hopes in peril. >> managing editor of "the washington examiner" jay caruso. thank you. georgetown university's elise labott, thank you. dean of the johns hopkins university school of advanced international studies, elliott cohen, thank you as well. >> thank you all so much. >> we are going to play for you the key moment of our exclusive interview with speaker nancy pelosiy. it is ahead. as we go to work, an early week

of next week's cover of "the new yorker" magazine, a depiction of president trump and rudy guilliani pushing uncle sam off the bridge with his feet encased in a concrete block. keep it right here on "morning joe". ♪ ♪ - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. johnsbut we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

they give us excellent customer otservice, every time.e. our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family... we're the rivera family... we're the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. get your auto insurance quote today. [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.

molly: my np spends a lot of with me and gives me a lot of attention which led to my diagnosis. she initiated tests and found out what was wrong. she's treated both my children since they were born. bridgette: i feel that my np cares about me as a person and not just if i'm sick or not. molly: and i really love my nurse practitioner because we have such a strong connection. i know that whenever i call, she'll be there for me. my name is molly and we choose nps. np: consider an np. when patients choose, patients win. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

juul record. they took $12.8 billion from big tobacco. juul marketed mango, mint, and menthol flavors, addicting kids to nicotine. five million kids now using e-cigarettes. the fda said juul ignored the law with misleading health claims. now juul is pushing prop c, to overturn san francisco's e-cigarette protections. say no to juul, no to big tobacco, no to prop c.

38 past the hour. you are watching our special coverage live from washington, and much more of our exclusive interview with house speaker nancy pelosi. that's just ahead on "morning joe". val, vern... i'm off to college and i'm not gonna be around... i'm worried about my parents' retirement. oh, don't worry. voya helps them to and through retirement... ...dealing with today's expenses... ...like college... ...while helping plan, invest and protect for the future. so they'll be okay... without me? um... and when we knock out this wall imagine the closet space? yes! oh hey, son. yeah, i think they'll be fine. voya. helping you to and through retirement. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this,

this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. johnsbut we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you. panera's new warm grain full of flavor, color,. full of- woo! full of good. so you can be too. try our new warm grain bowls today. panera. food as it should be.

i like to make my life easy. ( ♪ ) romo mode. (beep) (bang) good luck with that one. yes! that's why i wear skechers slip-ons. they're effortless. just slip them right on and off. skechers slip-ons, with air-cooled memory foam. performance comes in lots of flavors. ♪ (dramatic orchestra) 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. ♪

now, that's a hype video. tomorrow the global citizen festival returns to central park here in new york city. you can catch it all exclusively here on msnbc beginning at 4:00 eastern time. among those taking the stage this year, as you saw, queen and adam lambert, pharrell williams, alicia keys, one republic, h.e.r., along with music legend carole king who joins us now! also with us, the ceo of global citizen, hugh evans. this year's festival is presented by citi, which has been a proud partner of the global citizen festival since its inception and a sponsor of our coverage on msnbc. good to see you. >> good morning. >> it is that time of the year here. we were saying can you imagine a packed central park in unison doing "we will rock you?" >> that will be amazing. >> quite a night. it is obviously an incredible line-up of music as it always is, but that's sort of what gets people in the door, get people watching the show. what are some of the themes you are focused on this year? >> well, this is our eighth

festival in central park, and this year, as you mentioned, it will be presented by citi. they're also covering the msnbc coverage and have been with us since the beginning, which we're hugely thankful for. this year we are focused on a couple of big policy issues. we are focused firstly on hiv and aids and combatting it in support of the global fund to fight hiv, aids and malaria and tuberculosis. we are focused on education for displaced children, refugees, and it cannot wait. i was down in peru recently and i saw venezuelan refugees fleeing because of the political instability. they cross the border and many of them were going to miss out on years of quality education. so we need to make sure the kids do not miss out on school, because if you keep them in school they have a better hope, better future and ultimately live themselves out of extreme poverty. that's what this year is all about. we couldn't be more excited that carole king -- >> come on. >> -- the legend herself is with

us. >> come on. >> it is an honor to have you carole. >> you have a special performance dialed up, that you spent so much of your time when not writing hits and selling tens of millions of records in activism. why was it important for you to be attached to this project? >> because it is a very exciting movement. it is more than just a cause, it is a movement that embraces various causes. like you mentioned, education, and the medical parts of this. it works to empower women. you look at the people in the audience who have earned their -- there's no tickets. >> right. >> they earn points, and so it is kind of -- there's a difference because you are performing to all of these people that have their heart and soul in helping other people. >> that's the thing here that always strikes me when i go to global citizen. you look at that massive crowd filling central park and no one bought the ticket on stubhub for $1,000 just to see carole king. they are there.

they earned their way in the door. >> they earned their way in. i think that's the power of the movement. over a million actions have been taken this campaign alone, calling on, as carole mentioned, on, you know, ensuring gender equality, on water and sanitation, food security, global health, the empowerment of girls and women. i think that's what makes this movement so special. this is our tenth anniversary as an organization and this year it is all about celebrating the global citizens themselves, the year-around activists that workday in and day out, make the phone calls to members of congress, send tweets to world leaders. they volunteer their time to come to the festival, but they do it even when the festival is not on. that's because they are learning about issues that matter on this planet and they say, you know what? we want to be the generation that ends extreme poverty, to tackle climate change and see the united nations global goals realized. >> but you don't have to be of that generation. >> exactly. that's why this is awesome. >> i just want to encourage older people to get the app and

take action. >> important to point that out. >> yes. >> as a musician, you have played every venue there is to play. what is it like to stand on a stage on a beautiful night in central park and look out and see a crowd that size? >> i have actually done that, i did it in 1973 and it was amazing. >> that's right. >> but this is going to be really special because of the movement that it is. and also if there's time for a quick story? >> sure. >> so h.e.r. is one of the performers, and i had an interview with h.e.r. in which she mentioned that one of her idols she was influenced by was alicia keys. when i met alicia keys she said that i had influenced her, and i was looking for a female of my mother's generation. it turns out that it is richard rodgers, who isn't female. i couldn't find a female. there are classical composers, clara schuman, and julia ward

howell who wrote "the battle hymn of the republic." thank you very much. >> you got us all the way back to the "battle hymn of the republic." >> a long line of women. >> and a lot of the inspiration points back to you, carolo. huge works on this project to eradicate poverty and the world. the global citizen festival is tomorrow in central park at 4:00 eastern with the incredible line-up. you can catch it exclusively here on msnbc. you can listen, by the way, on your local i heart radio station and stream directly the i heart radio app. carole king, hugh evans, congratulations. it will be a great day in central park. >> thanks so much, willie. the highlights of joe and mika's exclusive interview with nancy pelosi. what she said about her decision to open an official impeachment inquiry of president trump when we come back. >> this segment is sponsored by citi, presenting partner of the global citizen festival in new york city.

citi, welcome what is next. cit. citi, welcome what is next brigh the brave, the visionaries. where challenges exist, you'll find them. at citi, we empower people who are out to change the world. because tomorrow belongs to those who welcome it with open arms. citi. welcome what's next wwithout it, i cannot write myl tremors wouldname.xtreme. i was diagnosed with parkinson's. i had to retire from law enforcement. it was devastating. one of my medications is three thousand dollars per month. prescription drugs do not work if you cannot afford them. for sixty years, aarp has been fighting for people like larry. and we won't stop. join us in fighting for what's right.

"have you lost weight?" of course i have- ever since i started renting from national. because national lets me lose the wait at the counter... ...and choose any car in the aisle. and i don't wait when i return, thanks to drop & go. at national, i can lose the wait...and keep it off. looking good, patrick. i know. (vo) go national. go like a pro.

welcome back, just last hour we spoke to house speaker nancy pelosi, her first interview since she announced the impeachment inquiry into the president. first let me say this is no cause for any joy. this is a very sad time for our country.

this is as serious as our congressional responsibilities can be. apart from declaring war or something. and so we have to be very prayerful. we have toe put country before party, but at this time i would say to democrats and republicans we have to put country before party, very clearly in the public view, and this is about the constitution of the united states. the clarity of the president's actions is compelling and gave us no choice but to move forward. our founders in the darkest days of the revolution they said the times have found us. we think the times have found us now. our democracy, not a monarchy. a republic, and all of that is

at stake. three separate co-equal branchs of government. this is as serious as it gets when it comes to protecting the constitution of the united states sadly the facts are dragging that we can corrobor e corroborate. >> we were talking before and i was talking to mika about this when it looks like we were moving to impeachment as a country and i just -- i went around and it felt like i had been punched in the gut, not because i didn't believe we needed to move in the direction of an inquiry. but i remember the clinton impeachment. i remember voting for two of the

four articles. i remember thinking after the supreme court and the arkansas supreme court stripping him of his law license. at that point i said that is fine but it stuck with me for 20 years because it is such a wrench process. but i must say also that it is in the constitution. our founders looked at this remedy for an executive. >> we differ because that was personal behavior that he was involved in. this is about national security. >> yeah, this is about the national security of our country and the president of the united states being disloyal, jeopardizing our national

security, and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections. so again, take us where the facts will lead us. i'm very excited, i'm concerned about some of the president's comments about the whistle-blower. one of our chairman, elijah cummings, a master of everything in government, particularly on the suggest of inspectors general, the integrity of their work, and making shower our whistle-blowers do not have retaliation. >> but the president yesterday suggested that they should be treated astray tors and should possibly be executed. >> you know, it is really sad, we have to be very prayerful. i pray for the president all of

the time, i pray for the safety of his family, and i wish he would pray for the safety of other families and i pray it would illuminate him to see right from wrong if is very good, but it is such a compelling issue. >> let me ask you about the attorney general. >> he has gone rogue. >> we always said the institutions are strong, they will hold, we will be fine, this attorney general has me questioning how do the

institutioning hold if the attorney general has gone rogue. if there is someone in the white house this morning watching and they are watching, and they understand that they violated an executive order. and miss classified information for political purposes and could be facing legal penalties, where do they go when the attorney grandmother himself was mentioned in the whistle-blower complaint at the top and buried it. where do they go? they go to the cover up of the cover up. to have a justice department go so rogue, and now it just makes matters worse. the attorney general, the president was mentioned, and the justice department directed the director of national

intelligence to take this to the white house. >> and he said this is unprecedented. >> and she is a person of great reputation. he is, i just, i don't know what. i think that what he did was break the law. when this information comes and it is deemed credible by the inspector general, the director of national intelligence shall convey the information, now this is my wheel house. 25 years of experience in intelligence. a long time ago starting as a member, being the ranking member. i was there when we wrote the wristle blower laws, establishing the office of the director of national intelligence. shall convey that information to the congress. >> and instead he took it to the

president's lawyers when the president was mentioned. highly unu usual and unique. >> and you can see the full exclusive interview on our website. that does it for us. chris jansing picks up the coverage right now. >> it is friday, september 27th, and here is what is happening, with absolutely astonishing speed, the congress and the country are hurdling towards an impeachment hearing. house lawmakers are saying they could draft articles of impeachment over ukraine by the end of october. a matter of weeks, not months. just a short time ago. speaker pelosi laid out a