it won't bring leslie back but it makes her loss a little less painful. in this hollywood story it's the only happy ending available. after a weekend tweet storm, president trump is demanding to know the identity of the whistleblower whose complaints park issed an impeachment inquiry. >> allies of the president work to defend trump in multiple interviews over the weekend. >> saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salman is denying he ordered the murder of jamal khashoggi. good morning, everyone, it is monday, september 3rd, i'm ayman mohyeldin along side yasmin vossoughian.

in the wake of the growing ukraine scandal president trump is demanding to meet the whistleblower and threatening to have house intel chairman adam schiff questioned for treason. in a series of tweets he posted like every american, i deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called whistleblower represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a total inaccurate and fraudulent way. then schiff made up what i actually said by lying to congress. his lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great chamber. he wrote down and read terrible things and said it was from the mouth of the president of the united states. i want schiff questioned at the highest level for fraud and treason. in addition i want to meet not only my accuser, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect to the whistleblower. was this person spying on the the u.s. president? big consequences. >> an attorney representing the

whistleblower says he has serious concerns that trump's comments are putting his client in danger. in a letter to joe mcguire, the whistleblower's legal team says trump's remarks about identifying the whistleblower have heightened our concerns that our client's identity will be disclosed publicly and as a result our client will be put in harm's way. adam schiff said yesterday his panel has reached an agreement for the whistleblower to testify before congress. over the weekend, the president also accused democrats of shirking their legislative duties by focusing on impeachment. he tweeted this, it is disgraceful that the do nothing democrats are doing the impeachment scam, but it is also disgraceful that they are not doing namely the usmca vote, prescription drug price reduction, gun safety and infrastructure and much more. chris hayes tweeting the house has passed 250 bills this session including gun safety legislation, election security,

prescription drugs, daca protections among others. mcconnell has basically let it all die. >> a majority of americans say they improve of congressional democrats push to meechl president trump. this is according to a new cbs news poll. 45% said they do not approve of the probe. when asked about the legally of trump's actions 28% said they were proper, 31% said they were not proper but legal and 41% said his actions were illegal. 63% of americans said they found president trump's encouragement of a foreign leader to investigate his political rival a serious problem according to the latest abc news poll. only 17% said they were surprised that trump encouraged ukraine's president to investigate biden. 83% said they were not. here's the top republican in the house kevin mccarthy trying to defend the president of on "60

minutes" last night. >> president zelensky says we are almost ready to bmore javelins from the united states for defense purposes and president trump replies i would like you to do us a favor though. >> you just added another word. >> no, it's in the transcript. >> you said i would like you to do a favor though. >> yes, it's in the transcript. >> when i read the transcript, president zelensky brings up as a javelin as protection for antitank, something that president obama would not sell. that president trump did to protect ukraine. >> how do you expect the president's defense to roll out going forward? >> the defense of what? >> well, there's an impeachment inquiry. >> yeah, there's impeach inquiry going forward. it probably never would move forward had the speaker waited 48 hours to have the transcript. >> i'll ask you again, how does

the defense of the president in your view roll out from here? >> why would we move forward with impeachment? there's not something that you have to defend here. >> you say the president has done nothing wrong. i take that to mean that you find it appropriate that the president asked mr. zelensky for an investigation of his democratic rivals? >> the question before the house of representatives is to impeach the president based upon a phone call that the speaker never even heard. >> with great respect to you and i apologize for interrupting, but these are the white house talking points that were e-mailed to the congress earlier this week. and i am asking you, was it appropriate for the president to ask for investigations of his democratic rivals with another foreign leader? >> i've never seen one talking point from the white house. i'm talking to you based upon the most important facts we have. the whistleblower wasn't on the call. the i.g., inspector general,

didn't read the call but you and i have all the information we need. the president did nothing in this phone call that's impeachable. >> the question is did he actually read what was released from the white house. as "60 minutes" pointed out the complaint says the white house tried to lockdown all records of the phone call underscoring that the president's top aides understood the gravity of what transpired in the call. >> tom bossert whose role in the trump white house included election security and the united states's response to russia's involvement in the 2016 election is also sounding off about the whistleblower's complaint. >> the whistleblower's complaint says that white house officials were deeply disturbed by the president's phone call with zelensky. what was your reaction? >> yeah, i'm deeply disturbed by it as well, and this entire mess has me frustrated. it is a bad day and a bad week for this president and this country if he is asking for political dirt on an opponent. . i honestly believe this president has not gotten his

pound of flesh yet from past grievances on the 2016 investigation. if he continues to focus on that white whale, it's going to bring him down enough. the investigation's over. >> and bossert also asserted that president trump had been repeatedly warned about the debunk conspiracy theory that he peddled to the ukraine president on the july phone call. >> at this point i am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing in repeating that debunked theory. it sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again. let me repeat that it has no validity. the united states government reached its conclusion on attributing to russia the dnc hack in 2016 before it even communicated it to the fbi, long before the fbi ever knocked on the door at the dnc. >> joining us now from washington, political reporter for the washington examiner, emily larsen. good morning to you. let's talk about some of what we

just heard there from tom bossert. what do you make of tom bossert, one of trump's former advisers who oversaw russia's involvement in the 2016 election pushing back there publicly on the administration? >> well, certainly it is striking to see a former member of trump's administration pushing back and saying that he's deeply concerned by this. it certainly, i think, helps democrats who say that -- who probably argue that republicans are only defending the president because of political purposes and because it's politically expedient. if there's a lot of question whether there are some republicans who would privately maybe support more of an inquiry into what happened with this phone call and how it was concealed and the motivations president trump had for bringing up joe biden on this call. but another interesting thing about what bossert said is a lot

of attention has been put on this joe biden aspect of the call that he was asking -- that trump was asking ukraine to investigate his political rifle, b -- rival but he went into the crowd strike aspect of the call, which the administration said is investigating the russian interference in the 2016 election aspect and he was sort of debunking that aspect which is more complicated. >> how will the latest polls talking about impeachment and actually, which actually show that americans are in fact growing more and more interested in impeachment help or impact or negatively impact the democrats as they push forward with this inquiry? >> well, certainly if there was very little support from the american public on impeachment, that would be bad news for democrats going into 2020. a lot of concern with -- that nancy pelosi and certainly a lot of moderate democrats had about impeachment was that it would negatively affect the party next

year in elections, but right now it looks like the polls are showing a majority of the americans support what their doing on impeachment right now, and it's very politically divided. republicans oppose -- i think if i remember correctly, about 77%, while democrats are supportive of it. independents are split, and so i think the question here is will independents move on this as things go forward. a lot of people look back at the nixon impeachment, which did not have a lot of support from the american public when it first started and it steadily rose. i think a lot of people are wondering if that same thing is going to happen here. >> you also wonder if polls begin to shift among republicans to more favor impeachment. >> or as the facts continue to come out. >> emily larsen, thank you. the state department's special envoy for ukraine kurt volker abruptly resigned his post on friday following reports he collaborated with ukraine and

president trump to find out information about former vice president joe biden. according to a person informed about his decision, volker told secretary of state mike pompeo on friday that he was stepping down, offered no public explanation, and said that it was quote impossible to be effective in his assignment given the developments of recent days. volker's resignation, which was first reported by the student newspaper at arizona state university is the first casualty of congress's impeachment inquiry into trump's efforts to pressure the president of ukraine to investigate biden and other democrats. house leaders announced on friday that they plan to interview volker in a deposition on thursday. one person with knowledge of the matter telling nbc news that volker stepping down from the position will enable him to be much freer in what he can say if he is called to testify before congress. fox news goes after the president's allies. rudy giuliani's new defense

of the president, he says trump would have violated his oath of office if he did not ask ukraine to investigate joe bidenen and h -- joe biden and his son. those stories and a check on your weather when we come back. k from the couldn't be prouders

to the wait did we just win-ners. everyone uses their phone differently. that's why xfinity mobile let's you design your own data. now you can share it between lines. mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need.

it's a different kind of wireless network designed to save you money. save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus get $250 back when you buy a new samsung note. click, call or visit a store today. you've got to relax mr. trump, we've got nothing to worry about. nobody's going to find out about our illegal side dealings with the ukraine. >> good. >> or how we tried to cover up those side dealings. >> great. >> or how we plan to cover up the cover-up. >> rudy, rudy, where are you right now? >> i'm on cnn right now. let me put you on speaker. >> rudy, get out of there, and whatever you do stay off the phone. i got another call. okay. who's this? >> it's attorney general barr. >> i'm really starting to worry. >> well, stay calm, mr. president. i know things look bad right now, but i got our top guy on this. >> good.

let's get him on the phone, too. >> hello. [ laughter ] >> welcome back, everyone. >> so that was part of the cold open as you could see from "saturday night live's" season premier over the weekend. they had quite a few things to play on to say the least. >> they've nailed so many of those characters. >> on friday fox news host chris wallace criticized the president's allies for dismissing the whistle-blower complaint arguing that their spin has been, quote, misleading. >> the spinning that's been done by the president's defenders over the last 24 hours since this very damaging whistle-blower complaint came out, the spinning is not surprising, but it is astonishing, and i think deeply misleading. what is clear from reading the complaint is that it is a serious allegation that a lot of it has proven to be borne out already that the whistle-blower lays out a blueprint for talking

to various officials in the white house, variable officials in the state department and to dismiss this as a political hack seems to me to be an effort by the president's defenders to try to make something -- to make nothing out of something, and there is something here. >> so several of the president's allies have tried to pivot the conversation back to joe biden and his son, but it's worth noting president trump's daughter ivanka works at the white house. her husband jared kushner also works at the white house. rudy giuliani's son andrew works at the white house in the office of liaison, attorney general bill barr's son-in-law tyler works at the white house in the counsel's office. barr's daughter mary also works in the treasury. trump's sons don jr. and eric do foreign business and his daughter ivanka is getting chinese patents and saudi grants to put all of that out there. >> it is a family affair it seems like at the white house. >> but hey, let's focus on

hunter biden for a moment. it was a wild weekend of weather across the country as some states deal with an early taste of winter while others were dealing with record heat. nbc news's kendis gibson has more. >> a powerful and historic storm hitting the northern rockies. it's snow in september across at least six states just one week after the end of summer. in montana a blizzard and a state of emergency, more than three feet of snow in some parts. it's piling up on trees weighing heavy on power lines above. the northern part of the state socked in, storm chaser aaron jayjack in glacier national park. >> you can see the wind is blowing quite hard here, lots of snow. we do have whiteout conditions here. >> reporter: nearby wind pushed snow drifts onto city sidewalks, treacherous conditions across the state and especially on the roads. this car slid and flipped. further west, storms in spokane, washington, not as much snow, but a dangerous deep freeze warning is in effect overnight.

the dangerous weather system rattled the great plains this weekend, too. in eastern kansas, powerful rain, wind, and hail pounded the this region, and in california. >> that's bad news. >> reporter: a tornado touched down near sacramento saturday. summer's heat held on another week in some places, especially in the south. breaking records in north carolina, raleigh 93 degrees. wilmington 94 and charlotte 95. >> it is incredible to think that in one part of the country they are getting pounded with snow in a snowstorm and on the eastern seaboard it is 93 degrees. >> thanks to kendis gibson for that report. let's get a check on our weather with janessa webb. two very different stories unfolding across the country. >> if you're not ready for wirnt winter, it's time to get ready for the pacific northwest.

for the northeast the game is going to change. we're sitting in the 90s. by next week i want you to break out the heavier coat. that cold front is headed our way. you saw in that package, we had reports of about three feet of snow. now getting reports of over 40 inches for portions of montana. that's nearly half of their average snowfall for the year, and that is really going to continue for at least the next two hours. you have that dividing line of the record cold, the record heat that will continue to build. let's talk about the east half of this system ahead of that cold front. look at daytime highs. some spots, omaha, st. louis today upper 80s to lower 90s. now, the great news, no alerts are in effect for the southeast mid-atlantic, and the northeast this afternoon, but this is just well above normal. 15 to 20 degrees above average. this just coming in, we're going to see the sweltering heat move into the northeast by wednesday

central park potentially 90 degrees. >> wow. >> unbelievable. >> thanks for that. saudi arabia's crown prince sits down for an interview with "60 minutes" and weighs in on the murder of "washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. we're going to show you his new comments coming up. w you his ne comments coming up

welcome back, everyone. former vice president joe biden, vermont senator bernie sanders and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren are all statistically tied in nevada. that is according to a new

cnn ssrs poll. biden and sanders sit at 22%, warren is at 18. well within the 17 point margin of error. in south carolina, biden has a 21 point advantage over the democratic field at 37%. there's another two-way battle for second place between warren at 16% and sanders at 11. nearly one year after the murder of "washington post" columnist and prom yeinent crit of the saw government, jamal khashoggi. mohammed bin salman denies any role in the assassination. >> did you order the murder of jamal khashoggi. >> translator: absolutely not. this was a heinous crime, but i take full responsibility as a leader in saudi arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the saudi government. today the investigations are being carried out, and once charges are proven against someone regardless of their

rank, it will be taken to court, no exception made. if there is any such information that charges me, i hope it is brought forward publicly. >> saudi prosecutors have charged 11 men in the crime. the cia has proven that mbs ordered khashoggi's killing. i can't imagine anybody thinks there's going to be a fair investigation within the kingdom that would feasibly implicate mbs. >> i think the significant thing is it's fair for the crown prince to take that position. it's also important that the trial be transparent, the evidence be put forward, the witnesses, even the members who are allegedly have taken place in the killing to be able to tell their story because it would be interesting to hear whether they think the crown prince had a role to play in this as being his subordinates. >> would it be transparent snow. >> that's what i was going to

say. something tells me human rights have documented, nothing has been very transparent and we don't know anything about the whereabouts of some of the key people in this particular allegation. still ahead, a look at the white house's possible strategy for defending president trump amid an impeachment push by democrats. white house senior politics adviser stephen miller comes to the president's defense by claiming without evidence that the whistle-blower is a deep state operative. we're back in a moment. a moment

♪

welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. house democrats are barrelling ahead with a narrowly focused strategy to push forward their impeachment inquiry into president trump's alleged abuse of power. the "new york times" reports that on a conference call over the weekend, speaker nancy pelosi made an appeal to democrats to maintain a simple and somber message as she declared, quote, we are ready to push forward with a politically divisive process. also, while taking note of recent polls which show american's growing interest in impeachment, pelosi added this, our tone must be careful, respectful, solemn, worthy of the constitution. as speaker pelosi focused on democrats' united front on messaging, adam schiff buckled down on the scope of the investigation. >> i don't want to lose sight of that fundamental breach of the

president's oath of office, the duty to defend our country, our constitution, and here the president is once again not just inviting but coercing a foreign nation to get involved to try to help him in yet another presidential election, so to me that's the most serious set of offenses. the president can't have it both ways. he can't both prevent us from getting evidence on these serious underlying crimes or potential crimes, the serious breach of his oath of office, and at the same time obstruct our investigation, so even as he tries to weaken our ability to get facts on one, he's going to strengthen the facts on the other. >> top white house aides are planning present president trump with a wide ranging strategy. two sources tell nbc news the rapid response effort could come as soon as today. a key part is already playing out. we've already seen the president's allies accusing democrats of being solely focused on impeachment instead of domestic policies on issues

such as gun violence and health care. the white house plans to rely heavily on allies in congress with this campaign. some of the president's advisers have also mused about bringing back former white house strategist steve bannon and 2016 campaign manager corey lewandowski. there's a sense that the president's re-election campaign is better prepared to blast out political messaging with aides pointing out that the campaign's messaging foreshadows white house talking points. here's senior white house policy adviser stephen miller on fox news just yesterday. >> both the director of national intelligence and the inspector general said they also found his comments to be credible and a matter of urgent concern and they turned it over to the justice department. so despite all that they thought this was a credible complaint. >> they're wrong, chris. >> on whose basis? >> chris, i've worked in the federal government now for nearly three years. i know what the deep state looks like. i know the difference between a whistle-blower and a deep state operative.

this is a deep state operative pure and simple. >> the president has the state department. he's got the cia. he's got the pentagon. he's got a number of other agencies, why did he use three private lawyers to get information on biden from the -- from the ukrainian government rather than go through all of the agencies of this government? >> two different points. number one -- >> how about answering my question. >> john durham as you know -- >> wait a minute, john durham is investigating something completely different. stephen, i'm asking you a direct question. why did the president use private attorneys rather than go to the state department? if you don't know that's an acceptable answer, but let's not talk about john durham who's investigating the trump -- >> there's two issues that were brought up on the phone call. >> why did he do? >> chris, i understand. i understand that you have your question. i have my answer. there's two issues that were brought up on the phone call. >> you have your non-answer at this point. i'm simply asking a question as to why -- is adam schiff guilty of interfering in our elections.

>> i'm simply asking a question as to why the president didn't use his government. you apparently are not going to answer that. i'll ask another question, why did the president decide to withhold $391 million in military aid to ukraine last july that had been approved by congress? why did the president -- if the argument is corruption, why did the president go against his own pentagon and his own state department? >> chris, i don't understand how you can ask that question while at the same time admonishing the president for wanting to get to the bottom of perhaps one of the biggest corruption scandals concerning ukraine in the last few years. >> i'm not admonishing anybody. i'm simply asking -- with all due respect this is an exercise in on few skags. why did the president go against his own pentagon and state department? >> yes, you are admonishing -- >> that's judgment on your part, sir. >> the president is the whistle-blower here. the president of the united

states is the whistle-blower, and this individual is a saboteur trying to undermine a democratically elected government. >> saboteur, is he a spy? is he committing treason? >> i do not know. >> the president said that, you know. >> the president correctly pointed out that the behavior of this individual is close to a spy. >> i don't think there was a single question answered in that entire exchange. president trump's personal lawyer was back on television over the weekend trying to clean up the political scandal engulfing him. rudy giuliani claimed if trump had not asked ukraine to investigate joe and hunter biden, the president would have been violating the constitution. >> are you telling me that there was evidence that barack obama was calling up the russians saying i want you to look into donald trump, then you wouldn't be blowing that up. >> he didn't do that. >> i know he didn't do that. >> no, trump didn't do that. he called him up and he said i want you to investigate these

charges of corruption. if he hadn't asked them to investigate biden, he would have violated article 2, section 3 of the constitution, and i also know if obama had called biden in when the "new york times" first wrote the storefuly in december of 2015, that his son had a massive conflict of influence working for the most corrupt oligarch in ukraine, if obama had called him in like a president who understood article 2 section 3 and said joe, what the heck are you doing with your son who just got tossed ouft of the military where i had to pull strings to get him in, your son is working for the biggest crook -- listen to me, the biggest crook in ukraine and we're trying to fix corruption in ukraine and you got him working for nikola zoschlefsky who stole 5 billion. >> amid the growing scandal surrounding his client, giuliani has canceled -- he announced

friday that he was scrapping the trip telling nbc news he had just found out that russian president vladimir putin was going to the conference that, quote we don't need a distraction. according to the agenerda giulii was set to participate in a panel led by a long-time adviser of putin who has been under u.s. sanctions since russia's invasion of ukraine just fiver years ago. >> joe biden's presidential campaign is calling tv news executives to stop booking president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani on their programs. the daily beast reports that two top biden campaign advisers sent a letter to major news and cable networks and top anchors making their case. the letter reads in part, quote, we are writing today with grave concern that you continue to book rudy giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked expertise theories on behalf of donald trump. while you often fact check his statements in realtime during your discussions, that is no longer enough. by giving him your air time, you are allowing him to introduce increasingly unhinged, unfounded and desperate lies into the national conversation.

giuliani responded to requests from the biden campaign telling the daily beast, it quote, sounds like the usual left wing sens censorsh censorship. adam kinger blasted the president last night, saying there will be a civil war like fracture in the u.s. if the president is removed from office. kinzinger tweeting at the president this, i have visited nations ravaged by civil war. i have never imagined such a quote, to be repeated by a president. this is beyond repugnant. joining us again from washington political reporter for "the washington examiner," emily larsen. welcome bark. let's discuss nbc news's reporting on the white house effort to combat impeachment talks. what would the addition of former strategist steve bannon or former campaign manager corey lewandowski add to this fight? it would be quite a flashback to say the least. >> well, certainly bannon and

lewandowski are some of the president's fiercest defenders and have been since the early stages of his campaign, and so i think the addition of them would benefit trump in the sense that they would assist in trying to spin the message in the way that the white house would see beneficial and in the way that at least trump's re-election would see beneficialment . we saw corey lewandowski in congressional hearings not too long ago, and he was exceptional at bringing the conversation to his stone walling of congressional questions rather than the tension being directed at what was being asked of him and twhat democrawhat the democ trying to get out of that hearing. that's an example of what i think he would do in being part of this trump white house defense force. >> you couldn't help but think corey lewandowski was auditioning for a position like

this. >> it's interesting to remember when steve bannon left the white house, the president had sharp words of criticism for steve bannon saying he was trying to take his credit for his election when it was only him and him alone that got him elected. it was not steve bannon. interesting to see if he does get back in the mix. let's talk about the democrats in all of this. their initial messaging on the impeachment efforts was criticized for being somewhat scattered. how are they angling to maintain a united front this time around, and how do you evaluate nancy pelosi's role in making sure that it remains a united front? >> i think nancy pelosi is critical in this, and she was, you know, the person who for a long time was stopping -- stopping democrats from calling any of their investigations into president trump and the russian issues in the 2016 election, their investigations from calling that impeachment so now that she is publicly supporting an impeachment inquiry, her role is to make sure that the

democrats are united and focused on what they're doing. and so we saw for a long time there were a lot of democrats calling for impeachment based off of what we saw from the mueller investigation. but the sort of drip, drip, little bits of pieces of information, a very complex story with a lot of players was not really enough to hold public attention and get democrats united behind them. with this story, there's a lot of public attention and a lot of even it seems to be so far at least a ilittle bit of increasig public support. their role is to make sure their focused with their message as they potentially bring articles of impeachment. >> emily larsen, thanks very much. appreciate it. still ahead, a multistate manhunt is underway after four inmates escape an ohio jail facility. details on how the men were able to break out. president trump meets with nra chief wayne lapierre as lawmakers push for new legislation on gun laws. the pushback the organization is

giving. those stories and another check on your forecast when we come back.

welcome back, the search is on across several states after authorities in ohio say that four inmates escaped a county jail there. nbc news's kathy park has more on how officials say the men were able to get out of that facility. >> four prisoners escaped assaulting a constructional officer, will be in a charcoal gray dodge charger. >> reporter: the search intensifying across ohio, pennsylvania, and west virginia to find these four men. the sheriff said they escaped the jail in southern ohio just after midnight by overpowering two female corrections officers using a homemade weapon or shank. the inmates stole a jail vehicle and drove to a getaway car, eventually found more than four hours away in pennsylvania. >> our detectives have established that the inmates had

the assistance in escaping from at least one individual on the outside. >> reporter: the decades old 22 bed jail is located in the basement of the county courthouse next to the ohio, west virginia border in the small town of gala poe leez. this community is no stranger to jailbreaks with three since august. earlier this month, one of the men on the run now escaped with another inmate. the pair was quickly recaptured. >> after taking office, i quickly realized that our jail wasout da outdated and insuffico meet the needs and the numbers of the criminals. we do not have the ability to lock our inmates in cells like a conventional jail would. >> residents here are sounding the alarm. >> everybody's sick of it. the whole community is sick with the way they're operating. >> reporter: growing frustration as a multistate manhunt continues. >> our thanks to kathy park for that reporting. we should note an update we've gotten within lats couple of minutes. three out of the four inmates

have been captured i believe as far away as north carolina. we'll certainly bring you more information as we continue to confirm that story. three out of those four inmates have now been captured. the "new york times" reports that president trump met with the chief executive of the national rifle association, wayne lapierre on friday to discuss possible gun legislation, and whether the nra could provide support for trump's re-election campaign as he faces impeachment. according to the times, two particular familiar with the meeting said la pierre asked the white house to stop the games over gun control legislation, although it was not clear whether trump asked lapierre for his support or what that support would look like. the nra issued a statement in friday in response to the report stating in part this, the nra is not inclined to discuss private conversations with the president. however, many of the accounts of the meeting as reported in the "new york times" are inaccurate. the nra categorically denies any discussion occurred about special arrangements pertaining to the nra's support of the president and vice versa.

the times notes the president has privately questioned the nra's ability to help back his 2020 campaign and has voiced concerns that the group may be going bankrupt and may lack the political clout it had back in 2016. let's switch gears for a moment, bring in janessa webb with a check on the weather. >> good morning, everyone. we continue to see the heat will build from the southeast, east coast. you're really going to feel it for the next seven to eight days. now, we're going to potentially have 100 to 150 places near record breaking temperatures by tomorrow afternoon. let's look at the heat, the hot, hu humid air is going to be in place. the air temperature in the upper 80s to mid-90s but then when you factor in the humidity, the dew points, wow, look at this heat index, lexington, a feels-like temperature of 100 degrees. it will continue to really, this bubble of warm air, gain strength in the next 24 hours before it makes its way to the northeast. look at this, by wednesday we're

going to see record breaking temperatures from atlantic city, central park daytime highs near the upper 80s to lower 90s. now, on the other side, the pacific northwest we're getting over this massive snowstorm, over 40 inches of snow reported in montana this morning. all alerts have expired at this time, but morning lows 16 degrees. that's 30 degrees below average for this time of year. so the problem is this morning we've had this blizzard like conditions, and they're going to continue to see the roadways, the black ice going to be a problem this morning, and that's why that emergency is put in place. so highs even from northern california to portland, this morning in the upper 20s, and that's really going to continue to for the next few days. that's that strong cold front. so if you like the heat and the warmer air northeast, the plains, i need you to enjoy it five, seven days because this air is moving in.

>> to negative 16? >> we won't go there. >> i don't need that big of a swing. thanks janessa. still ahead, more on the trump administration's efforts to down play the ukraine scandal as some of his most ardent supporters take to the air waves this weekend. details on the new report of the president's infamous oval office meeting with russian officials and what he allegedly told them about u.s. concerns over moscow's election interference. we'll be right back.

welcome back, a number of president trump's allies were out this weekend defending the president amid growing scrutiny over his ukraine scandal. that included senate judiciary committee chair lindsey graham who continued to down play the whistle-blower's complaint against the president as nothing more than a political setup. >> you're saying this is hearsay. the complaint on a number of fronts is matched by the call record. >> the transcript and the complaint are not matched. >> the reference to the dnc server -- >> please, let me talk, please, please. >> i'm laying out the facts here. >> no, you're not, you're making an argument. >> the repeated reference to joe bid biden. all those things are laid out here. the fact that the attorney general were brought up. >> you've got an opinion, i've got an opinion. you got me on the show to tell you what i think. i think mueller did a good job for the country and there was nothing there. i think this whole thing is a sham. i can't believe we're talking about impeaching the president based on an accusation based on

hearsay. >> so attorney george conway, husband of white house counselor kellyanne conway tweeted this sponts, it has been a while since you practiced law, so let me help. trump's criminal statements are binding admissions against him, and are not hearsay under federal rule of evidence 801 d 2. if if that were not so, statements would be admissible. the ranking member of the house oversight and reform committee republican jim jordan was challenged over his attempts to discredit the bidens while defending president trump amid the ballooning ukraine scandal. >> i think that you came here and leveled a bunch of accusations and allegations about hunter biden -- >> i just said the facts. did he get paid $50,000 a month. >> he was paid by a foreign company, yeah. but joe biden was trying to get a prosecutor who was not pursuing corruption fired. it was amaze -- >> it's amazing the gymnastics

you guys will go through. >>st it's facts. i would think someone who's been accused would be more sensitive -- >> i'm throwing out the facts. now to president trump's 2017 oval office interview with the russian ambassador sergey kislyak. trump told the two senior russian officials he was unconcerned about moscow's interference in the 2016 u.s. presidential election because the united states did the same in other countries, an assertion that prompted alarmed white house officials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people. according to three former officials with knowledge of the matter, those officials also tell the post that a memorandum summarizing the meeting was limited to a few officials with the highest security clearances in an attempt to keep the president's comments from being disclosed publicly. the officials also said trump seemed to invite russia to interfere in other country's elections. the white house has not provided a comment. the classification of records about trump's correspondence with foreign officials is now

central to house democrats' impeachment inquiry after an intelligence community whistle-blower claimed the white house placed a record of trump's july phone call with the president of ukraine on a highly classified computer system that few have access to. it is unclear whether documentation of trump's white house meeting with russian officials was placed into that system. coming up, president trump unloads as the white house works overtime to contain the growing ukraine scandal. >> more on the president's late nights spent making the case on twitter that there is no controversy, while demanding to meet the whistle-blower and also accusing the chair of the house intel committee of treason. we're going to have the very latest on that, your morning's other top stories. all of it in less than three minutes.

after a weekend tweet storm, president trump is demanding to know the identity of the whistle-blower. democrats are laying out their plans for impeachment while allies of the president work to defend trump in multiple interviews over the weekend. in a new interview with "60 minutes" mohammed bin salman is denying he ordered the murder of

"washington post" columnist jamal khashoggi. ♪ good morning, everyone, it is monday, september 30th, i'm ayman mohyeldin along side yasmin ayman mohyeldin alongsi yasmin vossoughian. in the wake of the growing ukraine scandal president trump is demanding to meet the whistle and wants to have adam schiff questioned for treason. in a series of tweets last night, he posted this. like every american, i deserve to meet my accuser. especially when this accuser, the so-called whistleblower, represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way and shif's comments were in the most sinister manner ever seen in the great chamber. he wrote down and read terrible things and then said it was from the mouth of the president of the united states. i was this the highest level of fraud and treaso