you're welcome. >> our incumbent president taking us to the end of our broadcast for tonight, thank you so much for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. so i would say that president zelenski, if it were me, i would recommend that they would start an investigation into the bidens. china should start an investigation into the bidens. because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. >> this guy is unbelievable. he's already facing impeachment. for asking ukraine to investigate joe biden. and now he is like what, you know what, china, get in on it, too, you jump in as well. trump may be the only person on earth who thinks two wrong does make a right. >> facing impeachment over the

private request that ukraine investigate the bidens president trump is now asking that question publicly, and is suggesting that china investigate as well. plus, house democrats have released text messages from several administration officials that party leaders say underscores trump's efforts to put pressure on ukraine. and house minority leader kevin mccarthy calls on nancy pelosi to suspend the impeachment inquiry but the house speaker is pushing back. good morning, everyone, it is friday, october 4. i'm ayman mohyeldin. yasmin vossoughian has the morning off. we begin with the latest in the impeachment inquiry of donald trump. last night house democrats released text messages how the president's top envoys pushed the president of ukraine to investigate the bidens and to investigate the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that ukraine meddled in the 2016 election. that pressure included dangling the possibility of a white house

visit. the messages appeared to confirm reporting from "the new york times" that then special envoy to ukraine, kurt volker and the u.s. ambassador to the european union gordon saundland helped draft a statement for the ukrainian president committing to an investigation into the bidens. in a july 19th, text message, volker stechlt volker texted this, had breakfast with rudy, teeing up call with yermak, an aide to the ukrainian president, and volker then added most important is for zlen ski to say that he will help the investigation. two days later bill taylor the top u.n. diplomat in ukraine texted sonland saying president zelensky is sensitive about ukraine taking seriously not just as in washington domestic policy politics. >> and a phone call with the ukrainian president, volker texted zelensky's aide this,

heard from white house, and assuming he will investigate and get to what happened, we will nail down a date in washington. >> hi, mr. mayor had, a good chat with yermak, zelensky's aide, pleased with your phone call, and mentioned making a stakes, and can we get on a phone call that i advise z correctly as to what he should be saying. make sure we get it done right. and the next day, text to volker, he wants to get a date for the white house visit before committing to a statement of the bidens and the 2016 election. the aide texts, once we have a date, we will have a press briefing outlining a visit and outlining a vision for the reboot of the u.s./ukraine re-election, including among other things election meddling. on august 28, zelensky's aide

texted back saying, quote, i need to talk to you. well, several days go by. then, on september 1st, there is a text, are we now saying that security assistance and the white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? he replies call me. >> and a week later, the nightmare scenario is give an interview and security assistance, the russians love it and i quit. and taylor also texted the following day saying, as i said on the phone, i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. that is important. then responded, more than four hours later, telling taylor that trump quote has been crystal clear. no quid pro quo of any kind. and suggest they stop discussing the matter via the text messages. so speaking on the white house lawn yesterday, president trump doubled down on his request for ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son, not only that, though, he ignited a whole new fire storm by this time urging

china to do exactly the same. >> so mr. president, what exactly did you hope zelenski would do about the bidens after your phone call? exactly. >> i would think that if they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the biden ofs. it is a very simple answer. they should investigate the bidens. likewise, china should start an investigation into the bidens. because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. >> now that request for china to investigate the bidens came just moments after trump addressed the ongoing trade war. >> china's coming in next week, we're going to have a meeting with them, i have a lot of options on china. but if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power. >> and late last night, the president defended his approach to have foreign governments investigate allegations of corruption, as always, he tweeted out, as the president of

the united states, i have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty to investigate or have investigated corruption and that would include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out. he later added, this isn't about a campaign. this is about corruption. on a massive scale. so condemnation of president trump's call from china to investigate political rivals, as you can imagine, were swift from across a broad spectrum. house speaker nancy pelosi tweeted out once again donald trump has called on a foreign country to interfere in our elections. just the latest example of him putting his personal political gain ahead of defending the integrity of our elections. the speaker's democratic colleague and chairman of the house intel committee adam schiff was equally as blunt in his criticism. >> i find once again the president inviting another country to interfere in our presidential elections repugnant. and a fundamental breach of his oath of office. it endangers the security of our

elections. and is a betrayal of the idea that americans should decide who leads america, not foreign parties, seeking to intervene in our affairs. >> and a member of the house foreign relations committee, democrat ted lou tweeted in part, it is very clear there is more than enough evidence rit now to draft articles of im people. >> nicholas burns, this is a first in american history, dating to 1789 an american history has asked our strongest adversary, a communist dictatorship to investigate his major opponent. let that sink in. it is corruption, morally and legally wrong. and federal election commission chair ellen winetraub retweeted her statement from june with an image of a microphone and the caption is this thing on. and more on "morning joe" later this morning. joining us now from

washington, d.c., deputy news editor for the washington examiner david mark. david, good to have you with us this morning. let's talk a little bit about all of the developments in the past 24 hours, including the president's own calls for china and the ukraine to investigate the bidens once again. what could be the potential impact on the impeachment plight of the president's calls. >> house democrats are already moving down the impeachment path, the impeachment inquiry path pretty quickly. this gives new evidence, new am dition to t dition, ammunition to the quest. i think with the china remarks, house democrats are kind of putting that in their back pocket by now and once they draft articles of impeachment, it would not be surprising to see that included, but i think they're trying to kind of throw it into the mix and helping, they want to use it to build a broader narrative about alleged foreign help in american elections, by trump. whether it's with ukraine,

russia, through the mueller probe, now china, and maybe some other countries as well. >> what do you make of trump's defense of his push into allegations of corruption? he's trying to make this more that as a president, he has a responsibility to fight corruption, and that's what he is putting the biden, i guess, controversy framed as. could this strategy work for him to kind of push back against the impeachment inquiry? >> well, it worked for him in the 2016 campaign. when he brought in hillary clinton and the issue of her servers, and email servers and some kind of extraneous issues, where maybe there was a kernel of evidence to go after and look at, just like with hunter biden, separately there very well may be some things to examine but he is trying to make that the central issue. impeachment is different in a sense though. because it is going to end up with an up or down vote to impeach the president by house

democrats and so far it looks like he is going that way and looks like three or four presidents impeached depending how you count it. >> and whether the ukrainian request, had joe biden not declared presidency, because it does not hold any water with tweets from other republicans in the u.s. david, we will talk to you in a little bit again. stick around. kevin mccarthy is calling on nancy pelosi to suspend the impeachment inquiry. pelosi says not so fast. >> later, vice president mike pence continues to defend donald trump and pushing unfounded conspiracy theories against the bidens. those stories and a check on weather when we come back. me ba. we get it.

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save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. plus get $250 back when you buy an eligible phone. call, click, or visit a store today. house minority leader kevin mccarthy is calling for democrats to suspend the impeachment inquiry surrounding president trump. in a letter written to house speaker nancy pelosi the california republican urged her to hold off on the probe until more quote transparent and

equitable rules and procedures are established. mccarthy went on to pose several question, surrounding the democrats' intent going forward including whether a full house vote will take place. in response, pelosi staunchly defended her decision to move swiftly with the investigation adding that quote there is no requirement under the constitution, under house rules, or house precedent, that the whole house vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry. all of this happening while axios reports that the white house is dropping its own memo to speaker pelosi. according to two source, the letter argues that president trump and his team will ignore lawmaker's demands for documents related to the investigation, until a full house vote to open an impeachment inquiry. that letter could reportedly hit pelosi's desk as soon as today. joining me on the set, legal analyst danny cevallos. great to have you with us. let's talk about the white house and the deadline to hand over documents and the position taken and we have seen it roll out from other parts of the administration including mike

pompeo saying he is necessarily not going to cooperate at this stage with congressional requests. what does this create in terms of a legal battle or a real defense for the white house to not cooperate or hand over documents until they get that house vote that they want? >> if i was advising the white house, i would tell them that history shows there's not a lot risked if they roll the dice and simply refuse to hand over documents. why not? take it to the courts. if nothing else, going to court will cause a delay, and that may inure to the benefit of the executive branch and the white house because delay is a good thing for the white house. after a certain period of time, eventually, and it could be years, an election will be over, and if there's a new congress that comes into place, then those subpoenas essentially dissipate into the ether. >> especially if it is controlled by republicans. let me ask you about the president yesterday doubling down publicly this time, in front of the cameras, saying he calls on ukraine and china to investigate the bidens, doing so

publicly. does that create more of a legal headache for him? does it add more fuel to the fire for those demanding an impeachment inquiry or does he obfuscate everything saying this is what i'm doing publicly, it is part of my call for corruption around the world. >> i think you fleshed out both strategies exactly. >> tell me which one of those is -- >> it is a fascinating theory of defense, which is oh, you think i committed a crime in secret, i'm doing it out in the open all the time, so that the rest of us, the jury, the public, the media is left thinking, well, wait, how could it possibly be a crime if he is doing it on a daily basis and now he is doing it out in the open. it is a crafty strategy. i don't know if it will work. because it still amounts to a public call for a foreign government to get involved, investigating a political opponent. and even if it is not a crime that fits within the corruption statutes, or the soliciting something from a foreign

government statutes, for a campaign, even if, we still have impeachable offenses that are not necessarily crimes, that are merely abuses of power. so it doesn't need to fit perfectly into a criminal statute. although, you know, reasonable minds disagree some, like alan dershowitz say an impeachable offense must be a crime. but many others say it need not be a crime. and history demonstrates that that is the case. abuse of power is not a crime. and that has been the basis for impeachment. >> are you suggesting that the president's defense strategy may be somewhat of a delay tactic for legal reasons and what should the democrats pursue, swift as possible or slow down and go through a very thorough investigation, including all of the other stuff that pre-date the ukraine scandal as some have said? >> in order to conduct a productive investigation, the documents that the house has requested are critical. so they need those documents. they need that evidence. and they need compliance. and the constitution envisions

that congress has this broad investigative power, and so they rightly think they have access to those documents. and really, their only option may be to go to court. and unfortunately, for them, that is a long, lengthy process. i can tell you from personal experience, that going to court, an appeal can take unfortunately years, even if they're sped up and prioritized. >> interesting. we will see how this plays out. danny cevallos, always a pleasure, thank you. >> take care. let's switch gears with a quick check of the weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> good morning. on this friday, dealing with a record october heat wave. off the charts, never experienced before, type stuff, and even yesterday, we wouldn't think it would be the peak of it, but we were very impressive. so this map has every area with a record high. and the areas in pmaroon record highs. and two locations in alabama were 103 yesterday. and it was 98 in memphis.

and nashville, 99. raleigh was 100. and the hottest day of the summer season. yes. in october. so for today, we're going to have some record highs once again, it shouldn't be quite as hot but still going to see numerous locations, that are going to be up there somewhere close to the mid 90s and maybe even upper 90s in a few cases. so record high for today in atlanta. 96. and montgomery should be again near 100 degrees. but 95 in the area. mobile close to tying a record. same with new orleans. tallahassee. jacksonville could be a little below the record. same with savannah and wilmington. you get the idea. the relief hasn't come yet. even if it is saturday, we are not shattering records but we're lose to them in many location, with 90s widespread. and the heat sneaks for one day back up into areas of tennessee, and even into kentucky. and then finally, some rain will come in on sunday and begin to cool things off. here is how the weekend outlook looks. the get-away day today, rain developing in areas from new mexico, and areas of kansas,

later on this afternoon, toward this evening, toward omaha and keep that in mind for evening plans. record heat. the rainy dreary weather will clear out in the northeast for a breezy afternoon and evening. fall-like. and a fall chilly weekend in areas of the northeast. and some areas the end of the growing season, especially areas in upstate new york and the rainy day on saturday from iowa to wisconsin and on sunday, rainy weather that cooled you off finally in areas of the deep south. so amin, it has been, i mean yen if i have been through a heat wave like this, almost like two weeks of recovered highs. macon, georgia, ten days in a row of record highs. i can't remember the last time it has ever happened. >> mind boggling. bill karins, thank you very much. appreciate it. still ahead an update on bernie sanders health scare and when he expects to return to the campaign trail after being hospitalized. back in a moment. in a moment maria ramirez!

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about health care, saying he is looking forward to transforming the country. massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, former vice president joe biden and vermont senator bernie sanders are running a three-way race in california. a new public institute of california poll have the three in a statistical dead heat in the golden state running within one percentage point of each other, 23 to 22 to 21%. over in ohio, a statistical tie between joe biden and bernie sanders. 29 to 27%. and in the latest emerson poll, elizabeth warren follows closely in third place with 21%. if the election were held today, 53 to 52% of ohio voters say they would vote for biden, sanders or warren while only 47 to 48% would vote for vice president. and against vice president mike pence, joe biden comes out ahead by eight points and sanders and

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welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin. it's the bottom of the hour. top story, america's special envoy for ukraine, kurt volker appeared before multiple house committees for eight hours of closed door testimony. according to eric swalwell, volker presented evidence that the president's personal rudy giuliani had a shadow shakedown in the ukraine and multiple reports to the "washington

post," that giuliani was receiving untrustworthy information from political figures about the bidens and warned giuliani that his sources were unreble a, unreliable and shouldn't put faith in them. and he pointed out that the prosecutor was corrupt and worked to shield favored people from prosecution rather than go after wrong h-doers. president trump ordered the diplomat of ukraine be ousted. people familiar with the matter tell "the wall street journal," those individuals including giuliani, claimed that ambassador yavanovitch was undermining trumps and obstructing efforts to investigate joe biden and it was confirmed in an interview with the paper. sources an officials tell the journal that the state department was told in the spring that removing the ambassador was a priority for the president and secretary of

state mike pompeo supported the move. yesterday president trump did not deny those reports. >> mr. president, why did you recall the u.s. ambassador to ukraine? was she a problem? why did you recall her? >> i heard very bad things about her. and i don't know if i recalled her or somebody recalled her but i heard very, very bad things about her for a long period of time. not good. >> while stuck in the middle of the ukraine saga, vice president mike pence continues to defend president trump's actions and doubled down on the validity of his own conversations with ukraine's leader yesterday, and reiterated that trump did nothing wrong during his now infamous july phone call with president zelensky. >> we focused entirely, in my meeting with president zelensky of ukraine, on the issues that president trump had raised as a concern, namely the lack of support from european partners for ukraine. and real issues of corruption in ukraine. but the simple truth is, that those are the same issues that

the president raised. with president zelensky in their call. anyone who looks at the president's transcript will see that the president was raising issues that were appropriate, that were genuine interest to the american people. >> pence also did not shy away from reporting trump's unfounded conspiracy theory, i should say repeating president trump's unfounded conspiracy theory, claim about former vice president joe biden's family and re-upped calling for foreign nations to investigate them. >> i think the american people have a right to know if the vice president of the united states, or his family, profited from his position, as vice president. during the last administration. the president made it very clear that he believes, he believes our other nations around the world should look into it as well. >> juror joany ernst joined the lawmakers for the impeachment

inquiry to be productive. >> this should be protected. i stand with chuck grassley on this. we have laws in place. again. laws need to be enforced. >> we're not hearing it from our -- >> that is because our meeting is not covering those issues. whistle-blowers should be protected, thank you very much. whistle-blowers should be protected, let folks out there know. >> senator chuck grassley issued a statement defending the intelligence community whistle-blower and calling for the need to protect his or her identity and this person appears to have followed the whistle-blower protection laws and ought to be protect and we should always look to protect whistle-blower's requests for confidentiality. any further media reports on the whistle-blower's identity don't serve the public's interest even if the conflict sells more papers or attracts clicks online. joining us once again from washington, deputy news editor for the washington examiner

david mark. gooed to have you back us with. as we see more republicans go with protecting the whistle-blower, how could it attack president trump's pressure to reveal his or her identity. and he says he wants to face the accuser and know who the whistle-blower is. >> it depends how far senate republicans and house republicans are willing to go with this. you saw the republican of iowa, saying the whistle-blower should be protected but it is only in response to a constituent question. a lot of republicans in congress don't seem that curious or that eager to get to the bottom of the whistle-blower issue or related matters. so i think president trump probably takes that as a sign to go ahead and continue doing what he's doing. they might make obligatory defenses of whistle-blowers, but they're probably not going to push it that hard, at least from what we've seen so far. >> let's talk about the other big headline from yesterday and that's the testimony of kurt

volker, former ambassador to ukraine. he appeared before lawmakers yesterday. how will his testimony likely impact president trump's defense going forward? >> well, we don't know exactly what he said, of course, because it was behind closed doors. in the house intelligence committee. we got starkly different reports. republicans in the house saying he didn't do anything to advance the narrative, the democrats say about collusion or corruption or leaning on the ukrainians improperly. house democrats said the exact opposite. nane and a ha nane, nine and a half hours is an awful long time to be testifying and you got to think he said something to give democrats ammunition to keep going with this. we just don't flow right now. >> speaking of the impeachment inquiry, as it gets ramped up, talk us to about mitch mcconnell here for a moment and what position does he find himself in with senators on one hand coming out defending the whistle-blower a little bit and leader mccarthy saying the impeachment on the house side is pretty much should be called off until there is a full house vote, and senate

leader mcconnell saying he will follow the rules and in fact hold a trial if in fact it does get to that point. but what's the position that he finds himself in day after day? >> at this point, he still appears to be with the president on trump's side, as far as we can see. yes, leader mcconnell did say that the senate would hold some kind of impeachment trial. he said they have to. under senate rules. but that doesn't mean it couldn't be dismissed relatively quickly. senate republicans still command the majority in the senate. they could say all right, house managers, house democrats, come over here and make your case, you have ten minutes to do so. and then call for a vote to dismiss and that's it. that's a bit of an exaggeration but perhaps not too far off. >> it could be somewhat of a sham trial. live in washington, d.c. for us, david, always a pleasure. thanks, my friend. still ahead vladimir putin makes light in his country's meddling with democracy.

keir simmons has more on the president's interfering in the 2016 election and whether he will do it again in 2020. your first look at "morning joe" back in a moment. for all out confidence... ...depend® silhouette™ briefs feature maximum absorbency, beautiful colors and an improved fit for a sleek design and personal style. life's better when you're in it. be there with depend®. ithere's my career...'s more to me than hiv.

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>> all right, so that was russian vladimir putin this week, making light of russia's interference in america's political system during a conference in moscow, the person there you saw asking the question, joins us live here on set, and nbc news senior international correspondent my good friend keir simmons, good to have you with us, and he was making light of it but obviously as we know from this country, the senate and others have been very critical, very mindful that russia and robert mueller as you pointed out is in fact intent on meddling in the 2020 elections. >> he didn't give me a straight answer. culturally in russia, it shows some weakness to just say no, to be straightforward, so the way that he, that putin answers those questions, you can understand it in one sense, culturally, that it doesn't work with him if he gives you a straightforward office and the russian audience enjoy the word play that you always get and you're right, it is pretty galling to see the leader of russia accused of meddling in

the u.s. elections and accused of doing the same in 2020 making a joke of it and it will get people's back up, inevitably. the question was, and another question we asked, which i thought really was fascinating was in relation to this question of the call between president trump and the leader of ukraine. and i asked him whether he would be prepared to see transcripts of his conversations with president trump released. >> interesting. >> and an interesting answer. take a listen. >> would you welcome a rough transcript of your conversations with president trump, beng published by the american administration? >> translator: i haven't been working in my capacity for all my life, in my current capacity. in my previous life, had taught me that any conversation of mine may be made public.

and i always presume that. so when, there were attempts to beef up a scandal on our meeting on helsinki, we told the administration, if someone wants to know something, to learn something, make it all public, we are not against that. nothing compromising president trump is contained in that conversation. >> i like how in the beginning he kind of refers to the fact when he was a kgb agent he learned that every conversation, or he said in the previous life but we obviously know he was a kgb agent. >> and i thought that was a little disrespectful of mr. trump, and you don't often hear, if you were a smart leader, you could hear everything on the phone calls. a little bit of a dig. an incredible story you got some access to, coming up on the "today" show and "morning joe" in just a bit, but you have incredible access to these concentration camps that have

been popping up in china, that china calls their education centers. tell us more what more you learned about going there and seeing firsthand what is actually happening ins they camps, human rights organizations, are extremely concerned about. >> this is such an important story and you see it on the "today" show, at 7:40 in "morning joe," in the 8:00 hour, if you have time to watch and looking at the cameras, you can see a group of people called weeker weekers, in a far eastern part of chine and the accusation a among of these people have been put through the camps in order to reeducate them if you lick, to persuade them to be more chinese, and frankly, the accusation is, is less muslim. so they are accusations, that we met women in these camps who said they were sent here for a year because were there. and another man, who said that they had been sent because they had been sent, they had gone to

an illegal preaching. is it is about controlling this region. now, what the chinese say is that they, and they have, they have seen a wave of terrorist attacks, over a sustained period and that in the past few years, they haven't seen those kind of attacks but this is a pretty brutal way to deal with an entire community, a huge number of people, and we go inside too to see. >> can't wait to see. that keir simmons incredible reporting on both fronts in china and the russia story. be safe my friend. >> thanks. you can catch both of those as i mentioned on "morning joe" and the "today" show later today. and steps the republicans party is taking to prevent divisions within the party ahead of the gop national convention. and energy secretary rick perry is mulling an exit from the trump administration. what his agency is saying about that matter. >> and bill karins is back with another check on the weekend forecast. all of it when we return. if you liv iabetes, why fingerstick when you can scan? with the freestyle libre 14 day system just scan the sensor with your reader,

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the republicans are doing everything they can to appear as a unified front. republican officials have been working for months to tighten delegates at the national convention in an effort to suppress any dissenting speeshes and the new guidelines would strengthen trump's dominance and 37 states have adjusted their rules to virtually wipe out the possibility of any divide on the

convention floor. states such as massachusetts, and new york, have adopted a winner take all delegate award, if the winner receives 50% of the vote. and five states including south carolina went so far as to cancel their primaries, to avoid republican challengers. there is new reporting from "politico" that energy secretary rick perry is expected to announce his resignation next month. three people familiar with his plans tell "politico" that although perry has largely avoided many of the controversies that took out others in the administration, his recent travels to ukraine have embroiled him in the impeachment inquiry, engulfing trump and the inner circle. the former governor of texas has drawn scrutiny because he led the envoy in may, a visit according to the whistle-blower's report released last week came as the administration determined whether the new lead we're be amenable to trump's demands. the department of energy released a statement in response to "politico"'s reporting yesterday saying in part quote while the beltway media has

pregnantlessly reported on rumors of secretary perry's departure for month, he is still the secretary of energy and a proud member of president trump's cabinet. one day the immediate yale will be right. today is not that day. now quick check on the weather and more important the fall foliage which is apparentl apparentlia apparently is a big thing. >> i'm going to guess you've never gotten in a car and driven to see the leaves. >> i have not. >> people take vacation to go see the leaves. >> i'll give it a shot. >> no you won't. here's how it going to play out. we're about at the peak of our fall foliage of the great lakes this weekend and next are most likely the peak seasons for where we get beautiful maple leaves and where it's looking nice in the northern portion of new england and the mountainous

areas. the colors are showing up as far south as new york city so you don't have to go to that are to see some of the beautiful leaves. what's going to happen this weekend say shock. some areas that were in the 90s last week we now have freeze warnings up for the southern areas of new york. adder r ator ron daks. so when the cities are in the mid 30s, all of the suburbs are in the upper 20s to low 30s. albay banny, binghamton. but the submeshes much chillier. mower record heat from atlanta to the deep south. montgomery, alabama, was 102 yesterday and it will be 100 today and that will be the end of it and we'll give you relief towards the end of the weekend.

cool day from minneapolis to chicago, but you have a rainy day heading your way on saturday. temperatures will still be in the 50s but instead of sunshine it will be cloudy and damp. after that cold start we warm up to a beautiful saturday afternoon. sunday will be a little bit cloudier but the chill bystuff in the rockies. we have a snowstorm going on too. ayman, if you don't want to go through northern new england, the pictures coming out of colorado, it's breathtaking. >> i can appreciate that. i'll try to make an effort this season to get some foliage, at least on the way to my movie theater. >> you'll check that one tree out on the sidewalk. >> thanks, bill. we have a look at this morning's one big thing and coming up on "morning joe," democrats release new evidence in the impeachment inquiry into president trump. we'll have the very latest reporting on the text messages showing the president's top envoy pushing the president of ukraine to take part of

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welcome back, everyone. joining us now from washington, d.c., the look at axios a.m. cofounder and ceo, jim vander hide. good to have you with us. what is the one big thing for today? >> well, the one big thing every day, impeachment, right? >> i would say it now seems inevitable that president trump will be impeached by the full house probably by the end of the year. can you imagine any democrat who want toemd pea wanted to impeach him during the mueller probe and then certainly after the ukraine transcript came out now saying after what he said to china yesterday, yeah, the hell with it, i'm not going to vote for impeachment? talk to any democrat, the minute the vote comes up they believe he will be impeached by the house. that puts all of the action in the senate. and as most people know, being impeached by the house does not

mean you're removed from office. and donald trump knows and he's all in now on this strategy of his senate red wall. make sure that you use fox news, that you use conservative media, that you use your base to make sure that at least 34, 35 of those republican senators, come hell or high water, will not vote against you. if they won't vote against him, there's no way to remove him from office. and so you've seen a big switch now for donald trump in the last 24 hours. he's now saying, i have the absolute power, i have the absolute power to tell any nation to investigate my political rival. we reported last night he's going to send a letter to nancy pelosi as soon as today saying, impeach me, not going to help until you guys actually vote. he's daring them to vote on the impeachment. so he's all in on both fronts. you watch a little bit the commentary on cable tv and read it you think republicans are starting to crack. there are very few republicans

in the senate who are showing any real sign of cracking. there's a couple that have said listen, let's hear from the whistleblower. there's some like mitt romney that said this is bad there are needs to be looked at. but you would need a large number of republicans from states where donald trump remains popular to turn on him. that's something to keep an eye on whether you like it or not, that's how the process works. >> let me ask you this quickly because we've been speaking to our guests and others that if this goes to trial in the senate, the senate which can make up the rules decides to have this as a secret ballot vote, would that in terms of a trial in the senate create some cracks in that republican red wall that the president is relying on? it's solely up to mitch mcconnell how he does the rules of that vote. >> i doubt they would do it. mitch mcconnell is signaling that he would hold the impeachment trial and there would be a vote. yeah, that's the other thing that people need to understand about the senate. there are no rules. there's some precedent, but there are no rules. so they could do things that

we're not thinking about to delay it, to make it a secret vote, whatever. but in all likelihood, if this goes to the senate, there's going to be a public vote. and those senators are going to have to decide are you really going to turn on the president who remains popular in your state? and when i watch conservative media, when i read conservative media, there just transatlantic many crac aren't that many cracks. we say never single time and we do the polling and his numbers to be at 40%, 42%, 90 to 95% with republicans and therefore those senators stick with him. you still see very few republican senators willing to stand up to him. you see very few house republicans willing to stand up to him. they fear him. they fear his voters, they fear the backlash. >> all right jim, thank you very much. of course we'll see you again on "morning joe" in a bit. don't go anywhere. we'll be reading axios a.m. for a while. you can go to signup.axios.com.

"morning joe," everyone, starts right now. russia, if you're listening, i think you might want to listen. there's nothing wrong with listening. china should start an investigation into the bidens. i would say that president zelensky, if it were me, i would recommend that they start an investigation into the bidens. >> there it is, he just came out and said it. president trump trimmipling down his call for foreign countries to meddle on his behalf. good morning, i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. we have elise jordan, former treasury official steve rattner, and historian, author of the soul of america and jon meacham, and us in news and msnbc contributor. before we jump into all of this, a quick rundown of t