thanks for being on the beat. great to see you. just love them. that's a message we could all take home. and don't forget to come back sunday 9:00 p.m. eastern live, our very special program "trump and ukraine impeachment crisis." we're going to get into everything. mark your calendar. that does it for the beat. "hardball" with chris matthews starts now. quid pro quo, qed, it has been proven. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. we've learned today that president trump personally conditioned military assistance to ukraine on getting elpolitical dirt on his political opponents. that's the favor he asked of ukraine wherein president zelensky and now explosive text

messages between american diplomats shed new light on the transaction trump sought from ukraine and they confirm that a visit to the white house was dangled as leverage. those texts were turned over to congress by former special envoy to ukraine kirk volker yesterday. in the days before zelensky's phone call with trump in july, volker tells his colleagues the goal of the call is for zelensky to say he will help the information. bill taylor warns that zelensky is sensitive about ukraine being taken seriously not merely as an incident in washington relection domestic politics. then in the morning of trump's call with zelensky volker tells zelensky's aids he's heard from the white house and very specific about what it would take to get a meeting with trump. assuming zelensky convinces

trump will investigate and get to the bought of what will happen in 2016, we will nail down a date for a visit in washington. after the call his aid describes it as a success and asks to a schedule a visit to washington. he later appears to confirm his end of the bargain telling volker once we have a date for a white house visit zelensky will-call for a press briefing, announcing the upcoming visit and outlining the vision for the reboot of the u.s.-ukrainian relationship including among other things that means going after biden's son. those investigations would give trump a talking point to say ukraine is trying to get dirt on biden. well, soon thereafter zelensky's aid text volker saying need to talk with you along with a link from an article from politico. that article confirmed president trump had frozen the military support ukraine needed to fepd off russian aggression. two days later he writes his

colleagues are we now saying security assistance and a white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? gordon sunlen, the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. doesn't appear to want taimer's allegation to be memorialized in writing and simply replies call me. days later taylor appears worried zelensky will give a briefing committing to deliver on trump's wishes but won't get anything in return. he says the nightmare is they give the interview and don't get the security assistance. i think it's crazy to with hold security assistance with help from a political campaign. i'm joined by u.s. congressman, jeff mason, reuters white house correspondent, and ben rhodes.

what do they tell you about the workings of u.s. foreign policy apparatus, you give us some dirt, you give us a meeting at the white house, you get your arms to fight the russians. >> chris, it's important to understand what we're seeing here is not just the corruption of the ukrainian government by president trump pressuring the ukrainian government to dig up dirt on his opponents, we are seeing in the text messages the corruption of the national security making off the u.s. government, the state department. normally what you have is the u.s. white house setting priorities for u.s. interests not the president's personal political interests and then american diplomats implementing that policy. this is not how american foreign policy works. you're not supposed to have diplomats who work for the american people on taxpayer dimes essentially leveraging the foreign relations of the united states to get a country to get re-elected. and what you see here are all

the important instruments we have to bring to bear to pressure another country. white house visits, foreign assistance, hundreds of millions of dollars in valuable military assistance, diplomatic negotiations, all of that being leveraged to get a particularly outcome that prioritizes president trump's personal political interests. but donald trump has so fundamentally corrupted u.s. foreign policy that you have career diplomats put in a position they're basically acting on behalf of the re-election campaign. >> it sounds like a rico charge, running a criminal enterprise at the state department. >> yeah, you basically have based on the text messages, the phone call, everything else we know, two major departments in the federal government, the justice department to the attorney general and then through these diplomats, the state department and then through the secretary of state

quite possibly, the state department doing the political work of donald trump. he's basically running his re-election campaign out the white house on u.s. taxpayer dollars and with employees of the federal government. >> i want to talk to you about this foreign policy student, you're an expert on this thing. what we see here it seems to me is everything is coming from the top, that this political opponent, this rich guy put in the european union, he's not a diplomat, he's working for trump. >> that's right. he's a political appointee, u.s. ambassador to the eu european union. ukraine isn't even an official member of the european union. there's no reason for him to be involved. and you kind of see in these texts kirk volker is trying to thread the needle between giving the president what he wants to get this meeting and get ukraine the aid but also trying to tell the ukrainians, hey, stay out of the election interference, don't get involved in u.s. politics.

then you have rouge, i don't know why he's involved in the first place. he is the personal attorney to the president. and where is secretary pompeo in all this? he knew that he was on the call with the president and the president of ukraine. he did not tell kirk volker about what happened in terms of telling the ukrainian president to look into charges about biden. and volker is then saying to pompeo, hey, i'm trying to thread the needle here and pompeo doesn't say anything. >> there is a history of lies by this president. back when he was going after obama he said i've got investigators in hawaii coming up with good stuff, all made up. now he seems to be wanting to setup here a line he can use that says the ukrainian government is now investigating joe biden son's relationship with the gas company. he wants that draft. so he's got giuliani over there, his fixer, writing the draft for the ukrainian government so that

trump will have this document. he says they're over there investigating, this guy's a crook, just totally fabricating the reality. >> and writing the draft is key point there. we've probably covered a million g-7s or g-20s. in this particular case it was supposed to be a statement from ukraine, a press release or something like that, and you've got these american officials, u.s. officials some who worked for the government, another giuliani who's working directly for the president in a private capacity giving advice and sort of having editorial control over what ukraine government admits or puts out. >> and what the president thinks, giuliani started this poison pill. he was the one that started filling the president's ear with all this corruption about ukraine and then the ukrainians reached out to him to say, hey, we're not corrupt, we're a new government, we're fighting corruption and he said, okay, prove it, put it in a statement where you say you're going to investigate this company that

happens to be employing hunter biden. >> new reporting confirms that american diplomats viewed u.s. military support as being linked to trump's quest for dirt from ukraine. according to wall street journal republicans that have run johnson said he learned of a potential quid pro quo from the u.s. ambassador who told him that aid to ukraine was tied to the desire by mr. trump and his allies to have kiev undertake investigations. johnson reportedly raised the issue to the president by phone, the president denied it. congressman, i guess today we've got such an avalanche of documentation today. all the state department dialogue among the very diplomats, the foreign service people, the trump people, but all of it points in one direction, the deal. they're going to squeeze this government which is desperately in need of arms to fight the russians saying you want a deal with us, you want to have the

prestige of a white house meeting, you want those javelin missiles to fight the russian tanks, you've got to play ball and get dirt on joe biden. it seems like it's all there now. what more do you need. it seems to me you've got a case there for abuse of power. >> i think that's right. the president clearly abused his power. he has betrayed his oath of office. i think there's enough information, the president has admitted enough, we have got enough information at this point. he just went out on the white house lawn yesterday and asked china to look into and investigate joe biden. i think that we have enough to bring articles of impeachment. that said i also don't think it's going to happen in the next few days. we're going to continue this investigation as you saw, the house of representatives today we just subpoenaed the white house for documents related to all of these matters, specifically i want to see what other phone calls are hidden away in that secret file and what those phone calls say, the

transcripts of those phone calls. but, yeah, you've got a president abusing his power. and chris, i think this is important because now some republicans and including the president are starting to defend this by saying that he has the right to basically extort these foreign leaders to do his political dirty work. think about the long-term implications of what that means. that means that any president, democrat or republican in the future could use the -- leverage the full force of the united states government to try to ask any country, not just the ukraine to dig up dirt on a presidential candidate and opponent or somebody running for senate, somebody in the u.s. house of representatives or an american business person, anybody that might have done business over there. so this is very, very dangerous precedent that republicans are trying to setup just because they're bowing down to donald trump. >> let me go to ben because i think that was so well said by the congressman because even during watergate, which i well remember, it was a matter of it being mad at nixon or all the

rest of them, it was the fear we had that it would get worse, that it would escalate into worse and worse abuse of power. ben, you've been on inside. what do you think this kind of pres dependent would set if trump walks on this? >> well, look, trump has done a lot of things tat have been upsetting. the reason this is fundamentally different, first of all i think he's breaking the law because he's essentially leveraging the resources of the u.s. government as a campaign contribution. as people who will use their time and effort to squeeze a foreign government to investigate their political opponents. but beyond that, this is why we have a system of checks and balance, this is why we don't have dictators in this country, and they don't treat as extensions of their own political interests. and if we allow them to be completely corrupted to just serve the conspiracy theories and narrow short-term political interests of the president of the united states, and by the way to deny the american people

a truly free and fair election because the election itself will include all kinds of foreign intervention invited by donald trump, then we're not truly living in a democracy. so this gets at the heart of what kind of government do we want, what kind of corruption are we willing to tolerate in the highest office of the land? i think it's very important that in that next exchange the person who spoke up against this, who said are we really going to do this is the career person, it's the career diplomat, ambassador taylor. and if i were the diplomats i'd mock sure i'm going out and talking to them because it violates an oath they swore to uphold the constitution of the united states. >> this comes amid new signs that attorney general bill barr's justice department is shielding the president from further inquiry. nbc news reports weeks before the whistle-blower's report was made public, the cia's top lawyer made what she considered a criminal referral and this

means that she and other senior officials had concluded a potential crime had been committed raising more questions about why the justice department declined to open an investigation. questions, the referral was made over the phone and relay today the attorney general himself. however, quote, justice department officials now say they didn't consider the phone conversation a formal criminal referral because it was not in written form. and this was the first of two criminal referrals that the doj received. and after the second made by the director of national intelligence himself, the doj said in a statement that no further action was warranted. congressman, this state department led by pompeo, this justice department led by bill barr looks like they're in cahoots with this president politically to the extent they're no longer serving the country. >> you know, it took donald trump a while to put in place these guys that are yes men and at this point stooges that are helping him carry out his very narrow personal political

agenda. but its become very danger for the american people because they're no longer working on behalf of the american people. they're only working on behalf of donald trump, and i saw the reporting on the criminal referral. and for the department of justice to say we're not going to take that seriously and look into it because it was in a telephone conversation and not in writing, bill barr should resign right now. he has no integrity, no credibility if that's his standard. >> well, i hope congressman, at the end of a couple of weeks of requesting information from this white house and getting stone walled that u.s. congress will stop issuing paper, stop issuing subpoenas and all the rest because this crowd is going to get what they deserve. they're not going to answer those, they're not going to respond to you, not going to give you anything. anyway, thank you so much. my other guests are sticking with us for the second segment. coming up president trump publicly asked china, doing it again, addversary with a deeply

flawed justice system of its own to investigate his political rival joe biden. and now two republican senators are calling trump out somewhat. mitt romney says it's wrong and appalling what trump has been doing. ben sasse americans don't look to, quote, chinese commies for the truth. where are the other hundreds of republican members of congress, and will they continue to enable this president? we've got much to get to tonight. stick with us. t much to get to tonight. stick with us. ♪ (dramatic orchestra)

performance comes in lots of flavors. there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of sheet-metal-kind. and then there's performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. that's the kind lincoln's about. ♪

by the way, like wise china should start an investigation into the bidens because what happened to china is just about as what happened with ukraine. i haven't, but certainly something we can start thing

about. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was president trump yesterday calling on china to investigate the bidens putting thaz transactional use of american foreign policy for his own political benefit right there out in the open. while the president said he hadn't asked xi to investigate his political rival next year, cnn found trump raised biden's political prospects as well as those of senator elizabeth warren who by then had started rising in the polls. thareport ads in that call trump also told xi he would remain quiet on hong kong protests as trade talks progressed. president trump's request to china yesterday came immediately after he referenced a new round of trade talks set to resume next week saying we have tremendous power. today the president was asked whether he'd privately communicate to the chinese and

how it could impact the ongoing trade war. >> all i can tell you is this, when i speak to foreign leaders i speak in an appropriate way. i'd like to do a trade deal with china but only if it's a great trade deal for this country. one thing has nothing tao do wih the other. >> i'm only interested in corruption. i don't care about politics. i don't care about biden's politics. >> their all back with us. jeff, thank you. i was so impressed by your exchange with the president the other day because you were totally cool and he kept refusing to answer. why was he unwilling to answer your question? what did you want from the president of ukraine? and yet the next day he smattered all over the headlines i did it. why wouldn't he say it that day? >> i don't know. i really don't know. the question was clear, the follow-ups were clear.

he had been saying for days, weeks before that that his call with the ukrainian president had been perfect, so i just wanted to ask him, all right, what did you really want, if you want to dispute that transcript, go for it. >> second question, we all know that people deal with people on a number of issues. we all deal with people on a number of issues. we're dealing with the chinese on the trade issue. by the way, it's a corrupt country anyways. it's not a free market. they do it. but then to go there looking for dirt on americans is ridiculous, really ridiculous and awful. >> a trade deal if they were going to get it and not going to happen any time soon would be massive. even though the president of the united states says one doesn't deal with the other, you can't expect another country to read that signal and agree. >> this president is down to his toes transactional. the idea he comes on the south

lawn and say oh, there's no question with the deals i'm making with thel on trade or whatever else, hong kong might silence them, hong kong -- i would be thinking if i were one of those young people in hong kong i'd say he sold us out to get dirt on joe biden. that's what i'd be thinking. >> there's no question about that, chris. and we haven't talked about what does this look like to the rest of the world? now we look like the most transactional corrupt country imaginable where the only thing you really have to do for the united states is take care of the political interests of the president. we are in a trade war that has that state trillions of millions. there are studies that show 300,000 american jobs might have already been lost because of this trade war. decimation in parts of the agriculture sector in this country and donald trump is focused on what? dirt on hunter biden. so we're going to take the most important bilateral relationship in the world, the principle geopolitical adversary of the united states, china, and we are

going to put into the that mix a corruption investigation of hunter biden. and by the way, the chinese know how to do this. they do do politically motivated corruption investigation. it would be easy for them to say we'll try to get some dirt on president trump and maybe he'll make some concessions on things that actually matter to american workers. i'd be saying trump said he'd stand up to you when he faced up to the chinese and all he's doing is leveraging to get dirt on joe biden? that is not how you run a foreign policy. >> he's on the driveway there, on the south lawn and he said the chinese are investigating biden's son and somebody said are you going to ask him to investigate, in other words totally contradictory statements by him. by the way, they're already doing it but they're not doing it. he just lied. >> and he's also sending a esammage to any other country that he is open for business weaponizing, trading away u.s. foreign relationships. but it's not just about the

despots and authoritarians around the world, he's not just giving a dog whistle to give information on the u.s. election, he's giving them a green light to do it at home. and as has been said america is always the beacon -- >> why has it been so quiet about hong kong? >> he wasn't quiet. he congratulated president xi for his 70 years of success and ignored what's going on when his republican colleagues are calling it ghoulish and abhorrent, he's kind of congratulating them. and he expects strong men, and what kind of message is this sending to china right now? are they going to crack down? do they think the united states is going to go against them, are we going to see another tiena. man scare. once they thought the united states would speak up for, you

know, defenseless people around the world -- >> he wants to re-create the pre-world war ii world where there's a birch of tough countries led by stalin and hitler and the rest, mussolini and the big boys chopped up the little people and nobody got in their way. white house trade advisor peter navarro refused to answer questions about president trump to investigate the bidens. let's watch this show. >> is this like an interrogation? i feel like i'm adam schiff is sitting in front of me. we went through witch hunt part one for 2 1/2 years, adam schiff, sociopath. looked you in the eye and the american people in the eye and -- let me finish. >> before we go, just give me the opportunity. have you ever raised investigating joe biden or -- >> have you ever given me a

source other than anonymous for any of this crap? >> okay, thank you. i think he's learned all the techniques for not answering questions of reporters. jeff? >> peter navarro is clever in that way and he channels the president in a lot of ways. >> the question is why is navarro like this? why are these people like this? >> yeah, i don't know have an answer to that. he is definitely an influential member of the team, advising president trump on trade, on some other issues as well. >> have you figured out what the trump thing is, this sort of disease that spreads where people become trumpite, like invasion of the body snatchers. what is this? is it fear, is it power they're attracted to? >> i think there are some people around him who have figured out how to work with him, some people who haven't. and some of things he says and does definitely complicates things for his advisers. on the opposite spectrum larry

kudlow was speaking to a few journalists and he was asked as well whether or not the biden issue was going to be part of the trade talks and he said oh, i wasn't privy to that conversation but i can't imagine it would be. and he also said hong kong protesters should be pushing for piece and democracy. those are contradictory messages. >> good for him. anyway, thank you so much. great show this week. great professionalism. thank you, ben. it's great to have you on as sort of a steady anchor to this conversation. up next house democrats warn the white house turn over documents relate today the impeachment inquiry or be subpoenaed. tonight they're following through on that. one of those house dems will be with us in a moment next on "hardball." s will be with us in a moment next on "hardball. with my hepatitis c,

i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c.

but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c behind me, i feel free... ...fearless... ...and there's no looking back, because i am cured. talk to your doctor about mavyret. (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums

with tums smoothies. do you want me to go first or do you want to go first, brea? you can go first. audible reintroduced this whole world to me. so many great stories from amazing people. makes me wanna be better. to connect with stories that i'm listening to- that's inspiration. with audible originals, there's something for almost every taste in there. everything you ever wanted to hear. our ability to empathize through these stories can be transformational. it's my own thing that i can do for me. download audible and start listening today.

welcome back to "hardball." house democrats vowed to issue a subpoena if the white house failed to turn over documents relate today the ayoocrane investigation by today. and tonight it democrats have fought through on that in a letter sent to the white house, all chairs and foreign affairs committees warn the white house its refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the house impeachment inquiry. nbc news has learned the white house is expected to send a letter to speaker nancy pelosi kaurging the administration will not consider turning over any documents unless the house organizations an impeachment

inquiry. writing speaker pelosi has confirmed an impeachment inquiry is under way. this to me is harebrained. the president of the united states telling the congress there's rules in the house. the rules in the house are up to the house, and the house speaker is saying we're going to go ahead and act. >> well, they're our rules, not his rules and he wouldn't know rules if they hit him over the head with a brick, and we're complying with our rules. the constitution doesn't require any prior vote by the house of representatives before the committees investigate and neither do the house rules, so the committees are doing our job, and the president should busy himself with complying with our requests, so he turns over all the documents related to that perfect phone call that he had. if he's got nothing to hide and he continues to say he's got nothing to hide, turn everything over. >> i think you guys have him, and i mean that as a non-lawyer, but when i look at abuse of

power this is it. i see a president using his power control of u.s. foreign policy and u.s. foreign military aid he had the ability to freeze, and he said i'll unfreeze it, and same thing with the chinese. he's exploiting public office and public trust for personal political gain. the second article i think you've got on resisting all these subpoenas you've been issuing, anyway, your thoughts. do you have them yet? >> wes, we do. you stated it perfectly right, chris. this is corruption of his public office for private ends, and that's what he was doing with the foreign emoluments begging millions of dollars of foreign governments from hotels and resorts, what he's doing when he spending federal taxpayer dollars at mar-a-lago and the golf courses and hotels. that is the meaning of constitutional bribery and quid

pro quo -- >> look, nobody is counting votes right now. we're in an unprecedented posture right now. the president of the united states tried to use the military and national security muscle of our country to shakedown a foreign leader in order to obtain political leverage over an opponent to get him to produce dirt on joe biden. that is an absolutely scandalous and untenable situation we're in, and now we're seeing his mental state rapidly unraveling on a daily basis where he calls american citizens traitors and liars and spies and uses profanity. so it's an alarming situation. i think before this is over we're going to have significant defections from the republican caucus, yes, on the house side and on the senate side. and they are going to be begging us to do something about it. because he's an albatross on the

republican party. abraham lincoln was our first republican president. donald trump could be our last republican congress. >> congressman, that's news. if you had conversations with republicans on the house floor that lead you to believe they're ready to break? >> they don't know what to do about this situation because donald trump politically has stolen their base underneath them. he's still at 70% maybe in the polls it's going down but still got a majority of republicans for him but his support is rapidly dwind llg and almost nonexistent. >> it was watching the watergate hearings on the senate side and they were on every day, and they knew all the characters, people knew everything about it and then we had the house judiciary committee hearings and prime time television, everybody watched it. what opportunities do you have to get this before the american people? >> we think the whole country is

watching very carefully. we think that everybody's heard about it, understands exactly what happened with this shakedown of ukraine, the sellout of our constitution and our national security and the cover-up of the whole thing. and people understand what they're doing now is trying to drag their feet, run out the clock while obstructing congress and your point you started with is absolutely right, article 3 in the nixon impeachment articles contempt of congress, you were obstructing congress and donald trump goes way beyond richard nixon in both the underlying conduct and attempts to shutdown access to information. we're congress, and the peoples representatives. we have the right to get the facts we want. >> u.s. congressman jamie raskin. up next what is it going to take to get congressional republicans to say enough is enough? we just heard something about that. the sounds from the right so far starting to sound a bit like

cowardice. you're watching "hardball." a bie cowardice. you're watching "hardball.

at outback, steak & oh no, it's gone.ck. phew, it's back with lobster mac & cheese. it's gone again. oh, it's back with shrimp now! steak & lobster starting at only $15.99. hurry in before these three are gone again. outback steakhouse. 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

welcome back to "hardball." it's been a week now since a whistle-blower's urgen complaint wud made. in it the whistle-blower alleged the 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. the whistle-blower went onto detail efforts by the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, and attorney general bill barr to act as his personal envoys to these matters. these matters. that very same day the acting director of national intelligence joseph maguire testified about the whistle-blower's claims. >> i want to stress that i believe that the whistle-blower and the inspector general have acted in good faith throughout. the decision and the recommendation by the inspector general that in fact the allegation was credible. >> meanwhile a five page summary

released by the white house of a 30-minute conversation between president trump and president zelensky corroborates the initial claim. in it the president places a condition on the sale of military arms with president trump telling zelensky i would like him to do us a favor, though. yesterday ambassador volker confirmed another aspect. volker told the house intelligence committee that giuliani was acting on the president's behalf and in that capacity he wanted, quote, ukraine to investigate what happened in the past and apply its own laws. moments after discussing vice president biden and the conspiracy theories about ukraine's role in the 2016 election, and now we have the text messages that offer further evidence that the white house wanted to make the relationship with ukraine conditional. but if that's not enough, president trump confessed to the misconduct right in front of the entire world. >> mr. president what exactly did you hope zelensky would do

about the bidens after the phone call? >> well, i would think that if they were honest about it they'd start a major investigation into the bidens. it's a very simple answer. they should investigate the bidens. >> but despite all of this evidence, many republicans are being asked what more do they need? when do they say enough is enough? stay tuned after this break to find out what they have to say. you're watching "hardball." ut wy you're watching "hardball. panera's new baja warm grain bowl is full of good. 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. but family can only tell you sot much... about your history. i found some incredible records about samuel silberman... passenger manifests, census information, even wwi draft registration cards. the records exist... they're there, they're facts. that made it so real for me, it wasn't just a story anymore. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com here's the thing about managing for your business.s when you've got public clouds,

and private clouds, and hybrid clouds- things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, there's the dell technologies cloud, powered by vmware. a single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. that should clear things up. if you have moderate or psoriatic arthritis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression.

tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. it's just the way things are. when you're under pressure to get the job done, it seems you have to accept the fact that some equipment will sit idle, or underutilized. but it doesn't have to be that way. that's why united rentals is combining equipment, data, safety and expertise to help your worksite perform better. united rentals. a better worksite is here.

where is the line? when are you guys going to say enough and stand up and say you know what i'm not backing any of this? >> okay, so with president trump, i can say yay, nay, whatever the president is going to say what the president is going to do. i don't care who it is, when it is corruption is corruption and it should be combated. okay, we're going to move onto another question, but we can't determine that yet. >> that's one thing both parties are guilty of. when they're in trouble they say let's move on. she's up for re-election this year, next year rather deflecting a question. you can see from one of her constituents about president trump's behavior. most of her fellow republicans are choosing to do the same thing. senator marco rubio of nra tied

himself into the president. >> i don't know if that's a real request for him needling the press knowing we're going to get outraged by it. >> one of the few republicans to publicly reject the president's behavior is senator mitt romney of utah. he tweeted when the only american citizen president trump singles out for china's this suggests it's anything other than politically motivated. by all appearances the president's brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling. will he be the first or the last republican willing to speak out? for more i'm joined by a couple of experts, dave odd jolly, former republican and anita kumar. thank you both. first of all, do you keep contact with any republican

congress people? you say you're not a republican so therefore are they mad at you or do they talk to you? >> they're very bad at me because i feel like i've been speaking the truth while they remain silent and what you saw from marco ubrow today was the type of shamelessness we saw from republicans in the last two or three years. they lost all compunction to feel humiliation from wrongdoing. if you're acting politically in this moment, there's no good answer for republicans, none. and so you see them flailing. you see mccarthy throw this balloons out. what we're seeing from republicans is no one will act on conviction. the president on different days admits it. this isn't a mystery story. this isn't culumbo, he tells you what's going on. >> i've been talking to a lot of people close to him and he said

it again he would ask china because he does not think he did anything wrong so why not say it again? >> listen, i talked to republicans close to him. they will say that it was a mistake, that it was stupid, naive but they won't say it out loud. they won't say it with their name attached because they're afraid of the wrath of trump. >> what is the loyalty that's here because ben sasse he's been sort of equivocal, right, from nebraska. how would you rate his obedience on this? >> i mean, on one side you have him and mitt romney but they haven't come out and said it's negative, but they're -- >> where's susan collins in this? she's up for re-election, cory dard nar? >> but they don't want to face a primary opponent and they will -- i was going to say if you still look president trump this week lost a bit of support in the republican -- by republicans but it's still pretty strong.

it's still 80%. the senators desperately need the support of the national editorial committee, they need money for very expensive races. the ones i'm watching are ones not in cycle who have two or three years to recover from what an impeachment vote might be as well as those retiring. john isaacson being a good case. >> richard burr. how about lisa murkowski? there's somebody who's gutsy. that woman beat -- she loses a primary, comes back to win the general. >> you know what may push a few republicans over to take a harder look at this is anger because right now they're angry with the president because they can't talk about socialism, and their angry because they can't come windup a strategy for how to be the minority during an impeachment investigation. the clinton white house worked very well with hill democrats to be a strong minority during the impeachment investigation. even proffering at the last minute a censure resolution as

an alternative. this house would never do that. >> it's hard to keep up with his cover. anyway, former vice president joe biden swung back hard at president trump today. let's take a look at him. >> all this talk of the president about corruption comes from the most corrupt president we've had in modern history. he's the definition of corruption. he's corrupted the agencies of government from the defense department, from the state department, from the justice department, all about making sure that he in fact allows somebody else to pick his opponent for him. this is the guy that's unhinged. he is unhinged. i worry about what he's going to do, not about me or my family. i'm worried about what he'll do in the next year of presidency as this thing continues to rot on his watch. this guy like all bullies is a cowered. he does not want to run against

me. >> what do you make of that, anita? >> when you talk to people close to the president, the one thing they have in common right now that they're saying over and over again is that whatever has happened this last two weeks has pushed joe biden out, that he's not going to be the nuominee. they feel very strongly or positively it's not going to be joe biden. they've already moved on. they think it's going to be elizabeth warren. >> i agree with that. first, she's smart and second she's happy. she's a happy warrior. >> she loves this -- >> joe biden when he launch his race he came right at the charlottesville issue. look, the vice president and his son were cleared of any wrongdoing or criminality, but there are voters who will still see the hunter biden story as swampy. look, in this town a lot of family members of politicians make a lot of money they're

otherwise unqualified to do. if that was a disqualifier donald trump wouldn't be in office and half the senate would be sechlty. >> they are feeling very good about that one piece of it, right, 2020. they also feel good about they're not going to get enough senate republicans to vote. they feel the house will move forward but there's not going to be the votes in the senate. >> and i wonder if the democratic left might feel confident right now they can beat with someone on the left, they don't have to go to the center. >> i think democrats can choose whichever candidate they want with whichever ideology and put them up against the president. >> let me tell you one little thing which is this week or after the inquiry last week was launched the trump campaign said they got 50,000 new donors in two days. >> i always wonder about the far-out on the right. david jolly, thank you, sir. and anita akumar. will congress do its constitutional duty and hold

this president accountable? the clock is ticking. you're watching "hardball." the clock is ticking you're watching "hardball. 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. ♪ i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment.

tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. common side effects include headache and tiredness. with hep c behind me, i feel free... ...fearless... ...and there's no looking back, because i am cured. talk to your doctor about mavyret. uh, well, this will be the kitchen. and we'd like to put a fire pit out there, and a dock with a boat, maybe. why haven't you started building? well, tyler's off to college... and mom's getting older... and eventually we would like to retire. yeah, it's a lot. but td ameritrade can help you build a plan for today and tomorrow. great. can you help us pour the foundation too? i think you want a house near the lake, not in it. come with a goal. leave with a plan. td ameritrade. ♪

hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams.

hey. mom and dad: ♪hey. ramirez!!! you must be steven's phone. now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network... only with xfinity xfi. download the xfi app today. an abundance of evidence now sits in our faces that president trump has been trading american interests for his personal interests. the text messages show that the whole apparatus of american diplomacy knew the deal, trump would deliver u.s. good will if and only a foreign government

delivered dirt on miz political enemies. the prime question now is whether the united states congress will proceed with its duty under the constitution and hold this president accountable. those opposed to a judge will exploet every opportunity to delay and ultimately prevent a congressional verdict on its conduct. a goal of such delays would be not justice or constitutional rule but their denial. knowing this speaker pelosi is wise to keep the focus tight on those presidential activities that cheerily reveal abuse of power. if there is a member of congress that believes it is legitimate for a president to demand dirt on a political rival, that member of congress should say so but let his or her colleagues render their own judgment as well. i'm confident that few americans think it is legitimate or constitutional for a president to sell his interest, u.s. interests in what's now been clearly documented as a sleazily, desperate search for anything that could force people into voting for the incumbent

president. what's important now is committed action. and the house representatives schedule that gets impeachment decided while it can be decided. a drive this president and his allies will use every tactic to stall and eventually kill. that's "hardball" for now. all in with chris hayes starts right now. tonight on a special edition of "all in." >> there is no pro quo. >> yes, pro quo. damning new evidence of an explicit pro quo in the shakedown. and just how much are republicans going to defend? >> i'm not a crook. >> the prosecutors who brought richard nixon to justice on the mounting case against donald trump. >> i'm innocent of all charges. >> live from studio 6a in rockefeller plaza, "all in" starts right now.