"andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. right now, course correction. in a rare reversal president trump changes his decision to host the g7 summit at his own florida resort, yielding to congressional republicans who warned they would not be able to defend his awarding himself a huge federal contract on top of the impeachment inquiry. >> do you think it's appropriate for the president to have the g7 at his doral golf club? >> no. >> i don't understand why at this moment they had to do that. >> a dissent from the american republic into banana republic territory with all of this stuff has just been so stunningly fast. >> walk back. chief of staff mick mulvaney trying to reverse his admission of a quid pro quo with ukraine. the only problem, he said it on live television. >> definitely used that language because there is not a quid pro quo. >> what you just described is a quid pro quo. >> we do that all the time with foreign policy.

>> and abandoned, the kurds erupt in anger as u.s. forces pull out of syria and president trump breaks his promise to bring the troops home. >> reporter: the defense secretary said that u.s. troops here in syria are not coming home. instead, they will be going to iraq. and now there are deep concerns that u.s. forces are leaving behind an ally to die. ♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where president trump is holding a cabinet meeting at this hour as three major political headaches plague a white house engulfed in the impeachment inquiry. first, the clearest sign yet that the president is feeling the pressure, the decision to abandon his plan to host next year's g7 at his doral resort. then his promise that the troops pulled out of syria are, quote, heading home. the defense secretary saying they are being redeployed to iraq and some may even stay in

syria to counter isis if the pentagon has its way. and finally, the split within the white house. acting chief of staff mick mulvaney still on the job at this hour one day after failing to extinguish the firestorm he created during a botched briefing room appearance amidst reports that his boss has been looking for replacements. >> why did you say in that briefing that president trump had ordered a quid pro quo that investigating the democrats, that aid to ukraine depended on investigating the democrats. why did you say that? >> that's what people said i said. there was not a quid pro quo. >> you were asked by jonathan carl. you described a quid pro quo and said that happens all the time. >> again, reporters will use their language all the time. >> it's always those pesky reporters. kristin welker joining me now. peter baker, chief white house correspondent at the "new york

times." and kim atkins, senior news correspondent at wbur in boston. kristin, let's talk about mick mulvaney, the cabinet meeting, all of these contradictions. where does it stand right now? >> reporter: andrea, the white house is in damage control mode. president trump, as you mentioned, right now holding a cabinet meeting and he's speaking out. we'll likely get that tape shortly. but he's trying to reset the narrative here. he's talking about syria. he's trying to make the case that the cease fire is holding, talking about the low unemployment rate. but the reality is the headlines of last week and this weekend have been making things more complicated for this administration. mick mulvaney, who came out to the briefing room, i was there and he essentially acknowledged that the administration was withholding aid for ukraine in exchange for investigating democrats in the 2016 election. he was trying to clarify and clean up those comments over the weekend, and of course you have this stunning reversal.

remember why mick mulvaney had come out to the briefing room in the first place. it was to announce that the president wanted to hold the next g7 summit at his resort in doral, florida. that got a lot of pushback, including from republicans which you just showed. i spoke with congressman peter king just moments ago. he was at camp david having dinner with mick mulvaney when all of this was as the forefront and when he made it clear in addition to some of those other gop lawmakers that it's not a great idea to be holding the g7 summit at the doral resort because it only complicated things, raises all sorts of questions about whether the president is violating the emoluments clause. the bottom line here, it underscores the fact that there are some real concerns about whether there is a coherent strategy here for dealing with the issue of impeachment and then all of the other issues that are piling on top of that, andrea. >> peter, you wrote over the weekend that there really was an

unraveling in the white house. there doesn't seem to be a war room certainly to deal with impeachment. the president is apparently just now told reporters in the cabinet meeting that the republicans have to get tougher on impeachment but he's not helping himself with the way he's behaving. you wrote, to the outside woorl it looked like his presidency was unraveling. as speaker nancy pelosi said to mr. trump, it was just another day in the never ending battle with convention. your perspective? >> i think that what's interesting about the doral thing and the syria thing is they're both decisions that challenge his own republican base at a time he most needs them in congress, right? he wants to keep the republicans on his side during the house proceedings and he definitely wants to keep the republicans on his side if it gets to a senate trial, which at the moment it looks like it will. to then go out and provoke his own party with these two decisions, one which is directly contrary to the republican

theory about the middle east and our role there, and the other just sort of putting them in a very awkward position to defend this sort of appearance of self-dealing with the resort and the g7. it seemed like very bad timing and that indicates he doesn't have somebody around him right now who's giving him the kind of political advice that he's willing to listen to in terms of how to approach this prevent. we know that the key to his survival is going to be keeping the party on his own side. >> kim, the doral decision seems to pull together all of these strands of a president who, as peter said, doesn't have any advisors, there are no guardrails. the impulsivity of it, how bad it is just from a legal perspective in the middle of impeachment, it could have led to another article of impeachment if the house wanted to go there. >> it was a violation, it seemed by all measure, of the constitution of the emoluments clause very clearly. that is why republican sources i

talked to over the weekend said that was the line they had to draw. generally speaking when president trump has done these impulsive things, he was protected by the line of support among republicans on the hill. this time they said to him, no, we can't stand behind given everything else on top of syria, on top of this impeachment hearing, we can't do this, really pressed him to pull back on it. so he's blaming the media and blaming democrats, but it was really the republicans who stood up to him and said this is just a bridge too far. >> and they seemed to try to be making a distinction, the president certainly was, as was mulvaney, that he wasn't going to make profits from having it at doral. but in the emoluments clause, whether or not there's a profit or a loss doesn't matter. >> no. >> it's just the issue of having any money transferred at all. >> or any value. >> any value from a foreign entity, from a king, from a prince, i mean, if you read the constitution. >> yes. it could be perpetual. even if he said it was going to be free, which he had given no

indication of that before, once a g7 is held at a resort at a place, they advertise that forever. they put up photographs on the wall and they are known for that. they celebrate and advertise that in perpetuity. this is clearly something that made foreign leaders uncomfortable. this seems like a pretty clear violation to just about anybody who looked at it. >> peter, the president is pushing back on something that mark esper said that the new defense secretary may have to tweet a correction to, we've been hearing from the pool traveling with him. he's now in syria. he had been in afghanistan. the defense secretary suggesting that there was a plan to leave some troops in northeast syria. and the president now saying he does not want any troops left in syria. >> in fact, my colleagues over the weekend were told by administration officials that that was a plan under consideration, that that was something the president looked

on with some favor, which would have been yet another reversal. remember, he did the same thing back in december. he was going to pull all troops out of syria and then he was talked out of it's by piece to keep some stability. that's what secretary esper and the pentagon was looking to do in this case, to try to keep some presence there, not in the same space, not where the turks are currently creating their own safe zone, but at least on the border with iraq to, you know, watch out for an islamic state resurgence. yet the president is saying this morning he doesn't want to do that. it's clearly a reaction on his part to what he probably feels is being boxed in by the military. he wants to bring troops home and even then he's simply reshuffling them around the middle east at this point. but he's talking strongly about leaving end less wars and if he leaves troops in syria, he obviously feels that would be in violation of his promise and he's not going to stand for that, i guess. >> you know a lot of this goes

back to his claims, his false claims that isis has been wiped out. the territorial isis has been wiped out, but not isis as a resurgent threat according to his own pentagon's acknowledgment in the last inspector general's report. kristin, what about the job security of one mick mulvaney? what do you think or what does your reporting show? >> reporter: it's a really good question, andrea. here's what we know. we know that the president was really displeased by that briefing last week in which mulvaney came out and contradicted his consistent claims that there was no quid pro quo. so we know that. we know that there has frankly been tensions between mulvaney and other staff members. however, having said that, given the fact that the president is in the middle of this impeachment inquiry, at this point in time it doesn't appear likely that he's going to want to make a change at the top. we know that he gets frustrated with staff, that this happens all of the time.

but what would actually lead him to replace his chief of staff given all of the volatility, that remains to be seen. it's worth noting that some staff members at least still wanting to show their support. they gave him an ovation during one of the meetings today just to sort of make the case to him that there are still people here who support him, despite the fact that by all accounts he is embattled right now, andrea. >> kristin welker, peter baker, kimberly atkins, thanks to you all. days after president trump pulled those u.s. troops out of syria, new questions about whether the troops are actually going. bout whether the troops are actually going. i can't believe it. what? that our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost? hey jill! hey kurt! movies? i'll get snacks! no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on our car insurance with geico. i got snacks! ohhh, i got popcorn, i got caramel corn, i got kettle corn.

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and we have breaking news from the white house. president trump is at a cabinet meeting and just said he does not want to leave u.s. troops in syria. meanwhile, his new defense secretary contradicted the president's claim that those troops that are being withdrawn are coming home. secretary mark esper telling reporters the troops coming out of syria will be redeployed to iraq. >> the u.s. withdrawal continues apace from northeast syria. again, we e're talking weeks, n days. the current game plan is for those forces to reposition in western iraq, the ones coming out, right, that original 1,000. and then two missions. one is to help defend iraq and

two is to perform a counter isis mission as we sort through the next steps. again, that's the current game plan. things could change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal. >> this as kurdish civilians ai leave, some demonstrators thoughing potathough i throwing potatoes at the u.s. troops. joining me now is retired four star general, his new book is sailing true north. as you point out, this building that we sit in is dedicated by a former supreme allied commander, none other than dwight davidi ue

eisenhower. >> we could use a little more ike in our politics. >> even in our military. >> indeed. >> first the president saying no troops are going to stay in syria, so this is another disclaimer from something the pentagon was planning to perhaps keep 100 or so troops to protect the oil fields if you will, not to protect the people. and with no exit strategy because their paths out would not have been very easy. >> correct. >> and there's no airstrip there around the oil fields that i know of. >> from a military perspective, my head is spinning so fast i feel like i'm a scene from the exorcist. we just heard the secretary of defense mark esper, who's a very good, solid individual, tell us that the troops are going to iraq and they will be continuing these missions into syria. that's good news, but i think at this point that ship has sailed

in terms of protecting the kurds. so they are highly at risk, as we see. isis will resurge. and the winners in this remain iran and vladimir putin, the puppet master who continues to play this situation like a violin. >> there's also a report in the "new york times" and this matches some intelligence that we had over several years that turkey has nuclear ambitions. >> this was really distressing to hear it stated so directly by president erdogan. we ought to be deeply concerned about that. once you start that march toward mid tier powers like turkey pursuing a ynuclear weapon, the japan will want a nuclear weapon, saudi arabia will want a nuclear weapon and on and on and on. at the end of the day, the greatest risk is proliferation

of nuclear weapons because they become highly unstable in a distributed capacity. >> i want to ask you about character and presidential leadership, which is what sailing true north is about because it's about character and leadership. the president in the cabinet room is apparently also talking about the decision on doral and saying that he is probably the only president since george washington who gives up his salary. now, we know that the emoluments clause says nothing about profit or loss. it's about just taking the money from foreign sources from kings or princes or other foreign governments. but he still is seizing on this and seeing it in a completely incorrect context. >> yeah. i think across the political spectrum, the pushback on him doing this was direct and appropriate. it appears to me, i'm not a lawyer, but it appears to me to be a direct contradiction of the

law. so he's hurt i think from his side of the aisle and the other side of the aisle. so he's making a forced decision. here you see president trump, who is nothing but not willful, seemingly incapable of giving up this very bad position. >> when we talk about the agreement as well that was negotiated with erdogan, the word cease fire does not appear in the text by the admission of ambassador jeffrey on the flight out of turkey on the way to israel to try to reassure netanyahu about abandoning the syrian kurds and opening a land bridge for iran. if you look at the map, iran is empowered as you've been pointing out, the russians, the syrians, assad, all of our putative enemies are empowered by this position. and it was a pause, the difference between a pause and a cease fire is a little d distinction as well.

>> it is. cease fire means you stop all combat operations. a pause is simply take a break, all of your gears of war continue to churn, logistics are flowing, you're ready to go and you are going to go. that unfortunately is how this is going to play out. ambassador jeffreys, whom i know well, is a superb u.s. diplomat. he's doing the best he can here to try to reassure the israelis, the saudis, the gulf states that our opposition to iran is not cratering in the face of this decision, which andrea, as you point out, opens up a swath of territory that goes from tehran, through baghdad, through damascus, through beirut to the shores of the mediterranean with iranian influence unchallenged. >> one thing that also happened over the weekend is nancy pelosi is leading a bipartisan dell immigration, a congressional delegation to the region.

they met with king abdullah of jordan. jordan is hugely impacts ed by this. the king said it very clearly, they are now in afghanistan. there are allies everywhere who need to be reassured that the u.s. is not going to turn and run. >> precisely. listen to the verbiage that's come out of the pentagon, we want to get our troops out of harm's way. we're concerned we might take casualties. i'm not sure that is the metric by which we measure u.s. military engagement. if i'm an estonian, i've got to be thinking if russian tanks come rolling through here, will u.s. troops actually stand and fight? i've got to be thinking if i'm a south korean, will the u.s. troops be pulled out of here because it's too risky for them? it's a bad message coming at a time when the world is already rattled. and it gets back, finally, to this idea of character and how

we portray ourselves in the world. we need to be steady. we need to be self-confident. we don't need to be bombastic. we need to have qualities like admiral nimitz in the second world war, like eisenhower. this undermines us in the world. >> it's such a pleasure to see you in person. the book is "sailing true north." admiral nimitz and others profiled here are the true tests of character. we need a lot more of that right now. >> indeed we do. hillary clinton sending shock waves through the democratic primary with a surprising theory about one of the candidates. a surprising theory abt ouone of the candidates

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this has senator bernie sanders made a big show back east in new york city, drawing a huge turnout. an estimated 26,000 people in queens, new york, for a rally, featuring the endorsement of the district's high profile new congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez. >> we right now have one of the best democratic presidential primary fields in a generation. and much of that is thanks to the work that bernie sanders has done in his entire life. >> joining me now is the author of "power up" for the "washington post." and joel payne. welcome both. let's first talk about the shape of the race and then we can get onto some surprising new developments on the hillary front as well. joel, what do you think about the rise of pete buttigieg in

iowa? >> it's awful predictable for a couple reasons. one, his fund-raising numbers have always been really strong and you would have expected buttigieg's polling numbers and resonance with people to follow that. he's also invested a lot in early state organization which those type of things really start to reflect in polling numbers. i talked to the buttigieg folks. what they also highlight is despite the fact that he's surging, a lot of caucus goers haven't made up their minds yet. it's interesting that they point out this is a race that could change a lot and they don't feel like voters have made up their minds yet. that's something all the campaigns are hopeful about. >> it is very early. caucus goers can make up their minds at the caucuses themselves. that's the whole point of these caucuses. but buttigieg has been surprisingly strong, had a good debate performance and obviously

with midwestern roots, iowa could be a very open territory for him. >> it's interesting seeing that bit of the bernie sanders rally. he's the candidate who has had the most money and he's still behind pete buttigieg in iowa. joel's exactly right. in this usa today poll caucus goers are more undecided than they were in june. it is a wide open race. right now buttigieg's moves are pointing way more favorable than his idealogical kmcompetitor whh i think would be joe biden. this past week biden wasn't as articulate as buttigieg. buttigieg successfully attacked elizabeth warren and made his mark. he has been someone who voters have seen to consistently impressed them during the debates while biden has done the opposite. >> the notion that buttigieg is

in a three-way tie and leading among those who watched the debate. >> it's so interesting. these debates, while i don't think that they have fundamentally changed the race, there have been narratives clearly coming out of each. the first debate was kamala harris attacking joe biden. then it was biden stabilizing. this was at warren starting to expand her lead. now we're seeing buttigieg maybe making a late break for it. these debates define the next 4-6 weeks until the next debate. >> biden had surprisingly little cash on hand. buttigieg had such big fund-raising. both he and warren have consider amounts of cash on hand and biden is surprisingly down on the money front. >> biden has been struggling and these debates haven't been helping.

this past weekend he wasn't out on the campaign trail. his wife jill biden was trying to clean up what biden wasn't able to do in forcefully defending his son against these baseless allegation that is the gop has been peddlpeddling. buttigieg has been struggling with some voters that biden has done well with. that's african-american voters. iowa is just one piece of this puzzle but he is in really good shape and that is in part due to the record hauls he's pulled in. >> on the hillary clinton front, she articulated something in a podcast. let's play this. she was clearly talking about tulsi gabbard and she is talking about the real thing, which is the russian bots promoting gabbard's candidacy. here's how she articulated it and why there are a lot of questions being asked. >> they're also going to do third party again. and i'm not making any predictions, but i think they've

got their eye on somebody who's currently in the democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third party candidate. she's a favorite of the russians. they have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far. and that's assuming jill stein will give it up, which she might not because she's also a russian asset. >> yeah. >> she's a russian asset. i mean, totally. >> is her mistake using the phrase russian asset, which is a technical term? >> i think that's problematic. and i think it's also problematic that she probably put more focus on tulsi gabbard as opposed to jaill stein. that's a real thing what happened with jill stein in 2016 and the russian bots supporting her and supporting putin's interests. that's real. people are using this i think as an excuse to try to drive a wedge between hillary clinton and some of these 2020 hopefuls

and democratic primary voters. hillary clinton has logged the most votes for anyone in the history of presidential politics with 66 million votes. she beat the current president by 3 million votes. to suggest she is not a central figure in democratic politics and her advice and counsel is not useful is a mistake. i do think some of the backlash has been overwrought. >> the president tweeted jill stein on friday saying crooked hillary clinton just called the respected environmentalist and green party candidate jill stein a russian asset. he is again pushing jill stein. jill stein's numbers, if you look at it in those three critical states, is the difference between president trump and president clinton. >> i agree. so i think other than creating some squeamish questions for people like me on air and you know maybe just adding a little bit of fodder to the hillary

versus some of the 2020 hopefuls, i don't think this is a big story. i don't think tulsi is going to be a big contender. >> it wasn't a big story until hillary clinton addressed it and made it about gabbard. >> i'd quarrel with big. i think it's a story. >> the president in this ongoing q and a in the cabinet room has just said that his being impeached is a foregone conclusion. we'll wait for that tape to arrive any moment. thank you both so very much. coming up, the mitts are off. what's behind utah republican senator mitt romney's liberation from the party line as he becomes one of the president's most vocal critics? vocal critis day 23. i'm about to capture proof of the ivory billed woodpecker. what??? no, no no no no.

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welcome back. newly elected republican senator mitt romney is no longer holding back about president trump. in a harsh speech on the senate floor last week, romney condemned the president's decision to withdraw u.s. troops if syria. when asked by "the atlantic" about impeachable acts romney said, i'll know it when i see it. joining me now is mike murphy former senior advisor to mitt romn romney. great to see you.

is mitt romney sort of the canary in the coal mine here? >> no. i think mitt actually has the courage, which seems to be rather lacking sadly in our senate caucus to sound like a lot of senators sound privately. he's been consistent about his doubts about donald trump. now things have kind of hit a boiling point, because not only of the ukrainian mess where the president clearly abused the power of his office for his own political interests, but this disaster in northern syria with the be trtrayal of the kurds. i think frustration with trump is growing, but the political realities of at least the perceived strength trump has in the republican primary electorate has most of these senators being very silent. if a democrat had done one-fifth

of what trump has done, they'll all be howling like banshees. >> going on tv and saying china will you investigate my political opponent is wrong, it's a mistake. it was shocking in my opinion for the president to do so and a mistake for him to do so. i can't imagine coming to a different point of view. we certainly can't have presidents asking foreign countries to provide something of political value. that is, after all, against the law. >> so that is the kind of thing that would go completely against mitt romney's grain and frankly against the grain of a lot of senators if they had the guts to speak out. >> yeah. i think so. i'm not sure what else the president has to do, get in a hamburgler outfit and take the nuclear codes to putin on the front line of the white house. the republicans are frustrated but they feel check mate politically. they tell me, i don't think a

lot of trump, but if i go criticize him, trump won't change and i'll be in a big political mess back home. what impact will my self- self-immolation have. new polling is starting to come in inside the republican party from senate states they had thought were pretty safe in 2020. they're now looking in real trouble driven by all this. the politics are going the wrong way. if this starts to become a question about the survival of the republican majority in the senate, then the politics get pretty tough. and while taking on trump is totally unappetizing to most senators, waiting around to get defeated and lose the majority is also unappetizing. they may have some tough choices

to make if things keep going in the direction they're in now as the president spins more and more out of control. >> the conventional wisdom on mitch mcconnell is he will do what's best for mitch mcconnell for keeping control of the senate for his own race. that's why it was so surprising to see an op-ed on friday in the "washington post" against the withdrawal from syria, saying withdrawing u.s. troops from syria is a grave strategic mistake, it will leave the american people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies and weaken important alliances. the obama administration's withdrawal from iraq facilitated the rise of the islamic state in the first place. what do you think prompted that? i disagree if i'm the president, but i think mitch mcconnell does what mitch mcconnell thinks is right for both the country and the politics of maintaining a majority in the senate to

achieve conservative legislation and judges and all that. in his calculus, trump clearly crossed the line with his geostrategic blunder of epic proportions and he put out a pretty strong op-ed saying that. i give him points of that. he's master politician. he does not see at this time the percentage posting up against trump. if the majority is at risk a few months from now, mitch will make tough decisions. >> a lot of tough decisions are going to be made around this town in the next coming months. >> tough situation. thank you. meanwhile in dallas, texas, a terrible situation, tens of thousands of texans are still in the dark after a tornado tore through dallas sunday night. the twister was on the ground for 17 miles, destroying buildings and homes in its path. search and rescue teams now are going house to house surveying the damage. no deaths or serious injuries in dallas were reported. the national weather service this morning areas of alabama,

mississippi, and tennessee could see damaging wind gusts and a few tornados later today. coming up, state secrets. the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine who said it would be crazy to hold bay to that country, now set to testify to the impeachment committees tomorrow. . i had a heart problem. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen, and i just didn't listen. until i almost lost my life. my doctors again ordered me to take aspirin, and i do. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. listen to the doctor. take it seriously.

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attorney general william barr's investigation into the origins of the mueller probe has apparently gone a lot farther than previously known, digging into fbi and decision making by president obama with lead prosecutor john durham taking on more staff. among the concerns, a western intelligence official familiar with what durham has been asking says his inquiries track closely with the questions raised about the russia investigation in right wing media. joining me ambassador wendy sherman and ned price, a former senior director in president obama's national security council.

welcome both. this investigation seems to be looking into whether ukraine and others started the mueller investigation, whether the inve looking into the background of john brennan and former dni clapper who had a 50 plus career in the military. yes, andrea, from the outside, this looks like a continuation of undermining the institutions of the united states government. the theory it appears that attorney general barr is operating under the bunk conspiracy theory that ned can elaborate more than i can. it is really crazy to be perfectly frank. d d it is raising questions among diplomats around the world who are being questioned about

whether in fact russia was responsible for interfering in our elections. all of our agencies and all 17 of them have said they did and we need to really be on our toes about what will happen in the upcoming election. >> in fact, dan coats said the same thing. ned price, you were with the intelligence team as well. you were cia, clapper and john brennan would have to lawyer up. a lot of cia officials, this is getting out of bounds, is it? >> to be totally frank. i am concerned of john brennan and clapper. both of whom i admired greatly. look, i think it is fair to say we have every reason to believe this inquiry is not about the past, this is not about what

happens in 2016. i fear on the other hand, this is about the future. this is about the trump administration once again trying to do trump's political bidding. i say something about the past because there had not been any number looking back of 2016. we refer to the high confidence and intelligence assessment released in january 2017 that relay the findings. ec most importantly the doj inspector general under taken a comprehensive review of fbi and doj action in 2016, precisely what john durham is supposed to be doing in this review. this is bill barr trying to create a talking point for president trump to say he was treated unfairly and mistreated by the intelligence community

and more concerning, andrea, this will send a signal to intelligence analysts that you should follow the truth as long as the truth does not lead you to president trump. >> we are trying to get to the truth of a lot of thung things. one of his texts is crazy to withhold security assistance for help of the political campaign that seems to validate the quid pro quo. what is about these ambassadors who are coming and how critical this is to the inquiry and to what's going on in the state department? >> well, ambassador taylor is an extraordinary professional, i have known him for many years

back when i served in the clinton administration. he was responsible for the funding that was going to the newly inspe new newly independent state. he went to west point, he served in the infantry for six years. he's a patriot. he'll speak as he sees it. he'll not be political about his response. he'll be professional and patriotic in his responses. the same will be true of phil reeker who'll testify the following day. this follows up on the unfortunate and quite frankly awful comment that secretary pompeo made about one of the greatest diplomats in our history and that's ambassador bill burns, department secretary of department, secretary pompeo said ambassador burns' comments about what has happened here are crazy. we should all be as crazy as bill burns, he's really an

american treasure and his peace in foreign affairs is about the demolition of diplomacy was completely accurate, right on you know better than anyone, probably, andrea of the moral of the state is currently rock bottom. >> bill burns was our guest on friday. i will retweet that so it is at the top of everybody. thank you wendy sherman and ned price. >> coming up, a congressional first, an honorable elijah cummings. stay with us, you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mitchell reports" on msnbc. and i find it noninvasively... no need for time off or special prep. it all starts here... you collect your sample, and cologuard uses the dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers. you can always count on me

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and before we go. on thursday, the late congressman elijah cummings lies in state in capitol. he's the first african-american lawmaker to be given this honor. the public will be allowed to pay their respects. nancy pelosi leads the bipartisan delegation to the middle east, a terrible loss for the family. the death of her brother. thomas alexander iii. the public service was a noble calling. we all have responsibility to help others. our condolences to the speaker

of the house for this different kilt ti difficult time. here is stephanie ruhle. >> hello everyone, we are kicking off a major week in washington. the impeachment inquiry digs deeper on capitol hill. support for impeachment is rising among americans. the president's basis de is dig in its heels. the question is how big is that base. the impeachment inquiry, will it crack the republican party? we are learning more of rudy giuliani's connections with ukraine. we'll at the you what private photos are revealing of his relationship to the ukrainian american donor indicted for illegal campaign know discriminatiodonations. the president is taking questions right now. joining me now geoff bennett,