tonight on "all in." true in politics and what is the minimum line. >> ukrainians did not know at we wanted to show you that because it was an interesting the aid was being withheld. start to a much longer conversation. i'll be back here at 6:00 p.m. >> another tortured white house eastern if you want to join me. and don't go anywhere now because "hardball" with chris matthews is up next. talking point goes poof. >> you can't have a quid pro quo with no quo. >> tonight as the trump attack on impeachment, let's defenders spin out of control. >> abuse of power is not a play hardball. crime. >> what we're learning when trump knew about ukraine's quid pro quo. plus what we know about the mob linked ukrainian oligarch good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. there's mounting evidence funding their spree. tonight that the president extorted a foreign ally for political gain. the charge at the center of the >> f-i-r-t-a-s-h. impeachment inquiry. the associated press today >> the then reported that months before his notorious july phone call with president trump, ukraine's president was wary of trump's push for an investigation into former vice president joe biden and his son. and days before, zelensky was sworn in may he gathered a small group of advisers where they

spent almost three hours talking about how to navigate the insistence from trump and rudy giuliani for a probe and how to avoid becoming entangled in the american elections. it shows that from the outset zelensky was under serious pressure to dig up dirt on joe biden. and that pressure increased dramatically after trump froze crucial u.s. military support to ukraine in july. and now ambassador bill taylor has testified that the release of that military aid was conditioned on ukraine's willingness to launch the politically motivated investigations that trump was seeking. taylor described numerous diplomatic communications each making clear that ukraine would get the aid in exchange for dirt on biden. as written in "the washington post" today, it is no longer a question of how this happened, it is a question of how the president explains it and how

lawmakers respond to it. we saw how they responded today when a band of trump loyalists storm a facility where a pentagon official was set to testify on the impeachment inquiry, violating house rules. those two dozen republicans there refused to leave for five hours delaying the scheduled deposition of deputy assistant secretary laura cooper. bloomberg reports that stunt had the backing of the president. we'll get to that shortly. first growing dread among trump's allies as each passing day brings new damning revelations. peter baker's chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," john brennen is the former director of the cia. congresswoman, i guess it looks like that the republicans around the president, those who like him, don't like him, whatever,

for whatever reason are getting crazy like he is. they're beginning to do things like that stunt today because they can't win the argument anymore. he's been caught. your thoughts. >> well, i actually think -- i mean i know that they shared it with him last night that they were going to do that, put i also think they did that ipresponin response to his rhetoric saying they can't defend him enough. so when i saw his antics i thought they were marching to his orders. and i think it really was an act of desperation. their not going to be able to stop the truth from coming out. i think it's really like a damn is breaking right now, and it's just important that we hear from all of the witnesses so that we can have a clear picture of the damage that's been done to our democracy. >> well, congresswoman, the hearings that are being held to get information from top people like bill taylor yesterday are all bipartisan, there's republicans in every one of those rooms, it's not like

there's something sneaky going on. put these people in this sort of pro brooks brothers, this remind me of something like a recount, another brooks brothers protest. it's like a bunch of grown men acting like they're into hijinx. what a boring looking group, by the way. your thoughts. >> it was actually embarrassing. and chris, you know this, if you add the number of republicans from three committees, intel, oversight and reform and foreign affairs you're talking about a large number of republicans. so it is not like they have not been involved, that they haven't had complete access to everything. they just want us to have everything in the openrectomy now so that the witnesses can coordinate their testimony and be bullied by the white house and we're not going to do that. >> let me go to peter baker on this because you write the main bar of the piece in "the times" and i want to ask you about

this. it seems to me dan has written a pretty solid statement that it's now clear on the record that the president of the united states conditioned u.s. military assistance to zelensky's government in ukraine who are facing the russian tanks on him providing some sort of declaration he's going after joe biden. my question is what's left to argue about? >> yeah, i think that dan gets it spot on as he always does. when you get dan who's about as measured a journalist out there making such a definitive statement it does tell you something has changed in the debate. and i think he's right that basically the question now is what do we make of the facts we have in front of us? what's do we make of what the president and his people have done in terms of ukraine? is it important enough? is it defensible? and the storming of the barricades in terms of the pacement shows the republican argument right now is one of process. they don't want to defend what

the president has done in terms of ukraine partly because they may not be 100% sure all the facts are out there and don't want to get called out and it's hard to argue at this point, so they focus on the process that democrats aren't being fair. it's not different from 1998 when the democrats focused on process defending president clinton's impeachment. rather than defending his conduct they said the other side is handling this bad, it's a way of making it a partisan affair, us versus them. they're treating us badly, therefore you have to be with us. it worked to some extent for president clinton. that's the goal president trump has here, too. keep republicans on his side, make sure it's a party line debate. as long as it's a party line debate then he wins and it gets to the senate. >> john brennen, thank you for coming on tonight. it seems to me -- you're a public servant for life -- and it seems to me everything that

trump does when you have bill taylor, who was the mission in kiev and he testified how he discovered there was another force-out there to use this leverage we have with a desperate country, a militarily desperate country facing russia, when he realized that was going on he finally came out and put it to the public, gave it to the public. it just seems to me trump's last gasp is referred to all republicans who don't like him as human scum. this is the president talking. he trashes every individual who speaks against him. >> that's why i find it very heartening that -- it's national security professionals are diplomats like bill taylor, lock laura cooper from the department of defense, like the whistle blower from the intelligence community somewhere who are standing up and speaking out against donald trump. it is very heartening to those of us who did serve in a national security environment

for so many years. therefore i think he has to resort to these name-calling tactics because their professionalism, their expertise, their experience i think lends great weight to the substantive argument that donald trump indpamgedbribery are ukra. >> calling people scum is like the worst street corner lingo and you're talking about republicans including bill taylor, hares not in this for the money like trump is almost in it for the money almost all the time. this guy is in it for public service and because he tells the truth, he's human. who comes up with these phrases? >> you're right. no other president in modern times anyway used this kind of language and as extensively and viscerally as this one does. he talks like a playground, you

know, combatant. he doesn't speak in presidential tones. in fact the other day in dallas at a rally he gave down there he mocked the very idea of being presidential. the idea he uses scum and other insipdiary phrases that's part and parcel of his style and approach to the presidency. definitely he's a turn off to people who remember the other presidents who behaved in a more unifying way or even when they conducted fierce debates, did so in a higher tone. this is not the way he rolls. it's not the way he operates, and it's worked for him as he sees it so he's going to keep it up. it's a very different way of looking at the presidency. i think it's hard to make bill taylor into a radical unelected pure crat which is the phrase the white house used last night to describe him. he's given 50 years to this country, went to west point,

served in vietnam. appointed first ambassador to ukraine under president george w. bush. he served under reagan and democrats. he's someone who believed in his country and diplomatic and other forms. he's hard to dehumanize him but that's what president trump tries to do. >> just to make the term, he uses terms like human scum to justify genocide, use human scum phrases like that to justify totalitarian behavior against your political innomies. it licenses people to do the worst possible things when presidents, leaders of a country uses terms like that. this is frightening. anyhow, trump is now making the argument he did want engage in a quid pro quo because as he says ukraine didn't realize they were being leveraged. trump today claimed neither taylor or any other witness has

provided testimony the ukrainians were aware military aid was being withheld. there was ample evidence the ukrainians did know they weren't getting the aid they inspected. in fact ambassador taylor testified the quid pro quo was spelled out explicitly. congressman, this president is so desperate and reaching around for b.s. excuses what he did, i sometimes wonder didn't he say it would be okay to be impeached. >> he clearly didn't understand or believe it would ever happen. but i will tell you when i sat in that room yesterday listening to the ambassador you felt like you were in the presence of a true patriot. he had been been very clear, he told secretary pompeo, i don't want to go to ukraine unless the policy is going to be consistent. so they were forewarned, and

they w to depot anyway and he went out of his patriotic duty somebody we nee recognize in the future. and i think it is so sad and such a tragedy for all ory time i go to another country i have to go to an embassy and try to lift their spirits because they are so demoralized from having their commander in chief constantly humiliate and denigrate their work and their service to our country. >> it seems to me they're making great witnesses. >> they are. and i think there americans should be proud of these individuals who were willing to stand up. and i wish the ardent supporters of president trump would have the courage, the spine, the honesty to do what these professionals are doing.

and it's very unfortunate that trump's defenders continue to try to explain away his mdeeds and again focus on the process right now. this is the process that the republicans had during the benghazi hearings, and it does make a lot of sense to be able to do these things without the glaring lights of the tv cameras. so i'm just very pleased people now are starting to listen to those professionals who can expose the activities and the actions of mr. trump. >> well, increasingly obviously a historic role as a totalitarian are, which is what he is, a man who will lead his country all pie himself with no staff room. there's no loop with trump, no people around him, there's no council of war. he does whatever he wants in that moment. he apparently has an obsession with you.

did you sense that? >> he can be obsessed with me if he likes. he's a badly broken person who has really done a great disservice not just to this country but to our world in terms of how he's been so irresponsible and reckless and self-centered in the conduct of the presidency. and therefore i believe there is more than a legitimate basis right now to impeach this individual and also to remove him from office. i am just hoping that more and more republicans will find the courage, will find the spine to be able to speak out against what truly is sort of a dangerous aberration of our great republic. >> i hope they're listening. thank you. by the way, all four of you cicilliny and you and hakeem and sherri, i think you're great. just keep speaking out for the leadership of the house. i think you've got to get on tv all the time.

peter baker, i love your main bar piece, the big one, the big foot. thank you. keep doing it. john brennen, you're passion and patriotism match up. thank you. coming up, a new line of defense from trump's supporters apuce of power is not a crime. listen to that one. it dogged down nixon, it was one of his articles. and republicans have a new strategy, disrupt the hearings. this does remind me of the brooks brothers protest in 2000 down in florida or a panty raid. they are the dullest looking people. anyway, let's look at this. >> speaker pelosi has tyrannically commandeered the house of representatives. adam schiff has to stop, nancy pelosi has to stop. this process has to stop and it's got to stop now. >> anyway, trump has a message from republicans who don't support him. he calls them human scum. isn't that nice, to your fellow

party member. plus trump's mission accomplished moment in syria. he thinks betraying our allies and getting out of dodge is, quote, big success. tell that to the kurds. we've got much more to get to tonight. stick with us. got much more to tonight. stick with us. about 50% of people with severe asthma have too many cells called eosinophils in their lungs. eosinophils are a key cause of severe asthma. fasenra is designed to target and remove these cells. fasenra is an add-on injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. fasenra is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra is proven to help prevent severe asthma attacks, improve breathing, and can lower oral steroid use. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments

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the people, my people are so smart. and you know what else they say about my people, the polls, they say i have the most loyal people. where i could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters, okay, it's like incredible. >> shoot somebody just like that and even shows how he'd do it. that was candidate donald trump back in 2016 bragging about the loyalty of his supporters. in a federal appeals court over fight over access of the president's tax returns trump's

lawyer argued that the president can't even be investigated and enjoys absolute immunity from criminal investigation while in office which led one judge to ask trump's attorney about the 2016 claim. >> what's your view on the fifth avenue example, local authorities couldn't investigate, they couldn't do anything about it? >> i think once a president is removed from office, any local authority -- this is not a permanent immunity. >> i'm talking about while in office. nothing could be done, that is your position the. >> that is correct. >> well, the president's attorney's argument he can't even be investigated when he's in office comes as the president's allies are failing to respond to mounting evidence in the impeachment inquiry. matt whittaker made this claim, that abuse of power is not a crime. >> i'm a former prosecutor and

what i know is this a perfect time for a preliminary hearing where you would say show us your evidence. what evidence of a crime do you have? you know, the constitution -- abuse of power is not a crime. >> tell that to nixon and a attempting to shutdown the process, storming the skiff delaying laura cooper's deposition for five hours. house rules mandate only respected members of the committees can attend these depositions. bloomberg reports that trump supported the action saying he wanted the transcripts released because they would exonerate him. you know what that means. cynthia, first of all, those committees, they're meeting in this basement of the capital, secure so they can take the testimony down so they don't do menendez brothers agreement on their testimony, they're all

bipartisan, as many republican as democrats yet this pr stunt today makes it like oh, we caught you democrats down there in the hole of the capital, it's not true. >> it's a pr stunt. when there's all this pressure for people who are career civil servants not to testify and then you have this parade of the on passporty raid, and if you're not the type a person looking to tell your story, it's scary. it's a form of witness intimidation. can we say anything about matt whittaker, he's an embarrassment to the justice system. the prosecutor does not say show me your evidence. they dpaer tgather the evidence grand jury. the guy's an idiot. >> nixon, one of the articles of impeachment against him was abuse of power.

it's like history doesn't matter with this crowd. >> impeachment, articles of impeachment are whatever congress says it is. >> sure. but if it is apuce there is nob power what would impeachment be for? >> he reminds me of the pizza gate conspiracy theorists. >> i was just at that common pizza the other night -- >> instead of finding the child sex ring, they found pizza making. what did the republicans find today? deposition giving. and guess what? there were other republicans in the room because they belong there, on the committee. the one thing people forget about the whole process and that's what trump is attacking the process, which he did in the mueller investigation.

they take credible people, wear them down, take credible processes and confuse people about them. whittaker is confusing people about the impeachment process versus a criminal prosecution. as dan said today in "the washington post" there is no question about quid pro quo. you don't even need the pro quo, you just need the quid. and that is over, it's done. we know what happened. the question is are we going to redefine it, is it an impeachable defense. that's the question. this was an arms for dirt deal. he call the ukrainian president and said i want dirt on joe biden and you will give it to me or i will pull -- they knew -- they knee what was going on. even if the president didn't know about the pulled funds before then, it didn't matter. i could have a conversation with you and then three days you'll realize what that conversation was about because you got an initial piece of information. and the initial piece of information was the money's not

coming. oh, he must be serious about this investigation. this isn't hard to understand. so, look, justice grinds slowly and it's supposed to so we don't convict people -- >> put trump admitted what he said to zelensky on the phone, i want a favor, though. it's american english. >> you know what else about this business about doing the grand jury work first, doing this investigative work first -- but more than that we can see exactly why it works. because sondland goes in there, he doesn't know what taylor's going to say. what does he he do? he lies. he says i didn't have any idea what it was for. now they caught him on that. now they have leverage. that's why grand juries work. >> the reason this investigation was taking place in sequestered away from the public eye is the same way a special prosecutor would conduct the investigation. they don't have that now. >> so people can't match up

their stories. >> or surround yourself with men in his case who say abuse of power is not a crime, and by the way how many rounds of ammo can he use on fifth avenue before someone stops him? >> and let's not pretend that's the lawyers argument, that's the president's argument. >> and while the republicans in the house were relying on theatrics today senate republicans are taking a different approach. mitch mcconnell told his members in a closed door meeting yesterday this is going to be about process. today the number two republican senate majority whip john thune of south dakota criticized how the inquiry was being carried outs when asked about bill taylor's testimony. >> the picture coming out of it based on the reporting we've seen i would say is not a good one, but i would say also that, again, until we have a process that allows for everybody to see this in full transparency it's

pretty hard to draw any hard fast conclusions. >> what's this? >> a careful what you wish for. it's a process that's going to become trance parent is going to be pretty ugly for republicans. and then they'll still complain. >> they'll show them what they got, and you got a problem. >> it's not going to be pretty when taylor gets in front. but i do want them to finish their work carefully. >> it remind me of the late frank -- once said in washington ignore every word someone speaks before the word but. anyway, thank you. still ahead he's a former cia director, former secretary of defense and former white house chief of staff, so our next guest has lots of insights and lots to say about impeachment and russia and ukraine and more. don't go anywhere. there he is. leon pinetta jones us next on

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welcome back to "hardball." president trump's defense is looking weaker after the explosive and damning testimony yesterday by career foreign servant ambassador bill taylor. a west point graduate, he served in vietnam, taylor was recruited by secretary of state mike pompeo to serve as acting ambassador to ukraine. he has served every administration, by the way,

since 1985. taylor's not the only administration official to cooperate with the house impeachment inquiry. he joins nine other current and former officials who have broken with the white house. them radical bureaucrats waging war on the constitution. president trump accused him of being a never trump republican, referring to those in his own party -- this is the lowest trump has gone -- human scum. and joining us leon pinetta. mr. secretary, where do you put trump's language, human scum is a term he uses now for all republicans who oppose him but particularly the civil servant who testified yesterday, bill taylor? >> well, look, for a president of the united states to use that

kind of language not only lowers the office of the presidency, but i think basically reflects on president trump himself as somebody who can't -- who can't really speak to the issues that are involved here but has to attack and basically try to demean people. you know, i think the reality, chris, is that president trump is an easy read here. he's in trouble, he knows he's in trouble, and rather than speaking to the case that's being brought against him, he's simply going to lash out at people, and that's what he's doing. >> you've worked in so many capacities at the highest level in the house of representatives, of course, and the executive branch and you've dealt with public servants, foreign service officers, what did you make of bill taylor's yesterday showing the quid pro quo arrangement

where u.s. military foreign assistance was going to be held up unless the president of ukraine agreed to give a declaration saying he's going to investigate joe biden? >> i think speaking as a lawyer, this is a very credible witness. this is guy who graduated from west point, he served with distinction in the diplomatic posts and he was directed pie president trump and secretary pompeo to do this job. he is somebody who's dedicated to what this country is all about. and his testimony i thought is devastating to the president of the united states because he essentially bills the case for a quid pro quo. and when you add up the evidence we have here, the transcript of the telephone call, the whistle-blower's complaint and

now the testimony of these people from the department of state, i think they're building a very strong case and that's what i think is bothering the president. there's a saying in the law, when the law is against you, you argue the facts. but when both the law and facts are against you pound your shoe on the table and that's essentially what this president is doing. >> let me ask you about the person bringing the case against the president, the speaker of the house nancy pelosi and the fact she's saying we're going to keep focused here, move this thing along stay focused on the president trading u.s. interests abroad, u.s. security if you will fighting russia so he can get some political gain for himself. what do you think of her whole strategy of keeping it that way and moving along on that one point? >> i think the speaker is doing a great job. you know, she's a pro. she's had a lot of experience, and most importantly the country

is her primary interest. and so she's going to follow -- she's going to follow a process here which i think makes a lot of sense. they are essentially doing an investigation and trying to determine what these witnesses will say. they're doing it with republicans and democrats from the key committees in the room. they're doing it away from the public because, frankly, we don't have an investigation that's been done here. they're then process of doing the investigation. and ultimately i think she is going to have that testimony presented in open committee and to the american people. and that's the way it should be done. she's going to do it right. and thank god because for the sake of the country, this has to be a very professional, careful and cautious process. >> mr. secretary, president trump declared victory in north eastern syria after turkey

announced a permanent cease-fire. this comes two weeks after the president triggered the escalation by triggering a small incursion by turkish forces. >> this was an outcome created by us, the united states, and nobody else. no other nation, very simple. and we're willing to take plam, and we're also willing to take credit. today's announcement validates our course of action with turkey that only a couple of weeks ago was scorned. and now people are saying, wow, what a great outcome, congratulations. >> i don't get it. i'm missing the whole thing here. mr. secretary, we don't like the assad regime, we're israel. we have a lot of interests over there including our own. and i'm wondering how we were met with this clownish decoration of victory.

your thoughts. >> in addition to this impeachment process one of the things i think we have to worry about is this president as commander in chief and what he's doing to this country. he's weakening this country and he's essentially turning us into a second class power when we were a first class power. i mean, he's claiming victory for what was essentially a surrender. he betrayed our allies. he's turned syria over to russia, given them a base of operations in sear juand in the middle east, turned it over to iran which is one of our adversaries in that part of the world and turned it over to assad. and more importantly he's allowed isis to be able to reorganize itself and be a threat to the united states. this is the most disastrous foreign policy blunder i've seen a president of the united states make. and it's sending a terrible message to the world that you can't trust the united states. >> we're not a great ally. we're not a great ally under

this president. thank you so much, mr. secretary. leon panetta. thank you so much, sir, for coming on "hardball" tonight as always. up next the white house is struggling to mount a defense as a stream of damning allegations emerges from proceedings. as secretary panetta just said this is the investigation they're doing right now in the pit of the capitol. and this is the basis that's going to be used to impeach this president. an irritated president trump is calling on republican allies of the senate to back him up. we're back after this. the senate to back him up. we're back after this. e, every . our 18 year old was in an accident. usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. all i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. if i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. we're the gomez family... we're the rivera family... we're the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life.

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what a phony deal it is. what a phony investigation it is. and the republicans have to get tougher and fight. we have some that are great fighters put they have to get tougher and fight because the democrats are trying to hate the republican party before the election. >> 41% still support that guy. pack to "hardball."

that was president trump earlier this week telling republicans they have to fight harder for him. according to "the daily beast" president trump's allies have grown increasingly irritated with senate republicans for failing to counter the inquiry in a broader effort to put democrats on the defensive. donald trump, jr. in particular has gone on the offense tweeting and retweeting multiple calls for the senate to hold their own hearings. but a senior senate aide told the daily beast there has been little that the white house has offered that have given members either direction or confidence. and here's what lindsey graham said to reporters today. >> yes, the clinton white house had a coordinated effort for people who would deliver the

message of the day where they would answer impeachment inquiries and they would run it pie people who are trained in the law. that's not going on. >> as i mentioned earlier bloomberg reports the president knew about it, gave his blessing to that house republicans plan to storm a secure hearing room today. but the president seems to have a communications issue with the most powerful republican in congress, senator mitch mcconnell offered a shocking fact check to the president. that's up next and that's coming up next. thank you. and that's coming up next. thank you. cologuard: colon cancer screening for people 50 and older at average risk.

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welcome back to "hardball." earlier this month president trump said the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell had told him his phone call with the ukrainian president was, quote, the most innocent phone call that i've heard. >> i spoke to him about it, too. he read my phone call the president of ukraine, mitch mcconnell. he said that was the most innocent phone call that i've read. >> well, but yesterday mcconnell appeared to contradict trump saying that he didn't recall having any conversations with the president about that july phone call. >> the president has said that you told him that his phone call with the ukrainian president was perfect and innocent. do you believe that the president -- >> we've not had any conversations on that subject. >> so he was lying about that? >> you'd have to ask him.

i don't recall any conversations with the president about that phone call. >> i'm joined now by jonathan swan, national political reporter for axios, vivian correspondent for "the wall street journal," and jonathan allen reporter for nbc news digital. i guess my question is describe if you could central command of this white house. they're facing impeachment. i expect the vote will carry with 230 votes i think right now by the end certainly. they know it. who's calling the shots to try to prevent this being worse tck the white house? >> central command is donald trump. it's that simple. pat sipoloni, white house chief of staff mick mulvaney have complained he's hoarding information, not sharing information with people. and the other people is

information is not getting to the hill. >> when did the president meet this flack, sippaloni? >> trump didn't really know him. >> vivian, what strikes me this guy is not only alone pause he deserves to me puz there's no one around him except jared, his son-in-law. >> look what happened, advisors are too afraid to get head of this president. what we have last week with mick mulvaney going out there and speaking to reporters about the -- >> the hospitality business. >> that was on tv but even before that during the press conference linking the dnc server to investigations over -- the investigations over dnc server over military aid and then having to walk back that comment. it's either, you know, you're getting ahead of the president

or you're undermining whatever message he wants. and so advisers are too scared to get out there. so at the end of it day the message is centralized around donald trump. the lawyers have some power over this issue. they were obviously perturbed when mick mulvaney went out there last week, too. >> you know how you do this, you build a big falynx around you. but then he undermines that today pie calling any republicans who don't like him as human scum. he's not exactly building a party attitude about this, we're all together in this. that's a strategy, the party will prevail. but he doesn't seem to even believe in that. >> the one unifying strategy he's had so far is to attack the democrats and their process. it's the one thing -- >> what does that mean? it's the most deadening word there is, process. by the way, they are going to

vote. it's going to be in public. they're going to have witnesses in public. they're going to vote on articles of impeachment in public. what's the process issue? >> i'm not saying it's going to work. i'm saying the one unifying strategy is to attack democrats. he's not sticking to that. he doesn't have facts to put into evidence that will counter to the facts democrats are producing right now. this is the big problem for him. >> that's what you put on a press release to send home. i don't have a problem with the truth, i have a problem with the process. come on. >> the white house i think a lot of people ipthere are overconfident about two weeks ago and basically took for dpra granted these republicans on the hill are so terrified of trump. but the last two weeks have shaken some people, and it's really been a series of decisions that have nothing to do with impeachment, actually. i think the red wall in the senate is pretty damn strong. >> let's look at the breaks, the cracks in the hole. >> syria, doral -- they had to

reverse. >> it was less important but they very quickly see the emoluments issue there and the president grabbing the money. >> and mick mulvaney coming out and linking the dnc server to ukrainian aid, suggesting a quid pro quo although he insists that was not his -- republicans went and looked at -- >> they started going on the record attacking him, which is very rare. >> how about mitch mcconnell? he was clearly saying don't tie me into this goo, i'm not part of this, i didn't have anything to do with this deal. >> and he's not the only one. count of the number of republicans out there actively defending the president right now. all the republicans have been on capitol hill this week. the senate is in session, the house is in session. you saw 30 people attack today and try to -- >> but who -- you've all watched

it -- who's impressed by a couple dozen white guys, boring looking guys in suits doing a sort of demonstration? what is it supposed to look like? >> it looked like a fraternity frank. >> look at these guys. it's so boring, and this is supposed to say we caught them in the act. and what they caught when they got to the basement of the capitol was a pipartisbipartisa hearings taking testimony on impeachment with a room full of republicans. what do you think when you see that picture? it'll be in the paper tomorrow, front page that picture. >> they're obviously voicing their dissatisfaction what's happening and showing a coalition of what's happening -- i don't know about passion. that's not the first word that jumps to my mind when you see that. >> there there are republicans falling in line. john, thank you guys.

thank you, jonathan swan on your marriage, congratulations. up next, president trump's disturbing and dangerous words. you're watching "hardball." sturs you're watching "hardball. ug! douglas! we're running dangerously low on beans. people love your beans, doug. they love 'em. doooooooooug! you want to go sell some tacos? progressive knows small business makes big demands. doug, where do we get a replacement chili pepper bulb? so we'll design the insurance solution that fits your business. it's a very niche bulb. it's a specialty bulb. that fits your business. through the at&t network, edge-to-edge intelligence gives you the power to see every corner of your growing business. from managing inventory... to detecting and preventing threats...

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powerful in america's dark history is instructive because lynching cannot be separated from that history. rich white people weren't lynched, black mostly poor people were lynched. being lynched is a means of taking life outside the legal constitutional system. it was an act of murder. donald trump's not being dragged out of his cell and hauled out foout the country by a mob. he's facing impeachment by those who took the same oath of office to the constitution he did. he's being impeached for having violated that oath, for using his position of public trust for personal and political benefit to himself. and he will get a fair trial. but enot even the dprafb circumstances he now faces, not even the reckoning thathas now above him has chastened this president. instead of realizing the situation and making his best defense he tries to shame the forces of justice by acquitting them that gathered up the injustice on black americans.

facing the truth of his apubusef power he hides himself in the historic skin of those who didw.