president trump would attack him, that he could well lose his primary and that the president will not let this happen. but he's popular back home so it's another reason that the senate is an exciting place. the democrat who's there now, doug jones, the single most vulnerable senator. >> always a pleasure. thank you very much. to all of our viewers out there, you too can sign up for the axios a.m. newsletter. go to signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us. "morning joe" starts right now. we killed isis leader al baghdadi. they've been looking for him for a long time. they've been looking for him for many years. he should have been killed years ago, another president should have gotten him. but, to moe, it was very important. i'd say all the time they walk into my office they say sir, we

killed this leader at a i said i never heard of him, i want al baghdadi, that's all i know now, i want al baghdadi. get him. and they got him. >> you know people walk into my office, sir, sir, i really believe we have to beat fox business news. sir, i believe we need to beat spongebob. i said beat spongebob square pants. >> damn it. >> really, serious, the guy, he lives in -- he is walter mittie with nuclear launch codes. he lives in this dream state. >> more like homer simpson. >> by lives in this dream state, sir, sir. it's so funny, you know, this is the same guy that attacked ed miller mcraven and said it took too long. it took too long for you to get osama bin laden. attacked barack obama. now the shoe's on the other foot

and it's insanity. >> talls comes bait all comes b obama. >> what is it about him that makes him feel so inadequate. >> well, barack obama is beloved around the world and one could argue that trump is going to have a hard time ever getting there. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it's tuesday, october 29th. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. politics editor for the daily beast sam stein. associate editor for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. and staff writer for the atlantic magazine, james fallows joins thus morning. great to have you all with us this morning. >> willie, what a bad, bad day yesterday. terrible day for republicans running around, it seems that every one of the straw men that they had set up just got run

through. you can -- i mean, you can talk about -- well, i tweeted it this morning so let's break it down. trump republicans oppose the whistleblower. >> remember that? >> because it wasn't a first-hand account. now that they have a first-hand account, poor lindsey had a meltdown yesterday and now they oppose actually a first-hand account of what actually happened on that phone call. and then secondly, you had trump republicans demanding a vote on the impeachment inquiry. you remember that? nancy pelosi plays them perfectly, as nancy pelosi always does. now they look like stooges running around saying, oh, we can't vote for this impeachment inquiry because it took too long. it's always process, process, process. and you can go back to the beginning of this ukrainian story. they make a declaration one day and they just look like fools the next. and it keeps going.

pelosi is playing them like fiddles. >> joe, take your first point first about trump republicans opposing the whistleblower because it wasn't a first-hand account. that is out the window now with the testimony we're going to hear and the statement we saw last night from lieutenant colonel alexander vinman. i know we'll get into the details of what he said. and the response to this one is pathetic. they're calling him on fax news a double agent because he was born in ukraine and moved to the united states when he was a small child. we'll let you hear his credentials and listen to his statement and decide for yourself. they had nowhere to go. they couldn't attack the credibility of fee anna hill, bill taylor or colorado vinman this morning. the president is in deep trouble with this new testimony, republicans have nowhere to go in him. >> yeah. >> i've got to say, mike, disg things going on, but last night you actually -- it was unbelievable. you had people on fox news

attacking an iraqi war hero. an iraqi war hero who has committed 25 years of his life, i think it is, to public service to the united states of the america. an infantry officer, he was injured by an ied, got a purple heart, continued serving america, and because he came forward and because he's going to come forward today and simply tell the truth, you actually had a panel on fox news and a knox ne fox news host attacking an american hero. >> yeah, you know, joe, as you said a few moments ago, today's a grim day. i understand where you're coming from when you said that. but my view is, this is a great american day because of lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who came to the united states with his parents when he

was 3 years of age, made a life for himself. spent 20 years in the american military. fought for the united states in iraq and, as you pointed out, was awarded the purple heart. and this morning, among other things that he is going to say, he is going to say this, quote unquote, i am a patriot and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country in caps, our, our country, irrespective of party or politics. that's the real america. >> yeah. >> yes, it is. >> so let's back up and go through what we're going to hear today. because this damning testimony expected today in the house impeachment probe could be -- could be tough for the white house. for the first time, house investigators will hear from a white house official who was actually assigned to listen in on the phone call, the phone

call at the center of the inquiry. "the new york times" was first to obtain the opening statement of lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, a top ukraine expert on the national security council who is currently serving active duty in the u.s. army. he is expected to testify that he twice reported concerns to the nsc's lead attorney. once after a july 10th meeting in washington between then national security adviser john bolton and his ukrainian counterpart and attended by ambassadors kurt volker and sondland. according to vindman, volker cut the meeting short when he started to speak about ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure a meeting between the two presidents. the opening statement continues. following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which ambassador sondland

emphasized the importance that ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the bidens, and burisma. as stated to ambassador sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the nsc was going to get involved in or push. vindman says the second time he reported concerns was after he listened in on the july 25th phone call between president trump and president zelensky kf ukraine. vindman is expected to tell law makes, he quote, i did not think it was proper that a investigate a u.s. citizen and i was worried about the investigations for the u.s. government's support of ukraine. i realized that if ukraine pursued an investigation into the bidens and burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a

partisan play which would undoubtedly result in ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. this would all undermine u.s. national security. i will say once again, the second or third time now this has happened with these career diplomats, these patriots, coming forward with what she saw and heard. >> and it's so important that we're talking about one of the most beleaguered countries in all of europe that's been invade by vladimir putin already. and there were threats that the invasion would continue to go westward toward kiev. this is not a they're roooretic discussion. this was a country that was in the middle of negotiations on releasing prisoners and how they move forward without war. and those defensive weapons that donald trump was holding up and his administration was holding up were critically needed to

keep ukraine democratic and free. and yet donald trump was willing to -- >> people alive. >> and to keep people alive. that horrible scene looking over the bridge, knowing that people would die because those weapons weren't coming. so, you know, james, this is, i will say, one blessing of the trump administration is that at the very least it has provided us with some clarifying moments. clarifying moments as to the nature underlying nature of political parties. i am no longer a republican. and an underlying nature of contrary civil servants and also people that we may not agree with idealogically. and i -- i mentioned john bolton who here, once again, we have an example of john bolton calling an end to a meeting, talking to his people saying, hey, we're not going to be a part of this drug deal, go talk to lawyers

immediately. and whether it was john bolton or the lieutenant colonel or bill taylor, there are still americans that serve this government of all idea logic stripes who actually put their country first. >> i agree. it's been fascinating in the fast week, the fast six months or so to see as you say on the one hand career civil servants, ville tear people, state department people who say i've been here before this era, i think this is right, this is wrong, i'm going to stand up for what i think is right and call out what i think is wrong, even if it means i'm going to be personally jeopardized, i might lose my job, et cetera. we're seeing that now from some people who are more politically involved like ambassador bolton would be the clearest example. i think there's no foreign policy issue on which i personally have agreed with him maybe ever, by really respect the way that he was standing up for what he thought was the duty of somebody in his job.

on the other extreme, we have this daily calculation of what, if anything, will finally exceed the elasticity of the gop senate to rationalize away the new news of each day. back in the watergate era there was the sense that finally there was more than the republican senators would swallow. there was john bean's testimony. alexander butterfield about the taping of the white house. and presumably there will be some point at which this -- the stretching and stretching and stretching of the gop and the senate might finally reach its bursting point. but it would be rash to assume that even this is that stretching point, even though it's more than what john dean said or what alexander butterfield said. >> i mean, we can look even beyond congress, the republicans in congress and look at what happened last night when the lieutenant colonel, an iraq war hero, an american patriot was

accused on fox news of possible treason, possible espionage. i want to play this real quickly and get your response, james. >> but get this. this is buried in the "new york times" piece tonight but i found very interesting. he's a decorated colonel in the iraq war but because colonel vindman i am greated from ukraine along with his family when he was a child and influent in ukrainian and russian, ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with mr. giuliani though they typically communicated in english. wait a second, john, here we have a u.s. national security official who is advising ukraine while working inside the white house apparently against the president's interest and usually they spoke in english. isn't that kind of an interesting angle on this story?

>> i find that astounding and some people might call that espionage. >> oh my god. the i ddiocy change. first of all, to our gentle viewers from fax news. albert einstein immigrated from germany and helped the united states of america win world war ii. another thing, unlike germany during world war ii, ukraine say democratic ally. and what helps ukraine helps the united states of america. but, james, it is breathtaking, it is astounding that an iraqi war veteran, a hero, a man who got injured, got a purple heart and continued to fight for this country and work for this country after his service in iraq is now being accused of espionage by john, you, and fox news hosts?

>> yes. and i can think of only two moments in history this calls to mind. one, of course, is joseph mccarthy in his final days, having his final showdown, have you know sense of desense decen and the other was john mccain who had just lost their son in combat for this nation's flag. you think at some point the cumulative weight of the attack on people who have risked their lives for the nation's welfare and protection, you hope that will pile up at some point but we can't count on that on any given day. >> gene robinson, the implication she was saying there is that the colonel who has a purple heart for suffering injuries in an ied attack in iraq is somehow a double agent working for ukraine. i'll let everyone sit on that. but let's talk about the content

of what colonel vindman said and what he'll testify today. if you didn't believe your own eyes when you read the white house scumummary of the phone c between president trump and zelensky, if you didn't believe the whistleblower, the text messages, the testimony of fiona hill or the statement of bill taylor that we all read, here women good he have a document corroborating exactly what you believe, which is that the president traded on his position and his power and used almost $400 million of military aid to seek aid from ukraine in going after one of his political opponents. there's a cloud of disinformation being put out there, there's attacks on the sources and what about this guy? maybe he's a double agent. push all that to the side and just read the testimony that you have in front of you, you know what happened here. >> yeah. facts are clear. and they're really not in dispute. as you said, this is somebody who was on the phone call. he is not the whistleblower.

he refers to that -- to a campaign really that lasted sometimes -- this was an ongoing effort by gordon sondland and rudy giuliani and the president and presumably others to muscle ukraine into -- into digging up dirt on joe biden. this is -- and he -- he found it shocking, vindman found it shocking. he describes a meeting at which john bolton cut off the meeting after gordon sondland started raising the quid pro quo for these investigations of the bidens. it's just astounding. you know, republican senators up on capitol hill are starting to retreat. they have nothing to say. what can they say in defense of this so they're starting to

retreat behind the well, i can't comment, i'm going to be a juror. that probably sounds ominous to ears in the white house, actually, which would like to have republicans defending the president on substance and there is no defense. i happen to see speaker pelosi on capitol hill yesterday and i'll tell you, she is as determined and as confident as she could possibly be. you recall she didn't want to do this. she didn't want to do impeachment. she feels if t was thrust on he and thrust on the country, that the times have found her and found the house of representatives and laid out its duty and she's going to do that duty. >> you know, mike barnicle, it's really something that nancy pelosi has all of the mistakes that we republicans made when i was in congress, we'd always

lurch, would always move quickly. something seemed wrong so we'd go quickly. political parties have been doing that for years. nancy pelosi proves once again that she's the most effective speaker since probably sam rayburn in that nancy has allowed the facts of the case to catch up and go ahead of the conference before she started talking about an impeachment inquiry. and by the time she went there public support for an impeachment inquiry was over 50%. so she move forward and is doing so taking her time, she protected her members, especially in all of those swing districts in virginia to california. now we have nancy pelosi going to an impeachment vote. she let the republicans make fools of themselves, they even broke the law. let them have their little pizza party, look like something out of animal house, humiliate themselves.

and she let the facts reach a point where she could then go ahead, call the vote, and in so doing, all their bluff. and so you have the majority leader -- or the minority leader of the house who donald trump, what's i had name, mike? steve? >> steve. >> i think it's kev. >> now enraged. they're enraged that she's having a vote on the impeachment inquiry. it's too late, we can't vote for this. >> good lord. >> she lets them argue process. she gets them out on a limb, and then she saws the limb off. it is really about as brilliant leadership as i have seen in washington in quite some time. >> joe, i don't think there's been as skillful a leader in the house of representatives probably since tip o'neil when he was majority leader, not speaker, steered the ship of congress. nancy pelosi has taken the lead

and has her hands on the old steering wheel and she is moving this thing in such a way and in such a direction that the republicans clearly don't have any idea of how to deal with her. and, sam, what joe was just talking about, the way they deal with it is a level of hypocrisy that is sometimes stunning. i don't know what to say about the clip we just showed of laura ingram basically saying that, you lieutenant colonel vi vindman is guilty of espionage. but the entire cast of characters, lindsey graham, the hypocrisy involved in this process is kind of amazing. >> we could walk through it again. a lot of the talking points in that have been blown up. the idea that there was going to be no vote to start the impeachment proceeding, there now is going to be a vote. it was all hearsay, which li lindsey graham was one of the first one to champion it was hearsay, you couldn't trust it. we now have someone on the call.

the idea there was no quid pro quo. we've gotten several people to establish there was a quid pro quo. mick mulvaney was one of them. now the talking point is this is no different than what democrats were doing in ukraine trying to ensure that ukrainian leadership wasn't standing in the way of the investigators from the mueller probe. so the goal posts are being moved. the question i keep coming back to is what is the alternative for the republican party many this situation in i'm not sure there is an alternative. the entire hope was if you could shame these people and throw up enough legal hurdles that they refuse go to the hill at all then you could suffocate the thing. but that's not the case. people are coming forward, sometimes at risk of their own reputation, a decorated purple heart, veteran being aus booed of espionage. i think what that ends up happen, people can correct me if

i'm wrong, is a cascading effect. people say well, i want to get my version of the events out. maybe it's worth getting ahead of this train. if i'm in the white house and i'm looking at this saying i need a new game plan because this is simply not working. >> if you look at the testimony that we're going to see from colonel vindman, joe and mika, today, again at the center of it is ambassador gordon sondland. he's the ambassador to the eu. he has no purview of what was happening in ukraine, but again and again he's seen at the center of this along with rudy giuliani running effectively a shadow foreign policy. and colonel vindman gets into detail about that. gordon sondland, to remind everyone, is a hotel guy who's company gave a million dollars to president trump's inaugural committee so he was appointed ambassador to the eu. he, the hotel guy who gave money to donald trump, run issing a shadow foreign policy and he may have just run president trump into an impeachment. >> well, he may have done it and -- skb

>> it's looking likely. >> it's interesting, james fallows, that this character ambassador sondland who was a guy that went around with sharp elbows, he would show up unannounced to meetings, call himself the ambassador to europe, which of course there is no ambassador to europe. while -- while doing -- while others were scurrying around trying to do work many places like poland he would just drop in and demand private jets back to brussels or other parts of europe. and so made very few friends. but believed that he was empowered to do whatever he wanted to do because of donald trump. but what's so fascinating is that even he appeared to be getting a little wobbly in the knees because even he is starting to understand how serious this is and how it may go downhill. do you suspect that his testimony by the end may be perhaps the most fascinate something because i know he has a wife already talking about how

this is hurting their business. >> that certainly is a possibility. any of us who have worked in politics has seen characters like this over the years. they attach themselves to almost every campaign. there's been more latitude for them in the trump campaign. i've been thinking of one other historical comparison, which was the first watergate -- the previous would impeachments back with nixon and watergate, and it's actually something that's similar is the republicans held together for longer than you would think in retrospect in the face of the mounting evidence and trying to say, yes, we're staying with our president. one difference then was that richard nixon was a much more formidable person as a policy person than donald trump. a second is there was no fox news to kind of ram home the message every single day. but there was this similarity where once people started to move at the very end, it wasn't a gradual move, it was one moved and then about 50 more did within the next couple of days. and so i think that that is more

like the dynamic one might see here for a very, very long time the rationalization than if somebody starts to move, then many people might move. >> agreed. >> all right. still ahead on "morning joe," more on the other huge story linked to this. house of representatives pressing forward on the impeachment of president trump. we'll break down the development of an upcoming vote. plus, what did mike pence know? when did he know it? >> didn't he say he was going to let the transcript out? he wants the transcript 0 to come out. >> he was repeatedly asked are what did he know, did he know about this? and he refuses to answer, he jumps around it, it's hard to watch but we'll have new reporting on the vice president's role on all of this from nbc news. but first, let's go to bill care ri care rins with a check on the forecast. >> yesterday at this time the getty fire is kploexploding jus

north of the los angeles. you seatte the 405. it burned right near the side of the road. lebron james had to evacuate had the kamala harris said her home was under the mandatory evacuation zone. a lot of the rich and famous were affected. eight homes were destroyed, five were damaged. for today, 26 million people under red flag warnings. the winds were lower today,nigh and they're worried about the fire we just showed you, flaring back up as the firefighters made good progress ton yesterday. winds could gust up to 70 to 80 miles per hour yesterday in southern california. could be the windiest santa ann ab wind event of the year. and then zedenver is under a winter storm warning. and then that snow spreads to kansassy, northern illinois and areas of milwaukee.

on the east coast, cloudy and drizzle. and the halloween forecast there's a lot of heavy rain expected from atlanta up to virginia, west virginia, ohio, pittsburgh, buffalo and it looks more wet and windy in areas of the northeast. not the best trick or treat forecast for the kids or the adults that have to go with them. new york city, drizzle this morning but temperatures are mild. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. . you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. (engines rev) the only thing better than horsepower... ...is more horsepower. (engines rev) if we were for everyone, we'd be for no one. with dodge power dollars, more power means more cash allowance. purchase now and get $10 per horsepower. that's $7,970 on the srt challenger hellcat redeye. high protein.

low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein bars. try lemon cake. and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

plaque psoriasis uncoverth clearer skin that can last.

in fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. janssen can help you explore cost support options. beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases.

comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network. because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. will you release those transcripts? >> i would have no objection to that and we're discussing that with white house counsel as we speak. but when people see the transcripts of my calls and when they hear the reporting of our conversation, president trump's focus with ukraine from the very beginning was on enlisting more european support and supporting

president zelensky's efforts to advance reforms that would end an era of corruption in ukraine. >> that's vice president mike pence speaking to reporters in iowa about three weeks ago about his call with president zelensky. we have kara lee with her latest reporting on the internal white house debate that is stifling the call. so good morning. we heard vice president spence saying he had no problem putting that out, he has nothing to hide. so why haven't we seen that transcript? >> that's a great question. basically that was almost three weeks ago, three weeks ago tomorrow where the vice president said that. and since then we've learned that there's been this internal debate, this back and forth about whether or not it's wise to release the transcript of his call. and there was a camp that's against it and their arguments are -- there's many of them. one is that the more you release, the more momentum it gives impeachment, more

transcripts means more requests for other transcripts potentially. there's a precedent argument. and then there's this -- the concern that if you were to stack up the vice president's call with zelensky and the president's call with zelensky, that it wouldn't make the president look good. that potentially it's, you know, not going to be the perfect call that the president said his call was. and that that's concerning. there are those who are for this who say that, look, we don't have a lot of ways to fight back. there's this duluth of testimony that's damaging coming from the hill and this can be one of the ways in which we could push back by showing that the vice president -- there was no there there in the vice president's call. and people around the vice president think there's -- this is a way to clear his name. they think this could tarnish him and he does not really answer directly what his knowledge was about this, about the pressure campaign on ukraine. and so there's worry there. but there's still -- we've spoke

to an administration official who said that they're still reviewing this and i think that really underscores how much this white house still hasn't gotten its act together in terms of getting on the same page and coming up with a plan to push back on impeachment. >> the release of the president's phone call summary didn't go quite the way it planned so they don't want another one out there. but you got something else i wanted to ask you have about. mike pence out publicly shows no daylight with the president, he stands by the president. but is there some instinct with him and the team around him, he's a long time politician, he's not a dumb guy, he knows what he's doing to begin to preserve himself and his own legacy if that can be done at that point some he sees the writing on the wall. he's going to see this new testimony from colonel vindman today. is he working behind the scenes to save himself? >> well, we know that people who are allies of the vice president are a little -- you know, worried that he's not going to come thought of squeaky clean.

and that's because, you know, there's one of two options. either he was aware that all of this stuff was going on and he didn't say anything or do anything about it, or he was actually a participant in some of it. neither of those things are good for the the vice president. he also has his own political ambitions in the is someone who it's well known that thinks might run for president someday. this is not his last stop on the campaign trail being vice president and so, you know, yet at the same time he is one of president trump's staunchest defenders. but if you look at what he's saying, he's not actually defending the substance, he's, you know, he's asked about was there a pressure, you know, did you see any pressure from the president to investigate his political allies and his response is things like, well, i nef never mentioned the bide tones the president zelensky of

ukraine. it's a careful balance there. >> everybody is aware that all of the release of the transcripts that we're talking about here is self-induced, brought on by the behavior of the trump administration, specifically the president himself. but long range, the release of transcripts between presidents and vice president with other foreign leaders is kind of troubling. >> yeah. there's a real concern among -- particularly among lawyers about the precedent that this sets, because these were conversations that are supposed to be had in private. they're not out there for the public. there's a reason for that. there's belief that world leaders should be able to have open conversations without it spilling out into public view. there's also, you know, if you're a president and you're talking to another world leader, what if they're worried that you're going to release the transcripts like we learned that the ukrainians were. the other thing that people raise concerns about the more you release, the more you put out there like transcripts of

phone calls like this, it waters down your ability to exert executive privilege. the more that you disclose, then the argument is, well, you puth we get more? it was one of the reasons there were people against president trump releasing the transcript of his call initially. >> james fallows, you and your wife debra of course are doing what i want to do when i grow up, you're flying across america going from small town to small town and you've always had a very optimistic view of america because you've been able to see a patchwork of communities from east to west. i'm curious, just big picture, is this resonating yet with our towns? is this resonating yet in middle america? are they still looking at this as some sort of intramural squabble in washington?

>> we were in washington doing a film project and people are aware of this struggle going on in d.c., but, again, it was interesting, as we found over the years, that it wasn't something people volunteered in talking about the business base of the town, how they're managing growth, how they're managing homelessness and opioids and things of that sort. so i think it's a background consciousness but it's not something that is -- people are volunteering to talk about. and you can view that as good in sort of the resilience of america fabric. you can strew as for democrats troubling in that people are not really up on sort of the accumulation of evidence. i suspect that when this comes to more of a head with a formal vote, formal hearings, it's why the democrats would need to lay out more of their case, i believe. >> forgive me for always you to speculate but we respect your spo opinion so much. where do you see this going over the next month or two? >> i've learned to have two different strands of predictions

in my brain. one is what would happen under normal sort of rules of gravity and rules of physics and the other is what we've learned over the last three or four years. you would think that with so many different strands gaining momentum and connection and with such apparent lack of sophistication and being able to rebut them and with such ext intramural tension that you'd reach that tipping point where the republican senators say i'm just shocked to find that there's corruption going on here. so that seems that the rules of normal physics would predict that for you in the next couple of months. the rules of our actual known world, god knows. >> you. nbc's carol lee, thank you as well. coming up, president trump made his first visit to chicago yesterday and he game within

sults, -- with insults. he called the city an embarrassment. that city is ahead on morning joe. barrassment. that city is ahead on morning joe. when did you see the sign? when i needed to create a better visitor experience.

improve our workflow. attract new customers. that's when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. yeah, now business is rolling in. get started at fastsigns.com. yeah, now business is rolling in. lashmakes every lash fullyrom maybsensational.ork. our fanning brush volumizes every kind of lash... ...for a sensational full-fan effect. lash sensational. only from maybelline new york. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪

♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪

♪ acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney was notably absent from overseeing the weekend's u.s. military raid in syria, sparking questions about his future within the trump administration. when nbc news asked whether the president has confidence in mulvaney yesterday, spokesman hoeing aga hogan has said mick has done a good job as acting chief of staff. after being pressed again for a yes or no, he added, quote, when the president doesn't have confidence in someone, you'll know it. do we know it yet? >> who knows. >> what's the answer? >> i think no. >> joining us now, director of policy standards, lonny chen. thanks so much for being with

us. >> gene robinson has the first question. gene. >> i just want to know what you make of this coming testimony by colonel vindman, where it sort of leaves us in this whole saga. and why somebody in the middle of that phone call didn't just hang up the phone. >> well, you know, the testimony is significant in some ways because it almost mutes the existence of the telephone call. we have someone who was on the call. we know his background, he's a deck core rated w decorated war veteran. i think the question more broadly for republicans will be this. how do they shift the defense of the president from a process argument to a more substantive argument? and i think it comes down to this notion that, look, if the president had a quid pro quo, if

that's what happened, not a big deal. not an impeachable offense. think the question is, to what extent that's going to be sustainable argument going forward? >> it's sam stein here. they kind of are beginning to make that argument noting, among other things, that democratic officials were asking ukrainian officials to not interfere with the mueller probe. i don't think those are apples to apples, but it is what it is. i'm sort of curious, there's been this push by the white house for senate republicans -- not the white house, but trump world people for senate republicans to hold hearings of their own and to call favaborab witnesses that could testify to what was burisma doing, why was hunter biden on the board. do you think those are -- that's a smart tactical move to hold your own hearings in the senate where you control the committees or does that have a risk of back firing because you publicize

this and the minority would be able to call witnesses of their own? >> i'm not sure that's the kind of counterprogramming that republicans and senate leadership is interested in hosting. the reality is that it sort of creates a little bit of an us versus them rather than focusing on whatever inquiry's happening in the house at that time, let that play out and let the senate conduct business. i'm sure that leader mcconnell would like to do nothing more than judges and things he's focused on that instead of doing show hearings for the sake of doing hearings. >> you mentioned the mentioned the republican defense of what's going on. first of all, mick mulvaney told america to get over it. this it was a quid pro quo, this is the way foreign policy is conducted, get over it. then he walked that back. they tried with bill taylor, a

decorated vietnam veteran, they rushed into the scif with pizza and had a sit-in. i don't know what what they are going to do. on fox they were talking about vindman as a traitor. doesn't this look increasingly desperate as more and more evidence and witnesses come go attack colora attack colonel vindman's loyalty to the united states. i don't think that's the best approach. i think if republicans are going to my great aigrate and talk ab substance, they're going to be in positions that are increasingly challenging because they don't know where the evidence is going to lead. they haven't been told where the evidence is going to lead and in some ways they're always going to be playing catch-up. that's the challenge with the position that senate republicans in particular are going to take. so i think increasingly you're

going to hear people say, well, we're not going to prejudge this. we're going to hear the evidence. we're jurors in all of this as opposed to trying to take sides because they don't know what's coming next. >> well, there's one republican in the senate that stands alone, his name is mitt romney. you know him pretty well, you worked for him. where does he go from here? >> i think he's been clear about this whole thing in terms of saying that he is someone who is going to look at the facts. he's also someone, by the way, you understand this, he's at a phase in his career where he doesn't have anything to prove to anybody. you know, is he going to take the evidence as it comes in. he's going to speak his mind and he's going to have a clear conscious. so in that sense i would hope there would be other republicans in the senate who would look at him as an example, but understandably he's in a different position probably from other folks, for example, folks who are going through tough re-election campaigns. there's a lot of different scenarios going on in the senate right now. >> always great have you on the show. thank you very much for coming

on this morning. and coming up, the president went into gruesome detail when describing the raid that killed leader of isis, but some of those details the pentagon cannot confirm. we'll get into that ahead on "morning joe." we'll get into that ahead on "morning joe." my husband never paid attention to his health,

till he signed up for unitedhealthcare medicare advantage. (bold music) now, it's like he has his own health entourage. he gets medicare's largest healthcare network, a free gym membership, vision, dental and more. there's so much to take advantage of. can't wait till i'm 65. a few more chairs, please. unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans, including the only plans with the aarp name. free dental care and eye exams, and free designer eyewear. go ahead, take advantage.

but we're also a company that controls hiv, fights cancer, repairs shattered bones, relieves depression, restores heart rhythms, helps you back from strokes, and keeps you healthy your whole life. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you.

beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases. comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network.

because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. 55 past the hour. a live look at the white house. president trump was quite descriptive when describing the details of the deadly raid of baghdadi. beautiful and talented dog, a robot on stand by. a, quote, very low and very fast helicopter ride. however, it appears that some of the colorful details that he shared were either incorrect, highly classified, or tactically sensitive. that is according to current and

former officials who told nbc news that those descriptors made them cringe and there is an overarching concern that trump gave america's enemies details that could make intelligence gathering and similar military operations more difficult and more dangerous to pull off. gene robinson, about before you go, your final thoughts this morning some gosh, just even watching him sunday morning i was cringing and i was thinking of what my dad -- he would have been just horrified. >> why am i not surprised? as you know, as your dad knew, there's a whole process that has to be gone through before the president describes an operation like that to make sure he doesn't give away anything, secrets that potentially gets our people in trouble in the next operation. and make sure he doesn't make stuff up. i guess i wasn't as much a problem with previous

presidents, but it'sa i b a big problem with this president, he makes things up and he makes up details. it's very sad. one final thing on colonel vindman's testimony today, apparently i guess there was a translator on the july 25th phone call. current vindman speaks influent ukrainian. it would be interesting to hear if there's any nuance in what ukrainians were saying that he picked up that maybe wasn't given us in that rough transcript this we got from the white house. >> so interesting. laura ingram pointed it out and tried to make it dirty, but actually beinga toi able to spe ukrainian would give him a much clearer ye clearer readout of what was happening in this call. >> that's probably one of the reasons he was on the call. we need people with those specialized skills in the government, and laura ingram knows that. she's just trying to smear an american patriot.

>> eugene robinson, thank you very much. coming up, after stepping down as defense secretary, james mattis said he owed the trump administration a duty of silence. apparently his communications director didn't actually agree with that. that's ahead on "morning joe." that's ahead on "morning joe." with esri location technology, you can see relationships.

connections. patterns. you can see what others can't. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ born to be wild... when youyou spend lessfair, and get way more.

so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com it's embarrassing to us as a nation all over the world they're talking about chicago. afghanistan is a safe place by comparison. it's true. since eddie johnson has been police chief, more than 1,500 people have been murdered in chicago and 13,067 people have been shot. chicago has the toughest gun laws in the united states.

that doesn't seem to be working too well, does it? and a lot of you people know exactly what i mean. but under johnson's leadership, they certainly don't protect people. >> okay. president trump with that message to chicago. and chicago's leaders, while in chicago. >> i mean, this is what -- willie, this is what he did obviously to elijah cummings, insulting elijah cummings, calling him a racist, attacking the city of baltimore and decrying how bad baltimore was. he's doing this now to chicago. i find it fascinating, he actually compared chicago to afghanistan unfavorably. >> i don't know how does he that. >> he's been afraid go to afghanistan, he's cowered every time anyone in the military suggested that he visit afghanistan, because he's frightened. is willie there? i'm just curious or am i just talk to the wall? because i can't see you and so i -- i have to go on faith

without -- faith, i guess -- >> he's always there for you. >> i've got you. >> but afghanistan, though, it's fascinating. donald trump is afraid go to afghanistan, by keeps flying back to chicago. so is afghanistan really more dangerous than chicago? i think not because if it were, donald trump could be cowarding at home. >> yeah. and once again president trump has forced us to say something preposterous but true on tv which is that chicago is not more dangerous than afghanistan. we've established that as a fact check. but, you're right, this is all, again, a personal slight, superintendent eddie johnson of the chicago police department didn't show up at the event. we can debate maybe whether or not he should have gone. he said because donald trump doesn't share the values of the city he wasn't going to go to that. but this is because the president was slighted so he attacks the superintendent and then goes ton attack chicago. let's be clear, rev, chicago has a huge problem with handgun

violence, the president's not wrong about that. but to go to the host city, the place where you'resies itti vis attack the city, it's not surprising from donald trump, but it should. >> let's remember that president trump has a big hotel and development there and should have been part of this problem way before the president and way before the police commissioner. he's never been involved in the community there so he's always speaking because he was slighted. it's interesting he never attacks russia but can he attack chicago. he attacks baltimore saying it was full of problem in his own hotel in doral. so we have -- >> have you seen -- i just -- i'm sorry, i hate to interrupt, but i just started itching when you said doral.

willie, the bedbugs at doral, it's just amazing. did you see a picture of that guy that spent the night at doral and the bedbugs, they ate him up. >> he sued. >> i remember when i was a young kid i'd watch those movies call p per per ran thats. >> i wanted to get him out of there and fly him to baltimore where he could have safe sleep. >> it is really bad. the bedbugs at doral, mike barnicle, unbelievable. in fact, i'm having to scratch because the bedbugs, all the bedbugs that whenever you say doral i start itching because i just think about that poor guy and the bedbug problem they have done there. >> he sued. >> he sued. let's not talk about bedbugs anymore. keep your shirt on. i don't want to see the bedbug bites. you've probably been to doral. but let me ask you, let's get past bedbugs and let's talk about something different than

bedbugs at doral, doral bedbugs, bedbugs, bedbugs, let's talk about the game tonight. now, if max scherzer had pitched, you know, if scherzer had pitched in game 6 -- or game 5, things could have been very different. but we were talking about what mike said. he said baseball momentum takes you about as far as the next day's pitcher. and i know, i know that everybody's saying that the nationals are out of it. but, if you've got strasbourg in game six and if healthy max can come back in game seven, still a question mark over that, this could be the first world series ever where the visiting team won every game. >> yeah. yeah. that's true. and also, joe, the strasbourg story, stephen strasburg story, his emergence over the past six or eight weeks say nice story,

prior to this fall he's been withdrawn, lard hard to talk to many stories written about him because of his distance and ability to be accessed emotionally. but he's come alive internally over the last five or six weeks. we're seeing a stephen strasburg that we've never seen before. he would do it tonight and hold his w his own with verlander. but this is the reason they play every day, 162 games a year plus the playoffs, it's a day on this-day deal. >> it really is. it really is. strasburg this fall has been out of his mind good. if you need somebody who reset this world series and take the momentum back away from an extraordinary houston astros team, just look at the first five, six batters every night. >> scary. >> the astros are just as good

as it gets and they're all husba hustlers. they're a great team top to bottom. but strasburg is a great pitcher. tonight could be a classic and if we could get to game seven with a healthy max, i think he had a bedbug problem. was it bedbugs that -- >> doral. >> did he stay at doral or what? >> he went to florida on his off day and stayed at the wrong hotel apparently. >> don't do that. but, willie, we still could have two great nights of baseball. >> yeah. they've got score some runs. the nationals have to score some runs. they've only scored one run in the each of the last three games. but you had to feel for max scherzer. big-game pitcher, one of the best who just physically couldn't run out there and pitch the other night and had to watch his team lose that game. there's no question in my mind that if the nationals can win tonight, max scherzer, however he feels, will give it a shot in game seven. >> all right. you see we have reverend al

sharpton with us. he's the host of course of msnbc's politics nation and president of the national action network. also joining the conversation, founder and director of the group defending democracy together. and editor at large of the conservative website, the bulwark, bill kristol. former chief of staff to the triple "c," adrienne elrod joins us and senior news correspondent at wbr boston and an msnbc contributor kimberly atkins. and politics editor for the daily beast, sam stein is still with us as well. good to have you all on board. let's talk about the damning testimony that's expected today in the house impeachment probe. for the first time, house investigators of hear from a white house official who stulis actually assigned to listen in. "the new york times" was the first to obtain an opening

statement from lieutenant colonel vindman who is currently serving active duty in the u.s. army. he's expected to testify that he twice reported concerns to the nsd's lead attorney. once after a july 10th meeting in washington between then national security adviser john bolton and his ukrainian counterpart. and attended by ambassadors kurt volker and gordon sondland. according to vindman, bolton cut the meeting short when sondland started to speak about ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure a meeting between the two presidents. the opening statement continues. following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which ambassador sondland emphasized the importance that ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the bidens, and burisma. i stated to ambassador sondland that his statements were

inappropriate, that the request to investigate biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the nsc was going to get involved in or push. vindman says the second time he reported concerns was after he listened in on that july 25th phone call between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine. vindman is expected to tell lawmakers, quote, i did nothing. was proper to demand a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen and i was worried about the implications for the u.s. u.s. government's support of ukraine. i realize that if ukraine pursued an investigation into the bidens and burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. this would all undermine u.s.

national security. >> so, willie, several things here very quickly. first of all, no hearsay, as we've talked about already this morning. the republicans were whining about hearsay, poor lindsey graham doesn't know the rules of evidence even though he's running the most important legal committee on capitol hill. very confused about evidence and exceptions to the hearsay rule. but there is no here isarsay no wipe that to the side from the is no quid pro quo. also, isn't it fascinating republicans have been talking about process so much, they always knew what the whistleblower was saying was the truth but they never went to the actual substance of those charges and now we know from all of this testimony, from the released texts, everything the whistleblower said was true. finally this, willie, i think this is fascinating. ambassador sondland finds himself in a position where he

can find the truth or probably be charged by perjury. even if barr won't do it, perhaps the next attorney general for the next administrati administration will do it and he may spend time in jail. so he is now surrounded, if he lies under oath he's surrounded because bill taylor has specifically said that during his conversation with sondland, sondland said, oh my gosh, they only think they can't have the meeting if they don't investigate biden. actually, they can't have the military equipment, they can't have anything if they don't investigate -- if they don't investigate biden. and now we have yet another example of this happening. you've got john bolton who's going to come out and testify against sondland as well. so he's got to tell the truth. sondland is the man who has the most to lose if he lies. >> and, as you say, the important detail here is that lieutenant colonel vindman was on the call. that is not hearsay, that is first hand knowledge of what happened on that phone call between president trump and

between president zelensky. and if you put this together, bill, you have a body of evidence with the summary of the phone call again between president trump that the white house put out there that they thought somehow exonerated the president. the whistleblower report, the text messages, the testimony, the opening statement which we've seen from ambassador bill taylor and now this from let's say, again, colonel vindman earned a purple heart, injured in rairaq. i don't know how they're going to go after this. strategy has been to smeert witne smear the witness. it didn't work with bill taylor. how are they going attack a first hand whit witness who ear purple heart? they're trying. but when they ask republicans in congress and the senate, are they going to do that too? are they going to go after this man? >> the decent ones won't. we know what happened at this

point. i think it means the house can move pretty fast. think they'll wrap up the private hearings this week, maybe next week. not hearings, the deposition and testimony and go to public hearings for a couple of days. there's not much -- it would be nice to get more testimony from john bolton but they have first-hand accounts of the meetings that are relevant, the conversations that are relevant with the president's personal involvement. so people can say it doesn't rise to the level of impeachment, but they can't say what happened -- well, they will try to say what happened didn't happen but they shouldn't say that. the republicans have been complaining about process, they want to have open hearings, they're going to get open hearings. they want to call witnesses, who do they want to call? think about that for a minute? do they want to call mick mulvaney? rudy giuliani? are they going to go after bill taylor and colonel vindman when they testify publicly in a week or two? i think they're in a bad

position, actually. final point by colonel vindman, i'm struck in his statement. he an eloquent statement as a military officer he was taught to report problems up through the chain of manned, that's what he chain of command. what's been appalling is someone who's been in government for years now, the failure of secretary pompeo to support his foreign service officers when they came forward and told the truth and did the right thing. when the national security director in these attempts to slander colonel vindman say he's doing his job? will the army, secretary of the army, his senior officers in the army support him? i think that's an important moment that i expect for the u.s. government. is even so craven that they won't come forward to support a colonel who's doing the right thing? >> what he what we can say is t

did go and tell the attorney for the national security council, to bill's point, he did take that step. >> everyone's out of government staking the viewt that they are under a code of silence. >> to that point, reverend, you mentioned fox news a few minutes ago. and last night it was alleged that colonel vindman might be guilty of espionage on air during laura ingram's program. and yet if you look at colonel vindman's personal history, it is a uniquely american story. arrives here in new york city when he's 3 years of age. his parents do not speak english. they learn to speak english. they have a difficult time making a living, but they insist that their children, colonel vindman being one of their children, obviously, adapt and

adhere to the country. and thus, his love of this country is deeply genuine, as he articulates in his statement. and just listen to this smear before you respond to this. >> but get this. this is buried in the "new york times" piece tonight. but i found it very interesting. he's a decorated colonel in the iraq war. because colonel vindman immigrated from ukraine along with his family when he was a child and season influent in ukrainian and russian, ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with mr. giuliani, though they typically communicated in english. now wait a second, john. here we have a u.s. national security official who is advising ukraine while working inside the white house apparently against the president's interest and usually they spoke in english. isn't that kind of an interesting angle on this story?

>> i find that astounding and, you know, some people might call that espionage. >> well, one, what is astounding -- >> that's outrageous. >> what is astounding is that she finds it astounding. first of all, what were they dealing with mr. giuliani about? they were dealing with mr. giuliani about currying favor for the president's political interests that had nothing to do with ukraine's interests. so that might be why they would be talking to someone in the u.s. government that maybe understood what the u.s. government's interests were and it severed them from having to deal with what giuliani was trying to do, which was personal to the president. it's astounding to me that she even brought that up because, really, if i were her, i wouldn't want to remind people that mr. giuliani who had no government post was in there trying to get ukraine do

something. she inadvertently helped the case against the president. >> and to bill chris crystal's he's an american patriot period. >> the national security council director, bolton or previous ones say if the people here know foreign languages, they can talk in foreign languages to their counterparts, just as well as their counterparts can speak in english. is that a new rule, if we know a foreign language and it's easier to communicate way foreign diplomat in that language -- no cia station chief could learn the lang twieth whiuage to whic assigned? >> he's acting as if it's suggested to be espionage because giuliani was representing the government. he was not representing the government. they were trying to get clarity, if anything, if this happened at

all, to how do we deal with this guy when we're dealing with your government? giuliani was not representing the government. he was representing the personal interests of the president. so what it was that she was suggesting was this person supposed to be doing wrong here to give clarity? >> i mean, the personality cult around trump is expanding to just unforeseen heights. it is a personality cult. yesterday rush limbaugh attacks john bolton, attacked john bolton. he wasn't that good anyway. >> i thought he was their guy. okay. >> but, again, in a penalty cult, it's whomever you -- the wult leader is a cult leader is. and in this case john bolton dared to tell the truth about the personal running the personality cult. so suddenly john bolton, suddenly he's banished from the barn. and, my gosh, here we have -- it's staggering.

we have a guy, willie, who won a purple heart, who -- in the iraq war, a hero who has dedicate dollars hdedicated his entire life to the united states of america and he is trashed on fox news and trashed -- they talk about the possibility of espionage. and my question is, laura ingram also accuse john bolton now of, quote, espionage because it was bolton who told everybody immediately to go talk to lawyers. you know why? because he's an american who actually puts the rule of law ahead of a burned-out former reality tv host. >> well, if you watch last night, the acting is getting a lot worse. the fained outrage is getting worse. there's nowhere to go when you

have witness after witness, credible witness after witness telling the same story in great detail. we'll get more detail from the colonel today. it trieks strikes me too, kimbe you were going to make the american dream in a laboratory, something republicans on paper would be thrilled about, as a young boy who fled the soviet union came to american, he signed up for the united states military, served overseas, earned a purple heart in iraq, you couldn't find a better ideal of what this country is about. and now they're going to try to go after him? and that's why i wonder, kimberly, f kimberly, fox news say separate entity unto themselves. but as a republican in the house, is mark meadows, lindsey graham, these people who have been spinning for the president, all these months and years now, are they willing to step up and say that that man that we showed right there, colonel vindman, that is he a traitor, that he is

somehow engaging in espionage, that espionage that is he somehow a double agent? will they take that step for the president? >> look, i think that we have seen so far some republicans, they do sort of grab on to the talking points that come out of the white house or come from fox news or other conservative outlets that support the president. think the bigger question now is will republicans in the senate who ultimately will be -- have this vote put before them once the impeachment proceeding move to a trial, which are it looks like that is all but certain to happen at this point. and and especially certain republicans who they themselves are facing tough re-election prospects. we've heard from senator mitt romney who has spoken up and said that he remains open to the idea of impeachment. the question will be whether others will listen to him and keep that open mind as well. i'm thinking about people like

susan collins, people like cory gardner, jody ernst all facing re-election, all from districts that are tough. but all of whom do understand the difference between a career foreign servant, somebody who say veteran and even after the purple heart went to serve in the white house out of a sense of duty. someone who in his testimony today vindman is expected to reaser reassert over and over again his sense of duty and patriotism, certainly knowing that his testimony will be attacked and he'll be labeled as a partisan trying to make very clear that that is not the case. i think we're seeing from that fox news analysis that they're trying also to create some equivalence between vindman and rudy giuliani as somebody who was working with ukrainians to do, you know, allegedly for, on behalf america or on behalf of

the president. the difference between vindman, he is a career diplomat. he is a vet. and also people who work on the national security council, folks in the white house like this, they go through vetting. they have security clearance. it's a very, very careful and specific process that they go to so that they can do the sort of diplomacy. rudy giuliani didn't have any of that. so i think that's part of what's going on here. >> so let's pull back 30,000 feet for the democrats, adrienne elrod, this is your specialty. talk about nancy pelosi and the strategy for democrats. i guess i keep hearing it again and again, the need to stay focused. >> exactly, mika. that's what leader pelosi has done so effectively during this entire process. she's stayed aboveboard. she's focused on facts. her caucus is focused on the facts. the chairmen and women who have jurisdiction over the oversight committees regarding impeachment have focused on the facts.

and that's why you're seeing the republicans scrambling. frankly, speaker pelosi doesn't are to do much at this point. she has to focus on the facts and just watch the republicans -- it's almost a come comedy routine trying to stumble or themselves defending donald trump. they know this is the most controversial testimony to date. they've got a credit witness who was listen together phone calls, someone who understands ukrainian and speaks the language. this is going to be a turning point add the republicans know it, which is why you're seeing these desperate measures that the administration is taking and desperate measures coming from some of donald trump's chief defenders in congress. jim jordan, mark meadows. these guys right now may be able to, you know, right now may be able to find ways in the laura ingram style of defending donald trump and criticizing witnesses

who come forward, especially of course lieutenant colonel vindman who sis a very credible witness. how does this affect them down the road? four, six years down the road, how do these republicans defend this behavior when they're up for re-election? because right now this may work, but down the road it may not. >> i don't -- >> i just wonder how they go back to their district and they go to town hall meetings and they justify attacking an iraqi war veteran who was injured life serving his country. adrienne, let me ask you about the focus. how narrow is the ukraine? there's a lot of concern -- >> so many other things. >> -- that the democrats are going tot narrow scope. but it is in that narrow scope most likely where democrats will be able to have the cleanest,

most unambiguous argument about donald trump violating his oath of office. >> yeah, exactly, joe. think that's what speaker pelosi is trying to focus on right now. zroi democrats don't want this going on. we don't want to be dealing with impeachment when the 2020 caucus gets underway in february, which is slightly less than 15 weeks away. if you start expanding the scope of the investigation well beyond ukraine, this could drag on for god knows how long. for the short-term, i think speaker pelosi is doing exactly what she needs to be doing, which are is keeping the focus on ukraine. there's so much material on this issue for democrats to work with when it comes to impeachment. russia investigation for so many people was confusing because there were so many elements. this is pretty straightforward when it comes to what donald trump was trying to do with ukraine and the biden family. so i think that democrats are doing the right thing,

especially under speaker pelosi's guidance to keep it under ukraine. >> adrienne elrod, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump endorsed mitt romney for president and later attacked him for losing. romney called trump a phony and a fraud before having dinner with him to discuss job opportunities. now the two are entangled yet again amid the looming threat of impeachment. mark leibovich writes about it for "the new york times" magazine and he joins the conversation next on "morning joe." s the conversation next on "morning joe." in one week... a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair®

pair with retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything. keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months.

of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪ (engines rev) the only thing better than horsepower... ...is more horsepower. (engines rev) if we were for everyone, we'd be for no one. with dodge power dollars, more power means more cash allowance. purchase now and get $10 per horsepower.

that's $7,970 on the srt challenger hellcat redeye.

it's been reported that there's a cyberattack on business every 39 seconds. ouch. i don't even want to think about it. comcast business has a solution. we go beyond fast with a cloud-based security system that automatically updates, so you always have the latest protection. phishing. malware. risky sites. it can help block all of that. get fast internet and add comcast business securityedge for just $29.95 a month. it's one less thing for us to worry about. comcast business. beyond fast. joining us now, chief national correspondent "the new york times" magazine, mark leibovich who sat down with mitt rom no, i discuss his new found

second wind in washington for a new piece entitled "donald trump's goitrump gift to mitt romney, relevance ". ouch. >> there's an interesting thing here about how mitt romney is portrayed as a lone crusader in republican politics, it doesn't ignore it but it glosses over the fact that in 2012 he was constituent. if he still has a consistency and does he still have followers in the party and, if so, how he intends to use him? >> i think he has admirers in the party. it's unclear if he has followers within the party. he seems at least outwardly to be very conscious of not portraying himself as some leader of a resistance movement inside the senate. right now, though, he obviously

is aware that he can kind of draw his own weather system. can he draw plenty of attention by virtue of the fact that he's a standalone brand. he has a career outside of what he's doing now and he also has a very high profile. but i think right now he knows that a lot of the attention is going to come to him because ultimately this story is going to come down to assuming democrats do impeach in the house, it's going to come down to who the sort of on-minded senators are. and mitt romney, i think at this point, at this fairly early juncture of the process is the good-to figure in the republican caucus and it sort of remains to er that spreads. >> you know, mark, it's so fascinating that sam'sfollowing party, it reminds me we've been playing a clip of lawyer raura and her guests saying that

vindman is committing espionage because he's doing his job. i was loyal to mitt romney and the whole mob was behind mitt romney in 2012 and you couldn't say anything critical of him. i think he realizes now that mob has moved on and he seems to have an understanding, does he not, that utah was perhaps the one state that he could get elected as a republican statewide because people in utah actually are behaving like republicans used to behave? >> to some degree. i mean, the other fact of the matter is he has five years until he's up for re-election again. when you've been through has acts as mitt romney has been through in his career both in business and politics, you kind of dependent these antibodies and you don't become cynical, but you can shrug a lot of the stuff off -- he is a very strong

man of faith. he's walking around with not so much as anyone who has anything to lose, because i think he feels a heavy burden in this moment especially. but as someone who might find it easier to shrug off a lot of this stuff. that was certainly my sense of him. he seems to,s a said in t as i enjoying this moment. i think he likes the moment that people are paying attention to him butnd feels empowered to do so. >> i think one interesting question is romney's unique in many ways, former presidential nominee from a state from utah that wasn't very pro trump. there are more people like mitt romney this the senate and even in the house. by which i mean everyone looks at these swing state senators and people look to districts about whether they can afford to lead trump. but there are a lot of congressmen who are retiring and don't care about an extra two or four years.

think they're the ones who are most lickly to go first. alexanderers a alexanders, congressman who just last week came out a 65-year-old former ambassador to the vatican doesn't need prove anything. how much do you have the sense that romney isn't entirely alone or needn't or won't end up being entirely alone? >> i don't think he's alone and the requequestion is how much cy will he have at the end of all of this? if you get all the people who are older or retiring and the conscience sort of centrist, more sort of people like in a category who mitt romney or susan collins who have more considerations on, you know, just sort of taking a lather vilar ger vie larger view of this, you get up

to people that could jump off the train. the question is does it get to 15, 16, 17 and do you lose people who are maybe less vulnerab vulnerable electorally. >> thank you so much. we'll be reading the new piece "the new york times" magazine. kimberly atkins, before gro, wht are you reporting on today? >> we are looking closely at the testimony that continues to come in on capitol hill and the lead-up to the vote that will be taken on thursday when it is expected that the house will formalize the impeachment proceedings. as you you've been discussing that takes away some of the key process arguments that republicans have been make against this entire process. it seems that nancy pelosi is very focused on making the pitch to the meamerican people. democrats say they don't want to

make the same mistake as they did during the mueller investigation where momentum was lost right when public opinion is turning and sitting favorably in an impeachment probe right now. they want to move quickly and get it moving brlefore the holidays. >> thank you very much. and thank you bill chris as wel coming up, president trump doubles down on his decision not to inform democrats over the al baghdadi raid due to a kerconce of leaks. we'll talk about that when we're back in a moment. that when wee back in a moment. of an outdoor grill indoors. a superheated grill and 500 degree cyclonic air gives all the sizzling, char-grilled flavors, but without the smoke. and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do things no other grill can,

like transform into an air fryer. so now make burgers and a side of guilt-free fries. the ninja foodi grill, the grill that sears, sizzles and air fry crisps. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. they're america's biopharmaceutical researchers. pursuing life-changing cures in a country that fosters innovation here, they find breakthroughs... like a way to fight cancer by arming a patient's own t-cells... because it's not just about the next breakthrough... it's all the ones after that. (engines rev)

the only thing better than horsepower... ...is more horsepower. (engines rev) if we were for everyone, we'd be for no one. with dodge power dollars, more power means more cash allowance. purchase now and get $10 per horsepower. that's $7,970 on the srt challenger hellcat redeye. ♪

♪ i got that vibe, got that vibe ♪ ♪ got that vibe, yeah, i ain't petty, ♪ ♪ looking fly, looking fly, ♪ ♪ looking fly, yeah, they ain't ready. ♪ ♪ i can shine, i can shine, ♪ ♪ i can shine. ♪ i'mma do what i'm made to do. ♪ ♪ i'mma do what i'm made to do. ♪ built for excellence. you start from the foundation up. the excellence is reaching dreams and chasing them at the same time. ♪ chasing them at the same time. beyond the routine checkups. beyond the not-so-routine cases.

comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. all working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gig-speed network. because beyond technology... there is human ingenuity. every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. he died like a dog. he died like a coward. he was whimpering, screaming, and skrieg. a crying. and, frankly, i think it's something that should be brought out so that his followers and all these young kids that won't to leave various countries, including the united states, they should see how he died. he didn't die a hero, he died a coward, crying, whimpering,

screammy. >> the president talked about baghdadi whimpering, crying, and screaming. how do we know that? >> i don't have those details. the president probably had the opportunity to talk to the commanders on the ground. clearly the guy was a coward and a murderer. >> president trump described yesterday baghdadi whimpering and crying before he died. can you elaborate or confirm those details? >> secretary was asked the same question yesterday. i know that the president had planned to talk down to the unit and unit members but i don't know what the source of that was. but i astum was talkisume it wa unit and unit members. >> when i was leading the cue, i'd get in the office late at night and he'd be work being at his desk and i'd whisper behind him and go, we're going to take you out of your office? they'd go who are you? i'd go, i'm batman. i'm batman. >> that's amazing.

>> and he was whimpering and crying and like a dog -- anyway. >> it's not attractive. >> no, it's not attractive at all. willie, it's ridiculous, willie, that this guy just makes stuff up and he's such a bad liar. like when he was doing, i talked to china, i talked to two people from china last night. china called last night. that's it, china called last night, you knew immediately he was lying. now does he this whole whimpering and -- you knew he was lying. the whole world just has to be look going, why lord, what's wrong with this guy? it's about as believable as the batman story. >> question believe that al baghdadi died a coward, but the story is embellished enough without that. we'll see if he did speak to special operators and get that detail, but listening there was no audio and sam stein has some reporting this morning talking to a number of people who didn't quite know what the president was talking about at least with this detail about al baghdadi

crying and whimpering and screaming at the end. >> the secretary of defense didn't know about it, chairman of the joint chiefs didn't know about it. maybe he'll say the dog knew about it and whispered to him. up next, former secretary of defense jim mattis is speaking about a tell-all written by our next guest. straight ahead on "morning joe." next guest. straight ahead on "morning joe." she wanted a roommate to help with the cooking. but she wanted someone who loves cats.

so, we got griswalda. dinner's almost ready. but one thing we could both agree on was getting geico to help with our renters insurance. yeah, switching and saving was really easy! drink it all up. good! could have used a little salt. visit geico.com and see how easy saving on renters insurance can be.

it's rukmini here from the new york times . hey, you see this? plaque psoriasis uncoverth clearer skin that can last.

in fact, tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. uncover clearer skin that can last. janssen can help you explore cost support options.

welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now, former chief speechwriter and communications director for james mattis, james snodgrass. he's author of the new book "holding the line: inside trump's pentagon with secretary mattis." guys, great to have you with us this morning. there's a lot of talk about this book. there's a lot of talk from people who didn't want this book

to come out, including general mattis himself. we'll get into that. but i want to ask you first about general mattis' view of donald trump and why general mattis left this administration. ostensibly, it was because of syria policy, but you seem to suggest in the book dha general mattis had made up his mind some time before that. >> look, he was a commanding general. he was a retired four-star marine corps general, and you don't obtain that rank without having a good sense of how things maneuver. as he watched tillerson and hr mcmaster subsequently leave their jobs, you realize that level of support you've enjoyed in the administration is starting to fall away. so there was a meeting that was held in the pentagon, as i detail in the book, around the summer of 2018, where he and then chief of staff john kelly talked about the way forward. and that was a point in which it was pretty obvious that mattis was going to leave. >> general mattis has been pretty careful, publicly at

least, not to criticize president trump. the one crack was at the dinner a couple of weeks, when he joked about being called the most overrated general. what were his true feelings about donald trump as a commander in chief? >> you know, i think americans would be pleased to know that he's a very stoic individual. what you see in the public eye is very much how secretary mattis was behind the scenes. he was never an individual who would kpom bacome back into the or on the airplane as we were flying from location to location and say something disparaging against the president. his take was, we are where we are. how do we make the best of the situation and make sure that the u.s. military is accomplishing the policy directives that the president is looking to achieve. >> so as you know, general mattis isn't pleased about this book. he said of you, his choice to write a book reveals a true absence of character. he was appointed to a position of trust at the department of defense and surreptitiously taking notes without authorization for a self-promoting personal project is a clear violation of that trust. you heard from dod lawyers who

said yuought not write this boo. why was it important for you to come out and write what you wrote? >> i saw that statement last week. i was certainly disappointed by it. and when you think about secretary mattis and myself, i spent two decades in service as a fighter pilot, and we both because of our shared background understand that no one gets to define your honor, your character, or your integrity. and that's something you do through your actions. the way i was raised and the way the military trained me is your honor and your character counts the most when there's a thousand reasons not to share something like this. to share that firsthand experience with the american public. and i don't think that when you do so when the political winds are simply in your favor is doing the american public much of a service. >> so commander snodgrass, you were a line officer. in the united states navy. you were at the pentagon, you're working for general mattis who enjoys a very good relationship with the chairman of the joint chiefs, joe dunford, and a very good relationship with the chief of staff, john kelly. not so much with hr mcmaster,

the national security. what was the relationship that mattis had with mcmaster that seemed so abrasive? >> i wouldn't characterize it as abrasive. it's fascinating now, as you start to look through. the book chronicles the two years that mattis spent in the administration with donald trump and with other players. so it's fascinating, when you think in hindsight, you've got several individuals who the press has wildly characterized as the adults in the room. and the way it's perceived is that they're moving in lockstep. that they're unified in their efforts, and that wasn't necessarily the case. of course, everyone has their views on policy and how they want to further their agenda. secretary mattis, of course, had very strong views on national defense. and i believe what you see is the main point of friction, is that hr mcmaster wanted to run and coordinate policy from within the white house. and secretary mattis and secretary of state tillerson pushed back against that. >> as you worked closely with general mattis' secretary of defense, you had to observe,

have access to some of the conversations that the president would have and others at the level of the white house level. and you had to read some of the transcripts. and we're going now through this whole ukraine, the transcript of the president's conversation with president zelensky. is there anything you could shed light on -- i know you don't know about that specific conversation -- but how transcripts and then summaries of transcripts could really differ and trike you when you read it as maybe somebody sanitized or changed something here. >> you bet. i think that, of course, what you always see is what happened behind closed doors and there's also what is publicly released by, whether it's the white house or one of the key figures within the administration. and so, even as this was playing out with the alleged quid pro quo and then of course, the white house released their version of a summarized transcript of that phone call, what struck me, as you

mentioned, i had seen some previous presidential transcripts. they don't look the same at all. so i had read one, for example, between president trump and prime minister netanyahu from israel. and when you read the actual word-for-word transcript, it's pretty jarring. >> different than the summary? >> absolutely, absolutely. those are the kind of anecdotes that i think are important for the american public, you know, in the face of openness and transparency, that benefits all of us. and that's why i felt compelled, one of the reasons why i felt compelled to write this book, to help individuals in this tumultuous time to understand what's really going on behind closed doors and what can we tlae learn from this situation. >> did you come across lieutenant colonel alexander vindman? the man who will testify today in the impeachment inquiry? >> i never worked with him. i worked with the more senior leaders in the nsc as we were putting together our speeches or the strategic documents we would release as we worked with others in the indo specific.

i believe what he's doing and stepping forward, i like the fact that he realizes that your character, your honor counts when there's a thousands reasons not to display that. it's a very politically tumultuous time right now, so for him to have that courage is heartening. >> the new book is "holding the line:inside trump's pentagon with secretary mattis" from a man who knows secretary mattis very well. guy snodgrass, thanks very much. >> thank you, willie. >> mika? still ahead, major developments in the house impeachment probe. democrats prepare to move it into public view. and for the first time, lawmakers will hear from a white house official who reported concerns after listening to that phone call at the center of the inquiry. "morning joe" is back in two minutes. inquiry. "morning joe" is back in two minutes. only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ seaonly abreva cany to help sget rid of it in...

...as little as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. abreva starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. abreva acts on it. so you can too. i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪ ♪ to bare my skin ♪ yeah that's all me. ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ nothing is everything.

keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. ♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." more damning testimony is expected today in the house impeachment probe.

for the first time, house investigators will hear from a white house official who was actually assigned to listen in on the phone call at the center of the inquiry. "the new york times" was the first to obtain the opening statement of lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, a top ukraine expert on the national security counc counc council, who is currently serving active duty in the u.s. army. he's expected to testify that he twice reported concerns to the nsc's lead attorney. once after a july 10th meeting in washington between then national security adviser john bolton and his ukrainian counterpart. and attended by ambassadors kurt volcker and gordon sondland. according to vindman, bolton cut the meeting short when sondland started to speak about ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure a meeting between the two presidents. the opening statement continues, following this meeting, there

was a scheduled debriefing during which ambassador sondland emphasized the importance that ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the bidens, and burisma. i stated to ambassador sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigation biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the nsc was going to get involved in or push. vindman says the second time he reported concerns was after he listened in on that july 25th phone call between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine. vindman is expected to tell lawmakers, quote, i did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen and i was worried about the implications for the u.s. government's support of ukraine. i realized that if ukraine

pursued an investigation into the bidens and burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result inform ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. this would all undermine u.s. national security. i will say once again, the second or third time now this has happened with these career diplomats, these patriots, coming forward with what they saw and heard. >> what they saw, and again, it's so important to remember, we're talking about one of the most beleaguered countries in all of europe that's been invaded by vladimir putin already. and there were threats that the invasion would continue to go westward toward kiev. so, this is not a theoretical discussion. this was actually a country that desperately needed defensive weapons. they were in the middle of negotiations on releasing prisoners. they were in the middle of negotiations on how they moved forward without war. and those defensive weapons that

donald trump was holding up, and that his administration was holding up, were critically needed to keep ukraine democratic and free. and yet donald trump was willing -- >> and to keep people alive. >> keep people alive. that horrible scene looking over the bridge, no knowing that people would die because those weapons weren't coming. so you know, james fellows, this is -- i will say, one blessing of the trump administration is that at the very least, it has provided us with some clarifying moments. clarifying moments as to the nature, underlying nature of political parties. i am no longer a republican. and the underlying nature of, of career civil servants. and also people that we may not agree with ideologically. and i mentioned john bolton, who here once again, we have an example of john bolton, calling an end to a meeting, talking to

his people, saying, hey -- >> wow. >> -- we're not going to be a part of this drug deal. go talk to lawmakers immediately. and whether it was john bolton or the lieutenant colonel or bill taylor, there are still americans that serve this government of all ideological stripes who actually put their country first. >> i agree. it's been fascinating in the past week, in the past six months or so, to see, as you say, on the one hand, both career civil servants, military people, intelligence world people, state department people who say, i've been here before this era. i think this is right, this is wrong. i'm going to stand up for what i think is right and call out what i think is wrong. even if it means i'm going to be personally jeopardized, i might lose my job, et cetera. we're seeing that also now from some people who are more politically involved, like ambassador bolton would be certainly the clearest example. i think there's no foreign policy issue on which i personally have agreed with him, maybe ever. but i really respect the way

that he was standing up for what he thought was the duty of somebody in his job. on the other extreme, we have this daily calculation of what, if anything, will finally exceed the elasticity of the gop senate to rationalize away the new news of each day. you know, back in the watergate area, there was this sense that finally, there was more than the republican -- than the senators would swallow. there was john dean's testimony. there was alexander butterfield, about the taping of the white house. and presumably, there will be some point at which this -- you know, the stretching and stretching and stretching of the gop in the senate might finally reach its bursting point, but i'm not sure it would be rash to assume that even this is that stretching point, even though it's more than what john dean said or what alexander butterfield said. >> well, i mean, we can look even beyond congress. the republicans in congress, and look at what happened last

night, when the lieutenant colonel, an iraq war hero, an american patriot, was accused on fox news of possible treason, possible espionage. i want to play this real quickly and get your response, james. >> but get this. this is buried in "the new york times" piece tonight, but i found it very interesting. he's a decorated colonel, by the way, in the iraq war. but because colonel vindman emigrated from ukraine along with his family when he was a child and is fluent in ukrainian and russian, ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with mr. giuliani, though they typically communicated in english. now, wait a second, john! here we have a u.s. national security official who is advising ukraine while working inside the white house apparently against the

president's interests, and usually they spoke in english. isn't that kind of an interesting angle on this story? >> i find that astounding. and you know, some people might call that espionage. >> oh, my god. the idiocy -- i mean, first of all, to our gentle viewers from fox news, albert einstein emigrated, i believe, from germany, and helped the united states of america win world war ii. another thing, unlike germany during world war ii, ukraine is a democratic ally. and what helps ukraine helps the united states of america. but james, it is breathtaking, it is astounding that an iraqi war veteran, a hero, a man who got injured, got a purple heart and continued to fight for this country and work for this country after his service in iraq, is now being accused of

espionage by john yu and fox news hosts? >> and i can think of only two members in history, this calls to mind, of course, one is joseph mccarthy, in his final days, having his final showdown, you know, "have you no sense of decency" when he finally attacked the army and that was too much. the other was during the 2016 campaign when then candidate trump was going against john mccain, he was going against the kaiser khan family of just, you know who had just lost their son in combat for this nation's flag. so, again, you think at some point, the accumulacumulative w attack on these people who have risked their lives for the nation's welfare and protection, you hope that will pile up at some point, but we can't count on that on any given day. >> so gene robinson, the implication -- it wasn't an implication, she was just saying there, that this colonel who has a purple heart for suffering injuries in arkansasied attack

somehow a double agent in ukraine. but let's talk about the content of what colonel vindman said and what he's going to testify today. if you didn't believe your own eyes when you read the white house summary of that phone call, put out by the white house, between president trump and president zelensky. if you didn't belief the whistle-blower report for some reason. if you didn't believe the text messages, if you didn't believe the testimony of fiona hill or the statement of bill taylor that we all read. here again we have a document corroborating exactly what you all know and believe, which is that the president traded on his position and his power and used almost $400 million of military aid to seek aid from ukraine in going after one of his political opponents. there's a cloud of disinformation being put out there. there's attacks on the sources and what about this guy? maybe he's a double agent. push all of that to the side and just read the testimony that you have in front of you. you know what happened here. >> yeah, the facts are clear. and they're really not in

dispute. as you said, this is somebody who was on the phone call. he is not the whistle-blower. he refers to that campaign really that lasted some time. this was an ongoing effort by the -- by gordon sondland and rudy giuliani and the president and presumably others of his toadies to muscle ukraine into digging up dirt on joe biden. and he found it shocking, vindman found it shocking. he describes a meeting in which john bolton cut off the meeting after gordon sondland started raising the quid pro quo for these investigations of the bidens. it's just astounding. you know, republican senators up on capitol hill are starting to

retreat. they say in defense of this? so they're starting to retreat behind the -- well, i can't comment, i'm going to be a juror. that probably sounds ominous to ears in the white house, actually, which would like to have republicans, depending -- defending the president on substance, and there is no defense. i happen to see speaker pelosi up on capitol hill yesterday and i'll tell you, she is as determined and as confident as she could possibly be. you recall, she didn't want to do this. she didn't want to do impeachment. she feels it was thrust on her and thrust on the country. that the times have found her and found the house of representatives and laid out its duty. and she's going to do that duty. >> still ahead on "morning joe," we've heard a lot about what donald trump told ukraine's leader over the phone.

but what about mike pence's call with that country's president? nbc news has new reporting on that, next on "morning joe." re that, next on "morning joe." here's the thing about managing multiple clouds for your business. when you've got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds- things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, the 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ born to be wild...

( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®. for fast pain relief. ♪ ladies and gentlemen mini is a different kind of car. for a different kind of drive. ♪ ladies and gentlemen for the drive to create a new kind of family car, that became a new kind of race car. for the drive to rebel, zag. for the drive that's inside you.

and inside us. that's the drive under the hood of every mini. because every mini is... for the drive. ♪

will you release those transcripts so the american people can review them? your own transcripts? >> i would have no objection to that. and we're discussing that with white house counsel as we speak. but when people see the transcripts of my calls and when they hear the reporting of our conversation, president trump's focus with ukraine, from the very beginning was on enlisting more european support and supporting president zelensky's efforts to advance reforms that would end an era of corruption in ukraine. >> that's vice president mike pence speaking to reporters in iowa about three weeks ago, about his call with ukraine's president zelensky.

joining us now, nbc news correspondent carol lee. she's here with her latest reporting on the internal white house debate that is stifling the release of the pence/zelensky call. carol, good morning. we heard vice president pence right there saying he has no problem putting that out to the public. he has nothing to hide. so the question is, why haven't we seen that transcript? >> that's a great question. basically, that was almost three weeks ago. it will be three weeks ago tomorrow, where the vice president said that. and since then, we've learned that there's been this internal debate, this back and forth about whether or not it's wise to release the transcript of his call. and there was a camp that was against it. and their arguments are, that there's many of them. the more you release, the more momentum it gives impeachment. more transcripts means more requests for other transcripts, potentially. there's a precedent argument. and then there's the concern that if you were to stack up the vice president's call with zelensky and the president's call with zelensky, it really

wouldn't make the president look very good. that potentially it's not going to be the perfect call that the president said his call was. and that that's concerning. now, there are those who are for this who say that, look, we don't have a lot of ways to fight back. there's this deluge of testimony that's damaging, coming from the hill. and this could be one of the ways in which we could push back, by showing that there was no there in the vice president's call. and there are people around the vice president who think that this is a way to clear his name. there's some increasing concern that this is going to somehow tarnish him. and as you saw, he does not really answer directly what his knowledge was about this, about the pressure campaign on ukraine. and so there's worry there. but there's still -- we spoke to an administration official who said that they're stul reviille i ing this and that underscores how much this white house hasn't got their act together in terms of coming up with a plan to push

back on impeachment. >> and the release of the president's phone call summary, that didn't go quite the way they had planned. but you got to something else i want to ask you about. mike pence out publicly shows no daylight with the president. he stands by the president. but is there some instinct with him and the team around him. he's a longtime politician. he's not a dumb guy. he knows what he's doing. to begin to preserve himself and to preserve his own legacy if that can be done at this point? he sees the writing on the wall. he's going to see this new testimony from colonel vindman today. is he working behind the scenes to save himself? >> well, we know that people who are allies of the vice president are a little -- you know, worried that he's not going to come out of this squeaky clean. and that's because, you know, there's one of two options. heat either he was aware that all of this stuff was going on and he didn't say anything or do anything about it, or he was actually a participant in some of it. and neither of those things are

good for the vice president. and he also has his own political ambitions. this is someone who, you know, is -- it's well known that he thinks that it might run for president some day. he's -- this is not his last stop on the campaign trail, being vice president. and so, you know, yet at the same time, he is one of president trump's staunchest defenders. but if you look at what he's saying, he's not actually defending the substance. he's -- you know, he's asked about, was there a transcript, was there pressure -- did you see any pressure from the president to investigate his political allies? and his response is, you know, well, i never mentioned the bidens to president zelensky of ukraine. so it's a very careful kind of balance there. >> carol, speaking of careful balance win mean, everybody is aware that all of the release of the transcripts that we're talking about here is self-induced, brought on by the behavior of the trump administration, specifically the president himself. but long range, looking down the road, the release of transcripts

between presidents and vice presidents, with other foreign leaders, is kind of troubling. >> yeah. there's a real concern among -- particularly among lawyers about the precedent that this sets. because these are conversations that are supposed to be had in public. they're not out there for the public. there's a reason for that. there's a belief that world leaders should be able to have open conversations without it spilling out into public view. there's also, you know, if you're president and you're talking to another world leader, what if they're worried that you're going to release the transcripts that we learned that the ukrainians were. the other thing that people raise concerns about is that the more you release, the more you put out there, like transcripts of phone calls like this, that it waters down your ability to exert executive privilege. because the more you disclose, the argument is, well, if you put this out there, then why can't we get more. and so, it's a concern for --

and it was one of the reasons why there were a lot of people who were against president trump releasing the transcript of his call, initially. >> carol lee, thank you. coming up, from the armed services committee, senator joe manchin is standing by. he joins the conversation next on "morning joe." versation next on "morning joe. chevy's the only brand... to earn j.d. power dependability awards... across cars... trucks... and suvs. four years in a row. since more than 32,000 real people... just like me. and me. and me. took the survey that decided these awards. it was only right that you hear the good news from real people... like us. i'm daniel. i'm casey. i'm julio. only chevy has earned j.d. power dependability awards across cars,

trucks and suvs. four years in a row. that life of the party look walk it off look one more mile look reply all look own your look... ...with fewer lines. there's only one botox® cosmetic. it's the only one... ...fda approved... ...to temporarily make frown lines... ...crow's feet... ...and forehead lines... ...look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic, may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow, eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. so, give that just saw a puppy look. and whatever that look is. look like you...

with fewer lines. see results at botoxcosmetic.com johnsbut we're also a cancer fighting, hiv controlling, joint replacing, and depression relieving company. from the day you're born we never stop taking care of you. - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself. t-mobile's newest signal reaches farther than ever before... with more engineers, more towers, more coverage. it's a network that gives you... with coverage from big cities, to small towns. introducing t-mobile's 600mhz signal. no signal reaches farther or is more reliable.

and it's built 5g ready. sarah's last tuition payment, sent off. feeling good? oh yeah. now i'm ready to focus on my project. ♪ ♪ this is why we plan. ♪ ♪ you never cease to amaze me, maya. see how investing with a j.p. morgan advisor can help you. visit your local chase branch.

a whistle-blower wrote a false narrative of the conversation. now they don't want to talk about the whistle-blower. because they didn't think i was going to release the conversation. when i released the conversation, i blew up schiff's act. and just to put topping on it, the russian, as you know, the new russian president, a good man, made a statement. there was no anything. there was no pressure put on him, no anything. >> president trump, yesterday, describing his controversial phone call with the president of ukraine, and appearing to refer to him as the new russian president. former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, reacted on twitter writing, quote, oh,

boy. hard to think of a worse insult than calling the ukrainian president a russian. that is exactly what putin thinks. that ukraine is not a real country and ukrainians are not a separate ethnicity. you just have to wonder if he's actually illiterate on these things are targeted when he uses this language, the president. joining us now, member of the armed services committee. democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia. senator, great to have you on the show. >> oh, mika, it's good to be back. >> how do you think the impeachment inquiry is going, especially as it pertains to nancy pelosi and how she's leading it. a lot of people wanted her to move faster on it, but what's your take on the directions the taking right now. >> you know, mika, i have my staff look back at the history of impeachments and how these things unfolded, and gathering of information, what they've been doing. that's been done historically. when you look back at nixon, at

clinton. there's been a time lapse when they start getting information in the inquiry before they went to a formal vote on impeachment. and basically, a constitution gives the house the sole power during the impeachment process. so it looks like everything is pretty much what's been done in the past and nothing seems to be different there, but i understand, it's a different atmosphere that we live in today. >> it certainly is. and actually, let's talk about that atmosphere, especially as we are going to be hearing testimony today from a national security council member as well as a man who is serving right now, in the united states of america, vindman. take a look to laura ingraham last night onresting. he's a decorated colonel, by the way, in the iraq war. but because colonel vindman emigrated from ukraine along his family when he was a child and is fluent in ukrainian and

russian, ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with mr. giuliani, though they typically communicated in english. now, wait a second! john, here we have a u.s. national security official, who is advising ukraine while working inside the white house, apparently against the president's interests, and usually they spoke in english. isn't that kind of an interesting angle on this story? >> i find that astounding. and you know, some people might call that espionage. >> so if you look at this lieutenant colonel's background, he's got a purple heart, he got hit by an ied in iraq. we also know he was born in the soviet union, emigrated with his family, young. he tends to feel sympatico with the ukraine. it seems incredibly career that he's concerned about defense. his main mission was to make sure that the ukraine got those

weapons. i understand that. we all have an affinity from our homeland where we came from. like me, i'm sure that vindman has the same affinity. >> so this is now a 24/7 narrative. senator manchin, does it concern you that an american hero that was awarded the purple heart is already being trashed on fox news, even before he testifies? >> it's just despicable. i don't know what else to say on that. i don't know what to say. the great service people that we have that are willing to do whatever it takes to keep this country safe. and to denigrate in such a manner is not who i am, not how i was raised, not who i am as a west virginian. can i can assure you, mika, this is not normal. there's nothing normal about this. i'm more concerned with giuliani's surrogate role as

basically being our state spokesperson or statesperson. it's just wrong. it's just so wrong for him to be in that position. to go out there, and with this person having to talk to ukrainians, with the ukrainians having concern of how they're going to talk to giuliani because they're afraid of what he might interpret or not interpret, or do business with him or not do business with him, that it can be retroactive to them. it's just wrong. just totally wrong. and that's what we should be looking at giuliani just as well. >> hey, senator, it's willie geist, you're on the record saying these attacks against the colonel are despicable. i want to ask you about the content he's expected to testify to today. he's talked about that july 25th phone call between president trump and president zelensky. the colonel says, quote, i was concerned by the call. i did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen. when you put that together, senator, with what we heard from ambassador taylor, the summary of the phone call provided by thehouse, the whistle-blower report, are you

concerned about the president's actions in this affair with ukraine? >> well, that's why we have this inquiry going on. >> but just based on what you know, are you concerned? >> sure, you're concerned, willie. anytime there's accusations that anything -- and also, you have evidence showing that any of us, any of us know better than that, to be involved with a foreign entity in a political process, in democracy, as we have in this country. they don't hold the same values that we do. they could care less about that. but my goodness, from the rules of campaigning, you can't take any type of support from a foreign entity. next of all, that means you shouldn't be involved in foreign entities or let them into our process. it's pretty simple and pretty straightforward and direct. >> does it look like based on what you know and what's public that the president did that? >> willie, until i see my role as a senate -- as a united states senator is going to be, if there is an impeachment and articles of impeachment filed, there's going to have to be evidence of why they did it, why they thought it was proper for them to vote on it in the affirmative, and send it to us

for a trial. i want to see the evidence. there's a lot going on back and forth and there's a lot of paper out there. but until you see the intent and the evidence, it's going to be hard. and i'm not going to make any accusations or come to any conclusions until i see that. >> so based on all of this evidence and all of this testimony that is public, you have not yet seen that? >> i haven't seen exactly what needs to be seen, because we haven't seen the articles of impeachment filed. what are they going to file articles on? until that is filed and they say, okay, now we're ready to go to trial, that comes to us. and we're going to see what brought them to trial. we haven't seen that at all. we've heard it and we've seen accusations and things out there, but willie, it's -- you know, people were jumping to the accusations, the people coming to an assumption of what's right or wrong and a conclusion of how they feel. it should not be based on whether you like or dislike a president or the process. the bottom line is that they have a job to do, let them do their job. the executive branch, the president should be working with them, and letting them see in a

transparent way. that's not happening. so that causes more speculation. and that's why we have such a division. the country's divided and becomes more divided when people don't participate. >> senator manchin, you were maybe fi5 or 6 years old when j mccarthy began his terrorism -- >> watch it, mike. >> you were younger than nick saban, how about that? >> no, no, i'm older than nick. >> you just copped to it. anyway, back to the point. you represent a state and you go home very, very often, that there are a lot of people who like donald trump. and they follow donald trump, and they don't pay a lot of attention on a day-to-day basis with what's going on with regard to impeachment. but con colonel vindman, he's being maligned in a way that is very reminiscent of the mccarthy era and he's not alone in that. what impact, if any, do you

think it has on the average person in west virginia who is inclined, who voted for trump, might be inclined to vote for trump again, the language and the behavior of public officials today in stuff like this? what does it do to people? >> mike, i'm telling you, i really, truly believe that most of the people back home in my state are tuning this out. they're not tuning into it. they've already formed their opinion. they either like the president or not. the only thing i say continuously, no person is above the law. i'm not above the law. the president's not above the law. and all you have to do is look at most courthouses and you'll see madame justice up there with the scales and a blindfold on. that means we're all treated equal and we all have to live under the rule of law. i try to go back to the basics of who we are as americans. forget the democrat and republican. i'm an american first and foremost. and i hope all of my fellow west virginianess a

virginianess are the same. and it's wrong. it's wrong when the president does this or any other, if i do it. i might not agree with you and i might think that you've made a mistake. i'm going to lay that out. basically in a civil manner. but right now, nothing is civil and there's no decorum whatsoever and it's wrong. >> senator, before you go, i know you're trying to not be completely distracted by everything pertaining to this presidency. and you are introducing a bankruptcy reform bill. tell us what you're doing to try to help people. >> well, first of all, mika, it's -- thank. it's the slap act. the slap act means stop looting america's pensions. if you look at what's happening, our pensions are unraveling. last night, the largest coal company that has union miners is mary coal company, declared bankruptcy. that means that the pensions are at stake. i've been working and begging mitch mcconnell to put the american miners act on the docket so we could vote on it and pass it. we would protect their pensions. right now, they're in jeopardy. they were going to go default by 2022. that's accelerated to next year. the average pension for a

retired miner is around $600. and most of these are widows who are receiving this and depend upon it. and with this happening, what they're saying is, put the worker first. the people that basically take out of their paycheck and invest it into the company, into a shared pension and retirement benefit plan. that's the first to be raided. and they're going to let this happen again. and we'll bethe ppgc, basicallyo go defunct, and you're going to see a total unraveling and it's going to be an economic chaos. i'm saying fix it and fix it now. and if you fix the bankruptcy laws, putting the working person, the person that paid into it at the head of the line, instead of at the back of the line, then we have a chance to say what they worked for and get the investments that they put into it and make sure they get their money back. that's all they work for. 20, 30 years, hard work, it's ridiculous. >> fix it with a slap act. senator joe manchin, thank you very much. >> slap act. >> i can hear that. up next, 50 years ago today,

a little something called the internet was born. walter isaacson takes a look at how that creation has transformed our culture and politics, next on "morning joe." plp pl if you live with diabetes, 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 - [woman] with my shark, i deep clean messes like this, this, and even this. but i don't have to clean this, because the self-cleaning brush roll removes hair while i clean. - [announcer] shark, the vacuum that deep cleans now cleans itself.

aveeno® with prebiotic striple oat complex balances skin's microbiome. so skin looks like this and you feel like this. aveeno® skin relief. get skin healthy™ most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. (woman) but to businesses, we're a reliable partner. we keep companies ready for what's next. (man) we weave security into their business. virtualize their operations. . we also keep them ready

for the next big opportunity. like 5g. almost all the fortune 500 partner with us. (woman) when it comes to digital transformation... verizon keeps business ready. ♪

. i wasn't prepared to translate that, as i was doing that little tease. that little mark with the "a" and then the ring around it. >> "at." >> see, that's what i said. kay said she thought it was "about." but i've never heard it said. then it sounded stupid when i saw it. violence@nbc. see, there it is. violence@nbc ge com. what is internet, anyway? >> that massive computer network. >> the one that's becoming really big now. >> what do you mean?

how does one -- what, do you write to it like mail? >> a lot of people use it and communicate -- i guess they can communicate with nbc, writers and producers. allison, can you explain what internet is? >> oh, my god! that was way back in 1994 when people were still wrapping their heads around what the internet actually was. it seems so funny now, but it was vexing. and one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. it was actually created 25 years earlier than that, if you can believe it. on this day back in 1969, on the campus of ucla, professor len klinerock and his team sent the first message over a network of computers that would evolve into the internet. joining us now, professor of history at tulane university, walter isaacson, and professor of information studies and design media arts at ucla, ramesh sreenivasan, he's the author of the new book titled

"beyond the valley," how innovators around the world are overcoming inequality and creating the technologies of tomorrow. we'll get to that in just a second. fascinating. but walter, try to pull back and give us the big picture. can you put into words, can you find the words to describe how the internet has changed the world and shaped history? >> it's been totally amazing that 50 years ago today, we began a path that allowed everybody to connect anywhere, to anybody they wanted to, everybody to be a publisher. everybody to be a pundit, everybody to get information or send information. and it transformed and we thought it was going to be very connecting. and we thought it would bend the arc of history to more freedom. however, there were certain design flaws in the original internet that have now come back to really haunt us. and it's made the internet, in some ways, especially social

media, to be ways to spread lies, to poison our discourse, and to polarize us. so it's been great for 50 years, and we love the internet almost as much as when we first came into our lives. but almost as much. we got to fix some of its design flaws. >> ramesh, it goes without saying that the internet has revolutionized our ways in more ways we can even describe in this second or count, perhaps. but what is the state of the internet today? 50 years since its invention? we had mark zuckerberg, we were just talking about up on capitol hill yesterday, facebook controlling 2 billion sets of data. and where we see things and how we see things. how do you describe the state of the internet now 50 years on? >> well, the internet was publicly funded. i think that's really important to point out, the internet -- the internet was a public initiative that started right next to my office at ucla. so taxpayer funds went into the internet. the web itself was a nonprofit initiative. but what happened is all of us started contributing content,

that great demock ra tooik rcran that i talk about in "beyond the valley," my new book. but where did we go to have those exchanges? to communicate, to find information, to access cars, to access media. to access cars like taxis? it became private technology companies that stood in the middle and monetized every transaction and every interaction that comprises the internet. in a sense, the internet is a place we go, but it's actually the engine, the system, the infrastructure that's monetizing all of our lives. and that's why we have a huge risk right now, because technology companies focused on their own self-interests, their own private bottom line have figured out ways to get our attention and capture our ideas in ways that they monetize and we know nothing at all about. so that's why i'm calling in this book for a digital bill of rights. >> okay. so let's talk about risk. i mean, we accept the internet. it's there.

it's like secondhand, it's part of our lives. but there's a dangerous to it, if you peel back layers. and now we were talking earlier off-camera about an algorithm that drives certain aspects of the internet. so, like, facebook, an algorithm that declares everything ought to be attainable, no matter what you're looking for or what you want to say. but the dangers of that are obvious. what do we do about taking care of the dangerous aspects? >> absolutely. well, if algorithms, which are basically ways of sorting out bodies of information, right? there's infinite amounts of information on the internet. so who decides what you end up seeing? those are algorithms. but those algorithms are designed and optimized for one agenda and one agenda only. to keep people's attention, which turns into addiction, on the technology platforms. they are designed for the benefit of the company itself. so as a result, what happens, is

inflammatory content. for example, content put out by president trump or breitbart content being seen by facebook as viable, right? which we know is at the minimum inflammatory, at times has supported conspiracy theories. that's why we see that content become the new normal, when we log on to platforms like facebook, when we search for content on google. and note that over 95% of the time, we don't go to page two of our google searches and over 80% of time, we don't go past the first three search results. we accept the world as it's algorithmically ordered for us. but we are not the ones in charge, have any transparency or accountability of this digital world that is taking over almost every aspect of our world. >> walter, do you -- go ahead, mika. >> go ahead, mike. okay, i'll take it. walter, are you concerned what roadw ramesh was just talking about, is that one of the design flaws? you mentioned design flaws earlier. what did you mean by that?

>> one of the major design flaws for me is that lies can spread, that a place like facebook doesn't have to take responsibility for what goes on it. as ramesh said, their take responsibility for what is being said. but any other publisher would have to take responsibility for what goes on their sights it is a advertisement in the "new york times." it doesn't have to take responsibility for what people put on it. people should take responsible for their own words there. for that to happen and e with have to take some of those design flaws and know that

anomianomit is anonymous. and people like jim clark the entrepreneur that created the first web browser and people like time burners lee, they're working on ways to create a new internet where there is more verification. people not able to spread lies and fake news. >> in wawe want to say that she having community coffees -- >> is there a hurricane in there from pat o'brien. >> no, it is chickerie coffee.

>> we were just talking about getting people to pay attention. do you worry about our culture where their attention spans are maybe three or four minutes. dwoept live in an eye contact nation. it is wonderful but. >> it is affecting all of us and particularly our youth who want to have alternatives. i teach undergraduate students and when i talk to them about these issues they take a moment of pause. i ask them to take 24 hours without engaging with the internet and they say show that possible. there is a tense of addiction to it. the flows of information give us disorienti disorienting behavior. the internet is in everything. how do you avoid and escape the

spern internet again, these platforms call themselves tech companies, but they're actually the biggest taxi example, the beggest hotel accommodation, and facebook is the biggest media company in the world. that is why stakeholder populations and all of us have to have input in the design of an internet that guarantees and protects our democracity. >> the book is "beyond the valley." ramesh, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. up next, after pulling u.s. troops out of syria, president trump keeps insisting that the oil in the region is secure.

well have more than that came coming up in a minute. e more th coming up in a minute. like job. when he was diagnosed with cancer, his team at ctca created a personalized care plan to treat his cancer and side effects. so job could continue to work and stay strong for his family. this is how we inspire hope. this is how we heal. we love you, daddy. good night. i love you guys. cancer treatment centers of america. appointments available now. cancer treatment centers of america. - [narrator] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. shark iq robot deep-cleans and empties itself into a base you can empty once a month. and unlike standard robots that bounce around, it cleans row by row. if it's not a shark, it's just a robot. the amazing new iphone has arrived. and so has t-mobile's newest signal. no signal goes farther or is more reliable. so you can get more out of the new iphone.

better battery life, new ultra-wide camera. and at t-mobile get unlimited for only $30/line for 4 lines on a network that goes farther than ever before. and right now, switch at a t-mobile store and get the new iphone 11 on us! only at t-mobile. ( ♪ ) only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol®. for fast pain relief. listening and observing for scientists at 3m. one of the products i helped develop was a softer, more secure diaper closure. as a mom, i knew it had to work. there were babies involved... and they weren't saying much. i envisioned what it's like for babies to have diapers around them. that's what we do at 3m, we listen to people, even those who don't have a voice. at the end of the day, we are people helping people.

great weather, great friends. you just saved a bunch of money by switching your boat insurance to geico. it was easy. folks, can it get any better than this? is that what i think it is? that is an armada of tiny sushi boats. awesome! i forgot to pack lunch. you had one job... chopsticks wasabi and soy! comin' in a little hot. it only gets better when you switch and save with geico. asbut when your team is always dealing with device setups, app updates, and support calls... you can never seem to get anywhere. that's why dell technologies created unified workspace, powered by vmware. ♪ a revolutionary solution that lets you deploy, manage, support and secure all your devices from the cloud. so you can stop going in circles,

and start moving forward. this piece is talking yeah?. so what do you see? i see an unbelievable opportunity. i see best-in-class platforms and education. i see award-winning service, and a trade desk full of experts, available to answer your toughest questions. and i see it with zero commissions on online trades. i like what you're seeing. it's beautiful, isn't it? yeah. td ameritrade now offers zero commissions on online trades. ♪ time now for business before the bell with brian sullivan. you have a update on oil prices? >> yeah, let's talk about the syria thing. you talked about it, president trump saying they want to go in

and secure the oil or take the oil, a lot of people said that would be a war crime. syria had some oil, they produced about 600,000 a day. now they produce less than belgium. they produce nearly no oil at all. analysts are beginning to question if the troops go in are they protecting oil in the ground? the oil fields are pretty dilapidated in that region, so what is there going to be production of. so it is highly unlikely that any american company would go in there. oil prices are down from a year ago. dwoept need more oil. so i'm not sure the syria plan

is going to work either. in mid december the labor party has agreed to it, so it could be up to another election in e engla england. a quarterly event now. >> thank you, time now for final thoughts before we go, mike barnbbar barnacle lead the way. some people are trying to attack lieutenant before his testimony today. she a true american patriot. he is a double eight from ukraine. he taints the testimony he will

give today. i would ask congressional rea y republicans if they agree with that assessment after they read his opening statement today. >> hi there, i'm stephanie ruhle if is tuesday, october 29th. any minute now the 10th witness in the impeachment inquirely will arrive but he will be the first white house official to testify and the first that can provide direct knowledge about what happened on that very specific phone call between president trump and president e zelensky. listen to who he is, a decorated military veteran that served in combat overseas and was