got his feelings hurt on twitter. listen, schiff has both republicans where they want him and the president where he wants him. i think the american people are going to learn a lot starting next week about the president and republicans. >> i would just say i would expect public opinion to move against the president. >> that is the big test. thank you both for being with me. that is "all in" for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. chris, i've just been advised the cow is now suing you asserting you this whole fake cow thing is defamation -- >> another bovine lawsuit. i've already got a list ofullfu them. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. happy wednesday. since donald trump was elected president november 2016, there have been ten state legislative houses, either state senates or statehouses that are flipped in terms of which party controls

them. the first one was in washington state. the senate there flipped from republican control to democratic control. and then all on one night, election night, 2018, the colorado senate flipped, the maine senate flipped, the minnesota house flipped, the new hampshire house flipped, the connecticut senate flipped and the new york senate all flipped, and all of them flipped from republican control to democratic control. and then last night the first call we got from the associated press at 9:29 eastern time was that the virginia senate would also flip, also from republican control to democratic control. and then after i got off the air for the first iteration of our show last night, the ap made the call not just for the virginia senate but the virginia house as well. and so what that means is since donald trump has been president in all in eight different states the house or the senate in the state legislator, ten state legislative houses overall have

flipped party control. since trump has been president. and every single one of them has flipped from republican control to democratic control. and that result last night with the whole virginia legislator, both the house and the senate, flipping from republican control to democratic control while democrats also control the governorship in the state of virginia, not just going to have a huge impact in terms of policy and priorities in the state of virginia, you're now going to have democratic controlled government in the state of virginia. after the courts repeatedly struck down electoral maps that the republicans had drawn in virginia when they had control of legislator, after courts repeatedly struck down those republican drawn maps for being discriminatory at one level or another, what happened last night in virginia with democrats taking both houses of had legislator, it also means that republicans aren't going to have another shot at trying to rig the electoral maps in their

state to ensure that republicans win even when they get far fewer votes. so virginia is going to be a big, big change in terms of policy and in terms of house districts and in terms of future legislative districts. that result last night in virginia was a big deal. a big hairy consequential deal, and it was a surprise. we were also up late last night watching the returns roll in the kentucky governor's race where nbc news fairly last evening declared that the democrat in the race, andy beshear would be the apparent winner over incumbent republican governor matt bevin. as of today, as of right now matt bevin is still not conceding that race. he's demanding all of the votes be recanvassed which is not exactly the same thing as a recount. it basically means they tally the votes again. nobody's quite sure if bevin is going to ultimately demand a recount and if that's going to happen. there's a few weird off-ramps they could take through the

state legislator or state government in kentucky if they want to do that. but if bevin insists on not conceding it's uncertain how this proceeds. with all presipgts reporting it looks like anldy beshear beat matt bevin by more than 5,000 votes. but bevin is saying he won't step down, he won't concede he's been beaten, but we shall see. republicans are able to celebrate if nothing else from last night, they're able to celebrate the fact they were able to hold onto the governorship in mississippi last night. it should be noted for context that mississippi is a state that donald trump won by 28 points. last night the republican candidate for governor who president trump campaigned for in person right up to election day, he was only able to pull off a single digit 5-point victory in that state where

trump had just rocked to victory not long before. so last night's off-year elections are exciting to democrats. right, even in a deep red state like mississippi where they didn't quite pull it off, last night's election results are energizing to democrats for obvious reasons. and for converse reasons, the same results i'm sure made today feel pretty overcast, pretty cloudily from the point of view of, say, the republican party broadly, the republican controlled white house looking ahead to 2020, specifically the west wing in that white house where there sits republican president donald trump staring down the skirt of his re-election campaign and his simulltaneous simulltaneous impeachment in washington. today was a remarkable day on that front. you will recall that one of president trump's personal lawyers, michael cohen, long time personal lawyer, is already

serving time in federal prison as we speak. and remember the day we first reported that mr. cohen had retained his own lawyer, the president's lawyer had to get a criminal defense lawyer for himself. that seemed like a bad sign at the time. indeed it turned out to be a bad sign since michael cohen is now in prison. i don't know what you have to call it, though, when you have to report that same thing for a second time. but tonight we can report that the president's new personal lawyer, the one who isn't in prison tonight, he too has had to hire his own criminal defense lawyer. that was the news that we got today about the president's current personal lawyer, rudy giuliani. rudy giuliani has hired his own criminal defense lawyer now. and of all the lawyers in the world that rudy giuliani could have hired, it turns out, sure, why not? he hired the guy who had been michael cohen's criminal defense lawyer back in the day. despite the fact that that worked out with michael cohen ultimately going to prison, it's like there's only ten of these

guys in the world, like really? michael cohen's is the president's other personal lawyer. you're hiring his lawyer? first of all you both had to get criminal defense lawyers. you both decided to get the same one? it's like literally there's ten of these guys and they're all in each other's indictments. maybe someday they'll open a wing for them in the federal prison system. the commissary will all be like trump themed. i'll trade you a baseball hat for an extra long tie. but as the president's personal lawyer, yet another one of them had to get his own criminal defense lawyer today. we also got big impeachment proceedings -- big developments in the impeachment proceedings on capitol hill. first of all a senior state department witness showed up to testify today. that's notable because the white house and state department have told everybody they can't testify, they're not allowed to testify in the impeachment

committees, so every time a currently serving administration official does show up anyway in defiance of those instructions, it sort of changes the dynamic a little bit in terms of those instructions, in terms of how everybody else in the administration is going to treat their subpoenas, and whether or not that white house instruction that they shouldn't testify is seen as binding or more binding than a lawful congressional subpoena. the witness who, surprise, did show up and testify today for more than six hours is david hale. we didn't receive a prepared opening statement in mr. hale's remarks so at this point we don't know much about what he said. we do, however, as of today know quite a bit about the recent and explosive testimony from another senior state department official, ambassador bill taylor. he was the first witness to lay

out in clear detail how this whole scheme worked for the president and rudy giuliani were demanding investigations to be uh-uh nounced by ukraine, that could help trump in his re-election effort in order to pressure ukraine to handing those investigations over, to announcing those investigations, the core elements of american foreign policy towards that country were put on the line. things like a white house meeting for their new president, even military assistance that had been ordered by law, by congress. bill taylor is the first one who laid that out in detail and crucialry told the impeachment committees that he takes copious contemporaneous notes and had documentation to back up a lot of what it said. well, today the intelligence committee released more than 300 pages of verbatim testimony from bill tailor, from his closed door deposition several weeks ago. they also simultaneously announced that bill taylor will be a witness at the first public hearing of the impeachment

proceedings against donald j. trump. that first public hearing is now on the calendar. it's going to be a week from today. ambassador bill taylor and another senior state department official named george kent, they're going to be the first public testimony in the impeachment proceedings a week from today. and then two days later, next friday, there will be a second public impeachment hearing, and that one will feature testimony from the u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch the one who was called from that post and sort of inexplicably fired essentially it seems to get her out of the way so rudy giuliani and president trump could pursue her scream in ukraine, the scheme in which the president is being impeached and presumably mr. giuliani has obtained his counsel. the closed door depositions are continuing for now. other people have been asked to testify, others have been subpoenaed to testify. most of those people who have been summoned to give more closed door depositions, we

expect them not to show up i guess at this point on orders from the white house. although with each day you never know who's actually going to turn up. i'll tell you one of the witnesses who's been asked to testify behind closed doors who is expected to show up is someone whose i am really interested in. and she's going to be testifying tomorrow. she's not a big name, not a high profile person, but i'll tell you why i'm super interested in her testimony tomorrow. we'll get to that a little later on in tonight's show. as they finish up with these closed door depositions, the first public impeachment hearings are on the calendar now. so here we go. and remarkably, simulltaneous to all of that today in federal court in washington, d.c. they finished jury selection and started opening statements in the trial of the president's long time friend and oldest political advisor, a man who's gone to great lengths to make him seem too ridiculous for

serious news coverage, a man named roger stone. now, whether or not you're interested in mr. stone himself, and speaking from personal experience i can say that interest is hard to sustain on a personal level, no offense i just don't care. but the reason mr. stone is being prosecute asked the way prosecutors are carrying out this case that started today in federal court is like forget roger stone. i mean, yes, his criminal liability here is of interest, but forget roger stone. the case is about something way bigger than that, and we've known that was a possibility when we first saw the charges against stone in the way they laid out the case against him in the indictment, but i did not expect it to be like this in court today. just listen to this. we got the transcript today. i had no faith we would get it in time for tonight's show, same day that it happened, right? but just before i came down to the studio and we got on the air

tonight, we got the transcript of what happened today in court. so i have marked it up. let me just lay it out here in terms of how the prosecutors are making this case because you can tell what it's about, and you do not have to care about roger stone to recognize this is big freaking hairy deal. all right, here's how the opening statement statement starts. the judge says, all right, you can proceed. she says that to the prosecutor. he says, quote, we are here today because one man obstructed congress' investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. in a critical investigation of national importance the defendant, roger stone, repeatedly lied under oath to a congressional committee and then tampered with a witness to cover up his tracks. now you'll hear in 2016 the democratic national committee, which is the organization that runs the democratic party of the united states, they announced their computer system had been hacked by the russian

government. you'll hear not long after that a website called wikileaks began to release thousands of e-mails that were related to the dnc. after wikileaks began releasing these dnc e-mails you'll also hear that the defendant, roger stone, started bragging he was in contact with rickey leaks and he knew what wikileaks' plans were. at the time the defendant's long time friend and associate, donald trump, was running for president of the united states against hillary clinton. and the defendant, roger stone, thought that those e-mails would help his friend trump, and they would hurt clinton. so you'll hear in august of 2016 that mr. stone proclaimed over and over and over again that he was in contact with wikileaks, and that he had information about what was coming. and you'll hear that mr. stone publicly said that he knew this information because he had an intermediary, a go-between, someone he was talking to that was talking to the head of wikileaks. one year later you'll hear the united states congress and particularly the house intelligence committee was undertaking an investigation

into russian interference in the 2016 election. and because of the allegation that russia was responsible for the hacking of the dnc's server and the e-mails that were subsequently released by wikileaks, the intelligence committee focused on wikileaks and they focused on roger stone. and the intelligence committee wanted to know what information stone had gotten from wikileaks, how he'd gotten it, and who he was talking to the trump campaign about it. roger stone you'll hear testified to the committee under oath, and you'll hear when mr. stone testified, he told the committee five categories of lies. that's the preamble, that's how he starts. stone is facing several counts, one of them is witness tamper mchg th ing. that carries a 20-year term. witness tampering carries a potential 20-year prison term.

in addition to that he's facing five counts of lying to congress and a count of obstruction to justice. each of those come with a five years of their own. but the prosecution goes through at the outset all of the categories of lies that roger stone is alleged to have told under oath. first category is this, the second category is this, and the third category is this. and the final category of lies they describe him as telling is this. quote, the last lie roger stone told the committee was about the trump campaign. he was asked by the committee whether he'd ever discussed what he learned from his intermediary with the trump campaign and stone told him he hadn't. you'll hear roger stone discussed what he was learning with the senior levels of the trump campaign. you might ask why didn't roger stone just tell the truth to the intelligence committee? the evidence will show that stone lied to the intelligence committee because the truth looked bad. the truth looked bad for the trump campaign, and the truth looked bad -- excuse me, and the

truth looked bad for donald trump. so this is a case about roger stone. but the prosecution made clear there in their opening statement that the reason stone lied in the prosecutor's telling, the reason he's on trial right now for these felony counts is because he couldn't tell the truth and i quote, the truth looked bad for donald trump. this is a case about the president. i mean, it's about roger stone but it's about the president. and it's in part, you know, while the house is already in the midst of impeachment proceedings against the president, this case that started today in criminal court in washington is about in part whether president trump's sworn written statements about roger stone were true. whether his sworn written statements about what he knew about what stone was doing, whether he was any part of that, this case in part is about whether the president's written answers might themselves have been illegal false statements.

back to zelensky here. quote, just after stone got this message about new expected dumps of stolen information about the democrats, roger stone e-mailed the chairman of the trump campaign paul manafort. paul manafort wasn't just the chairman of the trump campaign but also a long time friend of roger stone. stone wrote on august 3rd, he had an idea in his words to, forgive me, save trump's ass, and he asks manafort call him. and when stone e-mailed bannon, he told bannon that trump could still win, but time was running out. and he said he knew how to win this, but, quote, it ain't pretty. roger stone knew how to win this, and he was telling that to the trump campaign ceo, but his way in his own words, quote, ain't pretty. now at the same time in august you'll hear roger stone was bragging. he was bragging publicly and bragging loudly and bragging

repeatedly he was in contact with wikileaks. that he had a go' between that was telling him information about what was coming, that he had an intermediary. stone regularly updated people in the trump campaign at the senior levels about whatever information he thought he had about wikileaks. make no mistake roger stone could have easily told the truth to the intelligence committee. stone could have testified he had many e-mails and texts about wikileaks and julian assange. including the ones you see here today. he could have said he had the messages with steve bannon, about julian assange. roger stone could have told the truth that he told corsi to get to assange and the impending wikileaks e-mails and roger stone could have told the house intelligence committee that in fact corsi had responded back to him and told him there would be, quote, dumps coming in october, impact planned to be very damaging. and stone could have told the committee he had all of this in writing, in his e-mail accounts

and text messages at the time of his testimony. stone could have told the committee the truth that he asked to pass along a question to julian assange, that he requested information from assange about whether or not he had e-mails concerning hillary clinton and libya. and stone could have told the committee that he spoke with steve bannon and others about what he was learning regarding wic wikileaks. stone could have stated he had many written records that could help the committee establish what actually happened. but stone didn't do that. he didn't even come close. instead he repeatedly lied to the house intelligence committee. he did it because if he had told the truth, as he said before, it wasn't pretty, it would look bad. and so instead he told these lies. roger stone did all of this to obstruct an investigation by the house intelligence committee into russian interference in the 2016 election. the committee was undertaking a critical investigation about an important moment in our nation's

history. the house intelligence committee was trying to learn the truth about what had happened in the 2016 election, and roger stone, he was doing his best to stop it. and that is why after you've listened to all the evidence in this case and you've examined the documents and heard the witnesses, we are confident that you will return the only verdict justified on these facts, a verdict of guilty on all counts. thank you. so the president's being impeached. just in the past few minutes i am advised that "the washington post" has just reported that the president asked the attorney general, bill barr, to hold a press conference saying the president did nothing wrong on the president's phone call to ukraine for which he's now being impeached. the attorney general, yes that attorney general bill barr, according to "the washington post" tonight reportedly turned the president down and said he would not hold such a press conference. also tonight the president's personal lawyer has just hired

his own criminal defense lawyer. same defense lawyer the president's first personal lawyer used to have, but he's freed up now because the other guy who used to be the president's personal lawyer is already in prison, so his lawyers are available. the public impeachment hearings are going to start next week. and, and, and, and -- and in a courtroom in washington, d.c. as of today prosecutors are finally litigating for the first time not just the obstruction of the russia investigation, right, but for the first time they are finally litigating what the president knew about russia's interference to help his campaign and when he knew it. they're finally litigating that question while he's already being impeached for something else. other than that, totally normal wednesday, right? we'll be right back. stay with us. day, right 'll be right back. stay with us coughing oh no,... ...a cougher. welcome to flu season, karen. is a regular flu shot strong enough...

...to help prevent flu in someone your age? there are standard-dose flu shots. and then there's the superior flu protection... ...of fluzone high-dose. it's the only 65 plus flu shot... ...with 4 times the standard dose. and it's free with medicare part b. fluzone high-dose is not for those who've had a severe allergic reaction... ...to any vaccine component, including... ...eggs, egg products,... or after a previous dose of flu vaccine. tell your healthcare professional if you've ever experienced severe muscle weakness... ...after receiving a flu shot. if you notice ...other problems or symptoms following vaccination,... ...contact your healthcare professional immediately. side effects include pain, swelling... ...and redness where the shot was given. other side effects may occur. vaccination may not protect everyone. if you're 65 plus, don't settle for a standard-dose flu shot. influenza...going down. move up to fluzone high-dose. see your doctor or pharmacist and ask for it by name.

25 cent boneless wings at applebee's. ♪ born to be wild... born to be wild...♪ get 'em while they're hot. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ don't get mad. get e*trade, dawg. wheyou want relief... fast. only thermacare ultra pain relieving cream has 4 active ingredients to fight pain 4 different ways. get powerful relief today, with thermacare. performance comes in lots of flavors. ♪ (dramatic orchestra)

there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of sheet-metal-kind. and then there's performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. that's the kind lincoln's about. ♪ here, hello! starts with -hi!mple... how can i help? a data plan for everyone. everyone? everyone. let's send to everyone! [ camera clicking ] wifi up there? -ahhh. sure, why not? how'd he get out?! a camera might figure it out. that was easy! glad i could help. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. easy. awesome. so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today.

one of the things that has been interesting and actually quit quite unique about covering this presidency is this president has had a terrible time of it in court. from the earliest day of his

administration no matter how many judges he appoints and he seems to think that's his way out of it, but he just loses case after case after case on policy, on his tax returns. now he has impeachment to worry about in congress and multiple criminal cases related to his administration included related to the impeachment playing out in court. but just in the past few weeks something truly astounding happened in court even by the standards of this remarkable administration. a judge within the last few weeks threatened to send a trump cabinet member to jail. the judge told the trump cabinet secretary, quote, there have to be some consequences for the violation of my order 16,000 times. the judge continued, quote, i'm not sending anyone to jail yet, but it's good to know i have that ability. somehow i do not think that education secretary betsey devos envisioned herself wearing a polyester jumpsuit eating

baloney sandwiches when she signed up to be education secretary, but she made a federal judge mad enough to threaten it, mad enough to eventually hold secretary devos in contempt of court and to fine her $100,000 for her going ahead with a policy that the court had ordered her department to stop. we have some context for you tonight on how it is that a trump cabinet member got that close to jail. the story is about one of the country's largest chains of for-profit colleges. that chain of colleges was basically to bottom line it a total scam. they lied about how successful the applicants were and the kinds of job placements they'd get, and they sent those recruits to go get student loans from the federal government. colleges ultimately benefitted from that, right? the government lends that money to the students, the students then pay it to that scam for-profit college. so the colleges collect all the money.

the graduates are left with worthless degrees and a big student loan debt to pay back to the government. some students never even got the degree because the colleges went bankrupt in 2015 and shut their doors in one days notice. the obama administration tried to do something to help those scammed students. the obama education department said to those students, listen, those colleges, those fake colleges were so bad we are not going to make this problem worse for you. we are going to forgive your student loan debt if you got duped by one of those schools. you can petition the federal government for relief from the debt that you got scammed into because that money shouldn't go to those schools and you shouldn't be on the hook for it even though it did. that was how the obama administration handled this crisis. then came the trump administration and a new education secretary betsey devos. she had a very different idea. so her top lawyer at the education department came up with a memo describing what

would be the policy change on this matter under the trump administration. and we have obtained that memo here tonight. this is the memo. it's from december 2017, and what it says basically is actually some of these scammed for-profit college students should pay back their loans, they should be on the hook for that money. the idea as laid out in this memo is that the students must have gotten some benefit from these scam schools. if the department could show that these people ended up working in jobs that paid them more than if they had not gone to the school on average looking at it statistically in this memo the department claimed to have devised afi formula for measure just that. one former student claimed she finished the course of study at this scam for-profit college. she never got a diploma because the company suddenly without

warning went bankrupt. but she nevertheless tried to get a job in her field and she discovered that the college had not actually given her the required training to get a job in her field at all. but the trump education department under betsey devos determined that eligible student -- that that student was eligible to only have 20% of her loan forgiven. 80% of her education according to their new formula had actually been quite useful but she got neither the diploma or training necessary to get a job in her field, they still wanted 80% of the money. and even without those painful consequences for the students, even setting aside how this worked out in practice, a federal judge looked at this new policy of the trump administration and declared it illegal, determined that this whole formula they'd come up with had serious problems. for one it depended on the government taking private information about these students in a way that the judge said was

a violation of the law. and so the judge ordered betsey devos and her education department to stop collecting money from these students and to stop using that illegal formula, and betsey devos and her education department ignored the judge's order. they didn't exactly ignore it, but they didn't stop collecting money from the students. thousands of students were told they still needed to make payments on those loans from the scam colleges, and their credit scores got dinged, and their paychecks got garnished and their tax refunds got seized. this department of education policy, the department's determination to keep going with the policy despite the court order striking it down, i mean it materially hurt these real americans who had already been injured, right? this damage was painful, it was personal. and they did it thousands of times. thousands of people hurt after the court told the education

department and betsey devos to stop doing this, this illegal policy they had devised. and that's why the judge fined the education secretary a $100,000 and threatened to put her in jail. the $100,000 should try to em l emeaemea emealiorate -- the thing that lays out this formula, the policy that got smacked down by a judge for holding the department and its cabinet secretaries in contempt, this memo came from the guy who at the time was the top lawyer at the education department. he has a name. his name is steven menashi, no longer at the education department. he now works at the white house, and president trump has nominated him for a lifetime seat on the federal appeals

court, just one level below the supreme court. the senate judiciary committee scheduled a vote on his nomination tomorrow morning. but here's the thing, mr. menashi's nomination appears already to be in trouble. if they do vote on him tomorrow, that would be the third effort they've made to try to call a vote on him. his nomination keeps getting rolled over to new date after new date, because he is one of donald trump's most controversial nominees which is saying something given the roster donald trump has tried to turn into judges. we've talked about him on the show and his paper trail. for example on an italian prime minister's proclamation of the spearuratety of western civilization over islam, he says quote, he did nothing other than state the obvious, the obvious inferiority of islam. he also wrote how offensive it was that the matthew shepherd murder got so much attention.

that obviously didn't need as much attention as it got. he also opined on the movement of campus rape. he said campus gineo centrists are throwing around these accusations but there's no similar leeway for men. and there's of course his law review article entitled ethno nationalism and liberal democracy in which he argues, quote, the aul darety underlying democratic polities rests in large part on ethnic identification. surely it does not serve the cause of liberal democracy to ignore this reality. the article goes onto argue that ethnicy heterogenius societies, ethnically diverse societies have less good stuff in them when it comes to being a good democracy. ethnic hetero junayty is not not ideal. just that stuff alone has been

bumping along -- he has expressed regret for some of his writings. but it's all stuck to him in part because there's so much of it. the senate judiciary committee has been voting very right wing judicial nominees right on through, but they've been holding up steven menashi, and they have this memo to go over. we reached out to the white house with some questions for mr. menashi about this memo. we haven't heard anything back from them. they also apparently did not answer questions tonight from "the new york times" which as of this evening is also reporting this story tonight. an excellent piece from erica green who's also obtained this memo. quote, a judicial nominee slated for a controversial vote on thursday, meaning tomorrow,

helped device an illegal education department effort to deny debt relief to thousands of students cheated by their for-profit colleges. well put. yeah, he devised this illegal effort, it resulted among other things in not only people illegally having their wages garnished and their tax returns seized and their credit scores dinged and all the rest of that, people who absolutely should not have been subjected to that, it also resulted in the secretary of that in jail time and hit with a $100,000 fine. that's the guy they're putting from a lifetime appointment. and the senate judiciary committee is scheduled for now to be voting on steven menashi's nomination tomorrow 10:00 a.m. eastern. we'll see. we'll keep you posted. 0 a.m. eastern. we'll see. we'll keep you posted. ♪ 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. ♪ steven could only imaginem 24hr to trenjoying a spicy taco.burn, now, his world explodes with flavor. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day all-night protection. can you imagine 24-hours without heartburn?

♪ hour 36 in the stakeout. as soon as the homeowners arrive, we'll inform them that liberty mutual customizes home insurance, so they'll only pay for what they need. your turn to keep watch, limu. wake me up if you see anything. [ snoring ] [ loud squawking and siren blaring ]

only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ 25 cent boneless wings at applebee's. ♪ born to be wild... born to be wild...♪ get 'em while they're hot.

ambassador bill taylor, the top american diplomat in ukraine, decades of diplomatic experience under presidents of both parties, when he was called to testify before the impeachment proceedings recently, we knew shortly after he showed up, when we got his opening statement we knew he would confirm that, yes, president trump really did block military aid to ukraine to get that country to gin up some dirt on his domestic political rivals. that quid pro quo plot line is very simple, very consistent across all the testimony from all the witnesses so far. taylor is the one who first laid

it out more clearly than anybody else. because that plot line is simple and direct and now been reiterated by all the other witnesses, to be honest you don't necessarily need all the tai details that we got that the impeachment committees released today. even if you don't need it, you might want some of these details anyway. for example, there's this moment when ambassador taylor is describing the national security council having to convene a whole bunch of interagency meetings to try to figure out why the military aid to ukraine is being held up. taylor says in his testimony that literally everyone was in agreement that that military aid should be released without delay. the defense secretary, cia director, national security advisor, everybody wants the aid released, so they're all scheduling meetings trying to get the president to release this stuff, trying to figure it out. but it turns out they were having trouble scheduling a

meeting with the president to talk about this matter for a very specific reason. taylor says, quote, i think this was about the time of the greenland question, about purchasing greenland which took up a lot of energy in the national security council. chairman adam schiff, okay, that's disturbing for a whole different reason. the president is trying to shakedown a foreign leader for dirt on his political opponents, he's holding up military aid to try to force them to do it, and his national security council can't find the time to get him to stop doing that because they're all too busy dealing with his stated efforts to buy a whole different country, to buy it. that's -- that's a good day at the trump white house. so there's that. but then there's also the human reaction from these witnesses who, again, are mostly long time public servants and experts in their field. at one point in his testimony in new york congressman sean patrick maloney asked ambassador

bill taylor, quote, what was your emotional reaction to these events. and taylor says, quote, i think ukraine is objective important to the united states. in 2006, 2009 when traveling around the country i got to know ukrainians and their frustrations and difficulties in those kinds of things. and coming back and seeing it now where they have an opportunity, they've got a young president, young prime minister, young parliament. the prime minister is 35 years old. this new government has appealed to young people so idealistic, so pro-west, so pro-united states, pro-europe, that i feel an emotional attachment, bond, connection to this country and these people. i didn't want to see it screwed up. i wanted to see it succeed. congressman sean patrick maloney says, quote, and you didn't want to see it screwed up by some political agenda coming from washington, is that fair to say? ambassador taylor esays, what i

didn't want to do is have u.s. assistance to ukraine be blocked or suspended for no good reasons i could see. and there are some bad reasons that i didn't want to see that blocked. bill taylor is going to be the first witness in the public testimony that has just been announced in the impeachment proceedings for one week from today. congressman sean patrick maloney joins us next. congressman sean patrick maloney joins us next. ♪ ♪

you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. the unbeatable strength of advil. what pain? at outback, steak & oh no, it's gone.ck. phew, it's back with lobster mac & cheese. it's gone again. oh, it's back with shrimp now! steak & lobster starting at only $15.99. hurry in before these three are gone again. outback steakhouse.

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. ♪ so, you bought those "good enough" paper towels? [daughter laughs] not such a bargain. there's only one quicker picker upper. bounty, the quicker picker upper.

so today we got more than 300 pages of testimony transcript from the top diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor. this is from his deposition in the impeachment proceedings, a deposition in which he laid out the story that has been confirmed now by witness after witness that the president held up military aid to ukraine to try to get that contruntry to g up dirt on the president's political opponents. with everything else that's been turned up during the course of these impeachment proceedings that remains the core of what is happening here joining us now is congressman sean patrick maloney. so public hearings start a week

from today. how should we prepare for that as people are going to be watching this to try to figure out what's happening overall with this story and what's happening in terms of the president's culpability? >> well, i think the transcripts are a great place to start. i know they're long and they can be dense, but there's a very important story there. it's also a very sad story. it's a story about failure at the highest levels of american political leadership and advancing shabby political interests over our national security. if you actually care about the american government, if you spent your youth thinking we were capable of great things, it's heart breaking to read the conduct the american president engaged in. but it's important. and ambassador taylor lays it out very clearly. >> in terms of the remaining closed door depositions i know there was one today where a state department official david hale actually showed up. i know tomorrow you're expecting to hear testimony from a person who worked in the vice president's office. it's the first time that i know

that a vice presidential adjacent person will be speaking. there was also a decision today to drop a subpoena for an official who had gone to court to try to have a judge decide whether or not he should obey the subpoena. can you tell us anything about that decision? >> in the last case the cupperman subpoena as i understand it, the point is that we don't want to do anything that would advance the strategy to delay through litigation when in the mcgahn case, a separate case the judge is going to rule very quickly on the same question. about whether there is some blanket never heard before wall to wall immunity on congress to do oversight on officials like this. it's a frivolous claim. it's going to be disposed of earlier, and as i understand it that's the point, to essentially take away mr. cupperman's legal arguments and have them advance more quickly through the mlk gan case. >> in terms of his dramatic

revision to his testimony we saw from ambassador sondland yesterday, it was a remarkable document saying i've had my recollection refreshed, i now recall things -- and basically what he discloses is that on the side lines of a meeting vice president pence had with the ukrainian president where vice president pence said you're not getting your military aid unless you give us these corruption actions that we want, corruption related actions we want, sondland is now admitting he made clear what we mean is you're not getting your military aid unless you announce those investigations. now tomorrow somebody who works in the vice president's office is going to be testifying. is vice president pence one of the people who carried out this scheme for president trump? >> well, i asked that question of some of the witnesses. i'm interested in that. he did meet with the president of ukraine in warsaw on september 1st. it's on the seed lines of that meeting ambassador sondland delivered the explicit quid pro quo to the key aid of the

president who said you're not getting anything, not the white house meeting, not the desperately needed security assistance until you issue an explicit statement which you negotiated with giuliani saying burisma, 2016 election, the bidens are the heart of this thing and sondland forgot that until 24 hours ago, but he's an important piece of this puzzle. and it's good he's aligning his testimony with what has been corroborated by other witnesses and documents. it's an important piece of the puzzle. and the vice president's role is still a question mark on this. >> is it possible the vice president will be called to give testimony himself? >> i'm not prepared to say at this point. i think we need to have a lot more evidence of what he did on this. and don't want to lose focus on the president, which is the central issue. and the evidence is overwhelming that this was a clear abuse of power for the worst possible reason, and i want to stay focused on that at least for

now. i do think it's important that everybody involved in this answer for their actions. >> it's going to be a very busy week leading up to a very busy day, a week from today when those first public hearings happen. we'll be back. stay with us. earings happen we'll be back. stay with us this blt is delicious! made it myself. i love this place! made that myself, too. order up. fries on the side. right where i like 'em. don't forget the grease fire. burn, baby -- wait, what? -[ alarm beeping ] -i said grease fire.

what are you doing on the counter? when owning a small business gets real... sorry. can i get a to-go box? ...progressive helps protect what you built -with customizable coverage. -aah! ...progressive helps protect what you built around here, nobody ever does it. i didn't do it. so when i heard they added ultra oxi to the cleaning power of tide, it was just what we needed. dad? i didn't do it. #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. stop dancing around the pain that keeps you up again, and again. advil pm silences pain, and you sleep the whole night. advil pm

25 cent boneless wings at applebee's. ♪ born to be wild... born to be wild...♪ get 'em while they're hot. ♪

this is footage from september 1, 2019, when vice president mike pence went overseas met with the ukrainian president. what i was talking about with congressman sean patrick maloney

about. you know who else was in that room? we've got that footage and that answer which will tell you about the most interesting thing going to happen in tomorrow's news next. stay with us. to happen in tomorrow's news next stay with us of flavors. there's the amped-up, over-tuned, feeding-frenzy-of sheet-metal-kind. and then there's performance that just leaves you feeling better as a result. that's the kind lincoln's about. ♪

liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ that's unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade. so you can take on the markets with confidence. a peaceful night sleep without only imagine... frequent heartburn waking him up. now that dream is a reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day,

all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? this is september 1, 2019, vice president mike pence in europe meeting with the ukrainian president. at this meeting we believe that vice president pence told the ukrainian president, that, yeah, the usa government was holding up their military aid unless ukraine took some sort of action on corruption. which means that vice president pence is the one who personally delivered the you're not getting your military aid message face-to-face in that room. a look at who else was in that room at that time. there's gordon sondland, u.s. ambassador to the eu who now admits after revising his testimony that, yes -- there he is -- on the side lines of that meeting he was personally reinforcing to the ukrainians, no, you're not getting your military aid unless you announce these investigations.

but if you keep panning there the person in the second row there, we believe, is also newly important to the story because that is state department veteran who was detailed to vice president pence's office. she surprisingly has just agreed to testify tomorrow. jennifer williams, one of two staff members from pence's office who was listening in on the july 25th call between the president -- president trump and the ukrainian president. her whole job at that point was to relay what happened on that call to vice president mike pence. she was on that call, she was in charge of ukraine issues for the vice president's office. she was in ukraine in the room when he demanded that ukraine wasn't going to get their military aid unless the administration coughed up what they wanted on corruption. and now that person, jennifer williams, says she will answer the impeachment committee's questions tomorrow. i know this is a lot. this is all nuts. tomorrow will be worse. that's going to do it for us for now. it's time for the "last word"