her. the peace in her heart of being able to live there. i wouldn't have wanted her to miss that. >> and that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm natalie morales. thanks for watching. it is going to be another busy week in the impeachment probe with several key witnesses set to testify about how president trump pressured ukraine to investigate joe biden and his family. plus president trump is facing accusations of witness intimidation after attacking former ambassador marie yovanovitch on twitter as she was testifying on friday. and president trump makes an announced vuzt to center. the white house says it was nothing out of the ordinary even though it wasn't on his public schedule. ♪ good morning, everyone, it is monday, november 18th. i'm ayman mohyeldin alongside

yasmin vossoughian. it is going to be another busy week in the impeachment probe of president donald trump with several key witnesses expected to publicly testify once again. tomorrow morning we will hear from jennifer williams, an aide to vice president mike pence along with the national security council's top ukraine alexander vindman. tomorrow afternoon they will hear from ambassador kurt volker and tim morrison a former white house national security official. on wednesday we will hear from eu ambassador gordon sondland, and wednesday afternoon we will see laura cooper, a department of defense assistant secretary as well as david hale, the third highest ranking official in the state department. on thursday morning lawmakers will hear from fiona hill a former national security official who served as the top russia adviser. >> on friday we heard from marie yovanovitch and the most stunning part of the testimony may have come just after the

president decided to weigh in in the middle of her public testimony the president tweeted this, everywhere marie yovanovitch went turned bad. she started off in smaomalia, h did that go. it is a u.s. president's absolute right to appoint ambassadors. intelligence committee chair adam schiff called it witness intimidation, but president trump argued that it was freedom of speech. here's how it all played out. >> the president implicitly threatened you in that call record, and now the president in realtime is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, it's very intimidating. >> it's designed to intimidate, is it not? >> i mean, i can't speak to what

the president is trying to do, but i think the effect is to be intimidating. >> well, i want to let you know ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously. >> witnessed intimidation in realtime by the president of the united states. we take this kind of witness intimidation and instruction of inquiry very seriously. >> i'll tell you about what tampering is, tampering is when a guy like shifty schiff doesn't let us have lawyers. tampering is when schiff doesn't let us have witnesses, let us speak. i have the right to speech just like other people do. >> sir, do you believe -- >> quiet, quiet, quiet. >> sir, do you believe your tweets and words can be intimidating? >> i don't think so at all. >> and while house democrats are calling president trump's tweet attacking marie yovanovitch during the hearing on friday as

an example of witness intimidation, gop lawmakers refrand from criticizing the president. according to "politico," congressman mike turner of ohio refused to answer questions about the tweets as he ducked onto the house floor, while congressman john ratcliffe quickly whipped out his cell phone and began talking into it even though his home screen was visible and there was no call in progress. republican congresswoman liz cheney of wyoming told the associated press president trump was wrong to post tweets saying she quote clearly is someone who has been a public servant to the united states for decades, and i don't think the president should have done that. and perhaps the strongest definite of trump's actions, ted cruz of texas wrote on twitter that quote, this may be the single most ridiculous claim of the dems show trial. the president's tweeting is not witness intimidation. you may not like the tone of

some or many of his tweets but it's absurd to suggest that tweeting is an impeachable high crime or misdemeanor. >> i think even his most ardent supporters have to honestly admit this was the wrong thing for the president to do. the president and perhaps some at the white house have to know that the words of the president weigh a ton. they are very significant, and he should not frivolously throw out insults, but that's what he does. i think part of it is his own insecurity as an imposter. i think he knows full well that he's in that office way over his head, and so he has to diminish everyone else. >> and former independent counsel ken starr weighed in on fox news during a break in the hearing on friday. >> i must say that the president

was not advised by counsel in deciding to do this tweet. extraordinarily poor judgment. the president frequently says i follow my instincts. sometimes we have to control our instin instincts. obviously i think this was quite injurious. i don't think it rises to the level of intimidation of a witness. >> the white house criticized the yovanovitch hearing arguing that her testimony presented no evidence of wrongdoing by the p president. white house press secretary stephanie grisham put out a statement reading in part, this the second public hearing of speak speaker pelosi and congressman schiff's impeachment charade was as useless and inconsequential. it is difficult to imagine a greater waste of time than today's hearing. over on fox news host chris wallace de wallace defended the testimony by marie yovanovitch and noted her decades of service by a u.s. diplomat. >> if you were not moved by the

testimony of marie yovanovitch today you don't have a pulse. this is a woman who had served in seven posts for both parties over more than 30 years. she tells the story of being a leading fighter against corruption in ukraine. >> now the hearings continue to piece together eu gordon sondland's unique go-between role with ukraine. a source with direct knowledge of david holmes's testimony on friday tells nbc news the career services officer overheard a phone call between sondland and president trump where trump asked if ukraine would -- zelensky was quote, going to do it adding that the president would do, quote, anything trump would ask him to do. holmes testified the conversation happened on yul 26th, the day after the call between trump and ukraine's leader at the heart of the inquiry. the state department officials claims back up what his boss ambassador to ukraine bill

taylor revealed during his opening testimony. >> president trump released a rough triplanscript of the phon call. that differs from a summary of the call released by the white house months ago. the memorandum of the call shows the two men praising political acumen, predicting an era of warm relations between the u.s. and ukraine with no mention of trump's determination to have the ukraine's government investigate political rivals. however the administration said some promise to work with zelensky to implement reforms that strengthen democracy, increase process pasperity and t corruption. appeared to blame the discrepancy on the national security council's top ukraine expert alexander vindman saying the president continues to push for transparency in light of these baseless accusations and has taken the unprecedented

stoeps release the transcripts of both phone calls with president zelensky so every american can see he did nothing wrong. it is standard operating procedure to provide readouts of the president's phone calls with foreign leaders. this one was prepared by the nsc's ukraine expert. ahead of a presidential call, the national security adviser parole office a draft press release based on prepared talking points for the call, which is then typically updated to reflect topics actually discussed. the source goes on to say this, given that the call occurred on sunday april 21st, 2019, the white house may not have updated the press release before it was publicly released: let's talk about some of this. joining us is deputy news editor for the washington examiner. >> good to be here. >> thanks for being here. >> what do you make of the timing of the release of this second readout of a call between trump and zelensky?

>> it's interesting that it came out right before that last hearing was set to begin with ambassador yovanovitch, if i'm saying that correctly there. it was meant to deflect attention from what was going on on capitol hill that day, but it didn't really shed any new light because it didn't really get to the heart of the matter which was president's efforts to lean on the ukraine president to dig up dirt on a political rival. so in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really change the narrative at all. >> well, i have to say it also seems somewhat perplexing to me in that you can very well have one incriminating phone call and have another -- >> totally fine. >> one doesn't exonerate you from the other. >> exactly. >> let's turn for a moment if we can to last friday's testimony of marie yovanovitch. how might president trump's tweets potentially work against him in the inquiry? >> anybody who thinks the president has committed

impeachable offenses, that his actions warrant impeachment are just going to add this on. it's just another layer of it. for his defenders it makes life more complicated because they are essentially trying to defend the indefensible, and no matter what happens, no matter what line they come up with, something like this comes out, the president really doesn't care about what talking points they have on any given day. it it just makes their life more difficult. ultimately probably not going to change any minds one way or another. >> how do you feel like the testimony of marie yovanovitch para played on friday? across the board to me it seemed as if nobody could dispute the fact that this was a career diplomat. someone who had a very good reputation in the state department, who had incredible postings and also was very credible. >> and she also got i believe very quickly a standing ovation at the end of her testimony,

which that was an indicator of how it went down in the chamber. >> at one point i actually turned on fox news for the coverage of the testimony because i wanted to see some of their reaction in the back and forth talk and across the board they could not dispute her credibility. >> right, she came across as the career professional diplomat that she is. as you noted, she's been in a number of really difficult postings, whether it was somalia, some other places that are not cushy jobs like paris, london, et cetera. the way that she answered questions she was rather diminutive. it was clear she did not want to be in this situation. what hurt some of the republican lawmakers was the condescending language, she kind of got a soft landing, and what happened to

her wasn't really bad and wasn't the career disruption that it was in reality. >> david marsh, thank you very much. what we're learning this mo morning. >> the president suffers back to back losses in key gubernatorial races. first it was kentucky and we saw it happen again in louisiana. plus a check on your local weather when we come back. weather when we come back. (danny) let me get this straight. after a long day of hard work... ...you have to do more work?

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welcome back, president trump was at walter reed national medical center on saturday for what the white house said were medical tests as part of the president's annual physical. the appointment was not on trump's weekend public schedule. his last routine checkup was less than a year ago in february. stephanie grisham said the 73-year-old received a quick exam and lab testing. she was asked about the circumstances surrounding the checkup on sunday. here's what she had to say. >> i understand it wasn't a

scheduled annual visit. can you tell us what it was? >> yeah, absolutely. we've got a really busy year ahead as you can imagine, and so the president decided to go to walter reed and kind of get a head start with some routine checkups as part of his annual exam. that's allroutine. we had a down day today, so he made the decision to head there. >> there's no truth to the rumors that it was something else? because the rumors are flying. >> oh, the rumors are always flying. absolutely not. he is healthy as can be. i put a statement out about that. he's got more energy than anybody in the white house. that man works from 6:00 a.m. until, you know, very, very late at night. he's doing just fine. >> this marked trump's ninth visit to the hospital since taking office. republican operative roger stone was found guilty on friday of all seven counts against him making him the sixth trump aide or adviser to be convicted of

charges brought on by special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. stone was charged with making false statements to congress, obstruction as well as witness tampering. he faced up to 20 years in prison. president trump tweeted shortly after the verdict writing in part, quote, so they now convict roger stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come. well, what about crooked hillary, comey, strok, page, mccabe, brennan, clapper, shifty schiff, and the others, including mueller himself, didn't they lie? stone's sentencing is set for february 6th. >> let's take a momentary pause are from twitter and a nice break and go to bill karins. >> it hasn't been a nice break. this november, like fall was like what a week and then it was like straight to winter for so many. it hasn't been the best weekend for areas on the east coast. if you're towards one of the coastal locations or at the beaches it was very ugly and windy too. now we're waking up, about 13

million people are impacted by winter weather advisories. all of northern new england, central new england, and the deal is temperatures are close to freezing in many areas. we have a light freezing drizzle out there. it's not everywhere. if you're a little warmer, it's just wet roads. if not we have icy conditions. it's hit and miss. we're worried about the bridges, the sidewalks, especially, some of the colder victalley areas, especially for the kids. this is the big ocean storm still off the coast. that's what's giving the drizzle. a second storm behind the ohio valley. this will bring a rainy period this evening from d.c. through philly, through new york and up into new england tonight, and that will be in the form of a little bit of snow. here's how it's going to play out. light drizzle or freezing rain in new england. then as i mentioned, this evening, this little batch of rain will sneak up by 6:00 p.m. over the top of the richmond area. light showers around new york and philadelphia. a steadier rain overnight. by the time we wake up tomorrow

morning, that rain will be mixed with snow from areas through the capital district through northern new england. there may be enough for a little shoveling out there. the ice accumulations. it's not a big deal as i mentioned with the ice forecast. the snow, there could be as much as three to six inches of snow. this whole area of upstate new york, vermont, the ski country areas, only about two to three inches that's for tomorrow morning when you wake up. may have to do a little scraping of the windshield. a light wintery mix in the northeast. if you want the beautiful weather texas through the middle of the country, 60s and 70s. that's beautiful fall weather. as far as what we're going to deal with tomorrow, it will improve. we will get into the mid-50s in d.c. and 50 in new york. that will actually feel warm compared to how chilly it's been. this is one of the top five coldest starts to november. not just you or me, it's been unusually cold. >> hopefully they get a lucky break before winter really picks

up. >> we could use a nice little one or two-week stretch. still ahead, former new york city mayor michael bloomberg used to defend stop and frisk police practices. now that he's considering a presidential run, he's apologizing for it. those new kpencomments coming u.

former new york city mayor michael bloomberg is changing his stance on the controversial

police search policy known as stop and frisk after acknowledging his administration got it wrong. bloomberg has long defended the policy, but yesterday at the christian cultural center in brooklyn he recognized that the policing tactic disproportionately targeted young black and latino men. >> over time i've come to understand something that i long struggled to admit to myself. i got something important wrong. i got something important really wrong. i didn't understand back then the full impact that stops were having on the black and latino communities. i now see that we could and should have acted sooner and acted faster to cut the stops. i wish we had, and i'm sorry that we didn't. but i can't change history. however, today i want you to know that i realize back then i was wrong, and i'm sorry.

>> now conveniently this new stance comes as the 77-year-old billionaire is expected to enter the 2020 presidential race. he has already filed to be on the primary ballot in alabama and arizona. >> attorney general bill barr defended president trump's use of executive authority on friday and attacked democratic lawmakers for trying to limit his presidential power. during a speech at a conference hosted by the conservative federalist society, barr said democrats quote, essentially see themselves as engaged in a war to cripple by any means necessary a duly elected government. >> immediately after president trump won election, opponents inaugurated what they called the resistance, and they rallied around an explicit strategy of using every tool and maneuver to sabotage the functioning of the executive branch and his administration. >> the fact of the matter is that in waging a scorched earth

no holds barred of resistance against this administration, it is the left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law. >> okay. still ahead, democratic governor john bel edwards wins a second term in louisiana dealing a major blow to the president. south bend mayor and 2020 candidate mayor pete buttigieg comes out as a front runner in the new poll of the state of iowa. we're digging into all those new numbers next. ing into all thosew numbers next they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale

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♪ welcome back, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mohyeldin. it is the bottom of the hour. lets start with the morning's top stories. democrat john bel edwards narrowly won a second term as louisiana governor beating republican challenger eddie rispone by 1.4 percentage points in a state that president trump carried by nearly 20 points back in 2016 rispo in, e a wealthy businessman tied himself to the president. he often railed against undocumented immigrants on the campaign trail and portrayed edwards as a liberal socialist leaning governor. edwards a conservative democrat managed to remain fairly popular by frequently breaking with national democrats. he signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country, favored gun rights and touted his willingness to work with republicans. >> our shared love for louisiana

is always more important than the partisan differences that sometimes divide us. and as for the president, god bless his heart. >> and gop gubernatorial challenger eddie risp one came p short despite the support from republicans including president trump and vice president mike pence. >> the people of louisiana will head to the polls. i'm really here for a different reason, it's called early voting. that's how much i like eddie. i'm here for early voting. you know, you can go out and vote. i said not a lot of people do that. they say in louisiana 40% of the vote is early voting. i said like i said, i think i'll come. i'll come here. but you're going out to replace a radical liberal democrat as

your governor, john -- john bel edwards has not done the job. you're going to have a great new republican, tremendously successful man as your governor. eddie rispone, so early voting is already underway, and i think i'm coming back here on thursday. can you believe it? i'm doing a double. i'm doing a double. >> in kentucky we elected everybody. the governor got brought up in a few short days 19 points i went, we made a speech. the whole ticket was there. everybody won big. govern governor's a really good guy, but 19 points is a big thing, and he lost by just a few thousand points. you got to give me a big win,

okay? >> trump's visits to louisiana along with a slew of tweets supporting rispone marks the second gubernatorial election conservative southern states this fall where the president has hitched himself to the losing candidate. this month kentucky governor matt bevin lost re-election after a similar effort on his behalf by trump. latest iowa polls, mayor pete buttigieg seeing a clear surge of support in this cnn des moines register poll, mayor pete is up 16 points since september putting him in first place with 25%. first place, senator elizabeth warren comes in second, nine points behind with 16%. former vice president joe biden and senator bernie sanders follow, both tied at 15% each while senator amy klobuchar sits at 6%. in the cbs news poll sanders and biden top the field in iowa with 22% while butte judge comigieg

short. klobuchar and harris wind out the top six. >> in the latest new hampshire poll, senator elizabeth warren leads that race by nine points with 31%. former vice president joe biden follows warren with 22% along with bernie sanders running at the top with 20%. you've got mayor pete buttigieg at 16%. amy klobuchar and kamala harris round out those fields with 3% each. >> joining is deputy news editor for the washington examiner. david marsh. let's talk about some of these polls from mayor pete buttigieg seeing quite the surge. what is your reaction to that? >> mayor pete buttigieg spent significant amounts of time there, also another midwest state not terribly far from

which he hails. i think also in that new hampshire poll it's worth noting he rose nine points, so even though he's still behind he has the momentum. i think what it means is come wednesday when the debate happens in atlanta wednesday night, he's going to be the next candidate in the barrel. all the other candidates are going to be kbgunning for him, targeting him, and he's going to probably be on the defensive an awful lot. >> let's turn back to the gubernatorial races the president has hitched his name to those tickets that they ended up losing. you got kentucky and then just over the weekend, the loss of the governor's mansion in the state of louisiana. what might this mean for president trump heading into 2020? should democrats be hopeful given the results of these two elections? >> yes, these races both give democrats in both cases a good amount of optimism.

now, they both -- republican candidates in both cases lost in part for local reasons. they were unpopular for various other reasons, but nonetheless, they lost, and what really hurts republicans here is that suburban vote. we've heard so much about it. but if you crunch the numbers in both kentucky and louisiana, democrats really ran up the score. the rural vote where republicans do well generally just is not enough to offset it, so even though trump is almost certainly going to win kentucky and louisiana in the general election, in other states, pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, and elsewhere, this gives dmemocrats a good bit of reason to hope. >> i want to circle back to the conversation about mayor pete. as you well know the debate is just a couple of days away. you bring up a really good point that he could be the focus of many of the candidate s on that stage on wednesday. we knew when vice president joe biden was the focus it was about

his record. it was about his history. when elizabeth warren was the focus it was medicare for all. what do you think is going to be the focus when it comes to mayor pete with regard to some of his weakness weaknesses? is it his lack of experience? >> yes, it's going to be his relative youth and lack of experience. it will be interesting to see how far the other candidates go with this. one of his rivals amy klobuchar of minnesota has suggested if he were a female candidate with that comparable level of experience he would not be taken seriously. she got pushback for that. he's a smart guy. i'm sure he's got his responses prepared. that's clearly going to be a big line of attack. he doesn't have much of a record otherwise other than in municipal government the last several years. >> david mark, thank you as always. in a closed door interview with impeachment investigators jennifer williams a top national security aide to vice president

mike pence said she listened in on the july 25th phone call between president trump and ukrainian president vladimir zelensky and said that trump's insistent that ukraine play out sensitive investigations, quote, unusual and inappropriate. according to reuters, williams said the conversation was more political in nature than phone calls with other foreign leaders and included what she thought were specific references to trump's personal political agenda. during her hours long interview earlier this month, she detailed the reason vice president pence abruptly canceled the trip to attend zelensky's inauguration in may. according to williams's testimony, an assistant to pence's chaef of staff told her the president asked pence to stay home. the fact included in an anonymous whistle-blower complaint that helped prompt the impeachment inquiry. and president trump went after vice president mike pence's top national security aide jennifer williams on twitter yesterday after she reportedly told impeachment investigators that she felt trump's efforts to pressure

ukraine were quote, inappropriate. in a tweet the president wrote in part, tell jennifer williams, whoever that is, to read both transcripts of the presidential calls and see the just released statement from ukraine. then she should meet with the other never trumpers who i don't know and mostly never even heard of and work out a better presidential attack. williams is set to testify publicly tomorrow. and house speaker nancy pelosi called president trump's conduct much worse than that of former president richard nixon. she's refuting claims that trump has not been given an opportunity in the inquiry to present his case. >> well, i will make sure he does not intimidate the whistle-blower, so the president could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth he wants to. >> you don't want him to do that? >> or he could do it in writing. he has every opportunity to present his case, but it's really a sad thing. i mean, what the president did

was so much worse than even what richard nixon did, but at some point richard nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue. >> so pelosi has accused trump of bribery and abuse of power by threatening to withhold military aid in exchange for an investigation into joe biden. trump has repeatedly said his call with ukraine was, quote, perfect, while insisting he did nothing wrong. >> and president trump took to twitter over the weekend where he touted the state of the american economy and warned of the consequences of impeaching him. in a tweet on saturday the president wrote in part, dow hits 28,000, first time ever, highest ever. gee, pelosi and schiff have a good yesterday, let's impeach the president. if something like that ever happened it would lead to the biggest fall in market history. it's called a depression, not a recession, so much for 401(k)s and jobs. still ahead, chaos elsewhere

in hong kong as police storm a university campus that was being held by antigovernment protesters. officers were seen using tear gas and water cannons before making dozens of arrests. >> we're going to go live to hong kong in a moment. your first look with "morning joe" is back. k with "morning joe" is back

. welcome back, clashes between police and protesters are escalating in hong kong. over the weekend officers stormed a university that was being held by demonstrators. the antigovernment protesters had barricaded themselves inside the university for several days before officers moved in firing tear gas. >> joining us from hong kong nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradl bradley. good morning to you, thanks for joining us on this. what have you been seeing so far on the ground there? >> reporter: well, there's been a massive uptick in violence and the frequency of that violence. you know, in the past week we've

actually seen two deaths, and you mentioned this siege of hong kong polytechnic university. that's right behind me here. i don't know if you can see it, but you can see some of the black marks on this crossing overhead. there's massive fires that were started by the protesters all around the campus, and it feels a bit quiet right now as we're getting into the evening time, but this siege is continuing. there's supposedly still hundreds of students who are occupying this university and the police have surrounded this. they're threatening to go in, but so far the protesters say they're not going to be yielding. some of them have tried to escape the university. police seem to have met those with rubber bullets and more tear gas. we saw really some horrifying violence, worse than what we've seen in now what is six months of protests here in hong kong. there's one video that was circulated showing a police

armored truck trying to ram a column of protesters. it was met with a barrage of molotov cocktails forcing it to back up away from that line of protesters. so the police have had a real struggle trying to retake this university, and you know, this is a strategic position. a lot of these protests have moved from the streets of hong kong into universities. this university is the last one to be held. there were five as recently as a week ago, and this is right next to a major artery going underneath the harbor. this is a strategic position for the protesters to hold. >> really quickly, you gave us a good description of the tick tock of the violence, but explain to us why now. these protests have been going on for about six months, why have they taken a turn for a violent confrontation on both sides, between the protesters but also now the chinese backed hong kong police forces there? >> reporter: yeah, it's a good question, ayman, why now.

i believe, and what we've heard from some of the protesters, is that they're just frustrated with how inpracticable this conflict has gotten. a couple of months ago, this was a weekly occurrence. it was a weekend thing that traebt attracted families, adults, now the protests have gotten much smaller to a much more hardcore few and the pace of this has increased. they're now trying to take this disruption from a weekly thing to a daily interruption of everyday life here in hong kong. >> nbc's matt bradley for us. >> stay safe out there matt. let's now get a quick check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> big changes coming this week across the country. so far the weather pattern has been set up where it's been cold in the east, warm in the west. we're finally going to get some of our friends in california some rain this week, which is desperately needed. the worst weather award for the day today is going to be cape

cod. winds could gust 40 to 60 miles per hour. it's just an ugly day in eastern new england. we do have a little bit of wintery precip trying to move through areas of pennsylvania and near erie and sliding up towards buffalo too. here's that wind gust forecast. i don't think the airports will be too bad around new york city. wind gusting only to 20 miles per hour. once you get over here to new port, providence, nantucket, province town. just gusty enough for minor airport delays. as far as the rainfall forecast and the travel forecast goes, possible delays later today. we'll have some rain moving into d.c., p.m.baltimore, philly new york. if there's going to be any significant delays and cancellations that's your best bet of that happening. anyone driving today in this region, the windshield wipers will be on. watch out for those cold spots, interior sections of the northeast this morning. here's your week ahead forecast. this storm coming in today into

the pacific northwest is finally our pattern change. we've been stuck in this pattern where it's been warm and dry. yesterday was in the 90s in los angeles and all the cool weather has been in the east. as with egothrough te go throug the week, mountain snow so the skiers are loving this, and then we'll warm it up a little bit here in the east. by the time we get to friday, we see that storm system arriving in the east. looks like another rain event for the tennessee valley and a little bit of light rain and snow on friday heading into the northeast. our california friends, you know all the fire stories, they need the rainy season to begin and then they can relax a hill bit and don't have to worry about it. >> thank you, bill. still ahead, fox news host chris wallace goes after a top republican for mischaracterizing impeachment testimony and president trump hits back. plus, what we're learning about a meeting where former national security adviser john bolton reportedly tried to convince the president to unfreeze aid to ukraine. we're going to tell you about that when we come back in a moment. illion preowned vehicles,

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welcome back, former national security adviser john bolton met privately with president trump in an effort to convince him to unfreeze aid to ukraine. that's according to a former white house official's testimony in front of house impeachment investigators last month. senior national security council aide tim morrison claims that john bolton emerged from the august one on one meeting to

explain that president trump was, quote, not ready to release the aid despite bolton's best efforts to change his mind. he also instructed the official to look into new opportunities for cabinet members and top national security advisers to further persuade trump that releasing the money was in the count country's best interests. morrison's testimony touched on bolton's suspicions of trump's irregular policy making team, particularly the work of european union ambassador gordon sondland. morrison said quote, my consistent direction from ambassador bolton was quote, do not get involved and make sure the lawyers are tracking. morrison's claims shed new light on the behind the scenes work of the former national security adviser as democrats continue to push for bolton to testify. and fox news anchor chris wallace admonished steve scalise for distorting the witness testimony from the impeachment inquiry. when asked if he would accept gordon sondland's testimony if he confirms a quid pro quo,

scalise deflected the question. >> if gordon sondland says the president told him condition aid to ukraine on investigating the bidens, are you going to say that he's wrong? that he's lying? >> look, i know you've been asking and others have asked hypothetical questions. let's talk in reality. why don't we look at the three witnesses who actually did testify this week. all three of them were asked by whether it was john ratcliffe or whether it was chris stewart, all three of them were asked did you see any impeachable offenses. did you see any bribery, any of that, not one of those things were mentioned. not one of these persons saw a crime committed. >> with all due respect that very badly mischaracterizes what they said. they were asked william taylor, for instance, the acting ambassador in ukraine was asked whether or not these were impeachable offenses. he said i'm there as a fact witness.

>> trump slammed fox news writing steve scalise blew the nasty and obnoxious chris wallace, away on chris's lowest rated and morning show. this kind of dumb and unfair interview would never have happened in the fox news past. president trump cleared three u.s. servicemen who have been accused or convicted of war crimes. in a white house statement on friday the president announced that he was pardoning clint lawrence, a former army lieutenant currently serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of two civilians. trump also pardoned major matthew golsteyn facing murder charges for killing an unarmed afghan, and the president e re versed the demotion of ed war gallagher, a navy s.e.a.l. who last summer was acquitted of murder charges but convicted of a lesser offense in a high profile war crimes case. president trump's move to clear the servicemen has received

heavy pushback from the top military leaders. the "new york times" reporting that administration officials say both defense secretary mark esper and army secretary ryan mccarthy have argued the moves would jurn miundermine the mili code of justice and serve as a bad example to other troops in the field. >> the trump administration has announced it will provide a, quote, cash payout to american farmers hurt by the u.s. china trade war. he tweeted our great farmers will receive another major round of cash compliments of china tariffs prior to thinking. the smaller farms and farmers will be big beneficiaries. in the meantime and as you may have noticed china is starting to buy big again, japan deal done. enjoy. the administration's plans to provide payouts to american farmers has its critics from george conway husband of president trump's senior adviser

and counselor kellyanne conway. true conservatives have a word for this, socialism. joe skrarboro tweeted why don't you send out along with socialist tweets like these. your tariffs tax the middle class while you redistribute wealth to agricultural industrial interests who fund your campaigns #socialism. china introduced tariffs on american agricultural products last year in response to the trump administration's tariffs on chinese goods. coming up, we're looking ahead to week two of public impeachment hearings. we're going to go over who will be testifying before lawmakers as the impeachment probe into the president ramps up. the white house releases a rough transcript of president trump's first call with the president of ukraine, but it has some noticeable differences from the original readout. we'll be back with a lot more in just a moment. e in just a moment. any that's talked to even more real people than me: jd power. 448,134 to be exact.

they answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. and when they were done, chevy earned more j.d. power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. so on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say "thank you, real people." you're welcome. we're gonna need a bigger room.

it is going to be another busy week in the im people probe, with several key witnesses set to testify about how president trump pressured ukraine to investigate joe biden and his family. >> plus p