comcast business. beyond fast. that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." i will see you back here at 3:00 p.m. eastern and 10:00 p.m. eastern tonight. right now andrea mitchell starts. >> thanks so much. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," errand boys. public hearings end with star witnesses detailing a campaign to withhold a white house meeting and vital military aid from ukraine in exchange for political dirt on the president's opponents. led by rudy giuliani and a big trump donor awarded an ambassadorship. >> he was being involved in a domestic political errand. and we were being involved in national security foreign policy. and those two things had just diverged. fast track. republican senators talk to the white house about a possible strategy to shorten the senate

impeachment trial. >> mitch mcconnell has two very important options. one, not to even hold a trial because the evidence coming from the house just isn't sustainable. or two, to hold it but then we know what the road is going to be because it's already locked and loaded. and hurd no evil. republican congressman will hurd, a frequent trump critic, will not support impeachment, dashing democratic hopes of getting some republicans on board. >> an impeachable offense should be compelling, overwhelmingly clear, and unambiguous. and it's not something to be rushed or taken lightly. i have not heard evidence proving the president committed bribery or extortion. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where house democrats are on the road to impeachment, plan to go get articles of impeachment to the house floor

for a vote before christmas. at the same time, senate republicans and white house officials are deciding whether a shortened senate trial in january or delay is their best strategy. this after a parade of house witnesses over two weeks concluding with dramatic testimony tying the president to false conspiracy theories about ukraine that originated in moscow, aimed at undermining the president's political opponents. >> the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought about ukraine. >> i didn't know what to think but i was very concerned. >> what were you concerned about? >> she's going to go through some things. it didn't sound good. it sounded like a threat. >> i want to emphasize to the committee that when i reported my concerns on july 10th relating to ambassador sondland and then july 25th relating to the president, i did so out of a

sense of duty. >> was there a quid pro quo? as i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. >> i did say to him, ambassador sondland, gordon, i think this is all going to blow up. and here we are. >> i heard president trump asked, so he's going to do the investigation? ambassador sondland replied, he's going to do it, adding that president zelensky will do anything you ask him to do. >> and a giant tease today from former national security adviser john bolton, reemerging on social media, implying he still he's a story to tell, or is it sell? will it be testimony, or a book? joining me now, nbc's garrett haake on capitol hill, nbc's shannon pettypiece, white house correspondent anne gearan and "n "new york times" washington

correspondent. garrett, what's next, the informal timetable calling for a draft report from the intelligence committee, basically the impeachment inquiry coming next week and getting to the judiciary committee right after thanksgiving? >> that's the hope. the staffs of the three committees that were conducting this inquiry, including the broader depositions before these open hearings, are expected to present their report to the judiciary committee as soon as they can get through it. right now there's no more hearings scheduled. we believe we have seen the last of the witnesses testifying either in public or in private. so democrats want to move as expeditiously as they cann on that. the giant caveat is we continue to see new evidence come out, new witnesses come forward, and the president continuing to say things in public that add to things that the democrats want to investigate. so the hope is to get that report done until congress gets off, they don't return until december from their thanksgiving break, so the judiciary

committee can move quickly to draft however many articles of impeachment they put together and move this to the floor. there will be several days of debate and oh, by the way, a government that still needs to be funded. as everyone on this panel knows, nothing sharpens lawmakers' minds like getting home for christmas. there are so many moving parts here, it's difficult to nail down the exact timeline. >> and does that drafting of the articles of impeachment happen in an open session? obviously they've got texts they're working through, but is that like an executive session of the committee? >> they'll have a markup in open session. but it's possible the drafting itself will be in private. it will be introduced to the committee. but you'll have a public markup at the very least. >> shannon, let's talk about john bolton. we hear from him today that he's coming back. is that a tease that he might testify without fighting it in court or just that he has a story to tell in other venues? >> no one really knows,

including the white house, which is one of the big black boxes for them. there is a lot of this process the white house has been in the dark on, because they've refused to cooperate, they've not known what any of the witnesses were going to say, they've not been turning over documents. they don't know what bolton is going to say. so that is a big overhanging risk out there. they do acknowledge depending on what he says, he could end up being the star witness. there was a sense from republicans that yesterday was the closer, fiona hill and mr. holmes, that that was the end. as you heard garrett say, that is the expectation. but we do have bolton out there. he could be this wild card that democrats can pull out, again, as a closer in the coming weeks or so, depending on what happens. >> we heard from someone who worked for him, fiona hill. and you could argue that she's a surrogate for at least those interactions among gordon sondland and the rudy giuliani piece and what she saw from her perspective, not of course what might have happened between the president and john bolton which might be excluded by some

limited executive privilege as well. >> exactly. one of the arguments the white house has said, at the core of republicans' arguments is this is secondhand knowledge, no one had direct conversations with the president about why the aid was on hold, what he wanted in exchange for these investigations. and that's because the people who would have those direct conversations with the president have not been testifying. mick mulvaney, john bolton, mike pompeo among them. >> gordon sondland did, as we know very well, he did testify. but fiona hill, i in my experience have never seen a witness that compelling, i can't recall a witness who was so carefully, scrupulously not political, who schooled both sides, republicans and democrats, when necessary, pushed back against things that were unfair assumptions, insisting that she is a fact witness here. and anne, you know her, and we know her reputation. the experience, the knowledge

base all coming to the fore. this is a really strong, strong woman who just nailed it. and in particular, i was fascinated by the contrast between gordon sondland coming from the outside, no diplomatic experience, and describing this 18-minute coffee with her in his deposition and his testimony where he was providing a shoulder to this poor weepy woman. this is the coal miner's daughter from northeast england who put out a fire on her pigtail when she was 11 years old and kept taking an exam. here is a piece of her testimony. >> he indicated you were upset with ambassador bolton and upset with the way things are going and i believe your counsel said that was an outright fabrication. >> i think you might recall in my deposition that unfortunately i had a bit of a blow-up.

i hate to say it, often when women show anger, it's not fully appreciated, it's pushed onto emotional issues or deflected onto other people. he wasn't coordinating with us. so i was upset with him that he wasn't fully telling us about all of the meetings he was having. and he said to me, but i'm briefing the president. >> you know, she -- at that point devin nunes in fact jumped in after that exchange because obviously the republican lawyer was not getting anywhere, he was only making -- steve castor was the republican lawyer in that exchange. for her to say, contrary to what sondland testified, she was not some weeping, you know, woman in that exchange, and in fact that coffee occurred back in -- >> right. without ever raising her voice or suggesting that there really is very much to be concerned about here, she just went

through and destroyed about five things that sondland had said in his deposition. and by extension, was refuting the idea that there was a real linkage between what sondland was doing and the foreign policy that she was doing. in fact she said, listening to him yesterday, i realized that he was exactly right, he was doing something completely different, a domestic political errand as she described it, which, you know, is obviously not foreign policy, was the point she was making. and i think, you know, she made it in a way that was not really surprising to people who know her but was probably pretty surprising to some of the republicans on the committee. i found it interesting that not only did nunes take over at that point but a number of

republicans appeared to just sort of fold, they just -- it's not going to change how they vote, but they were not going to take her on, they were not going to get in some big drawn-out back and forth with her where she obviously had a better command of facts than they were going to be able to summon quickly and she was just going to win, so why bother? >> it was a classic case of cross-examination gone wrong, in trying to rattle her and shake her story, they made her case, made the case for the democrats. mike pompeo came out of these hearings really damaged. there was testimony from gordon sondland that he was involved, he was in the mix, certainly sondland put him right in the middle of this. he was already on defense for not defending yovanovitch, for not disclosing that he was on that call, just prevaricating, really, for ten days before under pressure he acknowledged it. now, today, the president, whom we've reported has gotten very annoyed with pompeo for, he

believes, hiring the wrong people, hiring william taylor, where are all these state department people coming from, these key witnesses, it's mike's fault, and shutting him out, icing him out of key discussions. this is what the president had to say on fox about mike pompeo and that it would be okay if he ran for the senate from kansas. >> if i thought they had somebody out there that couldn't win, and mike would really, he loves what he's doing, but if i thought they had somebody out there, and he came to me and said, look, i would rather stay where i am but he loves kansas, he loves the people of kansas, if he thought there was a chance of losing that seat, i think he would do that. and he would win in a landslide. >> mike crowley, that's a big invitation, i think, to the secretary of state. this might be a good time for you to take a leave and go back to kansas where you've been flying all the time on that big government plane to do interviews with local kansas

reporters, just in case. >> it's almost getting comical. mike pompeo is going to be walking into whatever government building it is to register his candidate and i say, i'm just out for a stroll, i love this part of kansas. until the minute he actually puts his name on the piece of paper. >> the filing deadline is not i believe until june. >> that's right, he still has time. my point is he keeps getting closer and closer to doing it, he goings back and visits kansas, does interviews with kansas media. now we have the president clearly opening the door for him to do this. pompeo insists he's focused on the job of secretary of state but it sure looks like this is something he wants to do. on the one hand, you can make the case, if you're mike pompeo, you want to get out now, get away from this mess, his own reputation is taking more and more hits, the morale in the state department is diving, people are upset with him for the reasons you said. on the other hand, if you leave now, that doesn't look great either. it looks like you're stepping down potentially in disgrace,

you're sort of running and hiding from something, you're bailing out when the going gets tough. and so he doesn't really have a good option here. and the president says he would win an election in kansas in a landslide. you know, i'm not sure we can take that for granted anymore. >> they elected a democratic governor. >> they elected a democratic governor. it's not a total cakewalk for republicans and he's got a lot of mud on his shoes now. >> i would say this appears to answer a question we've had, would the president let mike pompeo gracefully walk out because pompeo has made it seem like that's exactly what he wanted to do, and this could give him the exit you're talking about. >> meanwhile, you have a year left in the administration with no secretary of state, because they're not going to get somebody else. >> that's the problem with actings around here. >> they prefer actings. thank you so much, mike, anne, and garrett. coming up, clear and present

danger. fiona hill's fact check of republicans who are still claiming ukraine, not russia, attacked the 2016 campaign. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." you're watching msnbc. s. you're watching msnbc. needles. essential for the sea urchin, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections like tb; don't start xeljanz if you have an infection. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra can increase risk of death. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, and changes in lab results. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common, or if you've had tb, hepatitis b or c,

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expert on the national security council, pleading with congressional republicans thursday not to keep spreading the conspiracy theory that ukraine was responsible for meddling in 2016, not russia. but republicans ignored those warnings. the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, devin nunes, continued to push that false claim right afterwards in the hearing. >> so at the end of the day the commander in chief, concerned about 2016 election meddling by ukraine, sounds like you just earlier testified you weren't aware of that, but if that was the concern of the president, to try to get to the bottom of it, and it's the concern of ambassador sondland who was trying to set up meetings on behalf of -- to ensure, really, that meetings occurred and phone calls occurred to strengthen the relationship. >> so nunes trying to suggest that perhaps she wasn't aware of the ukraine theory even though she had just said it was a

russian argument that had come from russian intelligence. joining me now, ambassador nick burns, former u.s. ambassador to nato, also advising the biden campaign. and ambassador michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia and msnbc international affairs analyst. i know you both know fiona hill. mike mcfaul, you've worked with her very recently. her testimony was extraordinary. she was basically suggesting a situation where implicitly, unwittingly, whatever, the president is embracing vladimir putin's theory of the case. >> that's right. and you're right, i've known fiona for about three decades. she knows russia well, she's written one of the best books on putin ever. it's always been a mystery to me how she could work with president trump for 2 1/2 years, given that he is constantly picking up on russian disinformation, including about me, by the way, in helsinki a year and a half ago when he wanted to hand me over to putin

for interrogation on a completely crazy theory of what we americans allegedly did inside russia. and i think it was very important she said that, that was a brave comment, because first and foremost she was saying that to her former boss. when president trump raises crowdstrike, the dnc server somehow in ukraine because one of the people that works at crowdstrike he's a russian name, is a russian emigre, that is russian putin disinformation. she wants no part of feeding into the narrative because that's what they've done in 2016 and we've done virtually nothing to control it happening again in 2020. >> and mike and nick burns, the president did it today on fox news, he was talking about crowdstrike. nick, this is not ending, there is no way to tell them you're being used by russian military intelligence, nick. >> the president doesn't seem to

be convinced by the facts. andrea, i thought it was one of the most powerful moments of the last two weeks when fiona hill talked about this fictional narrative that ukraine, not russia, interfered in the 2016 elections. it was powerful and she was unrelenting. i think that was a very important point to make. and, you know, if you look at her testimony, what was also behind it was the fact that we've been trying to contain russian power for the better part of the last decade. and president trump's attempts to just focus on relationship with ukraine on joe biden, on the president's obsession with joe biden, that weakened our credibility in deterring russia vis-à-vis ukraine. and finally, the other message here, and it's a very tragic one for the united states, is ukraine has been free and independent for 28 years. and george h.w. bush, bill clinton, george w. bush, and barack obama, had one message

for the ukrainians, don't be authoritarian thugs, don't be corrupt, be transparent. and what did donald trump and rudy giuliani do? please investigate president trump's political adversary joe biden, therefore encouraging the ukrainians to act like an authoritarian regime. that's tragic. it shows you how personalized the president has become. american foreign policy is all about trump's personal interests not about the national interests. >> we've all seen over decades democratic and republican administrations sending clearly unqualified political donors for confirmation, and many times they do get confirmed and in some cases they are very effective ambassadors in london, in france, in major capitals. but in front line states like ukraine, professionals are really needed, and that's why we have marie yovanovitch. that's why she was replaced by william taylor. but the fact, again, that the secretary of state has not defended yovanovitch from the

smear campaign which fiona hill also spoke to. i want to play congressman denny heck and david hale wednesday night during the testimony. >> bluntly put, i think secretary pompeo's silence is nothing less than a betrayal of the men and the women whom he swore an oath to lead. and it's a betrayal that has long term consequences to attracting and retaining workforce to their morale, to their effectiveness, and to their overall strength. >> i only met her when i took this job but immediately i understood we had an exceptional officer doing exceptional work at a key embassy in kyiv. >> mike mcfaul, what is the fallout for the future here for the foreign service, for the respect for american diplomacy abroad?

>> that's a hard question. ambassador burns? no, just kidding. well, let's be clear. it's been, for many years, under the trump administration, not just recently, it's been a tough tame for career people and not just at the state department, but at the pentagon, at the cia. remember, even before the president was inaugurated, he was taking shots at our intelligence community in a very politicized way. it has been a hard, hard path for many people. i hope this is a turning point, because i hope the american people now have seen what incredible people we have at the state department, at the pentagon. by the way, the pentagon and the defense department has not defended lieutenant colonel vindman either. i would like to see somebody at least come out in support of him. but the american people have seen it now, and in my circles, including my students here at stanford, by the way, i was just teaching yesterday, most stanford students aren't focused on joining the government. they're thinking about google and facebook. there was a conversation saying,

these are incredible people, maybe i should serve that way too. so i hope this is a turning point that would be good for the american people and good for the united states of america, because we need these people on the front long-distanines to de national interests. >> we need more nick burnses and more michael mcfauls. thank you so much for your teaching and your service. coming up, will president trump continue to stand by his personal lawyer after several witnesses called rudy giuliani a hand grenade? former cia chief john brennan coming up next. you're watching msnbc. p next you're watching msnbc. i'm your 70lb st. bernard puppy, and my lack of impulse control, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof! so get allstate where good drivers save 40%

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"the washington post" is reporting that the justice department inspector general found evidence that an fbi employee may have altered a document concerning the court-approved surveillance of carter page but said it did not impact the overall validity of the surveillance application. this is contained in a draft of inspector general michael horwitz' report.

the fbi said they were investigating page because he had established relationships with russian government officials in the past including russian intelligence officers, all the way back to 2013. joining me now is former cia director john brennan, an msnbc senior national securikurecurit analyst. the president is saying again today he was wiretapped, with no evidence of that at all. carter page was already a suspect figure for the intelligence community going back to cases of his connections to russia, long before he was a trump adviser. and now the issue here is whether he was properly the subject of a court-approved surveillance warrant. >> right. well, as a u.s. citizen, if there was any effort to understand what carter page was doing, it would have been the fbi doing something like that. if his name came up in an intelligence community report, that immediately would have been shared with the fbi. but this report, supposedly, that horwitz is going to come

forward with, if there was some type of modification, the question is when was it done, why was it done. and so the ig reports usually will take a very close look and use a microscope to look at these things but i think we just have to wait for it to come out to determine whether or not there was any wrongdoing whatsoever or whether or not there were just some things that happened that, you know, might not have been exactly the way they should have taken place. >> and all of this is to try to either understand or undermine, depending on motivation, we can't really say what, the conclusion that russia was behind the 2016 election meddling. >> i think fiona hill was right, it's just a way to help russia's efforts, to deflect the focus on them. the intelligence community assessment done in january of 2017 that was given to donald trump and to barack obama

clearly stated that it was russia, in a very systematic way, who tried to interfere in the election to advance the prospects of donald trump being elected but also to bloody hillary clinton, anticipating she was going to be elected. there was no evidence that i ever saw that indicated that the ukrainian government, the ukrainians, were involved in trying to interfere in the election. it was russia. >> now, you were in government for years and years, in many different roles. can you imagine having to deal with a rudy giuliani as the president's personal lawyer doing this shadow diplomacy but now we know that wasn't the shadow, that was the main act. here is some of what happened to the two key witnesses yesterday, holmes and hill. >> my recollection is that ambassador sondland stated, quote, damn it, rudy, every time rudy gets involved, he goes and f's everything up. >> he had brought to ambassador bolton's attention the attacks, the smear campaign against ambassador yovanovitch. he then, in the cows urse of th

discussion, said rudy giuliani is a hand grenade that's going to blow everyone up. >> you've got rudy giuliani doing all of this on the side. what message does that send to other governments? because one of the things that really has caught my attention during all of this is republicans will say, well, the ukrainians got the money, they still haven't gotten the visit but they got the money for the weapons, they got the javelins, but during that period when they didn't, 55 days, when it was authorized but not delivered, everyone knew they weren't getting it, everyone knew that the president was siding against this new president, he was weakened in his relationship with aruba, his negotiations ongoing, there was a hot war, people were dying on the front lines, and there was an effect. >> two things from the testimony yesterday. one is that it's clear, by the comments of fiona hill, david holmes and others, that any claim of attorney/client privilege by rudy giuliani was

laud to was laid to waste, because it's clear he was involved and not representing donald trump from a legal, lawyerly capacity. it was, he was involved in this irregular or whatever you want to call it channel that was trying to carry out this negotiation with zelensky as far as getting this domestic political favor for donald trump. rudy giuliani should be called up in front of the house or the senate to testify, because there is nothing at all that is protected under attorney/client privilege. secondly, it really makes a lot of countries wonder who should they be listening to. should they be link to the authorized represents at the embassy abroad at the department of state or should they be listening to individuals who claim they're representing donald trump and the office of the presidency and trying to cut these deals? it really undermines the credibility of the u.s. government and the u.s. government officials who are really trying to carry out national security in a very professional and honest way. >> and vladimir putin is sitting in moscow, and he sees that all of this is falling into place. just the other day he said, you

see? he actually said, you see, now we know it was ukraine and not russia responsible for this. >> unfortunately all this fracturing taking place within the u.s. system of politics i think is something that vladimir putin was hoping was going to happen. so i think he is sitting in moscow, looking at all the damage, the political damage, not just what's taking place in washington but the damage to the u.s. reputation worldwide. unfortunately vladimir putin has been quite successful in terms of trying to carry out this very subversive effort against the united states government. having someone like donald trump in the office who clearly is unable to carry out the affairs of state, at the same time pitting us against ourselves, which is something that we really need to get beyond. >> john brennan, very good to see you, thanks so much, especially after the last two weeks, your context. coming up, dems and the giant impeach. what voters have to say about the 2020 race. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on m,

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campaign stops in georgia and south carolina. [ crowd chanting ] senator warren was interrupted by pro charter school protesters. joining me now, yamiche alcindor and jeremy peters, both msnbc contributors. jeremy, this is getting a lot more active on the campaign trail, both biden and warren. but mayor pete still holding a really lead in iowa and other places, just not connecting at all with african-american voters. he was asked about that during the debate the other night, and not clearly doing well in south carolina where so much of the vote in the primaries are african-americans. >> that's absolutely right, he's been creeping up in iowa, now

new hampshire where he looks like he's gaining a lot of strength. what happens after that? the south carolina primary where 60% of the electorate are african-americans. last time i looked testifies zero percent in the polls among african-americans in south carolina. it's a big problem. it's a danger for his campaign on another level because the narrative has become so much about that, that he can't get over this hurdle, and that's self-reinforcing, it's a tailspin he can't get out of. they're working to shore up that support. i talked to al sharpton about this once and he said the best response from anyone, when al sharpton invited candidates to speak to harlem, the biggest response by far was to pete, a standing ovation in harlem. >> really? >> he said the reaction in harlem was by far the most excited. it remains to be seen if pete is

really never going to get past this hurdle. >> yamiche, the other thing of course that's now coloring everything else is the impeachment hearings, and the candidates' stand on impeachment. we know nancy pelosi, the democratic leader, was very reluctant to do this, and came to it only under changing circumstances and pressure from their caucuses. let's take a look at how some of the democratic candidates talked about impeachment and the possibility of prosecuting the president post-presidency during the debate the other night. >> i will not dictate who should be prosecuted or who should be exonerated. that's not the role of the president of the united states. it's the attorney general of the united states, not the president's private attorney. >> we have a president who was engaged in corruption. we have a president who has obstructed justice. and in my view, someone who's violated the emoluments clause. >> we have to establish the

principle no one is above the law. we have a constitutional responsibility and we need to meet it. >> yamiche, did you have some favorite moments? >> the favorite moments that i was looking at were first the idea that all these candidates were happy to go after president trump when it came to impeachment. that was a topic democrats wanted to avoid for a long time, a lot of it at the behest of nancy pelosi. but they eventually settled in and said what they would gado. a moment ago jeremy peters was talking about pete buttigieg possibly getting african-american voters. kamala harris and cory booker reminded us that the road to the democratic nomination is right through african-american communities and african-american women. cory booker was talking to joe biden and saying i thought you were high when you talking about

recreational marijuana, saying essentially joe biden is out of touch with young voters that make up the democratic party in large part. andrea, you and rachel and ashley richardson did an amazing job, one of my favorite moments was seeing you all onstage. >> it was a nervous-making moment for us but the team was great, working with those three other women. i do think, yamiche and jeremy, the moment when joe biden said "i come from the black community," and then of course referred to carole moseley braun as the only black female senator, and there you had of course kamala harris standing right there, and cory booker looking at her. it was just a crazy moment. >> yeah, it was kind of cringe-worthy. you notice it kind of knocked him back on his heels a bit. he didn't respond, which was

kind of un-biden-like. you could tell he was a bit rattled by that. i think my favorite moment was when elizabeth warren answered the question about military service and whether or not more people should be serving in the military. and she spoke in a very personal way about it, which made it a very powerful answer. >> about her brothers. >> about her brothers serving in vietnam, right? that's a real disconnect that the democratic party has with working class communities were trump did the best, they had the highest levels of casualties in the military. the democratic party has a lot of ground to make up there. i think that answer went a long way. >> yamiche and jeremy, thank you both so much. coming up, truth or consequences. is there any witness that could persuade republicans to sign onto impeachment? you're watching msnbc. impeachmt you're watching msnbc. for every dollar you spend at a small business, an average of 67 cents stays local. shop small and watch it add up. small business saturday by american express

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(people talking) for every dollar you spend at a small business, an average of 67 cents stays local. shop small and watch it add up. small business saturday by american express is november 30th. i had a perfect phone call. a totally perfect phone call. >> i was concerned by the call. it is improper for the president of the united states to demand a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen and a political opponent. >> i want nothing. i want nothing. i want no quid pro quo. >> was there a quid pro quo? a ? with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. >> by the way, i have a lot of never trumpers that have been in different positions for a long time. >> ambassador taylor, are you a

never trumper? >> no, sir. >> we are looking for corruption. we're giving hundreds of millions of dollars and we're looking for corruption. >> as you look at this whole mess, rudy giuliani, president trump in your opinion was this a comprehensive and whole of government effort to end corruption in ukraine? >> i would not say so, no, sir. >> president trump with an alternative narrative contradicted by all the witnesses who appeared at the public hearings on capitol hill. but will that testimony change the minds of any republicans who have been in lock step with the president? joining me now, david jolly former republican congressman from florida. david, it is really stunning. will hurd kind of went whoa. if they can't get will hurd who's leaving office, who was a cia officer, he has been critical of the president, he doesn't believe there should be an impeachment vote, whom are they going to get on the house

floor? >> i think your question kind of answers itself. there likely is not a republican now that we would see break. the facts are overwhelming, the president engaged in impeachable activity. all of the witnesses have corroborated that and if you look at the totality of the evidence, it's clear what the president did. what you're seeing republicans deploy are kind of three different arguments. one is the conspiracy theory which are frankly noise. when stefanik says to yovanovitch can't a president fire an ambassador at any point, aha, that exonerates the president. but when jordan says yes but the aid was leased that overlooks the corrupt scheme that led up to the aid being released but the third argument and you heard will hurd drift into this. there's an argument that's not

impeachable but it acknowledges that it was wrong. we didn't hear hurd others say it was wrong. i think republicans senators will grab ahold of this, it's not proven. they'll take the approach of a criminal defense attorney that the house didn't prove its case. you don't have the president in his open words. what obviously complicate has is you don't have mulvaney or pompeo or bolton testifying. the white house is prohibiting any proving of the facts but i think that's where the senate may arrive. is that the house didn't prove its case. >> didn't prove its case, overheard, hearsay, whatever. even though gordon sondland talked to the president himself. that's a fact witness. i mean -- >> that's right. >> it's indisputable what happened. the only question they can raise is is this impeachable or so close to the election the trial if it takes place is going to be in january. and whether it's short or long it won't start until january at the earliest. and that's already bumping up

right against iowa voting. i want to ask you about the greenlight the president seemed to be giving to mike pompeo to run for the kansas senate seat. we know from our reporting that he's been very unhappy with mike pompeo. his closest cabinet adviser, closest national security foreign policy adviser with all of the departures that have taken place. >> yeah. >> now unhappy with all of the state department witnesses. is this an exit ramp? >> it is. look, donald trump doesn't demand loyalty, he demands fealty and he looks at pompeo as someone who failed him. i think what we learned in the last two weeks is mike pompeo should not be the secretary of state. now i don't think he should be the next united states senator from kansas either, but kansas might be a better place to call home than foggy bottom. where pompeo has failed and you hit it on in your lead-up to the question, if we had a republican

party at least arguing about what penalty was appropriate, a censure or impeachable, at least we have him making an argument for a lesser penalty. we have a republican party ignoring the truth in this moment. that's why they're failing the american people. >> that's why you call yourself a former republican, i think. >> that's exactly right. >> thank you. coming up crash test, how elon musk's flashy rollout of the electric truck went horribly strong. stay with us. strong stay with us

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download the xfi app today. so i present to you the cyber truck. >> tesla's ceo elon musk unveiling the futuristic all electric cyber truck in l.a. on thursday. but things took a turn for the worse when he asked the chief designer to throw a metal ball at the allegedly shatter proof windows. >> franz, can you try to break the glass, please. >> oh, [ bleep ]. >> well, maybe that was too hard. >> and you think that's bad? it got worse. >> let's try it again. >> really?

>> sure. >> oh, man. >> we threw wrenches, we threw everything, we literally threw the kitchen sink at the glass and it didn't break. the weird reason it broke now, i don't know why. you know? >> epic fail to end your friday. i hope you don't have any epic fails. that does it for us, this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow online on facebook and twitter. here is stephanie ruhle with "velshi & ruhle." >> thank you. hello, it is friday, november 22. coming up this hour, we are breaking down the bombshells in the public impeachment inquiry hearings. the firsthand accounts, the emails, the many, many text messages. how damning is the evidence we have right now? plus, what we learned about russia's goals and interference. we'll look at the stark warnings