bad stories, and that really could move the public opinion even more than it's moved already. >> david gergendavid axelrod, thank you very much. appreciate it. >>> up next, more on the surprise briefing expected tomorrow on capitol hill from the state department inspector general. >>> it's certainly a big night for breaking news. let check in with chris and see what he's working on for "primetime." >> every night and so many nights, it gets weird and weirder. i don't know what this means. tonight we're going to have some people who worked in the fbi and in the state department talk to us about what kind of protocol is this where the inspector general of the state department says they have to talk to certain high-ranking members of congress. they had to know it was going to leak and the only vague guidance is that there's some documents that were obtained by its legal counsel. so we don't know what it means. obviously the only pitfall, you don't want to speculate about it, it's more news on our watch. also tonight, we have two people coming on to make the case about what's wrong with the impea

back with us jeffrey toobin, jennifer aniston sake, david gergen and maggie haberman.do you make of the vice president's position in all of this? golly whiz, it's not right for a foreign power to interfere in the election. that was back then. >> i think mike pence think his political future rise and falls on president trump. i think you're going to see him stick to the president very strongly on this. it is notable to me that mike pence is so far -- it's possibly i've missed someone, but from what i've seen, mike pence is the only elected republican official who supported what the president said earlier today on the white house lawn, which was suggesting that china should investigate the bidens. he's the only one on record endorsing that view. i think that there are still things we don't know about what the vp's interaction was with the president in terms of ukraine, in terms of what he was aware of. i suspect there will be more facts that come out over time. but right now as this is playing out as a partisan issue in the house, i think that vice president pence sees h

we are joined by david gergen, a former adviser to four u.s. presidents and democratic strategist bob barnett. thanks to you. bob, looking at your notes this morning, you are unusual for folks who kind of have been a monday morning quarterback in this debate and saying you thought joe biden had a strong night. tell us why? >> i think he had a strong night. i think he showed the old joe biden there obviously as you talk, certainly as i talk, you have low gips and gaps and things. all in all i think he was strong. he was forceful. he brought his experience to bear. i personally thought he had a very good night. >> but, bob, should his team be freaked out about these numbers, the money, the fund raising, fec do you that that shows he is way behind sanders, warren and buttigieg? >> when you look at this process, there are things that go beyond the debate. one of them is money. obviously, have you to have a lot of cash on hand as you move into these four first key state. he will have to do a good fundraising push to get up there. remember, joe biden

joining me is david gergen and our commentator adviser to president obama david axelrod.o the request from the inspector general at state? it's seems like it's urgent. there is a lot we obviously don't know. but it's fascinating. >> well, the timing of it is very interesting. first of all, my feeling is this is like a fast-moving loco motive. it seems to be developments every hour. this is interesting because it came after secretary pompeo base country stiff-armed the congress and said they need more time to put materials together. he wasn't going to let his people get intimidated and bullied and so on. and then this -- in outreach came from the inspector general who has documents he thinks are of importance for the committee, urgent -- on an urgent basis. it's really intriguing. and i don't know what to make of it other than that there are things that will be in the committee's possession that perhaps the secretary of state did not anticipate. >> and, david, i mean this inspector general -- correct me if i'm wrong -- can operate essentially independently like the inspect

joining us is david gergen, jeffrey toobin and cnn chief political correspondent dana bash. argument from republicans that, you know, this is all happening in secret, logically, that is just -- the republicans in there, it's not as if it's all democrats, this cabal of democrats with witnesses. public hearings, though, clearly democrats want those as much as anybody wants them. >> that's exactly right. >> they believe it supports the charges against the president. >> right. the whole argument that the democratic leadership makes is that the best thing for them is to have as much public support behind what they're doing as possible. and you can't get that unless you demonstrate your case in public. i mean, that's just the kind of a basic fact. what is striking and one of the reasons why still it is people are disgusted by the place where i live, washington, d.c. is because there is always amnesia when another party takes control. what she said about benghazi is true. republicans did act in private as they investigated before they went in public. and that is exactly what democr

i don't know -- most of them i never heard of their names. >> back now with david gergen. gloria boringen and abbey gill ip and david axelrod. i don't know this person is a common trope from president trump and michael cohen and and others. i want to read something else from the ambassador's statement. >>> ambassador sondland tried to explain that president trump is a businessman. when a businessman is about to sign a check. he asks the businessman asks somebody to pay up before signing the check. i'm not sure what that means. sondland is himself is a businessman and knows of what he speaks in terms of that. but it seems perfectly aligned with how the president sees the world. but in business he was known for stiffing people and undercutting how much he paid suppliers. and this is not his money, it's american taxpayers money. >> that's the point. this money had been appropriated by congress, period. supposed to go to ukraine. whereas mr. taylor pointed out today, 13,000 ukraines died at the hands of the russian. and this was an existential issue as far as he was concerned.

back now with jeff toobin, gloria borger and david gergen. vid the white house once again saying believe us, not what you see but what you hear. he is saying reporters misconstrued them. he answered directly jonathan karl's question about it. >> that's right, anderson. i've had a chance to go back before he made the pivot, before he issued the later statement to check out the websites of eight major publications. how did they interpret his original press conference and what he said. all eight, all eight unanimously agreed that he said that there was a quid pro quo. and that basically, this is done all the time in foreign policy. get over it. and that clearly -- so clearly, this is not fake news, which is what their claim. this is all just a made-up conspiracy to hurt the white house. he clearly acknowledged it. he clearly was under instructions from others, including the president to walk it back. he's tried, but i think most people will walk away saying, yeah, the walkback didn't really succeed because he said the truth the first time. >> glo

i want to bring in senior political analyst david gergen, also kaitlan collins and jeffrey toobin. david, shouldn't putin be the last person on the planet influencing how president trump feels about ukraine given the fact that putin has invaded crimea? >> absolutely. and it's hard to think of a more wholesome trio than giuliani, putin, and orban. you know, it is like what? what are we doing here? listen, a little context. it has been american foreign policy for some time now to support and strengthen ukraine, to come to the aid of those leaders. that's why we were sending them money, because the russians had invaded their country, were threatening to dominate the country. so the whole point of mattis and kelly and bolton was to reinforce the president and make sure he approached the ukrainians in a sense of trying to help them. instead, what the president listened to with putin and orban and giuliani, and it soured his view on the ukrainians, and instead of trying to go to support the ukrainians, that's when the president then instead went to them for a favor, to dig up dirt in the

. >> evan, stay with us because i want to bring in snan legal analyst laura coates, david gergen and joe lockhart. he served as press skecretary i the clinton white house. david, first of all, what do you make of evan's reporting because the whole notion that the president is conducting business as usual and isn't solely focused and consumed by the impeachment inquiry -- if he's calling mcconnell three times a day, that seems to suggest otherwise. >> it does. he's been aptly compared to king lear, you know, fighting off the darkness. and he's obviously preoccupied, and you can understand why. but i must tell you in none of the reporting about what he's preoccupied with is there any mention of what's good for the country, the principles we ought to have as a people, what it is he's trying to uphold. it is all about personal survival and personally, you know, beating the other side. >> well, it's also, david, about revealing who the whistle-blower is, which, again -- >> yes. >> i understand why he wants that for his own reasons, but in terms of for the good of the country, i mean if he

that shouldn't be all that difficult. >> david gergen, do you see the white house suddenly deciding too stop morrison from testifying? >> i think they'll do everything they can to stop him. his testimony is significant, anderson. because taylor delivered this blockbuster testimony, but it's very much in conflict with sondland. and they need to call sondland back. then we're going to have a comparison between the two. to have morrison come in behind this and say taylor's got the right version here of the truth will really help to bolster the credibility and diminish the force of republican anti-arguments saying taylor, it's all secondhand, it doesn't matter, doesn't mean anything. morrison is really critical. as we've just heard in that 15-page statement, he's a key player. i've never heard of him, but suddenly you've got to get this guy up there to testify because he's really critical. >> can the white house stop him? manu asked morrison's attorney, he said currently, yes, he's going to appear. >> they can fire him. >> would firing stop him from -- >> not necessarily, but they could th

back with jeffrey toobin, maggie haberman and david gergen. just in terms of the -- i mean we only really have seen some of the opening statement of this ambassador. but certainly for a career foreign service officer to come forward, though under a subpoena and testify, that's certainly a break in the wall that the white house hoped to set up to stop people from taking part in this. >> i'm sorry, anderson. was that to me? there was an issue with my -- >> yeah, that was to you. >> i'm sorry. the ambassador who testified today was a break in the wall was your question? >> yeah, the fact that she came forward even though pompeo had said that they wouldn't be cooperating. >> yeah. it's noticeable, i think, that you are seeing the beginning of a number of people who are willing not just to speak out publicly or at least to speak out privately through news accounts and have their views be known, but also as you note, go meet with members on the hill. we have seen some people in the administration in previous investigations like hope hicks go and giv

so keep an eye on that letter coming from the white house. >> david gergen. what do you think the democrat response is. >> i think is democratic response is going to be we don't have to do it. we're not doing it. it is true there was such a vote before the nixon impeachment. there was such a vote before the clinton impeachment but there is no requirement. there is no rule. and after all, at the end of the day there will be no impeachment unless there is a vote. that is what nancy pelosi and is saying. you have a chance to vote and everybody will have a chance to weigh in on this. i think they are using this argument from the white house as an excuse to shut down. to stonewall and to end this. end as much as they can of the transfer of information. because they just paid the price last night for transferring these e-mails and the white house is going to want to shut that down. >> all that is going to happen is that adam schiff or nancy pelosi are going add the refusal to cooperate as another ground for impeachment. >> i agree. >> jeffrey, katlynn, david. going

i want to bring in former presidential counsel, david gergen. what do you think about his comments? >> at first hearing it he might break, and the language would suggest that he is open to the idea of voting for a trial to find the president guilty. the more you listen to it and study it i think he left himself loopholes. i think he could scoot out of this. and that is, for example, he says he has to see a crime committed. for impeachment, we don't need -- the congress doesn't need evidence of a statutory crime. it defines what a high crime means. by definition, the house of representatives has the constitutional right and authority to define what a crime is and lindsay graham may easily say well that's not what i had in mind i had in mind a statutory crime. i think we should be careful in giving too much weight to what lindsay graham said so far, and his history has gone both ways on imprisoning trump recently. >> we heard he say the president's call to ukraine was not enough to put him across that line, but we heard earlier this week that we heard mulvaney admit to a quid pro quo,

david gergen, as you know -- >> it's an insult to david gregory. >> i've known you for years. listen, you've advised four u.s. presidents. have you ever seen a president publicly lash out like this while standing alongside a world leader on an international stage like this? >> never, including nixon. and richard nixon toward the end was drinking very heavily. he was talking to portraits on the wall, you know, inside the residence at the white house. sometimes he thought they were talking back to him. so he was unhinged. but it was in private, not in public. and this, i must tell you the way the president is acting now is very -- it really raises serious questions about his fitness for office. millions of americans tune in and watch the president very, very closely when there's trouble facing the oval office. they want to see what their president is like in a crisis. how well does he handle pressure? is he stable? is he reliable? is he someone who will calmly get us through this without throwing a lot of thunderbolts? and right now when the president is coming off the tracks, t

. >> gloria borger former adviser to nixon and clinton and david gergen and ross garber and he defendedovernors facing impeachment and the independent counsel for the whitewater investigation kim waily and i appreciate all of you taking the time tonight. the impeachment investigation is illegitimate. is that true? >> no. i also have a book out on the constitution in june and people can read in there what the constitution says which is there's a three-part system of government and congress in this moment is the only branch available to oversee the presidency. the letter essentially says impeachment itself is unconstitutional. you don't need to be a lawyer or law professor to understand that that's nonsensical and antithetical to the very notion of congressional oversight of the executive branch. congressman schiff is not off in suggesting that this position is really moves toward an imperial presidency and that's exactly what the founders were rejecting in king george iii. >> ross, in light of what kim just said, kellyanne conway's husband and you have to say that is who he is, george co

shimon prokupecz and david gergen, thanks very much. >>> the president is ordering the remaining troops out of northern syria in the wake of attacks that were caused by his initial order for u.s. special forces to pull back from the turkey-syria border. we'll have a look at the very complex, dangerous and bloody situation on the ground. that's next. t-mobile's newest signal reaches farther than ever before. with more engineers. more towers. more coverage! it's a network that gives you ♪freedom from big cities, to small towns, we're with you. because life can take you almost anywhere, t-mobile is with you. no signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. thand find inspiration who win new places.ct... leading them to discover: we're woven together by the moments we share. everything you need, all in one place. expedia. that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa! 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. ensure max protein. ♪ do you recall, not long ag

cnn senior political analyst david gergen is with us. he's advised four former presidents. associate editor and columnist for real clear politics also joins us. good morning one and all. >> good morning. >> david gergen, the republicans either won't go on television or when they do, you know, ron johnson being an example, doesn't even answer the first direct question he's asked about this. or they say that the president was joking about asking biden -- china to investigate the bidens. that's marco rubio, jim jordan, roy blunt, all suggesting the president's joking. colin powell says my party is in shambles right now. has got to get a grip, to use his words. where are we? >> we're watching republicans squirm because they know so far the white house has not given them something they can defend very easily. and what -- what we're seeing a pattern, the white house erects a defense, then along comes the evidence and knocks down the defense. first we started with quid pro quo, the opposition -- white house claimed there was no pretty pro-question on, it was straightforward -- qui

we on the other hand have three cnn political analysts, david gergen, kirsten powers, and investigativebernstein. kirsten, you heard jim describe the atmosphere at the white house. tonight the president says he's not worried though he obviously fumed all weekend on twitter. do you see any coherent strategy coming together here? >> well, no, i wouldn't call it a coherent strategy. but i do think the president tends to operate very well in chaos, and so he creates a lot of chaos. and i think that he maybe on some level believes -- and mick mulvaney said as much -- that they believe that somehow that is going to redound to the advantage of the president because it's going to be bad for the democrats to be impeaching donald trump. >> david, i mean do you think that's true? i mean is mulvaney right? >> i don't think so. listen, the administration basically is throwing up one argument after another to see what sticks, what works. they're not searching for the truth. they're not trying to conduct an investigation which most white houses would do. rather, they're just looking for an argument th

assistant for department of homeland security, julia kayyem and david gergen and new york times congressional editor julie hirschfield davis. david, here ate thing about this. i don't want to laugh about it because it's -- this is a letter that was actually sent, at least, he says it was. have you ever seen anything like this? >> well, erin, many presidents write tough letters, nasty letter, angry letter, frustrated letters. the normal presidents then put them in a jar in a file called burn before sending. this had such an adolescent quality to it when i read it i immediately called my researcher, and i said see if this is wake. i can't believe the white house sent this out because it is unprecedented to the best of my knowledge and it makes it tougher to work with turkey which is a member of nato and we need to figure out ways to get this stopped, hopefully short of much more violence. >> juliette, don't be a fool, exclamation point, i'll call you later and i'll destroy the turkish economy. he'd have to have a lot of people onboard for doing that and the u.s. is not one of turkish trading pa

whistle-blower john dean, legal analyst elliot williams and adviser to four former presidents, david gergen, elliot, there are two separate things that happened here, and, yes, this was specifically about the mueller documents, but put that aside because legally speaking, i think the more important part of this has to do with legitimizing the current house impeachment inquiry. how significant of a ruling is that? >> it's profoundly significant because what you have is a court saying now that what an impeachment proceeding is, is a judicial proceeding. now, that's relevant in the law. the grand jury's secrecy rules, materials can't -- everything that comes out of the grand jury has to be secret, right, except when you have a judicial proceeding. now, there was an open legal -- to some people believe it's an open question as to whether an impeachment proceeding is a judicial proceeding. moreover, she spends a lot of time in the opinion making the case very, very, very clearly that it is -- number one, it's a judicial proceeding, but most importantly that the process didn't require a vote. if

david gergen, susan page, thank you to both. goodness, a lot to discuss and digest. >>> the inspector general debunks directly many claims by the president and his allies against the whistle-blower. >>> and back to the bahamas, cnn returns one month after hurricane dorian to see how the bahamas are coping, including one man who lost his wife in this storm. >> what am i going to do now? yeah, life goes on, but this is the life i lived, and i'll never get to do this again in my time. you know, my wife is gone, my partner, my love. saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. till he signed up for unitedhealthcare medicare advantage. (bold music) now, it's like he has his own health entourage. he gets medicare's largest healthcare network, a free gym membership, vision, dental and more. there's so much to take advantage of. can't wait till i'm 65. a few more chairs, please. unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans, including the only plans with

david gergen and elliot williams. former assistant attorney general. know now the testimony that we - have seen. you heard ambassadors taylor testimony. he laid out evidence of a quid pro quo. what more do investigators need to know? what's left to know before they would move ahead with articles of impeachment? >> i think that the abuse of power is a clear article. it's already been laid out by the conversation that the president reported himself, by the witnesses. and there is no set standard of proof in need of the house or senate one to impeach and two to later convict and remove. this is in the conscious of each member who votes. i think clear and convincing evidence if not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt always does the job. >> what more than do we need? the transcript itself of the phone call was the ukraine president brings up aid. trump says first i need a favor. and since then it's gotten much more detailed about the level of specificity of the president asked for. in terms of investigations into joe biden. what more is needed? >> you can f

federal prosecute he jeffrey toobin, "new york times" white house correspondent maggie haver and david gergent's lawyer and there's no ukraine issues but he will not deal with anything ukraine related. how do you interpret this? >> just to talk about the legal framework of all this, which is that lawyers are not allowed to also be witnesses in the same case. if you are a witness in a case or in an investigation, you can't represent anyone in that case. it's common sense. here it's quite clear that at many different levels rudy giuliani is a witness in the impeachment matter and very likely a witness in this case that was brought against two of his associates yesterday. just as a simple matter of legal ethics, putting aside the question of whether he did anything improper, i just don't see there's any way he can stay in the case. the argument that was just made that, well, he is still the lawyer but he has nothing to do with ukraine -- ukraine is the whole case at this point. >> yeah. >> i don't know what it means to be his lawyer if he can't deal with ukraine. >> maggie, there's longstanding

david gergen, headline from these polls.our polling analysts make the point it's still a statistical tie between warren and biden at the top, but you have a couple polls now where warren has nipped bien, and biden had been the unassailable front-runner. how much have the dynamics of this race changed in your view? and the second question, is the conventional wisdom correct that warren cannot beat trump in the key swing states? >> oh, i think conventional wisdom about elizabeth warren went out the window. she's run a much better race. she's got better field organization. she's got more of a message. she knows how to talk because of her years in the classroom, she knows how to take something complicated and make it straight forward. all of those have been working in her favor so that i think she's -- she has taken the lead back. taken the lead. she's not far ahead. what i do think has changed, we thought of this as a three-person race only a few weeks ago. now he's dropping in this poll. it looks more and more like a two-perso

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minister to allow him to meet with the president, which a lot of folks, the adults previously hadn't, david gergencolli collins, thank you very much. >>> the president lashed out at the media and what he called the phony emoluments clause, you know, the one in the constitution. we're keeping him honest next. when you look at the world, what do you see? we see patterns. relationships. when you use location technology, you can see where things happen, before they happen. with esri location technology, you can see what others can't. ♪ the amazing new iphone has arrived. and so has t-mobile's newest signal. no signal goes farther or is more reliable. so you can get more out of the new iphone. better battery life, new ultra-wide camera. and at t-mobile get unlimited for only $30/line for 4 lines on a network that goes farther than ever before. and right now, switch at a t-mobile store and get the new iphone 11 on us! only at t-mobile. woi felt completely helpless.hed online. my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. vo: take control of your online reputation. get you