. >> kristen holmes, thank you very much. >> we want to bring in our military analyst, retired general hertling. thank you for being with us. your gut reaction, first of all, to this news? >> well, a couple of things. first of all, good morning to you and martin. number one, congratulations to the team i think with the cia and other agencies that contributed for probably weeks, months, or perhaps even years of intelligence analysis, collection of human intelligence, signals intelligence and all the things that led to this. this may have occurred yesterday, last night, but it was probably months or years in the making to track this individual down. he has been wanted for a while. the strike was a good one. secondly, what i would say is i'm confused watching the actions what was al baghdadi doing in this town? this is about five kilometers from the turkish border. it's someplace where the russians said there was no way he was here. who knew he was there? what communication was made with the kurdish sdf commander and how did this play a part with conducting this strike now? the other thin

ryan brown is in washington and kristen holmes and nick paton walsh is in irbil, iraq. we start with ryan brown who is getting new information about the special ops raid. >> we are learning how dangerous the raid was in northwest syria where the u.s. military doesn't really have a presence. we are told the cia was the one who provided the critical intelligence where al baghdadi was located leading the u.s. military with the confidence of this high-risk raid. they have a military presence in eastern syria but doesn't usually operate in the northwest, say, a few drone strikes the last few months. so, again, a lot of other actors in that area. there are russian forces and regime forces and various rebel groups close to the regime, some have strong extremist ties so they have to have 45high confidence in the intelligence to launch this raid. the u.s. military led the raid from the kurdish democratic forces, the u.s. allies in the area. turkey was notified of the operation for the purposes of deconfliction because it took place close to the turkey board. they sent in a u.s.

i want to go to kristen holmes. kristen, good to see you. is there any indication that's working, particularly with his supporters? >> well, good morning, christi. that's an interesting question. it depends on who you ask. i was in pittsburgh with some of his most ardent supporters who say the impeachment inquiry is a scam, a witch hunt. think about the people still on the fence who don't know exactly what to believe. this lawsuit -- excuse me -- this ruling really undermines this idea that it's a sham, that president trump has been pushing. whether or not this will stop them, we know president trump liked to paint himself as a victim saying everyone was out to get him. in fact, yesterday at an event for criminal justice reform, he was touting his accomplishments there. he seemingly looped himself and the impeachment inquiry into a conversation about past injustice in america. take a listen. >> in america you're innocent until proven guilty, and we don't have investigations in search of that crime. it's a terrible thing. it hurts people very

. >>> and the president, meanwhile is staying in washington, and that's where we find our kristen holmes. yeah, kristen, what's with the camp david getaway. is the president trying to come up with a game plan and get everyone on the same plan? >> good morning, amara and victor. i can tell you this. this trips comes after another stunning week here in washington, including an admission from the chief of staff, mick mulvaney, who sid to reporters in front of cameras on the record that, in fact, asking you crane to investigate democrats was a factor in holding up millions of dollars in aid to that country. now, when he was told, you're describing a quid pro quo, this is what mick mulvaney said to that, we do that all the time with foreign policy, get over this. this contradicts what the president has been saying about that phone call, his relationship with ukraine for weeks. shortly after the news briefing, we did get a statement from mulvaney. it was a little bit of a cleanup of aisle five, saying there was absolutely no quid pro quo. again, he was talking about the comments he had made on

kristen holmes is at the white house. >> and that is where we will begin. kristen, we were just mentioning the president was hit on a number of fronts this week and imagine he's feeling quite some pressure, especially from his own party. >> that's right, amara. it would be hard pressed for him not to feel this way and here's why. for the last couple of years we have seen these republicans, this base really rally around president trump. and now not only are they saying that they have some issues with the president, but they're saying it on national television in front of a camera and on the record. we've heard mumblings of this in the past when there were certain negotiations they didn't like but this was all in closed door talks. now they're really coming out and saying it. and the concern is really in three different factions here. one being the announcement of that g-7 summit, international leaders coming down to trump's resort in doral. this is his golf resort. they say they're going to host it there in 2020. a lot of concern there, raising a lot of anten

. >> kristen holmes is at the white house. the president is pushing the message that he's being treated unfairly. is there any indication that's resonating? >> good morning, christi and martin. it depends who you ask. earlier this week i was in pittsburgh with some of his most ardent supporters and they agree with him, that he's being treated unfairly. they attacked democrats. if you look ahead to 2020, those moderates that are not necessarily part of the base, those on the fence, as you say, this ruling really undermines the idea that he's being treated unfairly and the process is a sham. but does that mean president trump will stop painting himself as a victim? likely not. he's been doing this since before august of 2015. that's something he does to connect himself with the base with people who feel less behind. he says he's part of this system that's being attacked. in fact, yesterday he was at an event touting his criminal justice reform and he seemingly linked himself and impeachment to the justice system. take a listen.

. >>> i want to bring in cnn correspondent kristen holmes as well. we are expecting to hear from the president around 9:00 a.m. this morning. any indication of what he is going to say about this? >> reporter: well, look. white house officials are being cagey about that and this is not really a surprise. with an announcement of this size and magnitude they wants the words to come from president trump, from the commander in chief. we have likely learn whether he signed off on this military raid and when he learned about it and was he watching it unfold last night? those are big questions here. last night, president trump tweet youing out a cryptic message saying something very big has just happened leaving a lot of people speculating what it could be. i want to make one thing very clear here. if this is confirmed, this will be a big win for president trump. this is coming at a time in which his foreign policy has been called into question, not just by democrats but by members of his own party, particularly about withdrawing u.s. troops from syria, troo

kristen holmes is with us from washington. good to see you. what are we hearing from the white house regarding the subpoe subpoenas? >> good morning, christi and boris. there's so much news coming out of the white house. all we've seen is a statement from the press secretary saying the subpoenas have changed nothing and, of course, attacking democrats. it should be noted even before these formal subpoenas were issued, the white house was contemplating sending a letter to speaker pelosi essentially saying they didn't have to turn over any documents to this investigation because it wasn't a formal investigation, citing the fact there hadn't been a formal house vote. so right now, big question as to whether or not they'll comply. but what the subpoena shows is that this investigation is really ramping up here. it came after those three committees that are doing this impeachment investigation sending a letter to vice president pence essentially asking him for more documents. this is all around that trip to poland last month when vice president pen

. >> kristen holmes is at the white house. republicans want the president to follow the format of former president bill clinton when he was being impeached but no signs he will be taking that advice. what is the plan moving forward? >> reporter: no signs at all particularly if you look at his twitter feed last night celebrating jared and ivanka's ten-year anniversary. he tweeted all night long ranting how the impeachment probe was a scam and then up doing it again today. i'll read the tweets here. it says the ukraine investigation is just as corrupt and fake as all of the other garbage that went on before it even shifty schiff got caught cheating when he made up what i said on the call. this is a pattern for president trump. when he feels attacked he plays the victim that everyone is there out to get him. in fact, just yesterday, he seemed to liken the probe here to the injustices that african-americans have faced in the criminal justice system. take a listen. >> we'll never let up on our efforts to ensure that our justice sys

. >> cnn's kristen holmes is at the white house. republicans want the president to have a team, something similar to the format of former president bill clinton when he was being impeached. the president saying no. is he going to maintain that position? >> reporter: well, we're going to have to wait and see, fred, but here's where we stand right now. we know bill clinton had what was called a war room, a team of people not involved with the white house, they were separate just to deal with the impeachment probe. president trump for the reason that he himself just said in that clip doesn't want a war room because he believes he is his own messenger. look at those words saying i am the team, and his twitter feed would certainly show that that is how he feels. he's been ranting on twitter last night as well as today. i'm just going to read you one of the tweets just so you get a gist of what he's saying. the ukraine investigation is just as corrupt and fake as all of the other garbage that went on before it, even shifty schiff got caug

kristen holmes is with us from baltimore now. a somber day, for sure, with a lot of big names who will be there remembering and honoring him. >> reporter: good morning, poppy and jim. well, that's absolutely right. we have a lot of big names, use you said. the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, is also going to talk. we have former secretary of state hillary clinton but what's perhaps more remarkable is the mens of the public who lined up since 4:00 a.m. to pay their respects. about an hour ago, the church came out and said they were at capacity. this is a church that holds more than 4,000 people, and there were still hundreds of people here in line. i spoke to one woman who said that she was a principal at a school where cummings was on the board, and she was so grateful for all that he had done for their school that she would have crawled here if she had to today just to pay her respects. and this really goes to show you the kind of politician that cummings was. he was a son of a share cropper, someone who never forgot his roo

i want to go to kristen holmes who's joining us from washington. how is the white house responding to the s&ps? >> good morning, christi and boris. so far the seasons change nothing and they blame democrats saying they're not doing anything, but this really shows this investigation is ramping up on capitol hill. these subpoenas come after a letter came from three committees conducting the investigation sent to vice president pence, requesting more documents from him, saying they have interest in any role he might have had in any communications or messages to ukraine. i do want to know one thing here. before they even issued the subpoena, the white house was considering sending out a note -- sending a note to speaker pelosi that said that they didn't have to comply with this investigation because it wasn't a real impeachment investigation, citing the fact there hadn't been a house vote yet. they'll keep their eyes out for that. they say it could come as early as monday. as you said, president trump is doubling down. he's calling the investigation a

when it comes to the president's twitter tirade, we want to go to kristen holmes in washington.'m wondering if there is any expectation that the president will address what senator collins said? >> reporter: good morning. we don't know right now because, of course, he is unpredictable. what we saw yesterday was president trump's one-man war room. he is clearly upset about this investigation going over anyone attacking anyone who stands up against him. i want to start with that second whistleblower and no surprise he is attacking him trying to discredit him even though the second whistleblower has not come forward but he spent the last two weeks doing the same to the first whistleblower. lets pull up that tweet first. it says the following. a lot to impact here. shifty there means adam schiff. but it's very interesting. he is essentially daring this whistleblower to come forward and also already discrediting this person he knows nothing about. to note here, we have learned that the second whistleblower, if they should choose to come forward has more firsthand information. of cour

. >> kristen holmes, thank you very much, i appreciate it. >>> i want to bring in ellie hone ig and theouse politics report for axios. we appreciate you being here. i want to start with you because as kristen was saying, the president thinks this is a scam. the federal judge just seemed to legitimize the process. help us understand this ruling and will it really result in congress overseeing this material? >> this was an important ruling, but we need to understand this is step one in a multi step process. the main takeaway from the judge's ruling yesterday is one, congress has very broad authority, not unlimited authority, but very broad authority to get information needs from the executive branch. that would be relevant to the ongoing ukraine investigation. two, this will be very important to the ukraine impeachment process because the judge can confirm, no, the white house does not need to take a separate, full vote to have a separate inquiry. and now this is the federal district court, first of three levels, it will almost certainly go up to the court of appeals and potentially up to

. >> all right, kristen holmes, thank you so much. we'll check back with you. >>> meantime, we're taking a closer look at damning text messages given to congress by the former special envoy to ukraine, kurt volker. the messages between u.s. diplomats and a senior ukrainian aide bring up the explosive issue of a potential quid pro quo between the white house and ukraine. cnn's shimon prokupecz joining me right now. shimon, walk us through these text messages and how on one end it may spell out what the interpretation is and on the response end, it is a bit of a deflection or here's some clarity to what you think you might be understanding. >> that's right, it is. but the one thing that's important to point out in all of this is that some of the people who are communicating on this text message are concerned that this is a quid pro quo, are concerned that the president withholding aid to the ukraine is doing it for political reasons, to help his political campaign. and when you see these text messages and the concerns that are then rais

i want to go to cnn's kristen holmes at the white house today. speaking about ukraine, pompeo said today the state department was very focused, quote, at the direction of the president. does anybody know what that means yet? >> reporter: okay, so i'm going to break this down because there was a lot going on in that pompeo press conference. now, that line in particular, he was talking about the president's direction for a good relationship with ukraine, specifically talking about ambassador volker and how hard volker was working to make sure there was a solid relationship between ukraine and the united states. he went on to defend the fact that there was this investigation into the 2016 election. remember that line from the call with ukrainian president where he talks about that. we know this is a theory that president trump has pushed over and over again that some of this came out of ukraine, some of that interference came out of ukraine. but what pompeo didn't talk about was what is at the crux of this impeachment inquiry, which was the conversa

christian holmes is at the white house for us. kristen, what more do we know about this camp david meeting and that the president of the united states will not be at this meeting, right? >> reporter: well, no, he won't. we know that right now it's just the acting chief of staff. we have reached out for an official rundown of what this meeting is, but we can point out what we think will be talked about a lot and that is that stunning admission by the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney, who got out there in front of cameras and essentially contradicted everything the president has been saying for weeks. we know that this angered the president. sources close to him saying that he wasn't happy with this news coverage. i want you guys to take a listen to exactly how he said it. >> did he also mention to me in the past the corruption related to the dnc server? absolutely, no question about that. that's it, that's why we held up the money. >> to be clear, what you just described is a quid pro quo. funding will not flow unless an investigation

. >> kristen holmes, thank you very much. >>> let's get back now to the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani. cnn says it appears he's even more involved in trying to dig up dirt than previously thought. >> he was asked to intervene after an official was denied a visa. here's cnn's manu raju for us. >> he used his influence to try to get dirt on joe biden and then tried to reverse a decision it had made. according to testimony that george kent, a career diplomat, gave to congressional investigators earlier in the week, we're told from four sources familiar with that, they had objected to giuliani's effort to get a visa for viktor shokin, who's a former ukrainian prosecutor who tried to get him the post. giuliani went around the state department and urged the white house to grant him the visa. now, the visa was never granted. then giuliani carried out some secret interviews with shokin via skype, and those interviews form the basis of a number of records that had dirt on not just the bidens but also marie yovanovitch, the former u.n. ambassador to ukraine. a lot of these unsubstantia

cnn kristen holmes is following the latest for us.hat are you learning about why the president made this choice, if anything? >> reporter: this is a very rare move for president trump. he is somebody who prides himself he didn't bow to criticism or pressure. when the acting chief of chief announced this formal summit was going to be held at doral that the president expected backlash but was going to forge ahead. here is a list of the tweets from the president. so there is a lot to unpack here. i want to start with the fact we know it was not just the media and democrats who had called on him not to do this. so many republicans said on camera on the record that this was bad optics. take a listen to senator murkowski from alaska. >> why? just why bring on the controversy over it? it -- just avoid the perception of any impropriety. just don't do it. there are lots of hotels in florida. i would like to think that the president didn't have a thing to do with the decision as to whether -- where they are going to have -- you know? have the c

cnn's kristen holmes is live in baltimore with more. tell us the scene. >> good morning.ht. we're also going to hear from the former secretary of state hillary clinton as well as speaker nancy pelosi. but what's perhaps more remarkable than those big names is this long line of people that's just started moving behind me. people, members of the public, who came just to pay their respects to the late congressman. people who got here as early as 4:00 in the morning just to line up. they wanted to make sure that they were able to see him during this public viewing that started at 8:00 a.m. and this really goes to show you the kind of politician that cummings was. he was the son of a share cropper. someone who never forgot his roots. not only a staunch defender of baltimore but a champion of the people. somebody who people believed went to capitol hill to fight for the people and did so with class and grace. we heard from democrats and republicans who said that cummings never conflated politics and personal. something we know from his unique friendship with republican mark mea

let's go to kristen holmes at the white house. good morning to you. what are you hearing?> reporter: let's keep in mind president trump thinks he is his own best messenger and when he hears news about him he doesn't like he calls it fake news and takes to twitter and sets his own narrative. we saw eight hours of attacking tweets yesterday. start with the potential second whistleblower. no surprise he took this on. he has been trying to discredit the first whistleblower the last two weeks. in a tweet yesterday he said the following. of course shifty there is refer to adam schiff. this sets a completely different narrative. first of all, we know that first whistleblower does line up with that conversation that we have seen that the white house, itself, released. as you said, boris, this potential second-hand whistleblower we have already heard has firsthand information. tht anoth this is another example of the president setting it up to discredit him before he comes forward. not july the whistleblower but senators from his own party, mitt romney. i want to state again this i

. >> kristen holmes at the white house. thank you very much. let's bring in our national political correspondent for "time" and cnn presidential historian jeffrey engle. you said republicans should be careful what they wish for when it comes to bipartisanship in this impeachment probe. what do you mean by that? >> yeah, you know, the watergate hearings really give us a great example of how bipartisanship and partisanship played to both sides. for the democrats, who of course were in the majority, they really tried and stressed bipartisanship, which is to say whenever they had a question, whenever the republicans asked for a witness or for more time or more hearings, the answer was always yes from the chair of the committee because they wanted to essentially give a national sense of bipartisanship for the entire procedure. however, one of the key pieces of evidence that came out from those hearings actually came out in private from one of the republican lawyers, which is to say the first time they received confirmation, this is a watergate inqui