this is beyond repugnant." >> cecilia vega live at the white house tonight, and cecilia, several deving headlines. "the newop york times" telonigh now reporting about a new phone call between president trump and another foreign lead, as you know. according to "the times" tonight, the president recently asked the prime minister of australia to help attorney general bill barr investigate oethnsgiri that story is developing, and you know, the question emerging, was the access to the transcript of that call restricted, as well? and in the meantime, you've also learned the attorney general, william barr, is just ? what was he doing there? >> reporter: yeah, david. busy evening here. a source is telling our team that bill barr went to italy last week to meet with senior intelligence officials there as part of the justice department investigion into the origins of the russia probe. election, this is somethingis th president trump is still fixated on, but david, democrats are likely to be enraged by this. they will see this as an example of president trump using his office to advance his person

david, now those democrats want to know if he also thought there was a quid pro quo. >> cecilia vega starting another week at the white house. thank you, cecilia. >>> and president trump tonight on syria, and now, it seems, the u.s. will keep some u.s. troops in syria, but he stressed today -- this was entirely different. and it comes amid those new images showing u.s. allies, the kurds, with signs for president trump, throwing potatoes at the convoy of u.s. troops as they left. 11,000 kurds lost their lives in the fight against isis, and tonight, the president saying we are not there to protect the kurds. abc's james longman reporting from the region again tonight. >> reporter: u.s. troops leaving northern syria, their path blocked by desperate kurds holding signs. one reading, "thanks for u.s. people, but trump betrayed us." there was a time when kurds would celebrate american soldiers as heroes. not now. this departing convoy pelted with potatoes and screams, calling americans liars. the president unmoved. >> we never agreed to, you know, protect the kurds. we support with them for

here's abc's cecilia vega now. >> reporter: facing allegations from a second whistle-blower, today, a defiant president trump blasted democrats and their impeachment inquiry. >> the impeachment inquiry is a scam. >> reporter: abc news has learned the attorney who represents the original whistle-blower is now representing a second person, a member of the intelligence community who claims to have first-hand information about the president's efforts to push ukraine to investigate his political rival, joe biden. the white house has released a summary of the president's phone call with the president of ukraine. president trump saying, "i would like you to do us a favor." later asking for an investigation into biden. >> almost everybody who read it said it was perfect or really very good. but it was a very normal, nice conversation. >> reporter: today, ohio senator rob portman became the latest republic to publicly criticize the president. portman saying, "the president should not have raised the biden issue of that call, period. it's not appropriate for a president to engage a foreign gove

and tonight, a leading republican saying the he oenwhisr tlwhe-itowe hobluser correspondent cecilia vega now. >> reporter: president trump today said not only is he entitled to know the whistle-blower's identity, he now also wants to interview the person. the president tweeting, "why aren't we entitled to interview and learn everything about the whistle-blower and also the person who gave all the false information to him." the president has been steadily turning up the heat. mr. president, do you now know who the whistle-blower is, sir? >> well, we're trying to find out about a whistle-blower, when you have a whistle-blower that reports things that were incorrect. >> reporter: but today, a public defended the whistle-blower, saying, "this person appears to have followed the whistle-blower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected. uninformed speculation is counterproductive and doesn't serve the country." the president and his allies have attacked the whistle-blower's credibility, claiming the person relied on second-hand information. >> the entire whistle-blower complaint

abc's cecilia vega was in the cabinet room when the president delivered that message today. >> reporter: with impeachment pressure mounting, today president trump lashed out at fellow republicans, saying they need to do more to defend him. >> the republicans have to get tougher and fight. we have some that are great fighters, but we have to get tougher and fight. >> reporter: the president taking aim at utah senator mitt romney, who's been stepping up his criticism. >> we certainly can't have presidents asking foreign countries to provide something of political value. that is, after all, against the law. >> reporter: and now one of the president's closest allies says he's leaving the door open to impeachment. >> are you open-minded if more comes out that you could support impeachment? >> sure, i mean -- i mean -- show me something that is a crime. if you could show me that trump actually was engaging in a quid pro quo outside the phone call that would be very disturbing. >> reporter: but the president told me he's not worried his party will turn on him. what about republican support? >>

cecilia vega, abc news, the white house. >> cecilia vega, thank you. >> in addition to attorney generaltrip to italy, we know that barr has been in contact with australian officials. >> the justice department confirmed that president trump contacted a number of foreign countries to ask them to introduce the attorney general to appropriate officials and they say it was done at barr's request as part of his review into the origins of the russia investigation. >>> conservative congressman chris collins of new york is resigning ahead of a guilty plea in an insider trading case. collins was one of president trump's earliest supporters in congress. he won re-election last year, even after he was accused of sharing inside information from a bio-tech company. collins served on the company's board of directors. he and his son dumped their stocks before they tanked, avoiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. >>> four inmates who escaped from an ohio county jail are back in custody this morning. three were captured in north carolina. the fourth escapee was caught in durham. they escaped

cecilia vega tracking all the latest. good morning, cecilia. >> reporter: george, good morning to you. house democrats and the secretary of state are both accusing each other of intimidation, but it seems for now anyway at least some of the people that mike pompeo does not want to pose on capitol hill are defying him. this morning, a showdown on capitol hill. house democrats demanding to depose five current and former state department officials who are witnesses in their investigation, but the secretary of state, mike pompeo, rebuffed the request at least for now, calling the demand, quote, an attempt to intimidate, bully and treat improperly the distinguished professionals of the department of state. democrats livid. >> secretary pompeo is just stonewalling and delaying and we aren't going to put up with those tactics. >> reporter: and overnight, the democratic chairs of the house foreign affairs, oversight and intelligence committees sending a scathing response accusing pompeo of a blatant cover-up and a clear abuse of p

our senior white house correspondent cecilia vega starts us off.nother escalation, house democrats now set to subpoena the white house. >> reporter: exactly, george. good morning to you. democrats say they're going to do what it takes to move this impeachment inquiry forward and as you said, vice president mike pence is now being pulled into this growing controversy. this morning, "the washington post" reporting president trump repeatedly enlisted vice president mike pence to join in his pressure campaign on ukraine. the president reportedly instructing pence to skip the inauguration of ukraine's new leader, volodymyr zelensky, the paper also says president trump used pence to inform zelensky that u.s. military aid was being withheld. >> i think you should ask for vp pence's conversation because he had a couple of conversations. >> reporter: but according to "the post," officials close to pence say he was unaware the president had also pressured zelensky for damaging information on political rival joe biden, even though the paper says one of his to

ambassador jeffrey did not make that claim, and cecilia vega, our senior white house correspondent, herehe hill. he said, it will hurt the fight against isis and not be successful. it was said there were war crimes there, george. there's irony, and this is the president taking credit and praising this cease-fire for a cease-fire that was needed to fight -- to end fighting that most, even his allies on capitol hill say began because he withdrew these troops there. what i think they're doing in this white house, if i were to play a little bit of a guessing game, this is the president attempting to take credit for promises kept on the campaign trail. he has been saying he wants to bring these troops home. we know some of them will be staying behind he said there today in these oil fields in that area. the president a few days ago said he didn't think that would be necessary, be the headline is the pushback, and blowback he has faced over this from his own allies on capitol hill. mcconnell said this was a strategic nightmare for our country, and near unanimous resolution passed in the house

our senior white house correspondent cecilia vega has all the latest. good morning to you. >> reporter: the white house is in serious damage control. on the g7, i can't remember the last time we saw a backtrack from president trump like we've seen on this one. this was his idea from the start and now he is backing down in the face of bipartisan backlash. overnight, president trump fuming about the fallout over his plan to hold the g7 summit at his florida resort. the president saying on twitter he was forced to rescind the idea because of do nothing democrat/fake news anger. an almost unheard of reversal, the president blaming it on, quote, irrational hostility. leaders from around the world, their staff and security, thousands of guests paying to stay at the trump family's 800-acre property which has struggled financially. it sparked immediate backlash. not just from ethics watchdogs and democrats who signaled they would investigate but even the white house counsel's office privately expressed reservations as did some republicans. >> it shouldn't have

. >>> let's bring in our seen your white house correspondent cecelia vega and our military analyst steve ganyard. ceciliaegin with you. we just saw the president say his decision is now firm. but these last 36 hours have been such a scramble inside the white house. >> reporter: exactly, george. aides here have really struggled to interpret the president's decision but perhaps more importantly than even inside the white house, outside the white house this is causing mass confusion. military leaders were forced toish sue that statement, trying to clean up the president's move. even evangelicals are frustrated with the move. of course, those top republican scathing really a rare statement from mitch mcconnell saying that american leadership. the president said he consul tated with everyone, that doesn't seem to be the case at all, george. critics are calling this another impulsive foreign policy decision from this president. this one with life or death consequences. >> let me bring in steve ganyard. i worked in the white house. you served in the state and defense department. nothing about the way this has u