george kent in this email calls that idea, quote, complete poppycock.it seems like george kent was one of those inside the state department, again, a veteran career official who was not going along with what they were trying to do with ukraine. stay with us. ♪ all around the b stay with us ♪ we would only hold on to let go ♪ ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we need someone to lean on ♪ blow a kiss into the sun ♪ we needed somebody to lean on ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ all we need is someone to lean on ♪ billions of problems. dry mouth? parched mouth? cotton mouth? there's a therabreath for you. therabreath oral rinse and lozenges. help relieve dry mouth using natural enzymes to soothe and moisturize. so you can... breathe easy, there's therabreath at walmart. steven could only imaginem 24hr to trenjoying a spicy taco.burn, now, his world explodes with flavor. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day all-night protection. can you imagine 24-hours without heartburn? my grandparents that i never knew.ch about i'm a lawyer now, but i had no idea that my grandfather was

you have george kent, sondland later this week. you've got four big witnesses, flurry of witnesses and subpoena deadlines. how much could change by the end of the week in this inquiry? >> we could be in a whole different place. >> it's only tuesday. >> you never know. each day brings more and more revelations about what's going on. one thing that we're not getting are the documents. so, that's -- the witnesses are coming in, but they're not bringing their documents which have been subpoenaed which is why i think mike pence won't be turning over documents. i don't think rudy giuliani will turn over documents. people are not complying with those parts of subpoenas. there's no basis not to comply but they're not. that's one area that seems like the administration stone walling is working and that's a problem. we need those documents. >> remember the private emails, private device. >> we'll see. thank you, as always. >>> this morning joe biden's son hunter is pushing back on unfounded allegations of corruption. >> he tells abc's "good

george kent met with investigators despite being directed by the state department not to do that. according to officials familiar with the investigation, the state department directed george kent not to appear and sought to limit his testimony. the house intelligence committee issued a last-minute subpoena organized him to appear, and he complied with that subpoena. george kent is the second current top state department official to defy a request not to comply with the house's impeachment inquiry, a request given to him by his employers is he state department. the first was marie yovanovitch, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine who president trump ordered to be removed from her post. she is still state department employee, but she did testify. the "new york times" reports george kent raised concerns to colleagues early this year about the pressure being directed at ukraine by mr. trump and his private lawyer, rudy giuliani, to pursue investigations into mr. trump's political rivals according to people familiar with mr. kent's warnings. as far back as march, they said, mr. kent point

geoff, i know had you a chance to try to ask questions of george kent. when we say jam-packed week, we are not kidding with that? >> reporter: you are right about that, hallie. you're right, george kent the state department official responsible for ukraine just showed up here 20 minutes ago for the closed-door testimony. i asked him a handful of questions, he chose not to answer. the reason why kent is connected to this, you raised this, he is the one that raised red flags about the smear campaign that rudy giuliani launched that was targeted against marie yovanovitch. she's the ambassador who raised concerns about the influence campaign that rudy giuliani was trying to run as he tried to manufacture damaging information about the bidens. so there's that happening today. today is also deadline day. subpoena deadlines for the service of the vice president to turn over documents, for the defense second office to turn over documents, for the white house budget chief. and let me run through the rest of the week, hallie, because things have changed dramatical

. >>> meanwhile state department expert george kent is testifying in the impeachment inquiry. let's go straight to capitol hill and our congressional correspondent sunlen serfaty is live with us. the president's lawyer is refusing to comply with that congressional subpoena. >> reporter: that is right, wolf. rudy giuliani, who, of course, has emerged as a central fig in the impeachment inquiry he now is officially in defiance of that congressional subpoena. house democrats had wanted documents and information related to rudy giuliani's role in the role that he played in president's own efforts to pressure the ukrainian government to investigate joe biden and his son. but giuliani today announcing he's not going to comply, tweeting, quote, calling it an illegitimate unconstitutional and baseless impeachment inquiry and his lawyer in -- and his lawyer's last acts before parting ways with giuliani, announci announcing he will not comply with demands. this is as house democrats on the investigation committees are pushing ahead and keeping pressure up bringing in under subpoena toda

george kent in there now.top of all this you have t"te wall street journal" reporting that rudy giuliani is under criminal investigation over his business dealings in ukrainian. and it's been -- and "the wall street journal" is reporting this investigation has been going on since august. what does this mean for him? >> i think clearly the way southern district press conference went down with jeffrey berman standing up there saying and drilling down on the fact this is an ongoing investigation, wink, wink, it seems the southern district didn't want to make this public. >> some of the reporting was one way tickets. >> yeah. the hand was forced. they had one way tickets, they were at dull lass international airport exiting the country. they had no choice but to arrest them on american soil. now the cover is blown a little bit. now they're getting back reporting saying they've been looking into giuliani since august. to be clear as a criminal defense attorney, he enjoys the presumption of innocence and he's denied

, the deputy assistant secretary of state for european and uroasian affairs. >> and george kent is still testifying and as manu reporting, rudy giuliani does not plan to show up and he's had other headlines coming out. today. he has parted ways with his attorney who brought on to make the decision about whether or not to show up in front of the impeachment committees and said via twitter he doesn't need a lawyer any more but, wolf, as you know two associates have been indicted and charge with campaign finance crimes and giuliani's own activity are under scrutiny so we'll see how long he lasts on his own. >> we shall indeed. sarah m sara murray reporting. and let's go to kaitlan collins. there is growing frustration in the white house surrounding this impeachment inquiry. >> reporter: wolf, today you saw the president in the rose garden dismissing this saying he's not worried about impeachment. but we're being told by sources that behind the scenes there is this growing frustration inside of the white house over this parade of administration officials making their way to capitol

there is also this email in which george kent aid.re is also this email that yavonovitch had given prosecutors a do not prosecute list. he calls that idea complete, quote, poppycock. it seems lik he was one of those inside the state department barring anybody from ukraine. if he shows up, he will be offering testimony that is expected to be deeply unhelpful to the president and to, increasing increasingly, members of his cabinet as this unfolds. stay with us. net as this unfold. stay with us as a doctor, i agree with cdc guidance. i recommend topical pain relievers first... like salonpas patch large. it's powerful, fda-approved to relieve moderate pain, yet non-addictive and gentle on the body. salonpas. it's good medicine. hisamitsu. walkabout wednesdays are back! get a sirloin or chicken on the barbie, fries, and a draft beer or coca-cola - all for just $10.99. hurry in! wednesdays are for outback. outback steakhouse. aussie rules. hour 36 in the stakeout. for outback. as soon as the homeowners arrive, we'll inform them that liberty

well, today deputy secretary of state george kent reportedly told house impeachment investigators he tried to warn colleagues about the smear cam page wage bide giuliani. and after raising the alarm kent was told by a supervisor to lay low according to congressman jerry conally. and "the washington post" is reporting tonight that kent told investigators today that acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney organized a meeting this past spring in which officials decided to take ukraine policy out of the traditional channels. joining me now by phone is paul kaine, one of the reporters who wrote that "the washington post" story. what does it mean to take u.s. policy out of ukraine official channels. >> george kent roughly responsible for six countries one of which is ukraine. and at this meeting, at this white house meeting that mulvaney convened according to jerry conally who was in the testimony today, at this meeting they basically told him to lay low and that his views on foreign policy as it relates ukraine were no longer wanted. he was essentially told to go deal with the othe

george kent, the former second ranking diplomat in ukraine is

his name is george kent. he's the deputy assistant secretary of state and a key witness to trump's firing of the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. now he's testifying under subpoena. let's start with the latest on capitol hill with geoff bennett. from the white house, hans nicho nichols. jeff, i think one of the most stunning things we learned in the last 24 hours came from fiona hill's testimony, that john bolton was so worried about a rogue effort being run by rudy giuliani and others that he told hill to notify the chief lawyer for the nsc. as nbc has reported this was seen as a clear counterintelligence risk. how does kent's testimony right now play into that bigger picture? >> reporter: i'll explain it this way, chris. fiona hill offered house investigators an inside view as to what was happening in the white house as rudy giuliani set about his rogue operation as it's described, his influence campaign to do president trump's bidding. george kent offers the same house investigators an

biden's work in ukraine could prove to be problematic and at least an appearance of impropriety from george kent testifying this week, kent raised the issue with biden's office and told the vice president didn't have the bandwidth to deal with his son hunter as beau was battling cancer. so we should point other stuff as coming out in this testimony as well. not just damaging to the trump white house. >> and it is interesting how they said essentially that this person who testified yesterday went to a top-ranking official with this concern about the appearance of a conflict and it doesn't confirm what the president has been pushing, that the elder biden acted inappropriate live and used his office inappropriately but it points to something else interesting, another thing you saw from mulvaney yesterday was distancing himself from the people who have been testifying on the hill, even though one was a senior adviser to the secretary of state and one a trump appointee, ambassador sondland and he was essentially acting like he couldn't remember their names or what they were saying but george kent is

this is cnn, your colleague i should say jerry conally has just told cnn this, that george kent testifying before this committee today told lawmakers that he was told by his supervisor to lay low after he raised complaints about rudy giuliani's efforts in ukraine undermining u.s. foreign policy. is that what you heard? >> i'm not going to characterize testimony until we are done. but what i will say is nothing has contradicted what the underlying act is, what the president has confessed to and the fact there is an active cover-up right now as we speak by the administration to prevent us from understanding what the shakedown scheme exactly is. >> elise, the fact of george kent's testimony today, told pie the state department don't show up, he showed up. sondland last week was saying he wasn't going to cooperate. now he says he is. we see you von vch. >> i want point out we have yet another person coming tomorrow i'm identity interested to hear what he has to say, the former ambassador to brazil and a senior foreign service officer and counselor to mike pompeo who recently resigned. so every

george kent overseeing u.s.europe including ukraine is testifying right now despite a direct attempt by the white house to block his appearance. moments ago we got a couple of details what he has said so far. democrats are telling our own correspondent there manu raju kent is backing up what monday's witness fiona hill disclosed. speaking of fiona hill, she sat and testified ten hours before the three house committees and her details about her time as trump's top adviser on russia were pretty explosive. she told lawmakers a shadow ren

>> it was george kent. >> i'm sorry. i don't know who that is, is that somebody who testified this week. >> i don't believe i've ever talked to anybody named george kent in my life more asked anybody to resign tier position over this. >> also another thing is there have been reports that you had been conducting a review of the phone call with -- with vladimir zelensky, the ukrainian president, and the question is what are you -- what are you -- is that true? do you ac nom that you've been conducting that review. >> we're zbleernl was the call just perfect as the president said? >> again, no one here had any difficulty with the call. we think the call is perfect. we don't think interests difficulty with the call at all. i read it several times. by the way, i was not on the call. i someone in my office was ob on the call no one raised difficulty with me on the call. no one on the call in here thought there was difficulty with it. to the point about what we're doing inside. >> was in an attempt to uncover the whistle-blower

that's according to diplomate george kent's testimony to congress this week. kent said when that didn't work, giuliani then tried to get the white house to have the decision reverse dollars. the state department apparently stood by its guns. the visa was not granted. but the system does reveal just how far rudy giuliani tried to go to get damaging data on the president's political opponents. now, admissions like george kent's have put the white house on the defensive. jessica snyder explains what's been going on and what it all means. >> a cascade of current and former administration officials called to capitol hill in the last week, painting a damning picture of a rogue foreign policy run by president trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani where select officials say they were pressed by the president and others to pressure ukraine to investigate corruption which democrats argue was purely intended for trump's political gain. thursday, trump's acting chief of staff mick mulvaney further fueling democrats' claims of wrongdoing, admitting in a fiery press conf

what more do we know about what george kent said and how is joe biden responding. >> reporter: joe kentr state department official as part of his deposition he talked about back in 2013 going to vice president biden's office and telling a staffer not identified in this report that he had some concerns about what this looked like, about the optics of all of this. kent said he believed that it would make it more difficult as you said for the u.s. to say to the ukrainians this appearance of a conflict of interest was something that they should avoid and also worried that ukrainian officials would view hunter biden as a conduit to his father joe biden. these concerns don't say that kent believed that there was, in fact, a conflict that hunter biden -- that hunter biden used his position to influence his father. but kent said that the biden official told him that joe biden was too preoccupied and and did have the bandwidth to deal with this because his other son beau biden was suffering from cancer and he later died in may of 2015, months after george kent raised these concerns. in response

>> george kent. >> i'm sorry. i don't know who that is. somebody that testified this week? i don't believe i've ever talked to anybody named george kent in my life. >> i mean, is he posturing? is this, playing a game? this is the acting white house chief of staff. how does he not know who these people are? >> okay. so listen -- certainly he should know who these people are. he probably does know who these people are. may i tell you what i thought when i heard that? this is so damn difficult to follow all of these players and all of these lawyers and brooke, can the people at home pay attention? i wonder. >> but -- this is the chief of staff at the white house. are you giving him a pass? >> not defending him. yeah. no. not defending it. obviously he needs to be dialed in, but i'm wondering how is this all playing outside of the acela corridor? are people interested in keeping up? i don't know the answer to that question. >> stay with me. i have more for you. fold in another part of the conversation. latest witness in the impeachment inquiry, gordon sondland the guy still tes

it was george kent's understanding that giuliani had called the white house and asked them to figure out why this visa wasn't coming through. now, it's important here that giuliani has told cnn previously that he wanted to talk to shokin because shokin had dirt for him on the democrats. so we know he wanted to interview him in person. clearly he was not able to do so because that visa was not provided to him. but this provides some more insight into how giuliani had his fingers all over this ukrainian policy and really was able to push forth on some of his efforts to try and get people to the united states to dig up more dirt on the democrats. >> so this is -- i mean this sounds nuts. so giuliani is trying to get this guy, this allegedly or believed to be corrupt former prosecutor, to come to the united states to deliver more dirt on the bidens or his conspiracy theories or whatever it may be. his visa is rejected by the state department, so he calls the white house. do we know -- i mean do we know if the president was involved in this whole thing, or was just a conversation between

well, next hour, george kent will be on capitol hill, a career diplomat. he oversees u.s. policy toward ukraine and other countries. he'll be testifying in this inquiry. >> days after the president baited hunter biden, where is hunter biden? he said his only mistake was putting himself in a situation that could be used to hurt his father. we begin with lauren fox. this is a big day of testimony. >> well, another big day of testimony up here on capitol hill, jim. i'll tell you, it's kicking off a busy week on the hill. members back today and in a few minutes, we expect that kent will arrive on capitol hill where he will give closed door testimony to members of those three committees. and he's not the only one expected this week. we had fiona hill yesterday. tomorrow, we expect michael mckinley. he's the former adviser to mike pompeo, the secretary of state. he resigned last week citing personal reasons. we also expect gordon sondland on thursday. highly anticipated deposition happening behind closed doors with those three committees. a very busy week on capitol hill and mem

this according to testimony under oath from career diplomat george kent. according to sources familiar with kent's testimony this week, the senior state department official told impeachment investigators that giuliani asked the state department and the white house to grant a visa to the former ukrainian official, the guy that joe biden pushed to have removed when biden was vice president. this comes as president trump is trying to sell an alternate reality as he goes to bat at least publicly for his embattled chief of staff mick mulvaney seeming to insist that mulvaney never up ended the request that the president withheld hundreds of millions in military aid in order to pressure ukraine to investigate his political opponents. just listen to the president. >> mr. president, do you want to clarify what mick mulvaney said yesterday? >> i think he clarified it. >> okay. trump's not alone in this world he is now creating. here are some of his staunchest supporters. today you'll hear an echo here. >> what do you think of the acting chief of staff. what he had t

tell me what you're hearing about what george kent is telling lawmakers right now. >> well the members themselves that we've encountered outside the hearing room and capitol happen tight lipped. kent is the state department official responsible for ukraine. the reason why he was even call nd the first place is because he is among those who raised red flags about the smear campaign that rudy giuliani and his associates aimed at folks like marie. she's connected to this because she herself raised red flags about the work giuliani was doing. she was trying to bring his influence campaign into proper state department channels. giuliani according to reported testimony, didn't like that too much and then he target ded her for her eventual, her eventual ouster. so george kent is one of three current and former state department officials who are set to appear here on the hill. tomorrow, these house investigators expect to hear from michael mckinley. once the top aide to mike pompeo, the real de facto chief of staff, he resigned amid plumeting moral at the state department. later in the week, s

this time it's deputy assistant secretary of state george kent.emanding transparency from democrats who are leading the probe. john roberts begins his day from the white house now on the north lawn there. john, good morning. >> good morning to you. this is exactly what the white house is complaining about with this impeachment process. the lack of due process which is why the white house has so far refused to cooperate with the investigation. in the letter that the white house counsel said to pelosi and schiff at all saying you have denied the president the right to cross-examine witnesses, to call witnesses, to receive transcripts of testimony, to have access to evidence, to have counsel presence and many other rights guaranteed to all americans. congressman jim jordan has the same complaint that it is going on behind closed doors and the information is being selectively leaked to damage the president citing leaks about the fiona hill interview yesterday. >> "the new york times" has a long piece today talking about things that took place in that

policy george kent.is this shedding on the potential inner workings with the situation with ukraine? >> well, the interesting thing here is george kent's testimony was consistent with a lot of the other hearings we've seen so far. the testimony that democratic lawmakers have talked about publicly. and that is that he, along with other career officials at the state department essentially felt sidelined by the president and by his close circle of advisers. so, he and others at the state department, were replaced by rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, out of the white house, by energy secretary rick perry. by others who really had no business conducting any type of foreign policy or diplomatic policy with ukraine, things that should have been left to state department officials like mr. kent, were instead taken over by giuliani and others. and the president allowed that. and oversaw it. and in some cases encouraged it. so, i do think this is really a key moment. the more that we hear from offic

starting with george kent who is a state department official. he was a deputy in the country for a time, and he is also an anticorruption expert. and form a former top aid to mike pompeo. and on thursday, this is probably the key piece of testimony that democrats are hoping to get this week, gordon sondland who is the connection point between the president, giuliani, official staff and the unofficial off the books effort and on frind we will hear from the first defense department official. someone who can lay out the chain here and talk about the military aid scheduled to come into ukraine that was held up by this white house and answering the question has to why that was. when we gather again at this time tomorrow, i hope to tell you more about thousand will progress beyond this week. democrats will meet to discuss the next steps in the impeachment inquiry. konks has been out and the first return is today. roberto, john bolton is someone you spoke to quite a bit in the past. how important is it for him to understand all of this and have you spo

hearing this from george kent, your next reporting, what is your next move? >> well, we will be hearing from a lot of other people involved in ukraine policy, but from the state department and hopefully former white house officials and we'll see where that goes. but everything we have been hearing in depositions has corroborated the evidence we have in front of us, that there was a concerted effort by this president and his white house to essentially extort the new president of the yukraine to ge political dirt on a perspective political opponent and they were willing to hold up a promised meeting with trump here in washington with the new president zelensky and 4 million of badly needed aid so the ukrainians can defend themselves from the russians. >> to your point here, house intelligent adam schiff said late yesterday democrats have made and i quote dramatic progress in answering some of the questions about the call with zelensky, about the holes, you were trying to fill. he calls it dramatic progress. but with all of this happening, pretty much all of it

larsen, good to have you. >> thank you. >>> the "washington post" is reporting that career diplomat george kent raised concerns about joe biden's son back in early 2015. the "post" says kent told congressional investigators that he was concerned about hunt eer biden's work with a ukrainian energy company, that it could complicate things. the report shows they responded to his concerns and said biden didn't have the bandwidth to battle it while his other son was battling brain cancer. >>> congresswoman tulsi gabbard, we'll tell you how she's responding to those allegations. >>> plus, tropical storm nestor is hitting florida's gulf coast this morning with heavy rain and wind. we will take you there live. >>> and a blistering op-ed from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell on why he thinks it's a grave mistake for the u.s. to pull out of northern syria, plus a live update from the turkey syria border next. gh to quit smd turkey. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting. chan

george kent said in january 2016, giuliani requested a visa from the state department. he was turned down. he went around the state department and appealed this request at the white house. they were hoping that the white house would overturn the state department decision. in the end his visa was never granted. we know they did connect over skype. >> wow. the plot thickens. thank you. >>> now to the very busy week in the expanding impeachment inquiry. congress hears more and more testimony and mick mulvaney admits there was a quid pro quo. with ukraine. here's cnn jessica snyder. >> a cascade of current and former administration officials called to capitol hill in the last week. painting a damming picture of a rogue foreign policy run by president trump personal attorney, rudy giuliani. select officials say they were pressed by the president and others to pressure ukraine to investigate corruption which democrats argue was purely intended for political gain. thursday, acting chief of staff mick mulvaney further fuelling democrats claims of wrong doing. admitting in a fie

>> the deputy -- former deputy secretary of state george kent made this alarm to thee vice president'sffice, we are now hearing he has testified and the vice president's office responded, joe biden said -- we are too busy to deal with this.c this is not a priority that his son is selling influence to the biden obama administration. that is what this is about. when it's the democrats doing this they turn a blind eye to it. this is the first we are hearing about this, but we haven't seen any of the mainstream media covering this because this is an attack on joe biden.ve the liberal left is rallying around joe biden and the truth is we know what hunter biden has said. if his father gets elected president, he won't join any foreign boards.. he won't try to influence his father. that is like me saying if i'm in the nba i will stop slam-dunking on people. it's like when to happen and we know that. these are false promises. >> laura: your response here. there was some coverage of this george kent testimony.ov cnn covered the fact that he claims that rudy giuliani was pushing for the prosecuto

there was some coverage of this george kent testimony.nn covered the fact that he claims that rudy giuliani was pushing for the prosecutor and his visa. he might have been involved with that. they pay to something they thought was going to be negative about the testimony this week, but this wasn't covered anywhere else. is it at all important to you? >> yeah, i think it's very important to me. i think he biden's mishandled this and i am for any direct member of a family of a president or vice president having no foreign entanglements whatsoever. i hope cory would join me right now to encourage congress to pass a law tomorrow i would ban presidents and their immediate families and vice presidents and their family from having any foreign investments overseas that are not managed by a blonde trust. we can all agree we should get away from this because even the appearance of a conflict is a bad thing when you are president or a vice president in this country. unfortunately the president right now has conflicts of interest all over the world i

it comes after george kent. nt told investigators that the acting chief of staff nick mulvaney put perry, sondland and former ambassador curt volker in charge of ukraine policy instead of state department officials. and it's that piece of it, msnbc's garrett haake who has been reporting on it, that piece of it has really seemed to upset people over on the hill that the white house has trying to in effect sidestep state. >> reporter: this is the picture that democrats have been painting out of the impeachment inquiry and most of these depositions behind closed doors. what has leaked out has been a steady stream of information that suggests that the white house and administration did everything they could to sid line the traditional foreign policy apparatus of the u.s. government, pushing aside an ambassador they didn't like, benching people at the state department who were saying inconvenient things in favor of in this case political appointees, but in favor of rudy giuliani and the work he was doing off the books

. >> and a new reporting last night, two sources tell nbc news that diplomat george kent told congress that jewell tried to secure a visa for an ousted ukraine prosecutor promising dirt on democrats. >> all right so clearly we have a lot to get to this hour with our team of reporters and loirts on the impeachment crisis and the latest in northern syria. this big headline you're seeing there from the "washington post," in admitting, then denying quid pro quo, mulvaney turns harsh impeachment spotlight on himself. let's get to kevin cirilli, chief washington correspondent for bloomberg news and francesca chambers. you were at the press conference, the briefing room. mulvaney acknowledged the president had saudi a quid pro quo for providing ukraine with american aid. what was the mootd like? >> he was given multiple opportunities to explain himself, but at no time in the room did he say there was no quid pro quo. which the president had said repeatedly. the white house line on this is actually been quite firm. so why mulvaney didn't say that in the room, is unclear. then he put out a stat

this week current and former trump officials gave depositions behind closed doors, fiona hill, george kent, mckinley, george sondland yesterday. given what you heard from them and adding in, i guess, this stunning admission from mick mulvaney, what's the next step for democrats? does it accelerate the process in any way? >> yeah, i was there for almost every minute of all four of those, as a matter of fact. and the metaphor that i like to offer is that it's as though we're using an old 35 millimeter camera and we're rotating the lens in order for the picture to come into clearer and clearer focus, higher resolution. we're already above basic cable focus on what went on, we're on our way to high definition. >> high definition, just so i understand the analogy, is high definition drafting articles of impeachment? >> i think there's some people that would be willing to do that, frankly, with basic cable resolution. >> are you one of them? are you at that point? >> i think the president has committed impeachable offenses, yes, chris, i do. >> and so it's time to move forward. if nancy pelosi c

he said, oh, by the way, what about the reporting that george kent testified that, you know, that he went to the obama administration in 2015, to say that he thought that it didn't look good that hunter biden was on this ukrainian board and m l mulvaney didn't know anything about it, hasn't read the reporting, et cetera. i wonder if that adds to the frustration? >> certainly, inside the white house, it did. i spoke with a couple of folks who said that they couldn't believe that mulvaney was not read in on that, which is something that could have been a pretty solid talking point for the white house to once again pivot this issue to the bidens, which is something the president has done so many times. as for the president, he'll be having this cabinet meeting later today. and we know that that is often a location where he likes to kind of pump up his own ego by going around the room and having these other cabinet officials sing his praises, especially important at a time where he's facing so much criticism, including from within the republican party on so many other fronts. poppy? >> a

george kent overseeing u.s. policy in eastern europe including ukraine is testifying right now despite a direct attempt by the white house to block his appearance. moments ago we got a couple of details what he has said so far. democrats are telling our own correspondent there manu raju kent is backing up what monday's witness fiona hill disclosed. speaking of fiona hill, she sat and testified ten hours before the three house committees and her details about her time as trump's top adviser on russia were pretty explosive. she told lawmakers a shadow foreign policy for ukraine basically run by rudy giuliani and others. according to a source. what's more here, a source says hill described how the president's then national security adviser john bolton was so alarmed what was happening he pushed for an attorney to get involved. cnn political correspondent sara murray is with me now and give me the full story what fiona hill told house lawmakers >> reporter: she really did, shed light there were concerns about variou

now, according to testimony of george kent, a career diplomat gave to congressional officials earlierthe week, we are told that kent had rejected giuliani's efforts to try to get a visa for victor shulkin. and giuliani wanted to get shulkin a visa. and they rejected that vereques and giuliani went around the date department to grant him a visa. now the visa was never granted and giuliani carried out secret interviews with skulkin vee virginia skype. and nonetheless, giuliani took those records to the state department. asked the state department to investigate. later those were turned over to the inspector general at the state department who turned it over to capitol hill to further investigate this matter. shulkin has accused marie yovanovitch and president trump removed her from that post as well after giuliani had targeted her and that caused much controversy in the previous vehicles and months in causing the resignation of one high-level adviser who was concerned that she was being unfairly targeted for political reasons. but all of this, giuliani's efforts form the basis of what t

>> i can't remember. >> they are reporting that george kent told people asking him questions, members of congress, that he had raised concerns about hunter biden's position on the board of burisma back in 2015 during the, balma administration. this is in "the washington post" story. can you confirm he testified to that? >> no, i can't confirm whether or not he testified to that. but i would like to point out that we've talked now to a number of foreign service professionals, career persons serving in our state department. 37 years. 34 years. 27 years. all of whom are really pained by the fact that it has been politicized that they've worked for republican and democratic presidents in their many long careers. and there's never been this kind of corrupt politicization of that particular department. >> what's the one fact you want to get confirmed or the one thing you want to hear more about as you talk to more witnesses? >> i think what's going to be important to us as we move forward is to drill down on many of these conversations that took place. we're hearing conflicting recall of wh

assessment. >> and david gergen, according to "the washington post," this information came from george kentstate department official who testified in front of congress last week. it's so interesting to me because for the last two years, trump supporters on television and elsewhere have been saying -- and the president himself has been saying, nobody has been tougher on russia than donald trump. and really the only kind of main thing they looked at is sanctions which were passed by congress, and they said, oh, his actions in syria. you know, he bombed an airfield and there was a fight between u.s. forces and russian-backed forces. the idea that anybody would say that this is not a gift to russia, what he has done in syria, there's no way around it. >> there is no way around it, anderson, and i pr'm afraid we won't understand what's happened here for years because some of these documents will be locked up and away from public view. i do want to go back to what jeffrey said about the consistent, complete picture is now emerging. i think there's something new about the picture we're now seeing.

according to nbc news george kent also said, quote, he was told to lay low by a superior when he raised concerns about giuliani. i'm joined now by democratic congresswoman jackie spear of california who serves on the house intelligence committee and robert costa, national political reporter for "the washington post." congresswoman, let me just start with you. we keep hearing in the reports that are emerging from these similar themes, similar story lines, the idea of career professionals, the idea of professionals inside the state department being side lined or pe being told to make way for rudy giuliani and his associates. is that the big picture emerging here? >> i would say the brain trust of the state department, those who have served for 34 years, 27 years have been discarded at a rate i find really alarming. and while i'm not going to share what we heard in the interviews right now, there will be transcripts in which the american people are going to have the opportunity to see how disturbing this activity is. >> those transcripts, do you know when those would be available? >> i don

. >> and the senior state department official in charge of ukraine policy, george kent, recalled thatinstructed to quote, lay low, after he raised concerns about giuliani, and new reporting from nbc overnight shows that he also testified, giuliani attempted to secure a visa from the state department for outed ukraine prosecutor viktor shoekin. and he basically testified three employees were replaced to do the president's bidding in ukraine. danny, what do you make of this? especially with the new reporting about the visa request? >> the biggest problem for rudy giuliani is the question, what the heck is rudy giuliani? is he a lawyer? is he a private agent? is he acting for the president or for the united states? but if he is, he certainly isn't a paid member of the u.s. government. or the executive branch. that is going to create a lot of problems for rudy giuliani. because it appears he's been wearing many different hats. and so asking for a visa for example couldn't possibly be providing legal services to the president, and no attorney-client privilege would attach, so the key is, a

you have the ambassador of ukraine, bill taylor, you have fiona hill, george kent, john bolton who has been quoted for his rhetoric and criticism and the people who have yet to seek mike pompeo and giuliani. when you look at all that together, how hard is it for the house to decide what to prioritize without, as mr. schiff says, a special counsel adjoining this, which is different from those other presidents? >> well, the central question of the entire inquiry here is, was the president abusing the office of the presidency when he made these inquiries to ukraine? was he trying to solicit help from a foreign country in our elections? we learned about all this from that whistleblower initially. every witness has just corroborated what that whistleblower has said. and these are not political people. these are career diplomats, public servants who don't come to this with any sort of political agenda, who have some voluntarily and testified and almost to a word added things to what that whistleblower said. these are exactly what whistleblowers want. >> so you don't think they need that much

chuck, george kent, the u.s.puty assistant secretary, also, that's october 15th, he is going to sit in front of lawmakers and have to answer questions. what might be the question you would ask george kent? >> well sure, i mean you want to ask all of these people what they saw, what they heard, and whether they had any direct contact, either with the president, or with people who had direct contact with the president. you know, we always like to have first-hand information. but we don't always get it as prosecutors. we always like to have documents. and emails and text messages. but we don't always get it as prosecutors. sometimes witnesses just fill in sort of the gaps or the atmospherics. it is hard to know exactly what mr. kent will provide. but any good investigators will talk to everybody, who is involved in a particular matter, because each person will have a different perspective, and now, what remains to be seen, richard, is whether or not the white house either orders him not to testify, or asserts execut

>> lauren, before you go, what about this testimony yesterday from george kent and talk of the three amigos. the takeaway? >> basically, george kent argued he expressed concern about rudy giuliani's foreign policy abroad, specifically that there were these three officials that had basically tasked themselves with being in charge of foreign policy in ukraine. he basically said they dubbed themselves the three amigos. that was very concerning. when he raised those concerns, he was told to lie low. poppy? >> lauren, thank you. we appreciate all that reporting. we'll see what today has to bring. cnn has also learned that a grand jury has subpoenaed former republican congressman pete sessions. of course, he's related to matters connected to president trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani as well as two of giuliani's associates, including their dealings with ukraine and efforts to remove the u.s. ambassador there. >> gets to a fundamental issue of foreign interference. the talk is about foreign money being directed to sessions' campaign. that is no small allegation. joining us is jessica s

. >> deputy assistant secretary of state george kent arrived on capitol hill for his day in. proficient congressional investigators. >> we had 30 hours already. we are heading to near fourth day. >> maria eye vonovic described efforts by rudy guiliani to have her sent home as a fake news driven smear. >> she was the victim of prop began dark conspiracy theory and organized political hit job. >> month, nsc staffer said that guiliani's efforts to have ukraine investigate former vice president joe biden and his son raised flags with john bolton. bolton told her to notify state attorneys. >> democrats would like to hear from john bolton. republicans who do not have subpoena power. >> the vice president's son who has no power or energy experience gets hired. only because of his last name, he admits. >> he says th brokno law. >> i made a mistake in retrospect as it related to creating any perception that was wrong. there forks i'm take it off the table. >> hunter biden is no longer employed by the ukraine company and is resigning his post with the chinese investment firm. nicole ki

then on tuesday george kent added onto that testimony. e deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of ukraine. kent told house investigators that he raised early concerns about giuliani and ukraine but says mulvaney told him to, quote, lay low. kent's testimony also introduced us to that group that called itself the three amigos elbowing other officials at the state department out of the waffly. so it makes sense that on wednesday we then heard from a former senior adviser to the form secretary of state. michael mckinley. he has worked for both republicans and democrats. he revealed that he quit out of concern for the mistreatment about diplomats. but it was yesterday that things finally came full circle. gordon sondland, one of those three amigos we just talked about broke with the president insisting it was donald trump who personally directed him to work with giuliani on ukraine. joining us now at the table is reverend al sharpton, our friend, host of "politicsnation" and president of the national action network joyce vance. rev, to

is george kent still in there? he's been in there a long time. what have we learned, if anything, that's trickled out? >> reporter: kent is still in the room. i don't think kent is anyone's idea of a star witness in this case. he's a career diplomat, he has experience on ukraine and corruption, which gives him some credibility. the way his testimony has been described is that it essentially bolsters marie yovanovitch's story, how they were taking on corruption in the ukraine and the degree to which red flags were raised about rudy giuliani and company's, you know, shadow operation within that country and back at the white house. he is a supportive witness but not a star witness for the democrats. >> and there's a caucus meeting tonight among house democrats at 6:00. apparently they want to discuss the idea of holding a vote on the inquiry. >> reporter: yeah, this could tell us a ton. we could see a discussion on whether or not to hold a formal vote, which is not required by the constitution or house rules. but doing so would remove a republican ta

today it was diplomat george kent. a senior official in charge of ukraine policy. he left the capitol, you see here on our news cameras, the gentleman in the bow sttie, aft more than ten hours of testimony. he was part of the pushback inside state of the president's actions as well as the appeals of his allies that led to the impeachment inquiry. earlier this year president trump, rudy giuliani and his associates were trying to oust the ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, because she was not playing ball with the efforts to get the ukrainian government to go after biden. now, about those documents that are hitting congress, well, some from the state's inspector general support that very account. showing kent warning about the campaign all the way back in march. flagging internal emails about, quote, fake news driven smear out of ukraine. kent also writing then, and this is before he knew all this would spill out in public or he'd be telling congress about it. he was putting in writing that the smear of the ambassador was complete poppycock. today kent said th

tuesday, deputy assistant secretary of state george kent told house investigators that he was told to lay low after raising concerns about rudy giuliani. he testified that acting chief of staff mulvaney effectively pushed aside top state department officials and instead appointed three political appointees to spear head policy. energy secretary rick perry, gordon sondland, and vulkar. a trio who call themselves the three amigos. on wednesday, michael mckinley, former top aide to mic pompeo told investigators he resigned last week for two reasons. the failure in my view of the state department to offer support to employees. and second, what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives. then there was thursday. current eu ambassador gordon sondland testifying that the president directed top u.s. diplomats to work through his personal lawyer, rude just giulia rudy giuliani on ukraine foreign policy. sondland said he didn't understand until later that giuliani's goal may have been an effort to involve ukrainians directly or indirectly