gowdy to function as a traditional lawyer might. >> david gergen, trey gowdy knew the media would findr than he expected and irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles and you have to hand over documents whether you're the party in power or not. i don't know if you can swear that with this letter. >> i don't either, and i think we'll see quite a bit of that tape in the day ahead as these fights continue. i think it is unclear, still, and i think trey gowdy is a lawyer and he fights hard. so he brings to this enterprise the spirit of trump. whether he'll agree with him on a lot of the issues and what he'll do is unclear. is he going to actually run the war room for the white house or is he an outside counselor and the white house does that and mulvaney do it? who is in charge here and if they don't figure that out they'll be with 6s and 7s inside and i do think the letter is the work of what a law firm would turn out and it's more discreet. it does not appear to hit that standard by what everyone is saying legally. >> gloria, this comes in the context of a new poll. this is th

that's not what tre' gowdy did. he was the chairman but he let the ranking member, the minority leader, of the committee, call their witnesses. that's not happening right now. not one witness has been allowed by our side. closed hearings. to the public. if this is something that you're so concerned about, if you're concerned about corruption, why root it out in secret behind closed doors with a one sided set of rules that represents and reflects more how the soviet union would conduct something like this as opposed to how the united states of america has always conducted impeachment inquiries. we're talking about impeachment inquiries, in secret, behind closed doors. so yes, the gentleman raised a lot of issues. i wanted to go back to each of those. so what we asked for is the same fairness that has always been allowed, both sides, not just the winning side, both sides. this is america. i would yield. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. what he didn't mention was the benghazi gowdy commission was the eigh

trey gowdy is not no congress. she a private lawyer practicing in south carolina, a state that has a 7% approval rating for donald trump. if you put yourself, trump is doing very well. if you are a private lawyer practicing in south carolina with the credentials he has, the white house says the president would like a fair defense, will you be a part of his legal team, there is no reason as a private lawyer you wouldn't defend the presidency. john adams defended the british red coats. if you believe that everybody deserves a fair defense. just try not to draw it out. >> okay. strategy. >> seriously, trey gowdy has good reason to defend the president to join the president's legal team as a private practicing lawyer in south carolina. who is familiar, who is -- do you believe that people are fought entitled to a fair defense, even the president of the united states? >> of course. he's going no get a lot of it. the problem is it's a hackish defense that doesn't represent any continuity between what they said now and li

what i will say is i hope with tray gowdy, their new lawyer there, trey gowdy used to be on the oversight committee in congress. he has advocated for transparency in the past and has said congress is owed documents and witnesses. hopefully he'll be able to provide that advice and i think it's in the administration's interests to level with congress and get the facts out there. >> just this moment, two associates of rudy giuliani have been arrested to for campaign finance violations. these two men have been on the radar as manu is reporting of the house's impeachment investigation. now they are going to be before a federal judge in virginia today. what does that mean for you guys? >> it's very concerning. usually what happens when you have people arrested, prosecutors will tell you that they often talk. they want to get some leniency on their sentencing, so it will be interesting what they have to share. and what giuliani's involvement

>> paul, it's hard to see how this helps trey gowdy given what he said to us last year when i asked him why he was retiring from congress. here's what he told us that day. >> i miss the justice system. i like jobs where facts matter. i like jobs where fairness matters. i like jobs, frankly, where the process matters and is not just about winning and it's not just about reaching a result. >> so he was done with the congressional -- with the partisan racket at that time. >> there's nothing more partisan than this. no matter who is being impeached. it's a very, very political exercise. and again, the challenge is to try to rise above that. and trey there had the right sort of comments for the moment. probably the right comments for today. and as joe points out, trey gowdy's committee spent longer investigating benghazi than congress investigated 9/11. he got 100,000 documents -- he didn't get. the obama administration gave him 100,000 documents, 50 witnesses. they complied with, by my count, 102 requests for documents or subpoenas. complied with by the obama

former congressman and current fox news contributor trey gowdy.he white house expectedly as outside counsel. here to discuss, alice stewart and keith boykin. glad to have both of you here. alice, let me start with you because trey gowdy oversaw the house's multiple benghazi investigations, which we know lasted over 2 1/2 years and ended in no convictions. in fact, back in 2015, here's gowdy. >> our country is strong enough to handle the truth, and our fellow citizens expect us to pursue the truth wherever the facts take us. so this committee is going to do what we pledged to do and what should have been done frankly a long time ago, which is interview all relevant witnesses, examine all relevant evidence, and access all relevant documents. and we're going to pursue the truth in a manner worthy of the memory of the four people who lost their lives and worthy of the respect of our fellow citizens. >> so, alice, it's hard to hear that and say he's going to be the guy who helps the white house potentially stonewall congress? >> i expect him to come in

given the president's frame of mind, why would he choose gowdy? >> i think it is hard to say.k they need snan is a legal mind, they are requesting documents and they're figuring out how they can push back. that eight page letter that the white house sent over to congress, if you read the footnotes it was not really a legal document, so you saw him really cobbling together this argument, but it's not the sound legal argument they want to make, and i think trey gowdy is being brought in because of his experience, but we will have to continue to go back to what trey believed when he was on the hill. jonathan, this morning a fox news poll shows that a majority of americans think he should be removed from office? does add up? >> it not only adds up, but the fox news poll is a higher number than some of the other polls we have seen, but the trend lines are all in the same direction. a few weeks ago we saw little support, and even less support for an impeachment inquiry. we have seen a significant shift in the direction of both of those things. i can only assume that with more facts

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i do think that trey gowdy can expect a lot of those played back to him. if he is helping this legal team on a number of shows. i think one of the things that the trump folks have been trying to avoid is allies and surrogates who become their own distraction. i'm not sure trey gowdy gets them there. >> thank you very much for the inside scoop. >>> all right. there's important news in the democratic race for president. senator bernie sanders has announced he will scale back his campaign events after suffering a heart attack. what does that mean for his campaign and the future of the 2020 race? >> vo: my car is my after-work decompression zone. ♪ music >> vo: so when my windshield broke... i found the experts at safelite autoglass. they have exclusive technology and service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ you wanna see something thatamazing?ing. go to hilton instead of a travel site and you'll experience a whole new range of emotions like... the relaxing feeling of knowing you're getting the best price. these'll work. the utte

attorney, although he just said that trey gowdy can't begin until january. what's going on? >> reporter: that's right. well, we're still sorting through this and reporting it out, chuck. i do have a little bit more information. jay sekulow says the reason for that is because there's a one-year prohibition for congressmen interfacing with other members. his prohibition expires on january 3rd. the president said it a little bit differently. he said there are lobbying rules, which i think confused some people, but that's sort of the official statement that's being sent out by jay sekulow. the question, though, is how is he going to be helpful in the president's legal team if he can't start until january 3rd. because, presumably, the impeachment inquiry thereby well underway -- >> possibly over, if you believe some of the democrats. >> possibly over at that point in time. exactly. my question is, is he going to be in an advisory role until january 23rd? it speaks to the fact that they're bracing, chuck, potentially, for this to be drawn out, to extend beyond jan

that's not what tre' gowdy did. he was the chairman but he let the ranking member, the minority leader, of the committee, call their witnesses. that's not happening right now. not one witness has been allowed by our side. closed hearings. to the public. if this is something that you're so concerned about, if you're concerned about corruption, why root it out in secret behind closed doors with a one sided set of rules that represents and reflects more how the soviet union would conduct something like this as opposed to how the united states of america has always conducted impeachment inquiries. we're talking about impeachment inquiries, in secret, behind closed doors. so yes, the gentleman raised a lot of issues. i wanted to go back to each of those. so what we asked for is the same fairness that has always been allowed, both sides, not just the winning side, both sides. this is america. i would yield. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. what he didn't mention was the benghazi gowdy commission was the eigh

you mentioned trey gowdy.hing that comes to my mind is hillary clinton testifying for i think about 11 hours, although frankly the longer she sat in that witness chair, the more i think it was to her benefit. this is not going to be pleasant. this is going to be partisan warfare. >> republicans who are not condemning president trump on this, they are though avoiding talking about the substance of it. instead they're steering the conversation back toward the troops getting pulled out of syria. this is what they would rather engage on, even criticizing the president, than talking about this phone call with ukraine's president. what do you make of that, that they'll criticize him on this one front and not the other? >> the contrast could not be more stunning in terms of the willingness to say things about syria and what's going on relative to turkey as we speak and then the stone cold silence. i think frankly they have their fingers to the wind on the impeachment situation, are really not sure exactly how far it

this is trey gowdy.hen the house was in the majority, he wanted documents from the attorney general eric holder and the obama administration was resisting that. trey gowdy taking a bold stand for the house. >> the notion that you can withhold information and documents from congress no matter whether you're the party in power or not in power is wrong. respect for the rule of law must mean something irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles. >> i agree. >> there's so many great clips. we've seen lindsey graham clips. >> pompeo as secretary of state, gowdy on the legal team. it's the benghazi team back together again. they of course argue there are nuances that make this very different. >> this is republican. there's the nuance. >> the one thing is that gowdy does know the house and he knows how to craft a legal argument that's compelling. he's not a slouch when it comes to what he does. he's a formidable guy to put on that team. >> he has access because of his member privileges. he's there as a

i think trey gowdy is a challenging choice for two reasons.e's already made which we'll see over and over again in 2012. the second is trey gowdy ran the most aggressive oversight committee i think we've ever seen. you remember they did dozens of hearings on benghazi and every congressional -- every request for information from the administration, the obama administration was met. hillary clinton sat in front of that committee for 11 hours taking some of the most inane questions with a smile and said i'm going to be here as long as you have questions. so i think where it's hard to see how trey gowdy helps them in this whole process debate given that he was so on the other side of this for so long. >> paul, it's hard to see how this helps trey gowdy given what he said to us last year when i asked him why he was retiring from congress. here's what he told us that day. >> i miss the justice system. i like jobs where facts matter. i like jobs where fairness matters. i like jobs, frankly, where the process matters and is not just about winning and

does trey gowdy pretend he never thought or said that? >> yeah.n expect. he will pretend he never thought or said that just like senator graham is pretending that he never said and thought the things that he clearly said. there's plenty of videotape evidence during the clinton impeachment where he vehemently argued that the obstruction of an by the white house, by the president was in and of itself grounds for impeachment. the other thing i would point out if we listen to graham's comments and they're not going to empeach, ask putting semantics aside. he's basically saying we're not willing to listen to the evidence. we're not willing to have a fair trial. what he ought to be saying to the speaker is madam speaker if you send us articles of impeachment, this is a very serious matter. we will do our best to put politics aside and listen to the evidence. i can't guarantee you that the votes to convict may be there. they may not be there, they may not be there, but we will listen and take it seriously. >> not at all what he's saying. >> thank you ver

. >> pamela, i know you have new reporting that trey gowdy is going to assist the counsel. >> it makespeachment process but illegitimate. they are bringing in outside counsel, including trey gowdy, the former republican congressman from south carolina. he was at the white house today and met with chief of staff mick mulvaney i and my colleague are told that he is expected to help president trump in a private capacity as counsel. he is expected to work with jay sec low other outside lawyers as well. if you look back what he said in the past it's interesting, because you'll recall in 2012 during the house oversight hearing with eric holder when doj didn't turn over documents, trey gowdy criticized doj saying they should hand over documents in the proceeding. here is what he said. >> the notion that you can withhold documents and information from congress no matter whether the party in power or not in power is wrong. respect for the rule of law must mean something, irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles. >> so now. >> wow. >> he is expectsed to help the white house and their

recruiting trey gowdy to help from the outside.gressman led the benghazi probe and once held this view on stonewalling. >> the notion that you can withhold information and documents from congress no matter whether you're the party in power or not in power is wrong. respect for the rule of law must mean something irrespective of the advice is tudes of political cycles. >> reporter: sources say the white house wants another voice in the impeachment battle a job left to his personal attorney rudy giuliani until now. >> i went back to read two books about that salem witch trials, they required witnesses to face the width and some witches were acquitted. >> the witches had it better in other words. >> they had more rights. >> reporter: cnn learned as early as last may trump directed rick perry and other top officials to deal with giuliani on ukraine and go around official channels. now, pam, the president was just speaking with reporters during an event here at the white house and during that time he predicted that this fight with democ

i think trey gowdy joining the president's team is a reminder of how closely the president watches foxthat his allies should come from this network. trey gowdy has not demonstrated anything that should suggest to the president that he would be the best person for this position. but he has demonstrated the thing that matters most to the president and that is loyalty. and that's what the president will lean on in this moment. >> performance and loyalty. eugene scott, thank you very much. we will see you again in mojz in just a bit. don't go too far, my friend. >>> new details in a deadly shooting at a german synagogue and what kept the gunman from carrying out a more massive attack. >> plus, more than half a millions in california are in the dark after officials there cut power to areas. why spheres of potential wildfires prompted the move. bill karins is back with another check on your forecast. the first look at "morning joe," is back in a moment. first look " is back ain moment. ok i'll admit. i didn't keep my place as clean as i would like 'cuz i'm way too busy. who's got the time to

. >> pamela, i know you have some new reporting that former congressman trey gowdy is going to assisthe president as an outside counsel. >> it's really interesting, anderson, because in this letter the white house released, it makes the case that this isn't a formal impeachment process. it's illegitimate. but the white house is gearing up for an impeachment fight, bringing in outside counsel, including trey gowdy, the former republican congressman from south carolina. he was at the white house today and met with chief of staff mick mulvaney, and we're told he is expected to help president trump in a private capacity as counsel. he's expected to work with jay sekulow, other outside lawyers as well. but i you look back at what he has said in the past in similar situations, it's very interesting because you'll recall in 2012 during the house oversight hearing with eric holder when doj didn't turn over documents, trey gowdy criticized doj saying that they should hand over documents in that proceeding. here's what he said. >> the notion that you can withhold information and documents from

trey gowdy, you know, i barely know.relentless investigation of benghazi, which found, just like the previous investigations, that i did not to persimislead american people. i'm frankly surprised he would want to be a part of this. >> in your book "tough love," you recount how you went on the sunday shows including "meet the press" and, according to the cia-drafted guidance which was the administration's position, because there were covert secrets involved, and your testimony then blew up, but your mother pressed you, your late mother. >> before i went on the show. >> before you went on the shows, and you write about that. you say, she said, why do you have to go on the shows, where is hillary, the secretary of state, of course? she was unrelenting. i smell a rat. can't you get out of it? >> got to love your mother, i miss her mightily. she had an intuition that i didn't have. my mom was really smart. and in some ways rather prescient, not just about this but about a number of things. she had just come off her fourth or

trey gowdy, of course, went on to chair the benghazi committee. remember the multiple investigations that went into benghazi that ultimately turned up nothing. remember those? and the millions of dollars that were spent turned up nothing. and then there's another familiar face from those hearings. then-congressman mike pompeo, who sure had a lot of complaints about not getting documents from then-secretary of state hillary clinton. >> i will tell you the record we've received today does not reflect that. it simply doesn't. we've read the emails. we've read everything we could get our hands on. i will tell you, you just described all this information that you relied upon, and it doesn't comport with the record that this committee has been able to establish today. we don't know exactly who -- >> well, it would be helpful -- >> it would have been one of your state department employees, madam secretary. i don't know which one. perhaps you could enlighten us, or we could get the records we need to do so. >> where is that mike pompeo? hmm. but when it c

and they're recruiting former congressman trey gowdy to help wage it. administration but would help them wage the impeachment fight from the outside. you can imagine that would mean a lot of tv appearances. joining me to talk about that, ross garber. he teaches impeachment law at tulane and has represented four governors who face impeachment. you have a little bit of expertise in this arena, ross. thank you for being here. look. whether you like his politics or not, trey gowdy is a skilled litigator. he's a good lawyer and can make an effective, compelling argument. but, remember when he said this? listen. >> the notion that you can withhold information and documents from congress no matter whether you are the party in power or not in power is wrong. respect for the rule of law must mean something irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles. >> does that from 2012 make it a little bit harder for him to defend the administration's stonewalling now? >> i think we're going to be seeing a lot of that. and i think what we'll also be seeing is that h

and they'll come up with this thing, the trey gowdy, and they just pushed that aside now with trey gowdyaying the secret hearings are the way to get good testimony. >> of course, during the russia investigation when republicans controlled the house intelligence committee they had dozens of depositions of jared kushner and others they did secretly and never had public hearings. at least the house intelligence committee now says we will get the public hearings. and the key thing here and it's coming from nancy pelosi, she has the kiss strategy, keep it simple stupid. she wants the impeachment case to be based just on what you said, chris. a very straightforward narrative. she doesn't want a lot of sideshows but what's happening and natasha knows this because she's been reporting on this, as the committees investigate and more and more witnesses and see more and more documents they're finding more and more wrongdoing and more and more investigative leads to follow. so they have to have the discipline per nancy pelosi to say we're not going to go down there, we don't want this to be as compl

trey gowdy. wouldn't he be able to argue, if you have nancy pelosi talking about not following procedure, that this is against the constitution, is he someone set up in a position to refute that with authority? >> absolutely, because he knows the process and procedures on the hill. you have precedent from previous impeachment of republican and democratic presidents that there would be a formal vote of an inquiry, number one. number two, what does that mean? give subpoena power to both sides. one reason nancy pelosi doesn't want to have this what you were talking about at the top is that all of the sudden, if the republicans the house have subpoena power, what are they going to do? this is not just going to be about diplomats and their text messages. it's going to be about hunter biden. would he be subpoenaed to testify? what did he know about what was going on in ukraine? will that give fodder for the president and his team, trey gowdy, and others to say, "i am on a second, when the president was

they're now saying trey gowdy's words should hold still.y gowdy said the rules should be followed and no exceptions made. democrats are pointing to those words and saying replicans should be listening to the words of trey gowdy. >> woodruff: yamiche, a completely separate thing happened today, two of president trump's attorney rudy giuliani, two of his associates were in court today accused of illegal campaign contributions. they are pleading not guilty. one of them spoke about having some of the evidence covered by executive privilege. that obviously refers to the president. what is the white house saying and how do iney see the significance of this? >> well, this could be really problematic for president trump, when you have an associate of rudy giuliani bringing up executive privilege as it relates to a campaign violation, campaign finance violation case here. the lawyer who was an associate of rudy giuliani said his client never actually worked for president trump but that he worked for rudy giuliani and did actually employ him at times

cooperate with the democrat's enquiry and reports say he is about to hire former congressman, trey gowdy as his impeachment counsel. also on the programme..... borisjohnson has reassured conservative mp's that he will commit to a brexit negotation at the next election, but will leave with no deal if no compromise can be found. and the internet goes into meltdown as super sleuth coleen rooney outs fellow wag rebekah vardy, who she accuses of leaking stories to the tabloid press. hello and welcome — i'm michelle fleury in washington and christian fraser is in london. it is the norm these days, that major international announcements come on twitter. today was no different, the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan announced to the world that his country was going to war in northern syria to neutralise the kurdish threat. "our mission", he said, "is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border and to bring peace to the area". the kurdish—led syrian democratic forces or sdf had been braced for it for months, but they had been on heightened alert since the weekend w

. >> brennan: we go now to former republican congressman trey gowdy, he used to lead the main investigative committee in the house of representatives, and he joins us this morning from greenville, south carolina. good to have you back on "face the nation." >> yes, ma'am. thank you. >> brennan: you told me earlier that you had agreed to work for the white house earlier this month as outside counsel to the president on the impeachment proceeding, but you didn't, and that's because, as you describe it, a restriction on former members of congress in firms of communicating with an intent to influence for about a year after leaving office. >> yes, ma'am. >> brennan: so when that year ends, will you be joining the white house fight? >> i have no idea. i don't represent the president as of today. i don't know what if anything will exist in january. it may be over. my sense is the president needs folks that can represent him now, before the house, the senate, and indirectly through television shows and print media, but one year, i can't talk to the house or senate, and my reading of that statute, an

back then, gowdy warned the obama administration they had no choice but to cooperate with congress. >> the notion that you can withhold information and documents from congress, no matter whether you're the party in power or not in power is wrong. respect for the rule of law must mean something eirrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles. >> reporter: politically, the president is getting help from senator lynn sindsey graham, wh today warned speaker pelosi that if trump is impeached in the house, the senate won't convict him. but graham's old statements, coming back to haunt him, too. this is what he once said about another president who refused to cooperate with an impeachment inquiry. >> article iii of impeachment against richard nixon was based on the idea that richard nixon as president failed to comply with subpoenas of congress. the day richard nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day that he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from congress over the impeachment process away from congress and became the judge and jury. >> jon karl with us live a

tre gowdy escorted republican darrylisa afterisa tried to crash it. and here is congressman gowdy back then extolling the virtue of the secret proceedings. >> let me ask you this, what serious finder of fact can you name that identifies information in five minute increments and does it on television? and then flip from one side to the other? i mean the grand jury doesn't do it. the local sheriff does doesn't. the united states attorney doesn't do it. >> so that's then congressman gowdy defending the very thing the republican congress members were protesting today supposedly. now by the way it's a security violation to bring phones in a secure room. when you're desperate for attention and member of congress apparently security regulations don't apply. today, the president tried to rebut the time line of the ukraine quid pro quo arguing that there is no way it was a quid pro quo because the ukrainians had no idea the aid was being held up. he tweeted out a quote from a republican congressman on fox and friends reading he taylor neuroknow witness that ha

gowdy is the man who kicked out another republican representative because he wasn't supposed to be in there. also i think it's important to remember a deposition whether it's in congress or civil court is, by definition, private. you are taking a private behind closed doors proceeding to get information. and as you mentioned, this is not whitewater. it's not even nixon where there had been a long, private special counsel report. mooirl wmueller was working on something different. this is brand-new. >> they might have an argument if this was carrying on from the mueller report, but this is different. this is a unique, separate, independent investigation about something different. okay. so karoun, when you look to what the republicans are going to be able to do, several of the republicans, i think half of them, who stormed into that room, could have been in there anyway. and you already have 48 on the committees asking questions and our reporting is that they're very actively involved in the questioning. >> right. i mean, there's actually -- all the republicans on those panels are able

and i'm going deliver it from one trey gowdy who ran the benghazi hearings. here was his rationale three years ago. >> i could just tell you that of the 50-some-odd interviews we have done thus far, the vast majority of them have been private and you don't see the bickering among the members of congress in private interviews. the private ones always produce better results. >> the private ones always produce better results because they're not a spectacle. >> that may be, but i don't buy that you can hold weeks and weeks of private hearings. especially when immediately afterwards, members of the committee come out and focus on or distort the message that was inside. and i just think let people see it themselves. >> your wish is their command. they're about to do that. as john just reported, by mid-november, there are going to be public hearings. so it's a very axccelerated -- >> because i get results. i said it yesterday and then it happened. >> don't put me in the middle of your fight, by the way. if you got a beef with toobin, you just handle it. leave me out

trump: trey gowdy is a terrific guy. is a problem where he can't start for another couple of months because of lobbying rules and regulations. you will have to ask about that. i just heard he can't start until after january because of the lobbying rules and regulations. so i don't know. but we will have to see. i have not spoken to him. >> [indiscernible] mr. trump: perhaps the last one, i hope. i hope the last one. of the three i hope it is the last one. we have no soldiers in syria. we have won, we beat isis. we have no soldiers. the last thing i want to do is bring thousands and thousands of soldiers in and defeat everybody again. we have already done that. we have two choices, bringing in the military and defeating everybody again or you have the choice of doing strong things to turkey so they take it easy on competition that is, i don't think it is being fairly traded in. we have a good relationship with -- i hope we can mediate. [indiscernible] mr. trump: turkey knows where i stand and the last thing -- ok, very si

to trey gowdy who at one point was going to run the president's impeachment defense. what trey gowdy says about the utility of holding these closed door depositions. >> i could just tell you that of the 50-some-odd interviews we have done thus far, the vast majority of them have been private and you don't see the bickering among the members of congress in private interviews. the private ones always produce better results. >> so there you go. joe, let's move on then to the actual substance of this and how it will be laid out. it is interesting, "the post" reports, this will be in front of the public in weeks. what do you think the strategy will be to bring this to the american people? >> i agree with trey gowdy and i can't believe i just said that. but there you go, it's early. i think what the democrats knead to figure out is how to present this very simply. and it's, you know, the old joe friday. just the facts, ma'am. and they have to decide who are the best witnesses to bring this forward and they have to keep in mind that the republicans will try to make this a ci

theer: trey gowdy said this other day, you need to have it closed initially to get the facts.his is a fact-finding mission .nd then you go to trial all i have to do is sit here and listen to the people that support trump and you want to know why this country is in trouble. we are in trouble. host: michelle from michigan, on the republican line. caller: how are you? host: i am well, how about yourself? caller: i could not be better other than the facts of these attempts to impeach the president. by theduly elected majority of the people. that frankly, i cannot see there are any of these items listed that he has actually done other than the fact that he did check on the biden situation in ukraine which was right in the long run because of all the money his son has been receiving not only from ukraine, but other foreign countries as well. the people who, heard testimony from the nfc --icial and heard the call he expressed concerns about the call itself. caller: they don't like the fact that he is not a politician. politiciansaren't expressed themselves more straightforward rather

you did it with trey gowdy five minutes ago. those are very serious security concerns. it should be taken seriously. we're going streaking. who's with me? >> he compared himself in the lead movie "300." >> that's adorable. these are fraternity stunts and as seriously as we should take the stunts they should not be taking seriously. they look like fraternity brothers crashing a party that they were invited to. none of them looked cool. they looked ridiculous. >> president trump was happy about it. thank you to house republicans being tough, smart and understanding and, in detail, the greatest witch hunt in american history. >> this is a disgraceful stunt. i'll go further than s.e. will go. this looked like a klan group outside a jail so they could deliver justice to somebody who was inside. it's not a good look for our democracy or the republican party. republicans are already on these committees in in impeachment investigation. that's a quarter of the entire republican caucus already represent represented they're creating political stunts in order to throw off the atten

here's gowdy back then extolling the virtues of secret proceedings. >> let me ask you this. what serious finder of fact can you name that identifies information in five-minute increments and does it on television and then flipped from one side to the other? i mean the grand jury doesn't do it. your local sheriff doesn't do it. your united states attorney doesn't do it. >> so that's then congressman gowdy defending the very thing those republican congress members were supposedly protesting today. now, by the way, it's a security violation to bring phones into a secure room, but you know what? when you're really desperate for attention and you're a member of congress, apparently security regulations don't apply. today the president tried to rebut the time line of the ukraine quid pro quo, arguing that there's no way it was a quid pro quo because the ukrainians had no idea the aid was being held up. he tweeted out a quote from a republican congressman on "fox & friends," reading it now, quote, neither he, taylor, nor any other witness has provided testimony that the ukrainians

trey gowdy held private hearings for benghazi in 2015. here is how he explained the reason for the private hearings to chuck todd. >> i can just tell you that of the 50 some odd interviews we have done thus far, the vast majority of them have been private and you don't see the bickering among the members of congress in private interviews. i can just tell you in the private interviews, there is never any of what you saw thursday. it is one hour on the republican side, one hour on the democrat side which is why you are going to see the next two dozen sbh interviews done privately. private ones always produce better results. >> he makes a good argument for keeping the hearings in private. >> yes, i was staff director of the house intel he will against committee for almost three years and the dirty little secret in washington is when there is not a camera in the room, republicans and democrats can get along fairly well and take up the business of the country and process it in an ordinarily fashion. so i think that is what they are trying to d

>> representative gowdy at the time was saying something that is true thousand. when i speak to lawmakers who are inside of that room and i ask them especially when it comes to republicans, are republicans pushing back, are we seeing jim jordan do what he does in public hearings which is really talk about the president, talk about the 2016 election, and lawmakers are telling me no. we're getting republican staffers asking very pointed question, really trying to get to the facts. but it is not becoming a spectacle that public hearings usually become. so add to the fact that lindsey graham is a close ally of the president and he is trying to talk about the white house talking points, but he's saying there isn't time too cross-examine, but again the republicans are in the room, so they can pose questions to people if they want to. and i should say i had a lot of democratic sources including intel sources emailing me old tray ghouey gowdy quotes becaus were willing seeing the connections and saying that the republicans are contradicting themselves. >> all right. than

i don't agree with congressman gowdy. here is my personal opinion.nk that the hearings are purposely being held in secret so they can control the narrative. chairman schiff with leak selectively parts of the transcripts that reaffirm his prejudice. >> we have no idea who is leaking just for the record. we have no idea who is leaking -- >> who -- okay. okay. i think he intentionally leaks certain parts of the transcript to friendly moneys of press who suck it up like a hoover deluxe. i think it is a mistake to close the hearings off from the american people and so they can't judge the evidence. i believe that democracy dies in darkness. there are no opposing witnesses. if your a member of the committee, you don't get access to all of the documents. the president's counsel with not be there. the president's counsel cannot -- >> but it is -- that is what this trial will be for in the senate. the trial in the senate, that is when the president's counsel will be there and opposing witnesses will be there. and let me ask you, because we're running out of t

are those words going to come back and haunt trey gowdy? >> no question. and these political cycles have certainly gone through a heck of a vicissitude, as gowdy might put it. the fact that republicans spent eight years of the obama administration laying out in the most robust and detailed way possible arguments that the executive branch has to comply with subpoenas and oversight requests from the legislative branch is something that's going to create challenges for all of them. that said, the white house's legal strategy faces a really complex difficulty because there's tension within the white house regarding how white house counsel pat cipollone is approaching this particular issue. cipollone is treating it perhaps more as a legal fight than a political fight. it seems like in the white house counsel's office, people to an extent are still in mueller mode, thinking in terms of winning court fights rather than thinking of this as primarily a political undertaking. we know that impeachment at its core is a political tool, and for the most part, the presid

. >> there were multiple dueling investigations going on at the same time, trey gowdy's investigation was probably the foremost but had it not been for the deceptions by hillary clinton and the state department about benghazi, we would have never discovered these -- this private server in which hundreds of thousands of emails of classified documents were short at moment. >> the folks that you chronical in the book, the fbi, predominantly by mr. brennan and folks, the intelligence community switched then and go on offense at some point in this process, they decide to quote peter strzok we have to stop him, we are going to stop him, meaning trump. they take extraordinary measures to try to dig up dirt overseas specifically with russia to kind of push it towards the clinton campaign to make the idea of voting for donald trump a repugnant thing for voters, how did that possibly happen? >> well, there were two parts to the plan. part number 1 was to exploit the dossier which had been pinned by christopher steele. the fbi was unable to verify, they tried mightedly but you can't verify somet

cooperate with the democrat's enquiry and reports say he is about to hire former congressman, trey gowdy the programme..... borisjohnson has reassured conservative mp‘s

. >>> former south carolina congressman trey gowdy is joined the trump legal team. gowdy visited the white house on tuesday meeting with chief of staff mick mulvaney. he was the chairman. he led in the terror attacks in benghazi and is a cnn contributor. >> that's a clear sir kim vengs of diplomatic channels. >> apparently kurt volker anded a sondland met. they had been convinced by giuliani ukraine was still corrupt. giuliani a private citizen presented a u.s. policy to ukraine that was different from the policy conveyed by u.s. diplomats. >> cnn reporting on the aftermath of mr. trump's july 25th phone call with ukraine's new president. three sources tell cnn white house aides scrambled to alert lawyers about what the president had done. at least one national security council official alerted national security layers from the white house. aides also questioned each other about the need to alert senior officials at the justice department since attorney general bill barr's name had been mentioned multiple times during the call. >> they initially believed details of

he has agreed to have trey gowdy, the former congressman, come in on as counsel. he was resistant to bringing on new lawyers or a defense strategy. she's starting to realize he's going to need something here, in case democrats do decide to move forward. what will be interesting to watch going forward, is who it is running the impeachment strategy. based on what we're speaking to sources about so far, some say it's jared kushner. some say it's mick mulvanemulva. and some say, it's trump himself. >>> mike pompeo saying the state department will follow the law in the impeachment inquiry. his comments coming after the white house blocked a diplomat from testifying at a deposition. >> i made clear, i think the white house has made very clear, we will ensure we do everything we're required to do by the law and the constitution. every time. pomp pompeo, offering little clarity if his officers will agree with the probe. >> they talked about the process that the white house is engaged in, making clear this is not a legitimate impeachment proceeding. we'll take our guidance

people remember trey gowdy and the benghazi situation saying only people in the room are the committee. >> it was designed to create a report that was coming to congress. this is different. every member will have to vote on this and this is different. when you look at what we have there's not a single classified thing discussed. there's no reason why the cameras can't be there. benghazi had classified and privileged information we didn't want to share with our enemies. this is a different scenario. >> martha: any big headlines from the cooper testimony today before we let you go? >> no big headlines. i will say some of the facts contradicted the witness from yesterday and we'll have to reconcile that. >> martha: in what way? >> some of what she said was involved in making certain decisions were at odds with what we heard from the ambassador yesterday. >> martha: okay. congressman mark meadows. thank you very much. good to see you. >>> up next, president trump said his syria plan is working and that he stands by it. senator john kerry has thoughts on that and he's up next. and then ther

he shared this message in 2015, saying that gowdy failed miserably on benghazi and let hillary get away with murder. turkey today wasted no time launching a ground and air assault in northern syria against the same syrian kurdish fighters who have been working side by side with u.s. forces in america's fight against isis. trump gave the turks the green light they wanted by pulling back u.s. forces following his weekend phone call with erdogan. several republicans are directly criticizing trump. and you don't see that often. republican from wyoming, congresswoman liz cheney, put out a statement that read, in part, quote, president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. forces from northern syria is having sickening and predictable consequences. this action imperils american security and that of our allies. congress must and will act to limit the catastrophic impact of this decision. trump was asked about the decision and the consequences. >> are you concerned that erdogan will try to wipe out the kurds? >> i will wipe out his economy if that happens. >> the kurds helped the u.s. defeat isis,

but trey gowdy was in congress at the time, and up until recently a fox news contributor, great to have on the team. >> is he legal face of the fight? >> i leave that foe lega to leg. kennedy: it might be a good idea. >> no doubt this president will be fully armed and ready to go in thelma and louise -- squad. >> they might, they may impeach him. i don't think he will be removed, he could be energized and reelected. i don't think they can impeach him again in second term, not because of double jeopardy but they would lose badly. >> i think they would lose house of representatives there are 31 seats they won but district that president won in 2016, they will have a lot of explaining to do. >> oh, lucy. >> no members of go back, no usmca, he dolin no dealing withh care. kennedy: marc lotter thank you. >> good to see you. kennedy: you too. >> most say it is a 3 person race for democratic nomination, but with two old guys lagging, what happens in hillary jumps in? i ask a former campaign aide, there he is, that is next. cologuard: colon cancer screening for people 50 and older at average ri