kaitlan is out front.> so basically, erin, what we're hearing from sources is that in recent days and weeks trump allies had reached out to trey gowdy asking him if he would be able to help the president with this impeachment fight and that is what brought him to the white house today where we are told by sources he had a meeting with the chief of staff mick mulvaney and what he'll be doing helping with the president -- helping the president with his impeachment strategy from the outside, serving as a general counsel role and the public aspects of this and this comes as you're seeing this fight inside the administration over how they're going proceed going forward with this impeachment defense strategy because initially we reported last week the president had been resistant to changes like that. not only setting up a war room, but also this idea of hiring additional lawyers. we are learning that trey gowdy will be helping the president from inside the white house. right you in he is not expected to join th

thank you, kaitlan. i appreciate it. as i said, there is an avalanche of news tonight on the impeachment inquiry. the president leaning on ukraine and china, doing it out loud right out in the open, trying to get them to investigate joe biden. ♪ things you can do with schwab: you can earn more when you invest your cash. ♪ you can get a satisfaction guarantee. ♪ you can also wonder why our competitors don't offer that. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. bleech! aww! awww! ♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft for the win win. ♪ ♪ around here, the only predictable thing about the weather is it's unpredictable. so we make the most of it when the sun does shine. that's why bp is partnering with lightsource, europe's largest solar company. and should the weather change, yet again, our natural gas can step in. to keep the power flowing and the lights shining. no matter the forecast. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing. >>> so the breaking news is coming fast and

thank you, kaitlan. i appreciate it. as i said, there is an avalanche of news tonight on the impeachment inquiry. the president leaning on ukraine and china, doing it out loud right out in the open, trying to get them to investigate joe biden. you can earn more when you invest your cash. ♪ you can get a satisfaction guarantee. ♪ you can also wonder why our competitors don't offer that. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. no cover-up spray here. cheaper aerosols can cover up odors in a flowery fog. but febreze air effects eliminates odors. with a 100% natural propellent. it leaves behind a pleasant scent you'll love. [deep inhale] freshen up. don't cover up. febreze. we're oscar mayer deli fresh your very first sandwich,m... your mammoth masterpiece. and...whatever this was. because we make our meat with the good of the deli and no artificial preservatives. make every sandwich count with oscar mayer deli fresh. ♪ ♪ this simple banana peel represents a bold idea: a way to create energy from household trash. it

cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house. kaitlan you've reported aides in the white house are worried the president doesn't quite grasp the enormity of this, just say it out loud? >> reporter: talking about a private request he made and did it again today about another country in front of the cameras surrounded by microphones and the reporters and we should note it was unprompted. you heard there. tub talking about ukraine and brought up the fact he believes china should also investigate the bidens. what you see if you step back, the president is skulli incalli foreign power to investigate a rival facing impeachment calling on a former power to investigate the former vice president of the united states. he made clear there's an opening and might do so noting moments before he made that crest the chinese trade delegation is coming back to the u.s. next week to washington for another round of those talks. though it's unclear if it's going to come up then, but the president made clear he thinks it's fine if it does. >> and kait

kaitlan collins is here, david gregory, and greg jaffe.s the national security reporter for "the washington post." i'm so glad to have all of you here. it's definitely been a very interesting day. more interesting, i think, more unusual, if you can say that. kaitlan, i'm going to start with you. president trump is lashing out over this thing. he's using crude language. he's peddling lies and conspiracies. are your sources telling you anything about the president's public meltdown? what is going on here? >> well, basically, don, what they said is what you saw from the president today in the oval office and during that press conference where the president was extremely combative is what they've been seeing behind the scenes for the past 48 hours or so. this went from a president who was incredulous that nancy pelosi launched this impeachment inquiry. then they felt he was in denial over the last several days, didn't really realize the implications of what was facing him. but they say over the last few days, he's been lashing out, saying basi

here with more tonight is cnn's kaitlan collins. kaitlan, good evening to you. what's behind the latest high-profile departure? >> reporter: well, don, i got to say it's not that surprising to people in the white house who never thought kevin mcaleenan was going to get the permanent job. but of course this resignation is coming after he's been in that acting position for several dozen -- hundreds of days now, in this position, never really had a replacement on the horizon so far in the west wing. so it will be interesting to see who it is the president picks next. but when it came down to mcaleenan, though at times the president praised him, he was never really someone who gained president trump's trust. the president often lashed out at him blaming him for border numbers and of course in turn, kevin mcaleenan didn't like the hard-liners that the president hired to work not only in the department of homeland security, but also he was dealing with people inside the west wing like stephen miller who were really trying to run dhs policy out of the west wing, not ou

kaitlan collins at the white house with that story. >> reporter: dave and christine, as democrats are figuring out what their next move is going to be, the white house is deciding how they're going to respond to the eight-page letter that the counsel sent to them. they're not going to be working with democrats, what we're seeing behind the scenes is the white house gear up in case there is an impeachment. you're seeing a shift from aides, trying to convince the president, this could be inevitable. and they feel like the president is starting to respond to that. 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

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

first to you on this, kaitlan. there is some discrepancy that we're seeing now.l white house reason for why there were these ellipses in the rough transcript they put throughout. theyed ed isaid these are just. if there were words miss, they would be in brackets. yet what we saw in the opening statement and heard in the testimony according to "the new york times" is that lieutenant colonel vindman said as he was piecing this together to clean tup, he wanted words put in where those ellipses were and it didn't happen. >> he didn't say why it didn't happen which is going to raise questions and the white house will have to try to answer some of those on why this is a contra diction. he is someone who is not only on the phone call but in charge rev viewing this transcript. so the fact that there are these dot, dot, dots, that the white house dismissed, said they weren't anything noteworthy, simply a pause in the conversation when we're finding out they had several phrases or words from the president or the ukrainian president is going to raise a lot of questions. now

. >> joining us now cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin, dana bash and kaitlan collins. jeffrey, i want to start with you with the mystery of the a lip sees. the president says that the phone call was perfect, we were told that this was really the best transcript you can get from this call, an exact copy. colonel vindman says no. he says he saw things that were missing and that he wanted filled in. this is what "the new york times" reports. vindman said the rough transcript contained a lipsees at three points where there trump is speaking. colonel vindman said the white house transcript of that call had left out the ukrainian president says the word barisma as well as mr. trump saying there were recordings of mr. biden. substantively we're told it doesn't change the thrust of what the white house call but the white house said they gave complete transcripts of this. these were real things in real words that were omitted according to colonel vindman. >> we knew from the gimg that this was not the transcript the way a court reporter does in a courtroom, but any removals we

abby, kaitlan, thanks for your reporting. >>> we are following breaking news out of germany. two people are dead after a shooting near a synagogue in central germany. of course, today is yom kippur, one of the high holy days. let's get to international diplomatic editor nic robertson. what do you know? >> a day when you could expect more people to be around synagogues and an average day. police say they've got one suspect in custody. an eyewitness that we've spoken to who was driving down the street from his business, past a synagogue, and he said he was just a few meters from the synagogue and saw a man dressed in camouflage clothing wearing what this witness describes as a steel helmet. the man was holding an automatic weapon. he said he didn't hear shots, but that he could see somebody lying in the street very close to this man in camouflage clothing. and then he said he saw the assailant throwing grenades over the wall into the synagogue. now this wall, we understand, is about 2 1/2 meters, about 8 feet high. the synagogue has electronic gates securing the entrance to it

kaitlan, what exactly are we learning here?rning just what a scramble this was, brianna, all of this from the minute the president of ukraine hung up from that phone call in july that is the center of all of this. sources are telling cnn that at least one security council official alerting national security council lawyers about the concern being raised about what it was president trump had said to the ukranian president. those were the same lawyers that later ordered that transcript to be moved where they're typically kept to that highly sensitive server where transcripts were not typically kept in the past. it also included those aware of what the president said on the call, asking if they needed to alert the justice department since the president had brought up the attorney general who was not on the call so much. really, this backs up the whistleblower's complaint and exactly what the whistleblower was detailing in there. >> and, pamela, this is something they thought they could keep in the executive branch. >> yaureah, tha

kaitlan collins and manu raju. kaitlan, the president outside the white house asking foreign governments for help. >> reporter: it literally happened as there is an impeachment inquiry over what he said to the ukranian president to inspect the bidens. we didn't need any of that today when the president on south lawn of the white house said in front of reporters surrounded by microphones and surrounded by cameras that he believes china should launch an investigation into the bidens. just pretty openly what we were trying to figure out, if he had pressured other countries into looking into mr. biden. he said he hasn't talked to president xi about this but it's something they should talk about, leaving open the possibility that's something they could start doing in the future. it's going to be pretty interesting to see how republicans respond to this. of course, it's coming after the president congratulated china on their communist anniversary the other day. and, of course, as the president himself noted, the chinese

cnn's kaitlan collins is at the white house. and kaitlan, there is now a republican senator who is saying that he heard of this quid pro quo and confronted president trump about it? >> reporter: republican senator ron johnson telling the "wall street journal" that the u.s. ambassador to the european union told him that the status of that military aid for ukraine was tied to the investigations that the president wanted to see the country carry out. now that significant for two reasons. one, because that ambassador to the e.u. told another top u.s. diplomat in ukraine that there was no quid pro quo, that there was no correlation and that essentially what he thought was happening was not happening. it is also significant because ron johnson tells the "wall street journal" that he confronted president trump over this who he said adamantly denied the two were linked. something we saw the president do repeatedly in front of reporters today. >> when i speak to a foreign leader, i speak in an appropriate manner. >> reporter: president t

. >> cnn's kaitlan collins live for us at the white house. i assume mick mulvaney is in that cabinet room right now. >> he was on the list of the white house release saying he would be someone in the room if that gifves you any indication f his standing. it comes after mulvaney got a round of applause at a staff meeting today after it became what he acknowledged as a tough week for him, and that comes after cnn reporting that after nancy pelosi announced this impeachment inquiry. there were people in the west wing waiting to replace mulvaney as chief of staff. what's notable about this is it seems to have subsided as the white house is forced to face this impeachment inquiry, and it started questions of who in the world would want to take this job since they're up against capitol hill, and why mick mulvaney is so insulated given he knows so much about the scandal at the center of that impeachment inquiry. we're waiting to see what the president says. of course, a lot of indication that the president says of how things are going depends on the

kaitlan touched on some of this. the main thing is there are ongoing negotiations. ukraine had wanted military assistance from the united states for years. there had been ongoing discussions about that. holding that over their head, that's the quid pro quo right there. with china, there's negotiations that are ongoing. they're coming here next week. >> trade negotiations? >> trade negotiations, exactly. those have been ongoing. president trump has put significant tariffs on to chinese goods. foreign leaders, they watch what the pez says. even when i was the state department spokesperson, they would watch what i would say in a briefing to give an indication of where negotiations are going. so, they're looking at what he's saying and the chinese are probably saying, what does that mean? obviously they're watching the news. yes, this is unprecedented. he did, in clear daylight, what he is under an investigation in impeachment for with another country. >> what would the reaction be among republican lawmakers, do you think, hypothetically, if barack obama had openly call

here with more tonight is cnn kaitlan collins. what do we know about his departure? >> reporter: this is sudden. the president tweeting e iing t. ever since he first got named to this job under, of course, an acting position, people never envisioned him taking the job in a permanent role. he was at odds with the president and some of his top advisers, including miller, and their roles and where they wanted to go on immigration. there were times where the president was pleased with what he was doing. there were other times where the president with a lash out and blame him for the border policies, high border crossings. something else that's interesting that happened in recent weeks, he gave this interview to "the washington post" where he talked about how essentially he lamented the fact he didn't feel he had control over the tone, the policy at the department at a time when he said they felt like they were in polarized times. we're told that interview, he didn't understand that he was on the record based on what someone close to him later told cnn. essentially, he th

manu raju live on capitol hill, kaitlan collins at the white house. what happened behind the scenes at the white house to get them to decide no testimony from the white house, kaitlan? >> reporter: essentially the white house played an essential role in deciding this, and officials were in talks late last night discussing just how much they should be cooperating with this, whether or not they should send the ambassador up to capitol hill if there hasn't been this formal impeachment inquiry vote yet. that's what we're hearing behind the scenes for the last few days over here, because they say essentially because it's not a legitimate probe in their eyes, because democrats haven't voted to launch a formal impeachment inquiry that they shouldn't have to be cooperating in this way by sending people like the ambassador up to capitol hill. we're told the white house counsel's office consulted with the state department before they did tell the ambassador this morning that he would not be sitting down for that scheduled deposition, and essentially what you're

kaitlan collins is live for us at the white house, and kaitlan, now the president wants china to dig up dirt on the bidens as well. is he admitting here to what he's likely going to be impeached for? >> well, it was a pretty remarkable moment to see on the south lawn. the president is facing this impeachment inquiry over his request to a foreign leader that they investigate his political rival, a request he made in private but then became public when the white house released the transcript of that call. but then today, as you noted, in front of the cameras. president publicly called on another foreign leader to also investigate the biden family. it was kind of a stunning moment out there where reporters asked had he already communicate such a request to the president of china? he said he hadn't yet, but he made clear that he was open to doing so, and of course it's raising questions because the u.s. and china are locked in the middle of this trade war right now. and just moments before the president had called on china to investigate the bidens, he had noted that, yes, the chinese tr

dana, let me start with you in terms of kaitlan collins' new reporting. no surprise from what we've seen all week that they're struggling inside the white house with a cohesive -- to find a cohesive message. what is really interesting is there's a feud between the chief of staff mick mulvaney and the white house counsel about how to play this. >> yes. this is a feud that's been going on for some time. kaitlan and i have been reporting on it since the beginning of last week. clearly that has escalated. and it has escalated in a very dangerous way for the white house, according to a lot of people who are concerned, because what it means is that they're kind of -- they're just not moving. the feud means that they are not doing what they need to do. and what we have seen is because of that, congressional republicans kind of taking over the message. the president has been sending up flairs saying, do what you need to do. defend me more. what they've done on capitol hill is, because they don't know what's coming next, they don't know what they don't know and th

our white house constituent kaitlan collins is on the scene for us. kaitlan, today the president seemed angry that republicans weren't defending him fiercely enough. >> reporter: yeah, for the second day in a row the president's anger with his own party was on full display as he urged them, telling them they need to get tougher on impeachment and essentially signaling he'll need more public support while offering no public support of his own for his chief of staff. >> i don't need promotion. i don't need promotion. >> reporter: under fire and in front of the cameras, president trump was forced to defend himself on all fronts today. but there was one person he left out. >> mick mulvaney [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: making no mention of his embattled chief of staff mick mulvaney during the 75 minutes reporters were in the room today. mulvaney's job security is now in question after he backed off assertions that the white house sought a quid pro quo with ukraine for military aid. >> that is what people are saying that i said, but i didn't say that. >> rep

kaitlan collins, thank you so much.en it comes to the impeachment inquiry, will the white house seemingly no strategy strategy hold up as the president keeps taking to twitter. fact is, every insurance company hopes you drive safely. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that. now that you know the truth... are you in good hands? here's the thing about managing for your business.s when you've got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds- things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, there's the dell technologies cloud, powered by vmware. a single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. that should clear things up. can match the power of energizer. because energizer ultimate lithium is the longest lasting aa battery in the world. [confetti cannon popping] energizer.

kaitlan collins is out front at the white house and they've released new details that they put out there. how is the white house responding now that they've seen some of the specifics. >> they're not pleased because of the white house's position so far. they were waiting to see what the text of this is going to be and when you read this resolution it shows that essentially they are handing the reins of this to adam schiff, the house intelligence chairman who will have a pretty broad latitude here and that is something that the white house is attacking directly tonight in a new statement going after this vote that the house democrats have announced. they are slated to vote on thursday and this first impeachment inquiry vote they're going to have and the white house has been saying for weeks that they'll have before they consider cooperating and see this as legitimate and in a statement tonight, the press secretary saying that essentially by voting on this it shows that this has been, quote, an illegitimate sham from the start and they go after the fact that adam schiff will have so much p

more with all of this now from kaitlan collins who joins us from the white house. the president invoked the prospect of a civil war or raised the specter of it on twitter. >> that tweet, anderson kind of gives you an insight into how the president is viewing all of this. he feels embattled. he feels under fire. that's why you're seeing the president lash out the way he is on twitter, quoting people by saying it could lead a civil war-like fracture in this nation. aides are saying okay, impeachment is likely coming our way. we need to be ready for this, and they don't think the president is taking it seriously enough or realizes the implications that are facing him. they want the president to form a defense strategy that they can latch on to, that they can actually use and something that is aggressive that actually works. right now they don't feel like they found that, and it's been six days and they're frustrated that what we're being told by sources essentially is they feel like they're squandering this opportunity to shape the public message because the president

kaitlan collins tell us about that. >> he's been asked to testify next week on november 7th. house impeachment investigators have invited the former national security adviser who has been famously silent as all of this ramped up so the issues surrounding this call, a call that john bolton was not on but that his deputy was on instead. someone in kind of a bind of his own deciding whether or not he's going to appear. so right now we don't know if john bolton will appear. they have not issued a subpoena for him to appear yet but right now that is an invitation made and the question is is he going to take them up on it and if does he, what does he say? that is incredibly significant for all of this because of course we've seen all of the people going and testifying on capitol hill and not a lot of them had interactions directly with president trump. john bolton, of course, someone in the oval office almost every day and while he and the president soured in their relationship at the end, he knows a lot because he was at the center of this fight over this military aid with mick mu

jeffrey, kaitlan, thank you very much. there's a lot more to talk about on the damning text messages revealed overnight. we want to know what it now means for the impeachment investigation. what will we hear from republicans? how will democrats use this in the inquiry? stay tuned. without the lactose. so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive. yet some say it isn't real milk. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit! >> vo: my car is more than four wheels.y? it's my after-work decompression zone. so when my windshield broke... >> woman: what?! >> vo: ...i searched for someone who really knew my car. i found the experts at safelite autoglass. >> woman: hi! >> vo: with their exclusive technology, they fixed my windshield... then recalibrated the camera attached to my glass so my safety systems still work. who knew that was a thing?! >> woman: safelite has service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ hour 36 in the stakeout. ♪ limu emu & doug as soon as the homeowners arrive,

. >>> go to kaitlan collins also there at the white house. kaitlan, you have new reporting on the president's mindette behind the scenes. >> reporter: brooke, one thing the president made clear he's in a combative nude mow, looking at this situation. watching nancy pelosi and adam schiff give this press conference they gave earlier delivering warning shots to the white house about these requests for documents and for interviews, warning they will subpoena them in necessary. the president is growing angry, because he feels like he's being wronged here. he emerged from the russia investigation, declared vindication and thought it was behind him and now the president is trying to essentially grapple with what he's facing now and just how quickly this impeachment inquiry is moving. we reported last week when nancy pelosi announced this the president was inkrech lecredulo thinking she wouldn't do there. within days aides inside the white house felt the president didn't grasp the enormity what he was facing and they fill feel the president doesn't

cnn's kaitlan collins has the latest.t have you learned about the president's conversations with other world leaders? >> reporter: anderson, we're learning not only did president trump reach out to the australian prime minister about working with the attorney general to investigate the beginnings of the russia investigation, he also placed a phone call to the new british prime minister, boris johnson, over the summer, hoping that he could do the same. basically when these two world leaders got into office, president trump didn't just see it as a potential diplomatic opening, anderson. he saw it as a political one, one where he could potentially achieve this long-standing goal he's had of discrediting the russia investigation. >> and what did the president tell his advisers about the conversations about these leaders? do you know? >> reporter: he was pretty giddy about it. he didn't just think that politically they were more in line with them. he thought they'd be more cooperative with looking into the beginnings of this i

kaitlan collins joins me. a remarkable claim that the president made against adam schiff along with his claims about everyone else. >> reporter: but it is. we've heard privately just how much the president has focused and zeroed in his anger on adam schiff over the last few days as they've launched this impeachment inquiry against him. and you saw it play out today when the president was asked during that press conference about the "new york times" report that adam schiff's office got an early readout of a general outline of the complaint of the whistle-blower going to make before they had actually filed the complaint. the president was asked about that and he said he believed that adam schiff knew about the scandal before and then he said he would go one step further and say that he believed that house intelligence chairman helped this whistle-blower quite this complaint something the president provided no evidence for why he thought that and the whistle-blower's lawyer has said that is not true. but really t

kaitlan collins has more from the white house. >> reporter: yeah.e and christine, it didn't take the white house long to respond to this development on capitol hill. but privately, we're hearing from officials who have been insisting still, even behind the scenes, they do not believe this was a legitimate impeachment inquiry. they believe this could put them in a bind if these votes, with these procedures, do move forward. and these hearings are not in the basement as they have been. but out in the public for everyone to see and on camera. for everyone to see what the officials, current and former, are actually saying. the benefits for the white house is they are going to have someone in the room as these examinations, these depositions, are happening. and they can question the witnesses themselves. they will likely be able to get hands on the evidence the democrats have been gathering. but the white house is waiting to see what it is that democrats are going to do before they take any further steps, essentially, publicly, beyond that statement from

let's go to kaitlan collins at the white house. >> reporter: we knew this letter was coming.n expecting it. we didn't know it was going to be as scathing as it was. as you just noted there that essentially the white house is arguing that with this impeachment inquiry, democrats are trying to overturn the 2016 election. what's interesting is before this letter was sent out, we had been hearing from people inside the white house that they didn't see this probe as legitimate because a floor vote had never happened to where democrats actually had to vote to move forward with this impeachment inquiry, something democrats have maintained they don't need to do. during a briefing call after this letter was sent to capitol hill yesterday, a senior administration official would not say what the white house would do, what is the standard for them to cooperate. if the house does take a vote and makes this a formal impeachment inquiry, would they then cooperate? they said they didn't want to get into hypotheticals. essentially they're waiting to see what the democrats do next, how they re

. >> kaitlan collins is at the white house.can you tell us about the president's strategy here, because it appears to be changing from yesterday. >> reporter: yeah, it does. and about that letter the president was talking about, we had been hearing thfrs is was ie works. essentially it's framing this white house argument we've been hearing since last tuesday that unless nancy pelosi places a vote on the floor that they have to comply with these document requests, these requests for officials to go up to capitol hill and sit down with house democrats and talk about impeachment inquiry. so essentially they're going to send her this letter daring her to hold a floor vote. that's counting on the fact we've seen a surging number of democrats saying they support impeachment inquiry. they're going to make the argument that could change once they actually have to go on the record. they haven't sent this letter yet. we had heard they were going to and the president announced it this morning. we're waiting to see if they actually sent it

. >> let's go straight to cnn's kaitlan collins at the white house. kaitlan, what the president did yesterday was essentially confess to campaign finance violations. he seemed determined to clean it up today. >> reporter: yeah, he wanted to separate those two today saying the trade talks with china had nothing to do with him saying yesterday that china should launch an investigation into joe biden, of course, his political rival. we should know when the president brought it up yesterday, it was unprompted. a reporter didn't ask him if he should investigate the bidens, he brought it up himself noting that the trade delegation will be in china for another round of trade talks. which is why he brought it up, because he was talking about the tremendous leverage he has over china. you saw the president once again defending that call with the president of ukraine. that text he was pointing to by sondland, that's the ambassador of the european union, and as the ukranian envoy was there yesterday, he said there was no exchange for information on the bidens, b

. >> our kaitlan collins is at the white house. tell us what you're hearing, kaitlan. >> reporter: all of this got started last week where the president phoned in and said he didn't even want to make that july call to the ukranian president in the first place. instead he told these lawmakers it was the energy secretary, rick perry, who pushed him to do so. and there, of course, you see perry confirming, yes, he did push the president to do so, but he said it wasn't about the bidens. he wanted president trump to call the ukranian president to have a discussion about corruption, about transparency. rick perry is someone who has been back and forth to ukraine, i think, three times now that he's visited. in another interview he's saying, no, i didn't bring up the bidens during this sit-down with the ukranian president, and today in a statement, his spokesperson is confirming that, saying that in all the conversations he's had with these ukranian officials, including the president, they say hunter biden and joe biden have never come up

our kaitlan collins reports the president has been lashing out privately for days.rling is very public. first in this tweet complaining democrats are, quote, wasting everyone's time and energy on bullshit. he also spent the day again targeting house intel chairman adam schiff. both before and after it emerged, the whistle-blower contacted schiff's panel for guidance. schiff denies seeing it in advance. >>> later, he let loose on jeff mason of reuters as the president of finland looked on. >> the question, sir, was what did you want president zelensky to do about vice president biden and his son, hunter? >> are you talking to me? >> yeah, i t was just a follow-up of what i just asked you, sir. >> listen, listen, are you ready? we have the president of finland. ask him a question. >> i have one for him. i just wanted to follow up on the one i asked you, which is what did you want -- >> did you hear me? did you hear me? >> yes, sir. >> ask him a question. >> i will, but -- >> i've given you a long answer. ask this gentleman a question. don't be rude. >> no, sir, i don'

start there with you, kaitlan collins at the white house and talk about the letter in a sec. it didn't take long for the president to respond directly to joe biden. what did he say? >> reporter: about ten minutes before the president responded and twitter clearly watching joe biden's speech be saying "it's so pathetic to see sleepy joe biden calling my impeachment. i did nothing wrong. joe's failing campaign gave him no other choice." implying at the end the only reason joe biden called for his impeachment for the first time a noteworthy moment is because of his campaign and polling numbers. brooke, this comes as the president has been increasingly sensitive about this impeachment inquiry democrats say they're conducting on capitol hill. today president trump called for it to end after yesterday his white house sent that scathing eight-page letter say they go believe it's constitutionally invalid, that it violates precedent and the president's due process rights in saying, no, we are not going to be cooperating with any of your requests. now, they say they're not going to be

. >>> first let's go to cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. and the secretary of state suggests he won't let several state department officials be deposed by congress right now but cnn's learned that one of them who resigned friday is planning to talk anyway. >> reporter: pompeo delivering that broadside to house democrats but what we're learning is that someone at the certainty -- at the center of this is expected to give his deposition this week and that is kurt volker. the former special envoy to ukraine but he resigned last week after he got caught in the middle of the scandal over the president's phone call with the ukrainian president. he still is expected to go on thursday but now, brianna, the question is how much he'll say and whether or not the white house will try to limit or block it. >> it is a disgrace. >> reporter: tonight secretary of state mike pompeo is following president trump's lead. accusing democrats with questions about ukraine of trying to intimidate and bully state department officials into giving rushed depositions.

republicans are debating a new way to go after the impeachment process and as kaitlan collins reportshite house expert on ukraine testified today, president trump was lashing out at the purple heart recipient without naming him. accusing lieutenant colonel alex vindman of being a political opponent asking was he on the same call that i was and how many more never trumpers will be allowed to testify. the president's attacks coming as the who is is privately deciding how to respond to the latest moves by democrats. who are now slated to take their first vote on the impeachment inquiry forcing lawmakers to go on the record supporting the investigation. >> we'll have to make a decision based on they're conscious. >> reporter: the vote could work in the white house's favor or against it. trump's aides are waiting to see what democrats do before making any moves. republicans have demanded for weeks that democrats must vote before the inquiry could be seen as legitimate. though today they claimed it is too little, too late. >> i applaud the speaker for finally admitting it is a sham but you

kaitlan collins now reports from the white house. >> it was a tremendous weekend. >> reporter: afterthe islamic state, president trump took a victory lap today. >> i want al baghdadi. get him and they got him. >> reporter: trump touted the death of the one of the most wanted men in the world one day after going into graphic detail about the operation. >> he died after running into a dead end tunnel whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. >> reporter: the president told reporters watching the raid was like seeing a movie. but there kwr -- were questions how a surveillance feed could show what was happening in a underground tunnel and today the chief of staff couldn't confirm the president's details. >> i don't know the source but i assume it was talking directly to a unit member. >> reporter: typically presidents are informed when moments like these happen and while he has no obligation to do so, the president defended keeping adam schiff and nancy pelosi in the dark. >> and the answer is because i think adam schiff is the biggest leaker in washington. >> reporter: trump's ma

but first to kaitlan collins. the president seems to think republicans should be doing more to protect and defend him. >> reporter: yeah, wolf, the second day in a row that you saw the president's anger with his own party essentially urging them to be tougher on impeachment and fight back harder than they are doing so right now. the president making clear he needs a more public showing of support, a show of support he didn't offer for his chief of staff today. >> i don't need promotion. >> reporter: under fire and in front of the cameras, president trump was forced to defend himself on all fronts today. but there was one person he left out. >> thank you, everybody. thank you. >> reporter: trump making no mention of his embattled chief of staff mick mulvaney during the 75 minutes reporters were in the room today. mulvaney's job security is now in question after he backed off assertions that the white house sought a quid pro quo with ukraine for military aid. >> that is what people are saying that i said, but i didn

kaitlan collins, thanks so much. >>> let's chew over this. jen the white house responded to bill taylor's testimony by calling the impeachment inquiry, a quote, "coordinated smear attack from far left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats", and then calling bill taylor a never trumpers and they are human scum. obviously the messages is pretty specific, they're going after taylor. >> obviously. and attacking the messenger and trying to discredit the messenger has been a tactic we've seen before and also a tactic that president putin and the russians used against ambassadors and other people in russia i'll point out. that is the strategy at this moment. now the problem they have is that there is so much detail that we have in front of us at this point. we have taylor's testimony, we have the whistle-blower complaint and we have the chief of staff of the white house giving a press conference. we know they did it. the question is what happens now and so this is kind of desperate in my view and taking some tactics from the russian friends' p

our white house correspondent kaitlan collins is working that part of the story for us. what is the latest? what are you learning? >> reporter: the president has seen several legal set backs with the drama as sunlen just laid out of the former ambassador to ukraine on capitol hill offering this scathing review of president trump and his state department and his personal attorney rudy giuliani who the president has questions about on his own. tonight president trump is taking blows from both congress and the courts. but in front of the cameras, he didn't want to talk about either. >> in respect to china and to the vice premier, we're only going to ask questions -- >> reporter: the former ambassador to ukraine is accusing him of personally pushing her out. an appeals court ruled his accountant must turn over his financial records to congress. and as he's facing an impeachment inquiry, today he denied bringing up joe biden with the chinese. >> i have not brought up joe biden. china can do whatever they want with respect to the bidens. >> reporter: the president making those

as kaitlan collins reports from the white house. >> reporter: after announcing he'll totally defy thevestigation, today president trump called for it to end. claiming it's tainted with political bias and demanding the whistle-blower be exposed and questioned. after the white house counsel wrote in a staging eight-page letter on tuesday that trump has a country to lead, the president fired off dozens of tweets today. seizing on a conservative media report that the whistle-blower has a professional tie to a 2020 candidate which cnn has not been able to verify despite the inspector general finding the complaint urgent and credible. democrats say they're calling the administration's bluff on stonewalling. >> they will ignore those subpoenas at their peril. you don't get to say no to a congressional subpoena. >> reporter: though claiming it wouldn't cooperate, the white house is gearing up for an impeachment fight any way. recruiting trey gowdy to help from the outside. the former south carolina congressman led the benghazi probe and once held this view on stonewalling. >> the notion that

kaitlan collins let me start with you. president trump and allies are dismissing this and acting as though it is no big deal but take a listen to republican congressman francis rooney of florida on cnn earlier today. >> you're saying at this point you are not ruling out the possibility that this is an impeachable offense for the president? >> i don't think you could rule anything out until you know all of the facts. >> it doesn't seem insignificant that a republican congressman would say that. >> no. and this is what mick mulvaney did, essentially putting republicans in a bind here. because they had been essentially saying the president has denied this, this wasn't the agreement and mick mulvaney came out and undid all of that. people were stunned after that briefing. people inside of the white house were texting me, a lot of the president's allies were incredibly critical of mick mulvaney including sean hannity who described i believe what he did as dumb and essentially they don't understand what the strategy was in mick

>>about his lawyers namely rudy giuliani, cnn's kaitlan collins reports. >>president trump is taking blows from both com congress and the courts. but in front of the cameras, he didn't want to talk about either. >>in respect to china and to the vice premier looking only as questions >>the former ambassador to ukraine is accusing him of personally pushing her. an appeals court ruled his accountant must turn over his financial records to congress and as he's facing an impeachment inquiry. denied bringing up joe biden with the chinese. >>china can do whatever they want with respect to the >>the president making those comments as cnn has learned he is now having doubts about his chief defender. >>everything i did was to defend my client. >>sources say rudy giuliani is still the president's attorney but after 2 of his associates were arrested on campaign finance charges. there are growing concerns, he's a political and potentially legal liability. questions trump himself has raised privately. >>i hope not again, i don't know how he knows these people. well then

i want to bring in kaitlan collins. she is live for us at the white house. kaitlan, there is a lot that came out of this cabinet meeting. we're going to turn around the tape. viewers should know we'll have that momentarily. but walk us through what you heard. >> reporter: this is a pretty wide-ranging cabinet meeting where you saw the president at the beginning already taking questions. we saw lengthy cabinet meetings in the past, brianna, and this is another one that seemed to go on and on, the president talking about his grievances in the beginning, everything from impeachment to criticism he's facing over his syria decision. then at the end not answering a question about the job security of his chief of staff mick mulvaney who of course cnn has reported on at length, noting that right before this impeachment inquiry got kicked off, there were questions about just how long mick mulvaney was going to be in this job and who it is that could potentially replace him. during this cabinet meeting that the president had, he was talking about his decision to bring

kaitlan collins is out front at the white house. the subpoena very significant. any response trt white house? have you heard anything yet? >> no. we reached out for comment and they haven't said anything. it just came out a short time ago and we should note the white house was expecting this. democrats signaled as much just a few days ago essentially saying they were sending a warning shot to the white house that they weren't messing around in this impeachment inquiry that they were pursuing and people back here at the white house have a different view of that. they've been arguing that not only are they going to keep their distance and they've been dismissive of these requests so far, but they say that's because democrats didn't vote to hold this formal impeachment inquiry. they're moving forward with nancy pelosi announced last week, but that is not the view here at the white house and that's why right now we've been in these discussions with the white house about this draft and letter that they're expected to send early next week is the time we're hearing and