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kaitlan, thank you for that.ndy, ordinarily when you go to someone and ask do you have anything to do with this guy lev parnas, nope, have nothing to do with this. then you get a tape like this. the next thing is a knock on the door and a set of cuffs. the president is not telling the truth relative in this context. >> it's yet another bold faced lie on the part of the president. last count we're over 16,000 or something according to "the washington post." how significant that is i'll leave to your viewers to figure out. i think the significance of this video is it goes a long way to bolstering the credibility of lev parnas on this whole story. parnas is a guy with deep issues in his credibility. he's got the outstanding indictment which includes the false statements, so there's all kinds of problems. but he is able to bring this sort of documentary or in this case video to the table that shows that at least in terms of these events, lev parnas has been telling the truth and of course the president has not been.

now, look, kaitlan.alue judgment aside here, there's no questioning that soleimani was a government official. yes, he was involved with terrorism, but he was a government official. that's what makes this different than the actions against bin laden or al baghdadi. and there is a division in congress over whether or not this is even legal. you have republicans saying they're behind this action 100%. but there have been democrats overnight who have noted, wait a second here. where's the authorization for this type of action? hey, wait a second. is the united states now involved with the assassination of government officials? so there is that political divide. >> yeah, and those are going to be the questions. why wasn't there congressional authorization for something like this because you're hearing from several members of congress they were not notified about this beforehand. expect the white house response to that to be that the president has pretty broad powers here. that's what we've heard from him in t

so, kaitlan, you've seen the video. what exactly does it show?ry interesting because we've gotten a transcript and now you are actually able to hear and see some of the dinner that happened with donors with the president in 2018 at his hotel just a few blocks away from the micwhite house. these were two men indicted on campaign finance charge e associates of the president's attorney rudy giuliani, and he has denied knowing them, saying y maybe he has these pictures that you're seeing with him and he's president and he takes pictures with the los of people and now with this audio that goes for over an hour long, you're seeing the president was at a pretty intimate dinner with these two men. you can hear their voices on the audio. it's not confirmed conclusively that it was them, of course, cnn wasn't at that dinner and it sounds like lev parnas who has been doing several interviews and listen to this exchange the president had with him with the dynamics between russia and ukraine, with the president asking how long ukraine could last if they got i

. >> to the briefing room, kaitlan collins was there asking questions. kaitlan, what did you think? >> reporter: well, there is still a lot of questions about exactly this attack on the u.s. embassy. and explicitly whether or not how imminent these attacks were that you heard then, the threats that the administration has been talking about. and the reason that these were the main questions here in the briefing room today had a lot to do with what the secretary of state said last night during an interview on fox news, he said he couldn't say precisely when or where these attacks were going to happen. so i asked him to define his definition of the word imminent since that's the word that secretary pompeo primarily has been using. you heard it sound from the president, some from the vice president as well, but not as much from the department of defense, mainly from the secretary of state and he said simply just that this was going to happen. of course, the question is whether or not that's going to satisfy lawmakers who say they have not gotten enough information about how imminent the

let's get to kaitlan collins for the breaking details. what can you tell us? >> well, we're learning more about how this decision process was made. senator lindsey graham was just on fox news and says when he was down here in palm beach with the president, he was briefed on the idea that this could happen. on this potential operation which, of course, became an operation that was carried out by the united states which the pentagon confirms last night. lindsey graham, we saw him exclusively from footage golfing with the president. riding in a cart together, at points speaking closely and then he was here the next day as well seen through photos that other users posted on social media being here. he says it was during that time he had been discussing this with the president and what the next steps would be after this. listen to how he described his discussions with the president during this interview just a few moments ago. >> i was briefed about the potential operation when i was down in florida. i appreciate being brought in the orbit. i appreciate president t

let's get back to kaitlan collins at the white house for some of the highlights. kaitlan? from the white house. it's about 110 pages, a lot longer than the outline you saw from them on saturday. essentially what you're seeing is they're laying out in detail this argument that you've been hearing from the white house, but what's notable about the difference in this and what we saw on saturday is on saturday we just got about seven pages from the white house, essentially saying they did not believe the articles of impeachment could stand on their own, and here they called them flimsy, but they break it down a lot more. they're defending the president's actions more in here than we had seen previously. it's not just talking about the articles of impeachment and the process and the substance here, it's actually talking about the withhold of this ukranian aid, the president's actions here, and you're seeing them defend what the president is doing. we didn't notice this on saturday, because in that short briefing, the white house wasn't denying the core of this, that the preside

jeff zeleny and kaitlan collins, hello to both of you. we saw house managers really use the president's allies against him. >> reporter: don, we did. good evening. and sitting in the chamber, one thing was clear. as the president's own voice kept coming back again and again, and a lot of the president's allies, including lindsey graham, a 1999 clip of lindsey graham arguing at the clinton impeachment trial when he was a house manager, there does not, in fact, need to be a crime to impeach. of course, that is the exact opposite of what the argument is the president's lawyers are making. we also saw a cast of the president's allies also being mentioned in the democratic impeachment managers' case throughout the day. william barr, the attorney general of the united states, and rudy giuliani, of course, again and again rudy giuliani was a central character in the discussion throughout the day. one thing was striking, don. the central question here is, is there going to be one more republican? is there going to be a four in all to join democra

kaitlan collins is here. kaitlan, what can you tell us? >> reporter: we got the short of the argument against these impeachment articles, now it's long. it's 110 detailed pages coming from the white house saying essentially what we will see the legal team arguing this week. they say these articles of impeachment, they believe, are flimsy and the result of a rigged process in the house, and that's why they don't think they're anything viable worth having an impeachment trial over. and they're saying because these articles of impeachment only allege abuse of power and obstruction of congress, not any actual crime, they say, quote, by limiting acts of treason, bribery and other high crime misdemeanors, it is already a known and established law. by keeping with that restriction, every prior president in our history has had violations of domestic law, indeed, criminal law. this argument is not going to fly on capitol hill. the question will be what the senators think of all this, and brianna, when you read through all this, you get a sense of w

let's bring in now kaitlan collins and sara murray. sara, first to you. house did not want the american people to see. they've now been released. what do they tell us? >> well, look, i mean, these were emails that the administration was supposed to hand over as part of a foia lawsuit. they handed over very redacted versions and just security, a website, managed to get their hands on unredacted versions and tell us what thing. first, they make it very clear the president was the one who decided to hold back this money and decided to release it and there's one email that really gets to that. it's on august 30th, it's from a top omb official, michael duffy, to a pentagon official and it says "clear direction from potus to continue to hold" and this email comes as the pentagon is raising all kinds of concerns that continuing to sit on this money, this aid to ukraine, could violate the law, that if this hold continues that the defense department can't ensure it will all make it to ukraine in time. you know, there was another email on august 27th from the compt

let's get to it, kaitlan collins has the new reporting. about the president's legal team? >> we have been hearing there

kaitlan collins. i can see right in front of the white house. kaitlan, thank you very much. appreciate that. i want to bring in now democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. senator, appreciate you joining us. know it's been a long day. so, again, thank you so much. you were on the floor for over eight hours today. over 12 hours yesterday. what's it like being in that room? take us there. >> well, it's still sort of an overpowering experience in the sense of the historical moment. whoever had the idea way back of making sure that senators cannot take their communication devices on to the senate floor had it exactly right because it does mean that you're more focused on the arguments being made. you're more focused on the presentation, the testimony, and the facts. rather than everybody distracted looking for their latest e-mail or text. so both the weight of the moment i think sinks in as a result of that, i will say sitting for those long hours is hard. you see a lot of us after a couple hours get up, sort of stretch our legs a little bit and listen from -- from the

cnn correspondent kaitlan collins is here now, and kaitlan, tell us what you're hearing from the white house. >> reporter: brianna, that tweet itself from the president has gotten a lot of pushback from the democrats saying that's just not how this is going to work. you're continuing to see criticism from the democrats over this airstrike and that they were essentially left in the dark. we're told we can expect a briefing from trump's national security aides this week where they'll likely learn more about this intelligence that mike pompeo said they had that led them to believe there was a threat that was imminent, and that's why they carried out this strike. but there are mixed messages coming compared to what thetsd they're going to do. they said they have already prepared in case iran does do something. it included cultural sites that became a big point of backlash from people saying that would violate international law. now you're seeing aides say the president did not say this, including secretary of state mike pompeo, who did six interviews today, saying the president did not say

the public does not hear testimony from john bolton or any other witness during the senate trial kaitlan collins reports. >>senate majority leader mitch mcconnell announcing today, he has the votes to set the ground rules of the impeachment trial without the support of democrats we have the votes. >>once impeachment trial the gun. to pass a resolution mcconnell only needs 51 senators and potential swing votes like susan collins lisa murkowski and mitt romney have all backed his approach. >>though republicans are still waiting on speaker pelosi to send the articles of impeachment to the senate that continues to be my home the. >>the speaker will show them on over sources say pelosi has been so secretive about what she'll do she hasn't even told some of her closest allies like minority leader chuck schumer. >>democrats say they want a deal upfront to hear from witnesses a demand that has only intensified after the former national security adviser john bolton said he's prepared to testify if subpoenaed that announcement said white house aides scrambling sources say several of trump's top ad

kaitlan, this is a lengthy statement coming from john bolton. what is he saying?rter: it's lengthy, but all the news, kate, is at the bottom that in the statement, donald trump's former security adviser said, quote, i conclude that if the senate issues a subpoena for my testimony, i am prepared to testify. that's big news. it hangs on a lot of conditions, especially since senate republicans so far have shown no willingness to invite any witnesses to come and testify at that senate trial when it's going to happen when we don't know, still. that's still something that's very unclear. but this is substantial news coming from john bolton who, of course, has been at the center of this ukraine drama. he was the national security adviser here in the white house who pushed repeatedly for the president to let go of that aid that he had on that military aid to ukraine. that aid, of course, we've learned he was withholding because he wanted those investigations conducted into the bidens, and of course he wanted statements out of the ukranian leaders and their government on t

let's go to kaitlan collins now from west palm beach. all we have seen is that tweet of the american flag overnight. secretary pompeo who will join us in a moment said this is in response to an imminent threat to american lives. do you know what led to this and how long the president had this in the works? >> well, the question for these officials is going to be just how imminent was that we do have answers yet. so far it's just been that tweet. silent from the president. though we did see him golfing yesterday on the course for about five hours. he didn't make public appearances. we do expect to hear from him later on this afternoon. still on open question. because so far we've gotten that statement from the pentagon which the white house was referring us to late last night. at the direction of the president and they were citing that intelligence that they were worried about attacks on americans. part of that statement said this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans. says the u.s. will continue to take all necessary

kaitlan collins is in the white house. kaitlan, what are you hearing? >> reporter: the question will be what does the president say today given the accusations lev parnas made against him. we know the president has been distancing himself from lev parnas and his associate since october when they were first indicted. but the question is now, because given the interview he gave last night where he accused the president of knowing everything on the pressure campaign against the ukranians on this investigation. it's not just the president. listen to what he said to anderson cooper last night, not just in talking to the president about this but also his top aides and what they knew about what he was doing. >> in terms of who knew about what you were doing in ukraine, did vice president pence know? >> of course. >> because his office has said he was unaware of -- you know, that he had met with zelensky after not going to the inauguration, but i wasn't delivering a message of quid pro quo. >> again, like i said, i'm not here to debate, i'm here to get the trut

kaitlan collins is out front live outside the white house. history of starr and trump makes this so personally fascinating. but what more are you learning about why trump picked starr and the others on the team. >> reporter: now with these documents coming out tonight, they're going to have a lot of work on their hands sorting through the materials as they're getting ready to defend the president in a matter of days. when it comes to why trump picked starr and dershowitz, we're told a lot of it had to do with the fact they had tv experience. some didn't have that, especially pat cipollone where you can't find him appearing on interviews, as opposed to jay sekulow who appears on interviews and hosts his own radio show. the president wanted to bring in people he knew would be good on television. ken starr is notable because he's been commenting throughout the president's impeachment at times talking about bombshell testimony saying he didn't believe the president should have been tweeting about ambassador yovanovitch when he was tweeting about

kaitlan collins is outside the white house. kaitlan, do we know what is behind the changing stories, the changing narrative that's come from the president? >> no, that's really been the question facing them for a several days now. i don't think they did a lot to answer that today or to suffice the questions their critics have been raising. that's the big question. why do we keep seeing these different reasons from different officials ranging from the pentagon to state department to west wing over what it was that led the president to carry out this strike and why the top national security aides have been reluctant to reveal information about this. you're seeing the president slowly do it himself by being the first person to say he believed they're plotting to blow up the embassy, then saying it was multiple, then today being specific saying four embassies though the white house is declining to say what those embassies were or whether they were warned there was a plot the president says they were planning. the other big question

kaitlan collins is out front. kaitlan, tell us the reporting that you have.e officials reluctant to hold the hearing? >> reporter: what sources are telling my colleagues is that a lot of it has to do with the president's anger after they testified publicly last year. you'll remember back then about a year ago today, the president was so mad as he was watching the highlights that sources told us he was literally screaming while watching people like dan coats, the former director of national intelligence talk about things like iran, north korea and the like because they were contradicting a lot of what you hear from the president publicly. now these intelligence officials have made the request saying they don't want to testify about this publicly. you can imagine why given what you were just talking about, the soleimani strike, all the issues you see the intelligence contradicting itself in recent weeks. while it's not the expectation that the request is going to be granted, we do still believe this report, this report that tells us the biggest threat essential

kaitlan, so, embassies tonight, embassy earlier today.mation. >> yeah, the president seems to be revealing a lot today. and it caught everyone's attention when the president seemed to say that kind of offhandedly earlier today when he was speaking with reporters here at the white house. we have gotten more clarification from a senior defense that confirmed yes, general soleimani was planning multiple attacks and included an attack on the embassy in baghdad that did involve explosives. that was one of many plots soleimani was planning out, strategizing on. they didn't give a lot of details on what the plots included citing security information saying it was sensitive information. so, it is notable that the president on stage at the first rally of the year in ohio says it was not just singular, embassy, which is what he said at the white house earlier today. he is saying it was multiple embassies there were plots on. this is notable not only for the reason that the president and the administration have been saying is behind the reason to au

. >> kaitlan collins from the white house. the president pushing back and pushing back pretty hard there, but also insisting he has to keep the intelligence people are pretty mad about close to the vest. >> that will not please people like rand paul and mike lee, mike lee saying it was one of the worst briefings he's had in the nine years he's been in the senate, pretty much saying it was inefficient and what the president was asked about there, saying he would have to go to congress before a strike in the future, and he said sometimes you have to make split second decisions. that's what mike lee said, they gave a hypothetical question to the president, asking if he made the decision to strike iran's leader, would they have to come to congress on that, and they were saying they did not get good answers on that. the president said he knows mike lee, he's never seen him like that, talking about the outburst coming from mike lee yesterday, clearly unsatisfied with how the briefing went down, though the president didn't get into e

we just saw kaitlan, right? he's still there.en there for two weeks and he has been ranting about impeachment and the democrats. more than 60 tweets or re-tweets about this topic and people that have been visiting him there that he's been apparently spending a lot of time with are people who are central to this, rudy giuliani on that list and then of course, alan dershowitz who has been advising him in some sort of unofficial capacity as well as friends in the media that he has. what does this tell you about what he's going to do, this defense strategy? >> well, it tells you that there really aren't adults left or around and i'm sure john had the same experience and we worked pretty hard about making sure who got access to the president and who didn't and both rudy giuliani and alan dershowitz have big legal problems right now. rudy is being investigated by sdny. and dershowitz has sexual assault of minors and these people wouldn't be allowed near the president and it's one of the reasons why we are where we are. the president li

i want to go to the white house where kaitlan collins is standing by. the president has been briefed. what are you hearing from the white house? >> reporter: yeah, he's been briefed. the white use is aware of the attacks though they're not confirming any details about them. the president is going to continue to monitor these attacks and the updates about them with his national security team. we know the secretary of state mike pompeo was here at the white house earlier, but we did see him leave earlier today. i do want to point you to a tweet we are just getting from speaker pelosi's office, one of her aides saying she did speak with vice president mike pence tonight just moments ago around 6:34 p.m. they say in this tweet and he briefed the speaker on the attacks. now, erin, we have a lot to learn as barbara starr was saying a few moments ago about the attacks and what's going on. but let's remind the viewers about that threat from the president just two days ago where he said if iran did retaliate for the strike of that general that was killed and if

jump in. >> reporter: one other thing, as kaitlan talked about. the biden campaign thinks they are doing better because of this impeachment fight. as joe biden at the center of these attacks from president trump, they believe that's part of the reason that they're starting to see an uptick in kwix contributions. >> makes sense. now getting fund-raising numbers as iowa caucuses are a little over a month away. several democrats set to crisscross the state in the coming weeks as a last-minute push to woo voters. joe biden likely hoping his first endorsement as arlette mentioned, the freshman democrat who turned her district into blue will help him get across the finish line. and fantastic to follow on instagram not because of her precious daughter but all of her posts from iowa. basically have an address from there i'm sure. and a report many caucusgoers are still undecided. you see biden and sanders both speaking, in iowa right now. who are the top candidates that voters are talking most to and are there microbattles shaping up among them? >> report

with day one in the books, cnn's kaitlan collins looks at what we can expect as the rest of the senate unfolds. >> reporter: there are sources who say the president is pleased with how things went. it was brief, two hours. that's the first time we've heard from the president's defense team. now, there are other people who believe they could have been more aggressive. it's been essentially this kind of weighing debate here at the white house over how aggressive they should be because some people including the president want them to come out, had this defense while others say, know, you've got to know your audience. there are 100 senators. if you come out and you're essentially this boisterous performance, they're not going to be receptive to it. that's the question going forward. their ultimate goal is to poke holes in this so-called democratic nair active. as you heard from pat cipollone, they believe the burden is on the democrats and they do not believe the democrats met that in their nearly 24 hours of presentations laying out the evidence against the president talking about this pr

kaitlan collins, arwa damon and becky anderson. thank you. >>> what could that retaliation look like? who is at risk from cyberattacks in the u.s. to potential attacks on americans and americans around the world. >>> plus -- newly released emails show the order to withhold that critical military aid from ukraine, where did it come from? directly from the president. there are emails documenting that. this fueling democrats' calls for witnesses in an upcoming senate trial. senator mcconnell will speak as he gavels in the first congress of the year just hours from now. >>> iran now threatening to retaliate. richard haass, former director of policy planning for the state department under george w. bush tweeted the following. make no mistake, any war with iran will not look like the 1990 gulf war or the 2003 iraq wars. it will be fought throughout the region with a wide range of tools versus a wide range of civilian economic and military targets. the region, and possibly the world, will be the battlefield. those are alarming words but t

we are live now from iran to baghdad, to washington, and lets begin now at the white house where kaitlan collins is live for us. you were in the room for the president's address this morning. he did not order a military response but iran is not going unpunished for its missile strikes aimed at bases and houses at u.s. troops in iraq. tell us about the president's next move. >> reporter: for five days the president threatened the u.s. would retaliate if iran hit americans or american assets. the president signaled there is not going to be a military response in response to what iran did with those missile attacks last night. instead, the president is saying he is going to pursue other options including imposing new sanctions on iran. >> as we continue to evaluate options in response to iranian aggression, the united states will immediately impose additional punishing economic tankses on the iranian regime. these powerful sanctions will remain until iran changes its behavior. >> reporter: now, the president said these will be powerful. that's pretty much it. he didn't elaborate any further

we have kaitlan collins and fred pleitgen and nic robertson is live in riyadh. the president said he wanted diplomacy and it was a bit mixed. what did he accomplish? >> he seemed to signal that the attack launched by iran is not a military one. he said the united states has powerful military equipment but it doesn't always have to use it and john, that's notable because for the last five days the president has been saying that if iran retaliated against the americans or american assets he wound responding. you heard similar messages coming out of secretary of state mike pompeo in several of the interviews he did on sunday. but for now, the president is signaling it is not going to be a military response. instead, he said he's going to impose more sanctions on iran, economic sanctions so he didn't elaborate what they will look like. we haven't gotten a notice from treasury, we should make that clear and he's reaching out the nato. another point that the president offered but did not elaborate on further so we'll be waiting to see if there's a briefing that happen

kaitlan collins with the latest from west palm beach in florida. >> reporter: yeah.ement we got from president trump initially in the wake of this news, was the photo of an american flag with no words next to it. the white house said, we shouldn't expect a statement from their side. they referred us to the pentagon. that said that this was carried out by president trump. he didn't have public appearances today. he was seen on the golf course, before returning to the m mar-a-lago club. he was seeming to be in high spirits. and we should note that the officials around the president, typically is a small group when he's on a trip like this away from washington. we were told by two people, that the national security adviser, robert o'brien, had recently traveled in and was on property at the time that the pentagon confirmed that this strike had happened. whether or not the president makes further remarks on this remains to be seen. he does have an event in miami. he will be seen in public on friday. whether he says anything is a question. kaitlan collins, cnn, traveling

and we begin with kaitlan collins traveling with president trump in florida. and the president just insisted he had no choice but to order that strike. >> reporter: he said the attacks are being plotted were imminent and sinister and the president's words and he said the action he took was not to start a war with iran but to stop a potential one. and that seemed like a defense in wake of the criticism that the president has received today amid concerns about how iran is going to respond to all of this. because many people have said they don't think it is a question of if, but when. and here is what the president said, essentially saying the united states is prepared for whatever it is iran might do in response to the strike. >> we have the best intelligence in the world. if americans anywhere are threatened, we have all of those targets already fully identified and i am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary. and that in particular refers to iran. we do not seek regime change. >> reporter: two things are notable there, jake. one, the president

as cnn kaitlan collins reports, despite these threats, president trump seems preoccupied with impeachment. >> reporter: president trump is airing the same 2019 grievances about democrats in the new year. >> what the democrats did in the house was a disgrace. >> reporter: claiming today that if this happened to a democrat, everybody involved would long ago be in jail and it would be considered the crime of the century. but as the president is now facing a senate trial and re-election bid, america's adversaries seem to be taking notice. >> it's time to shake the rust off of america's foreign policy. >> reporter: promising that on the campaign trail in 2016, trump is facing challenges from both iran and north korea. an iran-backed attack on the outer walls of the u.s. embassy in baghdad is now under control. but today the defense secretary warned there could be additional threats. >> we will act in response to actions by iran or its proxies and we will act to preempt any attacks on our forces, our personnel. >> reporter: iran's recent behavior undermines trump's june claim that his sanctions

kaitlan collins, earpiece back in. kaitlan is covering the president for us. she's in mar-a-lago. critics of fearful otherwise? >> reporter: critics are. heard it from democrats saying they disagree with the decision to strike and kill this commander, but were questioning what the aftermath would look like and what the larger strategy would be from the administration. now you didn't hear the president highlight that or go into what exactly he thinks the response will be. not even predicting what ethinks iran will do but defending his decision to authorize this strike that killed iran's most powerful military leader saying we did not do this, take this action to start a war. we took this action to stop a war. now, that comes as we've been reporting that the president has been hearing a little pushback from some people questioning what the aftermath of this is going to look like, but these are the first public comments the president has made since reports of these strikes first broke last night and the pentagon later confirmed that, yes, it was the united states behind it and, yes,

kaitlan collins is here. what did he decide he needed before the trial begins tuesday? >> reporter: he wavered at what he wanted. he wanted the house republicans who have been so good on the team, but he was told, no, you need real lawyers that they have to appeal to. mitch mcconnell has been telling him the house members like john ratcliffe is not the way to go. the president seems to be listening to that advice. he's adding these seasoned attorneys, and the biges are ken starr and alan dershowitz, and they're notable not only because of ken starr's obvious role in the investigation that led to bill clinton's impeachment, but also because he is a prominent figure on television that the president watches often and likes on tv. the president wants people real good on television on his team. that's something he's been pushing, voicing concerns that cipollone had that strong tv appearance that alan dershowitz and ken starr have. the president and dershowitz went back and forth on whether or not he was going to join the team. we're told on tuesday the president essentially

our correspondent kaitlan collins.ow. >> we're learning about three new members who are going to be added to president trump's impeachment legal defense team. sources are telling my colleague pam brown and i that alan dershowitz, the famed tv lawyer the president has been relying on for advice for several months now throughout the mueller investigation and impeachment is expected to add -- to join the president's defense team. we got a statement on that saying that professor dershowitz is going to present oral arguments at the senate trial to address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and removal. while professor dershowitz is nonpartisan when it comes to the constitution, he is opposed to the impeachment of president bill clinton and vote forward hillary clinton, he believed the issues go to the heart of our constitution. he's participating to prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent. of course, that is not the only person. we're also told that robert ray and ken starr are expected to

cnn's kaitlan collins looks at what we can expect as the rest of the senate trial unfolds. >> reporter: there are sources who say the president is pleased with how the performance went today. of course it was pretty brief. only two hours. that was the first time we've heard from the president's attorneys formally since this inquiry got kicked off with nancy pelosi back in september when this whistle-blower came forward with this complaint. now, there are other people who believe that they could have been more aggressive. it's been essentially this kind of weighing debate here at the white house over how aggressive they should be because some people, including the president, want them to come out, have this full-throated defense while others say, no, you've got to know your audience here. it's 100 senators, and if you come out and you're essentially, you know, this boisterous performance, it's not going to be something they are really receptive to. that's the question going forward. essentially their ultimate goal is to poke holes, sow doubt on this democrat narrative. as you heard from

kaitlan, thank you. let's get try to jemana. what are you learning from these iranian missile attacks? >> well, poppy, we did hear from the iraqi military. they say that it was 22 missiles in total that targeted these bases that house u.s. forces. they say 17 targeted al assad air base in the western al anbar province. they say two of those missiles did not explode. they also say five missiles targeted erbil province in the semiautonomous kurdish region. they say there were no casualties in this attack and perhaps the reason for this is we've heard from the iraqi prime minister's office in a statement saying that they had prior knowledge of the strikes they were notified verbally by the iranians that this will happen. they said they received this notification just after midnight. that's about two hours almost before the strikes took place. now iraqi and u.s. forces are housed together in these bases. they have joint operations, roomgs, so the iraqi prime minister saying they notified the iraqi military what they had been told wi

kaitlan, what's he saying? >> john bolton is speaking at a private event in austin, texas, behind closed doors. during a question and answer session he made some notable comments, defending witnesses who testified on the hill despite -- telling them they didn't have to go forward, they were protected and instead according to this report it says that he praised fiona hill, tim morrison, alex vindman, bill taylor, he said all of them acted in the best interest of the country as they saw it. members of the administration feel like they can speak their minds without retribution. i think it's very nearly the reverse, the exact reverse of the truth. that's what he said behind closed doors and this report also says he briefly mentioned his new book though it doesn't go on to say what all is in that book. the book has been at the center of all of this. we may not hear more from john bolton until the book gets published. >> we probably don't know if this was a paid speech. it was to a private company, correct? >> it's e

as kaitlan collins reports, it is tough to keep track of the trump administration's shifting stories. >> reporter: without offering any specifics, president trump now says a top iranian commander killed in a u.s. air strike was plotting attacks on multiple u.s. embassies. >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four em bar b -- embassies. >> reporter: and earlier, the ek is tear of state dismissed criticism that the administration has not backed up the claim that killing can general soleimani was justified by an imminent threat. >> we had specific information on an imminent threat and the threats included attacks on u.s. embassies. >> reporter: the questions of how immediate the threat was have been fueled by answers like this from pompeo. >> there is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks plotted by qassem soleimani and we don't know precisely when or where, but it is real. >> reporter: pressed to clarify the word "imminent" pompeo paused. >> secretary pompeo, what is your definition of imminent. >> this is going to happen. american lives were at risk and we

let's get to it, kaitlan collins has the new reporting. what are you learning and hearing about the president's legal team? >> we have been hearing there was a chance the president could add people to his legal team as they went along. we have been waiting to find out when they were going to announce this. the president had been back and forth between adding the house republicans, adding new attorneys and now it is the three seasoned attorneys that the president is adding to his team, who have a lot of television appearance. that's a big factor for the president when deciding when it is he's going to pick we report he was voicing concerns about pat cipollone not having a lot of television experience and going on the senate floor and defending him. we know it is going to be alan dershowitz, robert ray who succeeded ken starr at the office of the independent counsel and ken starr, the hard charging prosecutor who lady bill clinton's impeachment. alan dershowitz is a notable figure. the president and dershowitz have been going back and forth

kaitlan collins has this report. >> reporter: after waiting nearly a month, nancy pelosi says that the house will wait until wednesday to send the impeachment charges to the senate against the president. >> and there is a full consent of the caucus that those articles of impeachment will be transmitted to the senate. >> reporter: following a closed-door meeting with the caucus, pelosi issued a statement saying that the american people deserve the truth and the constitution demands a trial. but there are still questions about what that trial will look like. pelosi offering no hints today about which democratic lawmakers she'll choose to serve as prosecutors and announcing that, too, will have to wait for tomorrow. >> that is a question to be addressed by speaker pelosi. >> the vote is going to kick off trump's long-awaited trial in a matter of days. >> next tuesday. >> reporter: and jump starting a clash of the republicans and the democrats over the demands to include new witnesses and evidence. >> there is no constitutional exception, for a house majority with a short attention span. >

kaitlan collins, dan bose, jeannie poultry and gina davis with the "new york times." it's been more about the process than the decision with the president. did she win here? >> she did get a lot of focus on whether the trial is going to include witnesses and the degree to which mr. mcconnell has indicated he'll be working hand in glove with the white house, which i think she knew from the get-go, many lawmakers knew from the get-go, but she did get a lot of public attention on that, and asman u sa manu said, he ca saying there might be more facts to come forward in this trial, but really, i think she was at the point of diminishing returns. they got what they were going to get and there started to be some discomfort by democrats about holding this out when everyone knew what the outcome was going to be. >> now we know the outcome. we don't know the exact timing, but the house will come through on tuesday, they'll finally bring it to the floor. he says we're going to have the clinton rules, mitch mcconnell, which means the house managers present their case. the preside

cnn's kaitlan collins is reporting from the white house that the president is lashing out and a majority of the american people are believing they are less safe after the strike for the iranian general. >> i think that honestly, we are arguing the semantics here. >> reporter: in the 11 days since the u.s. launched a drone strike killing a top iranian commander, president trump and his national security aides have struggled to explain why now. >> secretary pompeo, secretary esper and ambassador ryan and the president have always said that there was a imminent threat. >> reporter: mike pompeo said first that his attack was imminent and then raised eyebrows by saying that he didn't know when or where. today, the president insisted it is imminent, and argued it doesn't matter, because of soleimani's horrible past, and despite a move that brought two nations to the brink of war, the intelligence has shifted repeatedly. >> what the president believes is that it could have been and he did not cite intelligence. >> reporter: after trump asserted without evidence that four embassies were in solei

. >> and now as kaitlan collins reports, many of the new hires have been making pro trump arguments now on the president's favorite television channel. >> reporter: days before the senate trial gets under way, president trump is adding firepower to his legal team. bringing in ken starr, alan dershowitz and robert ray. they all have one experience that is important to the president, television experience. and ken starr's independent investigation led to bill clinton's impeachment. >> those acts constitute a pattern of obstruction that is fundamentally inconsistent with the president's duty to faithfully execute the law. >> reporter: back then, trump didn't always think so highly of starr. >> i think that ken starr is a lunatic. i think that ken starr is a disaster. >> reporter: and now starr appears regularly on fox news where the sources say that the president has been watching him closely where he has analyzed his own trial. >> there is a huge question of will there be witnesses. >> reporter: and robert ray issued the final report on clinton. >> you don't impeach the administration bas

kaitlan collins is also at the white house, jim, let's start with you.nators? >> reporter: that's right, saying at this point the white house is kind of painting a doomsday scenario if witnesses like john bolton are called to testify in this senate trial of the president. this one source told me a short while ago that the white house is telling senators essentially that calling john bolton could trigger a nasty court battle that could last for months. democrats are pushing back on that, they've been pushing back on that kind of talk saying this calling of witnesses could be expedited by the courts. it is uncharted territory, so we don't really know. i will tell you talking to a source close to the president's legal team early this morning, they are saying at this point, if they call witnesses, we're prepared to deal with witnesses, but at this point a source close to the president's legal team says at this juncture, they are reasonably confident that witnesses will not be called to testify, and they're going so far as saying -- and i think this is how th

kaitlan collins joins us from the white house.the president's weighing in with advice for his legal team. what's he been saying? >> he was asked what does he want to say to them ahead of tomorrow and their first opening statements on the floor and he said to fox news tonight in an interview, quoting him now, what my people have to do is just be honest, just tell the truth, he said, about this forthcoming presentation. now, of course, that's not all the president wants them to do. we've also heard anderson from multiple people who say the president wants them to defend his call with the ukrainian leader as a perfect call. it will be interesting to see if that's a tactic they pursue or if they just go after the house's investigation of the president because we know that there are several republican senators who when that call transcript first came out did not say it was a perfect call. >> you know, it's funny because if you ask pretty much any senator that question, either the senators pretend they haven't heard you or they answer t

kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you very much. joining me to discuss, bob barr, served as a manager in the senate impeachment trial of bill clinton and julian edleston. an essential presidential argument here or defense team is that you cannot have impeachment without a crime. it is interesting that alan dershowitz, on the president's team, had two contradictory positions on this between clinton and today. have a listen and then i want to get your reaction. >> without a crime, there can be no impeachment. certainly doesn't have to be a crime if you have somebody who completely corrupts the office of president and who abuses trust and who poses great danger to our liberty, you don't need a technical crime. >> bob barr, what is your view? >> my view is that the phrase that the president's lawyers included in their six page answer over the weekend is absolutely iron clad, perfectly correct. the language in the constitution says very clearly that the only basis on which a president can be impeached and removed from office is treason,

kaitlan collins joins us from the white house. have we heard what the president thinks his legal team did today? >> several sources say the president is pleased. he liked how today went and was encouraging people to watch it. we know he and the vice president both watched it very closely today. but of course the question pretty much always does with trump comes down to coverage. it will be interesting to see what his reaction is in 24 hours from now after those sunday political talk shows have happened because that's when the president is going to be watching. of course you're going to see hosts compare how the democrats laid out their arguments and close to 24 hours compared to these two hours from the president's legal team. but right now the president's legal team feels good about today and they look forward to monday. >> alan dershowitz is talking monday. what is the white house's plan for laying out the argument? >> the question is still how long they're going to go for on monday because they don't think they need time to lay

joining me now, cnn's sara murray, kaitlan collins, they have been working all day, doing a heck of a job, thank you for joining us. sara, this new tape, then impeachment. we're getting new details about that recording where president trump is heard demanding the firing of ambassador yovanovitch, what can you tell us about it? >> that's right. this is what we're going to play for you, a portion of what is an almost 90-minute tape, and it is the president talking to a man he says he didn't even know, lev parnas, about efforts to fire then ambassador marie yovanovitch, listen to what the president said. >> the biggest problem there i think where we need to start is we've got to get rid of the ambassador. she's still left over from the clinton administration. >> the ambassador of ukraine? >> yeah, she's basically walking around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached, just wait. >> really? >> it's incredible. >> sure, he'll be gone tomorrow. >> now that we have a secretary of state that's been sworn in -- >> get rid of her, get her out tomorrow, i don't care, get her out tom