then of course kurt volker decided to resign last week. is going to want to defend himself here. it's going to be his opportunity to bring his side of the story forth because he has remained largely publicly silent and so has the state department. now we know that just yesterday a bunch of the documents for his deposition were brought to congress so that they could review him before -- review those documents before today. and tomorrow is the big deadline for the state department because those documents that have been subpoenaed, forced to be compelled to produce to congress by pompeo and by the state department on the connections between ukraine and the state department are expected to come tomorrow. but we'll have to see if the state department actually complies with that subpoena because as you said, jim, there is some inner turmoil here. secretary pompeo has tried to prevent those five current and former state department officials from attending the deposition in the time period that the committee requested. >> and you know what, some of

you know kurt volker. what do you make of his testimony today, and what more do you think we are going to be learning about it? >> right. so as you say, lawrence, i know ambassadori ambassadorave onovich. >> and i know kurt volker. and i happen to know from a source close to the investigation a bit of what happened today and a bit of the context i fess. this is second hand, at least. but essentially it seems that what volker was trying to do. and i've known him for a long time. so i am giving him a lot of the benefit of the doubt was to try to maneuver the situation so that he can get president trump to meet with president zelensky, the new ukrainian president. he thought that giuliani was feeding a bunch of garbage that he had heard from some ukrainians and one ukrainian in particular to president trump and that he just needed to get the truth from zelensky. the problem here is that kurt volker is the envoy, the president's envoy. the president should be listening to kurt volker who is a long-time never m

>> it will be interesting to hear from kurt volker. he was a career diplomat. was surprised like many others that have followed his career to see that he was involved in this whistle-blower memo throughout this process trying to facilitate meetings for rudy giuliani with ukrainian officials. now obviously we'll hear more from him tomorrow if he does testify behind closed doors. he's got a career long reputation. he has been respected by members of congress and diplomats from both sides of the aisle. so whatever his role in this, we'll hear more about it tomorrow. maybe it was just hoping that whatever it is, even if it is something that he believed to be untoward, if it would help facilitate what the ukrainians needed maybe he thought that was worth doing. perhaps he did speak out and said something to mike pompeo. i don't want to put words into his mouth. we'll find out more from him tomorrow but it is clear that he is now a private citizen. he resigned. he hasn't objected to speaking out and it is interesting to see mike pompeo seemingly defend these five off

it's a little ambiguous, is what kurt volker was saying.do know is there is a months-long orchestrated campaign to get ukraine to investigate biden, and this was after donald trump specifically blocked critical military aid to ukraine that congress had specifically appropriated. >> i want to ask because yesterday trump said he wasn't interested in political rivals. yesterday he said he should investigate joe and hunter biden. >> the president might want to watch the video of his remarks yesterday on the south lawn. i served in active duty in the military because i believe america is an exceptional country, and we are all americans. the american president should never, ever solicit a foreign government to target a political rival. that is unamerican, it's wrong, and it's abuse of power. >> congressman ted lieu, thank you so much. >> thank you, brianna. >>> republicans have remained mostly silent since the president asked the countries to investigate the bidens. they're starting to feel the heat on their own districts. >>> president trump is

in a text exchange with the acting ambassador to ukraine and with the special envoy to ukraine kurt volker. the news that we have now is that in the intervening time between when volker and sondland were texting, sondland himself was communicating with the president possibly on an enkrichlencryp encrypted app. so was sondland getting the line from the president directly that there was no quid pro quo because that seemed to be something that volker was concerned about. that is the news that we have. i want to bring in joel rubin into the conversation. and joel, you worked at state. i sort of think that we need to understand, why this have been a normal course of events for an ambassador to a place that isn't ukraine to be involved in this conversation, to put the special envoy on hold, on text basically, and go check with the president about what the real story was or what story the president would like to have out there, and then communicate that, and then tell everybody let's get off text so that this is not memorialized? >> wow, you just laid out everything that could possibly be wrong a

kurt volker, formerly nato ambassador, ambassador to ukraine, he will testify behind closed doors. pages were already delivered ahead of his deposition today. >>> a source says that volker was, quote, never on the trump train. that's a line the administration may be rolling out what could be damaging testimony in the impeachment inquiry stemming from president trump's pressure on the president of ukraine to dig up dirt on potential rival in 2020 joe biden. democrats say more subpoenas would be coming if the white house refuses to release more documents related to that effort, and yet another person on that ukraine

this is to gordon sondland and kurt volker. this is from kurt volker's cache.'s what gordon sondland says. do we still want zelensky to give us an unequivocal draft meaning a statement that he will investigate 2016 and baresma? two weeks later, this is to bill taylor. are we saying security assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on these investigations? that's when the ambassador gordon sondland says call me. >> i love that. you see why prosecutors love this kind of evidence. it's a gold mine. because you see the actual words of the actual players at the time it's all happening. you can't spin it after the fact. it's in text. it's preserved. so talk about a quid pro quo. i mean, conditioned on the investigation? that's english for quid pro quo. you get this, conditioned on me getting that. and the best part is, call me. which is translating to, of course it is but don't put it in a text, genius. so these texts are really incredibly valuable, i think, to giving a sense of what's going on here. they understood it was this for that. >> preet bharara wr

giuliani said repeatedly that he worked at the direction of the state department, and it was kurt volker that told him everybody he needed to know and everybody he needed to meet. but we expect that volker will tell the committees that giuliani has it all wrong. and that if giuliani was getting any help, he was just trying to table it as much as he effectively could. volker will say that he was not involved and that he told officials not to involve themselves at all in the 2020 election. he was never really a trump insider. in fact he was an ally to john mccain. he was doing it on a part-time voluntary basis. he has a full-time job as the executive director of the mccain institute. i'm told by people particular, when he gives his testimony, which is backed by documents, it could be very damaging to president trump, steph. >> is the president's administration going to do anything with the subpoenas. >> he said we will work together with shifty schiff. and house speaker nancy pelosi, and all of them, and see what happens. what does work together mean? it is not clear, he never gave a defin

washington post is now reporting that kurt volker told lawmakers that the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, was warned that ukrainian claims of alleged misconduct by joe biden and his son were not credible. that didn't stop president trump from repeating his request for foreign interference in the upcoming 2020 election. the president is now urging china to investigate biden, despite the impeachment probe that rose from a similar request to ukraine. and there's a new report just up from "the washington post" saying that an irs whistle-blower complained that a treasury political appointee tried to interfere with an audit by either president trump or vice president pence. oversight armed services committees and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. first, jim, the president now urging ukraine and china to interfere in the 2020 election by investigating joe biden. >> that's right, wolf. despite all the day's developments it's hard to look past what was a remarkable moment, one for the history books as p

ambassador kurt volker, he's been giving a deposition for several hours. do we know anything about that? what he's been telling lawmakers. >> reporter: lawmakers coming in and out of the hearing room. this is a staff led deposition, so generally speaking you have staff doing most of if not all of the talking, questioning. lawmakers in many cases are welcome to join in, but typically they are asked to watch quietly. volker has been in the room two floors beneath me since 9:00 this morning. they have been going all afternoon with a fairly significant number of lawmakers present, the democrats coming out have all stuck to a strict no comment. the republicans coming forward have teased you us a little bit saying nothing volker has said is playing into the impeachment narrative. and they're complaining about the process by which this investigation is being conducted. here's jim jordan, one of the president's strongest defenders saying much of that. >> we have never ever had an occasion where agency counsel was not allowed to participate where there were limitat

sun lynn serfaty, what are you learning about kurt volker. >> reporter: wolf, kurt volker is behind closed doors, telling them about warning flags he was giving to president trump's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani. "the washington post" reporting this evening that volker said he told giuliani he was receiving untrustworthy information about joe biden and his son hunter, and he essentially said to giuliani, do not trust these sources, you should be careful about putting faith in those accounts. this keeps in line with what we're hearing from a source familiar with volker's thinking going into the deposition this morning when he said he was essentially trying to get the biden, giuliani issue off the table. this has been a very lengthy day on capitol hill. volker arrived here a little after 9:30 this morning. now it is entering in the eight hour mark of testimony. >> i know we're going to get more information coming out. thank you very much. meantime, bring in congressman jimmy gomez, democrat on the oversight committee. thank you for joining us. we certainly have a lot to discuss now. let me

special envoy to ukraine, kurt volker. he resigned one day after being named in the whistle-blower complaint. that report alleges a cover-up by the white house of a call in which president trump pressures the president of ukraine to investigate a conspiracy theory about joe biden and his son. >> vohe also set up a meeting between trump attorney rudy giuliani and an adviser to the ukrainian president, part of an effort to move the biden matter away from official channels. now the justice department is telling the white house to preserve records of all of the president's calls with foreign leaders. democrats have warned they could be coming for those documents. cnn's sunlen serfaty is on capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning, david and christine. potentially a huge moment up here on capitol hill. the president's former special envoy to ukraine, kurt volker, is set to appear behind closed doors later today. volker was named in the whistle-blower complaint, the whistle-blower alleging that he had an involvement in the conver

special envoy kurt volker about his orders from trump regarding a meeting in kiev just one day after trump's infamous july phone call with ukraine's leader bowker's name is mentioned in the complaint provided to congress by an anonymous whistleblower house speaker nancy pelosi says the impeachment inquiry is investigating whether trump implied he would withhold military aid to ukraine unless an investigation was launched against there is a quid pro quo if you're if you are already a couple days apart and granting or withholding and then asking for favors to create dirt on your political opponent but trump maintains there was nothing nefarious about his phone call with the ukrainian president the whistleblower never says there was a conversation he got his information i guess sex or desert has he wrote something that was subtle 6 just the former vice president argued there's no evidence that he or his son committed any wrongdoing. just know there are no true george against me no i'm sure every independent news organization. as you charge. has found to be flat out lie still the number

be a long long road ahead or a short road who knows when will we know or do we know exactly what kurt volker said today. no because of course brant this is happening behind closed doors but we do know that you know kurt folk are of course now the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine and you know he was mentioned specifically in this whistle blower complaint and it's claimed that just one day after that phone call between president trump and the ukrainian president selenski volcker alongside the u.s. ambassador to the european union met with the press president selenski in which it was believed that they gave him advice on how to navigate trump's request and that what's interesting is that folk are also handed over documents before his appearance and also included in that are text messages that he had with rudy giuliani never rudy giuliani of course is the president's own private attorney and you know this as i said the testimony is taking place behind closed doors and while old this was taking place today of course we had some rather extraordinary comments coming from president donald trump.

the texts were provided by kurt volker. >> on july 25th, volker texted a top zelensky adviser.om white house, assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate get to bottom of what happened. the statement ultimately made it to president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani. giuliani said that statement didn't go far enough and suggested adding references that would imply investigation of joe biden and his son, hunter, and the 2016 election. >>> the newly released text shows a u.s. top diplomat was concerned. president trump was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars of military ad would amount to a quid pro quo. bill taylor texted gordon the u.s. ambassador to the european union. are we now saying security assistance and a white house meeting are conditioned on investigation. sondland responded, call me. >> there it is. on september 9th taylor spelled out his concerns. as i said on the phone, crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. four and a half hours later, sondland said i believe you are incorrect. the president has been cry

it's kurt volker. he was the u.s. voy to ukraine until last week when he resigned his post. the whistleblower complaint says that one day after the president's call with ukraine in july, volker and another u.s. official met with president zelensky, ukraine's president in the what's in the complaint. based upon multiple readouts from these mettings were meant to mean by various u.s. officials, ambassadors reportedly provided advice to the ukrainian leadership about how to navigate the demands that the president had made of mr. zelensky. those demands of course include pushing ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son. according to the complaint, volker had been working to quote unquote contain the damage caused by rudy giuliani's involvement and giuliani is trying to put this all on volker releasing the text messages between the two of them. giuliani says it shows he was working at the direction of volker and the state department. now kurt volker is having his say. joining me now is a former nato ambassador to nichol

messages appear to confirm reporting from the "new york times" that then special envoy to ukraine kurt volker and the u.s. ambassador to the union sondland help draft a statement for an investigation into the bidens. in a july 19th text message, volker text this to sondland had the had breakfast with rudy this morning, tearing up call with yurmak. he then adds, most important is for zelensky to say he will help with investigation. two days later, bill taylor the top u.s. dip crat in ukraine wrote this. president zelensky is sensitive about ukraine being taken seriously, not nearly as merely as an instrument in washington domestic, represent election politics. assuming president z convinces trump e will investigate, get to the bottom what happened in 2016, we will nail down a date for a visit to washington. then on august 9th, volker texts giuliani, quote, hi, mr. mayor, had a good chat with yermak. he was pleased with your phone call, mentioned z making a statement. can we all get on the phone to make sure i advise z correctly as to what he should be saying had whant to make sure we get this

former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker meeting this morning behind closed doors. as arrived on capitol hill for a transcribed interview with house democrats. john hannah is former national security advisor to vice president cheney and worked with volker during the george w. bush administration and came to know him well. good morning, john, to you and thank you for being here on "america's newsroom." tell us what you know about this man who is now behind closed doors with members of congress. >> well, i think he is exactly the kind of diplomat that americans would want dealing with very high level foreign policy issues. he is a foreign service officer by training. he has worked european issues for a long time. very tough on the russians and their aggression in ukraine and a great promoter of the cause of democracy in europe and in the trans atlantic relationship. >> sandra: if you were to say on paper what his job was within the trump administration how would you describe it? >> he was hired by former secretary of state tillerson to actually try and deal with the te

special envoy to the ukraine, kurt volker, handed them over to congress. volker resigned from his post one day after the release of the whistle-blower complaint. ignor gordon sondland donated $1 million to president trump's inaugural committee. and bill tailor is running the embassy in ukraine since there's no permanent ambassador at the moment. now we talk texts. jessica schneider is here on all things text messages. tell us what you found. >> pages and pages of texts turned over to house democrats that show how the administration was determined to push ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son and also to push ukraine to investigate what the president and rudy giuliani have wrongly said was ukraine's influence on the 2016 election. so one of the first texts, july 25th, of course, we know that's the same day of that now consequential phone call between the president and ukraine's new president zelensky. on this day, u.s. special envoy who abruptly resigned last week, he texted zelensky aide saying this, heard from the white house, assuming president z w

kurt volker. congressman quigley, i'll get to the text in a moment.take on rachael bade's reporting that volker testified a meeting between ukraine's president and president trump was contingent on the ukrainian president agreeing to make a statement regarding the bidens. >> i want to make clear i have read the text multiple times now. i was not there for mr. volker's testimony. but i can confirm that the u.s. held up -- used the power of the president to coerce ukraine to investigate biden and to also create something of an alternative universe as it relates to the 2016 election. and i think the big concern that the ukrainians had was having a white house meeting. i think that came before talk about military assistance as well. >> so excuse me, the timing of this, is this before the president's phone conversation with ukrainian president in july -- the end of july? >> look, this is all happening just before and just after. i think the bottom line when you read these texts is it basically substantiates every aspect of the whistle-blower's complaint, t

and i do know kurt volker. i've known him for a long time.e worked in the bush administration before taking on this job. remember kurt was an unpaid envoy. he was not confirmed by the senate. he's not part of the state department. so i think that made him somewhat vulnerable to be the person to try to set this up, right? they didn't go to the ambassador, they went to kurt. but kurt knows facts, he knows what the truth is about this prosecutor general, this hero from the right-wing conspiracy mr. shoken knows that he was not fighting corruption. and it sounds like he's beginning to lay down some of those facts now today in this testimony. >> what damage, ambassador mcfaul, can kurt volker do to sort of the fragile web of lies that donald trump and rudy giuliani hold up to their own base? it would appear that mr. volker is anything but some sort of lefty deep-state actor. he was picked by a very, very conservative secretary of state mike pompeo with deep and vast political ambitions that may be going up in flames quicker than this ukrainian col

because kurt volker tomorrow is going to be deposed on capitol hill.ruptly as the special envoy to ukraine. he is mentioned repeatedly in the whistle-blower complaint and that phone call between the president of ukraine and president trump. he is the person who connected rudy giuliani with zelensky's adviser. and he's the executive director at asu of the mccain institute. so is there anything wrong with him connecting president zelensky's adviser with rudy giuliani since we heard president zelensky on the phone call with president trump say that's what he wanted to do, what he wanted to have happen? >> so there's a lot there, alisyn. we don't know how much pressure he felt by the white house. and whether he did it begrudgingly. maybe he was ordered to do it. we don't know how much context volker had about these connections and what giuliani was trying to do. i'm sure he understood the element he was trying to dig up dirt on biden. how much did volker really know? it's troubling when i see a career foreign service officer, a man like him known for integ

kurt volker's name is all over this. what does he know about president trump and rudy giuliani leaning on ukraine to dig up dirt on joe biden? if the white house doesn't hand over documents, democrats are warning in and of itself that could end up as an article of impeachment as it was with richard nixon. >> the president has not taken all of this calmly. he raged and cursed on twitter. he also expressed anger while standing beside a foreign leader. he lashed out at a journalist trying to ask a seemingly simple question. >> 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, it was a follow-up of what i was asking. >> listen? are you ready? we have the president of finland. ask him a question. >> i have one. i wanted to follow up on the one i asked you -- >> did you hear me? ask him a question. >> i will. >> i've given you a long question. ask this gentleman a question. don't be rude. >> are you talking to me? that sounds fami

news and the key witness before the house of representatives in the ukraine scandal ambassador kurt volkers expected to resign from his position heading the mccain institute a source tells me. the institute had been sticking with volker the source goes on until his text messages showed that he was much more involved in the ukraine scandal than he had led others to believe. volker did not honor our request for comment. volker has been the former special envoy to ukraine who helps the trump administration pressure ukraine to investigate president trump's political rival joe biden in exchange for a white house visit as well as an investigation that would undermine the mueller report. as cnn's jessica schneider reports, colver had told congress that president trump believed ukraine was corrupt and said the ukraine leader is trying to take him down. >> reporter: former u.s. special envoy to ukraine kurt volker's opening statement to lawmakers obtained by cnn today details rudy giuliani's influence on president trump's perception of ukraine as he tried to convince the president that ukraine's ne

the president's former special envoy to the ukraine kurt volker is set to appear behind closed doors later today. now, volker was named in the whistleblower complaint, the whistleblower alleging that volker had involvement in the conversations with the ukranian president about the, quote, navigating the demands that the president has made of him. this comes as several key house committees are readying potential subpoenas of the white house as early as friday for key documents related to the president's phone call with ukraine. and also the holding up of ukrainian aid. the house oversight committee chair elijah cummings says the white house's disregard of multiple voluntary request for documents he says has left them subpoena and this keeps in line with the similar rhetoric that we've heard from house intel committee chairman adam schiff. he said up here on the hill wednesday, he warned against the blocking of witnesses, the blocking of documents coming from the white house, the stonewalling he said. >> we're not fooling around here. we don't want this to drag on months and months and

also, late word that kurt volker, the president's special envoy for ukraine, told house investigators today that giuliani was warned about the ukrainian sources of the biden allegations that he was peddling. the message to giuliani, that he was being fed, quote, untrustworthy information. additionally, cnn has learned that volker told house investigators he warned ukraine's leadership not to interfere in u.s. politics. this was after the call with president trump at the end of july. in other words, he told them not to do what the president and giuliani and later the vice president pence and others were pressuring them to do. there is yet more reporting from volker's appearance today. text messages, including one from the top u.s. diplomat to ukraine at the time telling american colleagues, quote, i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance to ukraine for help with a political campaign. and finally, on top of all that, there is new word tonight of another whistle-blower, this time at the irs, alleging political interference involving the president or vice president's tax returns

kurt volker, former state department envoy called joe biden a man of integrity.was perhaps trying to force all or putting more pressure on ukraine and get ukraine back into the swing of things of the president. he was not going after biden. >> i read a man of integrity and someone of 20 years dealing with never would have done any corrupt act being alleged. that only emphasizes the false a aspect of the story. >> tom people saying it is rich for the president to be going after the son of the possible opponent given the fact that he has not disclose his own finances and adult children are running trump business and getting all kinds of emolument. >> all the indictments on paul manafort and other people of the 2016 campaign is not as fired up about that than he is of joe biden. that's striking. >> that's corruption and whatever. >> mark murray, as always, thank you. >> we'll be right back. you. >> we'll be right back (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowere

i assume that's why you're outside to try to grab kurt volker as he's walking out. is that fair to guess? >> you know the beat well, hallie. that's right. you're right about that. we know that the former ambassador arrived about a half hour ago. our colleagues in that hallway staking out the room have told us that congressman mark meadows and jim jordan have entered the room to watch the proteceedings even though you have staff deshs. >> wait a minute. i thought it was a staff inquiry with volcker. >> the staffers are the ones taking the deposition but lawmakers are allowed to walk into this proceeding and watch. we saw that yesterday with jamie ras kin when the state department i.g. met on the senate side and he was there and briefed reporters after the fact. we expect to hear from jim jordan after the deposition happens and we'll have to see what if anything mr. jordan has to add to the record here. here's what i can tell you we expect that kurt volker is telling the investigators and this is based on people familiar with his thinking and people familiar with his

kurt volker i'm sure will be asked about that. dana and david, i want to get your take on the name mike pence. which all of a sudden in the last 24 hours has been invoked a great deal by the president and his team. why do you think, dana, that the story in "the washington post" is out there saying mike pence, he sure was involved with ukraine in many ways. he should have known the president's position on this. why are we hearing this now? >> well, for a lot of reasons. one, he was sent over there by the president. another is that he is somebody who's involved. the president has a very small inner circle. pence is politically sort of deft enough and has been for the past three years to kind of be where he needs to be, but be away when he needs to be away. and the answer is we don't really know exactly what the vice president knew, what we do know from our reporting from our white house team is that the vice president's people in his world are nervous about how this may or may not implicate him. and that suggests he was more involve

>> we have confirmed from kurt volker's testimony that there was no quid pro quo here.t happened in 2016. this is an issue that democrats and the media was very interested in not very long ago. how exactly was russian disinformation infiltrated throughout our politics for over two years, pushing an insane conspiracy theory about president trump and russia that was completely false. >> the intelligence community has already said that russia did interfere. the intelligence community did say that russia interfered with the 2016 election. and the challenge has been on the president of the united states to do more with that. and we have not seen any evidence coming from this administration that more is being done to address russia and now invite two foreign countries to involve themselves in this election. what is correct about that when you are sitting in the white house? >> he did not solicit foreign dirt on joe biden, he merely said we want to root out corruption in ukraine. looking at corruption, president trump wants to get rid of it. what was joe biden doing when he wa

and now kurt volker's testimony could be critical. here is a primer on just who he is before he resigned from his post. he was a key figure in u.s./ukranian relations. he is mentioned by name in the whistleblower kpcomplaint. it says a day after the july phone call volker met with zelensky and other officials to provide advice about how to, quote, navigate the demands the president had made. volker also offered to introduce president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani to a close zelensky adviser in mid-july before the phone call. that is according to a text message posted by giuliani on twitter. volker was the special representative for ukraine negotiations from 2017 until his resignation on friday. it was a part-time unpaid position. he was involved in negotiations to mediate peace between ukraine and russia. volker is currently the executive director of the mccain institute for international leadership at arizona state university and he was the u.s. ambassador to nato from 2008 to 2009. joining us now from capitol hill, geoff b

of course, many are still processing those text messages from former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker that he provided to lawmakers that could spell real trouble for the president the more and more we read through them. peter baker of the "new york times" sums up the importance of those text messages this way. the portrait that emerged from the texts and mr. volker's own testimony depicted a team scrambling to satisfy a deeply suspicious president and his relentless personal lawyer, mr. giuliani, who saw the united states' relationship with ukraine as predicated on its willingness to look into former vice president joe biden and other democrats. as we keep saying, it's a lot. and here to lead off our discussion on a friday night, susan page, washington bureau chief for usa today. john allen, nbc news national political reporter. former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade, and the aforementioned peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times." peter, i hate to begin on a friday night with a process question, but i must. what will happen to everything under way if, indee

>> kurt volker is a top-notch diplomat. promoting american interests in ukraine. >> neil: explain this, on an unpaid basis, how does that work? what is that about? >> this is unusual, but he had a job which he liked. that apartment wanted him to work part-time. they worked out an arrangement. i don't see anything peculiar about that. it suited both parties. >> neil: his familiarity with the whistleblower -- we don't know a lot about what he is sharing with investigators -- democrats and the committee. is it your sense that he would be a straight shooter about it? even if it meant saying something derogatory about the president that he would do just that? >> he is a professional at a straight shooter. if they ask him a question, he will answer it truthfully as best they can. >> neil: would he be aware of taking details or logs from that call -- not tapes and all, but anything having to do with it, put it on a different server and all that stuff that you have heard about? would he had be aware about it? >> he's a very savvy g

time again that he was working under the auspices of the state department, under the direction of kurt volker, i'm told what volker has told staffers of this committee is that that's not entirely the case, that if routineudy giulia thought he was getting direction from volker it's because volker was trying to table him as quickly as he could because giuliani wasn't working in the national interest. i'm told he was explicit with ukrainian leaders not to involve themselves in the 2020 u.s. election. the reason why that matters is because the whistle-blower complaint makes clear or it alleges that volker did have communications with the ukrainian leaders about president trump's desires to get the ukrainian president to dig up discredited dirt by rudy giuliani. the other point is when he did have that position at special envoy, it was a part-time, voluntary role. his full-time job is executive director of the mccain institute, he's described as a former ally of senator john mccain. >> and of course mike pompeo also is being swept up in this because he was involved in at least -- he was not comfor

special envoy to ukraine kurt volker's opening statement to the house intelligence committee. revealing how rudy giuliani tantsed president trump's thinking on ukraine. he claimed giuliani peddled dubious information as president trump remained convinced ukraine was full of terrible people who tried to take me down. a reference to the unproven allegations that ukraine was involved in the 2016 election meddling. volker described diplomats struggling to manage the fallout and convinced him the new ukraine leadership could be trusted. hours before he spoke with ukrainian president zelensky by phone on july 25th, volker was working behind the scenes to try to ensure a smooth conversation between the two world leaders. heard from white house, assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we'll nail down a date to washington and he said in a text from and reyer mac and the believe that it was the ukrainians not the russians who meddled in the 2016 election. >> when you read these texts, is it basically substantiated every aspec

with kurt volker, we'll get some information pretty quick will after she's done. >> our thanks to the front four. as we bring this week to a close. much obliged. >>> coming up for us, this latest case against the president started with a phone call. something everyone could understand. as we said, it's gotten suddenly complex. tonight we have something of an explainer. >>> joe biden appears before a tiny back drop and calls trump a coward. or as we call it, this week in political news, as "the 11th hour" just getting underway on a friday night. yeah, that's half the fun of a new house. seeing what people left behind in the attic. well, saving on homeowners insurance with geico's help was pretty fun too. ahhhh, it's a tiny dancer. they left a ton of stuff up here. welp, enjoy your house. nope. no thank you. geico could help you save on homeowners and renters insurance. it's been a long time since andrew dusted off his dancing shoes. luckily denture breath will be the least of his worries. because he uses polident 4 in 1 cleaning system to kill 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. polident.

this as house committee members heard the first closed door deposition of impeachment inquiry of kurt volker special envoy to ukraine resigned friday shortly after he was called to testify. >> not one thing he has said comports with any of the democrats' impeachment narrative. >> reporter: kevin mccarthy in a letter asking speaker nancy pelosi to suspend the impeachment inquiry calling the pace reckless and saying she hasn't laid out clear procedures but house democrats are digging in >> it's sad for our country that we would have a president who would put us in this situation but no one is above the law and the president will be held accountable. >> reporter: the intelligence committee chair calling president trump's comments that china should investigate the bidens a new breach of his oath of office. >> it endangers our elections and endangers or national security >> reporter: this all comes as the u.s. and china are locked in a trade dispute. president trump speaking to the next steptz. >> ifthey don't do what we want, we have tremendous>> repo with china are set next week here in washing

connelly he joins me tonight from kiev in ukraine good evening to you nic let's talk about kurt volker he he had an important job as special envoy to ukraine for the united states until he resigned last week last year i interviewed him here and he was adamant in his defense of trump's commitment to ukraine take a listen to what he said. i can imagine your job is very difficult if there was one thing that you. could get from the troop administration that you don't have right now what would it be i think i do have what i need from the trumpet ministration i think we have very strong support all the way through about putting pressure on russia to get their attention to create a negotiation support for ukraine partnership with our european allies and a negotiating proposition on the table that we would be prepared to the silicate a un peacekeeping mission to go into eastern ukraine create security create the conditions where there can be elections and the minsk agreements can be implemented and then see the territory restored so i think everything is in place but we need is not from the tr

you have president trump's personal attorney rudy giuliani, ambassador kurt volker, ambassador gordon sondland, bill taylor, currently top u.s. diplomat in ukraine and andriy yermak, a top adviser to involved mere zelensky. july 19th, six days before the president's phone call with ukraine's leader, volker said this to sondland after a meeting with giuliani. most important is for zelensky to say that he will help investigation and address any specific personal issues if there are any. two days later, taylor texted sondland after a conversation we had with volker that president zelensky is sensitive about ukraine being taken seriously not merely as an instrument in washington domestic re-election politics. to which sondland replied absolutely. just before the two leaders talked on the phone, volker texted saying heard from the white house. assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to washington. august 28th, yermak texted volker that he needed to talk to him about a political report that the pr

they have kurt volker the comp -- kurt volker, the former ukraine envoy, and others for the next two weeks. guy: how is this affecting the polling numbers? this story seems to be gathering pace very quickly. is it being reflected in the polls? depends on which polls. there does seem to be a slight uptick in americans who say they now support this impeachment inquiry. that is a pretty's in if it can develop at democrats are going to be watching very closely. in terms of how to fix the 2020 race, it is definitely a good thing for elizabeth warren. she has been ill to capitalize on not being part of this drama. joe biden is the one to watch. this ukraine situation has splashed up on him a little bit, and he's definitely going to have to fight a little bit to keep his frontrunner status. vonnie: speaker pelosi intimating yesterday there may not even be a vote to impeach. is there any idea that perhaps she is softening her stance a little bit? anna: i think that is something she has to say at this point. she can't go out and say it is a predetermined outcome and there will be an impeachme

kurt volker told this to the committee and this will not sit well for the president.known joe biden for 25 years. the suggestion that he would be influenced in his duties as vice president by money for his son simply has no credibility to me. i know him as a man of integrity and dedication to our country. mr. volker said this. i've known ambassador yavonovitch since 1998. i've always known her to be of the highest integrity. are we going to end up in a situation where some of this is highly damming about rudy giuliani meddling around, the president's skepticism, the conspiracy theories the president had that have been proven to be false about ukraine's involvement in 2016, not good for the president. but the parts about, i didn't see it as a quid pro quo from a veteran diplomat who was deeply involved -- >> it's really interesting here. it fills in some gaps here but also raises some more questions for kurt, and it would be good to see the transcript of his testimony. because on one hand, he is aware of the president's interest in corruption. and we see that in the te

kurt volker, good lunch, thanks.te, quote, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to washington. good luck. see you tomorrow. so the visit to the white house, it's in a text message is predicated on getting to the bottom of trump's crazy fantasies. >> so there is china in july in a text message. they're texting about china investigating the bidens in july. >> they're texting about getting the ukrainians to endorse this insane theory that trump has that seth rich is the person who actually hacked -- >> i'm sorry, was that referring to president z.? oh, z. as in zelensky. >> not xi. >> and you go through them again and again. as i say, we're talking to greatly and congressman swalwell does such a good job, was talking to seriously and such respect for the institutions, and you read this and it is a high school musical. >> norm, this is one of the challenges when we're covering the gang that couldn't shoot straight. but when they're trying to destroy the world. one they're basically

with kurt volker, we'll get some information pretty quick will you after she's done. >> our thanks to the front four. much obliged. coming up for us, this latest case against the president started with a phone call. something everyone could understand. as weapon, it got suddenly complex. we have something of an explainer. and joe biden appears before a tiny back drop and calls trump a coward. or as we call hit the week in political news, "the 11th hour" just getting underway on a friday night. friday night maria ramirez? hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. >>> the "wall street journal" has more on the saga of the currenty overwhelmed trump administration. in months before trump call, ukraine officials sweated white house pressure. on the sukt of delaying that military aid, quote, some ukrainian officials surmised that there may have been a technical budgetary reason. som

sporting and not trying to tear apart and tear usunder. >> the former special envoy to ukraine, kurt volker, who resigned recently, is set to testify in front of congress thursday. how significant do you see that to be? >> volker has a reputation as an honest broker. i think he wants to make sure that he participates in a meaningful way. he wants to be honest. he wants to clear his name. i don't think there's been any hair of the hypocrite on him ever and no questions about his integri integrity. i think he will come forward and give good and succinct testimony. hustled off early from ukraine and basically terminated, that giuliani was the instigator and trump got these paranoid vibes about her, thichinging she was against him, when there was no proof of that whatsoever, she has been put off for a week, but she'll testify and give the truth about what occurred in ukraine may 4th when she was pushed out, and that's important. dr. king said appropriately justice delayed is justice denied. i thiching that's what you're seeing from the state department and white house, to try to have justice de

kurt volker told congress in opening statement reiterated multiple times there was no mention of joe biden and an investigation into him and additionally, also, there was no quid quo pro he was aware of. kurt volker was involved -- >> i said, adam schiff is selecting certain information to put out there. not putting full truth out there. put it all out there or restrict access. >> harris: here is what the president says or wrote on twitter. unfortunately, sondland would be testifying before a compromised kangaroo court where republicans voice have been taken away. >> great. that is what is happening. >> harris: i'll scoot. we mentioned, lindsey graham inviting president trump's lawyer, "rule britannia: brexit and the end of empire" giuliani to meet. i have heard about corruption in ukraine from giuliani. given the house of representative behavior, time for the senate to inquire about corruption and other improprietys, involving ukraine. melis melissa. >> melissa: they are saying you were talking before about how they want to get into the joe biden side of this and this is lindsey gra