we'll be joined by larry pfeiffer. he was in charge of handling the transcripts for president obama's phone calls with the leaders of foreign governments. we'll get his reaction today. and the whistleblower's report of what that to the record of president trump's phone call with the president of ukraine. tonight, we now know what the first article of impeachment against president donald j. trump will be. and we know as of tonight, the president has no defense to that article of defense because no defense of the president's conduct was presented by republicans today in the house intelligence committee hearing. and that is by far the most important thing that did not happen in that hearing today. the president was not defended in that hearing. republicans defended the witness, the acting director of national intelligence, joseph maguire. some of the republicans took expected swipes at democrats, but they did not defend the conduct of the president of the united states that was the subject of today's hearing. republican c

i'm joined by larry pfeiffer, former senior director of theus white e situation room during the obamaion, and chief of staff to the director of the ci.a. duringth bush administration. he's currently serving as the grer george mason's university hayden senator for intelligence, policy, and international security. larry pfeiffer, thank you very much for bhaing here. >> you very her for having me. >> woodruff: so as somebody who has worked in the white house, in the situation room, sat in on a number of phone calls between the presidente f ited states, leaders of other countries, how normally would a whistleblowerstomplaint be handled around something like this? >> osh, i don't know if there's a normal really here. we have phoners conions that are being tranziebed, that a memorandum is being written to capture that transcript and be something as explicit as we saw today, or it could be something summarizing the conversation. so the transcript tod, you know, clearly was pretty explicit in what the president was saying. at one level you hape toplaud the president for putting this very expl

larry pfeiffer, thank you very much for bein yhere. >> tha very much for having me. >> woodruff: so aswho has worked in the white house, in the sittion room, sat in on a number of phone calls between the president ofit the states, leaders of other countries, how normally would a whistleblower complaint be haed around something like this? >> oh, gosh, i don't know if there's normal really here. we have phoneio convers that are beingtranziebed, that a memorandum is being written to capture that transcript and be something as explicit as we saw today, or it could be sometng summarizing the conversion. so the transcript today, you know, clearly was prettyt explicit in we president was saying. at one level you have to applaud the president for putng this very explicit document out. >> woodruff: but uin r experience in-- let me just bacs up for a second. in record ago it's not recorded. there's no audio recording of these conversations. >> right. >> woodruff: so there are individuals there takingnotes. >> right. >> woodruff: as fast as they can. >> they're actually listening to the conversat

the man who knows what the answers of all of those questions should be is larry pfeiffer who used toident obama's phone calls with world leaders. larry pfeiffer will be our next guest. ♪ ♪ around here, the only predictable thing about the weather is it's unpredictable. so we make the most of it when the sun does shine. that's why bp is partnering with lightsource, europe's largest solar company. and should the weather change, yet again, our natural gas can step in. to keep the power flowing and the lights shining. no matter the forecast. at bp, we see possibilities everywhere. to help the world keep advancing. but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money mana

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larry pfeiffer has had decades-long career, chief of staff of the director of cia michael hayden. also the guy that managed calls like these hayden. he managed calls like these with heads of state in the situation room under president obama. larry, thank you so much for carving out a few minutes. forgive my ignorance here. if it's a 30-minute phone call how can the memo be just five pages? >> there's a very good chance they were using translators on both sides of the call, that's going to slow things down quite a bit. that would be my best guess as to the brevity of the text. >> also, larry, there are some ellipses in the memo as well. what do we take away from that? >> some people are questioning will that is removing some of the language of the conversation. it's customary by the situation room staff that if they don't quite hear something correctly, they would actually indicate "inaudible" or "three words unknown" or something along those lines. to have an ellipses there suggests to me it was a pause in the consideration. probably not a removal of text. if they were going to re

larry pfeiffer of "the situation room."ys great to have your insight. >> thank you very much. >> we'll be right back. i'm embarrassed to even say i felt like i was going to spend my whole adult life paying this off thanks to sofi, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel as of 12pm today, i am debt free ♪ not owing anyone anything is the best feeling in the world, i cannot stop smiling about it ♪ ♪ (music plays throughout♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ "world let's see what kate sent. for you. for all of us. that's for me. navy federal credit union our members, are the mission. >>> it is the first official weekend of fall. >> is it? >> it is. >> it's 92 degrees outside. >> but that's why we're wearing burgundy. >> right. >> it doesn't feel like it, as christi said. it feels like the middle of summer for some. for others -- i don't know where this is -- middle of winter. >> i was speaking with allison chinch chinchar. could we get some snow. >> i don't like this much. there's a difference between a few inches versus a couple of feet. that's w

larry pfeiffer is with us. we have a lot of questions. you've looked at the transcript.ention there are ellipses in key spots. we know voice recognition software is used and also recollection used by people in the situation room who are putting the transcript together. what can you tell us about what we should read into or not read into these ellipses? >> i personally would not read too much into the ellipses. i'm guessing those are just reflections of a pause in the conversation. perhaps in the initial notations made in a situation room transcript there may have been some inaudible words and they indicated with some notation there were inaudible words and somebody on the nsc staff translated to to ellipses. i'd be very surprised if they dropped large sections from the phone call given how many people are witnesses to these calls. >> how many people are witnesses? >> normally you would have at least three or four people in the situation room itself. the situation room director, would be in the oval office. in this case the call was from the residence. so there could be t

we're joined now by larry pfeiffer, he managed calls like these in the situation room during the obamapfeiffer, we were so wowed by your appearance yesterday because you have such important information that we asked you to come back today. now that we have all read this whistle-blower complaint. again, you were in the situation room. this was your job. you listened in on calls like this. so what struck you most now that you've read the transcript about the call and seen the whistle-blower complaint? >> well, the transcript reads like any transcript that the people who worked for me created at the white house. the verbatim back and forth probably cleaned up a little bit to create a little bit more elegant flow to the language. i don't think there's really anything significant. if at all missing from the transcript. the whistle-blower complaint, we have a brave, courageous individual who put their career on the line who today has been threatened directly by the president of the united states. very serious situation there. the complaint itself probably one of the most well written, well s

. >> larry pfeiffer, this has been fascinating.k you for helping us understand all of this including how these records are kept and how this might deviate from that. >> you bet, john. >>> how is this impeachment drama playing in swing states that flipped from blue to red in 2016? we're going to talk to voters about impeachment next. (dad) hey! alright, let's get going! (girl) and you want to make sure to aim it. (dad) i'm aiming it. (everyone) awww. (girl) i ordered it for everyone. (dad vo) we got the biggest subaru to help bring our family together. (girl) i'm just resting my eyes. (dad vo) even though we're generations apart. (grandma) what a day. i just love those kids. (avo) the three-row subaru ascent. (dad) wave to grandma, everybody. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. mom you've got to [ get yourself a new car.g ] i wish i could save faster. you're making good choices. you'll get there. ♪ were you going to tell me about this? i know i can't afford to go. i still have this car so you can afford to go. i am so pr

join us is larry pfeiffer, former chief of staff and director of cia. d from the chair of the intelligence committee. the coverup is one thing, but there are bigger issues at play here. your reaction to what he said? >> definitely significant issues at play here. we have the president of the united states using his powers to his own personal benefit to the campaign. not just an intelligence professional. that worries me. . >> i know you have a question on this point. thinking about the way the president sees himself in the intelligence community? >> acting dni maguire said this really interesting thing. i really have this question for you and all other people. he said the is not a member of the united states intelligence community and that's why he didn't consider it in his purview to take it straight, the whistle-blower's report straight to congress. is that true? is the president really exempt from oversight of the intelligence committee? does he belong to the intelligence committee? >> it's a fascinating question that i'm sure if you got 100 lawyers i