lisa desjardins is at the capitol. yamiche alcindor is at the white house. nick schifrin is with me at the table. so much to talk about all three of you, but let's start by hearing just ait gordon sondland's opening testimony. first, secretary perry, ambassador volker and i worked with mr. rudy giuliani on ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the united states. we did not want to work with mr. giuliani. simply put, we played the hand we were dealt.er we all uood that if we refused to work with mr. giuliani, we would lose a very important opportunity to cement relations between the united states and ukraine. so we followed the president's orders. second, although we disagreed with the need to involve mr. giuliani, at the time we did not believe that his role was improper. third, let me say: precisely because we did not think that we were engaging in imprope behavior, we made every effort to ensure that the relevant decision makers at the nationalu securityil and state department knew the importantof detailur efforts. t the suggestit we

lisa desjardins brings us up to speed. >> desjardins: this morning, at the white house, a president withhting words for the anonymous whistleblower who first raised concerns about his ukraine policy. >> the whistleblower is a disgrace to our country. d disgrace. e whistleblower, because of that, should be revealed. worst things possible two years eao, he should be sued, and maybe for n. >> desjardins: this was a tfiant counter-punch, aft whistleblower's lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to the white house saying president trump is threatening their clnt. it warned: "should any harm befall any suspected named whistleblower or theily, the blame will rest squarely with your clie." that hit a white house unified in pushback, as acti white house chief of staff mick mulvaney rejected a house subpoena issued last night to y,stify today. legahite house lawyers gue, staff there is immune from subpoenas, but the president's ratione is more tactical. >> i don't want to give credibility to a corpt witch hunt. >> desjardins: within hours, the latest house deposition transcripts dropped, from lt.

lisa desjardins explains how a clearer picturis emerging of the trump administration's approach to ukraine from those at the center of the storm. >> desjardins: at the capil, the impeachment battle, for now, is on paper. but no less intense as today, committees released transcripts they are gordon sondland, the u.s. ambassador to the european union and kurt volker,ormer both were lead offls for. ukraine policy. in the 739 pages released today, among the headlines: sondland revised a critical piece of testimony about whether the u.s. tied nearly $400 million in d money to specific demands from ukraine. yesterday, sondland filed this, saying he now remembers telling a top ukrainian official that "resumption of (millions) in u.s. aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided the corruption statement..." the u.s. wanted, saying ukraine would investigate the 2016 election and the energy company which hired hunter biden. a second headline: sondland insisted the president himself firmly did not want a quid pro e o. and re key point-- the continued influence of president trump's attorn rudy gi

judy: so lisa desjardin, what did you make of those comments? : i think we've known before that chairman schiff is very strong, especially in closing arguments and ink t he has been speaking to the american pelole. speaker said all along it is the will of the public. iin was speto a republican strategist who said to me, this is a moderate, who said this really is still a junkball. it's about -- jump ball. it's about 15% of the american public. the question is, are they paying attention? is it too much information? they on overload? or is it sony questions about the president th it influences americans? another note. i got news fromepublicans that the dominant republicans on the committee,anng republican devin nunes and jim jordan have sent a letter to democrats saying they intend to subpoena the whistleblower and hunter biden for testimony. that is their language. however, they do not have that subpoena power right now as t conflict ahead here. republicans essentially just raising the idea they would like these witnesses to testify. they are usin

judy: here to consider the hilights and what they all mean, lisa desjardins is at the committee hearingoom. yamiche alcindor is at the white house, and nick schifrin joinsat me herhe newshour table. hello to all of you. you have been watching all this closely. lisa, everybody is asking after weeks and weeks of hearing about what w aeged, what new did we hear today in the public heings if the lisa:he wd something significant and new. i have to give context, william taylor add to his testimony based on new information he said hem ot fe of his staffers. this has to do with one of the central questions, did president trump himself order that any aid to ukraine, anything given to ukraine must be tied to the investigations he wanted? we know the ambassador gordon ukrainians.hat to the did president trump convey that to sondland? in that context i want to play the soundbite from mr. taylor, ambassador taylor's opening statements and the question from chairman schiff the democrat afterwards. >> ambassador sondland called president trump and told him of his etings in kyiv. the member of my staff

with me is our own lisa desjardins, to walk us through what the next few weeks might bring. lisa, it has been a long week, a lot of hearings. be hearings ended yesterday afternoo today president trump weighed in. >> that's right. let's start there. the president clearly was paying very close attention to these hearings, he had a lot to say this morning on "fox & friends." he reported his message about vice president mike pence. he also spoke about impeachment. let's listen. >> don't forget, there was no due process, you can't have lawyers, we couldn't have witoesses. we wanall the whistleblower. but you know who i want as the first witness? beusfrankly i want to >> what he's sayin is he doesn't think the house intelligence hearings were fair, he didn't have representation, his lawyers weren't there. he says he wants a trial. if the house votes to impeach, he will have nce. we know from senate leader mitch mcconnell's office that he does plan to go forward with a trial d there are n enough votes to prevent that in the snavment even though republicans nhave a majority, they dot

lisa desjardins the capitol, yamiche alcindor at tte house, nick schifrin and studio. thank you. step back now and take a broader look at the testimony we heard this week in these public impeachment hearings. we turn to leon panetta. he was president bill clinton's chief of staff. later, he served as director of the cia and the secretary of defense for president obama. former florida congressman representative will maccallum,o wh was a republican member of the house judiciary and served as one of the house managers for public -- president clinton's impeachment trial. leon panetta, i will start with you. taking everything we've heard so far in the last weekend a half, have the democts strengthened eir case? where do they stand? >> i don't think there's any question, but that when you look at all of the testimony that has been provided, a loty of it people who are professional or civil service who are committed to their jobs, but if you take all of the testimony, i don'ts think there'y question, but the weight of the evidence makes clearen that the pres as president, tried to get a

here to breakdown the highlights anwhy they matter: our lisa desjardins is at the capitol and was in the room. yamiche alcindor is at the white house. and nick schifrin is at theth table e now. lisa, i want to turneco you first,se those first witnesses we heard from today were both on that call in july between president trump and president zelensky. itprompted the whistleblower's report in the first place. let's take quick listen to wha those witness, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman andd williams o say about that call. >> i was concerned by the call. what i heard waste inappropr and i reported my concerns to mr. eisenberg. it is impro pr for theresident of the united states to demand a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen and a political opponent. i was also clear that if ukraine pursued an investigation, i it was also clear that if ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 election, the bidens and brisma it would be interpreted a partisan mood. this would result in ukraine losing bipartisan support and objectn the region.strategic i want to emphasize to the committ

yo lisa desjardins, nick schifrin, thanagain for getting us up to speed on all of this. >> brangham: now we want to turn to how the trump administration is reacting to this latest release of transcripts. i'm joined by our white hot e correspondmiche alcindor. yamiche, so this is the second y of transcripts that have come out. i know you have been tracking how the fromhe has been reacting to this. and i also understand you have been in touch with gordonnd nd, the gentleman we have been hearing about from these leasa and nick, his aorney as well. what you can tell bus their reactions to all this? >> the white house is essentially saying these two transcripts really prove president trump shoua not be target of an impeantch inquiry. let me read to you what white house press sephretary sanie grisham put out a couple of minutes ago. "both transcripts released today though there is even lesevidence for this illegitimate spoovment sham previous thought." she goes on to say gordon sondla sondland being the e.u. ambassador-- he didn't know the actual details of t military aid being held up by

here againo breakdown the highlights and what they mean: lisa desjardins is at the caand was in the room. yamiche alcindor is at the white house. and nick schifrin ist the table with me. hello to all of you, a le. to unpack h let's start by listening to one of today's two witnesses, he is a diplomatvi, holmes. he came to talk about his firsthand sighting, what heaw at a moment that has received so much attention in these hearings, and let's listen to part of what david holmes had to say. the four of us went to a nearby restaurant and sat on an outdoor terrace. i st. sat directly across from ambassador sondland, and the two staffers sat off to our sides. at first, the lunch was largely social. ambassador sondland sected a wot of wine that he shared among the four of us and discussed marketing strategies for his hotel business. during the lunch, ambassador sondland said he was going to call frump to give him anda . sarmdz sondland placed a call on his mobile phone. i heard him announce himself several times along the lines of gordon sondland holding for the president. it appeared he was tr

. >> thompson: lisa desjardin we look forward to hearing a lou t more from is week. thank you. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> thopson: bolivia's president evo morales resigned ln e this afternter the country's military leader called for him to step down and after weeks of , otests. ju hours earlirales called for new elections after the organization of american states released a report that found "a heap of observed irregularities" in octobes presidential election. three people have died and violent nationwide injured in demonstrations since the disputed election. in iraq today, violent government demonstrations continued one day after six people were killed in central baghdad. security forces used live ammunition, tear gas, and sound bombs protesters while fighting to take back control of the last major bridgthat leads to the government headquarters. security forces also put up concrete barriers in central baghdad to block the protests' movements. iraqi security forces have killed more than 260 demonstrators since the protests began in october. mourning the death of

jowshour correspondent lisa desjardins wil us with the latest from washington, d.c., and a look ahead megan thompson. thanks for watching. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. ed edgar wachenheim iii. the cheryl and philip milstein family rosalind p. walter, in memory iof george o' barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america, designing customizividual and group retirement products. th's why we're your retirement company. b additional support hn provided by: and by he rporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more. pbs. [announcer] major funding for this program was provided by grants from the wyoming cultural trust fund,be use culture matters, a program of the wyoming department of state parks and cultural resources, culturaltruswyo.gov, the wind river foundation, empowering native american com

here to break it down and look at the matter, lisa desjardins at the pital. miche alcindor is at the white house. ck schifrin is with me at the table. lisa, those first witnesses we heard from today were both on that call in july between president trump and president zelensky that prompted the whistleblower's report. let's take a quick listen to what those witnesses, alexander of inman and jennifer williams, had to say. >> i was concerned by the call. what i heard was inappropriate. i forwarded my concerns to mr. eisenberg. it is improper for the president government investioreign political opponent. i was also clear that if ukraine pursued an investigation -- it was clear that if ukraine pursued an investigation, it would be interpreted as a partisan play. t is would undoubtedly res ukraine losing bipartisan support, undermining u.s. national security. i want to emphasize to the mmtee that when i reported my concerns on july 10 and july 25, i did so out of a sense of duty. >> approximately how many cls between the president of the united states and foreign le

lisa desjardins brings us up to speed.a:he this morning at thite house, a president with fighting words for the anonyms whistleblower who raised concerns about his ukraine policy. the whistleblower is a disgrace to our country. the whistleblower should be revealed. and his lawyer, whoaid the worst things possible two yea b ago, he shou sued, and may for treason. lisa: this was a defiant counterpunch after the whistleblower's lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the white house, saying president trump is threateningir t client. it warned, should any harm before any suspected whistleblower or their family, the bl with your client.ely in pushback as acting chief of staff mick mulvaney rejected a house subpoen to testify today. legally white house lawyers argue their staff is rim you -- is immune from subpo >> i don't want to give edibility to a corrupt witchhunt. lisa: within hours, the house deposition transcripts dropped. lieutenant colonel alexander viman and fiona hill, who left the nsc earlier this year. this in a we

question, to look back and bring it all into focus, our lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor. more an a dozen witnesses, thousands of pages of testimony, and a whistleblowert complaat we learned about only in september. lisa: it all led democratic house speaker nancy pelosi to do this. >> i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. lisa: this has all happened quickly, almost too quickly to process. so we want to want to step back d look at how we got her yamiche: let's start where this investigation began, that letteu from an anons whistleblower. the whistleblower writes thatle mult.s. officials told them that president trump pressured the president of ukline for his own politica gain. he wanted ukraine to open an investigation into former vice hunter biden. biden and his so the younger biden served on the board of a ukrainian energy company. the whistleblower says that president trump was soliciting interference from a foreign country, a sought to pressure president's 2020 re-election bid. lisa: this is the core charge bd d

lisa desjardins sat through every hour of those hearings and she's here to walk us through what the nexteeks will bring. solisa, it's been a lotf weeks and a lot of hearings, but today president trump weighed in. >> that's right. the president was paying attention to the hearings. he spoke about vice presidee pencnd while he spoke about impeachmen let's listen to what he said. >> don't forget, there was no due process. you can't have lawyers. we couldn't he anyitnesses. we want to call the whistleblower. but you know who i want a the first witness because frankly i want to -- >> he doesn't thi the house intelligence hearings were fair. he didn't have representations. he wants a trial. if the house ds vote to impeach the president, he will have no choice. we know from senate leader, mitch mcconnell's office that he does plan to go forward with the trial. and there are not enough vot to prevent that in the senate even though republicans have a majority. ey do not have enough who feel that a trial would.e block >> so now, lisa, that these public hearings steam be behind us, what are the nex

newshour correspondents lisa desjardins and nicavk schifrinbeen digging through both of them.come. >> thank you very much. >> nawaz: 500 pages! your incredible "newshour" team have been digging through this all day. nick, start us off. what if we learned from e depositions? >> one, we learned more details of what became an unofficial foreign policy toward ukraine president's attor allegedly for business reasons. number two, we learned how secretary of state mike pompeo was repeatedly asked to defend foreign seice officers, specifically that former ambassador to ukraine you just mentioned and how he rei fused. number thre l werned more details about how giuliani really led a smear campaign, how he did that and with whom against that ambassador. let's talk about thatam ssador, marie yovanovitch, and her transcript was released today. she's the forme ambassador to ukraine, she served as a foreign service officer for 33 years across both republican and democrat administrations. let's frame somef her testimony. she led trump administration's administration's president trump's polic

lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor are here to help us break it down and understand it.to th of you, hello. this has all happened just in the last couple of hours. in fact, one of these sets of transscripts, lisa, has come just within the hour. >> that's right. >> woouff: so the two of you have been scrambling to catch up, to read the transcrypt. that's right. >> woodruff: so let's talk about these former, these are former state depertment and fodefense department officials. >> that's right. let's starred with laura cooper, a defense departmentfficial which is a unique perspective. usually you have been hearing she is the deputy assistant defense secretary, specializes in russia where she says she spends most of her time but also works on long-term strategy for russia and for ukraine. she has been with the def department since 2001 but she says this year at one pointf almost aller time was spent on ukraine because of what wasn happening,r transcrypt which you say we just got, we learned that there was high concern and surprise when the aid money to ukraine was being froz

our lisa desjardins was in ,the committee hearing ro nick schiffrin, atable.g with hello to all of youere is a lot to unpack. wsa, i'm going to starth you. the day pretty much started, here we have a career diplomat, and they went right to the firing, how it happened, what happened, how she felt about it when it happened, and she talked about feeling threatened. >> ihink the democrats here were trying to show real daage, and ambassador yovanovitch, forh who watchee hearing, she was very con snint her testimony. she was trying to provide direct answers. she did not get very emotional except occasionally. but the words she sad described the emotion she went through first as she was ousteand the president attacked her on twitter. lesas listen to what shed. >> i was shocked and devastated that i would feature in a phone call between two heads of state in such a manner where president trump said that i was "bad news" to another world leader, and that i would be "going through some things." so i was--it as a terrible moment. a person who saw me actually reading the transcript said tha lor dr

. >> lots to go on, this lisa desjardins, yamiche alcindor, thanks very much. >> woodruff: recent pollsrly voting states show pete buttigieg's popularity surging among mocratic voters, putting the mayor of south bend, indiana in the top tier of candidates vying for their party's nomination to challenge esident trump a year from now. but with that rising support comes increased scrutiny. and mayor pete buttigieg joins us now. mayor buttigieg, welcome back to the newshour it is almost exactly a year away, as voters will be deciding who to support in the general election. but i want to ask you about what happened yesterday, the so called aroff-lections in several states. do those tell us anytng about 2020? >>ell, i've always said there a no such thi a permanently red state. and when you see the governorship of kentucky go to a democratic candidate, when you see the chambers flipping in virginia and a lot of other encouraging results, what it tells you is that a lot of ople, including people in the habit of voting for republicans, are fed up with what thice repu party is doing right now, in

a very full day yamiche alcindor at the white house, lisa desjardins at the capitol, nick schifrin herek you. s. >> woodruff: we turn now to influential members of the u.s. house for their assessment of today's hearing. first up, representative doug collins of georgia. he is the highest ranking republican on the house judiciary committee. congressman, welcome back to the newshour. >> great to be back with you, judy. >> woodruff: so i assume you were able to hear a lot if not all of what was said today.e what did you cay with? keaway for today is nothing new. the hearing was just a regurgitation of what we heard was leaked outo frm adam schiff in the closed door hearings. we've seen the transcripts from both witnesses. what we've heard is a public airing of what we read, making f tv kinovie out of a transcript already there. the big takeay at the end of the dais there's nothing new here. we go back to the basics, if there's noing new in the trnlings what do we know? we know the call itself, no quid pro quo. we know coming ouom today, no linkage. mr. ambassadoraylor said no linkage he had

alcindor is at the white house alicia desjardins was in the committee room and joins us in the studio along with nick schifrin, also at the table. there is a lot to unpack. lisai'm going to startyoith the day pretty much started, a career diplomat and t went right to the firing. how it happened, what happened,h ho felt about it when it happened and she talked about feeling threatened. lisa: i think the democrats were trying to show real damage and ambassador yovanovitch, for anyo t who watchs hearing, she was very consistent in her testimony. she was trying to provideirect answers. she did not get very emotional except occasionally but the words she used described emoti she went through as she was ousted and as the president attacked her on twitter. l let'sten to some of what she said. >> i was shocked and devastated that i would feature in a phone call between two heads of state in such manner where president trump said that i was bad news to another world leader and that i would be going through some things. so i was -- it was ae terri moment. a person who saw me actually reading the transcript said that the color drained from my face. reaction. even had a

lisa indesjardins and yamiche ar have this look back. >> alcindor: more than a dozen witnesses. thousands of pages of testimony. and a whistleblower cmplaint tt we learned about only in september. >> desjardins: it all led democratic house speaker nancy pelosi to do this: >> i'm announcing the house of representatives mo ang forward wiofficial impeachment inquiry. >> desjardins: as yamiche said, almost too quickly to process. so we want to want to step back and look at how we got here. >> alcindor: let's srt where this investigation began, that letter from an anonymous whistleblower. the whistleblower writes that multiple u.s. officials told them that president trump pressured the president of ukraine for his own polical gain. he wanted ukraine to open an investigation in hunter biden. biden and his son, the younger biden served on the board of a ukrainian energy company. the whistleblower says that president trump was sociting interference from a foreign country and sought to pressure the ukrainian leader, to help the president's 2020 re-election bid. >> desjardins: this is the core charge by democrats, led by house intelligence chair adam schiff. >> the president of the united states has b