mike pompeo was silent as rudy giuliani planned to oust maria yovanovitch. >> was maria yovanovitch part of a smear campaign? >> if you look at the president of the ukraine was not a fan of hers. >> a look at the transcript, shows zelensky criticized the ambassador after trump called her bad news. lauren fox has more on the transcripts from capitol hill. >> reporter: a significant day on capitol hill, as we saw the release of the first transcripts from these closed-door depositions that have been going on for the last month on capitol hill. it's a big opportunity for lawmakers who haven't been in the room over the last several weeks to see what was been occurring. one of the transcripts is from maria yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine, who was concerned that the reputation was being damaged and the president was losing faith in her. there was rumors she was not supportive of the president. and she wanted the state department to put out a statement defending her. she was told that the state department couldn't do that. the president could undermine

your read. >> it was mike pompeo let maria yovanovitch hang out in the wind and ultimately mounted no serious defense. so it's very clear that the secretary chose the political interests of the president, his efforts to extort the ukrainians for his reelection goals over the reputation of his employees. but what i think is also important here is that it's just further confirmation that rudy giuliani was really the point person when it came to ukraine. mike pompeo's name didn't come up with that july 25th phone call with the president. he referred the president of ukraine to rudy giuliani and it appears that through these phone calls mike pompeo was either coordinating with giuliani or perhaps taking orders from giuliani because the president had identified and continued to identify giuliani as the person who ukraine policy was going to go through, who is representing the president's personal political interests, not the national security interests of the united states. that's unacceptable in a democracy. >> you could apply the same rationale to his having to testify now. i don't know

it seems that he watched a bit of what maria yovanovitch had to say. just a little after 10:00 a.m., this came out. the president tweeted -- an attack on the former ambassador while she was testifying on live television, talking about being attacked and smeared by this position. this is what chairman adam schiff said about that. >> as we sit here testifying, the president is attacking you on twitter, and i'd like to give you a chance to respond. i'll read part of one of his tweets -- everywhere maria yovanovitch went, it turned bad. she started? somalia, how did that go? he goes on to say later in the tweet -- it's a u.s. president's absolute right to appoint ambassadors. and now in real time the president is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses' willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, it's very intimidating. >> intimidating. schiff during a break in the hearings was calling it witness intimidation. >> we saw today witness dimation, once again going after this dedicated and respected career public serv

one of the transcripts is from maria yovanovitch, the former ambassador to ukraine, who was concerned that the reputation was being damaged and the president was losing faith in her. there was rumors she was not supportive of the president. and she wanted the state department to put out a public statement defending her. she was told that the state department couldn't do that. the president could undermine it with something as simple as a tweet. she said, what i was told, was there was concern that the rug would be pulled out from underneath the state department if they put out something publicly. she went to gordon sondland and asked for advice. his advice was go big or go home. essentially, what he argued, was perhaps she should tweet support for the president, say the rumors weren't true. michael mckinley's transcript was released today. he's a former top aide to mike pompeo. he said he left the state department because the career diplomats were being used to advance the political agenda, something he did not support. but more testimony and transcript expected to be released this we

as career diplomat maria yovanovitch was testifying, the president attacked her on twitter.went bad. >> adam schiff read that live during the hearing. and the president was asked about the intention of his tweet. >> i have the right to speak. i have freedom of speech just like other people do. >> with your freedom, were you trying to intimidate ambassador yovanovitch? >> i want total freedom of speech. the republicans have been treated very badly. >> do you think your words could be intimidating? >> i don't think so at all. >> michael, there were republicans who disagreed with that tweet. i don't think it was right to be harassing or bearing on the professional diplomatic service. was it witness intimidation, michael? >> i don't think so, from a legal standpoint. i think most prosecutors would not want to bring that case. it is more harassing conversation than it is intimidating conversation. and the hard part in bringing a case like this is that the president speaks normally in a very belligerent manner. >> so if you're a bully, you have more of a rope here? >> in some sens

and when you look at the second one, everywhere maria yovanovitch went turned bad.ed off in somalia, how did that go? then fast forward to ukraine, where the new ukrainian president spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. it is a president's absolute right to appoint ambassadors which she even acknowledged. now, ken starr, i have known you a long time you have to tell this audience what so so harmful and bad about that because you didn't make any sense to me today. none whatsoever. >> well, sean, you and i have known each other a long time. i have a different perspective. you don't attack a public servant in the middle of her testimony, period, full stop. let others do the work for you. >> sean: what's the attack? tell me what the attack is. >> let's put it more gentlely the criticism of her public service. i think it's a mistake. laugh all you will. she is in the chair. >> sean: have we become a nation of total snowflakes? this is the most inknock colliculus thing in the world. bring in a chemotherapy dog for me. >> you are convincing me. sean

it went haywire after the president sent that tweet blasting maria yovanovitch yesterday morning.ed a question about that to stefanik, a republican from new york. who is a member of the intelligence committee. > once the president sent his tweet, didn't that completely undercut anything you were trying to do in the hearing today? >> chad, we are not here to talk about tweets. we are here to talk about impeachable offenses. chad, let me answer yourese heat tweets. they are about impeachment of the president of the united states. >> now, after the hearing, adam schiff did a re-set. he emphasized why maria yovanovitch was a key to the narrative. >> while you are the beginning of this story, you are not the end of it, but, nonetheless, the beginning is important. because the beginning of the story is an effort to get you out of the way. >> democrats are trying to figure out how to write their articles of. wimpeachment. maybe abuse of power and translating what they sees a intimidation of a witness into abuse of power. you know, one of the articles of impeachment written in 1974 for pr

but it all goes wrong when the woman of the moment, maria yovanovitch, who testified today, is fired.use lev parnas and igor fruman and rudy giuliani pushed for her to be fired. they had financial interests they perceived her to be an obstacle to. once she's fired, it's like everybody finally woke up. >> what does that tell you in the new reporting? >> what does the new reporting tell us about what we should believe at this point? >> i think it's what's concerning about the new reporting is that it puts the president firmly in the lev parnas/igor fruman camp much earlier than the july 25th phone call when he gets on the phone and there's talk of a quid pro quo. there was this idea of a quid pro quo, what are we going to do in ukraine back in december? >> parnas wants to speak. he has new representation. there's a whole story that you and earthed about why he and fruman don't have the same counsel anymore. they can read it online if they want. but he says he wants to talk to regularors. they are going to need to destroy parnas, which this president seems to like to do very much, waeshd

and, yet, maria yovanovitch kept going and going and going.the end the hearing sounded by therapy session or extended meeting with the h.r. department definition of health. the real offense turned out to be wounding the soul of a highly sensitive american ambassador. >> so just like that, you had to leave ukraine as soon as possible? >> yes. >> how did that make you feel? >> terrible, honestly. i mean, after 33 years of service to our country, it was terrible. >> tucker: how did that make you feel? that was a real question. how did that make you feel? if had you to choose a color to represent your emotional state right now, what color would it be? it went on like that for hours. c-span meets the shrink's office. >> without upsetting you too much i would like you to show you the excerpts from the call and the first one where president trump says that the former ambassador from the united states, the woman, was bad news, and the people she was dealing with in the ukraine were bad news. so i just want to let you know. what was your reaction you h

you saw just now news come out about two of them with maria yovanovitch and bill taylor. my reporting is that the third witness they would really like to get on the stand is lieutenant colonel vindman. he's the staffer who was actually on the phone call with trump and zelensky on july 25th and was so alarmed by what he heard, that he tried to report it twice to white house lawyers. to your question about where democrats are confident, according to my reporting, nancy pelosi has said in private meetings that they already have the goods and that the strength here really is in the volume of the witnesses who are providing this corroborating accounts about the attempts of the president to withhold aid from the ukrainians until they dig up some kind of dirt -- manufacturer, i should say, some kind of dirt on his political rival. they believe this public testimony is going to be a lot more compelling than during the mueller testimony, for instance, and that is a parallel that they drew. they say these are fact witnesses, craig. these are people who witnessed these events, these

dump refers to joe biden and son hunter more than 80 times and undercuts ukraine ambassador maria yovanovitch to testified that to smear my atened. reputation. >> reporter: but the release also includes letters to pompeo from democrats and diplomats defending yovanovitch against a smear campaign. indicted giuliani associate lev parnas in a separate development is prepared to tell congress the top house intelligence committee republican devin nunes met with a former ukrainian prosecutor about the bidens in 2018. nunes denies that. >> poor lev, i don't know what he's doing to himself. i this i that's going to be shown to be provenly untrue. >> and joe biden and lindsey graham is on the rocks after graham announced the senate judiciary committee will examine biden's ties to ukraine. >> there's been nothing investigated about biden or his son and lindsey is about to go down in thi goesnbc's chuck tod interviews the chair of the ssn adam schiff tomorrowttee right here after "today in the bay." vice president mike pence made a surprise visit to iraq today after months of criticism that the trump ad

ambassador to ukraine maria yovanovitch is set to testify friday.ow this will play out, here is manu raju. >> reporter: for several weeks it has all been behind closed doors. democrats have gathered testimony from more than a dozen witnesses who have provided evidence about what they view of many of them of serious concerns about the handling of ukraine policy and the push by the president as well as his personal attorney rudy giuliani to pursue investigations that could help the president politically, push the ukranian government to announce the investigations into joe biden and as well as the 2016 campaign. now we'll see this in public. starting next week, we will see three witnesses, the first to come wednesday, that is ambassador bill taylor and also the senior state department official in washington in charp. they testify wednesday. and on friday, it will be maria yovanovitch, someone who had been targeted by giuliani and his associates. the theme that you will hear throughout the testimonies is what they view as an normal highly unusual proces

wednesday we will hear from ambassador william taylor and the state department official and maria yovanovitch. any sense going into this whom the white house fears most or most focused on? >> bill taylor they've been focused quite a bit on i think in terms of the president's own reaction, the ukrainian ambassador is going to be somebody who he could be provoked by watching her testimony. she's emphatic and direct about how she was treated, aggressively she was targeted by rudy giuliani and by extension by the president. certainly by rudy giuliani and they had problems with how she was doing her job. i think in general it's the whole collective. i don't think that there's one particular person who they are looking at right now who they see as problematic. lieutenant colonel vindman who testified on the call and testified behind closed doors wearing his dress uniform that would be potentially problematic vish shoo for them. >> not schedule yet. >> as the president is watching this, he's considering who is in the room on his side from the republicans and you're seeing them move certain members b

ambassador to ukraine maria yovanovitch. and additional witnesses are expected to appear before congressex publicly. >> those open hearings will be an opportunity for the american people toan evaluate the witness for themselves, to make their ownfo determinations about the credibility of the witnesses, but also to learn firsthand about the facts of the president's misconduct. >>pr based on the transcript of his closed door testimony which was released yesterday, we have a pretty good idea of what ambassador bill taylor will tell lawmakers in the open hearing.la you may recall that taylor was the one who texted ambassador gordon sondland that it would be quote crazy to make ukraine military aid contingent on investigations aimed at helping the president get re-elected. taylor is now filling in the gaps from those text coverages. likeos this one, when sondland responded callnd me after taylo asked if that really was the white house's position and he didti call and during the phone call ambassador sondland told him that he want

ambassador to ukraine, maria yovanovitch told lawmakers during her october deposition she felt threatened by the president after it was revealed that she told the president of ukraine that she would quote go through stom things. she was asked during the deposition what did you understand that to mean, she replied i didn't know what it meant, i was very concerned, i still am. did you feel threatened she was asked. she replied yes. also other concerns for the former ambassador's safety when asked about rudy giuliani's name coming up in the conversations with ukraine official, she highlighted a february conversation, saying a senior ukrainian official was quote very concerned and told me i really need to watch my back. when asked to explain, she mentioned giuliani, his now indicted associates lev parnas and igor fruman and ex ukrainian prosecutor saying they were interested in having a different ambassador at post >>> there is also this. yovanovitch testified that she asked the u.s. ambassador gordon sondland on how to handle attacks from sean hannity and don jr. and told lawmakers we need t

and then friday, maria yovanovitch. this followed by a huge data dump of transcripts from eight key witnesses encompassing more than 2600 pages of sworn testimony, potentially a roadmap of what may be in the public hearings in the week to come. and in a surprise turnaround, ambassador to the eu gordon sondland told investigators he wanted to amend his earlier testimony now saying he does recall relying a quid pro quo message to ukraine, this right after a meeting with between ukraine president zelensky and vice president mike pence. former russia adviser fiona hill, her remarks also coming out in transcripts. she says she remembers sondland talking about moul oabout mick that mulvaney agreed trump would meet with zelensky if they opened an investigation into burisma. and that john bolton thought that arrangement was like a drug deal. george kent, his transcript also released this week, kent saying that president trump, quote, wanted nothing less than president zelensky to go to the microphone and say three words. invest

he sent a disparaging tweet about former un ambassador to ukraine maria yovanovitch went testified before a house panel today. lauren blanchard reports from capitol hill. >> reporter: ambassador marie yovanovitch was a soft-spoken witness but democrats say what she told them and what the president's actions were during the hearing will strengthen their case. after hours of sometimes personal testimony, former ambassador marie yovanovitch left the hearing room to applause. it started out like any other hearing and then -- >> as we sit here testifying, the president is attacking u on twitter. >> resident trumps tweeted thing everywhere yovanovitch went turned bad. >> i have freedom of speech, just as other people do. they have taken away the republicans writes. >> it's very intimidating. >> i don't think saddle at all. >> the white house said it was difficult to imagine, a greater waste of time than the hearing. immediately after yovanovitch's hearing raft of lawmakers headed to a secure room to hear testimony from the embassy staffer david holmes who oversaw hard alleged conversation betwe

was maria yovanovitch the target of a smear campaign? >> he did not say glowing things about her. i'm sure she's a very fine woman. i just don'tw >> reporter: on that july 25th phone call with ukraine's president,re called her bad news and when asked if she felt threatened, her answer yes she should tweet out praise of president trump she was told if she wanted to save her job adding, quote, you need to go back or go home. another transcript released today shows michael mckinley, the former top advisor to secretary of state mike pompeo said he resigned because of a puzzling and lack of support for yovanovitch and saying he repeatedly urged officials including secretary of state mike pompeo to publicly support yovanovitch but they wouldn't. mckinley left his post telling pompeo this is unacceptable, he testified. meanwhile on capitol hill today, investigators subpoenaed four more administration officials but all of them refused to show up at the order of the white house. house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff with a stern warning. >> this will only further add to the bod

maria yovanovitch works for the state department and he's the boss of the state department and he won'tis he facilitating? >> is he helping rudy giuliani or is he objecting to it? he certainly knows it's going on. remember, that was the step, that was the predicate for then launching on this effort to essentially extort ukraine in addition to whatever other financial deals that rudy giuliani was pursuing. they had to get her out of the way. this puts him right in the middle of this. i think he has extreme liability. and remember, he has not even recused himself from deciding whether to turn over these documents. it took a federal court to force him. so that is completely unacceptable. he's behaving in a completely inappropriate manner. he's a lawyer and he should know his legal obligations. i this i thnk this is huge. >> i think it's huge, too. >> this gets lost in the back and forth and mud and muck. the biggest takeaway from the sondland testimony, none of this was a secret. they all knew it was happening, mulvaney did, the president did. the only reason the administration has not jus

maria yovanovitch. said in the closed door deposition about being threatened by president trump and that she believed that the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani was waging a smear campaign against her. we have learned she was emotional during that closed door deposition. and we have also expect the democrats will want her to be emotional and maybe even cry today for the american people. now, republicans, meanwhile, will want to look at the timeline because, ambassador yovanovitch was recalled in may, of course, that call with president trump and president zelensky wasn't until july 25th. here's is how the ticktock goes up there chairman adam schiff will gavel. in there will be the swearing in, the opening statements and it will be the 45 minutes for schiff's side and 45 minutes for ranking member nunes as well. meanwhile, speaker pelosi is changing her language saying what the president did equates bribery and down in louisiana the president is absolutely pushing back at a rally last night. l

there was so many focus on the testimony maria yovanovitch yesterday. he brought up this phone call from july the 26th. what did lawmakers learn from david holmes last night? >> there was a lot of vulgar language contained in that opening statement that i can't necessarily repeat on television. the gist was he did corroborate william taylor's testimony earlier this week in public before the house intelligence committee during which he revealed the existence of this conversation we hadn't known about before. this conversation between ambassador sondland and president trump that occurred at an outdoor restaurant in ykiv -- kyiv and sondland replied saying "they're going to do it" meaning president zelensky is going to do it and he said president zelensky would do anything for you. this is another data point connecting what democrats say is this ukraine scheme that is continuing to sort of ensnare the president, but they've struggled to get some more concrete connections to the president and this is one of them that they can use going into the public heari

>> also testifying next week maria yovanovitch.e was the target of a smear campaign testifying she felt threatened. this morning there are new details about the president's actions just as the ukraine story first broke. multiple sources tell abc news that the president wanted attorney general william barr to hold a news conference saying that trump didn't break any laws regarding that july call with ukraine's president. but barr reportedly declined. the white house, while dismissing the hearings, is raising its defense adding two long-time trump allies to the team to come up with a better strategy of pushing back. korina mitchell, abc news, new york. >>> improving street safety is part of building a better bay area. in san francisco one mfocus is n a major street. a coffee chat was held with neighbors about planned changes on paid street. the project is intended to decrease traffic and create bike lanes. >> we are working on paid street to see what we can do to divert traffic off of paid street and making sure people can move aroun

former ambassador to ukraine, maria yovanovitch said she was warned by ukrainian officials to watch her back last winter because the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani was planning to do things, including to her. >> she got fired finally. >> reporter: yovanovitch was recalled in may after giuliani claimed she was keeping ukraine from investigating joe and hunter biden. >> president trump has the -- has the authority to name who he wants in any ambassador position. >> reporter: house leaders are expected to release transcripts from ambassador to the european union gordon sonland as well as special envoy kurt volker. text messages given to congress showed volker, sonland, and giuliani coached officials by promising investigations. an associate of the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, now says he is willing to cooperate with congress in the impeachment inquiry. so his testimony should be coming soon. anne-marie? >> all right. laura podesta in new york. thank you. >> thanks. >>> the fbi has arrested a man accused of plotting to bomb a he was planning to attack the .l temp

former ambassador to ukraine, maria yovanovitch, is scheduled next friday.aylor told lawmakers during a closed door deposition his clear understanding was that money for military aid would not come until the president of ukraine committed to pursue the investigation into president trump's preliminary rivals. >> i trust president zelensky and president trump. >> reporter: republicans say there was no quid pro quo. >> it's actually getting easier to defend the president from a standpoint there is no linkage between aid -- >> reporter: taylor testified that some cabinet members tried to set up a white house meeting to discuss the hold, but there were scheduling conflicts. and president trump's interest in buying greenland at the time was taking up energy at the national security council. former national security adviser john bolton is expected to ignore lawmakers' requests to testify in the impeachment inquiry today. president trump's acting white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, is also not expected to speak tomorrow. anne-marie? >> laura podesta in new yo

and then if you remember a week ago he tweeted about maria yovanovitch and people thought that was suchistake. every day has been back and forth. he is knowing that he is going to be in this place. he knows, as he said on the interview, that the use is and they will vote.hese articles now they're switching. we are in anotr phase where he is starting to meet with senate republicans to strategize about what the trial will look like. nada: the wants it to be aet robust trial. does he think this helps him politically? does it take away attention from the democrats, or does it help why does he want this trial? anita: a couple things. he wants to say i put it all out there, and he knows they wnol vote to remove him from office, so he can say i went to hrough this whole trial and ivi waicated. part of me thinks that he wants a little revenge. he is saying -- he didn't, but one of his spokespeople said on tv yesterday, we are going to call joe biden, we w bl call hunten, we will call adam schiff. i don't know if that is going to happen. ifny of those things happen, they could get what they want

ambassador to ukraine maria yovanovitch. there was at the end of the hearing the house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff made comments and you heard republicans objecting they didn't get a chance to respond before he gavelled the proceedings closed. it was an eventful hearing, and one of the participants via twitter was president trump who in the middle of ambassador yovanovitch's testimony at the beginning of the day tweeted an attack on her saying "everywhere maria yovanovitch went turned bad. she started off in somalia. how did that go? fast forward to ukraine the new ukraine president president spoke unfavorly about her in my second phone call. a u.s. ped's absolute right to appoint a ambassador calming in serving at pouter of the president. it is called quite simply america first with all that, however, i have done far more more ukraine than president obama." and obviously, that caused quite the ruckus. the chairman of the committee asked ambassador yovanovitch to respond in realtime to the tweet. she said tha

maria yovanovitch has the sads before. maria yovanovitch this should be h.r. hearing.mpeachment trial. lisa: dan, we want to get your thoughts on this. after group of people surrounded police on motorcycles on atvs in new york city. annoying a cop could be illegal soon in one upstate new york county. tell us a little bit about that. we would love to get your thoughts. >> well, this is unfortunately necessary. we're having this new social media generation where everybody wants to put, you know a video on world star and make money off their youtube. what they do is get involved at the arrest scenes like that video and put it on youtube. here's the problem with, this lisa, this creates very dangerous public safety scenarios. imagine if you are a cop, you are engaged in high risk arrest. god forbid you are tussling with someone and trying to get hands on a dangerous subject. nobody has inclination to help. everyone is around there sticking cameras in face. no one should be arrested for videos the cops. that's not what i'm suggesting. sitting there and annoying them and get

moment means for the secretary of state mike pompeo, how he did not come to the defense the maria yovanovitch, and how they had pushed to get the moan released. >> we have heard from sources that secretary of state mike pompeo was an advocate for releasing the security assistance to ukraine. on the flip side of that, we do not have evidence that secretary pompeo was over at the white house repeatedly knocking on the door and urging for this assistance to be let go. in fact, when we saw bill taylor's testimony, we heard that he specifically sent a first-person cable to secretary pompeo. he was urged to do so by the former national security divorce john bolton. that table documented his concern that this ukraine assistance appeared to be held up for the political agenda of president trump, but secretary pompeo never responded to ambassador bill taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, who is still on the job there. he's one of the folks expected to come forward for a public testimony next week. he's probably going to highlight even more details about secretary of state mike pompeo's role, who

. >> can we shift a little bit to maria v maria yovanovitch.y and why is that important? >> last friday, a 33-year-old foreign service star -- >> 33 years of service. >> was called by the intelligence committee to explain the activities leading to her dismissal. she stated that she was released from her position without reason. however, she had worried about questionable activities by trump attorney rudy giuliani, sondland and some ukrainian americans and believed her dismissal may have obscured what was going on because she was in the way. but it may have taken the spotlight away from the blockbuster announcement yesterday. we'll see. >> for people at home who are trying to take all of this in and figure out what to pay attention to in the week ahead, what should we look for? >> there's a lot o take in. you're right. at least eight, eight witnesses will be called by the intelligence committee for their knowledge on potential impeachable crimes by president trump. we have eight coming this next week. clearly the appearance by ambassador sondlan

scandal, rudy giuliani aligning with corrupt prosecutors like lutsenko, chapter one, to get rid of maria yovanovitch. they knew if we want to get any of our business done she's got to go. that's sort of the original sin that kicked off this whole scandal. >> what do you think, sam? >> a u.s. ambassador called so rudy giuliani can get a client? even if there weren't signed contracts, rudy giuliani was doing business development showing lutsenko ostensivably how far he could work on behalf of his client and speaks to the fact why we need u.s. government officials advising the president. when i worked at the white house i went through ethics screening and disclose any conflict of interest, looking for a new job, who was i talking to be? rudy giuliani walked into the oval office and we don't know if he ever told president trump he had these conflicts of interests. the president should rely on experts who go through real screenings to get the job done. >> other things it kaitlan reported on. three take aways. one, military aid withheld from ukraine same day as the july 25th phone call with trump and zele

former ambassador to ukraine, maria yovanovitch is expected to testify today. >> and yesterday's hearingealed new details about another call allegedly involving president trump. abc's elizabeth hur is in washington with details. good morning. >> good morning to you. democrats say that newly released phone call is important because it shows the president abused his power but republicans are dismissing it as more hearsay. this morning, new questions after that surprising new testimony in the impeachment investigation. >> u.s. ambassador to ukraine bill tar lore said president trump ordered 4$400 million of military aid be withheld from ukraine. taylor says on july 26th, one day after the president's controversial call with ukraine's president, his staffer overheard trump asking u.s. ambassador to the eu gordon sondland over the phone about, quote, the investigations. >> the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought about ukraine. ambassador sondland said president trump cares more about the investigations of biden. >> reporter: president trump says he doesn'

think it was about a month ago i read in the "wall street journal" an article about ambassador maria yovanovitch how rudy giuliani was pressuring to get rid of her because she was hindering his efforts to get the ukranians to investigate him dids democrats. so i've been following it, but i must say this, is a sad time for our republic, it is a dark time for our country. it is not something anybody wanted to do. but i do agree that it is something that we should look into and i do tend to favor doing it in public so that the folks at home can listen to public hearings, listen to these folks testify, kind of chew on it for themselves, make up their own minds. >> and that raises an interesting point, congressman. because you have been cautious to say the very least about when it comes to impeachment. have you heard anything from constituents about your vote last week, vote in favor of the inquiry? >> a little bit. keep in mind i had come out in favor of doing the investigation. i think that is part and parcel of our constitutional mandate of oversight of the executive branch. but, yeah, when i came

to ukraine maria yovanovitch on friday. all three witnesses have told investigators about a regular diplomatic back channel to ukraine, involving the presidents personal attorney rudy giuliani. >> the testimony we are hearing today is actually getting easier to defend the president. there is no linkage between aid. >> reporter: tomorrow all eyes will be on former national security advisor john bolton who is scheduled to testify, but is not expected to show up. unless democrats issue a subpoena. because his attorney said he will not appear voluntarily. >>> the end of an era for san francisco classic, after 45 years beach baked it babylon is ending its right. >>> after the break we will talk about weather for thursday and the weekend. >>> plus and overlooked aspect of the pg&e power shut off. >>> antioch police are looking for the shooter who opened fire on two teenagers last night as they sat in a car. a 17-year-old girl died in the emergency room. the other victim was a 17-year- old boy who was wounded. he is expected to su

t everywhere, maria yovanovitch went and turned bad perigee started off in somalia, how did that go, now the president in real time is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing. >> it's very intimidating. >> i want to let you know ambassador, that some of us here , take witness intimidation very very seriously. >> very intimidating. witness intimidation. that is apparently what it's called now when someone criticizes your job performance in a tweet. it's just terrifying. in the same country, someone might step in, it may be someon in the media to identify this for what it a is. but washington is no longer saf so instead msnbc spent all day praising her as a victim of trump's terror. this is a witness who is there as a victim. >> if you walk in her shoes, th country she has gone to, the loneliness. >> she is such a soft speaker, it really demands the attention of all these lawmakers brett. >> our working against this state department hero. >> the state department historically over the last l several years has

democrats put maria yovanovitch up. we are talking about that tonight.hey expected some may be two years or more emotions but what did they actually get? >> it know. she was calm, cool, and collected the entire time. as a matter of fact, even her voice was lower which is one of the things i'm looking to see like maybe you would hear a pitch go up to show that she's upset or maybe go down but nothing great she came across very strong. >> laura: so she was credible, believable, clearly she still had her job, wishes people fought more for her to get her job, but nothing i wouldn't indicate that she was someone who is not confident. >> no appeared she was definitely confident. there were a few times where she tightened her lips and when you see that that shows someone is and feeling great about the conversation but that's expected. >> laura: i thought there were a couple times where she was pretty clipped where she was like yeah. so eye socket a little change there but i would agree with you, i think overall it was a pretty good performance for her. let's go

maria yovanovitch according to testimony called home following a month's long severe campaign suggestinghe was disloyal to president trump. behind it, trump's personal attorney, rudy giuliani. >> i do not understand mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me. >> reporter: now testimony tells us yovanovitch was simply in the way, because she wouldn't buy into a disproven conspiracy theory giuliani was pushing. >> the facts are stubborn and eventually this is going to have to be investigated. >> reporter: giuliani wanted the ukrainians to investigate debunked allegations of corruption in ukraine tied to the u.s. democratic party and the 2016 u.s. election. joe biden, a potential rival to trump for the presidency and biden's son. giuliani insisted it had nothing to do with trump's re-election plans and there's nothing illegal about it. but soon trump was saying if a foreign country offered dirt on a political foe -- >> i think i'd want to hear it. >> you want that kind of interference in our elections? >> it's not interference. they're iran fears in our election. i think i'd take it and go to

the testimony released today, the president was lashing out trying to distance himself from maria yovanovitchbriefly before he went to the rally tonight. he said he didn't really know the ambassador and knew the ukrainian president didn't like her and essentially where he left it. you see the president was the first one to bring up marie yovanovitch with the ukrainian president and said she was bad news and the people she was associated with were bad news. it doesn't fit that he didn't really know her and his own son was calling for her to be removed and something she said she felt threatened by the way the president spoke about her to the ukrainian leader p. >> can you mustang being the ambassador there and suddenly realizing the president of the united states is trashing you? >> she heard that for the first time from ukrainians not the diplomatic channels and she doesn't believe the president knows who she is and he is trashing her. then, she is getting trashed by guiliani and in certain media. no wonder she felt threatened or victimized here. >> she said no one ever came to her and tried t

the star witness was the former ambassador to urk maria yovanovitch dismissed earlier this year by theng at impeachment hearing. so the

the american people the three individuals we're talking about here, the pager, george kent and maria yovanovitchof boy scouts and girl scouts. >> unlikely to testify, the whistleblower, and hunter biden. despite republicans requesting both be called as witnesses. -- seemingly pushing back saying this inquiry is not, it will not serve as a vehicle to undertake the same sham investigations into the bidens or 2016. -- for his perfect personal political benefit. >> the only way you can deal with this issue is for us to find out who the whistleblower is. no american can be accused of a crime based on an anonymous allegation. >> the only thing that the whistleblower can say is that he was pulled by other people about the phone call. we have the other people humming forward who actually testified. >> on twitter, the president railing once again about the so- called whistleblower saying that that person, there have attorney shall be investigated for fraud. at the white house, i am kevin corke. >>> once again, the public hearings in the impeachment inquiry begin on wednesday, we'll bring you live uninter

. >> the president then went further in his renewed attempt to discredit maria yovanovitch, the ambassador he recalled from ukraine again today. he said she was no angel. >> this ambassador that everybody says is so wonderful, sheer wouldn't hang my picture in the embassy, okay? she's in charge of the embassy. she wouldn't hang it. >> team members for yovanovitch strongly deny that story saying the official photographs of the president, the vice president, the secretary of state were put up as soon as they arrived from washington. meanwhile, one key impeachment witness who has not testified and who has been keeping a low profile has reemerged. former trump national security adviser john bolton seen here tonight at the train station in washington let everybody know this morning that he was, quote, glad to be back on twitter after more than two months. for the back story, stay tuned. he added we have now liberated the twitter account previously suppressed unfairly in the aftermath of my resignation as national security adviser and since resigning, the white house refused to return access to

. >> you had mckinley say under oath that three times he went to pompeo so concerned about maria yovanovitch that he wanted some sort of letter or statement showing support for her from the state department and apparently, according to mckinley, under oath, pompeo just said thank you and didn't acknowledge it. and then pompeo saying, i did nothing like that, after yovanovitch was let go. but that was on tv. you got someone on tv and then someone else under oath. >> right. and my vote goes with the person under oath because they have to take things a lot more seriously. but that adds to the incentive for witnesses as crucial as pompeo to really want to avoid having a sit down in that chair. >> we'll get a vision on two more witnesses today as those public transcripts are released. fascinating reads. shan wu, thanks very much. >> sure thing. >>> we have a lot ahead this hour. right now voters hitting the polls in key races across the country. today is a major test for them and for the president. voter enthusiasm. could the democrats prevail in some of these races? we'll break it down and what

and others in this administration, would have spoken up more, particularly are for ambassador maria yovanovitch who was forced out last spring. >> a lot of frustration with the silence on her in particular, poppy. >> well, molly, can you speak to what -- you obviously worked with the vice president until match of last year. can you speak to your view of what the leadership under rex tillerson and then mike pompeo at state what that has meant overall for morale? >> absolutely. well, morale is at a historic low at the state department and this is because secretary tillerson and now secretary pompeo have championed budget cuts. their staff have engaged in politically motivated harassment and retaliation and abusive behavior and failed to fill key positions. the state department really, far from having swagger, is limping along at the moment. >> tell us about the effect on policy too, because one essential thread of the ukraine story here, right, is called a shadow foreign policy but clearly a foreign policy separate from the chain of command, nsc through the state department, the president's perso

this exchange between congressman mark meadows and the president's former ambassador to ukraine maria yovanovitch. he asked about the origins of her nickname masha, asking where did you get that name from. well, i'm half russian and it's a russian nickname. meadows then abruptly completed his round of questioning. i yield back. that's an exchange that happened in the closed dr doosh hearing room. republicans have complained about the interview process, they stormed the area of the hill with the interviews. based on your reporting, do they have a strategy for questioning the witnesses when they have a chance to do it? >> they have a strategy, some have complained have been shut down by the democrats. they want to introduce information that they believe puts you crane in a negative light in terms of whether or not, according to republicans, they interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of hillary clinton. this is something that the president believes, this is something the people to him believe, and i really think they want to inject that in the bloodstream. ultimately i don't know that all of tha

president, was maria yovanovitch of a smear campaign. >> talk up, please?t after smear campaign. >> i really doesn't know her. the president of ukraine was not a fan of hers either. he did not say glowing things. i'm sure she is fine woman. i don't know much about her. reporter: told lawmakers -- >> you look at transcript. the president of ukraine was not favorably inclined. reporter: she said she had concerns about rudy giuliani's role. reporter: [inaudible]. >> i think that the whistle-blower gave a lot of false information and you have to see who the whistleblower is. once i released the transcript which was almost immediately the whistleblower's report was very wrong because as you know, the whistleblower covered mostly my transcript, my call, my call with the president of ukraine. so once i released that call, i released a very detailed version of that call. all of sudden whistle-blower's report was incorrect. the whistleblower seemed to disappear. i wonder what happened to the second whistleblower? what happened to the informant. they disappeared once