alexi mentioned the nsc as well as trump's campaign. i think the candidates themselves, as they're running in these tough re-elections, will try to avoid impeachment in their own personal ads. if it gins up the other side, puts more money in the war chest, we are going to continue to hear this. at a certain point, i'm not sure that that becomes the campaign ad that you hear closer to

while shawn misco, nsc aide until 2017 join schiff's committee in august. the same month the whistle-blower submitted his complaint. and it goes on to point out that grace was hired to help schiff's committee investigate the trump white house. that month trump accused schiff of stealing people who were working at the white house. and chairman schiff said, if the president's worried ak hour hires former administration maybe he should work on being a better employer. no. he should have fired everybody just like bill clinton did all the u.s. attorneys on the same day. that would have saved us a lot of what's going on here. so, anyway, we need those two witnesses. they're critical, and then we also need someone who is a cia detailee to the ukraine nsc desk, state department voyeur shows italy implications in the last elections. he speaking arabic and russian, reported directly to charles kupchan, a friend of the clinton's aide, blumenthal, policy work for ukraine corruption. close continuous contact with the fbi state ukrainian officials. a collateral duty to s

staff or affairs in peacekeeping and i run africa office at the nsc for a couple years and then i was nominated togo to the state department . and i don't think i appreciatedit at the time . the extent of the challenge that i faced as that 32-year-old african-american mother of a three-month-old child, breast-feeding and the state department, trying to win the trust and confidence of career ambassadorial core that was 20 to 30 years my senior and predominantly white and male career officials and i struggled in that period and i made some significant mistakes which i write aboutin the book and i had friends and mentors who were kind enough to take me aside and say you're going to screw this up . unless you make some significant course corrections. i talk about my great affection for somebody who may be known to some of you, late congressman howard woefully who in the second term of the clinton administration worked with me in the africa bureau but he was president clinton's special envoy to the great lakes region of central africa . and a fellow political appointee but one with in norm

abigail grace who worked at the nsc until 2018. was hired in february. while sean misgow, nsc aide until 2017 joined schiff's committee in august. the same month the whistle-blower submitted his complaint. and goes on to point out that grace was hired to help schiff's committee investigate the trump white house. that month, trump accused schiff of stealing people who were working at the white house. and chairman schiff said if the president's worried about our hiring any former administration, maybe he should work on being a better employer. no, he should have fired everybody just like bill clinton did. all the u.s. attorneys on the same day. that would have saved us a lot of what's gone on here. so anyway, we need those two witnesses. they're critical. and then we also need someone who was a cia detailee to the ukraine nsc desk, state department. shows that he was italy state luncheon. there's italy ramifications in the last elections. he speaks arabic and russian. reported directly to charles -- who is a friend of the clinton's aide. he did policy work

documented, the advice was not coming from them, not from the nsc. he said he wanted to protect the president. well, protect the president in the event that sondland was lying about asking trump for this. of course, as morrison said at the hearing, if in fact morrison was telling the truth about what trump wanted, it wouldn't be good for trump, it would be incrimination. >>> the former fbi lawyer who's been a target of the president's for two years is done being quiet. lisa page's breaking point. >>> what was anonymously going on behind the white house, now one of the president's former top advisers is going on the record saying, there is no one left who will stand up to him. >> the trump official who once suggested nuking afghanistan, has a new job at the state department. es just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. neutrogena® [airport pa]"all flights have been delayed." t-mobile makes the holidays easier... ...like this. because right now when you buy o

security council staffers, hill, vindman, morrison and maguire came forward to report trump's scheme to nsc lawyers as soon as they learned of it, didn't they mr. goldman. >> morrison and vindman went to the lawyers as soon as they heard of it, yes. >> and that moved me a lot. because my father was a staffer on the national security council under president kennedy and he said the most important thing you can bring to work with you every day is your conscious. and he devoted his career to the idea people must speak truth to power when power becomes a clear and present danger to democracy and to the people. so i want to talk about two of the many honorable government witnesses who went under oath and stood up for the truth. mr. goldman. who is dr. fiona hill. >> was the senior director for the europe and russia director at the national security council until july of this year. >> and she was president trump's senior adviser on russia? >> correct. >> her family fled nazi german and soviet russia. >> i think her family came from england. it was marie yovanovitch -- >> that was ambassador yovano

council's staffers, hill, vindman, morrison, and mcguyer, came forward to report trump's scheme to nsc lawyers as soon as they learned it, didn't they, mr. goldman? >> morrison and vindman went to the lawyers as soon as they learned of it. yes. >> they went to thele lawyers. and that moved mey a lot becau my father was a staffer on the national security council under president kennedy. and he said the most important thing you can bring to work with you every day is your conscience. and he devoted his career to the idea that people must speak truth to power. when power becomes a clear and present danger to democracy and to the people. so i want to talk about two of the many honorable government witnesses who went under oath and stood up for the truth. mr. goldman, who is dr. fiona hill? >> dr. fiona hill was the senior director for the europe and russia directorate at the national security council until july of this year. >> and she was president trump's senior advisor on s russia? >> correct. >> her family had fled both nazi germany and soviet russia. >> i think her family actually cam

the three kept the state department and the nsc informed of their activities. finally, there is evidence that mayor giuliani did not speak on behalf of the president. according to a news story on september 22 pd, mr. yermak asked ambassador volker to connect him with mayor giuliani because the zelensky team was surprised by the mayor's negative comments about ukraine. they wanted to change his mind. both ambassador volker in his deposition and yermak in an august "new york times" article denied mayor giuliani was speaking on behalf of president trump as his agent. instead as ambassador volker explained, they saw giuliani as a conduit through which they should change the president's mind. the second allegation at issue, of course, is whether the president obstructed congress by not agreeing to all the demands for documents and testimony as somebody with experience with congressional investigations, and strongly -- i strongly believe in congress's article 1 authority, but this impeachment inquiry has departed drastically from past bipartisan precedence for presid

the three kept the state department and the nsc informed of their activities. finally, there is evidence that mayor giuliani did not speak on behalf of the president. according to a news story on september 22 pd, mr. yermak asked ambassador volker to connect him with mayor giuliani because the zelensky team was surprised by the mayor's negative comments about ukraine. they wanted to change his mind. both ambassador volker in his deposition and yermak in an august "new york times" article denied mayor giuliani was speaking on behalf of president trump as his agent. instead as ambassador volker explained, they saw giuliani as a conduit through which they should change the president's mind. the second allegation at issue, of course, is whether the president obstructed congress by not agreeing to all the demands for documents and testimony as somebody with experience with congressional investigations, and strongly -- i strongly believe in congress's article 1 authority, but this impeachment inquiry has departed drastically from past bipartisan precedence for presid

my reputation from the nsc as i was about to discover had preceded me. i'm why was eventually told, i was perceived as smart, dynamic, decisive, and bureaucratically skilled, and if. but also, rash, demanding inpatient, hardheaded and unafraid of confrontation. also autocratic, micromanaging. so what does that tell us about your backs are they right and what parts were they right about? >> i think that they were right i had the privilege starting at the staff at 28 megabytes 32 i had been elevated to assistant secretary of state that meant i was responsible for all the seas all the ambassadors and 48 sub-saharan african countries. i was probably 20 to 30 years younger than the most senior ambassadors reporting to me. they had come up in the career and they werecurvierand they were mostly male and mostly white and saw me as wrong for the job to put it mildly and insufficiently experienced given their competitive background. they knew i had the skills in terms of intellect and i had the relationships at the white house and at the top of the state departmen

. >> for this ever to be successful, it requires leadership in the nsc.having witnessed firsthand previous attempts at interagency justing, means not leadership from the nsc but an active translation function. and perhaps a willingness on the other federal agencies outside the defense department to planning frameworks. when you have a decade-long andcy of multiyear planning operational planning and strategic level planning, there is more of a history in dod then i think is resident in many of the agencies. those are some of the critical components in making something like this work. i want to comed, next to you. i am mindful of the fact that you have worked in treasury in different capacities. and an important leadership role in the intelligence community. and in the private sector. can you talk a little bit about signaling in particular? what that looks like and to the extent that there was discipline around what the signal should be and a methodology about how to communicate that, and if you could give us an example or two to ground us. a real-world gro

nsc staff member colonel alex vindman testified that any omissions in the summary were not significant and that editing was not done maliciously. president trump has declassified and released the call summary so the american people can review it and assess it for themselves. i'll make a few points that seem to have gone undernoticed. the call summary reflects absolutely no pressure or conditionality. president zelensky vocalized in concerns with the subject matter discussed. and there is no indication of bribery, extortion or other illegal conduct on the call. the call summary shows president trump and president zelensky engaged in pleasantries and cordialities. the call reveals laughter. put simply, it is not the shakedown that some democrats have described. president trump raised his concerns about european allies paying their fair share in security assistance to ukraine, a concern that president trump would continue to raise both publicly and privately. there is no discussion on the call, i repeat, no discussion on the call about the upcoming 2020 election or security sectors' assis

the three kept the state and the nsc informed of their activities. finally there is evidence that mayor giuliani did not speak on behalf of the president. according to af new story on november 22nd mr. yermak asked ambassador volker to connect him with rudy giuliani because the zelensky team was surprised by the s mayor's comments about ukraine. they wanted him to change his mind. both volker and yermak denied that mayor giuliani was speaking on behalf of president trump as his agent. instead as ambassador volker explained, the ukrainian government saw t giuliani as a conduit through which they could change the president's mind. secondsi allegation is whether e president obstructed congress by not agreeing to all the demand for testimony. with somebody with experience in investigations and i strongly believe in congress's article i authority. but this impeachment inquiry has partedme drastically as well as the fundamental d tenets of fai and effective congressional oversight. first, process matters. precedents guaranteed fundamental fairness and due

then you reported it immediately to the nsc legal adviser. is that the correcting. before i ask you plrks droos. earlier in the presentation we showed the testimony of what president trump is trying to do which is running a domestic political errand. is that what you said in your testimony? >> yes, it was about two specific investigations that president trump did ask president zelensky to do of the these are the same two investigations that were discussed and were the only two investigations that were at issue throughout the entirety of the scheme. and so what our evidence found was that time there was a reference to investigations, it referenced the biden investigation and the 2016 election investigation. and, in fact, ambassador volker actually said whenever he was using the term corruption, what he meant was those specific to investigations. >> and what was the significance to you that mr. morrison, who mr. castor himself has relied on and invoked twice today, where he said he understood these were the investigations that fiona hill had warned him about, warned h

what we learned is even as giuliani's continued to meet with these people, top nsc officials and otherte department are getting information about, you know, sort of the ins and outs of these giuliani meetings and sort of sitting around asking the question what's giuliani doing? right? i think they were really surprised by the visit to kyiv. i don't think anyone was president examing it. i think some people knew that giuliani was headed to budapest, were not prepared for him to land in ukraine. so, they were pretty alarmed, these people we were speaking to for the story. >> hanging over this as you and others have noted is the open investigation. you report on the awareness of the surveillance. everyone now has seen all the call records. and you write it could be unwise for even trump allies to contact giuliani at this time given how his text messages and phone records have become a topic of congressional investigation plus sdny. what do you think of the theory that has been put out there that he wants to talk to people in person to avoid that potential surveillance? >> i don't have any

for this for this kind of effort to be successful, i think clearly it requires leadership from the nsc. again, having witnessed firsthand kind of previous attempts at interagency planning planningplanning needs not just leadership from the nsc but, you know, active kind of translation function. right? and perhaps a willingness on the part of, you know, other federal agencies outside the defense department to kind of commit to planning frameworks that dod has used since the fact we're always the gorilla in the room trying to impose the way we do business on others, but, you know, when you have decades-long legacy of multiyear planning and and operational planning and strategic level planning that just kind of, there's more of a history, more practice, experience, muscle memory in dod than i think in many of the other agencies. i think those are some of the critical components to making something like this work. >> thank you. david, i want to come next to you and mindful of the fact you've worked in treasury in digit different capacities, a legal and a policy capacity and a leadership ro

abigail grace who worked at the nsc until 2018 was hired in february well sean misko until 2017, joined schiff's committee in august, the same month the whistle-blower submitted his complaint. goes on to point out grace was employ to help schiff's committee. trump accused schiff of stealing people working at the white house. chairman schiff said if the president is worried about us hiring former administration people, he should work on being a better employee. no, he should've fired everybody, just like bill clinton did. all of the u.s. attorneys on the same day. it would have saved us a lot of what is going on here. anyway, we need those two witnesses. they are critical. we also need someone who is a cia detail to ukraine. the state department freedom of information shows there was an italy state luncheon. italy ramifications. he speaks arabic and russian, reported directly to charles corruptio.continuous contact wi, state, ukrainian officials. had a collateral duty to support vice president biden. biden was obama's point man on ukraine. associated with dnc operative alexandra chalupa.

i want to know how it is that adam schiff had a staff member who allegedly used to work at the nsc withhe alleged whistleblower. and within days he manages to get the skinny on this report that was coming down the pipeline. and we know that adam schiff lied on national television telling the world that he and his team had nothing do, no contact with the whistleblower. david, it turns out they did. >> adam schiff is a coward. we know this as a fact because he's not even testifying on monday. before the judiciary committee on the intelligence report. if he understood the importance and he understood all -- he does understand all of what he has done, the mccarthyite tactics that he has been using during this investigation to undermine this president, that's the reason he doesn't want to sit there to answer questions. we'll have our day in the senate. maybe it is, maybe it's not. i want the democrat congressional members in the trump districts to remember next november their vote for impeachment will come back and haunt them. trish: i said it yesterday, trump has won 2020 because of the dem

. >> one of the questions we all have the nsc has been quite active in the china prosecution. you've done your china initiative. what do you see as the goal of nst in that space and what do you consider success in that space as you go forward? >> well there are a lot of ways to measure success in this space and let me step back for those of you who aren't familiar with what we have been doing there. it's something the last attorney general mike put together to focus on chinese espionage and people in intellectual property in order to further their economic development and economic plans. it was really a result of the intel that we were seeing in the morning briefings from the fbi and intelligence community and wanting to do something about what we were seeing in terms of chinese activity. the success is ultimately we are going to continue to see these cases as long as they continue pursuing their bad behavior. success ultimately is going to be a change in behavior. that's a very long road and that is not something that's going to be done alone by the justice department. it wil

that seems to be the magic number in the race in the nsc. the 49ers had more company last night.w brees was three touchdown passes away from breaking peyton manning's all-time nfl record. second quarter, he hit smith for the second touchdown pass of the night. number 539, tying manning's record, third quarter, breezy to josh hill. he threw for 4 touchdowns lestina., completing 22 straight. he was 29 at 30 in the night. setting anr completing 97% of his throws. brees and the saints role 34-7. new orleans joints the seahawks. packers and 49ers with 11-3 record. san francisco currently the fifth seed in the nfc since seattle owns the tiebreaker for 1st place in the nfc west. the raiders lead the coliseum on a sour note after blowing 813 point lead against the checks. they could have gotten a proper ending if garrett had not been ruled out of bounds with 2:05 remaining. running out the clock. yesterday, the league and officials admitted they got it wrong. not the apology helped john feel any better. >> the league call. he apologized and we accepted the apology. but this is 2020. we'v

as a matter of fact, margaret, anybody who sat at the nsc desk had a stamp, and whenever you mentionedatvia, lithuania, or estonia, you stamped it -- "the united states of america does not recognize the forcible incorporation of the baltic states into the soviet union." and you know what? 45 years later, when the baltic states were free, they were among our best allies -- estonia, latvia, and lithuania -- because they remembered that we stood for the right things. and so, yes, you have to do it carefully, you can't give the impression to the people of hong kong that we are gonna come to the rescue. we can't but we need to stand for the right things. >> and that words matter. >> words matter. words matter. and sometimes, words can matter even to the chinese government. to know that the world is watcng and that they need to find a way forward that doesn't include trying to crush that protest, that's important message for everybody who wants to say to china, "if you want to be a member of the international community, don't do that." >> you were not always a republican. which was fun for m

we had each other's backs and by the way the team also included beyond the three of us the nsc chief of staff and the deputy national security adviser and the deputy national economic adviser. the three most senior were and we disagreed often on substance but we s knew that we had each other's back and woe unto anybody who tried to drive a wedge between us particularly from the outside. i hoped and believed we led a session that was supportive of the human beings on the team. in other words i and i think all of us tried very hard to lead people with an appreciation as individuals were that they were mothers and fathers or wives are ill husbands or children that were struggling. family came first. even in the hot house of the white house and president obama underscore that from the top so weather was me with my mother in the hospital when she was dying or whether it was the colleague whose husband had had a stroke the message from the top down but we tried to underscore was go do what you have to do to be as fully as you can as a human being and we the team will fill in behind you. it

>>. >> but he expected that meeting. >> that someone testified if there is a prerequisite that the nsc staffer testified someone told the ukrainians in the july 10th meeting that investigation of the bidens was a deliverable and necessary. administration officials that zelensky was, quote, prepared to receive potus's call and would offer assurances about the investigations, isn't that right? >> yes. >> and on that same day, state department official volker had breakfast with rudy giuliani and he reported to sondland by text message. most important is for zelensky to say he will help investigation, right? >> yes. and address any specific personnel issues. >> right. and later that day, after giuliani spoke with yermak, evidence suggests that giuliani gave a green light to that july 25th call. then on the morning of the call, volker texted zelensky aide yermak and that text to his aide said, and i quote, heard from white house, assuming president "z" convinces trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down a visit, a date for visit to washington.

security counsel staffers, hill, vindman, morrison and mcguire came forward to report trump's scheme to nsc lawyers as soon as they learned of it, didn't they, mr. goldman? >> morrison and vindman went to the lawyers as soon as they learned it, yes. >> that moved me a lot because my father was a staffer on the national security council under president kennedy and he said the most important thing you can bring to work with you every day is your conscience. he devoted his career to the idea that people must speak truth to power when power becomes a clear and present danger to democracy and to the people. so i want to talk about two of the many honorable government witnesses who went under oath and stood up for the truth. mr. goldman, who is dr. fiona hill. >> she was the senior director for the europe and russia directorate at the national security council until july of this year. >> and she was president trump's senior adviser on russia? >> correct. >> her family had fled both nazi germany and soviet russia. >> i think her family actually came from england. marie yovanovitch was -- >> oh, th

ned price, senior director for the nsc. joel rueben, a state department official, and my friend, shannon petty, she is in london, just a moment ago, we saw the president speaking while in london, talking about the impeachment inquiry and how it is unpatriotic. the definition of a patriot is one who vigorously defends his country. the president is at nato. he is accused of using a foreign government to dig up dirt on his opponent. >> it is an issue that he could be avoiding. he is here trying to look presidential. trying to appear as a president busy running the country while he accuses democrats of doing nothing and only being focused on impeachment. wheen while he is just wading into the impeachment fray calling democrats on foreign soil, unpatriotic. he could have easily said, you know i'm here focused on other issues. i don't want to be talking about impeachment, and it is making it difficult for him to portray this image when he continues to go into these long attacks against the president. he was tweeting the second th

you reported it immediately to the nsc legal advisor. events?the correct mr. morrison said, that is correct. goldman, before your presentation, we show the testimony of ms. hill where she referred to what the president was trying to do as running a domestic political errand. is that what you intended to ask esther morrison? mr. goldman: yes. it was about the investigations president trump ultimately did discuss and asked president zelensky to do. these are the same investigations that were discussed and the only two investigations at issue throughout the entirety of the scheme. what our evidence found was any time there was a reference to investigations, it reference to the joe biden investigation and 2016 investigation. when heor volker said, was using the term corruption, what he meant was those two investigations. >> what was the significance that mr. morrison, who mr. he said herelied on, understood these were the investigations be on a hill had warned him about? what did you understand that you mean? leftoldman: when dr. hale and tim morrison replaced her

because a lot of people at the pentagon, a lot of people in the nsc . what is important in developing a policy . not just throwing it out there and seeing what happens area so we would like to learnmore about how that works and there are other issues . there was recently a discussion of aid that we had approved for lebanon, that aid was held for some time. we attempted to find out why and it was kind of hard basically. there was eventually released but we never really heard what was the point? those sorts of things matter and i think they matter to the executive branch and they matter a lot for us to because on this committee are bright talented people who have served in the military, people who serve in the cia, people who are just policymakers want to be part of that discussion as a coequal branch of government work for the good policy area we want to improve upon where we're at. lastly, certainly isis is a huge concern in the region but there are other concerns and we want to know how the policies we are dealing with in syria with bashar al-assad hav

i want to know how it is that adam schiff had a staff member who allegedly used to work at the nsc withhe alleged whistleblower. and within days he manages to get the skinny on this report that was coming down the pipeline. and we know that adam schiff lied on national television telling the world that he and his team had nothing do, no contact with the whistleblower. david, it turns out they did. >> adam schiff is a coward. we know this as a fact because he's not even testifying on monday. before the judiciary committee on the intelligence report. if he understood the importance and he understood all -- he does understand all of what he has done, the mccarthyite tactics that he has been using during this investigation to undermine this president, that's the reason he doesn't want to sit there to answer questions. we'll have our day in the senate. maybe it is, maybe it's not. i want the democrat congressional members in the trump districts to remember next november their vote for impeachment will come back and haunt them. trish: i said it yesterday, trump has won 2020 because of the dem

next sunday in seattle. 49ers clinch the division title with a win and earns a number one seed in the nsc but if seattle wins 49ers go all the way back to fifth or sixth seed and will have to play on the road for that wildcard weekend. >>> number one ranked stanford was in austin to face texas final seconds in the game. passes stolen, she goes the whole length fourth for the layoff. texas shock stanford, 69 to 54. first loss of the season for stanford . >> let me ask you this. theoretically, it's possible niners and raiders could meet in the super bowl? >> theoretically. yes. perfect storm . >> that would be a longer graphic for what needs to happen but yes, it could happen. >>> coming up, travel nightmares from coast-to-coast. storms bring the holiday travel rush to a crawl. >>> the two carnival cruise ships that crashed into each other are back. >>> president trump and republicans are blasting nancy pelosi over impeachment impasse. >>> national menorah burning bright in washington dc. first night of hanukkah, we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> our top stories, massive pileup in easter

we're brought together in the nsc process where we have committee meetings to discuss these issues and so on each of them we're hand and glove, as the chairman mentioned, as i stated before, part of our job is to enable our diplomats. i want to do that as much as possible. in some cases, it may be providing security, if you will, for the distribution of humanitarian aid, it's making sure we're using our presence to reinforce and reensure allies and partners. those are two examples of the coordination that happens between us. other players in that realm as well, treasury, usaid. >> thank you very much. i'm very grateful you pointed out usaid too. i believe that isis materialized because of the withdrawal from iraq under the previous administration which followed the unfulfilled red line. this premature decision based on a time line rather than conditions based led to the reengagement to have to defeat isis isis. with the president's pulling the ta troops, how would this reinforce your statement? >> it's not a peace. keeping force. they're working closely, day in and day out with the sdf

if you are in the nsc, did you go to your superior?y have the political, the messaging, the media. and they are driving to a point. slow this whole thing down. this is not going to be nancy pelosi's choice or adam schiff. it's the american people's. nothing is more significant than nullifying a presidential election. you want to do that, the american people will take their time and weigh and measure what's out there. trish: the train has left the station. >> i don't think the train left the station. there are many alternatives to slow this down. to say we want to adjudicate this properly. if they want prans transparency and sunshine, bring it. if they want to do that, let's go back to steel, let's take the whistleblower. let's take joe biden not just in ukraine, joe binder and his son in china. what did joe biden do about the islands being built in the south china sea? let's go through all of it. if that's what they want, let's do it. but let's take our time and let's do it. i have got news for the democrats. if we go through all of th

what i can do is point to the democrat of nsc official, mr. morrison, who said when asked about giuliani's involvement, that he wasn't concerned. he didn't think it was anything inappropriate. >> he was the only one. >> it was unusual. and our country has -- our country has a history of using people in a nonprodecisitraditi to engage in foreign policy. the president has engaged with me to carry a message outside of the official channels. i don't think there's anything wrong with that inherently. if rudy giuliani did something wrong, there's a process to deal with it. >> there's a couple of investigations going on. we'll see what they yield about the mayor's exposure. but the great theory here is, it's one thing to ask a congressman to do something. we don't know if this man is the president's lawyer. if he was a proxy for the state department or acting as a concerned citizen. but it really matters which answer is correct. if he wasn't acting as the president's personal lawyer and we don't know that's true, because i don't know if he was gettin

it is a foundational piece of his morning to it is a foundational piece of nsc meetings, , whether that was 20 years ago or now. the third thing is every president for whom i have worked has wished intelligence could say things that it can't. right? you wish that some piece of the truth existed that would allow you to justify, and none of that is hard for the intelligence community. what's different about this president, number one is he is the first in my experience who had no foundational framework to understand what is come with the limits of intelligence are, with the purpose of it was, and the way that we discuss it. i do a lot of sports analogies. it's like playing pickup basketball with one runner. anyone else knows how the game moves in place and just one person that comes in place and is just so different that that in and of itself was different. he ask different questions. he pursued different -- he had different trusts, because he's probably the first president that arrived with no framework in a in a world that is massively available information with infinite people offering

has been disparaged and ignored and produced the fact checking that led to the state department and nscitnesses and their evidence. when that happened in realtime, i was on the air and it was extraordinary and it was a real tell. jeff bennett, garrett haake, thanks so much to both of you for your reporting today. >>> what role could rudy giuliani play in the impeachment of his most famous client? impet of his most famous client? hears to avoid screening for colon cancer. i'm not worried. it doesn't run in my family. i can do it next year. no rush. cologuard is the noninvasive option that finds 92% of colon cancers. you just get the kit in the mail, go to the bathroom, collect your sample, then ship it to the lab. there's no excuse for waiting. get screened. ask your doctor if cologuard is right for you. covered by medicare and most major insurers. did you know that feeling sluggish or weighed down could be signs that your digestive system isn't working at its best? taking metamucil every day can help. metamucil supports your daily digestive health using a special plant-based fiber calle

trump loyalists drafted internal quote enemies list, co-workers were purged, and nsc security teams logged hundreds of external threats against hill and other officials all fueled by a steady stream of far-right smears. meanwhile, the post also reports the new russia adviser at the white house, the third in just six months, has no meaningful background on the subject. the only expert on ukraine has never spoken with president trump, but has been mocked by him publicly. the "washington post" also reporting the acting u.s. ambassador to ukraine, william taylor, returned to kyiv after his november 14th testimony only to watch trump's lawyer rudy giuliani arrive weeks later to resume his quest for dirt on the bidens. giuliani's, a sojourn, while filming a documentary made clear to officials that taylor and the u.s. embassy had no standing with the u.s. president. taylor has since announced that he will step down by january 2nd. >>> and south korea's news agency is reporting that the u.s. flew four surveillance planes over the korean peninsula between tuesday and early wednesday, amid growing c

you even had fiona hale who democrats lauded who worked at the nsc, was closely intimately involved withsia to express concerns that the dossir was russian disinformation. for all the democrats who say they care about russian meddling, why do you want to get to the bottom if hillary clinton and the dnc were paying for information which the fbi use to get a fisa warrant on an american citizen? >> trace: to switch gears a little bit the reports coming out that john durham the federal prosecutor looking at the origins of the russia probe is now looking at investigating former cia director john brennan and his role in this whole thing? it brings up some fascinating and intriguing questions, yes? >> to put a pin in the conversation on a few of the harrell, fiona hale also testified that anybody who propagating russia's propaganda. fiona hill says that if you go out and said ukraine meddled, it's not true and i'm not going to be a part of it. but when it comes to john brennan -- i'll answer your question too. i know john brennan, i've worked with him. everybody i know who worked on the counter

we've never met, never spoken, never exchanged emails even though we were on the nsc together.nteresting question that was never asked his who told dr. hill that such a situation ever occurred? and unfortunately the republicans were precluded from asking those type of questions. >> can you think of any reason why she would want to implement you on the testimony? >> again, as i said, we never had the question before. that was near speculation and that's not a game. >> this is at the heart of the whole impeachment situation. the white house -- democrats say the white house wanted to have this back channel, they withhold aid in return of an investigation of bidens. did you discuss any of this with the president, rudy giuliani, lev parnas, any of those individuals? >> absolutely not. i never discussed ukrainian matters with anyone. not going to get into the conversations that i have had with the president. specialty matters that i have not had, it's easy. >> martha: do you think if you are involved in the russian investigation can work on that, brought forward the report, the house

those who know those answers the best are people like former ambassador bolton, former nsc director, mick mulvaney and others. if, in fact, the president has nothing to hide, you would think he would have them forget coming to make the case for him. shouldn't even have to subpoena them at the end of the day. the fact that they have critics from them, it tells you volumes about why they would not come forward. their information would be incriminating to the president. >> mcconnell is not likely to do that but do you think there's moderate republicans who would back the idea of senator schumer's plan? he doesn't sound like it bodes well for democrats from her in terms of and well, look. i think that for all centers and certainly senate republicans, they have to make sure that this process doesn't seem like a sham, like a slam dunk as senator mcconnell has said, he will be in absolute sync with the white house counsel and the president. that's not -- you know, that's like the defense attorney being in cahoots with the judge and the jury. that doesn't work. that's not going to have any c

. >> joining me now is ned price former special assistant to president obama, former nsc spokespersonenior director. also an msnbc national security analyst. thanks for joining us, ned. talk about this article, president trump believing ukraine interfered in our election because "putin told him that." if this is accurate what does it tell us about their relationship? >> well, i do have to say it is an attractive theory for president trump for a couple reasons. number one because of what you are alluding to. president trump for reasons that i think we don't fully understand, can guess, still don't fully understand it, wants to preserve this relationship with president putin and putting the blame on kyiv instead of moscow allows him do that. second, and maybe just as important in president trump's mind, this theory allows him to make the case that he won the presidency, yes, still lost popular vote by 3 million votes but won the electoral klemp not only without assistance from a foreign country were you without opposition from another foreign country, in this case ukraine. of course, th

he did not say he went to the nsc lawyers because he was concerned about thens call. he went to the national security lawyers for two reasons. number one, they weren't on the call. we wanted to update them about it. number two, he was concerned about leaks. and he was concerned that if his call leaked out, how it would play in washington's polarized environment, which is exactly what we have here. he was also concerned if the call leaked, that it might affect bipartisan support in congress. you know, issues of ukraine have traditionally been one of the few issues where republicans and democrats share interest. the third reason he didn't want the ukrainians to get a distorted perception of what appened on the call because on thepp call, we're talking about eight lines of concern, and a lot of ambiguity. this oval office meeting on may 23rd, there's this question, i guess it's ambiguous, i didn't think it was, but a question about whether when the president referred thehe -- the delegatio goes to the inauguration may 20th, it's sondland, it's volker and it's secretary p

>> yes. >> and nsc staffer lieutenant colonel vindman testified that sondland told the ukrainians ina july 10th meeting that the investigation of the bidens was a deliverable, necessary, to get that meeting, isn't that right? >> yes. if i could take a second to correct what mr. castor said about that meeting, there really is no inconsistent statements about whether or not ambassador sondland raised the issue of investigations in connection to the white house. even ambassador volker in his public testimony was forced to admit he did hear that and said it was inappropriate. inappropriate have some and, in fact, on july 9 19th sondland told president zelensky directly that president trump wanted to hear a commitment to the investigations on the july 25th call, correct? >> that's right. >> that same day, sondland updated senior multiple trump administration officials that zelensky was, quote, prepared to receive potus's call and would offer assurances about the investigations, isn't that right? >> yes. >> and on that same day, state department official volker had breakfast with rudy giul

trump loyalists drafted internal enemies lists, co-workers were purged and nsc security teams logged hundreds of external threats against hill and other officials, all fueled by a steady stream of far right smears. among those, alex jones of infowars attacking her. how can we depend on these foreign officials to do their jobs and do it objectively when they are being forced to constantly look over their shoulder at every turn? >> yeah, i think what's described there that's been happening with fiona hill is very real in her case and is a real failing of the administration to be able to protect her better. and this is going to be a real question for other experts, nonpartisan experts, who are asked to come in and to serve in this administration and perhaps in future administrations if there's a feeling that these are normally not really public figures. they are staff and they intended to operate behind the scenes and have to be able to give their advice and consultations in an atmosphere where they're safe to go home and resume, you know, personal activities. and this is a real warning

former nsc official fiona hill testified about trump's ukraine theory. watch. >> based on questions and statements i have heard, some you have on this committee appear to believe that russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country, and that perhaps somehow, for some reason, ukraine did. this is a fictional narrative that has been purposed and propagated by the russian security services themselves. >> what is your reaction to that, glenn? >> you know, it's -- the fact that white house officials would say it should be investigated. it has been investigated. as you say, ayman, 17 intelligence agencies. a bipartisan commission of congress, bob mueller for goodness sake indicted the russians who interfered in our elections. it's been investigated and investigated and investigated, and the fact that donald trump would actually say as is related by senior white house officials, but putin told me it wasn't him, that would be like me prosecuting cases and saying well, you know what? i can't prosecute this defendant because he the