. >> i see you have a buy on taylor morrison and the rest on toll brothers. why taylor morrison?rrow to get stronger performance as a home builder you need the aggressi aggressively increase community count and migration to entry level and first move up. they are doing a terrific job. it's easier on year over year whether it's taylor morrison, kb homes to get that kind of comparison if you're a larger builder in the near luxury market and geography, some of the more difficult areas, the year over year comps are much more difficult. on a relative basis that will lag. >> appreciate it today thank you. >>> more and more fund managers are warning about market sell off if elizabeth warren is atected president. wh about self-proclaimed socialist bernie sanders what if he wins? what happens to markets then that's next. staffing a small business is challenging. filmgate is growing really quickly and... ...i needed to fill a production coordinator role. i was looking for someone with specific skills. so i posted a job on linkedin. maribel had all the skills i was looking for... and lookin

morrison would back this? >> very. as if ambassador taylor'stement and testimony wasn't clear enough, morrison clearly was in the middle of this and will be able to connect whatever dots are not clearly connected already and of course, you know, getting back to the president's comment about taylor, was there no mistake. ambassador taylor has served his country with distinction for 50 years. he has done an outstanding job as most recently as acting ambassador to ukraine, and last i checked, he's still the acting ambassador. so clearly, the secretary of state does not think it was a mistake to put him in that position, and so there's a huge disconnect, it seems to me, between the president and the secretary of state and that's really not sustainable. something's got to break there. >> what do you make of that, senator santorum? here's the reality. mike pompeo is taking taylor's side. the president keeps trying to demean bill taylor and act as what he's saying is not true because he's a never trumper. what do you make of that? this is a guy that s

if the white house was concerned about taylor and now morrison, you can only imagine what they think now that former national security advisor john bolton is considering testifying. remember both taylor and fiona hill told lawmakers bolton said he didn't want to be part of any metaphorical, quote, drug deal rudy giuliani and ambassador sondland were doing in ukraine. as the impeachment investigation escalates the department of justice has expand said its own inquiry into the origins of the mueller probe. it's now a criminal investigation, a decision the president voiced his support for this afternoon. >> investigate the investigators, whether it's struck and page, whether it's clapper and whether it's comey and all of these people. because terrible things went on for our country, and we have a great attorney general, highly p prestigious man, a very honorable man. >> joining me now gary hakke, ken dilanian, kimberley atkins, senior fellow and former deputy assistant secretary of state michael fuks. it is a pretty big headline to have john bolton testify in front of these committees. >

taylor. tim morrison is his name, he's a russia and europe advisor on the national security council set to testifyt week. he was named 15 times in taylor's opening statement. joining me is ted lu. >> thank you, don. >> this is very significant. not only is morrison expected to corroborate the testimony, he listened to the july 25th phone call. what do you want to know from him? >> thank you, don, four your question. impeachment is the second gravest instance. it's reserved for rare instances where we can't wait for the next election. bill taylor's testimony was devastating to the president. we expect morrison to corroborate it. he laid out a quid pro quo between the president and the ukrainian president. >> it was pretty ominous. do you think you have enough evidence to impeach the testimony? >> a lot of the damming evidence came out. that call record, we don't need morrison to tell us what was on it because we have it. the white house released a summarized transcript right after the ukrainian leader donald trump says i have a favor to ask of you and he lists two favors, investigate the dnc, inves

taylor. it would be significant if morrison corroborated taylor that this quid pro quo was wide withly known and acted upon on the branch. >> so from the opening remarks where tim morrison played a role. during the same phone call i had with tim morrison, he went on to describe a conversation he had with mr. yermak at warsaw. yermak is an aide to president zelensky of ukraine. he told mr. yermak that the security assistance money would not come until president zelensky committed to pursue the burisma investigation. i was alarmed by what mr. morrison told me about that sondland/yermak conversation. this was the first time i had heard that the security assistance not just the white house meeting was conditioned on the investigation. so you can see what tim morrison is someone they would like to speak to. >> and there's also the aspect that this is a completely different cast of characters. and tape of characters -- actually people with character. if you'll remember the folks that came in for congressional hearings were folks like michael cohen, corey lewandowski, paul manafort, roger stone. you

and that's something according to taylor's testimony that morrison had some concerns about. xpect there to be some corroboration of taylor's testimony. now we're also told that he does not believe that the administration necessarily had done anything wrong with all of this and we don't -- we believe that his testimony, from what we're told will have some nuance whereby there are any quid pro quo or not so he may not raise as many alarms as taylor. we'll ultimately wait and have to say. we're told he has taken notes about his past conversations and those notes will also provide a basis of his testimony. but of course, anderson, this comes at a tee time as the impeachment investigators are trying to find out what happened here. here is an individual who is a key person in the white house, currently serving in the white house who will testify about all these matters. the question, though, ultimately the republicans will raise is whether or not he has firsthand knowledge of any of this. they're already pushing back on bill taylor's testimony saying he didn't have firsthand knowle

taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. tim morrison is his name. a russia and europe adviser on the national security council set to testify next week. he was named 15 times in taylor's opening statement. so joining me now is democratic congressman ted lieu, a member of the foreign affairs committee. i'm so glad that you're here. thank you, congressman. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, don. >> this is very significant because not only is morrison expected to corroborate taylor's testimony, he also listened to that july 25th phone call. what do you want to know from him? >> thank you, don, for your question. let me first say that impeachment is one of the gravest powers of congress, second only to the power to declare war. it must always be our last option, reserved for these rare instances where we can't wait until the next election. we might be at one of those instances now. bill taylor's testimony was devastating to the president. we expect morrison to corroborate parts of it. and bill taylor essentially laid out a quid pro quo between the t

morrison is someone that a lot of people throughout this week have been really excited to get inside, democrats mainly, to get inside closed doors, and to really grill him on what ambassador bill taylor, the top diplomat to ukraine had told democrats earlier this month. which was that he had, morrison had told him that he had overheard the president potentially ask, saying that aid to ukraine as well as a potential white house meeting hinged on president zelensky's commitment to investigating bidings and the 2016 election. >> another important testimony, switching gears, that of lieutenant colonel vindman. how might his testimony impact the white house's plan to battle impeachment inquiry? they tried over the past couple of days to attack him personally, his background, and even some suggestions of dual loyalty, but it seems like it is not working. >> it's not. and we've seen republicans, so lieutenant colonel alexander vindman is ali decorated war veteran, we've seen republicans such as liz cheney, one of the leaders in the house, say that any attacks against his patriotism are disgusting and unfounded. so a lot of republicans rallying to his side to say you can't attack his charact

. >> tim morrison gives credibility to what taylor said. first is that tim morrison essentially says i was not concerned that anything illegal was dscussed. then you have william taylor who said actually i thought it was crazy military aid was hld for political means associated with the president. two people said we herdahe same thing with you have different takes on what it means icr u.s. poland national security. >> schifrin: what we're talking about is the substance of the impeachment proceeding. how did each side rally thetr ps on a real partisan vote? >> there are not just high stakes but high pressure for both parties. when you talkbout democrats and how they're looking about this, they're thinking about two thin, telling members in vulnerable districts, first, they're tryi to stress as a process this is not a vote on impeachment, and second they're seeing polling moving in the airection of impeachment. in fact the mjority of americans in the polls want an impeachment inquiry to move forward.at what democrats feel good about in terms o

opening statement, which shows just how involved morrison was. now, taylor says that morrison told him that he had a sinking feeling about a phone call that the president had with one of his point men on ukraine. that's gordon sondland, and that is one thing he will likely be asked about next week. two sources, wolf, had told cnn that morrison will argue that he didn't say anything wrong with what the trump administration did. wolf? >> alex marquardt reporting for us. joining us now, congresswoman, pramila jayapal, a democrat who serves on the house judiciary committee. she's here in the situation room with me. thanks so much, congresswoman, for coming in. what do you make of the breaking news right now, potentially, unless there's an appeal, it could go all the way up to the supreme court. you might be getting all of this redacted grand jury material from the mueller investigation. how significant could that be? >> it's huge. i haven't had a chance to read the whole opinion, but i'll tell you, on page two, there's a really important line there, and it is th

cnn has learned that morrison will corroborate key elements of bill taylor's account. taylor is the top diplomat in ukraine and testified mr. trump pressed ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into the bidens in exchange for security assistance. >> cnn has learned that morrison is leaving his job soon, raising expectations he will speak more freely in his deposition. >>> also this morning, the first house floor vote of impeachment around 10:30 eastern time. it allows for public hearings and release of deposition transcripts. it also outlines the role of democrats and limited rights for republicans and the white house. house speaker nancy pelosi, sounding optimistic. >> our whip has given me a good report about our vote tomorrow. he's the vote counter. thank you. >>> one big remaining question, will john bolton testify? a source tells cnn, house investigators invited the former national security adviser to appear next week. but bolton's lawyer says he won't appear unless he is subpoenaed. other witnesses say bolton raised concerns about shadow diplomacy with uk

taylor says, "on august 22nd during a phone conversation with tim morrison," fiona hill's replacement at the national security council, taylor says, "i asked him if there had been a change in policy of strong support for ukraine. to which he responded, it remains to be seen. he also told me during this call that the president doesn't want to provide any assistance to ukraine at all. that was extremely troubling to me because i had told secretary pompeo in may when he asked me to come back to the kiev embassy that if america's policy of strong support for ukraine were to change i would have to resign. based on my call with mr. morrison, i was preparing to do so." taylor also says at this point he sent a direct cable, a "first-person cable to secretary of state mike pompeo dire" dire relaying his concerns about what was going on with this military aid, calling it folly what the u.s. was doing holding up this military assistance. taylor says he received no response from pompeo to that memo. just days later on september 1st, there's vice president pence in warsaw. sent to meet with presid

bill taylor mentioned morrison's name 15 times in his opening statement. taylor raised concerns about president trump pressing ukraine to investigate former vice president joe biden and his son hunter, writing in text messages that it was crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. let's go to our senior congressional correspondent manu raju. he is following all of this on the hill. manu, have you heard anything about morrison's testimony so far? >> yeah, we're learning some new details about what tim morrison testified about behind closed doors today. yeah, he was on that july phone call between president trump and president zelensky in which president trump urged president zelensky to open an investigation into the bidens. he was concerned that telephone call would leak and it could have adverse consequences, and this was happening as he was trying to bolster relations with ukraine. he was asked what to do with that transcript after the fact. we learned separately there was an effort to keep that transcript from leaking, an e

even home builders like taylor morrison are getting into the build-to-rent space. there are a bunch of these residential reits and i would always go with the one i keep coming back to, afterlon bay, which focuses on a handful of major metropolitan areas with extremely tight job markets, high wages, and impossibly expensive real estate. think new york, brooklyn and then the retail reits, some big winners like kimco and realty income as well as some big losers like simon and macerich the losers own shopping malls and we know that the malls die every time you see another retail bankruptcy, like that forever 21, these stocks get rocked forever 21 happens to be simon's seventh largest client how did kimco manage to rally 39% for the year they're not mall reits, they're shopping center reits. people used to bet against kimco all the time on this the difference being that shopping centers are mostly mixed use spaces in big population centers, a lot of them strip malls people like that easy to get in, get out. finally, you've got a bunch of weird, specialized reits if data

diplomate in ukraine becausings taylor's testimony referenced morrison about 15 times. they had multiple conversations. taylor himself said that he was concerned about the president demanding investigations into his political rivals in exchange for releasing aid to the ukrainian government, in exchange for setting up a meeting between the new ukrainian administration and the white house, something that the ukrainians desperately sought. taylor referenced morrison talking about how the president wanted president zelensky of ukraine to go public, go to the microphones and announce an investigation. we are also told that he may not level the same amount of concerns bill taylor had, he did not necessarily see anything wrong with what the administration did. but this is just starting now behind closed doors. they're only getting into the third hour. he's someone else who had direct interactions with the president so we'll see what more they learned about what you you you you you you he talked about the president with. >> as we look to the house, let's have a listen. you. >> m

morrison. and our reporting is -- or the reporting around it is he will corroborate bill taylor's testimony that directly implicates president trump in a quid pro quo with ukraine. but tim morrison will contend he did not see anything wrong with what the president did. so joining us now, bianna golodryga and john lockhart. okay so the reporting is that tim morrison, he's a top russia and europe adviser to president trump on the national security council. so let's just remind people of what bill taylor testified to. it was the same call. he went on to describe a conversation that ambassador sondland had with mr. yermak in warsaw. mr. yermak is a president zelensky aide. he told him the money would not come until president zelensky committed to pursue the burisma investigation. i was alarmed by what mr. morrison told me. this was the first time i had heard that the security assistance not just the white house meating was conditioned on the investigations. that seems to be the pivotal moment. tim morrison is obviously part of that moment. if he doesn't think there was anything wrong, it matters wha

if you have multiple people back it up, it stacks up against the president. >> but taylor's testimony is based on morrison calling taylor. so -- >> it is based on sondland and volker and morrison. >> morrison is very important to hear what he said. cnn is reporting, right, that two sources say that morrison will say he didn't see anything wrong with what happened on the phone call. that he told taylor, he didn't see anything wrong with it. so that is what is interesting to see, what he testifies when he gets up there. >> does that matter? because morrison's testimony is important. does his opinion on this matter? presumably it would. >> right. the just kidding defense or oh, no big deal, ignorance is not a defense in the eyes of the law. it is wrong, it is wrong. and if it is about a quid pro quo, meaning that the united states is holding up something that is a vital of national security interest to itself and another country for a presidential personal favor that is a problem. usually in diplomacy and national security, you use the tools as leverage to get behavior from another country and advancing anot

morrison was mentioned about 15 times throughout taylor's opening statement that we and other news organizations obtained because morrison had conveyed to him a number of conversations that he was aware of, including a conversation between president trump and ambassador gordon sondland of the european union in which trump said that he wanted the ukrainian president zelensky to go to the microphones and announce these investigations, this coming as the aid was being desperately sought by the ukrainians as a way to push back against russian aggression. now, we are not expecting, according to our sources, that morrison will say that he believes the administration did anything wrong per se, but we are also told that he's going to have some nuance in exactly what he says, and he will appear, assuming that he gets a subpoena, which the democrats have been doing for most of these witnesses. but this comes at a time where this committee, these committees who are pushing for this impeachment probe are looking to hopefully, in their view, wrap this up in the next couple of weeks behind closed doors. then

taylor. so morrison is a conduit of information. e's someone who if indeed his testimony alliance with everything that taylor said he was told by morrison, moves all of thesemo accusations one step closer to the president. i'm trying to keep the 30,000-foot view on all these depositions. i know the names and whatnot can get very confusing to people who are trying to followsi this. but morrison removes one level of hearsay, if you will. so many of these witnesses in the early stages were reporting back things they heard from others about the president's behavior, about decisions that were getting made in the white house. as young move to morrison and se of these other nsc officials including john bolton who may or may not actually show up to testifyho next week, you're reducing levels of the game of telephone in the white house and getting closer to what the president was thinking and saying and what other white house decisionmakers were thinking and saying, and that will be so important as we move into open hearings, in trying to con

taylor also told lawmakers that morrison talked to him after the call and told him, quote, it could have been better. taylor testified last week that morrison relayed trump had suggested ukraine's president and his staff meet with trump's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani and attorney general william barr. morrison testified he was told to stay away from giuliani's efforts in ukraine. cnn previous reporting morrison believed the administration was legally within their rights in dealing with ukraine. >> a key fact there, wolf, morrison arguing that the president didn't do anything illegal when it came to ukraine, but the underlying facts between morrison and taylor's testimonies, undisputable. wolf? >> that's significant. lauren fox on capitol hill, thank you very much. let's get to more on two key federal court hearings that could set the tone for the impeachment inquiry as it moves forward. senior justice correspondent outside the courthouse here in washington, evan perez. the don mcgahn case, the judge just made some very interesting comments on that. >> yes, she did. she's not buying the

morrison. he was one of the national security councils in charge of you a eurasia policy. and this is from bill taylor's testimony. it reads, morrison went on to describe a conversation ambassador sondland, the former e.u. ambassador had with a ukrainian official, mr. yermak he told him the security money would not come until president zelensky committed to pursue the burisma investigation. i was alarmed taylor said by what mr. morrison told me about the sondland-yermak conversation. this was the first time i had heard that the security assistance not just the white house meeting, was conditioned. the concern is that this was triple hearsay. they're about to hear from the person who was a primary source on it, who experienced first hand. >> yeah. that's for me? for this michael? yeah, you're absolutely right. and, you know, this all goes back to the idea, as you suggested, you know, triple hearsay it was the whistle-blower, he didn't know what he was talking about. those defenses have completely fallen apart. and there is really not much left for the white house or republicans to do but to argue that th

taylor referenced morrison throughout that testimony and even said taylor was terned that the president withheld ukrainian aid in exchange for those investigations and backs up what he said. a difference on minor details but ultimately corroborated that. democrats will likely point to the corroboration and republicans say, he said there was nothing wrong with the call. brooke? >> got it. corroboration, but not concerned. manu, thank you for the update on all things tim morrison. and harry, you first on what manu reported. the president and allies dismissed former ambassador bill taylor for relying on secondhand information, just part of that. really, the crux is, if morrison wasn't concerned about the call, why, then, this rush to put this transcript in this secure server at the white house? >> yeah. exactly. so, look, we have his six-page opening statement. he strongly corroboratines tayl, very bad for the white house and about giuliani shaping up and bolton, enemies two and three that he in -- a non-lawyer in his diplomatic mind was more worried about the effect on ukraine answer that

during that warsaw trip, tim morrison from the national security council again called bill taylor to brief him on what was going on at the warsaw meeting. during this phone call i had with mr. morrison, he described a conversation that ambassador gordon sondland had with an assistant to president zelensky in warsaw. ambassador sondland told him that the security assistance money for ukraine would not come until president zelensky committed to pursue the burisma investigation. taylor says, quote, i was alarmed by what mr. morrison told me about that conversation. this is first time i heard that security assistance not just the white house meeting, but also that military aid, was conditioned on these investigations. he says, quote, very concerned on that same day i sent gordon sondland a text message asking are we now saying that security assistance and a white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? ambassador sondland responded asking me to call him, which i did. during that phone call, gordon sondland told me that president trump told him he wants president zelensky to state

so morrison was the one who told taylor the facts about what taylor believed was a quid pro quo. interesting in and of itself. also interesting that tim morrison, who works inside the white house, maggie is going to testify and corroborate some of this. >> i think that's exactly right in terms of him going ahead. look, we have seen the white house has tried to put a blanket, nobody should cooperate with this message out. and you have seen not everyone, but a number of people still going up to the hill under subpoena and testifying anyway. i think they might be being careful about certain things they can't talk about because of possible executive privilege. they're not adopting the stance of we're just not going to take part in this. i do think -- the cnn report was terrific on tim morrison. i do wonder whether he's going to say that he saw a problem with this because based on the cnn reporting, he's not going to say that. and some of this, john, comes down to, on the defense, the republicans have had, this is their issue with the process. transcripts are not being released. their

taylor is not a leak. sondland is not a leak. volker is not a leak. their texts aren't a leak. the transcript isn't a leak. this guy morrison if -- a white house official whom you know. >> i know tim well. >> and you respect. comes forward and says i heard on the call, it bothered me. what taylor's saying, we talked about it because it bothered me. because it seemed very clear that the president was pressuring ukraine to give him these political value objects before they got what they wanted. how will you feel? >> there's four things going on right here. >> wait a minute. how will you feel? >> i haven't -- i'm not going to speculate on things that haven't happened yet. i haven't seen -- >> if he says -- >> i've seen selective leaks -- >> it's not a leak when the guy puts out a sworn statement. sondland isn't a leak. these aren't anonymous. they aren't leaks, fred. you know. these are real people saying real things. >> there was a statement by this fellow, but we don't know what happened in closed-door testimony. we hear from the republicans that this guy was destroyed -- >> what does that tell you? let's be fair. both sides

. >> a pivot point in this whole process was ambassador taylor's testimony. and now mr. morrison is going to confirm what ambassador taylor said in that explosive testimony, so you have official after official confirming these conversations about the military money, the question for the investigation, trying to put aside the yes that it was a vague issue and making clear it was explicit in the eyes of many people in the national security apparatus that this president and others around him wanted to see probes to get military funding from the united states. >> i want to fwlibring in anoth guest. greg, at this very minute, tom cole, the senior republican on this rules committee is making the argument thath entire inquiry, the investigation, is invalid, does he have any grounds here? >> he does not, but i will tell you in my experience as a lawyer, and as a former legislator, typically when there is no substantive argument to be made, a process argument will be made as generally a delaying tactic as the side that doesn't like the inevitable outcome is trying to delay things and thro

taylor. the president's top diplomat in the ukraine who testified up here earlier this week who essentially laid out the quid pro quo. and sources tell cnn that morrison is expected to corroborate a lot of those claims that bill taylor made. but he is also expected to say that he did not see anything wrong with what the administration was doing. and that important to note there also negotiations in the works right now for potential testimony for former national security adviser john bolton to appear on capitol hill. that would be big for many democrats, jim and poppy. >> for sure. you wonder if they get him to testify, is that something they'd take into public hearings as well? for more on how the white house is handling this, let's bring in our white house correspondent jeremy diamond. so a lot of the focus in the last 24 hours has been on -- even lindsey graham talking about this. what is your strategy? are you going to have a strategy like the clinton white house did during impeachment proceedings? is there a united one this morning? >> united, not quite yet, poppy. there's an effort at the white house to develop a strategy to respond to this impea

six days later, taylor writes and he's recounting he had with trump's official in charge of europe, tim morrison and taylor testifies again writing here according to mr. morrison, president trump told ambassador sondland that he was not asking for a quid pro quo, but president trump did insist that president zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of biden and 2016 election interference and that president zelensky should want to do this himself. okay. it does not matter what you call something. what matters is what it is, and what bill taylor lays out in excruciating detail is the definition of a quid pro quo which is what this impeachment investigation is all about. now the white house and republicans are on defense tonight. congressman mark meadows telling reporters nothing new here, i think. a new statement from the white house reads, quote, president trump has done nothing wrong. this is a coordinated smear campaign from far-left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the constitution. there was no quid pro quo. i mean, first of all, the facts are

i'm paraphrasing something taylor said that morrison told him. be the third official to do that. you have kurt volker, you have michael mckinley, both of them resigned amid the impeachment probe. volker resign so he would be freed up in terms of what he could tell house investigators. so morrison is set to ahere here today. i want to return back the something mika said about lieutenant colonel vindman as she talked about our reporting as he talked about those contingencies, the direct contingency, the direct line president trump drew between the white house deliverables and the ask for ukraine to open investigations into president trump's political rivals. what is so interesting about that is that in his opening testimony, which we obtained, vindman said in his view it was not proper for this administration to demand that a foreign government investigate a u.s. official. that word "demand," willie, struck us as curious and conspicuous. he could have picked any number of words. he would have said it wasn't proper for the government to request, to

morrison. he listened in on that now infamous july 25 phone call with the president of ukraine. last week ambassador bill taylor testified that morrison told him about this decision to block nearly $400 million in military aid that our congress had 0 approved to go to ukraine until investigations were launched into the bidens. well, late this afternoon there was a notable development when we learned that mr. morrison, on the eve of his testimony, is in fact quitting his job at the national security council. he'll be giving his closed-door deposition as the house resolution is brought up for consideration. this afternoon the rules committee in the house voted to move that approved language forward to the house floor. >> when our founders drafted the constitution more than 230 years ago, they included a process that could lead to removing a president from office if he or she abused their power. this congress, with our existing authority under the constitutior and the rules of the house, is in the midst of an impeachment inquiry right now. i don't know whether president trump will be impeached. only the facts and

we sautee lorw taylor's opening statement. >> i would encourage you to do the same, i believe, i was told, i felt on. >> didn't morrisonhat he said in his testimony? i did tell taylor that. >> there were portions that related specifically to conversations with tim morrison where tim morrison did say that i backed it up and others said he's not and tim morrison did not back up that there was quid pro quo with the ukraine and either funding or a meeting with the president of the united states. >> did tim morrison say that sondland told him that the president said he would release the funding if the ukraine announces his investigation? >> i can't tell you what he did say, and i can tell you what he didn't say, and he didn't say any of those things that have been reported and here's the point that i make a point to frequently which i think is kind of important. it's not proper. it's illegal and we're not permitted to go into a classified hearing or a confidential deposition and walk out and tell you what happened, but it is not against the law for people to come out and lie to you and the reports that you're getting are a

taylor said. >> what's important about morrison's testimony is unlike taylor, he worked in the white house. he is there. one of the republican responses, i think with some justification about some of the witnesses, is that they were at some remove from the president. their evidence is hearsay about what the president did and said. someone in the nsc just geographically -- it is in the white house complex -- he's likely to have more firsthand knowledge of what the did and thought. certainly closer than ambassador taylor. >> he was in the meetings as you point out. he was on the call. some of our sources say he'll today express that he didn't necessarily think there was anything wrong with the phone call when he heard it. it doesn't matter what he thinks. it matters what the constitution and the investigators and what the democrats in congress at this point think. in other words, it's less -- somebody's judgment about whether it was wrong or not is less critical to investigators than what they actually heard. >> i think it matters more than that honestly. i think the facts aren't really in di

that official tim morrison corroborating what is largely thought to be among the most incriminating accounts delivered to date. that's the testimony of diplomat bill taylorho described under oath last week a quid pro quo directed by donald trump himself from "the washington post" report on morrison's testimony, quote, morrison said that he alerted taylor to a push by trump and his deputies to withhold both security aid and the white house visit for the ukrainian president until ukraine agreed to investigate the bidens and interference in the 2016 presidential election. that is where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. from "the washington post," national political reporter robert costa. former chief spokesman for the department of justice matt miller. with us at the table, nick confess ori, political reporter for the "new york times." a.b. stoddard, associated editor for real clear politics. and jason johnson. bob costa, let me start with you. tim morrison, who under no upside down alice and wonderland down the rabbit hole even under trump's most delusional frame, this could not be depicted with anything resembling a deep stat

in taylor's testimony, there have been at least 15 references to morrison's name because they had multiple conversations about why this aid had been withheld. and in one conversation, morrison reads out a phone call between trump and gordon sondland, the ambassador to the european union, in which morrison said he had a sinking feeling about na cathat call according to taylor's testimony, because what the president wanted was for them to to go out to the microphones and declare these investigations just as that push for aid intensified. what we are told from sources is he will corroborate to what taylor testified to. we're also told that he does not necessarily view what the administration did as wrong in any way, but will have some nuance to his testimony, but he will head what will be a very busy week of witnesses coming behind closed doors as the investigators move to try to wrap up this investigation in the coming weeks. john? >> manu raju live on the hill. a very busy time. i appreciate the reporting from there. with me in the studio, cnn's abby phillip, paul kane with the "washington

morrison's testimony, as you pointed out in the open, was largely confirmtory for what bill taylor has said about the arm or the aid for investigations part of this. but what morrison also told the committees was that he listened to that phone call and he didn't hear anything that he thought was illegal. now, of course, that's not the bar for impeachment but it is something that republicans can hang their hats on here a little bit. and morrison also described based on the reporting of my colleague leanne caldwell, who's done such a good job with this story, not really following the burisma connection as it was happening in real time. he really underscores the two parallel tracks of foreign policy that were going on within the white house. the official foreign policy of the u.s. government of which he was a member. and the secondary foreign policy of rudy giuliani and perhaps the president that he was not privy to at the time. and was putting together later. it also speaks to how this impeachment inquiry is just going to build and build and build. the vote today is such a key part of it

throughout taylor's testimony, he mentions morrison's name about 15 times, had multiple conversations about this and we are told he would corroborate elements of their conversation. but but we are told he doesn't necessarily believe the administration did anything wrong and that he is going to have some nuance in his testimony. so there is a lot thap still has to happen, including the potential of john bolton, the former national security adviser, coming behind closed doors. a lot of interest from democrats in particular bringing him forward, because of course as you know, he raised a lot of concerns behind the scenes about the security aid being withheld. jim and poppy? >> manu raju, thanks very much. >> for more now on how the white house is handling this, cnn white house correspondent jeremy diamond. jeremy, is there a united front on the messaging from the white house? >> reporter: well, poppy, there are certainly discussions at the white house about how to ramp up the messaging at the white house. there's been a lot of criticism from republicans, including republican lawmakers on

. >> reporter: tim morrison, president trump's top russia adviser on the national security council, will face lawmakers. phil taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, testified that morrison told him the president doesn't want to provide any assistance at all to ukraine. investigators also want to speak to the president's former national security adviser, john bolton. other witnesses have testified that boaton was fewer -- bolton was furious over attempts to pressure crane into investigating joe biden and his son, even going so far as to to compared it to, quote, a drug deal. >> laura podesta in new york. thank you. >>> cbs news will broadcast a special report of that formeral vote when it happens later today. "cbs evening news" anchor a leading the coverage from washington. >>> well, more than 6,000 firefighters are battling wildfires across californrnia. powerful santa ana winds caused the fires to multiply yesterday. the so-called easyire dangerously close to the ronald reagan presidential library. the complex was evacuated along with roughly 7,000 homes in the area. people living nearby used garden houses to f

reports that according to two people familiar with his testimony today morrison told congress that the substance of ambassador bill taylor's stunning opening statement last week was accurate. as "the washington post" was first to report morrison testified that he alerted taylor to a push by trump and his deputies to with hold both security aid and a white house visit for the ukrainian president until ukraine agreed to investigate the bidens among other things. and that would make morrison the third witness to afirm the deliverables of a quid pro quo, military aid in exchange for political dirt. it's the latest in an avalanche of new evidence to emerge from the inquiry and none of it is good for president trump. joining me right now is u.s. congressman denny heck of washington state, eli stokels, white house reporter for los angeles times, cynthia is a former federal prosecutor. thank you all. congressman, as a member of the committee, give us a sense -- take your time -- the historic nature of today's vote by the house of representatives. >> well, chris, look, let's put this in perspective. we already have the president's

another person that's in poor character that shows up throughout bill taylor's testimony is tim morrison. morrison is the head of the eurasian desk. he has the job that used to belong to fiona hill. at one point he says that morrison told him the trump/zelensky call, quote, unquote, could have gone better. aka not the perfect phone call. and ilts pretty clear from looking that the initial statement, the democrats would also want to bring him in. >> you had great details there and we stafrtd sdplz on the subject of perfect to impeachable, i think we're nearing impeachable a cording to these witnesses instead of perfect. >> we're talking about what was ploem si and what was received. now, there's an instrument in washington, domestic reelection politics. what does that tell you as a prosecutor or a fact finder, that dwrur, if he's credible, and we haven't heard otherwise that he is not. you can say it back, is he guilty of quid pro quo? >> he's combatting the threat from russia. then we have this interesting piece of information where we learn that trump's perfect phone call, the call wher

, and saying mike pompeo made a mistake, apparently, by hiring bill taylor to ambassador of ukraine. we're also expecting tim morrisonho was on the president's call to the ukraine president to actually corroborate some of the key details alleged by bill taylor and others, including that very notion of a quid pro quo. brianna? >> jeremy diamond at the white house, thank you. we are getting closer to a first in the house democrats' impeachment inquiry of president trump. next week they're expected to hear from the first witness who was actually on the july 25th phone call between president trump and ukranian president zelensky. his name is tim morrison. he was mentioned repeatedly in that bombshell testimony this week from bill taylor, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. he is the senior director for europe and russia on the national security counsel. he replaced fiona hill at the nfc. she testified last week. and democrat on the house oversight committee is joining us. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, brianna. >> so he is currently serving white house official. he is currently on the white house security

morrison who was the first person on that call to testify is expected to confirm key elements of the testimony of the top u.s. diplomat in the ukraine bill taylor who said on tuesday that morrison told him that president trump did insist that president zelensky go to a microphone and say he was opening investigations of biden in the election. >> that's direct evidence that causes problems politically and legally. >> reporter: the pressure to release the money wasn't only from senator rob portman. there was a deadline. by the end of september the funds had to be given to ukraine or they would get nothing at all so lawmakers from both parties were urging the president to send the aid as was vice president mike pence. on that call the president agreed but not before grumbling that the u.s. was getting a bad deal. cnn, washington. >>> natasha lumska joins us now. the old impeachment inquiry, the process continues. some may ask to what tend. for american voters, it is a very familiar scene, isn't it? >> yes, it is a familiar scene but we've had a couple impeachment processes in the past with nixon and with clinton. all of these are very, very differ

the president halted that push and, according to bill taylor's testimony, he's talked to tim morrison many times throughout this process, including morrison reciting a conversation in which he wanted the -- he made it clear the president wanted the president of ukraine zelensky to go forward and announce these investigations that were happening before the aid was to be released. we are told that he essentially is going to corroborate what bill taylor said but have more nuance in his testimony. also not -- probably won't go as far as others in raising as many alarm bells because we're told he didn't necessarily see the end result of what the administration did as anything wrong. now this is expected to go on through the course of the day. he's also a key witness here, jim, because he is someone who has spoken to the president, we're told, on a number of occasions. unlike some other witnesses who have, including alexander vindman from earlier this week who indicated he had interactions with the president. there will be questions about what he can reveal about those questions. if anythin

at least two more next week, including a top national security council official, tim morrison, who referenced taylor's testimony. taylor testified on september 7th, morris relayed a phone call between the president and ambassador sondeland in which the president said he was not asking for a quid pro quo, but wanted president zelensky of ukraine to go to a microphone and say he's opening investigation investigations of biden in 2016 election interference and that president zelensky should want to do this himself. >> lindsey graham in 1998 during the clinton impeachment proceedings actually praised the closed door depositions happening in the house committee. a press conference of his from 1998 that said that depositions will not drag on, that it's a very smart thing to do before they have public hearings. we asked lindsey graham and his office about those past comments. his office said in the clinton impeachment proceedings they voted in the house to authorize that inquiry. democrats now say there's no need to vote to authorize the inquiry in the house. they say they can certainly carry on this impeach

morrison, who is the first person on that call to testify, is expected to confirm key elements of the testimony of the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, bill taylorid on tuesday that morrison told him that president trump did insist that president zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of biden and 2016 election interference. >> if you have somebody directly saying i was on the call, this is what happened, that's direct evidence that really causes problems politically and obviously legally. >> reporter: the pressure to release the money to ukraine wasn't only from senator rob portman. there was also a deadline. by the end of september the funds had to be given to ukraine or they would get nothing at all. so lawmakers from both parties were urging the president to send the aid, as was vice president mike pence. finally, on that call the president agreed but not before grumbling that the u.s. was getting a bad deal. alex marquardt, cnn, washington. >> i want to bring in former florida attorney general bill mccollum. good to see you. a recently fired national security adviser, john bolton, apparently he's in talks to possib

morrison the first person on that call to testify is expected to confirm key testimony of the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine bill taylorid on this that morrison told him that president trump did insist that president zelensky go to a microphone and say that he's opening investigations of biden and the 2016 election interference. >> if you have somebody on the call saying this is what happened, that's direct evidence that cause problems politically and obviously legally. the pressure to release the aid to ukraine wasn't only by senator portman, but by the end of september, the funds had to be released or they would get nothing at all. so they were urged to send the aid, and then the president agreed but not before grumbling that the u.s. was getting a bad deal. >>> meantime, the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani has had a rough couple of weeks. n nbc now reporting he accidently called one of their correspondents without realizing it and left voice mails in which he talked about large sums of money. >> tomorrow, i got to get you to on bahrain. you got to call got to call robert again tomorrow. is robert around? t