i'm obsessed with rex tillerson. i've remembered all utterances of him since trump plucked him out of exxonmobil and made him secretary of state even though he never met him before. in december of last year, tillerson had been fired already, and he did an interview that was a live event on stage in front of an audience in texas and rex tillerson talking to cbs' bob sheafer and in that instance, my friend, rex tillerson let us know this was coming. >> how would you describe donald trump? [ laughter ] >> well, most of you probably know, know some of this but i had never met donald trump until the day he asked me to be secretary of state. he acts on his instincts and some respects that looks like impulsiveness but it's not his intent to act on impulse. i think he really is trying to act on his instincts. was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly processed oriented exxonmobil corporation to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn't like to read, doesn't read briefing reports, doesn't like

after tillerson said no to this request from the president, according to bloomberg tonight, tillerson then stepped out of the oval office into a hallway outside the oval where he quote repeated his objections to then chief of staff john kelly. emphasizing that the request was for something that would be illegal. now again, bloomberg says they have got three sources here. i'm dying to know who they are. i mean, i'm dying to know if, you know, is rex tillerson one? i don't know. they are not saying who their sources are so we don't know. we do know according to bloombe bloomberg's reporting this meeting where trump asked tillerson to commit this crime occurred in the second half of 2017, which i think means that this would have happened after james comey had testified that president trump had asked him to intervene with the justice department to quash the criminal investigation into mike flynn and led to very serious investigation of the president himself, a national uproar. not like the president would have known asking someone to lean on the justice department to stop a prosecution wo

if he spoke directly to tillerson, he declined to say if he spoke to tillerson about the case saying you have no right to know that. there is also big news tonight about the whistle blower and it is news that you can completely ignore because the whistle blower no longer matters. what matters is that every relevant fact that the whistle blower wrote in his whistle blower report has proven true and everything the whistle blower wrote in a two-page memo to himself in which he quickly wrote down the very first things that he heard about the president's phone call with the president of ukraine, those things have also proven true and we know that because cbs news has obtained and published today the full two-page whistle blower memo. the first thing the whistle blower wrote down, notes about what he first heard from a white house official about the president's phone call. everything in that two-page memo has proved to be true and none of it matters in the memo because we have the rough transcript of the president's phone call which is what the house of representatives is going to use in a

tillerson said we can't do that. this is something that's already in a criminal proceeding and not to mention the, the precedent set. right? the idea putting americans in danger, the fact they could be held hostage in order to do prisoner swaps. tillerson refused. the president said, could jeff sessions do this? the same answer. so in the end what the president said was for the two men to essentially try to work it out's in the end that prisoner swap did not happen. >> got you. it's, we're going to talk about the law and procedures here with these lawyers. evan, thank you for the reporting. harry whitman out of the gate to you so we're all crystal clear. this ask to rex tillerson from the president would have been 1,000% illegal. yes? >> 1,000% improper, inappropriate and we know tillerson said before that the president asked him to do illegal things. depended on the motive but sure seems like a personal motive rather than a, an actual motive of state. you know, seems like we have -- it's all dizzying. a foreign poli

we were told that secretary of state tillerson refused. that to interfere in a department of justice investigation of this stature would be a clear obstruction and would be illegal. he refused to do that, and in a subsequent conversation with then chief of staff john kelly, he reiterated that he would do no such thing. paul: what are the potential ramifications of all of this, or is the president just like leader tough this one out as he has talked out so many other out soions -- toughed many other accusations? >> things move so quickly in washington and the impeachment inquiry against the president is so severe. certainly, this is something that happened two years ago, so it's not like the ukraine situation which is still ongoing, but it does clearly show there is a pattern here of what critics, including the secretary of state at the time, felt were inappropriate demands by the president. in the ukraine call, there was a whistleblower complaint that the president acted inappropriately, essentially broke the law by asking their cranium le

tillerson refused. the sources say other people in the room, some of the people in the room, were shocked by it. he did not go ahead and make any effort to that, and the justice department continued with its prosecution of the case. it is another example of the president and the influence of rudy giuliani, who was also representing this trader in the case. mixing some personal interest with potentially foreign policy and u.s. policy. it is liable to create another congress, especially we areemocrats, and teasing out some of the reaction now. shery: joe sobczyk, thank you so much. our congress editor joining us from d.c. still ahead, pg&e triggers its biggest ever intentional blackout to keep powerlines from sparking wildfires. what does this signal for the energy industry as a whole? paul: next, u.s. stocks rose on optimism that the u.s. and china will make progress in trade talks despite conflicting signals beforehand. he iskudlow explains how navigating the unknowns. this is bloomberg. ♪ shery: this i

they make the pitch to tillerson, and tillerson says, i cannot support that.irst of all, it would be interfering with a court proceeding, something this man is already facing charges in new york. secondly, it would be bad u.s. policy for you to be able to set an example, a precedent, that you can trade people away who -- essentially americans could be targeted for being hostages overseas if you do something like this. so tillerson refused to go along with this. in our reporting, we found that mckazy also spoke with the president and said, look, this is within your power to do. you could do this. the president essentially left it up to them to try to work it out. in the end tillerson did not do this. the justice department did not go along with this. we know that rudy tried to get the justice department to do it. they declined. and and zirab is now convicted of those charges in the united states. >> so rudy denied this ever happened, but then he sort of changed his tune, right? >> yes. he doesn't want to talk about it, but he said essentially this is something

tillerson never spoke to you about that effort? >> no. >> the october 10th report also says, as you've stated before, that mr. giuliani, in addition to mr. mukasey, met with you to discuss the case at the state department. is that true? >> there were two meetings early administration. zarrob.t was about >> i have not said that. >> first of all, a counselor issue is about visas, it's about whether or not a visa has been given for work, visitor permit, that is a counselor issue. you're trying to hide behind the term, the conseil are -- consular issue, when this was a meeting about someone who was in prison, seeking to evade u.s. sanctions on iran through turkey. that is not a consular issue. >> the meeting did concern a notular proposal, it was acted upon. i think anyone who knows me knows that i rigorously enforce all sanctions against iran. >> when we have the highest office in the land empowering people to seek to make a deal when you have the biggest violator of u.s. sanctions on iran, it is hard to believe that we have a univers

tillerson never spoke to you about that effort? >> no. > the october 10th report also says, as you've stated before, addition iuliani, in to mr. mocasey met with you to state the case at the department is that true? >> there were two meetings early administration and it was about -- zerob. said --t >> first of all, a counselor visas, it's about whether or not a visa has been visit -- for work, for investor permits, that's a counselor issue. trying to hide behind the term counselor issue when this who meeting about someone was imprisoned, seeking to evade on iran through turkey. issue. not a counselor >> it was presented as a counselor issue. counselor issue. >> but it was presented as a counselor issue. cat thatd call a dog a doesn't mean -- that it's a cat, right? anything.l it try to avoid but that doesn't mean that's what it is. > the meet being concern a counselor proposal, and it was not acted upon. knows me ybody who knows that i vigorously enforce all sanctions against iran. have the hen we highest office in the land empower

the president also reportedly asked tillerson to speak with giuliani about the case.he sources tell bloomberg that tillerson refused arguing it would be interfering in an ongoing investigation, and tillerson also reportedly reiterated his objections to then chief of staff john kelly emphasizing that the request would be illegal. the white house tillerson and kelly all refused to comment. >> nbc news first reported back in 2017, giuliani's client was being prosecuted in federal court for helping iran evade suggestion are u.s. sanctions and court documents say giuliani wanted to go around prosecutors to cut a deal with the u.s. and turkish governments. giuliani released a statement yesterday denying he ever spoke to the president about his client. the gold trade eventually, the gold trader should i say pleaded guilty and what happened after that remains a mystery, as al jazeera reported in july, many of the documents in the case remain confidential. >>> how many are reacting to the developments coming out of syria and what they're doing about it on capitol hill. >>> new

our reporting shows rex tillerson then the secretary of state was appalled and said he was not going to be involved in this. we don't drop charges essentially against people who are under criminal prosecution in federal court, and tillerson warned then chief of staff john kelly that this made him uncomfortable. because he thought that it was legal little inappropriate. >> once would be one thing. but mike flynn, one of the things he's probably going to do prison time for and facing sentencing is being an unregistered foreign agent of turkey on the campaign. and on the day of election in 2016, the greatest op-ed out of nowhere michael flynn says the u.s. should deport a cleric who's living in the poconos back to turkey because turkey needs it. that turns out to be the other huge foreign policy policy of erdogan to deport this cleric he doesn't like and giuliani was also lobbying the president on that issue? >> yes, and, you know, it's amazing in 2019 we're finding out this through reporting that this is another sort of off-book policy that rudy giuliani was pushing. i think what's mor

but there was no doubt that tillerson was thinking that, mattis and tillerson was despondent, we hadeting with trump up close and personal now we knew how access was controlled so tightly. all the president's answers wrp simplistic and ad hoc, shooting from the hip on issues of global importance. that's the first meeting at the pentagon that president trump attended. through your eyes and also i think explaining to us what you think secretary mattis was seeing. there are questions now about why doesn't or if secretary mattis will go public with his true feelings about president trump, will he do youthink? and what would he say? >> i think he said all he has to say at this point in time. obviously this is up to secretary mattis and he and i have not talked about whether he decides tomorrow could out and say any more than he already has. that's why i think the book is so important because it brings your readers, brings the viewers behind the scenes for those major moments of national security and things that have worldwide implication. there is no doubt we live in a very tumultuous per

how about secretary tillerson? how about the head chiefs of staff, joe dunford? they appeared when the president was trying to decide what to do about the deal and said staying in the deal was in the united states' interest. all right. forget about them. maybe they don't know anything. our european allies begged us to stay in the deal. who cares about allies. maybe we don't. the national atomic energy agency said iran was complying with the deal. president trump felt otherwise, just like president bush trashed the iaea when it said iraq didn't have -- had a program of weapons of mass destruction. so, this is a deal that had some provisions that did, in fact, expire, provisions that expired but it was a permanent deal where iran suggested they would never seek, mrch, acquire, develop nuclear weapons. that promise was enforceable by sanctions. that promise could potentially have given legal justification for military action against iran. if they had violated the provision. the additional protocol that was permanent gives the united states not only intel but intel p

. >> stephen: rex tillerson pie comparison seemed like an angel. >> you look back at rex tillerson, but-trillion-dollar oil deal with rex tillerson, and rex tillerson became in charge of u.s. foreign policy. that in itself is freaking weird. i was interested in that. i also got interested-- i don't really-- i didn't start off knowing anything about the oil and gas industry. but i'm interested in the fact that russia has been taking all these wild pitches all over the world, including us in 2016. like, why are they the kind of bad actor that they are that they're willing to do stuff from a position of weak thans doesn't seem like they're using any of their strengths? and what i started to realize is if you look at russia's economic weakness, that's a big parent of why they throw these wild punches. it's also weird that they're so economically weak because they float on a sea of oil and gas, which is a remunerative thing. where you have oil and gas in the world it tends to screw up your country. and in russia, it's not only made them weak, but they use oil and gas as a weapon to corrupt o

rex tillerson is an amazing character. but he did a half trillion dollar oil deal with russia that was put on ice because of u.s. foreign policy. putin gave him a medal. putin elected the next u.s. president, arguably. even though donald trump and rex tillerson had never met and didn't get along, all of a sudden rex tillerson ended up being the next guy in charge of u.s. policy. it is a really, really weird thing that we still don't have a great explanation for, even as good as i got to know rex tillerson over the course of writing this book. >> thank you, my friend. thank you for hanging out later than your normal shift. >> it's all right. >> here is the book. it is called "blowout." corrupted democracy, rogue state, russia and the richest, most destructive industry on earth. nothing to see here, obviously. its author has been kind enough to hang out with us tonight. >>> coming up, there are already cracks in the announced ceasefire in syria. we will talk with a retired four star army general who has called this president

the president asked then-secretary of state rex tillerson, to drop a case of a gold dealer that was a client of rudy giuliani. the request was made during an oval office meeting in 2017, leaving the other people in the room shocked. tillerson refused the president's request and voiced his objections to then-chief of staff, john kelly. >> rudy giuliani denied bringing that up to president trump. now, he says this. suppose i did talk to trump about it, so what? i was a private lawyer at a time. maybe i'm wrong. maybe at some point i dropped his name in a conversation. kelly and tillerson are not commenting. >>> another republican senator speaking out about president trump's july 25th phone call with the leader of ukraine. martha mcsally was asked if it was appropriate to solicit help from zelensky to investigate joe biden. here's how she responded. >> i was concerned about using the "i" word for our country. it's a solemn topic that's happened a few times, without them seeing the facts. nancy pelosi, adam schiff and others. let's do this in a bipartisan way, if anybody has concerns. tha

. >> there is a report from three meeting miliar with a between president trump and secretary tillerson, who you time, orking for at the perhaps his closest adviser, in which president trump asked for tillerson's help to against rop the case zarrab. are you familiar with this meeting or the request that was made? familiar with the meeting. chairman, i think it's important to set the broader record straight here with of the things that mr. hook has said about our vis-a-vis iran and its connection to the recent developments in syria. you do have a at tough job to do and i don't imagine that you would have iven counsel to the president to abandon our kurdish partners in syria. not credible to say that we didn't have a syriariran element to our strategy. in fact, multiple individuals to that before this committee and would still testify to that before the committee. say that redible to abandoning the kurds does not change the efficacy of our iran strategy. iran absolutely benefits, unequivocally, from a new inside syria in which to align are forced with assad. it doesn't pass the test to tr

: there is a report from three people familiar with a meeting with president trump and secretary tillerson, who you were working for as perhaps his closest advisor, and which president trump asked for secretary tillerson's help in working to drop the case against zarab. are you familiar with the meeting? mr. hook: i was not familiar with the meeting. chairman, ity: mr. is important to set the record straight with respect to some things mr. hook has said about our policy vis-a-vis iran and its connection to developments in syria. i appreciate that you have a tough job and i don't imagine you would have given counsel to the president to abandon our kurdish partners in syria, but it is simply not credible to say that we didn't have a counter iran element to our syria strategy. multiple individuals testified to that before this committee and would still testify to that. it is not credible to say abandoning the kurds doesn't irane the efficacy of our strategy. iran absolutely benefits, unequivocally, from a new alignment inside syria, in which the kurds are forced to align themselves with bashi

tillerson refused, arguing it would constitute interference in an ongoing investigation. excuse me. he repeated his okays to then chief of staff john kelly in a hallway conversation. tonight, giuliani tells nbc news he never spoke to trump about his client. he called this bloomberg report, quote, a hepisode did remind us of something tillerson said after he left the administration. >> when the president would say here is what i want to do and here is how i want to do it. and i would have to say to him, well, mr. president, i understand what you want to do, but you can't do it that way. it violates the law. it violates the treaty. >> so mike pence is trying to navigate his way around the growing ukraine scandal and impeachment investigation. today our nbc news colleague von hillyer pressed the vp on what he knew about withholding aid to ukraine. >> were you ever aware of interest in the bidens, interest in investigating the bidens was at least, in part, the reason for aid being held up to ukraine? >> i never discussed the issue of the bidens with president zelensky. >> within the adm

is there somebody down to replace james mattis or rex tillerson now?i would have to be there to give you a fair answer on that. what i would say is, it just stood out. forget2017, i will never watching the tv in his office, in rapid succession, you had tillerson depart the administration almost with no notice. then you had h.r. mcmaster in that same position. within a month, you had these individuals supporting secretary mattis, working with him and our alliances and partners overseas, to make sure america's values and needs were being reflected. they left, and that put matters in the crosshairs. david: we are speaking to guy snodgrass, who is running about his experience as speechwriter for secretary mattis. one of the themes in your book is that general mattis always fought with allies, those relationships were critically important, whether with nato or iraq, critically important. president trump does not seem to be as enamored with allies. have we done permanent dollar and -- damage in our alliances around the world? guy: alliances change, so it is

tillerson says no way.being leverage by his lawyer for profit which exposes both to foreign players and puts the judgment of both of them in serious questions. rudy giuliani was once known as america's mayor. i argued for good reasons. this latest chapter cast hs him someone really different. maybe using diplomacy for personal gains? what does he know about his close associates and how they got the money to pay him? where did it come from? why would he put our president in his crime of any kind of loop with people like this. this is not conjecture and innuendo. there they are. next to pence and rudy, all party picture. he knew the people. he was working for the people. this is not about hunting trump to my people. trump knew about it and wanted him to do it. we are finding out what -- what avenues of our own government and the intention of congress will put on the shelve in exchange for this president's political journey. they put themselves in prison and no one else. as a loyalty for potus and nothing else

tillerson was very unhappy about that. he said no. rudy and mckazy tried to bring this up with the justice department, and they said no. they basically said this is not something we do. >> and rudy giuliani is calling everyone else corrupt. >>> we'll be back with this case, including the role of that former fellow congressman, pete sessions. new pasta and grill combos starting at $9.99. only at applebee's. pain happens. saturdays happen. aleve it. aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. to severe plaque psoriasis get clearer. and tremfya® was proven superior to humira® in providing significantly clearer skin. don't use if you're allergic to tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya®. get clearer. janssen can help you explo

we have this reporting suggesting that trump asked tillerson on giuliani's behalf to step in. note there's no national security rationale for letting somebody like this off the hook for avoiding sanctions. remember, trump has been making a huge deal over the course of the last two years, how he is imposing the crippling sanctions on iran. there's truth to that. why on earth was this one individual afforded preferential treatment other than he had rudy giuliani showing for him. >> where does that take you as far as what your concerns are, when you look at the broader question of this president and abuse of office, with what we learned about with rudy giuliani and ukraine. >> i think it's hard right now to jump to conclusions. you hinted at one possible explanation. if rudy giuliani was running ukraine policy for the president, and trying to get the bidens and the clinton investigated, and wasn't charging the president for that work, was the president giving him consideration in some other form, through turkey policy changes that benefited rudy's bottom line? we don't know that

are you proud of raising rex tillerson possibly intervening on behalf of giuliani's clients?ould you have up advised him to do that? kelly: i would advise the president to look into the origins of the 2016 election cycle and russian meddling and ukrainian meddling in the 2016 cycle. this is something attorney general barr is looking into, it is something john durham, u.s. special counsel is looking into, gecause there is somethin -- u.s. spying on his campaign, that is something the president is doing and that is something boj report will uncover and what durham's investigation will uncover. kelly: if the print -- basil: if the president wants to look in russian meddling, he not -- he need not look beyond his own person. he was on the phone with ukraine asking to look at one of his rivals in the presidential primary. even went so far as to have a conversation with folks in australia. the reason -- the issue i have is what the president seems to be doing is creating a coterie of foreign interests to investigate people with whom he disagrees. that should scare any american, no

. >> there are three people familiar of a meeting between president trump and secretary tillerson, who were working for at the time, perhaps his closest adviser, in which president trump asked for secretary tillerson's help to work to drop the case against zarrab. are you familiar with this meeting or the request that was made? >> i was not familiar with the meeting. >> mr. chairman, i think it's important to set the broader record straight here with respect to some of the things mr. hook said about our policy, vis-a-vis iran and its connection to the recent developments in syria. i appreciate you do have a tough job to do and i don't imagine you would have given counsel to the president to abandon our kurdish partners in syria. but it is simply not credible to say we didn't have a counter-iran element to our syria strategy. in fact, multiple individuals testified to that before this committee and would still testify to that before the committee. it is not credible to say abandoning the kurds doesn't change the efficacy of our iran strategy. iran absolutely benefits unequivocally from

attack on cats are bruce when the stakes here are pretty high bruce mr tillerson was seen as a voice of reason wasn't it. yes he was and that is why in part i believe he was ousted by president trump president trump made his white house available to the likes of elliot brody who was a deputy finance director at the republican national committee and basically mr trump has shown not only with regard to his attitude towards the u.a.e. and saudi arabia selling arms and looking askance i mean looking aside when one of our residents jim code journalist with you all is assassinated with a direct in their complicity of m.b.'s but the ukraine is another situation where the president basically said i'm for sale you know if you do things for me investigate joe biden here's an oval office visit and you can get your $400000000.00 dollars 'd in military aid or or diplomatic aid and i do think that the quid pro quo is known out there in the foreign countries are responding to that and they can do it with regard to offering mr trump or as relatives very lucrative financial business opportunities and

tillerson never spoke to you about that effort?>> no. > the october 10th report also says, as you've stated before, addition iuliani, in to mr. mocasey met with you to state the case at the department is that true? >> there were two meetings early administration and it was about -- zerob. said --t >> first of all, a counselor visas, it's about whether or not a visa has been visit -- for work, for investor permits, that's a counselor issue. trying to hide behind the term counselor issue when this who meeting about someone was imprisoned, seeking to evade on iran through turkey. issue. not a counselor >> it was presented as a counselor issue. counselor issue. >> but it was presented as a counselor issue. cat thatd call a dog a doesn't mean -- that it's a cat, right? anything.l it try to avoid but that doesn't mean that's what it is. > the meet being concern a counselor proposal, and it was not acted upon. knows me ybody who knows that i vigorously enforce all sanctions against iran. have the hen we highest office in the land empoweri

tillerson says no way.his lawyer for profit which exposes both to foreign players and puts the judgment of both of them in serious questions. rudy giuliani was once known as america's mayor. i argued for good reasons. this latest chapter casts him someone really different. maybe using diplomacy for personal gains? what does he know about his close associates and how they got the money to pay him? where did it come from? why would he put our president in his crime of any kind of loop with people like this. this is not conjecture and innuendo. there they are. next to pence and rudy, all party picture. he knew the people. maybe using diplomacy for personal gains? what does he know about his close associates and how they got the money to pay him? where did it come from? why would he put our president in his crime of any kind of loop with people like this. this is not conjecture and innuendo. there they are. next to pence and rudy, all party picture. he knew the people. he was working for the people. this is not

i worked on this with tillerson. i think he discussed with the present the problems that arise to rethink we can exploit those resources. >> anyone else? >> charles, los angeles, fdd supported. while the oil into has to be kept from isis using it to finance itself, the optics of keeping u.s. troops guarded and the circumstances of abandonment inside cynicism. brett seems to described the sad irony of the death of the beginning of an american troop birth to air spring, to my question. how much should erdogan's -- [inaudible] and form reliability of his intentions? and second, please comment on abandoning the kurdish ypg pushes them into reconsolidation with the pkk, losing the opportunity for alignment with the u.s. to influence the political change? >> so i guess is the ypg under pressure, that these groups need to merge i guess? are they coming under further pressure? and's the future with them rdogan? is there any hope of things settling down? i think the ypg likes things just fine as is. they get the plausible den

that tillerson immediately objected because he said that would flat out be illegal. apparently talked to john kelly in the corridors of the hallway after that. no indication the doj did anything. they didn't act on this. but that person was a client of rudy giuliani. how serious is this for the president? and the white house at least to bloomberg, is declining to comment. >> rudy giuliani is like the where's waldo of all of these scandals. he keeps popping up. till areson said this in public that the president would approach him with something and he'd say, i can't do that. it's illegal. it would test the relationship. this is the president again testing the levers of power within the white house and seeing how far he can push it. >> jeff, what do you make of that? this is the first time that this has been reported at all. >> sure. yeah, no, it sounds like really good reporting, and it raises a couple of questions. as jackie said, about the role of rudy giuliani, both in his relationship with the president as an attorney but also in his sort of broader role of influe

t tillerson's days when he was running exxon, not his secretary of state days. stay with us.ars, or trips to mars. no commission. delivery drones, or the latest phones. no commission. no matter what you trade, at fidelity you'll pay no commission for online u.s. equity trades. neil: all right. this is apple earnings day. they come after the bell. we get a lot telegraphed here. iphones are selling, what the guidance is for next year, all that fun stuff. susan li has a lot more. susan? susan: i'm excited. that's right. the world's biggest company, apple, set to report a profit drop later on today after the bell and its guidance will be key since they only had ten days of being able to sell the iphone 11 in their recent quarter. how many iphone 11s will they sell in the all-important holiday period. that's important to watch as well. also, we are hoping for an update on u.s./china trade relations since we know air pods have been tariffed since september. did that impact sales on the wearable. also, if they are not repealed in december, iphones and ipads, that's important, will f

tillerson reportedly refused. >> meanwhile, president trump's decision to pull troops out of northern syria is having deadly consequences. cnn reporters on the ground are seeing civilians including children fleeing the area on foot. the president is defending his decision to abandon the kurds claiming among other things they didn't help the united states during world war ii. republican lawmakers are using words like sickening to describe what's happening and disgusting. we're going to have a live report from the front in just a few minutes. but we want to start with the new developments on impeachment. suzanne malveaux live on capitol hill. >> reporter: good morning, john. a trump ally who recently spoke with the president said he believes that the impeachment inquiry in his words is a bunch of b.s. and that he is also confident that this is ultimately going to hurt his opponents the democrats. and at this point in the battle, he seems to be in good spirits. with president trump's stonewall up, house democrats are furiously working to break it down. threatening to issue a wave of subp

rex tillerson is emblematic. there are a lack of refugees from this administration who left under better circumstances who have a lot of information. you've got mcmaster, mattis, et cetera. they have the ability should they want to to talk with reporters. i think they may be beginning to happen. that's something to keep an eye on going forward. >> and they have the ability to testify before congress and not be stopped by the administration. one of the things about the turnover in this administration is there are so many people who are not under the them of the president or the state department. and can't be forced to not cooperate with congress. that's the utilities of these other incidents. to establish a pattern of behavior on the president's part. what's crazy about this case is this is someone who was accused of violenting sanctions against iran. and the president seemed to only care he was a client of his personal lawyers. that's -- that does not have to be a part of the impeachment inquiry per se, but it ca

i get the sense, jason, pompeo was actually very aware of how bad morale was with tillerson.improved morale, and it is still not good. >> you can talk to justice department, state department, everyone has realized that we're only serving at the pleasure of the president and whatever random mood he has that day. >> they've always known that, didn't realize it. >> didn't realize how far down the totem pole it would get. that's one of the things that's dangerous. people are running around saying how do i fix relationships i built in the last 10, 12 years for foreign policy to avoid whatever catastrophe the president gets me into. that's one of the messes. whether republican or democrat in congress because you don't know what trump will pay attention to this week, you don't know who to protect, don't know where he will be focused. >> one levels of concern at the state department is association of foreign service officers that represents state department officials sent out a fund-raising email rich with innuendo for the legal defense fund. what the email says which i got a hold of

we have a remarkable story ,esterday that rex tillerson the president said it you go talk to the doj help on a client of giuliani? what is that about? >> that was a fantastic scoop by our colleagues. in the oval office, trump asked rex tillerson to help persuade the doj to drop charges against an iranian turkish businessman who was being charged with evading sanctions against iran. sanctions against iran is one of trumps big calling cards. he has strengthened the sanctions and believes that is a big tule foreign policy. to ask the doj to go easy on a guy who was evading them is remarkable and the reason the president was interested in this man is he was a client of rudy giuliani. >> is this going to rise to the level of saying the president should be impeached or is this going to be saying ok he just didn't like to form? ask it's hard to tell. there are so many tentacles of these investigations of congress area ranging from the payoff with stormy daniels to the phone call to the ukrainian president now this. it's hard to tell what they will cling to. >> thank you so much. coming up,

second, new reports implicate giuliani in a scheme to pressure former secretary of state rex tillerson to help get a case against a prominent foreign client dropped. so, what happened? this is the rudy giuliani people remember, america's mayor, strength in the face of adversity. how did that guy become this guy? at the trump hotel with men about to be taken into custody with one-way ticket out of the country. joining me now is andrew kurtzman author of "rudy giuliani." you know him well and followed him for years. do you recognize this rudy giuliani? >> i recognize him, but i think this is a giuliani who has changed throughout the years and not for the better. not for the better. and i think you need a psychologist as much as a political reporter to kind of analyze what exactly has happened to him. i covered giuliani for close to a decade prior to 9/11. as you remember, he was kind of -- he became one of the most beloved men on the planet after 9/11. he wagered it all on his presidential race in 2008. and it was a disaster. it was a humiliating disaster. he walked away with i believe o

why does he call his own former advisor dumb as a rock his former secular state who praised rex tillerson why do you do that a mosque you can you know and we don't i wish you wouldn't do it that's why i'm asking why does he i don't know i don't know why he doesn't and i wish he would do and i think it gets him into trouble i think if donald trump didn't do those kinds of things you're talking about he did not have a 40 percent approval rating you know 70 percent i'm honestly why he doesn't you can't tell me even though you're telling me he's the smartest guy in the i mean i don't like a lot of the personality i don't most likely racist but which part about what i'm saying is what americans care about is suppress performance is results not what he says that how he acts ok and isn't it the case stephen moore that if you did if you did have a falling out would trump if you did kind of turn on trump or criticize him publicly in any strong way he'd come off to you too when he when i was going so you would be so i steve tomorrow morning that's why i'm not going across i'm like i mean i mean i m

tillerson said no. the trump administration so proud of with drawing from the iran deal has not fined the bank involved in the zarrab case, the halkbank. why not? then there's the master of turkey purchasing the russian s-400 defensive missile system, which pentagon officials say would -- according to a 2017 law, turkey's purchase of these russian weapons is supposed to trigger congressionally mandated sanctions against turkey. but trump has not pulled that trigger. why not? the trump administration told us today, quote, we continue to urge turkey to reconsider the receipt of the s-400. there's a deliberative process ongoing on the issue of sanctions. >> there could be more sanctions to follow, but, frankly, what we'd really like is the s-400 not to become operational. >> reporter: in fact, after the pentagon insisted that the white house cancel turkey's purchase of the f-35 jet, president trump sounded more upset about the law than turkey violating it. >> i've had a good relationship with president erd