bad now remember that crowd of high school boys from kentucky who were shown in a video wearing trump pats and confronting an elderly native american veteran remember how it turned out that he had actually walked up to them and that the boys had already been met with a tirade of anti white slurs from the nearby black hebrew israelites named the skates i want names shame them if you think this wouldn't box you know hard beat think again honest question have you ever seen in will push will face in this kids with the overall crime rate in the united states on the. i actual hate crimes are increasing and that's what makes these hoaxes so vile it feeds into the idea that actual victims of actual racist atrocities shouldn't be taken seriously fortunate seeing as yet you know i do sometimes hate crimes do occur and when they do occur i think that this kind of a hoax does a disservice to the victims of legitimate hate crimes when something like this happens you know it's going to make it harder let's say for the next victim to be believed you know because there are so many instances of these types

offends me so the can't take it to the level where we just say oh well you know you're donald trump pat offends me so therefore you can't wear that and what scares me about this topic is i feel like when we are poor you can't wear that and what scares me about this topic is i feel like when we just say hollowing costumes and we have college students talking about what's offensive we just say hollowing costumes and we have college students talking about what's offensive we really don't even know where the guidelines are anymore because we're living in this p.c. . sure we really don't even know where the guidelines are anymore because we're living in this p.c. culture that sometimes really doesn't make a lot of sense yet and i just want to put it sometimes it really doesn't make a lot of sense yet and i just want to put perhaps if i may indulge myself here an example to difficult it is to make an assessment i mean may indulge myself an example to difficult it is to make an assessment i mean comedians like to impersonate people and i think this is a situation now where maybe what comedians

pretty bad now remember that crowd of high school boys from kentucky were shown in a video wearing trump pats and confronting an elderly native american veteran remember how it turned out that he had actually walked up to them and that the boys had already been met with a tirade of anti white slurs from the nearby black hebrew israelites named the skates i want names shame them if you think this wouldn't box you know hard be think again or this question have you ever seen a more push will face in this kids with the overall crime rate in the united states on the decline actual hate crimes are increasing and that's what makes these hoaxes so vile it feeds into the idea that actual victims of actual racist atrocities shouldn't be taken seriously and your fortune is being used you know it just sometimes he performs do occur and when they do occur i think to do this kind of the hoax does a disservice to the victims of legitimate hate crimes when something like this happens you know it's going to make it harder let's say for the next victim to be believed you know because there's so many instances

particularly scathing about white house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff is part of what trumps it pat i'm sure he's a lowlife you should be forced to resign and frankly they should look at him for treason because he is making up the words of the president of the united states not only words but the meaning and it's a disgrace that should not be allowed to happen. trump was referring to a statement in which shift paraphrased the gist of a phone call between trump and ukraine's president in which democrats say trump abused his office. or congressional democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry over the president's the ledge to abuses which trump has condemned as an attempt to subvert the will of the american voters. the white house is boosting its self defenses outside the security fence is being raised from 2 to 4 meets is to keep out unwanted visitors and inside it's all hands on deck for the impeachment inquiry on wednesday the president continued to defend himself against accusations of misusing his position as well as having acted against the u.s. constitution trump alleges he'

fine let's go to company how could now she's joining us live from dallas texas and president trump really patting himself on the back about this cease fire can play but what is the u.s. cost out of this deal. well out right now the white house would characterize this enormous success we expect that in about an hour's time when u.s. president donald trump takes to the stage in the arena behind me then that is what he will tell his supporters and i can tell you that many of his supporters here applaud the decision as i've spoken to them they agree with the u.s. president that it's. time in their view should get out of what they call the endless wars a generation of the u.s. having a military presence in some form or fashion in the broader middle east and there is a tremendous amount of support for what the president has done but there are others that are nearby protesting the news of this ceasefire agreement namely a small group of kurdish diaz proud that he's located here in texas they say that they are feeling that once again that the united states has abandoned the kurdish fighters and as well t

fight isis and yet even after being accused of a tragic betrayal by our kurdish allies, yesterday trump pattedthe back during a speech in which he announced that he was lifting sanctions on turkey. >> today's announcement validates our course of action with turkey that only a couple of weeks ago was scorned and now people are saying, "wow, what a great outcome. congratulations. >> seth: no one is saying that [ laughter ] but if they did, judging from your cadence, they were super high [ laughter ] "wow." he sounds like a local mattress salesman "wow, what a great deal. [ laughter ] second, any time trump says "people are saying," those people do not exist. trump is using "people are saying," the same way guys use "my friend has a problem when they ask their doctors for cialis." [ laughter ] now trump says he doesn't think we should be fighting wars in the middle east, but let's just be clear about something, donald trump has not and has never been an anti-war president. he just pretends to be one all he cares about is what you can do for him personally, and reporters who actually talked to the

another surprising critic of trump today was pat robertson, who in case you don't know is a 300-year-olded "the 700 club." he said trump is in dachblg losing the mandate of heaven, which is shocking, but it wasn't the most shocking sound bite from his show today. listen closely because you can hear -- you won't be able to see it but listen because something happens at the end of this clip. >> you pointed out in mexico they have standards totally contrary of what these globalists are talking about. >> yes. so i talk about an entire shelter that's been -- >> jimmy: let's listen to that one more time. >> so i talk about an entire shelter -- [ noise ]. >> jimmy: you know, this is -- i don't know if you know this, but there is history happening not far from us here. in west hollywood they now have the first cannabis cafe in the united states. because of the law the food itself does not contain cannabis but the employees are fine with you being high in the restaurant. it's just like taco bell, really. [ laughter ] you can smok and then you can eat. and they're already booked solid for months.

. >>> president trump today patting himself on the back for an alleged solution to a problem that he, himself, created. now spinning the crisis in syria now. plus, as trump calls on republicans to put up a bigger fight, senator mitch mcconnell calls him out suggesting that the president lied. >>> and president trump just lashed out on twitter calling his republican critics "human scum." we'll be right back. do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. to earn j.d. power chevdependability awards... across cars... trucks... and suvs. four years in a row. since more than 32,000 real people... just like me. and me. and me. took the survey that decided these awards. it was only right that you hear the good news from real people... like us. i'm daniel. i'm casey. i'm julio. only chevy has earned j.d. power dependability awards across cars, trucks and suvs. four years in a row. can't imagine doing it any ot

. >>> plus someone may need to explain to trump what pat robertson just said about him. all of it as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a thursday night. >>> well, good evening, once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 1,008 of the trump administration has brought us breaking news yet again tonight. "the new york times" reports the justice department has opened a criminal inquiry into its own russia investigation. here's how it works. the "times" reports it this way. "justice department officials have shifted an administrative review of the russia investigation closely overseen by attorney general william barr to a criminal inquiry. the move gives the prosecutor running it, john durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents. to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges. the opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that mr. trump is using the justice department to go after his perceived enemies." nbc news tonight has confirmed this "times" report and tonight, james clapper, the former director of natio

cbs news reports that mulvaney and trump's lawyer pat sip loan are now vying for the chief of staff positionording to two sources familiar with the intensifying rivalry. sources say cipolone faulted mulvaney for the botched effort to enlist trey gowdy to join the president's legal defense team to counter the impeachment inquiry. those close to mulvaney say cipollone's legal advice to trump to ignore the house inquiry is a bigger problem. cbs news also reports that mulvaney has, quote, worked extensively to keep in good graces with white house senior adviser jared kushner and ivanka trump. >> president trump is defending tulsi gabbard after hillary clinton suggested that she was quote, a favorite of the russians. >> the person in charge of that particular deal, hillary clinton, if you've heard of her. she's the one that's accusing everybody of being a russian agent. anybody that is opposed to her is a russian agent, so that's a scam that was pretty much put down. tulsi, i don't know tulsi, but she's not a russian agent. i don't know jill stein. i know she likes environment. i don't think she

trump. >> and people are making choices. white house counsel pat cipollone with his letter has been trying to prevent testimony and to urge trump administration officials to not head to capitol hill. yet ambassador after ambassador, official after official are deciding to testify on their own. it's their decision to comply with congress despite what the white house is saying. and bolton can make his own decision in the coming weeks and months about how he wants to be remembered and what he wants to say. >> mike schmidt, your reporting today with your colleague nick fanos makes the point that if republicans are going to be swung over especially on the senate side to support donald trump's conviction and removal, they're going to need testimony from people like john bolton. >> yeah. that's what this all comes down to. it comes down to the republicans in the senate and how much they can be moved against the president. it's pretty clear the house is going to impeach the president. the democrats, you know, are moving with that great momentum in that dir

trump-esque. this is from pat cipollone but you think about trumping it up undermines the merits in the letter. >>hey've been saying for so long is the democrats are hysterical and want to -- and overturn the election and this is what you hear everywhere and you can't get away from the talking point but among the trump allies it is starting to feel like the boy who cried wolf. he's saying it so much. and there is something here. and the intellectually honest people who try to talk about this and say, listen, this is bad but it is not impeachable. that is not a great conversation to have the democrats because if you admit he did something bad and if you think it is bad how do you trust this president to continue to conduct foreign policy amidst another election. i don't think they've gotten that far. but those are the natural questions that i don't think they know how to answer. >> i agree with that. and even tucker carlson came out and wrote an op-ed -- even tucker carlson said this is not a good presentation. donald trump is described as a perfect conversation. tucker disagrees with him. and once

she has some of the same sort of policy positions as donald trump, maybe why trump is patting her on the back so much with the fight with hillary. connell: they say she might run third party for real? >> this is the other thing that is fascinating. i've been asking democratic party people about this. robert wolf sort of connection here is interesting. he is generally establishment candidate. >> like a biden guy? >> i believe he is a biden guy. you have to ask him. he is on our air enough. if he supporting biden why is he supporting -- why is he doing something that might help a third party candidate which would hurt the democratic party nominee? this is not me saying this. these are democratic activists i spoke to to today in the wake of this meeting. we'll have a report on foxbusiness.com which raises some of these issues. we should point out mr. wolf had no comment. tulsi gabbard campaign had no comment. connell: i wanted to touch on, because done reporting on mike bloomberg, whether he runs. is it still pipe-dream? >> very outside chance is i bring this up, there was this report,

trump. it's that simple. patoloni, white house chief of staff mick mulvaney have complained he's hoarding information, not sharing information with people. and the other people is information is not getting to the hill. >> when did the president meet this flack, sippaloni? >> trump didn't really know him. >> vivian, what strikes me this guy is not only alone pause he deserves to me puz there's no one around him except jared, his son-in-law. >> look what happened, advisors are too afraid to get head of this president. what we have last week with mick mulvaney going out there and speaking to reporters about the -- >> the hospitality business. >> that was on tv but even before that during the press conference linking the dnc server to investigations over -- the investigations over dnc server over military aid and then having to walk back that comment. it's either, you know, you're getting ahead of the president or you're undermining whatever message he wants. and so advisers are too scared to get out there. so at th

one day after the mission that took out isis leader, president trump is giving himself another pat on the back. >> he's dead. he's dead as a door nail. he didn't die bravely either, i will tell you that. he should have been killed years ago. another president should have gotten him. >> reporter: the president is going to great lengths to brag he's out done barack obama complete with his own situation room photo. >> bin laden was big this be is a man who built a hole as he would like to call it, a country. a caliphate and was trying to do it again. >> reporter: as for a key element of his original account of the mission that he was whimpering in his final moments. >> they should see how he died. he died a coward. crying, whimpering, screaming. >> reporter: chairman of the joint chiefs general mark told reporters he wasn't sure about the source of that claim adding video from the operation may be released in domi ingthe coming . >> i know the president planned to talk down to to unit and unit members but i don't know what the source of that was. i assume he was talking inin i members. >

but did you hear that statement from pat robertson claiming that trump is in danger of losing the mandate he is. i'm seriously considering not voting for him this time. >> stephen: wait, what? you voted for trump? >> yeah. i'm his core demographic: angry, old white man living in a gated community. also, he's been really good for my 401(k). ( laughter ) ( applause ) >> stephen: well, why would you be turning on him? >> i don't think he's fit to be commander in chief. last night during prayers he asked for dirt on joe biden. this time i'm voting for andrew yang. i really need that $1,000. ♪ that's the sound of the lord voting for the yang gang ♪ >> stephen: god, everybody. we've got a great show for you tonight. will smith is here-- that's right, will smith will join us. ( cheers and applause ) ♪ ♪ (paul) it's that special time of year again. (sprintern) it's iphone season at sprint. (paul) switch and get... (sprintern) the new iphone 11 or iphone 11 pro with amazing all-new camera systems. and now you can get iphone 11 (paul) ...for zero-dollars a month when you trade in your iphone7 or ne

i don't know if you saw pat robertson, president trump is in of losing -- he doesn't control evangelicalotes in america, but has a lot of influence there. >> i have a different track of thinking on this in the sense of, okay, we've seen the condemnation from a lot of republicans in congress, even allies of president trump ata a time where he's facing impeachment inquiry from the house, which could move to trial in the senate, where he needs allys and republicans with him. i don't think from a timing perspective, purely political, which is my background, i don't know if this is wisest decision to do this now, when you need allies on capitol hill. >> harris: interesting. i mean, with erdogan coming and senator graham or republicans sitting down with him, what do you think of the idea, lisa? >> lisa: senator lindsey graham might be listening, maybe take him up on it. >> it can't hurt the situation the fact is they are co-equal branches of government, each has an interest in what happens to kurds and turkish relationship, turkey is a member of nato. any pressure on turkey in a positive way t

to committee halkett she's joining us live from dallas texas where president trump has holding a rally and he has been patting himself on the back since the day was announced complete and he's well he's preaching to the converted at this rally isn't he. there's no question that the hundreds maybe even thousands of people who are packed in this around this dallas arena are supportive of the president's syria strategy in fact they say that it's time for the worst to end for u.s. soldiers they backed the president's efforts to pull back troops and donald trump himself has no minimum wanting himself saying that today was a very tremendous victory here who wanted the turkish president airlines saying that he was a gentleman but don't revolve like knowledge that coming to this agreement the cease fire agreement even had knowledge just was unconventional. today i sent vice president pants and secretary of state prompt a 0 to lead an american delegation to meet with president her to go out of turkey but got there today and it did work. without spilling a drop of american blood not one drop of american. no not everybo

trump earlier today in south carolina. graham leads a diverse caucus of bipartisan critics which includes texas senator ted cruz and christian televangilist patpite the appeals trump is standing by his decision. >> we have no soldiers in syria. we won, we beat isis. we beat them badly and decisively. we have no soldiers. the last thing i want to do is bring thousands and thousands of soldiers in and defeat everybody again. >> "the washington post" notes that president trump, quote, is cleaving his political coalition at the very moment. he's trying to fortify his standing to survive the intensifying impeachment. three trump advisers tell "the post" mick mulvaney the acting chief of staff, quote, is planning to help trump begin a quiet charm offensive hosting private dinners, meetings and gatherings. for more i'm joined by the senior director of progressive programming for sirius km. is that going to have any affect on policy? >> i'm going to propose something here which is that in a weird way this helps trump with republican senators on impeachment. here's why. they can say, you know, i'm not with the president on everything. i'm really upset

tonight, the trump administration is fighting back hard and letting democrats did their own the hole. white house counsel pat to pallone has issued what is a devastating takedown of the democrats' attempted coup and a letter to nancy pelosi, the cowardly schiff, made thing one clear, the trump administration will not participate or cooperate with the democrats' unconstitutional in valid baseless so-called inquiry. you must not legitimize that which is illegitimate. every republican needs to stand by our constitution, rule of law, due process, past presidents, and by the way, how speaker gingrich did it in the 1990s against then president bill clinton. they are not offering anything near that. the republicans, white house officials, and others must not participate in this illegitimate unconstitutional madness. let the do-nothing democrats, they can own at all. this is them. this is who they are. in the end, they've done nothing but hate trump. not about truth, not about law, not about a fact-finding mission. this is yet another impeach, impeach, impeach political witch hunts. byron york quoting government rep

trump on the ballot. none of the states have republican running for senate. none of them. there's no ron johnson, marco rubio, pat toomey to help drag trump across the line in the suburban voters in those places will say, hey, he's kind of offensive but had to go vote for the senate a candidate, i mights well vote a straight party ticket. >> you talked about electability fools gold. this is is where it's interesting with some like worn or bernie who has faded but we don't count out get -- like warren -- , in michigan trump ws by 10,000 votes and hillary clinton underperform barack obama by 200,000 votes. she just does not turn up college educated white women. she does not turn up black voters. if you have democrat who even performs at marginally better levels than clinton 16, 16, thn trump is in real trouble because it's hardd to see his ceiling g higher in aal state like michig. do disagree?at >> completely. that's like rerunning the last campaign. you can't rewrite the last campaign. it has noo bearing. we all know now if you're a republican or a center-right, you now have reason to vote for him that you didn't

from committee how could she is joining us live from dallas where president trump is about to hold a rally in his ring patting himself on the back of the committee despite all the condemnation that he abandoned america's kurdish allies. yeah the u.s. president congratulating the kurds and really applauding the white house team that helped negotiating this deal we expect you'll hear from the u.s. president when he takes the stage in the next hour he has been as he touched out of the ground as we heard earlier in the program. really taking a bit of a victory lap with regard to this given the criticism that he received in advance that he would not be able to achieve any sort of negotiated cease fire but i can tell you that here at the ground there is a small diaz of kurdish in the united states about 100000 there is a protest here it is small but it is very vocal and they are not happy about the cease fire agreement fact they say that turkey should be not allowed to be in nato they don't feel that this is an agreement that turkey can abide by and for that there is a strong feeling that the united states has aban

i think when you have donald trump and those around him watching a pat robertson and a lindsey graham day after day taking issue with his foreign policy and making the inconsistencies of it apparent, that causes real problems for trump. so i think the politics of it is something very troubling for them because pat robertson is a very well-regarded figure in that particular world. i don't agree with pat robertson on many things, but for him to be that adamant, he's not being, you know, just gentle about it. he is coming straight at the president two or three times saying the hand of god may be removed from him. that is troubling when you are getting ready to go into the 2020 election. >> you're right. he's been on this for weeks talking about it every day. >> every day. >> addressing the president directly. rick tyler, the problem, i guess, is that the decision has been made so lindsey graham can go into the white house and you roll the maps and explain to the president why this is a bad idea, can he get chastised by pat robertson on tv, but this is well down the road and in motion. >>

the senator has been a vocal critic of this pat -- from this president since 2016. he called trump a phoney and fraud before groveling to be trump's secretary of state. resistance romney signaled he would be willing to support impeachment of the president as well if nancy pelosi and adam schiff can dig up enough top -- to remove him. the decision about our troops in syria last we are prompted senator lindsey graham to declare he would become the president's worst nightmare. well, apparently he's okay now with that withdrawal. graham telling fox this weekend that he has seen the light. that there is some out number of about the president's syria withdrawal policy. >> i'm increasingly optimistic we can have some historic solutions in syria that have eluded us for years if we play our cards right. lou: if you get the idea lindsey graham is a settled supportered of the president. get ready for this. graham is leaving the door open for impeachment. >> fit all comes out you could support impeachment? >> sure. show me something that is a crime. if you can show me trump actually was engage

. >>> in a letter to the house speaker, nancy pelosi, the white house counsel, pat cipollone, says that the trumprate with the impeachment inquiry, calling it unconstitutional. joining me now to discuss is frank bruni. also michael d'antonio, the author of "the truth about trump." amanda carpenter, author of "gaslighting america: why we love it when trump lies to us." that's how the name of that book should be read all the time. good evening, everyone. frank, i'm going to start with you. the plan for this white house, we've seen this playbook before. it's very clear here. but what does this mean for the democrats? you say that they have a big advantage if they handle this correctly. what do you mean by that? >> well, i think the white house is trying to throw as much dust into the air as possible. they're trying to make this about process and subpoenas and drag this out. they're trying to move this as far as possible from this moment when the public learned of this ukraine call, saw the transcript, and the story was very, very simple. look, they have trump dead to rights when it comes to this cal

responsible for a lot of the president's support among evangelicals, televangelist pat robertson, he stood by donald trumpstuck by him through the "access hollywood" tapes release, exposure of his affair and payoff scheme with stormy daniels, shady business dealin s dealings, even the policy of keeping immigrant people in cages. trump's decision to abandon our kurdish allies may have finally crossed a line for robertson. >> the president who allowed khashoggi to be cut in pieces without any repercussions whatsoever is now allowing the christians and the kurds to be massacred by the turks. and i believe, and i want to say this with great sill l, the pre of the united states will lose the mandate of heaven if he permits this to happen. >> locked out of heaven but is he screwed with his base? >> the only piece of the robertson argument i think has the potential to truly resonate with voters at least to an extent is the argument he's making that christians in the middle east will be put in danger by the president's policy decision here. experts are going to be able to have different opinions on the extent to

. >>> later, the trump trade war expanding. senator patng to join us to discuss the implications u e tuned yoarwatching "squawk box" here on cnbc devices are like doorways that could allow hackers into your home. and like all doors, they're safer when locked. that's why you need xfinity xfi. with the xfi gateway, devices connected to your homes wifi are protected. which helps keep people outside from accessing your passwords, credit cards and cameras. and people inside from accidentally visiting sites that aren't secure. and if someone trys we'll let you know. xfi advanced security. if it's connected, it's protected. call, click, or visit a store today. >>> welcome back to "squawk box" this morning tesla delivering 97,000 vehicles, that's the number to watch here, to customers during the third quarter. that is the most ever for the automaker. that's the good news but it is short of the 99,000 deliveries that wall street had expected in large part because of that leaked email that just came out, what was it now, two weeks ago, three weeks a

. >> don't forget pat robertson stood by then-candidate trump in the wake of the infamous "access hollywood" tape, which was released three years ago tonight. >> you know i'm automatically attracted to beautiful. i just start kissing them. it's like a magnet. i just kiss. i don't even wait. and when you're a star. they let you do it. you can do anything. >> whatever you want. >> grab them by the pussy. you can do anything. >> wow, that's been three years. while republicans may be growing a spine on syria, their new independence doesn't seem to extend to calling the president out on his public demand for china to investigate joe biden. their latest strategy, it's all just a joke. >> i don't think it's a real request. i think, again, i think he did it to gig you guys. >> i doubt if the china comment was serious to tell you the truth. >> you really think he was serious about thinking that china's going to investigate the biden family? >> all that, and we're not even two weeks into this impeachment inquiry. and after grumbling in the white house that there is no real strategy, sources tell cnn

the fact that trump is much more willing to give the russians a pat on the back and proactively say,ing 10% of the territory, is unfortunate, undermines national interest, but the reality is, putin gets syria. do we want syria? the answer to that has been no. david: much more coming up with the ian bremmer next. this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television and radio. ♪ david: this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television and radio. i'm david westin. alberto fernandez was elected president of argentina yesterday, which was expected, although his margin was not as big as some expected. still with us is ian bremmer of the eurasia group. what significance does this have? ian: 48 percent, needed 45 to make it in the first round. clearly, there was still a lot of opposition to the idea that cristina kirchner is on the ticket. she is the vice president. massive corruption. they tossed her out precisely because the economy did very badly under her administration. about what's happening across south america right now, it is anti-corruption is driving so much of the popular mood. if

trump. the letter is from white house counsel pat cipollone and it's addressed to nancy pelosi as well as house intelligence foreign affairs and year sight committee chairs. the letter first lays out flaws in the democrats' impeachment inquiry then drops this bomb at the bottom of page 2. quote president trump and his administration reject your baseless, unconstitutional efforts to overturn the democratic process. in order to fulfill his duties to the american people, the constitution, the executive branch and all future occupants of the white house of the presidency, president trump and his administration cannot participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry under these circumstances. now the core of the complaint cipollone lays out is that house dems are violating the rule of law, the constitution, and past precedent set by impeachment procedures under democrats and republicans. the letter lays out a whole laundry list of accusations including denying president trump's fundamental right to cross-examine and call witnesses, to receive transcripts of testimony, access evidence, and h

pat. >> but gop span on behalf of trump is not aging well, especially when confronted about facts about >> president trump replies, i would like you to do us a favor, though. >> you just added another word. >> no. >> you said i'd like to do a favor, though? >> yes. it's in the white house transcript. >> and about the whistle-blower. >> you had a bureaucrat who didn't like the president. >> wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. what are you talking about? >> we know he didn't like the president. >> we don't know that. >> baseless attacks like that on the whistle-blower. >> we have a whistle-blower that reports things that were incorrect. >> plus repeated brazen threats from the president did compel iowa republican chuck grassley, a long-time champion of whistle-blowers, to release a statement warning no one should be making judgments or pronouncements without hearing from the whistle-blower first and carefully following up on the facts. also noteworthy, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, who rarely grants interviews. this week he did, declaring if the house impeaches the president, the sena

it does seem like donald trump was able to quiet a lot of the evangelical leaders. pat robertson said he lost the mandate of heaven, for instance. we'll see what happens in congress. all sorts of sanction bills are floating around, both in the house and the senate, probably more likely out of the house. we'll see what happens in the house. graham has a bill, there are all sorts of bills. we'll see. what mitch mcconnell laid out in that pretty scathing op-ed on friday pretty much captured where americans are. >> mcconnell went to the floor and said he wanted something stronger in the senate than what was passed in the house but drafted by democrats. mcconnell said this is the president of the united states essentially poking his own majority leader directly in the eye saying, go away, i'm lifting the sanctions. >> right. we were heading into this next week basically being a time in which we would see those sanctions bills come back up, at least on the house floor. we've seen mcconnell's promise. it's almost like a dare for the president saying you can't push me on this.

trump. he was watching. he took notice. he gave them a pat on the back for this. they knew they were not going to get into that secure setting as eugene mentioned. and these republicans are actually on the committees and have had access to the transcripts and depositions. this was solely about changing the narrative, changing the conversation. and it worked, at least for the first half of the day. >> i will say, jonathan, one of the things they're arguing the democrats can't answer with videotape. these hearings are not televised. i got not an inch of video to show folks to back up what taylor said or how he said it. i just have a piece of paper. what the republicans are falling apart on is that it's in secret. their members come and go as members of these committees. as eugene pointed out, that was how benghazi was carried out. is this just a battle for attention spans in the middle of what's been a successful run of days for the democrats? >> that's exactly what it is. republicans here are making the argument this is a process that's shrouded in secrecy, that th

pat toomey. that's the trip wire for breaking with donald trump, not the other stuff? to what do you ascribe this? >> these are the people who actually defeated isis on the ground. we didn't do it without them. we did it on their backs. so for the president to walk away from them after we spent all this time and effort defeating isis and them losing lives is completely outrageous. the only republican senator to defend donald trump is rand paul, and he's saying the same line as president, it's a barack obama line, which is end these endless wars, which is ridiculous. this is a war we didn't choose. >> just to momentarily take up the rand paul devil's advocate to both of you, you know, any u.s. withdrawal, even if done thoughtfully and with allies, it would be at some level betraying our allies. there are people we've worked with on the ground in afghanistan that if u.s. forces were to leave would be in a tough position. my worry is the dangers of that argument applies in all places of crept u.s. military activity,er go no withdrawal from anywhere is ever okay. what say