rudy giuliani and president trump have been pressuring ukraine to investigate those revelations about manafort from 2016 to try to get manafort off the hook for what he did over there, for what he got caught for in 2016. trump has also told ukraine that he wants them to investigate the security firm that first determined it was the russian government that hacked the democratic party and started the attack on the 2016 election. which is -- i mean, just step back from this a second, right? you look at this in terms of what trump's going to be impeached for, he's definitely going to be impeached -- at least it looks like he's going to be impeached, for what he was asking for from ukraine for 2020. he went to ukraine to ask for help with 2020, for help with beating biden, that would help president trump. but there are also simultaneously asking for help with the 2016 election too, with the election that's already over. we, the united states, have not been supporting ukraine for these past five years out of some sort of inherent love for ukraine. lovely as they are, right? there isn't some

white house chief of staff offered no apologies for the july phone call between president trump and the leader of ukraine in which trump pressed for ukrainian investigation into claims that a hacked computer server that played a role in russia's 2016 election meddling campaign had been moved to ukraine trump was withholding u.s. military assistance to ukraine when he made the request that he also mentioned to me in the past that the corruption related to the d.n.c. server absolutely no question about that but that's it that's why we held up the money now there was a report of the man for an investigation into the democrats which is part of the reason that he was on the to withhold funding to break the look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation and that is absolutely appropriate for the justice department has been examining the origins of the russian vest a geisha which the president calls a hoax but in the july phone call with ukraine trump also asked for an investigation into his political rival joe biden the white hous

of his energy secretary rick perry has been a central figure and questions around whether trump pressured ukraine to investigate joe biden will trump says perry will stay on till the end of the year now the white house appears to have a new strategy in defending donald trump's handling of ukraine get over it well that's what the president's chief of staff told reporters on thursday as opponents proceed with an impeachment inquiry has more. the white house has a message for anyone who criticizes using american aid as leverage over a foreign nation get over it there's going to be a political influence in foreign policy the white house chief of staff offered no apologies for the july phone call between president trump and the leader of ukraine in which trump pressed for ukrainian investigation into claims that a hacked computer server that played a role in russia's 2016 election meddling campaign had been moved to ukraine trump was withholding u.s. military assistance to ukraine when he made the request that he also mentioned to me in past that the corruption related to the d.n.c. server absolutely

trump called ukraine, and i'm done. >> exactly. you can't even sleuth your way through it too. because in order to find out that trump called ukraine what we had to do is ask trump, did you call ukraine? and he said, yes, here's the evidence. so there wasn't even like a whodunit, how can we prove it. it's over. there is stuff to explain, like why did this happen in ukraine and why did he think he could get that and what's going to happen to ukraine? there's other contextual stuff that i could make long segments about. but in terms of whodunit, he done it and he admits it and now he's going to be impeached for it. [ cheers and applause ] >> that's interesting. >> so i'm going to be on "the late show" with stephen colbert later tonight. it went great. stephen colbert is very, very good at his job. it was very kind of him to have me on tonight, i was super happy to do that. you should watch that. i'm also going to be on the "today" show on nbc tomorrow morning. and then i'm also going to be on "the view" on thursday. pray for me. i'm

now the white house is that knowledge that president trump held out military aid to ukraine partly to push kiev to hold investigations in connection with the 2016 presidential campaign but acting chief of staff mick mulvaney trying to his statement and donald trump's lawyer distance the president from those remarks democrats say this is further evidence of wrongdoing bolstering the case for impeachment. has more now from washington d.c. . the white house has a message for anyone who criticizes using american aid as leverage over a foreign nation get over it there's going to be a political influence in foreign policy at the white house chief of staff offered no apologies for the july phone call between president trump and the leader of ukraine in which trump pressed for ukrainian investigation into claims that a hacked computer server that played a role in russia's 2016 election meddling campaign had been moved to ukraine trump was withholding u.s. military assistance to ukraine when he made the request that he also mentioned to me in past that the corruption related to the d.n.c. serv

white house chief of staff offered no apologies for the july phone call between president trump and the leader of ukraine in which trump pressed for ukrainian investigation into claims that a hacked computer server that played a role in russia's 2016 election meddling campaign had been moved to ukraine trump was withholding u.s. military assistance to ukraine when he made the request that he also mentioned to me in the past that the corruption related to the d.n.c. server absolutely no question about that but that's it that's why we held up the money now there was a report of demand for an investigation into the democrats which is part of the reason that he was on the to withhold funding to for a look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation and that is absolutely appropriate for the justice department has been examining the origins of the russian vest a geisha which the president calls a hoax but in the july phone call with ukraine trump also asks for an investigation into his political rival joe biden the white house clai

>>> secondary of state mike pompeo was also on the trump ukraine phone call. >> rudy giuliani gives his first response to a house subpoena in the trump impeachment inquiry. >>> 70 years of communist rule in china, marked by a parade in beijing in protest, right now in hong kong. >>> college athletes could get paid under a bill just signed in california. but will the ncaa play ball? welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. it's tuesday, october 1st. 4:00 a.m. in new york. 4:00 p.m. in hong kong. 11:00 a.m. in kiev. >>> we begin in the nation's capital with the latest on the whistleblower scandal. mike pompeo was on the call between president trump and the ukrainian president, zelensky. the state department has not responded for cnn's request for comment. here's what pompeo told abc news about that call last week. >> what do you know about those conversations? >> you just gave me a report about a whistleblower complaint, none of which i've seen. pompeo has not addressed the call with the ukrainian le

documents related to a ukrainian state energy company as well as explain his pot in a call between trump and ukraine's president the former texas governor has been in the role since march 27th jane trump said perry quote has done a fantastic job but it was time for him to leave. if you will have the weather with jenny but still ahead on al-jazeera as the u.s. imposes new tariffs on european goods we asked is the white house opening a new front line in the strike war and england out for revenge in the rugby world cup water port a fire has more in sport. hello there this massive chatting you see behind me in the gulf of mexico has the possibility of developing into a new tropical storm that is a huge amount of pad as you can see and this is the ascends are all this area all weather now to some very heavy amounts of rain coming in with this even if it doesn't develop into a tropical storm with winds sustained of 65 kilometers an hour we're looking at some very heavy amounts right now but also tropical storm warnings in place along this south coast around the gulf of mexico and we could actually see up to

trump's mind about ukraine and that eliciting a public commitment from mr. zelensky to pursue the investigations would induce mr. trump to more fully support the ukrainian government. as we said, all of this comes on a day when president trump asked yet another country, this time china, to investigate joe biden, erasing all doubt about whether he could or would or will happily collude with foreign powers in plain sight to boost his reelection prospects. with the idea that the president's mind is being poisoned against an allied country and that u.s. diplomats were scrambling to try to contain the damage is a frightening prospect on its own. joining us, mike schmidt is a washington correspondent with "the new york times." he helped break the story tonight. help us through the rest of the fact pattern we have now, if you take the rudy dossier that the state department inspector general turned over to congress yesterday, you take this effort, that that conspiracy theory had filtered down. >> you have to put all that aside. you have to look at this in the context

donald trump's lawyer has been subpoenaed by congressional committees over his dealing with ukraine. trump lashes out on the democratic lawmaker leaving the impeachment inquiry against him. another front opened by democrats as an impeachment investigation into donald trump gathers momentum. rudy giuliani needs to hand over records asking him -- asking ukraine to -- trump claims he did nothing wrong. lashing out to both the whistltleblower and the chairman of the house intelligence committee. .> the call was perfect when the whistleblower reported it, he made it sound terrible. made upadam schiff, who my words, which i think is horrible. i have never seen nothing like that. the u.s.script showed president urged his counterpart to investigate the allegations against biden, one of trumps rivals in the 2020 election. there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by biden. since the allegations surface, trump has called for the whistleblower's identity to be revealed. he tweeted a pastor who warned of civil war. happen, itment to has to be taken up by the senate. >> the senate would have to take res

ukraine relations? >> so i mean, under trump u.s. policy by and large towards ukraine has been very similar under obama. i mean, there's been a lot of attention towards trump's comments about russia, his relationship with vladimir putin, but by and large, the broader apparatus of the u.s. government, of congress has, you know, been very strong bipartisan support for ukraine, you know, very strong support in the nsc, in the state department, and if anything, it's been a little bit support for ukraine's even been a little bit stronger because under trump the trump administration has sold javelins, these anti-tank missiles to ukraine, which was always a bit of a red line for the obama administration. they were just hesitant at giving these very powerful weapons to the ukrainians. they weren't quite sure the ukrainian military was yet equipped to handle them, and they were concerned in the event they got captured by the russians that there was a technology transfer, that the russians could figure out how to develop their own versions of t

and president zelinsky of ukraine trump on that phone call said that the former ambassador was bad news she reportedly was not on board his administration's attempts to convince ukraine to launch an investigation into trump's domestic political rivals. is scheduled to testify on october 11th but before that panel will hear from was the former ukrainian envoy who resigned from that post last week just as the pietschmann inquiry had been launched he reportedly went to ukraine following the phone call between trump and the lewinsky to control the damage from that phone call volcker is scheduled to give his deposition before congress on thursday. bruce fein is president i say this resigned her post as well declined the opposition's designation to be interim president her resignation is the latest in a twist in a deepening a political crisis playing out with her as congress president mark martin his car dissolved congress on monday after opposition politicians voted to remove him from office at all she hopes her decision to refuse to roll the new general el

next a special presentation of richard engel's "trump and ukraine: fact and fiction." >>> it started a as a 30-minute phone call between two presidents. it erupted into a full-scale scandal that now threatens to bring down donald trump. >> today i'm announcing the house of representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. >> our president sacrificed our national security and our constitution for his personal political benefit. >> they've been trying to impeach me from the day i got elected. and you know what? they failed. >> you've seen the headlines. tonight we'll dive deep into the part of the story you haven't heard. and key players will reveal for the first time what really happened. as we go on assignment. the conversation just after 9:00 a.m. on july 25th started out friendly. president donald j. trump calling his newly elected counterpart, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. this is from the official notes of the phone call released by the white house. congratulations on a great victory, we all watched from the united states and you did a terrific job,

white house chief of staff offered no apologies for the july phone call between president trump and the leader of ukraine in which trump pressed for ukrainian investigation into claims that a hacked computer server that played a role in russia's 2016 election meddling campaign had been moved to ukraine trump was withholding u.s. military assistance to ukraine when he made the request that he also mentioned to me in the past that the corruption related to the d.n.c. server absolutely no question about that but that's it that's why we held up the money now there was a reported demand for an investigation into the democrats was part of the reason that he was on the to withhold funding to for a look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation and that is absolutely appropriate for the justice department has been examining the origins of the russian vest a geisha which the president calls a hoax but in the july phone call with ukraine trump also asked for an investigation into his political rival joe biden the white house claims th

and ukraine relations? uest: under trump, u.s. policy by and large towards ukraine has been very similar under obama. i mean, there's been a lot of attention towards trump's comments about russia and his relationship with putin. but by and large the broader apparatus of the u.s. government, of congress, has been very strong bipartisan support for ukraine. very strong support in the state department. and if anything, it's been a little bit support for ukraine 's been stronger because under trump, the trump administration has sold these antitank missiles to ukraine, which was also a bit of a red line for the obama administration. they were hes tent of giving these powerful weapons to the ukrainions. they weren't sure they were yet equipped to handle them and in the event they got captured by the russians, the russians could figure out how to develop their own version of these weapons. but under the trump administration they agreed to first one set and then a couple weeks ago, now they're going to sell more. so under both obama and tr

trump? that ukraine needed to give him something he could work with against biden for 2020? how could mike pence have possibly have known about the content of that conversation between president trump and zelensky and trump pressing zelensky specifically to give him something on biden? how could pence have known about that? well, quote, perhaps most significantly, one of pence's top advisors was on the july 25th call between president trump and president zelensky when trump made that specific ask about joe biden. also quote, the vice president would have had access to the transcript of that call within hours of it taking place. and now here's where we get the anonymous white house officials throwing vice president pence under the bus. quote, white house officials say pence likely would have received detailed notes of the president's call with zelensky in his daily briefing book on july 26th just one day after the call took place. those same officials also telling "the washington post" tonight that that detailed record of the president's call with zelensky, which we've all see

confirmed yesterday that secretary of state mike pompeo was on president trump's controversial phone call with the president of ukraineaid trump, "oh, is that who kept yelling, 'shut up, shut up, shut up'?" [ laughter ] president trump today continued to defend his controversial phone call with the president of ukraine, tweeting that it, quote, "could not have been nicer, warmer, or better." hey, man, you're not getting impeached over bad phone manners. [ laughter ] you solicited a bribe. if a bank robber says, "put the money in the bag, please and thank you! [ laughter ] he still goes to jail. [ light laughter ] according to press reports, a mouse fell out of the ceiling in

but what this whole ukraine scandal reveals is that mr. trump the people around him are beginning to believe in their own fictions. the idea that the democratic national committee's server for example is in ukraine, that's really crazy time stuff and he is getting himself impeached on the basis of something which is pure fiction and what is more interesting and more threatening is he is trying to get foreign leaders to believe our fictions. that is a turn, you asked about democracy, that is a turn away from democracy into something much more frightening because it is personal authoritarian regimes where the leader defines the truth and people run around trying to make the world match his lies. >> that is so interesting. what do you see as the role of conservative media in sort of propping up this president? >> i think we've got a big problem of political education, so i'm college professor. if i'm giving a midterm in a week or two my students will know exactly when and if one of them cheats and i catch him cheating and i say, it's okay. i'll lie

government official says he raised concerns twice over president donald trump's efforts to have ukraine investigate democratic politicians alexander venom and the director of european affairs at the national security council is defining trumpet as testifying in the impeachment inquiry then says he heard trump asked president vladimir of a zelinsky to investigate former vice president joe biden and his business dealings in ukraine then men says he considered the request so damaging to american interests that he reported it to a superior testimony comes as the u.s. house of representatives for paris to vote this week on whether to formalize the impeachment investigation into president trump heightism castro has more from washington. then is a member of the national security council the expert on ukrainian affairs and he is an important witness in this impeachment inquiry because he is the 1st who was actually on the phone call to listen then when donald trump spoke with the leader of ukraine in july and it is that phone call that launched this impeachment inquiry in the 1st place trump as

the latest, next. >>> we're now learning secretary of state mike pompeo was also on the trump ukraineone call. >>> rudy giuliani gives his first response to a house subpoena in the trump impeachment inquiry. >>> 70 years of communist rule in china, marked by a parade in beijing, and protests, right now, in hong kong. welcome back to "early start." 5:28 eastern time. we begin in the nation's capital with the latest on the whistleblower scandal. cnn has confirmed that mike pam p pompeo was on the call between trump and zelensky. this is being reported by "the wall street journal." the state department has not responded to cnn's request for a comment. here's what pompeo told abc news last week about the call. >> what do you know about those conversations? >> you just gave me a report about a whistleblower complaint, none of which i've seen. >> pompeo has not addressed the call with the ukrainian leader or rudy giuliani's dealings with ukraine. this is what pompeo said last week at the u.n. >> to the best of my knowledge, and from what i've seen so far, each of the actions that were under

related to a ukrainian state energy company as well as explaining his potty in that cold between trump and ukraine's president the former texas governor has been in the role since march 27th seen trump said perry quote has done a fantastic job but it was time for him to leave. in mexico the son of the tour is cocaine trafficking result in the run off for a shootout with police and security forces over there guzman escaped a wrist off the drug cartel gunmen brought city streets to a standstill. reports. fierce gun battles in the city of khan in northwest mexico. the security forces and drug cartel gunmen fight it out after the short lived arrest of oviedo was money. he's the son of the notorious drug cartel boss joaquin guzman also known as el chapo who is serving a life sentence after extradition to the united states. the gun battles went on for hours as army and police forces came under increasing attack vehicles were set ablaze for terrified residents panic set in bodies could be seen in the streets the capital of siena low a state brought to a standstill later in the day mexico's security ministe

the president of ukraine said trump, "oh, is that who kept yelling, 'shut up, shut up, shut up'?" [ laughter ] president trump today continued to defend his controversial phone call with the president of ukraine, tweeting that it, quote, "could not have been nicer, warmer, or better." hey, man, you're not getting impeached over bad phone manners. [ laughter ] you solicited a bribe. if a bank robber says, "put the money in the bag, please and thank you! [ laughter ] he still goes to jail. [ light laughter ] according to press reports, a mouse fell out of the ceiling in the white house briefing room today and hit a journalist "hey, that's my lunch," said one employee [ laughter and applause "you tried -- you tried to get away oh oh, the press is here, i see [ light laughter ] oh, oh, oh, you get away today, my friend. [ laughter ] and in an interview released today, mayor pete buttigieg said

where decisions may have been made illegally, he said >> reporter: it comes after president trump urged ukraine's president in that july phone call to investigate allegations raised by president trump and his allies that while serving as vice president, joe biden pressured ukraine to help his son there is no evidence he did we recently asked the former prosecutor general who oversaw the investigation into the energy company that hired hunter biden. did you find any corruption by then vice president biden or joe biden's son, hunter >> i can declare that i don't know any possible violation of ukrainian law. once again, ukrainian law by biden and by the engineer >> reporter: the current top prosecutor told us tonight his review was part of ongoing judicial reforms here and that he was not pressured by president trump, ukraine's president, or anyone else lester >> richard engel, thanks let's bring in chuck todd it's as if we're looking at this through two separate universes these days where are we as a country after what we've learned just the last 48 hours? >> look, i think we're at a crossroads as

former special envoy to ukraine testifies on capitol hill. as president trumpalls on ukraine and now china to investigate the bidens. one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good! enterprise car sales and you'll take any trade-in?rom that's right! great! here you go... well, it does need to be a vehicle. but - i need this out of my house. (vo) with fair, transparent value for every trade-in... enterprise makes it easy. but it's not really something yoyou want to buy.. it's not sexy... oh delicious. or delicious... or fun. ♪ but since you need both car and home insurance, why not bundle them with esurance and save up to 10%. which you can spend on things you really want to buy, like ah well i don't know what you'd wanna buy cause i'm just a guy on your tv. esurance. it's surprisingly painless. >>> we're following multiple breaking stories right now. moments ago, "the wall street journal" reported that president trump ordered the removal of the ambassador of ukraine after complaints by his personal attorney

president trump urging china and ukraine to investigate joe biden and his son. and a source telling cnn that the ukrainian government not u.s. diplomats wrote the initial statement for public release committing to pursue investigations of corruption which president trump wanted. but rudy giuliani didn't think the statement went far enough and tried to change it. the "wall street journal" is reporting that trump ordered the removal of the u.s. ambassador of ukraine because others complained she was under mining the president and blocking efforts to get ukraine to investigate the bidens. vice president pence was told about the july call. the day after the call took place. today he tries to defend that call. >> one of the main reasons we were elected was to drain the swamp. i think the american people have a right to know if the vice president of the united states or his family profited from his position. >> so i want to start with the breaking news now. joining me now. with the very latest information. good evening to you. the text messages, there's one advising th

trump. and he's trying to get to the right place. he's trying to get ukraine to the right place. and he's saying, look, just say this. let's trump hear you say this then everything will be okay. >> i don't want to express lack of interest in that topic. i don't know kurt volcker and there's psychoanalysis involved in that. i want to step back to the beginning of what you were saying. what's happened today, which is the president of the united states went out and has already confessed to this crime, then doubled and tripled down on the crime. to your point, he does seem to think -- he understands, i think, now, that there are no facts in contention here. given that it has been explained to him, since there are no facts in dispute, you can argue process, right? you can say, democrats are in league with the whistle-blowers, shifty, you can say all that stuff. on the facts, the only way out to say, yes, i did this thing, because it's clear i did, and it's okay. and to make the point that it's okay is the best way to do that is do it again, do it as publicly as possible, in the most fl

ukraine. he testified for ten hours today under oath about what rudy giuliani and donald trump have been doing with ukraine, yes, william taylor delivered testimony devastating to president trump. one freshman member of the committee hearing his testimony today said after the first couple hours of william taylor's testimony that it was, quote, my most disturbing day in congress so far. that congressman will join us in a moment. william taylor's testimony could make the impeachment of donald trump bipartisan. his testimony could turn some republican votes in the house of representatives and it might be the testimony that convinces republican senator mitt romney to vote to convict and remove donald trump from office. donald trump's very rich and totally incompetent and unqualified ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland, could face perjury charges after william taylor's testimony today. we will consider later in this hour how william taylor's testimony increases rudy giuliani's risk of being charged in federal crimes. along with giuliani's friends and associates who have already been c

trump. he's trying to get to the right place. and he's trying to get ukraine to the right place. and he's saying, look, just say this. let trump hear you say this. then everything will be okay. >> i don't want to express any lack of interest in that topic. because, but i don't know kurt volker, and there's a lot of psycho analysis that's involved in that. i just want to step back to the beginning of what you were saying, what's happened today, which is the president of the united states went out and has already confessed to this crime but then kind of doubled and tripled down on the crime. to your point, lawrence, he understands now i think that there are no facts and contention here. given that it's now been explained to him since there aro facts in dispute, you can argue process. you can say democrats are in league with the whistle-blower. somehow shichiff is shifty. the only way out for him now is to basically say, yes, i did this thing because it's clear i did. it's okay. and to make the point that it's okay is the best way to make that is just do it again and do it as publicl

related to a ukrainian state energy company as well as explained his part in a call between trump and ukraine's president the former texas governor has been in the role since march 27th seen trump said perry quote has done a fantastic job but it was time for him to leave. new u.s. tariffs affecting 7 and a half $1000000000.00 worth of european products have just come into effect it's in response to what washington calls illegal use subsidies for aircraft manufacturers but the repercussions of. history including inspire thousands of families depend on all of oil exports for the livelihoods. harvest time in spain should be a time for celebration all of this year it's a time of anxiety as they shake down the trees the u.s. is imposing a new 25 percent import tax on that tax that could decimate this 5th generation family business unable to compete with cheap imports. getting into. the vessels that are carrying spanish all of oil to the states haven't even reached their destination so what's going to happen they were sold before these tariffs were a threat so pushing a 25 percent margin on top of th

ukraine. amy: is the democrats pushed ahead with their impeachment investigation, president trump called openly for the leaders of ukraine and china to investigate his political rival joe biden and his son hunter. trump is just the fourth u.s. president to face a formal impeachment inquiry, joining andrew johnson, richard nixon, and bill clinton. today we look back at the watergate scandal, which led to nixon's resignation in 1974. it's the focus of the documentary "watergate -- or: how we learned to stop an out of control president." >> londark nht for arica is abo t to en arresteda been with breakg into the headquarters of the demratic nationalommittee >> part of vast campaign t undeinine thelececti itself. cooks how high up in the white hoe e does ago and ithe presidt himselinvolved >> i havnever obstructed juste.e. ople havto know wheer or not thei psident ia crook. am not a cok. y: we spd the e ur with charles ferguson, the director of the documentary "watergate." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president

and his lawyer to get ukraine to help trump in his re-election effort. alongside that, these two guys who were just arrested seem to be trying to oust the leadership of a big natural gas company in ukraine. they were trying to get the curtain board of executives out to replace them with their own people. nbc news reports these two gentlemen were apparently carrying out that effort on behalf of a kremlin-connected oligarch who's been tied to russian organized crime who's wanted in the u.s. on corruption charges who is now fighting extradition. for some reason, though, this scheme also appears to have touched rick perry, the u.s. secretary of energy. he appears to have been somehow in on this game as well. rick perry reportedly suggested not just that existing board members of that natural gas company should be removed from their positions, he specifically had replacements in mind. he wanted to replace them with at least one rick perry campaign donor from the great state of texas. so as i said, that part hasn't yet come into shar

because he is the 1st who was actually on the phone calls listen then when donald trump spoke with the leader of ukraine in july and it is that phone call that launched this impeachment inquiry in the 1st place trump asked of a lot of years olinsky the president of ukraine during that call to launch an investigation into democrats and then to buy into joe biden who is one of trans political adversaries in the united states then when that hit the witness who is testifying behind closed doors today we obtained his opening statement and in it he says i was concerned by the call it i did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen i was worried about the implications for the u.s. government support of ukraine i realize that if you queen pursued an investigation into the bidens and barisan it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in ukraine losing the bipartisan support it had thus far maintained this would all undermine u.s. national security and at the time that trump was on this phone call with the president of ukraine trum

about ukraine, leaving mr. trumpelieve ukraine was full of, quote, terrible people who tried to, quote, take him down, in the 2016 election. >>> the white house scandal over ukraine exploded his week with president trump publicly stating that china should investigate joe biden, his democratic rival. and it was a surreal moment in u.s. history. >> it's a safe bet that political leaders in china and ukraine were caught off guard by mr. trump's statements. ukraine did announce, that it would audit it would review some of the past investigations, but that is a far cry from digging up dirt on biden and his son. sam kiley is following the story for us. sam is in ukraine, the capital city of kiev. we now know that ukraine will audit its cases overseen by its predecessors. is that bowing to pressure as critics are seeing this? and what's the view in that country? >> reporter: well, the view in ukraine, and very much the view of the prosecutor general this is not the result of american pressure, but as a result of ukraine's n

that's what trump wanted from ukraine as he withheld u.s. military support from president zelensky conditioning that support with these infamous words, i would like you to do us a favor, though. under increasing scrutiny trump is brazenly admitting in public now to the favor he asked in private. even worse he's now using his bully pulpit as president to publicly solicit more foreign dirt on joe biden. this time from china. >> by the way, likewise, china should start an investigation into the bidens. because what happened to china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. i haven't, but certainly something we could start thinking about. >> another bombshell exploded late today as the house committees deposed their first witness in the unfolding impeachment inquiry itself. "the washington post" reports the former special envoy to ukraine ambassador kirk volker testified today he warned giuliani he was receiving ukrainian information from political figures about joe biden. text messages also appear to show even trump's ambassador to uk

to adopt a hostile view towards ukraine at the same time president trump was pressuring the ukraines to dig up dirt on democrats. >>> we have breaking news, a new cnn poll releasing this second, it shows that support for impeaching and removing the president from office, yes impeaching and removing is at an all-time high. this is the first time in our poll that support for removal has significantly outpaced opposition for removal. i'll note the president's job approval rating seems to be holding steady. we're going to dig into these brand new numbers in just a moment, but we want to start with the hugely important testimony today. joining us now cnn political correspondent abby phillip and political director david chalian. let me read this key text message that bill taylor who will be the witness today behind closed doors to these congressional committees, one of the text messages he sent that has caused so much uproar. he wrote, quote, are we now saying that security assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigation to which gordon sondland, the ambass

with impunitimpunity. >> tonight what we learn from donald trump's former envoy to ukraine. new reporting that rudy giuliani got trump to remove the ukrainian ambassador. new questions about what deleted in the white house call summary.

aid to ukraine was in fact tied to president trump's wish for on investigation into the 2016 election. a stunning, stunning admission today. and all of this is unfolding as a key player in the ukraine controversy is again behind closed doors today. how gordon sondland, the eu ambassador, is breaking with president trump. you're watching cnn. 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. $$9.95? no way.? $9.95? that's impossible. hi, i'm jonathan, a manager here at colonial penn life insurance company, to tell you it is possible. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month. okay, jonathan, i'm listening. tell me more. just $9.95 a month for colonial penn's number one most popular whole life insurance plan. there are no health questions to answer and there are no medical exams to take. your acceptance is guaranteed. guaranteed accep

government official says he raised concerns twice and the president donald trump's efforts to pressure ukraine to investigate a political rival alexander of inman they director of european affairs at the national security council has been testifying as part of the impeachment inquiry into donald trump then had been authorized to listen in on the phone call between trump and his ukrainian counterpart he says he considered the president's request so damaging to american interests that he reported it to superior how does your question has more from washington d.c. . then is a member of the national security council the expert on ukrainian affairs and he is an important witness in this impeachment inquiry because he is the 1st who was actually on the phone calls listen then when donald trump spoke with the leader of ukraine in july and it is that phone call that launched this impeachment inquiry in the 1st place trump asked of a lot of years olinsky the president of ukraine during that call to launch an investigation into democrats and then to buy into joe biden who is one of trans political adver