and the whistleblower and whoever that whistleblower gave this information to. so what i'm trying to ascertain is, how would it run in all the mainstream media outlets? even though they got a lot of it wrong, but they had the basics of it that it involved the president of the united states talking to a foreign leader. so did anybody -- you or anybody in your office leak this to the "washington post" or nbc news? >> ranking member, i lead the intelligence community. we know how to keep a secret. as far as how that got into the press, i really do into the kno. but as you said, it has been reported by different media. where they get their information from, i don't know. >> so that -- >> it was not from the intelligence community, from me or from my office. >> thank you, director. so this is not the first time this has happened to this president. it happened with a call between the mexican president, the australian prime minister. so it has happened twice before, pieces of transcripts leaked out. and of course this time it was like leaked out depend and the presiden

national whistleblower day. in this particular case, the inspector general, michael , henson has on his webpage has cited that continental from 1778 on his webpage. they have declared that that is the policy and the policies of today's laws will be carried out in that tradition. the same thing exists in the training materials for intelligence community employees when they get whistleblower training. lawn, a reference to that stating it is the public policy of the united states. the caller is right. we should adhere to our values that make america special. host: the dni.gov and inspector general webpage, the first news item, the inspector general recognizing national whistleblower appreciation day. mike in suffolk, virginia, independent. caller: good morning. how are you? host: well. what is your comment? caller: my comment in question, thateople, this committee this gentleman continues to talk about that this goes to, what qualifies them other than the politicians?y are and what is the difference between a whist

as i did. >> the whistleblower further alleges that white house officials told the whistleblower they were directed by white house lawyers to remove the electronic transcript, that is, of the call from the computer system in which such transcripts are typically stored. and instead it was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature. one white house official described this act as an abuse of the electronic system. i do not know whether similar measures were taken to restrict access to other records of the call, such as contemporaneous handwritten notes taken by those who listened in. we should find out, shouldn't we? >> chairman schiff, when i received the letter from michael atkinson on the 26th of august, he concurrently sent a letter to the office of white house counsel asking the white house counsel to control and keep any information that pertained to that phone call on the 25th. it was a lengthy letter. michael would be able to address it better but i do believe the icig -- i know that

and all whistleblowers. threats of violence from the leader of country have a chilling effect on the entire whistleblower process. or in other words, mr. president, what you just did today threatening the witnesses, that's another article that we're going to vote on in your impeachment. congratulations. but the shocking news today, i find it alarming sort of, but not surprising -- can those things coexist? that the president made these threats against the witness already. the unexpected news today was something we really hadn't had any inkling of. that was the whistleblower's allegation that not only did the president solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 u.s. election, but in addition to that, what the whistleblower's complaint says is that multiple white house officials and lawyers knew what the president did and took unusual and overt steps to cover it up. quoting from the whistleblower's complaint. the white house officials who told me this information were deeply disturbed about what h

he's threatened the whistleblower, and any other whistleblower would know you're sort of off many. almost as critical as the underlying offense here. we tell people all the time, don't leak. there is a right way to raise concerns t. this is exactly what we expected, if that person is threatened, if that person is mistreated in any way, it doesn't matter. it would be a tragedy and that stands against everything we stand for, so we really have to watch how this plays out. >> how are democrats watching that, laura? are they worried that as this whistleblower testifies that perhaps he or she it will. >> what we've heard from congressman schiff again is they expect to hear from the whistleblower very soon and he'll do everything to help the country. there are fears the democrats have, that some of their colleagues could leak the identity. >> the members of congress who are behind closed doors talking to this whistleblower, joseph, are they going to see the whistleblower? is there any way to realistically shield the identity of this person from the members of this committee? >> the safes

the whistleblower the information? because that's close to a spy. you know what we used to do in the old days when we was smart with spies and treason? we used to handle it a little differently. >> talking at the u.n. quite a set of allegations. the letter starts off with the words urgent concern setting the tone. in the next paragraph, quote, i have received information from multiple u.s. government officials. here the whistleblower is admitting to not witnessing much of the behavior in question. the accusation from the unnamed officials comes next. the president of the united states is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election. the whistleblower goes on to say this includes among other things pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president's main domestic political rivals. the complaint says rudy giuliani and attorney general william barr appear to be involved, as well. the white house transcript of a july phone call between president trumpf and

in describing these officials who may have given some information to the whistleblowe whistleblower. >> who is the person who gave the whistleblower the information? that's close to a spy. do you know what we used to do in the old days? we used to handle them a little differently than we do now. >> let's get your thought. >> it's so toxic at so many levels. what seems likely reading the whistleblower's complaint is that the people in the white house had a business every day relationship with the whistleblower. there was nothing inappropriate. it's not like there was any sort of spying going on. this was the whistleblower seeing white house employees in the course of their day-to-day responsibilities and seeing how the white house employees were concerned about the corruption of the foreign policy process. it wasn't like they were spies. and the whole point of whistleblower complaints has been to offer these people protection, not to threaten them with death, the way the president of the united states did. i mean this is such a perversion of the whole whistleblower system that it is a

the whistleblower claims as why cover-up. yefr night, cnn learned the justice department knew about the allegations, soon after the july 25th call with the ukrainian president. the whistleblower informed a general counsel, who informed the justice department as required. the d.o.j., saying the timing of all of this, raising more questions about the handling of the complaint and effort to keep the details from congress. >> overnight, t"the washington post" says the white house is take steps to keep the moves secret. among them, reducing the number of aides allowed to listen in on calls. and some officials who deliver memos now have to sign chain of custody records. moments after the complaints went public, chief joseph maguire stetestified to the committee. >> i am not familiar with any prior instances where a whistleblower complaint, touched on such complicated and executi executive issues. >> all of this has come fast and fierce. jessica snyder with more from washington. >> the details of the whistleblower's complaint are no

the whistleblower. as you know, director maguire more so than perhaps any other area of government since we deal with classified information, the intelligence committee is dependent on whistleblowers to reveal wrongdoing when it occurs. when the agencies do not self-report. because outside parties are not allowed to scrutinize your work and to guide us. if that system is allowed to break down as it did here, if whistleblowers come to understand that they will not be protected, one of two things happen. serious wrongdoing goes unreported, or whistleblowers take matters into their own hands and divulge classified information to the press in violation of law. and placing our national security at risk. this is why the whistleblower system is so vital to us. and why your handling of this urgent complaint is also so troubling. today, we can say for the first time since we have released this morning the whistleblower complaint, that you have marked unclassified, that the substance of this call is a core issue

report is is credible with the whistleblowers credible that the whistleblower acted in good faith you had a chance now as we have and i believe the american people have had an opportunity to review both the whistleblower complaint and the transcript that was released of the phone call between the president of the united states in the present ukraine you've read both documents by now haven't you yes congressman would you say that the whistleblowers complaint is remarkably consistent with the transcript that was released i would say that the whistleblowers can complaint is an alignment with what was released yesterday by the of the president ok i want to read you a quick section of both to underscore exactly how accurate and consistent this complaint is. on page 2 of the whistleblowers complaint. the whistleblower says according to the white house officials who had direct knowledge of the call the president pressured mr selenski to and then there's a few bullet points the 1st one says an issue or continue an investigation into the activities of former vice president joseph biden and his

rights of whistleblowers. in this case the complainant raised the matter to the intelligence committee inspector general. inspector general protected the complaint -- complaintants identity. upholding the integrity of the intelligence community and the workforce is my number one priority. throughout my career and remind the men and women of the intelligence community to do their jobs i can get mine and i can personally attest that their efforts have saved lives. i would now like to turn to provided general background on how we got to where we are today. on august 20,206th, the inspector general sent a complaint to me from the intelligence committee. the inspector general stated the complaintant rates in urging concerned a legally defined term under whistleblower protection act that has been discussed at length. before i turn to the discussion about whether the complaint is the definition of urging concerned i first want to talk about an even more fundamental issue. upon reviewing the complaint we were immediat

the people within the inspector general's office, and the whistleblower, and whoever that whistleblower gave this information to. i am trying to ascertain is how would it run and all the mainstream media outlets. even though they got a lot of it wrong, they had the basics that involved the president of the united states talking to a foreign leader. did you or anybody in your office leak this to the washington post or nbc news? director maguire: ranking member, i leave the intelligence community, we know how to keep a secret. as far as that -- how that got into the press, i do not know. i just know it is all over the place and has been reported for the past several weeks. where they get their information from, i do not know. it was not from the intelligence community, me, or my office. >> thank you, director. so, this is not the first time this has happened to this president. it happened with the call between the mexican president, australian prime minister, so it has happened twice before. the pieces of transcripts leaked out. of course, this time it was leaked out again, and the presid

do you believe the whistleblower is on our country's side i believe that the whistleblower and all a ploy to come forward to the i.c.i. g to raise concerns of fraud waste and abuse are doing what they perceive to be the right thing so working on behalf of our country are you aware of the fact that was a blow ours within the federal government have done a fide waste fraud and abuse of over $59000000000.00 that has had the effect of benefiting the taxpayers and keeping our country safe as well congresswoman i'm not familiar with the dollar value but having been in the government service for nearly 4 decades i am very much aware of the value of thank you the program and i ask you one final question did the present the united states ask you to find out the identity of the whistleblower i can say although i would not normally discuss my conversations with the president i could tell you in phatic lee no has anyone else within the white house or the department of justice asked you know congresswoman thank you you're welcome mr stewart mr grove mr garth thank you for being here today i want

this whistleblower except that there is a whistleblower. and i have not seen the complaint. and i look forward to seeing it. you know, we have been through a lot as a country. time and time again our country gets challenged, challenged from outside and challenged from within. we have been through a lot. we are about ready to go home yet we have an urgent matter on our hands, we have been told and yet leadership is saying, just go home. well, if this is such an urgent, why are we going home? tomorrow, we are scheduled to hear from the d.n.i. let's give that process its due. and let's no facts before we speak and before we pass judgment and that's all we're asking to do. i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from california. ship mr. schiff: i yield one minute to the gentlelady from california, ms. speier. ms. speier: this is a powder keg. this is not as my colleagues on the other side are trying to suggest it is, but they are dealing with alternative facts. as co-chair of the whistl

the four corners of the whistleblower law, that would protect this whistleblower for coming forward, wouldn't it? >> i guess with donald trump i feel like i have to consider all the possibilities here. >> because of that, though, if there's an expectation that the president would defy even the whistleblower law to do something like that, i guess what i start thinking about is if the director of national intelligence says, no, i don't give you the authority to bring this classified information to congress and the whistleblower says this is so important, this is so important that i knowingly put my job on the line, put my career on the line, stuck my neck out there to report it and i'm going to defy those orders and show up and tell you anyway, clearly they would be risking criminal prosecution for exposing this information -- >> but the public would certainly -- a certain portion of the public would rally around that whistleblower. >> yeah. >> and it would become a political issue in many ways. >> how settled is this? obviously this is happening very quickly. we expect the inspector g

you mentioned you believe the whistleblower's report is credible, the whistleblower is credible, that the whistleblower acted in good faith. you have had a chance now as we have and i believe the american people have an opportunity to review the whistleblower complaint in the transcript that was released of the phone call between the president of the united states and the president of the ukraine. you have read both documents by, now have a new? >> yes, congressman. >> would you say that the whistleblower's complaint is remarkably consistent with the transcript that was released? >> i would say there was some of the war is complaint is in alignment with what was released yesterday by the president. >> okay, i want to read you a quick section of both to underscore exactly how accurately inconsistent this complaint is. on page two of the whistleblower's complaint, the whistleblower says, according to the white house officials who had direct knowledge of the call, the president pressured mr. zelensky to, and then there's a few bullet points. the first one says, initiate or continue an in

all i have is the knowledge that the whistleblower alleges in his allegation, the whistleblower complaint. i don't know whether, in fact, that is true or not. my only knowledge and situational awareness of that is from the whistleblower's letter. >> so knowing that the whistleblower appeared to be credible, based on the evaluation by the inspector general, and knowing that that effort was undertaken by the white house to cover it up, why would you then as your first action outside of the intelligence community go directly to the white house to the very entity that was being scrutinized and complained about in the complaint, why would you go there to ask their advice as to what you should do? >> congresswoman, the allegation that is made by the whistleblower is secondhand information, not known to him or her firsthand. >> except mr. maguire, it was determined to be credible, there was an investigation done by the inspector general. let me go on to another issue. president trump over the weekend tweeted it appears that an american spy in one of our intelligence agencies may have been spying

who is the person who gave the whistleblower the information? that's close to a spy. you know what we would do to spies in the old days? we would handle it differently than we do now. >> cnn has learned that inside the white house, some are second-guessing if decision to release the whistleblower complaint and the call summary. there were those that were like, get it out there. >>> the president claims that the stock market will crash if he is impeached. it's not likely and it's not the biggest threat to the economy. with my hepatitis c, i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatme

here's how the whistleblower begins the complaint. quote, i have received information from multiple u.s. government officials that the president of the united states is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 u.s. election. and then the whistleblower goes on to describe president trump's july 25th phone call with ukraine's president in which, according to a white house transcript, president trump asks for a favor to investigate what is a conspiracy theory, that ukraine is in possession of the dnc server that was hacked by the russians and also a favor, to investigate another unfounded claim, as we were just talking about, about joe biden's actions regarding ukraine while he was vice president as his son hunter sat on the board of this ukranian energy company. the whistleblower rights, the white house officials who told me this information were deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call. they told me there was already a discussion ongoing with white house lawyers about how

i want to thank the whistleblower. we still don't know whether this is the subject of the whistleblower's complaint, but i think this single courageous individual may have had the effect of forcing the white house to provide ukraine with this funding. knowing that these matters were going to come to light. this whistleblower has already had a tremendous impact in exposing wrongdoing in the president of the united states and helping protect our national security in a way that his or her boss was unwilling to do. by that i mean the director as well as the president of the united states. reporter: impeachment for some time. yesterday came out in support of what the speaker announced after seeing what she found s there any doubt in your mind that house democrats will move to impeach the president? mr. schiff: i don't want to get ahead of ourselves here. i think what we have learned, what has been admitted, and now what we see in writing is about as damming as you can imagine. it will be a decision for us when we conclude o

the whistleblower. know, director mcguire more so than perhaps any other , theof government community is dependent on whistleblowers. outside parties are not allowed to scrutinize your work and to guide us. if that system is allowed to break down, as it did here, if whistleblowers come to understand that they will not be protected, one of two things they diverge -- they divulge classified information and place our national security at risk. this is what it lower system is so vital to us. and why you're handling of this .omplaint is also troubling that you have marked unclassified, the substance of ,his call is a core issue although by no means the only issue raised by the was a blower complaint. which were shared with a committee for the first time only late yesterday. by law, the whistleblower complaint, which brought this gross misconduct to light should have been presented to this committee weeks ago, and by you, mr. director, under the clear letter of the law. and yet, it wasn't. director mcguire, i

whistleblower. take a listen to the audio obtained by the los angeles times. >> who is the person who gave the whistleblower the information? because that's close to a spy the you know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right, with spies and treason? eused to handle it a little differently than we do now. >> a whistleblower complaint about president trump, the one that sparked in impeachment inquiry says, quote, i've received information from multiple u.s. government officials that the departmepres the united states is using power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election. the alleged white house efforts to keep all of this under wraps, testifying before congress earlier today saying that the whistleblower and the inspector general, both of whom were the ones who brought this issue to the fore, both of whom were acting in good faith, he said. cnn sara murray has details of a very busy day in washington, details that could spell trouble for

>> reporter: the whistleblower alleges, starting in mid-may, u.s.fficials were deeply concerned by giuliani's circumvention of national security decision making and efforts to relay messages between the white house and ukraine. president trump defended his personal attorney wednesday. >> rudy giuliani is a great lawyer. he was a great mayor. he's highly respected. >> reporter: responding to the whistleblower's allegations, giuliani said, "it is impossible that the whistleblower is a hero, and i'm not, and i will be the hero." scott frederickson is a former independent counsel. >> we've never in the history of t r country that i'm aware of, ever seen a personal attorney engage in this kind of foreign diplomacy, especially with respect to these very specific requests. theeporter: the complaint also singles out attorney general william barr. president trump told the esrainian president, barr would reach out to discuss investigating the bidens, but the justice department said the president never asked barr to contact ukraine. >>netonit. ueis key questio

the whistleblower come in as soon as the clearance issues are resolved. and that we have the commitment of the director of national intelligence that there will not be something from the white house or department of justice instructing him what he can or cannot answer -- or what she can or cannot answer. i hope other individuals who can corroborate these deeply troubling allegations will also want to determine what the documentary evidence is. we need to look into the allegation that this may not be the only communication of a potentially corrupt character thiswas shielded by classified information computer system abused for that purpose. we want to know what rudy this, what role bill barr had in this, what ukraine understood, was expected of them before they even had this july phone call with the president of the united states. we know what we have to do, and we will be guided by the evidence. what potential crimes you see? therean schiff: i think are any number of potential crimes when a president is soliciting for assistance in another presidential ele

then he said, if this guy is a whistleblower, then i'm a whistleblower, too. you should be happy for your country that i've uncovered this. what's happening, jeff? you've covered the white house a lot, you've covered rudy giuliani. what do you make of this? >> it's hard to explain. in this case it's giuliani trying to say that everything he's doing was right but sort of ignoring the fact that what he was doing in ukraine was absolutely on behalf of a client. and he has said that, that he was working on behalf of his client who was president donald trump. that has clearly blurred some lines for out crathe ukrainnian created problems for the state department as well. >> he showed text messages, then what we're hearing from the state department envoy is basically -- or the reporting about the objective of the state department envoy was they were sort of just trying to contain, manage rudy giuliani knowing that he's operating really in a sphere that he shouldn't be. >> right, and that is the whole push and pull. is the president using an official -- his official t

embassy and described whistleblowers as spies. who are deserving basically of the treatment that spies used to get. he also described andy mccabe and jim comey as carrying out acts that were treasonous. what are we dealing with in terms of the risks right now for this whistleblower? >> well, nicole, first of all you and i are familiar with embassy greets. you go and thank staff for the hard work that they do. but what we're dealing with is a pattern of corruption and bullying that we've seen for three years in this administration. where essentially if you don't get on board with the president's political conduct, if you don't get on board with his sometimes criminal behavior, you are relentlessly attacked by him publicly. existing civil ser vantsds of the u.s. government characterized as a deep state. intelligence community that found that russia intervened in our election to help trump again dismissed standing next to vladimir putin. the process could you go thatse. so this is a president who september a message to his own govern

that gave the whistleblower, who is the person who gave the whistleblower information? what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right? spies and treason. we used to handle it a little differently than we do now. >> so the penalty for treason is death. >> hanging or a firing squad. >> it seems the president knows that much of the law anyway. what do you make of comments like that? the people who helped the whistleblower with the information the whistleblower delivered, and we know from the whistleblower's report. >> we also know from the whistleblower's report that he got that information through ordinary effort of interagency work that is a part of what goes on in the white house every day. >> donald trump saying that's treason today. >> he's saying that they're spies. when spies are people who take information and give to it foreign governments. these people kept the information within the government. they were working for the u.s. government. so he's almost unhinged in this comparison to spying. in his suggestion that there's anything improper about the

i want to also state my support for whistleblower and the rights and the laws whistleblowing has a long history in our country dating back to the continental congress this is not surprising because as a nation we desire for good government therefore we must protect those who demonstrate courage to report alleged wrongdoing whether on the battlefield or in the workplace indeed at the start of ethics training of the executive branch each year we are reminded that public service is a public trust and as public servants we have a solemn responsibility to do what's right which includes reporting concerns of waste fraud and abuse and bringing such matters to the attention of congress under the intelligence community whistleblower protection act i applaud all employees who come forward under this act i am committed to ensuring that all whistleblower complaints are handled appropriately and to protecting the rights of whistleblowers in this case the complainant raised the matter with the intelligence community inspector general the inspector general is properly protecting the complainants ident

whistleblower. nor is it enough for the senate who which took rare bipartisan action on the whistleblower complaint as we mentioned at the top that is not even half of it. let's engine with jayme acosta with the breaking news. what are learning about the possible release of the whistleblower complaint itself? >> terse, we understand white house white house officials are being looing at this could come sout as soon as tomorrow. my enclosings report that the president weighed in on decide pd on his own he wanted to see the complaint released. we're not sure what form it comes in. whether we will see all of it. bup it's a curious change of events. the white house essentially blinked in all of this. if we see all of it. we're not sure if we will see all of it. but recall last week when the superior general for the intelligence community went on capitol hill talked to the house intelligence committee and essentially told the lawmakers we can't show you what's in this complaint. and so this is a major rev

that's one of the most important part of our whistleblower's law.e need to know has the rule of law been violated? has our national security been harmed? >> while you're an advocate of the inquiry and yes, you want as much information to come to the surface as possible as it pertains to these concerns, you are still focused on prescription dugs among the issues that you believe your n constituents and americans want you to spend your time on. are you worried, however, that there are a nump pressing issues that will take to the back burner because of the energy going into the fact finding mission during this impeachment inquiry. >> i'm worried the media is going to focus on fact finding and not incommunicating to the american people what we're going on lowering drug prices. we have different committee assignments. i care very much. i don't think this is a happy day for this country. i think it's a very sad ta that we are where we are. i'm a very divided district. yesterday which had significant trump numbers, i was in monroe county, president trump w

which not only means this whistleblower is not protected, it means no whistleblower is protect. that is the danger of the doj's misinterpretation of the law. so that is where we are right now. next week we will have an open hearing with the director of national intelligence where he can explain to the country why he believes this urgent concern should not be shared with the congress. but that's where we are. and we'll be happy to respond to a few questions. >> do you believe that the white house or the president himself are pressuring the acting director of national intelligence not to hand this information over to you? >> all i do know is this. i don't know whether the white house is directly involved because we can't get an answer to that question, but we do know they are making some claim that a privilege may apply. well, that narrows the category who may be intervening here. we also know that there are other institutions involved that are preventing us from getting the complaint. and whether this is pressure brought by the white house, whether this is the director of nationa

went after who we gave information to the whistleblower. this person spying on the president of the united states? big consequences. chairman schiff there's a tentative agreement for the whistleblower to testify to his committee. he says the president's threats have heightened security concerns for the whistleblower. >> all that needs to be done at this point is to make sure that the attorneys that represent the whistleblower get the clearances they need to be able to accompany the whistleblower testimony. and we figure out the logistics to figure out that we protect the identity of the whistleblower. that's our paramount concern here. >> schiff says he expects the whistleblower to testify soon. >>> meantime, the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, is refusing to commit to a response to a house subpoena. house chairman adam schiff, telling cnn, he plans to subpoena documents and perhaps testimony about the ukraine affair from giuliani. >> will you call rudy giuliani? >> we're going to need evidence from rudy giuliani. it's our int

isn't a whistleblower at all. in addition, all secondhand information that is proved to be so inaccurate that there may not have been someone else, a leak or a spy, feeding it to him or her. a partisan operative. we're going to go through this for months, i think. that's just bogus in the sense that anything we've been able to corroborate from the whistleblower complaint has turned out to be spot on. the call with ukraine, the whistleblower complaint filed before that memo was released almost verbatim. has it. the whistleblower saying they had this other system, the secret computer where they put the transcripts. the white house now confirming the president is correct there. which gets you to this point. this is under the president's skin which is why this is important, what the president said yesterday about the whistleblower. >> who is the person that gave the whistleblower? who is the person that gave the whistleblower the information, because that's close to a spy. you know what we used to do in the old days w

the whistleblower acknowledged in the complaint that the whistleblower wasn't there for those meetingsresident released notes of a phone call yesterday where he raises rudy giuliani multiple times as said in the same breath as he has his attorney general, saying that he would get him in touch with zelensky and his team to investigate this corruption that the bidens had allegedly perpetrated according to donald trump. again there's no evidence of that, i want to be clear. >> absolutely true. >> how could it be hearsay when the president released it? >> rudy giuliani is struggling to try to call of this into question. this does not make him look goodp in in the same complaint we read this morning talks about how rudy giuliani was essentially harming u.s. national security and senior officials at the state department had to get him on the phone to try to basically put an end to the damage he was doing. >> let's play a little bit of rudy giuliani talking about this on fox news and i think i believe cnn as well, in the past week or so. >> did you ask the ukraine to investigate joe biden? >>

who is this whistleblower? what bias do they have? why did they pick this whistleblower to tell a hearsay story? the transcript does not match the complaint. what is going on here? why did they thank rules about a whistleblower, you can use hearsay when you -- just weeks before the complaint, so i think this thing stinks and let me tell you about republicans, you want to know about republicans? republicans believe that you are guilty just by the accusation, if you are brett kavanaugh it doesn't matter, they don't tell you when or where it happened,ist it gist happened 30 years ago if you donald trump you don't get to confront your accuser loo like every other american, americans belief this president is persecuted they don't love donald trump and the way he does business, they like what he does but they believe she being persecuted they believe everybody is out to get him and i believe as to this complaint, it smells. >> brennan: to the acting director of national intelligence who was put in that job by the trump administration said h

largely propelled by the whistleblower from the office of director of national intelligence, the whistleblower's report on conversations between president trump and the president of ukraine. there is also a resolution coming to the house floor about that. sara wire from the "los angeles times" just tweets this. house rules committee tonight taking up the resolution, quote, expressing the sense of the house of representatives with respect to the whistleblower complaint. the resolution orders the director of national intelligence to hand over the whistleblower complaint and protect all documents related to it and to inform the whistleblower how to contact congress. it also orders president trump to stop trying to discredit the whistleblower. 202-748-8920 is the number to call for democrats, your thoughts. republicans, 202-748-8921. and for independents and all others, 202-748-8922. let's go to rick who is in caseyville, illinois, independent line. caller: yes, i understand what the republicans and the democrats, you know, they got to get along. [indiscernible] -- seemed like he lies, lies, lies. [

whistleblower. with the political objectives and partisan political objectives of the president who made this a condition of having the conversation and we need to investigate where mr. zelensky was prepped by a variety of different sources as to what is coming and what it will be. and it is both what happened before or who was involved and in addition to the content of the request by the president, what happened afterwards? all of that is appropriately within the scope of the investigation. >> that's on the house side. on the democratic side, nancy in our reporting today, terrific story by the way in politico. you remind us of a very important fact that maybe why there is no clear strategy in place and that's for a long timtim time, the president truly believ believes impeachment would help him, right? >> is trump ally for the story today. during the mueller investigation, president trump really thought impeachment could be sort of a cake walk compares to what he was going through. he thought it co

intelligence committee whistleblower act is intended to provide a protected channel for whistleblowers to report misconduct. what we have is the president suggesting that he wants to retalia retaliate. i will say that to the extent that he wants to confront his accuser with the whistleblower meeting with the house intelligence committee potentially. he'll be able to give them the names of the actual people in the white house who gave them the report they found troubling. if impeachment goes through and a trial in the senate, he would have all of those due process right to confront his accusers. >> as we look at this, we know one of the republicans talking point is that this whistleblower did not have this information firsthand. it came from some of these other six white house officials as we learn. they're going back to the witch hunt calling it political. nancy pelosi, keeping it serious and somber and keeping it political. >> the other message from nancy pelosi is to keep it simple, right? stick to the transcript. something sort of a summation of this conversation. as you hear from r

the security of the whistleblower.his person ought to be entering the witness protection, the maximum protection. i would think in that situation one of the things, the person should be allowed to testify behind the curtain or not be ways members of committee can identify that person and run into the press with it. >> that's an interesting idea. a good way to conceal their identity without any chance of it getting out publicly. david gergen, always good to have your wisdom on the show. a live look at the call before the storm. we'll be back in just a moment. panera's new warm grain bowls are full of good. full of flavor, color, full of- woo! full of good. so you can be too. try our new warm grain bowls today. panera. food as it should be. woman: what gives me confidence about investment decisions? rigorous fundamental research. with portfolio managers focused on the long term. who look beyond the spreadsheets to understand companies, from breakroom to boardroom. who know the only way to get a 360 view is to go around t

is not protected, then no whistleblower is protected. that is the danger of the doj's misinterpretation of the law. that is where we are right now. next week, we will have an open hearing with the director of national intelligence where he can explain to the country why he believes this urgent concern should not be shared with congress. but that is where we are. i'll be happy to respond to questions. >> d believe the white house for the president was pressuring [indiscernible] >> all i do know is this -- i don't know if the white house has been directly involved because we cannot get an answer to that question, but we do know they are making some claim that privilege may apply. we also know that there are other institutions involved that are preventing us from getting the complaint. whether this is pressure from the white house, the director of national intelligence feeling that he is straitjacketed by the opinion of the department of justice, if the department of justice is coordinating activities with the white house or subject of the

that the news outlets just immediately identified this person as a whistleblower but if you are a whistleblower blowing the whistle on waste fraud abuse and illegality in the intelligence services you're not a whistleblower you're a leaker and so i think that's really where the transformation is. a lot is more guys they have looks that the sudden change of standards and it's possible ramifications. most of us we revere whistleblowers the men and women who put their careers their very lives on the line out of principle it look the other way they speak up when they see corruption abuse and then justice and you know why we revere them so as we trust them they were witnesses people on the inside they saw with their own eyes a whistleblower in any individual who provides the right information to the right people that's now changed you no longer need to be a witness to be a whistleblower no longer need to have documents or evidence all you need is to have heard someone talk about wrongdoing that's all as a matter if it was false or made up just far litton hey presto you're a whistleblower like the in