. >>> also developing as we come on the air, the meeting with president trump at the white house a short time ago. democrats walking out, calling it a trump meltdown. the president doubling down all day on his decision in syria. >>> the impeachment showdown, and tonight, all eyes on the u.s. ambassador to the eu, expected to testify tomorrow. and nit, what we have leard. what a former white house adviser said about him in her owtestimon at s thte s a potential nationa risk. >>> the outrage tonight. the librarian who went to a training exercise when the officer working with her accidentally shoots and killing her. he said he did not know it was real ammunition. and what's now happened. the family tonight saying this is not justice. >>> the new images of north korea's kim jong-un and what is the real message here? >>> back here at home, the murder at the home of the actor who once played tarzan. tonight, authorities revealing who was killed. police arriving on the scene and shooting and killing a second person, as well. what we've learned tonight. >>> the remarkable moment. the officer pul

led forces in syria president donald trump made the announcement at the white house trump says back that he was cornered in a house in syria as it lived province and blew himself up with a suicide vest his body was properly i that the 5 minutes after he was killed trying call the killing a baghdadi a great night for the u.s. and the world well the u.s. raid was carried out in body shop in northwestern syria the area is just a few kilometers away from the turkish border 8 u.s. helicopters took part in the operation which lasted for around 90 minutes agoo because our al baghdadi is dead he was the founder and leader of isis the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world the united states has been searching for baghdadi for many years capturing or killing baghdad he has been the top national security priority of my administration . u.s. special operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid in northwestern syria and accomplished their mission in grand style in other news thousands of iraqis remain in baghdad's central to here square the spot an att

office in the west wing or sit in on meetings, as if they were a cabinet member, a shot at the trump white house. >>> a video of a fake president trump, shooting, assaulting and stabbing members of the media and his critics were shown at a pro-trump conference last week. the video shown at the group american priority, held at trump's miami resort. cnn cannot verify the video and has chosen not to show it. one part of the video, shows a fake trump's head edited on to the body of a man opening fire on what is labeled the church of fake news. cnn said, sadly, this is not the first time that supporters of the president have promoted violence against the media in a video they apparently find entertaining. but it is by far, the worst. the images depicted are vile and horrific. the president and his family, the white house and the trump campaign need to denounce it immediately in the strongest possible terms. anything less equates to a tacit endorsement of violence and should not be tolerated by anyone. the campaign said they did not produce the video and does not condone it. >>> the family of a black

the twilight zone. >> trevor: i've been particularly interested about what's happening in the trump white houset comes to leaks. regardless of whistleblowers, but the leaks. some people say the leaks are holding trump back from being a president, because a white house cannot function effectively if you're leaking every step of what is happening along the way. do you think the leaks are a good thing? do you think they're a bad thing? do you think people should have blind loyalty? how do you think it should work when you're working with a president in the white house? >> well, first of all, if you talk to journalists-- and i have a number of friends who cover the white house-- they'll tell you that trump is the leaker in chief. he's the one putting out a lot of this stuff. but what's also so depressing about the trump white house as somebody who's worked in the white house. these are hard jobs. and, yet, everybody there is stabbing everybody else in the back. nobody can trust the guy in the office or the woman down the hall not to be screwing them to the press. and that-- there's this sort of sen

support and public shows of support, things like meetings with the white house, invitations to the white house. these are things the trump white house has actively withheld from ukraine repeatedly since trump took office. but ukraine is further weakened by these now public indications that their new ukrainian president is a sort of is up plikant to the president of the united states and trying to get that support. that makes him look weak too. so the united states in multiple ways has weakened ukraine, put them in a weaker negotiating position than they used to be in vis-a-vis the united states. while russia has been putting increasing pressure on ukraine to come to the table right now to do a deal right now. well, today, the other big surprise news of the day, today the ukrainian government took a major step toward doing a deal with moscow, to settle the war that started when russia invaded their country. ukraine today signed accords that will allow the russian-occupied areas in eastern ukraine to hold elections and potentially be granted a special status so that they're different from the rest of ukraine and presumably

but the white house, trump, and trump supporters are in a pretty serious panic, i have to say.n you talk privately to republicans on the hill, they will sign on to lindsey graham's resolution, it takes them off of the hook for awhile, but a lot of them are privately saying we need to see the facts, but we're not saying right now it is inconceivable that we would convict trump. >> that is quite a statement, and it is coming from bill kristol who knows his way around washington. >> coming up, more on what's going on not just in impeachment, but donald trump losing ground on a key issue that we're continuing to cover around here. how children are treated and how he is backing down on family separation. he is backing down on family separation moving in. moving on up. or making big moves. deliveries ship free and come with a 100-night free trial. no matter your budget. or your sleep style. we have quality options for everyone. so search and shop. save and snooze. and rest easy, knowing that we've got your back. literally. that's what you get, when you've got wayfair. so shop now. i

statements written by the least competent white house staff in white house history, the number of written mistakes by donald trump and the people working for him in the white house is now something close to the number of stars in the sky and in a trip call presidency, you can spend a year looking for a typo in an official white house document and not find one. these mistakes mean a lot from donald trump and the people working for him. they just don't care about details. they don't know how to care about details. and that explains his constant refusal to care about details. he doesn't know how. explains everything about donald trump's presidency, from his deadly decision about the kurds in syria, to his alleged criminal conduct described in the mueller report and revealed in his own words in his phone call with the president of ukraine. he does not know how to care about details. and so we'll take some time at the end of the hour tonight to consider in all seriousness the clear and present danger of having a president of the united states who might or might not have thought for a few hours yesterday before the whi

president trump will hold a 2020 g7 summit at his resort if in florida the white house claims there is no conflict of interest. general mattis had a lot to say and joked about president trump. james clapper is the former direct tr to have national intelligence. joining us now. mick mulvaney conceded there was a quid pro quo. only to come out later denying what we heard him say. the white house has a huge truth problem. >> this is another example of what some months ago the corporation aptly and correctly characterize as bad case of truth decay. this started the very first day of the administration with sean spicer lying about the size of the crowd in the mall. and that has continued and gotten more brazen and more frequent. and this assault on the truth is a bad thing for our democracy or any democracy. >> well, it started officially as the administration but started long before with donald trump and his whole, you know, conspiracy theory about the former president, the lie about where he was born. i mean that's probably the origin of it, you know, when it comes to politics. in his bus

. >> pompeo, the white house, trump attorney, rudy giuliani and vice president mike pence now facing subpoenas as they pressure ukraine into investigating joe biden and the appearance that the president held up the military aid package until the ukrainians agreed to launch an investigation. >> i'm only interested in corruption. i don't care about politics. i don't care about biden's politics. >> the former vice president had been reluctant to legitimize the president's attacks and now the gloves are off. >> all of this talk by the president about corruption comes from the most corrupt president we've had in modern history. he's the definition of corruption. >> responding to the congressional subpoena, a white house spokesperson insisted the president did nothing wrong. chris pollone, nbc news. >>> just in, nuclear negotiations between north korea and the united states have broken down. north korea's top negotiator in sweden ended talks today, blaming u.s. inflexibility. the characterization did not reflect the content or spirit of the more than eight hours of talks. washington has ac

president trump at the white house we'll bring you the latest. november on. all encounter the cost of africa opens up its borders in the hope of it relating the success of the european union nigeria shuts its borders blaming smuggling and tax evasion plus catulus airport expansion and the creation of a regional media hub counting the cost on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. where ever you are. the u.s. president confirms i saw a leader abu bakr al baghdadi has been killed in a raid in northern syria u.s. special operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid donald trump reveals unprecedented detail over how the operation was carried out. alone barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london also coming up a human chain of running the length of lebanon protesters join forces to continue their campaign for political change argentinians go to the polls to pick their next leader with the fate of president aristide bakri hanging in the balance. thank you for joining us the founder and leader of i saw is that after an overnight raid by u.s. led

white house. president trump and the president of italy will be speaking.s "balance of power" bloomberg television and radio. ♪ david: this is "balance of power" on bloomberg television and radio. i am david westin. david o stewart did not start out to be an author or expert on impeachment. he entered private practice in washington where he did white collar criminal law, including defending judge walter nixon and his impeachment trial before the u.s. senate. he is now the author of several acclaimed books, including "a peach mint -- including, "impeachment, the trial of andrew johnson." thank you so much for being here. there's a lot of talk right now about whether what is being done with the investigation of president trump is fair. why doesn't he have counsel present as question. from president before, isn't it true what the congressman from texas says that in the case of nixon and in the case of clinton, opposing counsel were present? >> it is true, but it is an incomplete story. both of those cases went forward after long special counsel investigations

xfi app today. >>> the breaking news this hour, house democrats are ramping up their impeachment inquiry. they have just issued a subpoena to trump's white the white house refused to hand over documents related to trump and ukraine. now tonight some republicans are ripping president trump not just for ukraine, but also publicly asking china to investigate 2020 rival joe biden and his son. mitt romney today tweeting when the only american citizen president trump singles out for china's investigation is his political opponent in the process it is strange credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated. by all appearances, the president's brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and to ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling. that's the sitting senator mitt romney. former cia officer will herd said this on camera today. >> i think it's terrible, and it's something that i wouldn't have done. i think that is something that a president of the united states shouldn't be doing. >> okay. everyone is back with me. carl, let me start with you. look, senator romney and congressman hurd are in the minority. >

the white house has been ordered to hand over documents relating to the impeachment investigation of president trumphe acting white house chief of staff demanding evidence related to allegations that trump pressured ukraine for political favours. thousands of protestors in hong kong have defied a ban on face masks and held rallies demanding political reforms. earlier police fired tear gas at protesters who'd attacked buildings, including chinese banks. the territory's entire metro network was shut down — the first time since the unrest began four months ago. prince harry has begun legal action against the publishers of two newspapers for alleged phone hacking. this comes just days after his wife, meghan, announced she was suing another newspaper for publishing one of her letters. it is 3:30am.

president trump unleashing anger and insults as his syria policy is under fire from both parties. house speaker nancy pelosi says mr. trump had a meltdown during a white house meeting on syria. she claims he was shaken by the number of republicans who voted for a house measure condemning his syria troop withdrawal. democrats say they walked out after mr. trump insulted pelosi to her face. tonight the president also is trashing his gop ally turned critic on syria, senator lindsey graham. graham is warning that mr. trump's syria policy is the biggest mistake of his presidency that could leave him with american blood on his hands. i'll talk to a democrat who was at today's white house meeting on syria, senator bob menendez. jackie speier is also standing by, along with our correspondents, analysts and other guests. first let's go to the white house, our correspondent abby phillip, is on the scene for us. abby, the president apparently exploding as he faces severe criticism for his syria policy in addition to the impeachment investigation. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. the temperature in washington seems to be going up precipitously as the pressure ove

us house democrats of subpoena the white house for documents relating to the president's impeachment inquiry donald trump though says he won't cooperate until the house of representatives votes to approve the investigation it comes as a release text messages show just how much ukraine's president was under pressure to investigate trump's political rival. has more now from washington d.c. and i want to think you it appears ukrainian leaders clearly understood what president trump meant when he spoke with the ukrainian president by phone in july and asked for a favor the favor was a ukrainian investigation into trump's political rivals at home the payoff an invitation for president volodymyr zelinsky to visit the white house and the evidence one day before the call kurt volker the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine sends a text message to the in skis aid heard from white house will go writes assuming president z. convinces trump he will investigate get to the bottom of what happened in 2016 we will nail down date for a visit to washington then after the call ukrainian official andre your back tells us di

there's no question trump was holding the money and the white house meeting. and before taylor even stepped foot on capitol hill for today's deposition, his outrage was revealed through documents turned over to congressional investigators by other witnesses including this now-infamous text exchange with trump appointee gordon sondland. the current ambassador to the eu. taylor writes to him, "are we now saying that security assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigations?" sondland replied, "call me." and later taylor lays out his concerns explicitly in another text. "as i said on the phone, i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with the political campaign." taylor's testimony today also prompting many democrats to call for sondland to return to capitol hill. he testified thursday and largely corroborated the testimony by others that rudy giuliani had hijacked foreign policy in ukraine. bill taylor's favorite reporters and friends. on capitol hill, msnbc's garrett haake. former acting solicitor general, neal katyal. ash

cnn's jim acosta at the white house. >> reporter: dave and christine, a remarkable moment, one for the history books as president trumptood outside the white house and called for foreign interference in the 2020 election. the president asked china to dig up dirt on former vice president joe biden, unlike his conversation with ukraine's president, no call transcript is necessary here, the president said the quiet part out loud. >> china should start an investigation into the bidens, because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. >> reporter: had it has become more difficult for the white house and defenders. dave and christine. >> jim, acosta, thank you. >>> the president also saying yesterday he had not spoken with chinese president xi jinping about investigating conspiracy theories about the bidens. but that's not true. cnn has learned exclusively mr. trump did raise joe biden with president xi in a june phone call. the president's suggestion the chinese investigate the bidens pushed his grudge into the most complicated and consequential relationship. kylie atwood has more. >> repo

investigate an issue involving joe biden one of his potential rivals in next year's race for the white house trump has dismissed claims of improper conduct and branded informant a spy either got a totally wrong made it up or the person giving the information to the whistleblower was dishonest and this country has to find out who that person was because that person is a spy in my opinion so the president probably doesn't realize. how dangerous his statements are when he says he wants to expose he's the whistle blower is and those who may have given the whistle blower that information. while democrats are keen to protect this particularly whistleblower they have been less supportive of others in the past artie's. has commentary. we are now told that in this dark age of trumpington tyranny one heroic individual has spoken up like a voice crying out in the wilderness we don't know his name or his occupation but we know that he is good i think the whistleblower did the right thing i think he followed the law every step of the way the inspector general of the intelligence community found this whistleblo

house impeachment investigation. donald trump launched the attack against the decorated combat veteran who works in the trump white houseecurity council the same way donald trump launches most of his attacks, on twitter. donald trump tweeted supposedly to the corrupt media today's never-trumper witness, was he on the same call i was, can't be possible. please ask him to read the transcript of the call which colonel vindman did read the transcript of the call. and he testified today under oath that the transcript is wrong, the transcript is inaccurate. colonel vindman testified that more of donald trump's incriminating language about joe biden was eliminated from that transcript. and donald trump's attack on colonel vindman and the completely predictable fox news attacks on colonel vindman, even some republicans after that had to step forward and say enough, stop attacking the colonel. many republicans in the house and senate know how damaging donald trump is not just to republican hopes of holding onto the white house but to any hopes the republicans have in the house and senate elections. axios is reporting tonight tha

white house opposition to dr. kupperman's testimony that they believe that his testimony would be incriminating of the president. >> reporter: other witnesses have testified that president trumpithheld military aid and a coveted white house meeting in an attempt to pressure ukraine to investigate a campaign rival, joe biden. mr. trump denied it again today. >> there was no anything. there was no pressure put on him, no anything. >> reporter: in a statement this afternoon, the white house said "this upcoming vote proves that everything that came before it was illegitimate," but when cbs asked if this vote will now prompt the white house to cooperate, we were told it depends on whether they get all the rights they've been asking for. norah? >> o'donnell: sounds like it will be another busy week up there, nancy. thank you. now to chicago where an angry crowd rallied against president trump on his first official visit to the city. thousands took to the streets, many chanting "lock him up." the president went to chicago to address an international conference of police chiefs and used the occasion to slam chicago's top police official. jeff pegues is there. >> all over the world th

in national news tonight, the white house is slamming the impeachment inquiry against president trump in a letter sent to the house democrat says trump administration is calling the investigation unconstitutional and unfair. >>reid binion report. >>crazy and frightening that's how president trump's call with ukraine is being described by a white house official who claims they were shaken by the call while listening to it that's according to a source familiar with the whistleblower probe. the trump administration is now saying they won't cooperate with the impeachment investigation, sending a letter to the democrats heading up saying quote your inquiry is constitutionally invalid and violates basic due process rights and the

few russians while the interview was being arranged oh that was long before donald trump showed up in the white house politics should be fine then. shift is certainly a very also a trance also accused him of being shifty and shifty i think is a much more. description obviously he wants to bring down donald trump he tried to do it with russia i mean it was really one of the key figures in russia and so now here years is suddenly you know from russia gate is moved on to ukraine get a chance to lead which i think is reasonably believes there at the origin of truck russia is to be found in ukraine and he was asking israel in investigating this and in this case ukraine as you can. russia get so i think that will do a lot more damage ship. in the u.k. a christian doctor who was sacked after refusing to use female pronouns when discussing a transgender woman has lost his legal fight against his former employers he says they discriminated against his religious beliefs but an employment tribunal has ruled his stance was incompatible with human dignity with more details here she added stuff to. well you're pro

trump targets. >>> speaking to reporters on the south lawn of the white house, president trump would not say whether rudy giuliani was still his attorney but he defended giuliani on twitter on saturday morning, writing this. so now they are after the legendary crime buster and greatest mayor in the history of nyc, rudy giuliani. he may seem a little rough around the edges sometimes, but he is also a great guy, and wonderful lawyer. such a one-sided witch hunt going on in the usa. >>> after "the new york times" report trump had lunched with giuliani at the golf course and had defended giuliani's character in a full interview on fox news. >> let's me start by asking you about reports that rudy giuliani is now under investigation. involving ukraine. and there is some confusion as to whether or not you still consider him your attorney. is he your attorney? >> yes, and he is a great gentleman, he was a great mayor, one of the greatest, maybe the greatest mayor in the history of new york, he was a fantastic prosecutor, i know nothing about him being under investigation. as somebody said, i heard a report

it was president trump who brought up biden in his infamous call with the leader of ukraine. >>> mulvaney's comments caught everyone at the white house off-guard. president trump's attorney jay sekulow said the white house legal team was not involved in the acting chief of staff's press briefing. a justice department official said of mulvaney's claims that the d.o.j. was involved, that's news to us. and seems like the president was left out of the loop, as well. >> are you aware he suggested a quid pro quo? >> somebody said he did a very nice job. you know what i've been focused on today? i look at all of this and turkey and the great thing that happened in syria. mick is a good man. i have not heard anything about it. i have a lot of confidence. >> a source close to the president tells cnn, mulvaney's acknowledgment to a quid pro quo angered mr. trump later in the day. one white house official says much of the president's anger is focused on the media. he believes the press is intentionally misinterpreting mulvaney's comments. but lisa murkowski doesn't see it that way. she says this -- absolutely that's a concern. you don't hold up

meeting with white house investigators. trump diplomat gordon sondland was expected to discuss president trump's dealing with crew yan in a deposition behind closed doors today. the white house moved to block the ambassador's testimony, and could provoke new front with democrats who are warning the president about interfering in their on going investigation. let's get to the center of the tension in washington with hans nichols and msnbc correspondent garrett haake who is on capitol hill for us. garrett, let me begin with you. it's been about 90 minutes or so. we heard from adam schiff, what is their next move now that they've been blocked from this testimony. >> reporter: this is testimony that had been sought voluntarily from sondland. that will almost certainly change to testimony he'll be subpoenaed to give. i'll expect we'll see in the not-to-distant future, file a subpoena for gordon sondland and documents in his possession. sondland had text messages on his personal device he had given to the state department but not to co

-- or the white house officials at president trump's behest explicitly linked the white house deliverables and a demand for investigations into burriss m of burisma. the same quid pro quo that mick mulvaney admitted to before trying to walk it back a day later with willie. >> all right. nbc's geoff bennett and garrett haake, thank you guys both so much for your reporting. it was written yesterday, everybody knows. republicans know. the white house knows. there was a quid pro quo, it was there. so the more the president denies that quid pro quo, the more he assures himself that he's going to be impeached. now, the president, of course, and republicans were talking about how unpopular this impeachment inquiry would be several weeks ago, a month or so ago saying that americans wouldn't support it. it is interesting today that as we move toward the vote the overwhelming majority of americans in poll after poll after poll. >> they don't like it. >> -- support this impeachment inquiry. and, really, they agree with nancy pelosi and the democrats. so we'll see what republicans w

of truth created by us president drums declaration of victory in northern syria today at the white house trump took credit for the deal over northern syria's future which was struck this week between russia and turkey he portrayed that deal as a diplomatic masterpiece crafted by his policy in syria and yet the united states was not present during the talks between russia and turkey trouble also claimed that he decided to bring u.s. forces home from syria because they had stayed longer than the original plan of 30 days however there was never a plan with a timetable and he said that the u.s. had deployed troops to syria northern syria a decade ago that is also not true ground troops arrived there in 2015 the us president did not mention russia at all in his speech today instead he focused on turkey and he portrayed president aired a one as a leader who had come to his senses and if no one ever misbehaves again trump warns that punishment by sanctions is always an option so the sanctions will be lifted or less something happens that we're not happy with. this was an outcome created by us the uni

president donald trump gathers steam house democrats subpoena the white house for documents relating to trump's contacts with ukraine including the now infamous phone call with its leader saddam is a lengthy also coming up. hong kong authorities invoked emergency powers in an attempt to end months of on rest mass transit is suspended and its ban on face masks takes effect but protesters remain defiant. and the british parliament portrayed as a chamber full of squabbling chimpanzees not the latest prank to debate but a 10 year old painting by the anonymous art superstar banksy the work bench to record 11000000 euro as. i'm irish waiter thank you for joining us for the 1st time the impeachment inquiry into u.s. president donald trump has reached directly to the white house democratic lawmakers have subpoenaed officials to force the release of documents relating to trump's contacts with ukraine including his call in july with ukraine's president vladimir selenski several house committees are looking into whether trump pressured ukraine to investigate former democrat vice president joe bi

the meantime and looking ahead tonight, house democrats have told former national ni security adviser john bolton they want him to testify about the trump white house and ukraine. tonight bolton's lawyer says he's not willing to appear voluntarily but that he stands ready to accept a subpoena. fiona hill, who worked for bolton, reportedly testified that he referred to the ukraine pressure campaign as a, quote, drug deal and spoke of rudy giuliani as a hand grenade who is going to blow everybody up. well, tomorrow congressional investigators will be hearing from another member of bolton'st national security team, a guy by the name of tim morrison. he listened in on that now infamous july 25 phone call with the president of ukraine. last week ambassador bill taylor testified that morrison told him about this decision to block nearly $400 million in military aid that our congress had 0 approved to go to ukraine until investigations were launched into the bidens. well, late this afternoon there was a notable development when we learned that mr. morrison, on the eve of his testimony, is in fact quitting his job at the national security council. he

in an american military assault in the live region in northwest syria in an address from the white house trump said baghdadi blew himself up after being cornered in a dead end tunnel by american special forces donald trump said american special forces blew open a wall and moved in quickly cornering al baghdadi in a tunnel where he had taken 3 of his children he didn't supposedly blew himself up along with his children the u.s. says it quickly carried out d.n.a. tests confirmed his identity. the american president said he had been after baghdad he says he took office and explained why the u.s. chose to go in because this is the one that built isis and beyond and was looking to rebuild it again very very strongly looking to build it and that's why he went to this province this is why he went to this area president trump also said the mission was so top secret that only a few officials knew about it even keeping his allies in the dark. al baghdadi had started a reign of terror this decade. he's believed to have become radicalized while being imprisoned by u.s. forces in iraq in 2004 he then becam

led forces in syria president donald trump made the announcement at the white house trump says up a backer a bug that he was cornered in a house in the province and blew himself up with a suicide vest our white house correspondent kimberly halkett has more. a car daddy is dead in a rare sunday morning news conference president donald trump announced to the world the leader of eisele had been hunted down and killed by u.s. forces he died like a dog he died like a coward trump says the u.s. confirmed the identity of abu bakr al baghdadi at the syrian compound minutes after he died using d.n.a. u.s. forces reportedly spent 2 hours at the site obtaining intelligence including isis future plans well 3 children died in the raid 11 more were captured along with the small group of adults describing the raid in great detail terms say u.s. special forces were met with gunfire as they descended from helicopters onto the northwest syrian compound where al baghdadi was hiding he was cornered in a tunnel where he detonated a suicide vest to avoid capture he died after running into a dead end tunnel whim

trump's july phone call with president zelensky. that's on the 25th. volker sends this text to zelensky's aide and this may be the most important message, quote, heard from white house, assuming president z, zelensky, convinces trump he will investigate/get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down a date for a visit to washington. a couple weeks later volker sends the u.s. ambassador the actual language they wanted zelensky to use in making the announcement about an investigation, the phrasing, we intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving the 2016 elections. we should point out zelensky never said that statement. he never said those words. bill taylor, there's the name again, the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, he send this stext saying i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with the political campaign. hours later he replies, the president has been clear, no quid pro quos of any kind and then writes i suggest we stop the back and forth by text. josh, democrats are pointing to this as extremely significant in the interactions between ukra

white house in crisis. we begin with breaking news in the politics lead. president trump a white house news conference calling the impeachment inquiry a fraudulent crime on the american people and slamming the whistle-blower as dishonest and vicious and we should note that the facts of the whistle-blower complaint align of the rough transcript the white house released of the phone call according to the director of national intelligence himself and mr. trump going after the house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff claiming without evidence that he was involved in writing or helping to write the whistle-blower complaint and i reached out to the attorney for the whistle-blower, mark zaid who said that is not true. the whistle-blower complaint centered on a call in which president trump asked the president of ukraine to investigate his own domestic political rivals, the bidens. the president's attack on the whistle-blower's honesty and integrity is unds mined by the fact that the whistle-blower description of the call aligned with the transcript according to director