Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240714

Obviously its really in a different sort of concrete. And different environment. In a b c news much to the tensions. Between the governments with the Supreme Leader supported endorse the idea of discussions about resolving the fate. Of americans held in iran and iranian nationals detained in the United States. Well you know. We had a where. And different occasions and the past. We have talks with american officials. Aimed at. Freeing present prisoners in both countries a time we did succeed meaning that americans. Were freed if you recall and on the other. Indians hell here. Missed the trumps administration. We we we started. These talks with mr trumps administration. But once the americans and that. One individual in iran is freed they will take that and as a good gesture in it did happen in iraq and that their citizen was freed. Was released and instead of the american fulfilling their promise. To reciprocate. They only thanked iran. And made an expression so weve always been ready to do this we will always be ready to do this but the today stands and america has for. Hyper says Michael Franti b. S. For having us at the press conference and answering questions and as a japanese i have a question. Japans Prime Minister and i understand that. Very traditional and. Bad Prime Minister and i would like to ask you. To play a. Thanks for the relationship between. What. Relationship with relations with the japanese government. And have been very friendly. Relations and with mr. Prime minister. Of what many meetings during the past few years and different times weve had bilateral meetings. Spoken of by let alone international issues. Recently a few months ago you may recall that he had it was that they had on which was a very good visit would be fruitful and useful to visit. In new york yes we did have a friendly encounter during which we spoke of different topics yes Prime Minister. Has been seeking this particular part from a few months ago in particular aimed. Taken away the sanctions implemented by the america and in a way. To bring ties to get that in. And change the atmosphere is still seeking to pursue that pathway perhaps to that degree in the us. We do hope that this. Will lead to. Results if america reaches the conclusion that the actions taken 18 months ago has been 100 percent to the detriment of the nation of the people of iran and all of the countries in the region and all of that. Job creators and industries and industries in order and watch it in business in iran so the right choice must be made. Thank you mr president my question is did you have any. French. Thank you. Government italian government. Not doing this. Is it during the last. Visit and. Had a meeting the other relations. Friendly even it was friendly with the previous one during which. Travel to italy and their Prime Minister travel to iran. Relations are. Because because its because of sanctions and some. Mic relationship has decreased. But the commercial relation ties between the 2 countries as well as as well as other relations at that region. Has continued have continued to exist and italy has always been one of the countries in europe that has. Had the great value. The 2nd highest value of trade with iran and we see italy as a friend. And of course and even today. Regarding yemen. Italians are also present in these talks which we had with other European Countries. David they no longer richard roth c. N. N. Welcome back mr president theres a report today from overseas that the i. A. E. A. Says that there is a breach of the c. P. O. Way that there has been starting advanced models of centrifuges to enrich uranium this is that youre accumulating or been prepared to accumulate enrich to your radio 5 years ago you left for the airport you got a call from president obama do you expect to get a phone call on the way to the airport today or tomorrow. For the last part. Of that is negative. Visit with the 1st part of your question we have. To create. A commitment was that. The limitations that we. Developed i mean within the framework of g. C. C. We have taken those limitations off the table. But i want to put in point your views. Supervision and. Inspection of that. Has increased or decreased. In the same fashion. That since in the beginning of the j c p r 2015 were supervising and inspecting. And were carrying out its activities in iran. And there are so. Rich and the same well it has been no decrease in some of the commitment in the. Decrease in one of the. There is no. Talk on increasing. In richmond level. Thats not the scope of what were doing our scope is research and development and. Centrifuge and. Force that was posed. A few years. From now. We are suppose. Thats scheduled might have been moved. Up so once this chain is completed of course it will be active in this is again only. This is for Resource Development no other objective youre quite right but the important point is that we have. Had a time and transpired. During the recent g 7 President Trump said that hed be supportive of a care Credit Guarantee which buys them a crown was working on it later circuit city offer was for 15000000000. 00 is that still on the table and why is that being held up in your opinion what were the Financial Options that were discussed this week is there a new instrument that is being discussed or is it for it still for the 15000000000 dollars thank you. Steve. Of course during. Any station. You have been talking about your take away the sanctions in their entirety what we have spoken and discussed and. You know that the credit line. Discussion was temporary one. Bit of time so 3 months before the end of the most so we want to. Continue in a different fashion. And. What the europeans. Have a problem in implementing that and. They know the reasons and they were we talked beyond that. We talked about the region and the impact important regional issues were discussed in this discussion i. Did not at each. Order to try to come to full conclusion. Next question. Mr president im from feature story news in china global t. V. Network Chinas State Council and foreign minister has called for all efforts to resolve the Nuclear Issue given the u. S. Pressure and new sanctions on china for trying. Ron and the lack of success by the europeans in their efforts to try and stop the economic blow on iran. How much of a role is china playing and what more would you like to see from beijing. Thought has been a friend. And. An active member of the. In a signatory. After signing off that. We have had good relations and perhaps. We have seen. And i would relation. Due to the sanctions americans are still speaking their previous. Forward to those policies in other words more pressure. Just questions which is the same way they are trying which is taking them a problem further away from their discussions. So this is the mistake that they have made and they repeating this mistake unfortunately as you said every day perhaps some day and daily basis america targets. Entity. Because of their relationship with iran. They have their own policy of sanctions. Or not it will not have any benefits so we hope that our relationship with china will be expanded and the future. Mr president david sanger from times good to see you and you talked before about the maximum pressure that the United States is placing on iran would you say that the strategic purpose of your escalation of Nuclear Activity at natanz is your own form of maximum pressure and if not what is its strategic purpose you have said many times you dont want to build Nuclear Weapons so what is the purpose of continuing to increase the production at the times and do you see an end to that is there or is there an end point beyond which you would not go beyond 20 percent for example. What we have announced even previously. Our commitments within their g. Or bi lateral. Multilateral some of those commitments we have to fulfill other commitments our counterparts have to fulfill what we have witnessed in the last few months have become a union literally set of commitments that have to be in lamented in other words we were living up to our commitments for this and they kept the crease in their commitments we wanted to create a balance just as they were decreasing their commitment and we wish to decrease ours as well in this is a formula that had been in a visit in particular 26 and 36 of the 8 that if one side does not live up to and fulfilled part of their commitment the other side can to the same degree decrees its commitment. So what we do is a decrease of commitment within the gene. Therefore that the decrees of at least mint is in such a fashion that is reversible in other words this very hour that we are talking to each other if the 4th one and loans that we will let me. Pull all of our commitments immediately we would also return to our commitments to all of it within the g 8 and the temporary actions that we are taking will be reversed to the previous status where we are not seeking Nuclear Weapons. Or Nuclear Nuclear activities will be. Completely and the purview of. A we are not off target maximum. Medium pressure no pressure of. Proper implementation of the g. C. So if we do not lessen our commitment envisaged in article 26 and 36 of the people that means that we are not fully and fully implementing digital we are using the tools brought in to the way to live up to our commitment in there or we. Hope that everyone comes to full implementation. Of the iranian president speaking in new york a lengthy News Conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly it seemed. Strong opportunity for him to take questions from the media primarily in english as well the media who have assembled in new york for the General Assembly a chance to get their questions across to the president s lets start with who is our correspondent in tehran listening along to that what did you take from it saying there was a lot covered there but it seemed to be plenty on the jay c. P. O. As they say the iran deal and. Digging in and saying hey if you want to talk america thats fine but let the sanctions. Thats exactly right we have to say president Hassan Rouhani looking much more relaxed than he did last year his body language is relaxed he seems confident this is really sort of a last hurrah before he leaves new york to return to tehran he wants to go out on a high note now at the end of the day every policy issue related to iran is indeed in some way related to the 2050 nuclear deal to the collapse or the collapsing of the still you teetering along join comprehensive plan of action the 2015 nuclear deal but the 1st question right out of the gate when he started taking questions was about whether or not iran had any proof that it was not behind the attack on Saudi Oil Facilities that were there were claimed by yemens hooty fighters earlier this month and to that you said that if anybody is going to blame iran really those who are laying those allegations that irans feet should be the ones providing evidence that iran carried it out not the other way around so he turned that question upside down right away and he said unequivocally that iran did have nothing to do with it and in fact World Leaders that he spoke to at this u. N. General assembly and said to them what is the evidence that youre basing this allegation on and they said according to him they have no evidence they just didnt think that the yemenis who the fighters had such capability and to that he said he told World Leaders that they had outdated information about the ground reality inside yemen he also reminded them that this is a saudi led war that this is a saudi invasion and that that should really be the focus of World Leaders he also talked about trying to put out fires instead of fueling weapon sales that he laid at the feet of the United States and European Countries who continue to supply weapons to saudi arabia thus fueling the war as opposed to trying to put out the fire and he also had a few questions about sort of how he felt about the current state of play with regard to the trumpet ministration the politics going on. Inside the country and he smiled not really taking that opportunity to kick us President Donald Trump while he was down he said it was up to the American People to decide who their leaders were but he said the american leaders what they should do is honor their commitments and what he meant by that is that the United States pulling out of of the joint comprehensive plan of action a un back to plan was effectively a violation of International Agreements he went on to address a question about whether or not the u. N. Headquarters should be relocated because United States wasnt granted visas for certain officials he said the United States shouldnt play politics when it comes to u. N. Related visits by World Leaders and he also was asked if talks were possible between the United States and iran he said talks are always possible its always possible to come some a kind of agreement and to sit down and he was for dialogue of a very very different message from the early days a few years ago when the United States pulled out of the deal iran was much more defensive about carrying out any talks with the United States a much warmer approach to this but he said it would not happen in a climate of intimidation when asked about whether or not he was willing to meet donald trump he really sidestepped that question but he did address it subtly in his u. N. General Assembly Speech today earlier saying that photo ops and memories that are taken with pictures dont happen at the start of negotiations that is the culmination of negotiations a slight dig at the u. S. President donald trump who is known for enjoying photo ops perhaps a reference to his meeting with the north Korean Leader the same bus driver summing up what weve heard from the iranian president Hassan Rouhani in new york thank you zain. Im a news today though has been the several hours of testimony on capitol hill in the United States in what can and then being one of the defining moments of the current u. S. Presidency the acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Mcguire questions from a Congressional Committee over his handling of a whistleblower complaint what amounts to the 1st steps of an impeachment inquiry weve seen the reports of that complaint weve seen details of the phone call in which president urged ukraines needed to investigate his potential rival former Vice President joe biden and now this hearing which started with Committee Chairman adam schiff reading out comments from the july phone call and what is the president s response well it reads like a classic organized crime shakedown shorn of its rambling character and not so many words this is the essence of what the president communicates weve been very good to your country very good know the country has done as much as we have but you know what i dont see much reciprocity here i hear what you want i have a favor i want from you though and im going to say this only 7 times so you better listen good i want you to make up dirt on my political opponent understand lots of it on this and on that im going to put you in touch with people not just any people im going to put you in touch with attorney general United States my attorney general bill barr hes got the whole weight of the american Law Enforcement behind him and im going to put you in touch with rudy youre going to love him trust me you know what im asking and so im only going to say this a few more times in a few more ways and by the way dont call me again ill call you when youve done what i asked. Right so here are our correspondents covering the story kimberly how good is that the white house will be with her show at least one thing though with heidi on capitol hill heidi its been like i said the words to really its been very intense its been really you know strong arguments from all sides take us through the events of the last rails as. Well the biggest revelation come all over the last 3 hours has been that acting National Intelligence director joe mcguire has said that he agreed that this was so player whistleblower complaint was in his words the urgent and important he said that this still unnamed Intelligence Officer did the right thing by coming forward that he used the correct channels and that he has the agencys full backing in protecting his anonymity and any any repercussions Going Forward however maguire was hesitant to answer democrats questions as to how he handled this report once he received it in fact he admitted that the 1st place he took this report was to the white house which of course is the very subject of the allegation. Did you ever speak to the president about this complaint my conversations with the president because im the director of National Intelligence are privileged and it would be inappropriate for me because it would destroy my relationship with the president in a tele just matters to divulge any of my conversations with the president of United States but just so we can be clear for the record. You are not denying that you spoke to the president about this complaint what im saying congressman is that i will not disclose privileged conversations that i have as the director of National Intelligence with the president has the white house instructed you to assert that privilege no sir i just its just a member of the executive committee im an executive branch as a member of the National Security council and also met the Homeland Committee and events you know i had just have to maintain the discretion and protect the conversation with the president the United States. Heidi im going to be talking to kimberly shortly about the effect of. President trump and the presidency but in between can you explain to us what actually happens next as i said to ellie theres plenty of drama while the hearing is happening then its adjourned so what happens next. Well the chairman adam schiff the democrat leading the House Intelligence Committee has feather this very point from the whistleblower would be the road map for continued democratic investigations Going Forward down this road of the impeachment inquiry and that brings us to the allegations contained in this bombshell report that was released just minutes before the hearing began this morning at least released publicly and they detail that not only was this call of concern to the whistleblower but that in fact the whistleblower heard from multiple senior white house officials that there was a month long grueling effort led by the president s personal attorney re giuliani to be in contact with president alinsky of ukraine as well as other ukrainian leaders to try to get them on board with this idea of investigating joe biden and his son to benefit the president s reelection chances and that part of these involved meetings multiple meetings i have been before and after the call and the day of the call and another potential face to face between the 2 president s as a prize for ukraine taking action to investigate trumps opponent also alleged in this was a little slower plaint is that the white house actively sought to quash documents regarding this call that they moved the transcript from its normal server which would be open to senior. Cabinet level officials and instead lou just the records of this call to a very secretive highly classified. Independent electronic records a network thats normally used to protect only items of National Security and perhaps most concerning of all is whats left unsaid in this complaint feet because the whistleblower said this is not the only time that this secretive server has been used for political purposes by the trove of ministration and that has been used previously so again this is so much for democrats to come through they just started doing that today during this long drawn out hearing but there are many more witnesses that they hope to call in this is only the beginning of a very long effort now focused on trumps dealings with ukraine as democrats continue down impeachment thank you. On capitol hill now to the white house and kimberly how could some reaction kimberly whos been saying what else to these 3 hours of testimony. That the president has not been silent throughout these proceedings most recently speaking just before arriving here at the white house from new york his campaign also sending out emails characterizing what has transpired on capitol hill is being nothing more than an effort by democrats to essentially block the inevitable reelection of donald trump that this is a hoax bigger than the russia investigation and they point to the fact that the whistle blowers complaint is based on reports provided to that whistleblower that none of the instances were actually witnessed by the whistleblower in other words trying to discredit the not only investigation into the claim but the claim itself the president speaking very fired up before reporters saying that he in no way pressured the ukrainian leader in his july telephone call now the focus of the complaint that it was a perfect call what dems are doing is a disgrace that would be the democrats that theyre essentially making up stories and that nancy pelosi the House Speaker the top democrat in the house of representatives has essentially been hijacked by what the president calls the radical left well nancy pelosi for her part has also been speaking to reporters she says something very different she says not only does she believe a crime was committed by the u. S. President but that the white house in gauged in a coverup. The president has been engaged in a cover up all along why else would he be a obstructing the courts as they have ruled in our favor to release the information about their joint ship bank and his records there the maser is the county and the records their taxes and their records their whole molly immense issue is not a cover up that shelf evidence but a lot of it phil contributes the idea that the president believes that he is above the law the law being the constitution of the United States which strictly forbids a president from accepting and emolument from a Foreign Government and now hes asking a Foreign Government to help him in his election. Kimberly i are perhaps risk oversimplifying it here but we are at the start of a process that could get really ugly could not im just reading comments from the president today where he was saying i want to know who the person was who gave the whistleblower the information thats close to a spike we used to handle spies differently in the old days i mean this sort of talk adam schiff was talking about yesterday like almost mafia stuff. Yeah and in fact adam schiff the chair of the House Intelligence Committee has opened him self up to a little bit of. Accusations that he has in some way embellished the claim which many believe stands on its own merits given the fact that he did open that hearing with a fictional account a of the president s call with the ukrainian leader d and well it was rooted in reality seem to take some liberties but the president also seems to be using similar behavior and you spoke there just a moment ago about his comments in new york to the u. S. Mission staff to the United Nations reportedly the president outraged very fired up as weve seen him increasingly anxious over the reporting of this story essentially talking to these employees being quite livid about who it was that spoke to the whistleblower trying to determine 2 who in fact. Reported this and then as you said he likened that person a whistleblower who is protected under whistle blower legislation or law that has all of those protections in order to explode from expose fraud waste and abuse in the government that the president like and this person that many would regard as a hero is being close to a spa and then going even further shocking many saying that in the old days spies were dealt with differently im unclear where the president really understands the gravity of the situation or after being in battle for the 31 months that he has been president with not just the russian vest a geisha looks into his tax returns but now these calls for impeachment that he is simply raveling under the pressure of so much scrutiny and making very very unwise choices its unclear im certainly not qualified to speculate on the president s mental condition but certainly men. People would think that those comments were particularly unwise given the scrutiny that he is under right now and the calls and the effort to under the umbrella of this impeachment inquiry attempt to remove him from office well kimberly want to hear from the president himself and we can make up our own minds just stay with me for a 2nd donald trump has just flown in from new york to joint base andrews and he has spoken to the media just as he arrived. I love everybody i just watched a little bit of this on television its a disgrace to our country its another which on here we go again its at every ship it is crew making up stories and sitting there like hi is whatever you want to call of the just a really is is just great its a terrible thing for our country they cant do any work theyre frozen the democrats are going to lose the election they know it thats why theyre doing it and it should never be allowed whats happened to this president and this fight that i think ive done just about more than any president in his 1st 2 and a half years in office if you look i think youll see birth you could compete with the things weve done for our military for the economy we have the best economy anywhere in the world by far weve rebuilt our military weve done so many things that are so incredible with tax cuts and regulations and i have to put up with adam schiff on a per absolutely perfect phone call to the new president of ukraine that was a perfect golf but adam schiff doesnt talk about joe biden and his son walking away with millions of dollars from ukraine and then millions of dollars from china walking away you know quick meeting walking away with millions of dollars he doesnt talk about joe biden firing a prosecutor and that prosecutors not fired hes not going to give them money from the United States. Of america i dont talk about that my quote was perfect the president yesterday of ukraine said there was no pressure put on him whatsoever none whatsoever and he said it loud and clear for the press what these guys are doing democrats are doing to this country isnt just grace and it shouldnt be allowed they should be a way of stopping it maybe legally through the courts but theyre going to tie up our country we cant talk about gun regulation we cant talk about anything because frankly this is so tied up this so screwed up nothing gets done except when i do it im using mexico to protect our border because the democrats wont change im opposed an asylum when you think of that and i want to tell you i want to thank mexico 27000 soldiers they have but think of how bad that is think of it when we use mexico because the democrats wont fix our broken immigration system we need their votes if we dont get their votes we cant do it and the republicans are all on board they want to fix it but the democrats wont do it they dont want to talk about infrastructure they dont want to talk about lowering drug prices they dont want to talk about anything because theyre fixated on this and then people o. C. Has been hijacked by the radical left and Everybody Knows it thank you. Ok so that was told trump arriving back from the United Nations General Assembly just heading towards marine one there kimberly how could i what else correspondent listening along i would say classic trump about a dozen different topics covered in a 2 minute rant but i think the most pertinent thing i heard there was when he said all of the impeachment inquiry. Should be a way of stopping this maybe through the courts this is not a man is going to take it lying dumb. No and that is characteristic donald trump and he has been involved in litigation for decades of in various forms of fashion starting with his experience as a Real Estate Developer in manhattan new york now as president of the United States hes embroiled in all kinds of Court Battles whether it is with regard to his hotel here on pennsylvania avenue in washington d. C. And whether hes profiting from his time in the white house whether its over his tax returns now of course there is this formal investigation under way in the u. S. Congress into whether or not the president used and abused his president ial powers to in essence harm a political opponent former Vice President joe biden who is now running to be the democratic president ial nominee in an attempt to defeat donald trump in the 2020 u. S. Election i think what we can take from all of this is that the president is going through a series of emotions not only is he angry but hes also anxious and we saw that before and after this hearing when he tried to discredit the house intelligence chair adam schiff calling him a man with 0 credibility tweeting that there is no case for impeachment and also going even further and i think this is what will be very effective for President Trump in his Reelection Campaign and this is a risk that the democrats knew they were facing as they went into this impeachment investigation inquiry and that is that this could become a rallying cry for donald trump with republicans and he was very clear in a series of tweets but in one in particular several hours ago he made the point that the democrats and his you are just trying to destroy the Republican Party all it stands for and then really call to rally republicans to stick together and fight the country is at stake in this is always been a divided nation in recent years and i think that way. When you watch the hearing that took place today youre going to see what you want to see depending on whether a democrat or a republican but certainly the president is issuing a call for support from his fellow republicans feeling hes embattled and feeling there is a need to fight back with what he sees as a very unfair process democrats would argue that they are conducting their cause to to show responsibility to conduct oversight and a check and balance on executive power kimberly how could so White House Correspondent thank you kimberly now to our washington studios and elizabeth who is associate professor of american studies and Political Science at George Washington university thank you for staying with us 1st of all another very very busy news day weve had today it strikes me actually from the same to kimberly and id like to get your view on this that dont trumps way of dealing with this is through the argument and through the emotion side of things was the democrats the likes of adam schiff going through the forensic channels and the legal channels and those are 2 different arguments something. They are and they work in different registers one argument is about what is the rule of law what is the United States relationship with other countries around the world what are the you know proper checks and balances of power what does it mean to live in a democracy where powers traded back and forth and its limited further into 4 different groups and trumps appeal is very different it is not on those levels it is about a kind of personal sense of being injured and being wronged and then equating that to the sense that the American People have been wronged injured that they are being manipulated so its working at a register of of kind of National Identity in a way and tying his experiences of feeling like he is under siege from democrats who are trying to hold him accountable to making it as if the American People are under siege so they really are operating at different registers and thats partly why we see such different responses from the democrats and from the republicans so is that perhaps an advantage to the democrats that they will be saying were going along the legal lines and if they hold that line and go along the constitution and the law than that gives them sauls of the upper hand. I think theyre all going to have to work on messaging right now because of course the u. S. Is very divided and many people are already in their camps and theyre not going to be swayed about whether they think donald trump should be impeached or not but there are a large group of people who are not sure and thats where this message is so important i think when the message about whats happening right now is that trump was on a phone call with the leader of ukraine they are talking in a proper way about politics you know about tit for tat giving back and forth and that this is all under his purview and the attack is just unjust and unfair and its politically or you know organized a lot of people might be swayed by that but i think if the democrats are able to frame it not just as a call to a particular leader but as a trying to usurp the power of the presidency to get other nations involved in in changing the nature of american democracy and getting involved in american elections if they can put it through in that language and that valence then i think theyll be able to sway some people to their side so right now as much as this is about the issues that he and its also about the language and the appeal and the stories about those issues whats the next step then as with weve got the the big impeachment billboard almost in the distance which has now been almost officially lit by the democrats and everything is moving towards that but it is a very very long post isnt it. It is very long process and i think nobody is sure where it was go will will go even the democrats have said theyre not sure what the next steps will be i think what happens after these hearings today will become very important because what we know there are many issues that are at stake one that weve seen is what actually happened during this phone call was the president abusing his power in trying to get Foreign Government involved in the u. S. Elections and to fight and to find dirt on his rival another level that is whether or not people in the white house knew what he was doing was you know some kind of abuse of power and then they tried to cover it up by reclassifying that the conversation as the National Security information the 3rd issue is whether or not the whistleblower complaint was then truck was perhaps covered up by the Justice Department and then as we know from the complaint there are also many more people who might be involved whether its Rudy Giuliani operating as a private citizen whether its the attorney general and so from here that things can spin out in many ways if the focus is just on the call you know the proceedings might be shorter but if it starts to spiral out were going to see more and more problems about covering up more and more information whether or not there are more people who might be involved in the administration who need to be tied into this then i think were going to see a much longer impeachment hearing process before the house even gets to vote on whether or not impeachment will happen. From a George Washington university in washington d. C. Thank you so much for joining us do appreciate it. Ive said it many times already its been a busy news day as you know weve heard from Hassan Rouhani the iranian president in new york speaking on the sidelines of the General Assembly but our main news of course has been the House Intelligence Committee hearing which has happened in washington d. C. Testimony from the acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Mcguire who many times said that no one is above the law when he was questioned by members of both sides of the political divide who were on that committee he talked about if they should if the president should be able to pressure a Foreign Government well its unwarranted its unwelcome and it doesnt helpful for the nation full analysis of that and the rest of the days news coming up in the news hour with just 2 minutes away from that ill see you in a moment. October on aljazeera. This month marks a year since the murder of the journalist jimbo shot she made he has signed most a new series of interviews or data tackling the big issues of our time. World leaders experts and environmentalists will assemble in iceland to discuss the future of the arctic. New episodes of folk lines examining us is rome and all around and well bring you coverage of the announcement of the 2019 nobel peace prize. October aljazeera. New yorkers are very receptive to aljazeera because it is such an International City theyre very interested in that global perspective that al jazeera provides. As britain prepares to exit the people in power investigates disturbing allegations about the tactics used by the winning leave campaign we know that the law was broken and we know that campaigns ive spent we know that russia tried to build a relationship with one of the key champaign who paid for breaks it people in power on al jazeera. But the bodies on the line for indias biggest stunts but the industrys stunt performers are annoyed and fun to have one a one a slates the men and women risking it all for the brought lots of bollywood on aljazeera. This is al jazeera. Hello everyone im come on sun summary this is the news hour from aljazeera. Hearing it said senior white house officials intervened to cover up details of a phone call between donald trump and the president of ukraine. Also the president of iran has some rouhani urges the u. S. To engage in dialogue logic and reason. Hong kongs chief executive holds her 1st meeting with the public in the hopes of ending a months long political crisis i want to frances most famous politicians former president Jacques Chirac has died at the age of 86. And im sorry if im all with this for it live from l. A. For stadium in the world athletics championships begin here on friday for the 1st time in the middle leaved well look at how organizers and athletes are preparing for the hot humid weather. So over 3 hours of testimony on capitol hill in washington today in what could end up being one of the defining moments of the current u. S. Presidency the acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Mcguire questions from a Congressional Committee of how he handled a whistleblower complaint in what is now amounting to the 1st steps of an impeachment inquiry the hearing began with Committee Chairman democrat adam schiff reading out comments from the july phone call between the 2 president s. And what is the president s response well it reads like a classic organized crime shakedown. Shorn of its rambling character and not so many words this is the essence of what the president communicates weve been very good to your country very good no other country has done as much as we have but you know what i dont see much reciprocity here i hear what you want i have a favor i want from you though and im going to say this only 7 times so you better listen good i want you to make up dirt on my political pawn and understand lots of it on this and on that im going to put you in touch with people not just any people im going to put you in touch with attorney general the United States my attorney general bill barr hes got the whole weight of the american Law Enforcement behind him and im going to put you in touch with rudy youre going to love him trust me you know what im asking and so im only going to say this a few more times in a few more ways and by the way dont call me again ill call you when youve done what i asked so thats adam schiff taking the phone call and then giving his testimony Joseph Mcguire refused to recount specific conversations between himself and the president that includes whether he had even spoken to donald trump about the complaint did you ever speak to the president about this complaint my conversations with the president because im the director of National Intelligence are privileged and it would be inappropriate for me because it would destroy my relationship with the president in Intelligence Matters to divulge any of my conversations with the president of the United States but just so we can be clear for the record. You are not denying that you spoke to the president about this complaint what im saying congressman is that i will not disclose privileged conversations that i have as the director of National Intelligence with the president has the white house instructed you to assert that privilege no sir i just its just a member of the executive committee of an executive branch as a member of the National Security council and also met the Homeland Committee and events you know i have just have to maintain the discretion and protect the conversation with the president the United States. The white house can believe take us through this pretty dramatic stuff those 3 plus hours of testimony kimberly just will try to walk us through some of the big points. With regard to the hearing itself theres no question that just as with america this is a divided congress and so very much there was an effort on the part of republicans to try to discredit the chair of the hearing adam schiff you heard there his fictional parity of what was rooted in reality an actual transcript released by the white house we should say an edited transcript released by the white house of that july phone call between donald trump and the ukrainian leader there was a real pelting on if you will of the fact that this whistleblower complaint in terms of the complaint he or she had not actually witnessed any of the contents of the complaint but instead according to republicans on this committee this was based on hearsay evidence by half a dozen officials inside the white house who then reported that information to the whistleblower who in turn reported to the Intelligence Committee there was also an effort on the part of democrats to discredit the acting director of National Intelligence particularly when it came to his responsibility as one of the nations highest intelligence officials to report this information but in stead of taking it directly to congress where the oversight. Concentration responsibility conduct oversight is done he instead went to the white house to alert the white house and also to the department of justice which is headed by one of the people in the complaint that is the attorney general bob barr so this is highly concerning to the democrats but again the republicans have their own. Concerns and you saw this battle for narratives in the midst of all of this the president trying to take hold of that narrative speaking to reporters as he landed in washington after returning from the United Nations General Assembly in new york tried to characterize them self as an embattled president who has been victimized by what he sees as democrats who are out to get him and simply dont respect the results of the 2016 u. S. Election. Everybody i just watched a little bit of this on television its a disgrace to our country its another which on here we go again its at every ship it is crew making up stories and sitting there like hi is whatever you want to call them a just a really is a straight its a terrible thing for our country they cant do any work theyre frozen the democrats are going to lose the election they know it thats why theyre doing it and it should never be allowed whats happened to this president and this fight that i think ive done just about more than any president in his 1st 2 and a half years in office if you look i think youll see virtue you could compete with the things weve done for our military for the economy we have the best economy anywhere in the world by far weve rebuilt our military weve done so many things that are so incredible with tax cuts and regulations and i have to put up with adam schiff on a per absolutely perfect phone call to the new president of ukraine that was a perfect golf but adam schiff doesnt talk about joe biden and his son walking away with millions of dollars from ukraine and then millions of dollars from china walking away in a quick meeting walking away with millions of dollars he doesnt talk about joe biden firing a prosecutor and that prosecutors not fired hes not going to give them money from the United States of america they dont talk about that my goal was perfect the president yesterday of ukraine said there was no pressure put on him whatsoever none whatsoever and he said it loud and clear for the press what these guys are doing democrats are doing to this country is in disgrace and it shouldnt be allowed they should be a way of stopping it maybe legally through the courts but theyre going to tie up our country we can talk about gun regulation. We cant talk about anything because frankly this is so tied up this so screwed up nothing gets done except that when i do it im using mexico to protect our border because the democrats wont change an opposing asylum when you think of that and i want to tell you i want to thank mexico 27000 soldiers say but think of how bad that is think of it when we use mexico because the democrats wont fix our broken immigration system we need their votes if we dont get their votes we cant do it and the republicans are all on board they want to fix it but the democrats wont do it they dont want to talk about infrastructure they dont want to talk about lowering drug prices they dont want to talk about anything because theyre fixated on this and then sheeple o. C. Has been hijacked by the radical left and Everybody Knows it thank you. Kimberly donald trump there as i said earlier about a dozen different thoughts in a 2 minute all 3 minute rant but when he actually said that we need to fight this war he was saying i think that there has to be a way to stop this impeachment even through the courts. Well and that is again an example of a president who either has been given really bad advice or really has an enormous amount of naivete on how the system of government in the United States works congress has a constitutional obligation to conduct oversight a check and balance on the white house or executive power this is a coequal branch of government so theres no way that the u. S. President could stop it in the courts however this is one of the terms kind of default settings if you will as a Real Estate Developer he is no stranger to live a geisha it goes all the way back decades to his time in new york now follows him here to the white house where courts are looking into everything from his tax returns to whether or not he may be profiting off the presidency with his hotel located just down the street on pennsylvania avenue as is the white house this is a president that seems to be increasingly anxious feeling embattled and lashing out trying to liken this latest impeachment inquiry as something similar to what he calls the russia hoax or the investigation into whether or not he had colluded with russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 u. S. Election i think its important to note in all of this that this could because it is a divided nation become a rallying cry for republicans in fact the president attempted to do that on twitter early on thursday morning saying that the cues in the republican or the rather the Democratic Party of trying to destroy his Republican Party and all it stands for that its time to stick together and fight the country is at stake but i can tell you that some of the comments of from the president have been increasingly conventional if you will including some reporting coming out of new york that the president is now actively trying to figure out who it is that spoke to this whistleblower in essence likening this person to a spy and then saying that in the old days spies were done. With much differently getting back to this whole impeachment inquiry the president once again almost suggesting fog like tactics to deal with silencing someone who is. What many people would consider her roic act and that is to be a whistleblower shining a spotlight on abuse of power extraordinary stuff kimberly how could a White House Correspondent thank you elizabeth and can still with us as well in washington associate professor of american studies and Political Science at georgetown Washington University i wonder actually theres a bit if we can take a step back just at this