Hours away from history making articles of impeachment being unveiled by the House Judiciary Committee, jerry nadler. That would put the house on track to potentially impeach the president before christmas. Sources tell cnn that House Democrats will unveil at least two articles of impeachment against President Trump charging him with abuse of power for pressing ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals using nearly 400 million in military aid and a white house meeting as leverage and obstruction of congress for stonewalling and defying subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry. We want to move exte dishsly, fairly, but also with the urgency of a crime spree in progress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have to give her approval for the articles drafted by judiciary chairman jerry nadler and his team. Pelosi met privately with Top Democrats last night debating whether to include findings from the Mueller Report in a third article as obstruction of justice. That move could split moderate democrats from other lawmakers in the party. Theres two schools of thought. One is to keep it tight, the other is to put everything in it. We dont want to lose democratic votes, and we dont want to hurt democratic members. Muellers investigation could be mentioned to show a pattern of misconduct by the president. What we want to be able to do is to have articles that are constitutionally grounded and solidified by facts. Reporter trump continuing to attack the impeachment investigation. Its a disgrace to our country. Its a hoax, and it should never ever be allowed to happen again. Reporter his allies also fighting back. When President Trump claims a privilege, all of a sudden thats obstruction. Theyve obstructed our inquiry and our ability to gather information to try to bring out the truth, yet when President Trump does that legitimately, they just charge him with obstruction. Reporter something the house gop highlighted at house judiciarys fiery impeachment hearing. It still doesnt they cant get over the fact donald trump is president of the United States. Reporter the lawyer leading the ukraine probe for the majority on the House Intelligence Committee argues. President trumps persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and Fair Elections and to our National Security. I want to be absolutely clear the integrity of our next election is at stake. Nothing could be more urgent. Reporter and of course sources are telling cnn that on thursday the House Judiciary Committee could debate these articles of impeachment and potentially vote them out of the c committee. That of course would put the house of representatives on track to vote to impeach President Trump the week after. Lauren. Thank you very much for that reporting. So in the next two weeks President Trump may become the third president in history to be impeached. We discuss the democrats plan next. So nice to meet you june, jay, ji, kay, raj, and. Ray good job, brain say hello to neuriva, a new brain supplement with clinically proven ingredients that fuel five indicators of brain performance. Neuriva. The one for you when you know you just know love is her love is him love is us the vera wang love collection designed for zales, the diamond store. Here hold this. Follow that spud. [ tires screech ] the big idaho potato truck is touring america telling folks about idaho potatoes. And i want it back. What is it with you and that truck . A lot will happen in your life. Wrinkles just wont. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repairs dermproven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. Making wrinkles look so last week. Rapid wrinkle repair® pair with retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. Neutrogena® heres the story of Green MountainCoffee Roasters costa rica paraiso. Meet sergio. And his daughter, maria. Sergios coffee tastes spectacular. Because costa rica is spectacular. So we support farmers who use natural compost. To help keep the soil healthy. And the coffee delicious. For future generations. All for a smoother tasting cup. Green mountain Coffee Roasters. It is a big, big morning. We are waiting to hear from House Democrats. They are getting redady to announce at least two articles of impeachment against President Trump, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. Joining us now to discuss, john avlon and abby phillips. Lets put it up on the screen, abuse of power and obstruction of congress, two articles. They havent ruled out a third, but it doesnt look likely, and that third would have been obstruction of justice. That would have been the mueller charges. What does it tell you, john, that basically it appears theyre deciding not to go with including mueller . This is something democrats were reportedly debating behind closed doors last night. The issue seems to be that some of the more centrist democrats are concerned if they widen the scope the Mueller Report some said had a road map for impeachment regarding obstruction. But apparently some democrats are concerned about the way polls are going. Lets keep it tightly focused on ukraine. There is reporting that the Mueller Report will be referred to to establish a pattern. Is this the deciding factor . Is that the deciding factor for the democrats who are in red districts whether or not some of the mueller stuff is included or not . Is that whats going to be the difference for them about whether they vote for impeachment . A lot of those democrats have already made a decision. Theyve already cast the deciding vote in materials of how theyre going to be painted politically by voting in many cases to authorize the impeachment inquiry. However, i think a lot of them are saying dont make this harder than it needs to be for us. We already have gotten you to this point. Lets leave it as a very narrow tailored impeachment inquiry and then a vote on two articles that are related to that inquiry. Remember, a lot of these members were not on board with impeaching the president over the mueller charges. They already had that debate within the democratic caucus, and many of these people were not there. It was not until ukraine that brought some of these people over, and so then to expand it after the fact, i think to them seemed to be like adding an extra layer of political burden for them when theyre already in a really tough spot. It tells me that nancy pelosi is concerned or taking care of party unity here because with nixon and clinton there were articles of impeachment that got voted down that did not pass, and it doesnt seem that thats what nancy pelosi wants here. She wants both articles to pass comfortably. Thats right. Twha that i will say the counter argument being offered by progressive members of congress in the caucus, the key here, the reason folks rush to the impeachment around ukraine wasnt the call itself, it was the pattern. The call occurs the morning after mueller testifies to congress. Its a way to codify that pattern of behavior. Im not sure that moderates really will take lets say that you have four articles and theyre allowed to vote no on a few of them, im not sure moderates in this particular case will take that permission structure. I dont think it will change the calculus for them, so from Nancy Pelosis perspective, if youre not going to gain any more votes by including things that are going to get knocked down, its probably better for democrats to just remove the political talking point that youre going to hear from the white house, which is that democrats are not united on impeachment. Theyve been saying that from day one. Democrats are not united. They cant get their entire caucus on board. If you look at the republican side, the president hasnt lost anyone on this, and thats what youre going to hear a lot of if you have a couple of articles that are voted down even by some or even Many Democrats. And a lot of republicans arguing the process rather than defending the president on the substance. I will say justin amash is announcing hes going to be voting for the articles of impeachment. And the fact that hes left the party has allowed republicans to have the fig life theyre unified. In terms of the timing of this and why this has to happen now, chairman of the Judiciary Committee jerry nadler explained that basically the day after as you say Robert Mueller testified in his view, President Trump was at it again, and so here is jerry nadler explaining why he thinks this is urgent. If these becauses abuses go unchecked they will only continue and only grow worse. The president is a continuing threat to that constitution and to our democracy. A continuing threat, abby. Basically what hes saying is that first President Trump willingly invited the help of russia as we all remember, russia, if youre listening, wikileaks, if youre listening, and then courted ukraine three years later and so he thinks that its all part of a pattern. I think Many Democrats do including many members of leadership. You heard nancy pelosi a couple of days ago saying essentially the same thing. This is about a twoyear life span of russian interference in american elections that she believes has been enabled by President Trump. You can make that argument as a rhetorical argument and also as a tool to help you establish the scope and the severity of the problem here. But i think if they do not go forward with the mueller charge, it tells you that they do not believe that from a practical perspective, when youre trying to just get impeachment through, that its helpful to them to include that in the articles. Yeah, and i would just say pull the camera back for a second. Youve got two major issues. One, the Founding Fathers did worry about foreign interference in our elections. Out of all the others in our history, only three others and one didnt get to a vote, this is the one that parallels that particular concern. The other question, its going to be a question of how people are framing this debate for themselves. Do republicans are they willing to say that they would be fine if a democratic president did this to them is this thats the precedent they will be setting with their vote. Were going to hear in just a couple hours right now, the speed with which this is going through now, very, very deliberate. The house in all likely will impeach the president next week. In the meantime, the Inspector General for the Justice Department is debunking a series of conspiracy theories that President Trump and the republicans have been pushing for years. Were going to talk about what this report revealed overnight and this new strange link to the president s daughter. Next. only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. For fast pain relief. What are you doing back there, junior . Since were obviously lost, im rescheduling my Xfinity Customer Service appointment. Ah, relax. I got this. Which gps are you using anyway . A Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. My whole body is a compass. Oh boy. The my account app makes todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Not my thing. President trump and his allies have spent years promoting a Conspiracy Theory that the deep state attempted to derail his 2016 campaign. You run out of quotation marks. Im over using the air quotes. Now the Justice Departments Inspector General has just negated that claim writing in a highly anticipated report that the i. G. Did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decision to open the fbis russia investigation. Joining us Laura Jarrett and josh campbell, cnn correspondent and former fbi spebl agent. Thats why i want to start with you, josh. You are also the author of cross fire hurricane, Donald Trumps war on the fbi which seems quite relevant. I think what theyve found is that the report says the russia probe was legal. It was unbiased, any fbi agent worth his salt when presented with the evidence that was coming their way would have opened an investigation into what George Papadopoulos or carter page was doing. Absolutely, and what you just laid out is what the Inspector General found. Now compare that with what we have heard for over two years from both the president and obviously his allies as well, seemingly a torrent of lies about the fbi, that this was some antitrump, you know, deep state cabal of obama loyalists who weaponized the fbi to go after donald trump to try to bring him down. That has been the narrative that has been repeated over and over and over again. That does not square with what that independent Inspector General came out with saying as you mentioned there was no political bias found inside the fbi. You had fbi agents that stared at the facts at the time. You had people in trump world who had these suspicious ties to russia and they had to look into this and open this investigation. That is vindication for the men and women of the fbi to finally have someone in a high position in government to say these were just lies. I will also point out this is not necessarily a banner day for the fbi. This Inspector General report is damning and scathing in the sense that these fisa abuses that were unearthed, everything from misbehavior to outright abuse, clearly the bureau has to get its house in order. We have an independent body coming out saying this deep state nonsense is just that, nonsense. Well get to the fisa abuses in a moment there. First the lies, they used that word repeatedly because they spewed from the mouth of the president and his allies repeatedly. Listen to this. All of their spying, spying, they actually spied on my campaign. Can you believe it . They were spying. They were spying on our campaign. They were talking about spying on my campaign. Thats a story bigger than watergate as far as im concerned. It wasnt, they werent, and they didnt, and laura, jim baker who was the general counsel at the fbi, were going to have on next hour by the way, has suggested that the president owes the fbi and the American People an apology. Look, their lives have been upended because the president at every opportunity he has, whether its at rallies or from the oval office have said these people were out to get him. He has accused the premier Law Enforcement agency in america of a deep state plot. And its turned out its all not true. I think for folks like baker or even lease isisa page or peter the Inspector General said the Text Messages were bad but none of them were in a position to make decisions alone about this investigation. They werent actually in charge here. There are a whole host of people who have political opinions but they actually werent the ones who opened the investigation in the first place, and more to the point there were actually protrump Text Messages that were uncovered. There is a text message that actually says its a super bowl comeback because he won. That doesnt set aside the fact there were plenty of antitrump Text Messages. The Inspector General said at the end of the day none of them mattered. That was such a great point, there were lots of protrump opinions as well. When peoples personal Text Messages are revealed, sometimes they say personal things that might be embarrassing when theyre revealed. Stop texting me. I have my phone right there. Now to those mistakes. Serious mistakes were made. They had 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions. So was this now that you have read through it, josh, human error . Was this sloppiness . What are those . I think were talking about a spectrum here. You have everything from sloppiness to outright abuse. Theres one instance of an fbi lawyer accused of altering a document. Now theres still a question as to whether the change that was made would have actually impacted this fisa warrant, the application, but nevertheless, that appears to be a crime to actually alter a document that someone is then going to swear in front of a federal judge attesting to its truthfulness, that has to be addressed, and we know that the fbi and Inspector General are obviously looking into those issues. The fbi director, chris wray coming out with a host of sweeping changes in order to try to ensure this type of abuse doesnt happen again. Having been in the fbi, this was inconsistent with my experience inside the fbi. These surveillance warrants are highly scrutinized. Obviously every, you know, fact that is attested to has to be checked, and just to see, again, over 17 different instances of apparent abuse here is really, really damning. But again, the main takeaway today is that has to be rectified. Obviously thats something the fbi is looking into, but that does not square with this political narrative, this Political Campaign of attack against this agency thats been underway for over two years. One last thing, the attorney general of the United States and the u. S. Attorney working for him seemed to try to undercut the main conclusion of this, william barr wrote the Inspector Generals report made clear the fbi launched an intrusive investigation of a u. S. President ial campaign on the thinnest suspicions that in my view were insufficient to justify the steps taken. Thats not what the report says by the way. John durham whos doing this other investigation which includes the Intelligence Agency says based on the evidence collected to date and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General we do not agree with some of the reports conclusions. These statements are unusual to say the least. Unusual and barrs statement is political, right . Weve seen him already defend the president. Weve seen him talk about spying. The durham statement is more eyebrow raising for many people because the investigation is ongoing and hes in charge of it, and he hasnt finished yet. So to come out and say i disagree with hor riowitz but theres more to come is troubling. Laura, josh, thank you very much for all of your expertise. This morning there are fears that the death toll will rise after the eruption of a volcano on a popular tourist island in new zealand. Officials say there are no signs of life. We have a live report on the search for survivors next. Neoglucosamine. Boosts cell turnover by 10 times for instantly brighter skin. Bright boost neutrogena®. The one for you when you know you just know love is her love is him love is us the vera wang love collection designed for zales, the diamond store. Car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Vented now weve created a brand new way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old, we want to buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate, answer a few questions, and our technowizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot, and pick up your car. Thats it. So ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. New developments this morning from the dramatic volcanic eruption off the coast of new zealand. Eight people are still unaccounted for. The eruption on white island, a popular tourist site, left at least six people dead. Officials say there are no signs of life on the island. Cnns will ripley joins us now live in new zealand in front of the cruise ship that had more than 30 passengers touring the island when the volcano erupted. What have you learned . John, this was one of the most popular excursions offered for the ovation of the seas. Its one of the reasons that cruise ships come here so that people can take an adventure and see this active volcano which is visited by thousands of tourists every year. Were learning that in recent weeks there were warnings of increased volcanic activity, and of course that is leading to Big Questions as to why people were allowed not just to go to the island, but to hike right up to the edge of the volcanic crater. 47 people were on this island when the eruption happened, including nine americans, a couple from virginia who were on their honeymoon, both of them severely burned. We also spoke with some of the Cruise Ship Passengers who told us they know a family, a family of four that is still missing. A mother and father and their two teenage daughters. Listen. To think about it, a whole family, two daughters and their parents. Yes, terrible. Shocking. Everything was just blanketed in ash. It was quite an overwhelming feeling, yourn know. There was a helicopter on the island that had also been there at the time. Reporter the tour company that brings people to this privately owned island insists that they have a good safety record. They were actually voted one of the safest places to work in australia last year, and yet some are now saying were tourism dollars put ahead of peoples lives, especially given the fact there had been smoke and steam rising from the surface of this volcano and the description of the injuries of those who survived just horrific because there were people who had just left the island minutes before the eruption. They were on these boats that then turned back to rescue survivors, and they describe people who essentially were hit with highly pressurized steam and ash with their skin falling off barely holding onto their consciousness, and area ho hospitals have been so inundated. They have more burn victims in a single day than new zealand sees in an entire year. Hospitals overwhelmed at this point to try and treat these people. And the death toll with warnings that more people could die because of the fact their burns are so severe. That is so hideous to hear. Please, will, keep us posted on whats happening with the search for survivors and the survivors. Back to the fbi. The fbi says that the saudi gunman who attacked a Naval Air Station in pensacola legally bought that gun used in the attack that killed three u. S. Servicemen last friday. Officials are investigating whether a cyber attack on monday is related to the shooting. Well get more on that. Well have a live report coming up right after the break on that, john. In the meantime, a new stunning statement from the president that is undercut by his own Justice Department, plus, the new statement from the fbi director that debunks another key president ial claim. Were reporters from the new york times. This melting pot of impacted species. Everywhere is going to get touched by Climate Change. Here hold this. Follow that spud. [ tires screech ] the big idaho potato truck is touring america telling folks about idaho potatoes. And i want it back. What is it with you and that truck . Any occasion the perfect coffee occasion. Family brunch just add Ground Coffee for a carafe, or pop in a pod for a freshly brewed cup. Good strong coffee. Our french roast. It was a decaf for you, yes . In your favorite mug. There we go. All right, this morning we expect a major announcement from House Democrats laying out for the first time articles of impeachment against President Trump. But this morning it is the Justice Departments Inspector General report that appears to be consuming President Trump and his allies who continue trying to spin the report as a win, even though it negates a number of their key talking points. The actual report was something of a disaster for the fbi. That was obvious to anyone who actually read it. Everything we have been reporting for years was dead on accurate. We were right every step of the way. The report, as i mentioned to hannity, is a devastating indictment of our fbi and our intel gathering apparatus. Joining us now cnn chief media correspondent ryan stelter and former republican congressman charlie dent. Lets go back to reality world instead of upside down world right now, which is what we just played a montage of. Charlie, when you hear, you know, the talking points from obviously the trump cheerleaders as well as some of your former republican colleagues on capitol hi hill, do they when hannity says everything weve been reporting for years has been dead on accurate, we were right every step of the way, and the report completely negates that, do they believe that . Why are they saying that . No, i mean, thats an absurd statement by sean hannity. You know, look, theyre cherry picking, what theyre doing over there at fox is theyre cherry picking those piece of the report that bolster or support their narrative. Yes, there are problems, Serious Problems with the surveillance warrants for carter page whos an eccentric fellow and is probably owed an apology by the fbi. But on the big question about the origin of the probes, there was no political bias. It was open in a fair manner, and no deep state conspiracy, no coup detat. The president and his supporters owe the rest of us an apology forspreading that nonsense. They dont deal in knnuance d hope their viewers dont either. There was no spying, there was no deep state. There was no political bias. The viewers and the voters wont hear that. Theyll just hear what hannitys saying about that there were some mistakes, not in those categories, and thats it. Right, there are a few cherries to be picked. Its like were living in the worlds grandest experiment for motivated reasoning. Youve got to go back to psychology 101 and what happens when youre so invested in something, you seek out little bits of evidence to confirm your beliefs. Its similar to something called confirmation bias. We are seeing this every single day in the narrative thats promoted to promote the president s political agenda. When youre looking at hannity, it makes more sense when you view it like story telling. Take anything close to journalism of it, its story telling. Hes advancing a story every single night about the president being the victim of a plot. It doesnt have a lot of reality connection to reality, but if you view him as an entertainer, telling a story, it does make sense. He has to keep people obsessed with the story. Thats why hes now calling out the durham probe as the next part of the story. I get it. I know the play book, but the problem is the viewers think theyre getting facts and theyre not getting facts when they hear that. The news continues now, and were reporting, and he uses all these journalism terms. Its not reporting. So obviously as we know, congressman, the president is not fact based. Heres what hes telling his voters and supporters today. This was an overthrow of government. This was an attempted overthrow, and a lot of people were in on it, and they got caught. They got caught red handed. This was before he was elected, so im not sure about the chronology of overthrow of government. What do you hear there, charlie . Well, look, this is really unhelpful and frankly, its destructive to our institutions. There was no overthrow of government. There was no coup. The coup suggests some kind of military takeover is happening. Its crazy to say this sort of thing. What part of this report havent they read . Yeah, they want to beat up on the fbi because of the way they handled surveillance warrants, i guess thats fair. But to suggest that the overall investigation, you know, was driven by political bias, and you know, bad behavior by the fbi simply doesnt speak to reality. Ill tell you what, there is another problem here too. The democrats over the years have been historically critical of the fisa process and the republicans more defensive of it. Im curious to see what congress does about the fisa process going forward. Now to the next Conspiracy Theory thats being peddled and that is as you know, the president and some of his supporters in congress are trying to conflate what russia did in terms of the wide scale top down kremlin supported interference in the 2016 election and an oped from a former Ukrainian Ambassador where they were concerned about candidate donald trump. Here is what the fbi director chris wray said yesterday about this Conspiracy Theory, actually, on december 9th. We have no information that indicates the ukraine interfered with the 2016 president ial electio election. I think its important for the American People to be thoughtful consumers of information, to think about the sources of it. Okay, the fbi says that it wasnt ukraine. But brian, heres the part that i think is interesting. He says i think its important for the American People to be thoughtful consumers of information. Right. Yes, of course it is. They have to use critical thinking. However, hes saying that its going to be up to voters and the people to determine the truth because we cant count on our leaders to give us the real information. And thats at the heart of the problem this digital age. This is something that predates trump and its getting worse in the trump years. We are expected to figure out the truth ourselves. Its all being laid at our hands. Thats incredibly empowering at times and its also incredibly difficult for tens of millions of people who dont know what to believe. As long as there is a president whos leading a Misinformation Campaign to confuse the public, were going to have these problems. People like sean hannity are an outgrowth of that fundamental problem. Hes basically saying dont believe right wing media. This is the trump appointed fbi director saying dont believer trumps friends. You and i talk about this all the time. Its about News Literacy and you have to know the difference between a real journalist and real news program and somebody who is just telling a story and you know, thats where we are right now. Its just getting harder and harder out there every day. I feel for the folks who dont want to have to invest all day long to know what is true all day long. Thank you very much. Ive got to say this, Christopher Wray statements are stunning, and i would be shocked if the president doesnt respond in some way. Meanwhile, a damning new report says for years the u. S. Government has been misleading the public about failures in afghanistan. Were going to talk to an expert who just got back from afghanistan next. If neoglucosamine. Boosts cell turnover by 10 times for instantly brighter skin. Bright boost neutrogena®. That will makeout washington insiders very uncomfortable term limits. You and i both know we need term limits, that congress shouldnt be a lifetime appointment. But members of congress, and the corporations whove bought our democracy hate term limits. Too bad. Im tom steyer and i approve this message because the only way we get universal healthcare, address Climate Change and make our economy more fair is to change business as usual in washington. Seaonly abreva cany to help sget rid of it in. As little as 2 1 2 days when used at the first sign. Abreva starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. Abreva acts on it. So you can too. In connemara. Right connemara it is theres one gift the whole family can share this holiday season, their story. Give the gift of discovery, with an ancestrydna kit. The Philadelphia Eagles with a huge second half comeback to beat eli manning and the giants. Andy scholes has more in the bleacher report. Good morning, alisyn, good game if youre an eagles fan. Eli manning was fill in for the injured daniel jonesin. He looked like he was going to lead the giants to a blowout win over philadelphia. Second quarter, eli finds darius slayton. Giants led this game 173 at the half. The second half a different story. Eagles were able to come back, force overtime and in the extra period carson wentz going to find zach ertz for the game winning touchdown. Eagles win 2317. Giants have now lost nine in a row tieing a team record. The patriots are being investigated by the nfl for inappropriately filming the field and sideline from the browns press box during sundays game between the bengals and the browns in cleveland. The bengals are the patriots next opponent. They were the ones to make the investigation known. The patriots in a statement said the crew was at the game to film a scout as a part of their web series called do your job. The team added in that statement, while we sought and were granted credential access from the Cleveland Browns for the video crew, our failure to inform the bengals and the league was an unintended oversight. Heres what Bill Belichick had to say about the situation on his weekly radio show. We had absolutely nothing to do with anything they produce, direct, or shoot or anything. Ive never even seen any of their tapes or anything else. This is something that we 100 have zero involvement with. And when questioned, the crew immediately turned over all footage with the league and cooperated fully. After spy game 2007, john, anytime you hear inappropriate filming and the patriots people immediately become suspicious. This does all seem to be like an innocent mistake. I cant imagine why anyone would suspect the patriots of anything ever andy. I will suggest maybe they should just do away with the av department. Stop filming anything. I appreciate it. This morning President Trump appears to be one week away from becoming just the third president in u. S. History to be impeached, so how did he get here . A new book out today suggests it might be the people who are not around him. At least anymore. Joining us now is Cnn National Security analyst peter bergen, the author of the new book trump and his generals, the cost of chaos. Its out today. Inside it you talk about the july 25th phone call. That is where President Trump asked president zelensky of ukraine to investigate the bidens. This is what you write, you write by now on july 25th the axis of adults had all long moved on, either because they were forced out or because they had resigned on principle, and trump had surf roerounded himse with yes men. The danger was jumped scored by what became the greatest threat to his presidency, that july 25th phone call. What difference might general john kelly, general mcmaster, general mattis, what difference might they have made had they still worked at the administration on july 25 . I mean, they had a history of disagreeing with the president on matters of policy. I mean, john kelly himself said during his exit sort of interview with the president , you know, try not to get a yes man. You might get impeached. This is john kellys own approach to it. I think the combination to his credit, john bolton who was then the National Security adviser did push back on this phone call, but the point is if you go back to 2017, there was a much Stronger Group of people. These are very impressive guys, h. R. Mcmaster, jim mattis, john kelly. Theyre competent people like mark esper the defense secretary, but theyre not really going to stand up to trump and hes sort of unplugged and weve seen the results. What did these generals think of the president overall . Because you write about moments that seem like out of body experiences. One has to do with south korea and its capital seoul and meetings the president had repeatedly about the north korea, south korea conflict. Trump remarked why is seoul so close to the north korean border. Trump was regularly briefed that north korea possessed trump saud they have to move, the officials in the oval office werent sure if trump was joking. Trump repeated they have to move. I think they just tuned this stuff out. Trump makes a lot of these kinds of comments. Is he joking . Is he serious . Its hard to tell. But over time i think these things began to accumulate, and also, it wasnt just a matter of trumps kind of way of approaching things that the military wasnt happy about, they disagreed on substance whether it was the blockade of gas rich gutter, whether it was staying in the iran deal, the whole range of things, staying in the nato that the generals were in favor of. One of the reasons trump needed the generals in the beginning is of course hes the first president in American History not to have served in Public Office or the military. He needed their experience. He needed to know how to move the levers of power. He recruited some pretty bright guys. One of the reasons they were all military guys, the military another not supposed to take political positions. They were available, but none of them knew trump personally, you know, none of them even knew people who knew trump, you know. So there was very little kind of real relationship there at the beginning. A hollywood luike view of wht u. S. Generals were about. I do want to ask you, this is something of a riflt also, the generals per se have been more supportive or have had a different view of u. S. Policy in afghanistan towards the president who has always been skeptical. The Washington Post put out this bombshell report suggesting that over three administrations the situation in afghanistan has been publicly misrepresented and has been much worse and the people there knew it was much worse all along and testified to such in briefings. You were just there last week. What do you make of all of this . The military a can do organization, and theyre always going to put the best gloss on things. One of the things i recount in the book is the knock down fights in the situation room about what to do in afghanistan. Trump was skept cal, steve bannon was also very skeptical, hr mcmaster the National Security adviser arguing for more troops for a longer term commitment. In the end h. R. Mcmaster won that fight. Tlifs last week and you have to travel around in an armored car its not like you can walk in restaurants, hotels. Its worse than it was. It is worse than it was. That said half the population can now have a job. Half of them can be educated. For aull the things that have gone wrong, and this report in the post is very disturbing, the fact is that afghanistan is in a much better plaince than it was when we invaded. In the book, incredibly relevant and focuses on many issues in the news every day these weeks, great to have you, and congratulations. Thank you, john. Alisyn. John, youll enjoy this. Republican lawyer steve castor made a real impression at mondays impeachment hearing, but it was not for what he said. Here are your late night laughs. Castors demean throughout this whole thing was that of a guy who knew he was fighting a battle. Instead of keeping his he showed up with his papers in a Grocery Store tote bag. Look at that. Its luike he forgot about the hearing until the last minute and had to find what was lying around his house. I bet there was one piece of paper at the top of that bag and the rest was organic produce. And then trump made the most important statement of his presidency. People are flushing toilets ten times, 15 times. Ten times . People are flushing toilets 15 times . Are they trying to get rid of a body . I dont understand who in the world needs to flush 15 times. Okay, yeah, that checks out. Yeah. Okay. I tell you, there were great laugh lines during the hearing yesterday all throughout the day. I dont think they played it for comedic effect, but they could have rngt. A major announcement on impeachment. New day continues right now. Articles of impeachment will be unveiled after a contentious day. One article on abuse of power and another on obstruction of congress. Its a disgraus ce to our country. Its a hoax. The long awaited doj r Inspector General report undercuts two years of President Trumps conspiracy theories. Im not going to accept that politics is not part of it. For two years the president of the United States accused our premier Law Enforcement agency of treason. That was all lies. This is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this new day, and we kbbegin with breakg news. In two hours House Democrats will unveil the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Cnn has learned there will be at least two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. Democrats are reportedly still divided about bringing a third article of impeachment related to the Mueller Report. So whats next . Well, were told that a Judiciary Committee vote will take place by the end of the week with a full house vote on impeachment next week. Right, and the impeachment inquiry is not the only investigation consuming washington. The final report from the Justice DepartmentInspector General found that the fbi did not spy on the 2016 Trump Campaign and that the russia investigation was justified and unbiased. That debunks years of trump conspiracy theories, but that hasnt stopped the president or husband allies from dus toistor the facts. It comes as President Trump meets with russias foreign minister at the white house. We have