Thank you. Jim acosta chief White House Correspondent has scoop on this whistleblower complaint. Jim what do you have . Reporter well, brooke, one of the things weve been looking forward to is release of this whistleblower complaint something that white house officials have been telling us was on its way. You know, in addition to the release of this transcript of this phone call, this white house transcript of this phone call between the president and president zelensky of ukraine we were going to see presumably the whistleblower complaint. Now, were we going to see all of the complaints . That wasnt exactly clear. Were there going to be classified portions redacted . Possibly that was something that would be a applicating factor in all this for the public to find out exactly what went on. From what we understood talking to our sources, white house Intelligence Authority going through a declassification process for essentially this complaint to be revealed to congress by tomorrow. Because as you know, Joseph Maguire, acting director of National Intelligence was supposed to testify and talk to congress about all of this tomorrow and presumably hs we wd have that complaint to look at to testify to congress exactly what went on. Now, why is all of this important . Flash back to last week when the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community went to the House Intelligence Committee and essentially said his hands were tied and that the administration was not allowing this to happen. Flash forward to yesterday and, you know, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi essentially threatens to impeach the president and all of a sudden the transcript is coming out and all of a sudden were finding out this was a complaint that might come soon after. Sounds as though what we did not know about going on behind the scenes is that there was some drama regarding Joseph Maguire, acting director of National Intelligence according to the Washington Post, really upset that the administration was trying to hold him back and keeping him from saying exactly what he wants to say to lawmakers. Now, brooke, heres the big question in all of this. The president was just essent l essentially stomping his feet with the president of ukraine a few moments ago insisting he applied no pressure on zelensky. I cant count um times it was a beautiful call, a perfect call they didnt do anything wrong. He didnt do anything wrong. If thats the case, why so much drama surrounding release of this call transcript and so much drama surrounding release of this whistleblower complaint . That will be one of the questions for the president were me walks into this News Conference. No problem, no there, there, why are you not releasing this information to the public. Jim, thank you. Stand by. Up to capitol hill to rmanu raj. Reporter republican senators saying it will happen this afternoon and the first chance to look at this whistleblower clant this afternoon according to senator john cornyn of texas. Topic of discussion internally at a closed door lunch earlier today. Also senator Lindsey Graham indicated that the senate Intelligence Committee members would get a chance to look at this as well. We do expect that the House Intelligence Committee would review this at the same time. Now, ultimate question is how much of this will be publicly releasened and the membersble able to say, how much, afterwards. New reporting where things are going on the impeachment front, plays into how democrats plan to move forward on impeachment. Nancy pelosi made clear to her members she wants to keep the focus on the impeachment focus narrowly looking at the issue of ukraine. The whistleblower complaint. How the president handled this phone call, the transcript. They believe thats the clearest message they can dliv herb eliv American Public what is wrongdoing by this president. The allegations of obstruction of justice laid out in the Mueller Report, while still an issue to focus on by committees at large, the ininvestigation to consider, articles of impeachment looking at more specifically on what happened with ukraine. Why its so significant that this whistleblower complaint will be delivered to capitol hill this afternoon, because ultimately depending oun democrats draft arms of impeachment. A debate how broadly to draft those articles of impeachment how quickly to move and focus, move as quickly as this fall to move on impeaching this president making third in history to be impeached but this whistleblower complaint will only add fuel to the fire if it is confirmed some of the democrats suspicions. See how republicans react. Looking at the transcript, republicans are defending this president. They are. Manu, thank you so much. And to you on all right. Goes to senate intel this afternoon. House gets to take a look. We dont know when the rest of the world will get to see this thing, but what would you be looking for . So i think there are a number of things they should look for including the fact that its been publicly reported its not just july 25 not just President Trump talking to zelensky. So i would be looking for what else is in there . Frankly looking at who else could be witnesses that the committee can call. Weve already talked about a number of folks at the state department, office of managements and budget but a lot of pieces are here i think the complaint can hopefully help to connect the dots a little bit. And also listening to manu talking about nancy pelosi, jotted down the note, narrowly look at issue of ukraine. Talking to jen rogers, former federal prosecutors, yes, brooke, keep it tight to go fast. Yes. I agree and unlike the russia investigation, we already know a lot of the pieces, and a lot of the people working in the United States government. So it will be, in my opinion, very hard for them to say, no. The person who works at the state department, who Rudy Giuliani talked to cannot come in as a witness. Yeah, i think tighter they keep it better and quicker it can go. Interesting if they rein it in to just this, because yesterday when nancy pelosi came out she announced a formal impeachment inquiry questions in the would us were, well, whats different . She essentially said the Six Committee chairman were already investigating the president for different aspects and would continue their work but under the um bbrella of a formal impeachmeimpeach ment inquiry. Would that make them more successful with subpoenas and enforcing them in court if they rein it into this small area that could change that and make it more effective when democrats argue they need to insert people in courts. Thats what the White House Office and the legal team will look at if they to do that. Back to jim acourt ta. Rouse reaction to this Washington Post piece on Joseph Maguire threatening to resign if he cant testify freely in front of congress. What are they saying . Reporter right, brooke. A quick update. The White House Press secretary Stephanie Grisham posted a tweeted saying about the Washington Post story, this is actually not true. We would have gone on the record to say that if the Washington Post had given us more than six minutes literally to respond. That is the only response at this point coming from the White House Press secretary. In reaction to this Washington Post story. Which if its accurate as being reported now suggests that there is a very serious schism inside the administration to have the director of National Intelligence, acting director, you guys pointed out, to be so up in arms over this threatening to resign, thats a very, very big story in the middle of this complicating the issue whether or not the whistleblower complaint will be released anytime soon. To anybodys satisfaction. You mentioned a schism within the white house. Talking, kaitlan and i all had reporting from a couple days ago in the midst of this, there was already a white house divided over this issue of ukraine. I remember one of the quotes from one of your notes on this is like, this is a huge deal versus weve seen this movie before. This is mueller ii. It shows that not everyones on the same page over at the white house. Reporter right. No question about it. There are trump advisers deeply worried about this earlier in the week. Saying that this is a serious issue for us. Pointing to the fact, and weve seen it over the last 48 to 72 hours. The president admitting that he put pressure on the ukraine president to go after joe biden. Hes now dialed that back. The president bidding yesterday he did hold up the aid to ukraine but saying it was because of corruption reasons and the reason of europeans not doing enough to chip in to help ukrainians in their fight against russian aggression. No question about it, there have been concerns inside the president s circle of aides, advisers, outside advisers and so on. I talked to one yesterday evening, who said, yes, the president is concerned about being impeached and may act publicly this is the best thing thats ever happened to him. You heard him say sitting down with zelensky his poll numbers are going up but privately hes said to people hes concerned about this and where it might be heading. Thats whats going to be so interesting watching this. Because this was not supposed to the highlight of the president s time here at this summit. Now that it has become the central focus is completely overshadowed essentially everything. Not just because of media speculation or democratic criticism. The president himself addressed ukraine essentially every day at the start of his meetings with these world leaders. That is something to watch doing this and what exactly does the president say, how they respond, if the president gets a question about the acting dni and what his position on all of this is. We are going to continue to see the president insist i didnt do anything wrong. The question will be once than complaint comes out what is said after that. One quick point on the acting dni. The fact the complaint is going to the Intelligence Committees before the acting dni talks to the committee tomorrow, theyre going to have a lot more information when they question him. Than they would have otherwise. I think that this is in part potentially why were seeing the Washington Post story. Hes going to be on the hot seat definitely even if they dont publicly release information, the Committee Members will know it, have it and a very different conversation than if they know nothing. I want to point out that we have three committees that have threatened to subpoena people at the state department if pompeo doesnt turn over documents to them they requested regarding Rudy Giuliani and his dealings with ukraine by the end of day tomorrow. This is going on and also folks at the state department having to decide how theyre going to react to this request of this vast amount of documents that these committees have asked for and how theyre going to move forward there. Also we know theres considerations for asking secretary of state mike pompeo to come up and testify on this subject. Were going to see plenty more Top Administration officials involved in this i think. To your point reminding every just tuning in, dana barberingibarbering ibarbering barberinging you back. Joseph maguire director of National Intelligence, acting director. Make your point about maguires statement just 24 hours ago how that perhaps foreshadowed this scoop. Right. Looking couldnt because im trying to find it to quote from it. Appropriately. I have it now. He said in this Statement Last night, which is pretty rare to have this kind of statement from a dni acting or not, particularly in the middle of this this situation that we have now. He made a point of saying, cryptically that maybe now we understand how the sworn oath to the constitution, 11 ive swon an oath 11 times in my public servicened view it as a covenant with every american i will discharge my duties of the office and went on to say at the end, i look forward to continuing to work with the administration and doing, also said, doing whats right to protect the whistleblowers. You know, i dont know if its a cry for help now in retrospect or more of him signals to the public and congress, trying to do this here but im in a tough spot, and as our colleagues at the table pointed out, he is acting. He is the guy who was left holding the potato at the office of dni, and so hes trying to navigate this incredibly difficult situation where you do have a law that protects whistleblowers, but also a law that never intended for the whistleblower to be blowing the whistle on the president of the United States. It makes it very murky. Okay. Dana, thank you very much. As we, this conversation is dominated not only the u. N. , the nation, a number of democrats supporting impeachment ticks up to march than 200. There are 235 total democrats which means about 30 are still not onboard. One of them is with me now. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia from texas. Congresswoman, pleasure. Welcome. Thank you for having me. You are not only a member of congress, youre a lawyer, former judge, member of the house judiciary committee, supposed to oversee these impeachment proceedings and even before i ask you about impeachment, just whats your reaction to the breaking news regarding the acting director of National Intelligence, the Washington Post reporting that Joseph Maguire threatenened to resign over concerns the white house might try to just get him to Stonewall Congress . What do you make of that, congresswoman . Women, you know, nothing surprises me anymore unfortunately this white house is more about stonewalling and ordering people not to testify, ordering people not to appear and doing everything they can to cover up some of their activities that nothing surprises me anymore. Is that a bad thing . What . Of course, its a bad thing. You know. Shouldnt we be surprised . These are extraordinary times. It is. How many times have yall had the same breaking news . Because something breaks every second, almost. Yeah. For me its like even the acting director said. You know, i, too, have sworn and oath of office for over 12 times in my 25 years of service. So i know what that oath says. We are to protect the laws of this country, and thats what this is all about. Its about the constitution, its about National Security. Its ash the heart of our democracy. Its not about this president. Its not about any president. Its about the constitution and the rule of law. Right. So i read a quote from you yesterday saying that you were leaning towards impeachment, now that youve read this transcript, congresswoman, where do you stand . I need to see the full unredacted complaint and i need the full, you know, every letter version, not someones interpretation. This is not a the whistleblower complaint . Well, no. Correct. The whistleblower complaint. Would love to see the whistleblower and hear directly from him or her and i look forward to seeing what the acting director does say tomorrow. I hope they dont block him from coming to us and ill leave that up to the Intel Committee to decide what to do if he does not come, or that we dont, they dont get to see the full hearing on the complaint itself. You know, i mention there are 200 plus democrats who are already sort of over that fence. They are in favor of this impeachment inquiry. Since youre not quite there, curious, are they reaching out to you . Lets be clear. Ive never said im not for the inquiry. Ive not made a decision whether to impeach or not. Obvious obviously, theres no articles no. No impeachment inquiry. I dont want to put the horse before the cart. Exactly. I dont want to do that ive been in judiciary since before the summer break with the chairman when announced and in support of all other inquire irs. The inquiry and formal investigation were doing on this very one issue is very critical and may just be the last straw. Because if everything true im going to be ready to support impeachment, period. No one should accept the fact that this president talked to the ukraine president and asked him to, the transcript is clear. He says, i need a favor. He talks about what, all the work we do and things we do for the ukraine government and then says, oh, and look at this thing about joe bidens son. Which is all fabrication. So you look at all of those things and its easy. You dont have to be a judge or a lawyer to figure that out. Someones asking for a favor, and its political . And to get dirt on an opponent is unacceptable, outrageous and we should not stand for it. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia. Appreciate your perperspective. Moments from now were expecting that whistleblowers complaint to be delivered to capitol hill. The moment President Trump is holding a News Conference. Stay with us for live coverage at the breaking news continues to unfold. Well be right back. Dealing with Psoriatic Arthritis pain was so frustrating. My skin. It was embarrassing. My joints. They hurt. The pain and swelling. The tenderness. The psoriasis. I had to find something that worked on all of this. I found cosentyx. Now, watch me. Real people with active Psoriatic Arthritis are getting real relief with cosentyx. Its a different kind of targeted biologic. Cosentyx treats more than just the joint pain of Psoriatic Arthritis. It even helps stop further joint damage. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms. If your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if youve had a vaccine or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. I got real relief. I got clearer skin and feel better. 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First through the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, and then the congressional Intelligence Committees house and senate, which can act upon it. The statute does not permit the dna to second guess the Inspector Generals determination of anything complaint he finds to be credible. At no point in the history of this law has a dni ever refused to turn over a whistleblowers complaint that has been found by the i. G. As credible. Refusing to do this is a violation of the law. Our National Security depends on this framework. This vote today is about more than just any one president. This resolution is about the preservation of our american system of government. Once we pass this resolution, and i acknowledge that we are joining the senate which passed it without objection yesterday, unanimously, once we pass this resolution, the dni will be faced with a choice to honor his responsibility to help preserve our republic or to break the law. This resolution passed by unanimous consent, i repeat, in the senate. Every member democratic and republican should join us in passing this in the house. While we await the release of a full complaint, we reiterate our call for release of the full transcript of the call between President Trump and the ukrainian president and reiterate our call to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. I urge bipartisan vote to defend our National Security, and to protect our democracy, and yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. Gentleman from ohio. Reserve balance of my time. Living to Speaker Pelosi talking about the whistleblower clant. We know from reporting here at cnn that complaint is being delivered to the senate how committee this afternoon and the question is when the other members of congress will be able to get a look at it and perhaps the rest of us. Also moments away from a News Conference for President Trump this afternoon and release of that whistleblower complaint that in part sounded the alarm on President Trump pressuring a foreign power to investigate his political rival, joe biden. The president at the center of that call, the ukrainian president met moments ago in front of many cameras insisting no pressure on that phone call that happened end of jum but the transcript shows this was anything but a nothing call. At one point President Trump tells ukraines newly elected leader the u. S. Has been very, very good to ukraine, adding that the generosity was not reciprocated. So president zelensky responds by thanking trump for defense spor support before saying ukraine wants to buy more antitank missiles from the u. S. Prompting this responsefromPresident Trump. He said, id ike to do us a favor, though. Afave irincluding investigating a u. S. Security firm called crowdstrike and investigating joe biden son. The president promised to connect ukraines president to his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and the attorney general of the United States bill barr. Cnn legal analyst counsel to the assistant attorney general of National Security and the chief counsel for the house judiciary democrats during the clinton impeachment. So thank you both for being with me, and starting with you, you know, this is not a verbatim transcript. In reading this today, do you see a smoking gun . I think its pretty close to a smoking gun and i think that combined with the fact that the director of National Intelligence getting, the acting directing getting ready to tender his resignation if he couldnt provide the whistleblower information is sort of a house of cards thats starting to fall around the administration. I think its not inevitable were going to see an Impeachment Vote in the house of representatives but i think the center of gravity has now gone away from a decisive unlikely impeachment to a possible if not probable impeachment. And i think the idea that the administration can give, and trump can give a benevolent explanation of the phone call with the ukrainian president is, i just think that dog is not going to hunt. Close to a smoking gun as you get. Hearing the president jumping in, there was no pressure during the bilart rteral a couple minu ago. So trump brings up the attorney generals name several times on this call. Still cnn learned there was never any consideration he would recuse himself from handling this issue. So do you think he should ask is there a conflict of interest, as he is head of doj and doj is handling the whistleblower complaint . Part of the answer to that question depends on what the president said in his conversation with the ukrainian president , if its true. Whether or not the president actually was discussing this issue with the attorney general or whether he just said that in the conversation, and i think we need to understand more about the behindthescenes conversations between the president and the attorney general to better understand that. But bill barr has said hes conducting an inquiry into the origins of the russia investigation. So its very plausible that it could fall under that category. But i think the bigger issue between the two is that the heart of public corruption is the melding of official duties, carrying out officials acts, for personal benefit. And so what the president , what this phone call summary shows is that the president is using the instruments of the u. S. Government, his Foreign Policy rule, the attorney general of the United States for purposes of his own political gain, and that is public corruption. What about if i could add. Please. Add to that. I think youre very right and proper to caution us in terms of not reading too much into the doj rule nap is a benevolent read you gave the administration tried to put out there. Looking at the context of the conversation it appears very possible that trump is trying to involve the department of justice in an investigation into biden. It thats the case this takes on a nixonian quality. The pieces of the puzzle of coming together in a negative way for the administration. That said, its very important for democrats no the ta appear political here, not to appear gleeful or anxious. The story of the 1998 impeachment against clinton was hang on one second. Forgive me. Weve got to listen in to the president. A fantastic meeting. Se head, no pressure no nothing. Its all a hoax. I call it a hoax and a continuation of the witchhunt and thats all faded, all gone, and they had to come up with something else. Same place, adam schiff, all the same players and now nancy pelosi forced into a position that she didnt want to be in and unfortunately wasnt tough enough to stop it. So thank you very much, everybody. I think were going to be doing the News Conference in a little while, and that will be the end. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. President and the press thank you. All right. We wanted to dip in, because obviously we knew reporters would shout questions. He doubled down what he said with zelensky a minute ago. There was no pressure and familiar words to all of us in calling this a hoax and witchhunt, et cetera. You were making a point. You want to nash . The point i was making the story of impeachment in 1987 is republicans over playing their hand on a case ultimately public didnt believe. The Mueller Report story was democrats overplaying their hand in terms of russian collusion in a way that the report ultimately didnt back up and i think democrats and a lot of the media lost credibility on going out on the impeachment question on the Mueller Report. Its very important for democrats to look at those two lessons and not overplay their hand, not look too political, look methodical trying to gets the facts and tone down rhetoric reaching out to undecideds and republicans. Even hope to this is a very damning set of information thats come out in the last 48 hours democrats have to play it very, very carefully at this point. Theres a lot of connections between the information thats in the Mueller Report and what is happening, revealed by this conversation between the president and the ukrainian president. What the connections is that the Mueller Report documented that the 2016 trump campaigns efforts and interest and openness to receiving Foreign Government assistance in order to win an election. And what we now know is that in the summer of 2019, the president is doing the same thing in this case hes not just willing to be on the receiving end he is soliciting the assistants of a Foreign Government to dig up dirt on a political opponent. So the Mueller Report was a warning for what is actually transpiring in the present. Let me jump in. Hang on one second. Were actually off the breaking story in the Washington Post. I want you to respond. Getting a statement from Joseph Maguire, acting dni. According to the post last couple of minutes who wanted to testify freely in front of congress, and didnt want the white house to try to stonewall. This is what Joseph Maguire has said. At no time have i considered resigning my position since assuming this role august 16, 2019. I have never quit anything in my life and not starting now. I am committed to leading the Intelligence Committee to address the diverse and complex threats facing our nation. Disputing the reporting. Your response, carey . What were seeing in the last 24 or so hours from the acting director of National Intelligence is an assertion of his independence. So he issued a statement yesterday indicating that he was working with the administration and congress, almost placing a little bit of distance between himself and the administration with which he is a part, and now it looks like he is going to be testifying tomorrow before congress and so this statement i think this continues his assertion of independence that he is not going to go down with this ship. He has a reputation to preserve. He is going to try to do the right thing by the community and so it will be really interesting to see how forthcoming he is in his testimony tomorrow. 30 seconds. Close us out. Final thoughts from you . I think in the nixon impeachment episode, the director of the irs, bucked president nixon in what appears to be a similar way in which the acting director may be starchdistarchd istarchd standing up to the white house here. This is cartoonist, meeting mr. Magoo and the buffoonery of it where President Trump is actually soliciting foreign intervention in our election the very day after mueller testifies on capitol hill, in which the administration in a fullthroated way saying we never sought collusion. A cartoonish quality to this. Thank you both so much for your insight, again, reminder to all of you, awaiting a News Conference to begin with President Trump and also this release of the whistleblower complaint. Also Anderson Cooper and jake tapper host a special latenight wrap up with all the headlines from washington. Cnn special report the impeachment inquiry live tonight at 11 00 eastern on cnn. Im your cat. Ever since you brought me home, that day. Ive been plotting to destroy you. 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Underwhelmings if youre looking for a circumstance where the president of the United States was threatening the ukraine with cutting off aid unless they investigate his political opponent, you would be very disappointed nap does not exist. So from my point of view to impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane. And senator mitt romney took a different tone. Theres just the question of, i said this in my first reaction, which is, if the president of the United States asks or presses the leader of a foreign country to carry out an investigation of a political nature thats troubling, and i feel that and so if there were a quid pro quo that takes it to an entirely more extreme level. And corporaler congresswoman from yuutautah, nice to have yo back. You heard your state senator, mitt romney what he said there. Troubling. Do you think others in your party will follow suit . The conversation was troubling. Anytime you ask an entity to investigate whats going on in the United States it opens up a whole can of worms and is a National Security issue. Republicans are looking for if there was a quid pro quo. If there was any evidence that the president withheld Financial Support aid to ukraine in exchange for looking into a political opponent, and i think that the reason why the president said, well, my conversation was perfect, is because he knew he was being very careful about the conversation. So i dont see the problem democrats have now is, theyre not going to be able to get any republican support and also put a lot up there, democrats that are in swing districts on record. So thats going they have to be very careful how thats going to actually effe lly affect the house. What will it take . How great would the pressure have to be for every republican to have to respond to this . I think if there was any evidence he withheld, he used his seat to withhold funding from ukraine in order to get information on his political opponents or even in order to get anything, any personal gain from this would warrant impea impeachment. The whistleblower, theyre not as concerned about the whistleblowers comments as they are with the transcript. They wanted the transcript more than anything, and the fully unredacted, complete transcript i think is actually going to be more beneficial than the Third Party Complaint of the whistleblower. What do you make listening to Lindsey Graham. The becoming cliche, if this was president obama, flip the script . I can only imagine, congresswoman love, the reaction from these republicans. Yes. You know, Lindsey Graham has been supportive of the president , you know, i have not been an apologist for the president. Again, im looking for ways that looking for a connection of quid pro quo. I do think that there are republicans out there that believe that the conversation itself was inappropriate. And that he even though he said he didnt pressure the foreign minister said that he didnt feel pressure, that there was obviously an act there th that that probably shouldnt have happened. Last question for you. Cindy mccain made news saying on a podcast released today the Republican Party is not longer the party that my husband and i belong to. She wasnt specifically talking about what were discussing, this ukraine controversy or President Trump, but speaking about the party in arizona. Your reaction . Well, my reaction to that is that, you know, i hope that she would look at these things and say, you know, im not led by one person in the white house, that you hold people accountable to the principles and platform we believe in. I know thats what i do, and you call people out when they do something wrong. You dont leave the party. You keep the party and keep the integrity of the party. That means you have to step away from the president sometimes. You have to call out when something is wrong. So i will continue to do that. And i hope that other republicans will do the same thing and be completely honest and open instead of following blindly one person. Because people will let you know. The platform is written and you have something you can actually hold people accountable to need that from everyone. Yes. Left and the right. Congresswoman mia love, thank you. Thank you. Much more breaking news ahead. President trump speaks live and this whistleblower complaint is about to be delivered to congress. Well be right back. I get it all the time. Have you lost weight . Of course i have ever since i started renting from national. Because national lets me lose the wait at the counter. And choose any car in the aisle. And i dont wait when i return, thanks to drop go. At national, i can lose the wait. And keep it off. 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My next guest is a constitutional law professor at the university of north carolina. Michael garhart is author of the federal impeachment process and considered a modern authority on the subject. So thank you for joining me today. Thank you. I saw in may of 17 you wrote an oped, considering impeachment, question mark, slow down. And but today we see the president explicitly ask a Foreign Government to help in investigating a political rival. The question to you is, is that an impeachable abuse of powner your opinion . It could well be. The point of that earlier article and i appreciate you looking at it was that i thought calls for impeaching President Trump was too soon. Impeachment is depending on factfinding and that is what the speaker is asking for, factfinding and investigations on the recent instance, the talk with the president of ukraine but that talk as weve read about it so far seems to be very disturbing. Doesnt matter whether there is a quid pro quo, hes asking a foreign leader to help him defeat a political rival. Thats something that is quite inconsistent with our separation of powers and it is not appropriate for the president , that is an abuse of power. Another piece of this conversation is about the public. I know youve written about the importance of the Public Confidence in the gravity of pursuing impeachment. I want to play something that stood out to me from when Speaker Pelosi was being interview interviewed yesterday. This is about the constitution of the United States. And we have many other, shall we say, candidates for Impeachable Offense in terms of the constitution. But this one is the most understandable by the public. The most understandable by the public. Do you think the past week or really the past 48 hours, michael, feels different than, say, the revelations from the Mueller Report in the public eye . I think it does. I think it feels different because first we have the transcript, were getting more concrete data about this than we are about the self i the selfdealing the president is engaging in and this is involving foreign affairs. President is talking to another National Leader but not talking about american interests but goes back in the conversation to his own political needs and to what will help him politically. That is very different. That is pretty much the essence of the corruption the impeachment process was designed to address. Of the other three president s who faced impeachment inquiry, andrew johnson, richard nixon, bill clinton, do any of them offer any lessons or Cautionary Tales of how lawmakers should proceed . Well, if both nixon with nixon more than with johnson and clinton, the house did engage in factfinding and so did the senate. That factfinding too took two years. Im not sure we have that much time in the current circumstances and that factfinding takes time. The thing about nixon which may be helpful to remember is he had two impeachment articles proved against him by the house judiciary committee, one involved a president s refusal to comply with subpoenas and this president has refused to comply with a lot of subpoenas. Another article approved against nixon charging women he char go offer his political enemies and here we have the president asking a foreign leader to help go after one of his political enemies. So if anything it sounds worse than what weve seen before. Sure. I have a feeling you and i are going to be talking again. Michael gerhart, i appreciate you very much. Thank you for coming on and a reminder any moment now well see President Trump at that podium in new york holding a News Conference in the midst of the scandal involving his phone call with the ukrainian president back from july. Well take that live. Youre watching cnn. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with breaking news in the politics lead. We are in day two of what well could end up proving to be a Long National nightmare. Any moment President Trump is expected to take questions from reporters as the threat of impeachment hangs over his presidency. We are entering a moment in history. Today the white house released a rough transcript of the july 25th phone call in which President Trump clearly asked ukrainian president zelensky to work with jg with giuliani and with with william barr. And the ukrainian prosecutor said there is no evidence that biden did anything wrong. The context of the president s call, mr. Trump was holding up hundreds of millions dollars in military aid to ukraine that he needed to fight off russian aggression. So much of what we do know about the scandal has already been admitted by the president or by Rudy Giuliani or stated out in the open. Sitting with zelensky this afternoon the president attacked hunter biden noting that zelensky is noted for anticorruption and brought up the aid that the u. S. Is now providing ukraine. When bidens son walks away with millions of dollars from ukraine and he knows nothing and theyre paying him millions of dollars, that is corruption. I think that is a horrible thing. I think high school a horrible thing. Weve put up a lot of money. He gave you antitank