House intel and oversight committees. You are the perfect person to speak to this morning. Good morning. Good morning. Okay. About an hour and a half from now, your committee will be meeting with, as we said, the ambassador gordon sunland. He, i think, we should note is not a Disinterested Party he gave a Million Dollars to President Trumps inauguration. How does your committee begin taeblging someone like this . I think mr. Sondland is at the heart of what appears to be a Pressure Campaign by the president to get the ukrainian leader to basically manufacture dirt on a political rival. And as you mentioned in the Text Messages, mr. Sondland appears to be essentially saying, you know, call me whenever somebody asks him, are we conditioning military aid on investigations . He doesnt want to talk about it over text message. Hed rather verbally tell whoever is texting him that, you know, lets talk about this offline which raises the question, you know, why . Why does he want to do that . And what exactly is the Pressure Campaign thats being waged against the ukrainian leader . When he does spell something out in a text message as we saw on september 19th, what he does is parrots the president s talking points, basically word for word. And we know from reporting in the New York Times that he spoke to the president before he released the text message or before he, i guess, sent the text message to that other envoy where he basically says, no, there was no quid pro quo. What if he just takes that route in todays interview and just continues to parrot the president s party line . Of course, a quid pro quo is not necessary for, you know, committing a crime in this instance of soliciting or asking assistance from a foreign power to interfere in our elections or to give campaign assistance. But regardless, i think on the next day, the ambassador im sorry, mr. Taylor, the charge affair for ukraine, said i think that we should not be conditioning aid on investigation. This sounds crazy to me and he does say what you mention in terms of parrotting talking points. And then he said lets take this offline again. So i think that to, again, another question mark about what exactly is going on. Well, yesterday, as i understand it, the Deputy Assistant secretary of state george cant was supposed to appear but didnt appear . So im wondering, are you having trouble getting people to agree to meet their appearances . Well, its always a challenge with regard to getting Trump Administration officials to show up for depositions and hearings, but in this particular case, weve already talked to other officials, including mr. Volcker last week and, of course, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Committee twice. He is a trump appointed official. That being said, lets hope that, you know, mr. Sondland appears, as well as ms. Ivanovic later on this week. Public pressure is mounting as you mentioned before, and answers, you know, need to be had at this point. Two whistleblowers have now come forward, not to the public, of course, but at least to their lawyers. There is an effort to try to keep their identity secret, despite the fact the president is demanding to know who the whistleblowers are. Are you worried that if your Committee Meets with one of the whistleblowers that someone on your committee, perhaps congressman devin nunes, would tell the white house about this . And the reason i single out devin nunes is we remember in march 2017, he did report intelligence information to the white house that he wasnt supposed to be, you know, communicating to them. So are you worried about him doing that again . Were in an extremely unusual situation as you mentioned before, which is that the president essentially wants to know the identity of the whistleblower. And quite frankly, based on his statements, appears to want to retaliate against the whistleblower and wants to discourage that person, him or her, from telling their story to the american people. In light of that, at this point, we have to take extreme precautions to make sure that we protect his or her identity and allow them to tell their story. Im hoping that we can entrust every member of the committee with, you know, this extremely secret information, if it ever were disclosed to anyone. That being said, in this particular instance, i think we should take every precaution necessary to make sure nobody on the committee knows the identity. And that includes myself. I dont want to know the identity of this whistleblower just because i think that how will how interview that person if you dont know their identity . Well, i think that there are different ways of doing it. I dont want to get into the specifics of these negotiations that are going on between the whistleblowers lawyer and our committee. However, there are ways to mask their audio and their image. Maybe to do it off site, but the point is that we just dont want in my humble opinion, in this particular instance, we have to protect the whistleblowers identity, not just to protect this kracourage person, but also to avoid the Chilling Effect that the president is deliberately creating with regard to other whistleblowers coming forward to tell their story as well. But do you trust every member of your committee . I would like to trust every member of the committee. I dont want to comment any specific person. Id like to trust every person, but at this point, lets just make sure that there is no inadvertent disclosure that happens or intentional because some information got out that we didnt want to get out. Very quickly, you know republicans are very angry that your chairman adam schiff had some sort of coordination or communication with the original whistleblower. What do you say to the people who are outraged about that . This is ridiculous. This is nonsense. Basically, what happened is what happens typically with a lot of whistleblowers, which is that they come to our committee, they ask, whats the procedure. Our committee basically says, okay, go to the Inspector General. If you would like to file a complaint. And then go through the process. That happens one or two times a month at this point. And thats basically what happened in this instance that they came to the an aide for the committee and said that they wanted to disclose a matter and make a whistleblower claim and the committee then directed them to the appropriate Inspector General in this case. So i think this is just deflecting attention from the underlying allegations. You notice theyre not really talking about the underlying allegations. They keep talking about adam schiff. Congressman raja, thanks for explaining to us whats going to happen next this week. Thaunge thank you. New reaction to the president s decision to withdraw u. S. Troops from Northern Syria, which clears the way for a military invasion by turkey and abandons americas kurdish allies. Among the critics on capitol hill, Mitch Mcconnell says the move, quote, benefits russia, iran and the assad regime. Cnns Clarissa Ward is live in iraqs kurdish region with the latest here. Where are we this morning, 24 hours after this decision was made. What has changed on the ground . Reporter well, i think theres still a sense of disbelief, john. The syrian kurds have been in this position before back in january when President Trump said he wanted to pull all u. S. Troops out. That was something of a shocking revelation. It didnt end up happening because there was an enormous amount of pressure placed on the president to reverse that decision. And essentially the syrian kurds are very much hoping there could be some kind of a flipflop or stay of execution for them again. Right now, they are looking for some kind of a guarantee from the u. S. Some kind of protection that if the Turkish Military does invade into Northern Syria that they will not be the victims of some kind of a bloodbath. What theyve heard so far from the president is that if he deems in all his infinite wisdom to use his own wording that the Turkish Military has done something thats, quote, off limits, that he will respond by decimating turkey economically. But the question that many syrian kurds want to know is what does that actually look like . What is actually President Trumps red line, and what will he do to enforce it and defend it . Beyond that, theres also the threat of a resurgence of isis, john. Were talking about tens of thousands of family members of isis fighters, 10,000 isis fighters as well, 2,000 foreign fighters, all of them imprisoned in Northern Syria. The people who are taking care of and running those prisons are the same people who have been fighting and die with the u. S. On the ground. Syrian Kurdish Forces and the very real fear is if there is some kind of Turkish Military invasion, those people will be forced to leave their posts in those prisons to go and take up arms and fight the turks. So for a number of reasons, a lot of people here very concerned and very confused, john. Clarissa, what is the expectation of when turkey and its military might make a move . Well, turkey said that its ready to go. That it could begin operation peace spring as its calling it any day now. They responded to President Trump, threatening to decimate them economically by saying theyll not bow down to threats. But certainly its fair to say that turkey now needs to find the goldilocks position between walking the line of what it said it would do and following through on its promise to establish that buffer zone. But not doing anything to draw the ire of the international community, such to the point where President Trump or other countries at large would be forced to respond in some way, john. All right, claclarissa, than you very much. I want to give you some breaking news. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, his attorney Robert Luskin said that the state department has ordered him not to appear not to appear, and his Attorney Says he has no choice but to comply. The direct quote, he is a sitting ambassador, employee of state, and is required to follow their direction. This is a major development. And this happened yesterday with the Deputy Assistant secretary of state who also was scheduled to appear and didnt. And we just asked congressman krishnamoorthi about that and what they do when people are beginning not to appear at their scheduled appearances. They had the expectation hed show up until just now. To have the rug pulled out from them in congress this closely before. This is the empty chair from this Committee Room where he was supposed to be testifying. That testimony was supposed to start in 38 minutes. And were just learning now, 48 minutes. Just learning now that it wont happen. Weve been talking all morning about how complicated it was going to be for him because he, in those texts, certainly seems to be parrotting the president s party line and what hed do under questioning from lawmakers and their staff about the texts that dont make any sense. Its never complicated to tell the truth. And he had the choice to do that. He had the choice to appear. This is a major development. Much more to discuss when we come back. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun . 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Believing that sondland would actually appear today because of the because things had been scheduled. Negotiations had happened to set this time. And it had been highly anticipated given his role in the aftermath of the president s asking the ukrainians to investigate the bidens. Text messages between sondland and others about what exactly the president wanted and what the ask was from the Ukrainian Government as well. So military aid as well as to set up a meeting in washington. All those questions were bound to be asked and what was expected to be a very daylong a very long hearing today, to help democrats understand where things stand as they push forward on impeachment. But at the last minute here, the attorney for sondland sent a statement saying the state department has ordered him not to appear and as a result, he has no choice as a state Department Employee to not appear. So we do not expect him to come to capitol hill. And as a result, democrats are left having to ponder what to do next. Theyve warned that people who do not come to their hearings, despite being asked to, that could be cited as article of in articles of impeachment for obstructing congress. So the question next is, what do democrats do next . Do they go that route . Democrats had warned they could subpoena some of these individuals because they had been they voluntarily agreed to come in for a sitdown interview. That could be next. If they dont comply with the subpoenas, that would be cited as an article of obstruction. Throwing a bit of a curveball as democrats push forward on this impeachment probe, john. Manu, thank you for bringing us that breaking news. Joining us, cnn politics reporter, Chris Cillizza and political analyst david gregory. David, whats the state department afraid of . I mean, why now . Why at the 11th hour, literally, the 11th hour, why are they stopping this meeting that had been negotiated for weeks . Well, i think theyll say that this is a process fight that they dont like how democrats are going about it. You heard secretary of state pompeo say at the outset that they werent going to be intimidated. What suddenly at the last moment broke and made them pull him is unclear. But it is clear that theres going to be a different set of rules for those who have resigned and those still in the inner circle. This is somebody who is still working at the state department, still an ambassador to the eu and was a central player in all of this. And his behavior on text messaging and given his role is very important to understand just what the administration is up to. Who is involved in freezing aid to ukraine in order to extract a promise that theyd investigate joe biden and other priorities of the president and Rudy Giuliani. The broader question for me is, you know, who thought you could engage in governmental activity and Foreign Policy without oversight by congress . And the state department thinks that they dont have to be questioned in this matter. Now were seeing kind of page two. You had the summary of that call with saul alinsky initially and now were seeing what is the next page which is a much tougher fight on cooperation. Chrissils s Chris Cillizza, asks, if a phone call was perfect and if the president had the absolute right to call for an investigation of the bidens here y not have Gordon Sondland testify . It seems lose a dichotomy here. And this just escalates the fight here. The ground has shifted all of a sudden here, and congress has said you dont give us what we want, thats article 3 or 4 of impeachment. This seems to be both sides girding for that fight. Thats right. David has got it in that this is a skirmish in the larger war. I do think i recognize my own tweet. I know that was my words you read back to me, john. And i think its true. Donald trump has gone out of his way repeatedly to say the call was perfect, his words. He has an absolute try to do these things, that theres nothing here. Just look at the transcript. If all of that is true, then donald trump and his administration should be in favor of transparency. That theres nothing to hide. Gordon sondland or anyone Else Congress would call, they can ask their questions but at the end of the day and hell dismiss it as a witch hunt but at the end of the day, theres no there, there. This makes it look doesnt make it, but makes it look as if there is some there, there, and i will note, donald trump has long been buoyed by the fact that a majority of the American Public has opposed impeachment. I do think the ground is shifting some. I donts know whether its a permanent shift or a temporary shift based on all this news coverage, but hes not standing on as solid political ground as he was even a month ago. And just to remind people, david, of the reason that ambassador Gordon Sondland is so pivotal is because he is the person who is having the conversations with these other envoys about the negotiations, the deals between military aid and a meeting set up between President Trump zelinsky and President Trump and investigating the bidens and hillary clinton. Here was a key moment in the Text Messages that were released. As i said on the phone, i think its crazy to withhold Security Assistance for help with a political campaign. Thats from bill teller. And then you hear Gordon Sondland go into this, you know, very sort of official statement that we now know President Trump, appears, helped craft because he didnt respond for five hours, Gordon Sondland didnt until after he met with President Trump. He parrots the president s talking points about no quid pro quo. But i was talking about the other text that was pivotal where, once again, he says something thats provocative or sensitive and you hear sondland say, call me. Well, remember, bill taylor, kurt volcker, these are professional diplomats. Gordon sondland is not. Hes a contributor to trump who, like a lot of big Campaign Contributors gets a plum assignment as an ambassador. But they dont have diplomatic experience. So hes very much in the president s political fold here. And you see him over text message engaging the skepticism by these more seasoned diplomats who say, well, what we are doing here . What is this arrangement where hes got by the way, his language in that in sondlands text, which it begs some crossexamination, is to say, well, we just want to make sure he believes in transparency and is going to investigate corruption. Lets understand what that means. They want the new leader of ukraine to do the president s bidding which is, when i say corruption, that means investigate my political opponent and investigate my theory thats been debunked that somehow ukraine was behind interfering with our election in the United States and it wasnt really russia. Thats what i want you to do. Or else you dont get aid or we dont get a meeting, and i dont prop you up as the president of the United States. I mean, all of that is very clear. All right, david gregory, ci helping us deal with that. Rudy giuliani was thrust into the National Spotlight by the 9 11 attacks, of course. Now theres this new oped that examines his transformation from americas mayor to President Trumps biggest defender. 4 lin. And now you can get it on our newest, most powerful signal. No signal reaches farther or is more reliable. Get 4 new lines of unlimited for just 30 bucks a line. [ ty ing ] this melting pot of impacted species. 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Rudy giulianis press secretary for his 1993 Mayoral Campaign is speaking out and telling his story in a New York Times oped. He says that giulianis recent behavior has led him to reexamine the man he worked for 25 years ago. Joining s ining us now is ken f. Great to have you here. Thank you. Appreciate it. Heres what you wrote in the oped. Americas mayor, as rudy was dubbed after september 11th, is today President Trumps bumbling personal lawyer and henchman. His apologist and defender of the indefense inl. Thats very different from the man you knew as his press secretary. What was he like when you knew him . I worked on the 93 campaign, which was probably his toughest campaign, frankly, because he was trying to unseat an incumbent mayor. He had to listen. Politicians dont tend to listen unless they want to win. And he wanted to win, of course. And so he listened and he responded appropriately to recommendations. He didnt always take them, but after he won, like many politicians, he stopped listening, okay . Okay. But when youre saying the person that you knew was sort of more level, even keeled, levelheaded. He was a listener. Yes. He responded appropriately. When you see moments like this one on fox well, let me play it for you and then tell me what you think. By the way, do you have any idea that the state department and so you know the shut up. Shut up. Shut up, you donts know what youre talking about. You dont know what youre talking about, idiot. Thats not someone who is listening. No, thats someone who is calling people names. Listen, he yelled at donors back in the day but theres a big difference at yelling at ferret owners and reputable people about impeachment and the president. But i guess the big question, the 64,000 question that a lot of people are wondering is what happened . When did you notice Rudy Giuliani change from the person you knew into what weve seen recently . The turning point that i couldnt ignore was the same for many people. That is the access Hollywood Tape and his ferocious defense of the indefensible. And he was the only one who would go on sunday morning political talk shows to defend that. If you recall, even Chris Christie wouldnt do it. So that was before donald trump won, right . That was during the campaign. So Rudy Giuliani put himself out there and defended that tape that everybody heard with their own ears. And why . Because he wanted to remain relevant and he wanted to gain the president s trust and appreciation and, you know, probably, you know, he was in the running for secretary of state at the time. So this is what a campaign proxy does. Only you have to draw the line. So you think that it is relevance at any cost . Because some people have speculated that, i mean, i know youre not a doctor but that it may be some sort of mental decline. See, im not a doctor so i cant sfeek that, but i just see a forocity in him that i didnt see 25 years ago. And i think its his zealous need to remain relevant and to make a living, frankly. He has one client and theres only one president of the United States, right . You make a good point. Ken frydman, everybody should read your oped to see what has changed from the man that you knew. Thanks for sharing with us. Thanks for having me. The nba caught in the middle of this political crisis. Dealing with china and hong kong. The new response for the nba commissioner. Where does he come down on free speech versus big money. Thats next. Im bad. Youre stronger than you know. So strong. You power through chronic migraine, 15 or more headache or migraine days a month. One tough mother. Youre bad enough for botox®. Botox® has been preventing headaches and migraines before they even start for almost 10 years, and is the 1 prescribed branded chronic migraine treatment. 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One of my medications is three thousand dollars per month. Prescription drugs do not work if you cannot afford them. For sixty years, aarp has been fighting for people like larry. And we wont stop. Join us in fighting for whats right. Breaking overnight, nba commissioner adam silver is speaking out after china announced it was suspending all nba preseason broadcasts as the diplomatic spat over a tweet supporting hong kongs protests escalates. Cnns david culver is live in beijing with all the breaking details. Tell us whats going on here. All right, john. This is a mess thats getting worse with each passing moment. What weve heard in the past few hours from adam silver is an effort to try to clean up any misunderstanding as he put it. Some mistranslations, misinterpretations. This goes beyond the economics, the sports. This is hitting at the core of a geopolitical issue. One pitting freedom of speech right up against profit. I want you to listen now how adam silver, the nba commissioner, is addressing this growing issue. We are not apologizing for daryl exercising his freedom of expression. Reporter the nba commissioner standing behind the Houston Rockets general manager after growing backlack over the leagues hand ling of a tweet posted in support of hong kong protesters. The longheld values of the nba are to support freedom of expression and freedom of expression by members of the nba community. I dont think its inconsistent on one hand to be sympathetic to them and at the same time stand by our principles. Reporter silver stressing this is not about money and hes not willing to jeopardize the leagues values. I understand that there are consequences from that exercise of, in essence, his freedom of speech. And, you know, we will have to live with those consequences. Reporter this comes after chinas state media announced it would halt broadcasting all nba preseason games and slamming the nba stating, we express our strong dissatisfaction and opsigo opposition to silvers stated support of moreys right to free speech. Moreys tweet set off a firestorm in china after he tweeted his support for hong kong protesters. China demanded a clarification of the tweet which has since been deleted and the nba responded by calling the post regrettable. The Chinese Government responding to the nba saying its not going to work if you have exchanges and cooperation with china but dont understand chinese public opinion. Many u. S. Politicians on both sides of the aisle slammed the nbas response. Republican senator josh holey writing a scathing letter accusing the league of putting potential profits in china over human rights. Later tweeting that the nba should apologize for groveling to Chinese Communist party and cancel all exhibition games until the situation in hong kong is resolved peacefully. They should understand that if they yield one time then the pressure will be greater. And it is very typical for the chinese authorities to ask more and more. Reporter the creators of south park hitting back in south park fashion. After the Chinese Government scrubbed this episode of south park from the internet monday. Anybody who would betray their ideals just to make money in china isnt worth a lick of spit. Reporter the comedy duo issuing a fake apology saying, quote, like the nba, we welcome the chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We, too, love money more than freedom and democracy. For the first time today, cnn had the opportunity to take this crisis directly to the ministry of Foreign Affairs. I was at that briefing. The question i posed to them is, what were looking at here, china using its influential over businesses to threaten the bottom lines and profits of companies and organizations so as to manipulate free speech. Their response essentially is that what you are looking at here is the price of doing business with china. That the Chinese People have certain expectations. If you dont live up to that, this is going to be the result. Well, there you go. And david culver, that was an excellent question. Thank you for all of the reporting. Heres what else to watch today. All right. The breaking news. A top diplomat has been ordered by the state department not to testify to congress as part of the impeachment inquiry. He was ordered not to just minutes before he was set to show up. We are waiting to hear from the Committee Chair in just moments. All the breaking details ahead. I cant believe it. What . That our new house is haunted by casper the friendly ghost . Hey jill hey kurt movies . 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They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. Quite the breaking news. Todays star witness in the trump impeachment investigation will not testify on capitol hill. Ambassador Gordon Sondland has been ordered by the state department not to appear this morning. His attorney claims he has no choice but to comply as the sitting ambassador employed by the state department. House intelligence chair adam schiff is scheduled to respond to this move in just minutes. Youre looking at live pictures. In the meantime, joining me is republican congressman adam kinzinger, a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee. The founder and cochair of the house syria caucus. Weve got a lot to talk about today. Just so our audience is clear, you have criticized what the president said on the phone to the leader of ukraine. I want to get that out there. But the president and his defenders call the phone call perfect and say he has the absolute right to request an investigation of the bidens. If thats the case, why then block ambassador sondlands testimony . Yeah, this is, obviously, all just happening so i dont have any rationale or reasoning. I typically believe whether it was president obama or President Trump that you should do in front of congress what congress asks, unless theres a legitimate reason not to. That said, i think, look, the call was inappropriate. But theres a lot of questions that are still out there and thats why i think democrats made a big mistake by, instead of just inquirying about what happened, they automatically went with an impeachment inquiry. Well get to that in a second. You think ambassador sondland should be testifying today . Yeah, i havent heard the reasoning for not, but, yeah, typically, any time i think somebody from the administration is called in front of a committee, they should come testify. And especially on Something Like this. And if the white house would think this would help exonerate them, you know, bring him in. Ambassador sondland reportedly told senator ron johnson that military aid was tied. What questions would you ask ambassador sondland if you had a chance . Yeah, i mean, i think i would want to know what information he had. Its one thing to say, hey, can you tell us and investigate the bidens or any political opponent. Keep in mind, and i tell this to my republican friends, there will be a democratic president again some day. And we dont want to give that president license to do the same thing, if whatever that is. So thats number one. Number two is, is there evidence that military aid was withheld as a contingent for getting this information . And if thats the case, thats a whole new level of issues and concerns. I remember back in the summer finding out and literally sitting in a Foreign Affairs committee and finding out this aid was being held back and we didnt know why and it was released before the end of the fiscal year. The problem is, though, democrats started calling it an impeachment inquiry and that has a whole different level of things. I just want to be clear. Maybe your republican colleagues can understand. You keep saying its wrong for the president to ask the ukrainian leader to investigate the bidens. Why is it wrong . Well, its wrong, and thats different than saying its impeachable. Thats a different question. But its wrong because, i think no Foreign Government should have any interference in our election system. So if its if theres legitimate information about corruption in American Government corruption, thats one thing. But when its focused on somebody thats running in a president ial election, you know, literally, it would be like, lets say president obama in 2015 calling somebody and asking about what one of the trump sons is doing so that he can use it to discredit or whatever. Wed be outraged about that. So im just trying to be consistent, which is, lets leave american domestic elections in the United States of america. Were not a Banana Republic where every empire can come in and make a change in our election. Were the United States of america, and we have to pult up a firewall from outside interference no matter who. Youve criticized the democrats for launching the impeachment inquiry and flat out said you think this is wrong but not impeachable. What then is impeachable . Whats the bar for you . Well, i dont i mean, theres no actual definitive thing. Its high crimes and misdemeanors. Its ultimately a political question. So thats where the process of figuring it out. If democrats decide this is impeachable, its impeachable because its their decision to make. For me, as i have to look at this decision, talking to the ukrainians and saying, give us information on biden in and of itself is not impeachable. What else comes out, who knows . But its a decision everybody has to make. I want to ask you about syria. This has been a big concern of yours for some time. And the president yesterday announced the withdrawal of troops from the Northern Syria border which would allow turkey to move in. Youre very concerned about the message that this sends now and in the future to u. S. Allies. Why . So its two things. Think of every time weve been in battle and left our allies behind and theyve gotten slaughtered. Even the kurds after 1991. A whole northern nofly zone set up after they were basically slaughtered by Saddam Hussein because we encouraged them to rise up and didnt step in. Look at the translators in afghanistan that we promised visas to if they worked with us that are now still hiding from the taliban because we cant get them here. So this would be another mix in that. The other thing is this. People like rand paul constantly say we dont want 100,000 troops in syria. I dont either. This is exactly the model that we should be implementing for future kind of fights like this. A few hundred troops. Using local forces to fight the battle. So we dont have to. And then to look at that, a special forces operation mainly with 1,000 troops and say its an endless war is disingenuous. Its like when your grand ma looks at you and tells you youre tired. You eventually feel tired. Thats whats happening when, whether its any president or any leader says, were tired of these endless wars. Were sick of them. Eventually people feel that way because they need leadership to tell them what the reason for this fight is. Congressman adam kinzinger, as always, thank you for being with us this morning. John, were monitoring breaking news on capitol hill. Chairman adam schiff of the House Intel Committee will speak with reporters about these developments very shortly. And newsroom with poppy harlow and jim sciutto will continue after this quick break. Its a cn for the talent. 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Which menu am i looking at here . Start with tapaz. Oh, its tapas. Tapas. Get out of town. Its like eating dinner with your parents. Sandra, are you in school . Yes, im in art school. Oh, wow. So have you thought about how youre gonna make money . At least were learning some new things. We bundled our home and auto with progressive, saved a bunch. Oh, we got a wobbler. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Thats what the extra menus for. Good tuesday morning. Im jim schud sciutto. Im popley harlow. Following white house discussions late into the night. Just moments ago the state department has told Gordon Sondland, the ambassador, not not to testify this morning. Just over an hour before the u. S. Ambassador to the European Union was set to appear before three house committees in closed door deposition. He flew in from europe for this. His lawyer said sondland wanted to testify, traveling to washington from belgium, but he will follow that order because it is coming from his employer. The state department. Sondland was set to answer questions over his role in President Trumps dealings with ukraine, including trading a white house visit for an investigation into the bidens. Well hear from Congressional Democrats in just a few minutes on this as we wait for that, lets go to capitol hill. Our cnn National CorrespondentSuzanne Malveaux joins us. The question becomes, once again, blocked for information by this white house, what are democrats going to do . Will they move to hold the administration