Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20191101

Taking the right approach. Smart. Yeah. Ok. Impeachment split. If youre in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. Its what you do. As the impeachment inquiry this was a good idea. Shhhh. Im being quiet. Youre breathing on me if you want to save fifteen percent enters enters a new age, it is along or more on car insurance, party lines and will it help or you switch to geico. Its what you do. Hurt the president s chances for lets go to the cemetery reelection. And change of address. The quintessential new yorker my moderate to severe i ulcerative colitis. Ing donald trump changed his but i realized something was missing. Residency to florida and why is me. The thought of my symptoms returning he ditching the big apple and was keeping me from being there for the people and things i love most. Could it increase his chances of winning floridaoure in so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira can help get, and keep, uc under control the situation room. When other medications havent worked well enough. And it helps people achieve control that lasts announcer cnn breaking news. So you could experience few or no symptoms. We have breaking news. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, in the trump impeachment inquiry. Including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, cnn has learned lieutenant including lymphoma, have happened; colonel vindman testified this as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, week that he was told not to serious allergic reactions, talk with anyone about that july and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. 25th call between trump and the ukrainian president. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas right now President Trump is where certain fungal infections are common, about to head to a political and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, rally in mississippi. Are prone to infections, and his press secretary or have flulike symptoms or sores. Stephanie grisham is admitting dont start humira if you have an infection. There is no specific white house be there for you, and them. Plan to fight impeachment ask your gastroenterologist about humira. Inquiry and the president himself is the war room. With humira, control is possible. Her words. Well talk about that and more with mazie hirono of the judiciary and Armed Services can match the power of energizer. Because energizer ultimate lithium is committees and our correspondents will have full the longest lasting aa battery in the world. Coverage of the top stories. Lets begin on capitol hill. [confetti cannon popping] energizer. Our correspondent Phil Mattingly backed by science. Is joining us. What is the latest . Matched by no one. Reporter wolf, Lieutenant Colonel vindman testified that twice he went to white house lawyers over concerns related to the actions being taken related to ukraine. We know according to a source familiar with his testimony earlier this week that the second of those occasions when he was concerned about the july it also has the highest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. 25th phone call between President Trump and the ukraine its a competition for the talent. President bringing that to knopp employees need more than just a paycheck. You definitely want to take advantage National Security counsel lawyer of all the benefits you can get. John eisenberg and told not to 2 3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source discuss anything about that call with anyone. This was as he took these for personal savings and protection solutions. Concerns to a lawyer. Now, wolf, this tracks from the workplace should be a source of financial security. Something we heard from a witness yesterday, tim morrison keeping your people happy is what keeps your people. Who testified that he wasnt thats Financial Wellness. Concerned there was something wrong with the call and a top put your employees on a path to Financial Wellness with prudential. Russia official at the white house and he was concerned about leaking and that is a widespread concern and there was widespread concern about how the call would look. All underscoring that as weve seen weeks of testimony coming through a series of closeddoor depositions, several administration or others make it clear there were concerns in its administration about the direction the president was going, the direction of the call specifically but concerns among those close to the president that information about this call if it got out could be damaging, could be problematic. This is just another instance of that, wolf. Phil, what are democrats planning to do next in the impeachment inquiry investigation. I mentioned John Eisenberg a lawyer at white house. He is scheduled or has been invited for a closeddoor deposition next week and one of several to sevreceive performance comes in lots of flavors. dramatic orchestra invitations and nobody is sure if they will show up. Including john bolton invited as well. Real questions about whether he theres the ampedup, overtuned, will show up right now. People starting to think probably not given his feedingfrenzyof sheetmetalkind. Relationship with his lawyer and another witness invited to testify that didnt show up. And then theres performance that what that all means is this, just leaves you feeling better as a result. When you talk to democrats up here working on this, they recognize that the closeddoor thats the kind lincolns about. Depositions is quickly coming to an end. There will be public hearings and soon. In fact, Speaker Pelosi in an interview with bloomberg today saying in november that will be public hearings. And while there are scheduled depositions next week and when they come back the week after that public hearings could begin. After that starts where we get to see some the witnesses that have testified behind closed doors out in public in front of cameras, then the process will move into the drafting of a report and then over to the Judiciary Committee and then the drafting of articles of impeachment and another full house floor vote. We are fluid on the timeline but there is no question they are paneras new warm grain full of flavor, color,. Moving forward and public full of woo hearings are moving forward. Full of good. Drama is escalating big time. So you can be too. And thank you very much. Try our new warm grain bowls today. Panera. Food as it should be. Over to the chief White House Correspondent working his sources. The president is talking about a fireside chat to fight impeachment. Reporter yes. Right from the getgo Stephanie Grisham is commenting on the information Phil Mattingly was talking about, about the testimony of Alexander Vindman and saying they cant comment at breaking news. Cnn has learned lieutenant the white house about what vindman testified to because this happened behind closed doors and they werent in the colonel Alexander Vindman the room so that is the comment just top ukraine expert testified briefly from the white house this week he was told not to talk with anyone about the july press secretary in the last couple of minutes. But President Trump as you said is planning to fight through 25th phone conversation between the president and the ukrainian this impeachment battle as a president. Oneman war room. Tossing out the idea that he may lets bring in our experts to discuss this new development. Read the transcript of his phone call with the leader of ukraine and gloria, eisenberg, the top lawyer for the nationl security on live television. The president continues to lead a deeply divided country on the counsel and when he was told, he subject of impeachment. Told vindman not to discuss what top aides in the west wing are preparing for what may be happened. Does that bolster the democrats potential case for coverup . Inevitable, that President Trump will be impeached in the house of representatives. Im prepared for the what is it does definitely is president to be impeached and for the votes to not go that way depending on what the evidence show that eisenberg knew this was problematic says skblnchs when it comes to and he ordered the transcript his battle against impeachment, moved to that top secret server. He may go from live tweeting to so he knew it was problematic live reading telling the and that it would be controversial. He ordered it to this server. Washington examiner at some point ill sit down perhaps as a and so it doesnt necessarily prove a coverup but it proves fire side chat on television and that people inside of the white i will read the call. Because people have to hear it. House knew that this phone call when you read it, it is a was going to be an issue because straight call. The president said some very despite the inquiry. Democrats say the latest inappropriate things at the very least. So he said to vindman, look, official to testify tim morrison just dont go talking about this. We have to keep this keep said he was dangling for dollars youre saying he corroborated this among ourselves and i think the charge there was a quid pro is that a coverup or is that quo . Yes. Something that you would do if and in my mind that is an abuse you were a lawyer in that arena of power. Reporter Stephanie Grisham who is refusing to hold and you had just put something briefings with reporters told fox news, the counter in the file 13. Let me ask sean turner, what impeachment stretch is largely does it tell that you a national set with the president calling the shots. He is the war room. Ncbetween security counsel lawyer would give that kind of instruction or and nixon which is what people constantly compare us to is pre direction . Yeah, i think it is really important here that were talking about a National Security counsel lawyer. Wrong. So at this time he feels confident with the people that he has in place. Lawyers dont often give this we dont feel the need for a war room and well see what happens. Kind of extraordinary counsel reporter the latest polls unless they believe their clients has a legal exposure. Show the public is deeply divided. Republicans are staying loyal to moreover, i think that for a the president. Loyal at the National Security to the consternation of House Counsel to look at a scenor speaker nancy pelosi. We took an oath to protect military officer, decorated and defend our democracy. And that is what he has made an officer and to tell that officer to put aside his concerns and assault on. His integrity and keep quiet and if the republicans have a about this, i think communicates higher loyalty to the president than they do to their oath of and tells us that eisenberg office, thats their problem. Really saw this as a potentially reporter as for the president s plan to change his serious issue. Residence to florida, the new and we talked about the york governor noted on twitter, extraordinary step of putting it is not like trump paid taxes this transcript in the here any way and arguing on cnn highlyclassified system. Look, i think there is more to be dealt with on this. That is a serious abuse of the that he may be trying to prevent system and treats this transcript as if it contained the long needed tax returns. This is a tactic well they highly sensitive or classified information and that violates all sorts of policies. Argue were not new york residents any more and were so there is no doubt here that florida rigesidents so new york he understood what happened on the call and i think that eisenberg at some point will have to speak to why he thought this was so important. And hes going to have to be doesnt have access to the tax held accountable for that decision. Returns. Reporter and President Trump david challan, eisenberg is tweeting a blowout jobs number just out arks justed for scheduled to testify behind revisions in the gm strike, closed doors on monday before the house committees and other 303,000. But that is not accurate. The actual numbers of 128,000, a omb officials also on the schedule. How likely is it that any of strong showing according to the them will actually show up . Experts. The president is also taking misleading shots at the city of that is the big question, chicago. Tweeting the Police Department wolf. Weve seen time and again white there will never stop its crime house officials be guided not to wave with the current superintendent of police. Good morning, everyone. Testify, that is the issuing of reporter but hold on. The subpoena of cost, but having murders for the month of october fell more than 20 compared to this member of the counsels october of last year. The fact of it is that numbers do matter. Team for the National Security staff, it seems to me the white facts matter. And the facts are that weve house will probably do everything in its power to stop steadily been bringing these this person from testifying. Numbers down over the past three years. So that is what we need to focus i am sure we do know that if and when he does testify, wolf, we on. Reporter and the president know what question number one is is expected to attend an going to be . It is good exactly what youre ultimately fighting championship event in new york city over the talking about here. And what he was thinking when he weekend. Heading back to the state where he will no longer be a resident said do not tell anyone about as one trump adviser said to me this phone call and that it is today, the president likes in this protected server. Fistfights and, wolf, one other susan hennessey, weigh in as thing to point out, coming out of the interview that the president did with the well. This is right but this is an washington examiner, this is indication and eisenberg knew at just released in the last the time this was not a perfect several moments, the president phone call. In this interview is asked about this was a highly problematic phone call. How he feels about his acting as to whether or not he will or wont appear in for congress, chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and there is a lot of people that we whether hes happy with mick would have never expected to actually go and testify that mulvaneys perform aance and th have been to the hill, to president said, happy . Question mark. Testify over the occasion of the i dont want to comment on that. That is significant. And also jim acosta thank you white hou for the update. To testify over the lets get more on this. Objection of the white house and the willingness of people to come forward and eisenberg is democratic senator mazie hirono sort of central to this. Of hawaii is joining us, a not just the decision to move member of the judiciary and the the call from the code word Armed Services committee. Server but also that other senator, thanks so much for people brought their concerns joining us. And lets get to the breaking about the larger context in which this was playing out to news right away. Him, what did he know about that . And then another sort of tidbit you heard colonel alexander that weve seen in some vindman testified that the top reporting is that eisenberg lawyer John Eisenberg directed directed a different him not to discuss what president ial phone call with a transpired on that controversial different foreign lead tore be july phone call between the moved to the code word server president and the president of and now were seeing this is what he did with the Ukraine Ukraine with anyone. What does that tell you . Phone call he was telling other people dont talk about it, that that says to me that he was essentially trying to use eisenberg was very concerned as the server to prevent this to what this phone call would information from getting out, then congress will have real look like. Questions about who else did the so he didnt want vindman to president speak to . Talk about it. What other sort of forms of so this is why eisenberg needs concern might there have been to testify. Hes supposed to testify as that caused him to take action early as next week behind closed in other places. There is another dramatic doors. Do you anticipate he will or will he fight that . Development just broken in the interview that the president i dont know. Granted to the washinton examiner if hes happy with mick so if hes like some of the other people who have already mulvaney and he said, and im testified doing their jobs for our country, i hope that he will quoting now, happy . Testify. But the way things go with this i dont want to comment on it. That is pretty significant. Administration, theyre just trying to block everything and well that is not exactly a stonewall everything so i dont vote of confidence, is it . Know. No. And hes clearly not happy however, the houses impeachment with him. He probably believes and if i process will continue. As you know, the impeachment were the president i would think inquiry is now moving towards the same thing, that his public hearings. Appearance on the sunday show yes. Presumably later this month. That week where he didnt stick Lieutenant Colonel vindman is with the narrative and got trump willing to testify publicly so in a lot of trouble and said, of what questions do you hope he course of course we were answers osh answers and the hearings will be thinking about military aid and we do this all of the time. Televised. What he testified to behind i think that if i were trump i closed doors as to what he heard would be upset about that too. And this is firstperson. He was actually listening in on the phone call. I think Mick Mulvaney lets trump so he will verify that to him but trump but the president turns on people pretty quickly this was a very troubling phone call where the president is so this is clear that hes done that. Trying to shake down the at the end of the day, the president of another country for one unforgivable sin of this his own political ends and using administration is Mick Mulvaney went on television and told the our taxpayer money as leverage. Truth about what has happened and that is something in the that is what hell testify to. Past the president is not we also could see the willing to forgive. Official transcripts of those there is a new poll out, the closeddoor depositions, maybe a Washington Post and abc news hundred hours of depositions and david challan is our released as early as next week. Political director and well put this up on the screen right now. What will you be looking for from those documents. Should trump be impeached and i will be looking for removed from office. Evidence that basically 49 say yes. Corroborates what we already saw with our own eyes. 47 say no. With the release which was not so politically, the country is of the transcript but a memo of pretty eventually divided right this july phone call. So it is really important that now . It is evenly divided. When you look at these national in this impeachment inquiry that polls, wolf, there is no doubt we gather as much evidence as about that. But what is also clear and possible because as speaker especially when you look at how pelosi said, she wants a very independents are falling in that poll, they fall the other way a lot of evidence. Around, a little more toward not whatever evidence they could get being in favor of impeachment before they will vote on whether and removal than being in favor or not to proceed with articles for it. There is to Real Progress made of impeachment and i think that is the proper course. Since the beginning of the we just want to get the facts impeachment inquiry with the out, wolf. If the house does vote to American Public in terms of democrats bringing on huge swath impeach, the democrats vtd majority, presumably that will happen assuming there is of independents and great majority of them instead of articles of impeachment formally splitting them and bringing on filed and it comes to the sent republicans. For trial. Theyre locked against this. Will you vote to convict . Im certainly going to listen this is Nancy Pelosis challenge to all of the evidence. Now. It is that shes gone down this and lets not jump the gun here road on impeachment and if it is because right now what is just a purely partisan affair, happening is for the house to that allows the president to disclose in a public setting all of the evidence that they can have a political footing on which to fight this as opposed bring to bear on the impeachment to if the democrats present such inquiry and that is what we ought to be focused on and focus convincing evidence and witnesses that they can really on the president s actions and change these numbers and bring a what he did and that is the majority of the country over shakedown the president of republicans and independents and another country for his own democrats and that would change the calculus of how folks on political ends to get political capitol hill respond. Dirt on his opponents. Everybody stand by. There is a lot more were and this is what i have been getting. Were also now told the saying for the longest time. President is answering that you cant explain a lot of reporters questions on the south lawn of the white house. Well get the tape. What the president does if you well play it for you. Know he cares about two things, much more on all of this right after a quick break. One, to protect himself and the the dexcom tells me my numbers every 5 minutes. Second is money. And we see this playing out on practically a daily basis with this president. Those are the two motivators of what he does. The president continues to argue that there was absolutely nothing wrong with his july phone call with the ukrainian president and he may wind up and it also tells me which way im going. I can just look at my phone reading that rough transcript and see my numbers. That the white house released in real time. Its the easiest app in the world. Aloud in a socalled fireside and you dont have to chat to prove that will that prick your fingers at all. Strategy make it harder for your its amazing. Republican colleagues to defend you know, not having to him or what will be the impact prick my fingers anymore. Wow. Thats incredible. From your perspective . You know, i would have the republicans may be left with trying to say, yeah, so the never dreamt that years ago. The dexcom gives me that knowledge and it gives me control. It gives me power president did shake down the to be who i want to be everyday. President of another country for his political ends, so what. Get over it. Theyre going to be reduced to defending this action so who else is the president going to shake down next. That is the question that we should ask the republicans. So so i hope theyll do the right thing and up until now we havent seen much evidence of that from the republicans. Particularly the republicans in the house. Well, lets talk about the republicans in the senate for a moment. The president clearly over the past several days has been stepping up his outreach to senate republicans. How likely is it from your perspective and you speak a lot of them behind the scenes, how likely is it that any of your republican colleagues in the senate will break from the president . It is hard to predict. As i say, we would like to see all of the evidence and presentation of the evidence. And the president will be able to defend himself. Not just in the senate but in the impeachment proceedings in the house. So we shall see. I certainly hope that they will all i can say is they will do the responsible thing i major breaking news. Beto orourke the former texas congressman is dropping out of the democratic president ial contest. Just making a statement right now that he is moving in a different direction. And as a result he also said hes not going to run for any other Political Office including his home state of texas. Right now lets get David Chalians reaction to the major news. David, a surprise. He was not doing necessarily all that great in the polls but a surprise that all of a sudden he announces hes out of the contest . He is out of the contest. He wasnt making a ton of progress, i want to bring in my colleague leyla santiago that covered the campaign. Just learning of the information. Layla, why is beto orourke done with the campaign . What is he saying. The staffers that got a heads up on this earlier today said they didnt have much in terms of when he would do this. But he is just tweete out about it saying that he will no longer serve the country as a nominee or a candidate in this race. So the big question will be is he going to run for senate in texas . Why exactly is he pulling out . There were talks of the fundraising slowing down for quite sometime. He certainly started off with a lot of money coming in on day one. Raised 80 million in the senate race so he was expecting to come in, raising a lot of money. That slowed down in the Second Quarter then in the Third Quarter went up a little bit but still appears to have not been enough. Now layla you know that one of rourkes moment was after the shooting in el paso and he sort of rejuvenated his campaign with a Critical Mission on gun violence, on gun safety legislation but that doesnt seem enough to have gained enough traction on that issue to drive him forward. Are we learning anything from his campaign about what this means for his work on that issue Going Forward . I suspect he is been very passionate about this and saying that he found his voice. When that happened as a candidate you saw a relaunch of his campaign multiple times. But he really sort of found his groove, according to him directly, when that occurred. Found his voice. So i suspect when this is done, you will not hear the last of beto orourke on gun violence because this is something that really shook him up and shook his family up and that community. And i think that he will continue to work with moms demand action and i saw him in multiple events before he even announced his candidacy on that so i dont think youve heard the end on that issue from beto orourke. And in a statement, david, he writes he said among other things he said it is difficult to accept, it is clear to me now that this campaign does not have the means to move forward successfully. My service to the country will not be as a candidate or the nominee, acknowledging this now is in the best interest of those in the campaign. It is in the best interest of this party as we seek to unify around a nominee and it is in the best interest of the country. He also said in the end he will of course work for and support any of the democratic parties to become the nominee. This is a Significant Development that hes decided to call it quits, david . Without a doubt, wolf. And the word means there that you just read in the tweet, that is money. That is resources and that had dried up for beto orourke which is astounding considering you just heard layla talking about the amount of money he raised last year against ted cruz and the anticipation and expectation so high when he got into the president ial race. Again specifically around being able to raise money and that dried up for him. He had seen that over the summer into the fall and when you dont have money to make payroll, to get all of the field organizers out there, to get the tv ads up on the air, you have a really tough time Going Forward. And that is where beto orourke was. Ill tell you earlier today in iowa, wolf, i was standing in a field of beto orourke signs. There was a lot of Campaign Activity here today. He had lots of signage and activists were coming up to this dinner tonight that they are having behind me but beto orourke no longer a candidate in this race. Gloria, lets get your reaction to this as well. In his tweet that he just posted, im grateful to all of the people that made up the heart and soul of this campaign. You were among the hundreds of thousands who made a donation, signed up to volunteer or spread the word about this campaign and our opportunity to help decide the election of our lifetime. But in the end he simply did not have the support. No. President al campaigns are hard. He came in as the superstar cover of glossy magazine, vanity fair and he raised so much money in the senate race even though he lost to ted cruz and he a very difficult time i think distinguishing himself on this large field and as layla was saying i think after el paso things clarified a bit for him. And it was clear to me just watching him that what he cared about was gun violence. And he kind of was restructuring his message in the middle of a campaign and that is very difficult to do and became a very much antigun activist and became controversial as he was doing it. Ill take your ar15s away from you, et cetera. I dont think weve heard the last from beto orourke. Hes young and obviously very talented. Im sure hes going to channel himself toward what his passion has become. And he said hes not going to run for the senate. But you never know what will happen. He could change his mind. David chalian. What do you think . He ran against ted cruz and lost but did rather well in the contest. John cornyn up for reelection and there is speculation and i spoke with beto orourke here in the situation room just the other day and i asked him would you consider that if you decided to drop out and he gave sort of a vague answer. What do you think . Well, now he goes right to the top of the speculation list. There is plenty of time before the filing deadline on that but i will say democrats have been fielding several highprofile candidates in texas to take on john cornyn. Obviously orourke just in the case with ted cruz and the kind of money that he brought with support in the polls at a statewide democrat had not seen in nearly ever in texas, this was a big Successful Campaign despite falling short of actually winning the senate seat last time soo rourke will get the question you asked him in a far different context, wolf. I doubt his future answer will be nearly as vague . Lets see if he decides to throw his hat into the texas race. That could be very interesting given what is going on now. Does he tweet this, gloria. We will work to ensure that the democratic nominee is successful in defeating trump in 2020. I could tell you firsthand from having the chance to know the candidates, we will be well served by any of them and i will be proud to support whoever he or she is. Look, hes leaving with a very generous statement saying look ill support any democrat against donald trump because hes been very vocal about his pop positi about his opposition to donald trump. I think it is interesting the timing in which hes doing it. He didnt decide to hang around until iowa and watch himself top five or so in the polling today. We saw from cbs i belive it was. So i think that he took a good, hard look at his campaign and at what he wants to do and where he believes he can have a real impact and i go back again to el paso as i think this transformative moment for him during this campaign and maybe in his life. And i think youll hear a lot from him about guns. And the critical question is who are his voters now going to consolidate behind and will somebody else take up the mantle and will that appear to the voters that have stuck by beto up until this point . And sean, let me let you weigh in as well because youve been watching this president ial contest as all of us have. Sure. Yeah, and i think susan hit it exactly right. Any time one of the members drop out, the very next question we should ask is who benefits from this . Were looking at people like juan castro and others who beto orourke never really picked up the following that he wanted to pick up but certainly there are a healthy number of people who still believe in the cause and his race and theyre going to be looking hard to see who is next. I also think that his being very vocal and being very upfront about the fact hes not planning to run for office again is very telling. Beto orourke is looking at a long career in front of him if he wants to stay in politics. At some point one of the candidates will decide who is the running mate and certainly there is a real possibility that the running mate will be someone who stood on one of the debate stages. So i think hes got a good future ahead of him and it is unclear what hell do right now but i dont think weve seen the last of beto orourke. And in the iowa polls, wolf, he had i believe less than 1 support from iowa caucusgoers and it is hard to see. Im sure he was facing reality here. Hard to see how you get that number up and if you dont have that support how will you participate in the primary debates in november and in december. And once youre out of those debates, youre kind of out of the running. I think one of the questions is was this a huge missed opportunity on the senate side . O rourke did have that strong name recognition and taken positions that are not amenable to a Texas Senate Race so i think weve seen over the past three years the critical importance to democrats of holding the senate. There are roles in nominations in judges and all kinds of things that are really important to sort of core policy issues and so one question will be, will people look back and think was it really too bad that beto orourke decided to throw his hat into the president ial ring rather than sticking with what would have been a Strong Senate run against john cornyn. He was here in the situation room on october 21st, i have the transcript of the exchange. I dont know if we have the videotape of that exchange. But well get it. But i asked him several questions about his future including will you stay in the race if you dont qualify for the next debate . The next debate is later in month in georgia. He said im planning on qualifying for the next debate and then i asked what if you dont. He said then ill stay in that ill stay in the race. Then i asked him any chance you might drop out and run for the senate in texas . Beto orourke, no. And i said no chance . And he said no chance. I said okay. And then he said im in this to win this. Clearly that was a few days ago, on october 21st, David Chalian, hes changed his mind. He clearly has changed his mind. And that is the right answer then. He had not come to the conclusion. He not looked at the numbers yet to determine he didnt have the resources to move forward in any way that would amount to a Successful Campaign. And i have no doubt that when he said that to you, he was still committed to this cause. But these are the hard decisions. These are in the were in the final 93 days now before the iowa caucus. This is crunch time. And he may not have had a ton of support in the polls here, as gloria noted, and that contributed to the moment, he did have staff on the ground and he had some Supporter Network here throughout iowa so the question now becomes who taps into that . How do those people get redistributed as the other major candidates are really seeking to consolidate here and there are now talented Resources Available in the state that were with beto orourke that they will try to scoop up. That is another impact his departure will have. And one of the issues very significant in the last debate as well, the cnn New York Times debate was his position on gun control and certain assaultstyle weapons should be removed completely and then people should be forced to give up those weapons to authorities and some of the other canadians said that was simply going too far and unrealistic, david. Yes. His proposal of mandatory buybacks and it did get criticism from some of the fellow candidates, wolf. And when he was pressed in the land debate of how it would work, his answer was that they would find people that dont actually participate in the buy bark program. It was unclear how feasible that was too. While that was a big, bold, policy proposal and a huge sound bite out of that debate in houston in september, the practicality is something that the opponents questioned after that comment. Gloria, especially pete buttigieg. He was critical of that position. That youre giving republicans fodder by saying im going to come in your house and take away your guns and playing into republican hands if you do that. If you take a step back and look at beto orourke, it just tells you a lot about the difficulty of running for president as a neophyte and relative political neophyte where you havent been on the National Stage for very long and he had a good organization. But you never know how somebody who succeeded to a degree, a great degree, raising money in the state of texas, et cetera, is going to just be able to distinguish himself in this kind of a large field with people with a great deal of experience and he ran a campaign that couldnt really find its core until he found a core after el paso and that didnt work for him. Because once he got so devoted to that, he wasnt talking about much else. And so i think it is very there is no off broadway in any of these runs any more. Youre always on center stage and i think he found it very difficult. I think this is right. But also an example of the longer many people are in this primary, the more we are going to have these sort of people people people trying to distinguish themselves by taking positions that are not useful in a general and energizing the republicans so i think the democrats are clearly do have their eye on the ball and that is about beating donald trump in 2020 and at some point every candidate needs to give it their best shot but put their ego aside and decide when theyve had a good run and whenever they are leaning up against fund. Al constraints lacking resources, throwing in the towel and starting to back whoever the party is going to pick as their nominee. At New York Times siena poll on iowa, David Chalian and lets put it up on the screen, hes nowhere to be seen. Beto orourke. Elizabeth warren 17 and sanders 19 and buttigieg 18 and biden 17 and klobuchar and 4 and harris 3 and yang 3 . Layla is getting more information. Reporter yes, she is. Layla what are you learning about whether or not orourke will continue his plan to speak here to the Iowa Democrats today . Hes not in the race now. Do we expect him here tonight. According to a source at the campaign, he will not be speaking here tonight. That said he does plan to speak at a prerally in which hell be addressing his volunteers and his staffers and likely expressing gratitude as did he in that media post, youll likely see that before the event. But from what i understand with a source from the campaign, the plan is not to speak here tonight. That source also was quick to say, you never know anything can change at any time. But that is his plan. I also asked the source about his run in texas, if there is a possibility and he could run for senate there and he said 100 not the case. Le n he will not be running fr senate in texas. That is your answer to the question. There is not another Orourke Senate race in texas this cycle. And it makes sense with layla reporting that orourke wont be on is it a thstage because that is for the candidates still in the race and trying to make an appeal to Iowa Democrats, i guess the last time well see orourke as an exiting candidate is at this predebate rally that you just heard about, wolf. What do you think about that, gloria . Im going add go ahead, sean. Yeah. Ill add that while beto orourkes departure from this race may have been inevitable, after he made that very bold statement about weapons, there is obviously polling that tells us what people thought of that but anecdotally there are people across Rural America and people in the military circles that im very familiar with who may have been beto orourke supporters or were unsure about him at the time but that he saw that statement as a little too forwardleaning and made them feel uncomfortable and i think the kind of analysis on his departure from this race, i think well take a hard look at what happened after he made that statement. Because i think that for a lot of people that may have been a turning point for beto orourke. Do you think, gloria, that that is going to encourage other president ial candidates at 1 or 2 or maybe even 3 to rethink their candidatesy . First of all, theyll look for beto orourkes people and see if they could consolidate whatever small amount of support he had. But i think theyre all looking at it. If you are not in the top five y dries up. The d for example were very important to Amy Klobuchar who moves up in the polls and who has done very well in fundraising since the last debate. So i think theyre all looking at whether or not beto orourke is there or whether hes gone. These are these are moments where you have to have a conversation with yourself and say, do i have a shot at this . Can i afford to do this . Where do what do i say to my supporters . Where would my suitors go and i think clearly with orourke, when he had this transformation, after el paso, he had a line in the Statement Today that his service is not going to be as a its clear he plans to continue talking about what became so important to him during this campaign and that didnt give him enough traction because it was controversial. Didnt give him enough traction to move up anywhere in polls. I dont think weve heard the end of him. I think were seeing fewer and fewer opportunities for break out moments a this point. The top five has been relatively stable throughout. We arent seeing new insurgent names. I think other candidates have to look at their futures and they in all likelihood not going to be the democratic nominee and have to decide. Whether or not they are thinking about whether or not they will endorse somebody or whether or not merely leaving the race and allowing those donor dollars early on, voters to get familiar with other candidates and start to focus in on the nuance of the policy differences between this top five pretty stable and steady candidates. The next debate is november 20th, if they dont make the stage, why not drop out and do what beto did. What the their intent . There are some candidates, Michael Bennett comes to mind, he hasnt been on a debate stage for the last two debates and he remains in this race. He was commenting on elizabeth warrens plan today and he still says hes committed to this race. The governor of montana. They have not been on the stage since the summer. They still plan to keep trying to sell their message. If you have a very small staff and cover your expenses for the plane tickets here to iowa, i presume you can go forward. Its not just low polling candidate who is havent appeared on the debate stage. Kamala harris has announced she is pulling resources from south carolina, nevada, new hampshire. She closed three offices today to try to consolidate resources in iowa. Shes betting her entire can d candidacy in iowa. We see where she is in this poll that came out today. Shes not in that top to the best of my recollection tier of four candidates. These are for candidates who that have had big robust operations and not catching on. Its for those lower tier candidates to start wondering how do i justify to any of my supporters my presence in this race still while democrats are trying so hard to find the person who can defeat trump. If democrats start to feel the field is too big of unifying behind someone to defeat donald trump, i think youll see some of these candidates feel that pressure more and more in the weeks ahead. If we see Something Like a collapse of joe biden or one of the big top tier candidates coming up against a major stumble, do voters feel like there is an alternative to that person in the top tier candidates or is there a possibility for someone like bennett to put himself out as sort of as alternative to somebody like biden. The president of the United States just treweeted. He said oh, no, beto just dropped out despite him saying he was born for this. I dont think so. How generous of the president to say that. Beto orourke was somebody who did come to this race as a celebrity. Who did misspeak when he said he was born to this. He raised 6 million on his first day and then the fund raising went downhill from there. Suddenly the celebrity and again this is what president ial races are about, the celebrity found out that wait, a minute, he wasnt the only generational change candidate out there among democrats. He wasnt the only moderate out there among democrats. He couldnt find a way to distinguish himself. Hen he did find way to distinguish himself on guns, it just didnt work. Everybody stand by. Stick around. Dont go too far i waway. We have other break news including a source saying a top National Security aide testified. A white house lawyer told him not to talk to anyone about the president s phone call. Most people think of verizon as a reliable phone company. woman but to businesses, were a reliable partner. 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Were getting new information about the impeachment investigation that could bolster claims that the white house tried to cover up ukraine scandal. A pivotal witness testifying he was told by a white house lawyer to stay silent. Betos out. The new exit from the crowded democratic president ial field. Beto orourke just revealed hes ending his campaign so what will it mean for the race . Good rid dance. Thats the reaction from the new york governor as President Trump ditches his long time home state and declares himself a florida resident. Tweel y well tell you how the move will profit the president. A blaze erupts in califor a california. Is there any end in sight to the wildfire disaster tearing through the state. We want to welcom our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Were following breaking news on the impeachment investigation. Soce