Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20191001

Ukrainians president zelensky triggered the investigation now trying to distance himself from the controversy and insisting he never met with Rudy Giuliani and denying that he was pressured by trump to investigate biden. Did you feel pressure from President Trump to investigate the bidens to unfreeze military aid . Translator i understood. I would like to tell you that i never feel pressure. Reporter all of this as the president s defenders follow his lead in trying to disparage the whistleblowers credibility. The thing is filled with i dont know, i heard, i overheard. There is not a single time he says i know. Reporter trumps other personal lawyer jay sekulow arguing the president didnt break the law. What is the rule, regulation statute that was violated in the conversation that the president had where the president of ukraine . None. Nothing. Reporter and, jake, there are some trump allies concerned that the white house was not adequately prepared for the fastmoving impeachment inquiry and while weve learned there is not expected to be a war room, we have also learned that the president s aides are expected to present him with a Response Plan as soon as this week. Thank you, abby. Lets chew over this with our experts. Dana, let plea start with you. Can secretary of state pompeo just ignore the demands from House Democrats and what recourse do the House Democrats have . The courts, which as we know from experience with the democrats and this white house that could take some time. Can he do it . I think a lot of it depends on what legally and you could answer this the administration exerts, whether they say, no, there is executive privilege and whether or not that could past muster and the question is the lower level employees, the most interesting thing, is going to be former ambassador volker. Because he resigned. Hes not an employee. He wass he was invited to coe to talk to the House Democrats on thursday and he does plan to attend. I got a letter he sent to the Mccain Institute trustees and hes still head of the Mccain Institute and saying that he does plan on going and that could be interesting and hes still saying that even though mike pompeo clearly sent out a shot across the bow in the tweet today. And kim, you have a new book out called how to read the constitution and why the constitution lays out impeachment for trezon and high crimes and misdemeanors and weve seen that against nixon. What do you think about the showdown going on right now between pompeo and the House Democrats . Do House Democrats have an oversight role here that enables them to call for employees of the state department to testify . Yes. As part of the legislative authority they have Investigative Authority and they could move to compel compliance with the subpoenas which would then take it to the courts and the argument would be maybe executive privilege, although that is not a blanket privilege. That is not a reason to completely blow off and ignore the subpoenas. The second argument might be weve heard oh, there is no legislative purpose but now there is an impeachment proceeding that is really tough. But as i talk about in the book, the whole issue is there enforcement of Something Like a subpoena request, if there is no enforcement, then the showdown and the stonewalling will continue. The constitution only functions if there are consequences for violating its terms. It is like a job description. And that is what impeachment really is. It is a pink slip for people that arent doing the job and not putting somebody in jail, it is determining whether this person is proper for being in this office and it is set up so that the congress is the body that oversees on behalf of the people the person who is in the oval office. Toluse, is there a strategy at the white house other than having their most loyal supporters and aides go out and claim that this is a coup detat and come up with misleading lies . Is there an actual strategy . The challenges that there are multiple strategies and they are sort of conflicting and all happening at once. You have the president s personal lawyer, as i spoke to jay sekulow yesterday, and he said theyre going to follow the mueller play brooke. They have the outside lawyer running the show and they feel they were able to win what he said was a war then and this is more of a skirmish in his words so they dont need an official war room so they believe having the outside lawyers operating and handling the president s personal legal issues will sort of lead the charge. But when you have the other republicans sort of following other playbooks, you have some republicans following the president , you have others saying the president is going too far in talking about civil war, so you do have multiple treats and it does seem that the president is running point but you dont have all of the republicans, all of the conservatives, all of the people the president needs to be on the same team, they are not all operating along the same playbook and that is why you do seem to have conflicting messages from different parts i think were starting to see a strategy. Just in the last day or two. That is nancy pelosi has a strategy. Lets not do mueller all over again. Make this narrow and fast. Lets academierize the wounds and go back to guns and health care. Pompeo today, saying if we could extend this, longer is better and make it beyond the narrow, about a president ial phone call to include pompeo. Rudy giuliani and state Department Officials and the longer they go, the better it is. The white house wants to amputate with a butter knife because if they go too fast, the risk is somebody will show up at the hill and say, yes, the president did that and were off to the races. Im starting to im not sure it is a orchestrated strategy but longer and more complicated i suspect is better for the white house. When and if the white house continues to say no, youre not going to talk to the people here at the white house who the whistleblower named, pompeo continues to say what hes saying about his employees at the state department, the Committee Chairs are already saying in black and white, if you continue to say no, we are going to use that as another piece of evidence in our impeachment inquiry and holding you to account for obstructing, which is part of impeachment. And one of the things that is interesting is how much this call and the transcript of it fits in with reporting previously and currently about the president on the phone with foreign heads of state. A source telling cnn that President Trump was so often unprepared for calls with foreign leaders that during the chief of staff john kelly tenure, he would be coached and hit mute and reeled in by aides. And the source saying, quote, he would go on random tangents about the Mueller Investigation with foreign leaders. It was unnecessary and unhelpful and sometimes he just wouldnt have his facts straight and really rattle some of the foreign leaders with whom he spoke. And this isnt this is squarely in the context of this call, that is what this call sounds like. Yeah. And if you read any of the books that have been written by white house insiders, people who left the administration, they talk about these discussions they have with the president where he rambles and goes off topic and he dominates the conversation by talking about things that were not part of the agenda going into the meetings. This seems to be what he does with foreign leaders as well. Instead of talking about top Foreign Policy priorities which we didnt see very many of them on this transcript with ukraine, he talks about his own personal grievances and what they could do for him and his political interest and that is what gotten him into hot water and that may be why people around him wanted to seg grate the calls and put them on a separate server because not only might they bet embarrassing but may include information with the president trying to pursue or talk about political issues when he should be pursuing Foreign Policy. And senator Chuck Grassley in the senate gave a Strong Senate about the need to protect and respect whistleblowers, clearly seemed to be aimed at President Trump. Has President Trump come anywhere near the line in terms of intimidating or violating the whistleblower protection act, do you think . Well, again, it depends on what the consequences are for violation. But clearly the whistleblower protection act is designed to keep this process anonymous. And all of this talk about hearsay and things, it is irrelevant. It is like someone calls and tells a Police Officer i heard where the body is buried. You go and check where the body is buried. The baton is handed off by this whistleblower to congress and then you have to follow the facts. But the things that the president are saying are deeply disturbing because it not only if this person is outed, puts them and their family at some risk, but also creates a chilling effect. Then the whistleblower statute itself wont function. People wont tell. Because theyre worried. Stick around. We have much more to talk about. They are two of President Trumps men and now they are permanently tied to that phone call with the ukrainian president but they may not be on the same page. And then the president is tweeting falsehoods about the whistleblower complaint. We have the truth. 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Ah, id love to, but people get really emotional when i sing. Help from a team that will exceed your expectations. Welcome back to a special edition of the lead, the white house in crisis. New questions for secretary of state mike pompeo now that we know he was also on the call on july 25th between President Trump and the president of ukraine in which the president of the United States asked the president of ukraine to investigate one of his political rivals, joe biden. Pompeo never mentioned that when asked about the whistleblower complaint about that call. What do you know about the conversations . So, you just gave me a report about a a whistleblower complaint, none of which ive seen. Do you think, it is quote, perfectly fine to ask a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent . I think i saw a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign minister yesterday who said there was no pressure. Not exactly forthcoming. I want to bring in evan perez and kylie atwood. And they are set to begin interviews with state Department Officials. Is he not going to cooperate or block people from testifying and not supply documents . Right now hes not completely blocking people from not testifying. Hes essentially not slamming the door shut but saying no in some sense. He is very frustrated. He does say not right now. Over the next two weeks when the house scheduled the depositions to take place, he said those dates are not feasible and said it is because of legal and procedural reasons and lays that out in the long letter he sent to the hill today. Some of the reasons he states is that the folks they want to talk to have to have time to get their own private attorneys if they choose to. They have to have time to meet with state Department Lawyers if they want to and to go over all of the documents requested alongside their deposition. But clearly, jake, the secretary is also making a political statement here. He also said hes not going to tolerate the tactics of the House Democrats. And he charged them with bullying the state department folks. So hes making a political statement alongside a statement as the secretary of state who is the boss of these people that the House Democrats want to talk to. And evan, you cover the Justice Department there may be signed that bill barr is trying to distance himself from Rudy Giuliani who we know who was actively in ukraine trying to convince ukrainians to investigate the bidens. That doesnt sit well with barr apparently. Right. It doesnt. You could add bill barr to the list of people running away from Rudy Giuliani since the scandal broke and with good reason. I think hes among the people close to the president who have been warning the president that rudys strategy that the giuliani treat of being just out there and throe and throwing everything he can at the Television Screen is not a very good way to go about this. And so i think that is one of the things that has been a big concern for bill barr and doesnt want to be lumped in with Rudy Giuliani and the big problem with that is the president himself is the one that put bill barrs name, the attorney generals name alongside Rudy Giuliani when he said that i want to you work with these people to the ukrainian president to get this information out there. And evan, at barrs request President Trump has been pressing other countries to help barr investigate the origins of the russia investigation according to a source. I guess the question is, is this investigation into the origin of the russia investigation, is it legit or just an attempt to please President Trump by attacking the fbi. Im sorry, i should ask that to evan. I think it is an ongoing investigation. Theyve been very public about it. There is a couple of things that are different, jake. The Justice Department said that russia interfered in the 2016 election. The president his comments notwithstanding, the Justice Department is very clear on that. So what barr is doing is looking at the origins of the investigation. Whether or not people did anything wrong. Whether some people violated the law. We dont know there is any proof of that. But he has had the suspicions since before he became attorney general and that is what hes sending john durham, this prosecutor, to do. And one of the things hes done is taken him on these foreign trips and introduced him to foreign officials to get him to to get them to know him and to make that easier for that information to be turned over. We dont know all of the countries but he went to italy last week and other countries have provided information to this investigation including the united kingdom, the netherlands. So you could bet those are the places john durham will go. And kylie, let me ask you, do you have any sense from state Department Officials that they understand how bad it looks that the secretary of state was on this call on july 25th according to a source and when Martha Raddatz of abc asked him about it a couple of sundays ago, he was pretty evasive and looking back on it knowing he was on the call, pretty he wasnt honest, lets put it that way. Do they understand that . He was not forthcoming and he didnt get ahead of the story. He let it he let it get away from him before he could say, i was on the call and make any statement before it was reported that he was on the call saying i thought it was appropriate or what have you, just based on any conversations that he had with the president. The other thing, however, that the state Department Officials are talking about a lot right now is the fear of guesting involved in this investigation. Sources that i have at the state department will no longer talk to me because they are going to be subpoenaed. They are fearful of being subpoenaed. And so they dont want to be the ones who get in trouble with the Trump Administration and get caught in some politically motivated investigations here and then are no longer able to go forth with their own job as Career Foreign Service officers for the state department. Thank you for your expertise. Appreciate it. It is secondhand information, it is hearsay, some of the narratives being pushed by President Trump and his supporters. Well break down the myths versus the facts when it comes to whistle blowing. That is next. My money should work as hard as i do. Thats why i use my freedom unlimited card every time i get gas. Give me a little slack with freedom unlimited, youre always earning. I said i need some slack on pump three behr presents tough as walls. Thats some great paint. Thats some great paint. 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Welcome back to a special edition of the lead, the white house in crisis, the president is pushing a lie about the whistleblower who came forward with concerns about the president s conduct claiming all of the allegations made in his or her report are only, quote, hearsay, but that is not true. The Intelligence Community Inspector General who handled the whistleblower complaint is forcefully pushing back against that lie and against some others as cnns Jessica Schneider reports. Reporter the president setting off alarms by seeming to make the whistleblower a target. Were trying to find out about a whistleblower reporter the president publicly declaring he wants to uncover the whistleblowers identity on camera in several times on twitter. Why arent we entitled to interview and learn everything about the whistleblower and also the person who gave all of the false information to him. Like every american, i deserve to meet my accuser. But longestablished law dating back 30 years protects any whistleblower anonymity and shields them from retaliatation. Can the president demand to know the whistleblowers i. D. . No. We have strong protections of whistleblowers in this country developed over many years with a bipartisan consensus. Reporter the president s allies are pushing his Conspiracy Theory alleging changes were made to the whistleblower laws soon before this complaint was filed to allow secondhand information to be considered and trump tweeting who changes the whistleblower rules before the report. But a cnn fact check found the rules did not change with even the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community saying in a statement that the whistleblower used the appropriate forum and it is the same forum the icig has had in place since may 24th, 201 and webtd on to state that firsthand information has never been required for whistleblowers to launch a complaint saying by law the complainant need not possess firsthand information in order to file a complaint. Protect this whistleblower. This whistleblower complied with the law. First and secondhand knowledge are both welcome. Reporter trump complained over twitter the complaint was based solely on secondhand information. But that is also not accurate. As the icig statement said, the whistleblower stated on the form that he or she possessed both firsthand and other information. And even Top Republicans senator Chuck Grassley seems to be taking issue with the president s persistent attacks on the whistleblower. In a statement senator grassley said the whistleblowers request for confidentiality should be respected and that he or she ought to be heard out before people make judgments and also, jake, that he or she should be protected. Jake. Principles. Jessica schneider, thank you so much. President trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani is in a showdown with House Democrats over a subpoena. Our next guest is on the House Committee leading the impeachment inquiry. Youre watching aspecial edition of the lead, the white house in crisis. Stay with us. Anyone can deliver pizza. Only marcos can deliver americas most loved pizza. Hot and fresh, and right to your door. Every day, get two medium, onetopping pizzas for just 6. 99 each. Hello to americas most loved pizza. Hello marcos. past them because she didnt sknow they were talking to her. G and she would just walk right deborah i just could not hear. 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It is a huge week for the house Intelligence Committee. The committee subpoenaed the president s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani demanding documents related to his talks with ukraine. The u. S. Special envoy for ukraine kurt volker is planning to appear before the committee on thursday for a deposition. Hes since resigned. And as President Trump aggressively attacks the Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff hes also vowing to find out who the whistleblower is. Joining me now to discuss this and more is democratic congressman joaquin castro, sitting on the house Intelligence Committee and his brother is running for president. Thank you for joining us. The house Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani for documents and what are you hoping to learn exactly and are you expecting he will comply . I expect that hell comply eventually. And if it means that we have to go to court to get him to comply, then of course im confident that well do that. But hopefully hell voluntarily come forward and sit for an interview with the house Intelligence Committee. In terms of what we would like to know, i would like to know what his role was in meeting with the ukrainians, what he was pressing them for and what the president asked him to do. He has said that the state department asked him to go there. In fact he showed Text Messages from kurt volker. So we need to know who asked him to do what. And also what the responses were from the ukrainians. Giuliani responded to the subpoena saying, quote, it raises significant issues concerning legitimacy and constitutional and legal issues including inter alleya and attorney chri Attorney Client privileges. Lets just talk about Attorney Client privilege. He said he was the president s attorney . Youre right. And he has acted as the president s personal attorney but as he did one interview or tweeting, i believe that he said that he didnt go over there as the president s attorney. Or at least on one of the trips he didnt go as the paparazresi attorney so it is not clear he would be protected by the Attorney Client privilege but that is something that may have to be worked out in the courts. The president is trying to find out who the whistleblower is and attacking this person. Is the president getting close to violating the whistleblower protection act and what do you and your colleagues intend to do to keep the whistleblowers identity from becoming public . Youre right. That is one of our top priorities. Fortunately that is a priority for the dni for mr. Maguire is to keep the anonymity of this person in tact. The president at this point has been very abusive of the whistleblower protection act and really is basically on the verge of not only revealing the identity or getting somebody else to reveal the identity of the whistleblower, but also bringing harm to that person. It is getting quite scary, the president s behavior and his words and what that could conjure up. What is being done to preserve the security and safety of this whistleblower . Well, as i understand, the person is under protection. I expect that that is full federal protection 24 hours a day as it should be and as long as to the larger public the person is anonymous, then i think that will probably suffice. Now we dont know exactly what is going to happen. We dont know if somebody in the white house who may know the persons identity will leak it. But the federal government should be committed to keeping this person safe wherever he or she is. I want to get your response to a tweet from congresswoman Maxine Waters, a democrat from california tweeting impeachment is not good enough for trump. He needs to be imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement but for now impeachment is the imperative. With all due respect, that does not seem to be in keeping with what Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said should be the tone when it comes to impeachment, that it should be done with regret and prayerful and respectful and solemn and that seems to be something else. Yeah, look, i have a lot of respect for Maxine Waters and shes a very passionate person and has felt very strongly for a long time that the president has broken the law. And so you see those you see that in her words. I think a lot of americans have been very upset and outraged about the president s conduct. I think all of us want to make sure this process is a fair one, that there is due process for the president , and all of the other witnesses that are going to come forward. But were committed to getting to the bottom of what happened. This inquiry is fastgrowing and already fairly complicated with the web of people involved. Do House Democrats have a strategy to explain this scandal to the American People because it is already, as we learn more information and now that it branches out to attorney general barr and secretary mike pompeo, Vice President pence, Rudy Giuliani, to explain it in a way that is clear that the American People can understand what exactly happens so they could assess whether or not they think President Trump deserves to be impeached . Youre right. It is important that we explain it and that we explain it simply. And if you look at the whistleblower complaint and the transcript of that phone call, it is starting to become clear that there was an attempted coverup by the white house of a president abusing his power, betraying his oath of office. And this investigation every day it seems like there is a new basically path that we need to follow, a new trail to follow. And so were going to do that. The white house trade adviser Peter Navarro on fox business said that this is an attempted coup and he didnt know who was more dangerous, House Democrats or the iranians or the chinese. Your response . I did. Ia i saw that clip and that language is really obscene that Peter Navarro would make those comments. Those are that is the kind of language that could lead to civil unrest in this country and it is highly irresponsible for an adviser to the president of the United States to be speaking like that. Those are false claims. But for him to be talking like that is highly irresponsible. Congressman joaquin castro, democrat of texas, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. He once called donald trump a racebaiting xenophobic bigot, unquote, but now Lindsey Graham is one of the president s strongest defenders. What changed . Thats next. Hi im joan lunden. 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Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. You can share 1, 3, or 10 gigs of data between lines, mix in lines of unlimited, and switch it up at any time. All with millions of secure wifi hotspots and the best lte everywhere else. Its a different kind of Wireless Network, designed to save you money. Switch and save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus, get 250 back when you buy an eligible phone. Thats simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click, or visit a store today. Only the most loyal trump allies appeared on the sunday shows last weekend to pry to try to defend the president. Rudy giuliani the president s personal attorney and Stephen Miller and jim jordan has here at state of the union and Steve Scalise and senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Someone who until a few years ago was leading the pack of trump critics in the senate. So how did graham go from calling mr. Trump unfit for office to becoming one of his most loyal defenders. Cnns Sunlen Serfaty reports. Reporter with blind devotion to President Trump, senator Lindsey Graham again proving himself as one of the president s most reliable front men. Is this whistleblower, whoever he or she may be, do they have any connection to the Intelligence Community . The old Intelligence Community that was corrupt itself. Reporter graham has fallen in line behind President Trump and become the face of trumps defense on capitol hill. To impeach any president over a phone call like this would be insane. Reporter that stance a stunning aboutface given his position on impeachment during the clinton years. You dont even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic. If this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role, impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. Reporter it hasnt always been this way. The graham of today i have the president s back because i think this is a setup. Reporter is a far cry from the graham of a few years ago. We know how you make America Great again, tell donald trump to go to hell. Reporter known then for slamming trump during the campaign. Hes a racebaiting xenophobic religious bigot and he doesnt represent my party. Reporter and at times going against him and admitting he urges senator mccain to turn over the steele dossier of trump russia allegations to the fbi. But in the last year graham has strategically cozied up to the president. The two golf and speak on the phone often. We have a man who has become a friend of mine. Its shocking, isnt it . I like him and he likes him. Reporter graham has a lot to gain politically in hitching his wagon to trump. The senator is up for reelection in South Carolina in 2020, where tanding with the president only stands to help his own political future. And graham in the past has attempted to justify his own transformation very raw political terms telling the New York Times magazine earlier this year that his friendship with trump helps him influence trump on issues that he cares about and graham said that anyone who knows him would think it is odd if he did not do this and asked a followup by reporter what this means, graham replies to try to be relevant. Try to be relevant. Sunlen serfaty on capitol hill. Thank you. Dana bash, you know senator graham pretty well. Is that it . Is that what it is about . Staying relevant even if it means sacrificing many things that a lot of people thought he stood for. That is a big part of it. And he is very open about it. He wants to be relevant. He wants to be part of the conversation. He wants to try to influence the conversation. But for so many years when we covered him on the Straight Talk express and in post john mccain elections and events, being relevant or part of the conversation was standing in the opposite corner of the Republican Party. But what he has slowly but very surely come to realize and the way that he is acting and behaving right now is that the Republican Party is donald trump and he wants to stay a republican and so he is going to be a major part of the trump Republican Party. The other Lindsey Graham, the Lindsey Graham who was part of the three amigos with john mccain, be damned. And one other thing i want to point out is that it is not just that. It is as sunlen talked about, it is South Carolina. He calls South Carolina trumpistan. As many as he gets people who say what happened to you, in South Carolina hes greeted as a hero because they for the most part love donald trump and love him standing next to him. And you could go back and find Jerrold Nadler and nancy pelosi saying the exact opposite about impeachment they are saying today and we could do that on the republican side and since we are talking about Lindsey Graham and listen when he was a house impeachment manager. Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. It is kind of what people hate about politics, principles only apply when they want to apply them to the other party. Yeah, to pick up on what were just talking about a moment ago, this is an advertisement for term limits. This guy comes from a place that is South Carolina that dana bash said this is trumpistan and we know him from the green room. Hes decent and thoughtful and not sitting around saying what is the perfect thing to do hes sitting around saying what do people in my state say and how do i get reelected. He doesnt have to campaign in new york. He doesnt have to campaign in california. He has to campaign in South Carolina. So i look at this and say, Lindsey Graham looked at the polling documents from South Carolina and said i know where to line up if i have a job forever and that is what he got. The Republican Party as dana said earlier is the trump party. If you think about the people who have spoken out against President Trump and even if they have strong conservative credentials, think about justin amash who was basically kicked out of the party even though he has been conservative and libertarian and scores very high on all of the various outside groups report cards, he was kicked out because he said negative things about President Trump so anybody in the Republican Party who is not willing to defend the president , who is not willing to go along with the president s even most vulgar attributes, theyll be kicked out of the party and Lindsey Graham knows that it is a very different thing to go along with the president because you want to be relevant and because it is politically viable for you in your home state. Still, again, back to the Lindsey Graham with john mccain that we knew, especially on this issue of ukraine, how many times did we listen to john mccain and Lindsey Graham talk about how critical it is to prop up ukraine and not play politics with it because ukraine was the way to fight putin and the fact this is the issue is stunning. Kim, i want to get your legal take on something Lindsey Graham is pushing which is the argument, it is discredited by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community that the whistleblower only has hearsay, the Inspector General said he has firsthand information as well as second and thirdhand information but Lindsey Graham is pushing the hearsay argument. Take a listen. This seems to me like a political setup. It is all hearsay. You cant get a parking ticket conviction based on hearsay. Is that true . No, that is not true. Hearsay is admissible under the federal rules of evidence, there are exceptions that get it admissible but the statute doesnt require firsthand knowledge and we know from the Inspector General there was firsthand knowledge and in any event this is handed off in this moment to the congress. So the whistleblower, the credibility of this whistleblower was evaluated by the Inspector General and a trump appointee and is not an issue any more. The whistleblower is not the issue. The issue is President Trump. So clearly his Political Team wants to divert american attention to other issues. But in this moment, i would take one issue with this idea that Lindsey Graham is supporting his base in that falsehoods are not good for anyone regardless of where you are politically. A good reminder. Thank you so much. Stick around. We have more to talk about. Breaking news on the impeachment inquiry coming up next. Stay with us. R is my afterwork decompression zone. Music vo so when my windshield broke. 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Ill get a decision guide in the mail to you today. Theyre free. Finally. Someone who understands the real me. Your health and happiness is important to us. Call or go online now to get your free decision guide. Call a licensed humana sales agent today. We have breaking news on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Weve just learned that former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine Mary Yovanovitch who was scheduled for a deposition before Congress Tomorrow has had that deposition rescheduled to next week according to a source. The source also said that former u. S. Special envoy for ukraine kurt volker confirmed he will appear before the committee this thursday. In our 2020 lead today, democrats are reporting new fundraising numbers today. So far senator Bernie Sanders leads the way raking in more than 25 million in the last quarter and as cnns ryan nobles reports, democrats are also ramping up their attacks on President Trump. Reporter the impeachment inquiry into donald trump adding a dose of uncertainty into the 2020 democratic primary. I dont think hes ever understood the gravity of the job, period. Reporter as the candidates try to keep their focus on the issues, theyre also ratcheting up attacks on the president. Senator Kamala Harris blasting President Trumps response to the whistleblower report including his barrage of tweets. Harris taking to twitter herself writing, look, lets be honest, real Donald Trumps twitter account should be suspended but while impeachment is front and center, the campaign keeps moving forward. I think the United States congress is capable of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time. Reporter Third Quarter fundraising reports are are beginning to roll in. Bernie sanders posting a 25. 3 million haul. 7 million more than he raised in the second quarter. The vermont senator already putting that cash to use. We need a fighter. Bernie sanders reporter launching his first tv ads of the 2020 race in iowa where polls show him falling behind senator Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President joe biden. Second quarter pace setter south bend mayor Pete Buttigieg announced he brought in more than 19 million in the past three months, about 6 million less than the previous quarter. And senator cory booker who just ten days ago warned his campaign would likely be over without a big infusion of cash it has been the best sort of period of fundraising for the campaign. Reporter raised 6 million in the Third Quarter boosting by more than 2 million in the final ten days. And in just the last hour we received the new numbers for Kamala Harris campaign, raising 11. 6 million which is consistent with her efforts in the first two quarters. Harris now has 10 million cash on hand which will allow her campaign to continue but she is still trailing many of the candidates that shes also behind in the polls. Jake. Ryan, thank you so much. Appreciate that update. Follow me on facebook and instagram and twitter at jake tapper. You could tweet the show at the lead cnn and our coverage continues now. Thank you for watching this special edition of the lead, the white house in crisis, well see you tomorrow. Happening now, breaking news. Pompeo stonewalls. Secretary of state mike pompeo is refusing to let state Department Officials mentioned in the whistleblower complaint talk to congress saying theyre being intimidated and bullied and treated improperly. Tonight house Committee Chairs are firing back saying it is pompeo who is intimidating witnesses. But we just learned one key official is set to be deposed this week. Rudys representation. The president s personal attorney lawyers up, hiring a former watergate prosecutor after being subpoenaed but he wont say if hes going to comply with democrats demands for documents arguing Attorney Client privilege