Levels. Chris discuss the fallout with secretary of defense mark esper live in his first sunday show appearance. And well discuss the bipartisan push to punish turkey for its actions with senator Chris Van Hollen. Then, democrats launch a new impeachment offensive after the white house refuses to cooperate. They know they cant win the 2020 election, so theyre pursuing the insane impeachment witch hunt. Chris well ask our sunday panel about the latest developments and where prospects for impeachment stand now. And our power player of the week, an exiled journalist fighting for womens rights back in her homeland. I had two options; to stay in iran and keep silent or leave iran and be loud. Chris all right now on fox news sunday. Chris and hello again from fox news in washington. There are now reports turkishbacked militias are committing atrocities against the kurds as part of the turkish invasion of Northern Syria. Eye witnesses backed up by videos say militias are executing kurdish fighters and civilians, and this is also evidence turks are hitting prisons Holding Thousands of isis fighters, allowing some to escape. In the a moment well talk with the secretary of defense, mark esper. But first, lets get the latest from Steve Harrigan who is live inside syria. Reporter chris, reports of those possible atrocities are spreading like wildfire here across syria. And when you cross over the border, you can really just sense peoples fear. I heard a kurdish official tell a journalist youre never going to find a driver to take you around at that price, not with all the bombs falling from the sky, not with what theyre doing to people. Some disturbing video merging of what may be fox has been unable to verify its authenticity a turkishbacked arab militia fighter executing a kurdish fighter along the side of a road. As the fighter shoots the can kurd, he shouts, film me, film me. There are also reports denied by the turkishbacked arab militia that she have assassinated a female Kurdish Party leader. Once again, the turks denying that. Starts the biggest picture goes, were in day five of this military offensive. No sign of a slowdown. Turkeys president erdogan pushing ahead with military action from the sky and from shelling. You can see plumes of smoke rise up from those towns. As far as the action on the ground, theyve taken control of a major city in syria. Theyve taken control of major highways too, so the kurdish fighters are in real danger of being cut off from each other. This despite worldwide creatism of turkeys operation. There is real concern among a number of word leaders that this operation could lead to resurgence of the Islamic State in this area. Kurdish Officials Say they cant fight the turkish army and guard isis prisoners at the same time. They say more than 700 isis supporters escaped from a camp just this weekend. As far as the u. S. Position goes, theyve threatened sanctions but not enforced any financial sanctions as of yet. The kurds, some leaders say theyre deeply disappointed in the u. S. , they feel like an ally has stabbed them in the back. Others till hope for a u. S. Nofly zone. Chris Steve Harrigan, thank you. Joining us now, the secretary of defense, mark esper, for his e first sunday show appearance. Mr. Secretary, welcome to fox news sunday. Thank you for having me on. Chris i have to assume youre just as distressed as i am at hearing steves report, executions of kurdish fighters, reports that the turks are hitting prisons and that hundreds of either isis fighters or their supporters are escaping. How much of that can you con number . Its terrible. Ive heard the same reports. It gets worse by the hours, chris. These are all the exact things that we have communicated to president erdogan and his ministers. I spoke to my counterpart a few dayses ago, i sent him a memo on friday night, a formal response, and i warned them if they do this incurl, we will see incursion, we will see humanitarian catastrophe, it will damage u. S. Relations with turkey, their staying in nato. All of this is playing out exactly as we predicted and we, again, urge president erdogan to go back to status quo. Chris so what is the u. S. , what is the pentagon as the primary military force there, what are you going to do about it . What are you going to do to stop this . Well, this is part of the terrible situation has put us in. Again, despite our protestations. We now believe the turks now intend to go further south than originally expected and to go both west and east which would increase their zone from beyond a 30kilometer depth and nearly 440 kilometers wide. At the same time, it look like the sdf is cutting chris those are the kurdish forces. Chris Syrian Democracy force. Thats right. Deal, and now what were facing is u. S. Forces trapped between a syrianrussian army moving north to take on the turkish army that is moving south. It puts us in a terrible position, and the the protection and safety of our Service Members comes first to me. I spoke with the National Security team yesterday, we all talked on the phone. Ive talked to the president , and hes concerned and is so last night he directed that we begin a deliberate withdrawal of u. S. Forces from the northern part of syria. Chris now, how many people are we talking about . How quickly are they going to move out . Were talking less than a thousand. I cant give you a timeline because it changes hourly. We want to make sure that we do so at a very safe, deliberate manner, that we deconflict things as we go with our, with those folks on the ground in the immediate area. Chris but im not quite sure i understand. So the turks and their militias are committing atrocities against the kurds who are our allies, the kurds are asking us for help, but were going to pull out and allow the kurds to go to the russians and the syrians . That doesnt seem to make much sense. Look, the United States, first of all, doesnt have the forces on hand to stop the an invasion of turkey that is 15,000 strong, if you will, proceeded by airstrikes and military and mechanized forces. Gotta keep in mind too, that look, we didnt sign up to fight turkey, a longstanding nato ally, on behalf of the sdf. I mean, this is a terrible situation. That thats why in the little over two months ive been on the job, this has probably been the number one issue ive dealt with week after week. Weve done everything we can to dissuade them from doing this. We thought we were making very Good Progress on is the socalled safety zone to insure we could keep both these partners at ends but as you know, chris, this conflict has roots going back 200 years. In the last few years since we began this relationship with the kurds to take on isis, the turks protested it from the beginning. This is now their third incursion into syria in the last few years to do this. Chris but you emphasized on friday that we stand by our kurdish allies who fought with us, died 11,000 of them died in the fight against isis. Here you are, sir, on friday. We have not abandoned the kurds. Let me be clear about that the, we have not abandoned nobody green lighted this operation by turkey. Just the opposite. We pushed back very hard at all levels for the turks not to commence this operation. Chris but, secretary esper, the u. S. Has 50 special Operations Forces along the border acting as a trip wire, if you will, to keep the turks from coming across the border. We were the protection for the kurds. After President Trump talked to president erdogan last sunday, President Trump decided to pull those troops out, and the turks invaded. Isnt that the definition of abandoning the kurds . Yeah, i think youve got the sequencing in the reverse order. The first thing that we understood, ive understood from my counterpart, secretary pompei poe owe from his is pompeo from his, they were fully committed to doing this. I know that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff agreed we should not put u. S. Forces in between a turkish advance. There is no way they could stop 15,000 turks from proceeding south. Chris but you had talked to Turkish Defense minister several days before the president ial phone call, and you had said to him make lets make the safety zone work where the turks and the u. S. Work together to keep this border or and keep the turks on one side of the border and the kurds on the other side of the border. Then the president has his phone call with president erdogan, and you say, well, theres nothing we could do. One, did erdogan say im going to come in anyway . Yes or no. It was clear to me that president erdogan was committed to coming in. He informed us that he was coming in. He didnt ask permission. It was clear to me that he was coming in. Chris but do you think that with 50 u. S. Troops on the border acting as a trip wire and with u. S. Complete air superiority over the board, do you really believe that president erdogan and the turks were going to just come through the border, perhaps create a conflict with the United States if we had stood firm . Well, i think its how you define standing firm. First of all, as i said, 50 Service Members are not going to stop a turkish advance. And im not one chris well im not one to sacrifice them, if you will chris well, turkey goes ahead, sir, ifty key says, you know, were not going to take on the u. S. , were not going to take on u. S. Fighters overhead, maybe we would have stopped them. I dont believe so. I think they were fully committed. That was what i took from my conversations with my counterpart. The chairman of the joint chief of staff took from his, secretary pompeo from his. The fact is also, chris, we are not going to go to war against turkey which is a longstanding nato ally that has fought alongside us from korea all the way through afghanistan. Thats not what we steined up for signed up for. Chris do they seem like much of an ally now . No. I think turkey, the arc of their behavior over the past several years has been material. I mean, they are shipping out of the western orbit, if you will. We see them. Purchasing russian arms, cuddling up to president putin. We see them do all these things that, frankly, concern us with regard to direction they are heading. Chris but you say it concerns us, the reaction is that the president is going to pull all of our troops out of that region. And although he has talked about sanctions and authorized secretary mnuchin to impose sanctions, theres been no action. Well, well see what happens. You know, like i said, these all these developments have happened in the last 24, actually more like 14 hours, if you will. Weve still been holding out hope we can get to erdogan and tell him to stop what hes doing and lets work on the safety zone, the mechanism. We want to get to that point and settle this situation down, stabilize it so we can get back on the right path. Chris and meanwhile, what do you say to the head of the sdf, our allies, the people who fought and died to help us beat isis . Abdi, the head of the kurdish army, said today you are leaving us to be slaughtered. What do you say to him, sir . I would say what weve been saying because we stay in contact with him. We are doing everything we can to get the turks to stop this egregious behavior, get them to go back across the line and stop. And thats our message to them at this point in time. Chris President Trump says that he is just keeping a Campaign Promise. Here he is. We want to bring our troops back home, and i got elected on that. If you go back and look at our speeches, i would say we want to bring our troops back home from these endless wars. Chris but while we are in the process of pulling troops at least back many syria in syria, maybe not out of syria although the president has talked about that, you Just Announced on friday the president is going to send another 1800 troops into saudi arabia. So are we trying to get out of the middle east . Are we trying to get out of endless war withs or notsome. Well, we do have the aspiration to relook at our forces, move back in certain regions of the world to deal with the real strategic challenges we face; number one, china, and number two, russia. We include Northern Syria. We want to make sure we have sufficient forces on the ground to help defend our partners saudi arabia and the uae and secondly, to deter further iranian provocative behavior that could lead to a conflict. We are not looking to a conflict in the middle east and not with iran. But as i said to them, they should not mistake our restraint for weakness. If they do and do something that would strike our interests or our allies, we will respond. Chris ive got two minutes left, i want to ask you two questions about impeachment. House democrats have subpoenaed you personally, you as the secretary of defense, to turn over all documents related to decisions being made about authorization and then the decision to withhold military aid to ukraine. Will you comply by the deadline for the house subpoena which is this tuesday, two days from today . We will do everything we can to respond to their inquiry, chris. My general counsel a week or two ago sent out a note as we often do in these situations to the key members in the pentagon to say retain your documents and institute other controls. So, again, we will respond as we can. Chris you say youll respond as we can, you meet the deadline of tuesday . Well, i dont know the status of what that document preparation is. I dont know what restrictions we may have internally with regard to releasing them. The white house has a say as well. There are a number of things that play into this. Chris finally, last may the president s phone call with zelensky was in july, but two months before the undersecretary of defense certified to congress that ukraine had made major efforts in fighting corruption and certified to congress that the pentagon was, in fact, going to release all military aid that it had been approved by congress to the ukrainians. Did President Trump ever explain to you why he had decided to go against the pentagons decision and hold up the aid . Chris, i have nothing to share with you on this. As you know, i came into office in late july, and since that time as we looked at in this issue periodically, the dods focus has been on three things; what is the importance, the value of the aid to ukraine to deter russian behavior, defend themselves, number two, are they making progress on corruption which is of keen interest to the congress, and then number three, how are we getting other nato allies, european partners, to also help assist the ukrainians. We got most of the money out on time as required, and at no point in time was u. S. National security harmed. Chris secretary esper, thank you. Please come bark sir. Thank you, chris. Chris up next, the fallout from President Trumps decision to pull back u. S. Troops and the bipartisan measure that would be a major rebuke to have president s policies in syria. 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A Little Something called instinct. Been using it for years. Yeah, thats what im afraid of. He knows exactly where were going. My whole body is a compass. Oh boy. The my account app makes todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Not my thing. Chris President Trump is facing a fierce backlash from both republicans and democrats over his decision to pull u. S. Troops from the syrian border, allowing turkey to attack our kurdish allies there. This week when Congress Returns from recess, law makers plan to take up a bipartisan bill that would slap tough sanctions on turkey. Joining me now, democratic senator Chris Van Hollen who has written that bill along with republican lindsey graham. Senator, you just heard secretary esper talking about the fact that the president has ordered him to pull u. S. Troops, all of the u. S. Troops out of Northern Syria, basically to leave the kurds on their own and that we understand that they have made a deal, cut a deal the kurds have with assads forces in syria and the russians, and theyre going to go to them for protection against the turks. Your reaction. Welk or chris, what were seeing on the ground right now is absolutely sickening. Its absolutely shameful that President Trump allowed turkey to begin killing the syrian kurds who are our allies in the fight against isis. And thats why you have this big bipartisan uproar. You have isis right now being the big winner because the syrian kurds were our most effective partner going after isis. Now theyre going to have a comeback, thats what secretary mattis, former secretary of defense, just said. You just heard the current secretary of defense essentially say the Trump Administration is doing nothing. Theyre asking turkey, oh, please, please stop what youre doing. That is nothing. So thats why youre going to see a strong bipartisan response from the congress. First of all, we want to insist that President Trump actually step up and do something. He said he was going to destroy the turkish economy if erdogan did this kind of thing, and yet hes doing absolutelying nothing. In fact absolutely nothing. In fact, this administration sided with russia and opposed a resolution at the United Nations security council, a statement condemning turkeys actions. So congress is going to first call upon the president to do the right thing. But since we cant count on that, we will have this Bipartisan Legislation that will impose very stiff sanctions on turkey until they stop their aggression and withdraw their forces. Chris now, treasury secretary mnuchin on friday said that President Trump had authorized him not that he had imposed, but authorized him at some point to impose tough sanctions on, against turkey. Here the secretary of the treasury. These are very powerful sanctions. We hope we dont have to use them, but we can shut down the turkish economy if we need to. Chris so i guess the question is when are they going to do that . For god sakes, what are they waiting for, right . People are being killed right now. Our Syrian Kurdish allies are being killed right now. It looks like many of the isis detainees, there are about 10,000 fighters, are now possibly going to be able to escape. There are reports this morning isis sympathizers or have already escaped, thousands of them, and here you have secretary mnuchin saying, oh, well, were think about it. Maybe well do something. President trump tweeting that hes going to destroy their economy. They look ridiculous right now. So thats why its important that the Congress Move forward on this front. I dont know what this administrations waiting for. All theyre doing is talking while people are being killed. Chris so lets talk about you and lindsey graham, a pretty staunch democrat and a very staunch republican, are writing, putting together your own set of sanctions. But as we say, while this is going on and i understand Congress Comes back from recess tomorrow the kurds are being slaughtered, as you say. Isis supporters and fighters are leaving. Have you gotten a commitment from Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, one, that he is going to take this up and, two, schedule it for a quick vote . Because the longer you wait, the longer the turks are there the to do their worst in Northern Syria. Well, youre right, chris. We believe momentum is building for the congress to act since this president has shown a total unwillingness to do something in the face of this slaughter. Youre already seeing bipartisan movement in the senate, the big you discussed. Youre also seeing Bipartisan Legislation in the house coming together. So the key is to act quickly, as you say, time is of the essence. But, you know, when Congress Wants to act quickly, it can. So the senate could take this bill up, pass it, send it to the house and then send it to the president s desk. The president who said that he wanted to, quote, destroy the turkish economy if they did this kind of thing. So we need to move very quickly chris but have you gotten any commitment from Mitch Mcconnell that they are going to move quickly . To my knowledge, Mitch Mcconnell has not yet committed to that, which is why its very important that members of the senate on a bipartisan basis call upon him to do that. I do understand that in the house you have a strong Bipartisan Group also pushing for sanctions. Because every day that goes on isis is the winner. I mean, these are the guys who, that pose the biggest terrorist threat to the United States and the world. They are celebrating whats happening here. And so i do believe congress will muster the bipartisan will to do something quickly. Chris i want to ask you two quick questions in the time we have left about the other big story in washington which is inpeachment. You have now, since the zelensky phone call rough transcript was released, you have now called for supported the house impeachment inquiry. From what you have seen so far, do you believe that there is sufficient evidence that the president should be removed from office . Well, chris, what weve seen from this president in that transcript and other actions is a president who was abusing his power, using the power of the office of the presidency to try to get a Foreign Government the ukraine to interfere on his behalf in an american election. And the evidence is also mounting that he withheld vital u. S. Military assistance to ukraine that they need to stop russian aggression. In my view, that is an impeachable offense. But, but the hearings will have to collect the evidence, and the president and the white house will have an opportunity to put forward any exculpatory evidence they want. So i wont reach any final conclusion until all the evidence is in. But the evidence that is in is very damning of the president s actions. Chris and finally and the fact, chris, that they refused to present the information, you asked the secretary about documents about ukraine the fact that they refuse to present more information suggests they dont have any exculpatory evidence. Chris and very briefly, even if all 47 democrats were in the senate could vote to remove the president , you would still need 20 republicans to get to the supermajority of 67. At this point, and again briefly, do you see any chance that 20 republicans are going to jump ship, Senate Republicans jump ship on the president and vote to remove . Chris, im not going to prejudge anything because theres still a lot of evidence to come in. The evidence about this administration withholding very important military assistance to ukraine while the president tried through his lawyer, giuliani, and others to try to get ukraine to interfere on President Trumps behalf in an election, as that evidence comes in i hope people take a very close look at it, ask themselves what would they have been doing and saying if president obama had done Something Like that. Chris senator van hollen, thanks for your time. Always good to talk with you, sir. You too. Chris up next, well bring in our sunday group to discuss the split between President Trump and Congressional Republicans over the turkish offensive against the kurds. Plus, what would you like to ask the panel about the president s decision to pull back u. S. Troops in syria . Just go to facebook or twitter foxnewssunday, and we may use your question on the air. We had a big victory. We left the area. I dont think the American People want to see us go back in with our military, go back into that area again. I know that every military person thats told me dont do this, and this is the pre9 11 mentality that paved the way for 9 11. Chris President Trumps stain the. Supporter, senator lindsey graham, breaking with the president over his decision to pull back troops in Northern Syria, allowing a turkish offensive against our kurdish allies. And its time now for our sunday group. Jason riley of the wall street journal. Charles lane of the Washington Post. Former dnc chair donna brazile, and guy benson of fox news radio. Jason, i am not often or easily shocked here at the anchor chair on sunday mornings, but i have to say that the conjunction of reports that the turkishbacked militia are committing atrocities and slaughtering, executing kurdish civilians and soldiers, the fact that isis fighters are escaping, that the president has decided to pull all u. S. Forces out of Northern Syria and allow the kurds to make common cause with the assad regime and russians, i find that shocking. I think a lot of people find it shocking, chris. The defense secretary said that our biggest Strategic Interests were chai china and russia. Two big, important, powerful countries that are currently watching a couple tenpack dictators in turkey and syria tunnel their nose at the United States, call the shots in terms of what turkey is going to do, tell us what they are going to do as the defense secretary said. I find that shocking as well. And the big concern here, of course, is were abandoning allies in the kurds. These are the people, they were the ground game. We had the air support, we supplied the as well as, but they took the casualties. Thousands of casualties. And they are now going to turn out of selfpreservation to russia and syria if we are not going to back them. And you know what the problem here is, chris . Isis is dispersed right now, but they are not defeated. And they will reconstitute if they have a safe place to do that. That is another problem with us leaving syria. Chris the other question i have, guy, on this is that the defense sec taxer mark esper, says turkey was going to do this anyway. They were going to come across the border and invade. We had troops, not a lot, but we had u. S. Fighters patrolling the area. They say they thought that erdogan, the turkish president , meant business. Do you really think he was going to move in. No. There was a sense that the u. S. Was just impotent in this situation. Well, turkey was going to do what they were going to do, and we had nothing really at our fingertips to stop them. No options. I just find that hard to believe. I think Many Americans find it hard to believe. We dont have to say lets go to war with turkey without saying behind the screens, if you do this, theres going to be military consequences, economic consequences. I dont know if that was said, but it sounds like it was not. And i just keep coming back to this quote, it was a tweet from the president just a few days ago on this situation. Quote anything that i and my great in unmatched wisdom consider to be off limits, talking about what turkey might do, i will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of turkey. I think many conservatives were rightly deeply critical of president obama on a red line in syria. This wasnt a specific red line, but he said if they go out of bounds, theyre in huge trouble. The question i have this morning is whats the definition of out of bounds if not what were seeing right now . Chris there is another side to this story, and the president and many of his supporters are advancing it. And that is we asked you for questions for the panel, and we go this on the issue of got this on facebook from karen margrave. The middle east has been fighting each other since biblical times, mostly over religion and oil. How will sacrificing american lives change anything . Donna, how do you answer karen particularly in the context of President Trump and the decisions he he has made with regard to turkey and the kurds . I agree that weve been in endless wars in the middle east for a long time, and well likely be in the middle east for much longer. But this is a disaster of the president s own making. There are serious consequences of withdrawing from syria. We know that. We know that this could lead to the reemergence of isis, resurgence of isis. We know that it will likely lead to more conflict in the region. The president made a huge mistake, and i think this coming week both the house and the senate needs to come together and decide what, if any, actions they will take to prevent turkey from doing more damage to our interest in the region. Chris there is a larger policy question here, and that is what the role of the u. S. Military should be. Here is President Trump on that this week. Were like a police force over there. Were policing. Were not fighting, were policing. Were not a police force. Were the greatest military force ever assembled. Chris but we have deployed u. S. Troops around the world for more than half a century in a is sense not to fight in a sense not to fight wars. 35,000 u. S. Troops right now in germany. 26,000 right now in south korea. 55,000 in japan. Chuck, what President Trump calls a police force has been a decision that if the u. S. Puts troops on borders as trip wires, if you will, then sometimes often times in some of these cases for decades it prevents wars. Well, we have in the greater middle east about 60,000 troops. Theyre in places, a lot of americans probably dont even realize like oman and qatar. As you say, theyre there for sort of a general security function. What were learning out of this situation is that many people who before his election regarded donald trump as some sort of dealmaker or pragmatist kind of got it wrong. He is deeply ideological about this point. That we are overcommitted overseas, people take advantage of us and advantage of our true presence and dont pay for it, and all we get out of it is money and lives lost. And thats a big part of the America First ideology that he deeply believes. And what hes learning is that that simple grid, when you try to impose it over a complicatedded situation like this, it doesnt always work because he simultaneously promised well wipe out isis, and well end the endless wars. And were learning today that you cant really have both of those things. Chris well, and weve got to wrap this up quickly because i want to move on to the next segment, but you almost hate to talk about the political impact of this when youre talking about the peoples lives and atrocities and isis getting out, jason. But the president believes, you know, he made this Campaign Promise to his sporters, i want to get out of these wars, and i think he believes there are an awful lot of voters out there who are not going to be upset, that are going to be happy to see u. S. Forces not fighting in other peoples lands. They are. He did make the promise, and we all understand the sentiment. But u. S. Foreign policy has to respond to the world as it is, not as we want it to be. And these conflicts, many of which he inherited, of course, will not get better in the absence if we just stick to our own business, stick to our own knitting. That is not how the world workings. We know if theres a vacuum, bad guys will fill it, particularly in this part of the world. And if theres more bedlam, if we see beheadings and executions, that is not going to help donald trump politically here at home. Chris when we come back, the latest on the democrats impeachment inquiry, and is the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, now in trouble . The final horn doesnt have to mean the end of the action. Because with Nhl Center Ice on xfinity you get up to 40 outofmarket games per week. And with the allnew xfinity sports zone, you get everything nhl all in one place, even notifications about your favorite teams. Watch every barn burner, barreling check, and all the top shelf action. Plus get instant access to your teams with the power of your voice. Thats simple, easy, awesome. Say Nhl Center Ice into your voice remote to upgrade for a great low price, or go online today. Here, hello starts with hi mple. How can i help . A data plan for everyone. Everyone . Everyone. Lets send to everyone [ camera clicking ] wifi up there . Ahhh. Sure, why not . Howd he get out . a camera might figure it out. That was easy glad i could help. At xfinity, were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. So come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. Youre running a country. I just dont think that you can have all of these people testifying about every conversation youve had. Chris the president announcing this weekend an end to any cooperation with the house impeachment inquiry. But in the last few days, mr. Trump is being urged to cut ties with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, amid reports the mayor is now under investigation for his work in ukraine. Lets get the latest from kevin corke at the white house. Kevin . Reporter chris, asked this weekend whether or not he was still the president s attorney, Rudy Giuliani told fox news, yes. But there are new questions about just how long that might be the case. I stand behind Rudy Giuliani, absolutely. Reporter in six words, President Trump put to rest any speculation that hes turning his back on his private attorney, Rudy Giuliani. And the New York Times reports the former new york city mayor is now squarely at the end of an impeachment probe thanks to his ties to two foreign nationals arrested and charged with Campaign Finance violations stemming from what prosecutors allege was a Pressure Campaign to investigate democrats. Defendants broke the law to gain political influence while avoiding disclosure of who was actually making the donations and where the money was coming from. Reporter meanwhile, the former ukrainianword who was recalled ambassador who was recalled abruptly back in may gave a closed door deposition to three committees investigating whether there are grounds to impeach the president. She accused the state department of bringing her back to washington because of disinformation spread by people including the president s attorney. This just ahead of the week when even more officials are expected to testify including u. S. Ambassador to the e. U. , gordon sunland, and fiona hill who was, until recently, President Trumps top aide on russia and europe. Sources tell the Washington Post that sunland is expected to tell congressional lawmakers that the context of a text denying a quid pro quo with ukraine came directly after a phone call with President Trump himself, although he is also expected to tell them, chris, hes not sure if thats true or not. Chris kevin corke, thanks. And were back now with the panel. Well, perhaps the Biggest Development and there were a lot this week was the arrest of those two associates, and there you see them, of Rudy Giuliani on Campaign Finance charges. Now the New York Times reports federal prosecutors are investigating whether giuliani failed to disclose he was lobbying for, in the u. S. On behalf of foreign officials. Here was President Trump being asked about giuliani on friday. [inaudible] well, i dont know. I havent spoken to rudy. I spoke to him yesterday briefly. Hes a very good attorney, and he has been my attorney, yes, sir. Chris so, guy, the president did call in last night and say, yes, giuliani is still his attorney, and he is a, quote, a fine a great gentleman. That was the quote. But it doesnt seem that theres a ringing vote of confidence. Do you see a potential break in the trump giuliani alliance . I just watched that clip again, and the first time i saw it my ears perked up because the tense of verbs sometimes matters when someone is signaling or telegraphing where they might be going. So instead of saying rudy is my attorney, he said rudy has been my attorney. Uhoh, that could not be good for rudy. Ill tell you this, speaking to every single rightleaning person and republican over the last few weeks, frankly, almost unanimously theyre all saying rudys a liability for the president. Hes all over tv constantly, hes contradicting himself, he sometimes seems a little bit sort of crazed in some of his responses. And now with this whole thing with the friends of rudy getting arrested, this is a series of headlines that is not helpful to his client who happens to be the president of the United States. Chris yeah. Chuck, i want to pick up on that because there had been criticism of giulianis performance, but with the arrest of these two people and with new reports and you got it from the ambassador to ukraine who was called back that it seems that the president and giuliani were running their own offthebooks Foreign Policy, their own operation in ukraine outside and apart from the administration. How big a liability potentially is that to the president . Welsh when the well, when the president says he stands absolutely behind Rudy Giuliani, rudy probably ought to think about all the other people the president has said he stands behind, including the kurds today. And, actually, that is quite often in our history been the prelude to dumping him. There is a problem. I think giuliani is a liability. Both substantively and for all the optics reasons that guy talked about x. Now he is himself under a criminal investigation. Kind of awkward to have your personal attorney in that position. But lets not forget these two guys go back a long way. If donald trump could be said to have a close best friend, it might be Rudy Giuliani going all the way back to new york. And so rudy knows a lot. And maybe too much to be cut loose just like that. So i would be surprised if in the very short term before it absolutely becomes necessary the president has to cut him loose, but definitely a lot of people want him to. Chris let me turn to another part of the developments, jason. The president is pushing the argument about executive powers. As far, it seems, as my president ever has in the various court cases. He says he has immunity from investigation, from prosecution while hes president , and now this week he announced a complete halt in, to any cooperation with congress. And his lawyer, the white House Counsel, said this is unconstitutional, and its simply an attempt to overturn an election. Do you think i mean, on the one hand if you say i dont have to cooperate with the courts and congress, do you think he can make that stick . I think some of the arguments laid out in that document by the attorney chris the white House Counsel counsel, hold more weight than others or potentially hold more weight than others with the court. We know the constitution gives the congress wide berth to define high crime pes and misdemeanors. It canning be whatever, essentially, they want it to. But there are sort of traditions that have been followed when it comes to ill peach. Inquiries whether it was a democratic Congress Going after nixon or a republican Congress Going after bill clinton, and that was that you have an entire house vote on a formal inquiry to given. It gives a bipartisan sheen to the proceedings, and the current speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, has avoided doing that i think partly to protect some of her members that come from trump districts and partly because she nose shell get barely any, if any, republicans to support this which will expose it as the partisan exercise that it is. But i think the white house is smart to litigate this to death because the longer they do and the closer we fete to november of next year, the more voters will say why do we need to impeach . Lets just go to the polls and decide if this amounts to something donald trump should lose his job over. Chris and then there are the president s attacks on some of his critics and rivals in which he is using increasingly language, some of which we cannot put on the air here. Take a look at and we are going to put this on the air, take a look at this exchange from this week. We all laughed when he said he could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot someone and get away with it. Its no jokement joke. Hes shooting holes and the constitution, and we cannot let him get away with it. He was only a good Vice President because he understood how to kiss Barack Obamas a, ass. [laughter] chris so, you know, some of the chattering class in the beltway is going to get their knickers in a twist about this, but youve got to know and it played well with that crowd that a lot of the president s supporters like the bluntness of those attacks, and that was one of the ones we could put on tv. And you know the president is going to continue to rally his base and avoid looking at what is really at stake. The house is gathering evidence. That evidence will be presented in the articles of impeachment. The senate will be able to look at this evidence, and they will proceed to be the jury. I think the president should figure out what is his best strategy, is obstructing congress, stonewalling the congress . When the house has sole discretion. The constitution gave the power to house, the peoples house, to make this decision. The president can go around name calling all he wants, but nancy pelosi is focused on abiding by the constitution and making sure that her committees come up with the evidence that will be presented to the American People, and the senate will act as jury. Chris less than a minute, guy. The president attacked fox news about our latest poll which, i have to say another thing i was shocked about, 51 now support not just impeachment, but removal. Now, the president and there are other polls that say different things. Do you think, though, that Public Opinion is moving against the president at this point . Yeah, it has been so far, but theres a long way to go in this process. And i think the fact that, to your point, that the democrats and Speaker Pelosi has not called for a full vote, thats an issue. And all of this operating in secrecy. Are they going to try to impeach a president in secret . I think thats going to rub a lot of voters the wrong way. Chris thank you, panel. See you next sunday. Well have plenty of time to discuss this. Up next, our power player of the week, the political activist mobilizing women to fight back against irans leaders. Chris when we interviewed irans president rouhani tat un two weeks ago we focused on Foreign Policy differences between his country and the u. S. But theres also serious questions about what goes on inside iran, here is our power player of the week. We are banned from dancing, we are banned from showing our hair. Chris laws in iran that barr women. She spent years mobilizing women in the country to fight for freedom. Im not fighting against piece of cloth, im fighting against one of the dictatorships. Chris women was cover head in public or risk imprisonment. 5 years ago, started a website my stealthy freedom urging women to share pictures of their defiance. I got bombarded by photos and videos from women inside iran, this is our true self. What happens to women in iran who take off the hijab . Being a woman is that you risk your life every day. Chris she didnt stop there, she launched white wednesday urging men and women to wear the color in protest. The videos people sent became much bolder. 29 people were arrested in one day last year, these two sisters were sentenced to 15 years in prison. They know the risks, they know the danger but they are like the women of suffrages, they want freedom and they are ready to pay the price. Chris which brings us to mosis story, grew up in traditional family in northern iran but she always wondered why she couldnt enjoy the same freedom as her brother. I started my own revolution in my familys kitchen. By 2009 she was a journalist but iranian officials didnt like her constant questioning. I had two options to stay in iran and keep silent and leave iran and be loud. The revolutionary court has certainly heard her, this summer they banned any interaction with mosi. They called me hostile government, they called me a her, they called me a prostitute and agent of cia, agent of President Trump. Chris authorities interrogated her mother and her father stopped talking to her. I dont want to actually show them that they can break us. Chris making this break with your family, with tradition, it comes at a cost. You know, its not easy. I havent seen my family for 10 years. Its not easy. But theres no chance mosi or supporters back in iran will stop fighting. That is why i have to be strong otherwise, you know, they are going to win the battle and im not going to let them win. Chris mosi met with secretary of state pompeo a few months ago, she urged him if u. S. Officials negotiate with iran about Nuclear Weapons and terrorism, they shouldnt forget human rights especially the rights of women in their own country. And thats it for today, have a great week, we will see you next fox news sunday. Howie on buzzfeed sunday media and war of words over impeachment as President Trump refuses to cooperate with the investigation and are press digs into a growing pile of allegations. They are basically saying that congress has no right to investigate the president. This is not a winning legal argument but they want to make political argument. We the people over misconduct that does not exist yet again. The president of the United States claiming he has no choice but to stonewall into obstruct on unlawful inquiry from congress. If he cooperates hes guilty, if he doesnt c