Anda thoritatively about the Pressure Campaign waged against ukraine. They described an effort to leverage that country to deliver the politically motivated investigations the president wanted. And it was gent that backdrop the star witness, ambassador taylor, dropped an important new revelation, a bombshell really linking the president directly to that scheme. One day after the president asked ukrainian president zelensky to dig up dirt on his political opponents a member of taylors staff heard a conversation. And heres how taylor described what he heard. In the presence of my staff at a restaurant ambassador sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in kiev. The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. Ambassador sondland told President Trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. Following the call with President Trump the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland when the president thought about ukraine. Ambassador sondland responded trump cares more about the investigations of biden which giuliani was pressing for. I take the import of that is he cares more about that than he does about ukraine . Yes, sir. That staffer identified as david ho david holmes now set to testify this friday. Republicans spent their time trying to poke holes in the testimony and advance the president s counter narrative. But the testimony of taylor and kent offered some troubling details for the president. Ambassador taylor affirmed military aid was withheld in an effort to extort ukraine. And both suggested the actions taken in crew crane were unpresident ed. In your decades of military service and Diplomatic Service representing the United States around the world, have you ever seen another example of foreign aid conditioned on the personal or political interests of the president of the United States . No, mr. Goldman, ive not. Is pressuring ukraine to conduct what i believe you called political investigations, a part of u. S. Foreign policy to promote the rule of law in ukraine and around the world . It is not. Is it in the National Interests of the United States . In my opinion, it is not. Taylor also stood behind his texts of last september saying that military aid for political gain is, quote, crazy. Because that was so important, that Security Assistance was so important for ukraine as well as our own National Interests, to with hold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a Political Campaign made no sense. It was counter productive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy. Im joined now by u. S. Congresswoman jackie spear of california that took part in todays hearing. Cynthia and glenn kirschner. Thank you, congresswoman for coming on tonight. What did you make of the bombshell tonight weve got a witness account now coming from david holmes who heard talking about following up the investigation he wanted done by zelensky on biden . Its the piling of more evidence that the president was using his office and hijacking our Foreign Policy to benefit his campaign for election in 2020. Its really as mr. Taylor and mr. Kent said, unprecedented that a president would do Something Like this. And in my mind it is grounds for calling for bribery. He is a person in his official status who is asking for something of value from another party and then withholding his office and his ability to do something unless he gets what hes asking for. Its quite simple. Cynthia, and everyone else, i want your reaction to getting the news now that the star witness today, bill taylor, the ambassador to yeah crane actually has a staffer now ready to testify he overheard the president following up on a deal he struck, extortion he setup with the president of ukraine. More actual real direct evidence. Right. Its a bombshell. And the reason why its a bombshell is because it brings the story away from whats going on in ukraine and brings it to trump. And thats what needs to happen more. Because he was on the phone. Because he was on the phone. Because hes actually involved. Hes physically involved. And one thing that happened today that i thought needed to happen more was they need to take it away from fact, fact, fact, email, email whatever and make it a story. This is what this case is about. Its about trump trading American Integrity and arms for his own political gain. Its got to be and every question has to go back to that. I thought they were pretty good at that. You dont think so. Glenn . I think this phone call now with sondland saying ukraine is ready to move forward, how do we interpret that . Bribery successful, mission accomplished. Thats what that is. And i agree with cynthia, i love all of the facts and i love an overarching story and an inclusive tale being told by heroes like bill taylor. 50 years, i get patriotic goose bumps listening to that guy. But now we need a message. We need to tell it like it is because what this is arms for political dirt. And i think weve heard no obstruction, no collusion, which was a lie. We heard perfect call, perfect call which was a lie. But the truth is this is arms for political dirt. Thats the message. Right. And every time theres a question it has to go back to that. Every question. If the president said this, that was a lie, wasnt it . Because in fact what was happening he was trading arms for dirt. Majority members they werent going off about emoluments or some other little tangent they did stick to the question of what happened to our president and the president of this very vulnerable question when he shook him down. Republicans, on the other hand seemed a bit scatter shot in their approach. What did you think about the whole thing . I thought the witnesses were excellent. And i like the Human Interest part of it. He said wait a minute, lets talk about you for a second since nobody knees who you are, bill taylor. You graduated from west point. Serious trait arrows come out of there. We know they come in fourth in a class of 800 in any school is pretty amazing. And we also know in the heat of the vietnam war, he chose infantry. He went out in the jungle as opposed to guess who. Thats why guess who bone spur is . I think that was pretty smart. And thats why these guys give you patriotic goosebumps. Theyre in there just telling it like it is. Theyve been doing the peoples work for in george kents case 27 years. And there were two councils up there today, Danny Goldman and this guy caster. I think goldman was great. The other guy was a dunce. The other guy got nothing done. I dont even know what he was doing. Going back to the bombshell with sondland and this phone call, sondland is coming in next wednesday. Take off work, get your fire going in your popcorn because that is an epic showdown between sondland. And goldman also pushed back that theres no quid pro quo. Here he goes, Danny Goldman. Even though President Trump was saying repeatedly there is no quid pro quo, ambassador sondland relayed to you that the facts of the matter were that white house meeting and the Security Assistance were conditioned on the announcement of these investigations. Is that your understanding . Thats my understanding. He described conditions for the Security Assistance and the white house meeting in those terms. Dependent upon, conditioned on pursuing these investigations. Congresswoman spieier, i think youve learned from mistakes. Weve lost a lot of effort back in the days of iran contra when Brenden Sullivan and oliver north win the day against a bunch of people hiding up in these chairs ibcommittee rooms and hes in uniform. This time around instead of everybody doing scatter shot you focused your energies on a council. Was that a tough decision to make Danny Goldman would be the attack dog . Hes very effective. A trial lawyer, u. S. Attorney, great experience. And we wanted to lay out the facts, and thats precisely what happened today. Facts do matter. And i would disagree with some of your speakers in that we need to lay the foundation and then we can tell the story. What we were doing today was presenting facts while the republicans were presenting conspiracy theories again. And id like to remind everyone that it was the president s own Homeland Security advisor tom brosart, who said in 2017 to the president that this ukraine election involvement in 2016 was a myth, was a hoax. And there was no relevance to the, there were no facts to support it. And yet the president is still barking up that tree. I agree with you completely. Also still telling everybody that ted cruzs father was involved in killing jack kennedy. He was selling that baby for a long time. Hes still selling it as far as im concerned. Both taylor and kent, the Witnesses Today said it went against Americas National interest in the region. Here they go. The committees investigation has uncovered a web of shadow diplomacy engaged in and executed by several state Department Officials and the president s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and ultimately directed by President Trump. Was mr. Giuliani promoting u. S. National interests or policy in ukraine, ambassador . I dont think so, maam. Mr. Kent . No, he was not. What interests do you believe he was promoting, mr. Kent . I believe he was looking to dig up political dirt on a potential rival in the next election cycle. Ambassador taylor, what interests do you believe he was promoting . I agree with mr. Kent. Thats val demings of florida being sharp and getting sharper answers there. Rudy giuliani is up to no good. I think the key thing we heard today is we have a bipartisan Foreign Policy associated with ukraine that was being undermined by Rudy Giuliani and the others. But this was actually the declared trump Foreign Policy. How come ukraine president never admitted he was being pressured . Because the minute he was being pressured he would have lost the whole game, right . These are stupid things these arguments. The republicans problem is they have about seven defenses and they really cant get to the core defense because trump wont let them which is we know he did it, we know he liked it, we know hes not sorry, but its not impeachable. Thats where they want to go, but they cant. So they have scatter shot defenses not effective. Thank you u. S. Congresswoman jackie spier, and weve got a lot more to get to on tonights assessment of the dramatic impeachment hearing today of President Trump including the attempt by the gop crowd and its less than brilliant lawyer to pick apart the democrats case. The problem with his argument didnt make a whole lot of sense, did it . Lets watch him. Who is this guy . You believe he genuinely believed they were working against him, right, ambassador taylor . I i dont know what president or candidate trump was thinking about the ukraine. So you certainly can appreciate President Trumps concerns . Its a big night, not for him fortunately. Try another line of work, brother. Anyway, stick with us. Another l brother. Anyway, stick with us. Weve seen a thing or two. Even a ernie lost rubber duckie . burke you mean this one . ernie rubber duckie cookie what about a broken cookie jar . burke again, cookie . cookie yeah. Me bad. grover yoooooow oh what about monsters having accidents . I am okay by the way burke depends. Did you cause the accident, grover . grover cause an accident . Maybe. bert how do you know all this stuff . burke just comes with experience. all muppets yup. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum theres a company thats talked than me jd power. People 448,134 to be exact. They answered 410 questions in 8 categories about vehicle quality. And when they were done, chevy earned more j. D. Power quality awards across cars, trucks and suvs than any other brand over the last four years. So on behalf of chevrolet, i want to say thank you, real people. Youre welcome. Were gonna need a bigger room. 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Choose unlimited, shared data, or mix lines of each and switch any line, anytime. Giving you more choice and control compared to other top wireless carriers. Save up to 400 a year when you switch. Plus, get 50 off when you buy any new lg phone. Xfinity mobile. Click, call or visit a store today. Back to hardball. In an daechattempt to m. D. Minu republica republicans there are elements of the ukrainian establishment out to get the president. Thats a very reasonable belief of his, correct . I dont know. Did the state department ever express any concern tuesday the Vice President s office that the Vice President s role at the time engaging on ukraine presented any issues . No. The Vice President s role was critically important. It was top cover to help us pursue our policy agenda. The second member of the regular channel was ambassador sondland who is senate confirmed, ambassador to the eu, so his involvement here while, you know, not necessarily part of his official duties as the ambassador to the eu its certainly not outlandish for him to be interested and engaged persaupe pursuant or secretary pompeos direction, correct . Its a little unusual for the u. S. Ambassador to eu to play a role in ukraine policy. Were back. What do you make of his presentation of the Republican Council there . I get the feeling he was a down beaten staffer who was afraid he was going to look like two big a big shot so hew avoided that. So the other thing looked like he had tremendous confidence. Danny goldman was outstanding. He kept it focus, was calm, moved it along and this guy was sort of all over the map. He can do Amazing Things with his facial expressions. He can move his whole face around. Hes maybe in the wrong business. He had no notes either. Did you notice that . He was winging it. He also got undercut by the president when the president tweeted out what i did was good. Hes not allowed to do the obvious defense which is its not impeachable. You cant fall back with this president. Heres my question, Television Viewers you all watched this on television, very few people are in the room. Did it work . I dont i dont think the republican attacks worked. When you look at the jim jordan, hes doing the jim jordan garble thing where you talked to four people in six days and three levels of hearsay and a p partridge in a pear tree. And he was saying this is all hearsay information, secondhand, thirdhand. Yeah, President Trump is prohiblting the firsthand witnesses, the direct witnesses from testifying. So you cant complain about hearsay information. Its like the old line about you cant kill your parents and cry and complain youre an orphan. And thats what jordan was doing. So if you peel back the jordan garble, its a bunch of nonsense. Because Mick Mulvaney is not going to show up. None of the perpetrators like giuliani are going to show up. Not to be a contrarian but apparently thats my role tonight, it would be nice after he does his partridge in a pear tree thing if the next Congress Person is listeningening and will deal with it instantly like glenn just did. Because goldman cant do all the questioning. So when he did some of those spiels people didnt come back quickly enough and provide fox news a nice little section they can play on the news over and over. The goal is not to be the goal is to convince people to change their minds, right . So we have to counter him right away. Okay, President Trump has repeatedly attacked anyone who dares to speak up about his questionable behavior labeling them nevertrump republicans. Thats his phrase. Today kent ander w taylor was a if they had a nevertrump agenda. The president tweeted multiple times about this hearing and he put in all caps, never trumpers. Mr. Kent, are you a nevertrumper . I am a career nonprofessional who serves whatever president is duly lected and carries out and ive done that for 27 years. Ambassador taylor are you a never trumper . No, sir. What do you think of that, larry . Well i think they are the president tweets out in big bold letters never trumpers. They proved today theyre actually all americans. They served in their country, public servants. They answered the call to public service. And theyve gone it. Theyre the people the president should be relying on and instead of theyre being discarded and mistreated. They laid fact upon fact and i think the major newspapers tomorrow will lead with the strong case made by the democratic majority of that committee or Intelligence Committee. Theyre going to lead with taylor. Theyre going to make their case very effectively. But are those the people already converted . Are they in the chorus already . I wonder whether this reach ses beyond to the people who dont regular watch us and television, i wonder if its a break out opportunity. I dont know. I think youre right. They were building this brick by brick and its a good start. And now they have to follow it up with some frankly more powerful compelling targeted witnesses who are going to give the American People something to grab onto like arms for political dirt, something. Right, and you know what else, were going to have a bombshell day when sondland testifies because he has been lying. Hes been saying i didnt know about the bidens, i didnt know about the july 10th meeting. The president didnt say that. The cross exam will be so dramatic, people will actually watch it. And you will see then, i predict because Danny Goldmans really good on cross. You will see that the white house has been lying about this. And one thing glenn and i know from trying cases the minute you prove the main witness is a liar, youve got them. Maybe someone will agree with me here. I think itll solidify the case against the president for people willing to listen to it. But i also heard a lot of republicans today who do not want to listen to it. They want to change the subject to the bidens or who the wl whistleblower sl which is totally irrelevant now. Someone tells you its snowing outside and you walk outside and its snowing, it doesnt matter who told you its snowing. Up next, while democrats prosecute their case for impeachment, House Republicans resorted to distractions so they couldnt defend the president on the central facts. Youre watching hardball. T on the central facts. Youre watching hardball. Er ths than Rheumatoid Arthritis or Psoriatic Arthritis. When considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz xr, a oncedaily pill for adults with moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis or active Psoriatic Arthritis for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. 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[ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I am royalty of racing, i am alfa romeo. Nyquifor your worst cold andrful relieflu symptoms, on sunday night and every night. Nyquil severe. The nightime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, best sleep with a cold, medicine. Ambassador, you werent on the call, were you . You didnt listen in on President Trumps call and president zelenskys call . I did not. You never talk today chief of staff mulvaney . You never met the president. Thats correct. And president zelensky never made an announcement . This is what i cant believe and youre their star witness. Welcome back to hardball. That was Ohio Republican congressman jim jordan trying to undercut damning testimony from ambassador bill taylor by arguing it wasnt firsthand information. The top attack dog for President Trump, jordan, was hand picked to join the Intelligence Committee last week in preparation for the public impeachment hearings this week. As republicans mounted defenses of the president they relied mostly on diversion. The republican committees devon nunes said democrats were trying to overturn the results of the 2016 election. Anyone familiar with the democrats scorched earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign. The main performance, the russia hoax, has ended and youve been cast in the low rent ukrainian sequel. Others pointed to the white house memo of President Trumps july phone call with ukrainian president to say it showed no evidence of pressure. While texas congressman john rad california who was at one point President Trumps nominee for director of National Intelligence argued the phone call was no big deal. In this impeachment hearing today where we impeach president s for treason or bribery or other high crimes, where is the impeachable defense in that call . Are either of you here to assert there was an impeachable defense in that call . Shout it out, anyone . If i could just spnrespond, me just reiterate id just like to say im not here to do anything, anything having to do with deciding about impeachment. This is your job. Im joined right now by david jolly and jason johnson, a politics editor at the root. Com. Let me ask you about this performance by the members of your party. It was certainly an interesting show. Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing. Im not sure what nunes was up to. He didnt seem to be a leader of the pack here, he was doing this stuff about hunter biden and ukraine 2016 and trying to get the whistleblower exposed. None of that had to do with the conversations President Trump had with zelensky or the whole cabal to shake this guy down for dirt on biden. He was just Walking Around the far fringes of the topic. Lets deconstruct some of these arguments. Youre right. Nunes was feeding the conspiracy base that works among some republican circles. Nunes also opened by saying this is just the next step of what the democrats tried to do to trump during the investigation. It wasnt the democrats that launched the mueller investigation. It was trumps doj, and as for jim jordan saying that the in the meetings with Zelensky Zelensky wasnt aware, the crime was not in zelensky being aware, the crime was in the conspiracy, the crime was in the scheme. And all the kwacooberating evidence, it is about a pattern of behavior, a consciousness of guilt and an effort by donald trump we now know was in direct contact with ambassador sondland to in fact extract this concession from the ukraine president. What we saw today was not a gop interested in their oath. Even when they were pursuing their case to try to deconstruct the witnesses, even when they were shipping away, if you will, making the hearsay argument they werent acting as fact finders, they were acting as defense attorneys. Their role today was to get to the facts of impeachable activity. Jason . I thought it was ridiculous. And you can go down the line but look at jim jordan. Aside from his own credibility, none of us really want to look at jim jordan because he cant see things, but his big argument, you have these meetings and no one mentioned it. Im sorry, how many people being blackmailed go running to the very same government and say im being blackmailed by your boss, President Trump. The one weakness and one sort of failing i saw the democrats have is when republicans kept saying vaevy they got the funding. The democrats should have pointed out it didnt happen until the whistleblower came forth. I noticed one rhetorical flourish with the crowd now and its new in politics. The old is ignore the question and give me your speech parts. These guys ignore the corrections. They ignored what they said two weeks ago doesnt work anymore and they keep saying it. Republicans also blasted democrats for not bringing in the whistleblower to testify despite the fact that lawyers for the anonymous individual have offered to submit written testimony. Here they go. There is one witness. One witness they wont bring in front of us, they wont bring in front of the American People, and thats the guy who started it all, the whistleblower. I say to my colleague, id be glad to have the person who started it all come in and testify. President trump is welcome to take a seat right there. Well, thats so true. Its not just a great counter punch, it is about trump. That whistleblower just said youve got to watch what happened here, we found out what happened there. The whistleblower is irrelevant now. Its funny. When you have a party that keeps making the argument, heres your chance and doesnt want to show up. Is it just create confusion, get a blur, prevent anybody from focusing what they couldnt learn from the democratic case today . Is it just that . Theyre playing defense to the 2020 strategy to prevent erosion of their base. Theyre trying to prevent any strong hit from being landed. Heres where i think there is an opportunity from democrats that i saw today that may have been missing. And its this, an impeachment argument requires the constitutional case and political case. The constitutional case is the facts right here and the president wanted an investigation into the bidens. And the constitutional case is about trump. The political case is about the American People and about the voters. And i think the case that democrats could make to the voters is, look, trump tried to steal the next election from you. He tried to cheat by this next election by using foreign aid to dig up dirt on his opponent and tip the balance of the election in his favor. And secondly he jeopardized Americas National security, not the ukraines. And by bigt holding aid he emboldened russian aggression. And russia is our enemy, and the president didnt care. Make the case about the American People as much as you make it about Donald Trumps behavior. I love the way you said that. It is about the country, and its what country do you want to live in, and were living in this one. Up next, did the democrats make a strong case for impeachment to the American Public . Were going to ask one of the leading democrats in the house . Thats coming up next in just a minute, in fact. Youre watching hardball. T. Youre watching hardball. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good high protein. Low sugar. Mmmm, birthday cake pure protein. The best combination for every fitness routine. 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But with less carbon footprint. Can we have both . At bp, were working every day to make energy thats cleaner and better. And we see possibilities everywhere. Tto harrison, the wine cleatcollection. R. To mateo, my favorite chair. Grace, you get the beach house. Just dont leave the lights on, okay . To craig, this rock. To jamie, well, lets just say, enjoy the ride. The redwoods to the redheads. The rainbows to the proud. The almonds to walter. The beaches to the bums. And the fog to, who else, karl. I leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you, on one condition. That you do everything to preserve and protect them. With love, california. I did not watch it. Im too busy to watch it. Its a witch hunt. Its a hoax. Im too busy to watch it. Too busy to watch it. As the house held its first public impeachment hearing today that could determine the future of that mans presidency trump was meeting with president erdogan of turkey and comes just weeks after turkeys strong man invaded syria and attacked u. S. Allied kurdish forces. Trump responded to the new revelation from todays hearing that a member of ambassador taylors staff overheard a phone call between the president and Eu Ambassador sondland about ukraine being able to move forward with the investigations trump demanded of them. I knownothing about that. First time ive heard it. In any event its more secondhand information. But ive never heard it. I dont recall not even a little bit. I dont recall. I knownothing, while the president said he was too busy to watch the public hearings today his schedule did not stop him from lashing out on twitter with nearly catch this three dozen tweets and retweets from him. In one he appeared to call out todays witnesses as, quote, never trumpers. For more im joined by shannon pettypiece. This guy on a day he claims hes not watching six hours or 5 hours of testimony against him largely he was tweeting like a bandit. He was. There was certainly a morning flurry of tweets. And at one point he said he was too busy to watch and then he said, well, i see theyve got tv lawyers or lawyers off tv. He was aware at least of what the optics were. I noticed i bet he had the worst lawyer, too. The republican certainly didnt have judge janene, his favorite lawyer. But in general what were getting from the white house is they feel like they essentially played this one to a draw. They dont think anybodys mind played from this. They felt like they got to make a couple of points they wanted to make. Firstly this one you haurd the president make about no one having firsthand knowledge, direct conversations of them. Hes going to testify he was listening. Right. So well see what sondland ezicize. But everyone else the prelz has blocked from testifying who would have had firsthand conversations or knowledge was mostly Mick Mulvaney. And now theyre accusing anyone else who testifies of not having that sort of direct link to the president s thinking. According to the Washington PostPresident Trump has been threatening to fire his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for weeks, but senior advisers have been urging him off that ledge. Three people familiar with the discussions say the advisers cautioned the president that removing mulvaney at such a sensitive time could be perilous, well, both because mulvaney played an integral part and the disruption. And trump had expressed particular anger following mulvaneys press conference last month that President Trump froze the military aid to launch investigations that would politically benefit him. This is reasonable prch for the first time trump is actually reasonable. He should be mad at the guy who said hes guilty. Yes, that was problematic for the president s case, that press conference with mulvaney. And our reporting indicated after that there was a flurry of discontent. And the people in the white house who have wanted to see mulvaney move out, saw that as a moment to make their case to the president about getting rid of mulvaney. The problem has always been for this president who do you place the person you want to get rid of with, and theres no real Viable Options they were able to come up with. And the temperature seems to come down, and mulvaney remains certainly through this impeachment vote. But going into 2020 people weve talked to say theres certainly the option open the president will bring in a chief of staff that has heres Mick Mulvaney telling friends ive got dirt on the president , he cant fire him. The president still calls him acting. Theyre both conditional. Up next, a top democrat in the house u. S. Congressman Hakeem Jeffreys of new york joins me to discuss the beginning of the public impeachment effort. Youre watching hardball. Impeachment effort youre watching hardball. This . ernie rubber duckie cookie what about a broken cookie jar . burke again, cookie . cookie yeah. Me bad. grover yoooooow oh what about monsters having accidents . I am okay by the way burke depends. Did you cause the accident, grover . grover cause an accident . Maybe. bert how do you know all this stuff . burke just comes with experience. all muppets yup. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum fine, no one leaves the tablefine, well sleep here. Its the easiest because its the cheesiest. Kraft. For the win win. Can you tell me the story again . Every family has their own unique story. Give your family the chance to discover theirs this holiday season, with ancestry. I am royalty of racing, i am alfa romeo. Could another come aroundot, the corner. Or could it play out differently . 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Ask your doctor about eliquis. pirate girl ahoy excited squeal, giggling panting gotcha man ah girl nooooooooooooo man nooooo girl nooooo. vo quick, the quicker picker upper bounty picks up messes quicker, and is two times more absorbent than the leading ordinary brand. man and pirate girl ahoy laughing vo bounty, the quicker picker upper. Welcome to fowler, indiana. Home to three of bps wind farms. Which, every day, generate enough electricity to power over 150,000 homes. And of course, fowler. At bp, we see possibilities everywhere. Welcome back to hardball. Democrats wanted todays witnesses to answer three questions. Did the president ask a foreign leader to investigate a political rival for personal gain . Did the president or his allies use the office of the presidency to apply pressure to that president . And did the president obstruct or cover up evidence about his actions . U. S. Ambassador taylor and Deputy Assistant secretary of state kent both pointed to yes. That was their answer. Yes, he did all three. After the hearing chairman schiff asked the American Public if theyre okay with that kind of behavior from an american president. Ultimately, what we will need to decide and what i hope members on both sides of the aisle in the house and if necessary in the senate, what i hope members will think about is what do these facts mean for the future of our country . What do these facts mean in terms of what americans should expect from a president of the United States . Are we prepared to say that asking a foreign nation now to intervene in our elections is something that is a part of the office of the presidency . For more im joined by democratic congressman from new york Hakeem Jeffreys, chair of the House Democratic caucus. Its great to have you on, congressman. Thank you for joining us. Youre leader of the caucus. I thought and youve been following politics for a long time, i thought you were disciplined out there, your Party Members on the house Intelligence Committee. I thought they all kept the folks on the issue of corruption, of this president using his Public Office for political gain after their very much circling the president of the United States while the republicans were all over the place. Some were them were focused. Some were not. Some were like the Ranking Member nunes who never impresses me. And even less impressive was his council. I think you did a lot of good work today to get the story to the American People. I agree. And were going to continue to follow the facts, apply the law being guided by the constitution and present the truth to the American People. Thats exactly what happened today. The members of the Intel Committee led by chairman schiff are doing a phenomenal job. They recognize every Single Member of the House Democratic caucus led by speaker mulosy recognizes this a serious moment, a somber moment for our country. And were going to approach it in that regard. The witnesses confirmed the fundamental facts which is that donald trump pressured a Foreign Government to target an american citizen for political gain, thereby soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 election at the same time he was withholding 391 million in military aid without justification from a very vulnerable ukraine. That is textbook abuse of power. Im going to guess the speaker was behind everything today. How do you think she thought the hearing went today, the hearing . She of course set the tone that we will continue to be serious, undertake our Constitutional Responsibilities consistent with the house serving as a separate and coequal branch of government, consistent with what james maddenson once observed, that the house should be a rival to the executive branch. Why did he use the word rival . Chris, as you know because the founders didnt want a king. They didnt want a monarch. Excuse me, they didnt want a dictator. They wanted a democracy, and thats exactly what were defending. Do you believe right now that the Democratic Caucus which voted 332 to begin these proceedings are still together on this . They are confident they can hold together and bring this to a vote by the end of the year, a vote for impeachment . Well, well see where the process takes us. Well have to wait until the Intel Committee and upon completing their work theyll make a recommendation to the Intel Committee and then well make decisions how to proceed in the president ial accountability. What is clear when you have a witness like ambassador taylor thats a vietnam hero, someone whos a clear patriot, someone who was appointed by reagan and bush and trump to serve, this is not about democrats versus republicans. This is about right versus wrong. And were going to continue to present these facts to the American People, and hopefully theyll conclude this type of behavior from the socalled leader of the free world is unacceptable in the context of our democratic republic. I thought your colleague from new york, mr. Maloney, did a job of bringing about that bigraphic bigraphical information about mr. Taylor. He went into combat. He became an infantry, you know, combat leader going into the jungles of vietnam. He did all that with his intellectual advantage of not having to do that kind of grunt work. Its a very impressive character you had out there. It was impressive somebody said so. Thats correct. Bill taylor is a straight shooter and hes someone that cares about this country, cares about the integrity of our democracy, knows the difference between right and wrong. What youre going to see over the next few weeks is patriot after patriot come forward and just tell the truth to the American People. Ultimately well have to make a decision what that means in terms of president ial accountability is that this case, this wrongdoing hiding in plain sight, its about national security, the integrity of our elections, abuse of power and betrayal about and about the United States constitution and were going to defend our democracy no matter what it takes. Ive got to say keeping the focus here so the American People have a choice to make about this impeachment. U. S. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of new york. Up next my thoughts about the testimony and some good advice i got my dad years ago. Youre watching hardball. Y da. Youre watching hardball. Exxonmobil is growing algae for biofuels. That could one day power planes, propel ships, and fuel trucks. And cut their Greenhouse Gas emissions in half. Algae. Its potential just keeps growing. When you rent from national. Keeps growing. Its kind of like playing your own version of best ball. 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So if the evidence is weighing heavily against you he said the smart move he came to realize is simply taking your chances with those 12 people sitting together on the side of the courtroom. Now if youre innocent, he argued, just the opposite. Let a judge decide the case. A judge will look at the evidence and see it doesnt add up. Hell see the argument being put forwid by the prosecutors and know theyre puffing up a weak case. If youre innocent, put your faith in a professional judge. As i was listening to ambassador bill taylor and george kent today i thought these guys know what theyre talking about. They ask questions, theyre calm clear and ready to sit there all day dealing with reality. So im going with the judge on this one, im going with the trait reporters of the major newspapers, the Wire Services and the best political journalists. The president tried using the power of his office to extort some dirt he can use on his rivals and those are the facts. And thats hardball for now. All in with chris hayes starts right now. Tonight on all in. You with hold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a Political Campaign, made no sense. Day one of the impeachment of donald j. Trump. It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy. Career diplomats lay out the facts. And Rudy Giuliani said it would not acceptable if it didnt mention Biden Burisma in 2016. And unveiled brand new evidence of the president s plot to extort ukraine. Members could hear President Trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about investigations. Tonight the takeaways from todays historic hearing. Have you ever seen another example of foreign