Congressionally approved military aide not delivered to ukraine until zelensky committed to the investigations into the biden family that trump was looking for. Taylor said yes, he was, in a moments ago Jennifer Williams arrived on capital hill. Who is this woom . A long time u. S. Dealership low mat. She was assigned to the team in april . She was on the july 25th call. And she and is testified today, and she has to go back to work on monday where she is still assigned to mike pences team. She was assigned to mike pences Security Team this last spring. She is a special advisor for europe and russia. She listened in to the calls between trump and zelensky and she accompanied the president to that meeting in warsaw. Pence after that meeting told reporters that he did not speak with ukraines president about the bidens, but he did talk about construction and that withheld military aid meant for ukraine. And it is just how much he knew about trumps maneuvers. He says jennifer is a longtime dedicated state department employee. If required to appear she will answer the committees questions. We expect her testimony will largely reflect what is already in the Public Record. What is in the Public Record . You have six fact witnesses that have spoken to the existence of a quid pro quo. Insert your chosen phrase. Williams im told was concerned about what she heard on that call but she did not flag her immediate superiors about it. So you can imagine that house investigators are going to get an earful. Beyond next friday when people will tell their stories, what happens after that . Adam schiff said there will be more hearings p. We dont have a schedule beyond friday, but they intend to call Alexander Vindman for a hearing. I think he is reviewing the transcript of his private testimony. They are last week, i think it was. Vindman told house investigators that the president directed officials to put contingencies of the coveted white house meeting and contingency is another word for kwquid pro quo. John bolton was expected to show today. But if does, he will show up for public testimony. My best guess is his position is that im not going to do any of this closed door private testimony tough, i want to tell the American People what i know in public, but its not clear if they want to roll the dice on this. Their intentionally choreographed and no one knows because they have not deposed in private what he will say. Thank you so much, that is what, now we need to get into the what it all means. Cynthia oxny. And tim miller, worked as the rnc deputy communication director. Is bill taylor the right move . I think so. He has his facts down. He is very clear about what he knows and doesnt know. I think in bills past, it is a considerable experience of dealing with foreign aid. Im proud of how he has behaved from this. Were going to be hearing for the first time for a member from Vice President pences team. I want to talk about the trade of aide for dirt on the bidens. We had four u. S. Officials under oath say that they had knowledge of a deal be offered, are they all lying. Are you saying you did not hear of ever such a deal . Im telling you that all of my interactions with the president , all of my conversations with president zelensky were focused on issues that are important to the American People. She was with pence when he met with zelensky. We need to find out a couple important things. First that conversation he just played he talks about his conversations with trump and his conversations with zelensky, but not about his conversations with anyone else. He conveniently just cut that out. We need to know about any of those conversations and whether or not he knew about the discussion with the bidens, what was the reason for the aide. You cant just hold up aid for no reason, you have to explain it and what conversations happened about that. We also know that he was going to go to the inauguration of zelensky and he was pulled from that. And he was given a copy of the phone call where the president said do me a favor though did he read that . Did he read any other paper work . We know the state department is not turning over the other readouts they had of that call. And we need to know whether or not williams has those readouts and if they have seen them and if they included the fact that the president demanded a favor. There is a lot of information that we need to get. Tim, it sounds like democrats are not going to sir view people that have not shown up to testify, they are going to use it against the president and use obstruction charges. Is that good or bad for republicans . Tf remains to be scene. Secretary rumsfeld talks about things that things like secretary bolton would say. The main thing they need is to convince casual watchers of this, not people watching the blow by blow, there was clear m malfeasance here. It would be important to have the public testimony of someone like bolten in position to be the most unlikely of those heros to say yes. If you get to the motive, being about 2020, it becomes very hard for some of these republicans on the hill who might be interested in flipping to stick with the president. So i think for republicans, the more that these hearings can become kind of a clown show. New information coming up, the easier it is when if they dont want if they dont feel safe enough to let john bolton speak publicly, doesnt that make it look hyperpolitical . Its not all clear what john bolten would say. I think there are risks, this is someone on the years that have decleared himself part of it, i think it is very hard to say if i was john bolten. I think the unimpeachable Foreign Service officers. I think it is clear they will stick to what they know. Oi think for that reason they should go there, but they have to have people directly hearing what he is saying after the mueller report, the greatest thing that happened to the president was bill barr coming out just days later basically saying nothing to see here, no bad behavior. Talk to us about your reporting and how the president was trying to push bill barr to basically do that for him again. Hold a press conference and say that phone call as the president likes to put it was perfect and the president didnt break any laws. That is a interesting trend, he asks his aids to get out and tell everyone that he is perfect. He asked bill barr to tell people it was a perfect call. My colleagues and i learned about this in an interesting way. This request was passed along to the attorney general. We view it as significant for two reasons. The use, tapping an attorney general to be pr, but he ultimately declined to do this and it is a big flag on the play, so to speak. The president has been able to count on bill bar in many instances to argue that what he is doing sentirely legal and entirely proper. Not least of which is when bill Barrs Justice Department said there was nothing inappropriate about the call that they knew of. Mick mulvaney got on the television screen, the chief of staff told reporters that yes, they held up the aide because of the president s concern about an investigation into interference in the 2016 election. So bill barr is, it seems to me, he is holding his fire and trying to figure out what exactly happened, learn the facts before putting himself out there to say that everything is okay here. I want to give you a chance to respond, the president tweeted this morning that you made this story up and there is no sources. We stand by our story, it is not the first time the president has said a corroborated story with multiple sources is made up. You can read the tweet for yourself, but i view it as acknowledging a pete of the reporting. Reporters are working themselves to the bone to get facts and get them accurate, and make sure we report carefully. We vet everything we put in the paper, everything we tell you on this program, it takes a lot of work, were exhaustied and wer not producing phoney stories. Were carefully doing our work and reporting because be feel like you should know. Thank you for helping us understand a complicated morning on the hill. He is expected to skip scheduled testimony here today, but john bolt bolton could be the most important figure in the entire impeachment inquiry. We will speak to two reporters about who this man is and if he could potentially bring down President Trump. Plus, despite weeks of saying he doesnt need a team to strategy, President Trump has hired someone. Someone once accused of her own quid pro quo with President Trump. R own quid pro quo with President Trump. Hed to geico. And this is how it made me feel. It was like that feeling when you go to taco night at your favorite restaurant. And theyre the besttasting tacos in the entire world. And just when you think it couldnt get any better, they bring you out another taco. Cuz they made an extra one. Extra taco geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. 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. If you have moderate to thsevere rheumatoid arthritis, month after month, the clock is ticking on irreversible joint damage. Ongoing pain and stiffness are signs of joint erosion. Humira can help stop the clock. Prescribed for 15 years, humira targets and blocks a source of inflammation that contributes to joint pain and irreversible damage. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections. Serious and sometimes fatal infections including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Help stop the clock on further irreversible joint damage. Talk to your rheumatologist. Right here. Right now. Humira. In connemara. Right connemara it is theres one gift the whole family can share this holiday season, their story. Give the gift of discovery, with an ancestrydna kit. Welcome back im stephanie ruhle. House democrats were hoping that today would be the day that john bolton would tell his side of the story. He says i will have my first day. If he agrees to appear, the testimony could be the key to a lot of what was going on. He comes up from multiple attacks talking about the scheme to trade aid for dirt on joe biden and his son. For a guy that left the administration under a cloud bolton could have ever reason to want to speak out. However, a closer look says that john bolten has long head the view that the United States has a ton of lee way when it comes to dealing with the economy, the only question for the United States is what is in our National Interests and if you dont bike that, ilike that, i. Donald trump was not using his political muscle to benefit his National Interests, it was to benefit himself, does that change the game . Bottom line, any temperature we get from the former National Security advisor may hinge on if bolton sees standing up for the law. Here is what we know about this man. In is memoir, as a member of the Reagan Justice department, he saw the iran contra investigation as an assault on the presidency. He told a Senate Sub Committee that the constitution requires that the president must retain the ability to direct and supervise all elected officials. Will a man that spent the last four decades arguing for more executive power join in impeachment inquiry trying to limit power . And is the chance that democrats get bombshell testimony theyre hoping for worth the risk of putting john Bolton Center stage. I have the perfect guess to help me answer these questions. John hudson, and john begagans. Both men have provided mr. Boltbol bolton extensively. Is he more likely to ultimately come down on the side of the president or against the president if he testifies . It is a great question. On the one hand there is the executive power view of this supreme view of executive power that the president has wide authority to do what he wants in matters of International Affairs and as you said watergate being seen as an over reach. People that worked with bolton for years told me he really wants to stay relevant. He launched a super pac and it is super difficult to do that when you go with the president who has over 90 Approval Rating among republicans. That is a key factor when he gets there. Does he have the information to potentially take down the president . He was certainly fed into so many of the concerns that career diplomats had into the run up of the alleged quid pro quo. But it is very unclear if he personally took any steps to stop the president. What we do know is he was personally concerned about it and he told others they should complain to their superiors. We dont know if he took any asserted steps to try to stop the president , and it is unclear if he will be the newest member of the resistance . Whats your plan here, bolton doesnt think there is such a thing as executive over reach. And this question is one that he is facing today and facing every day since this inquiry got under way. The fact is that john bolton was turned down for a job in the early days of the Trump Administration because he had a mustache and didnt look the part. He didnt shave it to get a job with trump and he didnt change his views on korea or iran or anything to keep his job and keep trump happy. So it is unlikely that somebody like that, this is part of who he is. He was a white house intern, and that is one way that i think he excused when he said the president doesnt agree with me on iron, but the president gets to make that decision. That is the tension that john bolten is facing today. If he makes a decision what he will say if he is forced to. He kept the mus damage and still he got the job. Is there risk if he testifies that bolten will open himself to criticism that when he was in the job he didnt do more to stop it. Yeah, the top u. S. Diplomat said i have big concerns that he is being fit for the president s desires. We dont know what the conversations were like with the president , but he told that sold that cable, and he said that he was read into these concerns and it was really unclear if this was bolten taken matters into his own hands, and so were going to see he believed that not only was this a drug deal, but the person carrying it out for the president , his attorney, rudy giuliani, is a hand grenade that will blow us all up, youre right that he will be called to know. Take us into the mind or the personality of john bolten. No doubt if he speaks out that the republican talking points are great. Is he a vengeful guy . You know i think she somebody that does hold a grudge and certainly does fight for his opinions and positions with vigor. She well known, one of the reasons it would be hard to g a Senate Confirmed job, and this subpoena a person that remembers things from a long time ago, he keeps his drudges when he can. I interviewed 12 National Security advisors, they would say the National Security advisor should know. So he will have to answer for that if it is on capitol hill, or in the history books. When bolton was appointed to security advisor. If he comes forward, is it a slam dunk that it will help one side or the other. He is a true wild schoolyard. He has clear disagreements. He blasted him in his first public statements, but he never challenges the president , there is no agreement in what he is going to say, a republican that told anyway he can be vindictive. He is nursing wounds for. Those are two name he clashed with and it is possible that he will meet out his grooefss with them in deposition and sort of specify how they were involved. It is possible that he will be the biggest defender saying that the p was not served well by the people under him. Well then that seems to be the dictionary definition of a wild car. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time this morning. We have to turn now to 2020, less than a year away, shifting the race in the senate back to va t favor republicans. Jeff sessions saying he will be running to retake his senate seat in alabama. It was later won by democrat doug jones. It includes rory moore and a former auburn football coach. While this could be good for republicans overall, President Trump is not expected to support sessions. Were going to get into this and more. Stick around. O this and more stick around of excuses to avoid screening for colon cancer. Im not worried. It doesnt run in my family. I can do it next year. No rush. 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So you only pay for what you need. Nice. But, uh. Whats up with your. Partner . Not again. Limu thats your reflection. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty in the human brain, billions of nefor people with parkinsons, some neurons change their tune, causing uncontrollable tremors. Now, abbott technology can target those exact neurons. Restoring control and harmony, once thought to belost forever. The most personal technology is technology with the power to change your life. Democrats announced yesterday that theyre bringing the public into the fold. Three witnesses will testify next week and it appears that the white house is shifting its strategy. Announcing that pam bondi and an extreasury spokesperson will focus on the impeachment inquiry. What do we know about their decision to build up their Communications Team and these two people specifically. Yeah, we know that the focus will be according to bondy, focusing on legal issues as she describes it. What is striking is the president saying we dont need a team, dismissing the idea that there is no need for a war room. Saying they needed to do Better Together on this. The president said i am the team, but apparently that is not enough as theyre bringing individuals in here. What is striking about pam bondy in particular is she is registered as a lobbyist. Companies Like Major League baseball, general governors. The president who liked bondy, he thinks she does a good job on tv, Jared Kushner helped advocate for these impeachments, but she has been secret need for her involvement. There here is a recent headline when there was reports that bondi was trying to decide if she should join a multistate case against trump. The Political Action committee that supported her received a check from the Trump Foundation for 25,000 and one month later pam said she would not be joining that suit on behalf of the state of florida. Youre going to be busy over the next few weeks. Michael steel, former advisor, eli stokels. Eli, lets go to the president s play book, it was all about drain the swamp, drain the swamp, his newest edition to the impeachment team, seems like she lives in the swamp. Now she is hired to defend the president against a quid pro quo right after she leaves being a lobbiest for a number of companies. How can the president stand on the train the workmans comp argume swamp argument after making a claim like this. He has never been shamed out of any actions, moving forward with things just because these things are in plain sight. He doesnt care about that. It is beside the point to this president , and as peter talked about, they need new people, new faces to come in and carry a message. The president , yes he has the loudest megaphone but he wants other people to defend him, especially on tv. And if you watched the sunday shows, the few Administration Officials that have gone on the shows have a tough time defending him. I think these folks have been pushing to get more people in to kind of sharpen the president s message to coordinate with republicans and really to go on to television that matters to the president and deliver a message. Matt, i think i said before that you were part of the Obama Administration and i meant the clinton administration. I dont have teams, i am the team, is he taking this more seriously . Or does he have more people to get out there . He needs a team, i was in the Clinton White house in impeachment and it takes a lot of people to ri respoespond, an problem here is he started this process by putting out evidence that he was guilty. He said i did what you accused me of doing and now five witnesses say yes, that is what he did. Maybe he doesnt need a team because no matter how fast you spin, its impossible to walk it back. He is already admitted guilt. I want to share what Lindsey Graham said on fox news last night. When did senator lynn change his testimony . Was there a connection between sondland and those on the committee. I have been a lawyer for a very long time and when someone changes their testimony and they take back something they said before. He meant sondland when he said sunderland. A major trump donor, he gave a Million Dollars to the inauguration. Now the argument is that he is in cahoots with democrats . I think it is a desperate attempt to defend the indefensible. Right . The bth says it was not perfect. They are dragging up old base less allegations and they cant stand on the facts. Democrats are shifting their messaging, i would say, you see them no longer using kwid pquid quo, watch this. We keep using this expression quid pro quo, the actual term for what occurred is extortion. An extortion is a ricrime. I think the allegation is extortion. Its clear that all of the areas point in the direction that the president was leading the scheme. When youre using latin, youre losing in politics. I think all throw the democratic conferen conference, they have been focused on keeping it where it is supposed to be. The president extorted an ally for political purposes nap is at the center of the bulls eye. The president announced a meeting with turkeys president , erdogan. The same day were going to see bill taylor and Marie Yovanovitch testify publicly. What is your take on that . It has been scheduled for some time, i dont think it is just to up stage the hearings. I think we can expect him when he is sitting there, he will have a realtime response. He will be sitting there listening to the president respond, and it is the testimony, that is the reason that lindsey cram that he changed his testimony because his initial story didnt line up with the facts and i think the facts of this case as mike said make it clear that it is what happened. And i think what the republicans and the president will be left with as the hearings start to play out publicly on television is to just dismiss the entire think as a political, a partisan thing lead by democrats and to defend the president s behavior at all costs. Thank you so much. It will be an exciting week ahead. Straight ahead here, you dont want to go anywhere. This is crazy. Two former twitter employees now under arrest. Accused of spying for the saudi royal family. Money, power, and plibolitics i next. Y, power, and plibolitics s next invest and protect for the future. So theyll be okay . I think theyll be fine. Voya. Helping you to and through retirement. 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. A lot will happen in your life. Wrinkles just wont. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repairs dermproven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. Neutrogena® it is now time for money, power, and politics. Federal prosecutors have charged two former twitter employees for spying on behalf of saudi arabia. The first time they have been accused of spying in the United States. The saudis saw email addresses, ip addresses, and dates of births for thoses that pub accomplished posted that were critical of the regime. What does this say about the security of the social Media Companies. Employees acting as spies . It races a lot of concerns. For so long it had to do with the as a ruvulnerabilities. I think now were looking at a but you these Massive Companies with a mass immaterial amount of employees and by working at these companies, theyre gaining immediate that advertisers, bu immediate access to highly sensitive user data. I think on the other hand, that is the concern for silicon value lain there is a concern for washington which is, you know, the campaign to check its critics has gone well beyond the borders of saudi arabia. To check its critics is a really, i dont know, that is a basic way of saying something theyre doing that is significantly more aggressive than check their critics. I think what were seeing were starting to do this in the United States. What is twitter saying about this . Twitter is saying that the amount of people at their company who have access to this Sensitive Data is small and they vet all of these people. Except these two guys. Except these two guys. This is the concern. This happened back in 2015, maybe twitter has taken steps in the last four years to shore this up. I would not be surprised if we saw similar charges coming at other social Media Companies or at twitter in the years ahead. Saudi arabia, the ceo of netflix Reed Hastings, defended their decision. They pulled an episode of one of their shows critical of the crown prince bin salman on their platform in saudi arabia. And heres what Reed Hastings had to say about that. Were not in the news business. Were not trying to do truth to power. Were trying to entertain. Were trying to entertain. He drew a line and said if they were asked to pull gay content they wouldnt. Thats where their line is. So what exactly is Reed Hastings saying here. I was in the room when he said this yesterday and i just have to tell you, it was immediately apparent he said something really controversial that was going to light up twitter. My inbox started getting flooded with not just journalists but media executives and lawyers saying did he really just say that, that is true . We are running head long into a debate about how American Companies do business with countries like saudi arabia, like china, where they have their own sort of world view, their own sort of beliefs about the freedom of speech and in order to continue doing business in those country, increasingly we are seeing companies capitulate within those boarders. If youre a publicly traded company in the United States, the name of the game is to grow. The way youre going to grow is outside the u. S. Weve maxed it out here. Absolutely. Now were saying to these companies we expect you to adhere to this set of values, while at the same time growing. What are they going to do. Heres the argument they have made and will make. We can do more good by keeping the conversation open. The last thing we want to do is enter a world in which china and the United States are not talking to each other, are not engaging in International Business relations. They will say that American Values can continue to sort of expand around the world if we continue to do business in these countries. The problem is that when you run into Something Like the decision that Reed Hastings and other companies have made, what how are we expanding American Values if were checking those values at the door. I think what was so sort of exceptional about what Reed Hastings said is that it was so blunt and unapologetic and transparent. There was no apology, there was no sort of like, you know, happy rhetoric about were trying to make the world a better place. This was look, were a business, Entertainment Company and dont want to get in the business of frankly pissing off the leader of saudi arabia and therefore we are going to effectively capitulate to his demands. Isnt that the argument some people are saying that our own administration did when it came to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi . Yes, absolutely. And this is, you know, for a long time i would just say very quickly, for a long time, our discussion about social Media Companies, tech companies, Entertainment Companies has been about the affect theyre having on United States and citizens in the United States and now were beginning to understand the role they play in an increasingly fractured Global Landscape when it comes to issues like free speech. Its a big role whether they like it or not. Thanks so much. Thank you. We are learning new details about the case federal prosecutors are presenting against one of President Trumps oldest and dearest ally, roger stone. Prosecutors introduced new email and phone records yesterday that outline in great detail stones efforts to contact wikileaks during the 2016 election. These records include communications between stone and then president ial candidate donald trump. Joining me now nbcs National Security correspondent ken delaney, who has had the honor of spending the last two days in and out of this exciting courtroom. Including the inflatable rat outside. But look, this is these records are very important and theres a question about why were only seeing them now. They were in the in the mueller report. These phone records tie donald trump more closely to the effort to hunt for those hacked democratic emails than ever before. It raises questions about why mueller didnt push harder to interview trump. Trump told mueller in written questions he didnt remember talking to stone in six months before the election but, in fact, these records show on the day that the Washington Post reported that democrats were hacked by the russians, stone called trump and then trump called him back three times. They spoke on three occasions. And then after that, stone set in motion a plan to enlist his friend jerome coresy to find out where these emails were and how they could get and use them to help donald trump. Later in july, theres a phone conversation between stone and trump. Then stone emails both steve banon and Paul Manafort on different occasions basically saying i have a plan to save trumps candidacy because at the time trump seemed doom and one point stone said, it aint going to be pretty and sent jerome to try to talk to Julian Assange the head of wikileaks in ecuador to find out how they can use the emails and what wikileaks had. This raises a ton of questions maybe this trial will answer, maybe donald trump can answer, but its fascinating stuff. At the Ecuadorian Embassy i think. What did i say . Ecuador. In london, you got it. Put your seat belt on. Im sure youre going to have an exciting day. Also in washington, a different day ahead. Longtime diplomat Jennifer Williams testifying behind closed doors about the possible role of the Vice President in the impeachment inquiry. As we await the release of nine more closeddoor depositions, which could come out any minute. Do not go anywhere. Grow food. This one grows fuel. 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. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good high protein. Low sugar. Mmmm, birthday cake pure protein bars. Try lemon cake. Pure protein bars. When i needed to create a better visitor experience. Improve our workflow. Attract new customers. Thats when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics. Yeah, and now business is rolling in. Get started at fastsigns. Com. Billions of problems. Sore gums . Bleeding gums . Painful flossing . Theres a therabreath for you. Therabreath healthy gums oral rinse fights gingivitis and plaque and prevents gum disease for 24 hours. So you can. Breathe easy, theres therabreath at walmart. That wraps up this hour. Im stephanie ruhle. Right now more news with chris jansen. Good to see you. Thank you so much. I am chris jansen. Today, defiance on capitol hill. Jennifer williams, a special adviser to the Vice President , is testifying against white house orders. The first time impeachment investigators are hearing from someone in mike pences office. We have new reporting on what questions democrats want answered today. Meanwhile, the president s responding to new reporting this morning that he wanted his attorney general bill barr to call a News Conference to publicly defend him in the impeachment