From an important impeachment witness. Let us first tell the story through tonights headlines. New york times, sondland updates impeachment testimony, describing ukraine quid pro quo. Theres that phrase again. And the New York Post im sorry Washington Post its early yet sondland adds to testimony linking aid to ukraine probes sought by trump. Gordon sondland raised a lot of money for donald trump and was richly rewarded with the job title u. S. Ambassador to the european union. That made him a big witness on ukraine. And today he remembered the story differently from the last time he testified before so many other witnesses came forward to tell the story the other way. There has been a threepage update issued to amend his initial closeddoor testimony to those house investigators last month. He originally told lawmakers he didnt know if military aid for ukraine was linked to the president s desire for investigations into the bidens. In todays updated testimony, sondland says discussions described by other witnesses have, quote, refreshed my recollection about conversations involving the suspension of u. S. Aid. Sondland says he now recalls that on september 1st, he told a top aide to president zelensky in ukraine that, quote, resumption of u. S. Aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we have been discussing for many weeks. And this, the ambassador becomes the fourth witness to affirm an effort to hold up that aid from ukraine in their fight with the russians, remember, in exchange for political damage to the bidens. House democrats also released sondlands full testimony from just last month, in which he said the president repeatedly ordered him to, quote, talk to Rudy Giuliani. Last may saying, ukraine is a problem. He described dealings with ukraine as an escalating set of demands which became conditions for american support, adding those demands, quote, kept getting more insidious as the time line went on. Sondland testified after reading what was happening, he believed the demands on ukraine were improper if not illegal. He said hes not a lawyer. House democrats also released closeddoor testimony from this guy, kurt volker, the former special envoy to ukraine. He has since resigned. He said at the time he didnt know why aid was being blocked and that, quote, the negative narrative about ukraine which mr. Giuliani was furthering was the problem. It was, in my view, it was impeding our ability to build the relationship. And he added interestingly, hanging over everyones head in the Expert Community is, is there some grand bargain with russia where we throw ukraine under the bus . Here was the reaction from the White House Press secretary. The transcripts that were released today show exactly what the president has been saying all along, and that is that he did nothing wrong and that there was no quid pro quo. So these transcripts are actually theyre good for the president. Theyre showing again that this entire time hes been telling the truth. On capitol hill, republicans seemed to be honing their strategy to attack the impeachment inquiry. There are now discussions under way to replace ohio congressman jim jordan, a trump defender at all costs, on the Intelligence Committee ahead of public televised hearings. But today Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell tried to toss cold water on the whole thing with this prediction. If it were today, i dont think theres any question it would not lead to a removal. Id be surprised if it didnt end the way the two previous ones did with the president not being removed from office. Nbc news reporting that a source says Lieutenant ColonelAlexander Vindman will testify publicly in the impeachment inquiry if asked. The source says he has not yet been approached but that vindman is expected back on the hill thursday to review the testimony of his the transcript of his own testimony. Were also learning that david hale, one of the state departments most senior diplomats, is expected to testify on his own on wednesday. Jennifer williams, special adviser to the Vice President for europe and russia, is expected to testify thursday. House democrats were aiming even higher today. They summoned white house chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify. You may recall it was mulvaney who confirmed a quid pro quo on ukraine out loud, right there on camera, before he took it back later. The white house is blocking him from showing up. So far this week half a dozen Trump Administration officials asked to give their testimony in the impeachment inquiry have been noshows on the hill. On that, time to bring in our leadoff Discussion Group on a tuesday night. Philip rucker, pulitzer prizewinning White House Bureau chief for the Washington Post here with us in the studio. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs and veteran federal prosecutor, former u. S. Attorney barbara mcquade. Good evening and welcome to you all. My apologies to our two friends from the Washington Post for instead making you employees of the New York Post however briefly. Mr. Costa, you have, i note, on social media tonight been making the rounds of the various profiles in courage, otherwise known as members of the u. S. Senate with tonights Election Results in mind. Start with our lead story and tell us what youve learned. Reporter a significant day here on capitol hill. I spent the whole day at the capital Walking Around the senate, talking to senate republicans. Just got off the phone with scott reed, the chief strategist for the u. S. Chamber of commercial, one of the most influential financial groups for the Republican Party in the country. Real alarm in the Republican Party tonight about losing a red state, yes. Governor bevin, the incumbent, was unpopular. Everyone acknowledges that. But the president rallied for him on monday, and this is a tense time for the Republican Party. So many senators today, nearly a dozen did not want to go on the record but talked about their unease about the outlook for 2020 and the president s political capital. Phil rucker, always magnanimous, the Trump Campaign has put out ate statement tonight. The president just about dragged governor matt bevin across the finish line. The president did say in front of the crowd last night in kentucky, if you lose, it sends a really bad message. You cant let that happen to me. Do you think the president will take this personally . He will take it personally, but hes not going to accept any blame personally, and i assume when he speaks about this tomorrow, hell echo that statement from the campaign. But we should underscore what a significant loss this is politically for the president. Kentucky is not one of those swing states. Its a state that he won handily in 2016 that hes expected to carry with a significant margin in 2020. He flew there last night because he thought he could get bevin over the finish line. That was a rally to get out the vote, to turn out all those Trump Supporters to vote for the republican incumbent governor, and it was not enough. And so thats an indication that trumps supporters are not necessarily going to follow his lead there and vote for his candidate. That being said, the mcconnell aligned republican nominee for attorney general did prevail. Yeah. Down ballot in that state. And bevin, as bob was just saying, is uniquely unpopular there. But it is still a political defeat for the president. Hey, bob, did we get it about right at the top of the broadcast that the republicans latest reaction to sondland and impeachment is kind of morphing day by day into if it did happen, its not impeachable still . Its not even there, brian. Let me put it this way. When i bring up the impeachment inquiry and all the substance of the facts, so Many Republican senators do not want to engage on the substance. Instead they want to talk about the upcoming i. G. Report from attorney general barr. The attorney generals own report on the russia probe. Thats where they are right now in the Republican Party, trying to build a counter narrative rather than dealing with the own narrative in front of their face. Barb, when you hear about a highprofile witness revising their testimony after refreshing their memory, does it bring bach fond memories of being a fed . It does although ill tell you, he waited an awfully long time to revise his statement. One of the things that typically happens when you have a witness in the grand jury is you give them an opportunity to recant. You give them a warning and tell them if theyre anything they said that was false, this is their opportunity to change their testimony and correct it. And sometimes they do on the spot. For him to delay a number of weeks between the time he gave that statement and the time he changed it because his recollection has been refreshed by the testimony of others, i think strains credulity a little bit. He suggests that he forgot and didnt remember that he had this conversation with an aide to president zelensky about withholding almost 400 million in military aid in exchange for these investigations that President Trump wanted. It just doesnt strike me as the kind of thing that slips ones mind. Phil rucker, part of the problem with the republican argument that this is a kind of deepstate pact is that it would have had to have been a pact from all these big names, including career public servants, including members of the military with no motivation or reason to lie. They all seem to be telling pieces of the same story. Thats right, brian. And whats so significant, i think, today about the testimony of ambassador sondland is hes not one of these career patriots. Thats right. Hes not somebody that trump can say was from the deep state or a never trumper to use the president s phrase. But hes a political appointee. He gave a ton of money to the Trump Campaign in 2016. Hes been supporting the president. He wanted a job in the administration, and he was rewarded with this ambassadorship. And in his testimony, his initial testimony a week or two ago, he actually spoke in a way that helped the president. He was defending the president s integrity and motivations and so forth, and for him to make this correction to point out the quid pro quo, to acknowledge the quid pro quo that the president and his aides have been denying all this time is really extraordinary because of his political identity and his appointee status. And while i have you, lets talk about mike pompeo for a hot second. It had been said that he had shifted his ambition to go run back home in kansas for political office. His name, however, just keeps coming up in this case. It would certainly indicate he gave Rudolph Giulianis involvement in Foreign Policy at least his tacit approval. People were trolling him on social media today by repeating the honor code at west point. Things have turned dark for the secretary of state. They have. Mike pompeos relatively young in politics. He was a congressman from kansas, and he aspires to great things. He wants to maybe someday run for president. So this being secretary of state in the Trump Administration is not the last stop in pompeos tour of public service, and hes been eyeing that senate seat in kansas. But he decided over the summer not to leave the administration and run for senate but to continue on as the secretary of state. Talking over the last few weeks to some of his confidants, theres concern that could really damage him politically in the future because he is so entwined now in this ukraine scandal. His name keeps coming up. Its his own advisers and subordinates who are testifying, who are a part of this, and he, as you just noted, allowed for Rudy Giuliani, the president s personal attorney, to be so integral in the shaping of american Foreign Policy. And, robert costa, thats part of the cost of this, the dynamic you just spoke of, distractions looking down other holes for an argument for evidence. The names can pile up. People with established careers, or so they thought, who have been caught up tangentially in this and keep getting mentioned by this list of credible witnesses who are coming forward. I remember being in poland with Vice President pence while he was sitting there with president zelensky of ukraine and hes delivering this message about corruption to the ukrainian president. Even the Vice President , the secretary of state find themselves entangled in this controversy, this impeachment inquiry at different levels, and the answer to all this is so many people who succeed in President Trumps inner circle, they accept the culture, the transaction the nature, the way of accepting his behavior and conduct. Once you do that, some things fester on the sides like Rudy Giulianis rogue Foreign Policy conduct. And because of that acceptance and that culture, so many people like the secretary of state and the Vice President find themselves facing really tough questions about what they knew and what they did. Barb, remember the republican flash mob in the hearing room where these depositions were being taken behind closed doors. They demanded the proceedings be opened even though they were part of the proceedings all the while. They demanded transparency. This is what transparency looks like. Now were able to read the testimony gathered behind those closed doors all the while. Do you think in a weird reverse kind of way, this has made a case for closeddoor depositions and orderly process in the gathering of facts . I think it has worked really quite well. You know, one of the disadvantages that the house had in this inquiry different from weve seen in the past is the absence of a special counsel or independent counsel to do the early legwork. So the first step that has to be taken is the initial interviews, which can take eight or ten hours as we saw. And then putting just the highlights before the American People in a hearing room really is an efficient way to go about it. It also forces people into whats known as the prisoners dilemma. When witnesses dont know what the other witnesses are saying, they have to they have a hard time keeping their story straight. And i think that is the situation that Gordon Sondland found himself in. He didnt know whether everybody else was going to stay on the same page of music or tell the truth. And once he realized that the other people were telling the truth, he had to scurry and do the same. So i think it has been kind of a lesson in an effective way to conduct these kinds of investigations. Greatly appreciate our big three rolling with us through some breaking news tonight and starting us off in fashion. Philip rucker, robert costa, barbara mcquade, thank you all. Coming up, as promised, more on this upset victory tonight in kentucky. Then later, their tshirts just last night at that kentucky rally said read the transcript even though, of course, we cant. It hasnt been released. Is any of this shaking trumps base of support . And later, new signs that Donald Trumps presidency may be taking a financial toll on donald trump the brand name. The 11th hour is just Getting Started on this consequential tuesday night overlooking the west wing. Int easy. 12 hours . 20 dogs . Wheres your belly rubs . After a day of chasing dogs you shouldnt have to chase down payments. vo send invoices and accept payments to get paid twice as fast. danny its time to get yours vo quickbooks. Backing you. Hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. Only with xfinity xfi. Download the xfi app today. Theres no law that prevents me from mentioning the name of whos been said to be the whistleblower. But theres also i dont understand what prevents you from getting on the senate floor where youre protected on all kinds of things and just giving a speech and saying what the guys name is if youre convinced you know who it is. I can, and i may, but i can do it right now if i want. There is no law that stops me from doing it other than i dont want to make it about the one individual. Rand paul doubling down on the president s demand that the whistleblower be publicly identified. Trump has launched this withering criticism of the whistleblower, whose account checks out by the way with the summary of the call that weve been allowed to see. Importantly, still no transcript. Not all republicans are onboard with the effort to unmask an official government whistleblower. My view is whistleblowers, particularly those that are blowing whistles on action within the government, should be allowed to remain confidential and that they have a right to be private, and then a determination is made, is what the whistleblower has spoken about is confirmed about the facts or not. Going after the whistleblower i think is misdirected. As our colleague Nicolle Wallace always says, thats what republicans used to sound like. The whistleblowers attorney had this warning today on social media, and we quote. If congress and others do not protect my clients anonymity, which my client is afforded to by law, not only does it jeopardize their safety, but it jeopardizes an entire system that took decades to build. It will destroy effective congressional oversight for years to come. With us tonight, jonathan lemire, White House Reporter for the Associated Press. Ill ask you two blunt questions. Is this whistleblower thing just a giant distraction . And does senator rand paul know better . On the first part, the whistleblower thing is an effort to sort of revive a portion of the mueller playbook. You might recall that part of the strategy employed by the president and his allies were to sort of question the integrity of the investigators, believing that if they undermined their credibility, that would undermine the facts that they found. If you undermine the credibility of the investigators, you undermine the credibility of the investigation. So what theyve been trying to do here is make the whistleblower the face of this and suggest that this person, whose name as senator paul has said has circulated in some right wing circles but has not been publicized widely or corroborated to be correct, you know, is someone who had biases against the president and therefore he was biased. Therefore, the investigation is biased, which is what they tried to do with the russia probe as well with lisa page and peter strzok and so on. As far as senator paul goes, i was in kentucky last night when the senator appeared with the president at the rally for the gubernatorial candidate. As an aside, it looks like the president was not as successful dragging that candidate over the finish line to victory as he has been so far as sean spicer in each round of dancing with the stars. It seems like paul is fixating on it, doing the president s bidding, but at this point doesnt want to be the person who out him himself. The west wing staff has been saying the same thing to the president , which they are fearful might blurt it out. But republicans on the hill have also cautioned him. That would spark a political firestorm. I want to show you something our friend Morgan Radford talked to some Trump Supporters in West Palm Beach florida. See if this checks against your experience. Would you say you support the president now more or less than you did when he was first put into office . More. More. All of you say more . Has the impeachment inquiry affected your support of the president . No. It made it stronger. It made it stronger . Much. His opponents have made it their mission to fight him at every turn, and we cant have that. It still makes me support him even more. I think Trump Supporters dig their heels in on this. Were all 100 behind the president , no doubt about it. As you know, there are really two jury pools during an impeachment process the American People, but more importantly, the u. S. Senate, 100 members who each get a vote. You were the at the trump rally last night in kentucky. Does that jive with your experience . Oh, his hard core supporters are still with him much like with the mueller probe. They do believe the party line if you will, that this is a biased investigation. Its a witch hunt. Its the democrats effort to undo the 2016 election even though, of course, Robert Mueller brought charges against dozens of people. So far everything the whistleblower has said has been corroborated by testimony and including documents released by the white house. But their faith is not shaken. They are supporting their president. Now the republican senators, that might be a little different. To this point most have stayed in lock step with a few voices like mitt romney saying they want to be cautious. Theyve been disapproving of what the president said. Thats one. Thats one. And maybe an occasional quizzical glance from ben sasse. But theres not much else so far. Were still early enough in the process where things could change. Lets remember this is a party that the president enjoys 85 , 90 Approval Rating among republicans. These senators, especially those up for reelection soon, you know if they were cast a vote to remove him, the very next day there would be a magaendorsed candidate ready to primary them. And we had Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell say today that if the vote was held, there would be no chance of removal. Jonathan lemire, always appreciate you coming by. Thank you. Coming up for us, the results of tonights election. Especially interesting, places where the president campaigned hard. Steve kornacki at the big board for us when we come back. And the gastroenterologists who developed it. Align helps to soothe your occasional digestive upsets, 24 7 with a strain of bacteria you cant get anywhere else. You could say align puts the pro in probiotic. So, where you go, the pro goes. Go with align, the pros in digestive health. And try align gummies, with prebiotics and probiotics to help support digestive health. And my side super soft . Be firm . With the sleep number 360 smart bed you can both. Adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. So, can it help us fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. Will it help me keep up with him . Yup. So, you can really promise better sleep . Not promise. Prove. And now, during our veterans day sale, save 1,000 on the new sleep number 360 special Edition Smart bed, now only 1,799. Only for a limited time. As your next governor, i will listen more than i talk. I will work with anyone who has a good idea that we can deliver for kentuckians. With all the partisan bickering and nastiness that were seeing in politics, we have an opportunity to do better right here in kentucky. He lived in the Governors Mansion as a young man, and nbc news has declared Democrat Andy beshear the apparent winner of tonights governors race in kentucky. He defeated the incumbent governor matt bevin in an upset. For more we are joined by vaughn hillyard, who is covering the race from beshears campaign headquarters, emptying out, lets be honest, in louisville. Vaughn, interesting story. Among the most unpopular incumbents in the country, tried to weaponize impeachment against his opponent. Didnt work. His opponent part of the political aristocracy in kentucky, tried to run a local governors race on issues including health care. Turns out that did work. Reporter mmhmm. Health care, education, jobs, pension reform. Essentially andy beshear, the democrat in this race, ran a campaign that was separate from national politics, separate from the national party. There about no 2020 candidates that came into the state. It was andy beshear running as a beshear. Of course matt bevin, the republican who lost this evening, took over for his father, steve beshear, who was a popular governor in this state. When you look at matt bevin, essentially, hey, it was 24 hours ago that President Trump came to this state for a Campaign Rally in lexington for matt bevin. Matt bevin, if you watch the airwaves, the commercials he was running as well as the republican governors association, it was essentially donald trump front and center. Donald trump was narrating the pieces. You saw pictures of bevin and trump together. This morning i even asked matt bevin why nationalize this race to this extent. And he said, look, voters here in this state care about donald trump, and they want somebody that is going to defend donald trump. I said, i mean, youre not running for the senate. Youre not running for the house of representatives. You have no vote on impeachment. Yet it was very clear he believed his way to shore up support in this state was in order to ultimately get the backing of donald trump. I mean donald trump in 2016, brian, won this place by 30 percentage points. Yeah. Reporter so when you look at these, and ill let steve talk about these numbers, not only do you see a surge in turnout in the lexington and louisville areas but also in the suburbs in Northern Kentucky and really that eastern part of kentucky, which is sort of the coal country, the appalachian region. I think thats another area well be looking at in the days ahead. This is an area where matt bevin still pulled out victories in several of those coiunties. As don meredith used to sing, turn out the lights, the partys over. Nbc news, we wanted to let you know, has also declared republican tate reeves, the winner of tonights governors race in mississippi over democrat jim hood. Back at the big board to break it all down and look behind the numbers, Steve Kornacki. Hey, brian. Interesting night to put it mildly here in kentucky. Vaughn just said a 30point win in this state for donald trump in 2016. How does the republican governor end up losing . You see losing very narrowly. Basically there are three things to key in on here in terms of why did beshear win. Number one was just monster turnout and monster performance in the democratic areas of kentucky. There arent a lot of big democratic areas in kentucky but ill give you one of them right here. That was supposed to click open. Here you go. Jefferson county. Biggest county in the state. You can see andy beshear won this thing by nearly 100,000 votes. To put that in some perspective, in the last Gubernatorial Election in kentucky in 2015, when matt bevin won, the democratic margin in this county was just 37,000. So it went up from 37,000 to basically 100,000 tonight. You saw something similar here in fayette county. This is, you know, home of lexington, university of kentucky. Again, look at this. The beshear margin here sitting at about 36,000 and change. It was 10,000 for the democrat in the last Gubernatorial Election. So really drove up big numbers in those areas. Then the other key here is eastern kentucky. I think vaughn mentioned this as well. Coal country in the eastern portion of the state. Youre seeing blue counties here, counties in the eastern part of the state, rural eastern part of the state that beshear won. You didnt see that when donald trump won this state. Let me give you a couple examples. Check out this county right here for instance. Beshear wins it by 19 points. What did this county look like in the 2016 president ial election . Complete opposition. Trump won it by 22. Tonight bevin lost it by 19. They get even more dramatic in some of the other counties. In bath county, trump won it by 37. Basically the story here is rural coal country, eastern kentucky. This is an ancestrally democratic area. You still have a lot of registered democrats here. They still often elect democrats at the local level, but they are more conservative culturally. Bluecollar, rural, conservative culturally, and they swung hard towards trump in 2016. One of the reasons for that lastminute visit from donald trump to the state of kentucky for that rally last night, it was to take voters in counties like this who were traditionally democratic but swung hard to trump to try to get them to do the same for bevin. He did fnot get that effect he was looking for, particularly in the eastern part of kentucky. The thursday reason is its the National Story weven telling brought to the state of kentucky. The suburbs. We talked all about the suburbs nationally in 2018. The reason democrats were able to get that blue wave, pick up the house last year the suburbs in kentucky, particularly these three counties right here in far Northern Kentucky, these are the cincinnati suburbs right on the other side of the ohio river. 10 of the state population is just in these three counties. Typically these are republican suburbs, but not tonight. Give you an example. Take a look right here. Kenton county, cincinnati suburbs. Beshear wins it. Bevin actually lost this. Bevin got nearly 60 of the vote here when he ran for governor last time around. Same thing in boone county. Bevin got 56 last time, huge defections in the republicans in the population dense suburbs. Strong turnout, overwhelming support for democrats in their core areas. Then culturally conservative rural voters who we have been talking about nationally, really kind of flocking to donald trump. He was not able with that visit to get them to make the complete conversion and go with bevin over beshear. You add all three of those things up, and you get a 0. 4 of 1 victory for matt bevin in kentucky. Real quick, virginia results tonight. I think we have a graphic. The house of delegates. Democrats were trying to flip the house of delegates and trying to flip the state senate. Effectively there was a vacancy here, so effectively it was 5149 for the republicans coming into tonight. The Associated Press right now has a fiveseat gain. Right now according to the Associated Press, the democrats have a net gain of five, and the Associated Press has called the house of delegates for the democrats. Control for the democrats. Op the state senate side, there was an open seat. It was effectively 2119 for the republicans and the Associated Press has called two seats flipped for the democrats. Theyve also called the state senate in virginia going to the democrats. It means democrats will have the state senate. Theyll have the state house of delegates, and they already have the governor. Democrats get what they were looking for, complete control, executive and legislative. Democrats won that state in 2016. This is the story of virginia really making that transformation from red state once to swing state a couple years ago. This is what a blue state looks like now. Steve kornacki at the big board for us. Thank you. It turned out to be a consequential Election Night. Theres also this that we noticed tonight on twitter. Remember julie briskman, the virginia woman who was fired for flipping off trump. She was waving at the motorcade but didnt use four of her fingers. She just won an election to her local county board of supervisors. One of the results from the commonwealth of virginia tonight. Coming up for us, Donald Trumps old friend and personal lawyer proven to be at the center of u. S. Foreign policy in ukraine and now part of the impeachment controversy when we come back. If your adventure. Keeps turning into unexpected bathroom trips. You may have overactive bladder, or oab. Not again were seeing a doctor when we get home. Myrbetriq treats oab symptoms of urgency, frequency, and leakage. Its the first and only oab treatment in its class. Myrbetriq may increase blood pressure. Tell your doctor right away if you have trouble emptying your bladder or have a weak urine stream. Myrbetriq may cause serious allergic reactions, like swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, or trouble breathing. If experienced, stop taking and tell your doctor right away. Myrbetriq may interact with other medicines. Tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems. Common side effects include increased blood pressure, common cold or flu symptoms, sinus irritation, dry mouth, urinary tract infection, bladder inflammation, back or joint pain, constipation, dizziness, and headache. Looking for a destination that isnt always the bathroom . Ask your doctor if myrbetriq is right for you. And visit myrbetriq. Com. You do you know if mr. Giuliani holds any security clearance of any kind . I dont know the answer to that. And has mr. Giuliani made any formal representations at least to the Justice Department or the fbi regarding his foreign relationships, business dealings, or conflicts of interest . Im not sure theres anything i could say on that here. Given the close relationship between the president and mr. Giuliani, has the fbi told the president whether his counsel is a potential counterintelligence threat . I dont think theres anything i can say on that subject. Its probably interesting to be trumps fbi director on an average day, and senator harris was just trying to make it extra interesting for the fbi director today. It has now been established that Rudy Giuliani has been conducting Foreign Policy for donald trump with at least the tacit approval of the man our founders imagined would be in charge of Foreign Policy, the u. S. Secretary of state. We now know the trump fundraiser turned Eu AmbassadorGordon Sondland testified when he raised rudys adventures in ukraine with mike pompeo, quote, pompeo rolled his eyes and said, yes, its something we have to deal with. Just yesterday we found out rudy associate lev parnas is willing to provide documents and testimony to impeachment investigators. As to why the change in heart toward cooperation, well, the New York Times reports, quote, the turnabout occurred after mr. Trump denied knowing mr. Parnas when he was arrested. Mr. Parnas was very upset by President Trumps plainly false statement that he did not know him, said his lawyer, whose client has maintained that he has had extensive dealings with the president. With us tonight to all about all of it, Eugene Robinson and tim obrien, the author of trump nation the art of being the donald. Both gentlemen longtime friends of this broadcast. Tim, first of all, talk about the jeopardy Rudy Giuliani is in. How much mindfulness do you think he has on his own situation and the kind of water cooler topic would he ever flip . I cant imagine him ever flipping, and i have to imagine also that he and trump have had discussions at some point that if he gets in trouble, trump will pardon him. I imagine that happened early on, but probably before all of this stuff unraveled. Hes got two things coming at him. Theres an investigation in the Southern District of new york of his associates for Campaign Finance violations. Thats independent of everything thats going on in congress. Meanwhile, congress is unraveling this other scheme to essentially tilt ukraine against biden in trumps favor for the 2020 election. Both of those things are hugely problematic for him legally, reputationally and operationally because at some point most of these people around trump arent going to be loyal to him. Weve seen this already with lev parnas. He was someone who they assumed wouldnt cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. He now is. How many other people are going to start cooperating . How many people are going to change their stories like Gordon Sondland did today . You know, when theres just a couple of people involved in a conspiracy or a couple of people involved in wrongdoing, its easy for them to keep their stories straight. When you have an entire group of people who are in there largely because of selfinterest and they all start to get picked off by prosecutors or congressional investigators, things unravel, and thats what giuliani is looking at right now. Eugene, i dont know if youre the right guy to take complaints about the Democratic Party, but several democrats complained to me they are incensed. Lets note the Democratic Party motto, never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Well, theres that. Lets note that culturally they are mostly former Student Council president s just to establish the argument. They can either do messaging or diligence. Right now theyre in deep diligence mode, and these incensed democrats i heard from today are crazy over the missed opportunity on messaging. Donald trump speaks latin, quid pro quo, three words of it. Democrats are using that term and not the terms of the mob, extortion. And bribery. Yes, bribery. You know, what we have in the rough transcript, to say nothing of the full transcript if we ever get it, is the president of the United States soliciting a bribe from the president of ukraine. Bribery is one of the high crimes and misdemeanors listed in the constitution as grounds for impeachment. I mean thats a very simple message, and one would imagine that some democrat somewhere would deliver it and deliver it in those plain words. Forget the latin. You know, nobody wants to hear the latin. Just use the plain english of the constitution. And as someone said today, say about the republicans that they know better. Thats going to start to be a talking point as these senators near momentous decisions that, as everyone is fond of saying, the vote they may cast, if it comes to that, will be for their grandchildren. It will be for their grandchildren and how they comport themselves in this process should tell voters a lot. Lindsey graham, who a couple weeks ago was demanding, demanding that the house investigate and release the transcripts of these interviews, now says he will never read them. He will not even read them. He wont let them pollute his you know, his mind because his mind is made up. That is something that, again, if one were to advise messengers of the Democratic Party, i would think youd want to jump on that. Thats a dereliction of duty to the constitution. The other thing thats going on in all of these machinations involve Rudy Giuliani and donald trump blowing up a diplomatic Foreign Service structure that is meant to be nonpartisan. Both republicans and democrats need people in the field that know what theyre doing, that bring information back to the u. S. About how to operate globally. And theyre smearing people who have been lifelong civil servants, and theres going to be longterm damage because of that. Peop including one or two decorated military veterans. Yes. Tim, about the president s business over at genes newspaper, David Fahrenthold coauthored a piece today. The sum total is that Profit Margins are down. We know that hotel in washington he is so proud of has been going on the soft market for somebody to take over the lease. It seems that while political trouble was kind of elemental in this administration, trouble with the brand, the trademark, the name donald trump is Something Else entirely. Well, you know, i think when he entered the white house, he saw the ability to keep his relationship with his businesses as a plus. So he and his children decided not to divorce themselves. What could go wrong . What could go wrong . It could only enhance things. What theyve discovered is this broad public reaction against trump has hurt their brand in places like chicago and washington and new york, which is and florida. Those are largely where the bulk of his domestic businesses are based and people arent patronizing his businesses. I think thats one thing hes dealing with. Hes also dealing with the fact that i think trump and his children probably dont want to relocate to new york whenever he ends his tenure in the white house. Theyre not probably going to be welcomed by new yorkers. So theyre looking forward to that as well. I think the third factor in this is trump has always taken on more debt than his businesses can actually finance and support. And so when you start to see trump sell off properties that historically hes had his name on like the wallman skating rink in new york or a hotel in washington that its been profitable, one of the few things he owns thats grown its revenue and hes selling those off, thats a warning signal on multiple fronts. He once claimed youre the expert but didnt he once claim that the trump brand itself was worth Something Like 3 billion . There was a truism in new york that trump branded condominiums got a 20 premium. So this is an existential threat in that sense to the Business Model of the trump organization. Speaking of existential threats, gene, what do you think republicans are thinking about the Election Results we just saw tonight . Um, i think i think theres some nervous conversations. Think well see some house retirements as a result . Well, more. More probably. You know, this is look, you know, a democrat winning in kentucky, democrats taking over control of the Virginia State legislature. Yeah. Already having taken the governorship, the numbers that Steve Kornacki gave about the cincinnati suburbs across the river and how they voted, that is all extremely bad news. If one republican in particular we were talking earlier, who is paying attention, thats Mitch Mcconnell. Its complicated. His kind of protege won big on the a. G. Race tonight. Exactly. He can take some comfort in that. But hell look at those suburban vote totals with an eagle eye, i think, tonight and tomorrow. I am told donald trump has tweeted tonight about the results. Won five out of six elections in kentucky, including five great candidates that i spoke for and introduced last night. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Matt bevin picked up at least 15 points in the last days but perhaps not enough. Fake news will blame trump. What was eugene just saying . Winning in mississippi governor race. That sounds like it was his phone. The fact is hes trying to distance himself from the losers and associate himself with the winners. But this has got to unnerve him. I think even in Mitch Mcconnell had a little bit of distance from the real elements that happened in kentucky, he has to be scrambling his political advocates a little bit tonight. I think thats going to lay into some of the impeachment proceedings. Whether or not the Republican Party, how long they want to stay tethered to donald trump if elections in places like kentucky and virginia are turning against them. I can hear it now. I dont know matt bevin. I dont know that man. I might have a picture with him. I have a picture with everybody. Notice how i threw down some latin. He brushed me back with a little real poll teke right there. Keeping track of all of it. Two friends of this broadcast. Always a pleasure, gentlemen. Thank you both. Coming up, it was an unlikely love story from the start, but it has turned out to be a love story all the same. Well talk about the gentlemen who belong to those two hands when we come back. Last thing before we go tonight, its a variation of the old phrase, but here it is. May you be fortunate enough in life to find someone who looks at you the way Lindsey Graham looks at donald trump. Old school republicans, meaning republicans from just a few years ago, do not recognize the Lindsey Graham of today. The guy they remember was a National Security republican back when he was a socalled part of the three amigos in the senate, lieberman, mccain, graham. The republicans from back then call the Lindsey Graham of today a trump supplicant. The way they tell it, its as if the coolest kid from school has allowed him to be his friend. And remember grahams love for trump required a little getting used to. I watch this idiot Lindsey Graham on television today, and he calls me a jack ass. And he gave me his number, and i found the card. I wrote the number down. I dont know if its the right number. Lets try it. Lindsey graham is a disgrace, and i think you have one of the worst representatives of any representative in the United States. Hes a racebaiting z xenophobic religious bigot. He doesnt represent my party. He doesnt represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for. Despite all of that, Lindsey Graham found a way to look through it. And at every turn in the ukraine story for starters, he has found a way to have his friends back. Here he is starting in september. If youre looking for a circumstance where the president of the United States was threatening the ukraine with cutting off aid unless they investigated his political opponent, you would be very disappointed. That does not exist. Now here he is in october. Show me something that that is a crime. If you could show me that, you know, trump actually was engaging in a quid pro quo outside the phone call, that would be very disturbing. And so even today in the face of new transcripts that the democrats say confirm an extortion plot, here was Lindsey Graham. Im not going to entertain impeaching the president over this matter, period, done. From just today, Lindsey Graham of south carolina, one of the 53 republicans in the senate who support this president can count on unless and until proven otherwise. Thats our broadcast for this tuesday night. Thank you so much for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Thanks for being here tonight. Great to have you with us. It is midnight here on the east coast but the news today has been so big we could not fit it in just one normal 9 00 p. M. Show. So weve got a brandnew hour for you. Its great of you to be here. Thank you for being with us. Its Election Night across the country tonight. Off year election. That means theyre elections of various shapes and sizes all over the country. Some of them are going to be prove to be very, very consequential including in the great state of virginia tonight. Every seat in the Virginia Legislature was on the ballot tonight. Is on the ballot. Every state house seat. Every state senate seat. Democrats control the statewide offices already in virginia, but this meant control of the legislature was on the ballot as well. While the Associated Press has now called it for the democrats in the state legislature, democrats have flipped enough seats tonight to gain control of the statehouse and the state senate in virginia. That big double flip tonight