the one targeting that news headquarters. david? all right, pierre thomas leading us off tonight. pierre, thank you. next tonight, president trump defiant. he was asked repeatedly today, did he put pressure on ukraine to investigate his potential 2020 challenger, joe biden? the president over the weekend admitting he did bring up joe biden on that call, and all of this as congress had already passed hundreds of millions in aid for ukraine, but that money had not been sent. but even with that money in the balance, the president tonight saying he was not putting pressure on the new president of ukraine. here s abc s chief white house correspondent jonathan karl, traveling with the president here in new york tonight. reporter: today, a defiant president trump insisted he did nothing wrong by asking the president of ukraine to investigate his campaign rival, joe biden. we had a perfect phone call with the president of ukraine. everybody knows it. it s just a democrat witch hunt. he
potential 2020 campaign rival. in other words, a president abusing his powers for political gain. so what is going to happen now? this is a very big story. the press has got to meet this moment. there is new calls for impeachment and so much more. we have a big show ahead. we have an all star panel standing by. let s begin in washington with one of the washington post reporters who broke this story. and also joining us, former washington post journalist, karl bernstein is with me. shane, what is the very latest on this whistle blower complaint. it amazes me and shocks me congress still hasn t seen it. is this an ongoing act of there certainly is a very full effort by this administration and i think by this white house to block that whistle blower complaint from getting to congress. we reported this week in the post that the white house counsel has always gotten
to have compassion, respect for one another and appreciate our differences instead of to fuel bigotry, hate and division. your campaign rival and fellow texan, beto o rourke, said, quote, president trump s racism does not just offend our sensibilities, but challenges the character of this country and leads to violence. you haven t gone that far this morning. do you think congressman o rourke is saying something that s unfair? do you see any sort of link between the comments the president makes and this kind of violence? what do you think? i believe that president trump is making it worse. look, the person that is responsible for this shooting is the shooter. at the same time, if you re in a position of leadership, you set the tone for the country.
now he runs the place. lindsey graham, a then campaign rival of trump, laid out his take on the future president. i m not going to try to get into the mind of donald trump because i don t think there s a whole lot of space there. i think he s a kook. i think he s crazy. i think he s unfit for office. but once trump won office graham became a key senate ally and a vocal defender of trump. what concerns me about the american press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook, not fit to be president. senator graham? i think he s a kook. i had to do that. and senator ted cruz. he had this to say about trump when trump attacked his wife on twitter. labeled him lying ted and insinuated with absolutely no proof that cruz s father had
a cancer. a barking carnival act. well, the cancer must have been cured because perry now works for trump as the secretary of energy. remember? he couldn t even remember what the third one was in that debate. it was the secretary of energy. now he runs the place. lindsey graham, a then campaign rival of trump, laid out his take on the future president. i m not going to try to get into the mind of donald trump because i don t think there s a whole lot of space there. i think he s a kook. i think he s crazy. i think he s unfit for office. but once trump won office graham became a key senate ally and a vocal defender of trump. what concerns me about the american press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook, not fit to be president. senator graham?