It is thursday, october 24th, im yasmin vossoughian. Ayman mohyeldin is out sick this morning. We begin with the wake of the escalating impeachment fight, republican strategy for defending President Trump, defending, growing more frantic by the day. On capitol hill yesterday a group of gop lawmakers stormed the secure room where a deposition was set to take place, a House Intelligence Committee official telling nbc news more than two dozen republican members participated. The testimony of laura cooper, the top pentagon official overseeing u. S. Policy toward ukraine was delayed by five hours, because of the outburst. House Intelligence Committee chair adam schiff suggested the demonstration was a response to ambassador bill taylors explosive testimony just the day before. Watch this. The testimony yesterday, they have been successful in stopping witnesses from cooperating. And so the president has elicited allies on the hill to see what they could do to stop the witnesses but we will g