newsroom starts right now. thank you for joining us early at 4:00 a.m. here in the united states. our top story. the message to u.s. republican lawmakers is clear much their latest request regarding the impeachment inquiry is pretty much a nonstarter. cnn s jeremy diamond looks at what they want and how the democrat leading the investigation is responding. reporter: house republicans on saturday putting forward a list of witnesses they would like to see come forward as the house impeachment inquiry moves into its public phase. the list of witnesses seems mostly an attempt by republicans to divert attention from the allegations that president trump is facing over his handling of ukraine as well as to bolster
controversial about whether that should happen. we will have his story for you. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m natalie allen. this is cnn newsroom . republican lawmakers in the united states congress are getting a clear message from the democrats. their latest request regarding the impeachment inquiry pretty much nonstarters. cnn s jeremy diamond looks at what they want and how the democrat leading the investigation is responding. reporter: house republicans on saturday putting forward a list of witnesses they would like to see come forward as the house impeachment inquiry moves
biden s son hunter. also the whistle-blower who would have to publicly identify his or her self to testify and an joint panel featuring familiar names in the scandal. kurt volker, bill taylor and george kent. and our panel to break it down. you see them there. first head to the white house and kelly o donnell live for us. kelly, the president is out of town right now, but he has a whole lot of issues right now. the republicans came out with this list. walk us through their witness list. reporter: certainly, kendis. this is a chance for republicans to have their say in when this impeachment inquiry moves to the public phase. democrats, because they have control of the house, are in charge of the witnesses and have been running the operation behind closed doors in this first phase. so as it goes to the public hearings, republicans want to tell their story, and they will certainly meet resistance. you showed the list of names.
you know, folks are talking about it. i ve had a number of town halls, the only statewide person that does that in the congress. i ve had a number of town halls where it comes up. i wouldn t say that it comes up as the only talking point or the main talking point that we spend the most time on. we still spend more time on health care costs and national security. but it s starting to pick up some steam in the minds of people moving forward. and i m sure we re going to hear more and more about it as the impeachment inquiry moves forward. do you think the public hearings will help to try to make it a little bit more explainable? we don t know because we don t even know how much of a circus it will be, democrats are trying to prevent that from happening as it did after the mueller report. but we don t even know how it will play, do we? no, we don t, andrea. this is far bigger than politics. i ve looked back at some of the previous impeachment proceedings that have happened and i will
from the president s answers to the written questions where we didn t really learn that much, right? yeah. great to see you guys. thank you all so much. really appreciate it. coming up for us still as the impeachment inquiry moves toward a public phase, house democrats are back home in their districts. what are they hearing from their constituents when it comes to impeachment at this point? one democrat from key swing district joins us next. k your whole windshield. with safelite s exclusive resin, you get a strong repair that you can trust. plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. customer: really?! singers: safelite repair, safelite replace. when you re looking for answers, it s good to have help. because the right information, at the right time, may make all the difference. at humana, we know that s especially true when you re looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan. that s why we re offering seven things every medicare supplement should have.