his testimony up until now has been somewhat inconsistent, and he is going to be pressed hard to establish his credibility. but you re exactly right it s a crucial testimony because recall from watergate one of the critical questions howard baker asked back then, what did the president know, when did he know it? as we have more witnesses testify we re going to get more information about what the president knew or to what extent he was involved in this. as you pointed out, there seems to have been a systemic effort at the highest levels of this government to investigate the bidens in an inappropriate and unconstitutional way. there was a proper way to do it through the mutual legal assistance treaty and an improper way to do it and it s the improper way we re investigating. kelly, has the hearsay argument has fallen apart here as firsthand witnesses and really, you know, a web of officials who were concerned by this alternate track foreign policy with seeming political benefit there,
that ukrainians didn t know about the aid being stalled at that point. if it s clear from these e-mails or his testimony that these ukrainian top ukrainian aides knew about that in early july it s going to change the timeline for republicans and the white house. that s great point. thanks, kaitlan. joining us to discuss kelly magmum, served under president obama and president bush. michael gearhart, our legal analyst and impeachment expert. good morning to you. michael, let me begin with you and the week ahead. eight public testimonies scheduled. the most at least in focus right now is wednesday when we will hear from ambassador sondland. democrats need him, right, because they need someone that had a direct line to the president who says yes, he called for an investigation directly to me. right? in exchange for aid. but is he credible at this point? go ahead. well, it s a really good question whether he s credible or not.
getting closer to the heart of the issue, which is the president of the united states and his conduct. kelly, michael, of course we re going to be bringing this week to everyone so they can make their own judgment. thanks very much to both of you. mayor pete surges, buttigieg takes the lead in a new iowa poll. is it his moderate message winning over voters there? also an unannounced visit to the hospital raises serious questions about the president s health. the white house says he is healthy as can be. a gunman opens fire on group of people watching football in fresno, california. at least ten people were shot. four are dead this morning. we have the latest developments. cnn newsroom is brought to you by hi, i m joan lunden. when my mother began forgetting things, we didn t know where to turn for more information. that s why i recommend a free service called a place for mom.
e-mails that the wall street journal has alleging this communication between sondland, mulvaney and perry? absolutely. the house can issue a subpoena and has issued a subpoena on a number of things. they haven t gotten anything. anything from state. that s correct. but a subpoena is a lawful order. the united states supreme court in very famous case unanimously said richard nixon had to comply with a judicial subpoena to turn over the information that would help the defendants in that that were involved with the watergate break-in. it s the same thing here. we re trying to get people on the president who worked in the administration to comply with the law, to produce documents. when they don t produce those documents or come to testify they re defying the law and may well be setting out the basis for another impeachment article against the president. kelly, talk if you can about how significant this week is, because you really only have two