who are knowledgeable about what the issue was in the first place which is potential corruption and any sort of wrongdoing by the president on a phone transcript that he voluntarily released himself, by the way. bill: they would fight that request and what would you do in turn? listen, i ll tell you what we ll do. we re ready. if the democrats are foolish enough to actually pass these frivolous articles of impeachment of which they have no evidence and factual basis, we want a trial in the senate. we re ready for a trial in the senate. the president tweeted today. if they want to impeachment do it. we see where the show is going. we re ready for it. sandra: what articles of impeachment are you referring to? what is your expectation for what will ultimately be written up? listens, nancy pelosi and others have to make that decision if they re foolish enough to advance these things. we are prepared for all scenarios. sandra: chad pergram said there was a very vague
underscore that message. that was sarah sanders overall message in that answer. what do you think? i think that i agree. first of all, ai gragree with kimberly. there are moments where you see admissions, sondland certainly the admissions of what s happened. you ve seen in the past rudy giuliani admit to different things. i mean, over the last few years, right, he ll say, yeah, of course the president did this. there is this lack of appreciation and understanding that what happened was wrong. that s why i mean, if sarah sanders says, right, oh, yeah. sure. he ll let everybody testify. i don t believe that. and it s been reported that that s not true. but let s pretend that he does. if so, it s because he generally doesn t think there s a problem. it s why he released the phone transcript. most administrations when they re dealing with a congress that is asking for document station or testimony or impeaching a president will go to congress and say how can we work with you? we
controversial and unwise policy by the president. adam schiff the chairman has sat down. the hearing will be underway moments from now. martha, part of what jennifer williams was a party to was not just a phone call in july but with mike pence in warsaw on the first of september. apparently zelensky in that meeting in warsaw opened up their entire conversation with the request about the aid and where it is and security assistance. apparently the vice president said he wanted an update on corruption reform efforts that he could quote then convey back to the president. and he also wanted to know if there were more european countries supporting ukraine. that seems to be in line with what the white house message has been since day one of this administration. that goes to about 85% of what is in the phone transcript. he expressed concern about europe not doing enough and
welcome back to our special coverage of the impeachment hearings. today on capitol hill, there will be closed door testimony and it could be pivotal. lawmakers will hear from that key state department official who says he overheard president trump discussing investigations of the bidens on a phone call with ambassador gordon sondland in the middle of a restaurant in kiev. back with us we have joe lockhart and charlie dent. so david holmes is going to be testifying behind closed doors. he s interesting, he s one of these state department career diplomats. well thought of, competent. the idea he could hear a phone call this loudly in the middle of a restaurant in kiev of all places, is this because ambassador gorgdon sondland is member of the keystone cops or because rules don t apply anymore and you don t have to be in a secure area to have a conversation with the president of the united states? all of the above. keystone cop, naive, out of his league. virtually we know everybody hear
reporter: good morning, alisyn. it was going to be a busy day, but not. these are the four white house witnesses that were going to be testifying, all of them, citing reasons, executive privilege, defying subpoenas, saying they want their own white house attorneys. those individuals, robert blair, senior adviser to the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney, john eisenberg, nsc top legal adviser, michael ellis, deputy legal adviser, and brian mccormack, the director of the office of management and budget. what is most significant is john eisenberg. he is the one that fiona hill, trump s top russia adviser and colonel alexander vindman, the ukraine expert, approached over their concerns about trump s telephone call with the ukrainian leader. he is also the one who told vindman not to discuss this call. and he s mentioned in the testimony as someone responsible for taking that phone transcript and moving it into a classified server. what was he trying to hide?