the best physical facility for this meeting. it s almost like they built this facility to host this type of event. i don t talk about how this place runs on the inside. so if you see our paper on how we did this, the answer is absolutely not. mulvaney argued that the summit would be at cost and said the president would not profit from the event. the washington post reports, quote, that decision is without pres dependent in modern american history. the president used his public office to direct a huge contract to himself. it adds the resort quote has been in sharp decline in recent years according to the trump organization s on records. fell 59% from 2015 to 2017. two house committees, oversight and judiciary, have already demanded information about efforts to steer government business to the president s resorts. the choice of doral brought widespread condemnation from democrats and some republicans.
inquiry. as the washington post put it, quote, contrary to weeks of denials from the president and his defenders, a growing body of evidence makes clear it was trump himself who repeatedly pushed his own government and a foreign power to intervene in do domestic political concerns, enlisting and ensnaring a growing number of administration officials. i m joined now by a white house reporter for npr, philip bump a political reporter for the washington post. frank figliuzzi, assistant director for counter intelligence at the fbi. and michael steele, a former chairman of the rnc. thanks to all of you for being with us. frank, let me just start with you. big picture, the testimony this week behind closed doors. there are opening statements that have made their way into public, certainly a lot of reporting and leaks coming out of what was said there. what is picture that has emerged in terms of what the ukraine policy was and who was setting it? let s review just the last three week
influence in foreign policy. now, while mulvaney leader tried to take back those comments the political damage was already done. politico reports that, quote, republican lawmakers felt exasperated by the white house s lack of discipline and white house lawyers were similarly aghast mulvaney undercut so many of the legal arguments they could use to defend the president. here s how house intel chairman adam schiff summed it up. things have just gone from very, very bad to much, much worse. the idea that vital military assistance would be withheld for such a patently political reason for the reason of serving the presidential re-election campaign is a phenomenal breach of the president s duty to defend our national security. all of this could spell trouble for the president as he tries to resist the unfolding impeachment
the kurds great fighters and great, great people. the kurds are some very good people, some very bad people. i do respect the kurds. they seem to be the ones that have the most help. they didn t help us with second world war, they didn t help us with normandy as an example. yesterday, trump told reporters the turks wanted to clean out, his words there, a 22-mile region currently inhabited by syrian kurds and today he tweeted president erdogan wanted a cease-fire to work and that, quote, the kurds wanted the ultimate solution to happen. the president spent the past 24 hours showering president erdogan with praise. stay tuned after the break to find out what the turkish president has said in return. you re watching hardball. we ll inform them that liberty mutual customizes home insurance, so they ll only pay for what they need. your turn to keep watch, limu. wake me up if you see anything. [ snoring ] [ loud squawking and siren blaring ]
book your just right rental at thrifty.com. oh! baby bear! i just want to thank and congratulate, though, president erdogan. he s a friend of mine, and i m glad we didn t have a problem. because, frankly, he s a hell of a leader and he s a tough man. he s a strong man, and he did the right thing. and i really appreciate it. and i will appreciate it in the future. welcome back to hardball. that was president trump yesterday praising turkish president erdogan after having warned the turkish president days earlier not to be, quote, a tough guy. president erdogan suggested he was offended by that letter saying turkey would, quote, do what s necessary when the time comes. we haven t forgotten it. it would not be right for us to forget it.