Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with a politics lead. Explosive testimony on capitol hill where right now the top ukraine expert on the White House National Security Council is testifying in the impeachment inquiry. According to his Opening Statement, Army Lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindland twice sounded the alarm. First raised concerns that the president s point man demanded that the Ukrainian Government open an investigation into the bidens in exchange for a white house meeting. Then he raised the alarm once again when he heard the president made a similar demand. Then who prides himself on being nonpartisan reported his concerns out of a sense of duty. The Lieutenant Colonel served for more than 20 years and awarded the purple heart after being wounded by an ied in iraq. He was born in ukraine. His family fled when he was 3 years old. Becoming embodiment of the American Dream and he and his twin brother were featured in a ken burns documentary from 1985. Were from k
Democrats laid out the road map that may result in articles of impeachment. Tonight well tally up the extent of the change within the gop and ask how putin is likely viewing all of this. Far from politics tonight, the concern is life or death in california, where a historic warning has been issued because of whats about to begin tonight. As the 11th hour gets underway on this tuesday evening. Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 1,013 of the trump administration. And the breaking news were covering at the top of the broadcast here tonight is an indication that todays testimony by an activeduty army officer might have been more damaging to the president than we first knew or thought. His testimony wrapped up tonight after ten hours. The New York Times has new reporting on todays testimony from Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, an army officer whose works is detailed in the white house and overheard the president s phone call to ukraine. The ti
Of all and ill start with kaitlan with you. Listen to this. This is sondland making this very significant statement earlier today. I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. He makes it clear, absolutely, totally discarding what the president and his allies are saying for weeks. And what the white house are relying on and what the president was reading from earlier was the conversation where he had and called the president to ask if there was a quid pro quo and he said the president got angry and said there was not one and that he didnt want anything from ukraine. But what they are they are ignoring is what he started his testimony with today that yes, in relation to the aid to the white house to the white house call and the white house meeting, there was a quid pro quo.
Diplomacy with ukraine. Lets go first to phil mattingly, he is on capitol hill. So you have that, were waiting for those. And two depositions that were scheduled for today does not appear again just like the four yesterday like those will happen, is that right . Reporter yeah, a little bit of a split screen here. You have the public aspect of things as things start to spill out, another two transcripts today, soon public hearings. But you still have the scheduled closed door depositions. And yesterday the individuals who were asked to come did not show up. Today it will be the same according to people familiar with the process. Wells griffith, a white house official, he has not shown up and it is past 9 00. And also Michael Duffy who was a key player in the decision to withhold nearly 400 million of aid to ukraine has not shown up either. I think what this all underscores is why you have seen the shift toward the public phase of things. There is recognition now that as they move up the
Story there is but if youre not, sometimes it seems like about the fifth or sixth month in sport and story playing out in america right now. Theres an awful lot else going on. Thats all weve been covering the story on the show which is to say not very closely but tonight is news to report so we want to take a moment to assess what exactly is happening with impeachment. Speaker nancy pelosi has announced that later this week, the house will hold a formal vote on procedures that could lead to a formal impeachment of the president at some point. What exactly does that mean . Why is it happening . What will result from it . Well, all of that unfortunately is still opaque tonight. We are not clear what high crime the president supposedly committed. There are some as a crewman on that question actually even on the left. So to solve the riddle, we are taking in tonight, as we often do you win claudia to mccarty, to the part of yale law school, the oracle of new york. The single most famous ba