Democrats battle to take back the white house . We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am wolf blitzer. Youre in the Situation Room. We are following major breaking news. House democrats drop the hammer, launching a formal Impeachment Inquiry as the outrage over the president s ukraine phone call reaches critical mass. Nancy pelosi making the announcement awhile ago, accusing President Trump of betraying the nation by asking ukraine to help them hurt his potential 2020 opponent, joe biden. Tonight, the president is firing back in familiar fashion, calling the impeachment probe a witch hunt. He failed trying to calm the controversy by releasing transcripts of a phone call tomorrow. All this as the person behind the whistleblower complaint that
set the scandal in motion wants to speak directly with congress. The House Intelligence Committee chairman says that could happen as soon as this week. Our correspondents, analysts, guests are standing biy as we cover this breaking story. Lets go to manu raju. After months and months of impeachment pressure, the democrats just reached their Tipping Point. No question about it, wolf. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted calls for months to move forward on impeachment proceedings, saying the public is not there, it is a divisive tactic that shouldnt be replicated, only in the gravest circumstances. In the aftermath of the president s handling of the whistleblower complaint and admission of talking to the ukrainian president about investigating joe biden, and joe bidens son, that was a bridge too far for the speaker and a number of democrats, moderate democrats from districts that President Trump carried in 2016 that called for Impeachment Inquiry. Speaker pelosi told her colleagues now that theyre in Impeachment Inquiry, and she played it clear publicly, thats how the house plans to proceed. This week the president has admitted to asking the president of ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically. The actions of the Trump Presidency reveal the dishonorable fact of his betrayal of oath of office, betrayal of our National Security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections. Therefore, today i am announcing the House Of Representatives moving forward with an official Impeachment Inquiry. I am directing six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of Impeachment Inquiry. The president must be held accountable, no one is above the law. Wolf, i am told Behind Closed Doors she told colleagues they want to move forward expeditiously on this. Not giving a specific time
frame, some democrats want it wrapped up by end of the year, and wolf, how this plans to move forward is this. She will allow six committees to investigate and continue investigations, the house Judiciary Committee, intelligence committee, and ultimately recommend articles of impeachment, the Judiciary Committee would vote on that before the full house considers articles of impeachment. See if they take that step. Most democrats believe now that she blessed Impeachment Inquiry, now the house will almost certainly move forward and make him the third president in history impeached by the house. I understand, manu, about to hear from Republican Leadership in the House Of Representatives, the Minority LeaderKevin Mccarthy and whip, steve scalise. Showing viewers the microphone. I assume theyre coming out, give reaction to what the speaker said . And theyre going to push back aggressively, calling this a partisan effort, criticizing democrats, calling it a witch hunt, the same lines youre hearing from the president , these are his closest defenders on capitol hill. Theyre going to make the case
clearly that they believe the democrats are out of line, in light of the concerns raised by the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community that this whistleblower complaint was urgent, credible. Most in the Republican Leadership down played and said the president was right to raise concerns about the bidens in conversations with the ukrainian president , even amid reports he was pressuring the ukrainians to investigate the bidens. Republicans are not raising concerns about that, instead theyre going to call this democratic overreach and warn that democrats will face backlash from voters at the polls, particularly moderates in key Swing Districts, wolf. Well stand by, wait to hear from Republican Leadership in the House Of Representatives and get their reaction, but right now i want to go, i see them walking out now. There they come. Kevin mccarthy, the Minority Leader, steve scalise, minority whip. Lets listen in. Thank you. I just listened to the speaker of the house. Speaker pelosi happens to be the speaker of this house but she does not speak for america when it comes to this issue. She cannot decide unilaterally what happens here. They have been investigating this president before he even got elected. They have voted three times on impeachment on this floor. Twice they voted before one word of the Mueller Report came back. Our job here is a serious job. Our job is to focus on the american public. Our job is to make tomorrow better than today. Our job is to legislate, not to continue to investigate something in the back when you cannot find any reason to impeach this president. This election is over. I realize 2016 did not turn out the way Speaker Pelosi wanted it to happen, but she cannot change the laws of this congress. She cannot unilaterally decide an Impeachment Inquiry. What she said today made no difference of whats been going on. It is no different than what nadler has been trying to do. Its time to put the public before politics. Thank you. Short statement from Kevin Mccarthy, the Minority Leader in the House Of Representatives blasting the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, for formally announcing opening of an Impeachment Inquiry into the president of the United States. I want to go to the president s reaction now. He is right now on the attack as the threat of impeachment becomes more real. Chief White House Correspondent jim acosta is covering the president , up at the United Nations where the president has been meeting with World Leaders. The speech was vastly overshadowed, his speech at the u. N. , jim, by Whats Going On in
here in washington. Reporter thats right, wolf. The president lashed out at the House Speaker awhile ago in her announcement of Impeachment Inquiry saying that this call for Impeachment Inquiry is what he described as breaking news, total witch hunt garbage. Earlier he said he would release the transcript of the phone call with the ukrainian president to try to put this to rest. Mr. Trump has been trying to argue throughout the day he has done nothing wrong, he says there was no quid pro quo in that conversation with the ukrainian president. Thats not enough for former Vice President joe biden who accused mr. Trump earlier today of shredding the constitution. Admitting he held up military aid for ukraine just before he pressed that countrys leader to investigate former Vice President joe biden, President Trump offered up a new excuse for his actions. He sat on the money, the president said, to force europe to pay their fair share. As far as withholding funds, those funds were paid. They were fully paid, but my complaint has always been and i withhold again, and continue to withhold until such time as europe and other nations contribute to ukraine because theyre not doing it. Reporter the president sounded at times like hes still trying to get his story straight, insisting he didnt pressure the ukrainians before telling reporters he did. There was no pressure put on them whatsoever, but there was pressure put on with respect to joe biden. What joe biden did for his son, thats something they should be looking at. They have no idea how they stopped me, the only way they can try is through impeachment. Reporter mr. Trump shifting rationale for holding up Ukraine Money, first claiming he didnt want funds to fuel corruption. We can give a lot of money away to ukraine and other places, you want to see a country thats going to be not corrupt. Reporter hoping to tamp down the controversy, the president tweeted he is authorizing release of the complete unclassified conversation with president zelensky. He ordered Administration Officials to hold up hundreds of millions in military aid to ukraine back in july, just one week before he asked the ukraine president to investigate bidens son hunters business dealings, despite zero evidence of wrongdoing. Little more than a month later, an Administration Official blew the whistle on his conversation. Two days after that, Ukraine Money was released. Sitting with the british prime minister, the president claimed he wasnt using Military Funds as leverage to get what he wanted. There was never any quid pro quo. The letter was beautiful. It was a perfect letter. It was unlike biden who by the way, what he said was a horror. And ask how his son made millions of dollars from ukraine. Reporter the looming ukraine investigation hung over the president who sounded downright low energy in a speech to the United Nations. Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first. The future does not belong to
globalists, the future belongs to patriots. Reporter in response to the uproar, biden fired back. I can take the political attacks. Theyll come and theyll go and in time theyll soon be forgotten. But if we allow a president to get away with shredding the United States constitution, that will last forever. Reporter the president had one other distraction at the u. N. In the form of 16yearold greta, pleading for climate change. Mr. Trump appeared to mock the activist she seems like a happy girl looking forward to a bright future. Nice to see. She troeld back, adding that to her twitter bio. Restrained response that might be described as being best. Reporter the president s response by saying he is going to release transcript of his call with president zelensky of ukraine is not good enough for democrats that want to see that whistleblower complaint at the center of this investigation. And so far, the white house is not promising to provide that. As for the president , he is expected to sit down with the ukrainian president tomorrow before holding a news conference. Mr. Trump appears to be all but daring the democrats to impeach him. His campaign put out a statement saying this has energized his base, and the campaign is fundraising off the Impeachment Inquiry tonight, wolf. Jim acosta, thanks very much. At the United Nations in new york. Thank you. Lets bring in our analysts, a lot to discuss, gloria. I dont want to lose sight of the fact this is history unfolding, a very historic moment in American History when the speaker of the house announces the start of a formal impeachment procedure against a sitting president of the United States. Those of us that have covered the russian investigation, many
of us sitting at this table understand that for two years the president has been investigated for that. And now at mock speed i would have to say after disclosure of the phone call, and notice of a whistleblower complaint, the democrats in congress and nancy pelosi reluctantly in a somber way talked about the president s violation of law, said he was using his power to interfere to speak with a foreign leader, to interfere in an american election, and that he seriously violated the constitution. So it seemed to me that she was saying that only after deliberation did she come to this moment. And i would have to also add that at the same time she was doing this, the senate in a bipartisan vote called for the
whistleblower report to be released to their Intelligence Committees so they can look at it as is required by law. What do you think, David Axelrod . Well, it was curious to hear Kevin Mccarthys remarks. It was as if he had them in a case marked break glass in case of impeachment, but it really needed updating because it missed the last week. This has been an avalanche since the revelation of the whistleblower, and the president s own admissions about his conversations with the president of ukraine and of course the withholding of money which put a whole different coloration on this. I think it change d the entire dynamic, the piece in the Washington Post by seven moderate members of congress was a critical juncture, the first year members all of whom from National Security community, because they were the ones nancy
pelosi was worried about. It was in their districts there was the greatest resistance to impeachment, but i think there was this sense that the cynical political thing at this juncture would be not to act. That doesnt mean there arent risks. I think there are great risks here, and no one knows how this will play out. You could end up, in fact, invigorating the president s chances. You could end up losing Many Democrats in the house if people react poorly to this. And you can end up with a president reelected and unbridled in his power. And thats im sure what nancy pelosi has been mulling over for months and months. I think she was left with no choice today. Wolf, for people out there that are used to hearing what many describe as noise coming from washington, the churn and the chaos of washington in the trump era, it is understandable that people are still saying i dont want to tune in. Well, tune in because this is not noise. This is something that doesnt
happen very often, it has only happened three times in history that the House Of Representatives has launched a formal Impeachment Inquiry, and even though there are very partisan times we are living in, for the speaker of the house who was reluctant to do this, and did make, given where we have been, a pretty fast change in her outcome and approach to do this is incredibly big. And the fact is given where the House Democrats are, it is hard to see these six committees, particularly the house Judiciary Committee, not ending with arlt calls of impeachment and full house vote. Jeffrey, weigh in. Remember, her words are precise, nancy pelosi, in announcing the opening in her words, opening of an official Impeachment Inquiry, meaning an investigation. That doesnt necessarily mean that theyre all in favor already of i am impeaching the president. Absolutely. I would like to put a word in for facts. We dont know a lot of facts about what actually went on here. Certainly it will be an Important Development tomorrow when theres a transcript released of this one phone call. Thats not the end of the investigation. Thats going to be the beginning. Is the transcript accurate . Does it correctly characterize what went on in the phone call . What is the story with the money that was supposed to go to ukraine . Was it actually an Extortion Attempt to hold back the money pending the ukrainians agreement to investigate joe biden . Thats very unclear at this point. What was the role of Rudy Giuliani in all this . Was he doing his own
investigation . Was he doing it at the instigation of the president . I mean, these stories tend to get more complicated, not less complicated as you start looking at them, and i just think judgments about whether someone will be or should be impeached should maybe wait until we actually see what the heck happened here. And tomorrow, pamela, were going to see, unless the president changes his