Significant. The first in public and the second featuring Marie Yovanovitch, someone pushed out, removed from her position by President Trump with what other officials testified a Smear Campaign they say was led by the president s outside attorney, guiliani. Democrats working on the impeachment inquiry say this will represent the first chapter and how it went rogue throughout this process. Thats one element of this. The second and most important element is whats happening behind closed doors, the closed door deposition of divideavid h sitting down for a closed door deposition. Why he matters is he was the one that was spoken about wednesday in the bombshell about the conversation between Gordon Sondland and President Trump where investigations were specifically brought up. He then asked sondland what he thought about ukraine and sondland said he cares more about the bidens than ukraine. This will be their first opportunity to speak to david homes and an important event. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went further in her accusations against the president. What does that signal . Shes laying out the full scope and scale of the investigation and what she believes they found and one important word. What President Trump has done on the record, in terms of acting to advantage his foreign power to help him in his own election and the obstruction of information about that, the coverup makes what nixon did look almost small. The president has admitted to, and says its perfect. I say its perfectly wrong. Its bribery. Reporter wolf, its that last word, its briberey has significant, potentially legally significant. Bribery is one of two impea impeachable offenses in conduct. According to her he has reach the threshold of one of those impeachable offenses that could factor into an article of impeachment. She has made clear no decisions have been made. You talk to democrats they fully expect articles of impeachment are coming when the hearings are done and likely a vote to impeach President Trump and perhaps bribery will be one of those articles, wolf. Thanks very much. Joining us now, the former ambassador to the United Nations, author of a brand new book entitled with all due respect, defending america with grit and grace, ambassador nikki haley. Thanks for coming in. Thanks, wolf. Should i call you ambassador . Nikki. I will call you ambassador. Lets get to the news of the day. We have a lot to discuss. I want to play a key moment from yesterdays testimony, open door impeachment testimony from bill taylor, the top u. S. Diplomat in ukraine. In the presence of my staff at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called President Trump and told him of his members in kiev. A member of my staff could hear President Trump on the stone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. Ambassador sondland told President Trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. Following the call with President Trump a member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what President Trump thought about ukraine. Ambassador sondland responded President Trump cares more about the investigations of biden which guiliani was pressing for. If this is true we will hear more testimony in the coming days, if its true, the president was directly involved in following up in his phone calls with the ukrainian leadership. They wanted the president wanted a formal investigation of his rivals in exchange for release of Security Assistance to ukraine. Are you comfortable with that . Im looking for something new, wolf. If you look at the situation there isnt anything new in the transcript. The president wanted to know about the investigations. That was in the transcript. What you have here in the testimony yesterday, its perception on one side and hearsay on the other. I think we have to stick with the facts. The facts are was he interested in an investigation . Yes. Did he stop the aid . No. Did the ukrainians go through with the investigation . No. Its really hard to find where this rises to the level of impeachment. He did stop the aid from going that was u. S. Military assistance to ukraine appropriate, authorized by the house and the senate, signed into law by the president and he withheld it, he had the mmb, office of management and budget, simply inform the state department and others they never provided an explanation for it. The money flowed. Eventually only after the whistleblowers report came out and a lot of republicans in the senate calling the white house complaining about what was going on. As a result, the president decided to let the aid go. We dont know what the whistleblowers role was. The senators were calling for the aid to be released to ukraine. He released the aid. Thats what we want at the end of the day. It was the right thing to do to release the aid. Its hard for me to impeach a president. It is the highest level of punishment you can possibly do. When an investigation didnt happen and the aid flowed, i dont see how that rises to the worse possible crime. Do you agree with the president the whistleblower should be named and identified . I believe in whistleblower laws and i think you have to protect the whistleblower and in turn they have to abide by those laws, the fact they dont allow partisan leaking or anything like that to happen. We dont know thats happened either. Until then on this issue you disagree with the president. You can call it disagreed. He wants the whistleblower to be named. In this area you believe in the law, to protect the whistleblowers . I do. Lets talk about the allegation. We will hear from ambassador sondland from the European Union next week in open sessions. He revised his original statement and now agrees with the others the president was pressuring president zelensky for political help in dealing with the bidens. This is important because if in fact the president was soliciting foreign assistance, a Foreign National to help in a u. S. Political campaign, thats against the law. I dont think its ever Good Practice for us to ask a foreign entity to investigate an american. Ive said that multiple times. I dont think thats Good Practice. Is that what the president was doing . At the end of the day, it didnt happen. I think a lot of people say the president was doing this with ukraine, i can tell you ukraine the Ukrainian Ambassador was my number one ally on the security council. The president was very adamant about making sure ukraine have everything they needed, thats why they got antitank missiles and military training and why he got sanctions on russia and expelled diplomats and increased our energy component. To look at the history, i can tell you, at least from my standpoint, he was always very adamant to help ukraine. I think he always has. I think what you saw was two president s having a conversation. The president said he would like to have an investigation. He didnt for two month and he suspended it and didnt let it through. Those things can happen and for some reason, we dont know whether its senators or thats the point, he didnt threaten or demand. If ambassador sondland says before the Television Cameras in a revised statement this was done to force the ukrainians into engaging in a political investigation on behalf of the president for political purposes, what would you say . Show me the proof. I dont see anywhere where the president heavy handed the president of ukraine and said, do this or else. Thats what everybody will come back and say. Thats the nature of the defense here. I know yule want there to be something wrong. At the end of the day, theres nothing that shows he threatened or held their hand saying we will not release until you do this. Thats the issue. Obviously, thats the problem in congress and why they cant come to a resolution. I want to point out when you say you all, we just want to report the news and the facts and see where this leads. I appreciate that. We dont have a political position in the situation room. If the president did absolutely nothing wrong, a phone conversation perfect, couldnt have been better. Why not let the acting white house chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney or National Security advisor, john bolton, come before the American People and tell us what happened. I was governor and i know the political games back and forth. I think if the president thought there was a genuine investigation he would have no problem with them testifying. I think he feels like this truly is a witch hunt. He has his back up, and he thinks this is a way for yall to trick everybody into saying something. I know how he thinks. From that standpoint hes going to hatch his guard up, hes going to have his back up and think youre trying to pull his people in so you can interrogate them or humiliate them or do Something Else. Why would they have to be tricked if they just had to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . I know. But you have to look at the fact we have an imimpeachment going on when theres less than a year for an election. It screams politics. It screams all kinds of political gamesmanship. Thats just the reality of it. You have to look at the situation hes going to say, why would i send them there when i see what theyre trying to do for political gain . The house of representatives has that Constitutional Authority if they want to launch an impeachment inquiry they can do that. And they are. They certainly can. Lets talk about the book, with all due respect subtitle defending america with dprit and grace. You write in the book about your role of ambassador with the United Nations. Was it appropriate based on everything you experienced in the withdrawal of diplomacy, for Rudy Guilliani, the president s personal lawyer, someone who had no security clearances to be engaged in this shadow of diplomacy, u. S. U. N. Shadow diplomacy. During my time at the United Nations i never saw rudy engaged in that way. It is best practice you have a special envoy to handle certain areas. We do that all the time and give them the title of special envoy. They probably should have done that so there wasnt any confusion. Based on what we know right now was it appropriate for months and months for Rudy Guilliani to be so deeply involved in this ukrainian policy with the specific purpose he makes it clear to get dirt on the bidens . I think it could have been handle better. What does that mean . They should have named him the special envoy so everyone in the administration knew what his role was. Tomorrow, we will be hearing from Marie Yovanovitch, the former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine. First of all, did you know her or ever work with her . I dont think i was ever in any meetings with her, no. Was it fair for the ambassador, a career diplomat, more than 30 years, highly respected to be pushed out by a Long Campaign targeting her, that campaign led by Rudy Guilliani . I will tell you, i worked with multiple Foreign Service officers. We have fantastic ones. They are patriots and go out there regardless who the president is and they fight the good fight. I was always grateful for them and i know many other people have appreciated their expertise as well. I want to make sure we say that about our Foreign Service officers. We did however encounter at times at the u. N. , Foreign Service officers who had a political bias. That became a problem in them stalling or trying to get Something Else done. Im not saying that about this ambassador. What i will tell you about this, every ambassador serves at the privilege of the president. If the president did not want her to stay he had that right to do it. We dont necessarily know exactly why he didnt want her to stay, but i mean, every ambassador knows they can be pulled at any given time. Were you comfortable when you read the rough transcript of the president s july 25th phone conversation with president zelensky, the way he spoke . The way the president spoke about her . Thats how he speaks. Its not my style, its not the way i speak. That is how he speaks. Let me play you in your interview with an nbc today show with Savannah Guthrie and this exchange jumped out at me. Did you ever have any doubt about the fitness of this president . I never did. Any doubt about his mental acuity . I never did. Any question about his truthfulness, his ability to tell the truth. Savannah, i talked to him multiple times. When i had issues he always heard me out. I never had any concern whether he could handle the job. What about his truthfulness . Did you think he was a truthful person . Yes. In every instance i had with him he told the truth and great to work with. According to cnn, the president has made about 1200 false claims since this past july. He makes false claims even about things that dont look good for him by saying he won in alabama by 42 points when he actually won by a very solid 28 points. Obviously 28 points is great but he said 42 points, looks very good for him. Can you really say that hes been truthful to the American People . My comment to savannah was in every instance that i dealt with him and every situation in which i worked with him over those two years he was always truthful in all of those situations. And i stand by that. What about to the American People . I think that he is i know from being a public official and being around lots of elected officials, you can flip up in times and get things wrong. That can happen. Overall, everyone tries to be truthful and tries to do the right thing. All i can tell you is from my experience. In my experience he was always truthful with me and always truthful in the issues we were working on. I went through the book, your book. Once again, with all due respect, ill say this with all in the book you described, especially during the campaign, very very serious controversies and very serious disagreements you had with the president during the campaign you were supporting marco rubio, he tweeted the people of South Carolina are embarrassed by nikki haley, to which you responded, bless your heart. Heres what you were saying during the campaign. Donald trump is everything i taught my children not to do in kindergarten. I taught my two little ones, you dont lie and make things up. During anxious times it can be tempted to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation . When you were talking about those loudest voices, angriest voices, in that context you were talking about donald trump, correct . He was one of them, yes. Were talking about a man who has filed for bankruptcy four times. I will not stop until we fight man that chooses not to disavow the kkk. That is not a part of our party. Thats not who we want as president. We will not allow that in our country i see you smiling. Yeah. You were very serious. It was good, a fine time. What happened since then . Nothing happened since then. What i can tell you is those issues that i had with him then i did have with him, and the issues ive had with him since then, ive talked to him about. A lot of people want to know how i got through the process. I told him the truth. If i saw something wrong i said that i thought it was wrong and gave options how we could make it right. If i saw him doing well id cheer him on and support him. You dont agree with a person 100 of the time. What you try and do is improve the situation to the best of your ability. Thats always what i tried to do. I always tried to be honest and tried to be fair and tried to fight for america. Sometimes that was disagreeing with him and sometimes that was agreeing. You believe hes a good example for children today . Ive talked to him and said very openly his tone and his way of speaking is not something that i do. I have a different style of speaking. There have been times where i would call him and say, did you have to say that . Did you have to do that . He would be like, i know, i know. I always talked to him about it and i would tell him, but, you know, at his age, were not going to change him. That is who he is. Youre comfortable with that . He this president. Are you comfortable with that . When i wasnt comfortable i called him. If he asked you to be his running mate, would you . Its not going to happen. A hypothetical. He and mike pence work well together and are very strong together. I will be supporting them together. I know people like to talk about that. Thats a nonissue. A lot of people are talking about that. You closed the book with these words, to all my brothers and sisters in this great country, thank you for the privilege and honor to serve the best country in the world. You made this smalltown girl dream of something bigger than herself. Tell us about the smalltown girl, would you like to be president of the United States . No one wants to believe it. I dont think out that far. A year is a lifetime in politics. Why would i think of something five years down the road. It would be a waste of energy. I want to continue fighting in some way, being relevant in some way. I wanted to take a break after eight years of fulltime Public Service work and checking our phone in the middle of the night and spend time with our son a senior and going on College Tours and our daughter a senior in college. Mike and i take care of my parents who are in thei