Someone. Welcome to the lead, im jake tapper. We begin with the politics lead, the number two republican in senator john thune of south dakota delivered a devastating assessment of the house impeachment inquiry of President Trump. Senator thune telling reporters that the picture being painted of the trump ukraine scandal by the top diplomat in ukraine is, quote, not a good one. Bill taylor testified he was told President Trump was going to withhold, quote, everything, from ukraine, everything, including badly needed military aid that is until ukraines president publicly announced investigations into joe biden and his son hunter as well as ukraines alleged role in the 2016 election. And as Cnns Kaitlan Collins now reports for us, this all comes as President Trump is trying to spin capitulation to turkey in syria as a win for the United States. This was an outcome created by us, the United States. And nobody else. Reporter today President Trump took credit for a ceasefire in syria. While announcing the u. S. Will lift sanctions he imposed on turkey. Let someone else fight over this long bloodstained sand. Reporter trump imposed those sanctions after turkey invaded Northern Syria, days after he decided to pull u. S. Forces from the area leaving syrian kurds and longtime American Allies unprotected. So the sanctions will be lifted unless something happens that were not happy with. Reporter trump said the ceasefire will save kurdish lives. Even though just yesterday russia and turkey agreed on a plan to push Syrian Kurdish fighters out of the region they once occupied. Other countries have stepped forward. They want to help. And we think thats great. Reporter the president also claimed isis fighters who have escaped from kurdishrun prisons have been largely recaptured. A small number, relatively speaking reporter but his top envoy to syria disputed that just hours earlier. We would say the number is now over 100. We do not know where they are. Reporter trump ignored the cnn question about the discrepancy today. Mr. President , you said the isis fighters who escaped have been recaptured but your top envoy said that is not true. They dont know where they are . Do you have a comment. He took no questions on syria or the highstakes impeachment inquiry. Did you tell president zelensky to publicly announce the investigations, mr. President . Reporter his silence coming after he dismissed his top diplomat in ukraines testimony quoting a republican who said bill taylor didnt say ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld. Taylor testified that he was told a top aide to the ukrainian president delivered a message making clear that it was. Trump now saying that the impeachment inquiry is dead. But members of his own party sound unsure. Including the second ranking republican leader in the senate who said the picture emerging from taylors testimony is not a good one. Now, jake, the president said these never trump republicans are, quote, human scum, and said his top diplomat in ukraine bill taylor is a never trump republican and he someone he believes he doesnt know. That we should note that bill taylor is a west point graduate and a vietnam veteran who secretary pompeo personally recruited to come back and take this job as the top diplomat in ukraine. Secretary pompeo hasnt weighed in on the president s insult to bill taylor yet. If he does at all. Kaitlan collins, thanks so much. Lets chew over this. Jen the white house responded to bill taylors testimony by calling the impeachment inquiry, a quote, coordinated smear attack from far left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats, and then calling bill taylor a never trumpers and they are human scum. Obviously the messages is pretty specific, theyre going after taylor. Obviously. And attacking the messenger and trying to discredit the messenger has been a tactic weve seen before and also a tactic that president putin and the russians used against ambassadors and other people in russia ill point out. That is the strategy at this moment. Now the problem they have is that there is so much detail that we have in front of us at this point. We have taylors testimony, we have the whistleblower complaint and we have the chief of staff of the white house giving a press conference. We know they did it. The question is what happens now and so this is kind of desperate in my view and taking some tactics from the russian friends playbook. And so christian youre a leading never trumper. And what the president said about your ilk today. The never trumper republicans though on respirators with not many left are worse and more dangerous for or country than the donothing democrats. Watch out for them. They are human scum. I dont think youre human scum. What do you make of that . Elevating our discourse there. I wonder why never trump types are on his mind so much. I mean, the democrats are doing the impeachment in the house but i wouldnt say weve been particularly im flattered if he thinks we are causing him a lot of trouble and i do think there is a sign of what jen calls desperation or panic there. Dont you think generally in the white house the president s personal tweets and what hes been saying over the last few days and interviews, the House Republicans today, there is a sense that if all were well, he would not be worrying about attacking never trumpers or bill taylor who was he selected and secretary pompeo put into and secretary pompeo bill taylor so i dont know and not part of the never trumper conspiracy and i might have met him when he was ambassador for brush and very strong proukraine and skeptical of russia and hes 71 or 72 and called back to serve the country after this mess where they fire another good Foreign Service officer who is the ambassador. He comes back and really out of duty. Hes doing stuff entirely out of duty. Ep has no his wife didnt want him to do it. Hes been ambassador and comes back because the Senate Confirmation and so forth. And so he does a totally out of duty and did secretary pompeo say a word. Out of his own selfrespect but the president wouldnt like it but could he Say Something about this man they the four decade career. And a fellow west point graduate and he didnt defend yav as far as we know. It is not just President Trump and Stephanie Gresham attacking bill taylor. Take a diplomats now turned into collaborators with the democrats rolling up to capitol hill . We have is this extraordinary men and women in our diplomatic core who know their work and who are strong and are out fighting for americas interests. But there is no question, when President Trump said weve were going to drain the swamp that an awful lot of the swamp has been caught up in the state department bureaucracy. Drain the swamp . Shes clairly asking about bill taylor. It is an oldie but goody. To go back to it. Jen can back me up. I dont think bill taylor would be close to be associated with the swamp. You wonder why they didnt put a more swampy individual there because all administrations put some people in ambassador positions that have no business being there. Instead they put this career diplomat in that position who now has a frontrow seat to all of the deeds being done that are not aboveboard. So that is actually quite questionable because the swampiest part are ambassadors can be swampy. They have swampy one to the e. U. And gordon sondland. And so they hate there was an honorable person there. One of the people are not in the swamp. The Matthew Whitaker the acting attorney general only fox said abuse of power is not a crime. What do you make of that . Well lots of things are not a crime. For instance, being an if individual who is manifestly unfit to have served as acting attorney of the United States is not a crime but that doesnt mean Matthew Whitaker should have been acting attorney general. But an impeachment offense does not need to be a crime and over the Years Congress has found threeod impeachable, abusing power in office, that is obvious and behavior incompatible with the office of presidency or misusing ones office for personal gain. Those are the kind of things that congress is looking into here. But this question of whether the president violated a criminal statute, that is just not the stand ard. Matthew whitaker knows that and he should be ashamed because hes misleading the American People about what an impeachment offense is. And the stunt republicans tried to make today and one 2020 candidate gaining support among several key voting groups. Who is it . Stick around. If you have moderate to severe psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. 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Matt gaetz of florida and with that a group of house conservatives stormed the socalled skiff, the secure room where three house committees are conducting impeachment interviews and the uproar is yelling and railing delayed the testimony from another witness and it came after President Trump publicly grumbled that republicans were not doing enough to defend him. A source told cnn President Trump new in advance of todays protest. Lets go to lauren fox on capitol hill. And these republicans said they wanted to see what was happening and what they call secret meetings but just a point of clarification here, arent there already republicans in these hearings asking questions of these witnesses . Well there, jake. But republicans are arguing and the Top Republican in the house Kevin Mccarthy told me just a short time ago that he needs more transparency. They were elected and they have the right to understand what is going on in this secure room and arguing that when impeachment comes to the floor of the house of the representatives they have to know what is going on. And democrats are arguing, slow down, this is the beginning of the investigation but behind closed doors this went on for five hours. Now laura cooper is now testifying behind closed doors. But it went on so long that this afternoon they had to bring in snacks and pizza for members who were in the room. Ultimately they had to leave to go vote. And now it appears that the testimony is underway. But i will tell you, a very chaotic scene this morning. And it turns out President Trump knew that republicans have planned this about a week ago. Lauren fox, thank you so much. Lets chew over all of this. And jackie, let me start with you. To a degree in the sense that this argument about process, that the democrats are holding these hearings behind closed doors is that not helping republicans stay unified in the house in terms of an argument for voters, it is an argument for House Republicans and there does seem to be a degree of unity. At least on the House Republican side. Yes. They could complain about the process because they cant get into the substance because the substance is in defensible and now weve seen when they had open hearings that they complain it is just a big show and a circus. So maybe well see that again. But they do we always would like to see process. Now republicans themselves had closed door Intelligence Briefings when they were in charge. This isnt unusual because some members feel like they get better answers and are able to put the showboating aside in a more open hearing. But of course we always have openness but there is a reason they do this and both sides do it. These are hearings with three committees in which democratic and republican members are there. And they shouldnt be call it democratic hearings, they are in the room and equal time to question and the counsel for each side is there and can ask questions an the republicans can report to their colleagues who are not on the committee and everything they said as they choose. So the idea that this is some secret thing, they are choosing to have closed hearings for a good reason because they dont want to hear what other people if they could have a hearing and not grandstanding but the notion this is democratic partisan and i think this was a big mistake. There are 20 republican congressmen on those committees and what does it say to them that these other guys storm in and pretend there is no representation. If there are any republicans left who care about the dignity of the house or any kind of not being a third world country, they have to be appalled by what happened today. And jen, you said people storming the skiff had electronic devices. Youre not allowed to bring even an apple watch with you. No. Youre not allowed to bring an apple watch and they ordered pizza. It became sort of this showboating type of event. Ill say this has a shelf life or Expiration Date this entire argument because there will be a public hearing and they are doing the hearings know and gathering information and there are republicans there but there will be a public piece and then they try to make the other argument. But this argument wont last for long. But more importantly, to use the correct term, they are not even hearings. They are depositions. Which are legal processes where you sit down with counsel and questioned by both sides and they are transcribed interviews. They are not even hearings and there will be public hearings. Taylor will testify and what you will have is a west point grad marine whatever pest point grad saying he thinks the president of the United States committed an impeachable offense. We dont know that he will say that. He will describe itself impeachable. In your view. In my view. And what do you make that john thune said today that the picture coming out of bill taylors testimony about a quid pro quo is not a good one. That is john thune. That is not a squishy republican, the number two republican in the senate from south dakota. He doesnt have to say anything that is not fully supportive of President Trump. But there is an honest assessment there. There is real nervousness on both of the Senate Republicans and the House Republicans. We saw that with mr. Rooney the other day. That they are not confident any more that it is quite as easy to excuse what the president has done as they once thought. And why is that . Well democrats and even some republicans say it was jawdropping. Well break down why bill taylors testimony could be the most significant part of the impeachment inquiry yet. Stay with us. So. How are you feeling . On a scale of one to five . One to five . Its more like five million. Theres everything from happy to extremely happy. Theres also angry. Im really angry clive actually, really angry. Thank you. But what if your business could understand what your customers are feeling. And then do something about it. Turn problems into opportunities. Thanks drone. Customers into fanatics change the whole experience. Alright who wants to go again . I do i do i have a really good feeling about this. With your dna results from ancestry®. I was able to discover one cousin, reached out to him, met another 20 cousins. They took me to the cliffs of moher, the ancestral home, the family bar. It really gives you a sense of connection to. Something thats bigger than yourself. Greater details. Richer stories. And now with health insights. 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But then juul, backed by big tobacco, wrote prop c to weaken ecigarette protections. The San Francisco chronicle reports prop c is an audacious overreach, threatening to overturn the ban on flavored products approved by voters. Prop c means more kids vaping. Thats a dangerous idea. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. Were back with our politics lead. The white house is assailing the career diplomats who served in republican and democratic administrations calling them radical unelected bureaucratic coordinating a smear attack wit