Then the president s red sox to the kurdish debalker. How the most powerful woman in congress is standing up to the president. I think the president knows the argument that can be made against him and hes scared. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. One by one sometimes hour by hour the president s defenses just keep collapsing. Heres how things have gone as the president and his allies have tried to defend the indefensible. First they stake out a position and that position falls out from under their feet and they retreat a step. And then that position falls out from under their feet and so it goes over and over and over again. It started with that infamous phone call between trump and the ukrainian president where he asks for military assistance and trump responds, quote, i would like you to do us a favor, though. At first trump and company argued it was perfectly appropriate for a president to coerce a besieged foreign entity into investigating his rivals, as long as there was no quid pro quo, that was their line. And then came bill taylors testimony yesterday. He was the chief admission to ukraine. Ukraine would only get the desperately needed military aid if the ukrainians agreed to manufacture dirt on trumps political rival in a televised interview and provide ammo for the president s baseless Conspiracy Theory about the 2016 election. Now, to be sure, the quid pro quo was already fairly basically clear. Also all right there in the call text. But taylors testimony appeared to establish it more or less definitely. And trump effectively arguing this morning, okay, there may have been a quid pro quo, but it was a really incompetent one because we never told them we were withholding the aid, which is a defense i guess. Heres trumps tweet quoting what a republican congressman said on trump tv, quote, neither taylor or any of the witnesses provided testimony the ukrainians were aware military aid was being withheld. You cant have a quid pro quo with no quo. But it didnt take long for that to collapse either. Just a short time after that very tweet, the New York Times with an alert on your phone reporting that ukraine knew of the aid freeze by august. Which as the times notes, completely undermining trumps defense. There is is your quo. And by the way just a little while after that story came out the ap reported the ukrainian leader felt trump pressure before even taking office. The president of ukraine as an incoming president even hosted a meeting all the way back in may two weeks after being elected before he was even inaugurated president and the meeting focused on, quote, how to navigate the insistence from trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for a probe into the busy. A new quinn pock poll finds that support for the impeachment inquiry has reached a new high with 55 of the country, a clear majority, backing the inquiry. Nearly half of registered voters, 48 already say trump should be impeached and removed from office. And theres the situation in the senate. According to the daily beast trump has been privately whining Senate Republicans are, quote, failing to counterprogram the democratic impeachment inquiry. One senior republican aide told the three beast, quote, theyre not enthusiastic about defending the indefensible on this stuff. Just listen to what senator mcconnell had to say yesterday. The president has said you told him that his phone call with the ukrainian president was perfect and innocent. Do you believe that the president has handled this ukrainian situation perfectly . Weve not had any conversations on that subject . So he was lying about that . Youd have to ask him. To be sure trump still has republican sycophants in the house. Today in a truly pointless stunt seemingly to generate content for trump tv, they dont need to storm the proceedings because some were already inside and had been inside before. Because some were already allowed inside and had been inside before, but they apparently wanted to put on a show of obstructing the hearing. Trumped to be fully on board with obstructing the hearing. And bloomberg reporting, quote, the president had advance knowledge and supported the stunt. Republicans did manage to delay the proceedings with their high jinx but couldnt stop it. The constitution gives to the house and to the house alone the ability to impeach the president. Democrats control the house because they decisively defeated dozens of republicans in 2018, and democrats now represent a majority of americans in that body of our government. It is becoming more and more clear that republicans in and the white house view this as fundamentally illegitimate. Im joined now by democratic congressman Eric Swalwell who was in that impeachment hearing today. I dont want to talk about your colleagues. First i want to talk about what you learned today and yesterday. Did you actually were you able to get testimony today . Was it useful . And what was your reaction to what you heard yesterday . Good evening, chris. And thanks for asking that because that was the most important thing that happened. Was that ms. Cooper, a public servant, came forward. She was ready to testify at 10 00 in the morning and despite this stunt that you describe, she stuck around all day, and when she was asked to she raised her right hand, told the truth, gave us new information that is helpful, fills in our timeline and also helps us to understand who was involved and who was not involved in the shakedown scheme. Yesterday, as you noted, this in part motivated this effort by the republicans to obstruct. Ambassador taylor as you read in the Washington Post and i think that statement in the post shows indeed there was a shakedown scheme but it wasnt just a sharp straight down line to donald trump to giuliani you see it was also donald trump to ambassador sondland. You have donald trump with these directives trying to use your taxpayer dollars to extort the ukrainians for his personal benefit. Do you think what is your understanding of the argument your colleagues are making about this right now . They seem undecided between no quid pro quo, there was a quid pro quo or everything is fine. Yeah, so, one, it should be noted that we passed in 2018 in congress aid for the ukrainians and then a process was put in place for that aid to come to them. In many ways, aid is binary in that as soon as it is passed and signed into law by the president , the ukrainians are waiting for it and every second that ticks by that they dont have it, they know that they dont have it, to so that in and of itself is leverage. Thats a good point. Thats leverage. And we also are starting to learn about the human cost of not having that aid. Weve heard now from witnesses describe that this is a matter of life and death for ukrainians, and if americans are, you know, really offended and repulsed by whats happening with the slaughtering of the turks and the green light the president gave there, they should equally be concerned that the president was leveraging this aid and ukrainians could have benefitted from medical aid and defense aid and they were dying because it was being held up for his personal political gain. I want to play you something that the former attorney general of the United States, Matt Whitaker, although he served in an interim capacity and was challenged in court about whether he was actually attorney general. This is what he said yesterday in apparently i guess defending the president. A little hard to tell. Take a listen. Im a former prosecutor, and what i know is this is a perfect time for a preliminarily hearing where you would say show us your evidence. What evidence of a crime do you have . The constitution, sort of abuse of power is not a crime. Abuse of power is not a crime. What do you think of that defense . If he was in russia, if he was in china, if he was in some other countries that i dont think we want to look like, he may be right, it was a crime. I dont think any of us want to look at our children and say, i went to work today and decided that abuse of power is not a crime. Final question, what is the timeline here. There is some transparency argument that that some point this cant be behind closed doors. The american people, all of us, republicans, democrats, citizens and journalists have to hear whats happening. Youre absolutely right and there will be a public phase. And i want to address i think its a fair question. Why are you doing this initial phase underground . And first i should say, 120 members of congress have access to these hearings. Now, the overwhelming majority of my republican colleagues who come in in the morning and complain about the process, they leave and they dont stick around. I wish they would because they would be, i think, concerned about what they hear, but they have access to be there. That is nearly a fourth more than a fourth of the congress. But, chris, because no investigation was done by a special counsel, as in watergate, as in the clinton impeachment trial, attorney general barr punted on this, didnt want to investigate. Were going to do that first close hold investigation to see what the witnesses know. And we have evidence, chris, recent evidence in our investigation that witnesses are working together to try and coordinate their testimony. Right. Thats exactly what we want to prevent and thats why at this initial phase were having it in a close hold fashion. It will be public soon. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thanks for being with me tonight. My pleasure. Joining me now, former law professor joyce fans and former ambassador daniel freed who served as assistant secretary of state for european andure ans e affairs from 2005 to 2009. Ambassador freed, let me start with you. From your perch and from knowing many of the players involved, just your reaction to what has been laid over over the last few days, particularly in bill taylors testimony. Bill taylor is an old friend, and i found his testimony compelling and devastating. He lays out the circumstances under which the president of the United States abandoned his public duties for the sake of his private interests. Thats appalling and ive never seen anything like that. Let me follow up on that. I think theres an argument that they have tried to trot out which basically says, ah, come on, everyone does this. Everyones corrupt and quid pro quo quid pro quo is part of foreign policy, and, really uh, no. You dont buy that . No. I served in the clinton, bush, obama administrations at fairly senior levels. I never saw a president act in his private political interest ever. I went through i went through 9 11 in the white house. And the aftermath. And a lot of tough decisions made afterwards. And bill clinton grappling with the issue of european europe after the end of the cold war. They were acting in what they thought was the best interest of the country and they did not put their own partisan interests first. Joyce, theres a converging line i just played Matt Whitaker abuse of power is not a crime. The sort of fundamental view of this is ill legitimate by House Republicans who call it a coup and stormed in today. Trumps own lawyers in court today arguing against the manhattan d. A. Being able to subpoena tax records. Go so far as to say even if he shot someone on fifth avenue he cant be prosecuted or investigated. Were you as taken aback by that argument as apparently folks in the courtroom were . I listened to that entire argument this morning. It was about an hour of argument in front of the second circuit. And throughout the argument the position taken by trumps lawyers was really pretty astounding. Obviously this was sort of the peak moment, peak trump, right . I could kill somebody and you still cant investigate me, but the entire argument that they make is just reprehensible. It is that a sitting president cant be investigated or indicted no matter what he does by state or by federal prosecutors. And thats just inconsistent with any notion of having a rule of law country. This is the theme here. The inability to distinguish between the president s personal interests and the public interests, whats good for the country and whats good for him. Ambassador fried, the president appearing to call for a political test for for the career civil serve. He said this, it would be great if the Trump Administration could stop hiring never trumpers who are worse than the do nothing democrats. Nothing good will ever come of them. What do you think of the president sort of suggesting a political test or purge throughout the federal government . Its appalling to think that the president of the United States has so little understanding of the oath of office that we all take to defend the constitution. Our oath isnt to a political party, its not to the president , its to the constitution. Foreign service officers, and i was one for 40 years, serve abroad under sometimes pretty tough conditions. Sometimes they dont come home. A little respect for the people who serve the nation and a little decency would seem not too much to ask from the president of the United States. Joyce, the thru line here in both his conduct in ukraine and what were learning, the comments that ambassador fried is talking about, in the president s defense is that the nation is trump and trump is the nation. That seems to be the terrain on which this battle will be entirely fought. It is the train. The president has seemed to have so personified the country as his own personal interest that one shutters to think what the Founding Fathers would make of it. Trump is precisely what alexander hamilton, the remainder of the Founding Fathers, george washington, were concerned with. A president who might selfdeal. A president who might be subverted by foreign powers who didnt have the interests of the country at heart. This is why they created impeachment as an option. Next, Rudy Giuliani and a mob linked ukrainian oligarch. With giulianis indicted associates right in the middle. The chain of truly sketchy figures gets bigger as they go before a judge in two minutes. Go before a judge in two minutes. Hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. Only with xfinity xfi. Download the xfi app today. Today in the latest adventures of lev parnas and igor fruman. Remember, these are Rudy Giulianis two naturalized american citizens, soviet born Business Associates indicted two weeks ago. The two pleaded not guilty in a manhattan federal court. Theyve been charged with violating Campaign Finance law and conspireing to use foreign money to buy political influence in violation of the law. And i think its fair to say reports indicate they are somewhat sketchy dudes. They have been working closely with Rudy Giuliani, traveling all over the world with him trying to get the Ukrainian Government to basically manufacture dirt on the president s political rival, the subject of the impeachment inquiry. In fact, they were working so much with Rudy Giuliani that their lawyer even made the case they couldnt come and testify before congress because, and i quote here, parnas and fruman assisted mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump. Theyre part of trumps legal team. Well, today in court parnas lawyer said his association with Rudy Giuliani was so close, get this, the white house might invoke executive privilege. Now, parnas and fruman are accused of very serious crimes, crimes that relate directly to funneling russian money into american campaigns, including a protrump pac and trying to get rid of a u. S. Ambassador to ukraine. One of their portfolios, the work they did, that includes Rudy Giuliani. Reuters reports Rudy Giuliani was paid 500,000 by lev parnas company called, and i square to god this is true, fraud guarantee. Heres the thing about these gentlemen. They were up to a lot of other businesses. They were going to start a marijuana business in nevada and doing some other stuff. They were also working for someone else, and it is worthwhile to take a second to explain who that man is. His dame is dmitry firtas and it is a big deal. Controlling the flow of the natural gas is one of the ways how russia controls who has power in ukraine. Hes also tied to the russian mob, and i mean really tied to the russian mob. Remember bill taylor, the u. S. Chief admission to ukraine, revealing trumps quid pro quo. The Washington Post reports back in 2010 when taylor was ambassador to ukraine his first time around he wrote in an internal diplomatic cable saying firtas had acknowledged russian ties to a mob boss in a private meeting. The guy hes referring is known as the boss of bosses. The fbi says hes involved in weapons trafficking, murder and prostitution on a global scale. He has also been indicted in American Federal Court for bribery. Hes right now in vienna fighting extradition. If vienna sounds familiar, thats where Rudy Giuliani said his indicted associates parnas and fruman were heading before their arrest. Reuters, which has done excellent reporting on this subject, reports both men had been working for firtas for several months. We learned from the Washington Post after consulting lev parnas, firtas hired the new legal team over the summer. The husband and wife team that are on fox news all the time and at one point going to be trumps lawyers until they werent. These guys, parnas and fruman have overlapping gifts. They work for giuliani and stump for the president. One of their gigs. They work for two rightwing conservative media star lawyers who defend the president on tv, also being paid by a moblinked oligarch in court. That court case is a big deal. Federal prosecutors in chicago have been fighting for his extradition for years, and so get this, when lev parnas and igor fruman end up in federal custody nabbed in a d. C. Airport on an outbreound flight, we now know the prosecutors were l