More americans are fighting just to hold on to what weve got because if incomes are growing, its not as fast as the cost of Prescription Drugs and saving for retirement, housing and education. And thats when the numbers on a page are looking good. Now that were starting to see a downturn coming out of the manufacturing sector, it just demonstrates how out of touch the president is and how destructive his policies have been. Hes managed to hang on, tack on an extra couple years to the obama recovery. That might be good news, but now were in a very precarious position as an economy and as a country, especially in places like the industrial midwest. Mayor pete, thank you so much for joining us. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of south bend, indiana. Reminder, mayor pete is at the 2020 Gun Safety Forum in las vegas. The forum presented by march for our lives and giffords and moderated by our own craig melvin. Watch it streaming on nbc news now and msnbc. Com. See you back here at 3 00 p. M. Thanks for watching velshi ruhle. Ill see you at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Right now katy tur picks up coverage. Good evening im katy tur 11 00 a. M. Out west and 2 nm p washington where the president is telling americans that your lives, livelihoods and very freedom are at risk if he is impeached. In the past days the president s approval has plummeted and support for impeachment, even among republicans, has increase md ch the president has gotten even angrier on twitter and on camera. What will he say today in a moment when he appears alongside the president of finland . Theyre about to hold a News Conference. Will he repeat what hes been saying on twitter, quote, the do nothing democrats should be focussed on building up our country, not wasting everyones time and energy on b. S. Will he repeat what hes been saying in the oval office . Theyre the do nothing democrats. They dont do any work. All they want to do is try to win the election in 2020. So they come up with this impeachment nonsense and everyone knows, the
conversation all based on one phone call that i had where im talking to the president of ukraine. The whistleblower was so dishonest. The whistleblower said terrible things about the call, but he then i then found out he was secondhand and thirdhand. He didnt know what was on the hand. No, these are bad people. These are dishonest people. And when the American People find out what happened, its going to be a great day. By the way, thats only a small snippet of that conversation. The president went on for 16 minutes. While he was on that single shot sitting next to him the whole time was the president of finland. Oh to be a Fly On The Wall inside that mans brain. Earlier today, House Speaker nancy pelosi and chairman adam schiff ratcheted up the pressure. They say any attempt to stop Government Employees from testifying would, one, be considered another article of obstruction and, two, a confirmation. Well allow an adverse
infrempbs to be drawn as to the underlying facts that if they are going to prevent witnesses from coming forward to testify on the allegations in the whistleblower complaint, that will create an adverse inference that those allegations are, in fact, correct. There is a lot happening on this story today. Mike pompeo in rome this morning admitted that he was on that ukraine call. Andrea mitchell is with us and she has important context on that in just a moment. A Negotiating Team from the State Department is on capitol hill today. Will they allow dip mats to testify . And next hour the state Department Inspector general has scheduled an urgent briefing on the hill, but the subject is something we dont know at this time. There are so many questions, but our Big Question Today Is will the president s current behavior affect how americans feel about impeachment . Weve got an allstar team with us, joining me is andrea
mitchell, nbc news correspondent Geoff Bennett, New York Times White House Correspondent Michael Crowley, former Deputy Assistant secretary of state for east asia and Pacific Affairs Michael Fuchs and former House Intel Committee staffer mika o yang. Andrea i want to start with you first. The democrats are today making it clear that they want state Department Employees to testify. How is the state Department Going to respond . Well, the State Department has already responded with mike pompeos Vigorous Vetter and he repeated that today in rome at a News Conference saying that the state Department Employees have to the right to have an attorney from the State Department. The State Department counsel, that anyone from the House Committee has to go through procedures through the legislative Affairs Office at the State Department before talking to any officials. He accused the committee of bullying and trying to intimidate them. Not so, according to the
democrats. That is not the way the law is written. I interviewed senator chris murphy as did Rachel Maddow last night saying that the procedures are that, in fact the state Department Attorneys agency lawyers cannot be in the room for these secret depositions because that would be intimidating to the State Department officials. And weve heard a lot of complaints of the letter from pompeo then may have been what triggered the Inspector General from the State Department, urgently asking the House Committee to see him today. Do we know what thats about, andrea . We believe it is partly in response to the pompeo letter, and there is a report on reuters that has not been confirmed by us that he is also raising other issues where officials at the State Department, Career Diplomats and others may well have been intimidated and pressured not to cooperate on this investigation. Andrea then the other thing this morning mike pompeo admitted he was on the call. Over the weekend he was on with Martha Raddatz and feigned ignorance about the call. Give us more context about that. He feigned ignorance about the content last week with Martha Raddatz on abc as well as at a u. N. News conference with all the rest of us at the United Nations last week. So he was very careful katy to not, quote, lie but he was deceptive in omitting that he was not aware of it. Maybe a lie of omission. Well, exactly. Hes a lawyer. He was being very careful i think about his wording. But again at the News Conference today in rome he was asked very specifically by the pool reporter, by matt lee from the associated press, about that. It was matt lee who also asked them question in new york at the u. N. Last week he was about the whistleblower complaint and the call that he now acknowledges he was on after we all reported it. And he misstated mischaracterized the content of the conversation. We all know about it because it was put out by the white house. He said it was just a call about corruption in ukraine, not acknowledging the actual substance of that call. Michael, you worked at the State Department. When secretary clinton was head of the State Department, she testified for 11 hours on benghazi. What do you expect to see happen to mike pompeo and whether his staffers, the employees of the State Department, will have to sit in front of congress . Well, look, its entirely natural to negotiate with congress over timing and details of providing testimony and information. The letter that secretary pompeo has sent is not normal, as andrea was pointing out before, there are a number of Different Things that he is claiming as to why supposedly these officials cant testify and provide that
information, but that is not being done in good faith, as youre just talking about, obviously secretary pompeo has been on fis indicating if not lying for the last week plus about what he knows about this call with the president of ukraine and now well see maybe in the next hour or two but there are unconfirmed reports that the state Department Inspector general has been looking into allegations that secretary pompeo is trying to prevent some of the state Department Employees from providing information to congress. All of this, of course, is what adam schiff said earlier today could amount to obstruction of an Impeachment Inquiry. So secretary pompeo is trying to hide everything, it seems so far, but my bet is that he loses this game of chicken. You segued perfectly into my next question for Geoff Bennett. Democrats are saying contempt is not an option for them, theyll go straight to articles of Impeachment Ch explain. What it means is that House Democrats are basically putting the Trump Administration on notice. So theyre not going to roll the
dice anymore with the courts because sort of the quick pace, the schedule that they have in mind to wrap up this Impeachment Inquiry, doesnt allow for that really anymore. And so what you heard from adam schiff was something that he and the House Speaker have said before, any more stone walling, any more obstruction from this white house as they see it, theyre not going to answer that by saying well see you in court. Theyre going to answer that by saying were going to potentially draft a new article of impeachment which would be congressional obstruction. Today Chairman Schiff of the House Intelligence Committee went a step further at the top of the show, he said well make an adverse inference, basically meaning if you dont give us those documents you stone wall, were going to assume that the allegation of the underlying bad act is true. Were going to treat that as a confirmation. So well see how this place out as early as friday because you have the House Oversight committee in consultation with Foreign Affairs and intelligence. Theyve already put the white house on notice that theyre going to send a subpoena for the first time really subpoenaing
the white house specifically for documents related to this ukraine issue. And if the white house doesnt put up certainly i think youll see House Democrats use that as fodder for potentially another article of impeachment. Mika, today is a particularly good day to have you on as somebody who used to work for the intel committee. What can you tell us about this i. G. Briefing . So we know that there will be staff in the room. This is unusual it will be three different committees present. Usually its just one. This Inspector General thought this is something that crosses so many different committees and actually its more than just the three who sent the letter over. Whats shocking is how many potential issues this could be. We have no idea what it is, but it could be the zbim dags of state Department Employees. It could be the Trump Administration trying to hold back this arm sale to ukraine. It could be additional whistleblowers. It could be some of these other telephone calls. Any one of these things in a Previous Administration would have brought them down. And we have so many you lose track of how many things. Tell me about this particular
i. G. . So this particular i. G. Was appointed in the obama administration. Hes a career professional. Hes been in the job a long time. What were seeing, though, is across a number of different agencies the i. G. S stepping into their roles very seriously, taking their independence seriously and realizing they need to bring the concerns that the work force is bringing forward to congress. This is a real shift that we have seen just in the past few weeks of all these i. G. Complaints coming forward and Congress Really being able to do something about it. Its like the gears of our congressal System Locking into place. Thats right. Youre seeing people realizing, oh, the i. G. S are an effective way of bringing our concerns forward. Lets go to them. So all that frustration thats been building up inside the Executive Branch of these Career Professionals watching these terrible things happening are now saying, ahha, i can bring my concern to the i. G. The i. G. Will protect my identity and they will bring it forward. Stephen miller would call that the deep state, the president would call it a deep state, doesnt belief in the policies that the president is
implementing or might say, flag, i want to flag something, this is not normal they call those people the deep state. I call them the american government, right . You can call them the deep state. They have sworn an oath to protect the constitution, to put the nation ahead of their own percentage interests im not sure at this point that the president could say the same. Michael crowley, going over to the white house, we just saw him, the president , in that oval office spray with the president of finland. It seems like between that and what weve been watching on twitter that the wheels on the bus are coming off. Reporter yeah, even by this president s standards its been pretty intense today. Even before that session in the oval office as House Speaker nancy pelosi and the house Intelligence Democratic chairman adam schiff were speaking from the capital, President Trump was responding to them in realtime on twitter. Even as their Press Conference was going on, the president was basically attacking them and
including with one tweet which technically i think may have arrived after they were done speaking, in which he used profanity. And you know, then in the oval office spray, you know, use this kind of locker room phrase thats meant to be emasculating about men saying that adam schiff couldnt hold what the president called mike pompeos blank strap. We all assume he referred to a jock strap there and thats a common, crude insult. So, not very president ial. At this point thats not too surprising from this president , but it does seem that even by his own standards hes really angry. Hes really distracted. I would add one other point that has struck me in this conversation, think about what one of his key Talking Points was during the mueller investigation. President trump kept saying ive been so transparent. Im turning over all the Documents Mueller wants. He can talk to anybody on my staff. You know, he answered he didnt sit down for an interview but he did answer written
questions. He was very proud of the cooperation he said he had ginn mueller, even if it wasnt total and complete. What were seeing here is very different, so far it looks like its going to be stone waling. I think some of those words might be used against him. Why wouldnt you do with congress what you so willingly did with Robert Mueller when he was investigating Russian Election interference. Michael, whats it like behind the scenes at the white house . Im sorry whats the what . Whats it like behind the scenes a the white house . What are staffers saying . How are they feeling today . I think theyre still trying to figure out how to handle this. I think there are differences of opinions within the trump staff and his outside advisers as to how serious this is. Some people think, you know look, this could be a little worse than mueller. You might really be in trouble now. And i think there are people who feel like, you know, you survived Robert Mueller with the full force of the of all of his investigative powers, all those incredible prosecutors he had. Some of the evidence looked so damning and you came out on the other side with your approval
ratings basically in the same place, competitive in the 2020 election, you know, you can beat this one. But you know, as far as a Clear Strategy for dealing with this, its really just a oneman show at this point where President Trump goes out and gives us these performances like this and you kind of dont know where hes, what hes going to say, where hes going to go. It does feel at this point pretty improvised. So people are just kind of letting President Trump lead the fight at this point and try to kind of clean up the mess afterwards when he breaks china. Geoff, we asked at the top of this whether the president s behavior is going to change americans feelings about impeachment. I know thats almost impossible question to answer at this point, but what we have seen in just this past week alone is that the approval for an Impeachment Inquiry has risen. The approval for impeachment articles have risen as well. And that number, while larger among democrats and
independents, has also moved among republicans, 8 more republicans support impeachment today than did back in may. So, when you look at the way this is moving, it feels like tell me what youre seeing behind the scenes or hearing among lawmakers out there, it feels like were watching a train crash in motion and theres a person standing on the tracks and its unclear whether that person is going to be able to get out of the way in time, that person being donald trump. Yeah. The way he was able to do as Michael Crowley was just saying with the mueller investigation. Right. The only sort of modern parallel we have for this is bill clinton during the 90s when he had that very long Impeachment Process. And im told that his advisers told the president , clinton, not to talk about it in public. For the most part, he didnt. With President Trump, every other word, every other tweet is all consumed by this Impeachment Process and how, you know, he feels that hes the victim. Of course, his sort of special brand of politics is all about grievance politics, all act victimization. But to your point, no, it does not seem like hes doing himself any favors by the way he talks about it, by the rhetoric, the caustic rhetoric he uses against House Democrats who are doing oversight by the language he uses against the whistleblower. The reason why this all matters impeachment is a political remedy, it isnt a legal remedy. Both sides are trying to shake the court of public opinion, it doesnt seem to everyones point who has spoken so eloquently this hour, that the president and the way hes approaching it is doing himself any favors politically. Andrea, were about to see him stand alongside the president of finland one more time. A moment ago he was in that oval office meeting. He spoke for 16 minutes while the president of finland just sat there. I mean, again, i wonder what it was like in that mans brain as he was talking about impeachment and going after the democrats. We have another sound bite that i would like to play just to give the viewers a look at just how surreal things have gotten. I think a whistleblower should be protected. If the whistleblowers legitimate. But when the Whistleblower Makes a big report on the conversation i had with a president of ukraine, and it was a great conversation. We talked mostly about congratulations on your win. We talked about corruption and what really referring to mostly 2016 because what the democrats did in 2016 was corrupt. And lets see what happens. Theyre more concerned with that than they are with me and impeachment. Theyre trying to hide what maybe is coming. I let our great if you look, ill let our great Law Enforcement take care of it, okay . Attorney general barr, i guess is working on it. Andrea mitchell, what are our
allies thinking right now . Well, you had to think that the finnish president and we heard this from other leaders there have been other Oval Office Moments where the president has gone off in front of next to a foreign leader. This one was a little bit worse and cruder, lets say, as he attacked shifty schiff and lowlife schiff. Pelosi in contrast, Geoff Bennett was there, was talking we have to be prayerful, we have to be serious. She is very much trying to avoid looking as adversarial as institutionally they are right now. I was there 20 years ago, Geoff Bennett is describing accurately what happened. Bill clinton was very disciplined in the aftermath certainly in defending and they had a war room set up and they did a lot of legislation. They worked with congress. But he did not talk about it. He had the added element in that his impeachment was about a sexual affair involving someone not the first lady so he had the domestic troubles that were very, very clear to all of us who were covering the white house at the time and covering the administration at the time. But they got things done. It didnt stop everything else. But in contrast, this president was at the u. N. Last week and every time he walked past a camera he would stop and talk about the bidens, not about what he wanted to accomplish with north korea, iran or Coalition Building and youre seeing it again today. Geoff, he tweeted that he wants to get infrastructure, health care et cetera done, but we havent heard him talk about it. Hes mentioned it in passing op twitter. What we saw this morning with nancy pelosi was that she very she came in and spoke in the first part of that News Conference about the legislative accomplishments that they are trying to get done and she tried to keep reporters focussed on
those for at least the first portion of that News Conference. That seems strategic. Uhhuh. Well, certainly. I mean, she had all the Cable Networks were taking that Press Conference, so the message that she wanted to send was about the many ways in which she says the Democratic Caucus has moved on these issues they care a lot about, lowering Prescription Drug costs, trying to pass some common sense gun safety measures, looking at the infrastructure, in all these different ways the House Speaker i asked her directly she views the legislative work theyre doing and the Impeachment Inquiry as two discreet, separate things. So she says that the white house should be able to meet democrats halfway on these issues. You asked whether the white house would. Does she actually expect the white house to work with her on any of these issues . Realistically probably not. In fact, i asked her about the Gun Legislation because before we entered into this whole impeachment question, we were expecting to get something of a
gun package, Gun Legislation package from this white house. That is what President Trump promised both democratic and republican senators. That legislation, that package never materialized. So i asked the House Speaker since we hadnt heard anything in the press, had she heard anything and her answer was no. Mieke, can you bring us behind the scenes a bit in the intel committee. Im curious, do they feel like they have lightning in a bottle right now and that they have to move quickly on this . I think that they feel an urgency on the issue. Right . This is a very different kind of allegation than the committees used to getting. In all my time on the committee, we never received a single complaint that would have implicated the behavior of the president of the United States especially in the conduct of Foreign Affairs with a country that is so literally under the gun from the russians. So, i think that they see this issue as a very different kind of issue than the issues we have seen with the president before. So i think that they recognize that this is something they have to pursue and schiff knows how
to do that. I think what youre seeing here is that the president is taking leverage in the Foreign Policy space and using it to his own political ends. And if the president is permitted to do this, if hes permitted to put the lives of the ukrainians on the line, permitted to allow russia to go unchecked in its efforts to come into ukraine and all in the service of his political ambitions, then weve lost the sense of who we are as a nation and we really are about one man and thats the whole founding of this country was to say we are not about one man. We were not about the king. We are about all of us. We are democracy. I think that this is goes to the very heart of who we are as a nation. Michael, can you jump in on that, the National Security issue . Some out there might question why is this phone call with ukraine something that affects National Security. They might roll their eyes on that. In fact, i know one person who emails me quite often who says who laughs at the idea that this is a National Security issue. Yeah, absolutely. I think mieke is exactly right. This goes to the heart of what National Security saul about for twoplus years we have been watching President Trump act in a number of ways that are hurtful to american National Security, his conflicts of interests with his private companies and business and potentially creating problems, but what we saw in that transcript that the white house released there was all of it stated in Black And White that the president was putting on the line an essential u. S. National security interest in order to get help from a foreign power with his own political opponents and trying to smear them. And lets remember also, just in the last week plus or so, more has come out about this now as well, not just about him using his leverage with ukraine for his own personal gain, but also what he and attorney general bill barr may have been doing in trying to get allies from australia to the united kingdom, to italy and potentially others in trying to smear the origins of the mueller investigation. So he is clearly using the
apparatus, the power of the u. S. Government for his own personal, political gain. The question i have now is especially as we learned about all of these president ial Call Transcripts that may be severely restricted or hidden by the white house, what else is out there . What other conversations is the president of the United States having or has had over the last two years where he might have done something similar . Michael, going to interrupt you there. The president of the United States is coming out with the president of finland. This is their joint News Conference. Lets take a listen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Look at all the press that you attract. Do you believe this . Thats very impressive. They are not after me. I hope not. Youre lucky. Thank you very much. Today its my honor to welcome the president of finland to the
white house. Its wonder to host you in washington. Weve gotten to know each other over the last period of time and its been a great experience. The president and i have just concluded very productive discussions on a number of exciting opportunities for our two nations. Before going further, i want to express our deep condolences over the horrific Stabbing Attack that took place yesterday at a college in finland. Thank you. America is praying for the victims and their fam lits and we send our unwavering love and support. Thank you. The american and finnish people are linked by an abiding commitment to self government, individual rights, democracy and the rule of law. This past may, our country celebrated the 100th Anniversary of americas recognition of the independent nation of finland in 1919. As President Wilson wrote at the time, our recognition was
prompted by the sympathies for a cause similar to that which caused our own Declaration Of Independence in 1776. Century after we established diplomatic relations the United States and finland remain united by those same cherish values. Central is matters of security and defense, although finland is not a member of nato save a lot of money finland participates in many Nato Missions and exercises and im pleased that finland is substantially increasing its military budget. America and finland are Working Together to advance freedom of navigation, stability and respect for National Sovereignty in the arctic. Both of our nations are committed to a secure arctic region, free from external intrusion, interference and coerci coercion. Simply put, we believe the
affairs of the arctic should be governed by the actual nations of the arctic and as you know there are other people coming into the arctic and we dont like it. And we cant let it happen. And we wont let it happen. The United States and finland are like wise partnering to ensure the security of 5g networks. It is critical that we use safe and Trustworthy Technology providers, components and supply chains. We welcome the establishment of the oras Innovation Center in finland. Qualcomm has done a fantastic job with this. This Innovation Center will greatly expand american and finnish businesses and cooperation in 5g. Were also glad that the Finnish Company nokia, great company, a Global Leader in5g technology is developing its Cutting Edge Products at bell labs in new jersey. Across the United States, foreign directive investment
from finland totals over 10 billion. Each year finnish owned Companies Invest more than 120 million in research and development in america. And expand our exports by more than 1 billion. Just today, Finnish Nokia and tires opened a new Manufacturing Plant in dayton, tennessee. A 360 Million Investment that is creating hundreds of brand new, beautiful jobs for a great state, tennessee. We love tennessee. So, they made a wise choice. You never lose when you go to tennessee. I encourage other Finnish Companies to increase their investments in the United States. There has never been a better time to do business in the United States. We have taxed largest tax cuts and reform and also Regulation Cuts in the history of our country. We slashed business tax and were fueling job growth through our recordsetting campaign to
abolish all of those really terrible, unnecessary regulations. We have plenty of regulations but many of them we didnt need and we got rid of them. The American Economy is booming. Wages are rising. Incomes are soaring and unemployment has hit its lowest level in more than half a century. We want Finnish Companies to enjoy in extraordinary economic revival. So many countries are coming in. Its the hot place. We have the hottest economy in the world. And its the hot place to be. They all want to be here. The president and i are also working on a way to improve International Trade based on the principle of fairness and my favorite word reciprocity. I hope that finland, which now holds the rotating presidency of the eu council, will support our efforts to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement with the European Union. Were going to have to start
doing something with the European Union because they have not been treating this country right for many, many years. They know it. I tell them and they know it. Americas trade deficit with the eu has been averaging 160 billion a year for many, many years. Achieving more balance than robust trade flows would greatly benefit both finland and the United States. We also appreciate finlands Strong Partnership in Combatting Predatory Trade practices worldwide including the theft of intellectual property. From trade to security, from travel to commerce, we are immensely grateful for our close and deeply valued friendship with the people of finland. Great people. And were now working on a deal to sell a large number of airplanes, fighter jets hopefully to finland. See how that works out. But we make the greatest jets in the world. We make the greatest missiles and military equipment anywhere in the world. Nobody is even close. Mr. President , i want to thank you you again for visiting the white house. The history of our two nations
is a profound testament to the importance of our independence and resolve to defend it. I look forward to continuing to work alongside of you. As we safeguard our precious sovereignty and build a Bright Future of hope, harmony and peace for the american and finnish people and thank you very much for being with us at the white house and the oval office. We had a very special number of hours. Appreciate it very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you, mr. President. First of all, i will deliver your condolences. Please. To finnish people. They do appreciate that. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, before meeting, i had some spare time, so i visited a couple of museums here, museum of american history, museum of american
african history and museum of American Indian history. And i had the possibility of attending ceremony in arlington. Mr. President , you have here great democracy. Keep it going on. We were we had a very good discussion with president. Like you mentioned, our diplomatic relations are 100 years old. During that time, we have developed our cooperation a lot, not only in official meetings like this but american and finnish people, scientists, for example, meet each other cooperating, Working Together. We have quite a lot of cooperation in security sector
also in defense because i think that we have a feeling that the most important thing for the nation is to guarantee security to its citizens. And that is the starting point for finland also to this cooperation. I want to take up with the president the importance of transatlantic cooperation. Well, we all know europe needs usa. But i say usa needs also europe. We know the price of everything. We should recognize also the value of everything. We share the same values democracy, human rights, rulebased order and in that we are very similar. Europe has in a way awaken during the couple last years to understand also more about Security Part of view and i just want to tell you that in my opinion the stronger europe we have, the stronger partner you have. The arctic area, you know finland is in very north, is becoming more and more interesting like the president said. We both, alongside with six countries, form the arctic console. Were working heavily. There are surely possibilities like we have heard the maritime routes are being opened. Maybe there are also resources, but there are huge risks. One of them is that we should keep the low tension we are used to have there, and that is what we have been discussing, and i do appreciate the president s position to emphasize that it is not a place for military. But even greater challenge is the environment. And im very glad that we started to talk two years ago in this very house about black coal. It is not maybe the worst which causes climate problems, but it is everybody can understand that if black comes down to ice and snow, when the sun meets it, it melts down. And melting of sea ice in arctic
is very crucial. I used to say that if we lose the arctic, we lose the globe. We had a couple of words, very important ones, on arms control. We, some of us, remember the worst years of cold war in 1960s. There was no agreement at all, just cold war. We cant let the situation return no agreement at all about arms control. And that is why it is important to try to negotiate new agreements and to continue the new start agreement that would be a good new start for International Cooperation on
that. You, mr. President , referred to 5g. We are very proud to have the excellence of center of excellence of i. T. In helsinki. Usa has been very helpful in that. Very many countries are working there together to fight against the future nature of warfare. What comes to providers in that area, i am not very willing to point out any country or company. We are now maybe a bit late from usa in eu making risk assessment. It will be prepared in one, twoweeks time. And after that, we are in a
place that we have to choose the tools to protect us. Mr. President , i want to thank you very much for having the possibility of meeting you here. It is very valuable. I found our discussions very open, very interesting and keeping a lot to my little country. Thank you, sir. Before we take questions, something happened thats been been going on for many decades. We came to a conclusion. Can i ask Ambassador Pence to just come up for one second and explain the importance of what just took place, because this has been going on for many, many years. And this is Ambassador Pence, no relationship to our great vice president. Hard to believe. Nobody believes that, but thats true. I have been introduced as his
father, brother, cousin, his uncle. We are friends. Good afternoon. When i arrived in helsinki about a year and a half ago, there was a stack of papers on the desk, one of a couple of which concerned Indigenous People from the southwestern United States, arizona, colorado, including probably most predominantly but generically ill refer to them hope indians. In 1985 a lot of their remains had been excavated and removed along with 500 artifacts to finland. There they remained despite a lot of activity to get them back. And ill just jump to the end and say through the good offices of our State Department but in particular president niinisto and his entire team, weve
secured a mutual agreement whereby all of those remains, including a number of petrified bodies will be going back to to be put back where they were buried. So, special to us and i think its probably special to Indigenous Peoples everywhere around the globe that were all concerned about paying appropriate respect to those who have departed before us. So, thank you. Both of the president s for supporting this. Thank you, fantastic. Be careful. Thank you. Thats a great job, mr. Ambassador. Thats been going on for many, many decades. So, i just want to thank you. Outstanding. John roberts. Mr. President , thank you. President niinisto. I have two questions. I can ask them separately. The three House Committees that are looking into the Impeachment Inquiry gave notice today that they will be sending a subpoena to the white house for documents and other materials. Will you cooperate with those subpoenas . Well, i always cooperate. This is a hoax. This is the greatest hoax. This is just a continuation of whats been playing out, john, for the last since my election, i would say. If you want probably well find out soon, but probably even before my election. This is a fraudulent crime on the American People, but well Work Together with shifty schiff and pelosi and all of them and well see what happens because we did absolutely i had a great call with the president of ukraine. It was 100 . You have the transcript. And then schiff went up and got as the chairman of the committee got up and related a call that didnt take place. Hard to believe nobody has seen this. He had some kind of a mental
breakdown. But he went up to the microphone and he read a statement from the president of the United States as if i were on the call because what happened is when he looked at the sheet, which was an exact transcript of my call done by very talented people that do this, exact, word for word, he said, wow. He didnt do anything wrong. So he made it up. He went up to a microphone and in front of the American People and in congress he went out and he gave a whole presentation of words that the president of the United States never said. It has to be a criminal act. It has to be. And he should resign. And some people even say it was treason. But, it was a very sad thing. Just so you know, the call was perfect. The real call. The call i head. Many people were on the line. I knew that because usually when i speak to foreign Country Leaders you can name any one of them but when i speak on the phone i know that we have many people listening from various
intelligence agencies. My knowledge, i know all about it. And so this isnt something like, oh gee im on the line, lets talk about a big secret. This is many people on the line. I dont even know how many. Well find out, i guess. Many people, mike pompeo was on the line. Didnt say anything. Because they listen for both knowledge and for Security Reasons and for lots of reasons. But the president of ukraine at the United Nations the other day and previous to that he announced through his spokesperson said there was absolutely no pressure put on him. There was no quid pro quo at all. And if you look at this whistleblowers which i have a lot of respect for whistleblowers but only when theyre real, his report of the phone call was totally different than the fact. But what got them was they never thought i was going to release the call because i dont like doing that. I dont want dr i hope i dont have to do it again, release phone calls to foreign
dignitaries to foreign leaders. I dont want to do that, john. I dont want to do it again. But i did it with the permission of the ukrainian government. We got permission. We called up their representatives and asked them would it be okay. Otherwise i couldnt have done it. And if i wouldnt have done it, i would have been exposed to a lie because the whistleblower report didnt he say seven or eight times i said quid pro quo. In other words, youre going to do this or youre not going to get money. Now in all fairness, biden said it and hes on tape. In all fairness, you have at least four United States senators, democrats, that said it. And they said it a lot stronger than even schiff and his made up story said it. Obama when he was dealing with the president of russia, not putin, he said, hey, tell vladimir i can do a lot more after the election. You remember that . You didnt make a big deal of that. Everybody thought, oh, isnt
that cute . Isnt that cute . My talk and my response, Lindsey Graham said i never knew you were that nice. I cant believe you were that nice. He said that loud and clear. It was perfect. It was perfect. Not a thing wrong with it. To impeach a president over a fraud that was committed by other people that want to win an election in 2020, which they wont, is incredible. This is the greatest hoax now, its gone on for a long time. We had the mueller collusion delusion, okay. That went on for years. And thats finally done. No collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. It was a joke. And everyone knows it. And it was from the day one. Now, i get three days of peace and im walking into the United Nations, going to meet with the biggest leaders in the world, and i hear about the word impeachment. I said, what did i do now. And it was about a beautiful conversation that i had. And just remember this, the ukrainian new president a fine man, said i dont know what youre talking about. There was no pressure. And he said it a number of times. Okay, whats your second question . But you shouldnt be asking two questions. Well, youre going do me favor, ask one of the ,sir. Ask one of the finnish question. It sounds like it might be a good question. Let me see if i like the question. Go ahead. Maybe for the first time in three years ill have a good question and ill love it. There is a report that came out just before you and president niiitht met with a staff member of adam schiff i love that question. It shows that schiff is a fraud. I love that question. Thank you, john. Can i finish asking it . Yes. Nothing to finish. So, the whistleblower, according to this report, met with a member of adam schiffs staff. You got it right there. You know it. I hate to say its a New York Times. I cant believe they wrote it. Your response maybe theyre getting better. Your response to fakts that that happened and that schiff may have learned some of what the whistleblower knew i think its a scandal he knew before. I go a step further, i think he probably helped write it. Thats what the word is. And i think its i give a lot of respect for the New York Times for putting it out. Just happened as im walking up here they handed it to me. And i said to mike, i said, whoa. Thats something. Thats big stuff. Thats a big story. He knew long before and he helped write it, too. Its a scam. Its a scam. Just to finish on this, i appreciate it. I love that second question, by the way. Should have asked it first. But let me just tell you, the whole thing is a scam. The mueller deal was a scam. The Russian Collusion was a scam. You can ask putin, nobodys been
rougher on russia than donald trump. Okay . Now, with that being said it would be great to get along with russia, and we will get along with russia because its smart. But nobody has been tougher on russia than donald trump. Okay. Ask one, please. President niinisto, good to see you again. You had a conversation with President Trump about 5g and how nokia can fill in that space. You also met with chinese president xi during the summer in which you renewed the ties of friendship between the two nations. Do you believe that countries, particularly western countries that put huawei equipment in their 5g cores are at risk of National Security . Thank you. Like i told already in europe the situation is maybe a bit different from that here because the company you mentioned is inside europe, partly at least. What European Union is now doing
is making a risk assessment. Asking each country what kind of experience, what kind of what you have seen and what you have seen skpp found oand found. That will be finished in two weeks time, and after that we have to decide together in European Union which kind of tools we need to protect ourselves. You refer to my discussions with president xi. We didnt talk about 5g, and we all know nokia is a major factor in this area. They will answer for themselves. Thank you. Please pick somebody whos really nice, a nice person. I think theyre all nice in finland. Are there finish repo finn reporters . Just two. From ntv news finland, and i have one question for President Trump and one question for president niinisto. First, President Trump, how will this political storm affect the u. S. Foreign policy, especially its relationship with finland, and second, for president niinisto because this is the Biggest Issue here at the moment, i have to ask what kind of favors has mr. Trump asked from you . Or the other way around, you mean. What favors i asked. I think you mean the other way around. Both ways. Okay, so the political storm ive lived with it from the day i got elected. Ive done more this administration has done more than any administration in the history of this country in the first two and a half years. Im used to it. For me its like putting on a suit in the morning. People have said to me how does
he handle it . Rush limbaugh said i dont know of any man in america that could handle it. Sean hannity said the same things. Others have said the same thing. I dont know any man in america because its all a fraud, and because of that and because i know that im right and because im doing a great job for the American People, im very, very happy living the way im living. I thought that i would finish off the first term without the threat of people making false claims, but this one turned out to be incredible, all because they didnt know that i had a transcript done by very, very talented people, word for word, comma for comma, done by people that do it for a living. We had an exact transcript, and when we produced that transcript they died because you look at the whistleblower statement, and its vicious, vicious, and
that whistleblower theres no question in my mind that some bad things have gone on, and i think well get to the bottom of it. I think its going to be a total reversal, but ive lived with this. Ive lived with this cloud now for almost three years, more than that because it probably started even before, and i think nobody has done what ive done when you look at tax cuts and Regulation Cuts and rebuilding our military and right to try, right to try. That means people that are terminally ill and very sick have the right to use our medicines, our great medicines because were so far ahead of every other country. So many things that weve done, our vets are now taken care of. We got choice. Nobody thought we could ever get choice. Thats when you have to wait in line as a vet. You go outside, you get a doctor, we pay the bill. You dont have to wait for three weeks to see a doctor if youre a vet. We cherish our vets, at least this administration does, but for many years they didnt. I take care of the vets. No administration has done and ive lived with it from the day i got elected, so im just fine with it, okay . Yes, we had a conversation and discussion on a very equal basis, which is i really appreciate that. I had one request specifically. I wanted the president to take more notice on Transatlantic Relations because i consider its useful both for usa and europe. While we were discussing also trading, i told the president that the big purchase we are doing on fighters will be finished in two years time. We have five different candidates, three from europe and two are from United States. He answered that always his best. Jeff, go ahead. Thank you, sir. Jeff mason from reuters. Mr. President , id like to ask you about your use of the word treason. You used it repeatedly in the last few days. Do you consider anyone who opposes you treasonous . No, i consider when they lie, when they stand before our great body in our Great Chamber and they make up a story thats fiction like schiff did. He took that perfect conversation i had with the ukrainian president and he made it into a total lie. It was a total fabrication, and you do admit that. It was a total fabrication. He said this is what and the only ones that dont like my conversation are the ones that never read it but they heard shifty schiff. Thats what i call a lie, and
because of the fact that hes lying about the president of the United States as to what the president says. Believe it or not, i watch my words very carefully. There are those that think im a very stable genius, okay . I watch my words very, very closely and to have somebody get up and to totally fabricate a conversation that i had with another leader and make it sound so bad, it was so evil, and now i see this that just came out minutes ago where he met at a time that was impossible to have done it unless theres corruption involved, and just so you know, weve been investigating on a personal basis through rudy and others, lawyers, corruption in the 2016 election. Weve been investigating corruption because i probably will, i was going to definitely, but i probably will be bringing a lot of litigation against a lot of people having to do with
the corrupt investigation, having to do with the 2016 election. For example . And i have every right to do that because the way theyve treated me and other people, theyve destroyed people. Theyve destroyed their lives with a phony charge that never existed, and that was collusion, never existed, and you had 18 people that hated donald trump, and you had bob mueller that hated donald trump, and in the end, they couldnt find one damn thing. I could find it on you. They couldnt find one thing about donald trump having to do with collusion. This is after two years and spending 42 million, and ive been looking at that long and hard for a long period of time, how it started, why it started, it should never happen to another president ever, but ive been talking about it from the standpoint of bringing a major lawsuit, and ive been talking about it for a long time. Weve been investigating the corruption having to do with what they did to my people. They destroyed many people. They came down to washington to do a great job, and they left
home. They left washington dark. They were dark. They came down here i say bright eyed and bushy tailed. They wanted to do a great job for the people. They wanted to do a great job. We won the leelection, and then they get served with subpoenas, all these subpoenas. Now look at nancy pelosi. Nancy pelosi hands out subpoenas like, you know, she has to approve it. She hands out subpoenas like theyre cookies. You want a subpoena . Here you go, take them like theyre cookies. Paul ryan would never give anybody a subpoena. He wouldnt give them when mark meadows went in to talk, when jim jordan went in, when devin nunes, im not saying wrong or right, but paul ryan, no, lets talk about it. Thats a big thing to give a subpoena. Lets talk about it, two weeks later theyre still talking. They wanted subpoenas to investigate the corrupt democrats, and the corrupt
people on the other side. Paul ryan would not give subpoenas. Nancy pelosi, here you go. Take it. Who wants a subpoena . Every day you get subpoenas, and paul ryan was actually right probably because they should never ever allow a thing like this to happen to our country again. Thank you very much, please. Mr. President , can you just make clear right here what do you or what did you want president zelensky to do with regard to joe and hunter biden . If you look at what he said, okay, and he brought it up. I think he brought up the name rudy giuliani, what i want is the following, and ive said this loud and clear. We have our ambassadors here. We have mike pence here. Why are we the only ones that give the big money to the ukraine . We give money to ukraine, and its bothered me from day one. You have plenty of people just here, i say how come its always
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