Good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york, day 985 of the trump administration. Here is our president from just tonight. And we, quote, as i learn more and more each day, i come to the conclusion what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a coup intended to take away the power of the people, their vote, their freedoms, their second amendment, religion, and godgiven rights as a citizen of the United States of america. It appears the ukraine story has broken through and is causing some real early damage. The second note came tonight from the Associated Press following up on the president s comments there by reminding its rewards, quote, a coup is usually defined as a sudden violent and illegal seizure of government power. The impeachment process is laid out in the u. S. Constitution. Be that as it may, and undeterred by definition, its something our president invokes regularly. This was an attempted coup. An attempted coup or takedown of the president of the United States. Really its a coup. This was a coup. This was a coup. This was an attempted coup. They tried for a coup, didnt work out so well. Tonights coup warning from the president immediately followed an Important Development we cant get explained. The internal Inspector General at the state department, and that is ideally a person who is walled off from politics, has requested what they call a, quote, urgent briefing tomorrow with Congressional Committee staff from both parties. We know it relates to documents related to ukraine. This comes on the heels of our secretary of state mike pompeo accusing democrats in the house of attempting to, quote, intimidate, bully and treat improperly five current and former state Department Officials scheduled to be deposed by key Democratic Committee chairman leading the impeachment inquiry. Pompeos effort to stonewall may be collapsing. Former u. S. Special envoy to ukraine kurt volker says he will testify in the houses impeachment inquiry on thursday two days from now. Former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine will also testify before house committees next week. House democrats also sent pompeo something of a warning saying that he is now a fact witness in the wake of these reports that he was on that phone call, july 25th, with trump and the president of ukraine. Theyre saying hes conflicted because of that. Pompeo, who is traveling in italy was asked about these reports. Mr. Secretary, do you have any comment on reports youre on the july 25th call with president zelensky . And thats about the way that went. Tomorrow House Speaker pelosi will be joined by Committee Chairman adam schiff who for now has the lead in the impeachment investigation. One of the central figures in the inquiry, trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has hired his own lawyer to represent him as he now faces a subpoena for documents. Jon sale, former watergate prosecutor, assistant u. S. Attorney for southern florida is the man. Here is rudy from tonights appearance on fox news just within the past hour. I had a couple of talks with civil rights lawyers and constitutional lawyer today. Heres what they are recommending, we should bring a lawsuit on behalf of the president and several people in the administration, maybe even myself as a lawyer against the members of congress individually for violating constitutional rights, violating civil rights. Theyre doing extraordinary things. What that means that means. Here for our leadoff discussion on a tuesday night, carl hulce, chief washington correspondent for the new york times. Annie karni, White House Correspondent also with the new york times, also with us is jeremy bash, former chief of staff at cia and the pentagon, former chief counsel to the house intel committee. Carl, id like to begin with you. Theres a lot we dont know tonight beyond the headline that the state departments independent ig is going to come up there to the hill. Notably wanting to meet with senior staff from these select committees of both parties, but no members that i saw mentioned. This could by our reading cut both ways, carl. It could be someone saying slow way down, its going to take us a while to find everything you want, could be someone saying you wont believe what we found. Carl, whats your reporting, if any, on the content of that . I have been asking people about this. Youre right. We dont know exactly what it is, but it does seem like theres a little pushback from the bureaucracy a bit here. For the first thing you have some of the former Administration Officials agreeing to testify. Thats been a problem so far. The trump administrations been able to hold people back. Theyre going to go voluntarily testify. And the Inspector General everyone agrees this is an unusual request. That office is independent, so they seem to be rushing up there with something they think Congress Needs to know right away. There is a recess going on. And the other thing that the state department that we have to think about, i know that you said the secretary talked about the congress bullying and intimidating the officials over there, but some of those officials also feel like they have been bullied and intimidated by the trump administration, and i think some of them want to talk. So theres a lot going on here, brian. We dont know quite what it is, but events are accelerating really rapidly in this impeachment fight. Jeremy bash, about the people who want to talk, who wins in a battle between the secretary of state and subpoenas from the democrats . Well, i think what you have here are two career professionals, the ambassador to ukraine and ambassador volker, the special envoy to ukraine and former u. S. Ambassador to nato. And they in effect want to come forward now and explain, number one, that they did feel that in the case of ambassador because she was doing her job, but secondly, with respect to ambassador volker, he has laid out publicly by his perspective here, which is that he knew nothing of the president s effort to shake down president zelensky for dirt on manufactured dirt on joe biden. And he was trying to in effect make the white house offer a phone call in a meeting to president zelensky without putting on these crazy conditions such as the quid pro quo that the president demanded. So i think youre going to hear a lot from volker and thats a chapter thats unfolding. We can agree our discourse dies a little bit every day and that every day we read something new that is scary, especially those of us who have a few years on us and tend to love our democracy. With that in mind, what happens in the west wing when the president tosses out words like treason and coup . When it happens on twitter, nothing happens. And thats been the case for a long time. Not even in the Current Administration which is perhaps the one with the least guard rails in the west wing, but john kelly said very clearly, i dont read the tweets. That was his official position. So nothing has happened when he does that, especially not in the climate right now where they dont know internally who is in charge, who is in what lane when it comes to an impeachment response, and what the response should even look like. So theyre really all over the place internally. What is the outcome of that is that President Trump is doing what he could be expected to do, which is defend himself, go out and be his own spokesman. He talks more when he feels like no one else is talking for him, and thats what were seeing here. Jeremy bash, the protest phrase way, way back in chicago was the whole world is watching. And that remains true. When the world sees our attorney general on an overseas tour asking foreign governments what they know about u. S. Intels past efforts, when they see this interchange, what weve made public on ukraine, jeremy, what are they thinking . They think theres been a huge breakdown in the model the United States has stood for and we try to advance all over the world. The model we adhere to is a model of constitutional democracy, one where we dont have one party prosecute the other or one president prosecute a former or political rival or try to use the apparatus of the state or Intelligence Services or military aid to try to dig up dirt on a political rival and ensconce that person, the president in office. So i think countries look at us and say what has happened to america . What is going on . Why has america sunk to these depths . I think were going to have a lot of cleanup to do when this is all over by explaining to the world that, no, we havent changed, we still are america and we adhere to critical values. For the people looking ahead, for members of the resistance looking ahead hopefully to perhaps something that gets through the house of representatives and lands on the doorstep of mitch mcconnell, excuse me, you wrote in your book confirmation bias all about what has become of the modernday Supreme Court confirmation process. We all remember Merrick Garland and Mitch Mcconnells power over that nomination, yet youve just recently written that impeachment if and when it arrives on mcconnells doorstep in the well of the senate, may not face that same future. How is that . Right. So i have a story coming probably online today and in tomorrows paper saying the rules of the senate require the republicans to do something. Its very specific. Theyre going to have to take this up. Mitch mcconnell said this week we need to take this up, but he also said how much time we spend on it is another matter. As i did a lot of reporting on this the past few days, i think the republican strategy is they would get the articles of impeachment from the house and start a preceding but try to move pretty quickly to dismiss it. There ultimately would be a vote but probably not the kind of extended trial that we saw for president clinton. I think the democrats are going to say thats not enough, we want a fair trial, we want to really examine this. So theres going to be a fight over that. But hes not going to be able to what i call turning Merrick Garland into a verb, Merrick Garland the impeachment articles. Anni carney, you invoked the term guard rails ahead of a forthcoming book about this president and the border. They write, privately the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a waterfilled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators. They wanted wall electrified with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. Later he suggested they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. Thats not allowed either, they told him. Annie, its a serious topic but already social media is having a good old time wondering who from the white house called on a price check for snakes and alligators. But that aside, this goes to guard rails. Are guardrails still in place in that west wing . It does go to guardrails and the outcome of this story by my colleagues, michael sheer and julia davis, is that what resulted from this chaotic period where trump wanted to shut down the entire border was that Stephen Miller saw a huge opportunity to overhaul all the people who didnt agree with him at the dhs including Kirstjen Nielsen and people under her and replace them with loyalists who didnt stand in the president s way. The there is a few anecdotes how Kirstjen Nielsen would say thats not possible. And he simply just doesnt like more and more as he becomes settled in the role in the oval office, he doesnt seem to like being surrounded by people who tell him no. We saw john bolton leave. We see this across different issues. John bolton left. He was someone who pushed back strongly on north korea and other areas. And we see pompeo who mostly agrees with the president , goes along to get along, succeeding. So the moral of this story by julie and mike is the guardrails were taken down. But thats not the biggerpicture takeaway. Jeremy bash, im going to present you a quote from sean hannity. The Mueller Report was a dud, his testimony was an embarrassment. Lets for the sake of conversation say that hes right. Lets say that everything that has happened heretofore has fallen short of what the opposition has hoped for. Do you think when we look back at this period in the rear view mirror, jeremy, its going to have been a phone call however much the president describes as perfect is the kind of thing we can all understand. Weve seen it now in print that it was a phone call that started this latest round of unraveling. I think thats right, brian. Not only is it understandable, but if you think about the conduct is much more concerning than whatever conduct applied to the 2016 election. First of all, donald trump is now president. At that time obviously he was a candidate. Hes now president. So in soliciting a foreign leader for interference in the United States election, hes using the office of the presidency. Hes using the full force and weight of the United States of america to obtain that illicit outcome. Thats significantly different than 2016. Also in 2016 you could argue, oh, his son who doesnt know much or it was a bunch of Campaign Aides who dont know much. In this case its the president himself and theres no way around it. Its his own conduct at the end of the day thats going to be subject of scrutiny on capitol hill. Carl, you know your way around the hill. Let me give you three names. Portman, blunt, collins. When do you think will it be in our lifetime any one of those three republican senators says something negative in the context of this ukraine story about the president . Well, i think Susan Collins will be interesting to watch. If it gets to a vote, i mean, it would be in her nature to vote to have a full proceeding. The republicans just have not wanted to take on the president. I think people overestimate a little bit how much that they dont like the president. You hear all this talk behind closed doors. Im not sure that thats as strong as it is, and they really think the democrats are overreaching here, but i think if some new material comes out, if more damaging information comes out, you would see some people breaking. But we are nowhere close to that right now. Annie karni, give me 30 seconds of brilliance. What is the proof in your beat that this story has perhaps broken through. The impeachment story is that, well, that first of all, theres different versions of what there is to do here. We see pompeos trying to stonewall congress, which is a continuation of the strategy the white house has had since the mueller investigation, not to give up witnesses or papers. On the other hand from the white house we see them going to Great Lengths to put out the transcript or the partial transcript of the call between zelensky and trump immediately saying that this would exonerate him. I guess they thought that it would be perceived as more detrimental to them if they looked like they were stonewalling but if they werent. So the question is Going Forward what are they going to see as more damaging to them, trying to look transparent or stonewalling . Which one do they think is more damaging to them . Its two options that are both from a position of being defensive. Part of the world we live in in 2019. Carl, annie, jeremy bash, thank you for helping us out tonight. Another poll shows American Opinion is on the move and quickly on one of the most consequential issues of our time. Whether 24 president should be tried for high crimes. Two reporters will be with us to break down the numbers. Later as the president talks coups and civil war, well talk to the man on the book on how to safeguard our democracy as the 11th hour is just Getting Started on this tuesday night. New polling released today Shows Growing support for impeaching the president. Monmouth University Poll shows 44 think should be impeached and removed from office compared to 35 just last month. Remember, last nights cnn poll showed the number shifted ten points in just days. And yet Washington Post reports the white house has not set up a war room of any kind to coordinate its response to the impeachment inquiry. Post reports some republicans pushed the white house to offer more guidance to its defenders by standing up a centralized, organized response effort. Back with us tonight, sam stein, politics editor for the daily beast, and tarini parti from the wall street journal. Good evening, gang, and welcome to you both. Sam, well start with you. I want to ask you the same thing i asked jeremy bash. Is it going to turn out, do you think, the Mueller Report lands with a whimper and not a bang. Ditto, his testimony. Is it going to turn out that an understandable phone call and a much easier to tell story is going to make the difference . Well, its certainly more digestible politically for our democrats that i talked to. The idea of a president exerting influence on a foreign leader to investigate a domestic political rival is something that people can easily comprehend and understand it to be wrong as opposed to ten difficult to explain acts of potential obstruction and vague russian twitter handles messing with our election. So yeah, i think, you know, in the end this might be politically more potent than the Mueller Report. That said, i dont think you can take these things individually. The Mueller Report did lay the foundation for a lot of the momentum behind impeachment that built over the summer. If it werent for that, you know, we might not be in a place where a majority of the House Democrats sorry, the house itself is saying they favor an inquiry. I think this is built up on each other. Sam, a lot of people would argue that momentum was lost on the democrats who came back and kind of came up with this theory they had to tell the story all over again. Theres been consternation internally within House Democratic leadership and among members about how the party handled the Mueller Report episode. I mean, remember, i think back about it, just getting him to testify was tricky, getting the underlying evidence has proven tricky, they have still not gotten it. In the house judiciary committee, some of the hearings were either nonexistent or when they got people in there became theater, absurd theater at that. And so the consternation, the frustration that house leadership had was very apparent. And i think there is a bit of relief now that its moved over to the Intelligence Community sorry, the intelligence committee. And chairman adam schiff, who has run a tighter ship has been able to get documents that had been proven elusive to jerry nadler. The question to you goes back to the poll numbers i started with. You dont see often ten points in a week. Thats real movement. We dont know where the floor or ceiling is here, but when youre looking to attribute it to something, is it as good a theory as any that the ukraine story, a phone call is an easier story to tell and digest . I think there is some truth to that. And there is clear momentum, but if you look deeper in those poll numbers, youre seeing that the majority of the shift is coming from an increase in support among democrats and to a certain extent among independents. But if youre looking at republican poll numbers, the Republican Party is still pretty much standing by President Trump and were not really seeing Much Movement there. The president s approval numbers as well are pretty much the same and have not seen as Much Movement, so i think moving forward as this investigation continues, the thing to watch will be any sort of Movement Among those Republican Voters and, of course, also the president s approval rating. I also wanted to play this for you. This is a democratic member, freshman member of the house on foreign affairs. He said this on this network tonight. I sense fear more than bluster. Look, this is the rare congressional investigation in which we already know most of the facts. Before we even begin. Were filling in a few details about maybe the circumstances under which the aid was cut off to threaten the ukrainians presumably to cough up this dirt, but theyve admitted to the central fact that the president tried to extort election help from a foreign leader. We know this. So that is new jersey democratic congressman tom malinowski. Is his seeming confidence that they are starting to tell this story not in the letter a but closer to the letter lmnop, is that confidence founded, do you think . I think when democrats have to be careful of here is to make sure theyre not sounding too confident and too political. I think were hearing that from some of the more moderate democrats in those swing states really being careful in how they approach this. The way theyre talking about it is that this is an inquiry, this is an investigation, were going to see, you know, where the facts lead us, seeing similar language from Speaker Pelosi and the people leading the democratic Congressional Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee, people on those fronts are being more cautious. Both of our guests have agreed to stay with us. Coming up, with Everything Else going on, a public attempt to keep an important discussion going at the same time because it affects every american family. Well talk about it coming back. Today marks two years since the mass shooting at that Music Festival in las vegas that left 58 people dead. It left hundreds more wounded. Lets be more specific. It was a fullon massacre, a disturbed gunman with an arsenal firing from a Highrise Hotel in the dark. The victims didnt have a chance. Tomorrow this network will moderate and live stream a Gun Safety Forum in las vegas with the 2020 democratic president ial candidates. Latest polling out of nevada shows joe biden tied with Bernie Sanders at 22 , followed by Elizabeth Warren at 18 , and so on. New poll out of South Carolina showing biden leading big at 37 followed by warren at 17 , sanders at 8 and it drops off a cliff after that. Most important number in that poll just might be 52 , the percentage of voters who say they are open to changing their mind. Still with us, sam stein and tarini parti. Sam, its on us if we ever left the topic of gun violence fade into the background. One of the few, sadly, anticipatable things i can say to you is we are days away from the next act of mass gun violence in this country. Its just become that, sadly, predictable. The candidates are banging around on the road trying to break out of the numbers theyre in. Do the democrats see a way forward on this issue that advances the debate, gets us closer perhaps to legislation, and helps winnow down the field of democrats . The short answer is no. Legislatively everyone is just sort of waiting and waiting to see what President Trump will support. If you remember it was a couple weeks ago that he gave an indication to three critical senators that an endorsement of some sort of magnitude was coming in 48 hours, obviously never came, and were left to sort of pick up parcels about whats happening, including random conversations hes having with officials at the nra. Brian, youre absolutely right, this is an epidemic thats not going away. It is on us as reporters to make sure that people understand that its not forgotten. All i can say is that, you know, theres this horrible, horrifying routine that happens in newsrooms across the country where we just wait for the next instance to happen. And then we go about what has become a hardened editorial routine of covering mass shootings. This is the world in which we live in here in america, and theres no indication whatsoever that its going to change until we get an indication about what President Trump would be comfortable doing politically. Tarini, let me turn the corner into pure politics and specifically lets talk about the biden campaign. How do you think theyre viewing their place in the polls these days . And can everyone agree that because theyre in the news every day in an ancillary way because of ukraine, are they guilty of not appropriately telling their part in the ukraine story in a simple, digestible form . I think as far as poll numbers are concerned, joe biden has still been able to maintain somewhat of a lead and frontrunner status, although were seeing senator Elizabeth Warren really creep up in some of those polls now starting to overtake biden. It will be interesting to see as this ukraine story unfolds, as we see House Democrats continue to investigate this, plus President Trump now advertising his campaign, putting money behind this effort to show that try to show that Vice President biden did something, you know, may have done something wrong, although we have no evidence of that. As this keeps going on into this national conversation, does that change his numbers at all . At this point were not seeing any evidence of that, just senator warren rising in the polls, but itll be interesting to see if those ads really make any difference in those numbers. Sam, bernie had a good quarter in terms of fundraising dollars, so did mayor pete. To what end . It depends. For bernie the numbers were great. It shows that he has sustainability regardless of where he is at the polls, he will have a fountain of cash coming in in small increments that will allow him to campaign pretty much as long as he wants to. Obviously that becomes a little bit more complicated if he doesnt do well in iowa and new hampshire, but the Financial Support is there. For mayor pete, its a great number two, but its a dropoff from the last quarter. You know, he has not been stagnant in the polls, but his ability to get fundraising, to bring in money, does allow him to stay in the race, run ads and see if he can jump up the numbers a little bit. Neither of these candidates have had a particularly impressive quarter when it comes to their electoral positioning, but theyre still in the game. A lot out to cover. Thank you for helping us cover it. Sam stein, tarini parti, appreciate you both being with us tonight. With loose talking of hunting down whistleblowers, treason, civil war thrown in for good measure, our next guest wrote a book full of handy warning signs of approaching tyranny. So well ask him what it is we are witnessing. You got a minute . I need your help. You see, one out of six vehicles have been recalled because of dangerous takata airbags. One of them could be yours. Defective airbag parts can explode causing serious injury, even death. Go to safeairbags. Com and see if your vehicle is on the recall list. And if it is, get it fixed for free. It could save your life. The president tonight took to social media to call the impeachment inquiry a coup. He told his followers theyre coming after your guns, your religion, your military, your rights as a citizen. This morning he demanded to interview and learn everything about the socalled whistleblower. Just for claritys sake here, whistleblowers by definition are to be protected. Over the weekend there was this gem. If the democrats are successful in removing the president from office, which they will never be, it will cause a civilwarlike fracture. Then there was this last week captured on camera at the United Nations obtained by bloomberg news. I want to know whos the person that gave the whistleblower. Whos the person that give the whistleblower the information, because thats close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, right, with spies and treason. We used to handle it differently than we do now. With us tonight to talk about it, professor Timothy Snyder of Yale University. Professor snyder was a marshall scholar educated at oxford. He happens to be the author of two books of note in this area, on tyranny twenty lessons from the twentieth century, and the road to unfreedom russia, europe, america. Professor, welcome back to the broadcast. Thank you for coming in. I want to read you some of the work tonight of our friends, robert costa and Philip Rucker at the Washington Post. As the impeachment drama has unfolded, a series of disclosures has illuminated President Trumps command revealing how hes compelled them to pursue his personal and political goals, investigate his enemies, and lend legitimacy to his theories about the 2016 election. Trumps moves underscore his transformation as president. He arrived in washington a neophyte, uncertain how to operate the machinery of government, but now in his third year, trump has grown confident about exercising power, disposing of aides, and elevating those who prove their loyalty by following his orders. Professor, what in there speaks to your thesis . There are two fundamental issues here. The first is the president of the United States is supposed to execute the laws. Its his job not to put himself above the law. Its his job to know what the law is and execute it. Thats fundamental. The second great danger here has to do with the facts and the truth. What we were seeing is someone who began his career as president of the United States by saying lots of things that were untrue. Now weve moved into a new phase where hes operationalizing untruths and making other people repeat them. He makes others around the world to spread a fictional version of what happened in 2016. This is familiar. This is what authoritarian rulers do. Its what you think and feel, its not the truth that matters. This is where a democracy starts to tilt into something else, which is rather scary. The book 1984 starts with the clock striking 13. How many times a day do you as a consumer of news and information see something, hear something that fits neatly into one of your 20 points in your book, on tyranny. Youre describing my entire experience of life, brian. Thats what life is like for me. Im a historian of when everything went wrong. You know that democracy usually fails and youre aware that people are vulnerable. You know how important institutions are. Thats why this week such an important week because this week is about the clash between institutions and personality, between law and someone who regards himself as above the law. Is it recoverable . Thats what most people want to know, patriotic, normal, everyday american citizens who dont feel like they chose a side in this. Is it recoverable . As i asked somebody sitting where you are this week, is it like the hackedoff arm of a starfish . Will it regenerate . Not on its own. Its a mistake to amount to everything was good in 2016. Its a mistake to imagine the institutions will just bounce back. Theyre only going to bounce back if we force them to bounce back. Its going to require good work. There are hopeful signs. Everything were talk about we know because of good work of journalists. If were going to come back, its because we know more rather than less about mr. Trump, because we have more rather than fewer investigations, its because we returned to a place where were not just repeating what the president says and contesting it, but know more about the world around us. So journalism is a place to recover. In china 70th anniversary of communist rule today, but we also saw in hong kong battles between the protesters and police, including video thats been making the rounds of a pointblank shooting of a protester by a police officer. Mitch mcconnell on social media took what used to be the traditional american position talking about human rights. I want to show you where what our president said on twitter today about the chinese 70th anniversary of the beginning of communist rule. If we have that. There we go. Congratulations to president xi and the Chinese People on the 70th anniversary of the peoples republic of china. Is that ignorance or by design . One of the hidden tragedies of the current scandal is the loss of americas super power status. When we become a country where no one knows what it is that we think, where were operating on the basis of fictions and where we praise dictators every day of the week, we lose the basis upon which our power used to rest. Thats how i understand this particular signal. If america is going to return to go back to your last question, it has to return to a principle, not a dictator that the president happens to like on a given day of the week. Ukraine like hong kong is at the front line of whether there will be human rights and democracy in the world. Its a weak country that needs our help. Its not a country we should be corrupting. Its a country we should be trying to help. Its become lost in the story, the military aid that was hung up was to protect them against the russians. A quick break here in our coverage. Our guest has agreed to stay with us. Coming up, more on how to defend our nation from coups, corruption, civil war, when we come back. Beyond the routine checkups. Beyond the notsoroutine cases. Comcast business is helping doctors provide care in whole new ways. All working with a new generation of technologies powered by our gigspeed network. Because beyond technology. There is human ingenuity. Every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected. To do the extraordinary. Take your business beyond. We are back, happy and fortunate that Yale University professor and author Timothy Snyder has agreed to stick with us. Professor, what do we have in common with the brits . That is to say, what does the america post2016 election and brexit have in common . Well, at least two things come to mind. The first is surprising. Its the english language. English used to be a source of strength. But in the age of the internet english can be a source of weakness. It used to mean that having english meant you could project out on the world. But now if all you know is english it means that everybody else can get to you. How . Thats the second part of the answer. Both brexit and the election of mr. Trump were things that moscow very much wanted and used its internet resources in order to get across. And of course theres the fundamental thing they have in common, which is that both mr. Trump and brexit tend to weaken the overarching Atlantic Alliance, which everyone used to take for granted. So in your book, again, the 20 tenets to look for, someone trying to enact tyranny would need accessories. They would need accomplices. So what then would those who are supporters of donald trump in the house and senate, what would their beef be with the postworld war ii Atlantic Alliance . Im a little puzzled by that one as well. And i think youre right that a lot of republicans in the house and senate have a certain amount of difficulty squaring mr. Trumps open admiration of mr. Putin, who of course wants to destroy nato and the european union, with their support for mr. Trump. I think thats a very tricky one. I guess one thing that has become less clear in the u. S. In the last few years, and i think thats the result of both the obama and the trump administrations, is just how fragile this order is. Weve become much more selfcentered and we tend to think that the worlds just going to go on the way that it was shaped. Thats clearly not true. The order that we helped to make is breaking all around us during the trump presidency. What are the pitfalls . This is a blatantly political question. What are the pitfalls for democrats as they pursue impeachment do you think in this current environment. I think the argument for impeachment has to also be an argument for a better america. The republicans speak about the deep state. The deep state in this country is called the constitution. The argument for impeachment has to not be negative. It has to be positive. We are the ones who are following the procedures of the constitution. We are the ones who are supporting the rule of law. And i think in a larger scale the pitfall for the democrats is to avoid thinking of impeachment as the only thing. Mr. Trump is a problem but hes also a symptom of deeper problems in the United States. In 2020 the democrats are not going to be able to go back to 2016. Theres nothing to be nostalgic about for 2016. What they have to be able to do is present a future, a future which is superior to what we have now, superior to 2016. The democrats have to be able to say not just were going to solve the problem of this individual. They have to be able to say were going to solve the problems of the country. We have an idea of how this country could be much, much better than it is now. Final question. Do you think the carpet bombing of facts and the release into the atmosphere of the notion of fake news combined along with admittedly a dense document to diminish the impact of the Mueller Report . I think the Mueller Report is a document of historic importance because it puts beyond any shadow of a doubt based upon accessible sources that there was a russian influence campaign, that the trump people knew about it and supported it at the time, and that later mr. Trump tried to obstruct investigations about it. I agree, however, that it could have been released in a way that would have made it more accessible and easier to digest. Nevertheless, as a historian i have to say it changes the historical record forever that thats out there and no amount of running around the world by attorney general barr is going to produce something which will counter the weight of that report. Ive said this before on this program. We first saw you and learned of your book on bill maher, and we are very fortunate to have done that and very fortunate to have you on regular occasions. Thank you very much, professor, for joining us. Pleasures mine. Thank you very much. Coming up for us, the ordinary americans who got together and then put together an extraordinary farewell. Well tell you this story when we come back. Last thing before we go tonight, we want to show you the overwhelming response to the passing of an army veteran who died with no known survivors. Its a story we get tonight from nbc news correspondent kevin tibbles. Reporter a military funeral today for an old soldier. But not a forgotten one. No comrade should ever be left behind. Reporter when 80yearold Edward Pearson passed in naples, florida, no family could be found. His obituary was brief. This veteran has no immediate family. All are welcome to attend. In the 1960s pearson was an Army Private First class. He lived alone in a hurricanebattered home. News of the solitary funeral quickly spread. His military family mobilized. All veterans should be honored every day. He will be remembered for now and ever more. Reporter some 1500 gathered, veterans and citizens from near and far. What a tribute. As it should be. Reporter as taps played, pfc Edward Pearson moved on with respect and dignity. Kevin tibbles, nbc news. You see why we thought that might be a good note to end on this evening. And so that is our broadcast for tonight. Thank you for being here with us. Good night from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Secretary of state mike pompeo and House Democrats are pushing back over impeachment, in requests to interview state Department Officials and three house chairmen argue pompeo has a conflict of interest. Plus, President Trump planning the impeachment inquiry by democrats as a coup against him. And johnson and johnson has reached a 20 million celtsment ahead of an opioid landmark trial set for later this month