Go and testify . And why do we go and testify . And the white house clearly believed and mike pompeo and the state department clearly believed, oh, well just tell people theyre not going and that will be enough. And faced with a youre not going versus a lawful congressional subpoena that you need to go, a lot of people particularly people who are not hyperpartisans who were just doing their job, are deciding this assertion from the white house is bullpucky, and ultimately that will be material in how the courts adjudicate whether not that instruction in from the white house means no anything in the face of a real subpoena. But watching david hale turn up today, colonel vindman, watching yovanovitch and now watching williams tomorrow, its a fascinating cast. Tc so theres an interesting passage in taylors deposition transcripts about exactly this, and its one of those things that the republicans really i focused on the republican testimony, rachel, the republican questioning because there isnt any. An its like theres just nothing there. E republicans dont release highlights of the deposition because there are no republican highlights of the depositions. One of the things that the Republican Committee council spent a great deal of time on ts was the question of a subpoena to ambassador taylor. And he clarified in there by the way, totally irrelevant, right . Like why use your time on that . Right. But for our purposes right now, he clarified that when ambassador taylor did get a subpoena, the state department did not say to him defy the subpoena. At that point the state department pulled back and na said just sort of pulled away from that. But before that they were saying dont go. But when they got the subpoena the state department goes hands off. He so thats one process that was revealed pretty clearly in that testimony. This is white house officials, dod officials, state department officials. Tomorrow were going to have s pa somebody a state department veteran who was detailed to the Vice President s office for the first time. Ve i mean, everybody has their equities here but ultimately everyones going to have to answer to their conscience too. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, rachel. Appreciate it. We have breaking news with i the headline trump wanted barr to hold a News Conference sayini the president broke no laws in call with ukrainian leader. Attorney general william barr decided not to hold that press conference. Also tonight, today was the first day of roger stones trial where prosecutors from robert da muellers team accused roger stone of committing crimes to protect donald trump. Well have more on both of those important stories later in this hour. But first tonight we are now one week away from the first public hearing in the impeachment investigation of president donald j. Trump. The acting ambassador to ukraine, William Taylor, will make history next wednesday as the first witness to testify publicly in what will become the fourth impeachment investigation of a president in american history. A transcript of ambassador taylors deposition to the impeachment inquiry was released today. It shows that ambassador taylor testified that he threatened to quit if President Trump te continued to withhold military aid to ukraine. Ambassador taylor said that the trump position was that the to president of ukraine would be um granted a white house meeting with the president of the United States, and ukraine would receive military assistance d mandated by congress only if ukraine helped the Trump Reelection Campaign by investigating joe biden. Chairman adam schiff pointed out that the Trump Administration fit the literal definition of quid pro quo. Chairman schiff said if they didnt do this, the investigations, they werent going to get that, the meeting and the military assistance. Ambassador taylor, that was my clear understanding. Security assistance money would not come until the president committed to pursue the investigation. Schiff, so if they dont do this, they are not going to get that was your understanding . Taylor, yes, sir. Schiff, are you aware quid pro quo literally means this for that . Ar taylor, i am. Congressman Tom Malinowski of new jersey asked, who was responsible for setting all of this into motion . Sp was it mr. Sondland, was it ambassador sondland . Taylor, i dont think so. I think the origin to get i president zelensky to say out loud hes going to investigate burisma in the 2016 election, i think the originator, the person who came up with that, was mr. Giuliani. Malinowski. And hes representing whose interests . Taylor, President Trump. He tried to get a meeting with President Trump to undue his blocking of aid ukraine but the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the cia director and the National Security adviser were never granted that meeting. A Donald Trumps resistance might not have been the only reason ru that that meeting was never scheduled. Theres also the general hectic pace of activity within the white house. Ambassador taylor suggested that one reason was another trump created distraction that was diverting white house attention from ukraine. Taylor, i think this was also about the time of the greenland question, about purchasing greenland, which took up a lot of energy in the National Security council. Schiff, okay, thats disturbing for a whole different reason. It was ambassador taylors testimony that first provoked mb questions of possible perjury in the testimony of Donald Trumps ambassador to the european im union, Gordon Sondland, who testified before ambassador taylor and claimed that he ie didnt recall any discussions with the white house on withholding Security Assistance from ukraine. Ambassador taylor quoted Gordon Sondland telling him exactly the opposite. Gordon sondland was then forced to change his under oath testimony by adding a written statement that was attached to the end of his deposition that was released yesterday. In that written statement Gordon Sondland said that reading accounts of ambassador taylors testimony and other witnesses testimony, public accounts of them had refreshed his memory. The William Taylor deposition transcript like all the other deposition transcripts released before it show that the republicans have nothing, no defense of donald trump. The Republican Council to the oversight committee, steve caster, asked most of the republican questions and William Taylors deposition, and he spent most of his time asking about a 2yearold politico article that ambassador taylor has never read. Congressman jim jordan jumped in a couple of times, no more than two minutes at a time. There was nothing aggressive in jim jordans questioning. It was not the jim jordan that you see on tv. Ji its not the jim jordan that we will see if he participates in the televised hearings where his mission will be to create as much of a distracting spectacle as possible. Jim jordan asked about a phone call. And the thing he wanted to know was whether ambassador taylor placed the phone call or received the phone call. That was it. That was a phone call of members of the National Security council. That was what jim jordan tried to accomplish. Ci ambassador taylor said that he thinks he initiated the phone call, but he couldnt be absolutely sure. That was all jim jordan had. Thats all he tried to do in that deposition was ask about who placed the call, who received the call. No republican in that room tried even the slightest attack on the ambassador taylor whos a west point graduate, a Vietnam Combat veteran and who has served in every president ial administration, republican and democrat, since ronald reagansr in next weeks televised hearings, republicans will not be fighting with ambassador taylor. His deposition transcript shows its impossible for republicans to try to do that. s but they will need to create a diversion in the hearing room to try to shift the attention from the devastating testimony about what donald trump had Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland were doing with ukraine. A so you can expect jim jordan if hes there will be yelling at democrats in that hearing. Yelling about the procedures being followed by the ab impeachment inquiry and complaining that they are somehow unfair. In republicans will be yelling, but the republicans will not be an yelling at ambassador William Taylor. They will be trying to distract from the power of his testimony as the impeachment process goes live on television for the first time. On wednesday of next week. Leading off our discussion tonight democratic congressman Gregory Meeks of new york. Hes a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee. He attended taylors deposition. And an msnbc National Security contributor. Former spokesman for the National Security council in the administration. He is an msnbc National Security contributor. And congressman meeks, you were in theco deposition so none of this news to you, but for us to finally see exactly what transpires in these depositions and i have to say for me, and i correct me if im wrong about this, but the striking thing about it is what i dont hear from republicans t what im read, this is the republicans chance. Theyve got William Taylor who has devastating evidence against donald trump and they did nothing. Did i miss something . You didnt miss anything. What they saw and what the American People will see when they testify is a dedicated Public Servant who all he cares about is the love of this country and because of his special connection to ukraine hope that they will have a better tomorrow he was committed. He was hesitant to even take this job, but it was because of his loyalty, he said a friend asked him, you know, who he respected. He said if your president calls you and you think you can make a difference then youve got to do it, and thats why he was there. And so none of us in the room had any clue of what he was going to testify to until he testified. Right. So its not like there was something we had no idea, but then listening to him, and you can see the shock on my face ane i think democrats as well as the republicans. And thats why they had no real for an hour because its equal amount of time in that room. Democrats would have an hour to question, and republicans had an hour to question. They could not come up with anything substantive. And i think they were scared because, you know, its the wholeus thing if you dont i you ask a question and the way you come onback, they would hav been more confirming the outlook and the statement that was made by the whistleblower in the first place. It was shocking, and i think that the American People to get to see his demeanor, to get to feel his character because one of the things that republicans had been trying to do when these testimonies were finished to go in front of the camera to Say Something that might question o the integrity of the person that testified. Gr oh, wait until the American People see, and thats why im so glad were going to have public hearings shortly. And thats why im so glad that the transcripts are being released because they speak for themselves. Mieke eoyang, youve been in that room as a staffer for the intelligence committee. What stood out for you in the taylor transcript . You know, the taylor transcript wed seen his opening testimony before, so it was just really interesting to see him recount the details, to be very clear that sondland was so explicit about saying the president is conditioning the release of the aid and these meetings on the this deal. Di you know, for all the republican denials of quid pro quo, what we see here is very clear that pressure is being brought to ii bear. And its really important to understand the context on this and what was going on in ukraine. Because its not just a quid pro quo. s its not like they were trying l to get to a contract on this. Ukraine is suffering under a civil war with russian aggression where there are people literally dying, and donald trump is holding back the means they have to protect themselves. Ru so when you think about this they are under threat of force or fear. They are not just trying to make a deal free and clear. N this is extortion. This is where people are feeling under pressure to do something they dont want to do. Wh Jerry Connolly actually made that point. Lets listen to what he had to say. Look, we keep using their euphemistic expression, quid pro quo. The actual term for what occurred is extortion, and extortion is a crime. The president extorted the president of ukraine for political dirt in a prospective political opponent and dangled military aid and the promise of a president ial visit in exchange. Thats called extortion. Its an abuse of power, and its also illegal. Ned price, you could study these transcripts all day and look for a republican angle on the evidence that somehow moves it in any way in Donald Trumps favor. And not only is there not one, theres not even an attempt at it, there isnt not one person, not one republican member, not jim jordan, not the Republican Council, none of them attempt tn actually move this witness testimony in a way that is helpful to the president. Well, youre never going to find one, lawrence, and thats precisely for the reason there is not one. I think we have seen in ambassador taylors testimony en and in Alex Vindmans testimonye and ambassador yovanovitchs testimony, they have one by one obliterated and eviscerated the substantive defenses that the white house and President Trumps defenders have put forward, thede idea that this w about corrupt generally and not the bidens specifically. The idea that, you know what, europe needed to do its fair share and we had to hold this back until europe stepped up. One by one all of those thats why i think its notable, lawrence, that were now seeing President Trump rely on one wr defense that is nonsubstantive but its actually incredibly tr disturbing. Bu and this is what he calls the perfect transcript defense. Its two words, very trumpian in that it sort of becomes a catch phrase. And, again, it is not substantive. And you know as well as i do President Trump could be lying through his teeth when he tellsn his supporters and adoring hi crowds that he believes its a perfect transcript. But even the prospect, even the possibility that President Trump actually buys into this explanation that nothing wrong, illegal, there was no betrayal on that transcript, that should be chilling for all of us because when you couple that with what Mick Mulvaney said in his Infamous Press conference mi when he said we do this kind of thing all the time, and when you marry that with whats been reported about donald trump using his personal cell phone, potentially even to call foreig counterparts away from transcribers, away from stenographers, away from aides, it paints the picture, at least the possibility of a picture where ukraine is one in a serie of scandals, one in a series of attempted extortions on the part of the president. Using the trappings of his office, using everything to e include in the case of ukraine we know american taxpayer resources. I think its incredibly dangerous that the president hat put this forward, and it should be a frightening thought that this is actually in his mind perfect. Congressman meeks, this was a unique experience today reading this particular transcript. Xp because ambassador taylors transcript is released on the same day that we discover ambassador taylor is going to be the first public witness in ther first televised hearing. T and so as im reading it and ie reading the emptiness of the republican part of the th transcript, im thinking what are they going to do . Pt these arent the tv republicans that are in this transcript. This is not the tv jim jordan. What are they going to do, one week from now with this very same testimony, this very same witness . Because theyre not going to do this. Theyre going to have to do something. re it occurred to me toward the end of it, theyre going to attack Gregory Meeks, theyre going to attack chairman schiff, theyre going to attack what theyre going to call your unfair, go democratic process that has got us to this point. They will attack the fact that the deposition was private. Theyll attack the fact the hearing was public. Ta theyll just attack, attack, attack because i cant think of anything else they can do on tv for donald trump, to impress donald trump which is the audience of one theyll be playing to. They cant do anything. And its the old saying, you know, if you have the facts on your side, you argue the facts. Y if you have the law on your side, you argue the law. If you have neither then you just throw up distractions. And they are going to be so compelled to be backed up. Because when you look at what the president did, he did not care about the relationship with the United States and ukraine at all. The only focus he had was himself and to get dirt, abusing