Stay updated with breaking news from Meaning sondland. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Let s discuss. james clapper, the former director of national intelligence, is here. thank you, sir. we have a short time, and i want to get a lot in. i appreciate you joining us. listen, sondland implicated so many people close to the president in his testimony today. we re looking at some of them now. he says that they were all in the loop, and it was on behalf of the president. go. what do you think? well, it was very damning and very compelling, and i thought his statement, which is in writing, pretty strong, and of course this really thickens the plot. so i thought it was hugely damaging and not a good day for the white house. he testified, meaning sondland, that some of the most senior members of the administration, meaning pompeo, mulvaney, bolton they all knew about this shakedown scheme. but as it stands right now, we re not going to hear from any of them. we know the democrats strategy is to wrap this up quickly, but ....
Reporting and insights, vivian salano with the new york times, jeff zeleny with cnn, and heather from politico. do you tell the judge you need these documents for the impeachment inquiry, or is the judge going to look at these in the wake of the roger stone trial that the president lied to the special counsel. candidate trump said he had no advantage with wikileaks, he said that right out. president trump said he doesn t recall conversations like that. r president trump was sitting next to him in the car when he got a call from roger stone for a heads-up. this is what we re trying to determine right now, who knows what. there s been a lot of issues, especially with sondland in particular, where we keep going back and forth about what he knows, what he doesn t know. he has had to return back to the ....
Out so you could overhear the president of the united states. he was with the other amigos, kurt volker and rick perry. the president decides to put secretary perry, ambassador volker and ambassador sondland in charge of policy. he has conversations with the ukraine government, conversations with bill taylor, and this is significant which, again, gets to the idea of when they would say, he testified under oath he wasn t involved in arranging or pushing for these investigations, these emails say something very different. that s right. someone will argue that maybe they didn t see the emails or maybe there was something else at play, but the bottom line is sondland was keeping officials apprised of his conversations with the ukranian government, the guidance that he was going directly to zelensky with, and that s going to be very significant in the line of questioning. the other issue is gordon sondland was also the one who ....
It s impossible to imagine i ll say impossible to imagine the president to go up to capitol hill, a, to justify this hearing and b, to testify. if he proves us wrong, it will be an interesting moment for sure. the reality is his lawyers wouldn t advise that especially now. the house democrats are arguing in court that they think he lied to mueller. bowithout question. so much republican silence we re hearing, but privately they say, and even publicly, it was an inappropriate phone call but it s not impeachable. republicans think that s a much simpler against. it s pretty clean, but the president will not let them do that. we ll see when we fast-forward if this was a good decision to make, to avoid that defense, because now it s kind of all over the board which leaves a big opening for other issues. the defense has changed day to day. we ll see where it is the end of ....
Something between the first lady s initiative, something she really cares about, and how the husband feels moving politically forward. thank you, kate. great to see you. thank you all so much for joining me today. inside politics with john king starts right now. welcome to inside politics. i m john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. a giant week ahead for the public impeachment hearings. the witnesses include white house aides who were alarmed at the president s dealings. and the point man pushing ukraine to investigate joe biden. plus what to make of this new wrinkle? speaker nancy pelosi says the president is welcome to come testify in his own defense, in person or in writing. the president says he likes the idea and he says he will consider it. it s debate week for the 2020 democrats. mayor pete buttigieg now leading the pack in iowa. massachusetts governor deval ....