her. they is someone who comes to this issue partly from her own experience and as a career public servant, someone who sees it as so important to do what is right by this country and say what it needed. she never gives up. >> that's going to wrap up this hour of "msnbc live." stay with us, the gun reform forum will be streaming live and we'll be updating you on msnbc throughout the afternoon. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >> thank you, craig melvin. we'll be following that whole gun safety program as well. but right now on "andrea mitchell reports," back in washington, trash talk. president trump ramping up the rhetoric, calling the impeachment inquiry a coup despite it being a constitutional process. house democrats hit back with new as much subpoenas today. >> it is our responsibility to keep our republic, the genius of

three separate powers, each a check and balance on the others. separation of power. mike pompeo admits to being on that call with the president of ukraine and in the next breath accuses congressional democrats of trying to bully career diplomats as the state department watchdog makes a request to brief congress. >> we are deeply concerned about secretary pompeo's effort now to potentially interfere with witnesses whose testimony is needed before our committee. kidding/not kidding. vladimir putin telling our own keir simmons of nbc the idea that russia plans to interfere in the 2020 elections is ridiculous. >> translator: i'll tell you a secret, yes, we will definitely intervene, so that everybody can

laugh, but don't tell anyone, please. and on a serious note, breaking news, senator bernie sanders is off the campaign trail today after doctors discovered a blocked artery requiring the insertion of two stents. we'll update you on the latest, coming up ahead. and more breaking news today. house democrats here announcing that they are -- that they are, excuse me, issuing subpoenas to the white house to produce key documents as part of the impeachment inquiry. the head of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff, alongside the speaker moments ago. >> we're not fooling around here, though. we don't want this to drag on months and months and months which appears to be the administration's strategy. so they just need to know that even as they try to undermine our ability to find the facts around the president's effort to coerce a foreign leader to create dirt that he can use

against the political opponent, that they will be strengthening the case on obstruction. >> we will treat the president with fairness as we go forward. we will have investigations and questioning that are worthy of the constitution of the united states. it's unworthy of the constitution of the united states to do what he did in that call, and he admitted it to me. he said it's perfect. no, it's not perfect. it's wrong. >> the president responded to that press conference just moments ago on twitter saying, the do-nothing democrats should be focused on building up our country and not wasting everyone's time and energy on bs, he spelled it out on twitter, which is what they have been doing since i got overwhelmly elected in 2016, 223- 306. get a better candidate next time, you'll need it. joining me now, kristen welker, phil rucker, and peter baker.

kristen, the white house, fast and furious, striking back today. a lot of developments. we want to talk about the pushback from mike pompeo, the pushback from the president, profanely on twitter. >> that's right, what you are seeing, andrea, is an intensifying standoff between the president trump administration and house democrats. now, just a sort time ago, house democrats threatening to issue a subpoena for documents related to the ukraine matter if they don't get them voluntarily by friday. so i reached out to the white house and said essentially, will you comply, will you turn over these documents? the white house choosing not to responsib respond directly to that, instead stephanie grisham slamming the probe as a kangaroo

court, so definance from the white house at this hour. this comes as secretary of state mike pompeo accuses democrats of bullying state department officials to get them to testify. democrats firing back in kind, saying the secretary of state runs the risk of obstructing justice if he does not comply with these requests. we are seeing these tensions mount. and president trump lashing out on twitter, andrea, a series of tweetstorms. and what is significant about that is that we know that the president's allies are concerned there isn't a clear messaging strategy here at the white house. they were hoping that that was going to take shape this week. but what we are seeing are these tweets from president trump. it seems at this point he is still his own messenger and he's leading the communications here at the white house, andrea. >> phil rucker, as the head of the white house team for "the

washington post," we're seeing such chaos in terms of no guardrails around the president, as kristen was just mentioning. and the secretary of state now in rome today, pushing back and repeating what he outlined in a very controversial and confrontational letter to the hill yesterday, saying state department officials cannot testify without state department lawyers being in the room, that they have to go through channels, through legislative affairs, not directly to the officials who want to speak out including, importantly, the former ambassador to ukraine who was forced out of that job because of, we understand, objections to rudy giuliani's shadow diplomacy, and kurt volker, who quit the state department on friday night, i guess rather than be impeded by pompeo and his objections. so pompeo today repeated that. i just want to play senator murphy with rachel maddow last night saying that pompeo's citations are completely wrong as far as house and senate democrats are concerned.

>> he absolutely is not within his rights to block this testimony. the house or the senate has the ability to compel testimony from these individuals because of the wrongdoing that they may have been a part of or witnessed. >> so, phil, this gets complicated, but the inspector general is also appearing on the hill today with what may be a response to this pushback from pompeo but also, we understand from reuters at least, some other instances of attempts to intimidate state department officials. >> that's right, andrea, it's getting very complicated. the problem here at its core is you have house democrats acting with urgency to try to move these proceedings forward, to bring the witnesses forward, to gather the evidence as quickly and expeditiously as they can, to use the word pelosi has repeatedly used. and you have from pompeo the same pattern of behavior that you've seen from the white house throughout this democratic-controlled congress all year, which is to try to

block any efforts at oversight or to slow down or stymie these investigations by holding back witnesses, by citing executive privilege or other rules that they can come up with by not providing the documents that congress is looking for. at the moment we're at a stalemate. and at the center of all of this, as kristen was just getting at, is the president himself, who has ratcheted it up on twitter. some of his former advisers i've talked to this week say they're actually very concerned about the tone and the volume of these tweets, it's out of the ordinary right now. and there doesn't seem to be a clear plan to move forward. >> and in fact, mike pompeo in rome today answered one question about this whole issue. he acknowledged having appeared or having listened in on that call. but then his characterization of what the call was about was completely different from the white house notes of that call. let's play pompeo today. >> as for what's on the phone

call, i was on the phone call. the phone call was in the context of helping the ukrainians get graft out and corruption out of their government and to help now this new government in the ukraine build a successful, thriving economy. >> so peter baker, mike pompeo is not just the secretary of state. he is one of the cabinet officials who is in line for the presidency behind the speaker of the house. he is a constitutional figure, and he's now, first of all, twice brushed off questions about whether he knew about that call, not lying, but kind of deflecting and clearly uncomfortable. now, when he actually had to acknowledge it, it having been reported and confirmed, he's misstating what the contents of the call were.

>> mike pompeo is in the middle of this and it would be surprising if the house didn't want to follow up with him, asking what he knows and when he knew it. i would like to ask, how often does he do these calls, is this standard operating procedure for the secretary of state, or did he have some expectation of something important coming up on that call, why is he characterizing the way he does? what are the other calls he's on like? we've seen reports that the president talked to the prime minister of australia. there's a report from london that he talked to boris johnson about help in discrediting the mueller inquiry. pompeo has questions waiting for him when he comes back to the country. >> to geoff bennett on capitol hill, you were at the news conference with the speaker and adam schiff, and to the point that the president was making in that profane tweet just moments

later, the speaker tried to get everyone to focus and you asked a couple of questions about the new nafta with mexico, about guns, you asked a question. she's trying to say they're doing policy as well but clearly the impeachment issue, the inquiry and their attempt to speed it up and not get stonewalled by the white house and the state department is front and center. >> you're right, asked her how she envisions working with president trump on these key issues. gun safety, usmca, lowering prescription drug costs, as house democrats now have the numbers to move impeachment articles from the floor. she says she uviews those thing as being completely unrelated. she says the ball is in the president's court and it's up to him to meet house democrats halfway on these issues. i think one of the things that we heard new from adam schiff, who of course is leading the impeachment inquiry

investigation into this whole ukraine question, is that today he said in the face of more stonewalling from the white house, it's not just that they will view that as congressional obstruction which would be grounds for a new article of impeachment. he went a step further. he said they would draw an adverse inference as to the underlying evidence. what that basically means is if the white house continues to cover up these documents or withhold these documents the house democrats want, house democrats will assume that the underlying bad act, that the allegation, is true. you heard from schiff and pelosi today again saying what president trump already admitted to is already in the public record, they have enough evidence to move forward with the political act of impeachment. but yet adam schiff has said, chairman schiff has said the depositions, the hearings they have scheduled in private over the next a couple of weeks are to fill in the breaks, what peter baker talked about, to figure out what the secretary of state, what the attorney general did, to have that as backup.

yet they still intend to move forward with the impeachment inquiry with what already exists out in the public. >> and which the president himself provided from the white house. >> right, exactly. >> one of the things that nancy pelosi said in passing today that they don't need to have a vote on the full floor, they can send an impeachment vote from the judiciary committee to the senate. is that how it's outlined in the constitution? >> i think what she's talking about is not needing a house vote. she's done this on her own authority, in effect. in the nixon impeachment inquiry, the house voted to decide whether to have an impeachment inquiry at all. the house voted, including 31 democrats, to open the inquiry in the first place. she's chosen not to do that, not to put her members on the roll,

having to take a vote that may or may not be helpful to some of them in these trump-friendly districts, instead she's said she'll authorize it on her own power. if they get to the point of passing articles of impeachment, the full house would have to vote on that and send it to the senate. >> kristen welker, you're speeding off here because we're so jammed, the president of finland is arriving and there will be a photo opportunity in the oval office, a news conference this afternoon. within this hour we could be hearing from the president on all of this. >> we could be hearing from the president. i checked my notes, so far it appears he has welcomed the president of finland, joked he must be pretty popular because he's gotten so much press today at the white house. so far no new reaction to all of the developments that we've been talking about. not only will reporters have a chance to ask him questions in the oval office, there is going to be a joint press conference a little bit later on this afternoon, andrea. >> kristen welker, peter baker,

geoff bennett, busy day for all of you. and of course phil rucker. thanks to all of you on your beats. an update on the breaking news we mentioned at the top of the show, presidential candidate vermont senator bernie sanders is off the campaign trail after doctors found a blockage in an artery and inserted two stents yesterday. the 78-year-old sanders, he turned 78 on september 8th, his last appearance was on monday in durham, new hampshire. he was supposed to attend the gun safety forum today on msnbc, in las vegas later today. sanders senior adviser jeff weaver said in a statement, senator sanders is conversing and in good spirits. he will be resting up over the next few days. we are canceling his events and appearances until further notice and will continue to provide him appropriate updates. we of course wish him well in that recovery. joining me next, senator amy klobuchar standing by, presidential candidate, with her

insights on the impeachment inquiry and the gun issue. don't miss that interview on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. hat interview on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice.

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download the xfi app today. as impeachment gains steam in the house, conventional wisdom is that it will die in mitch mcconnell's senate. what are the chances that have changing, especially as things are changing and there's so much resistance from the white house and the state department? senator amy klobuchar is a democratic candidate for president in a race that could now be heavily influenced by what happens in that impeachment inquiry. of course you're a formerer prosecutor and member of the judiciary committee as well. senator, welcome, thank you so much for joining us from las vegas, at the gun safety forum. >> can i say first, my thoughts right now are with senator bernie sanders. we came into the senate together, served together in leadership. his fighting spirit i know will get him through this. from all reports he's doing well right now. it was a shock i think for

everyone to wake up to hear that. and we are just thinking of him today. i know we'll see him back out on the campaign trail. >> if we know anything about bernie sanders it is that he is resilient and in ddomitableindo. i covered him through 2016 and now. we're sure that he is quickly recovering. but thank you for that. and i want to ask you about all this, the goings-on here. it's hard to characterize. firstiv ive was going to ask yo about attorney general barr and pompeo and accusations of stonewalling and they seem to be rewriting the rules. first, the president's tweet today, he's talking now in that photo op in the oval office, we'll bring it to you as soon as we bring that tape out, he called adam schiff a low life, according to cool notes so far, saying schiff should resign. he tweeted, the do-nothing democrats should be focused on building up our country not wasting everyone's time and

energy on bs, i'm cleaning it up, which is what they have been doing ever since i got overwhelmingly elected in 2016. get a better candidate this time, you'll need it. are you that better candidate? what do you have to say to the president's approach now, and the way he's responding? >> you know, it is one mean tweet every single morning, up to ten to 20 now. he seems to be slating. and he's doing all this of course to distract people. i think speaker pelosi got it right today when she said we can do two things at once. we have a constitutional obligation to move forward with this impeachment proceeding. that is very clear. we've got a smoking gun document where we know that he was talking to a foreign leader and looking for dirt on an opponent. now reports are that he did the same thing with the new australian prime minister. and time and time again, from

the moment he stood in front of that cia wall dedicated to those fallen agents that had anonymously lost their lives for our country, and our president gave a partisan speech, from that moment on he's never been able to draw that line between his own advancement, his own business advancement, his own political advancement, and our country. what the house is doing here is very serious. they're looking into all of these allegations. and it is a very somber proceeding. at the same time, we need to keep focusing on the economy, things that matter to the people of this country. today we're talking about gun safety. overwhelming support for doing something about universal background checks and pushing forward on the assault weapon ban. overwhelming support in this country for doing something about pharmaceutical prices and climate change and immigration reform. all of these issues this president has taken us backwards. and we have an agenda to bring us forward.

and there's absolutely no reason we can't do both things at once. >> and the president apparently still speaking in the oval office to the pool reports in there, they're describing him as combative. clearly he's been combative on twitter. he's pushing back on subpoenas. and the state department, what about what mike pompeo is doing? he's asserting that state department lawyers have to be present in these private depositions. chris murphy, your colleague, says that's absolutely not true. >> i don't believe it's true either. we have to get the information. we have very serious allegations involving our nation's security. and these witnesses should be allowed to come forward. as adam schiff has noted, this is basically further evidence of obstruction if they keep this up. what do i think, andrea? i think there's plenty of people who used to work in that white

house that know exactly what this president has done and will do if he stays at president and they've got to come forward with the information they have. obviously they can be subpoenaed. but i think they're going to have information that corroborates this. i don't know it, but i think it, because this president knows no limits and we've seen that time and time again. so while they're fighting over these witnesses that should lawfully be able to testify, i'm hoping they will also hear from some of the people that have been directly around the president, because those are the people who know the most. >> are you concerned about the safety and security and the identity of the whistle-blower? >> of course i am. our law allows people to come forward like this. ives i was heartened that senator grassley came forward

and said this whistle-blower he's a right to come forward. it doesn't mean he's a spy, it means he's an allowed to come forward under law. when you look at how this whistle-blower came forward and reported what he felt he had a duty as a public servant, as a patriot to report, and that's what senator grassley was getting at. you don't call this guy a spy, you don't threaten him with execution as the president has basically done when he talks about the fact that that's how spies used to be treated. it's not just trying to intimidate this person, who is reportedly a cia agent, but he's trying to intimidate other witnesses as well. we have a duty to tell people that they will be protected in this process. >> will the senate proceed to

trial if the house recommends impeached? >> he addressed this in the spring. he recently said he would have to take it up and implied that he didn't know how long it would take. it's important that we push for that trial. ives involved in the last impeachment trial that we had involving a federal judge down in louisiana where we had a group of us that heard the evidence for over a week. adam schiff presented the case and then we brought it to the full senate and they impeached. and so that's where we are right now. and i think it's really important that the senate hear this if in fact the house votes for articles of impeachment. remember, james madison said the reason they have those articles of impeachment is to stop a president from betraying the country to a foreign power. >> well-timed, well-said. senator amy klobuchar, thanks for taking time. i know you're busy at the gun safety forum. >> we're busy, we'll have our

first ad out today, you can see it at amyklobuchar.com. we're moving strongly through these states. it's great to be here in las vegas. >> thanks again, amy klobuchar, be safe out there on the campaign trail. >> thank you, appreciate it. >> the senator will be joining craig melvin this evening as he moderates that 2020 gun safety forum in las vegas, presented by march for our lives and giffords coverage to invite gun violence, streaming live on nbc news now and msnbc throughout date. joining me now again, nbc's kristen welker at the white house. kristen, the president has been talking and again calling the conversation with the ukrainian leader perfect. >> that's right, more defiance from president trump speaking in the oval office, andrea. now, i want to underscore these are notes that are taken by our pooler. this is not exact verbiage. we'll of course be playing out the president's remarks.

but the headline among them, that the president said the whistle-blower should be protected if the whistle-blower is legitimate. as you know, president trump has been trying to argue that the whistle-blower has gotten information second and third hand, something that his own acting dni has said is not the case, that some of the information is actually firsthand. the president also taking new aim at adam schiff, calling him "shifty schiff," saying it was a perfect conversation, u.s. say, saying the press should be ashamed for asking about all of this, and then he was pressed on whether some republicans are concerned about the threats of the whistle-blower. the president saying, i don't care about that. so more defiance there. he also said, andrea, that the report that was written on the phone call was a perfect phone call, and again, used that to kind of underscore his argument that he thinks he didn't do anything wrong. so far this is the tactic, this

is the strategy we're seeing from president trump, defiance. what we're not seeing is sort of an all hands on deck approach to communicating with the public but why he thinks he didn't do anything wrong. now, officials here had indicated that that was going to take place, that was going to start in earnest this week. so far we haven't seen that. what we have seen, andrea, is the president lashing out on twitter now in this oval office opportunity, likely during the press conference a little bit later on today, as the standoff between the trump administration and house democrats intensifies, andrea. >> kristen welker, thanks so much, from the white house. we'll bring you the tape when we get it out of the obviousal office. stay with us. t it out of the ob office stay with us hey there people eligible for medicare.

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and welcome back. we're going to have that tape of the president in the oval office, defiant, momentarily. meanwhile, attorney general bill barr, who was mentioned seven times in the whistle-blower complaint, is also facing new scrutiny for his interactions with foreign governments on the president's behalf. critics say barr is blurring the lines between being an independent head of the justice department and serving as an agent for the president. former attorney general eric holder who served under president obama weighed in. >> i think the attorney general needs to be a little more sensitive to the appearance that that gives. you have to not only be substantively neutral, you have to appear to be neutral if you're the attorney general of

the united states. i feel he's crossed a political line. >> nick shapiro, former national security council staffer in the obama white house, and matt miller, former chief spokesman for the justice department under attorney general holder and msnbc justice and security analyst. welcome, both of you. nick, william barr has put out through his aides that he had nothing to do with the ukraine phone call, he didn't know about it, he had nothing to do with rudy giuliani, yet at the same time he is now under the spotlight because of his traveling to try to undercut the mueller probe, doing the president's bidding, going to italy, going to australia. is that appropriate or not? >> it is absolutely inappropriate. one thing i don't think people are realizing is how dangerous this is to our actual national security. william barr is in a sense asking other countries to investigate their own cooperation with the u.s. intelligence community. that is going to send a chilling

message possibly to our allies that will tell them they might want to think twice about cooperating with u.s. intelligence. let that sink in. the president of the united states is asking his ag to in a sense chill cooperation with our allies. and that is dangerous and it's frightening. >> matt miller, as we await the president's tape within the next minute or so, let's talk about the subpoenas. can they stretch it out and stonewall, at the white house and the state department, for an extended period the way they did after the mueller probe? >> that's the certainly their strategy. >> does adam schiff have more leverage now that it's an official impeachment inquiry? >> it depends on what the house decides to do. certainly he has more leverage in the court but i don't know that he can get all the testimony and evidence in the time frame in which they want to move forward in this impeachment investigation. i think the white house will

have to decide, do they care whether there's an additional article under which the president might be impeached, an article about obstructing to congress? they may decide that's better than turning over the documents which may show underlying misconduct that we don't know about so far. the message from schiff today is, no longer. >> susan page is on capitol hill. susan, i may have to interrupt you if the president's oval office interview comes out, i think i hear it about to be queued up. what about pelosi's strategy here? she keeps talking about it being serious and prayerful. >> and limited. she wants it focused very firmly on the ukraine phone call and the circumstances surrounding that. that is her goal, to have this happen quickly, understandably, and in a way that holds the democratic caucus together. >> and susan, as we see shaking

hands, the president of finland in the oval office. we'll join momentarily. but again, the timetable is really tough. this is now overwhelming the 2020 campaign and the congressional agenda. >> eeo, thatyes, and the timeta democrats foresee is incredibly tight. we may have an impeachment vote by that nksgiving. >> let's listen to the president. >> the senate is talking about it, not a thing wrong, unless you heard the adam schiff version where he made up my conversation, it should be criminal, it should be treasonous. he made it up, every word of it, made up and read to congress as though i said it. and i'll tell you what, he should be forced to resign from congress, adam schiff, he's a low life, he should be forced to resign. he took a perfect conversation, realized he couldn't read it to congress because it was perfect, it was a very nice conversation,

i knew many people were on the phone, not only were many people on the phone, we had stenographers on the phone taking it down word for word. he took that conversation which was perfect, he said, i can't read this, so he made up a conversation and he reported it and said it to congress and to the american people. and it was horrible, what he said. and that was supposed to be coming from me. but it was all fabricated. he should resign from office in disgrace and frankly, they should look at him for frtreaso because he's making up the words of the president of the united states, not only the words but the meaning. >> reporter: your own dni said the transcript was consistent with the complaint. >> no, no, he didn't say that. you have to take a look. no, no, he did not say that. in fact if you look at what he said, he found everything to be very normal. he's a good man, joe. and he found it to be very normal.

i saw schiff trying to go -- i call him shifty schiff, we don't call him shifty schiff for nothing, he's a shifty, dishonest guy who by the way was critical of one of the great secretaries of state, graduated number one in his class at west point, graduated one of the top of his class in harvard law school, the most honorable person, mike pompeo. and this guy was negative on mike pompeo. he can't -- you know, there's an expression, he couldn't carry his blank strap, i won't say it because they'll say it was terrible to say, but he couldn't carry his blank strap, do you understand that? you deal with bad people, you know, i watched china over the last few days and i watched some of these other countries, build up, build up, and we built up more than any of them because of me but no help from the democrats, they're a disaster. they're the do-nothing democrats, they're a disaster,

all they want to do is win the election in 2020 so they come up with this impeachment nonsense. everyone knows, all based on one phone call that i have where i'm talking to the president of ukraine, you'll hear from our ambassadors, you'll hear from some of the folks that know all about the call, why the call was set up, and everything else. it's perfect. the call was perfect. in fact lindsey graham said i didn't know you could be so nice. there was no quid pro quo. remember, before they said, the only reason i put that out, and i did it with the approval of ukraine, by the way, otherwise i couldn't have done it, was because the whistle-blower was so dishonest, the whistle-blower said terrible things about the call, but he then -- i then found out he was secondhand and third hand, in other words he didn't know what was on the call. no, these are bad people, these are dishonest people, and when the american people find out what happened, it's going to be a great day, and you know what, we have to go back to building our country, because 99% of nancy pelosi's time is spent on

this. she should worry about lowering the price of drugs which i've done. but it's hard to do without the help of congress. about creating border security, which i've done. we built -- we now have hundreds of miles of wall under construction on the southern border. she should worry about infrastructure. she should worry about the usmca. she's not doing it. i just saw a part of her press conference before the president came, i'm sorry to bother you with this, mr. president, because we have other things to talk about, but i will tell you, i just watched part. she says, oh, drug prices. she's been trying to get drug prices down, how long has she been in congress, for years. she should focus on her own district. do you see what's happening to her district? we call it tent city. it's terrible. in fact we just sent a violation to the city of san francisco, unsafe water, unsafe conditions, environmental, epa, our epa, which is doing a great job, is sending nancy pelosi, with all the talk about epa, there's

needles and drugs all over the street, there's tents, there's people that are dying in squalor, in the best locations in san francisco. it used to be a great city. now you have to see what's happened to san francisco. you have to see what the democrats have allowed to happen. as an example, what they've allowed to happen, just take a look to los angeles, great cities. one other thing. yesterday, as you know, i was sued by the governor, gavin newsom, he's another beauty, i was sued by him, he's a do-nothing, sued by him so i can't get on the ballot in the state of california. it was a massive story, it was the biggest story, mr. president, it was headlines all over the place, trump gets sued by this, uh, do-nothing governor in california. it was big. here's what happened. yesterday i won the case. very convincingly.

a very tough, smart, highly respected judge, not a trump person at all, not appointed by trump, appointed by someone that you would call the opposition, came out with a scathing and tough opinion. i won the case. i didn't see one story that i won that case, not one story from the fake news. i didn't see steve right it. i didn't see you write it. i didn't see anybody write it. so let me just tell you, just to finish, nancy pelosi and shifty shift who should resign in disgrace, by the way, and jerry nadler and all of them, it's a disgrace what's going on, and we should be focused on making america great again and keeping america great because that's what we have to do. when i look at that parade, the military, millions of people and everything else, we better get smart. we better start focusing on the right things because what they

did with this nonsense, think of it, you have a perfect, i mean perfect conversation with a president of another country, ukraine in this case, and they try and say, oh, let's impeach him. they've been trying to impeach me from the day i got elected. i've been going through this for three years. they've been trying to impeach me from the day i got elected. and you know what? they failed. and this is the easiest one of all because this withone is basn one conversation. what about obama's conversation with the president of russia where he says, hey, hey, tell vlad, i'll talk to him after the election is over? nobody reports that, right? that's stuff you should report. but you people should be ashamed of yourself. we have the most of the dishonest media you can imagine and you should be ashamed of yourselves. i think i've answered most of your questions. >> reporter: finland is the

happiest country in the world, what can you learn from finland? >> you got rid of pelosi and you got rid of shifty schiff. finland is a happy country and he's a happy leader too. no republicans have raised concerns. >> reporter: are you concerned that the identity of the whistle-blower should be protected? >> i don't care. the whistle-blower should be protected if the whistle-blower is legitimate. but when the whistle-blower makes a big report on the conversation i had with a president of ukraine and it was a great conversation, it was -- we talked mostly about congratulations on your win, we talked about corruption and we're really referring to mostly 2016 because what the democrats did in 2016 was corrupt, and let's see what happens. they're more concerned with that than they are with me and impeachment. they're trying to hide what maybe is coming. i let our great, uh, if you

look -- i let our great law enforcement take care of it, okay? attorney general barr, i guess is working on it. and i hope he's working on it because what happened in 2016 is a disgrace to this country and they're more worried about that because they know they're guilty as hell, they're much more worried about that. >> reporter: the whistle-blower, if they are reporting -- >> when a whistle-blower -- okay. are you ready? i heard the whistle-blower's report from you people. and how bad it was, about just a simple conversation. by the way, this whole thing revolves around a simple conversation. and if you remember at the beginning, it was quid pro quo. that's all you heard about. and i think he said seven or eight times quid -- in other words, you're going to do this or we're not going to give you money. i never said it. but when i heard these horrible stories come out, i had no choice but to release a conversation which i hate to do

and i hope i don't have to do it again, with the leader of a country. i asked a certain person to call up a certain person in that country to get permission to do it otherwise i wouldn't have been able to do it. and if i didn't do it and i appreciate ukraine for allowing us to release the conversation, but it was so innocent, it didn't hurt them, if anything it helped them because it was a very innocent conversation. but when a whistle-blower takes a very nice, innocent -- lindsey graham said i never knew you were that nice a person. he said, you never asked him for anything, you were really, really nice. ly lindsey said, i never heard you be so nice. rick scott, he's a very smart guy from florida, rick scott, he said, that was a perfect conversation, how can you impeach somebody on that conversation? but the whistle-blower wrote, not that conversation, he wrote a vicious conversation.

in other words, he either got it totally wrong, made it up, or the person giving the information to the whistle-blower was dishonest and this country has to find out who that person was, because that person is a spy in my opinion. you ready? so when a whistle-blower purposely or not, gives something that's totally erroneous -- now, here's where i fooled them. they never thought i would release the conversation. they never thought in a million years that i would release the conversation. when little adam schiff saw the text, when he read it, he couldn't believe it. when nancy pelosi, who worked a day early, nancy pelosi called for essentially impeachment, let's impeach the president, before she saw the transcript. and this is an exact word for word transcript of the conversation, right? taken by very talented stenographers. listen to me. so when she saw that, she -- i heard, she went crazy. she said, we can't impeach him

with this conversation, that's a great conversation. she went by the whistle-blower. and the whistle-blower was so bad, i would even think about it. but here's what happened. the whistle-blower was wrong. the only thing that matters is the transcript of the actual conversation i had with the president of ukraine. it was perfect. we're looking at congratulations. we're looking at doing things together. and what are we looking at? we're looking at corruption. in i believe 1999 there was a corruption act or corruption bill passed between -- and signed between both countries. wherie iv have a duty to report corruption. and let me tell you something. biden's son is corrupt and biden is corrupt. and i would rather run against biden than almost any of those candidates and i think they're all weak. biden has never been a smart guy and he's never been less smart

than now. thank you very much. let me do that again. it's a fair question. so this morning, and last night, my last night my comps people came to me. listen to this one president. i am glad they are interested in finland. i am interested in finland much more. my comps people came to me. sir, there is a book or something written. it is written by "the washington post" people. you know it is inaccurate and probably a fraud. two reporters and they said president trump ranting and raving on the southern border where we are right now building a tremendous wall, unbelievable. we are doing a lot, we'll have soon over 100 miles under construction completed and we'll have 400 to 500 miles. i wanted a wall but i wanted a

mote. in the mote, i want alligators and snakes. i want the wall to be a fence and i want it to be electrified. i want shops at the top. -- i want sharp spikes at the top. i want that whole wall to be electrocu electrocuted. sir, you never said that. they came to me yesterday and they said did you say this? why are you asking me that stupid question? the fake news media is saying that you said this in a book. i said "what book"? obviously it is fake, almost everything "the washington post" does it is fake. it is a fake newspaper. it is owned by a guy for the purpose of giving him power in

washington. i call him the lobbiest washington post for amazon. what they did to his reputation, i think it is maybe no good anyway. what they do to his reputation with "the washington post" is a disgrace. these two reporters wrote this book and they said i want to mote alligators and snakes and electrocuted fences. never said it and never thought of it. i actually put out something on social media today. i am tough on the border but i am not that tough. okay, it was a lie. just so you have it. you asked the question. it was a total lie. it was corrupted reporting. i don't use fake anymore. i call it fake news now. i am the one that came up with the term, i am very proud of it. i think i am going to switch it largely to corrupt news. the media in this country and not everybody. we have some great reporters. much of it is corrupted. it is corrupted.

it is sure the enemy of the people. thank you very much. >> thank you. have a good day everybody. you just heard the president saying phony stories. back with me matt miller and susan page and jonathan lemire and our political analyst. nick lemire, let me go to you first, jonathan lemire, excuse me. the president claims his new york post story posted about the

mote and the alligators and the spikes and snakes so he denied that and calling it fake news. he also called adam schiff a low life shifty shift who should redesign they should go after him for treason. there were a couple of things over there. i mean what do you take from all of this? >> the president gave us a clear window of where his head has been the last few days. he's very angry at the state of this impeachment inquiry and the wall story which certainly the new york times said they standby their reporting in terms of how anyway characterize the president's proposal for the proposal wall. the impeachment and the speed of the story and by the hour

developments that have the president unnerved and rattled. as we heard for months now. impeachment could be a political win and the country does not want that and democrats are over reaching. we are seeing polls that suggests that the nation is trending towards an impeachment of inquiry. we are seeing the president, feels like he's hot flatted. he told people he does not want this to be his defining legacy. we saw that anger and frustration came out here in the oval office next to the president of finland. >> and susan page on capitol hill. adam schiff had been criticized before but seemed to be ramped up. nancy pelosi thought there was not room for impeachment when she saw the rough transcript of his call. that was inaccurate. nancy pelosi said today that the

phone call itself rises to the level of impeachable offense. she called it and undermining his oath of office and our constitution. i think speaker offices likely to dispute the president. what we heard is what the president's defense going to be. he did nothing wrong and the motivation of his attackers are partisan corrupt and don't trust what the news media tells you about what's happening. >> and to nick in san francisco. a broad attack in san francisco and pelosi as well. it sounded a little bit like baltimore. >> you know i will tell you, i love san francisco, putting that aside what we just saw was absolutely horrifying. it was the defamation of gaslighting. the president of the united states on a phone call. we have seen the summary, used the awesome power of our foreign policy to withhold resource to

an ally that would further the interests of our national security to dig up dirt and ask them to interfere in our election. the president then abused the national security classification system, meant to withhold and protect our country's secrets to cover up his wrong doing. this is not about adam schiff at this point, it is about donald trump and how his crimes and corruption are now out in the open. >> nick, we should point out with the cia and the nsc, you would know how these phone calls are handled routinely, the president mentioned there were this stenographer and many people on the calls. mike pompeo was on the call as we have been reporting. matt miller, what are the broader implications here as the president clearly according to kristen welker reporting and jonathan lemire and phil rucker, he's not mounting a strategy. he's flailing out. >> i think there are political

c ramifications for his defense whether they can mount an effective one. i don't want to miss the force of treason we have watched. we have seen him angry before and lashing out and disconnected from reality but it is getting worse. this is just the beginning of the impeachment process. the house will have to conduct this investigation. look, they're just at the beginning of it and this is the state we are seeing the president. i think we have to all have real concerns about his ability to lead our country to operate as commander in chief when that's the way he performs sitting in the oval office with a foreign leader. that's quite concerning. >> jonathan, there is no strong chief of staff. you got mick mulvaney who's i a idealically strong. there is no one there to be the

guard rails. >> enabling is the right word, andrea. mulvaney is tense to his beef in there in the west wing. he said he had no interest in controlling the president. his twitter feed of what john kelly used to do that he feels trump should be trump and he's not going to stand in the way. you are right. pompeo has a loud voice, he's a supportive one of the president. there is no one around donald trump who's going to tell him no, your behavior is more damaging and accelerate the democrats for impeachment. there is a lack of official response team, basically it is a one man show. it is president trump on his twitter feed or there in oval office on the attack. that's the white house's plan. >> the presidents of the united states just said he meaning the chair of house intelligence was negative on pompeo.

he could not carry his blank strap. that's a first in my experience covering the white house, congress, and the state department. that does it for this very busy day on "andrea mitchell reports." be sure to tune in today of rachel machaddow's new book. rachel will be on "jimmy fallon, the tonight show." here is "velshi & ruhle," stephanie and ali. >> andrea, great to see you, have yourself an adventure this afternoon. >> hello everyone. we are following fast developments in the impeachment