and women. he did a lot better with those voters in 2016 than people remember, and that's where he's already vulnerable. then what you want to watch. >> i wish we had more time. the president took up a lot of it today. we appreciate you very much. that's going to wrap up this hour of "msnbc live." "andrea mitchell reports" starts now. hey, andrea. >> hi, chris. and right now on "andrea mitchell reports," quid-pro-oh. new text messages reveal how the u.s. government was pressuring ukraine, while taylor writes "i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a campaign." >> the quid pro quo is clear in these texts, not only do you need to open an investigation, mr. zelensky, but you need to

put it on the record that you're going to do this investigation. china, are you listening? a defiant president trump continues to ask for favors even as he faces impeachment for pressuring ukraine to dig up dirt on joe biden. >> when i speak to foreign leaders, i speak in an appropriate way. i would like to do a trade deal with china but only if it's a great trade deal for this country. one thing has nothing to do with the other. >> i find once again the president inviting another country to interfere in our presidential elections repugnant and a fundamental breach of his oath of office. and double dare. the white house is planning to tell nancy pelosi they will not turn over documents until the house officially votes on the impeachment inquiry. >> we'll be issuing a letter, as everybody knows, we've been treated very unfairly. >> no one is above the law. and the president will be held accountable.

and it will be done in a fair way. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, as a critical new front opens in the impeachment battle, president trump giving democrats new ammunition in their widening investigation. explosive new text messages released by a key witness appear to show top trump diplomats pressuring ukraine to investigate the 2016 election and joe biden and his family in exchange for a white house visit. the texts, provided by a former envoy to ukraine, kurt volker, during a marathon testimony yesterday, appearing to show zelensky would not be allowed to meet the president at the white house unless he launched investigations. >> we're investigating corruption. we're not investigating

campaigns. i don't care about his campaign. as i said, i didn't think and i don't think biden is going to win, i don't think. and maybe to answer your question when you say who is going to win, i would rather not make a prediction but i do have a feeling about somebody. but i didn't think, because i've watched biden over the years and biden is not the brightest person. i never thought he was going to win. >> and this comes after the president openly called only 24 hours ago for china to investigate his political rifva, throwing more fuel to the impeachment firestorm. now a defiant president trump refusing to turn over key documents, daring house speaker nancy pelosi to officially hold an impeachment vote as democrats threaten the white house with more subpoenas that could come as soon as today. joining me, nbc's kristen welker at the white house. nbc's geoff bennett on capitol hill. yamiche alcindor, pbs news hour.

shannon pettypiece, senior white house reporter. and jeff mason, reuters white house correspondent extraordinaire. welcome, all. the president on the south lawn today saying it's about corruption, not about joe biden, and immediately going into joe biden. >> right, andrea, it was another extraordinary day on the white house south lawn. you saw the president defiant once again, doubling down, frankly, on his calls for ukraine and china to investigate joe biden. as you point out, his new line of argument is, look, this doesn't have to do with politics, this has to do with corruption. but of course those text messages that you talk about cloud that message, and the avalanche of headlines we were all tracking overnight. the question is what becomes of this strategy, it's not clear the white house has one. the president is very resistant

to people thinking he has any type of a war room. at the same time, there have been meetings, top officials want there to be a broader all hands on deck approach to the messaging here. all of this comes, and i know shannon has reporting on this as well, as the administration is poised to send out a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi saying we won't hand over documents until you hold an actually vote. republicans are trying to make the case that nancy pelosi held a press conference and this is not an official impeachment inquiry. will she do that? that remains to be seen but the white house taking a defiant posture for yet another day, andrea. >> shannon, you just posted your reporting on nbcnews.com. share with us how they see the strategy from your reporting. >> as kristen and i have been hearing from officials, they're trying to push back against these requests by democrats to turn over documents. as kristen laid out, their

argument is that the house has to have a formal vote on beginning impeachment proceedings before the legal framework would require the white house to turn over documents. i talked to lawyers yesterday who said there is nothing in writing in the jefferson manual, which is a procedural manual that leaders in congress typically follow, or in the constitution that requires an actually vote in the house to turn over documents. however this is something that democrats have said in the past, when they've tried to dodge whether there was an impeachment investigation or not, we're talking about months ago, saying there would have to be a formal vote to begin impeachment. but now they have been saying on the record in recent days they don't need to begin an actually vote. and ultimately, if the white house wants to push back against this, it's a fight that would go to court and they could spend months battling it out. the democratic strategy is if the white house doesn't turn over documents by the end of day, or they will issue a

subpoena. if the white house ignores the subpoena, they will include it in an obstruction of justice charge. >> geoff bennett on capitol hill where they had late night marathon talks, deposition i should say, marathon deposition with kurt volker, the former state department official, and clearly the texts that he brought with him were very revealing, and then today michael atkinson also in private now with house intel leaders on both sides, questioning him about the whistle-blower complaint. >> that's right. and atkinson is the intelligence community ig who deemed that whistle-blower complaint urgent and credible. and adam schiff, house intelligence chairman who is overseeing these proceedings that are happening behind closed doors has made clear he wants to hear more from atkinson about how he handled that implant aco and what to degree there was an attempt to corroborate the

details in the complaint. one of the reasons we know about this whistle-blower's existence is atkinson flagged it, went to the doj to figure out if the conversation merited executive privilege. that delayed the timeline by which atkinson felt he was bound by law to convey that whistle-blower complaint to congress in seven days. because he wasn't able to rectify that situation quickly enough, he felt bound by law to flag to congress that there was an issue he couldn't resolve. people i've talked to who know him say he does believe, as he's stated on the record already, that the whistle-blower complaint is merited, is legitimate, and raises grave concerns that congress should know about, andrea. >> and then of course there was the very tough news conference the other day with the president of finland and jeff mason, our colleague here from reuters, questioning the president, trying to pin him down on what he wanted from zelensky, from the ukrainian president in that

phone call. >> reporter: the question, sir, is what did you want president zelensky to do about vice president biden and his son hunter. >> are you talking to me? >> reporter: yes, it was just a followup of what i just asked you, sir. >> listen. listen. are you ready? we have the president of finland, ask him a question. >> reporter: i have one for him, i wanted to follow up -- >> did you hear me? ask him a question. >> reporter: i will. >> i've given you a long answer. ask this gentleman a question. don't be rude. >> reporter: no, sir, i don't want to be rude, i just wanted you to have a chance to answer the question i asked you. >> i've answered everything. it's a whole hoax. and you know who's playing into the hoax, people like you and the fake news media. >> the president the united states in the east room berating you, and you stand your ground very politely and respectfully, jeff. that drove the news cycle for the next 48 hours because it was yesterday that he finally answered that question after refusing to answer it and

actually say, "are you talking to me," channeling his robert de niro. >> indeed. it was a kind of surreal moment. it was a legitimate question. >> absolutely. selv >> he was agitated, he was upset. we see the president lash out at journalists, in this case it was me, but he's done it before, when's frustrated, upset, feels under the gun, and he clearly feels that way this week. >> you were one of the pool reporters traveling with him to florida yesterday, no interactions, no difficulty that you experienced on the way? >> no, no interactions. it's hard to tell if there was any reason for that. he didn't end up coming and chatting with us on the plane, sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. he seemed like he was in a good mood in florida, unlike the previous day. but it's hard to tell sometimes what drives his decision to talk to reporters and what doesn't. it was certainly a heated moment the day before. >> you stood your ground. i seem to recall a similar

interaction, a difficult question you asked in helsinki with vladimir putin that was very demonstrable, the news of the day. in any case, great props to jeff mason. yamiche alcindor, there is a new message, a tweet, shi should pot out, from mitt romney. the republicans have been holding pretty much firm, backing up the president. but let me read this to you. when the only american citizen president trump singles out for china's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest it is anything other than politically motivated. by all appearances the president's brazen and unprecedented appeal to china and ukraine to investigate joe biden is wrong and appalling. this in direct response to the president's comments a half hour ago on the south lawn. >> that's right, andrea. what mitt romney is articulating is something that's very rare for republicans to do and that

is criticism of the president of the united states. president trump has said that the republicans are really with him, that everyone understands that his call with the president of ukraine was, quote, perfect. but what you have in mitt romney and at least in some other republicans who have spoken up is people saying this call was inappropriate, that it is problematic for the president to be talking to the president of ukraine and bringing up a political riflval. the president wants to make the case this is all about corruption and not about politics. but it's transparently about politics because he can't articulate anything he wants other countries to investigate. he's focused on joe biden because he's leading the polls to fight him for the nomination. mitch mcconnell is running ads saying give me money becausic stop the impeachment of president trump, so you have the majority leader raising money

off the fact that he can provide cover for president trump. we'll have to watch whether more republicans come out and sound like mitt romney. >> the text messages might be persuasive to a lot of people, if they take a breath and read through them. this all developing late last night coming off the hill. kristen welker, as we've gone through some of them, you've got kurt volker who was testifying, who brought these texts. he apparently said, heard from white house, assuming president convinces trump he will -- the president being zelensky, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will have visit to washington, that's something zelensky very much needed to prop him up as he was about to go up against vladimir putin, newly elected and vulnerable against the russian leader. then bill taylor, the ambassador in ukraine, taking the place, he was the chief of mission, the number two, he texts back, are you now saying that security

assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? and then taylor also saying, as i said on the phone, i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign, making it very, very clear. gordon sondla know why he was in the midst of this, he was a big campaign contributor to the president, a million dollars plus, he was the ambassador to the european union. ukraine is not part of the european union. he writes back, i believe you are incorrect about the president's intentions, the president has been clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. the president is trying to evaluate whether ukraine is going to truly adopt the transparency, et cetera, et cetera. it's clear, because there was a time lag, that this was a c.y.a. text message, kristen. >> there was a time lag, that is

significant, andrea. it's significant that the president's top diplomat in ukraine felt as though there was a quid pro quo effort going on as it related to u.s. assistance. the fact that there were text messages that talked about whether or not they were essentially withholding a visit with ukraine contingent on whether this investigation was launched into joe biden. i tried to ask president trump about that directly. he sort of waved me off. he also waved off my colleague kelly o'donnell a number of times but she was able to asked him broadly about these text messages. he used it to say there was no quid pro quo, that will be his argument, but these text messages muddy that messaging, andrea, no doubt about that. >> shannon, from what you see, they're not going to cooperate, they're going to insist on going to court and slugging it out. >> yes.

>> because even a subpoena is not going to change that. >> right. >> democrats have a better argument, having called this an impeachment inquiry, than they had after the mueller probe. but they can't actually afford the time lag to get this court litigation. >> that's why they're saying, if they're not going to hand the documents over, we just make that an obstruction of justice charge. but as you point out with these text messages, they are getting a growing body of evidence. you have the text messages that were turned over on thursday. the department of defense lawyer, top lawyer, said they would be turning over documents related to ukraine. they heard from cukurt volker yesterday, we've only gotten bits and pieces from. so there are areas they can get information from. as we've seen before, this question about a quid pro quo, oftentimes they say there is no quid pro quo even if it ends up that it's career there was. eventually we could hear the white house saying there's nothing wrong with asking for a

quid pro quo. >> it may be, as many people are saying, that the president himself has acknowledged the linkage between going after his opponents and wanting help from russia and now china. so they may not -- >> and there's nothing wrong with that, they say. >> and that is the -- well, thanks to all. and coming up, shadow diplomacy. texts from the state department raising questions about the relationship between the white house and mike pompeo. and joe biden is certainly not the frontrunner on the money front. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. en liberty mu customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar?

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secretary of state mike pompeo is distancing himself from the ukraine controversy, literally. he just left macedonia after touring italy and stopping in montenegro where earlier today the secretary ignored a question about kurt volker's testimony. >> reporter: do you still believe president trump was acting inappropriately? >> clearly heard and ignored. joining me now, wendy sherman, an msnbc global affairs contributor, and david ignatius, associate editor of "the washington post" and an msnbc

political contributor. welcome, both. wendy, having been at the state department, what is your reaction to these text messages where only bill taylor among the group of former officials and current officials, only bill taylor pushed back in those texts about linking a political goal with a foreign policy demand on a foreign leader? >> i know ambassador taylor and he replaced marie i don't hayov. bill is a seasoned professional, this is his second tour of ukraine. he was an ambassador under george bush. he is a stalwart, accomplished diplomat. i think what you're seeing in

that text is the reality that this was a quid pro quo, it was inappropriate, it was wrong. ambassador volker, who also he's a fine reputation, clearly was trying to navigate all this as a special envoy. and amazon sondland, who is a political appointee, gave about a million dollars to the trump campaign, was clearly in a very inappropriate role since he is the ambassador to the european union, has nothing to do with ukraine, really carrying the president's bidding, carrying rudy giuliani's bidding, all of this is quite concerning and comes on the heels of tremendous dip in morale at the state department. secretary pompeo playing a very aggressive role in support of the president of the united states, though clearly today, as you just pointed out, trying to run in the other direction. >> the secretary of state is supposed respond to the subpoena today. given the white house not responding to its subpoena, it's unclear what response we're going to get from the state department, probably late or

close of business today. david ignatius, in conversations with mike mcfaul, our former ambassador and former nsc official in the obama white house, ambassador to russia, as you well know, he was on with brian williams last night and he said that he's never seen a secretary of state participate in one of these calls. maybe it would take place if something very, very secure was being discussed or something with a five eye, one of those five intelligence partners, that kind of -- but not in his experience, nor a call to a foreign leader that did not involve either the national security adviser or the deputy national security adviser, neither of whom, we understand, was on this call. what was going on here? >> we don't know, and that's one of the questions that needs to be answered, can only really be answered in the end by pompeo. i'm told there are a few instances, very important, high

level contacts where the secretary of state would be on the call. it's noteworthy that kurt volker, the special envoy, wasn't briefed after the call in any detail, i'm told, by pompeo or others who could give him a detailed readout. the ukrainians didn't tell him all the details of what had happened. i agree with wendy, i think when you look through these texts carefully, they shred the argument that trump and giuliani have been making, that there's no quid pro quo here, what's all the commotion, move on, folks. you read those texts, and it couldn't be clearer from message to message as people try to get their minds around the fact that the president is asking for what one of the texts describes as a deliverable. in the conversation itself, the transcript that the white house released, the president of ukraine says, we are interested in buying more javelin antitank

missiles, a key element for their defense. and trump immediately responds, i would like to ask a favor, though. and then he goes on with various requests about their crazy theories about the origins of the 2018 investigations and manafort and others and their desire to get the dirt on boide and his son. it's rare to see something laid out in as clear detail as we now have with the texts and the other parts of the record that trump is pretending doesn't exist. >> then he amped it up yesterday and involved china. last night i sat down with susan rice, former national security adviser and former u.n. ambassador at the brennan center for justice at nyu and asked her about the president's overture

to china. >> we just basically opened our coat and exposed ourselves to our biggest adversaries. if you're china, he just told us what it's going to take to end this trade war. if we give him some manufactured, made-up dirt on joe biden, what do you think they think they can get in a negotiation on trade or for huawei or whatever it is they want? he just sold out our manufacturers, our farmers, every single one of us for some bs dirt that doesn't exist on joe biden. and i'll be gobsmacked if the chinese aren't smart enough to take him up on it. >> wendy sherman, susan rice's response, and also the whole role that mike pompeo is playing here, at the same time as we have this revived email

investigation which could seriously impair a whole lot of foreign service officers, junior, middle, and senior foreign service officers who are now unfairly being targeted according to most of them. >> without a doubt. susan rice, as usual, has put it out in plain speech. i think she's got it exactly right. it's why all of this is such a risk to our national security. and secretary pompeo, who frankly when he was a member of congress and we were going through the benghazi saga, really went after the state department, went after hillary clinton, demanded documents, didn't think they came fast enough, really was on the -- the shoe was definitely on the other foot. and quite frankly i would like to see him as secretary clinton did, spend 11 hours in front of a congressional committee testifying. i would like to know when mike pompeo -- that famous question, what did he know and when did he know it and what did he do about

it. what he seems to have done about it is to undermine the foreign service professionals, the public servants who try to protect our national security every single day. that's what masha yovanovitch was doing, that's what ambassador bill taylor is doing, that's what all our public servants do every single day. i take personal umbrage at the fact that mike pompeo is undermining democracy, undermining diplomacy, and undermining our diplomats. >> we'll have to leave it there. wendy sherman, we'll see whether or not mike pompeo turns over anything at all. david ignatius, we're watching a very different state department and it causes me a great deal of pain to see what our foreign service officers are going through right now. coming up, help wanted. president trump wants more foreign states to dig up dirt on his political rivals.

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willie. it is absolutely illegal for anyone to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with any election in the united states. and it is clear from our precedence that information can be a thing of value, opposition research, polling data, mailing lists. >> ellen weintraub is the fair of the federal election commission on "morning joe" today. joining me, harry litman, former u.s. attorney, contributing columnist for "the washington post." harry, what's been laid out so far is crystal enclosure. >> yes, i mean, if you were thinking about it in criminal terms, which we're not, if i got this file as a prosecutor i would be thinking bribery, extortion, i would be thinking as chair weintraub just said, campaign finance violation. if china is wrapped in it, i would be thinking rico and mail

and wire fraud. the acts that would be -- oh, and one other thing, the coverup from the misclassification of the zelensky transcript. >> and obstruction of justice. >> and obstruction of justice. but the basic idea, politically and criminally, because, you know, we know the justice department will not green light any prosecution, the president took something that belongs to everybody, not justi the money but the national security interests that were entailed in the $400 million to zelensky, and he wanted to exchange it for something of value, as ellen weintraub just says, for his campaign. both sides of that of course are illegal. then you add to it the whole thing is a fraud, as ambassador rice just said, the idea was really to concoct something. there's a fraud overlay and a coverup overlay. you would have a very long list of crimes if you were a prosecutor here. it's the same conduct that the

congress is looking at. >> and so if they get into a situation where pompeo refuses to comply with the subpoena or says in a response, i won't comply, we now know the white house will not comply. >> they won't comply about some things. but we have all these state department witnesses, all of -- you know, rudy giuliani is the shadow secretary of state here. he has a whole staff. he has very little legal ability to try to insulate himself. some of those people like volker are going to be coming forward. if they play the legal game, congress he's a better strangle he -- better strategy, do a ju-jitsu on it and make it a count of obstruction of justice. when judicial decisions come out and make it clear the without house's defense is meritless. >> and the testimony of

ambassador masha yovanovitch, who was smeared, pressured, withdrawn from ukraine and slimed by rudy giuliani and the president of the united states. >> i do think the whole guiliani staff are probably all lawyered up here. they have real lability. i think they're nervous. >> harry litman, thanks so much, of counsel to this program. coming up, party line. republicans continuing to play defense for the president. how long will that last? mitt romney has already broken ranks. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. s. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams.

the white house giving nancy pelosi an ultimatum, vote on impeachment in the house or the white house will not cooperate. house republicans are also circling the wagons around the president, planning a symbolic vote to rebuke intel share adam schiff. but the mood may be shifting among their constituents, as republican senator joni ernst discovered at a town hall back in iowa. >> when are you guys going to say enough? you stand there silent and your silence is supporting him in not standing up. >> the president is going to say what the president is going to do. it's up to us as members of congress to continue working, umm, with our allies, making sure that we remain strong in the face of adversity. >> all of our allies he's pushing aside, making fun of them on twitter. >> and ma'am -- >> we end up with, oh, we love

people from north korea or we love russia. >> i can't speak for him. >> joining me now is former congresswoman donna edwards, contributing columnist at "the washington post" and republican strategist rick tyler, political analysis for msnbc. joni ernst said, rick, that it was not appropriate for the president, i'm paraphrasing, to ask something political of a foreign leader. but she resisted a followup question at the same time. so it's beginning to be a sense of discomfort by some republicans. she's on the ballot this year. >> when citizens and voters go to town halls and put pressure on their members and those things can be aired, and you're seeing -- there's escalating support for impeachment. and that is going to have an effect. that's the way politics works. these members, these republican members will ultimately go the way of their districts. and what the democrats have to do is they have to make this abundantly clear what the president did. this was arms for dirt.

that's what it was. it was arms for dirt. he wanted to trade arms to get dirt on a political opponent. they have to cope it maniacally focused on that single issue. and not say the whistle-blower was incredible and this whole idea i'm doing it out in the open, it doesn't matter. it wasn't out in the open, all of this was secret. what he did with the ukrainians was secret. and he was caught. and then he thought, i'll be clever, i'll ask the chinese openly, and that will exonerate me. it doesn't matter if it was secret or done in the open. the democrats don't need the evidence, they have everything they need to have, just move forward with it. >> done in secret, and the secret memo on it was -- more secrets, a lot of secrets. meanwhile "the reno gazette" in

nevada, a reporter there has asked joe biden if he expected the race this brutal. this was wednesday in reno. >> reporter: did you think the attacks would be so brutal against hunter? >> yeah, i did, i did. the american people know me, know who i am. they know him, they know who he is. we're a family. we've been through a lot worse. and we know what real pain is. >> we know what real pain is. donna, he then, the next night or that night, i guess later that night, gave a tougher speech, pushing back harder against the president. but how is he doing? he's not doing that well with his fundraising. you know, is this having an impact on him? >> well, i mean, no doubt it would have an impact on anyone who's been attacked in this kind of way especially with the kind of untruths that the president of the united states has leveled against the former vice president. but look, i think democrats -- i

agree with rick that democrats have to be very focused and keep it very simple. this is a simple description of a president of the united states who betrayed his oath of office, who decided that he wanted to trade arms for dirt, and he got caught at it. and democrats need to make sure they put the vise around the president who acted against anything the founders could imagine, or maybe they could imagine someone acting this way. the candidates who are running, whether joe biden or other candidates, we can't get distracted. this is not about what joe biden didn't do or what hunter did or didn't do. this is about a president of the united states operating outside of the boundaries of the law and getting caught. and now we need to make sure that he is impeached to rebuke

his behavior so no future president can behave in this kind of way. >> i just want to point out exactly what rick tyler was just saying, donna, sally yates, former deputy attorney general, tweeted, after being caught secretly strong arming ukraine, potus is trying to hypnotize the american people into believing it can't be wrong if he says it out loud and if he actually thinks he has the absolute right to sic foreign powers on political rivals, he's even more dangerous. rick? >> it's absolutely true. arms for dirt is the ukraine model. but it could be arms for trade deals. it could be -- or i'm sorry, trade deals for dirt. it could be crimea for dirt. the fact is, the president is trading his power, his responsibility of foreign affairs for dirt on political opponents. he told george stephanopoulos on television that he would be willing to accept dirt on

political opponents. and instead stephanopoulos aske why do you want to invite that into american elections, and trump said, i don't think it's wrong. what i've learned is he's utterly predictable, you know exactly what's going to do. it's not surprising he would call on china now. and so the democrats have got to stay maniacally focused on what it is the president did and not all of these secondary players. kill the alligator closest to the boat. stop focusing on the three-foot alligator 100 yards away. >> rick tyler, donna edwards, we'll have to leave it there, thanks to both of you. coming up, new revelations about bernie sanders' health. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc no rush. it next .

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debate stage. >> i am not a doctor. i can tell you the campaign said it very clear. blockage in one artery. it is very common procedure. it was not any problems whatsoever. >> appreciate it. >> this weekend. you know we'll let you know. we'll let you know, how's that? >> our editor mark murray is here. first of all, we didn't know where he was. we were watching different hospitals and he's a candidate, he's the oldest of the candidate, he was 78 this past month. they have not told us whether a heart attack precipitated this? >> good news that he's feeling better and getting back on the campaign trail. in a news environment where we often hear so much bad and wrong doing. you are absolutely right on the

transparency front. when you are writing for the president. health has always been an issue for hillary clinton in 2016. sanders are the one coming after. we have not heard from medical professionals of what ended up happening. there may be people saying this is unfair. you should not be looking into this. when you are running for the highest office in the land, those kinds of questions are demanded, not only the president of the united states but the people who's running for office. >> bernie sanders is in good health in terms of fund raising. >> he's leading the field. >> and elizabeth warren. let's put it up there for all the leading candidates. take a look at that. what stands out is joe biden coming in fourth place. pedestrian numbers. here is joe biden, i consider him a co-front runner.

but, to me kind of what stands out for joe biden, given he's been in the news environment, we have been unfairly maligned by the united states. pitch in $20 or $10 to help us fight back to president trump. a few days happening and we are now in the fourth quarter and the third. i am surprised the campaign did not leap into this. hey, we raised $20 million the last week. we are ready to go and we are taking a fight to donald trump. there is been little of it. to me it shows a campaign that's not quite nimble on how to maximize a rough news environment. it takes the fight back to the president of the united states. >> the trump campaigns going up with ads this weekend in the early states, in the early caucus state against joe biden on this whole corruption issue.

>> it is important to kind of state the facts of this whole corruption issue. it is really a nothing burger. joe biden, there is never any kind of favor he was doing for his son on trying to get the prosecutors and ukraine fired. the prosecutors and ukraine, his dismissal was supported by everyone in the west. >> you see the trump campaign and trump white house really leading into this. to me this is trying to route into the big story. kurt volker, former state department envoy called joe biden a man of integrity. he was perhaps trying to force all or putting more pressure on ukraine and get ukraine back into the swing of things of the president. he was not going after biden. >> i read a man of integrity and someone of 20 years dealing with

never would have done any corrupt act being alleged. that only emphasizes the false a aspect of the story. >> tom people saying it is rich for the president to be going after the son of the possible opponent given the fact that he has not disclose his own finances and adult children are running trump business and getting all kinds of emolument. >> all the indictments on paul manafort and other people of the 2016 campaign is not as fired up about that than he is of joe biden. that's striking. >> that's corruption and whatever. >> mark murray, as always, thank you. >> we'll be right back. you. >> we'll be right back (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7 and maintained it. oh! under 7? (announcer) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds.

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