Chuck Schumer Seeks Vote On Whistleblower's Complaint; Mitt Romney Wants Whistleblower Story, Trump Phone Call Transcript.
KING: Some images from the United Nations, President Trump meeting there with Prime Minister Modi of India. The two leaders also were in the news the other day. In their discussions today, the president said the United States is moving forward on a trade agreement with India. He also talked about his friend Prime Minister Modi. No big news out of that but we want to show you some of the president's meetings as he go through his agenda at the United Nations General Assembly. Back here in Washington, the president's party in the Senate could soon be forced to go on the record about the whistleblower complaint that's igniting new talk of potential impeachment. The Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says he plans to request a vote demanding that information be shared with the relevant congressional committees and that Republicans, Senator Schumer says, have a responsibility here.</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): I hope the majority leader and Senate Republicans would not block it. I hope they will rise to the occasion and realize this is their constitutional duty and realize that this involves the security of the United States.</s>KING: Most Senate Republicans don't want to talk about this issue. Many say it's not that big of a deal. But at least two have said they'd like to hear more.</s>SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I think it'd be very helpful to get to the bottom of the facts, to follow the law that gets us there. That would include the whistleblower as well as the transcript of the conversation.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You want the whistleblower complaint to be turned over to Congress?</s>SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): I would like to have the whistleblower come and talk to me so we know what his story is. I don't want to hear it secondhand.</s>KING: The body language there tells you everything. Mitt Romney, really the only Republican in the Senate to say we need information here, and if true, this is very damaging standing there and taking questions from reporters. Senator Grassley trying to walk away as fast as possible even though he at least goes on the record saying, I would like to hear from the whistleblower.</s>CAYGLE: And look what happened to Mitt Romney yesterday offered light criticism, I would say, and then Trump tweeted from his account, mocking him. I mean, other Republicans do not want to be on the other end of Trump's Twitter feed. So I think they're trying the same playbook that they've always done which is deflect, accuse Democrats of trying to politicize, call it a witch hunt. And, you know, don't criticize the president but don't defend him either in some cases.</s>KING: To that point, let's just show what the president is tweeting an attack on Senator Romney who of course was the Republican nominee in 2012. We won't go into the details here but that tells me that number one, the president doesn't like to be criticized. But he only goes after people when they make him nervous. And so -- now Senator Romney, I was going to call him Governor Romney, apologies. He was governor of Massachusetts beforehand. At least he had the strength and the courage to stand up and say, can we please see this information. The president of the United States may have withheld military aid to put pressure on a foreign leader. Can we see the information?</s>KUCINICH: That is true.</s>KING: But the rest of it is what I call the grand ostrich party where he just wants to put his head in the sand and hope this goes away. And this is not the first time it's happened in the Trump administration but it's happening again.</s>KING: That is true, but not all senators have the luxury of Mitt Romney who will be out of office no matter -- or will be in office and not up for re-election until even if President Trump does get a second term. So he has a little bit of freedom and from a state that loves him. That said, yes, the fact that everyone else is sort of running the other way and trying not to weigh in on this is telling. Particularly those who are up for re-election. Ben Sasse, where are you, I seem to remember you actually criticizing the president. But I don't think, though, that what Senator Schumer is doing is going to go anywhere. I'd be -- saying one thing is -- saying what Mitt Romney is saying is different than actually registering a vote with a bunch of Democrats.</s>TALEV: Yes, the only guy who's like about equally as excited as those Republicans were to talk about this is Chuck Schumer. Like he's going to have to -- if the House Democrats do this and pass it over his ways like he's going to have a deal with them, but this is really not the strategy that he would seek out. Because if you're a Democrat like you're running for the Senate on your own merits and your own campaigns. Maybe it's healthcare or whatever these issues, you're going to be running on impeachment now. That's going to be the litmus test that's going to affect everything. If Democrats can position this right, play this right, put this in the right terms and it kind of catches hold in the public opinion shifts as we were talking about earlier, fine, that's another ball game. But --</s>KING: And then the question is do we actually see any of this? Do we have more facts? Do we have the whistleblower complaint? Do we have, Mr. President, you could do this in a nanosecond, the transcript of that call. Bill Weld, not taken very seriously as a presidential candidate but he is challenging President Trump in the Republican primaries. I'm old enough to remember former U.S. attorney worked in the Justice Department in the Reagan days actually quit on a matter of the principle. He says this about the president.</s>BILL WELD (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election, it couldn't be clearer. And that's not just undermining Democratic institutions, that is treason. It's treason pure and simple. And the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death. That's the only penalty. The penalty on the constitution is removal from office, and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he could work out a plea deal.</s>OLORUNNIPA: That's pretty</s>KING: That's out there.</s>OLORUNNIPA: But I don't expect many Republicans to follow him down that path. Instead, Republicans want to say, you know, we're sticking with the president, this is a deep state plot to take him out of office. This is just the Democrats doing what they always do, attacking the president. I would not expect any more Republicans to follow.</s>KING: And as they make that argument of pointing Hunter Biden, we should remember it was a Trump administration intelligence community official, someone complained to the inspector general appointed by the president of the United States Donald Trump. Trump-appointed IG went to Congress. We'll continue to follow the story. Thanks for joining us on INSIDE POLITICS. Don't go anywhere.