GOP And Dems Plot Strategies On Eve Of Impeachment Hearing; Trump Frustrated With His Chief Of Staff As WH Struggles With Infighting Over Impeachment.
BLITZER: We, of course, wish the former president a full and speedy recovery. To our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.</s>ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, just hours before historic televised impeachment hearings, President Trump reportedly considered firing the man who helped spark the impeachment investigation. Plus, chaos consuming the White House, Trump aggravated with his Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney and the White House Counsel reportedly at odds, so who is in charge? And surging in Iowa, Pete Buttigieg gaining steam in a new poll. Let's go out front. And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, on the eve of what could be the biggest threat to Trump's presidency, just hours before public impeachment hearings begin the President wants someone who is central to the entire impeachment investigation out, fired. This is according to The New York Times this hour which is reporting the President is targeting his Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. Atkinson is the one who deemed that whistleblower complaint urgent and credible, both urgent and credible. And because of that, according to The Times, Trump is accusing Atkinson of being disloyal and of trying to sabotage his presidency. Keep in mind, Atkinson is known as a serious professional, a career nonpartisan. Republican Senator Susan Collins telling The Hill newspaper, "I have a lot of regard for the Inspector General and believe that he did what he thought was right." And here's Trump's own Acting Director of National Intelligence defending Atkinson, when the whistleblower complaint came out.</s>JOSEPH MAGUIRE, ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I have no reason to doubt that Michael Atkinson did anything but his job.</s>BURNETT: Well, the President has a lot of doubts and is threatening now and however this investigation is unfolding, his administration's response, all of it has him on nails, pins and needles. And tonight, Republicans and Democrats are finalizing their strategy for those hearings tomorrow. Just a short time ago, Republicans holding a mock impeachment hearing. They know the stakes are high. One of the first witnesses is going to be Bill Taylor, of course. The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine who described in detail what he saw is a quid pro quo, telling investigators privately that his understanding that, "Security assistance money would not come until President Zelensky committed to pursue the Burisma investigation." Burisma, of course, is the company where hunter Biden served on the board. And already some Republicans are trying to tear Taylor down.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Is he a credible witness?</s>REP. LEE ZELDIN (R-NY): No, he's not second, third, fourth hand, no hand information in some cases. You can't actually know what was really said when you're relying on third and fourth hand information.</s>BURNETT: Well, it's important to just note the facts, Taylor's testimony has been corroborated under oath by four other officials who testified to a quid pro quo. And then there will be George Kent tomorrow who also will be testifying. Saying to the country what he said behind closed doors that, "POTUS wanted nothing less than President Zelensky to go to the microphone and say investigation, Biden and Clinton." There's a lot to get to tonight as battle lines are now drawn ahead of tomorrow's historic hearing. Kaitlan Collins is out front live in New York. And Kaitlan, what are you hearing about President Trump state of mind? Obviously, we are hours away from these impeachment hearings being public.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin publicly the President is saying he's not worried about this. But we know privately people are telling him these testimonies could be damaging. What we're waiting to see is just how damaging the White House thinks they are, what the public response to these hearing, seeing these current and former officials testify on camera about the President's actions, Rudy Giuliani's action, Mick Mulvaney's actions and, of course, the Secretary of State and from there on down. The President himself is keeping an eye personally on Marie Yovanovitch who's testifying on Friday. But officials have told us they actually think Bill Taylor who's first show tomorrow could prove the most damaging based on the transcript of his testimony that's been released so far. So they are watching this closely, but Erin the President is also paying close attention to what the republicans are going to be doing tomorrow, because he wants them to be aggressive in their questioning of these witnesses. So far he's tried to really undermine the credibility of several people here, including people who still currently work for him and that's what he's counting on these republicans doing tomorrow. As he saw during Robert Mueller's here, Corey Lewandowski's hearing. The question is whether or not which party is going to be more successful in shaping the message tomorrow. Now, you got to keep in mind, the President has a few hours open tomorrow on his schedule as he's waiting on the Turkish president to get here. But then that President is going to be here. The President is going to be hosting him in a series of meetings and then doing a press conference store afternoon, where it could be the first time we get the first real sense of reaction from Trump.</s>BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much and I want to go out front now to the former Assistant FBI Director Greg Brower, GOP Committee Counsel for House Oversight during the Clinton impeachment investigation, Sophia Nelson, our Chief Investigative Correspondent for Yahoo News, Michael Isikoff, and former Republican Senator Rick Santorum who voted to remove President Clinton from office during the Senate trial. Greg, let me start with you with The New York Times report, reporting President Trump has repeatedly discussed firing his own picked, his own handpicked IG for the Intelligence Committee Michael Atkinson because Atkinson determine the whistleblower's complaint was credible and urgent. The President apparently believes he's disloyal and is trying to sabotage his presidency. What does this tell you?</s>GREG BROWER, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Well, it concerns me greatly, Erin, as a former Federal Inspector General myself, it's concerning but it should concern all Americans that this Inspector General like all inspector generals was just doing his job and for that has obviously drawn the President's ire. We've seen this movie before with respect to FBI agents, prosecutors and others who seem to have a commitment to finding the facts, facts that the President may not like. But let me point out one thing that should also concern us and that is this idea that this IG or any IG should be loyal to the President. That's not how this system works.</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>BROWER: The IGs are in place to root out waste, fraud and abuse wherever they see it within their respective agencies or departments. That is their sole mission. They don't play politics. They're not loyal to anybody. The only thing they're loyal to is the truth and that's how they do their jobs.</s>BURNETT: So Senator, according to The Times people close to the President believe the political consequences of moving forward with this, trying to fire his Inspector General would be devastating in the senate which as you know, obviously, is ultimately what decides whether a President of the United States (inaudible) ...</s>RICK SANTORUM, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, 2012 & 2016: Remember we've seen this with the Mueller investigation where he's going to fire Bob Mueller or get someone to fire Bob Mueller and he never did. He talked about it. I'm not surprised that the President, anybody in the line of fire that did anything with the presidency is detrimental to the President is going to want that guy removed.</s>BURNETT: That's how he is.</s>SANTORUM: That's how he is. And people sit down with him and talk it through and he weighs the pluses and minuses as to whether to remove him or not. And I think the pluses are greatly outweighed by the minuses here. Because you got to remember, you got to keep a majority of your majority in the Senate happy and you don't want to do anything to threatened that.</s>BURNETT: Those we hear from Senator Collins, that's not going to go over (inaudible) ...</s>SANTORUM: It's not going to go and it won't go with others, and what's the point? I mean, it's not like he's going to continue to do things that is going to harm the President. I mean, it's a one and done and time to move on.</s>BURNETT: Sophia, look, the news coming hours ahead of the first public impeachment hearings and Bill Taylor is the top diplomat to Ukraine, George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the State Department, both of them are going to testify publicly tomorrow. And I just want to give people an understanding of how this is going to go. Opening question for the Democrats is going to be led by a former Federal Prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, Daniel Goldman. For the Republicans, Steve Castor will be leading off, the Chief Investigative Counsel for the House Oversight panel who moved over to intelligence. They're going to have 90 minutes, then the committee members will each get five minutes to question the witnesses. So Sophia, you were there for the last time there were public impeachment hearings, what do you make of this layout tomorrow and what do Democrats need to do to have this not backfire on them?</s>SOPHIA NELSON, FORMER HOUSE GOP OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE COUNSEL DURING CLINTON IMPEACHMENT: Well, I think a couple of things, first and foremost, we all need to take a collective deep breath. Tomorrow is very serious. When the founders designed impeachment, it was a device to remove a rogue executive. It was not meant to be this partisan football. So the first thing that the Democrats are going to want to do tomorrow is to establish the seriousness of the underlying act which is whether or not the President engaged in a quid pro quo. They're going to do that with Mr. Taylor's testimony and other testimony and then, of course, the Republicans will have their turn. And if they're smart, Erin, they're not going to go wild and they're not going to go on this name calling and demeaning thing like we saw in some of the other hearings. They're going to ask serious questions and they're going to show that they also want to get to the truth, whatever that may be. And so the process should be very sober, I expect it to be. I expected both chairman and ranking members have told their sides what they want them to do. I've been through this process, as you mentioned, on oversight not on judiciary, but it's a very serious process when you have witnesses coming forward sworn in testimony and having members asked questions on a matter of consequence like this. So I expect it to be actually pretty sober tomorrow.</s>BURNETT: And Michael, Congressman Jim Jordan was moved over to the Intelligence Committee to defend Trump. It is something he has done already with vigor. So people understand, Jim Jordan, if you don't know the face, you do when you see this.</s>REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The Democrats just put us through three years of this phony Russia collusion investigation and now on the heels of that they come right back with this. We've all seen the transcript. There's nothing there.</s>JORDAN: I think he's got you guys all spun up and obviously it's the case ...</s>GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS CHIEF ANCHOR: You're not ...</s>JORDAN: ... because you've asked me the question, you've asked me the question ...</s>STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're not answering it.</s>JORDAN: ... like four times.</s>STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, because you haven't answered it.</s>JORDAN: I don't think he really meant go investigate ...</s>BURNETT: And Michael, here he is questioning Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen to get a sense of how Jim Jordan, why he has been placed in this room by Republicans. When Cohen testified against the President, here's Jordan.</s>JORDAN: How long do you work in the White House?</s>MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I never worked in the White House.</s>JORDAN: That's the point isn't it, Mr. Cohen?</s>COHEN: No, sir.</s>JORDAN: Yes, it is.</s>COHEN: No, it's not, sir.</s>JORDAN: You wanted to work in the White House.</s>COHEN: No, sir.</s>JORDAN: You didn't get brought to the dance.</s>BURNETT: How important could Jordan be, Michael?</s>MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO! NEWS: Look, Jim Jordan plays very well to the Trump base on Fox News. But the audience for tomorrow is a very different one. This is really the opportunity for both sides to make a case to the American public. That part of the American public that has not yet determined where they are on this matter. And so I think that in many ways, this is an entirely new phase of the impeachment saga. The Democrats may have some of the same issues. They've been playing prosecutors playing to their base, to the progressive base that wants to see the President impeached, but they now have to shift to this more in sorrow than anger mode that would probably play well to that broad sector of the American public. It's going to be really interesting to see if both sides can restrain themselves and conduct the kind of sober hearings that we were just talking about.</s>BURNETT: Well, certainly to hope they all understand the import of it and that there are professional questioners at the beginning obviously proved to be of used to doing that. Senator, Congressman Zeldin and Jordan have both Tried to suggest that Bill Taylor, obviously, the lead witness, top Diplomat to Ukraine, three decades of public service, bronze star in Vietnam, 101st Airborne, many other things, someone who's lauded by both Democrats and Republicans. They've said he's not credible and they said that he and others who have testified, that have testified negatively about the President are Never Trumpers, here they are.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's a Never Trumper and his lawyers are Never Trumper.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, what evidence do you have that Colonel Vindman is a Never Trumper?</s>TRUMP: We'll be showing that to you real soon.</s>SANTORUM: Yes. I think this is an opportunity. I've been hearing this from many people from the White House and other places that the stories of some of these witnesses under cross examination don't hold up. And this is an opportunity for them to do.</s>BURNETT: Right.</s>SANTORUM: I think they're going to be polite, but I think they're going to be tough. They're going to go after the holes in the stories and point that a lot of this is not firsthand information.</s>BURNETT: OK. But what you're saying is, maybe you're not, are you saying that they're Never Trumpers, they're political, they're lying?</s>SANTORUM: No. No. I'm not saying ...</s>BURNETT: No, you're just saying that they're the truth as best they know it and make - OK.</s>SANTORUM: They're telling their perspective on things and it's ...</s>BURNETT: But that's different than what people are saying that they're not credible, that they're Never Trumpers, so that's not the same thing.</s>SANTORUM: There's a whole realm on both sides as to where people are and how people assess this. Some are just dismissing this out of hand as some cabal. Others are taking it seriously and trying to poke holes. I think what you'll see here is a little mix of both, but I think primarily it was said earlier, I think that they'll take this seriously. They know this isn't a moment. I went through the impeachment and you it's an incredibly weighty experience unlike anything else that you go through as a Member of Congress to know that this doesn't happen very often and it's a big deal and you know this is your moment and you don't want to blow it. So I don't think you're going to see the histrionics that we've seen in the past.</s>BURNETT: All right. Well, I hope you're right. All right. Please stay with me. White House chaos. Next, the President's actually Chief of Staff apparently at odds with the White House Counsel. These are supposed to be two of the people in charge over the impeachment strategy, but on the eve of the big day, they're in a fight. Plus, Chairman Adam Schiff, the man presiding over tomorrow's hearing says bribery may not be included in the articles of impeachment. What is he talking about? And Democrats ruling out a new plan to tax the rich. Could it backfire on Democrats in 2020 or not?