Democrats Plan To Take Impeachment Inquiry Public After Vote; Democrats Balance Impeachment Ahead Of 2020; Trump Wants To Read Ukraine Call In Fireside Chat.
S.E. CUPP, CNN HOST: Welcome to UNFILTERED. Here's tonight's headline. It's official. The impeachment inquiry was formalized with a vote in the House this week despite the fact that such a vote was constitutionally unnecessary, despite the fact that House rules implemented by a Republican majority back in 2015 don't require such a vote. Leading up to the vote, it was yet another week of damning testimony from career diplomats ask national security officials, including both non-partisan and political appointees. The top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, told House investigators he was concerned President Trump was blocking $400 million in aid to Ukraine to force that country to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden, according to two sources familiar with his deposition. And when he raised concerns about the transcript of the now infamous July 25th call between President Trump and the Ukrainian president, he was told to keep quiet by the National Security Council's top legal adviser. An aide to former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Tim Morrison, supported previous testimony about how long the effort to block military aid had been going on. He confirmed an attempted quid pro quo but said he did not view the July phone call as illegal. He did however, ask the same NSC lawyer to review it. No surprise, the president is putting that nugget in the win column. But complaints about the process of impeachment were answered by Democrats with the formal guidelines this week which mean we could get testimony transcripts as early as next week and public hearings in a couple of weeks. Now, as for what happens next, here's the deal. Impeachment is both a practical and a political process. Keep that in mind as we move forward here. So, practically, the conclusion is fairly straightforward and looks inevitable. The House, controlled by majority Democrats, will likely vote to impeach the president. Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats might say no one comes to Congress to impeach a president, but that's not technically true. I can think of at least a couple who ran on wanting to impeach the president. One even used colorful language to describe what she was going to do to him. Okay, so we can also practically conclude that the Senate, which will serve as jurors in the trial of the president, and is made up of majority Republicans, will likely not vote to convict and remove the president. So he'll likely be right where he when is this is all said and done. Okay, that's the practical part of impeachment. What we don't yet know is how the politics of impeachment will shake out for Trump, for Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and for the 2020 contenders. That is still a huge question mark. Will impeachment help Trump? Will it damage him? If this drags on through to 2020, will it hurt Democratic presidential candidates? Will it hurt swing state candidates in districts Trump won? There are some early warning signs, some things we do know. Two Democrats voted against the formal impeachment rules this week. They are both from districts Trump won by double digits. Not a single House Republican voted for it. That's not that surprising. But what will Republican senators do? Some are starting to shift off Trump's talking point that there was no quid pro quo and are admitting, yes, there was a quid pro quo, but that it's not illegal, as Senators John Kennedy and Ted Cruz reportedly said in a private GOP lunch this week. That's not great for Trump. Now, what about voters? Remember them? Well, the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows 49 percent support impeachment and removal right now and 47 percent are opposed. That's a real slim majority. And independents are reversed, actually. 47 percent support, 49 percent oppose. That should be troubling for Democrats. Throw on top of all of that, there's potentially a government shutdown looming on the horizon, which could delay the impeachment process even further. And that benefits Trump. There's no way to tell yet how the politics of impeachment will shake out. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was careful this week not to overstate their position, saying, I do think we have enough, we've had enough for a very long time, but as long as there is corroboration, we might as well get to see some more, and then we'll see. So following these two tracks, the practical and the political, let's break them both down. First we start with the practical. Joining me now is Congressman -- Democratic Congressman from California and member of the House Oversight Committee, Ro Khanna. Congressman, thanks for joining me. What do you think of this week's vote accomplished practically?</s>REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Well, it sent a clear message that the House Democrats are unified in seeing that the president abused his office by pressuring Zelensky to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden. Joe Biden was up in the polls, Joe Biden is the candidate that the White House has said they most fear, and this was the president's effort to tarnish him. And most people who look at that say it's wrong, and it's unconstitutional.</s>CUPP: So it sent an almost unified message, I'm sure you're aware, two Democrats in Trump districts, Jeff Van Drew in New Jersey, Collin Peterson in Minnesota, they broke ranks with your party. Does that indicate at least some Democrats are concerned that there will be a political cost to this?</s>KHANNA: Not really, S.E., because there were so many Democrats in Trump districts, in Iowa, in Michigan, in Virginia, where Trump carried the district by ten points who voted for the impeachment inquiry. So, obviously, when you have a caucus that is 230-odd members, you're going to lose one or two votes. But it's remarkable how unified we actually were, and that wouldn't have been the case a couple months ago.</s>CUPP: So President Trump has already been damaged by this. A new poll, 66 percent of people say he's acted in a way that's unpresidential. But in that same poll, some bad news for Democrats, Congressman. Views of the Democrats' handling of the inquiry tilt negative. 50 percent disapprove of the way Democrats have handled this, 43 percent approve. Pelosi's approval is also underwater. I know you think that this is important no matter what the polls say, no matter what the political consequences, I get that. But the political consequences might not be theoretical. What if Democrats lose the House because of it?</s>KHANNA: I don't think we will, S.E. Let me tell you what I think the polls are saying. Most Americans believe that the president's conduct was wrong and there was an abuse of office. But there's also a frustration with every branch of government because what people want is us to focus on infrastructure, on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, on education, and they feel like we're not getting anything done. And the ambivalence is reflected in the polls. They agree what the president did is wrong, but they want us to actually do things that are going to improve people's lives. And that's the candidly challenge for Democrats. We have to do our constitutional responsibility, but we have to be focused on our positive agenda and convince people that our priority really is fixing problems in their everyday lives.</s>CUPP: So when -- do you know when the public hearings will begin? And part two, are you concerned that there will be a circus with everyone watching?</s>KHANNA: I believe they're going to begin before Thanksgiving. I hope that we have a vote before the end of the year. I agree with Columnist David Brooks, that we need to get this process over with, a vote to impeach, put it in the Senate, and then come out with our positive agenda in 2020. And we to do it in a dignified way, it needs to be evidence-focused and a few witnesses, not going on into a circus, as you put it.</s>CUPP: Well, let's talk about some of those key witnesses and who they might be. I know Democrats really want to talk to Don McGahn, the president's former White House Counsel. On Thursday, a federal judge questioned the DOJ argument that McGahn is immune from testifying. So we'll have to wait and see where that goes. But what would you want to hear from him specifically, if he is forced to testify?</s>KHANNA: Well, with Don McGahn, there is questions about the president's obstruction of justice, not just in the case of Ukraine but also in the case with the whole Mueller investigation. But I believe that the most critical witness would be Ambassador Taylor. The public testimony is that Ambassador Taylor had knowledge of the call, he can testify that Rudy Giuliani basically was conducting an operation in Ukraine compromising our national security to advance the president's re-election agenda, and that they were withholding aid unless Zelensky announced a public investigation against Biden. I think we have to keep it simple. We have to keep it focused on that national security breach and have a few witnesses who will corroborate that, and then vote and put this on the Senate.</s>CUPP: Congressman Ro Khanna, always good to have you, thanks so much.</s>KHANNA: Thank you,</s>S.E. CUPP: OK, impeachment is almost inevitable. How the Democratic Party handles that with voters could have decisive impacts come 2020. It's just around the corner. And the president's campaign is actually banking on impeachment being a political win for him, for leaning into it. Could they be right? All of that still to come.