[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn:] Senator Lindsey Graham offers a resolution slamming the Democrats' impeachment inquiry, as President Trump demands a stronger defense from fellow Republicans. While GOP lawmakers attack in public, are they worried? Messaging mess. We're told the White House admits its anti- impeachment communication strategy needs some work. At the same time, the Trump team is insisting it was OK for the president to call members of his own party human scum. Giuliani's defense. Mr. Trump's personal lawyer is offering a new explanation of this central role in the Ukraine scandal, as he looks to hire an attorney of his own. Is Rudy Giuliani facing more legal danger every day? And fire emergency. A raging inferno explodes in size in California, forcing about 2,000 people from their homes. CNN is on the scene where 5,000 acres were scorched in just three hours. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in
[The Situation Room. Announcer:] This is CNN breaking news.
[Blitzer:] We're following breaking news on Republicans attempting to put more fire into the fight against impeachment. Senator Lindsey Graham announcing a new resolution condemning the process House Democrats are using to investigate the president, this as Mr. Trump is praising GOP lawmakers who took his call for a more aggressive defense to heart by storming a closed-door deposition. Tonight, some Republicans are privately acknowledging new impeachment anxiety, after a top diplomat's testimony linking the president to a quid pro quo in the Ukraine scandal, one GOP source calling it a game- changer. This hour, I will talk with Democratic Congressman Andre Carson. He's on the House Intelligence Committee. And our correspondents and analysts are also steady by. First, let's go to Capitol Hill. Our Congressional Correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty, is all over the story. Sunlen, Lindsey Graham is taking direct aim at the impeachment process, as Republicans try to show the president they're defending him tooth and nail.
[Sunlen Serfaty, Cnn Congressional Correspondent:] That's right, Wolf. Senator Lindsey Graham tonight releasing a resolution condemning how the House Democrats are going about this impeachment probe and exactly the process they are using along the way. This is just the latest sign of Republicans attempting to get in line with President Trump, responding very, very clearly to the demands that President Trump made of them earlier in the week, when he called on them to get tougher and defend him much more aggressively in this impeachment probe.
[Serfaty:] Tonight, congressional Republicans are ratcheting up their push to defend President Trump amid the House Democrats' rapidly growing impeachment inquiry.
[Sen. Lindsey Graham:] It's unfair to the president and it's dangerous to the presidency.
[Serfaty:] Senator Lindsey Graham introducing a resolution co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemning the process that Democrats are using for impeachment.
[Graham:] The process you're engaging in regarding the attempted impeachment of President Trump is out of bounds, is inconsistent with due process as we know it.
[Serfaty:] Even as Graham argued the opposite as House manager in the 1998 Clinton impeachment proceedings.
[Graham:] The depositions, I think, will determine whether or not we go forward with hearings. I think it's a very smart thing to do, is to depose these people and find out what they have got to say, and not drag this thing out unnecessarily.
[Serfaty:] This on the heels of House Republicans storming into the secure classified room on Wednesday, delaying Pentagon official Laura Cooper's testimony, where she eventually laid out for lawmakers how foreign aid is disbursed and how the Ukraine aid deviated from the normal process.
[Rep. Mark Meadows:] The star witnesses for the Democrats, and I can just say that there are conflicting testimonies even today.
[Serfaty:] All this coming after President Trump's very clear directive to Republicans earlier in the week.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] The Republicans have to get tougher and fight. We have some that are great fighters. But they have to get tougher and fight.
[Serfaty:] A new target Republicans are rallying around, casting doubt on Bill Taylor, the president's top diplomat in Ukraine, who this week laid out the clearest evidence so far of an apparent quid pro quo in his testimony.
[Sen. John Thune:] There's a lot of secondhand information, a lot of sort of hearsay, not hearsay, but in the sense that it was passed on. It wasn't a direct conversation.
[Serfaty:] Even as GOP sources tell CNN Taylor's damning opening statement is quote "reverberating," some calling it a game- changer. Meantime, House Democrats are also strategizing their next moves.
[Question:] Was there a quid pro quo?
[Serfaty:] After a slew of closed-door-only testimony for weeks, sources tell CNN Democrats are now aiming to move from the behind-the- scenes phase of the investigation into the public phase by mid- November. But sources caution that timeline could still slip until after Thanksgiving.
[Rep. Chrissy Houlahan:] That will be the point where I think that we will try and figure out what the best combination of people to speak in a more transparent and public way would be.
[Serfaty:] That next new public phase would include releasing transcripts of the closed-door depositions, holding public hearings, and bringing back some of the witnesses they have already heard from, like former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Trump's former top Russia adviser Fiona Hill, Trump's top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, and the U.S. ambassador to the E.U., Gordon Sondland. Once that phase is done, the committees would then release a public report to draw up articles of impeachment and vote in the House Judiciary Committee. That would be followed by a full House vote on articles of impeachment, potentially by the end of the year.
[Rep. Eric Swalwell:] What we're doing right now is a first pass. We are interviewing the witnesses that we know may have been involved and actually paring down that information, so that you can pull out what's relevant for the public.
[Serfaty:] And, looking ahead, sources tell CNN that Democrats are now starting to preliminarily plan for the potential writing of those articles of impeachment, sorting out what exactly would be included, how broad, how narrow these articles would potentially be. These conversations clearly are very preliminary at this point, but one lawmaker, Wolf, telling CNN that there are conversations, people are talking and certainly thinking about what the articles of appeasement indeed would look like.
[Blitzer:] Very important and very interesting. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you. Let's go to the White House right now for more on the GOP defense against impeachment. We're joined by our chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, the president is praising his Republican defenders and attacking his Republican critics.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Chief White House Correspondent:] That's right, Wolf. The White House is trying to rally Republicans behind President Trump after days of damaging testimony in the impeachment inquiry. They brought senators over here to the White House earlier today. And aides to the president are welcoming that resolution that Sunlen was just talking about from Senator Lindsey Graham condemning the impeachment inquiry that's backed by other GOP leaders. The White House is even backing up the president's label for his Republican critics as human scum.
[Acosta:] Reeling from bombshell testimony in the Ukraine investigation, the president's defenders latched on to a Senate Republican resolution to condemn the impeachment inquiry, accusing House Democrats of denying due process to Mr. Trump.
[Graham:] I'm not here to tell you that Donald Trump's done nothing wrong. I'm not here to tell you anything other than that the way they're going about it is really dangerous for the country. And we need to change course while we can in the House.
[Acosta:] The president stayed behind closed doors for much of the day huddling with GOP senators, including some who have raised questions about his phone call with the leader of Ukraine. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham said he spoke with acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who acknowledged the White House has to improve its message on impeachment.
[Graham:] I talked to Chief of Staff Mulvaney. I think they're working on getting a messaging team together.
[Acosta:] For now, it's Mr. Trump who's driving that message, giving a shout-out to House Republicans after they stormed into closed-door testimony this week, tweeting: "Thank you to House Republicans for being tough, smart and understanding in detail the greatest witch-hunt in American history."
[Stephanie Grisham, White House Press Secretary:] He was happy to see it happen. He was very supportive of it, as he should be.
[Acosta:] The White House is doubling down on the president's tweet aimed at his Republican critics. "The never-Trumper Republicans," the president tweeted, "though on respirators, with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our country than the do- nothing Democrats. Watch out for them. They are human scum." Nothing wrong with that, according to Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.
[Grisham:] The people who are against him and who have been against him and working against him since the day that he took office are just that. They deserve strong language like that.
[Acosta:] Republicans once favored closed-door inquiries when they controlled the House. Consider now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's defense of the GOP's Benghazi investigation.
[Mike Pompeo, U.s. Secretary Of State:] Our goal was fact-finding. And five-minute questions by a member of Congress and then rotating to the next one is not a very conducive way to quickly garner information and have a conversation in a setting where you can really engage. And so we felt like these closed-door interviews were a much more effective way to get the facts for the American people.
[Acosta:] On the Trump administration's green light to Turkey's invasion of Syria, Vice President Mike Pence met with House Republicans, who have blasted the president's policy. Mr. Trump offered some advice to Kurds abandoned by U.S. forces, tweeting: "Perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the oil region." The president's Syria policy has outraged key Christian conservatives in his base.
[Pat Robertson, Host, "the 700 Club":] And I promise you as I'm sitting here right now, Russia is going to come against us, Turkey is going to come against us, China's going to come against us. It's like the president of the United States is modeling Neville Chamberlain.
[Acosta:] Now, frustrated with this impeachment inquiry, the White House is taking another shot at the media, instructing federal agencies across the government to cancel their subscriptions to "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post." The move, the White House says, will save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if the decision won't impact the coverage of the impeachment inquiry. Wolf, they can cancel their subscriptions all they want. They can't cancel the coverage Wolf.
[Blitzer:] That's absolutely correct. Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you. Democratic Congressman Andre Carson is joining us. He's a key member of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
[Rep. Andre Carson:] Thank you for having me, Wolf. What a pleasure.
[Blitzer:] So you have heard the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham accusing your House impeachment inquiry of secrecy, of violating the president's due rights due process rights. What do you make of that?
[Carson:] I think it's all political pandering. I think that what happened yesterday I was in that SCIF, Wolf was embarrassing. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. And it was a mob mentality of sorts. It was very disturbing, but it was all theatrical. But if this were in another day and time and era, we would have seen worse actions. And so the vitriol and the hatred coming from some of them, I think many of them were just following the group, but some of them had the kind of animosity. And they were so protective of a president. It was very disappointing. The founding fathers who some my Republican colleagues love to cite had in mind co-equal branches of government. They were simply acting as minions for Trump's tyranny. Very embarrassing, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] But I assume you will eventually, probably sooner, rather than later correct me if I'm wrong will not only hold public hearings, but release the transcripts of those secret depositions.
[Carson:] Well, that's a that's a question that should be directed to Chairman Schiff. But he has stated publicly that, at some point, we will have public hearings. The extent of those hearings has yet to be determined. But one thing that's clear. The Intelligence Committee, the Oversight Committee, Foreign Affairs, we are doing our due diligence in making sure these depositions run smoothly. And the Intelligence Committee, we have really been the focal point of this whole matter. We have an obligation to protect our intelligence agencies and the intelligence community and to create a safe pipeline, Wolf, for those whistle-blowers, so they can feel safe.
[Blitzer:] Senator Graham also implied that the reason the House Democrats don't want to hold a formal House floor vote on impeachment authorizing an impeachment inquiry is because the vote would fail. How do you respond?
[Carson:] I don't agree. I think that there are other matters at hand. Look, we can conduct this investigation, we can conduct the depositions and hearings all at the same time while dealing with infrastructure needs. The president's a developer. He has yet to come to the table with Democrats in a very reasonable manner to talk about infrastructure. We have educational needs. We have national security needs that must be addressed in a way that doesn't demonize immigrants, people of color and Muslims.
[Blitzer:] We're hearing that Democrats are now debating the scope, the eventual scope of the House impeachment inquiry. What are you hearing about that? What can we anticipate?
[Carson:] Well, I can I think we can anticipate rule of law being instituted. I think that we want to streamline these efforts. I think my Republican colleagues, many of them, at least privately, are deeply concerned about the reality in which we live. I think threat disappointed by the weakness that they have seen from the leadership within their own caucus, a leadership that is unwilling to stand up to President Trump and say, you know what, sir, enough is enough. You have done enough damage. It is time for us to focus on an agenda that reflects the people's interest, and not about your reelection efforts for 2020 or covering for you and this quid pro quo scheme with Iran [sic] that has failed miserably.
[Blitzer:] Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense, appeared before your committee yesterday for her deposition. She described an irregular process by which aid to military assistance to Ukraine was suspended. What new questions does all this raise?
[Carson:] Well, I think it certainly reaffirms the questions we have had about Donald Trump's integrity. I think it's reaffirmed our suspicions as it relates to those who are around him who are afraid to correct him when he's in error. I think it also has reaffirmed the questions we have had about the lackluster leadership and the lack of intestinal fortitude when it comes to Mitch McConnell, when it comes to Republican leadership and their willingness to not only protect their caucus against Donald Trump, but to make sure they formulate an agenda that is in synch with the founders' vision of co-equal branches of government. They have failed to do so, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] "The Washington Post" is just now reporting that, back in late August, the Trump administration delayed certain trade privileges to Ukraine. Is that something that's come up in your investigation, not only delaying military assistance to Ukraine, but also these trade privileges, presumably to squeeze them into doing what the president and Rudy Giuliani wanted?
[Carson:] Well, these things are ongoing discussions that we have been having for the past few weeks. I think, in the upcoming days, we're going to have more answers for you. But what you can rely on is that these staff-led, primarily staff-led depositions, in which members have been given an opportunity to ask questions, these professional staffers are the best of the best. The members who come down are bright, we're engaged, we're taking copious notes, and we're deeply committed to maintaining our democracy, if you will, and not allowing a group of some of our colleagues who wish to show this undying loyalty to a president who has dishonored our country and continues to dishonor our country with his antics. He needs to be firm, put people around him who will tell him the truth, so we can preserve our republic.
[Blitzer:] Congressman Andre Carson with very strong words, indeed. Thanks so much for joining us.
[Carson:] What an honor. Thank you, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Just ahead: As Rudy Giuliani looks to hire a personal lawyer for himself, is he hurting his own legal defense? We're going to talk about his evolving claims about the Ukraine scandal, talk about that with the former U.S. attorney in New York and CNN senior legal analyst Preet Bharara.