[Brooke Baldwin, Cnn:] That is the same facility where the woman who killed Grammy Award-winning singer Selena is housed. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts now.
[Jake Tapper, Cnn:] A source says that the White House is done quote "playing nice" with Democrats. So, the past three years, they were being polite? THE LEAD starts right now. Breaking news: new details on the scramble inside the White House right after the president pushed the leader of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, as CNN learns that impeachment could go far beyond just the Ukraine scandal. A new twist. Trump allies in Congress now want a vote on the impeachment inquiry in the House, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not. Why? Plus: the Supreme Court debating the meaning of sex in a critical case of LGBTQ rights, and a justice that President Trump appointed could potentially be the swing vote. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And we begin with the politics lead. Today, House Democrats are saying they will issue a subpoena against a key witness in the Ukraine scandal for documents and his testimony, after the White House today blocked him from testifying on Capitol Hill, as Democrats probe details concerning President Trump using the power of his office to push a foreign country to conduct investigations to help him politically. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the president blocking this key witness a quote "abuse of power." That key witness is U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and major Trump donor Gordon Sondland. Republican Senator Ron Johnson told "The Wall Street Journal" that Sondland told him that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was tied to Ukraine agreeing to quote "get to the bottom of what happened in 2016." That is Trump-speak for a push to undermine the Mueller investigation and the larger conclusion by U.S. intelligence that Russia interfered in the election to help President Trump, that conversation on top of the recently released text messages linking U.S. aid to Ukraine to Ukraine investigating the Bidens. The top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor,wrote to Sondland quote "As I said on the phone, I think it is crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign" unquote. Sondland waited about five hours and then replied quote "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind." A source now tells CNN that, during that time gap, Sondland phoned President Trump himself. Now, the president has said publicly that the Ukraine conversation was quote "perfect," that there is nothing wrong with what he's done, that there is no quid pro quo. That is what he says. Now, what he and the White House have done, well, that is a different matter. They hid the rough transcript of the call with the president of Ukraine in a hyper-secure computer system. They tried to keep it from Congress after the whistle-blower went to the inspector general. They're attacking the whistle-blower. And now, as of today, they're blocking witnesses. We will leave it to you to judge if that is how officials with nothing to hide behave. CNN's Kaitlan Collins picks up coverage now with new reporting on how the White House immediately tried to bury that Ukraine call to keep it from the American people.
[Kaitlan Collins, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Today, the White House intervened for the first time to stop a key witness from cooperating with Democrats' impeachment inquiry, blocking top diplomat Gordon Sondland for showing up for his deposition, only hours before it was scheduled to take place.
[Rep. Adam Schiff:] By preventing us from hearing from this witness and obtaining these documents, the president and secretary of state are taking actions that prevent us from getting the facts needed to protect the nation's security.
[Collins:] President Trump said he stopped it because the inquiry is illegitimate, calling it a "totally compromised kangaroo court." His allies signaling this could be a broader strategy to stonewall, with one saying the days of playing nice are done.
[Rep. Jim Jordan:] When you have a speaker of the House who says, we need to strike while the iron is hot, when you have a chairman of the committee who is so biased against this president.
[Collins:] The fight coming as CNN is learning more about the call that started it all. Sources say, as soon as Trump hung up with Ukraine's president in late July, a mad scramble began inside the administration. At least one National Security Council official alerted the White House's national security lawyers that there were concerns about what Trump said. Those are the same lawyers who later ordered the transcript moved to a more secure server in order to limit those who could see it. Several aides frantically asked if they should notify other senior officials who weren't on the call, like those at the Justice Department, since Trump had invoked the attorney general's name several times. The focus now turning to those who listened in during the call, including the secretary of state, top national security officials, and aides for the vice president and chief of staff. Democrats say, despite White House efforts to stonewall, they will continue their investigation of whether Trump abused the power of his office.
[Schiff:] Through this impeachment inquiry, we are determined to find the answers. Thank you.
[Collins:] Now, Jake, we're also learning that the White House has reached out to outside attorneys to get counsel on impeachment. One of those, according to what a source told my colleague Pam Brown, is a former congressman from South Carolina, Trey Gowdy. Now, that follows CNN reporting that the president had been initially resistant to the idea of performing an impeachment defense team or bringing in new attorneys, believing that doing either would make him look weak.
[Tapper:] Hmm. All right. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thank you so much. Let's chew all over this with my experts. Amanda, I'm interested in your opinion on this. To me, just having covered enough of these things, Taylor's texts in which he says, just as I said on the phone call, blah, blah, blah, I don't approve of this, is what he's saying, read like somebody trying to establish a paper trail.
[Amanda Carpenter, Cnn Political Commentator:] Yes.
[Tapper:] And Sondland's text, which came five hours later or so, to me, read like somebody who just talked to a lawyer and said, what should I write back? Do you agree?
[Carpenter:] Yes, I agree. And that's why I wonder why the House isn't going after Bill Taylor more. He is the key to this. He is the guy who clearly saw something was going wrong and tried to document it. And maybe they are trying to work something out behind the scenes. But this sort of goose chase to try to get Sondland and try to the president's lackeys, I don't understand that. Talk to people who want to talk. Talk to people who are trying to document this, rather than trying to go after hostile witnesses, in building up a case about obstruction.
[Tapper:] I'm sure they're I don't know. But I'm sure they're going after Taylor, too. Phil, I want to get your take on this? How does this read to you? Taylor says quote this is a text message on WhatsApp. "Are we now saying security assistance and the White House meeting are conditioned on investigations?" which was basically a quid pro quo. Sondland writes back, "Call me." What does that mean to you? Call me.
[Philip Mudd, Cnn Counterterrorism Analyst:] I only spent 25 years in government, just only.
[Carpenter:] He could have just called him.
[Mudd:] But this is pretty simple. You're correct. This is called record copy. That is, the appointed official, that is, the non-Trump official, the ambassador, is saying, I want it on the record what we're doing here, because phone conversations are going to be he saidshe said if it ever goes public. That individual on the other end of the line, in this case text messaging, is saying, I don't want that on the record. Call me, because a phone call is going to be, it is months ago, nobody both of them are trying to, as you suggested it is not what you think, Jake. This is a fact. It is what you suggested. They both want a record copy. Each of them, the career guy wants a record copy saying the president just screwed us. The political guy wants a record copy that says that never happened.
[Tapper:] And how is the White House preparing for this, other than mean tweets and just having their minions in Congress go out there and lie?
[Abby Phillip, Cnn White House Correspondent:] It is very telling that even though Sondland's testimony has been scheduled for many days, the decision to pull his testimony only came last night. They are making a lot of these decisions on the fly, responding in large part to what the president wants. The president himself made it clear that he was the one who was not comfortable with Sondland testifying. Here is why all of this previous conversation we were just having and that question are related. Sondland is the person who was communicating directly with President Trump about all of this, all of it. So Bill Taylor knows what he thinks was going on. Sondland knows what was actually going on, because he was communicating with the principal about it. That is what makes him such an important witness. It's also what makes the White House and the president nervous about him getting in a setting where he's testifying under oath and cannot lie to Congress without risking potential jail time.
[Tapper:] And let's talk about Sondland for one second. OK? He's a very, very wealthy hotel guy. He was a Jeb Bush backer, then gave $1 million to President Trump's inaugural committee, got in that way. Now, he is the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Now, I'm no expert on international affairs, but last I checked, Ukraine is not in the European Union. So what is he doing here, in your vie?
[Nayyera Haq, Former State Department Spokesperson:] Well, I think he's trying to execute the orders of the boss man. And that is the challenge with political appointees, often vs. civil service or career officials, who are dedicated to the cause, rather than to the person. The entire State Department right now has been rattled, not just by this incident, but previous I.G. reports from even this past summer about how political appointees have been calling holdovers traitors and questioning their loyalty to Donald Trump. And it underscores how important it is to have a service that is dedicated to American values and the Constitution. That is ultimately what is being tested here with this. Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems to be hanging their hat on this idea they argued in court today, that the Nixon impeachment process was improper. And that is your argument, that Nixon was railroaded. When you have gone that far down the line, it shows that you are far more interested in obstructing justice than you are in telling the truth.
[Tapper:] Geraldo Rivera told Sean Hannity the other day I'm paraphrasing but something like, thank God for you. If you had been around during Nixon, he never would have been impeached.
[Mudd:] This, to me, is kind of painful as a former government guy. When new people come into town, whether it is Democrats or Republicans, people like me reviewed a suspect. It's like two dogs at a fire hydrant. They're sniffing out each other saying, who is the other dog here? When the new guys come in, the political guys are saying, these guys know a lot at the CIA, the FBI and the State Department, but they are not reliable. This is a reliability test. The political guy is saying, I can't trust you. You better call me, because I'm afraid you are going to take these texts and give them away to somebody. Very simple.
[Tapper:] And, Amanda, I believe that has been reported that these texts were on personal devices on the WhatsApp app, which is to keep stuff from individuals.
[Carpenter:] This is clearly official communication.
[Tapper:] Yes. Obviously, this is about official stuff. And Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said today the State Department also has personal devices belonging to Sondland with more texts and more e-mails they want to see. I recall them being offended when somebody else had like...
[Carpenter:] What was her name?
[Tapper:] Yes, had a system for avoiding for avoiding this kind of way that the government could easily get to something.
[Carpenter:] Yes, these secret servers and secret messaging apps are going to come back to bite you. But there is an interesting talking point I'm seeing gain a lot of steam in conservative circles among Republicans who are really trying to rationalize this. They just come out and say, you know what? This is bad. All this is bad, the messages, the Secret Services, but it's not impeachable. We need an election to decide what's going on. And after the Mueller report, I thought that was a decent rationale, let the election decide it. But the thing that you have here, you have the president and a lot of his men participating in election offenses. So how do you ensure that you're going to have a free and fair election in 2020 when the president has shown a willingness three times, with Russia, Ukraine and China, to cheat? This is what it goes down to. People keep talking about election interference, foreign interference. It's cheating to win an election. So Republicans, if you don't want to impeach him, what are you going to do to stop it? I don't know that answer.
[Tapper:] All right, everyone, stick around. We got a lot more to talk about. The two moves congressional Republicans just made on the Hill in an attempt to push back against the impeachment inquiry. Plus, the NBA now saying that they're not sorry for that tweet that could cost the league billions of dollars in China. Stay with us.