President Trump Waves New York Goodbye; Trump to Read Ukraine Transcript to American People?.
BOB KEISER, FOUNDER, APK CHARITIES: We have folks all over the world, you know, serving our nation. So...</s>ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: And we were -- we were reminded that, of course, again this week with what we learned of -- with the killing of al-Baghdadi. Bob Keiser, Captain Reese, appreciate you both taking the time to join us and appreciate everything that you are doing. Thank you.</s>KEISER: Well, thank you.</s>HILL: "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It could be the first fireside chat where someone says out loud, "dot, dot, dot." THE LEAD starts right now. Story time with Trump. President Trump saying the whole impeachment push will backfire on Democrats, as he plans to take the fight right to the people and read the Ukraine call on live TV. Plus, Mayor Pete's moment. An unknown until a few months ago, now in a tie for first in a brand-new Iowa poll and tonight what could be a make-or-break moment. And he's here, there and everywhere. Vladimir Putin's growing influence around the globe, including on a possible collision course with the U.S. troops that Trump left in Syria. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Jake today. And we begin with the politics lead. President Trump making a pitch to defend against impeachment and make the case for his reelection in 2020. President Trump seemingly arguing that not only did he do the -- do nothing wrong when it comes to the Ukraine scandal, but that it is just part of his unconventional style as a tough leader who gets things done. As CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports, the president is now even suggesting that he may read the transcript of his infamous call with Ukraine's leader in a -- quote -- "fireside chat" on live television.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Those in favor, please say aye.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALES AND FEMALES: Aye!</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the heels of a House vote that could lead to his impeachment, President Trump is taking the defense strategy into his own hands.</s>STEPHANIE GRISHAM, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He is the war room.</s>COLLINS: Telling "The Washington Examiner" he's considering reading the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president as a fireside chat on live television. His own aides have testified that they were alarmed by that call. Asked if he was being serious, Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham declined to offer any specifics.</s>GRISHAM: Sure. Absolutely.</s>QUESTION: When?</s>GRISHAM: I don't have any timing.</s>COLLINS: Trump believes reading the call aloud will show people he acted appropriately. And as Democrats move to the next phase of impeachment, his campaign is fund-raising off it, bringing in $3 million online as the House of Representatives voted Thursday. Trump says he believes this will backfire on Democrats. But a new poll from ABC and "The Washington Post" reveals Americans are sharply divided; 49 percent say he should be impeached and removed from office, while 47 percent say he shouldn't. Despite those numbers, the White House says impeachment appears inevitable.</s>GRISHAM: We are prepared for an impeachment to happen, yes.</s>COLLINS: Exasperating his Republican allies, the president says his one-man war room doesn't need any help, telling "The Examiner": "I already have good people." He's hired no new communications aides since Democrats launched their probe. And it's been 235 days since the last press briefing.</s>GRISHAM: Whenever it's time. I think, right now, we're doing just fine.</s>COLLINS: The stall in strategy is coming as House Democrats are preparing to take their investigation public, and Speaker Pelosi is defending her decision to move forward.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We have no choice. We took an oath to protect and defend our democracy. And that is what he has made an assault on. And if the Republicans have a higher loyalty to the president than they do to their oath of office, that's their problem.</s>COLLINS: Now, Brianna, in that interview, Pelosi emphasized that she doesn't think Democrats have made a decision yet about whether or not they're actually going to impeach the president. That is something that seems to be a foregone conclusion back here at the White House. And all of this comes as the president is getting ready today for his first rally since the vote on the impeachment inquiry. That will happen in Mississippi tonight.</s>KEILAR: All right, we will be watching. Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much at the White House for us. And this new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll finds that the country is divided, it's pretty evenly, on whether President Trump should be impeached and removed from office, 49 percent saying yes, 47 percent saying no. So let's discuss this. Jen Psaki, to you first. How much work do Democrats have to do to convince Americans here?</s>JEN PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think, from where Democrats are sitting, 50 percent of the public or almost 50 percent of the public thinks the president of the United States should be impeached and removed from office. Sometimes, we lose perspective, but that is a huge number. I think the question for them is, what is their ceiling? How high can they grow approval for impeachment and removal to be? And Donald Trump certainly still has his loyal supporters, a percentage of the public. They're betting on the public hearings being an opportunity for the public to understand and learn and get to know what this is all about and for those numbers to rise. But if it rises five points, five to 10 points, I mean, that's a huge number for the Democrats. It certainly wasn't where it was under Clinton impeachment, even though it's a different time.</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I'm with Jen. The one thing I would say is, I think that the Clinton impeachment, while it's not apples to apples, because that was Ken Starr primarily driving the investigating, as opposed to the House. It showed that an investigation that began with the continuation of the Whitewater investigation -- that's why Ken Starr was named independent counsel and went through Vince Foster and eventually wound up at Monica Lewinsky. If you focus on trying to focus on too many things at once, you can lose the public.</s>PSAKI: And that's a good lesson.</s>CILLIZZA: It's not an 80/20 issue, 80 percent of public -- I would be stunned if it was -- but 80 percent of public wants impeachment. It's 49-43, 49-47, 50-43, which means it can change. It's not overwhelming. So I think you saw Nancy Pelosi say that to Bloomberg today. She said there's a law of diminishing returns, which is, how long do you keep this going? And how many strands do you try to pull in? Because you can lose the public on something like that.</s>KEILAR: Let's talk about this poll. If we try to compare best we can apples to apples, it's never exactly apples to apples. But in this same poll taken in December 1998, only 33 percent said that Clinton should be impeached and removed. So, Bill, this 49 percent number is pretty significant. And yet I wonder if -- what's the critical number? What's critical mass?</s>BILL KRISTOL, DIRECTOR, DEFENDING DEMOCRACY TOGETHER: Yes. Well, who knows? I mean, the thing is, it has grown over the last three, four months. We're so used to poll numbers not changing much. Trump's numbers have been so sticky. And on typical issues, gun control, taxes or whatever, people have been talking about them for 10, 20, 30 years. So, of course, they don't change their mind overnight on them. Impeachment, the Ukraine story broke, what was it, mid-September, right? And in those seven, eight weeks, seven weeks, I guess, it's -- the public opinion has moved more than one would expect, more than we have seen on most issues. And why? Because people -- Democrats have done OK, I think, in terms of their messaging, and I think Speaker Pelosi has managed it well, but mostly it's the facts. Mostly, people keep learning new things. And it turns out, gee, it is kind of as bad as I thought. And, secondly, I think it's the witnesses. We haven't heard the witnesses publicly yet. But this is not like Clinton and Lewinsky, where it was kind of a sordid tale, and not to blame other everyone involved, but, I mean, no one really felt good hearing about more details about that. Here, you have Colonel Vindman testifying that he was doing his duty as a military officer. You have Bill Taylor, a 72-year-old extremely respected diplomat, testifying that he was doing his duty as -- they were all appalled by what they were seeing. These aren't flaky people, people with grudges, people with partisan inclinations. So, if the entire national security apparatus of the government, the Defense Department lawyers are saying, where's the aid, we need the aid, if everyone is concerned, it makes it at least something worth being concerned about. Whether people ultimately get to impeachment and removal is another question.</s>KEILAR: Seung Min, what do you think?</s>SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think that that was sort of the case that Democrats who had been for impeachment far before the Ukraine issue broke had been making, that the most Democrats explain what is happening to the public, they could actually turn public opinion to their side. And, now, it took something like this Ukraine issue to persuade Nancy Pelosi and a critical mass of House Democrats to get on board with, first of all, an impeachment inquiry, and it looks like an inevitable impeach -- or perhaps an impeachment at this point. But it's going to be really up to Democrats to just keep making that public case. And, meanwhile, you're going to have President Trump out there making his political case with the unique megaphone that he has, starting at the rally tonight, and continuing with a series of rallies next week. Now he's talking about a potential reading of this transcript in the fireside chat sorts, which is such an interesting thing, because we were -- I spoke...</s>KEILAR: Interesting is one way to...</s>CILLIZZA: Very political.</s>KRISTOL: It's not going to happen.</s>KIM: But the transcript is something that he is fixated on right now. I talked to a lot of Republican senators who were at this lunch with the president yesterday at the White House. And one consistent message from the president that the senators relayed to us was that he was really proud his decision to release that transcript, because he believes it exonerates him.</s>KRISTOL: Except here's the kernel of truth in it.</s>CILLIZZA: I mean, I think that is -- Seung Min is exactly right. I think that is crazy. If you look at it, the only thing I can see is ,it doesn't say, hey, man, this is a straight of a quid pro quo. Short of that...</s>KRISTOL: But the sophisticated defense of Trump is going to become, he shot his mouth off. He blustered.</s>CILLIZZA: He was just talking.</s>KRISTOL: He's just talking. You can't impeach the guy on an offhand comment. Some other president probably made a comment to a foreign president. But that's an attempt to therefore obfuscate the fact that there were a lot of deeds, a lot of actions that happened before and after that phone call, right? He fired the ambassador. He delayed the military aid, contrary to the recommendations of all the departments.</s>KRISTOL: I think it's important that people keep their focus on the broad spectrum of what Trump did, as well as said.</s>PSAKI: And I think, as Trump just keeps driving the public narrative here and the communications strategy, Republicans are going to become more and more uncomfortable. They do not want him to do a prime-time reading of the notes of the transcript. They are not willing to -- they may make exactly the case Bill made, but they're not going to stand by the substance of this. This becomes more and more difficult for them.</s>KEILAR: Even if he is -- he is the one-man war room, but you can now also call President Trump Florida man.</s>KEILAR: The lifelong New Yorker says he's moving to the Sunshine State. Will Fifth Avenue ever be the same? And then, is Vladimir Putin playing a game of Risk with real consequences? The move that he's making even on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.