House Democrats Move Closer to Articles of Impeachment; White House & GOP Senators Strategize for Senate Impeachment Trial; Trump Lashes Out After Hearings: "I Want a Trial"
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: But according to some administration sources, the president was also told that such a ban would be unpopular with his base. We can assure this is something we will follow very closely. Thank you for joining us all day and all week. We'll see you next week. I'm Poppy Harlow.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts right now.</s>ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Erica Hill, in for Kate Bolduan today. Thanks for joining me. Democrats moving closer to impeaching President Trump. Five days of public hearings, more than 30 hours of testimony, 12 public witnesses all make the case that President Trump directed a campaign to pressure Ukraine for his own political purpose. Withholding millions of dollars in critical U.S. aid and an official White House visit while pushing for announcement of an investigation into the Bidens and the 2016 election. A move the president's former top Russia adviser described as a, quote, "domestic political errand."</s>FIONA HILL, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL OFFICIAL: He was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security foreign policy. Those two things had just diverged.</s>HILL: In response, President Trump this morning releasing a fiery and, frankly, well-worn rant on FOX News, attacking the witnesses, the whistleblower, the Democrats, and insisting he wants a trial. Sources tell CNN that Democrats are preparing a report of their findings that will serve as the basis for articles of impeachment. CNN senior congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, is on Capitol Hill. Manu, what are you hearing this morning from Democrats?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly what they're doing. They're drafting that report that will detail the findings of the investigations that have been happening since late September. That report will serve as the basis of articles of impeachment that will likely be taken up by the House Judiciary Committee as early as the first couple weeks of December, before we expect a full House to vote on that rather momentous vote to impeach President Trump, which would be the third time in American history that that would happen. All signs are indicating they are going that route, in part, because Democrats have decided not to pursue some key witnesses who have not come forward and try to fight them in court to get their testimony after people like Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton have refused to comply with their requests. Democrats say they have enough evidence to move forward. What they are looking for in terms of article of impeachment, they're still debating the exact scope of how the articles of impeachment would work. But they're looking at abuse of power, obstruction of justice, obstruction of Congress and bribery among the articles they are discussing. There's still a question about exactly how this will be structure, in part, because the report still needs to be drafted. But make no mistake, Erica, Democrats are moving ahead to the next phase of this investigation, and it could happen rather quickly, just a matter of weeks before moving to the next step, which would be a Senate trial that the president apparently wants -- Erica?</s>HILL: Which we'll be looking toward. And just quickly, too, what are you hearing from Republicans this morning, Manu?</s>RAJU: Republicans are indicating they're following in lockstep behind the president. I spoke to Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, last night. He told me he expected to lose zero Republicans on impeachment. He said he did expect to pick up some Democrats, too. We'll see if that happens. We'll also see how Republicans in the Senate deal with the trial that's almost certain to happen. At the moment, the White House is working with the Senate Republicans trying to structure a trial. There's still some debate about how long that trial would last, what witnesses they want to call, but those conversations will intensify in the weeks ahead -- Erica?</s>HILL: Manu Raju with the latest for us. Manu, thank you. Let's look at the evidence about what we learned in terms of this case against President Trump. Joining us now, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, CNN political analyst and congressional editor for the "New York Times," and Shan Wu, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. Shan, based on what you heard from these witnesses, what changed this week?</s>SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think what changed this week is the Democrats put out a steady amount of evidence -- they're good prosecutors -- to build the case. What changed was the American people got to hear firsthand just how the Trump administration has used the State Department, used foreign policy at the expense of national security to further political ends. I think that was made plain as opposed to us hearing bits and pieces being put out.</s>HILL: Julie, in terms of Capitol Hill, what's your sense of what changed, if anything, this week?</s>JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think Shan is right, there's a much more precise and detailed narrative out there, much of which had been given behind closed doors, but the public had not gotten a chance to hear it. Frankly, many lawmakers had not had a chance to hear firsthand what this pressure campaign looked like, the fact than not only did it exist but people at the highest echelons of the administration new that it existed, took it as an article of faith this is what the president wanted and had repeatedly asked for it through Rudy Giuliani and other senior members of his team. And also that there was quite a bit of pushback and alarm inside his own administration about it. That has all been made very plan. But in terms of the political dynamic, I think Manu is right, it hasn't moved any votes that I can see. You've heard from Republicans, even some questioning the president's conduct, and some of what he did hear, and said it might not have been appropriate, saying they still didn't think this was impeachable conduct. You see Democrats going even more aggressively toward just that place of drafting the articles of impeachment. So a vote seems inevitable since Democrats are in control of the House, so there's very little doubt in my mind that it would pass. But I don't see Republicans really changing their minds based on what they heard the last couple of weeks.</s>HILL: The divide is there and perhaps even growing in some ways. When we look at what we learned, what we saw, what we heard, there's also who, I should say we didn't see who we didn't hear from. These are central figures, Shan, to the narrative we heard from all of these witnesses. We're talking about Mick Mulvaney, Secretary Pompeo, John Bolton, even the vice president. We are likely not going to hear from them. Do you think Democrats are risking anything by potentially wrapping this up too soon? Are there more people to hear from?</s>WU: Well, you know, I think, to Julie's point, there's no budging on the Hill. If they were to delay by trying to fight longer to get these people, that's not going to budge anybody, either. I think they're making a smart move by trying to push forward. From a trial perspective, as a trial lawyer, when you have an empty chair, you can do a lot things with it. You can point to it, blame them. Both sides can do that a bit. But there are big advantages for not having them there, too. And that's something for us to keep in mind.</s>HILL: Julie, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pointing out what we heard from both of you, but she was clear I'm not going to wait for the courts to fight there out in terms of other folks they want to hear from, making the case it's just not worth it.</s>HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: Right. Time is definitely not their friend. In this case -- you heard Manu likely lay out one of the articles. One of the articles I don't think is in dispute is there will be an article of impeachment against President Trump for obstruction of Congress. The fact these top officials will not appear, the fact that they have not been willing to furnish a bunch of documents that we now know from firsthand witnesses and other witnesses are crucial to understanding what went on here, what was happening with the aid, with the White House meeting, key conversations and records and e-mails and the like, that the committee would need to actually reach some factual conclusions are not being furnished. That is one of the bases that the House Democrats will use to essentially charge the president. So not only does it not make sense for Democrats on a calendar perspective to push for people they won't get, most likely, but it also strengthens their case potentially for impeachment.</s>HILL: Shan, we're now hearing from John Bolton, obviously. He's back on Twitter after an absence, cryptically. So apparently, he's OK to talk on Twitter in his mind. But also recently, instead, first, there was, "Stay tuned for the back story," earlier this morning. If you have something to say, you could just say it. Then he goes on to say a short time ago, "We have now liberated the Twitter account previously suppressed unfairly in the aftermath of my resignation as national security adviser." Once again, "More to come." When you see something like this from a person like this who knows full well that many would like to hear from him, what is your gut -- as a former prosecutor, what does this say?</s>WU: It says two things. My gut is he's just doing a marketing campaign to push his book. I think there's some ego involved, too. He's still mad about having to leave the administration. From a prosecutor's standpoint, from a kind of trial standpoint, for the Democrats, I don't really want to see that. I don't want the witness out there in public making their statements, not able to control what they're going to say, not knowing what they're going to say. And he may say something that's damaging to the Democrat's case, and there's no way to rebut it right now. But I think he needs to be careful, because when you're making these public statements, you may have a hard time putting the genie back in the bottle and then claim, oh, I can't talk in public, there's privilege or some other reason when you're actually already tweeting about it.</s>HILL: It all comes back to say Twitter, obviously, doesn't it? Shan, Julie, thank you both.</s>WU: Thank you.</s>HIRSCHFELD DAVIS: Thank you.</s>HILL: Coming up, after two weeks of battering testimony on Capitol Hill against President Trump, the president says, yes, he wants a trial. So is this part of the latest White House strategy? Plus, GOP support for President Trump remains solid, as we just discussed, even as impeachment witnesses repeatedly poked holes in Republican talking points. What could change as the process moves forward?