It's the constitutional way

to swipe left on a president.

(audience laughing)

♪ The magical wonderful road to impeachment ♪

♪ Who knows where it'll go ♪

- That's probably presidential harassment.

- [Female Reporter] President Trump has been accused

of threatening to hold back military aid to the Ukraine

if leaders there failed to investigate

former vice president Joe Biden.

- [Male Reporter] The president pushed eight times

for an investigation into Joe Biden.

At the time of the call, the Trump administration

was withholding $250 million in military aid

to Ukraine that Congress had already approved.

- Yeah, this is huge.

Donald Trump is accused of holding back military aid,

approved by Congress, for Ukraine,

unless they helped him dig up dirt on Joe Biden.

Which, if true, would be devastating.

It's an abuse of power, it's extortion,

and maybe worse of all, it's asking a foreign country

to meddle in America's election.

Which is the one thing that, if you were Donald Trump,

you should stay away from.

(audience laughing)

Right, 'cause they had just beaten the Russia case.

It would be like if the day after Michael Jackson

got acquitted of touching kids

he was like,

"Let's celebrate, slumber party at my house."

(audience laughing)

But the one silver lining of any Trump scandal

is that if you just wait long enough,

eventually, he'll just spill the beans himself.

(audience laughing)

- The conversation I had was largely congratulatory,

was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place.

Was largely the fact that we don't want our people,

like, Vice President Biden and his son

creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.

There was no pressure put on them whatsoever,

but there was pressure put on, with respect to, Joe Biden.

What Joe Biden did for his son,

that's something they should be looking at.

(reporters clamoring)

- We all heard that, right?

(audience laughing)

Trump just said there was no pressure,

except for the pressure to get dirt on Biden.

That's the only pressure we're talking about!

(audience laughing)

(chimes ringing)

On Monday, the Ukraine scandal blew up.

On Tuesday. the Democrats opened an impeachment inquiry.

On Wednesday. the transcript of the call came out,

and today the big news

is that the secret whistleblower complaint

that kicked this whole thing off

has finally been released.

- The House Intelligence Committee has just released

the whistleblower complaint.

This is the second paragraph of that complaint

from the whistleblower who says,

"In the course of my official duties,

"I have received information

"from multiple U.S. government officials

"that the President of the United States is using the power

"of his office to solicit interference

"from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."

- That's right.

The whistleblower's complaint has accused the president

of soliciting foreign interference in America's election,

which is really bad for Trump.

What's even worse is that this entire complaint

is only nine pages long

which means people might actually read it.

(audience laughing)

Hell, if it had a few pictures,

Trump himself might even read it.

(audience laughing)

Trump and his defenders are saying

that the whistleblower's account is fake, all right,

because they say that the whistleblower

is basing all of this on secondhand information.

He didn't hear the calls,

and he hasn't seen anything himself.

They also point out that the President of Ukraine himself

said yesterday that he never felt any pressure from Trump.

Although, if you actually watched

the Ukrainian President say it,

you might come up with a different impression.

- [Reporter] President Zelensky,

have you felt any pressure from President Trump

to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden?

- I think you read everything,

so, I think you read text.

I'm sorry, but I don't want to be involved to democratic,

open elections of USA.

No, you hear that we had, I think, good phone call.

It was normal, we spoke about many things and so,

I think when you read it that nobody pushed me, yes.

- In other words, no pressure.

(audience laughing)

- Okay, okay, I don't wanna contradict the president,

but I don't think the translation of that was no pressure.

(audience laughing)

That man seemed like he was under intense pressure.

I mean, he actually said the line,

"I don't wanna get involved."

I mean, that's not a comfortable phrase you ever say

when you're just comfortable.

"How are you feeling?"

"I don't wanna get involved, I'm so comfortable."

(audience laughing)

You can't ask him that question in front of Trump.

It's like asking the hostage,

how he is being treated,

while the kidnapper is right next to him.

(audience laughing)

"Oh, how are they treating me?

"Oh, it's um, it's amazing.

"Last night, they even gave me toilet paper.

"I love it here."

(audience laughing)

The big news today is that the White House

has taken its fight with Congress to the next level,

officially sending word that it will not participate

in any aspect of the impeachment probe,

which is crazy.

Trump can't just decline to participate.

This is not the Vietnam War.

(audience laughing)

And this new tactic, this new tactic

threw everything for a loop.

Because, you see, today was meant to be the big day

when Congress would hear testimony from Gordon Sondland,

ambassador to the EU and Jeff Ross stunt double.

But, just before the C-Span cameras started rolling,

the White House pulled the plug.

- [Reporter] We're following breaking news

this morning and it's moving quickly.

The White House blocking EU ambassador

Gordon Sondland from testifying to Congress

just minutes before he was supposed to appear

on Capitol Hill.

He was set to testify behind closed doors

as part of an ongoing impeachment inquiry

into President Trump,

specifically about his interactions with Ukraine,

Democratic House Intelligence Chairman

calling the move to keep Sondland

from speaking to lawmakers, quote,

"Strong evidence of obstruction."

- At the president's behest,

Sondland pulled out of this impeachment hearing,

which is a big deal.

Because although many people haven't heard

of Gordon Sondland,

it appears that everything Trump wanted from Ukraine

went through him.

- [Reporter] Even before President Trump

spoke to the President of Ukraine,

Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU

had been pushing the Ukrainians to commit

to investigations Mr. Trump wanted.

- And the reason Congress

is so intent on having Sondland testify,

isn't just because he was at the center

of thia Ukraine scandal, right?

It's also because, he has text messages that show

what was going on behind the scenes.

- [Female Reporter] Text messages given to Congress

show Sondland and another diplomat

discussing a possible link

between investigations and aid to Ukraine.

- [Male Reporter] On September 9th, Bill Taylor,

the top US diplomat to Ukraine, texts

"I think it's crazy to withhold

"security assistance for help with a political campaign."

Sondland responds,

"I believe you are incorrect

"about President Trump's intentions."

"The President has been crystal clear

"no quid pro quo's of any kind."

Adding, "I suggest we stop the back and forth by text"

- [Reporter] Taylor texts Gordon Sondland,

"Are we now saying that security assistance

"and White House Meeting

"are conditioned on investigations?"

Sondland responds, "Call me."

(audience laughing)

- Okay, I don't know if these guys are guilty or not

but you have to admit those texts look hella suspicious.

(audience laughing)

Yeah, because the only time you say stop texting,

let's talk on the phone,

is when something shady is going down, all right?

It's 2019, no one talks on the phone.

The only reason to talk on the phone at all

is to wish your grandmother happy birthday

or to commit crimes.

(audience laughing)

Or to commit crimes with your grandmother

on her birthday.

(audience laughing)

(chimes ringing)

Now, for the first day of the public hearings,

the Democrats chose to call two witnesses:

Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine,

and George Kent, Senior State Department official

and townsperson in a 1950s musical.

- Once I arrived in Kiev, I discovered a weird combination

of encouraging, confusing

and ultimately alarming circumstances.

According to Mr. Morrison,

President Trump did insist that President Zelensky

go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations

of Biden and 2016 election interference.

Ambassador Sondland tried to explain to me that

President Trump is a businessman.

When a businessman is about to sign a cheque

to someone who owes him something,

the businessman asks that person

to pay up before signing the cheque.

I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance

for help with a political campaign.

- What did you mean when you said

you thought it was crazy?

- It was illogical, could not be explained, it was crazy.

- Hmmm.

(audience laughing)

Unexplainable, illogical, crazy.

That's the description

Bill Taylor gave of Trump's actions.

It's also the title of Trump's new memoir.

Same thing, yes.

"it's my full story and it's a coloring book folks.

"You're gonna love it."

(audience laughing)

When it was Congressman Jim Jordan's turn to ask questions,

his big arguments was that

none of this testimony should count

because it was all a game of telephone.

- You weren't on the call, were you?

The president, you didn't listen to President Trump's call

and President Zelensky's call?

- I did not.

- You've never talked with chief of staff, Mulvaney?

- I never did.

- You've never met the president?

- That's correct.

- This is what I can't believe

and you're their star witness.

You're their first witness.

You're the guy. - Mr Jordan.

- You're the guy based on this, based on,

I mean, I've seen church prayer chains

that are easier to understand than this.

- That's a good point.

Good point, Jim Jordan.

These guys don't have first hand knowledge of what

Trump was doing with Ukraine.

So why are they the ones testifying?