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Two Aides Who Listened To Trump's July Call Raised Concerns; E.U. Ambassador Sondland Viewed As Problem By NSC Staff; NY Republican Stefanik Stands Out In Yovanovitch Hearing; Aide Details Phone Call & Meeting Between Pence And Zelensky; Aides Testify "Burisma" Left Out Of July 25th Call Transcript; Kaepernick NFL Workout Abruptly Moved; Putin-Controlled Media Relishes Impeachment Chaos; Democratic Louisiana Governor In Nail-Biter Re-Election Bid. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 16, 2019 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Let's get straight to CNN's Congressional Reporter, Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill. Lauren, this is big. These are more voices from people who said under oath that they heard from the President gave them concern.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, that's exactly right. We're getting some reaction from two individuals who were on that July 25 phone call which is at the center of this impeachment probe, Ana.

And I want to start with Tim Morrison. This is an NSC official who had concerns after the phone call he went to an NSC lawyers because he feared that if this phone call could damage the U.S. and Ukrainian relationship. Here's what he said.

He said, I was concerned how Ukrainians would internalize that. He also went on to have all their concerns, Jennifer Williams, a Pence aide, her concerns were more about the fact that this seemed like a more political phone call than a diplomatic one.

She said, "I believe those references to be more political in nature and so that struck me as unusual." Now Morris had also added some information about how many times he believed Gordon Sondland talked directly to President Donald Trump.

He said he thought it was approximately five times between July 25 and September 11. Those of course, the dates first of the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky and then on September 11, that's when that money, that nearly $400 million in security assistance was released, Ana.

But this is just a sneak peek into what these individuals told lawmakers behind closed doors in those depositions. Both of them will testify publicly on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Ana.

CABRERA: Lauren, you have that on top of everything and there's been so much today including another person who testified behind closed doors. A top budget official, Mark Sandy. He was again, behind closed doors for more than five hours. What did he have to say? FOX: Well, what we've heard from a source who was in the room is that

Mark Sandy had concerns of course about the fact that he was basically sidelined from get - you know exerting this money that had already been appropriated from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Republicans and the Democrats had agreed that this money was necessary for security assistance. This was a bipartisan issue but he actually was sidelined from a political person at OMB and he said that he didn't ask a lot of questions but that you know, he did ask you know, if you want to be involved in this or other ways to do it, if you want to understand how this process works.

But essentially, he was sidelined. He said, he didn't have direct information about what was going on behind the scenes but Ana, I will tell you that this is an important witness for Democrats because this is somebody who was at OMB. They have tried to get others at OMB to come, testify in these depositions.

No one has come forward yet so Mark Sandy, a very important witness for Democrats, today. Ana.

CABRERA: OK, Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill for us. Thank you Lauren. Joining us now with more on where we go as we pop forward in the impeachment process, CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp and CNN Political Commentator Keith Boykin, former aide to the Clinton White House.

So S.E., first at the breaking news, these new transcripts that were just released today. We're now hearing from two more people who were on the actual phone call on July 25, expressing concern. They will be testifying publicly, this week. Doesn't this sort of poke holes in the primary defense, we've heard from Republicans which is all this is hearsay?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes hearsay because no one actually heard Donald Trump say what he's alleged to have said and it does fall apart. It falls apart because now we have David Holmes and we've got other people who are on the call who are going to testify as to what they heard.

I have been saying this though for weeks, Donald Trump himself said it. Donald Trump himself said it to camera.

CABRERA: Look at the White House memorandum.

CUPP: He said look at the transcript but - but more than that he said, of course I tied aid to investigations. Why would I give money to a country I thought was corrupt? He explicitly tied it and has defended himself saying, I've done nothing wrong.

So I'm glad we're getting all the facts. I wish Republicans wanted to see more of the facts but it's almost a formality at this point. He has admitted to doing what he did.

CABRERA: And that hasn't moved the needle so much. I mean, it kind of stalled really Keith, when you look at public opinion when it comes to this impeachment question.

KEITH BOYKIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, yes. I think this is a case that is going to be built brick by brick. It's going to take time. They're not going to just sort of - as the Republicans have been arguing, put out their lead - their star witness from the beginning.

The witnesses that we saw the past week were witnesses that built the foundation for the case that Democrats hoped to make but what we saw so far is that they made a case, if there was bribery and extortion and abuse of power from the President of the United States and the highest office in our government.

What we saw so far is that we've now seen two transcripts, partial transcripts of the President's phone calls with Ukrainian President Zelensky. In the second phone call, he mentions the Bidens. In the first phone call he mentions the Miss Universe pageant.

In neither of the phone calls, has he mentioned anything about corruption. So this whole argument that the President of United States is so obsessed with and concerned about corruption is completely debunked by the evidence in his own call transcripts.

CABRERA: And in fact what we heard testified from Marie Yovanovitch this week is that the actions that were taken were counterproductive in terms of rooting out corruption.

[17:05:00]

And she was removed and she was you know, part of the effort to really ride the shipping what was happening in Ukraine. Let me ask you about another thing we learned in this Morrison transcript, guys and that is Morrison who by the way, again, is this NSC official who is listening to the phone call.

He said - he also had interactions with Sondland, that name keeps coming up right and Sondland believed and at least related to me that the President was giving him instruction.

Again, the President was giving him instruction when it came to these investigations and pressuring Ukraine, how much does that raise the stakes as for Sondland's testimony which is supposed to happen on Wednesday.

CUPP: He should be worried. He has already testified and some believe, not truthfully and what--

CABRERA: So he did have to come back and he said, I need to revise my testimony.

CUPP: He would be wise to tell the truth, this week and tell everything he knows and we know look, he is not a career diplomat. This is new to him. He's a hotel guy, right? Like so many of Donald Trump's biggest supporters and defenders, they don't really know how government and politics works.

It's mind blowing that he was so close to a very consequential geopolitical you know, interest of ours in Ukraine but he needs to now tell everything he knows. Stop being a Trump booster and save yourself. You know, it's still - it's still penalty under law to lie - to lie to Congress.

CABRERA: I mean, I can already hear the Republican defense here and that is Sondland's not credible. He's already changing his story so which story are we to believe? Keith.

BOYKIN: I find it remarkable defense though that the guy who Donald Trump has appointed to be his EU ambassador is not credible because his story hasn't changed. The fact that his story has changed proves, I think or at least it suggests that he is - he shows some evidence of his guilt in his first account of this story. He had to go back to Congress and retell the story and you put that in the context of Donald Trump also engaging in witness intimidation or potential witness intimidation with Marie Yovanovitch and other future witnesses this week.

You put that in the context of the other testimony that comes this week and it doesn't look like the Republicans have a clear defense. They're - they're searching for something to say, grasping at straws to come up with some sort of way to respond to this.

CABRERA: The conservative media did seem to I guess, praise is the right word one particular Congress member who was asking questions and I just want to give a quick sample from Elise Stefanik.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): I know Ms. Stefanik had a few quick questions for the ambassador.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): Thank you Mr. Nunes. Ambassador Yovanovitch, thank you for being here today.

NUNES: Gentlewoman will suspend.

STEFANIK: What is the interruption for this time, it is our time. Since the chairman has gaveled out all of my colleagues with their unanimous consent. I am going to read for the record many of the Chairman's comments in September of the importance of hearing from the whistle blower.

The witness was able to answer questions as you saw the only people that were limited from asking questions were Republican members because we were muscled by Adam Schiff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: What was your thoughts on seeing how Republicans conducted themselves at these hearings?

CUPP: Look, I thought she was an effective question. She was also an effective sort of stunt. They know what the rules were. They knew they were going to break them and then make it look like they were being muscled and silenced. That's a strategy I guess I think for Republicans and for the audience of one in Donald Trump.

She did a very good job. Now, whether that affects her personally remains to be seen. Her opponent in her New York congressional race Cobb raised $400,000 in 24 hours.

CABRERA: Including donation from George Conway.

CUPP: Yes so I mean it introduced a lot of people to Elise Stefanik for the first time probably for many in a good way, probably for many others in a bad way and I do have to say, I think some of the media have handled Elise Stefanik in her moment with some partisanship.

I think if a Democrat had been as forceful in one of those hearings, she'd be praised. Elise Stefanik was sort of roundly criticized for what she did. She did what politicians do in these things.

BOYKIN: Praised if she was sort of following the rules but she was clearly in violation of the rules and she knew it and the Republicans knew it. They had nothing to offer other than diversion and posters and interruptions in points of order.

But there's no substantive difference in any point to what - to the allegations against Donald Trump and the basic bottom line here is that we're supposed to believe that all these public servants who have devoted their lives and devoted their careers to serving their governments are all liars.

But the President of United States, a man who spent his entire life dodging the draft, avoiding taxes, bankrupting businesses, evading his responsibility to his spouses.

[17:10:00]

And all these things he's done and defrauding investors, defrauding students, defrauding the American people and donors. We're supposed to believe that this guy is the truth teller and a patriots and all these career for and service people are all liars. It's preposterous.

CABRERA: But here's what I wonder, you know, I think you know people who are watching the entire testimony, who've been following this story closely are able to really soak in the details.

People who aren't able to follow as closely as we are, I kind of wonder what their take away is and whether because it is so complicated, some of those Republican you know, deflections, distractions I think you guys have called them are working and maybe muddying the waters enough for people to kind of not put all the pieces together in the way Democrats would prefer it to you know, be received.

CUPP: Well, polling has suggested and I think you alluded to this earlier that opinions are really bricks in the cake and so people are not really changing their minds. If they had an opinion on what was going to happen, they've really stuck with it.

So for the rest of the people who haven't really been paying attention, maybe didn't have an opinion, I think they're following it in a way that they actually can interpret. I don't think it's all that complicated. I think it's very clear and Democrats I think have been very smart in rolling out their witnesses with breaks in between.

You know, it's like a day in between because you get to digest it and then you come back and it's another one saying the same if not more you know damning things about the President and then there's another one. It's this building wave that I think, I think you would have to be wilfully not listening, not to be able to put these pieces together.

CABRERA: Just quickly, Keith, do you think Democrats need to make any adjustments going forward in this upcoming week of public testimony?

BOYKIN: Not really. I mean, I think I agree with what S.E. said. I actually think they've been really smart in the way they they've actually had the private depositions before they had - and the private depositions and the release of the deposition testimony and then the actual public customers so you get three bites of the apple basically.

Three attempts to show the American people what this person was saying and the first attempt is really an introduction who this person is because most people don't know who Marie Yovanovitch is or Bill Taylor is but now they know because they've had three different news stories in three different days where they've been introduced to the public.

And when they finally appear and they testify, it's powerful, it's impactful.

CABRERA: Keith Boykin, S.E. Cupp, thank you. S.E.'s show is at the top of the hour. Make sure you stay with us here on CNN and we're still going through those two newly released transcripts this hour where two more officials are coming forward about the concerns they raised about President Trump's July phone call with Ukraine's President.

A member of the House Judiciary Committee joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00]

CABRERA: The breaking news this hour from the impeachment hearings. Newly released testimony from aides for President Trump and Vice President Pence show they raise concerns as they listen to the President talk about political investigations with Ukraine's leader. That July 25 phone call.

And also happening today, the first OMB official to testify, described today how unusual it was for a political appointee to step in and take over the process of putting that hold on nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine.

I want to bring in Texas Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who sits on the House Judiciary Committee. Congresswoman, as we've been revealing more and more nuggets of what we're learning in real time from these closed door testimonies because they have these two transcripts just released today.

Now we're hearing from both Morrison as well as Williams who were listening to the call saying, what they heard was concerning and they also testified that it was Sondland who told Morrison at least that he was told directly by the President that they needed to pursue these political investigations. What's your reaction?

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): I think Ana, what we're seeing and what I hope the American people are seeing is that there are building blocks toward the real question and that is whether or not the President has perpetrated impeachable offenses?

The basis of this is that the American people should understand that the constitution did not give the President of United States absolute power. That is what this President has used as his defense, whether or not the Republicans are saying hearsay or process, it really is based upon the fact that they're saying that the President can do anything that he wants.

CABRERA: OK, so let me ask.

LEE: That is not the case under the constitution.

CABRERA: Have you seen enough? Are you ready to draft articles of impeachment?

LEE: What I will say to you is because I do and would sit in the role of a grand jury, I've gone on record for impeachment but what I am promising is that I will listen to all the facts and as well listen to the President when he would come and when I say, he, his representatives will have the opportunity to come forward during that impeachment process under the authority of the grand jury, that is the Judiciary Committee pursuant to House rules.

But what I will say to you that I do think the facts point clearly to aspects of high crimes and misdemeanors and the abuse of power and that is key. Abuse of power is understandable if you are a patriot and you're putting your country your nation over your party because what the President has done is set a trail of facts of asking a foreign entity to investigate his 2020 political opponent.

He has intimidated or at least smeared a sitting ambassador. He skewed the diplomatic process by asking personal lawyers and friends to intervene in what could be a national security threat to the United States.

If Ukraine falls to the Russian intrusion, that is a threat to us and many people don't realize and I'll just share this with you. There are white nationalists who are going to the fight in Ukraine from the United States. There's a myriad of issues around this that the President doesn't seem to be aware of.

CABRERA: Hold on, hold on, but what you just said, do you have facts to back that up? The White nationalists from the U.S. going to have to fight in Ukraine? I just want to make sure we're - I just want to make sure we get the facts here. Do you have evidence of that? LEE: No, that - no, that was in a public hearing just recently that we had in Washington DC.

CABRERA: OK.

[17:20:00]

LEE: That these are issues - these are issues that we must be concerned about but I think the real crux is, is that you don't fool around with foreign policies like this because it has a real impact on the American people. So the facts that we're hearing, facts based upon witnesses who have actually heard this discussion are methodical building blocks toward the fact of the question of whether or not we proceed with an impeachment process.

CABRERA: I want to play some new video from Intel chairman Adam Schiff, who is of course leading the impeachment hearings. He was appearing at the California Democratic Party convention today. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We will send that charlatan in the White House back to the golden dome he came from. And you know why? Because we vote. How do we build another big beautiful wave? We vote.

CABRERA: Congresswoman, you're trying to convince the public in the gravest terms that in the interest of upholding the constitution, the President should be removed from office the other side keeps saying this is a sham, a partisan witch hunt as President Trump calls it.

Should the men running the impeachment inquiry be above this kind of name calling?

LEE: Well, first of all, this is an inquiry, this is an investigation. This will wind up as a report that will be submitted to the Judiciary Committee but I asked the public to follow the facts and I'd also say that the President often makes a comment that he has the freedom of speech and Adams Schiff has a freedom of speech as well.

But he did say let's vote but I believe the facts are going to supersede any conversation that anyone might have out of the actual arena of the investigation or the proceedings and that is that you're hearing from patriots like Ambassador Yovanovitch. You're hearing from individuals that have come forward in the last 24 hours, witnesses to actual conversations of Ambassador Sondland.

You hear from Ambassador Sondland, you may hear again from Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, a patriot, a military person and an immigrant as he calls himself. That's why his patriotism, he says is that the ultimate. If you hear these facts and you listen to them with clarity and then you understand the founding father's concept of what the three branches of government is that no one should have ultimate power.

The President is using ultimate power to abuse and skew diplomacy and national security, to smear a diplomat, to in actuality sell the security of the United States for a few titbits of information about an opponent, insist upon a political appointee, Ambassador Sondland to be the guide of his political needs overseas such as the investigations of someone.

CABRERA: But that's not impeachable because he has somebody who is a political appointee leading the way in terms of those investigations but understanding how foreign policy and diplomacy work or should work can be complicated, specially for the average American who has a lot going on in their lives.

If somebody who wasn't following this story closely was watching this week, do you think Democrats did a good enough job of making their case? Of making your case?

LEE: Well, I absolutely do and I didn't suggest that a political appointee guiding - guiding the direction of the President in and of itself but clearly - clearly being the spokesperson for the President's absolute direction for you to get investigations going on a political opponent is certainly again an abuse of power.

We must understand that the impeachment process is - we didn't choose to do this. The President's facts are created by himself. The impeachment process is grounded in the early concerns of the founding fathers that you don't have an executive that is absolutely out of control.

I think we have made the evidentiary trail of that there is something awry in the White House and something awry with the President's actions as it relates to whether or not he puts the interests of the American people over his self-interest or his political interest.

We have shown that this week. There will be additional witnesses, I believe. They will be cross examined and likewise, if we proceed, we will have the opportunity to hear from the President as well but the constitution clearly was a document of checks and balances. Have we checked this President? No, we've not. Does he believe we have absolute power? Yes. Has he abused that power? Yes.

Then that is certainly a violation of the constitution as it relates to the impeachment process. We have not judged it yet, we have not finished yet but we will proceed and we hope the facts will come clearly and that this will be a process, not respecting Democrats or Republicans but really asking people to make their decisions based upon what is in the best interest of this country.

[17:25:00]

CABRERA: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, great to have you with us. Thanks for taking the time.

LEE: You're very kind, thank you for having me.

CABRERA: The impeachment inquiry, the witnesses, the testimony, the latest evidence. Join Chris Cuomo for a CNN special, 'The White House Crisis: The Impeachment Inquiry' tomorrow night starting at 8 ET. Some breaking news into CNN right now. We have new details about a meeting and phone call between Vice President Mike pence and Ukraine's President. We're live to the White House next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: More breaking news and new details about a meeting and a phone call held between Vice President Mike Pence and Ukraine's President Zelensky so how does this fit into the whole impeachment inquiry?

For that, I want to go straight to CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House. Jeremy, fill us in.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

[17:30:00]

We're learning now from Jennifer Williams who is Vice President Mike Pence's advisor on European affairs that there were two instances, two calls that she's describing between Vice President Mike Pence and the Ukrainian President Zelensky.

One of them is an April call that came two days after President Trump's April congratulatory call to Zelensky, in which Williams testifies Pence was essentially congratulating Zelensky and does mention the issue of corruption and the importance of pursuing anti- corruption efforts.

That's interesting because President Trump was instructed to bring up corruption issues during his April congratulatory call but ultimately did not based on the transcript that the White House has released.

That kind of undercuts the White House's argument that President Trump was so concerned, of course, about corruption issues more broadly, not just about the Bidens.

Then there's this September 1st meeting between Vice President Mike Pence and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which the concern from the Ukrainians here is very clear. Williams testifies Zelensky raised, was asking about the frozen U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Williams also testifies that Pence simply responded saying, look, we're looking forward to your reforms and insisting that the U.S. was committed to Ukraine's future.

CABRERA: Also, Jeremy, new details about that July 25th call. What can you tell us?

DIAMOND: That's right. There's this July 25th call in which Zelensky - sorry -- let me start again. This July 25th call in which President Trump talks to President Zelensky. This is a call that's a matter of concern, of course.

In the transcript of that call, the rough transcript that was released by the White House, Burisma is not mentioned by name, the company on which Hunter Biden sat on the board of.

But now you have Williams testifying that President Zelensky did bring up Burisma by name. She's the second official who listened in on that July 25th call who has said that Burisma was specially mentioned by name.

Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman also said that Burisma was mentioned by name, even though it was not in the transcript. Instead, it refers broadly to a company.

So that's an important clarification, important note there from a national security aide.

CABRERA: The details matter.

Jeremy Diamond, at the White House for us, thank you.

Up next, stunning new development in the Colin Kaepernick saga. The embattled quarterback, out of the NFL for three years, attacked by the president for his decision to kneel during the national anthem, the subject of a Nike ad campaign, finally gets his chance to work out for NFL teams today on a return to the league.

Then, minutes before the most-anticipated job interview in years, everything changed. A live report, next, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:43]

CABRERA: We have more breaking news, this time, involving Colin Kaepernick. After being off the field for nearly three years, the 32- year-old free-agent quarterback was scheduled to practice in front of representatives from several NFL teams in Atlanta today, but the workout initially was abruptly stopped. It was moved at almost the last minute.

It was supposed to be held at the Atlanta Falcons training facility, but the location was switched to this location, where we saw him on the field moments ago. We're told that one of the reasons they made this move was so the media could be present so the process could be more transparent.

Kaepernick's NFL career, you'll recall, took a hard turn after he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest social and racial injustice. That sparked, arguably, the biggest social justice movement in sports, a powerful Nike campaign, an NFL settlement, and tweets from President Trump.

Let's go live to CNN's Andy Scholes, who's following all of this for us.

Andy, the workout is under way, as we speak. What's happening?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Ana, what a wild afternoon we've had here in Atlanta. It looks like Colin Kaepernick right now may be wrapping up his workout.

He was on the field stretching, then he went through a routine of short passes, deep passes. Right now, he's out there in the center of the field with some of the receivers he was throwing passes to.

I can tell you, we have had an eventful afternoon. This was supposed to be a private workout run by the NFL at the Atlanta Falcons practice facility. We were all there. The media was there. I watched at least 20 scouts from NFL teams enter that facility.

At the very last second, we got a statement from Colin Kaepernick's representatives that it was not happening there. They pulled the rug out from under it and moved it to this high school stadium here near the Atlanta airport.

They did that apparently because it's about this liability waiver the NFL wanted them -- Colin Kaepernick to sign. That had apparently an employment-related clause in it that Colin Kaepernick's representatives were not comfortable with. So they said they would not sign it and they were moving this workout to this location here.

And, Ana, as you can see, the workout has, in fact, wrapped up.

At the Falcons facility, like I said, which was 58 miles from where we are now, there were about 20 scouts. Here I count about six or seven scouts.

Hundreds of Colin Kaepernick fans and supporters have gathered at the end of the end zone and have been watching this entire workout as it's been going. You might have heard some cheers right there.

What this does to Colin Kaepernick's future, we'll have to wait and see. Definitely, still mistrust between Colin Kaepernick and the national football league.

CABRERA: And, Andy, I don't know if I missed it, but how many teams showed up to watch?

SCHOLES: It's not confirmed. The scouts were over here on this side of the field, and it looks to be about six scouts here watching Colin Kaepernick work out. Whereas, when we were at the Falcons facility, I watched about 20 scouts enter there to watch that workout.

Looks like Colin Kaepernick, Ana, is going to go greet some of the supporters in that end zone that were here cheering him on. Looks like that's what he's going to do right now.

CABRERA: Interesting. OK. We'll check back with you. Keep us posted.

Thank you, Andy.

[17:39:49]

All right. Russia has long relished the political chaos in the United States. Just more proof of the West's decline. So how is this impeachment inquiry being viewed in Moscow? We'll take a look, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: This past week, we saw two full days of public live-on- television Capitol Hill hearings in President Trump's impeachment inquiry. And they were difficult to avoid. Cable news, radio, and Web sites all dominated by witness testimony. It will continue again next week.

This impeachment process has another very eager audience and it's in Russia.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Kremlin is feasting on the impeachment inquiry in the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN NEWS ANCHOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PLEITGEN: State-run media clearly taking President Trump's side.

UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN TV HOST: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PLEITGEN: Even echoing talking points used by Republicans during the first hearing, trying to discredit testimony from America's top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): You didn't listen on President Trump's call and President Zelensky's call?

BILL TAYLOR, ACTING U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: I did not.

[17:45:01]

JORDAN: You never talked with Chief of Staff Mulvaney?

TAYLOR: I never did.

JORDAN: You never met the president?

TAYLOR: That's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN TV HOST (through translation): And one of the main witnesses in this case turned out to be almost a stool pigeon. It came to light that all his information is thirdhand. He never met Trump. And spoke to Zelensky about everything except the main thing for everyone, the military aid.

PLEITGEN: Ignoring other damning evidence Taylor laid out --

(SHOUTING)

PLEITGEN: -- the Russians rejoicing, believing President Trump has shown he cares about investigations into political rivals, but not Ukraine itself.

UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN TV HOST (through translation): You're being used without even asking for any permission. You know what the term for that is? All those important people in America are now talking what strange people you are and how you can be used.

UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN NEWS ANCHOR: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PLEITGEN: But Russian state media's support for President Trump goes even further. One news report even attempting to reveal the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint brought the controversy around the Trump/Zelensky call to light.

Even as the President continues to claim there was nothing wrong with the call.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information, including my call with the president of Ukraine, which was a perfect call.

PLEITGEN: The cozy relations with President Trump are paying off for Vladimir Putin. Perceived lack of support from the U.S. president has weakened Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, as his country continues to face a Russian-backed insurgency.

(SHOUTING)

PLEITGEN: Zelensky was recently all but forced to agree to a Russian- approved negotiating formula and ask for talks with Moscow, leading to protests against him in Kiev.

UNIDENTIFIED UKRAINIAN VETERAN: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PLEITGEN: And Zelensky was challenged by veterans on the front line who felt he was bowing to the Russians after losing America's support.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): I'm the president of this country. I'm 41 years old. I'm not a loser.

PLEITGEN: As Ukraine's president struggles to navigate the fallout of President Trump's Ukraine moves --

UNIDENTIFIED RUSSIAN TV HOST: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PLEITGEN: -- Kremlin-controlled media is in a feeding frenzy, hungrily awaiting the next impeachment hearings.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: I want to get Steve Hall in here. He's our national security analyst and spent 30 years in the CIA. He was chief of Russia operations there.

Steve, what's Putin taking away from this week's hearings? STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Ana, what this

situation, and the hearing specifically, which focused more tightly on it, is giving Vladimir Putin is a real smorgasbord of different options, different themes he can pursue, both using propaganda, as we just saw there on their propaganda network, the state-run television there, and also options further down the road.

All of which are bad for the United States, and all of which, I think, are going to significantly erode our national security.

Ukraine is a key thing for Russia, obviously. Any opportunity that Vladimir Putin can have, which is provided to him by President Trump or by the United States, to weaken Ukraine, to weaken the government there, and perhaps allow Russia to end up controlling all of Ukraine, that's a great thing.

But there's just so many different back-and-forth themes coming out here that Putin can pick and choose and decide, OK, today, I want to go in this direction, weaken Ukraine. Tomorrow, I'm going to do something that's going to make Trump look really good. Then I'll come back and do something else that makes him look really bad.

He can basically do whatever he wants because he has all of this great ammo that Trump is giving him.

CABRERA: Sounds like he has a playground before him.

This week, we also learned Gordon Sondland talked to Trump on a cell phone in a restaurant in Ukraine. A diplomatic aide says the president was talking so loud he could actually overhear their conversation, and that they talked about, quote, "investigations."

Aside from the national security risks of taking this call on a personal cell phone, what are the chances Putin has a recording of this conversation?

HALL: Oh, it's 100 percent. There's no doubt that the Russians, who have a very extensive intelligence network already in place in Ukraine to do things such as not just pick up telephone calls and listen to them, you know, but also the same thing they were doing here in 2016, affect influence operations, drive public opinion.

But in my mind, there's no doubt that they have that phone call.

And this has really negative implications, Ana, down the road for our national security.

Because one of Putin's favorite themes is, hey, these people who are telling you guys in Ukraine and other developing democracies that democracy is the way to go, you know, it's a big hoax, they're pulling the wool over your eyes, these guys are no better than the authoritarian places like Russia that we live in.

When President Trump calls up somebody in Ukraine, the president, and says, I need a favor from you, though, in exchange for help on a domestic rival here in the United States, the Bidens, that proves it for Putin. He will take that to the bank every single time.

CABRERA: Steve Hall, your insight is so important.

Thank you very much.

HALL: Sure.

[17:50:01]

CABRERA: I want to highlight this week's top-ten "CNN Hero. Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, is trying to clean up more than eight million tons of plastic in the world's oceans. Shah decided to tackle this growing problem after seeing a beloved beach from his childhood.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AFROZ SHAH, CNN HERO: The beach was like a carpet of plastic. For the first time in my life, I didn't want to be near the water because the garbage was like five and a half feet. It's a problem of pollution created by us.

With this in my mind, I started to clean the beach. Then I told myself, it would be difficult for a single man to do it, so I said, why not take this journey to others.

(CROSSTALK)

SHAH: This huge ocean is a problem. We'll have to rise up in huge numbers. When you have a complicated problem, sometimes solutions are simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: His movement has collected more than 60 million pounds of garbage from the ocean.

Go to CNNheroes.com to vote for him for "CNN Hero" of the year or any of your favorite top-10 heroes.

Voters in Louisiana today are voting in a runoff election for that state's governor. Why this election is being seen as a big test for President Trump ahead of 2020..

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CABRERA: It is down to the wire in Louisiana's gubernatorial runoff election, which is shaping up to be a test for President Trump. Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards is trying to hold on against Republican Eddie Rispone.

President Trump was campaigning for Rispone in Louisiana this week, which he will surely claim some of the credit if he wins. But if Edwards does pull it out, it will be the second time in two weeks that Trump's touch wasn't able to overcome the factors in a deeply red state gubernatorial election.

[17:55:13]

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is there for us.

Dianne, what are the voters saying?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ana, this is a very tight race at this point. Most of the voters we've been speaking to across Louisiana today have said, even though President Trump is looming large over this, their decisions have come down to the two individual candidates and what they believe they'll do for the state of Louisiana.

John Bel Edwards is arguably a very popular governor. Most polls have him over 50 percent in approval rating. But he couldn't quite get to the majority vote during that jungle primary that they have here to win outright. So that's why we're in a runoff today.

His opponent, who is a wealthy Republican businessman, Eddie Rispone, has been bringing in national help from Republicans trying to nationalize this race, like we've seen in some of those other off-year elections in the past.

President Trump visiting Louisiana not once, Ana, not twice, but three times in an attempt to push him over the finish line.

At this point, polls do show he's trailing but just by percentage points. So it's probably going to go down to the line. We are likely in for a very late night.

One last thing, Ana, early voting was at a really high rate according to the secretary of state's office. They are expecting a big turnout for this runoff election.

CABRERA: It's be interesting to get those results.

Dianne Gallagher will bring those to us as we get them.

Thank you.

I'm Ana Cabrera, in New York. I'll be back in just an hour from now.

My colleague, S.E. Cupp, continues your coverage of today's news right after a quick break. Stay with us.

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