-Every day, more evidence emerges
in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump,
including damming new text messages.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Suspenseful theme plays ] [ Cheering and applause ]
As you'll recall, this all started
when we found out that, on an official phone call,
the president dangled hundreds of millions of dollars
in military aid to Ukraine and, in return,
asked the president of Ukraine to gin up
politically motivated investigations by telling him,
"I would like you to do us a favor."
Now, we already have the notes from the call
on a whistleblower's account
that was deemed credible and urgent,
but, over the weekend, things got even worse for Trump
when a second whistleblower came forward.
-This morning, more breaking news.
ABC News has learned that the legal team
representing the first whistleblower
is now representing a second whistleblower.
Attorney Mark Zaid told me that the second whistleblower
is a member of the intelligence community
with firsthand information
on some of the allegations at issue.
-I gotta say, I'm shocked there are only two whistleblowers.
[ Laughter ] I mean, you could blow the whistle
on this guy constantly.
He's like a soccer player who runs
down length of the field with the ball in his hands
and then throws it into the net.
[ Laughter and applause ]
[as Trump] What do you mean, offsides?
Was I offsides?
Now, Trump and many Republicans
have tried a few different arguments to defend his behavior
and none of them have been convincing.
First, they argued that there was no illegal quid pro quo
because Trump literally did not stay words quid pro quo
on the phone call. -The president didn't do
a darn thing wrong. When you look at that conversation,
there's no threat.
There's no quid pro quo.
-There's no quid pro quo, no demand,
no pressure, no threat.
-His claims were bogus.
There was no quid pro quo.
-The transcript comes out and there is no quid pro quo.
-I have zero problems with this phone call.
There is no quid pro quo.
[ Laughter ] -There was no threat.
There was no quid pro quo
[ Laughter ] in this call.
-There was no quid pro quo.
[ Laughter ] There was nothing.
There was no quid pro quo, at all.
If you remember, at the beginning,
it was [slowly] quid pro quo.
[ Laughter ] -Okay. First of all,
just the way he says it,
you know he has no idea what it means.
[ Laughter ] He says the words
[as Trump, slowly] quid pro quo
the way you read a subway map in a foreign country.
[ Laughter ]
[as Trump] El treno por la aeroporto.
Honey!
I think it's this one.
This uno.
[ Laughter ] Second, you don't need
to literally say the words quid pro quo
for it to be a quid pro quo.
It can be a crime, even if you don't stay name of the crime
while you're doing it.
[ Laughter ] You can still be busted
for buying weed, even if you don't say,
"Hello, I'm interested in the possession of cannabis, please."
[ Laughter ] "How much do you want?"
"Well, my intend is to distribute."
[ Laughter ]
But don't take it from me.
Take it from republican Senator Lindsey Graham,
who said this about Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1999.
-He doesn't to have say, "Go lie for me" to be a crime.
You don't have to say, "Let's obstruct justice"
for it to be a crime.
You judge people on their conduct, not magic phrases.
-Of course, if we did judge Trump on magic phrases,
that'd work, too, because he says quid pro quo
like he's casting a spell at Hogwarts.
[ Laughter ] [as trump] Quid...pro...quo!
Look! Look, everyone!
[ Cheering and applause ]
I just turned my bat into a lawyer.
[ Laughter ]
Not all the way, but close.
Not only was this obviously a quid pro quo,
but it turns out Trump was basically dragging
as many as countries as he could into his political crusade
to investigate Joe Biden and prove
that the Russian investigation was somehow
a deep state witch hunt orchestrated by the Democrats.
As we found out last week, he also involved Australia,
Italy, and the UK in his personal political crusade.
In fact, he specifically asked the UK for help
after they got their new prime minister, Boris Johnson,
who has been very friendly to Trump.
I mean, look at these two.
[ Laughter ]
This looks like an audition room
where two less-good-lookin' actors are
about to lose out on a role
to Nick Nolte.
[ Laughter ]
[as Trump] You also here for "Prince of Tides"?
Yeah, me, too. I didn't --
I didn't learn any lines.
I'm just gonna make stuff up.
[ Laughter ]
Whoa! These tides today, huh?
[ Laughter ]
[ Fresh laughter ]
Lotta tides, yeah.
Who's the girl in this movie?
Barbra Streisand?!
Oh [bleep] me!
[ Boisterous laughter ]
I'm never gonna get it now!
[ Laughter fading ]
[ Fresh laughter ]
Then, last week, of course, after involving Russia, Ukraine,
Italy, Australia, and the UK
in his personal political vendettas,
Trump just confessed on TV and, for the hell of it,
threw China in there, too.
-What, exactly, did you hope Zelensky would do
about the Bidens after your phone call?
-Exactly! -Well, I would think that,
if they were honest about it, they'd start
a major investigation into the Bidens.
It's a very simple answer.
They should investigate the Bidens.
Likewise, China should start
an investigation into the Bidens.
-So, now, he's asking China, too.
At this point, it would be easier for cable news shows
to tell us which countries Trump hasn't tried to extort.
[ Laughter ]
Now, Republicans --
Republicans first tried to argue
there was no illegal quid pro quo,
but, now that he's literally said the crime out loud on TV,
you might be asking yourself,
"How can they possibly defend him?"
Well, Republicans have come up with a new defense:
He was just joking.
-Are you comfortable with what the president has said here
in this call for foreign governments, Ukraine and China,
to investigate his political opponent?
-Well, I doubt if the China comment
was serious, to tell you the truth.
[chuckling] The president loves to go out
on the White House driveway.
I haven't talked to him about this.
I don't know what the president was thinking,
but I knew he loves to bait the press.
-Do you think it's appropriate for President Trump
to ask China and Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?
-George, you really think he was serious
about thinking that China's gonna investigate, uh,
the Biden family?
-I don't know if that's a real request
or him just needling the press,
knowing that you guys were gonna get outraged by it.
I think he did it to provoke you
to ask me and others and get outraged by it.
-Yeah, but, come on, he's the president.
We have to take his word seriously.
It's not his job to outrage people.
You're talkin' about him like he's some
shock jock with a morning radio show.
[ Laughter ] [as Trump] If you ask me,
China should investigate Biden
[ Siren wailing ] and -- Oh!
[ Laughter ] You know what that sound means.
It's time for the Wolf Pack to call in
with your sex questions. -[Howling]
[ Laughter ] -Yeah! And, remember,
whoever has the dirtiest question
wins two free tickets to tonight's monster truck show.
[ Engine revving, air horn blaring ]
[ Cheering and applause ]
Of course, everyone
knew what Trump was doing when he was doing it.
The president mysteriously suspended hundreds of millions
of dollars in military aid that Ukraine desperately needed
and then, he asked the president of Ukraine to do us a favor
by investigating a political rival.
At the same time, his personal lawyer was going around
telling reporters, "We're meddling in an investigation.
There's nothing illegal about it.
Someone could say it's improper."
[ Laughter ] Somebody? How about everybody?
[ Fresh laughter ] I mean, even
the president of Finland, when he met with Trump last week,
was like, "Get your crime hand away from me!"
[ Boisterous laughter and applause ]
Then -- [ Cheering and applause ]
Then, on top of the facts we already had,
last week, we got newly unearthed text messages
from State Department officials in which they made it very clear
that they also knew exactly what was going on.
Now, as we established, Rudy Giuliani,
the president's personal lawyer,
who is in no way a government official,
was basically acting as the middle man
between Trump and Ukraine on all this,
which, right off the bat, is a terrible choice.
I mean, that's like if you were putting together
a Ocean's 11-style team for your bank heist
and you chose, as your computer expert,
Frank Costanza. [ Laughter ]
Although, he'd still probably be better than Rudy
at giving Trump legal advice.
-There was no quid pro quo.
-You don't know what the hell you're doin'!
[ Laughter ] -Now,
[ Cheering and applause ] Rudy has repeatedly insisted
he was acting on orders from the State Department
and even going so far as to go on Fox News
and show them phone calls and text messages
from one State Department official, in particular,
named Kurt Volker.
-You didn't get involved on this on your own.
Did our State Department ask you to go on a mission for them?
-They did.
You know who I did it at the request of?
The State Department. It's all here.
Right here. [ Laughter ]
The first call from the State Department.
I went to meet Mr. Zelensky's aide
at the request of the State Department.
Here's Kurt saying, "Great. I will tell Yermak
and he'll visit with you there. Thanks.
Mr. Mayor, how was your meeting with Andriy?
Do you have time for a call?
Best, Kurt."
-Man, you know you're a bad criminal
when you keep the evidence against you on multiple devices.
[ Laughter ] He's got a phone, an iPad.
What's next? Alexa, what's it called
when you ask someone to do a favor for you
in exchange for money?
-It's called a quid pro quo.
[ Cheering and applause ] Damn it!
Now, Rudy pointed the blame
directly at the State Department, so, naturally,
Democrats called Volker,
the former State Department official,
to testify last week and he revealed to them
some incredibly damning text messages that made it cheer
that people at the State Department
knew exactly what was happening at the time.
In one text, Volker told a Ukrainian official
that a meeting with Trump was basically contingent
on the Ukrainian president
doing the investigation Trump wanted.
-From Kurt Volker to
Ukrainian presidential advisor Andriy Yermak,
it says, "Good lunch. Thanks.
Heard from White House.
Assuming President Z convinces Trump he will investigate,
get to the bottom of what happened in 2016,
we will nail down date for visit to Washington.
Good luck. See you tomorrow. Kurt."
-They wrote it all down. It's all right there.
He even signs his name and says "See you tomorrow. Kurt."
[ Laughter ] So weird.
It's like if you left a ransom note
cut out from magazine letters that said, "Give us the money
or you'll never see your son again.
[ Laughter ] Have a great weekend.
Kurt the Kidnapper."
[ Applause ] But the text messages
get even more --
[ Applause ]
Text messages get even more explosive.
For example, there's an exchange
between two State Department officials
where one of them expresses concern
about what's going on and the other one realizes
they should not be texting about this at all.
-On September 1st,
the top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor,
texts the U.S. ambassador to EU, Gordon Sondland,
and writes this: "Are we now saying
that security assistance and White House meetings
are conditioned on investigations?"
Sondland says, "Call me."
[ Laughter ] -Damn.
Anytime you text someone and they respond by saying,
"Call me," it is not good. [ Laughter ]
If you text a date, "Looking forward to tonight,"
and they text back, "Call me"...
[ Laughter ]
...that date is not happening.
[ Laughter ] The only thing worse is seein'
those three bubbles come up for a while
as you just wait for your response.
Like, "I can see you typing.
Are you still typing?
How long is this message? Are we committing a crime?
[ Laughter ] Oh, no!
[ Fresh laughter ] Ohhh, no! It is a crime!"
[ Applause ]
So, now, the second whistleblower coming forward
and all this new evidence coming out,
Trump's looking for a fall guy
and, since he's a political mastermind
who, apparently, is an expert at manipulating the press,
he looked around and he found the perfect guy.
the guy who everyone would definitely believe
was responsible for all of this:
Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
-President Trump has a new defense
for his July 25th phone call to the president of Ukraine
that is at the center
of House Democrats's impeachment inquiry.
Trump told House Republicans Friday that he was urged
to make the call by Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
Sources say Trump suggested it was a call
he didn't even want to make.
-That's right. He wants to us believe
the mastermind behind all this was Rick Perry.
[ Laughter ] I'm sorry, but people are not
gonna believe Rick Perry is the brains behind all of this
because, what, because he wears glasses?
[ Laughter ] But don't take it from me.
Take it from this guy.
-I see Rick Perry the other day.
He put glasses on so people will think he's smart.
[ Laughter ]
And it just doesn't work!
You know, people can see through the glasses.
[ Laughter ] -Trump probably forgot
he said that, then saw Rick Perry one day and said,
[as Trump] "That guy must be smart.
He wears glasses. [ Laughter ]
All the evidence is right in front of us.
The president used his office and the entirety
of American foreign policy
to pursue his personal political goals
and people knew, at the time,
that it was an obviously corrupt abuse of power.
So, Republicans, of you're confused about any of this,
I'll say it very slowly.
[as Trump, slowly] This was a...
-[slowly] Quid pro quo.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheering and applause ] ♪♪