Thank you, JB. Have a great weekend. I am Chris Cuomo. Welcome to prime time. Was the president

framed by his own people? That's what some of his defenders seem to be selling. Some of his best

players may be in the crosshairs. And we have more proof that Ukraine deal was more than a phone call.

Word of a similar ask to the last Ukrainian president. And we know who's said to have done the

asking. So what do you say? Let's get after it.

Here's what we know. Two White House officials, Fiona Hill and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander

Vindman, both implicated acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, in their newly released testimonies

as the coordinator of the quid pro quo or the attempted bribe or whatever you want to call the deal.

Mulvaney was a no show on the hill today, defying a house subpoena. But he is increasingly present

in a new notion that he or others did this Ukraine thing without the president's knowledge. We're

going to test that. And we learned today of another very similar shakedown attempt stretching

back the last Ukrainian administration. This one allegedly orchestrated by the arrested associates

of Rudy Giuliani. The Wall Street Journal reports Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman,

unsuccessfully tried to get then Ukrainian president Poroshenko to announce an investigation

into the Biden's in return for a state visit here. So if the idea that this is all about one call

this past July, we're not absurd enough already. This new information should put that idea to rest

at least for the reasonable. And the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor testified,

Ukraine president Zelensky eventually did agree to make a public statement about investigating the

Biden's and he was going to do so in an interview with CNN. Who our very own Farid Zakaria in September.

But then the aid money was released, the interview was called off. Farid joins us now with the

rest of the story. Good to see you, my friend. Pleasure as always, Chris.

Now, obviously you didn't know what was a foot. But once you learned of the context of what was

...