Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned

after the show for a message from Google. And I'm Jake Sherman. The Washington Nationals hung on last

night to win game one of the World Series 5-4 over the Astros in Houston. Now on to much more important

news. This is quickly shaping up to be the worst week of Donald Trump's presidency. First, Bill Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, provided close to unassailable

evidence that Trump was directly seeking a public proclamation of an investigation into the

Biden's in exchange for not only a White House visit, but also security assistance. This is going

to exert extreme pressure on Gordon Sondland to return to the Hill and respond

to these remarks.

75 people were in the room, roughly two-thirds lawmakers, for a hearing that many said

was jaw-dropping.

Our colleagues, Andrew DeZadario and Kyle Cheney write that Taylor, quote, painted a damaging

portrait of events that directly tied Trump to a quid pro quo with Ukraine, according to his prepared remarks obtained by Politico and his responses.

The Times notes the sweep of Trump's impeachment investigation is broader than Nixon and Clintons, because it extends to matters of life and death,

as well as being on a grander scale of geopolitical consequence.

And the posts asked the question, how will Washington respond?

CBS's Nancy Cordes asked Mitch McConnell Tuesday if he told the president, as Trump claimed,

that the Ukraine conversation was perfect.

McConnell said this,

we've not had any conversations on that subject. So he was lying? McConnell was asked. You'll have to ask

him. I don't recall any conversations with the president about that phone call. And third,

Chuck Grassley told reporters he's growing more alarmed. The time will run out to get the U.S.-Mexico

Canada trade agreement passed through Congress

...