david hale and every other u.s. envoy that visits beirut usually all they carry with them are threats and we're used to that probably has nothing new here once you know it's there and lebanon with sanctions if they give too much power to hezbollah and and what not then that's not really anything new in lebanon i don't think he has any power to enforce his agenda he just tries to pressure his allies to not capitulate to march. and the senate has also said that he's going to be putting together a technocratic government so it'll be a new government of quote unquote independents experts is everyone going to back him on that everyone meaning the political parties in lebanon is he going to be able to do this after all that's one of the key demands off people who have come out on the streets. well this seems to be the direction i mean the parties that nominated him which are the majority in parliament nominated him because he fits that bill and because he's going to form such a government. there i mean there is talk of ma

david hale the under secretary of state for political affairs and christopher ford assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation testified on us policy toward russia with the senate foreign relations committee. the two state department officials answered several questions on russia's global influence and tougher sanctions and if they are working. this is about two hours 20 minutes. 's. [inaudible conversations]

russians are seeking influence the 2020 elections, us undersecretary of state for political affairs david halers the state department is actively working to keep russia out of the elections. but maryland democratic senator ben cardin says he's not convinced according to we have not been successful and stopping them trying to interfere in 2020 harding says he wants to know exactly how the state department plans to keep our election scif and why the car strategy isn't working. diplomacy failed had the sanctions not been used effectively has the messaging of this administration, not been effective hale says it comes down to money. he says the department needs $46 million more from congress to get the job done. >>ohio republican senator rob portman supports be increased funding. i think it's really important center murphy agrees we've we've worked on this over the years to try to ensure that we have the ability to push back on the disinformation propaganda but cardin says the state department still has access to funds. it hasn't used congress gave us 600 some million that you didn't ask for and di

security assistance to ukraine specifically had been temporarily paused in the past that massacre david hale the undersecretary of state for political affairs the 3rd most senior person at the state department testified that the national security council had launched a review of u.s. foreign assistance across the world to make sure x. spare dollars were spent in the national interest and to advance the principle of burden sharing by our allies dr hill testified that as she was leaving the n.s.c. in july there had been a directive for a whole scale review of our foreign policy assistance she said there had been more scrutiny on security assistance as a result another important data point is president trumps willingness to take a stronger stance in supporting ukraine against russian aggression and compared to the previous administration several witnesses testified the president trumps willingness to provide ukraine with lethal defensive assistance javelin anti-tank missiles was a substantial improvement a stronger policy and is significant decision when we discuss democrat allegations that pre

david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which has been locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. as an in and deep trouble financially i think at a certain stage within the next week or so will there will be more constraints on the backing sector. people will take to the streets. full of the some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut. now and all the stories are following at least 9 people have been killed in spain and portugal when 2 storm struck in quick succession after storm in the middle of the week storm 5 young arrived late on saturday and it's blowing its way across france and into the mediterranean italy's also been hit while spain silt offense agency is warning of strong winds and waves of up to 9 meters high or a challenge h

bonds loan which is likely to default and that can only worsen the guy economic situation here david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. lebanon is an area in deep trouble financially and i think at a certain stage within the next week or so will there will be even more constraints on the banking sector and people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut. the bit more violent scenes in hong kong as police used tear gas to disperse crowds at a rally in support of china's we got minority well than a 1000 people gathered for the demonstration police arrested 2 protesters who attempted to burn a chinese flag large groups at least a 1000000 a week as members of other largely muslim minority groups have been detained in chinese camps. stans par

david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. lebanon is an area in deep trouble financially and i think at a certain stage within the next week or so all that there will be. constraints on the backing sector. people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut. to hong kong where the government is investing $500000000.00 to try and save its economy sliding further into recession 6 months of pro-democracy protests are being blamed for low tourist numbers and a drop in high street sales online however it is a different story with retailers capitalizing on global support for the movement sarah clarke reports now from hong kong. streets once teeming with shoppers a

bonds load which is likely to default and that can only worsen the guy economic situation here david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. in deep trouble financially i think at a certain stage within the next week or so all that there will be. constraints on the banking sector. people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al-jazeera beirut. croatia's presidential election is headed for a runoff as the country prepares to get its 1st turn to lead the european union from a left wing prime minister. got under 30 percent of sunday's vote ahead of president barack tire of each who's been in the job nearly 5 years now a 2nd round will be held until it's. now hong kong is government has announced $500000000.00 worth of measures to try to stop its economy sliding fu

bonds loan which is likely to default and that can only worsen the guy economic situation here david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. it was an error in and. actually i think at a certain stage for the next week or so there will be. constraints on the backing so. people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. al-jazeera the route. being counted in pakistan's parliamentary elections but observers say there were no genuine opposition choices all 5 parties running a seen as loyal to the president shafqat benazir your you or me it has more now from tashkent. it was the 1st parliamentary election since presidential museo you have took power in $2161.00 that is also supposed to mark the beginning of the end of tarion rule imposed by his predecessor for almost 3 decades

david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which has been locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. as an area in deep trouble financially and i think at a certain stage within the next week or so all that there will be even more constraints on the banking sector and people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut. a sunday deadline for iraq's president to name a new interim prime minister has now passed with no announcements on who's been chosen earlier thousands of protesters block roads in baghdad and basra demanding the appointment of an independent prime minister they say one of the nominees is closely linked to iran for us to say they're fed up with corruption for services and a lack of jobs hundreds have

will happen you have to remember also the united states is watching this situation very closely david hale the undersecretary for political . view is coming to the lebanon fairly soon now they had sanctions against 2 hezbollah m.p.'s earlier this year so. may even step up sanctions what will happen then what was a rome do in response and also you have the severing situation in the south of the country with a border with israel so there's lots of potential 2 year for a cactus catastrophic reaction to this election some people are feeling maybe even back to the old days of violence that it's a long way ahead the still a lot of horse trading to go to this government up so it's not over and done with by any means yet clearly a lot more chaos lies ahead tony betty there for us in beirut thank you tony well libya's u.n. recognized government says it will accept an offer of military support from turkey the tripoli based administration is fighting an offensive by warlord khalifa haftar whose forces are trying to capture the capital schools in the southern district of abu salim in tripoli has now b

congress man john ratcliffe reminded intel committee witness state department official david hale thatr. trump is not the only president to withhold such aid from a country for a variety of reasons. >> was aid withheld from pack man. >> yes, sir. >> why was it withheld. >> because of unhappiness over the policies and behavior of the pakistani government. >> was aid withheld from honduras. >> aid was held from the three states in northern central america. >> was aid withheld from lebanon? >> yes, sir. >> were you given a reason why it was withheld? >> no. lou: the radical dimms insist we ignore history and ignore the facts as they pretend the hold on aid to ukraine is a unique and impeachable offense for president trump but in other presidents who preceded him and delivered the desperate load of cash scrain ukraine need needed. but when president obama failed to deliver need weapons and filed to response tops russia's invasion and the taking of crimea, there were truly desperate times then. and president obama did exactly nothing. it's important to remember, president trump who is provi

>>> david hale v. under secretary of state for political affairs and christopher ford fod assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation testified on u.s. policy towards russia before the senate foreign relations committee. department officials answered several questions on russia's global influence and whether tougher sanctions are working. this is about two hours and 20 minutes. >>> the committee will come to order. thank you all for coming today and to the witnesses for joining us today as we examine the current state of the u.s. russia relationship and the strategy to deal with the russian federation. it's timely to assess the relationship with russia and as we've recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the events that led to the collapse of the soviet union, the fall of the berlin wall, solidarity, selection, victory in poland and the baltic demonstrations among others. many former soviet states had become prosperous democracies with memberships in nato and the eu

as recently as tod,un rsecretary of state david hale was asked about alleged ukrainian interferce, at a hearing before the senate foreign relations committee. >> was the kremlin's interference in the 2016 election a hoax? >> no. >> are you aware of any evidenct kraine interfered in the 2016 u.s. election? >> i am not.es >>rdins: but some senate republicans have not been so unequivocal. >> there are articles about ukrainian officials talking to i don't know if that's te or not. d jardins: democrats say their investigation into president trump will continue. the port now goes to the hou judiciary committee, ahead of tomorrow's public hearings on impeachment.tional precedent >> woodruff: and lisa joins me so lisa, to you first. alcindor. tell us some of the key takeaways from this report today. >> letlook at the big picture, judy. democrats, first of all, arein taabout the call between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky. they see two items of misconduct there, separately the idea that the president used his power for political gain, to get an investion that helped him polit

undersecretary of state david hale testified that he was frustrated because he was simply told that this was the president's wish. in august, in august, several omb divisions, several divisions, wrote a joint memo recommending that military aid go to ukraine as soon as possible and they said in that memo that it was necessary this military aid was necessary for supporting a stable and peaceful europe. i would also note that just recently, just a few weeks ago, two omb officials resigned and they resigned because of deep concerns that they had about what they were being asked to do. one of those individuals worked in the legal department that issued this after-the-fact cover-up memo from omb. now, let me just ask the american people this. if the president was waiting, had deep concerns about corruption and was waiting for ukraine to take major steps on corruption, let me ask you what you think any president might do in that situation. might they ask the department defense to follow up on those major anti-corruption things that they were trying to get done? they didn't -- he did not do tha

americans like laura cooper, david hale, george kent, bill taylor, jennifer williams, marie yovanovitch, all of whom have served in nonpolitical positions for all or most of their careers, all of them who testified before congress under subpoena. these are just a few of the 2.1 million americans who make up the federal civil service and the foreign service. they work together here at home and abroad in every field of endeavor and on behalf of all of us. for example, budding entrepreneurs can call on the small business administration loan officers for help accessing capital and foreign service officers to help sell their inventions to the world. farmers know that the natural resources conservation service employees can help them keep their land productive for the long term, and foreign agricultural service diplomats help american farmers make a living feeding the world. yet, too many of our colleagues , including many on the other side of the aisle, have defamed public servants and now accuse those who testified in the house of attacking the president. that accusation has it exactly back

in fact, ambassador david hale, the under secretary of state for affairs, the third most senior person at the senior department testified that national security council had released a review across the world to make sure taxpayer dollars were spent to the national interest kind to advance the principle of burden sharing by our allies. dr. hill testified that as she was leaving in july, there had been a directive for full-scale review of our foreign policy assistance. she said there had been more scrutiny on security assistance as a result. another important data point is president trump's willingness to take a stronger stance and supporting ukraine against russian aggression. compared to the previous administration. several witnesses testified that president trump's willingness to provide ukraine with was a substantial improvement, a stronger policy and a significant decision. when we discuss democrat allegations that president trump withheld vital security assistance dollars from ukraine, we should also remember it was president trump and not president obama who provided ukraine with

diplomat david hale disputed the growing conspiracy theory being advanced by president trump and somerfered in the 2016 presidential election. >> are you aware of any evidence that ukraine interfered in the 2016 u.s. election? >> i'm not. >> you know, i appreciate dr. fiona hill's testimony before the house, the former national security council director for europe and russia who said that theory is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the russian security services themselves. do you have any reason to disagree with dr. hill? >> i do not. >>> still ahead, north korea appears to threaten the united states with an unwelcome christmas gift. what president trump has to say about the stalled talks of kim jong-un. we're back in a moment. (dad) one under par on a hole is a...? (daughter) birdie! (dad) that's what i'm talkin' about. and a score of two under par is...? (daughter) big birdie! (dad) no, it's not that, it's uh... (rickie) turkey vulture! (dad) rickie fowler, i'm sorry, what...? (rickie) turkey vulture. (dad) oh! thats a turkey-oh! all right, lets go. i

steve, the unt secretary of state david hale testified on capitol hill today and he was asked about whoty assessed that russian president vladimir putin ordered an -- influence campaign in 2016 aimed at our presidential election. >> was the kremlin's interference election a hoax? >> no. >> are you aware of any evidence that ukraine interfered in the 2016 u.s. election? >> i'm not. >> does it undermine u.s. intelligence agencies when people like senator john kennedy or president trump come out and publicly contradict all of the work by all of the intelligence agencies and the state department and the senate intelligence committee. >> you know, jake, i think we're past that. we're so used to this administration and members of the republican party coming out and den gadi -- denigrating the intelligence professionals who work there and not to mention the stream of professionals that we had last week testifying, people like dr. fiona hill and the rest. that is become the norm. but there are two real reasons as to why ukraine might have done this doesn't work. the first is the ukrainians know

david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. isn't it in deep trouble financially i think at a certain stage within the next week or so there will be even more. constraints on the banking sector. people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut. syrian state media is reporting that government forces have intercepted missiles from israel it says 4 cruise missiles were launched towards targets in and around damascus israel has not commented on the reports from syrian or russian air strikes have killed at least 17 people in labor problems government forces are advancing on the last rebel held areas they say they've captured more than 20 villages in recent weeks

david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. and the problem of financially i think at a certain stage within the next week or so all there will be more constraints on the backing sector. people will take to the streets. full of the some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut. now at least 9 people have been killed in spain and portugal when 2 storm struck in quick succession following storm elsa midweek storm fabby and then arrived late on saturday and it's blowing its way across france and into the mediterranean a city has also been affected while spain's civil defense agency is warning of strong winds and waves of up to 9 meters high or a challenge reports. to rescue the crew the he

[inaudible conversations] >>> david hale v. under secretary of state for political affairs and christopher ford fod assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation testified on u.s. policy towards russia before the senate foreign relations committee. department officials answered several questions on russia's global influence and whether tougher sanctions are working. this is about two hours and 20 minutes.

under secretary of state david hale testified he was frustrated because he was simply told this was the president's wish. in august, in august, several omb divisions, several divisions wrote a joint memo, recommending that military aid go to ukraine as soon as possible. and they said in that memo that it was necessary, this military aid was necessary for supporting a stable and peaceful europe. i would also note that just recently, just a few weeks ago, two omb officials resigned. and they resigned because of deep concerns that they had about what they were being asked to do. one of those individuals worked in the legal department that issued this after-the-fact cover-up memo from omb. now let me just ask the american people this. if the president was waiting, had deep concerns about corruption and was waiting for ukraine to take major steps on corruption, let me ask you what you think any president might do in that situation. might they ask the department of defense to follow up on those major anti-corruption things that they were trying to get done? he did not do that. would they -- w

bonds load which is likely to default and that can only worsen the guy economic situation here david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which has been locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. as an area in deep trouble financially i think at a certain stage within the next week or so will there will be even more constraints on the banking sector. people will take to the streets. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al jazeera beirut votes are being counted in stands parliamentary election observers say there were no genuine opposition choices 5 parties were in the running but they're all the oil to the president. shafqat magazine yes it was the 1st election since the death of longtime leader more than 2016 but syria opened up the country since taking charge and posing a series of reforms and in years of isolation human rights group

your two witnesses, fiona hill and david hale testifying there was an ongoing global review of assistance generally to ensure any program receiving funds were actually worthy beneficiaries of assistant. that the programs made sense. further testifying the president's skeptical views guided the foreign affairs review. in fact the only direct evidence for the reasons for the pause come from omb sanders learned it was represented to the president's concerns about other countries contributing more to ukraine. quote/unquote. explains omb received requests for information on what other country were contributing to ukraine owned in the first week of september. aid released on september 11th. so democrats want to impeach the president for trying to ensure taxpayer funds are spent efficiently and responsibly. democrats accused the president of a myriad of things including violation of impoundment kroct act prohibiting from essentially pocketing veto funds appropriated by congress. this letter that i'm trying to introduce shows instead that the administration never intended or actually violated the

bonds loan which is likely to default and that can only worsen the guy economic situation here david hale the u.s. undersecretary of state for political affairs is in beirut meeting with various political leaders he is key to delivering $11000000000.00 in international aid which is being locked until economic and political reforms are implemented. as it has been in deep trouble financially i think at a certain stage within the next week or so all there will be. constraints on the backing sector. people will take to the streets but. some are still singing about revolution but many are praying for a solution for now the people of lebanon can only wait and hope. tony girty al-jazeera beirut. hong kong's government has announced $500000000.00 worth of measures to try to stop its economy sliding further into recession 6 months of pro-democracy protests are being blamed for the tearing to wrists and a drop in high street sales that some online retailers have been capitalizing on global support for the movements they were caught reports now from hong kong. streets once teeming with shoppers are

under secretary of state, david hale testified that he was frustrated because he was simply told that this was the president's wish. in august, in august, several omb divisions, several divisions wrote a joint memo recommending that military aid go to ukraine as soon as possible. and they said in that memo that it was necessary this military aid was necessary for supporting a stable and peaceful europe. i would also note that just recently, just a few weeks ago, two omb officials resigned. and they resigned because of deep concerns that they had about what they were being asked to do. one of those individuals worked in the legal department that issued this after the fact cover-up memo from omb. now, let me just ask the american people this. if the president was waiting, had deep concerns about corruption and was waiting for ukraine to take major steps on corruption, let me ask you what you think any president might do in that situation. might they ask the department of defense to follow up on those major anti-corruption things that they were trying to get done? he did not do that. wou

iran you've got import from syria an input from the us the undersecretary for political affairs david hale is due to arrive here in the next couple of days and he will be putting his input but we understand that people are saying it's about policy not personality they want to see a government that represents the people that seeks to heal all these riffs and make changes that will improve the economy and the lives of the ordinary people this started over something very very simple 2 months ago a tax being put on a what's up on the internet and that just absolutely skyrocketed to what we have today and people are in no mood to stop this unless they see there's going to be definite progress so the demonstrations we're seeing tonight in tripoli and beirut we expect over the weekend will continue unless mr de can put something together a package together fairly quickly to convince people that he is the moment for the job or be watching that very closely there for us in beirut thank you tony libya's u.n. recognized government says it will accept an offer of military support from turkey and part

and david hale, the number three official at president trump's state department, was asked by senator menendez yesterday whether he was aware of any interference by the ukrainians, he said he was not aware. fiona hill, a former n.s.c. official, testified it was a fictional narrative. there is no doubt that the idea of ukrainian interference in 2016 is a hoax, perpetrated by putin's intelligence services, echoed by fox news and acolytes of president trump who have shown no regard for truth -- none. the fact that republican senators are repeating and amplifying this fiction or playing koh about it -- coy about it is wrong for america, a turning point, a dark point in our history. in my view it shows to the extreme depths to which certain members of the other side will stoop to provide cover to a president accused of serious wrongdoing, a president who almost no americans believe is credible any longer. appropriations, on another matter where we could use some bipartisanship. in 16 days funding for the government will expire. we have several important pieces in place to avoid a shutdown,

diplomat david hale disputed the growing conspiracy theory being advanced by president trump and somenterfered in the 2016 presidential election. >> are you aware of any evidence that ukraine interfered in the 2016 u.s. election? >> i'm not. >> you know, i appreciate dr. fiona hill's testimony before the house, former national security council, director for europe and russia, who said that that theory is a fictional narrative that is being propagated by the russian security services themselves. do you have any reason to disagree with dr. hill? >> i do not. >> david ignatius, what do you make of that? also in terms of these calls that we're talking about, hard not to get completely distracted by the fact that devin nunes leading the hearings is doing some of these calls, but what did this later information of all these calls tell us? >> david hale is such a mild mannered witness that it was easy i think for people not to get the importance of what he just said. he just said that in effect the argument that president trump, devin nunes and other republican defenders of trump have been m

david hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, the third most senior person at the state department testified the national security council launched a review of u.s. foreign assistance across the world to make sure taxpayer dollars were spent in the national interest and to advance the principle of burden-sharing by our allies. dr. hill testified that as she was leaving the nsc in july, there had been a directive for whole scale review of our foreign policy assistance. she said there had been more scrutiny on security assistance as a result. another important data point is president trump's willingness to take a stronger stance to protect ukraine against russian aggression. and compared to the previous administration. several witnesses testified that president trump's willingness to provide ukraine with lethal defensive assistance, javelin anti-tank missiles, was a substantial improvement, a stronger policy and a significant decision. when we discussed democrat allegations that president trump withheld vital security assistance dollars from ukraine, we should also remembe

first of all we will hear from david hale has been the ambassador to pakistan, lebanon and georgia as well as the special envoy for the middle east peace. in washington deput washington t secretary of state for israel, egypt and the director for israel palestinian affairs. he held several staff posts including executive assistant to the secretary of state albright, member since 1984 and was the rank of the career ambassador and a native of senator menendez's home state of new jersey. ambassador, please the floor is yours. yours. hispanic mr. chairman that is why he's such hi such in and dee exceptional public servant. hispanic thank you for that and good morning chairman and ranking member menendez and members of the committee. i welcomed the opportunity to be today with the assistant secretary to discuss u.s. policy towards russia. under president trump the united states has taken consistent action against moscow's attempts to undermine american interests and those of our allies and partners around the world. the united states will continue to use all of the appropriate tools of fina

hearing underway before the senate foreign relations committee hearing from undersecretary of state david hale, political affairs undersecretary testifying on u.s. policy toward russia. his opening statement just underway. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] its obligations we are encouraged by the positive steps ukrainian president zelensky has taken to resolve the russians to get a eastern ukraine, thus far we're disappointed by moscow's response. the truck from russia's not just an external or military one. moscow utilizes digital technologies to target us and our democratic allies from within. it includes election meddling and influenced operations directed by the highest levels of the russian government the very heart of the western world. we provided significant foreign assistance in europe and eurasia, almost all of which supports building resilience to an increasing pressure on russian malign influence in accordance with the fine.

first, we will hear from david hale. he was deputy assistant secretary of state for israel, egypt, and love aunt. -- and levant. he has been a member of the foreign service since 1984. ambassador hale, please. thank you, very much and good morning. the opportunity to be here today with a assistant secretary ford. under president trump, the has takentes consistent actions against moscow's attempts to undermine us and our allies. we will continue to use all appropriate tools including diplomacy to address and determine further threatening actions from moscow. as articulated in the presidents national security strategy, america is in a competition and we must start sure our policies accordingly. russia is a determined competitor with the united states. it does also have weaknesses which hinders -- which hinder its ambitions. we do not seek an adversarial relationship with russia. this administration will protect our national security and that of our allies when moscow threatens to attack them. this must be backed by militar

david hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, the third most senior person at the state department testified the national security council launched a review of u.s. foreign assistance across the world to make sure taxpayer dollars were spent in the national interest and to advance the principle of burden-sharing by our allies. dr. hill testified that as she was leaving the nsc in july, there had been a directive for whole scale review of our foreign policy assistance. she said there had been more scrutiny on security assistance as a result. another important data point is president trump's willingness to take a stronger stance to protect ukraine against russian aggression. and compared to the previous administration. several witnesses testified that president trump's willingness to provide ukraine with lethal defensive assistance, javelin anti-tank missiles, was a substantial improvement, a stronger policy and a significant decision. when we discussed democrat allegations that president trump withheld vital security assistance dollars from ukraine, we should also remembe

hearing underway before the senate foreign relations committee hearing from undersecretary of state david halecal affairs undersecretary testifying on u.s. policy toward russia. his opening statement just underway. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] its obligations we are encouraged by the positive steps ukrainian president zelensky has taken to resolve the russians to get a eastern ukraine, thus far we're disappointed by moscow's response. the truck from russia's

and david hello testified there was ongoing global review of foreign assistance generally to ensure any risk program receiving funds were actually were the beneficiaries of our assistance. mr. hale further testified that the president skeptical views on foreign assistance guide guided the foreign affairs review. the only direct evidence for the reasons for the pause comes from omb official mark sandy who testified he learned in september that the pause was related to "the president's concern about other countries contribute more to the ukraine." he explained now that omb received information about what other countries were contributing to the ukraine which omb provided in the first week of september. the aide was released of course on september 11th. the democrats wanted to impeach the evidence that taxpayer funds are spent efficiently and responsibly. the democrats accused them of a myriad of things. that prohibits executive from essentially pocket comic pocket be dealing funds. this letter than i'm trying to introduce shows instead that the administration never intended or actually violated the law. in fact it shows that it always intended to disburse the funds and that's why

david hill testified there was an ongoing global review of foreign assistance generally to ensure any program receiving funds were actually worthy beneficiaries of assistance. that the programs made sense, et cetera. mr. hale further testified the president's skeptical views guided the foreign affairs review. in fact, the only direct evidence for the reasons for the pause comes from omb official who testified that he learned in september that the pause was related to, quote, the president's concern about other countries contributing more to ukraine. close quote. he explained how omb received request for information on what other countries were contributing to ukraine, which omb provided the first week of september. the aid was released, of course, on september 11. so democrats want to impeach the president for trying to ensure that taxpayer funds are spent efficiently and responsibly. democrats have accused this president of a myriad of things, including violation of the impoundment control act, which prohibits the executive from essentially pocket vetoing funds appropriated by congress. this letter that i'm trying to introduce shows, instead, that the administration never intended or actually violated the