it's about a withheld sought after oval office meeting. it's about trying to cheat in the 2020 election. it's about corrupting our democracy. it's about undermining america's national security. it's about a stunning abuse of power. it's about obstruction of congress. it's about the need for rest here in this great chamber to have a fair trial with witnesses and evidence. it's about a corrupt quid pro quo. but perhaps above all else it's about liberty because in america for all of us what keeps us free from tyranny is the sacred principle that in this great country no one is above the law. >> mr. chief justice, senators, presidents counsel we have reviewed the mountain of evidence that proves the president's official act in his scheme, a corrupt bargain of the white house meeting in exchange for ukraine announcing a sham political investigation preview have heard from each relevant witness with first-hand knowledge of the president's corrupt scheme. sondland, taylor, volker hill and vindman that there was a corrupt deal. an oval office meet

president in oval office at the white house. as the ultimate sign of endorsement in support of the united states. >> president zelinski with a newly elected leader. he was swept into office regarding corruption in he also had a mandate to negotiate an end to the war with russia. to achieve both goals, he needed strong u.s. support. particularly from resident trump. which zelinski sought in the form of white house meeting. david holmes, political counselor to the embassy in chief, described the particular importance of a white house visit to ukraine. in the context of war with russia. soon if it is important to understand the white house visit was critical to president zelinski. president zelinski needed to show u.s. support at the highest levels in order to demonstrate to the russian president clinton that he had u.s. as well as to advances in vicious anti- corruption agenda at home. >> in other words, ukraine new that russia was watching carefully. now is particularly true in the spring of 2019. when donald trump launched the s

in an oval office meeting -- at an oval office meeting on may 23rd, u.s. officials learned of guiliani's influence. ambassador volker testified that president trump, quote, didn't believe the positive assessment government officials gave the new ukrainian president. instead, president trump told them that guiliani, quote, knows all of these things and said that president zelensky had some bad people around him. at this point the scheme had stalled. mr. guiliani and the president knew that they were going to have trouble with president zelensky for failing his corrupt demand for investigations that would benefit president trump's re-election campaign. that brings us to the next phase of this scheme. although his corrupt scheme was in trouble, due to the results, the unexpected results of the ukrainian election, the election which yielded an anti-corruption reformer, president trump doubled down on his scheme to solicit investigations for his personal benefit. on may 19th -- in may of 2019 with a gap in american leadership in ukraine after ambassador yovanov

president in oval office at the white house. as the ultimate sign of endorsement in support of the united states. >> president zelinski with a newly elected leader. he was swept into office regarding corruption in he also had a mandate to negotiate an end to the war with russia. to achieve both goals, he needed strong u.s. support. particularly from resident trump. which zelinski sought in the form of white house meeting. david holmes, political counselor to the embassy in chief, described the particular importance of a white house visit to ukraine. in the context of war with russia. soon if it is important to understand the white house visit was critical to president zelinski. president zelinski needed to show u.s. support at the highest levels in order to demonstrate to the russian president clinton that he had u.s. as well as to advances in vicious anti- corruption agenda at home. >> in other words, ukraine new that russia was watching carefully. now is particularly true in the spring of 2019. when donald trump launched the s

needed to commit to the phony investigations in explicit terms in order to secure the sought after oval office meeting. this for that. call records subpoenaed by the house show multiple communications between ambassador sondland and mr. giuliani. on the one hand. and numbers associated with the office of management and budget and the white house on the other. on august 8, around the time of direct communications between mr. giuliani and mr. yermak, mr. giuliani communicated repeatedly with the white house sending or receiving six text messages and completing several calls. most notably, late in the evening on august 8, mr. giuliani called the white house in a highly distinctive pattern. at 8:53 p.m., giuliani texted a white house number. at 10:09, a number identified only as dash 1 in the white house call records called mr. giuliani five times in rapid succession. two minutes later, mr. giuliani attempted to return the call, trying an office of management and budget number, then the white house situation room, then the white house switchboard. at 10:28, 16 minutes after mr. giuliani tried to c

hosting an oval office and meeting for a foreign leader is an official act of vailable only to one person the president of the united states and it is an official act that president trump had already offered to prison presidents alinsky during their 1st phone call on april 21st and in a subsequent leader letter to the ukrainian leader multiple witnesses testified about the importance of a white house meeting for ukraine for example deputy assistant secretary george can't explain that a white house meeting was very important for ukrainians to demonstrate the strength of their relationship with ukraine's strongest supporter dr fiona hill of the national security council explain a white house meeting would supply the new ukrainian government with quote the legitimacy it needed especially these of the the russians and that the ukrainians viewed a white house meeting as a recognition of their legitimacy as a sovereign state this white house meeting would also prove to be important for 3 handpicked agents who president trump placed in charge of u.s. ukraine issues ambassador sunland and master

a white house visit, a visit to the oval office dangling out to the ukrainians government. senators i ask you to think about those words as we decide, as you decide what action you will take. think about those words. there was no direction they came from the president of the united states. the president was the center of this scheme. ambassador sondland testified that mr. giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the united states and we knew these investigations were important to the president. ambassador sondland added that mr. giuliani followed the direction of the president and we followed the president's orders. however as ambassador taylor testified ambassador bolton was not interested in having did not want to have a call because he thought it was going to be a disaster. he thought that there could be some talk of investigations or even worse than that. he thought, i ask you today senators what was ambassador bolton so afraid that's president trump would say to the newly-elected ukrainian president? what was the national security adviser so afraid of th

that's what he said would be needed to be credible. >> president zelensky ultimately did not get the oval office meeting yet, did he? >> not yet. >> president zelensky is still waiting for that over office meeting. ronald regan, what he delivered in 1987 at the foot of the berlin wall in the midst of the cold world, said to the world, east and west do not mistrust each other because we are armed. we are armed because we mistrust each other. and our differences are not about weapons but about liberty. the trump ukraine scandal is certainly about weapons. it's about the unlawful withholding of $391 million in security aid. it's about a withheld sought after oval office meeting. it's about trying to cheat in the 2020 election. it's about corrupting our democracy. it's about undermining america's national security. it's about a stunning abuse of power. it's about obstruction of congress. it's about the need for us here in this great chamber to have a fair trial with witnesses and evidence. it's about a corrupt quid pro quo. perhaps above all else it's about liberty because in america, all of us, wha

by being unwilling to meet with the president of ukraine in the oval office? by withholding hundreds of millions of military aid requiring congress to step in? by violating the law and filing -- violating the impoundment control act and by keeping it a secret from congress? if this is how he shows support for allies, our allies should hope they get a lot less support. this was deeply destructive of the relationship. of course, president zelensky and still can't get in the door , of the oval office of the russian foreign minister can get in. the president is more than willing to meet with putin but -- putin at any time but not , with our ally apparently. one of the most extraordinary arguments, and this really takes your breath away. this also underscores the real danger to this country by this president's continued occupancy of the oval office, the argument that jay seculow made, essentially that the president has good reason not to trust his own intelligence agencies and the corollary of that is, he has good reason to trust vladimir putin more. that is hard t

a white house visit, a visit to the oval office, dangled out to the ukrainian government. senators, i ask you to think about those words as we decide, as you decide, what action you will take. think about those words. there was no doubt the direction came from the president of the united states, the president was the center of this scheme. ambassador sondland testified that mr. giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the united states and we knew these investigations were important to the president. ambassador sondland added that mr. giuliani followed the direction of the president and we followed the president's orders. however, as ambassador taylor testified, ambassador bolton was not interested in having, did not want to have the call because he thought it was going to be a disaster. he thought that there could be some talk of investigations or even worse than that. he thought what was ambassador -- i ask you today, senators, what was ambassador bolton so afraid that president trump would say to the newly elect elected ukrainian president. what was the n

president zelinski still can't get into the door of the oval office but the foreign russian mill can get in. president is willing to meet with president putin at any time. but one of the most extraordinary arguments though and this really takes your breath away. this also i think underscores the real danger to this country by this president continued occupancy of the oval office. j sekulow made that the president has good reason not to trust his own intelligence agencies and the corollary of that is there is good reason to trust vladimir putin more. that is hard to wrap your head around. but that is the argument of the president lawyer. he has every right to disbelieve his own intelligence agencies and thereby accept the opinion of our adversary vladimir putin. everything is perfect including the president's performance in helsinki. they say that if the false choice to say that rusher intervened in the election, what can it ukraine have. never mind that that contradicts what her own intelligence agencies and fbi director and bipartisan senate intelligence committee found and what the

a white house visit, a visit to the oval office dangling out to the ukrainians government.senators i ask you to think about those words as we decide, as you decide what action you will take. think about those words. there was no direction they came from the president of the united states. the president was the center of this scheme. ambassador sondland testified that mr. giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the united states and we knew these investigations were important to the president. ambassador sondland added that mr. giuliani followed the direction of the president and we followed the president's orders. however as ambassador taylor testified ambassador bolton was not interested in having did not want to have a call because he thought it was going to be a disaster. he thought that there could be some talk of investigations or even worse than that. he thought, i ask you today senators what was ambassador bolton so afraid that's president trump would say to the newly-elected ukrainian president? what was the national security adviser so afraid of tha

they hoped to convince president trump to hold an oval office meeting with zelensky. during a meeting of the three amigos on may 23rd, president trump told them that ukraine had tried to take him down in 2016. he then directed them, talk to rudy giuliani about ukraine. it was immediately clear that giuliani who was pursuing the discrediting investigations on the president's behalf was thez. giuliani by then had said publicly that he was actively i president trump corruptly desired, and planning a trip to ukraine. giuliani admitted, quote, we're not meddling in an election. we're meddling in an investigation. on may 10, however, giuliani canceled the trip to ukraine to dig up dirt on former vice president biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory. just as president zelensky won elections for the presidency and parliament. faced with a choice between working with giuliani to pursue an oval office meeting, understanding it meant taking part in a corrupt effort to secure the political investigations or abandoning efforts to support our ukrainian ally, the president's agents fe

the official readout did not mention the oval office meeting sought by president zelensky. the official readout did not mention president trump's elevation of a debunked conspiracy theory promoted by vladimir putin about 2016 election interference. the official readout did not mention president trump's demand that ukraine investigate his domestic political rival, joe biden. the official readout did not mention that president trump maligned and threatened ambassador yovanovitch. and the official readout did not mention that president trump praised a corrupt former ukrainian prosecutor. the complete conversation, however, between president trump and president zelensky that we just outlined offers powerful evidence that president trump abused his power and solicited foreign interference in the 2016 election. the 2020 election. several members of the president's staff, listening in on the call, immediately grew concerned. as he sat in the white house situation room listening to the conversation, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman realized that the president's demand of ukrain

don't normally do this but i'm doing it for this team, anybody who to d like to come with me the oval officeictures in the oval. it's a special place. oval.is no place like the they come from all over the world, they have their own big offices, they go into the oval they say there is no place like this. so coach if you would like we an take whoever wants to come to the oval office. e'll take pictures behind the resolute desk. it's been there a long time. so good , some not [applause] . a good one ump: but now. the greatest economy we've ever had, joe. we've got the greatest military. we rebuilt it, we took out those terrorists like your football team would have taken out those terrorists, right? but we're we rebuilt doing good, so we're going to go to the oval office with some of the players and all guess. players, i and again, i want to just congratulate the team. you greatcongratulate representatives. you've been fantastic all season on this bigyou went streak and it's an honor to have everybody at the white house. thank you very much. very much. thank you. [applause] ♪ *-* ♪ tuesday's was

it's about a withheld sought after oval office meeting. it's about trying to cheat in the 2020 election. it's about corrupting our democracy. it's about undermining america's national security. it's about a stunning abuse of power. it's about obstruction of congress. it's about the need for rest here in this great chamber to have a fair trial with witnesses and evidence. it's about a corrupt quid pro quo. but perhaps above all else it's about liberty because in america for all of us what keeps us free from tyranny is the sacred principle that in this great country no one is above the law. >> mr. chief justice, senators, presidents counsel we have reviewed the mountain of evidence that proves the president's official act in his scheme, a corrupt bargain of the white house meeting in exchange for ukraine announcing a sham political investigation preview have heard from each relevant witness with first-hand knowledge of the president's corrupt scheme. sondland, taylor, volker hill and vindman that there was a corrupt deal. an oval office meet

they hoped president trump would hold an oval office meeting with president zelensky. during the meeting with the three amigos on may 23, president trump told them ukraine had tried to take him down in 2016. he then directed them "talk to rudy giuliani about ukraine." it was immediately clear that giuliani, who was pursuing the discredited investigations in ukraine on the president's behalf was the key to unlocking an oval office meeting with president zelensky. giuliani by then had said publicly he was actively pursuing investigations president trump corruptly desired and planning it trip to ukraine. giuliani admitted "we are not meddling in an election. we are meddling in an investigation." on may 10, however, giuliani canceled the trip to ukraine to dig up dirt on former vice president biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory, justice president zelensky won elections for the presidency and parliament. faced with a choice between working with giuliani to pursue an oval office meeting, understanding it meant taking part in a corrupt effort to secure the political investig

the oval office meeting was a big deal. ukraine remains at war with russia.tely needs our support and as a result, the pressure on ukraine not to upset president trump who still refuses to meet with president zelensky in the oval office to this day continues. david holmes testified that ukrainian government wants an oval office meeting even after the release of the security assistance. that our own united states national security objectives would also benefit from such a meeting. >> although the hold on the security systems may have been lifted, there is still things they wanted that they weren't getting including a meeting with the president in the oval office. whether the security system hold continued or not, yukrainians understood that's what the president and they wanted important things from the president. i think they are being very careful. they still need us now going forward. right now president zelensky is trying to arrange a summit meeting with president putin in the coming weeks to his first face-to-face meeting with him to try to advance the pea

if he already decided to take the job a special counsel wise in the oval office? was that a conversation under false pretenses so that mueller could gather information from trump in the oval office to be used against him in special counsel investigation and the key question is did the president explained to mueller, his reasons for firing comey and if the answer to that question is yes then mueller could not have served as special counsel because that makes them both prosecutor and witness in the same case which is strictly prohibited. i put the question to the president when i interviewed him a couple months ago in the book, did you tell mueller your reasons for firing james comey and the president paused and thought about it and smiled and said no comment. he says i could tell you the answer because i know the answer and vividly remember the conversation and as i write in the book it was clear to me sitting across from the president judging his reaction to my question in his demeanor that the answer was yes. it is inconceivable that they wouldn't have talked abo

so i walk into the white house and now i've been to the oval office many times since that bad at the time sitting right there in the chair and the oval office is right there the guy says young man, you would get if it's a loan. i'm that's pretty good? new jacket and tie and shirt and pants i did not come all this way for a lousy five minutes. [laughter]mi >> they opened the we shake hands in the oval office of the president and i sit down the good news is it 18 -year-old i spent if you add up all the time in the oval office that was the age of 18. [laughter] it should have transferred tot miami. [laughter] we don't have a lot of students here today but i tell that story and what is going to but a couple of other stories, when i graduated and then i was going to go to law school is looking for a job in downtown columbus. nobody would hire me. i looked and saw this state house i did not have a single relative but i didn't have anywhere else to go so i walked in there for i now have used his name three times in the last month salty lewis i said looking and then he says to me like when g

second, by conditioning and official oval office meeting on ukraine doing or at least announcing the political investigations. and third, by withholding military aid to pressure ukraine to announce those investigations. all three of president trump's official actions were an abuse of his power as president. and for personal gain. but the original abuse was president trump's solicitation of election interference from a foreign country, ukraine. he tried to get an announcement of investigations designed to help him in the 2020 presidential election, so let's start there. president trump's corruptnt demands of president zelensky in the july 25 telephone call were not just a spontaneous outburst. they were adr dramatic crescendo in a months long scheme to extort ukraine into assisting his 2020 reelection campaign, as was shown there's evidence of president trump himself demanding that ukraine conduct the investigations. but president trump also delegated his authority to his political agent, rudy giuliani, to oversee and direct this scheme. and that was beginning in late 2018 and early 2

so than what was he doing in the oval office before he takes the job? he denied he was interviewing for fbi directorship but i interviewed the president in the oval office he said absolutely that's why he was there and the personal assistant set up the conversation that it was an interview to be fbi director. multiple administration witnesses and documents demonstrate mueller was either terribly mistaken or not telling the truth when he denied all of that but that it invites the question so what is he doing there prexy already has decided to take the job a special counsel i see in the ovalci offic office? is that a conversation under false pretenses so mueller could gather information from trump in the oval office to be used against him in the special counsel investigation? the key question is did the president explain to mueller his reasons for firing comey? of the answer is yes then mueller could not have served as special counsel because that makes him prosecutor and witness in the same case which is strictly prohibited. so i put the question to the

a head of state meeting in the oval office and military funding.reat consequence to ukraine and to our national interest and security, but one looms largest. president trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to a strategic partner at war with russia, to secure foreign help with his reelection. in other words, to cheat. in this way, the president used official state powers available only to him and unavailable to any political opponent to advantage himself in a democratic election. his scheme was undertaken for a simple but corrupt reason, to help him win reelection in 2020. but the effect of his scheme was to undermine our free and fair elections and put our national security at risk. it was not even necessary ukraine undertake the political investigations the president was seeking, they merely had to announce them. this is significant, for president trump had no interest in fighting corruption, as he would claim after he was caught, rather, his interest was in furthering corruption by the announcement of investigations that

politics, even though the oval office meeting was important, zelensky repeatedly tried to find a way around committing to the investigations that president trump demanded. or at the very least, schedule it before taking any official action. this is what you saw in the negotiation over the statement in august, and this is why even president trump's second official act, withholding the white house meeting, was not enough to make ukraine do his dirty work. senators, we're coming to the end of this section of the presentation regarding the withholding of the white house meeting. so i want to just quickly remind us one last time about the central points that we have covered. president trump exercised his official power when he withheld an oval office meeting that was critical to ukraine, and he did this for only one reason and one reason only. president trump conditioned that oval office meeting on ukraine announcing investigations that would help him politically. this had nothing to do with official u.s. policy. president trump directed u.s. officials were supposed to work for the americ

a head of state meeting in the oval office and military funding. both were of great consequence to ukraine and to our national interests and security, but one looms largest. donald trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to a strategic partner at war with russia to secure foreign help with his reelection. in other words, to cheat. in this way the president used official state power is available only to him and unavailable to any political opponent to advantage himself in a democratic election. his scheme was undertaken for simple but corrupt reason to help reelection in 2020. his scheme was to undermine free and fair elections and put our national security at risk. it was not even necessary ukraine undertake the political investigations, they merely had to announce them. this is significant, donald trump had no interest in fighting corruption as he would claim after he was caught. rather his interest was in furthering corruption by the announcement investigations that were completely without merit. the first sham investigatio

the official read out did not mention in the oval office meeting sought by president president zelenskythe official read out did not mention president trumps elevation of a deboned conspiracy theory promoted by vladimir putin about 2016 election interference. the official read out did not mention president trumps demand that ukraine investigate the domestic, political rival, joe biden. the official read out did not mention that president trump maligned and threatened ambassador yovanovitch. the official read out did not mention that president trump praised a corrupt former ukrainian prosecutor. the complete conversation however between president trump and president zelensky that we just outlined offers powerful evidence that president trump abused his power. he solicited for interference in the 2016 election. the 2020 election. several members of the president's staff listening in on the call immediately grew concerned. as he sat in the white house situation room listening to the conversation, lieutenant colonel alexander madman realized the president'se ukrainian leader or inappropriat

nixon, president of the united states. >> what if this trail leads into the oval office at the white well, as i replied then, the trail should be followed wherever it leads. you take a lot of trips to the islands, phil? pretty great, right? oh phil's legally dead. fell off a boat. going by denis now. celery. long story. what do we got here. oh. not going to want to see this. i don't think this is going to work. just ok is not ok. at&t has america's best network, now with our best plans, at our best prices, starting at $35 a line for 4 lines. new from at&t. so bob, what do you take for back pain? before i take anything, i apply topical pain relievers first. salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, non-addictive relief. salonpas lidocaine. patch, roll-on or cream. hisamitsu. ♪ i see your face looking into mine ♪ ♪ and when you make me smile meet acqua panna with it's unique journey through the nature of tuscany. ♪ i feel much better acqua panna. meet the smoothest taste on earth. a simple, modern way to pay yourself from your portfolio. tell us how much you have, a

this leader was in the oval office with -- there's a picture of him right there. the prime minister of iraq at the time, in 2011, talk to me about the contrast between the obama administration and the trump administration where a guy like this is welcomed in the oval office and under the trump administration he's trying to lead riots outside our embassy. why? >> that's a million dollars question. why is there someone who seems to be a terrorist and a terrorist leader, why is that person in the oval office chumming it up with barack obama and joe biden and hilary clinton? and it is only from our nearly a decade-long work in the litigation that we had this in our library. we were able to search our database and find out that joe biden was in that exact meeting with president obama. and people have to ask joe biden if anything was discussed in that meeting. obviously he's an iranian that is in the iraqi -- >> [inaudible]. >> it's really shocking. the american people need to be surprised by that, because it shouldn't be allowed. this president defended our embassy unl

the head of state meeting, in the oval office and military funding. both were great consequence to ukraine and to our national interest in security. one looms largest. president trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars to his strategic partner at war with russia to secure foreign help with his reelection. in other words, to cheat. in this way, the president used official state powers available only to him and unavailable to any political opponent to advantage himself in a democratic election. his game was undertaken for simple, but corrupt reason. to help him win reelection in 2020. the scheme was to undermine our free and fair elections and put our national security at risk. it was not even necessary that ukraine undertake the investigations. the president was seeking merely just had to announce them. this is significant. fighting corruption as he would claim after he was caught, rather his interest was in furthering corruption by the announcement of investigations that were completely without merit. the first investigation of president trump w

. >> president trump in the oval office with the greek prime minister, president trump speaking from the oval as tensions increase with iran. chief white house correspondent john roberts was inside the oval office for what is called the pool spray and set being a lot more questions than that. ns neu washington today, john joined us from the northline, john? >> good afternoon to you, just to put that last comment from the president and a bit of context, asked him just as we were leaving if he had heard about the doj decision to recommend jail time for his former national security advisor mike flynn, and if he had heard about it, did he agree with it. the president said he was hearing about it for the first time from me and my question, but that he would look into it. broader context, though, when it comes to iran, the president not giving a great deal of detail about the intelligence and of the evidence that he had a suggesting that qasem solemani, the former commander of iran was planning big attacks as the president said against american interests. he said that that evidence would be

in an oval office meeting, an oval office meeting critical to president zelensky, that was the time to say so. not suggest another venue. when we look at the evidence before us it is clear that the only people who talked abouthaving an oval office meeting were lower level governmentemployees who thought it was a good idea , but the principles involved , those who make the decisions, president zelensky and president trump, to them it was not critical. it was not material and it definitely was never a quid pro quo . what was important to president zelensky was not an oval office meeting but the lethal weapon that president trump supplied to the ukraine and the sanctions that president trump and forced against the russians. that is what the transcript of the july 25 call demonstrates. let us now consider what president zelensky knew about the support that president trump had provided to the ukraine compared to the support or more accurately the lack thereof that the prioradministration had provided to ukraine . on february 2004, russia began its military campaign against ukraine. against

none of those officials including the president -- i spent 25 minutes with him in the oval office -- we go into any details about the actual interior distance. the gang of eight will be briefed on what the u.s. knew prior to the attack being ordered. president trump insisted he was planning what he called big and bad attacks. as with the president told me in the ob office. >> president trump: we saved a lot of lives by terminating his life. a lot of lives were saved. they were planning something. various people in congress are going to be hearing about it tomorrow. our secretary of state covered it very well. >> the president generated controversy by saying that he had a list of 52 iranian targets. that's a number that coincides with the number of american hostages that were captured in iran in 1970 line including some sites that are cultural significance to iran. that raised a lot of criticism that the president would be committing a potential war crime if he were to attack those sites. the secretary of defense came out and said that wouldn't happen. the secretary of state had any r

rather than committing to an oval office meeting with the ukrainian leader, president trump directed the delegation to talk to giuliani. here is how ambassador sondland described that instruction from the president. >> if we wanted to get anything done with ukraine it was apparent to us we needed to talk to reading. >> you understood mr. giuliani spoke for the president, correct? >> that's correct. >> ambassador sondland saw the writing on the wall. sondland concluded that if we did not talk to rudy, nothing would move forward on ukraine. the three amigos, as they called themselves, did as the president ordered and begin talking to giuliani. dr. hill testified, voelker, sondland and perry gave us every impression that there were meeting with rudy giuliani at this point and rudy giuliani was also saying on the television and, indeed, has said subsequently that he was closely coordinating with the state department. like dr. hill, ambassador bolton also track giuliani's ukraine related activities. hill testified about a conversation she had with bolton in may of 2019. that conversation

the head of state meeting in the oval office and military funding. both were great consequences too ukraine in our national interest in security but one, president trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to a strategic partner at work with russia to secure foreign help with his reelecti reelection. in other words, to cheat. they used state powers available only to him and unavailable to any political opponent for the democratic election. his scheme was to undermine the elections and put ourur national security at risk. it is not even necessary that ukraine undertake the political investigations, they merely had to announce them. this is significant for president trump having no interest in fighting corruption as he would claim after he was caught. rather his interest was in furthering corruption by announcing investigations that were completely without merit. the first investigation of president trump was about joe biden. they sought the removal of ukrainian prosecutor, during the previous u.s. administration. the vice presiden

there is something that comes with the oval office and the president and the power of that.ing and when people come info meetings i don't want that to go away. the first question of the biden running mate this is why people like joe biden, part of his appeal to a lot of voters that he says things like this, it uses independent voters i'm not just a partisan hack. i would consider a republican. my problem is his view of the republican party is shaped by using the senate made up of republicans -- this is a different republican party than when joe biden was the senate. the progressive base already distrusts biden so by saying -- like when mccain said he was going to nominate lieberman in the conservative base was what? and he backed off of that. >> i feel like he is pandering, trying to come off as moderate joe, i'm the one that will bring everyone together. >> it does speak to the fact that he is archaic, too antiquated. it annoyed everyone, normally liberal democrats who in elizabeth warren a which the fight rhetoric. that is old news and moderate republicans and democrats al

president just hours ago was very clear when he spoke in the oval office that if iran took any sort of action that there would be some sort of counter attack those were his exact words but he certainly intimated that there would be some sort of heavy handed response you have to remember that this is a president that has a very thin skin he likes to appear strong he does not like to appear weak so he's backed himself into a bit of a corner having said that we also know that the president is being is having a lot of consultations if you will not just with his national security team but with partners and allies as well the latest being the amir of qatar in fact we got a readout. in the last couple of hours by the white house press office saying that in fact the u.s. president had consulted with the emir that they had talked about iraq and iran as well as critical bilateral regional issues there perhaps maybe some sober 2nd thoughts that may be taking place right now given the fact that both sides know should this continue to ask late the results will not be good on either side so we are l

president the oval office just moments ago is how he expects when ultimately u.s. troops do leave iraq that iraq is expected to reimburse the united states for its costs with airports with the bases that are there and even its embassy this is baffling given the fact the united states is in iraq because it invaded back in 2003 based on flawed intelligence it's like we've seen this movie before and certainly this is not going to be sitting well with many members of congress who are expecting a briefing on all of this in the coming hours when we have good at the white house can really for the moment think you. kids take a look at some of the day's other events because the assassination iranian military commander custom so the money has been buried but later than planned after a stampede broke out as the ceremony began more than 50 people were killed and nearly 200 injured in the crush as the funeral procession started in his home town of kerem on iran has continued to talk of revenge with the head of the revolutionary guard telling the crowds of the funeral that u.s.

the white house has records about the phone calls with president zelensky, about scheduling and oval office meeting with president zelensky, about the president's decision to hold security assistance, about communications among his top aides, about concerns raised by public officials with legal counsel. we've heard about ambassador bolton's hand written notes and book manuscript and lieutenant colonel vindman's presidential policy memorandum. we know of reports about a number of e-mails in early august trying to create after the fact justifications for the hold, but we haven't seen any of them. they're at the white house being hidden by the president. i think it's a cover-up. documents at the state department, records about the recall of ambassador yovanovitch, about mr. giuliani's efforts for the president, about the concerns raised about the hold,ukraian r and when exactly they learned about it, about negotiations with the ukrainians for an oval office meeting. we know of ambassador taylor's first person cable and notes and mr. kept's memos to file, we know about mr. sondland's e-mails wi

people can rest easier tonight knowing that not om the president of the united states is in the oval office but has an incredible team around him working around the clock to make sure those attacks are addressed in real-time. [indiscernible question] mr. meadows: having served on the middle east subcommittee for three terms and understanding the middle east as well as a number of my colleagues, it is a complex region and always a complex region, but this germ's absence will not be easily replaced and certainly would have some of his directional and organizational abilities that will take months if not years to replace. [indiscernible question] mr. meadows: they were already doing that. the best way to say that, they are announcing they are not complying with a swroint agreement that they never complied. to suggest that somehow this was a decisive moment for them not toll comply with uranium enrichment is not factually correct. i had doubts about the agreement and if you look back during the owe baum ave administration, there were certain noncompliance issues and they have got yep. [indiscer

he definitely did that in his remarks in the oval office with the greek prime minister just a few minutes ago when he was asked about his previous threats to go after cultural sites in iran. the president seemed to walk that back and say, well, i like to obey the law. and seemed to say that that's not -- not on the table any longer. the other thing i think we should point out, you know, he's also been engaging in some tough talk with iraq. essentially threatening to slap sflan sanctions on iraq if they order us out of the country. the president saying at one point, well, that would be the worst thing to happen to iraq. we're not prepared to do that now. the president reiterating that this is something that he would like to see happen at some point. he doesn't want u.s. forces, he says, to be in iraq long term. but you know, putting all that to the side, i do think that if iran were to retaliate and strike in some sort of significant way, you really can't read the president's comments in any other fashion other than this is a president who is prepared to launch some sort of military strike

in an oval office meeting, an oval office meeting was critical to president zelensky, that was the time to say so, not suggest another venue. when we look at the evidence that is before us, it is clear that the only people who talked about having an oval office meeting were lower level government employees who thought it was a good idea. but the principals involved, those who actually make the decisions, president zelensky and president trump, to them, it was not critical. it was not material and it was definitely never a quid pro quo. what was important to president zelensky was not an oval office meeting, but the lethal weapons that president trump supplied ukraine and the sanctions that president trump enforced against the russians. that is what the transcript of the july 25th call demonstrates. let us now consider what president zelensky knew about the support that president trump had provided to ukraine, compared to the support or more accurately, the lack thereof, that the prior administration had provided to ukraine. in february, 2004, russia began its military campaign against u

we are changing that. >> thank you so much for the opportunity to be in the oval office. start a small group of students praying in high school during three period and by my senior year there was a community of 90 students, so encouraging but later in the senior year the administration banned us from praying during not even lunch. so, i remember thinking i didn't want to file a lawsui the lawsul but after many meetings with the administration, i realized the only way to secure the future students rights to pray. so thank you, sir. now i get the opportunity to tell students to live out their faith in big and small ways and you are making sure that the founding fathers are living up in our nation so thank you very much. >> yes. >> i pray three times a day and have to pray at lunch. i cover my hair and kids would attack and harass me. i told the principal and they blamed everything on me. me and my mom complained so many times that i didn't have a good education at the end. >> we are going to take care of that. >> thank you very much. okay well i want to thank everyone for b

first, a working phone call between presidents trump and so lenski, and a working oval office visit. in our view, both were vital to cementing the u.s. ukraine relationship. demonstrating support for your crane in the of russian aggression, and advancing broader u.s. foreign policy interests. >> even though this meeting was critical to both ukraine and america, president trump ignored all of his policy advisors and expressed reluctance with me, >>making the prosecution's case with the president saying he must be removed because of article one, the abuse of power and article to go, they say obstructing congress. let's bring in our panel, medical and nt, founding editor of the washington free beating you are making the case that each of the managers in a way stitching together both the house and judiciary into the committee hearing this, using sound bites from that testimony in a pretty interesting way as they tell this story. it is the same story, but it's told a different packaging. >> may be it appeals to senators. maybe having the video wakes them up if they are nodding off or dood

and that means we will all be in the oval office with him. so, i want to bring out now the star of today's show here in kristin, iowa earlier today and she is an incredible woman. she is a fighter in her own right for aggressive causes for decades. and she stands with bernie in this incredibly, wonderful, beautiful fight. to make this a better place for all of us. iowa, welcome to creston, dr. jane sanders. [applause] jane sanders: hello, everyone and thank you so much. it is great to be here in creston today. yoni you, tyler and dr. and michael for your support and your incredible --i am the star? i am following michael moore. but i am really thankful for all of his support and i enjoyed the podcast so hopefully coming you will listen to the rumble, a very fast-paced podcast. he expected it to be just a short one for a little while or not a short one that a slowly growing but it already has 3 million viewers or listeners. out andk you for coming it is an honor being here representing my husband, bernie sanders. i love that kristin, having lo

we may hear from the president in the oval office. and this just in the iran news agency put out this video it reportedly shows missiles hitting. a us air base ah but it is not independently. confirmed yet. right now we're joined by the president of the national iranian american council from washington dc jamal body. he joins us now live good jamal at what your the escalating tensions. >>well my reaction is we we didn't know this was coming we knew had pledged to retaliate. and on life. iranian actions in the this was least to iran did not try to deny it and not try to have this come through some source that was deniable this is a symbolic message from the iranian government in retaliation for the assassination of of the general and so my my feeling is look i'm i'm sure full where this goes and how this pans and really how washington responds and if this the extent of the iranian retaliation or for going to continue to see waves of attacks like this in the hours and possibly days to come. >>what is your sense in terms of how this play