on ukraine. putinas invaded ukraine. putin wants to push back support because the united states is the only thing standing between vladimir putin and complete domination of ukraine. >> what used to be. that's what these diplomats will testify to believing our policy. >> i went through lieutenant colonel vindman's testimony last week. even if he doesn't testify, there's some pretty compelling testimony in there that i'm sure the prosecutors will point to that it was the president and the president alone who was obsessed that the ukrainians were out to get him. it was all coming from the president that somehow ukraine had been behind the 2016 election interference and not russia. these are all russian talking points and exactly in putin's interest for that line to be pushed that it was actually -- >> peter baker, this is a part of the world you know very well. but let me put to you a couple specific questions on this topic. bo tom bossert said he tried over and over and over again to get through to donal

resources now this anti corruption president who cares so much about rooting out corruption and ukraine putin's primary objectives within the united states is to so as to foment unrest for their nation would you agree with me that r.t.d. is putin's propaganda machine here in the united states i would agree with honesty it's been a huge and that down it's a bit like you and me really i mean i calm every we hope he'll kill me even though i know it's hopeless but we're in so deep we just have to keep going but at least i have the decency to east pretend i'm interested in what you have to say. even the democrats who have the most to gain from the session of suffering from what i've diagnosed as impeachment i just think we're going down this road keep spending more time hundreds of years of history no one has ever been convicted of impeachment and it's not just the people who've been sifting through the herrings that are bored it don't want to write go to to master mr morris and i have some bad news for you t.v. ratings are way down way down i don't hold it personally i don't think it's you guys. wh

so the point is that without american support for ukraine, it would essentially be a green light to vladimir putinonly for ukraine, but also for countries like georgia and even more dangerous potential nato allies. that's the most dangerous possibility, richard, because as a nato member ourselves, we are retreat bou treaty bound to go in and defend military action, to defend other nato allies if they come under threat from vladimir putin's russia. >> so vladimir putin and russia looking for leaks in the dam, if you will. one of those might be here in this case ukraine. describe to us what that is like in terms of the way russia approaches this knowing that you pull the thread on that sweater and it may keep going and ukraine could be one of those openings? >> right. vladimir putin is always pushing to determine just how much resistance there is, whether that is in syria, whether that is in ukraine, whether that is in europe with democratic elections across the atlantic, whether it is here at home as we saw in 2016 with our democratic elections and russia's attack on that process. what putin is alw

and so the point is that without american support for ukraine, it would essentially be a green light to vladimir putin ukraine but also for countries like georgia and even more dangerous, potential nato allies. and it's -- that's the most dangerous possibility, richard, because as a nato member ourselves, we are treaty bound to go in and defend, including up to military action, to defend other nato allies if they come under threat from vladimir putin's russia. >> so vladimir putin and russia looking for leaks in the dam, if you will. and one of those might be here in this case ukraine. describe to us what that is like in terms of the way russia approach approaches this knowing that you pull the thread on that sweater, and it may keep on going and ukraine could be one of those openings. >> right. you know, vladimir putin is always pushing. he's always pushing to determine just how much resistance there is. whether that is in syria. whether that is in ukraine. whether that is in europe with democratic elections across the atlantic. whether it is here at home, as we saw in 2016 with our democratic electi

repeatedly over the course of the impeachment hearings raised this issue that the ukraine did it lie is something that vladimir putinimself has publicly promoted. >> colonel vindman, were you aware of a theory that ukraine had intervened or interfered in the 2016 u.s. election? >> i was. >> are you aware of any credible evidence to support this theory? >> i'm not. >> are you also aware that vladimir putin had promoted this theory of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election? >> i am well aware of that fact. >> ambassador yovanovitch, are you aware in february of 2017 vladimir putin himself promoted this theory of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election? >> you know, maybe i knew that once and have forgotten, but i'm not familiar with it now. >> this an excerpt from a february 2nd, 2017, news conference with president putin and prime minister orban of hungary where putin says, second, as we all know, during the presidential campaign in the united states the ukrainian government adopted a unilateral position in favor of one candidate. more than that, certain oligarchs certainly with the approval of the political

ukraine. vladimir putin not only had militants seize crimea back in 2014, but there are russian- backed separatists fighting there, he sees it as a battlefield between riclaiming the soviet empire and hurting nato. one of the key things kent and taylor said is it is corrosive to national security and u.s. officials to have individuals like rudy giuliani walking around doing things for financial or personal political benefit, rather than in the public interest. and that is something you're going to hear on friday from ambassador masha yovanovitch. >> o'donnell: this shadow foreign policy conducted by rudy giuliani, allegedly, and ambassador gordon sondland, who is not in charge of ukraine policy. boy, his name kept coming up today. >> reporter: right, because the president empowered him to be this person running this suboperation and kept in constant-- or regular communication, as the testimony today suggested. >> o'donnell: and we're going to hear from him. >> reporter: yes, we are, and we will either refute or challenge some of the things asserted about him today. the point is the president empowe

witnessingly or unwittingly walked into the warm embrace of vladimir putin. >> reporter: trump withheld desperately needed aid from ukraine, aid that ukraine depends on to defend itself against an ongoing russia invasion. >> i have been far tougher on russia than any president in many, many years. >> reporter: trump has now made that claim repeatedly. >> i would certainly think about it. president putin -- >> reporter: and still he said he may accept an invitation to join putin in moscow next may. for a parade showcasing russia's military might. jim sciutto, cnn, new york. >> and coming up, north korea says no thanks to president trump's latest twitter diplomacy. something new: introducing pick two tuesday. and, enjoy a different deal every weekday. like endless shrimp monday four-course feast wednesday and more. just fifteen dollars til 6 pm. it's five days. five deals. fifteen dollars. see you before six. jim sciutto, cnn, new york.

ukraine for a very long time was reduced. then this president wanted to make sure too that vladimir putin wouldn't be able to inflict hardship on the people of ukraine. so we provided defensive weapons to the people of ukraine. the previous administration chose not to do that. they chose to provide blankets.

prevent putin from dominating countries like ukraine and georgia. we failed in that. we showed that the president's sole concern was getting joe biden and not helping ukraine. ukraine has been independent for 28 years. george h.w. bush, george bush and clinton had the same policy towards ukraine. what did president trump and rudy giuliani do, they encouraged president zelensky to go after joe biden, they encouraged the ukraines to act like thugs. we've lost credibility on the russia issue and on the ukraine issue. >> there's a fiction, right, that there is no direct line to the president, when again all the people carrying out the policy expressed no doubt that the direction for this quid pro quo was coming from the white house. gordon sondland said so. i want to play some sounds by david holmes. he got a bit wobbly on that and republicans jumped on that. listen to david holmes. >> he made clear that he had direct and frequent access to president trump and chief of staff mick mulvaney and portrayed himself as the conduit to the president and mr. mulvaney for this grou

and to damage ukraine for vladmir putinliani is out there doing this. he's using pro-moscow oligarchs. hen he speaks to trump, maneuvers trump into a position where he will get whatever he wants. >> that's when you go to our own state department being cut out of the loop that affects u.s. national security. it's breathtaking. your experience here very relevant. thank you, sir. >> my pleasure. >>> up ahead, a lot of talk about anonymous. i have a break down and how it all addresses the ukraine whistle-blower when we come back. e ukraine whistle-blower when we come back oh! oh! oh! ♪ ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) people with type 2 diabetes are excited about the potential of once-weekly ozempic®. in a study with ozempic®, a majority of adults lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7 and maintained it. oh! under 7? (announcer) and you may lose weight. in the same one-year study, adults lost on average up to 12 pounds. oh! up to 12 pounds? (announcer) a two-year study showed that ozempic® does not increase the risk

ukraine is a democracy. russia is a dictatorship. the united states may be the only thing standing between vladimir putin and ukraine being completely overrun by russia as part of his fantasy to reconstruct what he views as the glory days of the soviet union. in that context, congress allocated the $391 million in a bipartisan fashion. in february, the administration, wrote the congress and said the aid is on the way. but it never showed up. and then in may, the trump department of defense wrote to congress again and said the aid is on the way. and in that letter said, all necessary pre-conditions have been met by the new ukranian government, including the implementation of anti-corruption protocols. that was in the letter that was sent by trump's department of defense in may. and yet the aid never showed up. twice during the summer, mitch mcconnell called up the trump administration and said where's the aid? mitch mcconnell couldn't get a good answer. and then on july 18 at the white house, the office of management and budget holds a meeting and mulvaney is there and said the reason that the aid hasn't been released is at the expli

in f you look at the july 25 call memo released by the white house, the presidentof ukraine vladimir putinsails thanks for telling me marie yovanovitch was bad ambassador, i agree with you 100%. you see the president is a person who told ukraine that was a bad ambassador. it's important to note what the allies of the president is saying. jim jordan, a republican on to have siht committee said this today about thesecr transtriptts. >> the two individuals whose transcripts were released today ankly have not much towith the underlying issue. ambassador -- mr. mckinley had nothing to do with the situation heat is sort of the basis for whatemocrats are doing and ambassador yovanovitch habe alread recalled and was no longer in ukraine when the call took place when the, a, questi was even president. >> he went on to say that the process was unfair and that democrats are not following due process for the presiden now, i had a long conversation with another ally of the president matthew gates, a e publican who sits on the house judiciary commitd he told me he thinks these transcripts released today

we sat down with him. >> ukraine is an obstacle in relations between. >> he says it may not be intentional, but president trump is helping president putin>> trump is having working relations. >> just five years ago, downtown was in flames as a revolution began. ultimately, took control of eastern ukraine and the two countries continue to be at war to this day. with the wilson center in washington, d.c. she says the winner between the united states and ukraine is vladimir putin. >> it is giving him more leverage in this situation. we saw president trump at the press conference at the u.n. general assembly saying i hope that you and vladimir putin can work out your problems together as if it was a little squabble. >> russia doesn't only benefit from ukraine. when they withdrew from the iran nuclear deal, vladimir putin was waiting in the wings. when they failed to send a missile defense system to turkey, made a pricey deal with the country's president. now the u.s. wants out of syria and russia is all in looking to become a power broker the middle east. >> has given them the opportunity and the courage reaching out to them for suppor supp

ukraine. that is putin's talking points about what happened in 2016. not just to get on the ukrainians but to say hey, it wasn't me. it was them. and you know, fiona's worked for the president for two and a half years. she had to juggle that kind of disinformation noise in the background all the time. i thought it was important she said what she did today. i hope more americans will listen to that and not play along with putin's playbook as we roll up to 2020. >> andrew weissmann, you have had to deal with this. when you sort of -- an investigation, you know there's more to get, but the amount of time it might take to get that information you have to weigh versus okay, i have to move to my next phase. and it's clear what adam schiff and all these democrats are doing. how do you -- how did you guys strike that balance? >> so i'm trained by robert mueller, famously impatient person. so one of the standard phrases is, you don't let the perfect be an enemy of the good. if you have enough to bring a criminal case, go forward. you don't have to boil the ocea

. >> with ukraine scandal causing all sorts of chaos as president trump playing right into putin's handse'll dig into that and the many other times the president's actions have benefitted putin. i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424. and you know what they isay about curiosity. it'll ruin your house. so get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. >>> when the trump administration put a hold on needed aide from ukraine it was a big gift to putin. we have the story. >> the president as you know likes to say that no one has been tougher on russia than trump. but we look at the record, the record doesn't dwight stand up. the president has taken a number of moves during three years in office that almost are in russia's interest more than america. >> reporter: it is the dark mystery at the heart of the trump presidency. >> why is he so chummy with putin. >> the russians must have something. >> he's creating a hero out of the putin. >> speaker of the house summ

president, lead to putin whether giving them a stronger foothold with what you did with turkey and syria or what you did of withholding aid to military assistance, bona fide to congress to ukraine to the benefit of putin, 11,000, more like 13,000 by now ukrainians have died at the hands of the russians, and needed that military aid and with his disparaging remarks about nato and questioning our commitment to nato, that is to putin's advantage. so we do have, shall we say, a candid relationship. >> brennan: ms. speaker, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. nn er saker pelosi website facethenation.com and an additional segment will be airing later today in the digital network cbsn, when we

this theory of ukraine interference in the 2016 election and let amir putin's interest. well i mean president putin must have been aware that there were concerns in the u.s. about. russian meddling in the 2016 elections and what the potential was for russian meddling in the future. you know classic for an intelligence officer to try to throw off the scent and create an alternative narrative that maybe might get picked up and get some credence now it's quite interesting to note that despite the fact that these are impeachment inquiry hearings regarding donald trump and possible inappropriate dealings with the government of ukraine the name of russian president vladimir putin seems to find its way into the headlines quite a bit you would wonder how relevant it is to the conversation but yet the name of lattimer putin seems to continuously come up in these impeachment inquiry hearings now it's also important to note that only $13000000.00 americans watched the 1st round of impeachment inquiry hearings and that was less than 5 percent of the population but if you'll look at

. >> that's right and a conspiracy theory around ukraine which putin pushed as well.o putin. this was brought up in the hearing today that partenkirchen of this theory about the dnc receive server is about exculpating russia from their involvement in the 2016 and saying no, it was really ukraine. listen, rudy giuliani while all of this was happening, people thought he was a problem. you had john bolton saying this guy is a hand grenade, he's going to whether or not he this whole thing up. you had pompeo, i think asked by volcker, about pompeo. he just sort of rolled his eyes about giuliani's involvement. giuliani said he wants to come before the committee with his charts and graphs. i don't think so. >> and as somebody who's an expert in the state department because you work there and you after that, expert in intelligence. if you know that a president could be manipulated by spreading information even if it's false about this ambassador a is a never trumper. this ambassador is doing this. can that be exploited? >> sure, texit can. i think one of the most interesting

. >> he was investigating the 2016 election where we know crowdstrike was in ukraine and putin even saidnians were more concerned -- >> well, putsin certainly said it. putin certainly said it and its intelligence people put this out to distract from their own interference. i've heard this three times in the hearings. you really think there's a chance that russia -- you really think that there's a chance that russia didn't interfere in the election like the intelligence communities tell you, including trump's own appointees but that it was ukraine? >> i think it's -- there were people that interfered in the election. >> yeah, named russians. >> there's russians that are in ukraine that could have done this. i think the important thing is somebody interfered in this election and we all need to come together. >> russians did it. that's why you guys put on the sanctions that you voted for in such unanimous fashion which is so atypical for you guys. that's why it was so insulting when the president stood next to putin, the man responsible and said, i believe him. i don't think they would do t

of the obama admin official policy toward ukraine which truly did risk the lives of ukraine people with vladimir putin to take crimea who wanted nothing more to defend the nation that were given just blankets and nonlethal equipment. i'm proud of what we've done for president trump's policy has been consistent threats data problem is fully supported not only what we've done what are ukraine policy moving forward. >> but in defense of your employees? >> i was defend state for the boys. very proud of the people. >> how do you balance use of force for the iranian people with -- [inaudible] to hold the government accountable and another question as well. >> i remember how the previous administration treated the iranian people. i remember the signs that said, are you with us or are you with the regime? i don't think anybody in the world had any doubt about where this administration stance. we want iran to be a normal nation. we want the people there to have the freedoms to which they are entitled and we want the regimes of my knees to be spent on things that benefit the iranian people. not proxy forces and

the east of ukraine with the people high officials lower officials in moscow are now being published and one of these high officials is flooded sluff off with a special advisor to vladimir putin on ukraine and in another phone call the minister of defense. was mentioned also very close confidant for vladimir putin and in that phone conversation the leader of the separatist movement sat that on a man that with a mandate of man were traveling from moscow to the separatist area basically to remove the leadership of that separatist area all these details are important to basically paint a picture not only military help came from russia but these phone calls also being depicted that the whole administration of the separatist area also the whole budget was coming from russia until now the joint investigation team has mentioned for sub suspect 3 russians and my new craney and they're basically from a lower level and the investigation team is now aiming for do. those who are high ranking who have given orders to make sure that the book missile that bound the mh 17 made its way to it into ukraine and that it was actually being used it's very doubtful that any of these suspects will ac

doesn't that make ukraine look weak and doesn't that benefit russia. absolutely all right so promoting putin's false claim 5 of ukraine intervention into the u.s. election also benefits russia doesn't that it does so when president trump meets privately with vladimir putin at the g 20 summit who does that benefit. doesn't help ukraine it doesn't help ukraine and by president trump calling ukraine corrupt and not north korea for instance does that accrue to russia's benefit. again it doesn't help ukraine all right i thank you mr chairman i yield the rest of my time to you. your yielding me 3 seconds that even i can make use of 3 seconds mr stuart thank you. dr yield muslims thank you for being here i actually have no questions for you that haven't already been asked or made any points and haven't already been made. and i guess i'll just conclude by you something i've said before this impeach a palooza tor finally comes to an end i mean a year of resistance 2 and a half years of these absurd accusations against the president of russia in collusion we've gone from quid pro quo to bribery to extor