you would agree that if president zele ns ky you would agree that if president zelensky contradicted, of course i felt pressure, they were holding up 400 million in military assistance, we have people dying everyday, if he were to contradict president trump directly, they would be sophisticated enough to know that they may pay a very heavy price. that is a fair assessment. and president zelensky did not only have to worry about retribution from president trump, but also how he is perceived domestically? president zelensky is very sensitive to the views of the ukrainian people who, indeed, are very attentive ukrainian— us politics. so if president zelensky we re politics. so if president zelensky were to say, i had to capitulate and agree to these investigations, i was ready to go on cnn until the aid got restored. that would obviously be hurtful to him back home, would it not? he cannot afford to be seen to be... deferring to any foreign leader. he is very confident in his own abilities, and he knows that the ukrainian people expect him to be clear, and defend ukrainian interests. mr

you met with president zele ns ky that.hem, or it, and that president zelensky will do anything you ask him to do. is that accurate? it could have been worse to that effect, i don't my exact response. but you don't dispute that recollection, correct? iwon't dispute it but i don't recall. after you hung up from the president, mr holmes testified about a conversation you and he had where he says that you told mr holmes that the president does not care about ukraine but the president used the more colourful language including a four letter word that you've just referenced. do you recall saying that to mr holmes? i don't recall my exact words but clearly the president beginning on may 23 when we met with him in the oval office was we met with him in the oval office was not a big fan. but he was a big fan of the investigations. apparently so. mr holmes said that you said that president trump only ca res you said that president trump only cares about the "big stuff" that benefits himself. is that something that you would have sai

testimony today rings the timeline right back intojuly and suggests as ofjuly 25, the day when trump and zelewhen trump and zelensky had a phone call which triggered the complaint, the ukrainians would have been aware there was something going on with aide richard installed the week before. does this make her words a game—changer? before. does this make her words a game-changer? her words could potentially be a game—changer, certainly undercuts, one of the key republican lines of defence here, and are beginning to grasp at straws here in defending the president and sometimes the president's defenders have been zooming out to say, why would anyone be interested, that it's boring and too complicated, americans aren't interested. you are seeing them shifting their lines of defence. how does what she said build on what the ambassador said. it's been an explosive day in washington. to be honest, i wasn't expecting when these hearings went public to hear a lot of new information. everybody referred from publicly had already testified behind closed doors and those testimonies were released publicly

made a mistake by earlier telling ukrainian officials that only a white house meeting with president zeleeeting with president zelensky was dependent on a public announcement of the investigations. in fact ambassador sondland said everything was dependent on such and announcement, including security assistance. the evidence provided by ambassador taylor has already fall gordon sondland to revise his statements made to the committee made under oath. he now recalls a conversation with a key aid to ukraine's president. however, ambassador taylor has also told the committee that gordon sondland and the president had a phone call in july sondland and the president had a phone call injuly after which mr sondland told an aide at the president only cared about the investigations. i know nothing about that. first time i've heard it. the one thing i've seen that sondland said is that he did speak to me for a brief moment, and i said, "no quid pro quo under any circumstances", and that's true, but i've never heard of this. trump should be impeached. it was here in oregon that gordon sondland made hi

at the very end of that a0 minute conversation, zele ns ky end of that a0 minute conversation, zelenskyd the president says wouldn't be good if you guys looked atjoe biden putting pressure on the government to fire the prosecutor who was trying to look into corruption? that is all he said. he didn't say he wants them criminally investigated. and it was very clear there was no, in that transcript, no quid pro quo. so i think that that again is not a perfect situation stop there were problems here. that should have been done with normal congressional oversight. i don't see an impeachable crime and nobody has identified what the crime isn't that is why the is starting to, their eyes glazing over at these congressional hearings. well, we will see what the public thinks once they have heard all the evidence actually in public as opposed to the stuff that you have come as you are critical of, selectively leaked from behind closed doors in various stages of this process. butjust on your point about there being no explicit quit pro quo, even that is being challenged in the various stages of the

white house that describes the interaction between president donald trump and president volodymyr zeleolodymyr zelensky and they match up pretty closely, so the whistle—blower complaint has been largely substantiated by that document as well as by the testimony that we have seen, the opening statements provided by numerous officials within the state department and the trump foreign policy team. so donald trump foreign policy team. so donald trump has repeatedly said that the transcript provided did not meet up with the whistle—blower complaint, and that simply is not the case. no matter how mini times the president says it. —— how many. whether the whistle—blower testifies in person oi’ whistle—blower testifies in person or provides written answers, that will remain to be seen, but clearly there is a strategy from donald trump to undermine this person and if the name becomes public specifically try to come up with damaging information and make the complaint seem less valid. damaging information and make the complaint seem less validlj damaging information and make the complaint seem le

let them know i send my best zele well thank you. you have a safe flight and see you soon. the president: take care of yourself and give a great speech today. you take care of yourself and i will see you soon sclnz. . thank you very much. it is difficult for me but i will practice english and i will meet in english. thank you very much. the president laughing: oh, that's good to hear. i could not do it in your language. thank you very much. slnz: thank you very much. the president: thank you, good day. good luck. i was able to read that into the record so the american people know about the first call that the president had with zelensky. >> mr. chairman, i have a parliamentary inquiry. >> gentle woman is not recognized. >> mr. chairman, i have a point of order under h rest 6 0. >> state your point of order. >> will the chairman continue to prohibit republicans from answering questions. >> that's not a proper point of order. >> mr. mayor than. >> the jar is not recognized. >> i have a point of order. >> the gentlemen gentleman is not recognized. >> i have a point of order. >

. >> schifrin: so presidentky zeles trying to find a peace process solution for the war in the east. meanwhile, the war rages on. how hot are things on the front lines there? >> that this is like hot nflict. this is not frozen conflict, of course. and also, we have many problems with, like, how people can cross checkpoints between the occupation territory and donbus and territory which are controlled by ukrainian e vernment and ukrainian army, because many peove, like, relatives on one side or another side. and like one, maybe 100,000 t people cros line every day. government is not ofainian course, dealing with the war in the east, but also a war on corruption. how endemic is corruption in ukraine? >> actually, he became the president because people of ukraine decided that they don't want to see this old politicians who were corrupted and who are corrupted. icd that's why they decided, okay, like, i cred the ukrainian people and decided that, okay, let it be this new guy from nowhere. from comedy. but not someone who was in >> schifrin: there is so much corruption in ukraine. obvious

corruption which inhibited the interaction with the ukraine and the usa, does that sound like president zelet comment? as i testified previously, i am in that comment? as i testified previously, lam not in that comment? as i testified previously, i am not a lawyer either, i do not want to characterise any legal terms. that is fine, i think most people will do that and say it doesn't allergies under any severe pressure. he made it clear in his own words, ukrainian president zelensky told reporters that he was not pressured by the us president. again, iwas that he was not pressured by the us president. again, i was not pressured. another time, there was no blackmail. i would ask you, do you think you felt like it was been extorted by the president based on these comments? i really think that is for the committee and congress to... is really for the american people. i agree. and there i like and the american people are not stupid, they can hear that and say, ido stupid, they can hear that and say, i do not think it was under duress, ido i do not think it was under duress, i do not think it was

getting on with the business of trying to talk to ukraine, build relationships with the new president zele6 talk about the fact that they were involved in what she described as a domestic political errand. basically doing something in order to benefit donald trump domestically in the united states while they were changing get on with the business of national security and foreign policy. certainly we got a sense from her testimony today that there we re from her testimony today that there were many who felt very uncomfortable with what was happening. at the heart of this like we is whether president trump tried to influence infants in ukraine and an investigation intojoe biden‘s sa ntos an investigation intojoe biden‘s santos of —— to influence investigations. we have had the public hearings and hearing what has been set for some has this been in any way damaging to president trump? i think there is no doubt that president trump has had some testimony that has damaged him and i think there have been points whenever republicans have looked uncomfortable not least whenever president trump has

top tier along with senators, bernie sanders, elizabeth waen and 4 former vi president joe iden jeff zeleut a judge. >>change that america can belie >>at this point in th presidential campaign, this 46 year-old senator from illinois s still underdog. well behind hillary clinton but slowly starting to catch fire. this year, the youngt candidate in the race is also onthe move. house and the rio the show e in channel this something we can all be proud of. >>'s too soon to know if people to judge will follow the rise of barack obama that he's turning some of the same ads in iowa like terry and john hale does he remind you of senator. >>absolutely it's the intelligence that cool composure it's thability to the presidential pete is is catching on. >>the more people see him the morpeople that suport him. >it was 12 years ago when ama's longshot candidacy turned a corner herdazzling thousan of democrats at the state party's fall gala. this time the haleare among many obama admirers now onhe boat, a judge bandwagons the obama both have a certain amount of pragmatism to the at a recent rally terry

president zelensky on april 21, president trump asked vice president pence to represent him at vels's zeleas working on logistics for the trip. pence would be a coveted attendee second in significance only to the president and would have sent an important signal of support to the new ukranian president. in early may however, rudy giuliani had been planning to go to ukraine to pursue the president's interests in having the bidens investigated. but had to call off the trip after it became public. among others, giuliani blamed people around zelensky no having to cancel and claimed that they were antagonistic to trump. three days later, the president called off the vice president's attendance at zelensky's inauguration. instead a lower level delegation was named, energy secretary rick perry, ambassadsondland and vol. the three amigos. after returning, several members of the delegation briefed president trump on their interactions with zelensky. they urnlgsed trump to meet with the ukranian president. but trump instead criticized ukraine and instructed them to work with rudy. a few weeks later,

clear that giuliani's efforts were now infecting us engagement with ukraine, leveraging president zeletion reforms as well as meeting stability goals and social safety nets. the international monetary fund does the same thing. congress and the executive branch work together to put conditionality on some security assistance in ukraine's security assistance in ukraine's security assistance initiative. regarding my testimony today, i will do my best to a nswer testimony today, i will do my best to answer your questions, questions that will involve issues, conversations and documents that spana number of conversations and documents that span a number of years. i may be limited by three considerations. first, the state department has collected all materials in response to the september 27 subpoena that may contain facts relevant to my testimony. i have no such documents with me. i will do my best to answer as completely and truthfully as i can to the best of my recollection. second, as this committee knows, throughout this process there have been concerns that questions may be asked about c

collaborated and we would bring president trump to and september 25 meeting scheduled with president zele do not know the outcome of that meeting. as the impeachment enquiry has progressed, i followed press reports and impeachment enquiry has progressed, ifollowed press reports and review the statements of ambassadors taylor and joanna birch. based on my experiences in ukraine, my recollection has consisted without testimony. i the relevant facts therefore being laid out with the releva nt therefore being laid out with the relevant people and i read press reports expressing for the first time that officials may have been acting without the presidents knowledge or freelancing in your dealings with ukraine. at the same time, i also read reports noting the lack of first—hand evidence in the investigation and suggesting that the only evidence being listed was hearsay. i came to realise that i had first—hand knowledge regarding certain effects on july had first—hand knowledge regarding certain effects onjuly 26 that had not otherwise been reported. and that those events potentially bore on the