is it as strong as zelensky says? >> reporter: what you regard is zelensky trying to define the u.s.-ukraine relationship outside of the context of impeachment where it has been talked about in that context for the past six months-plus. that is something that obviously zelensky is very interested in, saying that he wants to sort of start from scratch that relationship with president trump. we heard him say he's ready for his next call with the american president. obviously zelensky is interested in the relationship with the u.s. because it is so critical to ukraine. ukraine is reliant on the u.s. for a lot of security aid, particularly military aid, obviously president trump withholding that aid was at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. something that ukraine needs for its security. zelensky saying the ball is in the u.s. court, something he wants to put on the white house. remember zelensky wanted the white house meeting with president trump, something he was seeking because it would have offered him legitimacy. he was then newly elected to be president of ukraine, and he wanted

president zelensky, thank you. pres. zelensky: thank you very much. >> we have two questions, one from the ukrainian side and one from the american side. so ukraine channel, please. >> ukraine channel 24, i have one question to both speakers. i have a question to president zelensky first. do you agree that the situation with the impeachment trial of donald trump spoiled the ukrainian-american relations? zelensky: [speaking foreign language] translator: well, thank you for your question. i was thinking, "when will this question appear?" when we had the meeting with united states, we also had a discussion about president trump. it is essentially the other way around. we have an excellent relationship. we have not only the word that the united states gives us full support and defend ukraine, which is really true, and support our territorial integrity. it is not only about words. the countries should be mutually -- we talked about manager difference, contractor difference that we want to include between our countries. this i

as instructed a top aide to president zelensky to issue that would zelensky, let' here. the documentary evidence alone, text messages, the emails that we've shown you confirm definitely not presidents corrupt, definitively, the presidents corrupt quid pro quo from the white house meeting. subsequent testimony further affirms that the president withheld this official act. this highly coveted oval office meeting to apply pressure on ukraine to do his personal bidding. the evidence is unequivocal. despite this pressure by mid august president zelensky resisted such an explicit announcement of the two politically motivated investigations desired by president trump. as a result the white house meeting remained unscheduled. just as it remains unscheduled to this day. during this same time frame in august, the president persisted in maintaining the hold on the aide despite warnings that he was breaking the law by doing so. as an independent watchdog recently confirmed that he did area according the evidence, resented to you, the presidents entire cabinet believed he should rele

president zelensky could resist no longer. america's military assistance makes up 10% of his country's defense budget. and president trump's visible lack of support for ukraine harmed his leverage in negotiations with russia. president zelensky affirmed to sondland on that same telephone call that he would announce the investigations in an interview on cnn. president trump's pressure campaign appeared to have succeeded. two days after president zelensky confirmed his intention to meet president trump's demands, the house of representatives announced its investigation into these very issues. shortly thereafter, the inspector general of the intelligence community notified the intelligence communities that the whistle-blower complaint was being improperly handled -- improperly withheld from congress with the white house knowledge. in other words, the president got caught. and two days later, on september 11th, the president released the aid. to this day, however, ukraine still has not received all of the money congress has approp

these three return from ukraine impressed with president zelensky. in a meeting shortly thereafter with president trump in the oval office, they relayed their positive impression of the new ukrainian president and encourage president trump to schedule the white house meeting he promised in his first call. but president trump reacted negatively. he railed that ukraine tried to take me down and 2016. and in order to schedule white house visit for president zelensky, president trump told the delegation that they would have to and i quote talk to rudy. in it is worth pausing here to consider the importance of this meeting in late may. this is the moment president trump successfully hijacked the tools of our government to serve his corrupt personal interests. when the president domestic political errands, as one witness famously described it, began to overtake and in subordinate u.s. foreign-policy and national security interests. by this point in the scheme, rudy giuliani was advocating very publicly for ukraine to pursue the two sham investigations. but

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that president trump and president zelensky met in september at the u.n. what are we hearing from the white house, from the administration about timing and about why this has not happened? >> reporter: well, the president's still fresh off the acquittal in the senate from impeachment. right now he's more focused on domestic politics, focused on retribution for the people who testified against him as part of this impeachment process. he's not necessarily looking to move forward with the u.s.-ukraine relationship just yet. it seems like he's obsessed with taking revenge on the people who testified against him. at some point there may be a meeting between president zelensky and president trump, but president trump has raw feelings about impeachment. he still feels like he was treated unfairly by the house. and he doesn't like the fact that impeachment is forever going to be tied to his name. so i think it may be early for the president himself to want to bring zelensky back to the white house. there are several people within his administration who are saying,

gave -- zelensky and he agreed to send vice presidents to his inauguration. three weeks later, after rudy giuliani was denied a meeting with president zelensky, he abruptly ordered vice president mike pence to cancel his trip. instead, a lower-level delegation led by three of president trump's political appointees and ambassador to the european union and a special representative for the ukraine negotiation attended the inauguration the following week. these three returnedps from ukraine in a meeting shortly thereafter with president trump in the oval office they relayed their positive impression of the new ukrainian president and encouraged president trump to schedule the white house meeting he promised in his first call. the president trump reacted negatively and railed about ukraine tried to take me down in 2016, and in order to schedule a white house visit for president zelensky, president trump told the delegation they would have to come and i quote, talk to rudy giuliani. to consider the importance of tis meeting in late may this is the moment of preside

not just zelensky. you saw how speaker nancy pelosi and the secretary of state, mike pompeo is there. is this an opportunity or could it be a potential missed opportunity that pompeo doesn't have some sort of offering to zelensky to ukraine to reassure that country that the u.s. will be there for it? >> well, again, i think the message that is being sent is that democrats and republicans are behind you and let's just move on but pompeo has a problem which is that our partnerships with europe and anyone we would have to work with ukraine to help against russia, our partnership with europe is very frayed right now. he came today to munich. he gave a speech called the west is winning. it was very tone deaf. i heard people in the hall received it poorly. he took issue with the theme of the conference. at the time when every one from the german chancellor to the french president are acknowledging that it's a huge challenge to deal with the trump administration, pompeo just came and basically stuck a thumb in

zelensky said, though, the ball is now isn't america's court.ake a listen. >> translator: the last time that i met, the secretary of state, mike pompeo we talked about that. and i said i would very much like that my visit to the united states would be something special for those countries where there's an importance in the outcome and result for those countries, something that's beneficial for those countries, i want to come and start it from scratch. our relations to agree on some context to sign arrangements to agree on the strategic things, investments, let's prepare the package of the documents and arrange the meeting. so, the ball is in the courtyard of the united states of america. but we are always happy to see everybody in ukraine, so i would invite president trump to come to kiev. >> reporter: now, for pretty trump, every future interaction with president zelensky is likely to be scrutinized. so that is probably going to factor in how the white house proceeds from here in terms of ukraine/usa relation. that's going to be difficult to na

president zelensky said the call was good, normal, and "no one pushed me." president zelensky's top advisor was asked if he ever felt there was a connection between the u.s. military aid and their request for investigations. he was adamant that we never had that feeling and we did not have the feeling that this aid was connected to any one specific issue. several other top ukrainian officials have said the same, both publicly and in readouts of the july 25th call to ambassador taylor, ambassador volker, and others. third, president zelensky and the highest levels of the ukrainian government did not learn of the pause until august 28th, 2019. more than a month after the juln president trump and president president zelensky. president zelensky himself said, "i had no idea the military aid was held up. when i did find out, i raised it with pens at a meeting in warsaw," referring to the vice president. the meeting in warsaw took place three days after the political article was published on september 1st, 2019. mr. yermak likewise said that president zelensky and

president zelensky was one of the key witnesses. he was the first to testify in the house proceedings on october 3rd. i think it's fitting he may be the last witness we hear from. in his parting words, ambassador volker admonishes that it is u.s. partisan politics which have culminated in this impeachment process that have i am -- imperilled ukraine. to some the house's case is not overwhelming and it is not in dispute. the house managers bear the very heavy burden of proof. they did not meet it. it's not because they didn't get the additional witnesses or documents that they failed to pursue. it's because their own witnesses have already offered substantial evidence to support their case. the first article does not allege impeachable offense brought by witnesses or documents. mr. chief justice, it has been an incredible on honor to speak you in this chamber. i hope the evidence i've presented have been helpful to the facts, and i ask you to acquit the president in the charges brought against him. i yield to mr. feldman. >> mr. chie

president zelensky could resist no longer.leverage in negotiations with russia. president zelensky affirmed to sondland on that same telephone call that he would announce the investigations in an interview on cnn. president trump's pressure campaign appeared to have succeeded. two days after president zelensky confirmed his intention to meet president trump's demands, the house of representatives announced its investigation into these very issues. shortly thereafter, the inspector general of the intelligence community notified the intelligence communities that the whistle-blower complaint was being improperly handled and withhold from congress with the white house knowledge. in other words, the president got caught, and two days later, on september 11, the president released the aid. to this day, however, ukraine still has not received all of the money congress has appropriated and the white house meeting has yet to be scheduled. the identity of the whistle-blower, moreover, is irrelevant. the house did not rely on the whistle

president zelensky could resist no longer.ntry's defense budget, and president trump's visible lack of support for ukraine harmed his leverage in negotiations with russia. president zelensky affirmed to sondland on that same telephone call that he would announce the investigations in an interview on cnn. president trump's pressure campaign appeared to have succeeded. two days after president zelensky confirmed his intention to meet president trump's demands, the house of representatives announced its investigation into these very issues. shortly thereafter, the inspector general of the intelligence community notified the intelligence communities that the whistle-blower complaint was being improperly handled -- or improperly withheld from congress with the white house knowledge. in other words, the president got caught, and two days later, on september 11, the president released the aid. to this day, however, ukraine still has not received all of the money congress has appropriated and the white house meeting has yet to be sche

president zelensky could resist no longer.port for ukraine harmed his leverage in negotiations with russia. president zelensky affirmed to sondland on that same telephone call that he would announce the investigations in an interview on cnn. president trump's pressure campaign appeared to have succeeded. two days after president zelensky confirmed his intention to meet president trump's demands, the house of representatives announced its investigation into these very issues. shortly thereafter, the inspector general notified the intelligence communities that the whistle-blower complaint was being improperly handled -- or was improperly withheld from congress with the white house's knowledge. in other words, the president got caught. and two days later on september 11th, the president released the aid. to this day, however, ukraine still has not received all of the money congress has appropriated and the white house meeting has yet to be scheduled. the identity of the whistle-blower moreover is irrelevant. the house did not rel

newly electede president zelensky to do him a favor. he defied lawful subpoenas from the house of representatives. the president's counsel defended their actions by laying out their case of the president's actions. they pointed to the unclassified transcript of president trump july 25 call with newly elected ukrainian president zelensky to make the argument that trump discussed burden sharing with other european countries and a mutual interest in rooting out corruption. they presented views that the president was not given due process in the house of representatives and highlighted the expedited nature of the proceedings. finally, they argued if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected and reelected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment. over the long days and nights of the trial i have listened to both sides of this trial present their cases. i remain undecided on how i will vote but these points i believe to be true. first, it was not a perfect call. n

president trump called to congratulate zelensky after his victory and invited president zelensky to the white house and agreed to send a vice president pence to his inauguration but after rudy giuliani was denied a meeting with president zelensky resident trump abruptly ordered vice president penceto cancel his trip . instead, a lower-level delegation led by three of president trumps political appointees, secretary of energy rick perry, ambassador to the european union, gordon sondland and special representative for ukraine negotiations kurt volker attended the inauguration the following week area the three returned from ukraine impressed with president zelensky and in a meeting with president trump in the oval office they relayed their positive impression of the new ukrainian president and encouraged president trump to schedule the white house meeting he promised in his first call. but president trump reacted negatively. he railed at ukraine tried to take me down in 2016 and in order to schedule a white house visit for president zelensky, president trump told the delegation that they w

to the present withhold a meeting with president zelensky until president zelensky agree to investigate joe biden's son? to be clear, the theory of the funds been withheld fromha ukrae and exchange for an investigation doesn't originate from that now infamous july 25 call. there's nothing in the text ofhe the call that threatens the withholding of funds for investigation. the theory originates from the belief of an ambassador of the european union gordon sondland, what he said presumption and repeated over and over again, presumption that the eight must have been held because the president desire to get to the biden investigation to be able to getce it done. since the present private attorney greg giuliani was working m to find out more about the bike investigation inn burisma. ambassador sondland to multiple people about his theory but when he calledy president trump and asked him directly about it, the president responded that it wasn't any quid pro quo. he just said he wanted the president of ukraine to do what he ran on and to do the right thing. interestingly enough, the same thing

president trump called to congratulate zelensky right after his victory and invited president zelenskysend vice president pence to his inauguration. three weeks later, after rudy giuliani was denied a meeting with president zelensky, president trump abruptly ordered vice president pence to cancel his trip. instead, a lower-level delegation led by three of president trump's political appointees, secretary of energy rick perry, ambassador to the european union gordon sondland and special representative for ukraine negotiations kurt volker attended zelensky's inauguration the following week. these three returned from ukraine impressed with president zelensky. in a meeting shortly there after with president trump in the oval office they relayed their positive impression of the new ukrainian president and encouraged president trump to schedule the white house meeting he promised in his first call. but president trump reacted negatively. he railed that ukraine tried to take me down in 2016. and in order to schedule a white house visit for president zelensky, president trump told the delegati

if they may bring trump and zelensky closer together.sident trump said he would welcome president zelensky here. we'll see if and when that happens. >> shannon: we're waiting for that. thanks, david. the senate tonight approving a bipartisan measure aimed at limiting president trump's authority to launch military options against iran. the president is expected to veto the war powers resolution when it gets to his desk. eight republicans joining democrats in a post impeachment bid to restrain the white house. so what do you think? doesn't trump need to be constrained by congress on iran? check out our timeline of what has happened the past year. may 5, then national security adviser john bolton announces the deployment of a carrier strike group to the middle east to send a clear message to the iranian regime. he says in reresponsible to troubling warnings. may 8, iran announces they will stop complying with the iran nuclear deal. the same day, the president announced new sanctions. may 12, four ships are sabotaged. june 3, secretary of st

president zelensky said the call was good, normal, and no one pushed him. president zelensky's topic five andrea yermak asked if he ever thought there is a connection between the u.s. military aid and the request for investigations? he was adamant that we never had that feeling and we did not have the feeling this aid was connected to any one specific issue. several other top ukrainian officials said the same thing both publicly and in readouts of the july 25 call to ambassador taylor, ambassador volker, and others. third, president zelensky and the highest levels of ukrainian government did not learn of the pause until august 28, 2019, more than a month after the july 25 call between president trump and president zelensky. president zelensky himself said i had no idea the military aid was held up. when i did i find out i brought up with patients in a meeting in warsaw. meeting the vice president. the meeting in warsaw took place three days after the article was published on september 1, 2019. mr. your. >> on trent yermak also said that they learned of the

presumably he'll still want to meet with zelensky.mably he'll have demands or requests of zelensky. all of that is wildly inappropriate. >> and that's okay -- >> well, i -- >> under the -- under the republican senators' opinions. >> correct. the lessons not learned are, you know, already on dramatic display. i mean, the firing of the vindman brothers and sondland. >> do you remember -- i mean, i talked about this with joe manchin, that, you know, when adam schiff mentioned the "head on spikes" quote, which someone at the white house was characterizing, that's the message that's being sent to senators about not breaking ranks and going against the president and just going ahead an acquittal, it does seem like that's what they're doing. they are, you know, they're not literally putting people's head on a spikes, but they are cutting people off at the knee can trying to destroyed them. >> and you remember, when schiff used that phrase -- >> right, they got all upset. >> they had to go to their fainting couch because they were so outraged

we know that donald trump's phone call with ukrainian president zelensky took place the day after special counsel mueller testified in the house of representatives. the special counsel found and explained in his house testimony that there was evidence of a criminal conspiracy between members of the trump campaign and russia, but the evidence was not sufficient to bring charges. robert mueller never said there was no evidence of such a conspiracy. there was evidence. it was merely insufficient for a prosecution. and we know that donald trump took this as a green light to invite further foreign interference in our elections, which he did the very next day. donald trump has no shame. he cannot help himself. if we acquit president trump, he will believe himself to be accountable to no one. and when -- not if but when he is again faced with a choice between the public interest and his personal interest, he will choose his personal interest. and it will, in part, be a reckoning of our own making. a majority in this chamber will have made president trump a dictator. and then what will we tell th

zelensky campaigned on ending that conflict with russia.ust support, namely the withholding of u.s. security assistance will make it harder for ukraine to defend itself and decrease zelensky's rench in negotiations with vladimir putin. >> again, the phone call he had with president trump was really the start of this whole impeachment process that happened in the house, that played out in the senate, just earlier this month. this week, though, has said that he may not allow aides to now listen in to foreign calls or calls with foreign leaders. can he do that? and if so, what security implementations might that have? >> he can, but it's really dangerous. aides are on calls for numerous reasons, to put together an accurate readout of what happened. the less ears on a call, the less likely there is there will be an accurate readout. but that may be president trump's attempt. as you mentioned, the whistle-blower complaint included firsthand complaints of president trump's call. trump may be trying to limit witnesses to future potential crimes. i

the newly elected president zelensky with no experience of international politics gets a call from a leader of the free world asking for a favor related to us domestic political affairs cracks no one regardless of :-colon political party should think with the president did was right it was simply wrong. pressuring a nato ally who was actively fighting off russian aggression in this country is wrong president zelensky or else for the superpower of the world for a favor before it can receive military aid is not who we are as a countrys, we should stand shoulder to shoulder for a political favor. of all the arguments we have heard from the house managers td white houseig counsel during the long days and nights the most troubling is the false claim that the president can do no wrong and if it's good for the reelection of the president then it's good for the country. that is simply preposterous and not who we are as americans or how i was raised in the small coal mining town virginia.ton west nobody believed they were better than anybody else to act with total disregard from the well-bein

so certainly we should have a good relationship with the president zelensky and the ukraine, but this was all put into question during the impeachment process. >> do you see that this relationship really needs to be punctuated by a visit, whether it be president trump going to kiev or whether it's president zelensky coming to washington? how important is it that that visit, that face-to-face, happens? >> well, i think that president zelensky and trump will have to decide how that is done, but clearly also president zelensky shed light that, in fact, you know -- and we heard from the president himself, he deployed rudy giuliani over there to do dastardly things and of course that doesn't help matters. but i hope that we as a country continue to have a good relationship with what has been a traditional ally of the united states, the republic of the ukraine. >> all right. switching gears a bit, we are coming up on the 55th marking point of the assassination of the malcolm x and this week we learned that the manhattan district attorney's office will reinvestigate the case after a netflix

. >> i will be meeting president zelensky.e and president trump have spoken twice. the president called to congratulate president zelensky on his election and his success in the fasuccess -- in the parly election. they were warm and cordial calls. we hope to meet in warsaw and have a few moments together. lou: joining us, john solomon, editor-in-chief of his media outlet, "lust the -- "just the news." i want to turn to john bolton. >> john bolton used the ukraine as his own piggy bank. six months before he joined president trump as national security advisor he took a payment from an oligarch who was a contributor to the clinton administration. so he had his own finger in the pot. but inherent in these leaks about the bolton nsc is you see an nsc that wasn't following its job. if the president tells you to do something unless it's illegal you should do it. this entire scandal is more about the bad conduct of the nsc and the state department than it is about the president's conduct. lou: talking about the whistleblower and one o

did the president withhold a meeting with president zelensky until president zelensky agreed to investigate joe biden's son? to be clear, the theory of the funds being withheld from ukraine in exchange for an investigation doesn't originate from that infamous july 25 call. there's nothing in the text of the call that threatens the withholding of funds for an investigation. the theory originates from the belief of an ambassador of the european union, gordon sondland, what he said, presumption, and he repeated that over and over again, presumption that the aid must have been held because the president's desire to get to the biden investigation to be able to get it done, since the president's private attorney rudy giuliani was working to find out more about the biden investigation in burisma. ambassador sondland told multiple people about his theory but when he called president trump and asked him directly about it, the president responded there wasn't any quid pro quo. he said he wanted the president of ukraine to do what he ran on and to do the right thing. interestingly enough, that's the s

president zelensky could resist no longer.nce makes up 10% of his country's defense budget, and president trump's visible lack of support for ukraine harmed his leverage in negotiations with russia. president zelensky affirmed to sondland on that same telephone call that he would announce the investigations in an interview on cnn. president trump's pressure campaign appeared to have succeeded. two days after president zelensky confirmed his intention to meet president trump's demands, the house of representatives announced its investigation into these very issues. shortly thereafter, the inspector general of the intelligence community notified the intelligence communities that the whistle-blower complaint was being improperly handled, or improperly withheld from congress, with the white house knowledge. in other words, the president got caught. and two days later on september 11, the president released the aid. to this day, however, ukraine still has not received all of the money congress has appropriated and the white house m

corruption fighters in america, and by far the greatest mayor in new york city, to meet with president zelensky. that meeting never happened.

president zelensky said the call was good, normal and no one pushed me. the top advisor yermak ever felt that there was a connection between us military aid in the request for investigations and was adamant we did not have the feeling that this was connected to any specific issue. so other top ukrainian officials have said the same publicly and in leading up to the july 25 call to ambassador taylor and ambassador voelker and others. and third president zelensky at the highest levels of the ukrainian government did not learn of the positive august 28, 2019 more than one month after the july 25 call between president trump and president zelensky. i had no idea the military aid was held up when i did find out i raised it with pence in warsaw referring to the vice president. it took three days after the political article on september t in 2019. mr. yermak likewise said president zelensky's advisers learned only from the august 28h political article and just last week while we were in this trial former chairman of the defense counsel t14 said the us was withho

zelensky looks forward toing have a phone call with president trump. zelensky is hoping the phone call doesn't go like the one that sparked this inquiry. jeremy diamond, cnn, washington. >>> let's talk about these developments with amy pope and former u.s. deply homeland security adviser to president obama. joining us from london, good morning, amy. >> good morning. >> we heard the president of ukraine telling christiane amanpour at that conference that he wanted an oscar from the united states and be popular. he was an actor before he became president. what was your take away from that candid interview? >> ukraine has been put in this impossible position where they have been at the heart of a very public and decisive fight within the united states and that's not good for them. ultimately, ukraine needs to be aligned with the united states no matter who the president is. and they're not in the business of choosing who the next president will be. they don't want to be in that business. they just want to make sure they have good relationships across the

this president illegally held the funds until president zelensky merely announced sham investigations involving vice president joe biden and a debunked conspiracy theory that ukraine, not russia, interfered in the 2016 election. and when he got caught in the midst of this corrupt scheme, president trump even called for other foreign nations to interfere on his behalf in the upcoming 2020 election. while i believe the evidence against donald trump is overwhelming, like any criminal defendant, he is entitled to a robust defense. many of us listened carefully to the president's defense team over the course of this two-week trial. not once did the president's defense team rebut the facts of the case. not once did they defend their client's character or call an eyewitness who could contradict the assertions made by witnesses who testified under oath. not once did we hear the president's defense team say, of course the president wouldn't use the weight of the federal government to smear his political rival. what do we hear? instead we heard distractions, conspiracy theories, unfounded smear

president zelensky said publicly that he felt no pressure. he testified this trump to investigate anything inn exchane for forward it. you have to keep in mind with a very conservative president. he doesn't just dish out to everybody, the foreign aid that they need. in this case there was a necessity to have it. military aid, we couldn't get military aid from president obama. all he wanted to symbols blankets and k rations. there was not going to be any military aid to them. and so the trump administration placed a brief, temporary hold on the eighth two ukraine to ensure that the american were not going to be abused.ot going to be this is very significant. he did this to ukraine, making sure that the amount of money that was sent in their is going to be used properly, and the amount of a, military aid was going to be used. but at the same time you got to keep in mind he was doing that with everybody else, too. he's just not a fast spending president. he's going to make sure things have to be made in accordance with the needs. in fact, in oth

now, president zelensky said publicly that he felt no pressure. he testified to this, that trump to investigate anything in exchange for foreign aid. now, you have to keep in mind that we have a very conservative president. he doesn't just dish out to everybody the foreign aid that they need. in this case, there was a necessity to have it. military aid, we couldn't get any military aid from president obama. all he wanted to send was blankets and k-rations -- well, they don't have k-rations anymore. they call them something else. but, nonetheless, there wasn't going to be military aid to them, so the trump administration placed a brief, temporary hold on the aid to ukraine to ensure that the american tax dollars -- taxpayers were not going to be abused. now, this is very significant. he did this to ukraine, making sure that the amount of money that was sent in there is going to be used properly and the amount of aid that we are -- military aid was going to be used. but, at the same time, you got to keep in mind he was doing that with everybody else

i think zelensky is going to be looking for other friends.re going to be going there to let him know at the least there remains support for ukraine in congress if not in the white house. >> you have a war powers vote, you have eight republican senators voting with you, democrats, you don't have 60 votes yet. >> we don't have enough to override the veto. it only takes 50 votes for this measure to pass the senate because it is a privilege resolution. it is kind of alarming to me we only have eight republican votes. this war powers resolution is a restatement of existing law. what it says is that the president can't take military action against iran unless he is defending against imminent attack without coming to congress first. i don't know why that wouldn't get 100 votes, but as usual anything that hints at criticism of the white house will get reaction from a big portion of the republican caucus that wants to know first and foremost what trump thinks, not necessarily what is law, what the constitution says, what their constituents think. >> h

the month after i got there was a parliamentary and president zelensky and his party's name the sameng as this tv show. his party is servant of the people. they won 60% of the seats in the parliament. so he could do things with the parliament and the prime minister and the government and with the cabinet. he was able to move some things along in particular in the fight against corruption but also in the attempt to end the war that i talk about a minute ago. those were his two top priorities. in the war on honorable ukrainian terms but also fight the corrupt oligarchs that were threatening ukraine's future and his presidency. so i made the point to the embassy that that mission is really important. second point i made to them, there were strong support for what we are doing, what we the u.s. embassy is doing right now and forwarding and pushing forward on a strong u.s. ukrainian relationship. it turns out we have a great opportunity with the new government and so it's an important time for the u.s. government to be working with ukrainian government and i was able to say based on my co

volodymyr zelensky spoke with "amanpour" from munich.s ready to talk with president trump and reset his country's relationship with the u.s. >> this is the first time president zelensky has sat down with a western, with an american television station period, not just since the acquittal but the first time since this whole crisis began back in december. i tried to start by breaking the ice, because he does not want to talk about quid pro quos, he won't go there. but he's obviously been very affected by the way ukraine's been sucked into this domestic u.s. and now global crisis. i started by comparing his unusual journey to leader of his country to president trump, because zelensky also has been a very successful comedian and tv actor. he had a show called "servant to the people" and played the president. now he is the president. so i asked him what did he make of the fact he and president trump had similar tv experiences, and they found them sfls in this kind of very serious crisis. and he used his comedic skill and sense of irony. take a

bolton said trump called him to call vladimir zelensky to make sure zelensky would meet with rudy giulianirom trump to bolton, more than two months before trump's fateful call with the ukrainian president would be the earliest known instance of trump trying to exert political pressure on ukraine to find dirt on trump's opponents. >> treflations we have seen so far are pretty explosive. he is a fact witness, the closest we could have heard so far in the democrat's case to a firsthand account with the president. firsthand testimony about a shakedown in ukraine. he is the most damning witness because he's close toast the president. >> cnn has not seen a copy of bolton's manuscript. according to the times, the manuscript says when trump gave that order to bolton, giuliani, mick mulvaney were in the room. trump denies giving bolton that order. in a statement saying, quote, i never instructed john bolton to set up a meeting for rudy giuliani to meet with president zelensky. that meeting never happened. according to the times, bolton writes that he never made that call to president zelensky. but

ambassador perry to translate to president zelensky at the time.o talk from ukraine. and he called rudy, and he was on speaker phone where he basically told him that he conveyed the message and that everything's going to be great, and zelensky would follow through. and actually if you recall and you take a look at that time, zelensky did make an announcement. he made an announcement about corruption if i recall properly, and that upset also giuliani because perry, after the inauguration, they wanted to -- >> right there was a back and forth about a draft statement. lev, hang with me. lev parnas is a former associate of rudy giuliani. what i'd like to do is fit in a quick break, have you both stick around a little bit longer. we'll be right back with both of them when we return. >> sure. man: sneezes skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! >>> welcome back to our continuing coverage of the trial of president donald trump. we a

a newly elected president zelensky with no experience in international politics gets a call from theder of the free world asking for a favor related to u.s. domestic political affairs. no one regardless of political party should think that the president did and what he did was right. was simply wrong. pressuring a nato ally was actively fighting off russian aggression in this country is wrong. president zelensky or anyone else should never feel beholden to the superpower of the world for a favor before it can receive military aid. that is not who we are as a country. we stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies and never condition our support of democracy for a political favor. of all the arguments we have heard from the house managers and white house counsel during the long days and nights that we have sat here, the most dangerous, the most troubling to me is the false claim that the president can do no wrong, that he is above the law and if it's good for the reelection of the president, then it's good for our country. that is simply preposterous. is not who we are as americans, th

. >> i will be meeting president zelensky.have spoken twice. the president called to congratulate president zelensky on his election and his success in the fasuccess -- in the parly election. they were warm and cordial calls. we hope to meet in warsaw and have a few moments together. lou: joining us, john solomon, editor-in-chief of his media outlet, "lust the -- "just the news." i want to turn to john bolton. >> john bolton used the ukraine as his own piggy bank. six months before he joined president trump as national security advisor he took a payment from an oligarch who was a contributor to the clinton administration. so he had his own finger in the pot. but inherent in these leaks about the bolton nsc is you see an nsc that wasn't following its job. if the president tells you to do something unless it's illegal you should do it. this entire scandal is more about the bad conduct of the nsc and the state department than it is about the president's conduct. lou: talking about the whistleblower and one of his friends. the ide

. >> that was ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky who used to be a comedian at the munich securitynce joking about the impact of impeachment on his goal for ukraine and how the possibility of a new phone call with president trump might be helpful to him. zelensky has vowed to fight widespread corruption through the country and he also want on to give a speech asking people to stop calling ukraine corrupt. let's listen. >> that's not true. that's not true. when i have meeting with mr. president trump, he said that previous years it was so corrupt, this country, ukraine. i told him very honestly and i was very open with him. i told him that we fight with corruption, we fight with this, fight each day. but please stop to say that ukraine is corrupt, because for now it's not truth. >> the american focus on ukraine and its corruption grew under the obama administration due to the start of an ongoing conflict between russia and ukraine. ukraine's situation and the growing power of russia has been at the center of this year's munich security conference, which is themed westlessness, and f

was saying, how the president asked him to set up a meeting with giuliani so he could meet with zelensky as giuliani was kicking off his campaign to start digging up dirt that the president wanted. it's this fuller picture that we have of what bolton knows. but as we come to the end of the line here at the end of impeachment, that will not be part of it. we will not be hearing any of that. all that there will be are these few media reports, these stories that we've written over the past few days, and maybe at some point in march when the book's supposed to come out or if it's delayed, many months later, or maybe never would we ever see what bolton wrote. >> lev parnas, of course, is still out there talking. by all indications, he's going to remain out there talking, and he is talking about connections he knows of to people like cipollone, to people like lindsey graham. did anyone in your reporting suggest to you that the opposition to calling witnesses on the part of the republicans was about more than protecting just one donald trump? >> we don't have any indication other than the fact

and a text from to an aide from zelensky saying assuming zelensky convinces trump he'll get to bottom happened in 2016, then we'll nail down a date. the other thing is what they left out about mick mulvaney's infamous comments that the october press conference. mulvaney in no way confirmed a link between investigations and the aid because he later issued a statement clarifying his garbled comments. he suggested this was like a one-word slip. mulvaney said he made a brief error and corrected it. he was exceptionally clear at that press conference. he was asked over and over explicitly, look, mick, what you said is a quid pro quo. he said that's what we always do in foreign policy. this was not a brief error that mulvaney made. >> it lived forever. daniel, thank you very much. go to google, put in jonathan carl and put in mulvaney and put in quid pro quo and you will see the moment, you'll see his eyes. he was looking at this reporter and this is exactly what he wanted to say. we'll take break. we'll hear from a senator to get his reaction to the president's closing argument next. unpre

the president has declassified the two phone calls with president zelensky all 17 witnesses testified about the president's conduct regarding ukraine. we are interested in asking anything other than ukraine that's a bogus argument. the constitution uses the word sole power only twice. first when it gives the house so power to impeach. and second, article one, section three where it gives the senate sole power to plan for impeachment. here's what it says. the senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. when the president of the united states is tried, the chief justice shall reside. i think that is a vision in the constitution means something. it is up to the senate to decide how to try this impeachment with fairness, witnesses and documents. privilege is asserted can be decided using the process that you devise. that is not on constitutional it's what the constitution provides. you have the power, you decide, please decide for a fair trial that will yield the truth and serve our constitution and the american people. i yield now to manager schiff. >> senators before we yi