Mike corbat, the ceo of citigroup, as steve mentioned, the worlds global bank with 200 million customers and accounts within 160 countries. Huge from anybodys measure. Since becoming ceo in 2012, he has focused on leveraging citis Global Network to serve its institutional and banking clients with an emphasis on strong execution and the highest ethical standards. Mr. Corbat has been at citi since his graduation from harvard in 1983. Prior to his current role, he has held a variety of ceo positions for citigroup, including ceo of europe, middle east, and africa, ceo of citi of the Global Wealth management unit, and the Global Corporate and commercial bank. He is actively involved with several civic and cultural organizations, including his roles as executive Committee Member of the partnership for new york city and as a board of trustee of the United States ski and snowboard association. I would like to introduce dustin walsh who will be moderating today. Hes an awardwinning senior forr for the crane decrains many of us his articles on a regular basis. He has covered the Automotive Industry collapse and resurgence, several bankruptcies and multibilliondollar mergers and acquisition deals. Things many of us are familiar with over the years. He served as an expert source on national and local television and radio programs. Hes also won several awards including the alliance of Area Business publications best local coverage of a National Economic story award for his coverage of insourced manufacturing from overseas in 2012. He attended grand Valley State University and studied journalism. I would like to bring mike up to the stage. If you want to come up and we will hear some remarks. Thank you. [applause] michael thank you for that very warm welcome. I would like to thank steve and the leadership of the joint Economic Club for the opportunity to speak to such an influential group. When business and government leaders found this forum during the depression, our nation faced tensions and challenges that were exacerbated by both the social and political environment. I think the same, in many ways, can be said of our country today. Americans have lived through the financial crisis, while the governments response, at least in my opinion, was the right one. The crisis left many feeling as if the system is stacked against them and absolving wrongdoers of accountability. To many people, it feels like our eras defining economic trends, including things like globalization, hurt them economically. While we have historically low unemployment, wage growth has been stubborn, and many live at the anxiety of having their jobs disrupted by technology. The wealth gap is widened. Too many believe their children will have fewer opportunities than they had. Many in our country have lost faith in the american dream. I think that is caused some to question whether our capitalist system is in fact the right one. For my part, i believe in capitalism. I believe in free markets. I believe in the right of Free Enterprise to conduct their business. I believe in responsible and reasonable regulation. We would not be the country we are today without these. But, i also believe, for our business to strive and thrive in todays society, we need to help solve the societal challenges we all face. We cannot be on the sidelines. We need to have Business Models that have a positive impact on society and dont rely solely on philanthropy to show we are solid corporate citizens. Creating shareholder value, in my opinion, will always be necessary, but creating stakeholder value is critical. Today, these two goals are more closely connected than ever before. People increasingly are demanding that private enterprise play a role in finding solutions to the challenges we face. Employees, for their part, want to work at companies that reflect their values and their priorities. Theseproach to some of issues is that, at our core and at our best, we work with our clients to solve problems. With significant Financial Resources to deploy, we are scaled to serve clients and help them compete in the economy. The clients could be anything from a multinational company, like ford where i had the pleasure of spending time this morning, it could be one of our commercial banking clients, like edward leavy, a legend in Road Construction founded on a handshake between its namesake and henry ford. Or, it could be a Public Sector client, including local governments like the state of michigan. Our commitment to solutions can be seen through three decisions we make every day. Who we work with, how we work with them, and how we treat the people who work for us. Think about one of the Biggest Challenges facing our nation today. That is our failing infrastructure. The American Society of civil engineers, today, estimates we will fall 1. 5 trillion short of the required Infrastructure Investment needed by 2025. Not only are there implications for Public Health and safety, theres an Economic Cost to the status quo. The estimated annual cost of highway congestion, 120 billion. Airport congestion and delays, another 35 billion. Is where a bank like ours can help. Our Balance Sheet allows us to finance projects that would be out of the reach of some smaller institutions. Just last year, citi provided financing for 26 billion in u. S. Infrastructure projects, including bridges, hospitals, airports, water, and public power. Id like to mention one project we did in detroit which we are particularly proud of. That was, during the bankruptcy, citi committed 60 million and subsequently underwrote another 200 billion in bonds on behalf of the Public Lighting Authority of detroit. Those funds financed the installation of over 65,000 efficient streetlights, improving the quality of life throughout the city. [applause] betsy thank you. Michael thank you. Another challenge, Affordable Housing. I mentioned the economic pressure to Many Americans feel acutely. Over 11 million lowincome households in the u. S. Today comprise over a quarter of all rental households. Of those, 70 spent more than half their income on rent and utilities. To address this urgent need, last year, citi provided 6 billion in financing for the construction and reconstruction of more than 36,000 Affordable Housing units. That level of support not only set a new record for us at citi, it maintained our ranking as the leading financier of Affordable Housing in the u. S. For the ninth year in a row. And, how about Climate Change . While some may doubt its existent, we believe it is real, and its accelerating, and our collective efforts to address it are the greatest combination of opportunity and risk we face. According some of the most recent compelling scientific assessments, we cant afford to wait to take action. Serious impact from Climate Change go well bond well weather events like the devastating hurricanes we have experience in the past few years, and at the same time, we need to recognize many people depend on the fossil fuel industry for their livelihood. We have clients in this sector, and we are not going to walk away from it. We are working to support their transition to a low carbon economy, creating green collar careers in the process. In 2014, we made a 10year, 100 billion Environmental Finance commitment, Funding Clean Energy and other sustainable projects, including the first offshore wind farm in the country. There is great demand for this capital. As a result of that, we will meet our goal this year, which will be four years ahead of our plans. Let me be clear. None of these projects are transactions i have described up rog x or transactions i have described up to this point are primarily rooted in philanthropic or idealistic content. They are core banking activities conducted on behalf of citi clients, and they all contribute to our bottom line. However, their value and benefits accrued to many stakeholders, including our communities, society, our economy, and more broadly, the Global Economy. In addition, our core activities as a bank, advance our economy and society by supporting nonprofit organizations that tackle such challenges head on. We have focused on the need to close the widening gap between the skills of young people and what they need to be able to compete in todays workforce. The u. S. Department of labor released a report last fall that found there are 7 billion jobs at any one time today that employers still cannot fill. Our pathways to Progress Initiative is designed to help close the job Skills Mismatch by providing 200,000 young people over six years with the tools they need through training, work experience, and entrepreneurial opportunities. At 100 million, it is the largest philanthropic commitment in our companys history. And, i hope it shows our willingness to put profits back into the communities we serve. Earlier this year, we broadened the scope to help 10,000 Older Workers who feel as if they have been on the wrong side of globalization or Digital Innovation to secure employment in Growth Industries like health care, transportation, technology, and construction. Several organizations in detroit are involved in this 10 million effort. Focus hope is launching a Robotics Program to support people looking to build careers in automation, advanced manufacturing and information technology, fields all helping to grow our economy right here at home. Beyond philanthropy, we also accept we have a responsibility to have a point of view on certain issues affecting our colleagues and our communities. One is the epidemic of gun violence. After several citi colleagues were impacted by the parkland massacre, we decided we needed to think about where our clients intersected with this issue. We dont seek to take the place of government, and we never intended to offer the perfect solution, much less a new form of gun control. I own guns for recreational purposes. Im a Firm Believer in the second amendment. Our commercial firearms policy simply asks our Retail Sector clients to use accepted best practices if they sell firearms. These include age restrictions, completed backgrounds checks, and no sale of bump stocks or high capacity magazines. This is followed by retailers including walmart and dicks sporting goods, and have strong public support, even among gun owners. We also recognize how we operate as a company is an opportunity to demonstrate our values. We focused on building a better, fairer culture at citi, making it is free of racial, gender, and other biases as we can. This year, we were the first u. S. Company to disclose what we call our unadjusted or raw pay gap. Our analysis revealed our medium is 71 of the median pay for men, showing we have a significant issue with the representation of women in senior roles at our firm. While transparency is great, it is what you do with your data where the rubber hits the road. We have set a goal to have 40 of our mid and seniorlevel leaders in our firm globally filled by females by the end of 2021. We measure our progress against that quarterly. While i focused on citi, im happy to say these issues are increasingly affected by our clients and the Business Community more broadly. In august, the business round table, an organization of ceos of major u. S. Companies companies, announced it had revised its principles of corporate governance. Our revised statement said responsible business should also take into account the interest of other stakeholders, such as colleagues, clients, suppliers, and communities. As an example, i have decided to show it is not just the case with other stakeholders win or shareholders lose. Business is not, nor should never be, a zerosum game. Up until recently, business did not have enough credibility to take on social issues, but earlier this year, some evidence emerged of a new attitude when the Public Affairs firm edelman published its annual trust barometer. The results revealed a profound shift in the degree of trust that people have for one class of company, and that is that is and that is their employers. 75 , or three out of every four people interviewed globally, said they trusted their employers to do what is right for them and for society. That is a welcome shift in perception and development that business should take pride in. I believe if company continue to see their role as creating value for stakeholders as well as shareholders, our country will be stronger, our system will continue to show why it creates more opportunity than any other anywhere. Thank you for having me here today, and i look forward to our discussion, and i would like to invite dustin on stage. Thank you. [applause] dustin just a second, let me get this thing going here. Thank you, that was delightful. I also dont want to show you where media placed on the trust list. Before i want to do a deeper dive into social topics that you spoke of, but first thing, i would like to get your barometer on the economy and where it is going. Usually, when the Global Economy or National Economy stumbles, detroit fall down a well. What are you seeing in the economy that we are seeing recessionary indicators . What do you think the longterm is here this year and next year . Michael i have talked publicly that, in my 36 years of being in the industry and being around companies and the economy more broadly, i have never seen a time like this. When you think about where we are today, we are 10 years into a recovery from the great financial crisis. Some people look and say, by historical standards, that is long. True, but we have to remind ourselves recoveries have no memory. As my friends in australia remind me, 26 years into their recovery. Second, as we look at the economy today, it cant be looked at three single lens. That is, when we look at the world, we have a combination of economic, social, and political, or we also have the tiering the strata of what we would think of as the consumer, business, and government. To understand where the u. S. Economy at the Global Economy is today, we need to take those apart. Simply, when you look at the United States today, two thirds of our economy is dictated by the consumer. By the way, the consumer is in pretty good shape. If we go back to the crisis and think about how intervention was done and where stabilization came from, effectively, to the consumer two things matter most. , one is their job. Do i have a job and can i keep my job if i dont have a and can i keep my job . If i dont have a job, can i get one . We could argue secondary around wages, etc. As we saw last week, we have to go back to 1969 to find a job market with lower unemployment than we have today. The second piece is housing. When we think about housing out there today, we could argue pockets are things, but people feel pretty good about their house. Certainly in america, many consumers around the world their home is their largest investments, often a proxy for retirement, and if you feel good about your job and about your home, the consumer will be engaged. That is what we see. Business has been a bit flighty. Throughout these 10 years, business has been engaged, disengaged on the back of tax reform are other things. In and out. But, business has been probably more conservative. I think the other piece is, we are 10 years into what i describe as this unprecedented, Massive Science fair project called quantitative easing. Unprecedented in terms of trillions of dollars around the world. As we look, and things we cant escape in this globally linked economy, is the impact it had on Interest Rates. Did we ever think any of us with seasoning in this room would look around and find a several Major Economies in the world with negative Interest Rates . We operate in those places. It is a strange phenomenon. When you go to somebody and say, give us your deposit, and by the way, you will pay to put your deposit in our bank, it redefines the traditional paradigm of how people think about things. I dont believe, and we have heard out of our central bank, the federal reserve, that it has not necessarily transmitted as well. And, for now, we are saying we are not a believer in negative rates, but you have to look at the other pieces. This morning, you wake up, and its china. Its brexit. It is usmca and what will happen. Volatility has been destabilizing to business, but fortunately, we have had the backbone of a healthy, strong, engaged consumer. Dustin i am running short on time so i want to get into this idea of corporate americas role in solving societys ills. Historically, it has been the governments role to provide wellbeing to its constituents. You now see that role is being taken on by corporate america. Does that mean the government is failing us or something has changed . What is the fundamental change to where your company does the things you talked about . Michael i would say, from our perspective, as we look at some of these issues as i talked a bit about guns, but if you look at issues we choose to get involved with, in many ways, it goes back and starts at home around our employees and the expectation of our employees. Of wanting to come to work for a company they can be proud of. Stances,of the significantly most of the stances we take are very internally focused around ourselves and our clients. And, we dont go out in Public Forums to speak about them. But, in the war for talent and in the world we live in, taking the stances and people understanding the values of the company is critical. Dustin that makes total sense, but what that has taken on in this day and age where , gunshing is political are definitely political. How did that conversation you had to go to the board with this i assume, or they brought it to you, one of the two. How did that conversation go . Michael we are, as a bank, all highly regulated entities. It was interesting that we went back and looked at, after some of these events, went back and asked the team if you could show me our prescribed commercial firearms policy. We really did not have one, which, dustin, by the way, we have a policy for everything. One was to go as i said in my remarks, we did not look to reset boundaries or change things. How do we act responsibly with our clients around the things they are doing, and how should we use the firm to support those efforts in a positive direction . When you look at what we did, we said age restrictions, maybe with some training. We dont hand people keys to the car at 16 and say figure it out. Around these full background checks, and around these modifications, that generally serve no commercial purpose or societal purpose and have been at the center of these. Working with our clients to be able to put those things forward is not something we invented and put out. We were in direct consultation with clients to try to promote some best practices. Dustin was there a lot of pushback on that . Was it smooth . Michael we did not expect it to be smooth. The response was as predicted. One is i had people sending emails, greatest thing ever done, to people with expletives that were less than thrilled with it. I would say, in general, people found a responsive thoughtful and balanced, and was very much viewed as a positive. Dustin cool. You have also brought up Climate Change, another hot button issue. Most economists overwhelmingly support a carbon tax. You publicly said you dont buy into a carbon tax. Youve also said government should create other incentives towards sustainability. Like what . Michael just to put some texture to it, it is not that i dont believe in carbon tax. Rbon tax has been quite effective, but i dont believe you can be the endall. I talked about the combination of carrot and stick. We have got to have a balance in terms of the way we approach these things. And actually, how do we get businesses to table to choreograph or describe their own transitions towards what their companies of the future will be . We want to be in the role of supporting them. We dont want to have to take on the mantle of being prescriptive to them of the things they can or cannot do. All of these companies, my company included, are on a journey and transition. As i talked about also fuel, we cant say no more fossil fuels. We have to come up with alternative sources, the ways of improving the ways we use it, and that is a journey and requires the help of banks to facilitate that shift. Dustin what is a carrot . A quick carrot. Carrot is whatt is happening around the reaction of Financial Markets towards those companies that are acting responsibly. If you look at the evolution of green bonds, where bonds are being issued, financing offered at better rates than it otherwise would be offered to companies that are actually dedicating those moneys towards this transition. Great carrot. If youre going to go down that path, we are willing to help you in that journey. You mentioned wealth and income inequality. Several candidates are calling for our ghibli aggressive for arguably aggressive measures, higher income taxes and corporate taxes, etc. What role can corporations play in battling inequality within the system . On an economic perspective. Michael when you look at our role, it is inclusive finance. As a bank, we serve a role to society of getting as many thele banked and as part of formal economy as we can. How do we educate people and how do we do that . What are the things we can offer . I talked about the philanthropic side, in terms of not just investing in our own people but in communities we serve, in terms of modernization of job skills and retraining. Not just training around the younger, but retraining some of the existing workforce. Again, if we all come together in these and understand what it is were trying to shape, we have got the ability to bend this. Dustin in mentioning the jobs and retraining, if we look in this state and every state we are trying to get more postsecondary education, college or technical skill training. We look at the production of at the production of it the Fastest Growing jobs are, they are low income jobs. 61 of jobs created in michigan have paid 20 an hour less. How do we find the right balance of low income jobs, education, and the future of work . Michael im sure your numbers are right but we have to go back up a level. When we think about the United States today, somewhere between 80 and 82 of our economy is service based. Manufacturing is 16 and agricultural is low single digits. As you described job evolution, what has happened, we are either recycling people out of likely manufacturing jobs into service jobs or bringing new entrants into service job. That is the fastestgrowing part of our economy. As part of that, the people are generally coming and not necessarily skilled in some of the services or businesses. They are coming in and getting those skills. We would hope that they would have the upward trajectory as they get the required skills to continue to move up. Again, when we think of our economy today, and by the way, thinking of the Global Economy services in the u. S. , two thirds, services in the world. This is not a transition we are facing alone. Dustin i am wrapping up. We have to keep this quick. Under the current administration, we have seen a lot of uncertainty. Tariffs and trade deals. It is a new thing every day that we are not quite sure what the future holds. How do you balance with your customers that are trying to expand . How do you help them and bring certainty to their decisions . Michael one is that we have tried to take as a company that has been around for 207 years, they say this is not our first rodeo. As a company that operates in many places around the world, we have seen these things before. I think we bring a time perspective, and i think we bring a breath of perspective back here, around dealing with these issues. Again, we tried to take the intermediate and longerterm view. I just talked about, if we sat here and watched every day, the volatility in the markets, you would drive yourself crazy. But, how do we look at the things that are important, make the right investments, and do the right things to support our clients and give them the ability to make the decision over the proper term, rather than acting to todays headline and trying to provide that support, the insight, the financing of capital that gives them the ability to do that. Dustin thats it for my time. I believe betsy is coming back up for the q a portion. [applause] betsy lets see if i can get this working right. We will go through some of the questions of the group. Maybe we can follow on the last topic you were talking about, the trade wars. One of the questions was what impact do trade wars have on the Banking Industry . You talked about your customers. Perhaps you can switch and talk about how that impacts banking and citi specifically. Michael the bulk of the impact is the Second Derivative or second function. That is that, as bankers our business is a function of our clients needs, desires, success and challenges. Clearly what has happened, around trade and it tariffs, we have seen uncertainty put in. We have seen reaction from our clients of the rerouting of trade routes. As an example, the u. S. Was a massive exporter of soy to china. Tariffs went in place that stopped and we instantly saw the trade route reroute to argentina and brazil to become the exporters to china. We have seen supplychain diversification. Our ability to move without move with our clients and to be able to support them as they are dealing with realtime with some of the changes is critical. Clearly, from a first function, it is impacting the markets, impacting foreign, impacting many things that we have to deal with on a daytoday basis. But, it is much more the second function events we are focused on. Betsy great. You mentioned in your remarks, briefly, brexit. One of the questions surrounded that is, what impact would a hard brexit have on citi and other Banking Institutions in the u. S. . Michael i had a highlevel official in yesterday from the u. K. Government. I said to him, whatever it is, just get on with it. We have been living this for long periods of time. We all believe we are as well prepared as we can. And, that the uncertainty around it, from a business perspective, is the biggest challenge. So, i think we have got to see. We dont know exactly what the ramifications will be. We dont know how the border issue will get solved, how trade agreements will be structured, but as we look at the u. K. , our presence in the u. K. , it will stay an important place, as is europe. We will need to be forced to deal with wherever they come out on the issue. From a business perspective, as we all know as business people, just give us certainty. Give us the ability to plan and we will process it and move on. Betsy great. Mike, there are several questions about cryptocurrency. What is your general thought about cryptocurrency . How does it affect your business . Your international business. Maybe talk a little about crypto and your thoughts about that. Michael in some ways, i want to create a linear nation or segmentation. Often times, when we talk about cryptocurrency, we get in some ways either this very dark view of a speculative vehicle. My belief, not necessarily in many cases, a currency that somewhere between tax evaders or other bad activities behind to actually those activities which i think are very legitimate. I think where we have had some challenges is some of the cryptocurrencies that have been introduced are not necessarily currencies. They are speculative vehicles and not commercially usable in any kind of regular sense. But, it is only a matter of time until get what i would call the Digital Currency. The Digital Currency as coming as a replacement of Paper Currency or supplement to Paper Currency today. It is likely in the nottoodistant future we will see governments beginning to issue that. Obviously, we have seen the announcement by facebook and libra, and their approach towards a stable value currency. It has a basket of currency behind it, which maybe is a broader use. So, evolving in realtime, and like anything, i dont think we should be dismissive of it. There will be an evolution to it. I think there will be choices around them. Betsy good, thank you. You talked about sustainability and citis responsibility. One of the questions that was put forth is, will citi consider doing business with Companies Committed to the paris climate agreement . And, how do you think about the overall environment we live in today and citis responsibility around that . Michael the answer is simply no. The paris climate agreement, we are a subscriber, a believer, but i think we have to take a broader approach. Thats because we cover businesses that do all kinds of things. So may have ramifications but there is much more to it around creating responsible and sustainable paths to the future of our business. What we want, and i think my fellow bankers would agree, is we dont want to be in the position of setting or enforcing your policy. We really want to be in the position of you working with your stakeholders to create the right path forward for your company that has buyin in the round, and its our responsibly to support you on that journey. We dont want to be the traffic cop, we dont want to be the person rationing valuable resources, but we want to be the encouragement and support of whatever that transition thats bought into feels like. Betsy changing direction a little bit, how do you deal with legal uncertainty of cannabis banking . Obviously, that is something a lot of people in michigan are talking about. Dustin i had that written down. Betsy did you already have that down . [laughter] michael as a nationally chartered, federally insured bank, the decision is easy. We are prohibited by law. If we were to be part of that in the United States, we would be breaking our charter. We would be breaking the law. We would lose our fdic insurance and lose our license. That would be a bad day. [laughter] michael what we are pushing for is, rather than this being governed at the state level, our National Politicians need to take this topic on, and they need to come to a decision from a federal perspective how they this should be approached. Once that is decided, we are more than happy to support that. Betsy ok. Theres one question that came in, and im sure its from a student, and i think your insight would be helpful. You talked a little about this with a student group. How can we make ourselves better problem solvers and make a stand out as we are leaving college and entering the workforce . What are some thoughts that may maybe even helped you as you graduated from college and moved on . The things that make a difference to an employer and maybe some advice around that. Michael its the same advice. Its the same advice i give our people joining our Company Every year, which is keep your base wide. We are in this world that is changing so rapidly, and too often i sit down with really energetic, excited young people, they have this narrow view of where they want to go, and what they want to become. I would take advantage of everything out there, to build my foundation today as broad as i can build it, to give me all of the flexibility through life. When i think back 36 years ago, around what banking was and what the hot sectors were and what they werent, if i had focused myself or pin hold myself into those things, i likely would goneprobably had to have backwards in my career to retool myself. As time goes on, that becomes more painful, more costly, more difficult. Invest in yourself today. Build the widest base you can build. Continue to take advantage of that, and naturally, your career path will narrow itself and allow that to happen naturally, rather than forcing it. Betsy ok. One last question before we go into the lightning round. There are a couple of questions around regulations and whether you feel the Banking Industry regulation today is at the appropriate level, and is it a place that would limit the ability for 2008 to occur again. Do feel we are somewhere in the zone, and what i mean by that is what i have , talked about publicly is were not asking at all, as a bank or as an industry, for dodd frank to go away, but what we would love is harmonization of regulation, that we had a lot of regulation in our industry put forth between 2008 and 2012. Many of those regulations sit at multiple regulators, and some of those regulators dont actually agree on what those regulations say and how they should be implemented. So, in our case, we say we dont care, pick any version of it, but we are happy to live by it. It is difficult when we have all different regulators taking different approaches and expecting us to be compliant with different views of the regulation. In 2008, i think when you look at the capital industry, the liquidity in the industry, the oversight in the industry, it is a completely different industry today than it was around stress testing and all of the things that we do on a very regular basis. I think the numbers show that the industry would have the ability to certainly withstand a 2008 and beyond. Betsy ok. Great. Now, as is tradition with these meetings, we like to have a lightning round. These are quick questions. Long or short answers, however you decide to answer it is great. First one, something on your bucket list . Michael something on my bucket list would be heliskiing in the himalayas. [laughter] betsy outdoorsman, i can tell. He was talking about fishing, so i know theres a lot of that. A person other than a family person you would like to have lunch with . Michael david mccullough. Betsy one of your favorite songs . Michael happy birthday. [laughter] betsy as long as you are standing up, that is great. Favorite team growing up . Michael pittsburgh steelers. Betsy your best sport . Michael best sport or favorite sport . Betsy give me either. Michael my best sports, growing up, i played football in college. My favorite sport is probably i dont know, flyfishing . Absolutely, flyfishing. Betsy last book that you read . Michael this past weekend, i read a book called the roadside scholar. Betsy one of your favorite movies . Michael shawshank redemption. Betsy favorite vacation spot . Michael italy. Betsy describe detroit in one word. Michael transformational. To yourast one, advice 25yearold self. I gave a little bit of it, so i wont repeat that, but i would also say take advantage of the world. One piece of advice that i have learned and i give my kids and anyone who will listen, as you are growing up, your life is never going to be less complicated than today. Take advantage of that. [laughter] betsy great. Thank you very much, mike. Michael thank you. Mike. Michael thank you. [applause] announcer committees in the u. S. House continue their impeachment inquiry into President Trumps dealings with ukraine as cspans capital producer tweets the decker d deputy and secretary of state for the Eurasian Bureau who oversees u. S. Policy toward ukraine arrived on capitol hill this morning for his closeddoor deposition. Before the meeting, the Top Republican on the House Oversight committee stopped to talk to reporters. We have had 30 hours of testimony and we are headed into our fourth interview. Own individual offers their unique and distinct perspective. , if adaman Schiff Schiff decides to bring a guest in, we will have questions for him. [indiscernible] dont think the American People have a right to know the individual who started this process to try to remove the president of the United States 13 months before an election . You dont think the American People have a right to know that . [indiscernible] dont you think we need to know how this all started . The individual who started it all, got a readout from the call toween President Trump ukrainian president , writes a memo the next day using terms like scary, frightening, crazy, and waited 18 days to file a complaint. The first person he sees during that interim is adam schiffs staff. Come on. We are talking three hunt at 30 Million People in this country, removing the president of the United States, the leader the freemason i think the American People would like to know. Do you think he has no right to anonymity . He has a right to protection. It does not say anonymity. Announcer yesterday, house investigators heard from the former top russia investigat or. In a white house meeting, sondland will follow ukrainians out of the meeting to privately make clear he is talking about hunter biden. Scheduled tor is be deposed on thursday. President trump tweeted about the inquiry writing democrats are allowing no transparency at the witchhunt hearing. If republicans did this, they would be dashed by the fake news. Let this come up from the charade of people most of which i do not know. They are interviewing nine hours each, not selectively. Follow any reaction to todays closeddoor inquiry online at cspan. Org. Announcer the head of the pentagons new office focusing solely on china is speaking today, live from the jamestown foundations China Defense and security conference. At 12 45 p. M. Eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. We will have the policy review on the president s decision to withdraw from syria. Former government officials and policy experts discuss the latest developments tonight beginning at 10 a clock eastern also h