the president of the united states was on the telephone call on the 25th of july, yes, sir. thank you. i yield back. mr. hurt. thank you, chairman. gentlemen, i appreciate your decade of service as the fabled foreign service officer ambassador ryan crocker said because we have pumps and wing tips on the ground meaning diplomats, that prevents us from having the need to have boots on the ground, important in our national security and thank you and your colleagues. mr. taylor, my first questions are to you and these are questions that are on years prior to your time in the ukraine but pretty sure you can answer them. did the ukrainians get military get aid in fy 17? yes. they get any aid in fy yes, sir, they did get assistance. they got security assistance as well. they did. if i said that number was circa, in military assistance
for political gain. is she right? i don t know. i don t see it as political right. i see it as president trump going back to the corruption that was at the base of all of our foreign aid. you know, we re not going we do that in central america. and also, that, you know, this was to go back at the 2016 election. was there corruption in there? was there a suppression put on then why if it wasn t for political gain, congressman, why did president trump bring up the bidens in the call with zelensky on the 25th of july? because you ve got joe biden on the news, you know, several years ago, saying how he had a quid pro quo and he forced the ukrainian prosecutor to get fired. he was bragging about that i mean, i have it here. you re talking about him addressing the council on foreign relations in january of last year. he talked about holding back $1 billion in loan guarantees to carry out what every leader in the western hemisphere wanted,
house official to appear here. i m trying to stone wall this entire probe. lieutenant colonel vindman. he is the first witness who listened to that call between the president of the united states and the president of ukraine on the 25th of july and he says in his opening statement that like any good military officer he followed the chain of command with his concerns and he raised concerns about the national security council. the current ambassador to the eu appear and they say that sandins to the ukraine. suggesting that this is not a one off from the president, this was a policy that he says ran count tore what the official u.s. policy was on ukraine and the third box he checks he says it was a risk to national security and that is why he raised the issue with his
for the time being the secretary of state has been visiting the vatican where he made a speech. this was a visit about faith-based organizations and interfaith dialogues. he s been visiting the sistine chapel as well. in a short while we expect him to come here on the outskirts of rome where he ll hold a joint press conference with the italian foreign minister, almost guaranteed that the stage will be dominated by questions from journalists if we get a chance to put them about specifically that, how he rae spomds to that joint statement from those chairmen in which they point to that conflict of interest. also we look to get confirmation from him, which we haven t had yet. i think it s important to note he was on that july 25th phone call. will the secretary of state be cooperating with them in this impeachment inquiry going forward? those are some of the questions we ll be looking to put to the sec of state when he arrives here in a short time, christine
of trying to protect the president and himself because he was listening in on that phone call between president trump and the president of you cain. he says pompeo seems to have a con flick of interest because he s now a witness. all this as pompeo visits the vatican in rome where he may respond to questions later today on ukraine and the affair. good morning. reporter: the whole point of this visit that had been planned for some time was to talk about the role of faith-based basis. before he gets here for the press conference, the questions that the journalists have to ask are clearly about what you just mentioned, christine, how he responds to those accusations in that joint statement by the chairman of the committees that his participation in that call of the 25th of july constituted