Current government funding expires friday at midnight. Youre watching live coverage of the senate on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, help us to remember your mighty acts. You are kind and merciful, better to us than we deserve. You feed the sparrows and cause the sun to rise. You forgive our sins and provide us with strength for every challenge. Lord, use our lawmakers today for your glory. May they be courteous and kind as they seek to do what is best for this land we love. Remind them that they represent the hopes and dreams of many people. Thank you, lord, for the wonderful things that you continue to do for us all. We pray in your loving name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible
[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the committee will come back to order. I will now begin a period of fiveminute questions when the i want to ask you both about the questions you are asked by my colleagues in the minority. First if i could ask you ms. Williams and colonel vindm vindman, you are asked a series of questions for the Ranking Member of the outset, were you aware of the fact and then there was a recitation of information about burisma, the bidens, is it fair to say you have no firsthand knowledge of any of the matters asked . That is correct. That is correct. Ms. Williams you are also asked a series of questions about the schedule and if he couldve made then operation and was a president traveling in the trip to canada, lets be clear about something. The president you were instructed had told the Vice President not to go before you freeze even knew the date of the inauguration . Is that correct. That is correct. At the time he was told not to go, there was
Affairs laura cooper. This was the Intelligence Committee six of the impeachment inquiry. The committee will come to order. Igood afternoon. This is the sixth in a series of public hearings. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. There is a quorum present. We will proceed in the same fashion. I will make another statement and mr. Nunez will have an opportunity to make a statement. We welcome you and respect your interest. As chairman, i will make any steps to maintain order and ensure the committee is run in accordance with house rules. I recognize myself to give an Opening Statement in the impeachment inquiry. David hale is the undersecretary for clinical affairs, the third most senior person in the department. Laura cooper is the secretary of isense for russia, ukraine, responsible for broad range of countries in the former soviet union. They have several decades of National Security experience. Dedicatedd from other their onlyants, priority has bee
Leadership as at all other interAgency Meetings on this topic of which i was aware the National Security Community Expressed unanimous support for resuming the funding as in the u. S. National security interest at the july 26th meeting there was also a discussion of how ukrainian anticorruption efforts were making progress do you do you reiterated what we had said and our earlier certification to congress stating that sufficient progress in defense reform including anticorruption had occurred to justify the usa i spending. I and others at the interAgency Meetings felt that the matter was particularly urgent because it takes time to obligate that amount of money and my understanding was that the money was legally required to be obligated by september 30th the end of the fiscal year in the ensuing weeks until the hold was released on september 11th i pursued 3 tracks 1st starting on july 31st and an interAgency Meeting i made clear to the interagency leadership my understanding that once
A year the United States has seen to it that deadliest white supremacist attacks in its recent history were born far out from the pentagon in october of 2018 a gunman murdered 11 jewish worshipers at the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh pennsylvania. Talking about. Then in august 22 people were shot dead in an attempt to kill as many latinos as possible in El Paso Texas. Just 9 months apart these attacks were connected to the ideology of White Supremacy and only read gradually and i think we all come to realize how extensive this underground network is of people who have bought into this hateful belief system. Those things are being nurtured by our president in his language and actually stoked against license to people like the shooter to do violence against communities. To pittsburgh suspect was critical of donald trump and theyll pass so shooter distance himself from the president in his manifesto. But both men frame their actions as responses to crises real or imagined that the