the former ambassador to ukraine on twitter and he did this as she was testifying. the president slammed her and her job performance and then said he had a right to defend himself. we could learn more today about the congress approved military aid to ukraine, specifically when it was put on hold and when and why it was released. a senior budget official has been subpoenaed to talk about that. we re covering this from all angles, crystal hmz on capitol hill and sarah westwood at the white house. we want to start with crystal holmes. we know several closed doors meetings have been pretty significant. talk to us about what you re learning this morning. good morning. many democrats are saying this impactful and they believe it moves president trump closer to the ukraine pressure campaign. i want to take a step back and talk about who is david holmes
and how did we get here? holmes is a u.s. staffer in ukraine and earlier in week it was revealed he overheard a conversation with president trump and ambassador to the ukraine union gordon sondland in which president trump talked specifically about the investigations into the bidens. i want to set the scene here as holmes did in his closed-door testimony. he said the reason he was able to hear this call is they were having a meal together, him, sondland and two other staffers. they were outside and quiet and sondland policed this call to president trump. holmes said while it wasn t often speaker that president trump was so loud that you could hear him distinctly, what he was saying and hear his voice. so loud, in fact, sondland had to move the phone away from his ear at one point. and he said he heard then i heard president trump ask he s going to do the investigation? and ambassador sondland said he
the tone of the yovanovitch hearing, and now what we have from holmes is yet one more of the republican talking points isis removed. and this only was day two of the hearings. i mean, go back when the whistle-blower, nobody knew about ukraine, and here we are day one, we get this big revelation about this phone call with the president s actual voice and the republicans kept saying, oh, it s hearsay, it s hearsay. it s no longer hearsay. it s the real thing. imagine where we re gonna be next week. we have eight more witnesses, fact witnesses, and sondland s coming back and he s in just a world of trouble. president clinton spoke with jake tapper earlier this week on thursday talking about what his message to president trump would be in this case. let s listen to that.