The Iraqi Parliament voted for the u. S. Troops to leave the country. Meantime, split over the president s decision to order the attack. The latest on general and asked us. Reporter another massive crowds gathered in red, monday. This time, and holy city. The body of irans top general making its way to Qassem Soleimanis hometown. For a burial, tuesday. Foreign minister addressing President Trump writing, have you ever seen such a sea of humanity in your life . The final days of National Mourning coming at the Trump Administration was to defend the president s decision to order the deadly drone strike that killed qassem soleimani, friday. The president was on solid ground constitutionally. Reporter this is house schedules everything for members of congress, come was a. Democrats busting president for keeping them in the dark. Ahead of the attack. Demanding to know the white house was the best justification for striking. President trump had promised to keep the United States out of endle
Vehemently denied any connection saying no way i would never do that who told you that in closing the call president to trump told senator johnson that were reviewing it now referring to the Security Assistance and guess what youll probably like my final decision he told that to senator johnson on august 31st this statement strongly suggests that President Trump was already leaning toward lifting the aid separately on september 9th President Trump spoke by phone with ambassador sama and ambassador someone asked the president what do you want from ukraine president respond President Trump responded i want nothing i want no quid pro quo i want selenski to do the right thing. In addition senior Ukrainian Government officials denied any awareness of a linkage between u. S. Security assistance and investigations these denials are persuasive because if there was in fact an orchestrated scheme to pressure ukraine by withholding Security Assistance one would think the pause on Security Assista
Them in the right direction. Witnesses in the impeachment inquiry testified that the allegation of ukrainian influence in the 2016 election was appropriate to examine. Ambassador volker testified that he thought it was fine to investigate allegations about 2016 influence. Ambassador taylor said, for example, that the allegations surprised and disappointed him, on this record i do not believe one could conclude that President Trump had no legitimate basis to raise a concern about efforts by ukrainians to influence the 2016 election. Let me now turn to the first assertion that President Trump withheld a meeting with president zelensky as a way of pressuring him to investigate the former vp. Here it is important to note ukraines long, profound history of endemic corruption. Several witnesses during the inquiry have testified about these problems. Ambassador marie yovanovitch, for example, said ukraines corruption is not just prevalent but, frankly, is the system. Witnesses testified to ha
The committee will reconvene. When we recessed we were about to hear from mr. Castor. Mr. Castor, youre recognized for 45 minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for having me back, giving me the opportunity to testify about the evidence gathered during our impeachment inquiry. At the outset let me say the evidence does not support the allegations that my democrat colleagues have made. And i dont believe the evidence leads to the conclusions they suggest. Im hopeful to add some important perspective and context to the facts under discussion today. The chief allegation that the impeachment inquiry has been trying to assess over the last 66 days is this whether President Trump abused the power of his office through quid pro quo, extortion or whatever, by withholding a meeting or Security Assistance as a way of pressuring ukrainian president zelensky to investigate the president s political rival, former vp biden, for the president s political benefit in the upcoming election. The sec
A few minutes well be hearing from the last of this weeks witnesses fear the hill was the white houses top russia analyst she reported directly to former National Security adviser john bolton whos so far refused to testify shes expected to give details of a socalled shadow Foreign Policy run by trumps post the lawyer Rudy Giuliani and gordon sunderland. David holmes is a political counsellor at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine he will testify alongside her he says that he overheard a cold between donald trump and some glue and the u. S. Ambassador to the e. U. In which the president asked the diplomats if ukraine would investigate the bidens lets go live now to what the the capital of this is how the job castro is just outside the chambers where todays impeachment inquiry will begin what will wait just run through for us what were expecting to hear today. Sure adrian so the testimony this morning from the yonah hill who is a former member of the National Security council she was the ukrain