or reason for crime in different communities across the country. what i ve noted, what you see in data is increase in crime since the start of the pandemic. i will let otherss assess what the increase in crime is and that is what i was conveying yesterday. sandra: he was trying to get her to commit to what is driving this. she did go on the record and seemed to walk it back last week, bret, blaming the pandemic for the spike in crime. tough to see where the white house is on the issue and if they are not identifying the reason for the spike in crime, how can they fix it? bret: they are trying to find messages that works for them at this point. it is an issue. it is an issue and it will be in campaigns and heading into 2022, you will hear more about it, especially from republican candidatess trying to pen lack of action in different places.
right. and and i m so proud of senator murkowski. but remember, she said nothing about the gravity of the situation. she was just making a strong point that mitch mcconnell had said some disturbing things about, you know, he s like the foreman of the jury. working with the defendant. this is in in real life, in the context of a courtroom, he would be off the jury. so i think it s a very important point to note. that we, democrats, at the time were willing to go on the record saying what bill clinton did was wrong. he shouldn t have had these affairs. he shouldn t have lied about them. but at the end of the day, it didn t rise to, you know, a high crime and misdemeanor. we did go on the record. and these republicans are running around hiding under their desks. i have not heard any of them say maybe maybe mitt romney. a couple of them may have said
addition to fiona hill. david holmes, the foreign service who heard was at the table gordon so sondland, heard the phone call. gordon sondland talked about that didn t claim to have not much recollection about it but wouldn t contradict what david holmes testified to except saying gordon gordon sondland didn t really remember details but did remember he didn t say the word biden in the call in the conversation. yeah, i mean, i don t think that david holmes is probably trying to perjure himself. and so you know, the this is when you say you don t recall something you re not really putting yourself in much danger of perjury. when you do go on the record sand say something happened and it didn t happen you are putting yourself in danger. let s put some of the sound from that moment where he talks about the call. you determined to president trump ukraine at the time and that president zelensky quote
proceeding. reporter: trump has been urging his party to defend his actions and his move to pressure ukraine to investigate his political rival, joe biden. will you do that? will you all go on the record and say that the president did nothing inappropriate? very clear, yes. there s nothing in that phone call that is wrong or impeachable. reporter: meanwhile, down in the basement of the capitol, another key witness was testifying. timothy morrison, a top official on the national security council, who joined the trump administration after working for 17 years for republicans in congress. morrison testified that he was told by the president s point person in ukraine, the u.s. ambassador to the e.u., gordon sondland, that millions of dollars in security aid was being held up until ukraine committed to investigate joe biden s son, hunter. but morrison was also on that phone call between the president and the president of ukraine and said that he was not concerned anything illegal was
with his presidency on the line, mr. trump is being urged by senator majority leader mitch mcconnell to stop attacking republicans who may end up deciding his fate. gop lawmakers are remaining loyal to the president. the president is asking all of you to defend him against the substance of these allegations. will you do that? will you all go on the record and say that the president did nothing inappropriate? i think you heard members up here being very clear. one other thing the president said today during his interview with nigel faraj, he would never say anything inappropriate. the problem for the president, and this began with the whistle-blower, is that a growing number of administration officials have stepped forward to testify mr. trump was wrong when he sought ukraine s help to investigate joe biden and there are more officials, as we know, wolf, that will testify on this in the coming day. when he asked zelensky for a