With President Trumps political interests than National Security. Well start with the sworn statements of ambassador michael mckinley. Quote, the timing of my resignation, he testified, was the result of two overriding concerns. The failure in my view of the state department to offer support to foreign employees caught up in the impeachment inquiry and, second, by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives. In other words, as both he and ambassador yovanovitch made clear in their testimony, using the people and institutions of government, or as youll see bypassing them, for private personal aims. Their testimony reflects what they saw and heard as people connected to the president from in and out of the government worked to influence the government of ukraine and squeeze it for the president s political advantage. Specifically the president s ukraine uninvoienvoy kurt volke gordon sondland. Quote, what is clear is both volker
friends didn t take the decision about supplying such ammunition lightly. kurt volke is a former us ambassador to nato and former us special representative for ukraine. he s told the bbc why he backs the move. ukraine, as we have seen, as been able to advance on the battlefield but only very slowly. and that is because of the minefields and the trenches that have been put in place by the russians as defensie measures to prevent the ukranians from advancing. using these types of munitions will substitute for singleshot artillery shells, it will cover more ground and they will force the russians to have to withdraw their personnel to avoid these types of weapons which will make it more feasible for the ukrainians to advance more quickly. for some insight now on what it means to clear areas where cluster munitions have been deployed, i was joined by patrick fruchet, a landmine clearance expert.
quote, what is clear is both volker and sondland were enga engaging the ukrainian government in conjunction with rudy giuliani on domestic political issues. it s clear from yovanovitch s testimony that giuliani s efforts in the ukraine, involving her specifically, dating back to late last year. quoting her now, basically it was people in the ukrainian government who said that mr. lutsenko, the former prosecutor general, was in communication with mayor giuliani and that he had plans and that they were going to, you know, do things, including to me. it became clear, she said, that the goal was removing her from her post. one point of contention, her alleged role in blocking giuliani s effort to bring ousted ukrainian prosecutor viktor shokin to the u.s., apparently in pursuit of giuliani s political mission for the president. following longstanding protocol, an american consular officer denied him a visa because of his alleged ties to large-scale corruption. now, remember president trump
with president trump s political interests than national security. we ll start with the sworn statements of ambassador michael mckinley. quote, the timing of my resignation, he testified, was the result of two overriding concerns. the failure in my view of the state department to offer support to foreign employees caught up in the impeachment inquiry and, second, by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives. in other words, as both he and ambassador yovanovitch made clear in their testimony, using the people and institutions of government, or as you ll see bypassing them, for private personal aims. their testimony reflects what they saw and heard as people connected to the president from in and out of the government worked to influence the government of ukraine and squeeze it for the president s political advantage. specifically the president s ukraine uninvoienvoy kurt volke gordon sondland.
president is really the evidence is really clear, convincing, and pretty overwhelming. your republican colleague, congressman jim jordan said that democrats, quote, cherry-pick which transcripts they release and when. what s determining the order in which transcripts are getting released? well, i mean, if you think about it, ambassador yovanovitch and ambassador mckinley were two of the first ones that were interviewed by the intelligence committee. and, look, i know the republicans are struggling to defend that which is indefensible. but, you know, i was glad to see these transcripts being released so that the american people could see exactly what the ambassadors said during their testimony. i think volker went before, but i hear you on jim jordan s point. there s reporting tonight also that as the inquiry moves into the public phase, republicans are considering actually moving