why john bolton, the former national security adviser has rejected these subpoenas? because he s rather make money than do his civic duty. i don t know. maybe someone else has a better explanation. that s all it seems to me. i think we may see him at some point. he is certainly hovering over these hearings and will again today. fiona hill, too, is going to do something that is going to be really damaging for the white house. to puncture this idea that ukraine meddled in 2016. that motivated the president to such a degree and really set in motion this policy. adam schiff will open with a statement. devin nunes, the ranking member will then follow. the two witnesses will be sworn in. they will have opening statements, and then the question and answer session will begin. good morning, everyone. this is the seventh in a series of public hearings the committee will be holding as part of the house of representatives impeachment inquiry. without objection, the schair authorized to de
retaliate against any u.s. government official who are testifying before congress, including you or any of your colleagues. if you would please rise, raise your right hand, i will begin by swearing you in. do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? let the record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. thank you, and you may be seated. the microphones are sensitive. so you ll need to speak directly into them. without objection, your written statements will be made part of the record. with that, mr. holmes, you are now recognized for your opening statement. and when you conclude, dr. hill, you ll be immediately recognized thereafter for your opening statement. thank you. good morning, mr. chairman, ranking member nunes and members of the committee. my name is david holmes and i m
versus what was being offered up as motives for the president s actions. hill will dismiss the core of the gop impeachment defense that ukraine tried to influence the 2016 election so it was okay for the president to say it needed to be investigated. instead she ll make clear it was not ukraine meddling in 2016. it was russia. and it will be russia again in 2020 and we are not ready. joining hill this morning, david holmes. he s the ukraine embassy official who says he overheard ambassador gordon sondland in that july phone call with president trump at that restaurant in ukraine, wolf. it s interesting, the eu ambassador, he testified for hours and hours yesterday that not only was there a quid pro quo directed by the president, but both vice president mike pence and secretary of state mike pompeo knew all about it. it s a very, very serious development, chris, that
it s really important the comments that you, jim and jamie, made about the russia implications here. it s not just that he subverted u.s. policy for this fictitious theory about ukrainian meddling in the election which, by the way, the absolutely unanimous conclusion it was russia, not ukraine is a conclusion placed on fact. the united states government has detailed hard forensic evidence of the russians engagement in that meddling. so he adopted a conspiracy theory propagated by russia with the effect of withholding security assistance that would have been used to battle russia and ukraine. it s not just his adoption of the conspiracy theory is in line with russian goals but the effect of that adoption is to deny our ally, the aid they need to fight the russians on that. and she makes the point, carrie, this is dr. fiona hill, president putin and the russian security services operate like a superpac. they deploy millions of dollars
the former top russia expert at the national security council under president trump will be walking into the senate intelligence committee hearing room. they ll be answering a lot of questions, making opening statements. we ll stand by for live coverage. at the same tirges it s very interesting. we just got word the president is inviting republican senators over to the white house. he s lobbying them to make sure they ll be on board if he s impeached in the house it goes to a trial in the senate. he s going to want their support. including mitt romney is coming over. susan collins. he s got some work to do. particularly the ones he s worried about. i think some of this lobbying has been going on for weeks. but what we ve been seeing from a lot of these senators is they say i m not going to comment because i m going to be a juror. he s making sure his jurors are feel i feeling some love from the white house. i was just texting with a former