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
Not enjoyed, and opportunity that they had not enjoyed, and no doubt, on some level, youre grateful and its created a since of pain you. Is that fair to say . Very fair. Why then, sir, with your courage to come before us does that same standard not apply to mr. Mulvaney, mr. Duffy, mr. Pompeo, mr. Bolton, mr. Volt, mr. Giuliani, why wouldnt those same sentiments be within their hearts to do their patriotic duty and do what you have done, sirteed, whdoesne standard apply to the president of the United States . I wish i could answer. Suspect you cant because there is no good answer. But i do appreciate your willingness to come here today. With that, i yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you, congressman. Mr. Jordan. Thank you, i ask yiewp unanimous consent to enter into the record a statement from chief of staff mick mulvaney. We havent seen all the statements but i presume theyre accurate and no objection. Ambassador, President Trump is not a big fan of foreign aid, is that right . I dont k
He has been questioned by both republicans and democrats of course what makes his testimony particularly interesting is his relationship to President Trump he has been known he was a trump lets call a point that he is very well known as a trump ally and a trump supporter and he has been questioned on that and that in some ways makes his testimony quite difficult to dismiss that republicans have picked up on contradictions in some of his remarks and revisions to his testimony of course he made an early test mean and then issued a statement to a man and then or is that there have been contradictions and inconsistencies in some of solomons remarks compared to what weve heard from other senior figures so thats what weve seen republicans seize on his credibility or perhaps the lack of it in what he is saying now but of course hearing is continuing. To do their patriotic duty and do what you have done sir indeed. Why doesnt that same standard applied to the president of the United States i w
To move pub lekly an confidently with the importance of issues of the president and the United States, and that is going to hopefully break the logjam, but at this point in time, the issues of importance to the president of the United States were what . That the two investigations. But nothing to do with Vice President biden, right . Again, i didnt make the connection there. I want to pivot briefly to the president s concerns about foreign assistance. Undersecretary hale who will be with us here later today testified that during this relevant time frame, there was a real focus to reexamine all of the federal aid programs. Are you aware of the interest of the president . I am aware of the president s skepticism of foreign aid and conditioning it on certain things. I am generally aware of that, yes. And ambassador hale testified and his testimony has been public. Almost a zerobased concept. Each assistance program, and each country that receives the assistance is evaluated. We avoid nati
Meeting will come to water. We will proceed to the five minute questioning. I want to recognize myself for five minutes. First, i want to clarify something for the record. Wanted to clarify something for the record with respect to witness who testified on saturday, and that is mr. Sandy, he is a career official with the office of management and budget, and he is today reviewing his transcript, an opportunity that we give all of the witnesses before their transcript is released to make sure that it is accurate and correct. As his deposition was only taken on saturday, and this the soonest that we could arrange this. And we did inform the minority yesterday that if they wished to use any of the questioning from mr. Sandys deposition, we would do sond a take the excerpts even prior to the witness going through it, and they chose to not take advantage of that opportunity, but this is the far more significant point, and that is he is not the top official at the office of management and budg