other themes we ve heard as you said. at one point he talks about trying to go to a meeting and he gets there and he s supposed to go in and take notes, and he s told he can t go in because sondland and yermak don t want a note-taker, they only want the two of them in there. how does that fit with the rest of the picture with what we ve gotten about what bill taylor called the irregular channel of policy? the actual official channel of the state department had no idea what was happening in the irregular channel. bill taylor was kind of the connection between the two, but obviously he wasn t involved in every single conversation that was had. so the fact that there was this meeting with sondland and yermak with no note taker, who knows what they discussed, but we do know is that sondland, who is going to come before the committee on wednesday, his testimony is going to take on a whole new level of importance.
kershner, and ambassador wendy sherman, former under secretary of state for political affairs. she s an msnbc global affairs contributor. and ambassador sherman, i want to get your reaction to this new testimony that we re learning of tonight from david holmes. this is a high ranking staff member in the embassy in ukraine who s a note taker. he s been in countless meetings with the president of ukraine and the previous president of ukraine. this is detailed man as it were, and this is a clear and precise account of the gordon sondland phone call. your reaction to that. indeed. david holmes was the political counselor. that means he was in charge of the political section. he was the advisor about the politics of ukraine. not our politics, but the politics of ukraine. and one thing that your viewers, and i hope all the members of congress understand, even though he did not take contemporaneous
that around. launching an investigation, and going on cnn and announcing this, it basically creates a narrative line. and by the way, the trump campaign announced it was spending millions of dollars on an ad campaign specifically on this subject. there is nothing subtle about this. it s happening in plain sight. and it there was any doubt about it, the fact they announced this multi-million dollar campaign gives you an indication of what he was hoping to do and how he was hoping to frame this into 202 2020. according to holmes testimony he was supposed to come with a meeting to an aide with president zelensky. holmes arrived late to the meeting and when he got to the office was told by an assistant, quote, ambassador sondland and his aid had insisted the meeting be one-on-one with no note taker. what do you make of that?
she s an msnbc global affairs contributor. and ambassador sherman, i want to get your reaction to this new testimony that we re learning of tonight from david holmes. this is a high ranking staff member in the embassy in ukraine who s a note taker. he s been in countless meetings with the president of ukraine and the previous president of ukraine. this is detailed man as it were, and this is a clear and precise account of the gordon sondland phone call. your reaction to that. indeed. david holmes was the political counselor. that means he was in charge of the political section. he was the advisor about the politics of ukraine. not our politics, but the politics of ukraine. and one thing that your viewers, and i hope all the members of congress understand, even though he did not take contemporaneous notes the foreign service trains
other themes as you said. at one point he talks about trying to go to a meeting and he gets there and he s supposed to take notes, and he s told he can t go in because sondland and yermac don t want a note taker, they only want the two of them in there. how does that fit with what we ve gotten about what bill taylor called the irregular channel of policy? the actual official channel the state department had no idea what was happening in the irregular channel. bill taylor was kind of the connection between the two, but obviously he wasn t involved in every single conversation that was had. so the fact there was this meeting with sondland and yermac with no note taker, who knows what they discussed, but we do know that sondland who was going to come before the committee on wednesday, his testimony is going to take on a whole new