End of the fiscal year, we did and an analysis of what other countries were doing. And i cant remember if it was zero or near zero dollars from any European Countries for lethal aid. Youve heard the president say we give them tanks and other countries give them pillows. That is right. As vocal at the europeans are about supporting ukraine, they are really, really stingy when it coming to lethal aid. They werent helping ukraine and to this day are not. And the president did not like that. Long answer, but im still going. Those were the driving factors. Did he also mention to me that the corruption that related to the dnc server . Absolutely. No question. But that is it. And that is why we held up the money. So the demand for an investigation into the democrats was part of the reason that he ordered to withhold funding to ukraine . The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation. And that is appropriate. To w
case. but it facilitated us being able to reach an agreement that is now resulting in a cease-fire. and we believe will set the stage for creating a peaceful and stable safe zone and the united states is committed to achieving that for all the people of this region. all right. mr. vice president. mr. vice president! can i finish my question that i started, please? that was a lot. joining us now, nbc s richard engel. he is live in northern syria. nbc s peter alexander at the white house. and in a moment, nbc s senior international correspondent, keir simmons, who is in turkey. and we are back with abby livingston of the texas tribune. peter alexander, to you first. i know you re absorbing this information, just as we are. a five-day cease-fire. do we know what this means for the u.s. troops? and is anyone saying anything yet about the 218 civilian lives already lost. for what? reporter: yeah, stephanie, you make a good point right there. and as we heard from the vice
president. and while he has many qualified advisers by his side, he is choosing not to use them. he is choosing to use rudy giuliani who has no might havpr we don t even know who is compensating him. so the state department may be gel getti getting hollowed out, but when it wasn t, he wasn t calling on them anyway. we seem to have a process free foreign policy and i don t think that serves our country well. i would hope that the good people who are working presently in the trump administration would be called on. you make a very good point, stephanie. and would lend their talent and experience to thinking about the hard problems. guess what? syria is a really hard problem. not just the decision that was made, but the day after and the day after that and the impact that will ricochet across the middle east. and i worry about israel security going forward. thank you so much, jane. i know we have limited time with
bidens. and you heard him get pressured on that question as well. and that is what we re seeing about the decision to hold the g-7 at doral. and let s be clear, there was so much for mick mulvaney to go through. whether ukraine, syria, pick your poison. they decide to announce the g-7 is at the doral. and do you know what it does? distracts us. they does this not seem to be what the president does over and over? set everyone s hair on fire saying this is outrageous, and we re busy calling the g-7 meeting outrageous and we re not talking about gordon sondland who at this very moment is testifying. i think that it is a really important point. no doubt that an announcement like this does serve as amick mh questions. and you can make the case that this is the first briefing that we ve had in over 200 days, it
aid. he was asked directly why was the military aid held up. you heard him talk about corruption and then he said bluntly that the president wanted ukraine to cooperate in its investigations into corruption, be the dnc specifically. he was pressed on that point over and over again. now, he disputes the characterization of a quid pro quo, but he did acknowledge that look, there was a tit for tat there, that the president wanted ukraine s cooperation in exchange for that military aid. i think that is something that is going to get a lot of attention. there is no doubt about that. because that is the central question at the heart of this impeachment inquiry that is unfolding on capitol hill every day. a couple other points. i pressed mick mulvaney on whether the president directed him specifically to work with rudy giuliani or anyone else. he effectively said look, he did direct rick papery terry to wor rudy giuliani. and when i pressed whether that was appropriate, he said he