plastic reset button, and the message was clear to putin. look, bush overreacted when you invaded georgia, so you can invade ukraine and we re okay. that may not be what they intended, but that s exactly what putin heard. that s why they invaded ukraine, crimea and europe said, trump? for heaven sake. time is expired. what purposes, mr. raskin seek recognition. move to strike the last word. the gentleman is recognized. our colleagues reprove mr. cicilli cicilline, ambassador sondland. it smb fascinating to me becaus that s president trump s pick. he contributed a million dollars to the trump campaign, he became the bams door to the eu. they don t like him now because he clarified his testimony to
colleagues on the other side of the aisle, to remind you of the facts that have been uncovered and to review them and put them on the record again for the americ american public because facts do matter. noticect the contrast between t conversation on this sidetw of e aisle and that. they run away from the facts. they re afraid to admit to themselves or to the american public of what the president s behavior really adds up to. so let me just recite the facts. when ukrainian president ser zelensky raised tissue of u.s. military aid to the ukraine on theuk july 25th call, president trump replied, quote, i would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and ukraine knows a lot about that. end quote. congress appropriated and authorized $391 million in security assistance to ukraine. on may 23rd, the department of defense certified to congress that ukraine had completed the
say, yes, there was definitely a quid pro quos at the heart of this whole thing. now, of course, they turn on the president s own ambassador. we don t have to rely on his word. i started to mention this before because he had a lunch with david holmes who was the senior state department official at the u.s. embassy in kiev. they went to a restaurant and ambassador sondland got president trump on the phone and afterward holmes could hear the conversation. thiser is all uncontradicted by other witnesses who were there. and essentially ambassador sondland said to him, zelensky loves your ass and you ll get exactly what you want from him. afterwards holmes says, well, what is it we can get from him? well, it s the big stuff.
this amendment? for what purpose? move to strike the last word. recognized. the fact that members of this committee would insinuate that ukrainians died at the hands of russians because they didn t get aid is ridiculous. having served in a combat theater, to blame aid delayed a few weeks would have saved lives is insulting to me and all that served. now democrats want you to believe that ukrainians died and it s trump s fault. members on the other side of the aisle areid talking about bribe and laying out a case for bribery and if their case was so compelling and overwhelming, then why isn t it in the articles of impeachment. it s not either one. they didn t include it because there s no evidence for that charge. the aid wasr released before t deadline set out by congress. it released the aid. ukrainians didn t start any investigations. they also got a meeting with president trump and president trump doesn t have to meet with foreign leaders.
defense exercises no authority independent of the president. the buck still stops at the president s desk and, two, the president retains responsibility to determine that the findings of his administration remain valid. particularly as he assesses the intention of a newly elected president and newly elected parliament. and lest we forget, last year three democratic senators wrote to the ukrainian government demanding that it cooperate in investigating president trump. the democrats found absolutely nothing objectionable about this. the only difference i see is that the president actually has the authority and the responsibility to make such a quest. what s at stake here? the worst possible interpretations of the president s motives in discharging his constitutional powers are being imputed to him by his most vitriolic opponents. there s nothing extraordinary about that. it s called politics. but if this can become the new