one key witness coming up is sondland, quote, call me, that was sondland s response with bill taylor texted concerns the president was withholding security aid from ukraine until it agreed to investigate biden and his son, who was on the board of a ukrainian energy company. days after the call taylor remained concerned, quote, i think it s crazy to withhold political assistance for help with a political campaign, he texted. sondland waited more than four hours and then texted back, quote, the president was clear no quid pro quos of any kind and then he suggested it was time to stop texting about this. but republican senator ron johnson told the wall street journal on friday that ambassador sondland told him the u.s. was withholding the aid. sondland scheduled to be questioned on tuesday. with me to share the reporting, kim of the washington post, cnn s jeff zelleny.
saying, are we now saying that security assistance and white house meetings are conditioned on investigations. the trump donor known as the state department official responded by saying call me. within a week bill taylor was still pressing the point that you need to call me. that trump donor to whom he sent that text message responded hours later with a lawyerly statement about how president trump had been crystal clear, no kwid pro quo of any kind. bill, i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. president trump himself today seized on that particular text message in his remarks to reporters when he was talking about his impeachment woes. he said that text from gordon sondland totally exonerated him. he has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos.
campaign. a few hours later responds in a much more formal manner, i breve you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. the president has been crystal clear. no quid pro quos of any kind. that was a portion of the reporting and the setup piece that senator johnson was critical of. 30 seconds to you. what do you make of that setup piece? it is clearly laying out a timeline. i think it s very helpful. senator johnson got very angry when it seemed to be showing that there was a quid pro quo or that these events were connected in any way. i think part of the problem and part of the resistance that republicans have done is trying to keep things very unclear for the public, trying to fight back against the press. that s all i have at this point. so of course he s upset when the facts are coming out. did senator johnson have a point? no, not whatsoever.
messages that were released to be playing a pretty active role in trying to advance the president s goal of getting ukraine to investigate his political opponents. not only that, but also shutting down in real back on that. i want to show you one of the text messages released in which the top u.s. diplomat says as i said on the phone, i think it is crazy to with hold security assistance. he is the political appointee saying i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. the president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. then he says i suggest we stop the back and forth on text. he is trying to take this offline and limit what they are putting in writing. even though he is saying there is no quid pro quo, democrats on the hill say if it looks like
assuming he will help investigate, quote, get to the bottom of what happened, end quote, in the bottom of 2016, we will nail down date for trip to washington. after aid is frozen, bill taylor, the top diplomat to ukraine objects. as i said on the phone, i think it s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. a few hours later, sondland respond in a much more formal manner. i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. the president has been crystale clear. no quid pro quos of any kind. when a key republican senator, ron johnson, heard from sondland that the money s release was contingent on an investigation, he says he called president trump on c august 31st who told him expletive, no way, i would never do that. who told you that? all this talk of the president about corruption comes frompr the most corrupt preside we have had in modern history. he s the definition of corruption. most congressional republicans sore far have been supp