are we now saying that security assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigations? his response, call me. as i said on the phone i think it s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. sondland texts back, i believe you re incorrect about president trump s intentions. the president has been crystal clear no quid pro quos of any kind. volker also said in his opening state that he did become aware that foreign aid to ukraine was being held up at the same time he was connecting ukrainian aides with rudy giuliani. but volker said he did not perceive those two issues to be linked in any way. jessica schneider, cnn, washington. meantime, president trump is trying out a new defense strategy to counter the mounting evidence. that defense, he says it s more about corruption. he says it s not about politics. our jim acosta has this. reporter: with mounting evidence, he solicited foreign
had a good chat last night. he was pleased with your phone call, mentioned z making a statement. can we all get on the phone to make sure i advised correctly as to what he should be saying? want to make sure we get this done right. thanks. then in september, we see the acting u.s. ambassador to ukraine saying, i think it s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign. but he responds with this. bill, i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. he adds, the president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind. let s bring in cnn legal and national security analyst carrie cor der cordero and our reporter shimon prokupecz. he said today, quote, well, obviously we ll do all the things we re required to do by law. yet earlier this week, he sounded like he was ready to fight. where do you see things going?
taylor, replying, bill, i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. the president has been crystal clear. no quid pro quos of any kind. the president is trying to evaluate whether ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that president zelensky promised during his campaign. i suggest we stop the back and forth by text. come on, people. it s all right there. i said ambassador sondland might have been speaking to an audience of one, and that one sure seems to have gotten the message. here it is. the text message that i saw from ambassador sondland, who is highly respected, was there s no quid pro quo. he said that. he said by the way, it almost sounded like in general. he said, by the way, there s no quid pro quo, and there isn t. now, for biden there would be.
u.s. politics. volker testified he didn t see a link between the investigation and the freeze to military aid in ukraine, but other diplomates were suspicious. as i said on the phone, i think it s crazy to whole security assistance for help with a political campaign he said in september. bill, i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. the president has been crystal clear. no quid pro quos of any kind. still, it unsettled lawmakers, at least one member of the gop. i think some of these things are damning. other than congressman herd, there have been very few republicans who are willing to go out there and criticize the president. aside from mitt romney, very few
it is about five hours later or so that gordon sondland responds and he says, bill, i believe you are incorrect about president trump s intentions. and then in sort of this lawyerly fashion and the way that he responds, he says the president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any time. the president is trying to evaluate whether ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that president zelensky promised during the campaign i suggest. so it s really significant. this exchange certainly is something that investigators on the hill are going to want to look into. sondland, i could say, is expected to appear before the hill in a closed deposition on tuesday. all right, shimon prokupecz, thank you so much. let s discuss further now with molly ball, a national political correspondent for time and a cnn political analyst. also with me, tolu, a cnn