united states refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. he refuses to accept the will of the people. he refuses to accept the fact that he lost. he has abused his power and put the loyalty to himself before loyalty to the constitution. a typical year, we re often not faced with questions of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. but this year, we are. and the last standard bearer of the democratic party, president barack obama campaigning in arizona, the state that perhaps any other battleground state has been roiled by the big lay with election deniers on the republican side picked up on the same themes, laying out for his audience, the stakes in this election this way. i lost my first congressional race in the primary by 30 points. i got whooped. i was frustrated. that didn t feel good. you know what i didn t do? i didn t claim the election was rigged. i didn t spin conspiracy theories. i didn t instigate a mob to go up on and stor
president zelensky was dependent on a public anawlinsannouncemene investigations, in fact, ambassador sondland said everything was dependent, including security assistance. he said that president trump wanted president zelensky in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations. in the same september 1st call, i told ambassador sondland that president trump should have more respect for another head of state and that what he described was not in the interests of either president trump or president selzelensky. at that point i asked ambassador sondland as to push back on the demand. ambassad sondland pledged to try. i suggested he make a statement potentially in coordination with attorney general barr s probe into the investigation of interference in the 2016 elections.
communications with ambassadors volker and sondland they relayed to me that the president wanted to hear from zelensky before scheduling the meeting in the oval office. it was not clear to me what this meant. on june 27th ambassador sondland told me during a phone conversation that president zelensky needed to make clear to president trump that he, president zelensky was not standing in the way of investigations. i sensed something odd when ambassador sondland told me on june 28th he did not wish to include most of the regular interagency participants in a call planned with president zelensky later that day. ambassador sondland, volker, secretary perry and i were on this call dialing in from different locations. ambassador sondland said he wanted to make sure no one was tribing or monitoring as they added president zelensky to the
irregular were separate and at odds. later that day, i received text messages on a three-way whatsapp text conversation conversation with ambassadors sondland and volker. ambassador sondland said a call between president trump and president zelensky would take place soon. ambassador volker said what was most important is for zelensky to say that he will help investigation and address any specific personnel issues if there are any. on the next day, july 20th, i had a phone conversation with ambassador sondland while he was on a train from paris to london. ambassador sondland told me he recommended to president zelensky that he use the phrase, i will leave no stone unturned with regard to investigations when president trump spoke with president trump.
are the words used on that phone call or in that conversation. and did you review those notes before you drafted your opening statement and came here to testify? i did. is that how, for example, you remember that ambassador sondland was on a train from paris to london during a call in july? that s correct. and you are aware, i presume, that the state department has not provided those notes to the committee, is that right? i am aware. so we don t have the benefit of reviewing them to ask you these questions. correct. i understand that they may be coming sooner or later. well, we would welcome that. you also testified earlier, ambassador sondland or ambassador taylor, that president trump had delegated some matters overseeing ukraine policy to ambassador sondland, who was a big inaugural supporter of president trump, even though ukraine is not in