Turns out one of his aids came forward to tell him about a call the aid overheard between President Trump and ambassador gordon sondland. Now thats important for one reason because it shows a connection. The timing matters more. It came a day after the infamous july 25th call with president zelensky. They believe taylors words show the instructions from ukrain came from the president on down. Heres why. In the presence of my staff, at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in kiev. A member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone can asking sondland asking about the investigations. He told President Trump the ukrainians were red a to move forward. A member of my staff asked what President Trump thought about ukrain. Mr. Sondland reespaupded that President Trump cared more about the investigations of joe biden. As you heard at theened, the investigation being discussed were being pushed by Rudy Giuliani. Taylor says today that g
Announcing investigation into the president s rivals. And this morning the Washington Post reports that President Trump asked attorney general william barr to publicly clear him of breaking any law on that call with ukraine. The post says the attorney general refused. The president is denying this report. He put it out in a new tweet just moments ago. Joiningous the phone is josh dawsy, part of the team that broke the story this morning. Let me just read for our viewers what your reporting found. President trump wanted attorney general william p. Barr to hold a News Conference declaring that the commander in chief had broken no laws during a phone call in which he pressed his ukrainian counterpart to investigate a political rival. Though barr ultimately declined to do so. People familiar with the matter said. The request from trump traveled from the president to other white house officials and eventually to the Justice Department. The president has mentioned barrs demurral to associate
To investigate his rifvals in simple terms. The president is expected to watch from the white house before his meeting with turkeys president. It will be an interesting day. Lets get to jessica schneider. Shes live in washington with her preview of what to expect. This first set of televised public hearings, it signals the high stakes for both democrats and republicans. Democrats will finally display all of the work theyve been doing behind the scenes to the likely millions of americans whove been watching. Republicans, theyve been holding those mock hearings. They also circulated that 18page memo with ways to hit back on what will become this first phase of the impeachment inquiry in the public sphere. In just hours, the impeachment inquiry goes public. Starting at 10 00 a. M. , bill taylor and george kent will testify sitting sidebyside. The nationally televised hearings helping House Democrats bring their case against trump to life arguing he abused his power by pressuring ukraine t
Impeachment hearings. The fate of Donald Trumps presidency at stake. Can first up, bill taylor and george kent. They will take the stand at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. And anyone in the world who tunes in will see and hear for themselves how diplomats believed that President Trump was trying to pressure ukraines government to investigate political rivals in exchange for military aid. You can see and hear the evidence for yourself today. Cnn has learned that democrats and republicans have been preparing for this day by holding these closed door practice sessions. Democrats want to lay out the case in stark, simple terms that the president tried to bribe or hi political rivals. Vestigate republicans are expected to try to distance the president from the allegations hes now facing. We know now that the president will watch this morning. We do expect to hear from him this afternoon at a News Conference at the white house alongside the turkish president. Today its only the beginning the former amb
Key here. Jeff bennett, thank you. Well give you a moment to try and read in on this thing as we are all doing. That brings this hour to a close for us. Ill see you back here at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. Ill see you tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Good afternoon. It is 11 00 a. M. Out west, 2 00 p. M. In washington. Weve just got that testimony from another key witness. Were going through that now. The democratic chairs of the three key committees have just put out a statement on what they see as the significance of the release of this testimony. Heres part of what they write. The testimony of ambassador taylor this is where they point out immediately his credentials a west point graduate, vietnam veteran, nonpartisan diplomat, shows how President Trump withheld military aid to ukraine and conditioned its release as well as a vital white house meeting on the president of ukraine publicly announcing investigations into debunked conspiracy theories involving the bidens and the 2016 campaign. S