the military assistance and the trade privileges presumably to squeeze them into doing what the president wanted. the depositions. we re committed to maintaining our democracy, if you will and not allowing a group of some of our colleagues who wish to show this undying loyalty to a president who has dishonored our country and continuously dishonored the country with his antics. he needs to be firm, put people
rules require them behind closed doors. why? we don t want witnesses coordinating with one another. why? we re trying to get at the truth, at the facts. your fear is that if you open up the depositions right now, it could tailor what other future witnesses might say? absolutely. there s a secondary concern here, too. even though this is unclassified, it s taking place in a classified setting. why? a lot of the conversation and the questions we have of witnesses, frankly, all have security clearances, these people. and it may border into, may venture into, may accidentally or spontaneously reveal classified information. we don t want that to happen. we do not want to compromise methods, procedures and american personnel. let s talk about this washington post report moved a few moments ago. it reports back in august that the trump administration delayed granting ukraine certain trade privileges because john bolton, then the white house national security adviser, warned that the p
ukraine at that time. what do you make of that? i would really like for john bolton to be one our witnesses. it s not a decision that i will make. who makes that decision? chairman schiff, of course. in consultation with he would want john bolton to testify as well? we would have to ask him. there s incriminating information in the text, opening statements of dr. hill from the national security council, ambassador yovanovitch, ambassador taylor, ambassador sondland. the most incriminating information of all was the president s own confession as found in the record of the call he made to president zelensky. that confession, by the way, was signed quickly thereafter by mick mulvaney when he admitted it on national television. are you concerned there could be other points of u.s. leverage on ukraine beyond, say, trade privileges or military assistance of nearly $400 million that was held up?
we re doing in washington with the best impulses of the american people or it democracy could be in real trouble. the new president of ukraine, nearly $400 million in u.s. military assistance was being when would until ukrainian government did certain things as far as politics here in the united states were concerned and now the washington post has reported they delayed providing certain trade privileges to ukraine until they got presumably got what they wanted. were there more? in all of your investigations, you re a member of the intelligence committee. were there more elements of investigation, more elements of pressure on ukraine that we don t know about? i can t speak to what s happening in the intelligence community in the senate. although i will say that that committee, at least, is acting in a bipartisan way right now. senate intelligence? as we begin our process. and this is the reason why it s so important for us to have an inquiry. you know, these guys that are
welcome back, everybody. india has imposed higher retaliatory tariffs on 28 u.s. products in retaliation for washington s withdrawal of key trade privileges for the country. the discussion which took effect yesterday includes tariffs on u.s. export items like apples, walnuts of which the country is a top purchasers. trump scrapped a trade provision that provided duty free exports that provided $5.6 billion on steel and aluminum products. fus officials in india called the move unfortunate. the latest trade row comes as india promised to levy higher tariffs on the u.s. ahead of the meeting with frutrump at the g2 summit. last year alone, trade with india was worth $142 million.