so he had a desperate man on the phone and he asked a president zelensky had to a desperate man for a favor. and based on your testimony, it commit to an investigation before the aid got released and the aid got released and didn t commit to an investigation? i was not wrong about what i sounds like begrudgely he did told you, which is what i heard. that favor to investigate the that s all i said. bidens and burisma, is that i told you what i heard. and that s the point. what you heard did not happen. right? president zelensky says in the transcript that he will pursue theri investigations. we know that president trump it didn t happen. asked for a favor to help his you had three meetings with the guy. he didn t tell you.yo political career and it appears as though the president of the it s not just could it have been ukraine esagreed to that favor. wrong. the fact is, it was wrong. do we know why it didn t actually happen? because it didn t happen. the whole point was you ha
investigations he has undertaken? no.at he has not. all right. i yield the rest of my time to chairman tschiff. just a quick question. myic colleagues, a couple of my colleagues m referenced the conversation, the hoten mic conversation between president obama and president medvev. there was a suggestion that he was going to go easy on russia over ukraine. that invasion took place two years after that conversation. you had every reason to believe that president obama was going easy on russia for an investigation that didn t happen yet, do you? have no it was more or less a rhetorical question. i will yield now to mr. stewart, i m sorry, mr. stewart. thank you. to the witnesses, thank you. time is precious.
if someone was a candidate for a political office, even for president of the united states, should they be immuned from investigation? u no one is above the law, sir. thank you. i agree with that. i think we all would agree with that. yet i a think some presume becae some of the individuals we re talking about here were candidates they are immune from any questions or any investigation. i thinky or it s absurd. for heaven sakes those of us in public office, those who find ourselves up for f re-election e all the time as a candidate. i think we have a higher standard, notgh immunity from asking these types of questions. the last thing and then i m going tond yield my time. availability of funds. i m quoting from 2019 the. under assistance to ukraine, it has to be certified. and what has to be certif that
a part of these proceedings. nonetheless, we do know how acting chief of staff mick mulvaney feels about aid because on octoberid 17 at a press conference, hess discussed the hold on security assistance for ukraine andis ambassador taylori would like you to listen to what he said. i ll read it for you. in response to a question what you just sdibed is a quid pro quo. funding will not flow in. in response to that question mr. mulvaney said, mr. taylor, we do that all the time with foreign policy. my question ambassador taylor, the president conditioning security assistance on an investigation into his political opponent prior to this administration is this something we would do all the time? no, sir. why not? we conditioned assistance on