Meeting will come to water. We will proceed to the five minute questioning. I want to recognize myself for five minutes. First, i want to clarify something for the record. Wanted to clarify something for the record with respect to witness who testified on saturday, and that is mr. Sandy, he is a career official with the office of management and budget, and he is today reviewing his transcript, an opportunity that we give all of the witnesses before their transcript is released to make sure that it is accurate and correct. As his deposition was only taken on saturday, and this the soonest that we could arrange this. And we did inform the minority yesterday that if they wished to use any of the questioning from mr. Sandys deposition, we would do sond a take the excerpts even prior to the witness going through it, and they chose to not take advantage of that opportunity, but this is the far more significant point, and that is he is not the top official at the office of management and budg
Ukraine, President Trump it was said, has a negative view of ukraine, and president zelensky would have a difficult time overcoming it. Senator johnson further expla explained he had been quote, shocked by President Trumps negative reaction during an Oval Office Meeting when he and the three amigos proposed that trump meet president zelensky, and show support for ukraine. On september 8th, ambassador taylor told me, quote, now theyre insisting zelensky commit to the investigation in an interview with cnn. Which i took from the three amigos. I was shocked their request was so specific and concrete while he urged our counterparts to follow the rule of law, and generally investigating corruption allegations, this was a demand that president zelensky personally commit on a cable news channel to a specific investigation of President Trumps political rival. On september 11th, the hold was finally lifted after significant press coverage and bipartisan coverage. We were still concerned that pr
At senator Chris Murphys meetings with president zelensky where president zelensky asked about the Security Assistance. Although both senorteres stressed bipartisan support. It senator johnson further explained he been quote shocked by President Trumps negative reaction on mthe 23rd. On september 8, ambassador taylor told me quote now theyre insisting zelensky commit to the investigation in an interview, which i took to refer to the three amigos. I was shocked it was so concrete. While we advised the ukrainian counterparts to fall othe rule of law and this was a demand that president zelensky that president zelensky personally commit. On september 11 the hold was lifted after significant press coverage and bipartisan congressional concerns. We were still concerned zelensky committed an exchange to give the requested cnn interview. We several indications the interview would occur. First the sconference in kiev and farid zu carria was one of the moderators. My colleague text me that quot
The House Intelligence Committee taking a break in their hearing due to house votes happening now on the floor. Theyve been hearing from the former National Security Council Analyst on russia fiona hill and david holmes political counselor at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine. We will have live coverage when the hearing resumes. Well get to your calls and comments. Democrats 2027488920, 2027488921, others 2027488922. Nancy pelosi has been talking about the hearings going on. Please let us know. Yes, sir. Before you fully embrace the impeachment inquiry, you said one of the reasons you were cautious about it because you said the process would be long, arduous and divisive. It turns out you were right. It seems as if were in this position. But in the sense that both sides are dug in and impeachment has sort of taken on the tenor of being just like any other partisan dispute. I dont subscribe to that. I cant answer your question predicated on that. Theres not bipartisan support. If the republi
The september time frame, but i want to go back two months, to july, before the july 25th call. You testified, ambassador taylor, in your Opening Statement that it was in the middle of july when you understood that the white house meeting was first a condition on these investigations. Is that accurate . Yes. We were preparing and i agreed that the white house meeting was going to be an important step in u. S. ukrainian relations. So, in june and in early july, attempts to work out a way to get that meeting included a phone call. And so there were several conversations about how to have this phone call that eventually happened on july 25th. And you described in your Opening Statement a july 10th white house meeting with a number of officials where ambassador bolton used the term that something was a drug deal. What did you understand him to mean in hearing that he said used this term, drug deal . I dont know. I dont know what ambassador bolton had in mind. Was that in reference to a dis