greatest power in the world and ukraine, which is so dependent on the united states not just for the military assistance but for all of its support made such a request effectively a demand because president zelensky could not in reality say no. is this vast power disparity in part because ukraine has been at war with russia since russia invaded five years ago, and over 13,000 of the ukraine have died? yes, and the only has the u.s. provided its military budget but a critical ally and rallying other countries to support ukraine. europe actually gives i think four times as much money as the united states over all to ukraine. president trump knew the ukrainian president s back was against the wall and president zelensky needed u.s. validation and support, is that
you re reading the quote. yes. okay. now, the president and some of his defenders here have tried to excuse his misconduct by pointing to statements from the ukraine president that he was not under pressure touk give in president trump s demand. did your investigative committees consider those statements by president zelensky? we did. and we found that the statements of what is, effectively, an extortion victim are not particularlyrt relevant to the actual truth of the matter because president zelensky cannot, in reality, for the same reasons that he s he interpreted the request to be a demand he can t go out and say that he did feel pressure because thatfe would, potential, upset president trump. and they re so dependent on the relationship with president trump and the united states. one could almost say it s similar to a hostage testifying under duress. it is certainly a a duress would be a good word. so when the president made these statements, and up to and
hard to do whatever it takes to help the american president. he understood, however, because he s a savvy guy, i spent a while with him, he understood and now i m guessing that this would cause problems if he were to choose a republican over a democrat. the testimony says that. or decide to investigate right, biden and the clintons, that would put him in an awkward position. what if trump didn t win? he was trying to play both sides and delay and punt and when it became absolutely clear he couldn t could do that anymore, he agreed to come on my show and he was going to announce it. the interview was sort of in the works for a while in the sense that we d been trying, we had gotten encouraging noises but the key thing to remember is zelensky cannot say anything now, then, before and he won t from two weeks from now that in any way can annoy donald trump.
world events and geo politics so well. the idea that ukraine, zelensky and his people were in a panic about this, they didn t know how to deal with rudy, were so afraid of being involved in american politics, does that square with your understanding of the rej gime and why? completely. the thing you have to remember about the ukraine and the us, when trump says zelensky says he was not pressured, the core reality here is the asymmetry of power. the u.s. totally dominates this relationship. zelensky needs any ukrainian president needs the american president s 110% support, not just for the military aid, not just for the political aid, for the diplomatic aid but because there is a real prospect of a russian invasion of the rest of ukraine, in which case washington becomes your savior. so there s no question that zelensky or any ukrainian president is going to try very
michael bloomberg. when it didn t seem likely that he would enter the race. people like corey, myself, dave, who would be the number one person that president trump would be the most worried about. and it would be mike bloomberg. he is a new yorker. he can withstand the onslaught of the president s bullying. he is worth five to eight times the president s net worth. he can spend a fortune defending himself and getting ads up in all the areas of the country that he needed to get. if he got the nomination, it is clear he would beat trump. in those 11 swing states, the level of moderation, the social progressive know, that kind of weaving if you will, would overcome. the pats for michael bloomberg to win that nomination. you would think to ask a democrat about that. it seems like the party has lurked so far to the west. if elizabeth warren has the numbers by proposing the