he thinks it s wrong. but senator portman goes on to say, i don t view it as an impeachable offense. so how would you argue against that? well, i would just say, let s wait and put the evidence together. let s listen carefully to what comes out of the house of representatives, if they do vote for impeachment, and listen to the testimony from the people involved here. if there was, in fact, an abuse of power in the presidency, it goes to the heart of our constitution. george mason of virginia said no man should be above justice and certainly a man who in those days, referring to men exclusively, a man who could be capable of the greatest injustice. and that would be the president of the united states. so prejudge this and say, well, even if he didn t, it isn t that important, it s critically as important as mr. sullivan said and as most of us agree. so senator ron johnson from wisconsin is an interesting player in this drama because he was in ukraine. he talked to president zelensky
leading the impeachment inquiry about bolton being deposed. he made some very big mistakes. reporter: sources tell cnn that a former top deputy of boltons said he called the president s personal lawyer rudy giuliani a hand grenade that was going to blow everybody up. it corroborates information we had. reporter: the inquiry is expected to be ratcheted up next week with the testimony of tim morrison, the white house s senior official for ukraine who was on the infamous call between president trump and president zelensky. morrison who was the first person on that call to testify is expected to confirm key elements of the testimony of the top u.s. diplomat in the ukraine bill taylor who said on tuesday that morrison told him that president trump did insist that president zelensky go to a
three committees about him be deposed. a former top deputy of bolton testified that bolton called the president s personal lawyer, giuliani a hand ge gray. who will blow everybody up. he s a great gentleman. the impeachment inquiry heats up. president trump is ramping up e deflections. alleging it s a daep deep state conspiracy to remove him from office. the white house defense there was no quid pro quo in the phone call with president zelensky. seemingly under cut this week. after damming closed door testimony from the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. bill taylor. according to to his opening statement he testified he became increasingly concerned that our relationship with ukraine was being under mined. by an irregular informal channel of u.s. policy maker. testifying that ambassador sondland told him that president trump had held up the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid
until ukraine agreed to launch investigations into the bidens and 2016 election. taylor testifying he was told that president trump did insist president zelensky go to a mike stone and say he s opening investigations of biden and 2016 election interference. president trump is dismissing that testimony. slamming him as a political enemy and saying pompeo made a mistake in appointing him. a well respected career professional. mike pompeo everybody makes mistakes. he s a never trumper. the head of the never trumper. republicans standing by the president are arguing that taylor s testimony was a secondhand account. hearsay. but in the sense that it was passed on. it wasn t a direct conversation. republicans blasting the process that the house is under taking behind closed doors. even though almost 50 republican members across the three
president zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of biden and 2016 election interference. if you have somebody directly saying i was on the call, this is what happened, that s direct evidence that really causes problems politically and obviously legally. reporter: the pressure to release the money to ukraine wasn t only from senator rob portman. there was also a deadline. by the end of september the funds had to be given to ukraine or they would get nothing at all. so lawmakers from both parties were urging the president to send the aid, as was vice president mike pence. finally, on that call the president agreed but not before grumbling that the u.s. was getting a bad deal. alex marquardt, cnn, washington. i want to bring in former florida attorney general bill mccollum. good to see you. a recently fired national security adviser, john bolton, apparently he s in talks to possibly take part in this impeachment deposition. how significant might his