this is taylor. i think the origin of the idea to get president zelensky to say out loud he s going to investigate burisma in the 2016 election, i think the originator, the person who came up with that, was mr. giuliani. representative, who was he representing and the answer is president trump. how significant is that? that is significant. everybody knows that rudy giuliani is and was the president s attorney and they knew it in ukraine and he was exacting on behalf of the president. exactly what he was doing, it is been confusing throughout this whole series of events and i think the actors like ambassador taylor and others were struggling to try to figure out what giuliani was doing and whether he was doing it at the president s behest. i think common sense applying common sense to this type of situation, you would think of course the president was acting through rudy giuliani. and the president has talked about his knowledge about the events in ukraine and what was
like mr. taylor, whom the democrats think is a good witness for them, he s a career public servant and somebody who is a military veteran and who firsthand observed how foreign policy was overtaken by rogue component led by rudy giuliani and watched it kind of fall apart and here he was trying to get this aid to ukraine and he finally figured out that rudy giuliani was doing the president s bidding and trying to get the president of ukraine to dig up political dirt on joe biden and i think as he tells his story an the others and the others say we agree with that. it is going to be it is going to be very effective por the public. clearly the white house is bracing for the testimony. who do you think they re most worried about? probably bill taylor. he s the leadoff witness, the lead batter and he sets a nice narrative for democrats next
now admitting he told ukraine s leadership that hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid were being held up until president trump got the investigations he wanted. ambassador gordon sondland, who is a longtime republican donor-turned-diplomat who gave money to trump s inaugural committee, amending his original testing, writing, i now recall speaking individually with mr. yermak, where i said resumption of u.s. aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks. that public statement that trump wanted, according to the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine, was that president zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of biden and 2016 election interference. those investigations were being pushed by the president s personal lawyer, rudy giuliani. there s really only one story. all of the witnesses agree that the president engineered a shakedown of the ukrainian
ambassador sondland. none ev none of them talked t the president. i assure you there is no link to the president. reporter: and taylor criticized rudy giuliani for his rogue foreign policy on ukraine. when taylor was asked if e.u. ambassador gordon sondland was responsible for holding aid in exchange for investigations something john bolton called a drug deal, taylor said it was giuliani who was the proxy for trump. i think the origin of the idea to get president zelensky to say out loud he s going to investigate burisma and the 2016 election and i think the only the originator was rudy giuliani. and closed door testimony on capitol hill before the public phase begins next week. david hale is from the state department and according to the associated press intended to testify that secretary of state pompeo was reluctant to defend
they account the how tim morrison told him president trump did insist that president zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of biden and 2016. taylor was awarmed and sent a cable to secretary of state mike pompeo describing the folly i saw and in with holding military aid to ukraine at a time hostility was active in the east and russia is watching closely to gauge the level of american support for the ukrainian government. taylor s testimony points to a quid pro quo. something the president has repeatedly denied. there was no quid pro quo. at all. i didn t do it. there was no quid pro quo. reporter: taylor was asked if the president ever told taylor directy why the aid was being withheld and taylor saying i didn t hear it from the president, i can t say what the president was thinking. and that is what republicans are seizing on. they said any information that they had was from whom?