Impeachment inquiry, but his appearance moments before he took the stand we got his bombshell statement on live tv. Heres how the coverage played out. We just got, by the way, ed, we just got Opening Statement of ambassador sondland. And i go to page five of it where he says the suggestion that we were engaged in some irregular or rogue diplomacy is absolutely false. Ive now identified certain state Department Emails and messages that provide contemporaneous support from my view. These emails show that the leadership of state, nsc, and the white house were all informed about the ukraine efforts from may 23rd, 2019, until the security aid was released on september 11th, 2019. I will quote from some of those messages with you shortly. Any hope in the white house that oba ambassador sondland would go quietly into that night are going to be unfulfilled today in his testimony. Look at the go ahead, ed. His memory has been refreshed, famously refreshed. I think hes also concentrated his mind that roger stone last wrooek we week was jailed on seven counts, one was lying to congress. His memory has been refreshed. Hes heard the president say i hardly know this gentleman. So hes been cut loose by trump. Hes been left and, ed, let me give you his response to that. First, secretary perry, volker and i worked with mr. Rudy giuliani on ukraine matters and heres the line, at the express ready direction of the president of the United States. And if you read further, joe, he goes on to say in the next page, quote, mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States. We knew that these investigations were important to the president. The investigations about burisma. Above that, mr. Giulianis requests for a quid pro quo for arrange white house visit for president zelensky. Quid pro quo. Mr. Giuliani demanded, et cetera, et cetera. You go on to the next page, i was acting in good faith as president ial appointee i followed the directions of the president. We worked with mr. Giuliani because the president directed to us do so. You are now watching mr. Sondland try to shift from saying, hey, im into the going to be the fall guy here. Youre trying to set me up as the fall guy. The fall guys here are Rudy Giuliani and President Trump. He says dwe not wawe did not work with Rudy Giuliani. Im not good at predicting headlines, but i can predict tomorrows headlines. This is mr. Sondlands words, we followed the president s orders. Well, ed. Yeah, hes been given no choice. Trump has now that id be under pressure to allow mike pompeo to testify, i thinkon boltons testimony is going to come front and center. I do think that this impeachment inquiry today is the most important day yet. And we know already from sondlands Opening Statement. By do think the walls are closing in. This is not a predictable game. And sondland sondlands been cut loose and hes behaving as any racial person would do in the circumstance. Hes not going to continue to commit perjury. Thats what hes saying today. He will fess up to the orchestrated role that he was part of at the behest of President Trump to get a quid pro quo. Wow. Thats exactly what were getting bang to rights today. Page five we learn that the white house also suspend security aid to ukraine. I was adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid as the ukrainians needed those funds to fight against russian agreti aggression. Willie. He does have new information about the phone call at the restaurant in kiev. He says the following about that. I spoke by phone with mr. Trump. The call lasted five minutes. I remember i was at a restaurant in kiev. I have no reason to doubt this conversation included the subject of investigations. He goes on to say, other witnesses have recently shared their recollection of overhearing this call for the most part i have no reason to doubt their accounts. Talking about david holmes who said he overheard the president talking loudly through the phone with ambassador sondland about investigations into joe biden and burisma. Wow. So ed luce, even the overheard phone calls, it seems that sondland is going to confirm just about everything that weve heard so far over the past two weeks. And lets just remember it was only a month ago in midoctober that he testified thatd heard nothing about any linkage between the suspension of aid to ukraine anda the campaign that trump was demanding. Hed heard nothing about that. One month later hes confirming everything. Thats the speed with which this is changing and it is quite remarkable. So page 14. I know that members of this committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and white house meeting, the answer is yes. And further on down on page 14, within my state Department Emails there is a july 19th email that i sent to secretary pompeo. Oh, boy. Secretary perry, brian mccormick, chief of staff, ms. Kenna, Mick Mulvaney, Senior Adviser robert blair, a lot of senior officials. Heres my exact quote from that email. I talked to zleps juelensky jus hes prepared to receive potuss call. He intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will turn over every stone. Everyone was in the loop have mike pompeo was in the loop on page 18. The state department was fully supportive of our engagement in ukraine affairs. Was aware that a commitment to investigations was among the issues that we were pursuing on tuesday, september the 3rd i sent secretary pompeo an email to express my appreciation for joining a series of meetings in brussels. I think was really important and the chemistry seems promising. Really appreciate it. Pompeo replied, all good, youre doing great work. Keep banging away. State Department Leadership expressed total support for our efforts to engage a new Ukrainian Administration which, of course, he now says included with his quid pro quo. Arms for political dirt. And back up to page 16, nonetheless before the september 1st warsaw meeting, the ukrainians had become aware that the security funds had note yet to be dispersed in the absence of any credible explanation for the hold i came to the conclusion that the aid, like the white house visit, was jeopardized. In preparation for the meeting, i asked secretary pompeo whether facetoface conversations between trump with zelensky would help break the logjam. Specifically on thursday, august 22nd, i emailed him directly and i wrote, should we block time in warsaw for a short pull aside for potus to meet zelenskiny would ask zelensky to look him in the eye and tell him once ukraines new justice votes are in place in midseptember, that z should be able to move forward publicly with confidence on those issues to potus and the u. S. Hopefully that will break the logjam. Pompeo replays yes. Quite early on, mr. Sondland really declares war on the white house and the state department when he indicates that hundreds of meetings and calls with individuals but i am not a note taker nor am i a memo writer. Never have been. My lawyers and i have made multiple requests to the state department and the white house for these materials. The backup materials about his conversations. Yet these materials were not provided to me. They have also refused to share these materials with this committee. These documents are not classified and, in fairness, should have been made available. Lets go back to ed luce. We just heard a ridiculous defense of the president that he was too stupid to understand what he was requesting of the Lieutenant Colonel. You could make a montage, about a 20minute montage of all the idiotic defenses republicans have trotted out over the all the straw men they set up over the past several weeks, months actually, and in this Opening Statement today you have ambassador sondland, a man who contributed a Million Dollars to donald trump and is a trumpist from day one, you have ambassador sondland ripping every one of the republicans straw men to shreds. One can only imagine has devin nunes and jim jordan and others are Speed Reading this written text of sondland what lines theyre preparing. Theyve retreated from one fallback position to another. Right now all their left with is really to assassinate his character. I have to say in this case with glab gland, it Gordon Sondland, its going to be easier do than with vindman, marie yovanovitch, because he paid for play to get this job with that Million Dollars donation. Tomorrow we have got a highly credible witness, fiona hill. A russia expert. Shes going to be extremely hard to shake and i suspect her written testimony is going to be invaluable in fill in any blanks that Gordon Sondland might not yet have refreshed himself about. Well there are was a question before, willie, and members have had to see yet, official they are reading this as we are. What do they do now . I mean, what do they do now . This is incredible. This is going to be really interesting. They cant trash this. They can of course trash this man, but this guy was in the tank for donald trump from day one, take the Million Dollars, got awarded this ambassadorship, and sondland and giuliani went all over europe. And the republicans had hoped, im sure, that he was going to plead the fifth but as clair told us earlier, not in the cards for Gordon Sondland. I mean, i think he made the decision several weeks ago he was not going to go the way of Paul Manafort and roger stone. No. He is a trump loyalist and he was running the entire operation. He was deputized by the white house to run the operation. Let me just read something thats as clear as day, john heilemann. Sondland says was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously, the assistance yes. Thats a quote from gloond youll hear from his mouth in a couple of minutes. He looks to separate himself from all of this. He says my personal view which i shared repeatedly with others was that the white house meeting and Security Assistance should have proceeded without preconditions of any kind. But he says, we were handed this Rudy Giuliani mess and we tried to make the best of it. Yeah. I think its possible, joe, that its a little more recent than that. I think that, you know, when he first amended his testimony he was still trying to admit what he to admit but not tell the full story. Its only subsequent to that that its become clear that the lion forces around trump were trying to make him the scapegoat of the two potential scapegoats, Rudy Giuliani and him, that he was the easier target. Giuliani has too much on trump. At this point as we sit here now, bh whwhen this standard fi started to break, one of the most remarkable things about it was that people like john bolton, mike pompeo, and Rudy Giuliani were plaimplicate frome beginning. The president s personal lawyer were all in this, you could tell, from the beginning when the story broke, were now back to those people as david suggested earlier in the program, that as sondland now decides, as you put it, not going to go quietly, not going to be a patsy, not going to be the fall guy, is going to take everyone down with him and is putting the harsh spotlight on Rudy Giuliani, on mike pompeo, on donald trump, now as this investigation now moves into its next phase, the focus becomes what will get john bolton on to capitol hill to testify because john bolton is someone who has a lot of direct knowledge . What are the calculations that mike pompeo and Rudy Giuliani make about their own futures, political futures, legal liability . These are now at the very senior levels of the Trump Administration, of the United States government, and they are now theyve been kind of hovering in the background for the entire month and a half that the scandal has been in play. They are now front and center on the stage and were going to see some incredible things happen over the next couple weeks. And, clair, today we are going to see trumpists are going to see donald trump turn on yet another one of his own. Peter bakers headline talk about the it now extends, they are now going to try destroy the representation of trumpist sondland, ambassador sondland, he gave a Million Dollars. And you do worried after today, is Rudy Giuliani next . Sondland is a wealthy, successful guy. He got a good lawyer. And the other thing that be happened between the time he abehinded h amended his testimony and today is roger stone was convicted for lying to congress. This all came together for this guy to come clean and now the only thing republicans are left with is what the guy did, what President Trump did was terrible, but its not impeachable. And thats not what trump wants to hear him say. Ambassador sondland has entered the room, he will be sworn in and the proceedings will begin. This is expected to be after reading his Opening Statements, pretty damning testimony in the impeachment probe. A remarkable day. You go back to the personal where i read a story about his wife telling the ambassador that he needed to protect himself, his family, and his business. He had worked too hard to throw it all away for donald trump. And it is remarkable, ed luce, the number of people who have thrown away their lives and are now sitting in prison trying to show loyalty to a man who never shows the same loyalty in return. You have you have to think of Rudy Giuliani who joked the other day that he had insurance in case trump cut him loose. And trump will cut Rudy Giuliani loose. I wonder what that insurance is . I wonder what it is that Rudy Giuliani can do to enrich this rapidly enriching story about ukraine. Because hes going to know more than even sondland knows. Hes been really the prime mover on behalf of President Trump all and all. And hes the one in most legal jeopardy of all these characters right now. That was our live coverage leading into the testimony of Gordon Sondland before the house against committee. Just one week later, President Trump was impeached. When where he come back, another big story of 2019. The continued fallout from the administration separating children from their parents at the southern border. Were back in a moment. Rents at the southern border. Were back in a moment. Ive always been the ringleader had a zest for life. Flash forward, then ra kept me from the important things. And what my doctor said surprised me. She said my joint pain could mean permanent joint damage. And enbrel helps relieve joint pain, and helps stop that joint damage. Ask about enbrel so you can get back to being your true self. Enbrel may lower your ability to fight infections. 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