was one of the largest allegations? i believe it was the largest national delegation. included in that delegation was secretary perry. secretary perry, ambassador sondland, myself, ron johnson was there, and at the u.s. embassy at the time joe pennington. we have talked a little bit this morning, but the president zelensky s inauguration came together quickly? did. we had three days notice in which to put the delegation together. there has been discussion whether the vice president was going to lead that effort and as it turned out, he was not able to lead it. do you have any information where the vice president was unable to join? i don t. mr. morrison, do you have any information as to why the vice president was unable to participate in the delegation? no. ambassador volker, you testified during your deposition that aid in fact gets held up from time to time for a whole assortment of reasons, is that your understanding? that is true. sometimes the holdups
About it. ambassador volker, is that also your recollection? yes, it is. it was not until the politico article that is correct, i received a text message from one of my counterparts on august 29th forwarding that article, that s a first they raised it with me. can you share a little bit about your communications during that time period about the aide? i did not have any communications with the ukrainians about the hold on eight until after they raised it with me for the same reason that tim just gave, the hope that we could get it taken care of ourselves before it became something that they became aware of. inside the u.s. government, i was aware that the hold was placed. i was aware of that on july 18th. it was referenced at an inner agency meeting, and i got to read out from that meeting from one of my assistance. i then immediately spoke with several people when the administration to object.
Boss. so they are tricked into thinking that this is something important when this is something that happens every single day in everyone s business. it s a freaking joke. dana: jesse, let s get some thoughts from you. volker did say that he changed that sondland who testifies tomorrow, he already amended his testimony. volker did that today. he did not know burisma equaled an investigation into the bide bidens. jesse: volker, sondland, and burisma. i turn on the television and cbs is on. they have a hearing. i watch, take a break. i go out, i come back. and a soap opera is on. cbs jumps out of it. and i m thinking, what is the difference between this and a soap opera? it is a bunch of cliques of people talking about their feelings. they have opinions. they have concerns.
no. ambassador volker, you testified during your deposition that aid in fact gets held up from time to time for a whole assortment of reasons, is that your understanding? that is true. sometimes the holdups are rooted in something at omb, sometimes it is the defense department, sometimes it is at the state department, sometimes it is on the hill, correct? that is correct. so when it was held up her 55 days for the ukraine, that did not in it of itself strike you as uncommon? no, it is something that had happened in my career in the past. i d seen holdups as assistance. i just assumed it was a part of the decision-making process. if somebody had an objection and we had to overcome it. in fact, there were concerns that perhaps president zelensky was not going to be the reformer
State department or the defense department, coordination by this national security council to look into that for the president? we were surveying the data to understand who was contributing what and sort of and what categories. and so the president expressed concerns of the inner agency trying to address them? yes. and by late august, as we just discussed with administer volker was there some hope that president zelensky will pushed through some of the forms? yes. did you hope throughout this period that eventually zelensky will be able to demonstrate his bona fides and would subsequently be able to get the president to lift the aide? yes.