democratic members of this committee gave tv and radio interviews over this past week discussing how the president s conduct supported his impeachment for committing bribery. all of which struck me as very odd because for the longest time, this was all about quid pro quo, according to the whistleblower complaint. but after witness after witness began saying there was no quid pro quo or even that quid pro quo was not even possible, we saw a shift from the democrats. they briefly started to refer to the president s conduct on the july 25th call as extortion. and now it shifted again last week to bribery. ms. williams, you used the word unusual to describe the president s call last on july 25th. lieutenant colonel vindman, you used the word inappropriate and improper.
in preparation for the july 25th phone call, it s standard for the national security council to provide talking points, is that correct? correct. because the words of the president carry incredible weight. is that not correct? that is correct. so it s important to ensure that everyone has carefully considered the possibility of what the president might say to a foreign leader? that is correct. colonel vindman, did you prepare the talking points for the president s call? i prepared them. you prepared them. they were then reviewed and edited for multiple service officers at the white house, correct? that s correct. did the topic include any discussions of vefinvestigation into the 2016 election, the bidens or burisma?
reporting also that giuliani wanted to go to ukraine to, as he put it, not meddle in an election, but meddle in investigations? i did read that, yes. and that occurred prior to the president canceling the vice president s trip to the inauguration? it did. i believe it was around may 10th or so. colonel vindman, you were asked by the minority counsel about the president s words in the july 25th call. and whether the president s words were ambiguous. was there any ambiguity about the president s use of the word biden. there was not. it was pretty clear that the president wanted zelensky to commit to investigating the bidens, was it not? that is correct. that is one of the favors that you thought should be properly characterized as a demand? that is correct. and there s no ambiguity
bidens of burisma came up and i think you said they did not. is that correct? that s correct, they did not come up. now, that bilateral meeting was a large meeting that involved two or three dozen people, wasn t it? it was. so in the context of this meeting with two or three dozen people, the vice president didn t bring up those investigations, correct? no, he did not bring up those investigations. he s never brought up those investigations. were you aware that immediately, and i mean immediately, after that meeting broke up, ambassador sondland has said that he went over to mr. yermak, one of the top advisers to zelensky, and told yermak that if they wanted the military aid, they were going to have to do these investigations or words to that effect? i was not aware at the time of any meetings, side meetings that ambassador sondland had, following the vice president s meeting with president zelensky. i ve only learned that through ambassador sondland s testimony.
colonel vindman, there s another thing mr. morrison told us in his deposition. he said he was not concerned about the call itself. he said there was nothing illegal or improper on the call, but he was concerned about the call leaking, the contents of the call leaking. excuse me he said this. he was concerned how it would play out in washington s polarized environment, how the contents would be used in washington s political process. excuse me. mr. morrison was right zp. excuse me, mr. jordan, can i get a page? page 44. mr. morrison was right. the call leaks, the whistle-blower goes to chairman schiff, staff, then runs off to the lawyer, the same lawyer who said in january of 2017 the coup has started against president trump. the one thing the democrats the one thing they didn t count on, the one thing they didn t count on was the president releasing the call transcript and letting us all see what he said! they didn t count on that! the transcript shows no linkage. the t