May, i believe you testified it was one of the largest delegations . I believe it was. I cant be 100 sure but i believe it was the Largest National delegation. Okay. And included in the delegation was Secretary Perry. Secretary perry, ambassador sondland, myself and senator ron johnson was there and the target defair joe pennington. And we talked a little bit this morning but the president Zelensky Inauguration came together rather quickly. It did. I believe we had about three days notice in which to put the delegation together. And there is discussion about whether the Vice President would be able to lead that effort and as it turned out he was not able to lead it. Do you have any information as to why the Vice President was unable to join . I dont. And 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 does, in fact, get held up from time to time for
margins of the general assembly and i did the pre-brief and took part in the bilateral meeting. and so long before president zelensky was elected, president trump had a negative view of yes. he had a very strongly negative view. back in 2017, do you remember anything he said or did that gave you a feeling that he had these negative views? yes. i want to be very careful here because this was a bilateral meeting with the two presidents and i don t want to strain the material but my impression is that he had a strongly negative view of ukraine at the time. fair enough. and you described the president s skepticism at your deposition as a reasonable position? yes. and i believe you said most people who know anything about ukraine would possibly think that? yes. and you viewed it as part of your role to help change his mind that president zelensky was
can you repeat the question. i m sorry. you testified at your deposition that once the aid was lifted, despite all of the things going on in the background, that u.s./ukraine relations were strong. yes. or as good as you want them to be? yes. and you referenced that the security sector assistance was lifted and any hold on that and there was a positive meeting in new york that is correct. and there was momentum in putting pressure on the russians, is that correct. that is correct. in your deposition you made clear that the president had a deep rooted negative view of krarn and their corruption environment. yes. and you first became aware of his views back in september of 2017? that is correct. could you tell us a little bit about that? yes. in september of 2017 i was invited by secretary tillerson to do a pre-brief with president trump before his meeting with president poroshenko on the