hear president trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. mr. sondland told president trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. following the call with president trump, a member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought about ukraine. mr. sondland responded president trump cares more about the investigations of biden which guiliani was pressing for. reporter: at the time, trump had already frozen military aid to ukraine and democrats were panicking about withholding the funds and ukrainian soldiers were dying on the front lines in their battle with russia. but according to today s testimony trump was primarily concerned about his own political prospects. in his testimony first learning in july ukrainian money had been frozen. i and others sat in astonishment. reporter: not only a white house meeting but military aid was contingent carrying out the
with the president. sara murray is covering all these hearings today. more than six hours. it was very dramatic. it was very dramatic, wolf, including new details what president trump actually cared about when it came to ukraine as the american public gets a first real look at impeachment proceedings and all the partisan posturing that comes along with it. into the impeachment inquiry of donald j. trump president of the united states. reporter: in the first day of the impeachment hearings, a witness delivered a bombshell about opening investigations that could boost his reelection effort. bill taylor recounted a conversation about gordon sondland on july 2006th and spoke to president zelensky and pressed the ukrainians to investigate the biden family. a member of my staff could
investigations trump was demanding. everything was dependent on such an announcement including security assistance. he said the president wanted zelensky in a public box about make ac public statement about ordering such investigations. reporter: he expressed alarm they might announce those investigations and the u.s. still might not come through with the funds. my name is they, the ukrainians give the v and don t get the assistance. the russians love it and i quit, and i was serious. as the funding phrase continued, taylor raised concerns again in december. ambassador sondland explained to me president trump is a businessman. a businessman signk to someone that owes him something he asks him to give it before signing the check. they did not owe him anything.
sondland called president trump and a member of my staff could hear him talking about the investigations and ambassador told the president he was ready to move forward and a member of my staff asked ambassadsondlande president thought about ukraine and he said he cares more about the investigations than the aid. that gets to the heart. it gets to the people around him about the interest in ukraine and also because we had heard we would hear later from bill taylor talk about how in this same time frame he was the one going to the front lines, watching the ukrainian soldiers risk their life and sometimes die. that is not what the president
reporter: taylor and george kent question wag led by democratic minorities and republican minority and peppered with partisan squabbling. we will not permit the outing of the whistle-blower and questions along those lines counsel inform their clients not to respond to. there is one witness they won t bring in front of us, they won t bring in front of the american people. that s the guy who started it all, the whistle-blower. nope. reporter: while democrats focused on the president s allegedly corrupt motive for withholding aid to ukraine and the role rudy guilliani played as a shadow diplomat. was it normal to have a person who is a private citizen taken an active role in foreign diplomacy? did not find his particular engagement normal, no. reporter: they focused less on the conduct and more on the vice president joe biden. the vice president s role was