The Ukrainian Government adopted a unilateral position in favor of one candidate. More than that, certain oligarchs certainly with the approval of the Political Leadership funded this candidate or female candidate to be more precise. And if there was ever any doubt about who benefits from this unfounded theory put forward by President Trump and his associates, President Putin made it clear very recently when he said thank god no one is accusing us anymore of interfering in u. S. Elections. Now theyre accusing ukraine. In the face of clear evidence, not only from Intelligence Community experts, but from his own National Security team that russia, not ukraine, interfered in the 2016 election for the benefit of donald trump, President Trump still pressed the Ukrainian Government to announce an investigation into this Conspiracy Theory. Why . Because it would help his own
political standing. President trump even saukt sought to with hold an Oval Office Meeting from the president of ukraine
obviously at its core the president is did the president direct this quid pro quo but more specifically the ukrainian leader to conduct this investigation. the point that he made does change it a little bit and make it much more clearly in the political realm, that it s just about having dirt on his opponent, an investigation. but more broadly, look, this is and always has been a very tough sell to change public opinion that has already been baked in now for several months. but it s important. and it is fascinating to hear how each side after all of this testimony, after all of, you know, the witnesses behind closed doors, what we heard in public, how they boil it down in a way that presents their case. and for daniel goldman, it is very clear, as you said ate the beginning, it s abuse of power. it s that he s a clear and present danger. right.
by early september, the president s scheme was unraveling. on september 9th, the intelligence oversight and foreign affairs committees announced an investigation into president trump and mr. giuliani s efforts in ukraine. later that same day the intelligence committee learned a whistleblower filed a complaint nearly a month later related to some unknown issue by which the president and the white house knew was related to ukraine and had been circulating among them for some time. then two days later on september 11th, in the face of growing public and congressional scrutiny, president trump lifted the hold on security assistance to ukraine. as with the imply mentation of the hold, no reason was provided. put simply, president trump got caught, so he released the aid. but even since this investigation began, the president has demonstrated no contrition or acknowledgment that his demand for a foreign country to interfere in our
tremendous political benefit to the president in a race involving joseph biden in 2020. so that point is really a critical one for those two reasons. i think what republicans will say to that is the reason why the president wanted the public announcement of the investigation is to lock the president of ukraine in to actually following through. that if it were just a private i see. if it were just a private commitment, maybe they would do it, maybe they wouldn t. but if the press were watching, a public announcement, they would follow through. in terms of what the republicans response to all of this is, you know, it will be interesting to see how much castor takes that on, but the republicans have at least two big challenges, one, is the president s insistence that everything here was perfect. and if you talk to republicans, in private, now increasingly in public, they re saying this was not perfect. this was not perfect.
election is wrong. in fact, he has repeat lid called on ukraine to investigate vice president biden, his rival. these and other actions by the president and his associates demonstrate that his determination to solicit foreign interference in our election continues today. it did not end with russia s support for trump in 2016 which president trump invited by asking for his opponent to be hacked by russia. and it did not end when his ukrainian scheme was exposed in september of this year. president trump also engaged once this investigation began in an unprecedented effort to obstruct the inquiry. and i look forward to answering your questions about that unprecedented obstruction. but in conclusion, i want to say that the intelligence committee has produced to you a nearly 300-page report. and i am grateful that you have offered me the opportunity today to walk you through some of the evidence underlying it.