are they not stepping up or syria or whatever it is. seemed mutual in sense he was not seeking anything from anyone this was a view point. later youh a phone call with president august 31. i had a trip to visit president zelensky on september 5, a couple days before, i heard president was considering withholding the he has already provided this in was past, but now reconsidering, fiscal year end, first called up gordon sondland the day before, asking, what was happening, had was then. mark: the ambassador. ambassador son land, during that conversation. i can t tell you how gordon described it. but there was something in the works, trying to do something you know.
and kirk volcker. we were the delegation. we felt it was important coming back, we were impressed with zelensky, he thought it was important to meet with the president, get him supportive of ukraine. we had a meeting in oal office may 23, this year, making a cup points. and appoint a ambassador that could get strong bipartisan support, we were encouraging president to show strong support for the people of ukraine. i was surprised at the president s reaction. which has been consistent throughout, he talked about level of corruption in ukraine. there is all kinds of spoke about milwauke mill hillary clin campaign. president zelensky got a mandated from ukrainian people to end corruption in ukraine.
president zelensky to do something in order to free up the support. anyway. i put in a request to talk with the president. he called me back on the august 31, the following day. i was trying to convince the president in that phone call to give me the authority a new days later to say support is on its way. tto the president into it. once again the president said, ron, we have you know how corrupt the place, this is, he made that point, then really hammered on lack of european support. talking about angela merkel, he said, ron, i asked her, why don t you fund these things, and she said because you guys will, he said, ron we re schmucks. is there something in the works, i said does ukraine have to show
committee that sort of oversees the activities with ukraine. and the united states among other positions you hold in the united states senate. we have this document that came out, president s phone call, a transcript of it. with the president of ukraine. back in july. people are trying to democrats in media in particular, say that president was seeking a quid pro quo. i don t read this in here, you have some back ground on this. you had a meeting with president and others in may this year. in just that transcript, i read, that i think it is a gracious phone call on part of the president. i went to ukraine in may 20. to attend the inauguration of president zelensky, i went with secretary perry, gordon sondland