Hill just a few minutes ago and she is the 3rd witness to speak publicly about the events surrounding trumps mouth famous phone call with the ukrainian leader in july hes accused of threatening to withhold when the tree aide on this ukraine investigated his political rival joe biden get out of it as a career diplomat and an Anti Corruption advocate last month she told the inquiry about efforts by trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani to publicly discredit her she said a senior ukrainian official had warned her to watch her back now giuliani had accused her of undermining the president before trump dismissed her in may. In just a moment our White House Correspondent kimberly how could join us but 1st lets go to heidi show cost or shes outside the hearing room on capitol hill we have a pretty good idea heidi of what mr van of which will say so what kind of questions are we expecting from both the democrats and republicans. Sure wolf from democrats was a bit more expecting them to elicit from the real don of it the story that really paints the backdrop to the bribery accusations that President Trump is now facing that are at the center of this impeachment inquiry as you said we have heard from her previously in the closed door session we seen the transcript so much of what she says factually may not be new to the investigators but the for. Act that she is speaking them now on camera is what democrats are hoping that the American Public will take away as the story comes to life and what shes expected to say is that back in early spring she was made aware of this irregular channel of u. S. Foreign policy at that time it was headed by trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and she has said that he was needing with ukrainian officials and that the context of this was ukraine kavin incoming president which. Said she had a lot of faith that she was fighting corruption from the Previous Administration but elements of that previous ukrainian ellen ministration were meeting with giuliani trying to curry favor and to do that she says that they were spreading lies about her is that she knew President Trump was sensitive to they said that she was against that she was advocating for his impeachment and apparently giuliani took those statements back to his boss the president and eventually that led to give on of it as ousting in may after more than 30 years of service in the Foreign Service to the u. S. Now she was out of the picture by the most of it and that is something that republicans will surely point to she wasnt present for the future events of the later events that unfolded including the accused quid pro quo from the president toward ukraine and will very likely see the line of questioning from republicans focus on that heidi thank you for that for now that is heidi live on capitol hill lets bring in our White House Correspondent kimberly health that President Trump has read it. In the past committee and hes been busy tweeting his thoughts about the inquiry now. Yeah ridiculed to say the least the u. S. President referring to her in fact as bad news was the phrasing that i believe he used and he didnt say just what he said it multiple times so he really doubled down on what essentially the investigators on capitol hill are trying to highlight through out the former u. S. Ambassador to ukraines testimony and that is that there was this very broad and sweeping. Smear campaign if you will that was 1st put in place by the president s own personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani highly irregular considering hes outside normal diplomatic channels and ultimately that was such an effective Smear Campaign that it led to her firing and also who gauged allegedly and this was the u. S. President so it went to the highest levels this is something that we are seeing as these. The house investigators work to carefully craft their argument as they work towards the articles of impeachment now youre right the u. S. President has been tweeting he often tries to set the new cycle early in the morning here in washington this is no exception he is targeting nancy pelosi the House Speaker trying to discredit these Proceedings Committee thank you for that finale thats. Live in washington d. C. Well lets get more on this were joined now by james one of the senior fellow of governance of the libertarian and conservative think tank Street Institute and hes also joining us live from the u. S. Capitol very good to have you with us on aljazeera today so what do you think we can expect from mrs evanovich today that we perhaps havent heard in her closed door what testimony. Good morning thanks for having me i think the democrats today are trying to affirm something that we learned yesterday about the 2 different channels of Foreign Policy that the president has been conducting i think that theyre looking at memory of out of it as a sympathetic witness to help demonstrate that Rudy Giuliani has been very active in this area for a long time now and to help bolster their claims that the president has engaged in bribery in the ukraine. Although you know both sides the democrats and the republicans a so entrenched and they view him off the president and what happened do you think that anything in these public hearings could sway Public Opinion as they go along thats certainly the hope of the democrats and i think its the fear of the republicans thus far we havent seen Much Movement in Public Opinion from the one day of public hearings that we have had senior democratic officials it appears are now conceding that point however i would stress that this is a process and as it unfolds more information may come out and that information could in fact sway Public Opinion one way or the other thats the nature of this that its not something thats going to be decided in just one day with one hearing show and how important is it to sway Public Opinion if the democrats have any chance i do apologize on the stove on that i think that we are going to be hearing from that and highly syrian so lets listen in as we have the opportunity to make a statement and we will turn to our witness for an Opening Statement and then to questions for audience members we welcome you and respect your interest in being here in turn we ask for your respect as we proceed with todays hearing. It is the intention of the committee to proceed without disruptions as chairman i will take all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order to ensure that the committee is run in accordance with house rules and House Resolution 660 that i now recognize myself to give an Opening Statement in the impeachment inquiry into donald j. Trump 45th president of the United States in april 29th teen United States ambassador to ukraine maria on of each was in kiev when she was called by a Senior State Department official and told to get on the next plane back to washington upon her return to d. C. She was informed by her superiors that although she had done nothing wrong she could no longer serve as a bastard to ukraine because she did not have the confidence of the president it was a stunning turn of events for this highly regarded career diplomat who had done such a remarkable job fighting corruption in ukraine at a short time earlier she had been asked by the state department to extend her tour and master given of its has been in the Foreign Service where 33 years and serve much of that time in the former soviet union her parents had fled stalin and later hitler before settling in the United States she is an exemplary officer was widely praised and respected by her colleagues she is known as an Anti Corruption champion whose tour in kiev was viewed as a very successful investor Michael Mckinley who had served with her in the Foreign Service for several decades stated that from the earliest days of her career in the Foreign Service she was excellent serious committed i certainly remember her being one of those people who seemed to be destined for greater things. Her successor as acting chief of mission in ukraine a baster bill taylor described her as very frank she was very direct she made points very clearly and she was indeed tough on corruption and she named names and that sometimes is controversial out but out there but shes a strong person and made those charges in her time in kiev and bassy of a lot of it was tough on corruption too tough on corruption for some and a principled stance made her enemies as george cant told this committee on wednesday you cant promote principled Anti Corruption action without pissing off corrupt people and mastery of on of each did not just piss off corrupt ukrainians like the corrupt former prosecutor general and co but also certain americans like Rudy GiulianiDonald Trumps personal attorney and 2 individuals now indicted who worked with him eager for him and live part us Sankoh Giuliani Froome and part us and others who had come to include the president s own son don jr promoted a Smear Campaign against her based on false allegations at the state department there was an effort to push back to obtain a statement of support from secretary pompei o but those efforts failed when it became clear that President Trump wanted her gone some of argued that a president has the ability to nominate or remove any ambassador he wants that they serve at the pleasure of the president and that is true the question before us is not whether donald trump could recall an American Ambassador with a stellar reputation for fighting corruption in ukraine but why would he want to why did Rudy Giuliani want her gone and why did donald trump. And why would donald trump instruct the new team he put in place the 3 amigos gordon saw and rick perry and kurt volker to work with the same man Rudy Giuliani who played such a central role in the Smear Campaign against her Rudy Giuliani has made no secret of his desire to get ukraine to open investigations into the bidens as well as a Conspiracy Theory of ukrainian interference in the 2016 election as he said in one interview in may 2019 were not meddling in an election or meeting meddling in an investigation which we have a right to do more recently he told c. N. N. S Chris Cuomo of course i did when asked if he had pressed ukraine to investigate joe biden and hes never been shy about who is doing this work for his client the president one powerful ally giuliani had in ukraine to promote these political investigations was sent co a corrupt former prosecutor general and one powerful adversary loued sent co had was a certain United States ambassador named marie you have on of it it is no coincidence that in the now infamous july 25th call was a Lansky Donald trump brings up a corrupt ukrainian prosecutor and praises him against all evidence trump claims that this former prosecutor general was very good and he was shut down and thats really unfair but the woman known for fighting corruption is own former ambassador the woman ruthlessly smeared and driven from her post the president does nothing but this berridge or worse threaten well shes going to go through some things the president declares that tells you a lot about the president s priorities and intentions. Getting rid of a bastard of on of it helped set the stage for an irregular channel that could pursue the 2 investigations that mattered so much to the president 2016 Conspiracy Theory and most important an investigation into the 2020 political opponent he apparently feared most joe biden and the president scheme might have worked but for the fact that the man who would succeed ambassador have on of edge and we heard from on wednesday acting ambassador taylor would eventually discover the effort to press ukraine into conducting these investigations and would push back but for the fact also that someone blew the whistle and mastery of on of each was serving our nations interests and fighting corruption in ukraine but she was considered an obstacle to the further in so the president s personal and political agenda for that she was smeared and cast aside the powers of the presidency are immense but they are not absolute and they cannot be used for corrupt purpose the American People expect their president to use the authority they grant him in the service of the nation not to destroy others to advance his personal or political interests and now recognize Ranking Member nunez for his remarks i think the gentleman its unfortunate that today and for most of next week we will continue engaging in the democrats day long t. V. Spectacles instead of solving the problems we were all d sent to washington to address we now have a major trade agreement with canada and mexico ready for approval a deal that would create jobs and boost our economy meanwhile we have not yet approved funding for the government which expires next week along with funding for our men and women in uniform. Instead the democrats have convened us once again to advance their operation to topple a duly elected president ill note that 55 democrats on this committee had already voted to impeach this president before the trunk zelinsky phone call occurred in fact democrats have been valid to oust President Trump since the day he was elected so americans can rightly suspect that his phone call with president selenski was used as an excuse for the democrats to fulfill their watergate fantasies but im glad that on wednesday after the democrats stage 6 weeks of secret depositions in the basement of the capitol like some kind of strange cult the American People finally got to see this farce for themselves they saw us sit through hours of hearsay testimony about conversations that 2 diplomats who had never spoken to the president heard 2nd hand 3rd hand and 4th hand from other people in other words rumors the problem of trying to overthrow a president based on this type of evidence is obvious but thats what their whole case relies on beginning with 2nd hand and 3rd hand information cited by the whistleblower thats why on wednesday the democrats were forced to make the absurd argument that hearsay can be much better evidence and direct evidence and just when you thought the spectacle couldnt get more Bizarre Committee republicans received a memo from the democrats threatening ethics referrals if we out it will blow or as the democrats are well aware no republicans here know the whistleblowers identity because the whistleblower only met with democrats not with republicans. Germans shift claim not to know who it is that he also vowed to block us from asking questions that could reveal his or her identity republicans on this committee are left wondering how its even possible for the chairman to block questions about a person whose identity he claims not to know the American People may be seeing these absurdities for the 1st time the republicans on this diocese are used to them until they secretly met with the whistleblower democrat showed little interest for the last 3 years and any topic aside from the ridiculous conspiracy theories that President Trump is a russian agent when you find yourself on the phone like the democrats did with the russian pranksters offering you nude pictures of trump and afterward you order your staff to follow up and get the photos as the democrats also dead then it might be time to ask yourself if youve gone out too far on a limb even as they were accusing republicans of clothing with the russians the democrats themselves were colluding with the russians by funding the steel dossier which was based on russian and ukrainian sources meanwhile they turn a blind eye to ukrainians meddling in our elections because the democrats were cooperating with that operation this was the subject of a july 20th 2017 letter sent by senator grassley to then Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein letter raised concerns about the activities of Alexander Chalupa a contractor for the Democratic National committee who worked with the Ukrainian Embassy officials to spread dirt on the Truck Campaign a senator grassley wrote. Children actual quote chalupa is actions appear to show that she was simultaneously working on behalf of a Foreign Government ukraine and on behalf of the d. N. C. And the Clinton Campaign in an effort to influence not only the us voting population but u. S. Government officials unquote after touting the still dossier and defending the f. B. I. s russia investigation which are now being investigated by Inspector General horowitz and attorney general bar democrats on this committee ignore ukrainian election meddling even though chalupa publicly admitted to the democrats scheme likewise they are blind to the blaring signs of corruption surrounding 100 bidens well paid position on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian Company while his father served as Vice President and point man for ukraine issues in the Obama Administration but the democrats media hacks only cared about that issue briefly when they were trying to stop joe biden from running against Hillary Clinton in 2015 as i previously stated these hearings should not be occurring at all until we get the answers to 3 crucial questions the democrats refuse to ask 1st what is the full extent of the democrats prior coordination with the whistleblower and who else to the whistleblower coordinate this effort with 2nd what is the full extent of ukraines election meddling against the Truck Campaign and 3rd why did greece mohajir hunter biden what did he do for them and did his position affect any government actions under the Obama Administration all know that House Democrats vowed that they would not put the American People through a wrenching impeachment process without bipartisan support and they have not add that to their ever growing list of broken promises and destructive deceptions. In closing. This chair the president ited states released his transcript right before the hearing began i think its important that i read this into the record so that theres no confusion over this 1st phone call that occurred on april 21st with president elect zelinsky and id like to read it the president id like to congratulate you on a Job Well Done and congratulations on a fantastic election selenski good to hear from you thank you so very much its nice to hear from you and i appreciate the congratulations the president that was an incredible election the lenski again thank you so very much as you can see we tried very hard to do our best we had you as a great example the president i think you will do a great job i have many friends in ukraine who know you and like you i have many friends from ukraine and frankly expected you to win and its really an amazing thing that youve done. I guess in a way i did something similar or making tremendous progress in the u. S. We have them the most tremendous economy ever i just wanted to congratulate you i have no doubt you will be event president selenski 1st of all thank you so very much again for the congratulations when ukraine are an independent country an independent ukraine were going to do everything for the people you are as i said a great example we are hoping we can expand on our jobs as you did you will also be a great example for many you are a great example for our new managers id also like to invite you if possible to the inauguration i know how busy you are but if its possible for you to come to the United Nations ceremony that would be great great for you to do to be with us on that day. A president thats very nice all look into that and give us a date at the very minimum well have a great representative or more from the United States will be with you on that great day so we will have somebody at a minimum a very very high level and will be with you really an incredible day for an incredible and chief achievement selenski again thank you were looking forward to your visit to the visit of a high level delegation but theres no words that can describe our wonderful country how nice warm and friendly our people are how tasty and delicious our food is and how wonderful ukrainians words cannot describe our country so it would be best for you to see it yourself so if you can come that would be great so again i invite you to come the president well i agree with you about your country and i look forward to it when i own Miss Universe they always had great people ukraine always very well represented was always very well represented when youre settled in and ready id like to invite you to the White House Well have a lot of things to talk about but were with you all the way selenski thank you for the invitation we accept the invitation and look forward to the visit thank you again the whole team and i are looking forward to the visit thank you for the congratulations and i think it will still be great if you could come and be with us on this you with us on this important day the results are incredible theyre very impressive for us so it would be absolutely fantastic if you could come on that day the president very good will let you know very soon and we will see you very very soon regardless and graduations simply say hello to the ukrainian people and your family let them know i send my best regards well thank you so inskeep well thank you you have a safe flight and see you soon. President take care of yourself and give a great speech today you take yourself and ill see you soon selenski thank you very much its difficult for me but i will practice english and i will meet in english thank you very much the president laughing at all thats beautiful they hear thats really good i could not do it and your language im very impressed thank you so much so one ski thank you so much president the day good luck when i was able to read out of the records of the now the American People know the very 1st call. The President Trump had with the president still in school and with that i yield back the balance of my time mr chairman i have a parliamentary inquiry. The general has not recognized i do want to comment and i mean i have a point of order under age 60 the gentleman will state a point of order at the point of order is will the chairman continue to prohibit witnesses from answering republican questions as youve done in closed hearings and as you did with the space we had is when i mean up to our question on a proper point of order john what was will suspend its leader i mean chairman havent yet done has not recognized the chair not a point of autonomy is not recognized as point of order that john was not recognized i do want to spawn dial out the review my notes order john was not recognized this is allowed and therefore gentlemen scripts that have not in real economy is not recognized over Ranking Member was allowed to exceed the Opening Statement and i was happy to allow him to do so i do want to respond to the call record 1st of all im grateful that the president has released the call record. I would now as the president to release the thousands of other records that he has instructed the state department not to release including a bastard taylors notes including a bastard taylors cable including george kents memo including documents from the office of management budget about why the military aid was withheld mr chairman i want you to release the gentleman may not recognize positions well thats at point of boredom and will suspend. We would ask the president to stop obstructing the preachment inquiry and while we are grateful he has released a single document he has nonetheless obstructed witnesses in their testimony and the production of thousands and thousands of other records and finally i would say this mr president i hope youll explain to the country today why it was after this call and while the place present was making plans to attend the inauguration you instructed the Vice President not to attend so lenski inauguration mr chairman i had a point where mr chairman i have a point of water and it is not recognized so we know clearly you die woman interrupt us throughout this year and a woman is not recognized which i have a date as a percent request today now your magnanimous gesture was not requests not recognized. Today we are joined by ambassador maria von of which she was born in canada to parents who fled the soviet union and the nazis. Of on of it she immigrated to connecticut at 3 it came a naturalized american at 18 and entered the us Foreign Service in 1906 she has served as u. S. Ambassador 3 times and been nominated by president s of both parties george w. Bush nominated to or to be ambassador to the curators republic where she served from 2005 to 2008 president obama the nominated her to be u. S. Ambassador to armenia where she served from 2008 until 2011 and u. S. Ambassador to ukraine where she served from 2016 until she was recalled to washington by President Trump this may. Beyond these ambassadorial post she has held numerous other senior positions at the state department in cuba including in the bureau of european and your Asian Affairs she served as a dean at the Foreign Service institute and taught National Security strategy at the Defense University she also previously served at u. S. Embassies in kiev ottawa moscow london and mogadishu mastery of on of each as received multiple honors from the department for a diplomatic work including the president ial distinguished Service Award and the secretarys diplomacy in human rights award 2 final points before witnesses sworn 1st witness representation zas part of this inquiry were unclassified in nature and all open hearings will also be held at the unclassified level and the information that may touch on classified information will be addressed separately 2nd congress will not tolerate any reprisal threat of reprisal or attempt to retaliate against any u. S. Government official for testifying before congress including you or any of your colleagues if you would please rise and raise your right hand i will begin by swearing u. N. You swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god let the record of the record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative thank you and please be seated without objection your written statement will be made part of the record with that ambassador marie of out of it you are recognized for your Opening Statement and as to chairman Ranking Member other members of the committee and best real need to speak very close to the microphone. Thank you for the opportunity to start with this statement to reintroduce myself to the committee and to highlight parts of my biography and experience i come before you as an american citizen who has devoted the majority of my life 33 years to service to the country that all of us love love like my colleagues i entered the Foreign Service understanding that my job was to implement the Foreign Policy interests of this nation as defined by the president and congress and to do so regardless of which person or party was in power i had no agenda other than to pursue our stated Foreign Policy goals my service is an expression of gratitude for all that this country has given to me and to my family my late parents did not have the good fortune to come of age in a free society my father fled the soviets before ultimately finding refuge in the United States my mothers family escaped the u. S. S. R. After the bolshevik revolution and she grew up stateless in nazi germany before also eventually making her way to the United States. Their personal histories civil history gave me both deep gratitude towards the United States and great empathy for others like the ukrainian people who want to be free i joined the Foreign Service during the Reagan Administration and subsequently served 3 other republican president s as well as 2 democratic president s it was my great honor to be appointed to serve as an ambassador 3 times twice by george w. Bush and once barack obama. There is a perception that diplomats lead a comfortable life throwing dinner parties and fancy homes let me tell you about some of my reality it has not always been easy i have moved 13 times and served in 7 Different Countries 5 of them hardship posts my 1st tour was Mogadishu Somalia an increasingly dangerous place as that countrys civil war grinding on and the government was weakening the military took over policing functions in a particularly brutal way and basic Services Services disappeared several years later after the soviet union collapsed i helped open our embassy in Tashkent Uzbekistan as we were establishing relations with a new country our small embassy was attacked by a gunman who sprayed the Embassy Building with gunfire i later served in moscow in 1993 during the attempted coup in mosque in russia i was caught in crossfire