Page 1109 - Leverage News Today

Information war fare. donald trump by having him investigate his rivals, he was soliciting forei soliciting operations from a foreign government. he was asking for what we sanctioned russia for in the past. that is remarkable and underscores the fact that russia is not own lawinning but potentially gaining leverage over ukraine and our elections is being undermined from within. >> how difficult, even the conversation that were having and there are are plenty of people concerned about the integri...

Decide. is that acceptable as a way for the president to behave, or is it simply something that the president is allowed to do in his discretion? but i think -- the facts are so overwhelming at this point. when you combine all the witnesses together, they give you an unmistakable conclusion that the president wanted to use the leverage of his office, meetings, almost $400 million in aid to damage his political opponent. thats what happened. now, what the implications of that are -- >> right, the...

That america supports zelensky at the highest levels. this doesnt end with the lifting of the security assistance hold. ukraine still needs us and as i said still fighting this war this very day. >> i would underscore again as my colleague did so eloquently they got caught. thats the reason the aid was finally lifted. mr. goldman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good morning to both of you. yesterday we heard testimony from ambassador gordon sondland from the european union who testified that presid...

Woodbrook will, the withholding of security systems that no one can explain. there is no debate among my colleagues. everyone in the sondland a six, everyone -- all of the reviews that needed to be done to be sure that ukraine was meeting its anticorruption standards had been done. they had found to meet the criteria. no one could understand or get a clear explanation for why. until it became clear to everyone, it is all about the investigations. its all about the leverage. if there was any doub...

To his people that this new president has the support of their most important patron, and it means to the russians that we have their back. this new president who is negotiating with a far superior power that has invaded his country is going into negotiation with putin over how to resolve this conflict whether he has good leverage or lousy leverage depends on whether the russians think he has a relationship with the president. and the president wouldnt give him that, not without getting somethin...

Having it? normally what you would worry about is, as sally yates said when she was dealing with the flynn situation, you worry about kompromat, which is that the russians now have leverage over you because they know something thats not true. why werent the president and ambassador sondland worried about the fact that the russians would undoubtedly in ukraine be able to hear this conversation? >> what are the scenarios, why wouldnt they be? >> if your thinking is i dont care because the russians...

An investigation interacting with this corrupt prosecutor general mr. lutsenko. and that fails. remember it fails because a new president is elected, president zelensky. and thats when they discover, ah-hah, now we have some new leverage, this new guy needs an oval office visit. we heard that time and time again including today. we are going to use that leverage to reopen our request for the investigations of two crazy things, right? the crowdstrike dnc server on the one hand. but more damningly...

He needs our support. he needs president putin to understand that america supports zelensky at the highest levels. so this is -- this doesnt end with the lifting of the security assistance hold. ukraine still needs us and as i said still fighting this war this very day. >> i would underscore as my colleague didnd so elegantly th got caught. thats the reason the aid was finally lifted. mr. goldman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good morning to both of you. yesterday we heard testimony from ambassad...

Testimony about the other quid pro quo. the withholding of security assistance which no one can explain. there is no debate among my colleagues. everyone in the nsc, in the state department, the defense department, everyone supported us. everyone, all the reviews that needed to be done to make sure that ukraine was meeting its anti-corruption standards had been done. they had found to meet the criteria. the aid shouldve been released but it was withheld, and no one could understand or get a clea...

Have a more suspicious view of the ukrainians based on things i was hearing and my emissaries were hearing about 2016 election meddling or potential corruption or a lack of seriousness on the ukrainians part to pursue. >> is that a defense saying there was effectively a quid pro quo and its okay, or still disputing whether that was a deal? >> i dont know if its a quid pro quo or not. i think the president used foreign aid as leverage to try and get things. joe biden did that very famously when h...