Page 1115 - Leverage News Today

There is corruption in ukraine. ukraine isnt the only country that confronts corruption. if the people in power in a country where corruption is rampant are being asked by a foreign leader whos got a lot of leverage over them to conduct an investigation, could that be dangerous because they could trump up charges against someone if they wanted? >> they could. >> and i also want to ask you, i spoke to ambassador kent. he made a comment yesterday about selective prosecutions and what it means goin...

Article one and branches of the united states government. >> whats interesting is that for the first year or so of the presidents term he often bragged about the fact he had given more aid to the ukrainians than president obama did until of course he figured out he could use that aid as leverage to get help for himself politically. so, yes, the president is able to dictate a lot of american foreign policy, but amongst the tools he has at his disposal is not the withholding of aid that congress h...

Of evidence may be the earliest evidence that we received. >> did -- im wondering what you made of the republicans response today in that room. >> well, i think my colleagues are in deep, deep denial and their defense of the president is not presidents defense of the president. they are saying, well, this is an incomplete act. he may have wanted to extort the ukrainians, but he was not successful. so we should let him off. of course, that is to dismiss the fact that the only reason the aid came ...

Kaitlan collins is here, laura coates, max boot. what a busy and interesting and unusual day. thank you very much, all of you, for joining. laura, we saw two credible witnesses give sworn testimony, patriots here. you watched every single minute of it. are they laying out the elements of an impeachable offense? >> theyre laying out the elements of abuse of power if there ever were any. essentially they laid out for the american people today in frankly a diplomatic way -- forgive the pun -- about...

Countries that have significant signals intelligence collections capability. and russia in particular puts a lot of resources, a lot of effort into listening in on the phone calls and the communication of senior u.s. intelligence officials. so that analysis is spot-on. now, most people might hear that and they might say, well, so what? nations spy. but heres why this makes a difference. look, gordon sondland will go up and testify next week about this phone call and whether or not it actually ha...

Wants to testify here and he may tell a story thats not good for the president. >> hell walk in tomorrow and testify. the same thing we talked about with don mcgahn at the mueller hearing. if he believes his obligation to the country, and demands o f the white house not to testify, he could do that. and he would be important because one of the things, i thought it was significant was understandably much of the debate of the entire episode focused on the potential corrupt and influence in the 202...

>> but what this call indicates as other testimony has indicated is that the instructions are coming from the president on down. >> reporter: taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state george kent describing what they encountered as using military aid and a meeting at the white house as leverage for ukraine to begin investigations for the presidents political gain. >> to withhold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense. it could not be expla...

>> and it also raises an important question that we havent answered yet. and that is did vladimir putin and how long has vladimir putin known that money and aid was being withheld? if he had that leverage, if he knew that, that is detrimental. >> friends, thank you very much for all of the analysis this morning. the key question after day one of the hearings, are democrats going to be able to make a convincing case? so we have an impeachment lawyer on that next. ♪

Ukrain to investigate the bidens while with holding military aid. with brand new revelations about a previously unknown phone call he had with donor sondland asking about the investigation only one day after pressuring ukrains president to take action. theres a lot to talk about. kaitlan collins, max booth, what a busy andinatesting and unusual day. thank you for joining. we saw two credible witnesses give sworn testimony. you watched every single minute. are they laying out the elements of the ...

Likewise indicated, is instructions are coming from the president on down. >> reporter: taylor and deputy assistant secretary of state, george kent, described what they encountered as there was a meeting at the white house for leverage for ukraine for investigations for the presidents political gain. >> to withhold that assistance for no good reason, other than help with the political campaign, made no sense. it was illogical. it could not be explained. it was crazy. >> reporter: kent expressing...