Page 1122 - Leverage News Today

Counterpart agrees. >> you know, i dont like to speak about politics. my mission and my main role is to protect my land, my country. thats all i want. and its all i know for myself. >> reporter: do you believe that america is an ally, ukraine can rely on? >> completely is. completely is. >> reporter: privately some ukrainian soldiers admit to feeling uneasy. they fear that the white houses fickle behavior may strengthen russias position. but all agree that with or without americas help, they hav...

Leverage over president zelenskys head until he investigates the bidens relationship with burisma and what have you and any of that corruption. what would have republicans have said? theres a reason this happened behind closed doors. theres a reason that transcript was moved over into a secret server. so for them to now say, three weeks later, four weeks later, that, oh, okay, were okay with it, its a clear indication that their back is against the wall and this is their last way out here. >> th...

He wants to begin this sort of phased withdrawal peace plan that would result in having elections. and some of the contested areas. but in order to do that he needs to have leverage at the negotiating table and needs to have strong allies and needs to have in his mind the u.s. really fighting his corner pushing russia and so far we havent really seen that happen. we have seen so far president trump taking a slightly more hands off attitude to this. encouraging president zelensky to work this out...

Process. might not necessarily deserve that. howard: "the washington post" has a report growing number of republicans are ready to acknowledge that, yes, donald trump used military aid as leverage to get an investigation going of the bidens in the ukraine, but its not an impeachable offense, it doesnt rise to that level. nothing happened in the end. if they do acknowledge that and the stories reporting this are not fake. >> well, they have -- senators have been telling me now for weeks that they...

Will be in open hearings but we will make a decision about who the most important witnesses are and try to provide testimony in an orderly way where people can understand the nature of the allegations and the facts involving the heart of this investigation and that is, the presidents abuse of his office to coerce an ally that is fighting off russians international security interest, fighting off art russians in their interest well, to withhold vital military support from that nation, to withhold...

Under president obama they got pillows and blankets. weve given them aid -- no, thats important. >> the way the aid was withheld until -- >> the ukrainian president says he has no idea the aid was withheld. >> lets just say that president trump did condition giving the military aid, withheld it and said it will be given out only if you investigate joe biden -- is that an impeachable offense? >> youre giving me -- is it a high crime or misdemeanor, i wouldnt think so. but youre giving me a hypoth...

Impeachment, the president would actually be removed from office. we would need support from enough senators to vote against keeping the president in position for him to actually be removed in. there is no sign right now that number in the senate will be large enough even though we do know that republicans in the senate, growing number of them are acknowledging that quid pro quo has happened. we know the strategy they are employing, they think it is legal. this does not disqualify him from servi...

Before the mydon, you should understand that ukraine was more or less the same post-soviet reality. >> ukraine is extremely vulnerable. if your countrys occupied, annexed, fighting a war in eastern ukraine, up to 13,000 people have died. they need u.s. support. >> ukraines dependance on u.s. military support after the revolution gave vice president biden a lot of leverage for his anti-corruption agenda. high on the list of possible wrongdoers was ukraines private energy company burisma, a compan...

House officials defy previous efforts to stonewall and the inquiry and testify anyway telling the president froze military aid to ukraine. >> meanwhile "the washington post" is also reporting that a growing number of senate republicans are ready to acknowledge that the president used military aid as leverage to pressure ukraine to investigate former vice president joe biden and his family. according to "the post" in this shift in strategy to defend trump these republicans are insisting that the ...

The sense that there is a likelihood of any removal is so far right now at least out of the realm of a possible outcome. that is not so much a concern. the concern right now is sort of fighting and we know that the white house is going to bring in, we think, at least one more person potentially to help work on some impeachment strategy messaging. >> -- the presidents favorability is sky high. so hes got a lot of leverage over mitch mcconnell. jeff bennett, the democrats have said all along that ...