Transcripts For KPIX CBS This Morning 20240713 : vimarsana.c

KPIX CBS This Morning July 13, 2024

Strong bipartisan congressional support for ukraine, senator johnson cautioned president zelensky that President Trump has a negative view of ukraine and t that president zelensky would have a difficult time overcoming it. Senator johnson further explained he had been shocked by President Trumps negative reaction during an Oval Office Meeting on may 23rd. On september 8th ambassador taylor told me, now theyre insisting zelensky commit to the investigation in an interview with cnn, which i took to refer to the three amigos. I was shocked their request was so specific and concrete. While we advise our ukrainian counterparts to follow the rule of law in investigating corruption allegations, thfis ws a demand that president zelensky commit on a cable news channel to an investigation of President Trumps rival. The hold was finally lifted after significant press coverage and expressions of concern about the withholding of Security Assistance. Although we knew the hold was lifted we were still concerned president zelensky had committed in exchange for the lifting to give the requested cnn interview. We had several indications that the interview would occur. The conference in kyiv was held september 14th and Cnns Fareed Zakaria was one of the moderators. My colleague texted me that sondland said the zelensky interview issedbe today or monday and they plan to announce that a certain investigation that was on hold will progress. Sondlands aide did not know if this was decided or if sondland was advocating for it. Apparently hes been discussing this with yermak. On 13th ambassador taylor and i ran into yermak on the way o out of a meeting with president zelensky. Mr. Yermak did not answer but shrugged in resignation as if to indicate that he had no choice. Everybody thought there was going to be an interview and the ukrainians believed they had to do it. The interview ultimately did not occur. September 21 ambassador taylor and i collaborated on input to morrison to brief President Trump ahead of a september 25th meeting scheduled with president zelensky in new york on the margins of the u. N. General assembly. The transcript of the july 25th call was released the same day. As of today, i have still not seen the september 25th meeting. As the impeachment inquiry has progressed, i have followed press reports and reviewed the statements of ambassadors taylor and yovanovitch. Based on my ukraine, my recollection is consistent with their testimony. I believe that the relevant facts were therefore being laid out for the American People. However in the last couple weeks i read press reports expressing for the first time that Certain Senior officials may have been acting without the president s knowledge or freelancing in their dealings with ukraine. At the same time i also read reports noting the lack of firsthand evidenc in the investigation and suggesting that the only evidence being elicited at the hearings was hearsay. I came to realize that i had firsthand knowledge regarding certain events on july 26th that had not otherwise been reported and those events bore on the question of whether the president did have knowledge that those officials were using the levers of diplomatic power to influence the ukrainian president to announce the opening of a criminal investigation against President Trumps political opponent. As at that point that i made the observation to ambassador taylor that the incident i witnessed on july 26th had greater significance, which is what he reported in his testimony last week and is what led to the subpoena for me to appearin con a moment to turn back to ukraine. Today, this very day marks exactly six years since throngs of pro western ukrainians spontaneous lly gathered on kyis Independence Square to launch the revolution of dignity. While the protests began in opposition to a turn towards russia and away from the west, they expanded of 3 months to reject the entire corrupt oppressive system that had been sustained by russian influence in the country. Those events were followed by russias occupation of ukraines Crimean Peninsula and the dambas region, an ensuing war that has cost almost 14,000 lives. Despite the russian aggression, over the past five years ukrainians have rebuilt a shattered economy, adhered to a Peace Process and moved economically and socially closer to the west toward our way of life. Earlier this year large majorities of ukrainians again chose a fresh start by voting for a political newcomer as president , replacing 80 of their parliament and endorsing a platform consistent with our democratic values, our reform priorities and our strategic interests. This years revolution at the ballot box underscores that despite its imperfections ukraine is a genuine and vibrant democracy and example to other post soviet countries and beyond from moscow to hong kong. How we respond to this historic opportunity will set the trajectory of our relationship with ukraine and will define our willingness to defend our Bedrock International principles and our leadership role in the world. Ukrainians want to hear a clear and unambiguous reaffirmation that our longstanding bipartisan policy of strong support for ukraine remains unchanged and that we fully back it at the highest levels. Now is not the time to retreat from our relationship with ukraine, but rather to double down on it. As we sit here today, ukrainians are fighting a hot war on ukrainian territory against russian aggression. This week alone since i have been here in washington, two ukrainian soldiers were killed and two injured by russianled forces in Eastern Ukraine despite a declared cease fire. I learned overnight that seven more were injured yesterday. As Vice President pence said after his meeting with president zelensky in warsaw, the u. S. ukraine relationship has never been stronger. Ukrainians and their new government earnestly want to believe that. Ukrainians cherish their bipartisan american support that has sustained their euro atlantic aspirations and they recoil at the thought of playing a role in u. S. Domestic politics or elections. At a time of shifting allegiances and rising competitors in the world, we have no better friends than ukraine, a scrap py, unbowed, determined and above all dignified people who are standing up against russian authoritarianism and aggression. They deserve better. Were now at an Inflection Point in ukraine and it is critical to our National Security that we stand in strong support of our ukrainian partners. Ukrainians and freedom loving people everywhere are watching the example we set here of democracy and the rule of law. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Holmes. Dr. Hill. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Do i need to adjust the microphone . Is the microphone on . I believe it is now. Perfect. Thank you again, mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member nunes and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify before you today. I have a short Opening Statement. I appreciate the importance of congresss impeachment inquiry and im appearing today as a fact witness as i did during my deposition on october 14th in order to answer your questions about what i saw, what i did, what i knew and what i know with regard to the subject of your inquiry. I believe that those who have information that the congress deems relevant have a legal and a moral obligation to provide it. I take great pride in the fact that im a nonpartisan Foreign Policy expert who has served under three republican and democratic president s. I have no interest in advancing the outcome of your inquiry in any particular direction except toward the truth. I will not provide a long narrative statement because i believe that the interest of congress and the American People is best served by allowing you to ask me your questions. Im happy to expand upon my october 14th deposition testimony in response to your questions today. But before i do so, id like to communicate two things. First id like to show a little bit about who i am. Im an american by choice. I became a citizen in 2002. I was born in northeast of england in the same region that George Washingtons ancestors came from. Both my region and my family have deep ties to the United States. My paternal grandfather fought through world war i in the royal field ar till ray surviving being shot, shelled and gassed before american troops intervened to end the war. During world war ii members of my family fought to free the world from fascism. The men in my fathers family were coal miners whose family always struggled with poverty. When my father alfred was 14 he joined his father, brother, uncles and cousins in the coal mines to help put food on the table. When the mines closed my father wanted to immigrate to the United States to work in the coal mines in West Virginia and pennsylvania but his mother, my grandmother, had been crippled from hard labor and my father couldnt leave so he stayed in Northern England until he died in 2012. My mother still lives in my h loved america. He always wanted someone in the family to make it to the United States. I began my University Studies in 1984. I just learned i went to the same university as my colleague here mr. Holmes at st. Andrews in scotland. In 1987 i won a place on an Academic Exchange to the soviet union. I was there for the signing of the treaty and when Ronald Reagan met gorbachev in moscow. This was a turning point for me. An american professor told me about graduate student scholarships to the United States. I started my advanced studies at harvard. I can say with confidence that this country has offered me opportunities i never would have had in england. I grew up poor with a very distinctive working class accent. In england in the 80s and 90s this would have impeded my professional advancement. This background has never set me back in america. Ive built a career as a nonpartisan nonpolitical National Security official focusing on europe and eurasia. Ive served under three president s, under President Trump as well as in my former president of National Intelligence officer for russia and eur asia under president s bush and obama. It was because of my background and experience that i was asked to join the National Security council in 2017. At the nsc, russia was part of my portfolio but i was also responsible for coordinating u. S. Policy for all of western europe, all of Eastern Europe including ukraine and turkey, along with nato and the European Union. I was hired initially by general michael flynn, Katie Macfarland and general keith kellogg. I started work in april 2017 when general mcmaster was the National Security advisor. I and they thought that i could help them with President Trumps stated goal of improving relations with russia while still implementing policies designed to deter russian conduct that threatened the United States including the operation to interfere in the 2016 president ial election. This relates to the second thing i want to communicate. Based on questions and statements i have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its Security Services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps somehow for some reason ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the russian Security Services themselves. The unfortunate truth is that russia was the foreign power that systemically attacked our demo tituti i 2016. This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan congressional reports. It is beyond dispute even if some of the underlying details must remain classified. The impact of the successful 2016 Russian Campaign remains evident today. Our nation is being torn apart. Truth is questioned. Our highly professional expert Career Foreign Service is being undermined. U. S. Support for ukraine, which continues to face russian aggression, has been politicized. The russian governments goal is to weaken our country, to diminish americas global role and to neutralize a perceived u. S. Threat to russian interests. President putin and the russian Security Services aim to counter u. S. Foreign policy objectives in europe including in ukraine where moscow wishes to reassert political and economic dominance. I say this as a realist. I do not think longterm conflict with russia is desirable or inevitable. I continue to believe that we need to seek ways of stabilizing our relationship with moscow even as we counter their efforts to harm us. Right now Russia Security Services have geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election. We are running out of time to stop them. I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods. As republicans and democrats have agreed for decades, ukraine is a valued partner of the United States and it plays an Important Role in our National Security. As i told the Committee Last month, i refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an narrative that ukrainian is our adversary and that ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016. These narratives are harmful. President putin and the russian Security Services operate like a super pac. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our Political Research and false narratives. When we are consumed by partisan ran kor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide each other. I respect the work that this congress does in carrying out its Constitutional Responsibilities including this inquiry and im here to help you to the best of my ability. If the president or anyone else impedes or subverts the National Security of the United States in order to further domestic, political or personal interests, thats more than worthy of your attention. But we must not let domestic politics stop us from defending ourselves against the foreign powers who truly wish us harm. Thank you. Thank you, doctor hilr. Hill. There will be 45 minutes of questions conduct bid ted by th chairman or majority counsel followed by 45 minutes for the Ranking Member. Well proceed under the 5minute rule and every member will have a chance to ask questions. I now recognize myself for the first round of questions. First of all, thank you both for being here. Thank you for testifying. Dr. Hill, your story reminds me a great deal what we heard from alexander vindman. The few immigrant stories weve heard in the course of these hearings are among the most powerful, i think, ive ever heard. You and colonel vindman and others are the best of this country and you came here by choice and we are so blessed that you did. So welcome. My colleagues too mak some umbr with your Opening Statement but i think the American People can be forgiven if they have the same impression that russia didnt intervene in our elections. Theres been an effort to take a story here and somehow equate it with the systemic intervention that our intelligence agencies found that russia perpetrated in 2016 through an extensive social Media Campaign and a hacking and dumping operation. Indeed, the report my colleagues gave you that they produced during investigation calls into question the accuracy of intelligence committees finding that russia intervened to help one side, to help donald trump at the expense of hillary clinton. No one in the Intelligence Community questions that finding, nor does the fbi, nor does the Senate Bipartisan Committee Report nor does the report of this committee. The House Republican report is an outlier. Let me ask you about your concern with that russian narrative, that it wasnt the russians that engaged in interfering in our election in 2016 and of course this was given a boost when President Trump in helsinki and president putin said that he questioned his own intelligence agencies. Why are the russians pushing that narrative that it was the ukraine . The russians interest frankly to delegitimize our entire presidency. One issue i do want to raise and i think this would resonate with our colleagues on the committee from the Republic

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