With congressman Steve Scalise, the number two republican in the house, was calling for the whistleblower who set off the inquiry to testify. And jim himes, a top democrat on the intelligence committee. Then, President Trump overrules military leaders, clearing three soldiers accused or convicted of war crimes. I think it sends a clear signal that the president of the United States is paying attention. Chris we will ask our sunday panel what it means for the military justice system. And our power player of the week. Did you really make half a billion dollars . Made more than that. Chris Country Music star toby keith on his rise to the top and taking on his critics. All right now on Fox News Sunday. Chris and hello again from fox news in washington. Its been a big week in the impeachment hearings, and this coming week promises to be more explosive. Foreign Service Officers testified about what they saw as President Trump setting a condition. Ukraine would not get military aid unless it promised to investigate democrats and the bidens. But so far their evidence have been second or even third hand. On wednesday, Ambassador Gordon Sondland will testify and he will be the first witness who takes us inside the oval office and says what the president told him directly. In a moment, we will speak with a number two republican in the house, Steve Scalise. And congressman jim himes, a top democrat on the intelligence committee. But first lets bring in kevin corke with the latest from the white house. Kevin. Chris, the white house says the musings of career diplomats about a phone call whose transcript weve already seen are meaningless. But critics argue taking in the combined hold, their assessment paints a troubling picture of possible impropriety or worse. Enclosed are testimony to them congressional investigators, david holmes, the Political Council at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine, testify that he was at a restaurant in kiev on july 26 when he oversaw the president s phone conversation with e. U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland. He said he heard the president say to sondland, so hes going to do the investigation . To which sondland replied, hes going to do it. But he in this case is ukraine to ukraine president zelensky and it is investigate the president s political rival and joe biden and his son hunter. If true, the stories say democrats there was a project on my quid pro quo for military aid. Democrats also released a transcript of Jennifer Lance and aid to Vice President pence lucent into the president of austrias call with Vice President zelensky. William zajac on the president s insistence that ukraine carry out the investigations to be unusual and inappropriate. And tim morrison, who was a National Security council aid testified that sondland led the effort to get ukraine to reopen an investigation into the bidens. This week, williams, morrison, and sondland will all testify publicly on capitol hill. A very interesting week indeed. In a political loss for the president last night, John Bel Edwards won reelection in louisiana, the democrat besting the g. O. P. Candidate. The president backed him and in fact have three rallies in the state about which edward said god bless his heart. Chris. Chris kevin corke reporting from the white house, kevin, thank you. Joining us now from louisiana, the number two republican in the house, congressman steve scalis Steve Scalise. Congressman, welcome back to Fox News Sunday. Representative scalise chris, good morning, good to be back with you. Chris will talk about that louisiana election a little bit but i want to start with david holmes. He is the official that kevin just mentioned, the american official in ukraine who says he overheard a conversation between the president and Gordon Sondland on july 26th, the day after President Trump and president zelensky spoke. Holmes told members of congress and his testimony he asked whether the president cares about ukraine. He says sondland told him if mr. Trump cares about big stuff that benefits the president , like the biden investigation. Doesnt that contradict the president s story, sir . All the president cared about was going after the bidens . Representative scalise if that was the case, the President Trump wouldnt have done all the things that hes done to help ukraine stand up to russia and in fact in the original zelensky phone call that was released, president zelensky was thanking President Trump things hes done, like selling the javelin missiles, which help them stand up to the russian aggression. And the tanks. By the way, barack obama and joe biden would not sell ukraine those same javelin missiles and would not get that same kind of aid. Chris all of that is true. Your statement of the record is accurate, but the differences between the april phone call and the july phone call, President Trump suspended military aid, 391 million in aid that the u. S. Congress, you, had authorized. The president suspended that in the question is, did he suspend it because all cared about was investigating the bidens . No, and in fact part of what congress appropriated had language attached to it that required the administration make sure that ukraines rooting out corruption because there were elections during that same period you just mentioned and zelensky got elected on a platform of rooting out corruption, which we are glad about, but nobody really knew if that was what he was going to follow through on because of ukraines history of corruption. The law required that before any taxpayer money go to ukraine, the president had to ensure that they are rooting out corruption, which ultimately they did in the money was released and he got the money he needed. Chris but sir, both in the april phone call and in the july phone call, President Trump never mentions the word corruption. What he talks about his investigations. Investigations of the democrats, possible interference in 2016. Investigations into the bidens and burisma, and the phone call that david holmes overheard on july 26th, he says what the president asked was is he going to do the investigations . Representative scalise well, and again, we can talk about second and third and fourth hand information of people, who ultimately are going to testify. You can hear it from them on wednesday. But what the facts are coming to the money actually go to ukraine . And even on the phone call with President Trump and president zelensky, they talked about the steps that ukraine is taking to root out corruption. It was something that zelensky got elected on, a platform of doing everybody knew that ukraine had problems with corruption going back, two possible interference with that also was involved in in the 2016 election. Chris it youve set up the big witness this week, which is on wednesday. Ambassador Gordon Sondland is going to testify. So far republicans have complained, and they are right, that all of the evidence has been secondhand or thirdhand. Somebody who talked to the president told me, or someone who talked to the president told somebody who talked to the witness, but thats not true for Gordon Sondland. According to an nsc official who testified, which saw the transcript yesterday, Gordon Sondland met directly with the president at least a halfdozen times during this period. And here is what he said. He corrected his testimony on september 1st with a top eight in which he said i said the resumption of u. S. Aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we have been discussing for many weeks. Congressman, if Gordon Sondland, who met with the president halfdozen times this summer, testifies on wednesday, yes, the president said to me we are not releasing the aid until they announce they are going to investigate the bidens and burisma, doesnt that blow a hole in the president s defense . Representative scalise well, the president s defense is that those things didnt happen. And its not just the president s word. President zelensky himself said that the aide wasnt conditioned and there was no pressure. And then because of some of these innuendos that youre talking about, the foreign minister of ukraine just a few days ago released another statement saying that there was never a link between aid and investigations, and once again, there were only two people that participated in that phone call. It was donald trump and president zelensky. Both of them were very happy with the phone call. Chris but sir representative scalise the real bottom line is he got the money. Ukraine got the money. Chris first of all, a dozen people listen to on the phone call and a number of them were immediately upset because what the president said about burisma representative scalise those were schiffs witnesses. Chris no, sir, they are career foreign Service Officers and these are people who worked in the Trump Administration. Representative scalise they are schiffs witnesses. Chris what a woman yesterday chris wait a minute, sir, you had a woman yesterday who was on Vice President pences staff. He said it was inappropriate. You had to morrison, who was on the nsc staff, who said that he alarm bells immediately went off for him. Alexander venue and immediately went to see these are all people you say they are schiffs witnesses, they all were working in the Trump Administration. Let me get back to my representative scalise they were not all Trump Administration folks. Chris are you saying that the person working Alexander Inman representative scalise the Inspector General said that the whistleblower had political motivations. Chris we are not talking about the whistleblower. Representative scalise serious concerns about that. Chris where not talking but there was a blower. We are talking to morrison. Representative scalise youve seen the list of who weve asked to testify. Chris im asking about the people who worked in the Trump Administration. Who worked for the trump National Security council are worked for the Vice President s office. Representative scalise this is an important point, chris. There are a lot of people who worked in the Trump Administration who have very countering views to that and theyve not been allowed to come forward. So tonight some people can say one thing about a thirdhand information phone call. Theres Something Else thats other people can counter that with and they havent been allowed to come forward, but ultimately President Trump and president zelensky were the ones on the call. Both of them said there was nothing wrong. If the foreign minister of ukraine just came out a few days ago to clear some of this up to satan there was never a link chris he incidentally was not on the call either. But if i could go back to Gordon Sondland. If Gordon Sondland says the president told him condition aid to ukraine on investigating the bidens, are you going to say that he is wrong, that he is lying . Representative scalise look, i know youve been asking and others have asked hypothetical questions. Lets talk in reality. Why dont we look at the three witnesses who actually did testify this week. All three of them were asked by whether it was John Ratcliffe or whether it was chris stewart, all three of them are asked, did you see any impeachable offenses . Did you see any bribery . Any of that . Not one of those things were mentioned. Not one person said they saw crime committed. Chris with all due respect with all due respect, that very badly mischaracterizes what they said. They were asked, william taylor, for instance, the acting ambassador to ukraine, was asked whether or not these were impeachable offenses. He said im there is a fact witness. Im not there to pass judgment, but he made it clear what he thought about what the president was doing. Here he is. To withhold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a Political Campaign made no sense. It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical, it could not be explained, it was crazy. Chris he said withholding military aid to help with the president s Political Campaign was crazy. Representative scalise and the problem with that is, it didnt happen, chris. The Ukraine Foreign minister, based probably on some of that testimony, said it didnt happen. Zelensky said it didnt happen. And those of the people directly involved. It you can bring out people that have third and fourth hand information. I thought this was supposed to be about finding facts, and if theyre going to try to impeach a president of United States, shouldnt it be based on something that actually happened versus one persons opinion of a thirdhand conversation . Chris okay, all right. If you raise the question that i had raised in a hypothetical and i think thats fair, sir. Are you saying, though, because Gordon Sondland was a direct witness, he spoke to the president in the oval office, are you willing to abide by whatever Gordon Sondland says happened . Representative scalise abide by gordon i abide by what the president did and what president zelensky actually received. President zaleski received the money. Barack obama wouldnt give that money, by the way. Chris sore, youre right. President trump has been much tougher in terms of giving aid to ukraine than president obama was. But President Trump released the aide two days after the whistleblower complaint went public. Representative scalise well, President Trump released the aide after he made sure, by law, by the way, and then pelosi voted for that law, schiff voted for the law that requires that he ensure that corruption is being routed out before taxpayer money goes to a country like that. Chris okay, ive got two more questions, ive got 2 minutes, so im going to ask you to squeeze if you can. We mentioned at the top, the president s decision on friday to clear three members of the military who had been accused or convicted of war crimes. A senior officials abide the president against it said it would undermine the military justice system, clearly the president is commander in chief, is well within his rights. If you have any problem with this decision to clear these three men . Representative scalise no, i think thereve been a lot of concerns expressed over the years that many of our men and women in uniform that were out battling terrorists in the battlefield were being put in a position where they had to think about whether or not if they returned fire, if they defended themselves, some of these people mentioned that were killed were terrorists, bombmaking terrorists and get our men and women in uniform in this case were in jail for 25 plus years for killing a terrorist the battlefield. I think our troops, morale is much higher, troops that ive heard from him, because this is been a concern, ive heard, from our men and women in uniform for years that they felt that they were sidelined because they needed a team of attorneys before they could return fire in the battlefield. Chris okay, ive got one minute left. If you had an election yesterday in louisiana and the democratic governor John Bel Edwards was reelected. President trump was in there campaigning hard multiple times and said, look, if eddie, the republicans and doesnt when met, its going to make me come up from, look bad, because i dont have any coattails. Does it make him look bad . Representative scalise what he said was he would be made to look bad weather he came into the state or not. Eddie rispoli made up about a 22point advantage. Disadvantage over the last month because of President Trumps involvement. He was at about 27 and the primary, ended up at 49, so clearly President Trumps involvement made a big difference in helping close that massive gap. And look, the it governors polling showed he was about 50 before President Trump started getting involved, that forced a runoff. Chris congressman thank you, ask for your time. Always good to talk with you, please come back. Representative scalise great being with you, go tigers. Chris yes, go tigers. Geaux. Can they get any republican members to jump ship and support the push for impeachment . Ta supporting Innovative Companies that will shape tomorrow and Building Workforce development and tuitionfree College Programs to generate the talent companies need. With a 150 billion investment in state of the art, modern infrastructure, and a nationleading commitment to lowcost clean energy, new york is doing more than any other state t