proceed with this inquiry. and it's immoral, unethical and likely illegal. so there is no quid pro quo, but with that said, all the witnesses, all the information that we're seeing to date shows that there was actually also a quid pro quo which is even worse than just the request itself. so that's the position we're in. we can't follow this straw man argument there needs to be a legal standard that doesn't exist in reality. but, as you mention, the information shows there likely was one as well. and ambassador taylor and others are corroborating that. >> from your experience as an army ranger, you look at this through a national security perspective. why, in your mind, are there life and death matters involved here? >> yeah, so let's zoom out and look at the context of what's going on in europe right now. russia is not our friend. vladimir putin would like