The white house withheld krush milita crucial military aid from the ukrainian government. They said the president cared more about investigatining joe biden, than his commitment to ukraine. Democrats seized on a revelation from the top u. S. Diplomat in ukraine, bill taylor, about a previously unknown phone call involving President Trump. Today the president said he did not remember that call that would be quite consequential, but the details surrounding it will certainly be the subject of many more hearings to come. Republicans dismissed much of todays testimony, arguing that the aid to ukraine was eventually released and that investigation into biden and his son never happened. But after nearly six hours of allegations and revelations, a foundation has now been accomplished for how the impeachment fight will move forward. Here is a look at todays most remarkable moments, and there were several of them. I now recognize myself to give an Opening Statement in the impeachment inquiry into donald j. Trump, the 45th president of the United States. Our answer to these questions will affect not only the future of this presidency but the future of the presidency itself. It seems you agreed, witting or unwittingly to participate in a drama. But the main performance, a russia hoax, has ended, and youve been cast in the lowrent ukrainian sequel. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god . It was unexpected and most unfortunate, however, to watch some americans, including those who allied themselves with corrupt ukrainians in pursuit of private agendas, launch attacks on dedicated Public Servants advancing u. S. Interests in ukraine. In my opinion, those attacks undermined u. S. And Ukrainian National interests and damaged our critical bilateral relationship. Your staff member could overhear mr. Sondland on the phone could overhear the president on the phone with mr. Sondland, is that right . Thats correct. And what your staff member could overhear was President Trump asking ambassador sondland about, quote, the investigations, is that right . Thats correct. Ambassador, you werent on the call, were you . You didnt listen in on President Trumps and president zell ena ski call . I did not. This is what i cant believe. And youre their star witness. Youre their first witness. I dont consider myself a star witness for anything. They do. I dont. Mr. Kent, are you a never trumper . I am a career nonprofessional who serves whatever president is duly elected and carries out the foreign policies of that president and the United States, and ive done that for 27 years for three republican president s and two democrat president s. Ambassador taylor, are you a never trumper . No, sir. When was the first time a ukrainian official contacted you concerned about potential withholding of u. S. Aid . It was after the article in politico came out in that first intense week in september. Was mr. Giuliani promoting u. S. National interest or policy in ukraine, ambassador . I dont think so, maam. Mr. Kent . No, he was not. What interest do you believe he was promoting, mr. Kent . I believe he was looking to dig up political dirt against a potential rival in the next election cycle. There is one witness, one witness that they wont bring in front of us. They wont bring in front of the American People. Thats the guy who started it all, the whistleblower. Thank you. Id say to my colleague id be glad to have the person who started it all come in and testify. President trump is welcome to take a seat right there. [ laughter ] with that, this concludes this portion of the hearing. As you can see, quite a day, and it is just the beginning. With us now is democratic congressman dan kildee. Thank you, congressman, for being here, for staying up late. We appreciate you being here. Thank you. Lets just start with your biggest takeaway from the day. What is it . Well, it was a sad day to watch, as i did in the room for about an hour, and then to see the rest of it after my workday ended. To watch these two professionals, these two career Public Servants who have dedicated their lives to defending this country both here and abroad describe the acts of an administration, traceable directly to the president , that intended to undermine the rule of law to use American National security as a tool to gain help in a political campaign. It was a chilling and honestly very frightening thing to see. More frightening in some ways, however, was the extent to which republican members of congress seemed to have abdicated their responsibility to find the truth and simply saw their role to be a law firm collectively defending donald trump regardless of his guilty or innocence. It was a pathetic performance on their part. Let me ask you this about traceability to the president here. We should acknowledge that the white house has blocked all white house witnesses from testifying here, and state Department Witnesses have gone ahead despite white house objections. That said, we dont have a witness yet who has said the president said x, and i witnessed that happen about this. I just want to play an exchange pressing this line of questioning and get your reaction. You have not had any contact with the president of the United States, is that correct . Thats correct, sir. Mr. Kent, have you had any contact with the president of the United States if. I have not. Now, kurt volker did have contact with the president and contact with the president in ukraine. Do either of have any evidence that kurt volker perjured himself or lied to this committee in his testimony . Ambassador taylor, any evidence . Mr. Turner, i have no evidence. Mr. Kent . I believe ambassador volkers deposition was over 400 pages, and i dont have it in front of me, so i cant but you have no evidence that he lied or perjured himself. I have no basis to make that judgment, no, sir. Again, congressman, acknowledging that the white house has blocked witnesses who could speak to that. To this point, democrats dont have that eyewitness testimony as it were. How much does that weaken your case . I dont think it does. I mean first of all, we start with the evidence that was supplied by the white house itself with the summary of the call notes that he had with the president of ukraine. Thats the basis, i think, for much of what we are now examining. But, you know, lets be clear. If republicans are seriously doubting whether or not the policies in a coordinated fashion that were being carried out by multiple sources inside and outside the white house were not at the direction of the president , theyre describing a president thats different than the one that theyve described for the last three years, a man who is completely in charge of every aspect of this white house. But its also just preposterous for them to promote the notion that amazingly, simultaneously these various actors were all pursuing precisely the same policy, and the only one person that they have in common is donald j. Trump. So i dont i just dont accept it even as a premise. They could, however Mick Mulvaney or mr. Bolton or Rudy Giuliani for that matter or the president himself, if they had the courage, the same courage that these two witnesses have shown, if they want to come forward and answer questions that they think would be exculpatory, bring it on. But until they do so, we have to base our decision on the evidence that we have, and the evidence that we have is compelling. So the question of the time line, because as you know, some of your counterparts in congress and i wonder if youre among them want to get this thing wrapped up before the holidays. Youre not going to hear from john bolton if you do that, and his lawyer, former National Security adviser, his lawyer says he has a lot to say about this issue that hasnt already been testified to in the closeddoor depositions. So would it be prudent for your party, for democrats to wait it out, even if it is one, two, three months, to hear what john bolton has to say, or is the time line more important . I dont think any particular time line is important. But i think it is important that we get a full picture, that we not be drawn into a situation where every time we get close to coming to the point of making a decision, some other potential witness is dangled in front of us just for the purpose of trying to delay us. Were going to have to make a judgment that at some point in time, we will move forward based on the information that we have. Were all going to arrive at our own conclusions on our own time line. And i think it will really be up to the members of the house to determine were that point has come. For me, its getting very close. I think for others, they may want to see and hear more testimony. We should be able to get testimony, for example, from ambassador sondland. That could be very important given what was revealed today by ambassador taylor. Its a good point because that would be someone who has firsthand knowledge. Hes mentioned in these calls, and he is scheduled to come next week. In a week. On wednesday. And i should note in my question i should have noted bolton could have just shown up. True. I mean hes basically said, court, give me a free pass to go. 100 . I do want to ask you because there was news outside of the impeachment hearings today for the president in the court of appeals, denying yet another trump appeal in effect to block his tax returns being turned over to federal prosecutors here in new york. The significance of that, and do you believe that we, you, the American Public will see the president s tax returns before the next election . I think if we if we have courts who are willing to uphold the law, ultimately we will. We have more than one case that deals with the president s tax returns. This particular case emanates out of a subpoena from the oversight and government reform committee. I served on the ways and Means Committee where were seeking the tax returns in order to evaluate whether the president is being properly having the laws of the irs properly applied to him. Thats a separate case. It ultimately likely goes to the supreme court, and i leave it to others to judge how this court might act on a matter such as this. But i hope that they dont think transactionally. I hope they think about the implications for the future. This is really an important moment. When we have a president who is so involved in what i think is a case of bribery, also now trying to hide his personal interests from the American People by sheltering himself from disclosure that most president s all president s and candidates have adhered to since the nixon era, this is a frightening moment. This president is breaking all the norms, and there are consequences for that. Congressman kildee, thanks so much for joining us tonight. My pleasure. Thank you. Still to come this hour, republicans try to hammer home that none of what was heard today was firsthand information directly from the president. Will that prove to be an effective strategy, particularly if it changes with other witnesses . Plus the president says he did not wrong when it comes to aid to ukraine. Staffers say they were shocked at what they perceived as a direct order from the president. In a regular nsc secure Video Conference call on july 18th, a heard a staff person from the office of management and budget say that there was a hold on Security Assistance to ukraine but could not say why. The person was offscreen, said that she was from omb, and her boss had instructed her not to approve any additional spending on Security Assistance for ukraine until further notice. I and others sat in astonishment. All that the omb staff person said was that the directive had come from the president , the chief of staff, the omb. Ower ov, so the whole world looks different. 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A surprise for the white house today when bill taylor showed up on capitol hill for the first public impeachment hearing. Taylor, the top u. S. Diplomat in ukraine, provided new details in his testimony about a previously unknown phone call about the president s personal involvement in pushing ukraine to open investigations that could help him politically. A white house official tells cnn this was, quote, news to everyone. The information was also pretty new to taylor as well. He says a staffer approached him after his initial deposition, which was just a few weeks ago, and told him this. Last friday, a member of my staff told me of events that occurred on july 26th. While ambassador volker and i visited the front, a member of my staff accompanied ambassador sondland. Ambassador sondland met with mr. Yermak. Following that meeting in the presence of my staff at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in kiev. The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. Ambassador sondland told President Trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what President Trump thought about ukraine. Ambassador sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of biden which giuliani was pressing for. And i think you said that after the call when your staff asked ambassador sondland what President Trump thought of ukraine, his response was that President Trump cares more about the investigations of biden . Is that right . And burisma, yes, sir. And i take it the import of that is he cares more about that than he does about ukraine . Yes, sir. Thats right, ukraine, at war with russia. Taylor says that he reported this information through the proper channels both at the state department and the House Intelligence Committee. That aide who overheard the phone call, david holmes, hes going to provide his own closeddoor testimony on friday. Joining our conversation now with their insight, samantha vinograd, a former Senior Adviser during president obamas administration. Elaina plott. And journalist and author carl bernstein. Carl, tell us the significance of this new information about this new call with sondland directly to the president. We did not expect new information today, and this one material to the broader investigation. How significant . Well, its very significant in that once again it gives us a picture of the president of the United States attempting to bribe the head of a Foreign Government for the purpose of undermining our own free elections in the United States and going to these extraordinary lengths, if indeed this testimony turns out to be accurate and confirmed by sondland, its very, very damning in terms of the president of the United States, and its also consistent with what we have known all along. That the president of the United States is not concerned that his policies are undermining the United States and to the advantage of putin and russia. And thats the undercurrent of all of what we heard today that is so extraordinary. And once again we have to ask ourselves and i know that republican senators who, of course, are expected to acquit the president in a trial in the senate, but nonetheless, republican senators are very concerned about why is it that the president of the United States continues over and over and over to serve the interest of russia and putin. And here today we have seen it in one bit of testimony after another. Here is ukraine, this bulwark that has had part of its heart overcome in crimea, by russian tank