With the president. Sara murray is covering all these hearings today. More than six hours. It was very dramatic. It was very dramatic, wolf, including new details what President Trump actually cared about when it came to ukraine as the American Public gets a first real look at impeachment proceedings and all the partisan posturing that comes along with it. Into the impeachment inquiry of donald j. Trump president of the United States. Reporter in the first day of the impeachment hearings, a witness delivered a bombshell about opening investigations that could boost his reelection effort. Bill taylor recounted a conversation about Gordon Sondland on july 2006th and spoke to president zelensky and pressed the ukrainians to investigate the biden family. A member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. Mr. Sondland told President Trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. Following the call with President Trump, a member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what President Trump thought about ukraine. Mr. Sondland responded President Trump cares more about the investigations of biden which guiliani was pressing for. Reporter at the time, trump had already frozen military aid to ukraine and democrats were panicking about withholding the funds and ukrainian soldiers were dying on the front lines in their battle with russia. But according to todays testimony trump was primarily concerned about his own political prospects. In his testimony first learning in july ukrainian money had been frozen. I and others sat in astonishment. Reporter not only a white house meeting but military aid was contingent carrying out the investigations trump was demanding. Everything was dependent on such an announcement including security assistance. He said the president wanted zelensky in a public box about make ac Public Statement about ordering such investigations. Reporter he expressed alarm they might announce those investigations and the u. S. Still might not come through with the funds. My name is they, the ukrainians give the v and dont get the assistance. The russians love it and i quit, and i was serious. As the funding phrase continued, taylor raised concerns again in december. Ambassador sondland explained to me President Trump is a businessman. A businessman signk to someone that owes him something he asks him to give it before signing the check. They did not owe him anything. Reporter taylor and george kent question wag led by democratic minorities and republican minority and peppered with partisan squabbling. We will not permit the outing of the whistleblower and questions along those lines counsel inform their clients not to respond to. There is one witness 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. Nope. Reporter while democrats focused on the president s allegedly corrupt motive for withholding aid to ukraine and the role Rudy Guilliani played as a shadow diplomat. Was it normal to have a person who is a private citizen taken an active role in foreign diplomacy . Did not find his particular engagement normal, no. Reporter they focused less on the conduct and more on the Vice President joe biden. The Vice President s role was critically important, top cover to help ugh pursue our policy agenda. But given Hunter Bidens role on the board of directors at some point you took the position you expressed concern to the Vice President s office, correct that is correct. Reporter he testified he was concerned about a perceived conflict of interest but saw no wrongdoing and concerned joe biden had a ukraine prosecutor ousted to protect the boss, burisma investigated. Are you concerned about the allegations of President Biden . I am. To your knowledge, is there any factual base to support those allegations . None whatsoever. Reporter with witnesses unwilling to take the bait on the gop conspiracy theory, they asked about the investigation. You didnt take the president s call . I didnt. You had a chance three times and it never came up. Two of those there was no reason you never made an announcement. This is what i cant believe. Youre their star witness. Youre their first witness. Let me just say that i dont consider myself a star witness for anything. They do. I dont. Im responding to your questions. Dont interrupt the witness. I think i was clear to say im not here to advocate any particular outcome. Let me restate that. Another player emerged in all of this, the aide to bill taylor who overheard the call between gordon trump and david sondland. His name is gordon homes and set to testify behind closed doors on friday. Thank you. Good reporting as usual. Lets go to capitol hill right now. Phil mattingly is watching all this unfold. This was to democrats first chance to make the impeachment case to the American People. Did todays testimony make an impact . Reporter ive been talking to democrats and republicans the better part of the last hour in the hearing and it will shock you both are declaring victory and think it was a great daytor them. Let me cut through that to the bottom line. To democrats talking to them and their advisors was lay the groundwork and the scope how ukraine operated and the policy and they used these two diplomats to do just that. In that sense they believe they accomplished what they set out to do. Theres points multiple democrats made to me. This was the first of many, the start of the process. This wasnt the big show, the biggest hearing, the start of the process. They wanted to lay the groundwork for hearings to come. Its those hearings to come theyre paying attention to. First, ambassador Gordon Sondland. His name came up several times. He is the one witnesses are referring to has first hand knowledge and conversations with the president of the United States, somebody who had to amend his testimony and involved in many of the dates and meetings that occurred. He will testify alone next wednesday. Democrats are very keen on that testimony. Sara hit on another key point, the bombshell dropped by Ambassador William Taylor about a conversation he heard after his initial deposition with a staffer with Gordon Sondland with the president at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine is now scheduled to come in behind closed doors on friday for a deposition and could also testify publicly. The main point being there are several more elements to come in the weeks ahead. Several more witnesses and several more hearings throughout the course of this process. Democrats believe today did what they wanted it to. More to come. Republicans made it clear. They went into this hearing with the goal of poke egg stories into these two diplomats. They believe because they repeatedly showed there was no first hand knowledge of President Trumps intention and neither had met President Trump they accomplished that goal. The same thing in mind, this is a long process. Those first hand witnesses are coming. Theyre aware of that. One republican staffer said theyre trying to get through each day. They know whats coming and democrats are happy and so are they. Much more to come. Lets bring in our correspondent. Was this a big day for House Democrats . First, this is a big day for the country, no small thing, the impeachment of a president. I was quite impressed with the format. Those 45 minute chunks allowed this hearing today to match the moment. We had a little less circus side show atmosphere than we normally get in these hearings and good because it matches the moment. What phil just said wllaying th groundwork in a minute by minute news cycle is a challenge. Just trying to build the case, that means you dont get to score the hourly news cycle victory necessarily if youre trying to build something bigger. I think thats what republicans were looking to do today. I think they very much were playing the hourly news cycle thing and trying to undermine here. Heres the problem as phil also identified. I dont understand the republican messaging out of today about all these talk these people didnt have direct knowledge because next week all the witnesses that are coming had direct knowledge and will be able to refute that. The message republicans have has a shelf life of like a day. An important point. Gordon sondland spoke directly to the president on several occasions. Susan, what was your take away . Both these witnesses testifying to how incredibly damaging this was to u. S. Interest in the region and important getting this aid to ukraine and supporting ukrainians in their fight against russia matters for the United States. Whenever were thinking how to put together a big picture about what happened, it wasnt just the president of the United States pursuing his on personal political interest, him pursuing his own political interest at the expense of the United States abusing the office of public trust essentially selling out the interest of American People to get damaging information in order to win an election. The gravity of the breach of public trust and how upset and concerned these few apolitical career diplomats really were. Interesting, sara, because one of the two witnesses, ambassador taylor, top diplomat to ukraine learned new significant bombshell information after his closed door sworn deposition, and he spoke about that today. Listen to this. In the presence of my staff at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called President Trump and a member of my staff could hear him talking about the investigations and ambassador told the president he was ready to move forward and a member of my staff asked ambassadsondlande president thought about ukraine and he said he cares more about the investigations than the aid. That gets to the heart. It gets to the people around him about the interest in ukraine and also because we had heard we would hear later from bill taylor talk about how in this same time frame he was the one going to the front lines, watching the ukrainian soldiers risk their life and sometimes die. That is not what the president cared about. He wasnt thinking about applications about about the ramifications of withholding this aid and thinking about his own political future about getting a leg up for the election according to the testimony we heard today. That this is the kind of thing that should be jarring to any American Whatever party youre in. You dont want any president whatever party they come from to be using the oval office in that kind of way. Youve been doing reporting and only learned about this bombshell, ambassador taylor, after this testimony. Tell us how he learned about it. There is someone named david holmes in kiev who worked for ambassador taylor and came and told him about what he hold. It was in a restaurant in kiev, not a private office where ambassador sondland was speaking with the president of the United States, on ambassador sondlands cell phone during a meeting he was having with some of his colleagues at this restaurant. This opens another can of worms. There are a whole host of followup questions here. Who else could have heard that conversation happening . Ukrainians are in the restaurant. Were there other officials from the u. S. Embassy that heard it . And President Trump was asked about it and said he had no recollection. A sensitive conversation like that you would think the ambassador to the European Union and the president would have a secure line and have a conversation like that, not at a restaurant where all sorts of people can hear what theyre saying . Its uncomfortable. Youre describing the name of National Security officials the idea sensitive discussions like this, essentially compromising information for the president of the United States is essentially listenable by the russians we know listen to every diplomatic conversation that happens in kiev. We know theyve done so because they released it in the past. Its an extraordinary thing to learn today. Ambassador sondland has to answer questions of course about this because he did reference this conversation he had with President Trump when he spoke behind closed doors with lawmakers but said it was short and not very substantial. There are a series of events unclear. Cleanup work. The president basically said, i dont remember that conversation at all. Well hear what ambassador sondland says next wednesday in the televised session. Leather of questions for him. Joining us now, democratic congressman who was at the hearing, took part in the questioning as a member of the intelligence community. Thanks as usual for joining us. I want to get to these specific issues. First of all, do you think todays testimony swayed any of your republican colleagues . Im not sure. I think this is chapter one in a process. I do think it went really well from the standpoint of some very compelling witness testimony. I thought the decorum was very good. It was handle in a dignified manner. Credit goes to chairman schiff. We learned new information you probably already talked about, namely the president may have been more deeply involved in this pressure scheme involving ukraine and his political rivals. What about that phone call overheard by one of the ambassadors aides where the president seemed to be more interested in getting information from the bidens than cared about ukraine itself. That was very enlightening. Were planning to depose this individual later this week. Were hoping to learn more. Yes, its crew that he actually said that he wanted to learn most about the investigations and whether the ukrainians agreed to that. Hes not really interested in the welfare of ukraine or a relationship with regard to ukraine. I think thats very very troubling. You questioned ambassador taylor whether there were wider implications of this whole ukraine scandal. Let me play the exchange you have. Can you rule out the possibility these irregular channels of diplomacy are being used in other countries where we conduct Foreign Policy . I cant ive not heard of any other separate channels that has this kind of influence, that this guiliani kind of guidance. But you cant rule it out, right . No, sir. Your question in that exchange really jumped out at me. What are your concerns specifically, congressman. Do you have question of other pressure on other countries . I dont specifically have evidence. When you look at our relationship with turkey and russia or even saudi arabia, you just scratch your head wondering why the heck did we do x, x being the latest policy move . For instance in turkey, theres no good reason why we should have left Northern Syria and left our allies on the battlefield to be slaughtered by the Turkish Forces and in process jeopardize National Security because all those isis fighters we bottled up thanks to our kurdish allies are now scurrying about the middle east. The white house says all the evidence you heard today was simply hearsay. What do you say to those americans skeptical about impeaching the president without hearing from any witness, at least so far, who spoke directly to the president. Americans are skeptical about testimony, especially an aide who overheard this phone conversation . Of course, theres a number of witnesses who are going to be coming to testify before us this week and next week. Many of whom spoke with the president. On top of that we have mick mulvaney, who basically blurted out a very candid admission the other day, in his opinion its normal practice to have these types of quid pro quos, in this case, conditioning military aid to ukraine based on a political investigation happening by ukrainians on americans. This type of stuff, i think, will be scrutinized, as it should be, but there are a lot of data points now piling up point ing the same direction, which are the underlying allegations of a pressure scheme against the ukrainians to investigate Donald Trumps political rivals seems to be possibly true. Congressman, thanks for joining us on this important historical day. Thanks. Thank you. 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