Zelensky to investigate burisma and interference in the 2016 election. Burisma is the Ukrainian Company on which joe bidens son hunter served on the board. He testified, that is my understanding. Security assistance money would not come until the president of ukraine committed to pursue the investigation question. So if they dont do this, they wont get that. Was your understanding . Taylor, yes, sir. Question. Are you aware that quid pro quo means this for that. I am. And he describes an odd shi a odd situation by stating that something is not a quid pro quo, this for that, that that negates it being one. President trump was adam ant that president zelensky has h to clear things up and in public and President Trump said it was not a quid and sondland said if this is not a quid pro quo and if he didnt clear things up in public, we would be at a stalemate. And i understand a stalemate to mean ukraine would not receive the muchneeded military assistance. To state the obvious, declaring something to not be what it clearly is does not change what it clearly is. The house announced today that bill taylor will be among the first to testify publicly next week. So starting on wednesday, key witnesses will be under oath in public. Cnns Alex Marquardt has the story. Reporter it is among the most explosive testimony yet in the impeachment inquiry and now the deposition of bill taylor, the most senior u. S. Diplomat in ukraine gives a damning on the ground perspective. He told lawmakers it is his clear understanding Security Assistance money would not come until ukrainian president zelensky committed to pursue the investigation. Meaning into the bidens and the 2016 election. Taylor added, it was also clear that this condition was driven by the irregular policy channel i had come to understand was guided by Rudy Giuliani. It was also giuliani, according to taylor, who came up with the idea of demanding that the president zelensky publicly declare he would investigate the Ukrainian Company burisma that joe bidens son hunter had been on the board of. I think you will see in the transcript what a dedicated Public Servant ambassador taylor is. Someone who graduated from west point, someone who served in vietnam, someone who is, i think, performing another Vital Service for the country in relating the facts that came to his attention. Reporter taylor testified that he was told about a meeting on september 1st between the u. S. Ambassador to the European UnionGordon Sondland and a top aide to president zelensky in which sondland told the aide the Security Assistance money would not come until president zelensky committed to pursue the burisma investigation. Everything was dependent on such an announcement. Days prior taylor wrote a firstperson cable to secretary of state mike pompeo describing the folly i saw in with holding military aid to ukraine at a time when hostility was still active in the east and russia is watching closely to gauge the level of american support for the ukrainian government. Taylor was embarrassed he couldnt tell the ukrainians why the aid was held up and prepared to resign. Despite the concerns, taylor admitted he never talked to the president. Even though he didnt speak with the president , he was dealing with the people the president was giving orders to. And all the while taking meticulous notes. Jake, taylor provided details testimony referring to the notes and told lawmakers hes always been a careful note taker and writing in a note book after conversations and phone calls which is why when you read this, it reads like a diary, jake. Thanks so much. Lets chew over this. And laura i want to start from one section of the testimony that i found interesting. Question, is your testimony that, hey, you dont make these public statements about these two political investigations we want, youre not getting this meeting . You make these statements and you get the meeting. You dont make the statements you dont. Is that your understanding of the state affairs in july of 2019 and ambassador taylors response is yes. Thats pretty directly a quid pro quo. That is well give you this, that your country needs, in exchange for this, which the president wants for political reasons here at home. Right. And we heard about taylor outlining multiple examples of quid pro quo when he first testified before the full transcript was released and now americans get to read it with their own eyes and then again in a weeks time hes going to publicly testify we are told. So that could potentially result in a shift in the american publics view of whether or not trump should be impeached. They havent seen him speak. If they take the measure in and respond to this. Lee zeldin, republican of new york, one of the strongest defenders is in the testimony asking questions as republicans got to participate in this process. And he drills down on the fact that taylor himself never spoke directly with President Trump. He asked whether taylor has firsthand knowledge of the investigation and he asked where was this condition coming from if you are not sure it is coming from the president. Taylor, i think it was coming from mr. Giuliani. And republicans are saying, look he doesnt have any firsthand information and all comes from sondland and volker and others intermediaries but nothing directly from trump. And that is why the pieces start to come together which i hope they do a good job of laying out next week because we have plenty of instances where taylor said that they were told, you deal with giuliani. Hes the guy. Hes the one. Hes the channel. So you cant have it both ways. You cant say well since you didnt talk directly to the president , how do you know when he could say i was told to deal with giuliani and this is what i was told we were supposed to do and he participated in enough calls and meetings to know what was going on. And the president s spokesperson described this or maybe kellyanne conway, but they said this is a grownup male version of telephone. There isnt any firsthand accounts from people who talked to President Trump. What theyre trying to do is disqualify characters in the story. And lets be honest, for the public to keep track there is a lot of names and people you dont know. Envoy and ambassador here and im concerned that the democrats arent telling a good story for the public. It is like adam schiff is saying, well let the American People decide. We have these people testifying and hope you can watch the ten hours of testimony were going to film without ever explaining what was going on here. Were fighting about quid pro quo, extortion. The bottom line is donald trump was trying to cheat to win another election. That is atory line the democrats have not zoned in on but they keep thinking well have another person testify and theyll make the case for us. That is never going to happen. Republicans have always told a more compelling if dishonest story this is a deep state coupe seek state coup. And the standard is conduct unbecoming. But it could disqualify one of the person from the and here is the thing. That is what theyre trying and why shift has built this case toward the idea of course there will be public hearings. Each of the individuals who are testifying in public next week, these are serious who are not going to the big six, pence, pompeo, mulvaney and others are not saying a thing. I think the house will vote to impeach President Trump. We dont know that for a fact until the vote happens but i think in all likelihood that will happen. The question is, is the senate, controlled by republicans, going to do anything other than not vote to convict . And is the release of all of this testimony this week and it has been damning and suggests a quid pro quo, has it changed the mind of one republican senator . I think it changed the strategy of the republican senators. Theyve moved from saying the president did nothing wrong and the president is innocent to yes, he did it but it is not impeachable and well have an election in a year and let the Voters Decide so theyve changed a strategy but they are breaking from him in the fact theyre not saying that this was a perfect call as the president has said. They said they have been uncomfortable with the way the president conducted himself on the call and the fact there was this quid pro quo and theyre not comfortable with the fact that military aid that they had voted on and approved was being held up by the president for apparent political ends but they are willing to back the president in terms of saying, you know, were going to vote to not impeach you and not have you removed from office because we dont think it is as big of a problem as the democrats think it is. That is where we are. And amanda, taylor detailed secondhand informations from sond lond he said he talked to President Trump achd President Trump was adamant that president zelensky had to clear it up and in public. President trump said it was not a quid pro quo. This is one of the most interesting things about this case. President trump seems to think that by saying this is not a mug, this is not a mug, that somehow magically makes this not a mug. I think we need to not Pay Attention to exactly the moving pieces here. And again, go back to what donald trump was trying to do. He wanted a sham investigation. He was calling a country to manufacture some kind of smear against biden. We talk about the investigations like theyre taking something legitimate. I remember the Republican Campaign when the National Enquirer published a picture of ted cruzs dad saying he published jfk. Theyre looking for a grainy photo or not anything real. And next week they will hear from bill taylor and Marie Yovanovitch ambassador kicked out of her job because of misinformation coming from various ukrainians and Rudy Giuliani. Tomorrow could be or next week rather could be much more problematic for the white house than these hundreds of pages that only the likes of us are reading. It could be into what amanda said. Democrats to this point have been conducting everything behind closed doors because that is the stage of the investigation theyve been at. So there is a big question about how they proceed from next week moving forward. And how they carry out that very public case of trying to lay this out to the American People and connect all of the dots in a way that they havent so far because, again, all of this information is pretty much overload and when you are on the trail you dont hear about it at all. But here is the thing. If you think about it, we started and heard about what people supposedly said in their testimony, right. Then the testimony so we heard it again now that the testimony has been released. Then were going to hear it again next week when they actually get to say it. So there has been some amount of repetition and that is what donald trump is living on. Social psychology said if you say a lie over and over enough times people start to believe it. That is clearly how hes made his millios and run his fortune. So that is what hes trying to do. I think democrats are trying to put plant those seeds for people so that, again, we all hope, i hope next week it lays out to a story that is easy for people to follow. We should also know that with all of the complaints from House Republicans about selective leaks the Media Coverage has pretty much bourne scrutiny when it comes to what was said in the deposition, the media stories a week or two ago were completely accurate. Republicans seizing on part of bill taylors testimony they claim clears the president of wrongdoing and what is that and how credible is. And then the name everyone keeps mentioning. Rudy, rudy, rudy, why the president s personal lawyer keeps coming up. Is what teamwork is all about. You cant do everything yourself. You need someone to guide you and help you make those tough decisions, thats Morgan Stanley. Theyre industry leaders, but the most important thing is they want to do it the right way. Im really excited to be part of the Morgan Stanley team. 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Perhaps the most damning testimony today by the house of representatives released in the impeachment inquiry, bill taylor the top diplomat in ukraine testified that he understood that aid to ukraine would not be released by President Trump unless investigations into the bidens and the 2016 election were launched by ukraine. Joining me now to discuss is democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii serving on the Senate Judiciary and Armed Services committee. Thanks for joining me. I want to read this one section of the taylor testimony. Quote, that was my clear understanding taylor said. Security assistance money would not come until the president of ukraine committed to pursue the investigation. Question, so if they dont do this, they are not going to get that, was your understanding . Taylor, yes, sir. Question, are you aware quid pro quo literally means this for that. Taylor, i am. And republicans are noting that taylor never spoke to President Trump about or even Rudy Giuliani about this. How do you respond . The complaint which first brought to light that the president engaged in this kind of what it turns out to be quid pro quo has been collaborated by taylor, by others. And here is the republicans they just cant deal with the substance of what the president did. So theyre doing all kinds of things to muddy the waters. Senator, republicans continue to argue that no one has testified that President Trump explicitly said they knew to do this in order to get that. And so what is the response . Actually, take a listen to what senator Lindsey Graham had to say just yesterday. If the president of ukraine says that he keeps saying, no, i did not feel that i had to do anything to get the aid, how you could have a quid pro quo when the person who is the subject of the pro said it didnt happen. So, i mean, what is your response to senator graham. He said how do you have a quid pro quo when the person who the subject of the quo said it didnt happen. Do you expect the president of ukraine, which is so dependent on this 400 million of u. S. Money to fight russia, do you really expect the president to jeopardize his relationship with the United States by saying, oh, yeah, your president is a crook. I dont think so. So we look to other credible testimony. That is what we have. Other credible testimony that says that the president shook down the president of another country to get dirt on his political opponents. In the first answer you talked about the whistleblower who is whose complaint has largely proven to be accurate according to the other witnesses. Today you introduced a resolution to protect the identity of the whistleblower. As you know, there are a number of prominent conservatives including donald trump jr. Trying to out the whistleblower. Republicans are demanding that he or she come forward publicly. Take a listen to senator graham once again. I think it is impossible to go forward without knowing who the whistleblower is. The reason that you have Whistleblower Statutes is to protect people from reprisal, from being fired. Not give them anonymity in legal proceedings. So what is your response to that . We have responsible protection statues so they dont get fired or retaliated by the way the president himself has threatened the whistleblower. So it is to prevend those kind of actions against the whistleblower and the whole point of the whistleblower statute is to protect the whistleblower through anonymity and what the republicans are doing and their minions of the president and going after the whistleblower is just another massive diversion, which, by the way, undercuts the whistleblower statute which required federal employees to come forward to report wrong doing in government since 1789. And there is a reason that we want our federal employees who are in the best position to see wrongdoing in our federal government to come forward without being threatened or retaliated