Robert mueller. In his take home forms that his lawyers filled out for him. Yes, and it just continues and the Court Battles involving tax returns, chief Justice Roberts provided a stay for a few days which was really people overplayed that yesterday. That was administrative decision, but a lot coming at this president. A lot coming at this president , and i think a lot coming at the Republican Party this morning. Ari, the testimony of Colonel Vindman, the crossexamination will be interesting to see how far they go in trying to Demean Vindman in front of a national tv audience. I think that is a precarious place for them and if you want to put aside the obvious ethics of it, that these are people
that serve, diplomatic or military, there is also a a problem with going against a witness when is there are not many facts known to the witness. So if you want to look bad by exploding someone. It doesnt buy you much if two or three other people can basically testify to the same material. I think that is the pickle that these hearings show this week. There is a lot of backtracking. Initially the argument of it should be public or private, the veterans, laying it out and then you have some folks walking it back saying gosh, cant dwe do this in private. Thank you so much. Well be hearing from you today, it is just after 9 00 on capitol
hill. Members on both sides are starting to take their seats and were anticipating another very eventful day in President Trumps impeachment inquiry. And the witnesses are lining up a lot of people are talking about sondland tomorrow, clie clint, but as we discussed earlier, kurt volker has some explaining to do. He was in legal jeopardy. He said things that have been contradicted by 11 other witnesses, contradicted by text messages, he will have to backtrack significantly or he could be found to be guilty of perjury. I dont understand the Sondland Volker plan of action. A Chain Of Command. They are going to be fascinating how they try to weave this. Every witness that comes up will tell a different story. What did they state, but it is also just remarkably done. This is what you could see unfold. Witnesses who ask questions. None of the witnesses here know the alternative story that is being advanced. This is a parallel process that they were not involved in. Often times you will see people in the media and they say they didnt know the plan, how would they say anything different than
what they were going to say. And they didnt understand it would all be exposed. They thought it would ball a repeat of the Mueller Investigation where he would be backtracking and covering their tracks and lying. In this case, everything is getting exposed bit by bit. The witnesses are about to enter the room. I want to underline again that Jennifer Williams is a very interesting witness. They will try to find a quote from his past or do whatever they do, how do you do that to Jennifer Williams who works for Vice President pence, she is an aid to the Vice President of the United States. How could she be a never
trumper. It doesnt matter if it is total nonsense, anyone that says anything that contradicts what his official narrative is, the forever changing testimony, he will say theyre a never trumper. She wrote buresma in her notes, and that didnt make it in the transcript they released. And he said buresma himself. While youre talking the Lieutenant Colonel entering the room. You know what is kind of interesting is how many people were indeed in on that call. I think it is unusual, the number of people who were on that call. Im wondering if it is becausePresident Trump is so irrational sometimes that they have multiple numbers of people as opposed to president obama or president bush on the line and there would be three or four. And how remarkable that he thought he could lie about the call, they could put out an incomplete transcript, and they could lie their way through it, what is so fascinating as were awaiting key witnesses for the third day of public testimony, lets frame it. 70 of americans think that it is wrong that donald trump used his position to hold up military aide for a democratic ally invited by Vladimir Putin for his own political gain. To the point you just raised, isnt it remarkable that President Trump thought he could get away with lying like that. He has paid no price for his entire life for his lies. He is president of the United States today, he has not paid a price for his lies. If i could push back just a little bit, this will not be run by devin nunez, it will be run by adam schiff because actually republicans did pay a pretty stiff price for the lies. If you look at vote total, Donald Trumps party loss by a larger tally than anyone else in the history of the United States. And we even have evidence from justice this past weekend in the louisiana governors race that donald trump went to louisiana multiple times to try
to help the republican candidate get a trump bump, and coming in in a red state and actually galvanized reporters against them. And were looking now at plz williams and Lieutenant Colonel vindman. This is probably a position that ms. Williams never expected herself to be in or attacked by the president of the United States for simply stating the obvious. So were awaiting the twos testimo testimony. This is the third in a series of public hearings for the house
representati representative. There is a quorum present. Ly make an Opening Statement and then Ranking Member nunez will have an opportunity to make a dayti statement. Then our witnesses will give Opening Statements and then questions. Audience members we welcome you and respect your interest in being here and we ask for your respect as we proceed with todays hearing. It is the intention of the committee to proceed with no interruptions. I will ensure that the committee is run in accordance with the rules. Last week we heard from three experienced diplomats who testified about President Trumps scheme to condition official acts, a white house meeting, and hundreds of
millions in u. S. Aid. Made unglif rabble to politically motivated investigations. One of those investigations involved the bidens. And the other involved a discredited Conspiracy Theory that you craukraine and not rus involved in our 2016 election. Immediately after speaking to the president , trump did not give a expletive about ukraine. He cares about big stuff that benefits the president like the biden investigation. To press a foreign leader to announce an investigation into his political rival, President Trump put his own personal and political interests above those of the nation. And under cut u. S. Anticorruption efforts in you crane. How could they urge them to refrain from investigations of their own citizens if they were surged to participate in the corrupt investigations of our own citizens. President trump through his acting Chief Of Staff, gordon sondland, and rudy jougiuliani pushing the odds. Lieutena Lieutenant Colonel alex vindman, he is a career army officer, an iraq war veteran, and an expert
on ukraine. In july 2018 hi we was detailed the white house in part to coordinate policy on ukraine. Jennifer williams is a Career Foreign Service officer who is assigned to the office of the Vice President. Following these initial and congratula congratulatory phone call, the president asked Vice President pence to attend the inauguration. Vice president pence would have been an important attendee. Rudy giuliani had planned to go to ukraine to pursue interest in having the bidens investigated but had to call off of the trip after it became public. Jou giuliani blamed people around zelensky saying they were antagonists. Ambassador sondland and ambassador Kurt Sondland said that johnson and vindman would also attend. Several members debriefed President Trump on their interactions with zelensky. But trump, instead criticized y ukrained instructed them to work with rudy. A few weeks later on july 10th, ambassador sondland met with officials including Colonel Vindman and said the white house meeting sought by the president
with trump would happen if ukraine undertook certain investigations. National security advisor bolton abruptly ended the meeting and said that he would not be part of whatever drug deal theyre cooking on this. They came to another part of the white house and they were more explicit. They needed to investigation the ukraines or buresma. They went to the top lawyer to report the matter. He was told to return in the future with any concerns. He would soon find the need to do so. A week later, the representative of the Office Of Management And Budget announced on a Video ConferenceDhaul Mmulvaney was g nearly 400 million in Military Assistance to ukraine. And one week after that, trump would have the now infamous call with zelensky. He said the relationship had not been reciprocal. He thanks trump for his support in the area of defense and says that ukraine was ready to purchase more javelins. Trumps Immediate Response i would like do you do us a favor, though. Trump requested that zelensky investigate the 2016 theory and look into the bidens. They were in Donald Trumps interest and the interest of the 2020 campaign. Sondland and others had been
presdsi pressing ukraine for weeks. Indm vindman said that due to the unequal Bargaining Position of the two leaders, the favor that trump asked was really a demand. After the call, multiple individuals were concerned enough to report it to the National Security councils top lawyer. It was the second anytime two weeks that vindman raised concerns with nsc lawyers. For her part, asking zelensky to under take these investigations was inappropriate, and it also made her aware of the hold on the aid to ukraine. She also took note of the word buresma, a fact left out of the record of the call now locked
away on an ultra secure server. In the weeks that followed the July 25th Call, Colonel Vindman continues to push for a release of the aid. More disturbing, it became public. They asked why the United States was withholding the aid. Vindman didnt have an answer, but he it explicit to republicans in warsaw. They needed to publicly commit to these two if to get the aid. The insults huwere hurled last
week, youre here today and were grateful. Vindman, we have attacks on your character and watched personalities on fox question your loyalty. I note that you have shed blood for america and we owe you an immense debt of gratitude. I hope no one on this committee will become part of those vicious attacks. Todays witnesses like they testified were temperatursubpoe here, not because they were for or against impeachment. That question is for congress not the fact witnesses. If the president abuses his power and invited foreign interference into the election if they are conducting investigations to aide his Reelection Campaign and by doing so with official acts, or hundreds of mp millions in military aid, it will be up to us to decide if those acts are
compatible with the office of the presidency. I know recognize member nunez for the remarks he would like to make. I would like to address a few brief words to the American People watching at home. If you watch the Impeachment Hearings last week you may have noticed a disconnect between what you saw and the main stream media accounts describing it. Three diplomats that dislike President Trumps Ukraine Policy Discussing Second and third hand conversations about their objections with the trump policy, meanwhile, they said they had not talked to the president about these matters. The acts are shocking and damming and it fully supports the and this is the same
preposterous reporting, on a nearly daily basis, the top news outlets in america reported breathlessly on the newest bomb shell revelations showing that President Trump and everyone surrounding him were russian agents. It really wasnt long ago that weer with reading these headlines. The New York TimesTrump Campaign aids had repeated contact with agents. A trump server was communicating with russia. This was false. New york magazine, will trump be meeting with his counter part or his handler, this was false. The guardian, manafort held
secret talks with assage in ecuadorian embassy, false. All of these were false. There is no objectivity or fairness in the medias russia stories, just a rush to remove it and the media pretending theyre different than what they really are, puppets of the democratic party. Because they refuse to acknowledge how badly they botched the story, they have learned no lessons and believe that america will believe them as they stoke another partisan frenzy. I have outlined three questions that democrats dont want asked or answered. The media are trying to senator
and disz miss them. What is the full extent of the prior coordination. The media has accepted the reversal for the need for them to testify to this committee. It became clear that they would have to answer problematic questions. What is the full extent of the prior coordination of his staph and the other people that he cooperated with. What are the whistleblowers political biases and connections to the political camp
suggestions. What contact did the whistleblower have with the media that appears to be ongoing. What are the sources of the whistleblowers information, who did he talk to, and was it prohibited by law to convey any of that investigation. The media have joined the democrats in dismissing the importance of cross examining this impeachment process. My second question, what is the full extent of the meddling against the Trump Campaign. There has been numerous attempts to oppose the Trump Campaign. Many of these were included. Since the democrats switched from russia to ukraine for their impeachment crusade, the reports on buresma and hunter biden, it has been inconvenient for the democrat party. They said they would conduct a review of the reporting. The decision comes just three days after this Committee Told a hill writer that she would stop speaking to the hill because they ran solomans stories. Now that the reporting is a problem for the democrats, it is a problem for the media as well. I would like to submit for the record the october 31st story
entitled debunking some of the scandal about biden and election interference. I encourage viewers today to read this story and draw your own conclusions about the evidence that solomon has gathered. I ask for consent in a we put this in the record. The attempt to discredit and disown some of their colleges is shocking and we see it again in the denunciations of ken vogel after he covered similar issues including ukrainian efforts to sabotage trump backfire. My third question, why did Buresma Hire Hunter Bidebiden . What did he do for them. We have now heard testimony from the democrats own witnesses that diplomats were concerned about a Conflict Of Interest involving huntter bide. He got a well paid position despite having no experience, and his father was charged with the overseeing ukrainian issues. The democrats have recently settled on briar ri. They replaced their quid pro quo allegation because it was not polling well. But the democrats in the media are suddenly so worried about bribery, you would think they would take interest in buresma paying hunter biden 83,000 a
month. And you think they would be interested in joe biden threatening to withhold u. S. Loan guarantees. That would be a Textbook Example of bribery. The media are fee to act as democratic puppets. They are free to lurch at the direction of their public masters, but they cannot expect to do so out alienating after of the country. Americans learned to recognize fake news when they see it and if the main stream press wont give it to them straight they go elsewhere to find it. That is exactly what the American People doing. That i yield back. I thank the gentleman today were joined by lieutenantColonel Vindman is an active duty officer. He served in south korea, germany, and iraq. He was deployed to iraq at a time of heavy fighter and received a purple heart after being injured by a roadside bomb. He served both at home and in u. S. Embassies in ukra