security council were concerned about he's judgments so it will fit clear attempt to discredit this witness but i think that it was unsuccessful so far would you do similarly from 2 more witnesses today who are what are we expecting. 2 witnesses that were called to testify by the republicans in the house we are going to hear from tim morris on a former national security council russia expert who said in his testimony behind closed doors that he thinks that there was nothing illegal about the phone call and we are also going to hear from current volcker who is one of president trump's points man on ukraine the former special involvement in ukraine who told the investigators that still wants no quid pro quo that military assistance to ukraine was not conditioned on upon investigations into presidents trumps political rivals however cool it for current could poise a problem for the republicans because several witnesses who testified cite after him and this closed door hearing provided testimony that conflicts with his story i was on the phone number in washington thank you the parents

security council. there she is arriving a little while ago. david holmes, the other person to testify, a top staffer at the u.s. embassy in ukraine. >> he was a late add last week. his testimony coming to light. nbc news obtained an advance copy of fiona hill's testimony. she sharply said that ukraine, not russia, interfered in the 2016 election. she also says that rudy giuliani's narrative is a politically driven falsehood and she warnings that russia is succeeding in tearing this country apart which she says is its goal. she was the administration's russia expert. >> she'll have inside on that july 10 meeting which there have been various accounts. and expect david holmes to be asked about that phone conversation he overheard in ich whump asks about the politicaal asked ukraine to carry out. >> chuck today is d is in washi. andrea mitchell is tireless and we don't know how she got back to new york in such a short period of time. also nbc news analyst neil catchall is here this morning. jeff, set the

vindman is still serving as the ukraine expert here at the white house on the national security council. >> mike viqueira at the white house joining us. joining us now is jill wine-banks, nick ackerman, former watergate assistant special prosecutor as well. andrew, since we were talking about gordon sondland coming on wednesday, is this going to be the testimony of all tmz so far to date? >> well, i think it's shaping up to be that way, certainly, after david holmes' testimony last night on capitol hill, of course mr. homes is one of bill taylor's aides in kiev. according to his opening statement, he basically confirmed bill taylor's testimony from last wednesday, which was that he overheard ambassador sondland and president trump discussing these investigations. they used crude language that was included in that opening statement as well. but in addition to that, gordon sondland during his initial testimony and deposition, did say the words i cannot recall very often. and then he had to amend his testimony before the transcript ended up being released. in that addendum he submitted to

security council. i appreciate the minority's request for the two important witnesses as well as undersecretary of state hale from whom we'll hear tomorrow. as we have heard, when joe biden was considering whether to enter the race for presidency in 2020, rudy giuliani began a campaign to weaken vice president biden's candidacy by pushing ukraine to investigate him and his son. to clear away any obstacle to the scheme, days after the new ukrainian president was elected, trump ordered the recall of ambassador yovanovitch. trump also canceled mike pence's participation in the inauguration of president zelensky on may 20th and instead sent a delegation headed by rick perry, ambassador to the eu sondland and ambassador volker. these three returned from kiev and briefed president trump on the encouraging first interactions with the new ukrainian administration. hopes that trump would agree to an early meeting with ukrainian president were soon diminished, however, when trump pushed back. according to volker

that's not quite right i was told in passing that someone else the national security council that the president may want to speak to them because of some materials related to crane. and did that person indicate that the president thought that was the director of ukraine that was correct who larry brief conversation just to be clear who is the director of ukraine direct to feed krenz onix been kind of inman and who did the this individual in the executive secretary's office refer to the individual just said the name cache did you know who that was initially what i was thinking about it but i had to search my mind on the any cash that i knew with the national security council's cash to tell and cash to tell did not work on ukraine matters that you oversaw is that right not that i oversaw no so the indication is that cash patel had provided some information directly to the president without your knowledge that seemed to be the indication now i want to go back to the july 25th call right now where president trump in another excerpt asked president selenski about his political a potential

morrison, national security council director for russia. watch live coverage of the impeachment inquiry hearings on c-span3 and online at c-span.org. >> earlier today at a cabinet meeting at the white house president trump talked about today's impeachment inquiry hearing and he spoke to reporters on border security and his recent hospital visit over the weekend. >> before i start i just want to say thanks to sonny perdue for allowing us to use his facilities over there at usda over the course of every wednesday when we had our cabinet bible studies. thank you for doing that. for those of you would participate in that bible study, it's been, mr. vice president, i know you've always been there in absentia because we are glad you didn't, , frankly just because you're such a big footprint. but in all seriousness we know that you've been very engaged in the process as well, so for i think the first time in 100 years betsy and other members have been just great participants and it's been, it's been another type of a cabinet meeting, mr. president

envoy to nato kurt volker and tim morrison the former national security council adviser. at a cabinet meeting president trump continued his condemnation of the entire inquiry we had 3 what's going on is a disgrace and it's an embarrassment to our nation given enough evidence of wrongdoing on the president's part the house dominated by democrats will vote to send the case to trial in senate this long drawn out political battle is only shifting gears. well from all we can bring in public in washington public the committee is still very much focusing on the coal from trump to ukrainian president's olinsky why the emphasis on this cool well i'm very very much part of the republicans case up until now has been that none of the witnesses actually listened in to the 25th of july phone call but of course 2 of the witnesses today actually were listening in to a famous infamous phone call now and of course they've been focusing as well on the fact that you know who this whistleblower is and there were sort of a hope amongst republicans that if they knew who that person is then they

morrison national security council. >> okay. and how about you, mr. kent? >> i, likewise, first saw the ukrainian statement and i believe the next day, july 26th, which would have been a friday, i did get a partial readout from lieutenant colonel vinman, yes. >> you said the ukrainian readout was cryptic. is that because it's initially written in ukrainian and translated to the u.s.? >> no. it's -- as a general rule, both united states and other countries, including ukraine, will put out very short summaries that kind of hit the highlights of the discussion. but without going into detail. >> okay. and you mentioned it was cryptic. why did you think it was cryptic? >> knowing now -- having read the transcript, and looking back at their summary. >> um-huh. >> as i recall, i don't recall the exact words, but they said that there were issues to be pursued in order to improve relations between the two countries or something like that. >> that seems pretty ordinary. >> it seems pretty ordinary. >> you were with president zelensky the very next day. >> we were. we

was serving to the best of his abilities at the national security council. these are not easy jobs, they're taxing jobs on your family. obviously in a situation like this, a lot of public scrutiny that nobody would want. i find it really distasteful to be honest. i feel for the national security professionals who are in those jobs trying to dot right thing for the american people and for purposes of policy. and they're now call in this political drama in ways that they never imagined. and i think it's unfortunate. >> vindman made clear it was his testimony, he felt it was his duty to go forward with that. so let's talk about john bolton. house democrats are looking for his testimony in this probe. but there's the whole back and forth, the battle about whether he's going to show up. how do you think he sees his obligations, especially when it comes to a subpoena here? >> i think john bolton will respond if there's a subpoena. he'll obviously respond. he's caught in this broader legal debate on whether or not national security officials have to respond to cong

in july 2018 i was asked to serve at the white house national security council. at the nsc i'm the advisor to the national security advisor for ukraine and other countries in my portfolio. i implement the full range of l diplomatic and core functions. the committee heard from many of my colleagues about the strategic importance of the work against russian adepression if is important to know -- promoting ukraine prosper si and strengthening a free and democratic ukraine as a counter to russian aggression has been a consistent bipartisan foreign policy objective and strategy across various administrations both democratic and republican. and president zelensky's election created an unprecedented opportunity to recognize our strategic objectives. i became aware two disruptive actors. former mayor rudy gulli ygiulia promoett -- promoting an incorrect policy. >> on april 21st 2019, zelensky was elected president of ukraine on a land slooid victory on an anti-corruption platform. president trump called president zelensky to congratulate him on his victory. i listened to

at 2:30, ambassador kurt volker, special envoy to ukraine, and national security council white house aide to morrison. on wednesday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, testimony continues with u.s. ambassador to the european union gordon sondland. at 2:30, deputy assistant secure terry of defense for russia, eurasia on thursday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, the committee will hear testimony from fiona hill, former national security council senior director for europe and russia. watch the first two public hearings in their entirety on www.c-span.org/impeachment. you will find transcripts of witness testimony and procedures. plus, a points of interest feature that identifies key moments indicated by a star in the timeline. this week, watch live coverage of the house impeachment inquiry hearings on c-span3, c-span.org, or listen live wherever you are with the c-span radio app. host: joining us from los angeles is radio talk show host dennis prager. thanks very much for being with us on this sunday morning. we appreciate it. dennis: i appreciate your having me.

security council were trying to protect our national security, those are two different topics. and unfortunately we did -- the president did assign to gordon sondland something he should never have, which is trying to get another power to investigate his political rivals. >> what were your impressions of david holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the u.s. embassy in ukraine who overheard that phone conversation between the president and the u.s. ambassador to the eu gordon sondland? >> i thought he was convincing. he gave facts that were consistent with his deposition testimony, and his opening statements, in both. and i think that he was also somebody who tried to stay in his lane, so to speak, and, you know, testified as to what he knew, what he saw, what he heard. and i think he really did hear the president speak on that phone, talked about how the phone call was -- the president was very loud on the phone, and then gordon sondland, he gave testimony yesterday which was not contradictory for the vast majority of what was described today in that phone call. >> fion

person, who is no longer on the national security council and now mulvaney said he will no longer insert himself in the proceedings and now launch into his own lawsuit against the white house and administration, seeking guidance from a federal judge whether or not he can testify. the white house says he has immunity but democrats want him up on capitol hill. at this point, the white house is insisting there is nothing wrong with mick mulvaney, acting chief of staff going into a legal battle against the white house. >> reporter: as public hearings loom in the people. inquiry, president trump is warning republicans not to stray from talking points from the phone call to the ukrainian leader repeating the call was perfect. don't be led into the fool's trap it's not perfect but not impeachable. it was much stronger than that. nothing was done wrong. stephanie grisham yet to hold a briefing said it won't be open enough. >> there are public hearings start this week. they won't be public because we don't get to have anybody from our side out there to tell our side of the story. this will be mor

envoy to need to cut volcker and to morrison a former national security council official at the cabinet meeting president trump continued his condemnation of the entire inquiry what's going on is a disgrace and it's an embarrassment to our nation officials given enough evidence of wrongdoing on the president's part of the house dominated by democrats will vote to send the case to trial in senate this long drawn a political battle is only shifting gears refuse and in a sign that the christmas season is drawing near long and skew gardens as launches annual christmas light show organizers installing more than a 1000000 lights the sear sparkling trail takes visitors through the world famous royal botanical gardens the luminous extravaganza includes a laser show at a victorian glass house that's just been renovated. that's all we have time for i am brian thomas for the entire news team thanks for being here and rita will join you at the top of the hour. in terms of the famous naturalist and explorer. to sing the bridge clicks on the phone it's 250th birthday we're importing on a voyage of di

security council is that national security staff write a memo to the president and none of us see that outside of the national security staff ok so the the the charge a or the the u.s. ambassador to the country wouldn't ordinarily be on a call with a foreign leader. that's correct would not. and did colonel the men or anyone of the national security council staff reach out to you mr kent in preparation for the call. was given notification the day before on july 24th and to the extent i had any role it was to reach out to the embassy give them the heads up and ask them to ensure that this secure communications link in the office the president of ukraine was functional so the call could be patched through from the white house situation room that you're providing any substantive advice to colonel than men about about the call and what ought to be the the official position i was not asked and i did not provide ok same with you about that or the same and the call was scheduled you know you testified earlier that the call was on again off again and after the july 10th meeting with ambassador

national security council director alex vindman. tech rare acting o fai-- affair. as the accredited ambassador to the union did not credit nonmember states, he made clear that he had direct and frequent access to president trump and chief of staff mick mulvaney secretary perry, ambassador sondland, and ambassador sondland made clear they would take the lead on the zelensky administration. i became aware that mr. giuliani, a private lawyer, was taking a great role. and he was who was ultimately indicating privately that he had been contacted by someone named ghouli giuliani who said he is an advisor. in the following months it became apparent that mr. gullian a -- giuliani was having a direct influence on the ground president at one point in a preliminary meeting, someone wondered s aloud why he was so active in the media with respect to ukraine. mykr recollection is that damn , rudy, when he gets involved he fs everything up. in the meeting secretary perry, pass president zelensky that perry described as people he trusts. he said he could seek advice from people on

security adviser robert o'brien has said that he is hoping to make the national security council smaller and right now, there are no plans for any replacement for him. >> any idea on the motive here for the resignation? >> i can't talk to the motive. but like i said, it's interesting the timing with all of this, that's going on. >> meredith mcgraw, live in washington, d.c. for us, thank you very much. >>> let's switch gears for a moment to 2020 politics. former new york city mayor michael bloomberg is actively preparing to enter the democratic presidential primary. starting with a first step in the state of alabama. long-time adviser to the billionaire businessman confirmed the move to nbc news yesterday, adding that bloomberg has yet to make a final decision. according to "the new york times," the once three-term mayor of new york has dispatched staffers to alabama to gather at least 500 signatures needed to qualify for the primary deadline there today. bloomberg and his aides also reached out to several prominent democrats to share his intentions to enter the presidential race. the 77-

security council. he talked about this prior to the meeting, hoping to have this first-hand to et his opinions and thoughts on what wanted toen, but also discuss how important it was for ukraine to get energy sector reforms underway, and clearly secretary perry had talking points on this, an issue ambassador volker is also interested in. we knew they would inevitably have a question about a meeting. so as we got to the main discussions, going into the wrap up phase, they start to ask about a white house meeting. ambassador bolton was trying to arry this back, although he's national security advisor, he's not in charge of scheduling the meeting, not ambassador bolton's role to pull out the schedule and see if this tuesday, this month works. he does not as a matter of course like to discuss the details of these meetings, likes to leave them to the appropriate staff. this is already going to be an uncomfortable issue. as ambassador bolton was trying to move that part of the discussion away, trying to defl

it was because of my background and experience that i was asked to join the national security council in 2017. at the nsc, russia was part of my portfolio, but i was also responsible for coordinating u.s. policy for all of western europe, all of eastern europe, including ukraine, and o and thn union. i was hired by general michael flynn, katie mcfarland and general keith kellogg but i started working april 2017 when general mcmaster was the national security adviser. i and they thought i could help them with president trump's stated goal of improving relations with russia, while still implementing policies designed to deter russian conduct that threatened the united states. including the unprecedented and successful russian operation to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. this relates to the second thing i want to communicate. based on questions and statements i have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its security services did not conduct campaign against our country and that perhaps somehow for some reason ukraine did. this is a fictional

prior to working for the national security council from 2017 to 2018 work for ranking member news is that right i actually found that out after the facts and miss i wondered why i was being asked about him so i went to look this up and dr hill you cautioned us on the dangers of members of this community of this committee perhaps peddling any ukrainian conspiracy theories that could benefit russia and i want to ask you if you have heard the name lev parness of ukraine someone in this investigation who was influencing president trump and rudy giuliani about some of the debunked conspiracy theories you referenced earlier i have heard his name yes are you aware that mr parness was indicted on october 10th for making foreign contributions to republicans and us elections i am aware of those reports yes are you aware of yesterday's daily beast story reporting the indicted ukrainian love parness has been working with the ranking member devon nunez on mr nunez as overseas investigations i am not aware of.

and tim morrison who is a white house aide wi the national security council.( james ) karin caifa is live washingt d-c this morning with the latest. karin. thanks karin. ( james ) and we will be streaming the hegs live from start to finish on our kron on app. you can watch the hearings uninterrupted. all you have to do iso to the app store to download the app. darya folsom..(james) and i'm james fletcher. lets start the rning with a check of weather and traffic... no major hot spots. bay bridge wb 80 is lesshen 30 min from the maze to sf. samateo bridge less then 30 min from 880 to 101. gold gat bridge drive time less than 30 min from 37 to the toll plaza. richmond bridge drive less than 20 min from the toll to 101 weather.weatherweather. ( james )(áááscandoááá) our big story this morning. thousds of people in 8 bay area counties could see the lights turnedff starting tomorrow. pg&e is planning another round of power shutoffs as strong win and dry conditions threaten the risk of wildfires. here is a look at a map that shows some of the areas that could be impacted. in the east

told fiona hill to report those conversations to the national security council lawyers. and then fiona hill then followed sondland where he continued to make the demands of ukrainians. and so i think the whole of this testimony, i think will continue to fill out this picture. but i think it'll then show even more why it's important to hear from people like john bolton, mick mulvaney, pompeo, giuliani who so far have not been willing to testify despite the fact that they have firsthand knowledge. >> joe, when you look at gordon sondland and the ambassador coming up on wednesday, and based on the descriptions of him now from morrison saying, you know, he was a little off, right? not quite right down the center. is this morrison trying to degrade him? pull away the credibility from what may be revealed when he does come to the microphones, gordon sondland, to give his case. and, therefore, how can sondland help democrats? how can he hurt them? >> well, sondland is a unreliable witness because he has not been truthful. he's already changed his testimony once to make it confo

robert o'brien, the national security advisor, he's restructuring the national security council and its staff, why not just move him, his brother, whomever, out? >> i don't know. he shouldn't be there. if i were the president, i don't know how we can expect the president to have any trust in this president's work, given his personal dislike for the president and his policies. this is as man who substituted his views on what ukraine should be doing with the views of the president of the united states. he should not be near any policy make body for the president. i guess he will move along when his detail is over. i don't think they should wait for the detail to be over. lou: it makes you wonder what kind of rational process is available. the president clearly wouldn't trust who doesn't care for the president's policies on ukraine. why put up with that? why not just give him something else to do? he's a public servant, serving in uniform at least when he's testifying against the president. he might be better used in another post where he would be credible, perhaps, and have greater opport

security council, former national security adviser, someone who had clear concerns according to the numerous accounts of exactly what was happening, whether they need his testimony in orderto move forward. schiff indicating that they're not going to fight this out if witnesses choose to go to court, they're not going to force a delay in their proceedings. he had been circling that for some time, but if they choose to go to court, they'll just use that evidence in their view as more against congress. we'll probably learn more about the details of these transcripts and these witnesses who have come behind closed doors, also answering in addition to two transcripts today. two more will come out tomorrow, ambassador of the european union, gordon sondland, and his will be interesting because contradicted what sondland has said. a lot of action today where several witnesses have defied their subpoenas, more likely to defy their subpoenas in the coming days as the democrats get ready for the public phase of this investigation in the coming days and weeks, john. >> manu raju on the hill, a

and tim morrison who is a white house aide with the national security council.( james ) karin caifa is live washington d-c this morning wi the latest. karin. ( james ) and we will be streaming the hearis live from start to finish on our kron on ap you can watch the hearings uninterrupted. all you have to do is go to the app store to download the app. weather.weatherweather. no major hot spots. bay bridge the maze to sf. san mateo from bridge less then 30 min from 880 to 101. lden gat bridge drive time lesthan 30 min from 37 to the toll plaza. richmond bridge drive less than 20 min from the toll to 101 ( mes )(áááscandoááá) our big story this morning. thousands of people in 8 bay area counties could see e lights turned off starting tomorrow. pg&e is planning another round of power shutoffs as strong winds and dry conditions threaten the risk of wildfires. here is a look at a map that shows some of the areathat could be impacted. in the east bay ... more than 35-thousand pg&e customers in alameda and contra costa counties could see the lights go out. in parts of san mateo county an

ukraine special envoy volcker lieutenant colonel alex been the national security council. my president zelensky's inauguration was not my first involvement with ukraine. as i testified previously just 4 days after assuming my post as ambassador in july of 2018. i received an official delegation from the government of then ukraine president petro poroshenko. the meeting took place at the us mission in brussels and was prearranged by my career eu mission staff. and i've had several meetings since then in brussels. of 2019. that well with us ambassador maria van of itch and making my first official visit to ukraine for a us navy visit to the strategic black sea port of odessa. the reason i raise these prior ukraine activities the meetings in brussels my visit to odessa is to emphasize ukraine has been a part of my portfolio for my very first days as the us ambassador. any claim that i somehow. muscled my way into the ukraine relationship is simply false. during lansky inauguration on may 20th. the us delegation. developed a very positive view of the ukraine government. presse

security council. before returning to government, she was a senior fellow at the brookings institution, where she directed the center on united states and europe. she previously worked on the national intelligence council and john f. kennedy school of government. david holmes is the political counselor at the u.s. embassy in kiev, where he serves as the senior political adviser to ambassador taylor, who testified earlier. he is a career foreign service officer. he has previously served in moscow, new delhi, bogota. he served on the staff of the national security council, as has -- as special assistant to the u.s. secretary of state. two final points before our witnesses are sworn. witnessed accusations -- depositions are unclassified in nature. any information that may touch unclassified information will be addressed separately. congress will not tolerate any reprisal, threat of reprisal, or attempt to retaliate against any u.s. government official testified before congress, including you or any of you

special adviser to vice president mike pence and a member of his national security council staff. both vindman and williams listened in on the july 25 phone call between between president trump and ukrainian president zelensky, which is at the center of the impeachment inquiry. in earlier closed-door testimony, vindman said the white house transcript of the july 25 phone call omitted key words and phrases, including an explicit mention of burisma holdings by the ukrainian president. trump was trying to pressure the president to publicly announce an investigation into joe son hunter and his role on burisma's board. vindman also testified that his attempts to include the omissions in the transcript failed. in her previous testimony, jennifer williams called the july 25 phone call between trump and the ukrainian president "unusual and inappropriate." witnesses to testify will be former u.s. special envoy to ukraine kurt volker and former national security council official timothy morrison. in a now-released message, volker wrote to one of president zelensky's aides only hours before

it was because of my background and experience that i was asked to join the national security council in 2017. at the nsc, russia was part of my portfolio, but i was also responsible for coordinating u.s. policy for all of western europe, all of eastern europe, including ukraine, and o and thn union. i was hired by general michael flynn, katie mcfarland and general keith kellogg but i started working april 2017 when general mcmaster was the national security adviser. i and they thought i could help them with president trump's stated goal of improving relations with russia, while still implementing policies designed to deter russian conduct that threatened the united states. including the unprecedented and successful russian operation to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. this relates to the second thing i want to communicate. based on questions and statements i have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its security services did not conduct campaign against our country and that perhaps somehow for some reason ukraine did. this is a fictional

my understanding having never worked at the national security council is that national security staff write a memo to the president and none of us see that outside of the national security staff. >> okay. so the u.s. ambassador to the country wouldn't ordinarily be on a call with a foreign leader? >> that is correct, would not. >> and did colonel vindman or anyone at the national security council staff reach out to you, mr. kent, in preparation for the call? >> i was given notification the day before on july 24th. and to the extent i had any role, it was to reach out to the embassy, give them the heads-up and ask them to ensure that the secure communications link in the office of the ukraine was functional so the call could be patched through to the white house situation room. >> did you provide any substantive advice to colonel vindman about the call and what ought to be the official position? >> i was not asked and i did not provide. >> okay. same with you, ambassador? >> the same. >> the call was scheduled -- you know, you testified earlier that the call was on again/off again and

fiona hill, president trump's former top russia adviser on the national security council will push back on the president. more potentially bad news for the president. >> because it's going to be more perspect biff what was true versus what was being offered up as motives for the president's actions. hill will dismiss the core of the gop impeachment defense that ukraine tried to influence the 2016 election so it was okay for the president to say it needed to be investigated. instead she'll make clear it was not ukraine meddling in 2016. it was russia. and it will be russia again in 2020 and we are not ready. joining hill this morning, david holmes. he's the ukraine embassy official who says he overheard ambassador gordon sondland in that july phone call with president trump at that restaurant in ukraine, wolf. >> it's interesting, the eu ambassador, he testified for hours and hours yesterday that not only was there a quid pro quo directed by the president, but both vice president mike pence and secretary of state mike pompeo knew all about it. it's a very, very serious development, chris

and i'm therefore the national security council and the white house. are you the only one of the entire universe of our government or otherwise that can advise the president on ukraine? couldn't someone like ms. williams also advise on ukraine? it's in her portfolio. >> that's not typically what would happen. frankly it would be ambassador bolton -- >> other people can advise on ukraine besides you. going on in your testimony, you said, i understand all the nuances, the context and so forth surrounding these issues. i on my judgment went, expressed concerns within the chain of command which i think to me as a military officer is completely appropriate and i exercised that chain of command. lieutenant colonel vindman, you said, i forwarded my concerns through the chain of command and the seniors then decide the action to take. mr. morrison is your senior. he didn't know about it. how can he decide an action to take? but that's what you said. in mr. morrison's deposition, page 60, the question is, at what point did you learn that lieutenant colonel vindm

security council. at thendance inauguration was not my first involvement with ukraine. as i testified previously, just four days after assuming my post 2018, isador in july received an official delegation from the government of then ukraine president poroshenko. the meeting took place at the u.s. mission in brussels and was prearranged by my career eu missions staff. i have had several meetings since then in brussels. 2019, i worked well with u.s. ambassador marie yovanovitch in making my first official visit to the ukraine for a u.s. navy visit to the strategic black seaport of odessa. the reason i raised these activities is to emphasize that ukraine has been a part of my portfolio from my very first days as the u.s. ambassador. any claim that i somehow muscled my way into the ukraine relationship is simply false. selenskye inauguration, the u.s. delegation developed a very positive view of the ukraine government. we were impressed by president zelensky's desire for a closer relationship with the unit

he's the top ukraine expert at the national security council. he was on the phonecall, on july 25, so two firsthand accounts from the colonel and jennifer williams. also next tuesday, during the hearing, curt volcker, the former u.s. special representative to ukraine, and tim morrison, a national security council advisor on russia and europe, who took over for fiona hill in august of this year. that's all tuesday morning, beginning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. that will be followed by wednesday's hearing, a hearing that is expected to get a lot of attention because we will hear firsthand from ambassador to the e.u. he testified and then amended his testimony before the committee. we'll also hear from laura cooper, a defense department official and the undersecretary of state for political affairs. that's wednesday beginning at 9:00 a.m. eastern time, live on c-span3. then on thursday, we heard her name a number of times today, the former national security coys council advisor, fiona hill. she's -- she was the white house advisor on russia and euro

fiona hill was the top russia adviser on the national security council. she's got a strong statement prepared. >> she does. and the issue that she's going to focus on as i understand it is why was the president involved in all of this? why did the president have this obsession with ukraine? he thought ukraine was out to get him in the 2016 elections. so he had this bitterness against ukraine. what she will testify and what she has testified previously in closed session was that this was a fantasy. that ukraine did not try to help hillary clinton in the 2016 campaign. that it was always russia that was involved trying to help trump. you know, her narrative is very much like the narrative in the first part of the mueller report. the part about russia that said there was this concerted effort by russia to help donald trump get elected and not that ukraine had any particular role in the campaign. >> she's also going to discuss, talk about that july 10th meeting at the white house. where she says the eu ambassador gordon sondland blurted out a comment about th

a guy who oversys national security on the european council. he was on the call. he said he was concerned with what happened. he did not think it was proper to demand a foreign government investigate a u.s. citizen. he said it undermined u.s. national security. he said the call strayed from material he himself had prepared. and he said there's no doubt in his mind the president was asking for a deliverable. and get this, immediately within an hour the phone call happens, vindman's on the phone, listening and like yikes. and within an hour he goes to the top lawyer of the national security council in his office and for backup he brings along his twin brother. this is a real detail. his identical twin who also works for the national security council as a lawyer handling ethics issues, that is them, by the way. both of them. i don't know which is which. so not only did he raise alarms with the lawyer, vindman also notices as he's going through the document that's circulating that the rough transcript was not correct, actually. so he made substantive edits to the call

a former senior director at the national security council, did testify he did not hear anything illegal on the call, but he provided confirmation gordon sondland, the ambassador to the you, -- to the e.u., was talking about a pressure campaign to get ukraine's president to announce investigations. this comes after another of other diplomats have come forward to say that they also heard, either overheard conversations that happened friday night with david holmes, one of our diplomats in ukraine overheard a conversation between trump and sondland. this is the type of stuff we are going to hear roll up. >> let me turn to roger stone. he has been a close friend and confidant of donald trump. one of the most public supporters. found guilty on friday of witness tampering and lying to congress. faces a potential of 50 years in jail. he is in his mid-60's. there is some indication he may be up for a pardon. a pardon.rly wants the president has the power to give him a pardon. the president had some tweets about roger stone, which seemed sympathetic to stone. i think that would on -- that almost

he's the lawyer in the white house council basically in charge of advising the national security council. and what alex vindman says to him on july 10th was i was in this crazy basement meeting in the white house and i want you to know what ambassador sondland recommended to the ukrainians about investigating, announcing an investigation so they could get their military aid is inappropriate, and i need to alert you that i'm lodging a complaint about this. another aid also complains right behind vindman, that's fiona hill who you mentioned earlier. fine, eisenberg takes notes. the next time they run into each other is really about two weeks later. vindman is on the call listening in a special room in the national security council with president trump's conversation with ukraine president zelensky. as far as the conversation hangs up he looks over to other people in the room with raised eyebrows and very disturbed because what the president said sounds a lot like what sondland said. if he's not spelled out a quid pro quo explicitly, he's implied it. and he's also recommending and pressurin

security council. they both listened to president trump's phone call with president zelensky of ukraine in which president trump asked president zelensky to do him a favor. the favor of investigating joe biden. in other words, a favor for the president's re-election campaign. in this afternoon's hearing a long time republican congressional staff, tim morrison, who served in the trump white house as the senior director for european affairs at the national security council explained what was at stake for ukraine in the president's request for an investigation of joe biden. >> president zelensky left the room, vice president pence left the room and then in sort of an ante room ambassador sondland and presidential advisor yermak had this discussion, yes. >> and what did ambassador sondland say to tell you that he told mr. yermak? >> that the ukrainians would have to have the prosecutor general make a statement with respect to the investigations as a condition of having the aid lifted. >> in that testimony

morrison national security council. >> how about you mr. kent? >> i like wise first saw the ukrainians' statements and the next day july 26th which was a friday, i did get a partial read out from colonel vindman. >> is that because it is initially written in ukraine and translated in tuu.s.? >> no, as a general rule, the united states and other countries including ukraine will put out short summaries that hit the highlights of the discussion but without going into details. >> you mentioned there were scriptic. looking back at their summary as i renault, i don't recall the exact words but they said that there were issues to be pursued to improve relations between the two countries. >> it seems ordinary. >> you heard from president zelensky the next day? >> we had a meeting with him the next day. >> did president zelensky raise any concerns of his view of the call? >> he said, volker, ambassador sondland were in his office and we asked him on the policy. he said the call was fine. i was happy with the call. >> did you get any additional read-out su

security council. is his job secure? and is the job of ambassador sondland sece? we know there were critical statements made about what he said today by the administration! >> well, those are bote h-- theyth people who still work for the administration. and i will say that ambassador o'brn, the new head of the national security council here, has stated publicly that he wi try to shrink what he sees to bp a blod staff here at the national security council. i'll leave tat up to him and his boss, the prflt of the united states, the commande comn chief. but i will tell you i have never and would never question the patriotism of lieutenant colonel vindman. i do not question his patriotism. what i do question in the testifying for hours and hours and hours judy who have never empty the preside, who have never had a conversation with him about his policies in ukrain their view of ukrainian policy is only important in so far as they are executing on the president's agenda. he sets te policy our foreign policy,

and i'm -- for the national security council and the white house. are you the only one of the entire universe of our government or otherwise that could advice the president on ukraine? couldn't someone like miss williams also advise on ukraine? it's in her portfolio. >> that's not typically what would happen. it would be -- frankly, it would be ambassador bolton that -- >> so, other people can advise on ukraine besides you. going on in your testimony, you said, i understand all the nuances to the content and so forth surrounding these issues. i on my judgment went, i expressed concerns within the chain of command which i think to me as a military officer is completely appropriate and i exercise that chain of command. lieutenant colonel vindman, your deposition page 259 you said, i forwarded my concerns through the chain of command and the seniors then decide the action to take. mr. morrison's your senior. he didn't know about it. how can he decide an action to take? but that's what you said. in mr. morrison's deposition, page 60, the question, at wh

national security council. why end with her? fiona was one of the first people to testify during the closed-door sessions. she had a purview of the incidents that happened in the lead up to the phone call on july 25 with president zelensky. she was very knowledgeable about some of the activities taking place as early as march, where rudy giuliani was turning to pop up in ukraine policy and a lot of national security officials were starting to get concerned about that. julyas there until about when she departed from the national security council. tim morrison stepped in. he was there for the fallout with the call but fiona completes the narrative that tim morrison will be offering earlier in the week. the two of them together with their senior roles at -- as director for europe and russia, they really had an important purview. host: plenty of questions, plenty of calls. iris is up first out of michigan, independent. you are on with scott wong and vivian salama. caller: it seems like the president can rub his sto

he reported it to the national security council, johni eisen eisenberg. mulvaney and eisenberg appear several times in the transcript. so this is key testimony and again vindman said he's willing to appear to provide public testimony if so called upon, chris. >> much more to talk about in terms of details of all of this. i want to get a couple of quick questions in though before we go. maya wiley, along the folks who have beenth following this closely. we can understand how these things stood in. it is not necessarily though easy if you have not been following it. my question to you is how do democrats need to approach this. it becomes clear simple and understand how to make the point they wanted to make. >> public hearings where the public adhere directly from experts exactly what the normal process is. what did not happen here in terms of normal process and what was so deeply concerning to national security and so clearly about the president's personal interest. that's essentially the story of if there was nothing wrong here, if this was really about th

a former national security council senior director on europe and russia fiona hill was back to answer committee questions as olivia beaver reports she did not answer questions on the way in. investigating committee has released the transcript of the ukraine ambassador and you could read it on our website c-span.org. intelligence committee chair adam schiff says the transcript from two others kurt volker and u.s. ambassador to the european union will be released tomorrow. in response, president trump tweeted this morning all-time high for the stock market and all the fake news is the impeachment hoax. the brookings institution is hosting impeachment foreign interference and how best to safeguard the 2020 election. c-span will have live coverage of that today at 3:30 p.m. eastern. also coming up this afternoon on c-span two. democratic national committee chair donna brazile and mercedes former white house strategic munication director for president trump will talk about the divisive political climate and how to restore stability. you can see that live today at x 30:00 p.m. eastern. comi

they will hear from kurt volker and tim morrison and national security council director for russia area and watch live coverage of the inquiry hearings on c-span3 and online at c-span.org. >> tv has live weekend coverage of the miami book fair running saturday and sunday featuring author discussions and interactive viewer call in segments. on saturday at 11 am eastern republican senator tom cotten talk about arlington national cemetery. former obama administration national security advisor and un ambassador susan rice discusses her life and career. megan phelps roper on the westboro baptist church, patrick dineen chair of constitutional study at the university of notre dame on liberalism and wired magazine's andy greenberg discusses russian hackers. on sunday at 10:30 a.m. eastern our live coverage continues former under secretary of state in the obama administration richard stangl on the proliferation of disinformation in international politics. pulitzer prize winning journalist david merritt on the 1950s red scare. journaljournalist eleanor randolph discusses michael bloomberg , forme

national security council director alexander vindman representing the white house. joseph pennington representing the embassy and gordon sondland. while ambassador sondland's mandate for the european union, did not include member countries like ukraine he made clear he had direct and frequent access to president trump and chief of staff mick mulvaney and portrayed himself as the conduit to the president and mr. mulvaney for this group. secretary perry, ambassador sondland and ambassador volker styled themselves the three amigos and made clear they would take the lead on coordinating engagement with the zelensky administration. i became aware that mr. giuliani, a private lawyer, was taking a direct role in ukrainian diplomacy. april 25, mr. zelensky's childhood friend and campaign chair was ultimately appointed the head of the security services of ukraine indicated to me privately that he had been contacted by quote someone named giuliani who said he was an advisor to the vice president. i reported that message to deputy assistant secretary of state george kent. over