a superb envoy kurt volker. he quit before testifying's showing trump was pushing to conduct political investigations. for this up to phil moting ima. talk to me about key bits of the volker testimony? >> reporter: most interesting about his testimony the window it provides into both on the u.s. side and on the ukraine side. how rudy giuliani rose to the point he did. where he became essentially the focal point of ukraine policy. not from official or regular channels but ukrainians thinking they needed to talk to kurt volker to get anything to the president to lock in a visit to the white house with the president and how to move forward on funding. one piece republicans telegraphed over the course of the last couple of weeks since his testimony say makes clear the president didn't do anything wrong in regards to a quid pro quo. kurt volker in his testimony says, to my knowledge the news about a hold on security a assistance did not get into ukraine circles until the end of august. by that time we dropped the ide

gordon sondland and ambassador kurt volker. they then briefed president trump on their 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, he just didn't believe it. he was skeptical and he also said i hear he's got some terrible people around here. president trump also told them they believe that ukraine tried to take them down. he told the three amigos talk to rudy. and they did. one of those interactions took place a week before the july 25th phone call between trump and zelensky and ambassador volker had breakfast with rudy giuliani at the trump hotel. volker testified that he pushed back on giuliani's accusation against joe biden. on july 22nd, just days before trump would talk to him, he had a telephone conference, a top advisor to the ukrainian president so that he could be introduced. on july 25th, the same day as a call between president trump and zelens

kurt volker was in that meeting. there is a senator in that meeting as well, came in in the wake of the inauguration. he said, this was a guy they should support. in that meeting, volker made clear in his testimony that the president made clear he was corrupt, that they were terrible people, despite what officials were telling him, saying they needed to talk to rudy because rudy, and i'm paraphrasing here, had basically made clear what was really happening on the ground in the president's perspective on the ground. so it shows how rudy giuliani rose to the position of being a focal point not just for president trump and president trump's views on ukraine and views on foreign policy of ukraine but also the almost desperate need ukranians felt to connect with somebody in the administration to get through to president trump. they identified that after trying to go through official channels, failing to set up a white house meeting, failing to get the way cleared, that they had to go to rudy giuliani. it was their only wa

kurt volker. >> kurt volker is actually on the republicans' witness list. i think they may want to think twice about this. donald trump has embraced kurt volker. he sent a thank you tweet to kurt volker quoting him accur e accurately. you asked what conversations did i have about that quid pro quo, et cetera, none because i didn't know there was a quid pro quo. but kurt volker himself sent a text in july that lays out a quid pro quo. assuming president zelensky convinces trump he will investigate get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down a visit for a date in washington. they need to be careful in embracing kurt volker. he basically says everyone on the policy side of the administration thought it was so important to deliver this foreign aid. >> quickly on tim morrison. >> tim morrison also republicans have listed him as one of their witnesses but again, i think that may be a tactical mistake. he said he heard that july 25th phone call. he said he felt there was nothing illegal or nothing improper, but this is strange. what does he do? i

envoy kurt volker told her that money to ukraine might flow if -- if the ukrainians publicly committed to those political investigations involving the 2016 election and the bidens so what does that tell you? >> well, what we clearly know is that the president of the united states held up $391 million in foreign military aid designed to help our allies and help defend our allies and our national interests against russia who had invaded eastern ukraine and taking over crimea all for the purpose of using it as extortion money to get dirt on a political opponent and that is the situation we're dealing with. >> so does this raise questions about the accuracy of ambassador kurt volker's sworn testimony? >> well, i think what we've seen witness after witness with the exception of ambassador sondland is clear proof that not just did the president ask for specific action by the president of ukraine on the call that we have the transcript of -- not a transcript but a memorandum. but what we are finding with this testimony is that there is an extensive set-up and cover-up that took place before t

also, kurt volker. after that, tim morrison. join the conversation with your text messages and tweets. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal. join the discussion. >> while speaking to reporters on monday, mike pompeo announced that the u.s. will no longer consider israel's west bank settlements inconsistent with international law. other topics included iran's nuclear program. the secretary was also asked about his support for state department following recent testimony from current and former diplomats as part of the house impeachment inquiry. >> good afternoon, everyone. i have several statements i want to make today. starting with a statement about the islamic republic of iran. condemn strongly any acts of violence against the iranian people and are deeply concerned about several fatalities. the islamic republic must cease violence against its own people and should immediately restore access to a free and open internet. the world is watching. the iranian people will enjoy a better future when the government begins to re

kurt volker was president trump's envoy to ukraine. he resigned as soon as he was summoned to testify to the impeachment inquiry. we got his full testimony today. we also got 65 pages of very tiny print printouts of text messages from ambassador volker today. and they were fascinating. we also today got the full testimony that had been delivered on october 17th by eu ambassador gordon sondland. he had been sort of tasked by the president with carrying out this scheme in ukraine despite the fact that ukraine isn't in the eu and therefore wasn't part of his remit as an ambassador. gordon sondland was a major trump inaugural donor. that pears to have been how he got this ambassadorship in the first place. he previously testified in a way that seemed sort of positive for president trump. he testified previously, "let me state clearly. inviting a foreign government to undertake investigations for the purpose of influencing an upcoming u.s. election would be wrong. withholding foreign aid in order to pressure a foreign government to take suc

i've known kurt volker for a very long time. i've admired him. i've talked to him when he got this position, thought it was a good thing. but quite frankly i was terribly disappointed today. he was not only threading a needle, he was splitting hairs right and left all along the way. and indeed, he helped to draft a statement for zelensky while at the same time telling the members incredulously that he really never made the connection between burisma and biden. so what was he doing? he said he was really helping to make a statement that was anti-corruption when in fact the only corruption that was going on here was by the president of the united states. and as others have pointed out today and certainly pointed out in the hearing today, the president has not gone after corruption in turkey. he's not gone after corruption in russia. even only knows he hasn't gone after corruption and murder in saudi arabia. he hasn't gone against corruption with his bromance with kim jong-un. so the president has a long way to go, and wouldn't even include corrupti

kurt volker was president trump's envoy to ukraine. he resigned as soon as he was summoned to testify to the impeachment inquiry. we got his full testimony today. we also got 65 pages of very tiny print printouts of text messages from ambassador volker today. and they were fas sthating. we also today got the full testimony that had been delivered on october 17th by eu ambassador gordon sondland. he had been sort of tasked by the president with carrying out this scheme in ukraine despite the fact that ukraine isn't in the eu and therefore wasn't part of his remit as an ambassador. gordon sondland was a major trump inaugural donor. that pears to have been how he got this ambassadorship in the first place. he previously testified in a way that seemed sort of positive for president trump. he testified previously, "let me state clearly. inviting a foreign government to undertake investigations for the purpose of influencing an upcoming u.s. election would be wrong. withholding foreign aid in order to pressure a foreign government to take su

>> i believe kurt volker has served the u.s. as a public servant very well. >> do either of you have evidence mr. volker committed perjury or lied to this, in his testimony to this committee? do either of you have any evidence that kurt volker perjured himself or lied to this committee in his testimony, ambassador taylor? any evidence? >> mr. turner, i have no evidence. >> mr. kent? >> i believe ambassador volker's deposition was over 400 pages and i don't have it in front of me -- >> but you have no evidence that he lied or perjured himself -- >> i have no way to make that judgment, no, sir. >> we're not in a court gentlemen and if we were the sixth amendment would apply and rules on hearsay and opinion and most of your two testimonies would not be admissible whatsoever but i understand in your profession you deal in words of understanding, words of beliefs and feelings, because in your profession that's what you work with to try to pull together policy and to go in and out of meetings to try to formulate opinions that affect o

first you have special envoy to ukraine kurt volker. there on the left side of your screen, and ambassador to the european union gordon sondland on the right. this is key today. volker quit before testifying and released text messages inkaeding some of ambassador sondland the involvement in u.s. policy. get to volker in a second but focus on sondland who denied a quid pro quo when confronted about it in released text messages. and told house committees in amended testimony that there was a quid pro quo. that there was a quid pro quo involving military aid to ukraine. sondland reveals more details, how having a presence in rudy giuliani was in the u.s. policy with ukraine. sondland speaking here, "again people usually smiled when they heard rudy's name because he was always swirling around somewhere. question, i mean causing serious issues in the u.s. relationship with ukraine. were you raise those with sondland? listen the state department was fully aware and little they could do about it if the president decided he wanted his lawyer in

volker, kurt volker, should be very interesting, as well. this afternoon, as we get ready to turn over the main chair here to >> dana: it is a fascinating day, and that's why you were all going to stay right here. will continue to cover this. we have some more commentary, but we also have word from president trump. he just book a moment ago when we are going to listen to that now. >> pelosi can't get it off her desk. the unions wanted, the farmers want to come of the manufacturers want it. the woman is grossly incompetent and we are having a problem because mexico had canada are calling us saying what is going on? she doesn't need democrats because they're going to vote for it. all she has to do is put it up for a vote. she has said for months now she likes it, she wants it, the woman is grossly incompetent. all she wants to do is focus on impeachment which is just a little pipe dream she's gotten and she can keep playing that game and i've been told, who knows if this is so, i have pretty good authority on it, that she is using usmca becaus

>> i believe kurt volker has served the u.s.s. as a public servant very well. >> do either of you have any evidence that mr. volker committed perjury or lied to this committee in his testimony to this committee? do either of you have any evidence that kurt volker purged himself or lied to this committee in his testimony? ambassador taylor? any evidence? >> mr. turner, i have no evidence. >> mr. kent? >> i believe ambassador volker's deposition was over 400 pages and i don't have it in front of me so i can't -- >> but you have no evidence that he lied or perjured himself. >> i have no judgmen basis to me that judgment. >> we're not in court if we were sixth amendment would apply and hearsay and opinion. most of your testimony would not be admissible whatsoever. i understand in your profession you deal in words of understanding, words of beliefs and feelings because in your profession that's what you work with to try to pull together policy and to go in and out of meetings to try to formulate opinions that affect other people's deci

because as you heard kurt volker and morrison describe a cogent u.s. policy toward ukraine which was the official policy. we oppose the russia's annexation of crimea and want to give them aid to push back the invasion. the fact is this president has repeatedly undermined that u.s. policy not just by words by by actions. he shokin. that ukraine needs to fight back against russia. he has made public statements that maybe crimea belongs to russia and not ukraine. so the president, they were describing a great textbook u.s. policy regarding ukraine. the fact is the president beyond words, his action was undermined. >> you have this picture at the white house that these gentlemen talk about which is, it seems to me, the goal of everybody working there seems to be pretty unified which was how do we get this money to ukraine. and so the president has a meeting with the three amigos, i know volker doesn't like to be called that, but he has a meeting with perry, volker and sondland, says talk to rudy, the ukranians are bad, but talk to rudy. what do they do? th

>> yes. >> so former envoy to ukraine kurt volker attempted to testify. just in his last month testimony, volker attempted to clarify with the meeting between gordon sondland and ukrainian officials but yesterday, that story changed. >> i participated in the july 10th meeting between national security adviser bolton and then ukrainian chairman alex danyliuk. as i remember, the meeting was essentially over when ambassador sondland made a general comment about investigations. i think all of us thought it was inappropriate. the conversation did not continue and the meeting concluded. >> why didn't you tell us about this? >> because that's what i remembered from the meeting, what i provided in my october 3rd statement. as i said, i learned other things including seeing the statements from alex vindman and from fiona hill. and that reminded me that, yes, at the very end of that meeting, as it was recounted in colonel vindman's statement, i did remember that, yes,er that, gordon did bring that up, and that was it. >> so volker also claimed that he did not under

the national security council's p ukraine this afternoon we will hear from ambassor kurt volker whis the former u-s special envoy to uaine... and tim morrison who is white house aide with the national security council. ( james ) and after the break... a south bay prosecutor finds himself in hot ter ... accused ofusing hidaughter to catch child molester. jo ) and i am tracking your bay area forecast. (ácommercialá)(áábreakáá) leftovers? tracfone lets you keep yr leftover data each month unlited carryover data! $2bucks. what are you doing? i want to ask you about your data. oh, i thought u id dating. this is yourake-up call, people. the new tracfo wiress. now you're in control. ( james ) in the east bay. a livermore grandfather was arrested at his home and is now being charged with two cold case sexual assats. both asults happened back in 19- - police at the time knew that dna fthe same man linked the two cas - but they did not have a match to the d-n-a. then investigator discovered a match after suitting that d-n- to thpublicancestry database - the man was arrested at his home a

envoy to nato kurt volker and tim morrison the former national security council advisor. and a cabinet meeting president trump continued his condemnation of the entire inquiry we had 3 what is going on is a disgrace and it's an embarrassment to our nation and 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 for more we can bring in public fully in washington public the committee is still focusing on the coal from trump to the president's alinsky is this cold going to be the smoking gun in this impeachment process. hi anthony well it certainly looks like it because of course you know a lot of the session today has been basically centered around this july 25th phone call between president trump and the ukrainian president. because of course we're hearing from 2 witness who actually 2 witnesses who actually listened in to that call you know as we've seen in the report there you know lieutenant colonel alexander vin you kn

it's not kurt volker free-lancing. it's not some ambassador. >> it's not rudy giuliani. >> it's not rudy giuliani. it's not these shady ukrainians. one person. the president of the united states. only he can say stop that aid. i'm demanding something for it. >> and, you know, with all of these staffers lawyering up, there is some concern you see here being expressed that the white house, his lawyers are going to try to create a fall guy. whether it's mick mulvaney or rudy giuliani. but what you see again in this testimony here is that that is going to explode because all of these witnesses are backing each other up that they were working together to try and figure out what it would take to appease trump. they weren't the ones who were orchestrating this below him. they were trying to come together. they all wanted the aid released. nobody thought this was a great idea. even the three amigos, who were the political appointees, wanted to try and get this aid released. >> let me just put something broader on the table. i

and this time we'll be hearing from two men on the republican list of witnesses; kurt volker, who was formerly the state departments special envoy to ukraine and tim morrisson who was the top national security council expert on russia, until he resigned before his closed—door testimony last month. so, let's take a closer look at the two of them. morrison, a career diplomat, whose testimony, like volker‘s, may lean towards the republican line of defence. morrison was on thejuly 25th call. he has testified previously that he was not concerned anything illegal was discussed. but he also revealed that the eu ambassador, gordon sondland, had told him that ukrainian military aid would only be released if they announced an investigation into the bidens. and morrison said the ambassador had told him he was acting on donald trump's request. as for kurt volker, he is one of the so called "three amigos", along with gordon sondland, the eu ambassador and the energy secretary, rick perry. the democrats say they were the core of a second diplomatic channel in ukraine that was pushing for the in

and late today, kurt volker, whoch theed before he saw nothing that indicated a quid pro quo, today, he added, hate he known what this was all about, investigating the 2016 election and burisma, what he called conspiracy theories, he would have objected. abc's mary bruce leads us off tonight from the hill. >> reporter: for the first time today, the american people hearing from first-hand witnesses who were listening to that infamous call at the center of this impeachment inquiry. >> do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> reporter: lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, a decorated war veteran and top ukraine expert on the national security council. he came to the u.s. when he was just 3 years old. his family fleeing from the soviet union. he began his testimony with a message to his father. >> dad, i'm sitting here today in the u.s. capitol, as proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the soviet union and come here to the united states of america in search of a be

>> i believe kurt volker has served the u.s. as a public servant very well. >> do either of you have evidence that mr. volker has committed perjury or lied to this committee in his testimony? ambassador taylor, any evidence? >> mr. turner, i have no evidence. >> mr. kent? >> i believe ambassador volker's deposition was over 400 pages, and i don't have it in front of me, so i can't -- >> but you have no evidence that he lied or perjured himself? >> i have no basis to say that, no. >> amendment 6 would apply, and most of your two testimonies would not be admissible whatsoever. but i understand in your profession you deal in words of understanding, words of belief and feelings, because in your profession that's what you work with to try to pull together policy and to go in and out of meetings try to formulate opinions that affect other people's decision making. ambassador taylor, have you ever prepared for a meeting with a president or prime minister of a country? or were you told one thing before you went into the meeting as to wh

so gordon sondland and kurt volker adding more clarity to this situation. garrett haake continues to go through the documents for us. mimi rocah, thank you. we'll continue digging through the transcripts and bring you more as we get it. we'll be right back. d bring you more as we get it. we'll be right back. >>> thanks for watching "velshi & ruhle." i'm going to hand it over to chris jansing. the light just gets brighter with each piece of testimony. >> it does indeed. we're getting to see the role rudy giuliani played, how everybody watched him for signals that they thought were coming from the president. ali, we'll see you back here in an hour. good afternoon, i am chris jansing in for katy tur. we're expecting new transcripts any moment now from the two key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry as democrats put more of their investigation out into the open. this is day 43 of the impeachment inquiry, and here's what's happening. democrats have just released excerpts from the transcripts of their closed door depositions with gordon sondland and former speci

envoy to nato kurt volker and tim morrison the former national security council advisor. and a cabinet meeting president trump continued his condemnation of the entire inquiry we had 3 what is going on is a disgrace and it's an embarrassment to our nation and 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 our correspondent pablo folio u.s. has been following the hearings in washington he sent us this is us mint. well the 3rd day of the public hearings in the trump impeachment inquiry focused very much on 2 witnesses who actually listened in to the 25th of july phone call between president donald trump and the ukrainian president volunteer selenski both witnesses and 1st a 10 colonel who actually works in the white house and then and aide to vice president mike pence both said independently of each other that the president's political demands in the phone call in july were inappropriate and it caused them concern now we als

diplomat kurt volker and former nsc staff member tim morrison. volker denied any link between the holdup of military aid and investigations that the president wanted. today he's changing his tune, acknowledging that while he was not aware of any specific condition placed on the military aid for ukraine, he says it is now clear to him that there was after all a link. with us, with me, msnbc chief legal correspondent and host of "the beat," ari melber. we're also joined by msnbc legal analyst maya wily who worked in the southern district of new york, former senator from missouri, claire mccaskill, both our rear ends are glued to our seats because we've been sitting here so long. and ned price, former senior director and spokesperson for the national security council, joins us. we're also joined by axios' jonathan swan. jonathan, i know you've been covering multiple sort of threads today on the white house beat, but take me inside the dynamics for republicans and having these two witnesses who were supposed to sort of take the pressure off, perhaps,

now, kurt volker did have contact. mr ambassador taylor, you said he is a man of the highest integrity. he served as the ambassador and the director of the mccain institute, the highest professional. he is a truthful man. mr kent, would you agree that he is of the highest integrity? i believe kurt volker has served the us as a public servant very well. do have evidence that kurt volker committed perjury? or lied in his testimony? do either of you have any evidence that kurt volker perjured himself or light to this committee in his testimony —— make or lied? i have no evidence. i believe ambassador volker's statement was over 400 pages. but you do not have any evidence? i have no basis. we are not in court, gentlemen. if we were, six would apply. but i understand in your profession, you did in words of understanding, words of beliefs and feelings because in your profession, thatis feelings because in your profession, that is what you work with, to pull together policy and go in and out of meetings to try to formulat

on the other hand, kurt volker didn't turn out, as you said, to be the witnesses the republican side thought they were going to be. he extolled the virtues of joe biden, and several times was given the opportunity to say in effect he didn't believe any of these stories about vice president biden, and he shouldn't because they're fictitious. they've the product of the imagination of donald trump and rudy giuliani. i think the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place, and they're revealing a quite considerable months-long conspiracy of sorts to extort the ukrainian government. and you saw that today when the republicans -- they're not even contesting that story that's appearing before our eyes, witness after witness. they're just throwing up flares to divert our attention, and i thought, don, the bullying, the mean spiritedness of some of the republican members, going after the character of lieutenant colonel vindman, accusing him of having dual loyalties to ukraine, which of course is an old trope in american politics and a very ugly one. and then donald trump jr. taking

volker whoance kurt is a special emissary to ukraine. >> mr. volker testified. so did mr. morrison. those witnesses are on the list. mr. hail is on the list. those are the witnesses i have in mind that this is not my decision. i can't speak for the chairman. those witnesses do have material information about the president's conduct in this case. that's the proper focus in this inquiry. >> the republican party put forward a list of suggested witnesses they would like to see called. hunter biden and his business partner. is it safe to say they will never come before the house intelligence committee? >> we are not going to go back in time and revisit conspiracy theories implicated in the president's call. it was the former secretary of homeland security who told jake tapper that he was telling the president that watch of -- much of what the president alleged in that phone call about the ukrainians involvement in 2016 was just nonsense. 2016.'t want to revisit if people have relevant information we want to hear from them. no to the bidens. >> i don't see evidence that anything improper

volker to call you, you left a message for kurt volker, kurt volker sent this message to prepare zelensky, and then president trump had a phone call where president zelensky spoke very similar to what was in this text message, right? >> right. >> and you would agree that the message that is expressed here is that president zelensky needs to convince trump that he would do the investigations in order to nail down the date for a visit to washington d, d.c., is that correct? >> that's correct. >> now, i'm going to move ahead in time to the end of august and early september when you came to believe, i believe as you testified, that it wasn't just the white house meeting that was contingent on the announcement of these investigations, that the president wanted, but security assistance as well. you testified that in the absence of any credible explanation for the hold on security assistance, you came to the conclusion that, like the white house visit, the aid was continued on the investigations that president trump wanted. is that what you said in your opening statement? >> it is. >> so let me

volker, all working with this shadow foreign policy in ukraine to get the ukrainian officials to open investigations that would be politically beneficial to president trump. >> and in fact we're just hearing from our producer, frank, on the hill with you, that those transcripts could be released any time now, so people can stand by for those. phil, let's talk about mick mulvaney. it's been a rough few weeks for him at the white house. now he's waving off a subpoena. on the one hand, maybe that's one way to get back in the president's good graces. on the other hand, we're hearing he was told to ignore it.

special envoy to ukraine kurt volker and gordon song the current u.s. ambassador to the e.u. witnesses have said the vulcan song played a key role in trump's unofficial channel to ukrainian government officials trump is accused of withholding military aid to ukraine unless the country investigated his democratic rival joe biden. well shiver clancy joins us live now from washington d.c. with the latest on this 1st of all she had but what does the testimony this latest testimony reveal. you know it's a funny thing barbara you wait all day for 2 transcripts and 3 suddenly turned up because actually it's slightly superseding the 2 transcripts from the depositions in october suddenly the new york times has come out with a report about gordon sundin having given extra testimony earlier earlier this week i believe it was where he sort of changed just you know but we knew earlier on in his to in his deposition he'd said oh he had no idea there was a quid pro quo all of any sort of allegation of a quid pro quo regarding. get on the ukrainians doing some sort of investigation into corr

special envoy to ukraine kurt volker and gordon saw the current us ambassador to the e.u. witnesses have said that volcker in sunland played a key role in trump's unofficial channel to ukrainian government officials trump is accused of withholding military aid to ukraine unless it investigated his democratic rival joe biden she has will. they do give us warm but we're expecting more of that kind of gossipy detail granular detail whenever kurt volker the only boy the special on board ukraine all song and the e.u. ambassador would say to donald trump can we talk about ukraine and stuff like that from what always i talk to rudy talk to rudy rudy giuliani being trump's personal personal lawyer one good soul and the e.u. ambassador said to mike compare the secretary of state what you do about this is a bit weird might compare apparently rolled his eyes and said yeah well that's something we just have to live with iranian president hassan rouhani says his country will begin injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at an underground enrichment facility from wednesday it's the force

." < transition >in the afternoon: kurt volker, former us special envoy to ukrai, and tim morrison, a national curity counc seor director, will face e committee.both have largel defended the presidents' actions... but their closed door testimony was used t verify the initial whistleblower complaint. president trump, who continues to say he has done nothing wrong, said in a tweet...< take graphic >"the rules are rigged bpelosi and schiff, but we are winning and we will win." < end package >< take kellie tag >it all starts t 9am eastern - the secd set picks up at 230 eastern. a long day here onapit hill. (áboxesá) thanks kellie. ( james )( james ) kellie. thanks kellie. ( james ) and we will be streaming the hearings live from start to finish on our kron on app. you can watch the hearingsuninterrupted. all you have to do is go to e app store to download the app. ( james ) still ahead. cold case arrest in the east bay. how investitors cracked the case after more than two dedes. ( james ) and new details on t deadly shooting in fresno that kill 4 people. police say the gunman rgeted the

council, are requests from republicans. kurt volker, he says no quid pro quo. they didn't believe the president did anything illegal. however, he did raise concerns about some of the individuals involved with the foreign policy related to ukraine. so did tim morrison. he was on the call. he made clear he was on the call. and made clear, various elements of the ukraine/u.s. policy, were problems in their roles. that's tuesday's hearing. i want to flash forward real quick. on thursday, a new individual has been added to the testimony list. that would be david holmes. he's the u.s. embassy in ukraine official, that overheard the phone call between sondland and president trump at an outdoor tavern. that's now become central to the impeachment inquiry. that will come on thursday. like i said, it will be a long week. get ready. >> thanks, phil. >>> some of the explicit firsthand detail was revealed in new transcripts. david holmes, he heard sondland tell trump the operation was prepared to move forward. he was taken aback by the conversation and the lack of security.

those are folks who have already been deposed, including kurt volker, tim morrison, and david hale, a state department official. those three we have seen transcripts for one. waiting on the other two. it is entirely possible that those three will get called because although their testimony may line up more with what republicans want to hear, there's probably some rhetorical value for democrats to give republicans one, two, some of the folks they have asked for to say that the process has been more fair than republicans have claimed thus far. >> pamela, can you give me some analysis of the democratic strategy so far? the testimony, the depositions they've taken of which we've seen some transcripts and the fact that some of those people who have given depositions will return to give in-person testimony live on tv, public testimony, this week. and then this defense that we are seeing being formed by the republicans. >> yes, absolutely.

let's talk about the kurt volker testimony. nia, let me start with you. question, this is about volker's concern about rudy giuliani spreading conspiracy theories about ukraine. question, ambassador volker in your opening statement you referred to a problem you had to deal with. answer yes. this is the problem. question, rudy giuliani was the problem? answer, the negative narrative about ukraine which mr. giuliani was furthering the problem, it wasn't my view it was impeding our ability to build the relationship the way we should be doing it as i understood it and he also talks about how when he heard that giuliani was going to ukraine to talk to a former prosecutor he called up and said this guy is not credible and don't listen to it. but this cost one u.s. ambassador her job? >> yeah. and rudy giuliani obviously all over the transcripts, all over sort of the president's plan and the idea that president seemed to have had for many months if not years that ukraine was somehow out to get him. that they were part of the 2016 plot to interfere in the electio

this afternoon we will hear from 2 witnesses requested by the minority ambassador kurt volker the state department's special representative for ukraine to go she is and tim morrison the senior former senior director for european affairs at the national security council i appreciate the minorities request for these 2 important witnesses as well as undersecretary of state david hale from whom we will hear tomorrow as we have heard from other witnesses when joe biden was considering whether to enter the race for the presidency in 2020 the president's personal lawyer rudy giuliani began a campaign to weaken vice president biden's 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 marie yvonne of each the american ambassador in kieve was known for pushing anti corruption efforts trump and also cancel vice president mike pence his participation in the aga aeration of presidents alinsky on may 20th and instead sent a delegation headed by energy secr

later lawmakers will hear from kurt volker former u.s. special envoy to ukraine and ten 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

that said, we learned plenty today including from two witnesses, kurt volker and tim morrison, who showed a degree of sympathy for elements of the president's case. first, though, lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who, safe to say, did not. he was outraged by what he heard on the july 25th and driven by duty, he says, by the country that took his family in. >> i'm grateful for my father's brave act of hope 40 years ago and for the privilege of being an american citizen and public servant where i can live free, free of fear for mine and my family's safety. dad, i'm sitting here today in the u.s. capitol, talking to our elected professionals. talking to our elected professionals is proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the soviet union and come here to the united states of america in search of a better life for our family. do not worry. i will be fine for telling the truth. >> i will be fine for telling the truth, he said. colonel vindman was asked about the president's biden allegations. so was jennifer williams, who is a special adviser on europe and russia to vi

in a whatsapp message, kurt volker told me in part, spoke with rudy per guidance from s. s is the state department official designator. spoke with rudy per guidance from s. look, we tried our best to fix the problem. while keeping the state department and the nsc closely apprised of the challenges we faced. on july 25th, presidents trump and zelensky had their official call. i was not on the call. i don't think i was invited to be on the call. in fact, i first read the transcript on september 25th, the day it was publicly released. all i had heard at that time was that the call had gone well. looking back, i find it very odd, very odd that neither i nor ambassador volker ever received a detailed readout of that call with the biden references. now there are people who say they had concerns about the call, but no one shared any concerns about the call with me at the time, which frankly would have been very helpful to know. on july 26th, ambassador taylor, ambassador volker and i were all meeting with president zelensky. the timing of that trip, immediately after the call be

volker will also appear on tuesday. >> kurt volker, remember, is a former career service officer. kurt volker knew what normal foreign policy looks like. >> reporter: the week's final witness fiona hill expected to describe what she saw as a nightmare scenario, private interests driving u.s. policy. >> where do you think everybody needs to be at the end of next week? >> i think democrats need to be in a position where they can say we are confident in this case and i think the republicans just need to be at place of either there's doubt about this case, doubt about whether it's true, or maybe it happened, but it's not serious enough to merit impeachment. >> reporter: high stakes heading into a potentially explosive week of testimony. we're adjourned. >> there you have it. this all tees up what begins tomorrow morning. eight more witnesses. erica hill, thank you for that. >>> ahead mayor pete surges, a poll puts him at the head of the pack in iowa, a look at that and the challenges his candidacy faces. excuse me a minute... hi dad. no. don't try to get up. hi, i'm julie, a right at

kurt volker. and kurt volker didn't mention the july 10th meeting with congress. then when they asked him about it in his deposition he says, oh, it was just a meeting that fell flat. it was a missed opportunity. and then they say specifically were investigations mentioned? and he says no. he's in deep trouble on that one. he's in deep trouble on another one. he says the idea of getting the ukrainians to make a statement was something that he, kurt volker, stopped that from happening in mid to late august. george kent says, no, it was going on after that because they were trying to get president zelensky in the cnn interview. >> right. >> and that went well into late september. so he's got a number of things that are actually very concrete and contradicted by extraordinarily incredible witnesses on other side. >> so how does he clean this up? the deposition, the lawyer takes you out and the witness needs to -- and i comes back he comes cleans up the perjured testimony. can he do something to clean it up so he doesn't end up going to jail like so many of donald tru

the -- ambassador sondland and kurt volker. after returning from the inauguration, members of the delegation briefed president trump on their encouraging interactions with the ukrainian administration and urged the president to meet with the linsky, but his reaction was hostile. clearesident's order was -- talk with rudy. becamedor sondland first aware of what they were interested in. this whole thing was sort of a continuum, he testified at his deposition, starting at the may 23 meeting, ending up at the end of the line when the transcript came out. that becametinuum more insidious over time. the three amigos were disappointed when trump -- with trump's decision to engage giuliani but pressed ahead. withhite house meeting president zelinski, they deemed crucial, or do as president trump directed and talk to mr. giuliani to address the president's concerns. they chose the latter path. in the coming weeks, ambassador sondland got more involved, starting with the june for mission to the eu. , and the state department counselor, a

volker has served the u.s. as a public servant very well do either of you have any evidence that mr volcker committed perjury or lied to this committee in his test him in his testimony of this committee do either of you have any evidence that kurt volker perjured himself or lied to this committee in his testimony investor taylor any evidence mr i've no evidence scant. i believe volcker's deposition was over 400 pages and i don't have it in front of me so i can't get what you have no evidence that he lied or perjured i have no basis to make that judgment no matter what we're not in a court gentleman and if we were the 6th amendment would apply and so would rules on hearsay and opinion and most of your 2 testimonies would not be admissible whatsoever but i understand in your profession you deal in words of understanding words of beliefs and feelings because in your profession that's what you work with to try to pull together policy and to go in and out of meetings to try to formulate opinions that affect other pe

kurt volker is saying biden was in the right? >> the question is whether he had other motives and whether there were other reasons he was doing it and in addition to those, quote, legitimate motives that were talked about and that we don't know and that's what the president wants to find out and whether there was something else that the vice president knew at the time, and that this approximately see that was at the top was consistent with something that he wanted to accomplish on a personal level. >> joe, even with the special envoy to ukraine saying that therehe wanted to accomplish on personal level. >> joe, even with the special envoy to ukraine saying that there was nothing there there. >> i think what is curious to me is the republican talking point for the last two days is this is second and third-hand information. first off, there's a lot of first-hand information, but it's the president who is keeping mick mulvaney from testifying, rick perry from testifying, and mike pompeo from testifying. these are people who have fir

kurt volker and gordon sondland. both worked with rudy giuliani on a

you left a message for kurt volker. kurt volker sent this text message to andre yermak to president zelensky and president trump had a phone call where plt zelensky spoke similar to this text message, right? >> right. >> you agree the message is that president zelensky needs to convince trump that he will do the investigations in order to nail down the tate for a visit to washington, d.c., is that correct? >> that's correct. >> now, i'm going to move ahead in time to the end of august and early september, when you came to believe, i believe as you testified, that it wasn't just the white house meeting that was contingent on the announcement of these investigations, that the president wanted but security assistance as well. you testified that in the absence of any credible explanation for the hold on security assistance, you came to the conclusion that, like the white house visit, the aide was conditioned on the investigation that president trump wanted. is that what you said in your opening statement? >> it is. >> so le

in a whatsapp message, kurt volker told me in part, spoke with rudy per guidance from s. s. is the state department's official designator for the secretary. spoke with rudy per guidance from s. look, we tried our best to fix the problem. while keeping the state department and the nsc closely apprised of the challenges we faced. on july 25th, presidents trump and zelensky had their official call. i was not on the call. and i don't think i was invited to be on the call. in fact, i first read the transcript on september 25th, the day it was publicly released. all i had heard at that time was that the call had gone well. looking back, i find it very odd, very odd, that neither i nor ambassador taylor nor ambassador volker ever received a detailed readout of that call with the biden references. now, there are people who say they had concerns about the call. but no one shared any concerns about the call with me at the time, which frankly would have been very helpful to know. on july 26th, ambassador taylor, ambassador volker, and i were all in kiev to meet with president zelensky.

we have excerpts first from the joint interview with kurt volker, special representative for ukraine, negotiations conducted on october 3rd. house permanent select committee on intelligence house committee on oversight and reform, so on and so forth. what happened to that statement? no one when we started using a tempo of engagement with ukraine, we had first the sense that rudy giuliani is not going to be convinced that it meant anything. it feels out of context, i want to go to you, judy, because we are just reading it as it is happening. >> i don't expect to hear anything that is inconsistent with what we have already heard, and that is everything that we have heard supports the testimony or the statement of the whistle-blower, and kurt volker is a very important figure in this. and i think that his naming of rudy giuliani is being effectively the shadow for administer, the shadow secretary of state. >> harris: this is torn from pages 226-227. there are several hundred like we said. not everybody would agree with that assessment, but some say that it really bolsters the president.