in july 2018 i was asked to serve at the white house national security council. at the nsc, i'm the principal adviser to the national security adviser on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio. my role at the nsc is to develop, coordinate, implement plans and policies to manage the economic national security issues of the countries in my portfolio. my core function is to coordinate policy with departments and agencies. the committee has heard from many of my colleagues about the strategic importance of ukraine against a bull work of russian aggression. our country's policy of ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, instructing 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. president zelensky's election in april 2019 created aroun unprecedented opportunity to realize our strategic objectives. in the spring of 2019 i became aware of two disruptive actors, primarily ukraine's then prosecutor, lu and r

security council so and that's a national security council of this nature would make her contributions to international crisis management faster and more effective it could also make an important contribution to how we formulate foreign policy strategy through foresighted agenda setting. so for more on that i'm joined by our chief political editor. we say that tell us more about this idea of a national security council how is it supposed to work. well you didn't go into the nitty gritty details but clearly here she is aiming for more streamlined policy geared towards german national security interests in this national security council and that would stretch from economic policy but also to international development aid this is something like that countries like the united states have been doing for decades here in germany is something of a novelty and it could meet quite a bit of resistance here in germany as well and the defense minister. also outlined new priorities and a vision for the german armed forces what did she say she basically said that germany needs to be engaged more that

made a report about it to his national security council attorney he thought it was a political call in nature that's exactly what jennifer williams the vice president's national security advisor on ukraine said she thought as well but you know sam there's another part that jumped out at me which was the republican ranking members attempt to out the identity or more information at least about the whistleblower yeah if you listen to that part of a new naz was asking then men who he had spoken with about this phone call outside of the white house an attempt to bait out this information then answered he had spoken with someone from the state department which we all knew about and that he had in the course of his official duties connecting with other government agencies he'd spoken with someone in the intelligence community for those of us who've been following the story we all know that can only be one person which is the whistleblower then newness asked them which agency taking that a step further you could see then mince discomfort in the silence and his hesitation to answer and that's o

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

security interests in this national security council and that would stretch from economic policy but also to international development aid this is something like that countries like the united states have been doing for decades here in germany is something of a novelty and it could meet quite a bit of resistance here in germany as well the defense minister. also outlined new priorities and a vision for the german armed forces what did she say. well she basically said that germany needs to be engaged more that it has to become more of a player strategically and she didn't which usually is what you hear from german politicians including the german chancellor angela merkel that did not exclude committing more troops to regions like this are held area where germany already has troops stationed in the country of mali but she also mentioned the indo-pacific that there needed to a push be a push back towards china joining allies there this is a completely new take a new commitment she's a voice there and quite clearly this is not german government policy but this is the woman who wants to b

fiona hill also served on the national security council. kylie, what did she say about the same meeting? >> fiona hill describes that july 10 meeting we've put so much focus on, and she describes what was said by ambassador sondland to the ukranians. she said, quote, as i came in, ambassador sondland was saying, quote, how he had an agreement with chief of staff mulvaney for a meeting with the ukranians if they were going to go forward with investigations. she was frustrated by that. we now have reports that she went to the white house lawyers and discussed with them what went down in those meetings. the other thing to recognize here is fiona hill had been at the white house essentially since day one as a top russia adviser to president trump, and she is painting a picture of how she came to know about the role of rudy giuliani, the president's personal lawyer. she was never briefed that he had a formal role with regard to ukraine policy, but the interesting thing here is that she had a conversation with ambassador sondland, the u.s. ambass

in july, 2018, i was asked to serve at the white house national security council. at the nsc, i'm the principal adviser to the national security adviser on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio. my role at the nsc is to develop, coordinate and implement plans and policies to mansion the full range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic national security issues with the countries in my portfolio. my core function is to coordinate policy with departments and agencies. the committee has heard from many of my colleagues about the strategic importance of ukraine as a bulwark against russian aggression. it's important to know that our country's policy of supporting ukrainian sovereignty and integrity, promoting prosperity and a free ukraine as a counter to russian aggression has been a consistent, bipartisan foreign objective across various administrations but both democratic and republican. and zelensky's election in 2019 created an opportunity to realize our strategic obje objecttives. in spring of 2019, i became aware of two actors, shengco and giul

the national security council's top ukraine expert.( daa ) this afternoon we will hear from ambassador kurt volker who is the former u-s specl envoy to ukraine... and timmorrison who is a ite house aide with the national security council.( james ) karin caifa is live washington d-c this morning with the latest. karin. thanks karin. ( james ) and we will be from start to finish on our kron on app. you can watch the hearings uninterrupted. all you have to do is go to the app store to download e app. darya folsom.. (james) and i'm james fletcher. lets start the morning with a check of wther and traffic... weather.weather.weather. no major hot spots. bay bridge wb 80 is less then 30 min from the maze to sf. san mateo bridge less then 30 min from 880 to 101. golden gat bridge drive time less than 30 min fr 37 to the toll plaza. richmond toll plaza. from 37 to t than 30 min drive ti less gat bridge to 101. golden min from 880less then 30 mateo bridge maze to sf. san bridge wb 80 is sps. bay no major t no mor hot spots. bay bridge wb 80 is less then 30 min from the maze to sf. san mateo bridg

they started the hearing test my with national security council european affairs director lieutenant colonel alexander vindman who you see on the right of your screen and jennifer williams and a device president mike pence. they are expected to take a break for lunch and then reconvene at about 2:30 p.m. eastern. they will question kurt volker and ten ten morrison, national security council director for russia. live coverage on c-span3. also online at c-span.org. secretary of state mike pompeo talk about foreign affairs during a news conference yesterday he discusses israel's west bank, iran's nuclear program, the hong kong protest and the political situation in iraq. >> good afternoon, everyone. i i have some statements i wanto make today, starting with a statement about the islamic republic of iran. the united states is monitoring the ongoing protests in iran closely. we condemn strongly in acts of violence committed by this regime against the iranian people and are deeply concerned by reports that several fatalities. we've been at that since the beginning of this administration. t

concerned by the call and he immediately reported it to national security council attorneys jennifer williams who works in the vice president's office said she thought the call was inappropriate and unusual and those characterizations of the call have earned both of these witnesses the ire of president trump was attacked both on twitter as never trumper as without offering any evidence that's particularly problematic as other republicans have come to the defense of colonel then men who served the u.s. army was a wounded veteran from iraq and who had fled persecution in the soviet union when he was a young child with his family so these are 2 individuals who democrats will try to prop up as sympathetic and compelling witnesses to tell the story to the american public however the hurdle that democrats face as they try to build this case to appease president trump is much higher they have to connect that trump they making the case that trump withheld security aid to ukraine with the purpose of using it as leverage to get those investigations into his rivals and to answer that question t

embassy in kieve also with us is dr fiona hill who's job as a national security council senior director for european and russian affairs and compass the coordination of u.s. policy towards ukraine dr hill left the n.s.c. in july after more than 2 years in that position dr hill and mr holmes each provide a unique perspective on issues relating to ukraine dr hill from washington d.c. and mr holmes from on the ground in kieve in early 2019 dr hill became concerned by the increasing prominence of rudy giuliani the president's personal lawyer who was as she has testified asserting quite frequently on television in public appearances that he had been given some authority over matters related to ukraine it was not alone in her concerns her boss national security adviser john bolton was also paying attention as were other n.s.c. and state department officials including homes at the u.s. embassy in kieve bolton viewed giuliani as a hand grenade that is going to blow everybody up. and was powerless to prevent the former mayor from engineering former u.s. ambassador to ukraine maria on a bitch is

two national security council lawyers and senior budget official and two aides who were requested and not subpoenas but requested didn't show up, a energy adviser and a budget aid. at a certain point do you worry this makes the white house look like they have something to hide? >> i think it exemplifies the phishing expedition. the folks listed on there have absolutely zero to do, wells griffith and some folks are far removed from any of this -- >> well one of them put the rough transcripts into the secret -- >> no that -- correct. but i'm saying the laundry list of people, it appears that -- so i don't believe there is any political blowback for them not appearing. >> what do you think? >> mulvaney obviously is not a phishing trip. >> but the list of seven or eight -- >> and we start with mulvaney and if he doesn't show up. it is a good one they should stick to with televised and he said at the time, absolutely no

security council as related to ukraine and u.s. security sector assistance to that country i will provide you the most complete and accurate information i can consistent with my obligations to protect classified and privileged information whether the conduct that is the subject of this inquiry merits impeachment is a question for the u.s. house of representatives i peer here today only to provide factual information based upon my knowledge and recollection of events i will not waste time restating the details of my opening statement from my deposition on october 31 2019 which has recently been made public however i will highlight the following key points 1st as i previously stated i do not know who the whistleblower is nor do i intend to speculate as to the individual maybe 2nd i have great respect for my former colleagues from the n.s.c. and the rest of the inner agency i am not here today to question their character or integrity my recollections and judgments are my own some of my colleagues recollections of conversations in inte

hill is a former senior director for europe and russia on the national security council. she was a senior fellow at the brookings institution where she directed the center on the united states and europe. she previously worked at the national intelligence council and the john f. kennedy school of government. david holmes is the political counselor at the u.s. embassy in kyiv where he serves as the senior policy and political adviser to ambassador taylor who testified earlier in these hearings. he is a career foreign service officer. he has previously served in moscow, new dehli, kabul. he has served as a special assistant to the united states secretary of state. two final points before our witnesses are sworn. first, witness depositions as part of this inquiry were unclassified in nature, and all open hearings will also be held at the unclassified level. any information that may touch on classified information will be addressed separately. second, congress will not tolerate any reprisal, threat of reprisal or attempt to retaliate against any u.s. government official for t

security council? let's move on to what the president was saying about the usmca. he is saying nancy pelosi is basically holding up a vote on usmca to try to get votes for impeachment and that that is inappropriate and that she is incompetent. there is not much time left to get this bill done before the end of the session. what can the white house try to do to put pressure on them? >> there is not a lot. as the president said, this deal was negotiated over a year ago. it's been sitting in congress. no substantial changes have been made. is being held out because they were 31 democrats residing in trump districts so if you go on to impeachment, i will give you a usmca vote. we talked about democrats saying there's a quid pro quo and a need to change the language of bribery. there is nothing quite like that saying i'm not going to give you a vote until i get your commitment on impeachment. but there's something else happening this week. on thursday, the government runs out of money. and that appropriatio

security council. tim morrison is leaving that job, and his employment future is entirely dependent on the good graces of republican in washington. either as a lobbyist with access to republicans or with any future government position. tim morrison seemed to be looking for ways to keep his options open in future republican employment in his testimony today when he tried to be as generous as possible to the president saying things like, i am pleased our process gave the president the confidence he needed to approve the release of the security sector assistance for ukraine. but the process tim morrison actually described was consistent with the completely corrupted process that included rudy giuliani and was described in testimony already by ambassador william taylor and lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. in his testimony today tim morrison described that process in these terms. ambassador sondland and president trump's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, were trying to get president zelensky to reopen uk

in july 2018 i was asked to serve at the white house national security council at the n.s.c. i'm the principal advisor to the national security advisor on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio my role at the n.s.c. is to develop coordinate and implement plans and policies to manage the full range of diplomatic informational military and economic and national security issues the countries in my portfolio my core function is to coordinate policy with departments and agencies the committee has heard from many of my colleagues about the strategic importance of ukraine as a bulwark against russian aggression is important to know their countries policy of supporting ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity promoting ukraine prosperity 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 that president delivers his election in april 2900 created an unprecedented opportunity to realize our strategy a strate

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. now sources tell cbs news the president is demanding to know why a man he calls "a spy" is still working for him. >> i knew i was assuming a lot of risk. >> reporter: many trump appointees at the white house are refusing to work with vindman and were annoyed when cbs cameras caught vindman smiling and taking selfies as he returned to work on wednesday. sources expect vindman to be forced out before his detail ends next summer. national security adviser robert o'brien, speaking on "face the nation" earlier this week, suggested vindman could be pushed out. >> lieutenant colonel vindman who has testify under oath is serving on the national security council currently. will he continue to work for you despite testifying against the president? >> one of the things i talked about is we're streamlining the national security council. >> reporter: the white house does not deny any of our reporting on how vindman is being treated. and today, these attacks extended to the president's allies. one

top ukraine expert on the national security council. he will be sworn in as will jennifer williams, she will walk in we're told momentarily as well. >> and, you know, check out the uniform. pretty impressive. >> also very hard i think to delegitimize folks like this who have made such a commitment to the united states to serve the country, to serve in the mill tea or are as ambassador yovanovitch to serve overseas. this notion that they can be dismissed as deep state figures doesn't really wash. >> and on that point, i think to lieutenant colonel vindman and miss williams and all the others who served in anonymity, served without ever thinking that they would have this day being photographed, on television, testifying in front of congress -- >> and need security. >> and need security potentially the rest of their lives. this is the moment that they will look back upon that changed the course of their lives. i can tell you as someone who has been through a very similar experience, it is head-spinning, it is completely disorienting. but i

and i served on the national security council staff as director for of afghanistan and as a special assistant to the undersecretary of state my prior overseas assignments include new delhi india kabul afghanistan bogota colombia and pristina kosovo as the political counselor at the u.s. embassies embassy in kiev i lead the political section covering ukraine's internal politics foreign relations and security policies and i serve as the senior policy and political embassador to the about advisor to the ambassador the job of an embassy political counselor is to gather information about the host country's political landscape to report back to washington to represent u.s. policies to foreign contacts and to advise the ambassador on policy development and implementation in this role i'm a senior member of the embassies country team and continually involved in addressing issues as they arise i'm also often called upon to take notes in meetings involving ambassador or visiting senior u.s. officials with ukrainian counterparts for this reason i've been present in many of the meetings with presidents a

in preparation for the july 25th phone call it's standard for the national security council to provide talking points is that correct correct because the words of the president carry incredible weight is that not correct that is correct so it's important to ensure that everyone has carefully considered the implications of what the president might say to a foreign leader that is correct colonel binmen you are the national security council's director for ukraine did you participate in preparing the talking points for the president's call i did i prepared them so you prepared them they were then reviewed and edited by multiple senior officers the n.s.c. and the white house is that correct that is correct. did the talking points for the president contain any discussion of investigations into the 2016 election the bidens or charisma they did not are you aware of any written product from the national security council suggesting that investigations into the 2016 election the bidens or barisan are part of the official policy of the united states no i am not some of president trumps allies have

today we have scheduled depositions where the top lawyer from the national security council mister blair from omb and someone working closely with mulvaney both of them defied congressional subpoenas and refused to appear for scheduled depositions as has been the case with other witnesses who have done the same thing. this will be further evidence of an effort by the administration to obstruct the lawful and constitutional duties of congress. we expect the witnesses who have been subpoenaed also to be no-shows. this will only further add to the body of evidence on a potential of obstruction of congress charge against the president. indeed with the nixon impeachment there was an article based on the obstruction of congress that itemize each of the subpoenas that the white house had defied. today we have four additional subpoenas to add to the list with a potential charge involving the president of the united states and his obstruction of our constitutional duties. these witnesses understand they are significant based on testimony the committee has already received we know they were in the

security and fence council and the national security adviser bolton. attending the meeting was also secretary perry besser saul and myself i believe fiona hill and also andre yarmuk. the purpose was really a counterpart to visit. i thought that this would be the best opportunity as the 1st high level meeting that we are having in washington with a senior u.s. official to bester bolton after presidents alinsky inauguration i thought to be a great opportunity for the ukrainians to make their case that they are the new team in town real deal about fighting corruption i was rather disappointed with the meeting. as it transpired it struck me as down in the weeds talking about reform of national security structures in ukraine and legislation that they were working on and not the big picture and not the bilateral relationship so i was a bit disappointed by that. at the at the end of the meeting i do recall having seen some of the other testimony that i believe investors all in did raise the point of the investigations and generic way this was after the meetin

it involves lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, the national security council's top ukraine experts, and efforts to silence it. cnn's manu raju joins us live with that. >> reporter: alexander vindman, who testified on capitol hill early this week, a member of the white house staff who raised significant concerns about that july phone call. he was told not to discuss that phone call according to a source familiar with his testimony. recall what he said behind closed doors. he said that the president's call with president zelensky in which president trump asked president zelensky of ukraine to announce an investigation into the bidens, he was worried that call to hurt national security, could undermine national security. and he was so concerned about the matter that he took his concerns to the national security council's lawyer, john eisenberg, and reported those complaints to eisenberg. we are told that eisenberg made it clear that he should not discuss this call any further. now, at the same time, you know, vindman made clear that he was -- that the phone call -- the rough transcrip

senior director for europe on the national security council. before returning to government she was a senior fellow at the brookings institution where she directed the center on the united states and europe. she previously worked at the national intelligence count, aour asia foundation and john f. kennedy school of government. david holmes is political counselor at the u.s. embassy in kiev. he serves as under policy and political adviser to ambassador taylor, who testified earlier in these hearings. a career foreign service officer. he has previously served in boeing ta, the national security council as special assistant to the united states secretary of state. two final points before our witnesses are sworn. first, witness depositions as part of this inquiry were unclassified in nature. all open hearings will be held at the unclassified level. any information that may touch on classified information will be addressed separately. second, congress will not tolerate reprisal, threat of reprisal for testifying before congress including you or any

security council director for europe. >>and also david holmes, a political counselor at the us embassy in ukraine homes also overheard a conversation on the phone between president trump and us ambassador gordon sondland yesterday, some of confirmed that there was in fact a quid pro quo between president trump and ukraine. >>as it pertained to a white house visit and a phone call between the 2 men, his testimony directly implicated president trump we want to go live to washington now karin caifa standing by with the very latest karen. >>after yesterday's hearing us ambassador to the european union gordon sondland on a plane to brussels to be back on the job both sides sought to portray his testimony as favorable to theifa

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-

we have found the rats nest, it's in the national security council. the whistle-blower according to a number of reports as you have been saying here tonight comes off the national security council, an obama holdover -- a democrat. somebody who worked with biden and brandon, an obama holdover who didn't like trump, who met with one of the active figures in the ukraine efforts to undermine the president of the united states in 2016. we have two others who now were hired by schiff, obama holders who were in the national security council, now they work for schiff and of course schiff doesn't know anything about it. if you want to know why the president of the estates' had trouble getting clearances, now you know why. because it's a rats nest. i think u.s. attorney durum and the attorney general of the united states should have an investigation of these three national security council former staffers, what role do they hav6 matter interfering in the election, what role did they have pushing the russia collusion matter? with a leaker's? i think the criminal

in july 2018 i was asked to serve at the white house national security council. at the nsc, i'm the principal adviser to the national security adviser on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio. my role at the nsc is to develop, coordinate and implement plans and policies to manage the full range of diplomatic informational military and economic national security issues of the countries in my portfolio. my core function is to coordinate policy with departments and agencies. the committee has heard from many of my colleagues about the strategic importance of ukraine as a bulwork. it is important to know, promoting ukraine prosperity, a free and democratic ukraine against russian has been strategy across various administrations, both democratic and republican and president zelensky's election in april 2019 created an unprecedented opportunity to realize our strategy -- a strategic objective. in the spring of 2019 i became aware of two disruptive actors, primarily ukraine's then prosecutor lutsenko and mayor rudy giuliani, the president's personal attorney, prom

security council, lieutenant colonel anna bessemer kirk and national security council white house aide. join the discussion all morning with your phone, facebook comments, text messages. be sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on tuesday morning. during the discussion. >> this week bows intelligence committee and chair adam schiff continue public impeachment inquiry hearings beginning tuesday morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. watch live test money from jennifer williams, aide to vice president mike pence and director for european affairs, lieutenant colonel. at 2:30 the u.s. ukraine and white house aide to morrison. on wednesday at 9:00 a.m. eastern testimony continues with u.s. ambassador to the european union, gordon. at 2:30 deputy assistant secretary of defense for russian ukrainian and eurasian affairs, laura cooper and david hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs. 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 publi

security council. i appreciate the minority's request for these two important witnesses as well as under secretary of state who 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 bidens candidacy by pushing for ukraine to investigate him and his son. to clear away any obstacle to the scheme, days after the new ukrainian president was elected, trump port of recall of marie yovanovitch which was known for pushing anticorruption efforts. also canceled vice president mike pence's participation in the inauguration on may 20th and instead sent a delegation headed by energy secretary rick perry, ambassador to the e.u. 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 ukr

security council official who says that he was not pressured into resigning from his job but the national security council did not know the identity of the whistleblower and did not fear for retaliation for his testimony let's continue to listen in to these key witnesses in the impeachment hearings on day 32019 in conversations with me following that meeting which i did not attend mr giuliani said that he had stressed the importance of ukraine conducting investigations into what happened in the past and mr year mark stressed that he told mr giuliani it is the government's program to root out corruption and implement reforms and they would be conducting investigations as part of this process anyway mr giuliani said he believe ukrainian president needed to make a statement about fighting corruption and that he had discussed this with mr year mark i said i did not think that this would be a problem since that is the government's position anyway i followed up with mr your mom and he said that they would indeed be prepared to make a statement. he said it would reference. and 2016 in a wider co

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

she's the lead russia policy official on the national security council. what we see playing out here, though, is there was a deliberate effort to sideline everyone who has a formal role in that policy from the nfc to the state department and create this side channel, including the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani but also gordon sondland who, by the way, is ambassador of eu. ukraine is not in the eu. so for him to be running ukraine policy is beyond the channels of sgovt it appears these were the choices of the president to have these people involved. they were doing the president's bidding here, the president's personal attorney, appointing of the eu ambassador who he himself described as being selected by the president, hand-picked to run the ukraine effort here. >> and julie, it seems like hill and bolton were particularly close, because a lot of what she shared are what she was told from bolton in their conversations, and he was raising multiple red flags to her about sondland, also warning volker to stay away from giuliani on ukraine, even

july 2 thousand 13 i was asked to serve at the national security council. i'm the principal advisor to the national security advisor on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio. my role is to develop, coordinate and implement plans and policies to manage the full range of diplomatic informational military and economic national security issues the countries in my portfolio. my core function is to coordinate policy with departments and agencies. the committee has heard from many of my politics -- colleagues. of country's policy supporting ukrainian sovereignty , ukrainian prosperity and 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 thatepublican and president zelinski's election created an unprecedented opportunity to realize a strategic objective. in spring i became aware of two primarily theors then prosecutor and the president's personal attorney promoting false narratives that undermined the united states and ukraine

security council when i served as deputy national security adviser, we pulled from the best and brightest, and largely not only the most expert in the space, but those that are committed to departments and agencies and to the mission of u.s. national security, and i saw that in colonel vindman. >> juan, it's great to have you. lets listen back in to this hearing back underway. >> my colleagues in the minority, first if i could ask you ms. williams and colonel vindman, you were asked a series of questions by the ranking member at the outset. were you aware of the fact that -- and then there was a recitation of information about burisma, the bidens, is it fair to say you have no firsthand knowledge of any of the matters that were asked in those questions? >> that's right. >> that is correct. >>. >> ms. williams you were also asked a series of questions about the vice president's schedule and whether he could have made the inauguration or was the president traveling or the trip to canada. lets be clear about something, the president you were instructed that the president had told the vice pr

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

security council so and that's an honest and national security council of this nature would make our contributions to international crisis management faster and more effective it could also make an important contribution to how we formulate foreign policy strategy through foresighted agenda setting so. good to. see if we can find out more about what this means from the doubloons chief political editor of mccain a welcome so how would this national security council work. well we heard i'm going to come by the defense minister but also the woman who would like to follow unger machall as next chancellor here she's the c.d.u. party leader talk about strategic culture and that really is something many analysts don't see as really at the core of german security policy so she's sounding a lot more assertive than many partners are used to from germany and also more sort of the many germans are used to because any kind of military engagement is usually generally hugely unpopular here in germany so the big question is what worth what kind of public backlash she could potentially expect many an

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

security council and the white house were all informed about the ukraine efforts from may 23rd 2019 until the security aid was released on september 11th 2019 i will quote from some of those messages with you shortly. 4th as i testified previously as i testified previously mr giuliani's requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a white house visit for president selenski mr giuliani demanded that ukraine make a public statement announcing the investigations of the 2016 election d.n.c. server and barry sma mr giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the united states and we knew these investigations were important to the president 5th in july and august of 2019 we learned that the white house had also suspended security aid to ukraine i was adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid i was adamantly supposed adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid as the ukrainians needed those funds to fight against russian aggression i tried diligently to ask why the aid was suspended but i never received a clear answer still haven't to this day in the absence of any credible expla

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

two national security council

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

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

guest: the national security council staff will talk to the pentagon and state department, and other cabinet officials and their staff on any issues that might come up. if it is commerce, then a business deal might be involved. if it is a trade deal might have a u.s. trade representative or the treasury. it is a big process that the security council runs, so you have a memo to the president that reflects a government approach. i assume that happened with the president with his phone call last summer. in this case there was an unusual second outside of government process run by rudy giuliani and some former russian oligarchs trying to have a second agenda to make sure that president did not follow the career memos, rather this outside effort to try and use the president's power to get the ukrainians involved in efforts to get reelected. that is where this controversy blew up. host: the transcript of the phone call, a summary of the transcript released late in the summer. when you read that, what were your thoughts? guest: it was stunning. i could not believe they had released it. it w

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