Transcript
Today (Wednesday) day four of the public impeachment hearings took place on Capitol Hill.
Three witnesses testified including U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper and the under secretary of State for political affairs David Hale.
Earlier this month Sondland sent the committee a three-page addition to his closed-door testimony and has faced intense scrutiny after.
In that revision Sondland said he told a top aide to the Ukrainian president that the security aide was linked to investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 elections.
On Wednesday Sondland testified there was a quid pro quo in the Ukraine scandal and he pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens at President Trump’s “express direction.”
He also tied Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the campaign to put pressure on Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Sondland said he was “adamantly opposed” to any suspension of a aid and “never received a clear answer” on why U.S. security aid for Ukraine was withheld.
He testified that he, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and U.S. diplomat Kurt Volker, didn’t want to work with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters.
But they understood that if they didn’t they would lose a “very important opportunity to cement relations” between the U.S. and Ukraine.
In Republican Devin Nune’s opening statement he called the hearings as a “circus” again and accused Democrats of spreading “conspiracy theories.”
President Trump reacted to Sondland’s testimony and denied Sondland’s claim that there was a Ukraine quid pro quo.
Trump says he told Sondland in a phone call “I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.”
Trump also commented that Sondland is not a man that he knows well.
The Closed Caption version of this video can be found here:
https://sign1news.com/2019/11/21/sign1news-11-20-19/
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