policy magazine here to talk about ukraine and the origins of this impeachment inquiry. let's go back to 2014, 2015, 2016, obama administration. what is u.s. policy toward ukraine at this time? >> u.s. policy towards ukraine since ukraine's independent from the soviet union has been fairly consistent in pushing ukraine on anticorruption reform. that's been one of the corner stones of u.s. messaging in ukraine for decades, and that's been fairly consistent, both under barack obama and under president trump, and you know, under the obama administration this was very much carried by his ambassadors to ukraine who have long played a strong role in kiev in working with politicians there to try and convey the message of, look, you need to clean up corruption. >> what was then vice president joe biden's role? >> so joe biden was obama's point person in ukraine, and he really carried that message for the president. he also oversaw the u.s. response -- perhaps not the u.s. response but the u.s. messaging when it came to conflict in ukraine, the russian annexation of crimea, it was 2014 where you

impeachment inquiry of president trump, sanctions, and u.s. military aid to ukraine. this is one hour and 15 minutes. >> i would like to welcome everybody to russia and eurasia seminar. we do it every two weeks. as you know, and today we, given the speaker we have and the topic he's going to deal with, we had the pleasure of welcoming c-span here, which is broadcasting this event, as far as far as i can tell, on c-span2. i'm charles gati. these seminars. i say very little, because i want the speaker to have as much time as possible. just to give you a little background, he sails from massachusetts. he went, studied soviet studies , at harvard. before that got his ba also in soviet studies and political science from tufts university, at harvard he studied with legendary adam olam, and that tufts with old friend of mine. she left washington after some 24 or 25 years, and now he's a professor at, in florida, at the program for human rights and diplomacy at florida international university and the move is shrouded in mystery, because few people do that, but, perhaps, he will tell us. one day, we

preferences. and at our table this morning. here to talk about ukraine and origins of the impeachment inquiry. let us go back to 2014, 2015, 2016, the obama administration. what is u.s. policy toward ukraine at this time? consistenteen fairly anti---ukraine on reform. that is been fairly consistent under both president obama and president trump. under the obama administration, it was carried i his ambassadors to ukraine who have long played a strong role in ukraine working with politicians there to clean up corruption. >> what was then vice president joe biden's role? obama's point person in ukraine and carried that message for the president. he also oversaw the u.s. u.s. messaging when it came to the conflict on ukraine and the russian annexation of crimea. and then the war began in eastern ukraine in the spring of that year. the first hot war in the region in an extremely long time. and biden really carried the messaging from obama. the united states that was worried about corruption in the ukraine at this time? for thes been an issue u.s. allies in europe and also for i

washington, d.c., for and look at trends in russia-ukraine relations and the role of the west in that dynamic here at johns hopkins date will be hearing from a deputy assistant secretary of state come from the george w. bush administration during the discussion, again watching live coverage here on c-span. also live on c-span2. also live today joe biden will be campaigning in rochester new hampshire. that live coverage scheduled to get underway shortly and you can also watch that at c-span.org or over on c-span or use the free c-span radio app. [inaudible conversations] >> i like to welcome everybody to russia and eurasia seminar. we do it every two weeks. as you know, and today we, given the speaker we have and the topic he's going to deal with, we had the pleasure of welcoming c-span here, which is broadcasting this event, as far as i can tell, live on c-span two. i'm charles gati. i organized the similars. i say very little because i want the speaker to have as much time as possible. just to give you a little background, he comes from massachusetts. he went, studied soviet studies

, urgent request to brief the committees about documents related to the state department and ukraine. now, there are of course impeachment proceedings under way against the president right now having to do with his own involvement with ukraine. toward that inquiry, the state department has been subpoenaed. state department officials have been summoned to testify in those proceedings. but the inspector general from that department coming forward on his own to say, uh, i've got something you should see here, urgently, that's new and absolutely unexpected. the i.g. is expected to give that briefing to congress tomorrow, again, at his request. it is expected to be delivered in a classified setting, so behind closed doors. it may ultimately include a lot of people, though. the i.g. has notified the intelligence committee in the house and the intelligence committee in the senate, the foreign relations committee in the house, and the foreign relations committee in the senate, the oversight committee in both the house and the senate, the appropriations committee in both the house and the sen

in ukraine and the absence of any understanding of the concept of rule of law and that has persisted from then on there is lip service to the terms but no deep commitment or understanding of it i would take lightly different tack with respect to the right wing neo nazi element in ukrainian politics it exists it has an outsized influence but i don't think it is really the thing that is preventing change right now i think the thing that is preventing change in ukraine is the v. weakness of ski and specifically driven by his need to feel loved he wants to be loved by everyone that's but that's not ok that's a personal agenda but that's not a political agenda here exactly my point my point so there is no political agenda my point is what i brought up because he did visibly change ok and now we have we have a lot of mixed language ok i mean he he wants peace with russia he wants some kind of resolution with the donbass he has to pay lip service to you to crimea though it's very i think everyone knows that when we was it pays lip service to it and you know and then you have his western bac

ukraine in america's political drama our head into the world and it kind of you said peter that it goes back to 2014 it actually goes back even before because of course when the u.s.s.r. broke up ukraine which had been one of the big constituent republics of ukraine the u.s.s.r. there was this policy of basically keeping it as distanced from russia as possible and this linked up with this policy of western expansion of nato which the western powers had promised the russians in 19909091 would never happen but which started from the mid 1990 s. it did so you saw firstly in 2004 there was what was called the orange revolution in ukraine which set aside the result of an election that took place in ukraine in that year leveraged into power a pro western pronate a government that evicted yuschenko who was the president then in 2008 there was a decision made it to some unseen of the bucharest. that nato would one day be expanded to include ukraine and georgia then of course that was another election a few years later which brought into power a man called victim yannick oh the church who w

has turned into a full scale war zone. more clashes in ukraine's capital kiev. there is absolutely no you shall start to go with your heart caricature everybody. now on the brink of a civil war at least 70 dead so far and the death toll rising it you can allude you . a new music. hall we saw here today was a revolution. to. get invested over $5000000000.00 to assist ukraine in knees and. nato has expanded into 13 countries up to the borders of russia 13 countries. focus . on not allowing buy into hot wall between ukraine and russia. that the. city would. the the the low the to. elude . police. are little. plug 11 . ukraine. it's an ancient and proud land. with a rich history filled with much beauty heroism and sacrifice. ukraine is a border land. a place where east meets west. this is the flag of ukraine the blue represents the sky the gold its seemingly endless fields of wheat. ukraine is a prize many have sought. and much blood spilled in the quest to possess it. ukraine has been the pathway for western powers as they attempted to conquer the east. in world war one. and world war

discussion on russia-ukraine relations and the role of the west. speakers include david cramer, a former assistant secretary of state during the george w. bush administration. he talks about the russia-ukraine conflict and the impeachment inquiry of president trump, russia sanctions and u.s. military aid to ukraine. from the johns hopkins school of international study, this is an hour and 15 minutes. >> i'd like to welcome everybody to the russia-you're asia seminar. we do it every two weeks, as you know, and given the speaker that we have and the topic is going to deal with. we have the pleasure of welcoming c-span here which is broadcasting this event as far as i can tell live on c-span2. i'm charles gotti. i organize these seminars and i say very little because i want the speaker to have as much time as possible. just to give you a little background. he hails from massachusetts and the soviet studies at harvard, before that, he got his va also in soviet studies and political science from tufts university. at harvard he studied with the legendary adam olamb and in tufts with solitary a

russia russia russia now it's ukraine ukraine ukraine what partisan hacks in biased media won't tell you is why ukraine has become part of america's political drama you'll only hear it here on crossfire. cross talking some real news i'm joined by my guest to me he's a political analyst and editor at innocent me internet media project and in london we crossed alexander material he is a writer on legal affairs as well as the editor in chief of the duran dot com all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate alexander let me go to you in london i'm so pleased to have you india on the program here just the 2 of you because it gives you more time to talk about a story that is much more complex and longer than audiences in the west are being given by the mainstream media everyone is talking about the 2016 election well i would go a little bit further back and the very least i'd go back to 2014 with the illegal overthrow of a democratically elected government with the support of the e.u. and the united states now the predica

unfortunate that you have this element this far right neo fascist element in ukraine that is really calling the shots and it's amazing to me that. zelinsky has 77 or maybe it's less now i think is about 66 percent support of the people that's a lot you know it's quite alive percent voted for him and i don't understand now how it's possible when you have this love of public support that the street can rise up like it has when when i'm starting to wonder when is it going to get to the point when the people say no we don't want another made because it's basically what the neo i guess called the nazis yes we're going to that's basically what they're calling for there apparently there are there are reports that there's a threat and possible how did we get to this point because he you have think of much more nationalist right winger and we have zelinsky is very much a moderate i think his message resonated with the public so is he weak the institutions weak or both or is it just because there's a fringe group out there that's trying to call the shots. the last. 2014 demonstrated the weakn

trump team who could be charged with participating in an illegal conspiracy involving aid to ukraine and at least one who might be charged with perjury after ambassador taylor's testimony today in an under oath deposition to the house of representatives which was, most definitely, not a lynching. strom thurmond would be very, very proud of lindsey graham today. strom thurmond was the racist who held lindsey graham's senate seat for almost 50 years before lindsey graham succeeded him in 2003. all 31 of lindsey graham's predecessors in that senate seat would be proud of him today. they were all racists. many of them were slaveholders. some of them were supporters of the 156 lynchings of black people that south carolina recorded in the worst of times in america. when donald trump tweeted this morning that the impeachment process is, quote, a lynching, no one actually took donald trump literally except lindsey graham. there was a rush to object to the president's appropriating the word, lynching, to describe his suffering in the impeachment process, even mitch mcconnell whose state lynched 1

new pres. and a new parliament to change comes slowly if at all in ukraine corruption and neo nazis blocked the way forward. cross talking some real news i'm joined by my guest robert bridge he's a r.t. website writer we also have nick like petro he is a professor of political science at the university of rhode island and of course we're joined by dmitri bob h. he's a political analyst and editor and interest me internet media project originally cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it robert let me go to you 1st here i think a lot of people get to be surprised by the content of our program because when you crane is in the news flow they're thinking of joe biden paul man of fort 2016 election the d.n.c. we could go on and on oh and of course the famous phone call between the presidents of the united states and ukraine but we're going to talk about ukraine in a different way in a way that most people are not following we had an election where we have a new president it's own skin we have a new parliament overwhelmingly supporte

all things considered i'm peter lavelle not long ago it was russia russia russia now it's ukraine ukraine ukraine what partisan hacks in biased media won't tell you is why ukraine has become part of america's political drama you'll only hear it here on crossfire. cross talking some real news i'm joined by my guest dmitri bobbitt she's a political analyst and editor at innocent me internet media project and in london we crossed alexander material he is a writer on legal affairs as well as the editor in chief of the duran dot com all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate alexander let me go to you in london i'm so pleased to have you in on the program here just the 2 of you because it gives you more time to talk about a story that is much more complex and longer than audiences in the west are being given by the mainstream media everyone is talking about the 2016 election well i would go a little bit further back and the very least i go back to 2014 with the illegal overthrow of a democratically elected governmen

iowa, vice president pence took questions on ukraine, the bidens, and the president's communications with ukraine's president. >> president zelensky said there was no pressure. his words were no one pushed. a clear reading of the transcript shows there was no quid pro quo in the president's call. the american people should read the transcript. and they do well to do that. the chairman of the intelligence committee manufactured a version of the transcript and read it into the record. we also see the chairman of the committee misrepresented his context with the whistleblower and repeated interviews. the american people need to look no further than the plain reading of the transcript. there was no pressure, no quid pro quo, our focus was entirely on the president's desire to see europe contribute more to ukraine security and sovereignty and to see president zelensky make good on his own election commitment to pass significant corruption reforms in ukraine. we have been pleased with the progress he has made on that front. we are pleased the aid that we provided is continui

. the u.s. government approved the sale of millions of dollars worth of anti-tank missiles to ukraine. broadcasting live from our studios in moscow international i'm john thomas glad to have you with us our day deadly stabbing at a paris police station is now being investigated as an act of terrorism according to prosecutors the man who killed 4 colleagues on thursday was linked to islamic extremist networks earlier my colleague union o'neal discussed the story with our trees down quarter. yes you what the investigation has revealed the perpetrator was in contact with several individuals likely to belong to the salafist an islamist movements in addition testimony indicates that he did hear to a radical vision of islam this knife attack was a catastrophe that shook paris to its core the assailant was a 45 year old michael harp and who had worked at a police station for 15 years and all that time the police who are tasked with preventing such attacks had no suspicions that harping would kill 4 of his colleagues with a knife he smuggled in. i . what exactly are the authorities actually s

"the beat." next a special presentation of richard engel's "trump and ukraine: fact and fiction." >>> it started a as a 30-minute phone call between two presidents. it erupted into a full-scale scandal that now threatens to bring down donald trump. >> today i'm announcing the house of representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. >> our president sacrificed our national security and our constitution for his personal political benefit. >> they've been trying to impeach me from the day i got elected. and you know what? they failed. >> you've seen the headlines. tonight we'll dive deep into the part of the story you haven't heard. and key players will reveal for the first time what really happened. as we go on assignment. the conversation just after 9:00 a.m. on july 25th started out friendly. president donald j. trump calling his newly elected counterpart, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky. this is from the official notes of the phone call released by the white house. congratulations on a great victory, we all watched from the united states and you d

expansion is to bring ukraine into the nato alliance why because it will give a reason for nato exist that's always been their mission they exist because they need to expand and if they don't expand they don't need to exist and of course the cherry on top of the cake is always it's an anti russian moot point so give us a larger picture or since they want of the word is very popular in the western media give us the predicate of ukraine in america's political drama alex go ahead of what you said peter that it goes back to 2014 it actually goes back even before all because of course when the u.s. is broken up ukraine which i mean one of the big constituent republics of ukraine the u.s. is so there was this policy of basically keeping it is distanced from russia responsible. and this linked up with his policy of western expansion of nato which the western powers had promised the russians in 19909091 would never happen but which starting from the mid 19 $190.00 s. it did so you saw firstly in 2004 there was what was called the orange revolution in ukraine which set aside the result o

millions of dollars worth of anti-tank missiles to ukraine with the country proving to be a rich source of money for political intrigue in the u.s. . and american presidential hopeful bernie sanders declares war on the super rich gets massive public support even more surprisingly from facebook founder mark zuckerberg. there's no press minority. pranced. i don't think they should be hated they don't believe in demonizing the successful. have to do in this is about international law and it just turned 1 pm here in moscow now this saturday 1st focus on ecuador that country in the grip of a wave of violent protests after a state of emergency was declared thursday demonstrations began over the government's decision to end fuel subsidies with petrol prices expected to more than double as a result. i was to do some transport workers believing a national strike there than the country's president using emergency powers to put troops on the street in order to try to maintain order but there have been nasty scenes of chaos at times with police clashing with protesters and at least $350.00 arrests the

millions of dollars worth of missiles to ukraine the country proving to be a rich source of money scandal and political intrigue for washington. from moscow to the world this is r.t. international from the team myself unit and we'll hello and welcome we begin in the french capital this hour where police are attempting to remove hundreds of environmental protesters from a shopping center. activist from the yellow best in the expansion rebellion group broke into the it's all in the face of horus on saturday morning they have done their a demonstration the last occupation before the end of the world they have been developing or quote consumption driven society and calling for an end to capitalism shops in the complex were forced to close as a result of the occupation. let's keep the programme in front terrorism prosecutors have said they suspect the perpetrator of thursday's deadly not a front page a part of this police station of adhering to an extreme interpretation of islam. yes you want the investigation has revealed the perpetrator was in contact with several individuals likely to belon

trump has been denouncing the impeachment probe as a hoax insisting he never pressured ukraine's leader to investigate joe biden in that call. talking to reporters on the white house lawn he urged ukraine to investigate the former vice president and his son. a similar appeal to another country. >> likewise china should start an investigation. what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. i would say volodymyr zelinsky, if it were me i would recommend they start an investigation into the bidens because nobody has any doubt that they weren't crooked. >> joining us from new york is a key figure in the ukraine drama. the president is repeatedly denying pressure on the july phone call. when he came out on the lawn entered china and ukraine, immediate consensus is he doesn't see anything wrong with it. didn't he undercut your defense? >> not at all, there's nothing wrong with him doing it. the president of the united states has every right to ask countries to help us in a little investigation. >> against a political opponents? >> i can't help that. supposedly poli

. nothing, this is the same house of representatives, now that is bringing up ukraine. all of a sudden, ukraine. we go from russia to ukraine. how did that happen? the democrats, nancy pelosi and six committee chairman, i call them her pullet bureau are running rough shod trying to, issuing letters they call subpoenas if they were not replied to in a certain given time, they claim that to be obstruction of justice, it is not a court. they mean obstruction of the house. they are trying to set up the president and set up the administration, the demands are onerous. the process, you see, is ahistorical. and president's counsel wrote a letter to the members of the house, they said, you deny the president the right to cross-examine witnesses, to call witness to receive transcript of testimony to have access to evidence. to have counsel is present, in other words basic due process, even though this is not a criminal matter, cereal murdersl murder -- serial murderers get more due process, terrorists get more due process than president of united states coequal subpoena power, i did some resear

call with the leader of ukraine has seen white house officials subpoenaed over the u.s. president's contacts with key have the democrats spearheading the probe say trump has left them with no other choice as for u.s. military aid which plays an important role in the whole scandal on monday the u.s. state department approved the sale of nearly $40000000.00 worth of antitank weapons to kiev 150 joplin misspells come on top of the $200.00 sold to the country last year a senior correspondent but i'd takes a look at how ukraine has turned into something of a goldmine for the united states. at 1st sight you wouldn't take ukraine for a land of opportunity unless you're into peddling weapons the javelin system will help ukraine build its long term defense capacity to defend its sober instance oratorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements now ain't that just the american dream selling weapons to a nation that can barely afford to keep itself warm in the winter and not just a. weapons the javelin by far the most expensive and it's class more than $200000.00 for the la

u.s. state department approves the sale of millions of dollars worth of missiles to ukraine the country proving to be a rich source of. intrigue for washington. around the clock across the world this is your r.t. international from the team. alone welcome. north korea's top nuclear negotiator talks with the u.s. have broken down just hours after they started. we are disappointed that the united states has not put anything on the negotiating table now the responsibility for the continuation of the talks lies with the u.s. . but it was the 1st meeting between delegations from the 2 countries since donald trump and kim jong un met in the middle between the 2 koreas in june ahead of this weekend's field talks u.s. secretary of state mike pump said there was still a lot of work to be done to build trust and improve relations the meeting was perhaps ill fated from the off the day it was north korea test a submarine launch nuclear capable missile the pentagon then fired its own intercontinental ballistic missile in response the u.s. is yet to comment on the breakdown of talks. will hav

antitank missiles in ukraine the country proving to be a rich source of money scandal and political intrigue for the united states. life worldwide this is international want to bring in moscow where it's now 7 pm on saturday evening at 6 pm in france that's where our top story is this hour french antiterrorism prosecutors have in the past couple of i was said they suspect the perpetrator of thursday's deadly knife rampage the paris police station of a hearing to a radical vision of islam across this force correspondence course i don't know at this stage will call in this case has been a complicated one antiterrorism prosecutors handling the case have come up with a couple of ideas as to what was motivating the killer they just revealed that the assailant had become actually an islamic convert only 18 months prior to the attack and. of course just being muslim obviously doesn't make you a terrorist and the author already have been saying that but they have also revealed that he has been said to have radical views radical islamic views and have been and was in contact with radical isl

>>> be on the lookout from taylor today. if the if russia dominates ukraine russia will again become an empire oppressing its people and threatening its neighbors and the rest of the world." putin apparently convinced our parent to adopt a hostile view on ukraine. today putin and turkey's erdogan make a deal to take over vast swaths of kurdish territory. be on the lookout. why is this president always benefiting putin? thank you for watching us. "cnn tonight" with d. lemon starts right now. >> what did the house speaker say, all roads what? >> lead to putin. >> what do you think? that's the answer, right there. >> i think you have some explicit and implicit reasons for it. >> did you read the entire letter today? >> i did. what letter? you mean the testimony? >> the opening statement. >> oh, yeah. yeah. >> i hope everyone reads it because there's really -- again, for me, this is like the transcript, me speaking, don lemon, it's like the transcript, there's no two ways about it. what is described here is explicit of what the president wanted and what mr. taylor experienced. he

conspiracy theories as a weapon and whether we're seeing it backfire with ukraine. >>> but we begin this hour with the president just a short time ago attacking utah republican senator mitt romney, one of the most vocal gop voices against him. romney slammed trump on friday, saying his appeal for interference from ukraine and china to investigate joe biden was brazen and unprecedented, wrong and appalling, and politically motivated. the president reduced to insulting, saying romney is pompous, bad for republicans, and that he never knew how to win. the day's other big development, "the new york times" reporting a second whistle-blower from inside the intelligence committee may step forward with a separate complaint. the "times" reports this official has more direct information about the president using the power of his office to pressure ukraine to investigate biden. and in that effort to seek foreign interference, some of the president's closest men are implicated, one of them secretary of state mike pompeo. he admitted this week he was on the controversial july phone call between the p

. tonight, as promised we will bring you our swamp watch on joe biden, hunter biden and ukraine. here's the headline. the corruption is not what everyone is been talking about. it's not the firing of the prosecutor, it is different and worse. all that ahead. along side me to it break down the impeachment ms. matt gates, tammy bruce and lisa booth. iona start with what we learned. i've seen some who opposed this and dismiss it. yes he may have behaved badly but it's not impeachable. let's wait till the election to hash it out. okay, except that's not how this is going to go down. it looks like this will end up with the trial in the senate. as we move toward that, i want anyone who watches the show to be well informed about the details of the actual evidence , not the talking points, the evidence. we had a lot of new evidence this week and i want to take you through it. here's what hasn't changed. this week we had new confirmation from an old friend of the real motivation for all the. >> he knows he's an illegitimate president. >> he knows that he's an illegitimate president. >> they been wan

to ukraine but the country proving to be a rich source of money. for washington. just after 8 pm here in moscow this sunday october the 5th a warm welcome to our 2 international meal our top story french t.v. terrorism prosecutors have said they suspect the perpetrator of thursday's deadly night from page. police station of adhering to an extreme mentor protégé of islam. what the investigation has revealed that the perpetrator was in contact with several individuals likely to belong to the salafist an islamist movements in addition testimony indicates that he did hear to a radical vision of islam. double quarter joins me now in the studio with more it's been a few days since this happened don what do we know at this stage well you know this knife attack was a catastrophe that shook paris to its core saillant was 45 year old michael harp and who had worked at a police station for 15 years and all that time the police who are tasked with preventing such attacks had no suspicions that haarp and would kill 4 of his colleagues with a knife he smuggled in. this is done what exactly a

2014 eastern ukraine was also buzzing with protests against the new authorities in kiev this region with the population close to russia geographically and culturally feared that the ultra right leanings of the newly formed government would bring meal nationalism to their lands. and they have their reasons. the status of the russian language in ukraine has been a stumbling block for many years implementing russian as a 2nd state language was one of the main campaign promises of president bush on a full day in 2012 the government passed a law making it the 2nd official language in the southern and eastern parts of ukraine the areas where the russian speaking. in makes up a majority ukrainian nationalist groups initiated massive protests opposing the law and observing viewer might see some familiar faces there on a 5 month. part of our last. on february 23rd 2014 the very next day after the regime change the new government voted for an a no meant of the official status of the russian language and even though later this decision was vetoed by the acting president alexander turchynov it

trump of some crimes not just delusional with ukraine. and then the forceful you know intervention of ukraine into american domestic elections but also something something else they need these sorts of investigations you know to pressure secondly this is an attempt by the democrats to charm the discords a bold biden sort of all in. domestic politics and biden score option this is to ration is very risky for the democrats i mean this forcible investigation of biden sort of old warped world the russian now as for world world the reasons for biden's demands to get out of the former ukrainian general prosecutor so they want to change you know their retreat from the investigation of by them to the investigation of the op i also heard one russian expert voice a very counter intuitive hypothesis that i want to run by you he suggested that by launching the impeachment proceedings the democrats in the congress are trying to undermine not so much trying but there's a by himself and the establishment wing of the democratic party which as we all remember played saw what dirty against the socialis

help from a foreign country from ukraine against joe biden ahead of the 2020 election. the chairs say, quote, if true, secretary pompeo is now a fact witness in the impeachment inquiry. he should not be making any decisions regarding witness testimony or document production in order to protect himself or the president. since this letter went out late last night, secretary pompeo has confirmed that those reports are true, that he was a participant on that call for which the president is now being impeached. the committee chairs continue, quote, any effort by secretary pompeo or the state department to intimidate or prevent witnesses from testifying or to withhold documents from the committees shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry. then they say this. because clearly they are not playing. the chairman pointing out to the number two official at the state department that if officials at that department like, say you, for example, mr. deputy secretary, if any officials at the state department interfere with the impeachment inquiry, if they, say, block witn

perfect conversation with the president of ukraine, this was a perfect conversation and frankly, had they known what the conversation was, they would not have even wasted everybody's time. but this was a perfect conversation with the president of ukraine. the president of ukraine and his foreign minister separately came out and said there was nothing wrong with the conversation. president of ukraine and the foreign minister came out and said there was no anything. he used the word no blackmail. they said there was no pressure, there was nothing done wrong. this is a hoax, just like there was no collusion. after two years they found out and wasted $45 million. this is a disgrace if this could happen to our country. just remember -- reporter: [inaudible] president trump: wait, wait. the president of ukraine, right now, said no pressure. the president of ukraine and his foreign minister said, again, no pressure, no blackmail -- they don't even know what you people are talking about. it is a hoax, it's a hoax and a continuation of the russian witchhunt, which turned out to be phony. the

issues particularly with regard to the eastern board over ukraine. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator shaheen. >> thank you, secretary, for your willingness to take on this challenging position at this difficult time. in your opening statement, you talk about the need for principal engagement with russia that requires sustained diplomacy and resolution opposition to russia where it undermines the interests of the united states, the interests and values of the united states and our allies and partners. do you believe that this is the philosophy with which the president approaches our policy toward russia? >> he's nominated me to be his ambassador, senator. i believe that is the -- i would be fulfilling the president's desires with respect to russia if i pursued that policy that i vlade out. >> as you prepare to take on this engagement, can you explain whether or not you were briefed on president trump's two-hour private meeting with president putin in july of 2018? >> whether i was briefed after the meeting? >> yes. or any time between then and now as you prepare to take on -- >> i mea

ukraine and the house impeachment inquiry. former south carolina governor and u.s. representative mark sanford discusses his campaign for the republican presidential nomination you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. michael: we begin with york -- host: we begin with your thoughts. the last of the u.s. forces have left syria as fighting between turkey and the kurds escalate over the weekend. your reaction to the president's decisions. we will get to your thoughts in a minute. let's begin with mark esper, the defense secretary on the sunday shows. he was on "face the nation," and here is what he had to say about the decision to withdraw these troops. [indiscernible] a deliberate --[video clip] >> a deliberate withdraw from the entire country? >> from northern syria. >> 1000 troops. how long and over what time period? >> it will be a deliberate withdraw and we want to conduct it as safely as possible. we want to make sure we de-conflict a pullback of forces and don't leave equipment behind. i am not prepared to put a timeline on it. >> you said you are doing this for

, quote, two of president trump's top envoys to ukraine sdwrafted a statement for the country's new statement for the president in august that would have committed ukraine to pursuing investigations sought by mr. trump into his political rivals, according to three people briefed on the effort. the drafting of the statement marks new evidence of how mr. trump's fixation with ukraine began driving senior diplomats to bend american foreign policy to the president's political agenda in the weeks after the july 25th call between the two leaders. so just backing up for a minute here, july 25th is when president trump has his phone call with ukraine's new president. and according to the white house's own notes on the call, the ukrainian leader brought up military aid that his country was expecting from the u.s., military aid that donald trump had put on hold. donald trump said to him on that call, quote, i would like you to do us a favor, though. he asked the ukrainian president help cast doubt on russia's responsibility for attacking the 2016 u.s. election. then he asked him for help ginn

antitank missiles to ukraine the country proving to be a rich source of money scandal and political intrigue for the united states. and american presidential hopeful bernie sanders declares war on the super rich gets massive public support. surprisingly from facebook's founder mark zuckerberg but we ask people in new york if one percent will ever be seen as an oppressed minority. pranced. i don't think they should be hated they don't believe in demonizing the successful. life from moscow this is the international weekend. welcome to the program 1st to south america ecuador in the grip of a wave of protests after a state of emergency was declared on thursday demonstrations began over the government's decision to end fuel subsidies with petrol prices expected to more than double. was students and transport workers have been leading a national strike and the country's president is using emergency powers to deploy troops in a bid to maintain order but there have been scenes of chaos as police clashed with protesters there's also been at least $350.00 arrests the fuel subsidies have been