Democratic debates: Democrats prepare for fifth debate after key impeachment witness says Trump directed Ukraine 'quid pro quo' in bombshell testimony
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Your support makes all the difference.Gordon Sondland has implicated a number of White House officials who were “in the loop” with Donald Trump's direction to withhold aid to Ukraine in an exchange for a meeting and a public statement announcing an investigation into the president’s political opponents.
The testimony came as Democrats were preparing to hold their fifth debate of 2020 in Atlanta, where they will undoubtedly be asked about the freshly sprung impeachment inquiry that has dominated headlines.
Mr Sondland, a US ambassador to the EU, affirmed that there was a so-called quid pro quo, dropping a bombshell testimony into another pivotal hearing in the House impeachment inquiry into the president’s alleged abuses of power in his dealings with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to his testimony, Mr Sondland worked under the president’s order to work with Rudy Giuliani “not because we liked it but because it was the only constructive path” to building a relationship with a vulnerable Ukraine. In emails and other conversations with US officials — including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — Mr Sondland established a clear link from the president, through Giuliani, and efforts to engage Ukraine with investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma.
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Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House that he barely knows Mr Sondland, who he previously called a "great American", and that he seems like a “nice guy".
The president read from a stack of papers in his hand, which included, in capital letters, his recollection of a conversation with Mr Sondland in which Trump said "I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO."
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that "the US aid to Ukraine flowed, no investigation was launched, and President Trump has met and spoken with President Zelensky. Democrats keep chasing ghosts."
Mr Pence and Mr Perry also released statements during the hearing denying Mr Giuliani’s influence in their dealings with Ukraine. They’ve refused to testify in the impeachment probe.
Mr Trump also lashed out at his Democratic opponents conducting the House impeachment inquiry, mocked key witnesses giving testimony for their sartorial choices and denied that the onset of a heart attack was what prompted his sudden trip to hospital on Saturday.
"These people are sick. They’re sick. And the press really in this country is dangerous. We don’t have freedom of the press in this country. We have the opposite. We have a very corrupt media," the president ranted from the Cabinet Room of the White House on Tuesday.
The inquiry heard from four witnesses on Tuesday who detailed the administration’s coercion of Ukraine.
Booker, asked if he would continue Donald Trump's practice of always tweeting: "This president has broken norms... he uses his platform to demean, degrade and divide this country in ways that are repugnant and appalling."
Doesn't immediately say how he'll use Twitter.
Sanders says that Trump should be prosecuted like anybody else if he is found guilty of breaking the law.
Sanders continues on beyond the premise of the question, and says that American people are overwhelmingly in-step, and not divided.
Biden says he "would not direct my justice department like this president does", when asked if he would direct a criminal investigation into Donald Trump.
"If that was the judgement that he violated the law and he should be in fact criminally prosecuted than so be it," he says.
Takes issue with modeling behavior after Trump, with chants like "lock him up".
Sanders says he believes the American people can see that Trump conducts himself as above the law, and that the American people believe that Trump has violated the law.
Yang up again, and says that the US needs to start giving paid family leave. Says the US is one of two major countries that do not provide that.
Harris up now noting pay discrepancy between men and women, and between different ethnic backgrounds further than that.
Steyer asked about rising home prices in his home state, and San Francisco: "When you look at inequality in America, you have to start with housing," he starts.
"What we've seen in California is as a result of policy we have millions too few housing unites and that affects everybody in California. It starts with a homeless crisis that goes all through the state but it also includes skyrocketing rents. ... I understand exactly what needs to be done here which is we need to change policy and we need to apply resources here to make sure that we build literally millions of new units."
He also says that those units need to be built in a sustainable manner.
Warren responds: "Our housing problem in America is a problem on the supply side."
She notes that the government doesn't make new affordable housing, and that developers only want to build "mcmansions". She says that she has a plan to build 3.2 million more units in America.
Finally, she says that her plan is about building wealth as well, and about addressing government sponsored discrimination.
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