wednesday morning. join the discussion. a trump administration announced its decision to block u.s. ambassador to the european union, ordinance on lend, from testifying in the impeachment inquiry. adam schiff delivered a brief statement to reporters reacting to the news, as well as several house republicans, including congressman jim jordan. well into yesterday afternoon

and evening with the state department's legal advisor, in which there was no indication that the ambassador would be a no-show. not only is that congress being deprived of his testimony, the american people being deprived of his testimony, but we are also aware that the ambassador emails onessages, or a personal device, which have been provided to the state department, although we have requested those from the ambassador and the state department is withholding those messages as well. deeplyessages are also relevant to this investigation and the impeachment inquiry. just explained for the public, the significance of this witness and the significance of the decision by the secretary of state and president or president or bolt to withhold this key witnesses testimony today. we know from the text messages that the ambassador was in discussion with ukraine

counterparts, with fellow diplomatic personnel, and the president, as well as at least one u.s. senator about the course of events we are investigating. we know from those messages it raised a concern with him that military assistance was being withheld. to secure help from ukraine and the president's reelection campaign. why military assistance was being withheld. we know he was a key player in efforts to obtain commitments aom ukraine to investigate bogus conspiracy theory about the 2016 election as well as joe biden and his son. that the ambassador has relevant evidence on whether the meeting with the president, that

the ukrainians desperately sought with president trump was that theditioned president believed it would help with his reelection campaign. not justd to overstate the testimony and the documents, but the testimony of others. the failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents, we consider additional strong evidence of abstract the constitution. a coequal branch of government there are four issues we are looking at, all that go to the heart of the national security the president and secretary of

state are taking actions that prevent us from getting the facts needed to protect the nation security. we are looking into whether the president solicited foreign help from a u.s. presidential election again. issue ofoking into the whether ukraine desperately sought with the president that the white house was being conditioned and the willingness from ukraine to investigate this bogus conspiracy theory about 2016 and investigate the bytedance. we are looking at whether given reason to believe that military assistance was needed to fight off the russians. we are looking into the question whether there has been an effort by the president, the secretary of state, and others to cover up this misconduct.

he was an important witness on each of the subjects, but he is not the only important witness. today, consider this act and we have members flying in to testimony, as the withholding of the ambassador's efforts toas well as discourage others, state department witnesses from coming forward and testifying, as they have agreed to, could be further acts of of structure and with a coequal government. this is one of the few impeachment inquiries in the history of our country. the core of whether the president abused his office. to seek political help in his reelection campaign and did so to the detriment of our nation security. by effectively: sing a country that has been invaded by arrivalto investigate

have a relationship between this country and that country on whether they were willing to play ball. issues we are investigating. it is hard to imagine a set of facts more damaging to our national security, but also more of a fundamental breach of the president's oath of office. the american people have a right to know of the president is acting in their interest, in the nation's interest with an eye towards national security and not in this narrow, personal and political interest. the american people have a need to know. and for this impeachment inquiry, we are determined to find the answers. thank you. when was your office first contacted by the whistleblower?

>> we understand the reason why the state department decided not to have the ambassador here today. unfair and partisan process that mr. schiff has been running. you think about what the democrats have been trying to do, impeach the president of the united states 13 months prior to an election, based on an anonymous whistleblower who has a bias against the president. the guy running the process, chairman shift did not even tell us he met with the whistleblower prior to the whistleblower filing the complaint. the way he treated the , thatador last week treatment is the reason why the administration and the state department said we will not subject the ambassador to the same treatment.

towere actually looking hearing from him. we thought he would reinforce exactly what was told last week. unfortunately, when you have a speaker of the house that says you need to strike when the irons hot. when you have a chairman of the committee who is so biased against this president that he would not even tell us he met with the whistleblower prior to the whistleblower filing the complaint. this is the pattern with mr. schiff. he said the same thing. he met with him for hours prior to michael: testifying. cohenchael testifying. this is a pattern. we were hoping here from the ambassador today, but we understand why the administration has state department's have chosen this. you will selectively leak text messages, 67 pages of text

messages, and if they take a handful and not release the transcripts, we understand why they made this decision. ambassador solomon -- ambassador sondland said he is disappointed he could not attend this today. >> we wish you could've testified as well, but we understand why the administration made the decision they did. when you are have a chairman releasor and parts of what was said in a closed-door interview. not release the entire transcript and the entire context, you could see why they didn't want to objected to the same thing. -- object it to the wrong thing. >> is in that all the more reason why you should be allowed to testify? why not release the transcripts or you can all see what ambassador vogler told us.

he was as clear as could be. no quid pro quo. the two guys on the call. the democrat and chairman after -- no quid prono quo after. to have this bias against the president. >> we will only get to hear from the ambassador when there is a fair process. we spent more time with volker then adam schiff did. he gave this benign thing and raced off to a fundraiser. here is what we understand, this has to be a fair process when you have a press release being drafted by our democrat colleagues taking text messages. text whatever

exonerated this president, let's release it. bringing the invest -- ambassador in, but let's only do so after we released this. >> you're asking them to investigate joe biden, and also the president thing china should investigate. do any of you have concerns about that? >> the president is doing his job. when you talk about the hard earned tax dollars of the american people going to a foreign government, the president will make sure there is no corruption. he is doing his duty as a commander in chief, his duty as the president of the united states. i do not have a concern. >> [indiscernible] >> we would like to see the volk

before weny released see the transcribed interviews. what we see in this impeachment is a kingery -- kangaroo court and chairman shift is a captain kangaroo. he lied about the russia investigation. he lied about meeting with the whistleblower prior to the whistleblower's ultimate writing of their complaint, we would like to unpack the last set of schiff lies regarding the volker testimony before we go to the next theft of schiff lies on sondland. >> he should have been out immediately. >> [indiscernible] >> we think are our real concerns. i know you have done some reporting. hopefully over time the american people will be able to see. we cannot get into that, but we have real concerns.

>> [indiscernible] i think the american people have a right to know who the whistleblower is. >> why would the state department canceled the deposition a few hours before it was set to begin, after ambassador sondland already flew back your from brussels? >> the hope was that we would have the volker testimony release. >> give them the max amount of time to release the testimony. we have that information out there and we know that they in good faith are going to release the testimony for the american people to see, as opposed to having little pieces that support their narrative. if they are willing to do that, the administration will be willing to do more moving forward. if it will be a one-sided deal -- allold on, you guys are journalists. is there a single journalist here that does not want to see the full transcript of ambassador volker's testimony?

the american people agree with everyone of you. let them judge for themselves. schiff made the argument? there is an there is an argume- >> i have not heard of that argument. >> i have not even said. >> there an argument against transparency. hold on a second. there is an argument in favor of cherry picking selective releases of text. there is an argument in favor of only telling the american public what is best in the interest of wanting to take down a sitting president. maybe you should ask what was said inside of volker's deposition. during his interview with regard to adam schiff's fairytale quid pro quo charge that goes from the united states to ukraine that was being linked to the .idens

i am glad that you asked that question. the reason that question was so important for you to ask is for many things. he was in this room for several hours. during several hours of testimony he talked about how president zielinski had no idea >> ambassador volker testified at the readouts of the phone call made him, he asked there was nothing about there being a hold on u.s. aid or a quid pro quo. i am glad we were having this discussion. the next day ambassador volker met with president zelensky. in that meeting there was no reference to a quid pro quo, or president

zelensky having any idea there was a hold on aid. oh over the course of the next several weeks engaging with ukraine. ukraine makes no reference to a hold on aid or quid pro quo. by the way, yeah what else ambassador volker testified to. the aid was getting released. it was going to get released. guess what happened. the aid got released. there was no new investigation that had to be created. this whole thing is a fairytale. adam schiff is misleading you and you are playing along with it. many of you are aware that the american public is being deceived. what adam schiff said that president trump was asking president zelensky to manufacture dirt on the bidens, volker testified that was absolutely untrue. that is what we call an inconvenient fact for the narrative. adam schiff has been saying he had no contact with the whistleblower. he would like to but he did not have contact. he lied. you know what else he lied about? when he gave his opening statement before the acting director of national intelligence as to what was what

the transcribed interview said. going back to ambassador volker's interview in the process, we were here ready to do our part. if anyone is going to testify behind us closed doors we will make sure we are there to ensure guess what? if we were not there thursday, you would not have any idea of everything about your vocal said. -- ambassador volker said. as far as the administration goes, if they don't want to send ambassador sondland here, because there has not been a vote to launch an impeachment inquiry. because the president doesn't have a right to have counsel present, subpoena power,

to present evidence. this entire thing is a political show. we willn be ready for whoever is testifying, but we have to be here. all adam schiff has to do is release that transcribed interview. he won't because it destroys his narrative. that is what we heard over several hours. jerry conley, they had a back-and-forth. they played a clip from me. where they are basically saying you didn't hear what they said, right? they had this back-and-forth, basically dumbing down their audience. what isn't point out is that jerry conley was the last person to show up from the one to leave, instantly. he wasn't there for anything. what is important is we are here. we can answer any questions you want us to what ambassador volker testified to.

but you're not asking any of the most important questions. some of you are. many of you aren't asking the most important questions, such as what did you hear last thursday that we don't know about? >> the president, the white house has refused to hand over documents. now the administration is blocking a key interview. doesn't that imply there is something they are trying to hide. >> no, it implies exactly what mr. lee zelda and just said. i don't think anyone can say better than he just said it. are you suggesting its good to defy a congressional subpoena. >> we are saying we would no encourage adam schiff to run , a fair process. >> which americans would go on trial without counsel? >> we will take a couple of more. that is the next step.

would you also part of vote on the house floor? >> that is nancy pelosi's call. she is the one that wants to strike while the iron is hot. i would probably vote against that. >> does that impact the credibility of the whistleblower? >> do you believe that bribery is the only impeachable offense? >> the section on congressional notification. >> absolutely, and there has been reporting. the congressional notification box is blank. >> i know there has been reporting. yeah, and i think that is a big problem. that is a big problem. there was a preliminary investigation by the inspector general that brought this forward. i think the american people have a right to know who this whistleblower is. if we are talking about the impeachment of the president of united states i think that is

important. all i am saying is i think it is appropriate for the american people to know who is the person behind this charge, that the democrats are pursuing removing the president of the states, the president of the free world 13 months , before an election. >> i think its important to point out that you all know the american public knows more than the whistleblower does, so this whole thing about what does the whistleblower know, we are telling you that they now know less than you all know, so we should be talking about what we know now and how to go forward. >> talking about a kangaroo court. jim jordan pointed out? how we showed up on thursday. adam schiff started by, the ground rules with this be a staff-lead, transcribed interview. it was not until jim jordan pushed back that adam schiff said he would allow members to ask questions, but he was strongly discouraging members from asking questions. >> and by the way.

>> adam schiff -- 25 minutes [indiscernible] when they start to look at this, why? because ambassador volker is not giving them the answers they were leading ambassador volker to conclude. i can tell you this is nothing more -- you know, adam schiff talked about four acts. let the american people decide what the final act will be, because when the truth comes out , you will see this president did not hold aid to try to influence a foreign country to do anything. thing, one other thing that is really important to point out, another show on sunday put up one of the tax from bill taylor -- one of the text messages.

from bill taylor. that show did not follow that with the response that absolutely says unequivocally there is no quid pro quo. furthermore, what that show did not say after that is the context from ambassador volker's transcripts with regards to bill taylor's text. and you would then know if we had the transcribed interview, but we will tell you now -- he said it because he read a political story and wanted to get the aid to ukraine released. he saw a political story and was concerned, then he was corrected , but why is it the coverage is only going to show bill taylor's text and not showing the , response correcting it, and not provide any context whatsoever? this congress, our country across the country there people watching us. disgusted with how 2019 has gone.

and the priorities right now. why are we not working together. why are we talking about usmca? we talking about usmca? these priorities important to our constituents, republicans, democrats. it is all to appease an enraged liberal activist base, insisting on impeaching, opposing, and obstructing anything and everything. we are as a country being held hostage by a few members of congress who have leveraged congressional primaries against a democratic leadership and committee chairs they have instilled fear of the part of their colleagues in their own conference. standingnting us from

for all of us to be able to spend our energy working together to pass bipartisan important priorities for our country. they don't care what the crime is. they don't care what the facts are and they don't care what the evidences. >> thank you, guys. thank you. announcer: the house will be in order. has beenars, c-span providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events from a washington, d.c. and around the country. so you can make up your own mind .

great a by cable in 1979, c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. announcer: c-span recently sat down for conversations with a pair of democratic resident candidates. wednesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, we will show you our interviews with former maryland congressman don delaney and billionaire thomas dyer. again, -- billionaire thomas steyer. watch as conversations at 10:00 a.m. wednesday on c-span. trump jose keep america great rally in minneapolis minnesota, live thursday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. or anytime on c-span.org and listen free wherever you are using the free c-span radio app. announcer: former acting fbi

director andrew mccabe discussed his career, his firing from the fbi and the origins of the russia investigation. he was interviewed by investigative journalist carl bernstein at a conference hosted by the new school in new york city. this is one hour and 20 minutes. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much for that warm welcome. good evening, ladies and gentlemen and distinguished guests, students, and all members of the new school community. mr. mccabe: thank you for inviting me to speak to you here tonight. it is truly an honor to a address a group as engaged and quite frankly has large and as terrifying as hello you are now, but to do it on the hunddt