‘We Followed the President’s Orders’

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.3 • 107.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2019

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, has evolved from a loyal Trump campaign donor to a witness central to the impeachment inquiry. But his testimony has been contradicted on multiple occasions. Today, we look at how both Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee handled their most complicated witness to date. Guest: Nicholas Fandos, who covers Congress for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading:Mr. Sondland implicated Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the nation’s biggest foreign policy controversy in nearly two decades. Reciting emails that he had written to Mr. Pompeo, he said that “everyone was in the loop.”Confused about what this moment might mean? Here are answers to seven key questions about the impeachment process.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is The Daily.
0:10.5	Gordon Sonley is a Trump donor turned EU ambassador,
0:14.7	turned witness in the impeachment inquiry, whose testimony has been
0:18.8	contradicted on multiple occasions. Today, how both Democrats and Republicans
0:25.7	on the House Intelligence Committee chose to handle their most complicated witness today.
0:33.0	It's Thursday, November 21st.
0:38.2	So Nick, give us a sense of what it felt like to be in that room this morning as the committee prepared
0:44.4	to hear from Gordon Sonley. This very complicated with us.
0:49.8	So we knew that in the middle of this jam-packed week of impeachment testimony,
0:55.1	Gordon Sonley's appearance was going to be something different.
0:59.4	Nick Fandoose was in the Capitol for Sonley's testimony.
1:03.2	Sonley has really been described by almost everybody as having been in the middle of this
1:10.0	pressure campaign on Ukraine this summer. Now, there was particular anticipation because
1:15.6	Sonley's story, unlike some other witnesses, has evolved as time has gone on.
1:21.2	So when he first came in and spoke in private with investigators in October,
1:26.0	he was pretty unclear about whether or not the president was trying to leverage a White House
1:31.5	meeting or security aid for Ukraine to get the investigations that he wanted. He told them repeatedly,
1:37.7	I can't remember this, I can't remember that. Well, after that happened,
1:42.0	Sonley submitted a supplement to his testimony and writing up to do that and said,
1:47.1	actually, I do think there was a quick pro quo. And so there was a lot of anticipation
1:51.8	heading into his testimony as to which Gordon Sonley would show off what story was he going to tell.
1:58.2	Is he going to cop to all these different things? How is he going to treat the president?
	...

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