Bolton Suggested Taylor Write Cable To Pompeo On Ukraine Aid Hold
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We're back with more breaking news. Let's go back to the Bill Taylor transcript. He is the first person who will be testifying in this public impeachment inquiry next Wednesday. We now have his transcript. Kylie Atwood, over to you. What section are you highlighting?</s>KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: So we're getting a little bit more details with regard to Bill Taylor, who was recruited from retirement to take this job by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And was pulled in after Ambassador Yovanovitch extensively was pushed out of the job because Trump lost confidence in her. But Bill Taylor didn't initially want to take the job. What he told lawmakers is that, when he saw sat down with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the situation at the State Department, he said that, quote, "All to say I was concerned that there was, I think I put it, a snake pit in Kiev and a snake pit here, and I was not sure that I could usefully serve in that context." So he described Secretary Pompeo committing to U.S. policy with regard to Ukraine. And he also said the Giuliani did not come up in that conversation. But there was an interesting tidbit in which there was conversation about a congratulatory note to President Zelensky that had not gone through yet. Bill Taylor noted that. And Secretary Pompeo seems surprised to that. That statement did go forth. What we're learning here is that Bill Taylor was hesitant. He didn't necessarily want to take this job at the beginning. He was convinced to take the job. But then, of course, we know, Brooke, that he grew more and more frustrated as he saw this parallel foreign policy carried out by the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. And we know he wrote a memo to Secretary Pompeo expressing his concerns about that policy in late August and he never received a notice back, anything back from Secretary Pompeo on this front. We should note that, as we are reviewing this transcript from Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomate in Ukraine, he is on the job in Ukraine right now. He is still serving in that post. He is not among the officials who have resigned in the wake of this impeachment inquiry. And he is one of the folks who is already on the schedule to come back and speak to lawmakers in a public testimony next week. And that is when Adam Schiff told folks today it will be up to those watching to determine what they think about the legitimacy of those coming farther and those who are telling their story, their version of events. And with regard to Bill Taylor, he is really the one who laid out the elements that amounts to a quid pro quo.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. No, and to your point, this is a man who came out of retirement to take this job, and he was recruited by Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, to take this job. Kylie, thank you very much. Paul Callan, let's talk John Bolton. John Bolton comes up a couple of times here in this testimony, who was the former national security adviser. September 28th, 2019, John Bolton suggested Ambassador Taylor write a, quote, unquote, "first person cable directly to Secretary Pompeo about President Trump's hold on aid to Ukraine to get attention back there." It is so clear that, in the texts between Sondland and Taylor, it was against everything in him to understand why the U.S. was withholding this $400 million. And what about John Bolton is so key in all of this?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think John Bolton who was very close to the administration, somebody in conservative circles was highly respected and somebody who maybe would have backed the idea that it was OK to investigate the Bidens as part of American foreign policy. In fact, the opposite is true. It's clear that Bolton thought this was a severe violation of established protocol in negotiations with a foreign country, that it would be bad for the United States. And what struck me about his involvement, it's like the involvement of every other profession diplomate around the Ukraine issue. They're all stunned that the president is threatening the president of Ukraine that $400 million in aid is going to be cut off unless he agrees to investigate the Bidens. And at the very beginning of the analysis of this transcript, I note that, as early as May, the president conveyed a message that he had a back channel through Giuliani and that something irregular was going happen in terms of the conduct of Ukrainian policy. And Giuliani becomes the conduit, not any of the professional diplomats.</s>BALDWIN: What's the quote -- it was during a meeting in May of '19, Trump made clear to those in the irregular channel that, "In order for Zelensky to get this Oval Office meeting that they needed to," quote, "work with Rudy Giuliani."</s>CALLAN: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Everyone, hang tight. We'll get another quick break in. We're also learning how Bill Taylor talked about this nightmare scenario involving the Russians. We'll be right back.