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  • the breaking news coming into CNN.

  • Now, for the first time, we're actually seeing the actual video of President Trump demanding the firing of the venue s ambassador to Ukraine.

  • Maria Ivanovich.

  • Let's go to our White House correspondent, Caitlin Collins.

  • She's following the story for us.

  • So, Caitlin, you've seen the video?

  • What exactly does it show?

  • Well, this is really interesting because we had gotten a transcript of this initially.

  • Now you're actually able to hear and see some of this dinner that happened with donors to the president in 2018 at his hotel just a few blocks away from the White House on what's important to keep in mind as you're listening to this as these Air two men who were indicted on campaign finance charges, associates of presidents of the president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

  • And he has denied knowing them saying Yes, maybe he has these pictures that you're seeing there with him, but of course he's president and he takes pictures of lots of people.

  • But now, with this audio that goes for over an hour long, you're saying that the president was at a pretty intimate dinner with these two men.

  • You can hear there their voices on the audio that it's not confirmed conclusively that it's them.

  • Of course, CNN wasn't at that dinner, but you can hear them.

  • And it sounds just like left partners who has been doing several interviews and listen to this exchange that the president had with him about the dynamics between Russia and Ukraine, where the president is asking how long they think Ukraine could last if they got into a knack Shewell combat with Russia.

  • They have everything there.

  • They just right now waiting for your support a little bit to make sure, because obviously if they go on their own, Russia will won't let him do it because they'll cut off a lot of their revenue.

  • How long will they last in a fight with Russia?

  • Without without?

  • But Russia also keep in mind talks a big game, but they're not ready to.

  • He's not.

  • He don't They're not ready to play.

  • So wolf there, the president is asking, Essentially, how long could Ukraine last without assistance from the United States?

  • That's critical, of course, because what we're at the center of what we've been discussing all day is the hold on this military aid to Ukraine.

  • That, of course, you saw these officials come forward and testify.

  • Ukraine needed that aid to push back against a very aggressive Russia.

  • Now, also during this dinner.

  • That is, of course, when this conversation came up about Maria Ivanovich, the ambassador from the United States who was in Ukraine and, of course, these two indicted associates of Rudy Giuliani's.

  • We now know we're in on this pressure campaign to remove her and listen how they're speaking to the president about her.

  • He seems to not know who she is some portions during this audio.

  • But listen as this person left, Parnassus, associate of Giuliani's, is talking about Maria Ivanovich making claims about her and claiming she bad mouth the president, which before you listen to this, we should note, she testified, that that was not true, that she was not bad mouthing President Trump.

  • But listen to the pause and how the president reacts.

  • And then he grows audibly agitated at what he's hearing from these associates, and that's why you're having such this.

  • I think if you take over the biggest problem there, I think way need to start is God, given the ambassador is she still left over from the Clinton administration?

  • Where the investigator you great.

  • Yeah, she's basically walk around telling everybody, Wait, he's gonna get impeached.

  • Just wait, Wait.

  • I don't remember.

  • The way will be now that we have a secretary of state, get rid of her, right?

  • Okay, Take around.

  • Okay, I'll do it.

  • So you see the first?

  • He says She's saying, Oh, he's going to get impeached.

  • She's going to get impeached Which of course, is not verified.

  • That's what he is saying about her.

  • And then the people in the room laughed Wolf, and they say, Oh, well, she'll be gone tomorrow.

  • Then about 10 seconds later, you hear the president Chae Min, clearly agitated, saying Get rid of her.

  • Of course, they did not get rid of her at the time.

  • That was in 2018.

  • She remained on the job until 2019 when then she was removed from her post, and that has been at the center of the president's impeachment.

  • And now this impeachment trial that we're going through.

  • But it's really notable, and we should also note.

  • The president also claims that Maria Ivanovich refused to put his picture up in the ambassador in Kiev in Ukraine, and she testified that that was not true.

  • Wolf.

  • Yeah, it was taking place over the Trump Hotel here in Washington, D.

  • C.

  • Caitlin Stand by, and I'll bring back a John Harwood, Sara Murray and Michael Zeldin.

  • John, How significant is this?

  • Well, I think it's very significant.

  • And to me, the most chilling part about it is that quote that Caitlin Caitlin referred to at the top, which is how long could you crane holed out in a fight with Russia?

  • Remember the Russia investigation by Robert Mueller.

  • The Ukraine scandal are two sides of the same coin.

  • Russia was at war with Ukraine.

  • Russia interfered in the election of the United States after the pro Russian Ukrainian leader had been ousted.

  • The president withheld military aid from Ukraine in seeking these investigations.

  • That is something that if you're a diplomat or someone in the government in Ukraine, it's gotta frighten you that the president, in a cavalier way like that, was talking about the possibility that Russia would move on Ukraine and wondering how long they could take.

  • You think this is gonna put Sarah some increased pressure on some of those Republican senators to vote in favor of calling witnesses because, you know, yes, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief stuff, they'd like him to testify.

  • You know, there's there's no doubt that they're like the former national security adviser, John Bolton, to testify, But there's even been talk to love.

  • Parness should come and testify.

  • Well, I'm not sure that there are many senators who put a lot of weight into what Love Harness has to say.

  • But this is not what Love Parness is saying.

  • These are the president's own words, and I think at a minimum it has to give them pause about how much additional information is out there that they don't already know about.

  • I mean, one of the things that the president's lawyers said today that actually, I think leaves the door open for more witnesses was when they said none of these witnesses had a direct conversation with the president, where he said he was withholding security aid because he wanted these investigations.

  • But we don't know if he never had that conversation with Mick Mulvaney or what John Bolton with Rob Blair, because none of those those folks have testified, and those of the witnesses, some of them that Democrats want to hear from Michael.

  • I want to play for you and for our viewers out there, a little bit of the top of this video that was recorded at the Trump Hotel back in 2018.

  • You watch it closely, and I think you'll see there.

  • You see the president of the United States because it's very shaky.

  • It's hard to see, but it certainly looks like the president.

  • United States right there.

  • All right, that's that.

  • You saw that, right?

  • Yeah, I did see.

  • So how significant do you think this is from a legal perspective?

  • Well, from a legal perspective, what it undermines is the president's notion that he doesn't know who live Parness is.

  • That's a very small gathering of high dollar donors, and they're talking policy.

  • They're talking Ukraine policy.

  • That is not something that you can credibly believe when he says, I don't know this guy.

  • So he knows this guy.

  • And then the two conversations together seemed to indicate that they understand what is important with respect to Ukraine, and that sets a predicate for what they're going to do later on.

  • It's a year earlier, but it seems to me that this is like the beginning of the conversation that will see culminate in the July 25th phone call.

  • You know Caitlyn, the president has not repeatedly said, and you've been covering him for a while.

  • He I don't know the guy.

  • I take pictures.

  • I take pictures with a lot of people that come up with me.

  • I don't know the guy.

  • Maybe he's a con man, you know?

  • What do you think he was a groupie?

  • That just shows up at political fundraisers for the president?

  • Yeah, he's called him a groupie.

  • That's of course, because they have those photos together and by no shortage, I mean, the left parties has a lot of pictures with a lot of people.

  • Pretty much everyone in Washington.

  • You've seen him float them out on his Twitter account is all of this has gone on with the president with Ivanka Trump.

  • I believe there's one with Mike Pence, the vice president.

  • There are several photos of him with a lot of people in this administration, but the president has denied knowing him saying Yes, we've taken a picture, but we do not know each other well.

  • And wolf, you see from the beginning of this audio just how small that room is at the President Hotel, where they're having this dinner and what the audio reveals of you as you're listening to this voice that sounds like left partners.

  • Talking with the president is, he says one thing.

  • He says that Marie Ivanovich, the ambassador in Ukraine who he refers to as a Clinton hold over though she's been in the administration, are in the in the working in government for much longer than just when Clinton was in office, says that she is bad mouthing President Trump and that she's saying he's going to get impeached eventually, and people shouldn't worry about it on just that the president, seconds later says, get rid of her.

  • So he's saying he doesn't know this person, but this person that he said he didn't know at this dinner.

  • He took with them at their word for what they were saying about an ambassador and the government, a career foreign service officer and then it's saying to remove her from her post.

  • So that does put in a new light with the president saying he doesn't know him, and now he was just taking him at his word for what he was saying about.

  • Someone really does leave a lot to be desired.

  • To be explained by the president.

  • That's very important.

  • Point Judge John Harwood.

  • She's a very distinguished diplomatic career.

  • Foreign Service officer Ah, career diplomat who first started working for the U.

  • S government back in the Reagan administration, served Republican presidents, Democratic presidents and and some very sensitive, delicate, dangerous spots exactly.

  • And as the uh partners comment by suggesting that she had talked about, uh, uh, Trump's impeachment and then Trump respond, saying, Get rid of her.

  • It is not credible in the slightest that Marie Ivanovich would have talked that way.

  • High caliber professional diplomat do not talk that way about the president, United States.

  • And she said she didn't.

  • And there's no reason that anyone should not believe to this day.

  • She says she doesn't know why they removed her.

the breaking news coming into CNN.

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