Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) Is Interviewed About Sondland' Testimony
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Testimony from a fourth state department witness in the House impeachment inquiry in week just wrapped up. He said this in his opening statement about Rudy Giuliani, "Mr. Giuliani emphasized that the President wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into anticorruption issues. Mr. Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election, including the DNC server and Burisma, meaning the Bidens, as two anticorruption investigatory topics of importance for the President." Ambassador Sondland is also a key witness because of comment he made in text messages. In them, he discussed military aid to Ukraine with America's top diplomat there, Bill Taylor, who said it was, "crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign." Sondland, as you may remember, took nearly five hours to reply to that text, and we've since learned he called the President before he sent a response. Today he said, "I called President Trump directly. I asked the President, 'What do you want from Ukraine?' The President responded, 'Nothing. There is no quid pro quo.' The President repeated, 'no quid pro quo' multiple times. This was a very short call. And I recall the President was in a bad mood." Just before air time, I spoke to Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro who sits on the intelligence committee and was in the hearing.</s>COOPER: Congressman Castro, I know you can only say so much, but what can you tell us about Ambassador Sondland's testimony today? What were the takeaways for you?</s>REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Well, it seems like every day the case for impeachment of Donald Trump gets stronger and stronger, and that was certainly the case today listening to Ambassador Sondland. You're right, Anderson, there's only so much that I can say. But even in his opening statement, and it was true during his testimony as well, it's clear that he affirms that Rudy Giuliani had a direct role in acting for the President and dealing with the Ukrainians. And from what we know of the whistleblower complaint, the transcript of the phone call between the President and the Ukrainian -- I mean, our President and the Ukrainian president carrying out the orders of President Trump. When you combine that with what Mick Mulvaney said today, he basically went up to the water's edge and said, yes, politics played a role in how we were dealing with Ukraine. The case for impeachment got a lot stronger today.</s>COOPER: The ambassador in his opening statement also seemed to indicate that he didn't know about the Biden component of this, about the Giuliani searching for dirt and the President wanting dirt on Democrats until some time later, much later. Some of your colleagues have cast doubt on parts of his testimony saying that it was, "a lot of CYA," which, you know, cover your you know what, and that he appeared to have selective amnesia. Did you find his testimony credible?</s>CASTRO: Yes. There were a lot of instances where he said I don't recall or I don't remember. And oftentimes it's true that it related to questions about his direct role in all of these events that is true. My impression overall is that this was a witness who went in there today to save himself. And he was willing, I think, to be more frank in his discussion about what others around him were doing, more so than to be frank and candid about what he did.</s>COOPER: And just in terms of any possible quid pro quo, did the ambassador's testimony do anything to help clarify why exactly foreign aid was withheld from Ukraine?</s>CASTRO: I mean, I think it added to everybody's understanding -- not everybody, I can't say everybody in the room, but many of us in the room I think came away believing that there was a quid pro quo, that it was political favor for aid and assistance to the Ukraine. And certainly Ambassador Sondland didn't do anything to dispel that notion.</s>COOPER: And how long was he in there for?</s>CASTRO: Several hours. This was -- you know, all of these interviews and depositions, some of them have gone with the late afternoon, many of them into the evening, and this was no different tonight.</s>COOPER: What questions still need to be answered for you? I mean, do you think the upcoming witnesses are going to be able to or willing to answer them?</s>CASTRO: Yes, I think so. And now some of them, as you know, like Rudy Giuliani and others, the vice president, for example, have said that they're not going to cooperate with the Congress. So we're going to have to deal with that separately. But other witnesses I believe will still come forward. And as you know, these are all pieces of the puzzle, and each witness I think has been very helpful for Congress in helping us get a fuller picture of what exactly happened and why the President was trading political favors for foreign assistance.</s>COOPER: And just finally, do you know if there is a word for word transcript of the call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine? Because the President said it's word for word, comma for comma. It's clearly not. It's-- there's areas that seem to just have one word that need other words. Do you know if such a thing exists and could you get it?</s>CASTRO: Yes, I'm still not clear about that. There may be somebody who is clear about that, but I'm still not clear about it. I'm on the Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, so I'm on two of the three committees that are handling the impeachment inquiry right now. But you're right, we do need to figure that out.</s>COOPER: And, sorry, just finally, is there something you know today that you didn't know yesterday?</s>CASTRO: Yes. I mean, there's many different components. And I wish that I could speak more freely about it. But I will say this, in his testimony, Ambassador Sondland also implicated a few more folks who may not have been completely off the radar, but he certainly moved them more to the center of this investigation today.</s>COOPER: Wow. That's interesting. Congressman Castro, I appreciate your time. Thank you.</s>CASTRO: Thank you.</s>COOPER: Still to come, President Trump calls his administration's negotiations to stop Turkey's invasion into Syria a success. I'll talk to the former Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who says it is anything but.