Day three of the hearings began around 9:10 a.m (EST) Tuesday with U.S Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman.

9:17 a.m. (EST)

Congressman Adam Schiff of California’s 28th congressional district started with his opening statement reviewing the previous testimonies last week.

“President Donald Trump has placed his own personal and political interest above those of the nation,” Schiff said. “He cares about [the] big stuff that benefits the president like the Biden investigation Giuliani was pushing.”

10:20 a.m. (EST)

Schiff questioned the witnesses after their opening statements. Watch the statements here.

Schiff asked, “What was your real time reaction to hearing President Trump’s Ukraine call?”

To which Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman responds, “Without hesitation, I knew I had to report this to the white house counsel.”

Vindman recalled a discussion between NSC lawyers about keeping the call transcript in a “smaller group” as to avoid the information being leaked.

Vindman confirmed an interaction between Gordon Soundland where he said it’s “inappropriate” to discuss the Biden investigations after Soundland brought it up.

11:53 a.m. (EST)

Representative Jim Jordan fired his first shot at the witness by recalling prior testimony by Tim Morrison in which Vindman could have leaked classified information to the press. 

“That is preposterous that I would do that… I can’t say why Mr. Morrison questioned my judgement,”

12:20 p.m. (EST)

John Ratcliffe began to to question with a reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s news reel in which she claimed the President committed “bribery”. Schiff immediately defended his stance.

“Bribery does not involve a quid pro quo,” Schiff said. “Bribery involves the conditioning of a specific act of something of value.”

1:00 – 1:30 p.m. (EST)

Representative Jackie Speier (D) begins to question Vindman. Vindman said he may have experienced retaliation from the White House.

“I did notice I was being excluded from meetings which would have been appropriate for my position,” Vindman said. “It’s a Russian narrative that President Putin has promoted,” Vindman continues, referring to a conspiracy theory in which it was Ukraine that mettled in the 2016 election, not Russia.

Representative Sean Maloney (D) asked Vindman about the Ukraine – Trump phone call.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Vindman said. “It was probably an element of shock that maybe in certain regards my worst fear of how our Ukraine policy could play out was playing out.”

1:40 p.m. (EST)

The first session of the hearing came to a close and Chairman Schiff thanked the chamber in his closing statement.

“The President may not care about it, but we do,” Schiff said. “We care about our defense of our allies and we darned well care about our constitution.”

3:30 p.m. (EST)

“Welcome back to Act Two of the circus ladies and gentlemen,” Devin Nunes said to start the second session of Tuesdays hearing.

Morrison and Volker are both sworn in and give their openers.

4:30 p.m. (EST)

Morrison claimed he was disappointed after hearing the phone call live, and later advocated for the transcript to be in a “highly classified system” for the fear of leakers. He continued by saying he was afraid of “potential political fallout” if the transcript was leaked. 

In a closed door testimony Morrison said he heard nothing illegal on the call with Zelenksy and Trump.

Volker also said he did not believe Biden did anything wrong and did not think Biden would have been “influenced by financial or personal motives in carrying out his duties as Vice President.”

For more on the impeachment hearings, as well as live updates, check back to the Bearing News Live Impeachment column.

The hearings resume Wednesday with testimony from U.S – European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs Laura Cooper.

Updates by Nick Clervi – Author and economic, political analyst for Bearing News.