Impeachment witnesses tested Republican defenses of Trump one by one by writerknowles
While it remains highly unlikely that the culmination of the House impeachment inquiry will lead to a conviction of Donald Trump by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, the testimony in the House Intelligence Committee hearings has made it harder to sustain some of the many defenses offered on his behalf.
The inquiry is centered on the president’s efforts, conveyed through his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to coerce the government of Ukraine to announce investigations that he thought would help his 2020 campaign, including of his potential opponent Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter. Part of the pressure on Ukraine involved the temporary withholding of military aid, according to various witness accounts and the narrative advanced by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
The call to the Ukrainian President was PERFECT. Read the Transcript! There was NOTHING said that was in any way wrong. Republicans, don’t be led into the fools trap of saying it was not perfect, but is not impeachable. No, it is much stronger than that. NOTHING WAS DONE WRONG!While not many Republicans have gone that far, they have made the case that what Trump told Zelensky was not unusual. Ahead of Wednesday’s testimony, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
‘Secondhand information’In his opening statement at Tuesday’s impeachment hearing, Nunes dismissed testimony given the previous week by Bill Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; and Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Like Trump, Nunes noted that none of the three had firsthand knowledge of the president’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president.
“He’s gonna do it,” Sondland replied, adding that Zelensky “loves your ass,” and would do “anything you ask him to.” “Corruption is not just prevalent in Ukraine. It’s the system. Our president said, ‘time out, time out, let’s check out this new guy,’” Jordan said. When Schiff pressed Sondland on that point, the witness clarified his answer. “He had to announce the investigations; he didn’t have to actually do it as I understand it.”
“I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a quid pro quo?” Sondland said in his opening statement. “As I testified previously with regard to the requested White House call and the White House meeting, the answer is yes.”“Mr. Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky,” he testified. “Mr.
“Sir, we’ve been hearing about the investigations since March — months before [the July 25 call] — and President Zelensky had received a congratulatory letter from the president saying he would be pleased to meet him following his inauguration in May,” Holmes said during a contentious exchange with Jordan. “And we had been unable to get that meeting. And then the security hold came up with no explanation.
“I was informed that the staff member told a Ukrainian official that we were moving forward with USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative], but recommended that the Ukraine Embassy check in with State regarding the FMF,” Cooper added.“This is just an assumption based on Ukraine bringing up the aid. Simply discussing the aid in no way means they knew it was being withheld,” the White House said in an email.
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