If this is the “deep state,” our nation should be thankful.
Two good men, patriots of the best kind, testified for five hours Wednesday on the first day of public — and televised — House impeachment hearings. Their credibility jumped off the screen and into our homes.
If we didn’t learn much in the way of new facts, which nobody expected, we did come to a greater appreciation of the integrity of those who are standing witness against President Donald Trump. We saw no deep-state operatives plotting a coup with the Democrats. We saw no “Never Trumpers.”
If the Intelligence Committee hearings continue on in this way, with a parade of people of such obvious high character testifying, we just might see a pronounced erosion in Trump’s public support.
Trump’s political base will never quit him, nor will the craven representatives and senators who fear that base. But a great swath of Americans who have yet to make up their minds are likely to tune in, literally, for the first time. They will weigh the facts for themselves. They will consider the credibility of every witness.
If Wednesday’s hearing was an indication, it won’t go well for Trump.
Try as they might, Trump’s apologists on the Intelligence panel had a tough time recasting reality Wednesday to explain away his efforts to extort Ukraine for personal gain. The day’s two witnesses, Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, frustrated that game just by sticking to the facts.
Trump is suspected of pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden’s son, Hunter, in exchange for almost $400 million in military aid.
Trump’s defense, though it shifts like a Lava lamp, goes something like this:
He never asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens specifically; only that Zelensky clean up corruption in Ukraine in general. And the United States puts conditions on the release of military aid all the time. And in the July 25 phone call in which Trump asked for this “favor,” Zelensky wasn’t even aware the aid was being held up, so there could be no quid pro quo. And, heck, Ukraine never even launched the investigation. And Ukraine did finally get the aid. And Zelensky said later that he had felt no pressure. And the Democrats have collected nothing but hearsay evidence of wrongdoing, in many cases from people the president has never met.
So where’s the foul?
Nothing in this shambling defense holds up, a well established fact by now that was made all the more clear during Wednesday’s hearing. We urge you to watch the remaining hearings.
The reality of what went down goes more like this:
Trump did, in fact, urge Zelensky to investigate the Bidens in the July 25 call. He also asked Zelensky to investigate a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine worked on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. And, if that’s not enough, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, has told the Intelligence Committee that he personally informed Ukraine that there would be no aid unless an investigation of the Bidens was announced.
The United States does put conditions on foreign aid — conditions serving the nation’s interest, not a president’s. In his 50 years as a diplomat, Taylor said, this was a first. And, he said, it was “wrong.”
Trump did release the aid, but only after Politico reported that the release was being “slow-walked.” Congress howled and the administration learned that the House had received a whistleblower complaint from a CIA agent outlining the alleged quid pro quo.
Of course Zelensky — who was just about to go on CNN and announce the Biden investigation when, finally, the aid was released — would never have admitted to feeling pressured. There’s nothing in it for a foreign leader to make an enemy of an American president, Kent testified, and Zelensky would have looked weak at home.
The argument that Trump did nothing wrong because his effort at extortion fizzled is plain silly. We don’t let would-be murderers walk free just because the gun misfired.
And, finally, if Trump and the GOP have a problem with hearsay evidence, there’s nothing stopping the president from allowing others who were closer to the action, such as former National Security Advisor John Bolton, to testify.
The president has attempted to block every witness.
All of these points have been made many times before.
But on Wednesday they were amplified, thanks to the power of television and two unimpeachable witnesses.
Next up on Friday, Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch.
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