Coming attractions
by Tom Sullivan
Public presidential impeachment hearings into the actions of Donald Trump begin at 10 a.m. (EST). Today’s two witnesses are William Taylor, America’s top diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
Expect Democrats to make the case that Trump’s actions with regard to Ukraine amount to an abuse of power. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reduced the matter to seven words: “He abused presidential powers for personal advantage.” Axios quotes an unnamed Democrat involved in their strategy as saying, “The president abused his power to rig and fix elections in his favor.” Democrats want to keep the issue easier for the public to digest than the 400-page Mueller report.
Axios outlines what today’s witnesses bring to the investigation:
- Ambassador Bill Taylor: The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. He says it was his “clear understanding” that Trump would not release military aid to Ukraine until its president promised to conduct the investigations Trump wanted.
- Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent: He says Trump wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to go to the microphones “and say investigations, Biden, and Clinton.”
NBC reports:
In his closed-door deposition, Taylor said he threatened to quit after he was told Trump was withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine because he wanted “investigations.” He texted another diplomat that “it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Kent told investigators in his deposition that he’d raised concerns that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was poisoning Ukraine policy with “a campaign of lies” — and was warned to “lay low” by his boss afterward.
Republicans issued a memo to caucus members on Monday outlining their defense strategy. They mean to limit focus as best they can to the contents of the July 25 Ukraine call summary (not an actual transcript) released by the White House.
Democrats expect witnesses to provide the context behind the call. As other witness statements have already confirmed, Trump through intermediaries and especially through his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had been pressuring Ukraine for some time to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son, and to provide support for a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump withheld approved military aid to Ukraine pending Ukraine coughing up the “deliverables,” including a public statement that Ukraine had launched an investigation into the Bidens.
Republicans will retool “no collusion” to read “no pressure” on the Ukrainian president. They will attempt to discredit any testimony based on second- or third-hand knowledge of events. If witnesses did not get their information directly from the president, Republican questioners will challenge it as unreliable.
Their “no harm, no foul” strategy argues not only did Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky not feel pressured by Trump’s ask for an investigation, Ukraine was unaware military aid had been withheld. And anyway, they argue, the aid got there without action by Ukraine. Trump, they’ll argue, did nothing wrong. Or at least, nothing impeachment-worthy.
A majority of the public is already on the other side of that argument, according a Navigator Research poll showing “52% of Americans in favor of impeachment and 41% of Americans opposed.” Furthermore (emphasis added):
While support for impeachment holds firm, there remains an additional segment of Americans not yet convinced. Eight percent (8%) are undecided, and nearly half of impeachment opponents (18% of the public) oppose impeachment currently but do NOT agree with Trump that he did nothing wrong (just 23% of Americans offer the president full exoneration).
Rudy Giuliani’s shadow foreign policy apparatus, including his indicted colleagues Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, may be thrown under the bus during these hearings. Trump denies knowing the pair despite multiple interactions. That denial is already on its way to biting Trump in his broad, dorsal target. Parnas has signaled he will cooperate with investigators.
The New York Times anticipates some discussion of the ouster of former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and the Giuliani-led smear campaign against her. Yovanovitch testifies publicly on Friday.
Transcripts of prior testimony by Taylor and Kent are provided in the links.
The Hill reports the hearings should be easy to find:
ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS on Wednesday will preempt their regularly scheduled programming for live coverage of the House Intelligence Committee’s open impeachment hearings of President Trump.
As expected, all of the major cable news networks, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNN and CSPAN will also offer live coverage.
NBC reports the hearing may run until somewhere between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. Naturally, that will depend on how much of a show Republican ringmaster Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio puts on for his audience of one.