Hearings, dozens of hours of testimony, names and titles. And for all the confusion of who was where and did and heard and saw what, one thing is now clear to anyone who is looking cleareyed at the facts. The president wanted ukraine to look into issues of political interest to him. Namely, a Conspiracy Theory about russia not being who interfered in our 2016 election and an announcement that ukraine was looking into biden for corruption. In exchange there was aid and there was access. And that was the deal. Todays final witnesses, former top russia adviser fiona hill and david holmes, a state Department Official at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine, came ready. Hill especially came ready to confront the smears, to confront the conspiracies being floated by many of the republicans in the room. Today was a very big day. Again, especially for dr. Hill. She was certainly without equal when it came to confidence, clarity, and complete inability to take any crap. And i did say to him, ambassador
Bit New York Times, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vinman of the army. Why does he matter . Expertise, understands ukraine, National Security, u. S. Policy is his domain. He heard the phone call in july, okay. No hearsay, not some political pawn, an expert, a military man on the call. He was very concerned by what he heard. And believes that it was out of an act of sense of duty that he not once but twice registered complaints. Now the key question becomes about what. Here it is. His internal objections went to the fact that demanding a Foreign Government investigate a u. S. Citizen was not proper. Okay . Now, second level. So he heard it as an ask, he heard it as a specific investigation to a u. S. Citizen, which would have been biden and he thought it was wrong. He then started to be concerned about how that was responded to by people around this president , including his lawyer, that they were pushing a false narrative about ukraine. Now the second piece. They will also testify, repor
Obstruction of congress. Now, the question is did President Trump get off easy or is this the easier way to get all the needed democrats on board . The president decided to fight the fact that the charges arent worse. You saw their socalled articles of impeachment today. People are saying theyre not even a crime. What happened . All of these horrible things, remember, bribery and this and that and where are they . They send these two things. Theyre not even a crime. This is the lightest, weakest impeachment. This is impeachment light. He may be right, by the way. I think he got a really good deal on the way these articles of impeachment have been expressed thus far. Now, by next week, as light as it may be, donald j. Trump may have a permanent place in history as one of only three president s to ever have impeachment attached to their name forever. One of the names floating around is a possible house manager, manager is the term for one of the representatives who may argue the case for
Trump into his political rivals. There is also new reporting as well that President Trump ordered the ambassador to ukraine removed because the president s allies, including lawyer Rudy Giuliani said she was interfering with the president s efforts against biden. Also, late word that kurt volker, the president s special envoy for ukraine told house investigators today that giuliani was warned about the ukrainian sources of the Biden Allegations that he was peddling. The message to giuliani, that he was being fed, quote, untrustworthy information. Additionally, cnn has learned that volker told house investigators he warned ukraines leadership not to interfere in u. S. Politics. This was after the call with President Trump at the end of july. In other words, he told them not to do what the president and giuliani and later the Vice President pence and others were pressuring them to do. There is yet more reporting from volkers appearance today. Text messages, including one from the top u.
Turns out one of his aids came forward to tell him about a call the aid overheard between President Trump and ambassador gordon sondland. Now thats important for one reason because it shows a connection. The timing matters more. It came a day after the infamous july 25th call with president zelensky. They believe taylors words show the instructions from ukrain came from the president on down. Heres why. In the presence of my staff, at a restaurant, ambassador sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in kiev. A member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone can asking sondland asking about the investigations. He told President Trump the ukrainians were red a to move forward. A member of my staff asked what President Trump thought about ukrain. Mr. Sondland reespaupded that President Trump cared more about the investigations of joe biden. As you heard at theened, the investigation being discussed were being pushed by Rudy Giuliani. Taylor says today that g