go and testify? and why do we go and testify? and the white house clearly believed and mike pompeo and the state department clearly believed, oh, we ll just tell people they re not going and that will be enough. and faced with a you re not going versus a lawful congressional subpoena that you need to go, a lot of people particularly people who are not hyper-partisans who were just doing their job, are deciding this assertion from the white house is bullpucky, and ultimately that will be material in how the courts adjudicate whether not that instruction in from the white house means no anything in the face of a real subpoena. but watching david hale turn up today, colonel vindman, watching yovanovitch and now watching williams tomorrow, it s a fascinating cast.tc so there s an interesting passage in taylor s deposition transcripts about exactly this, and it s one of those things that the republicans really i focused on the republican testimony, rachel, the
to change his under oath testimony by adding a written statement that was attached to the end of his deposition that was released yesterday. in that written statement gordon sondland said that reading accounts of ambassador taylor s testimony and other witnesses testimony, public accounts of them had refreshed his memory. the william taylor deposition transcript like all the other deposition transcripts released before it show that the republicans have nothing, no defense of donald trump. the republican council to the oversight committee, steve caster, asked most of the republican questions and william taylor s deposition, and he spent most of his time asking about a 2-year-old politico article that ambassador taylor has never read. congressman jim jordan jumped in a couple of times, no more than two minutes at a time. there was nothing aggressive in jim jordan s questioning. it was not the jim jordan that you see on tv.ji
it s not the jim jordan that we will see if he participates in the televised hearings where his mission will be to create as much of a distracting spectacle as possible. jim jordan asked about a phone call. and the thing he wanted to know was whether ambassador taylor placed the phone call or received the phone call. that was it. that was a phone call of members of the national security council. that was what jim jordan tried to accomplish.ci ambassador taylor said that he thinks he initiated the phone call, but he couldn t be absolutely sure. that was all jim jordan had. that s all he tried to do in that deposition was ask about who placed the call, who received the call. no republican in that room tried even the slightest attack on the ambassador taylor who s a west point graduate, a vietnam combat veteran and who has served in every presidential administration, republican and democrat, since ronald reagan sr in next week s televised