Tag: Trump impeachment

7 takeaways from Tuesday’s impeachment hearings

Washington Post logoAfter three witnesses last week painted a broad picture of a U.S. foreign policy hijacked by political interests, this week the impeachment inquiry into President Trump began with testimony Tuesday from four people who serve inside the White House and on the front lines of U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine.

Tuesday’s hearings featured:

Continue reading “7 takeaways from Tuesday’s impeachment hearings”

Vindman defends impeachment witnesses, describes concerns about Trump Ukraine call

The Hill logoA top White House expert on Ukraine testifying publicly in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump on Tuesday described attacks on him and other witnesses as “reprehensible” and “cowardly,” recognizing career officials for their courage in coming forward to raise concerns about the administration’s policies toward Ukraine.

In measured opening remarks, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman said that he believed President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president to be “improper” and that he reported concerns about it to a National Security Council (NSC) lawyer out of a “sense of duty.”

“I never thought I would be sitting here testifying in front of this committee and the American public about my actions,” Vindman, who wore his uniform during Tuesday’s hearing, said.

View the complete November 19 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Attacking witnesses is Trump’s core defense strategy in fighting impeachment Add to list

Washington Post logoEight weeks into the House impeachment inquiry, President Trump and many of his allies have seized on a core defense strategy by attacking career public servants who are testifying as witnesses in the probe and spreading disinformation about their motives as “unelected bureaucrats.”

The tactic was deployed in a prominent way Monday when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) laid out criticisms against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who is poised to give key public testimony Tuesday. Johnson wrote without evidence that Vindman may be a member of a rebellious “deep state” that “never accepted President Trump as legitimate” and is working in secret to end his presidency.

“I believe a significant number of bureaucrats . . . resent [Trump’s] un­or­tho­dox style and his intrusion on their ‘turf,’ ” Johnson wrote to the top Republicans on the House Oversight and Intelligence committees. “They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office. It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile.”

View the complete November 18 article by Elise Viebeck and Isaac Stanley-Becker on The Washington Post website here.

In run-up to crucial impeachment hearings, president hits a rough patch

Despite Trump’s troubles, has impeachment ‘moved the needle?’ One Dem strategist says no

An embattled Donald Trump enters one of the most consequential weeks of his presidency on defense, reeling from self-inflicted wounds, political setbacks and a surprise hospital visit the White House is struggling to explain.

This week will keep the focus on the president as nine administration witnesses head to Capitol Hill to testify in the House impeachment inquiry. Several told lawmakers behind closed doors they understood Trump ordered military aid to Ukraine frozen until its new president agreed to publicly state he would investigate U.S. Democrats.

They will testify in televised hearings after a new ABC News/Ipsos poll found 70 percent of Americans believe Trump’s actions were wrong. The same survey also found a razor-thin majority, 51 percent, want the president impeached and removed from office.

View the complete November 19 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Impeachment witness: Ukraine ‘gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something’

The Hill logoA State Department staffer told House lawmakers last week that he believed officials in Ukraine “gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something” in order for a hold on security assistance from the U.S. to be lifted, according to a transcript released by House Democrats on Monday evening.

David Holmes, a career State Department official now based in Kyiv who is slated to testify publicly later this week, also told lawmakers that he had “never seen anything like” the phone call he overheard between President Trump and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in July. 

“This was an extremely distinctive experience in my Foreign Service career. I’ve never seen anything like this, someone calling the President from a mobile phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. There’s just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it vividly,” Holmes told investigators, according to the transcript.

View the complete November 18 article by Morgan Chalfant, Brett Samuels and Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

Impeachment witness: Ukraine ‘gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something’

The Hill logoA State Department staffer told House lawmakers last week that he believed officials in Ukraine “gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something” in order for a hold on security assistance from the U.S. to be lifted, according to a transcript released by House Democrats on Monday evening.

David Holmes, a career State Department official now based in Kyiv who is slated to testify publicly later this week, also told lawmakers that he had “never seen anything like” the phone call he overheard between President Trump and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in July. 

“This was an extremely distinctive experience in my Foreign Service career. I’ve never seen anything like this, someone calling the President from a mobile phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. There’s just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it vividly,” Holmes told investigators, according to the transcript.

View the com plate November 18 article by Morgan Chalfant, Brett Samuels and Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

‘Deep inside, Donald Trump is a very empty and sad person’: Psychologist John Gartner warns the president is on the verge of a ‘hypomanic episode’

AlterNet logoThe first week of public impeachment hearings against Donald Trump in the House of Representatives has concluded. Despite the obsessive efforts of Trump’s Republican Party minions, his personal spokespeople and the right-wing disinformation media, the facts are clear: Multiple witnesses independently report that Donald Trump abused the power of the presidency for personal gain in an effort to bribe and extort the president of Ukraine into aiding his re-election campaign.

As documented by Robert Mueller’s report, the Ukraine scandal is part of a long pattern by Donald Trump and his supplicants to seek out foreign assistance to subvert American democracy, with the goal of first installing Trump in power and then keeping him there.

During their public testimony, career State Department officials George Kent and Bill Taylor reported that military aid to Ukraine was delayed until that country’s government agreed to Trump’s demands to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for “crimes” which they did not commit.

View the complete November 18 article by Chauncey DeVega from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Trump blames Mike Pompeo for State Department officials’ devastating testimony in impeachment inquiry: ‘Rein your people in!’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump unloaded recently on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom he blames for devastating testimony against him the House impeachment inquiry.

The president confronted Pompeo, who has been his closest ally, during an Oct. 29 lunch at the White House, according to four current former senior administration officials who spoke to NBC News.

“(Trump) just felt like, ‘rein your people in,’” said one senior administration official.

View the complete November 18 article by Travis Gettys from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Never Trumper’: President unleashes on Pence aide after she testifies about ‘inappropriate’ Ukraine pressure

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at an adviser to Vice President Mike Pence after she testified that the president put “inappropriate” pressure on Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

“Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH transcripts of the presidential calls,” Trump ranted on Twitter. “[S]ee the just released ststement from Ukraine. Then she should meet with the other Never Trumpers, who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!”

In a transcript released over the weekend, Williams told House investigators that Trump appeared to be trying to serve a “personal political agenda, as opposed to a broader … foreign policy objective of the United States.”

View the complete November 17 article by David Edwards from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump tweets he will ‘strongly consider’ testifying in impeachment inquiry

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday said he will “strongly consider” giving written or in-person testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, despite his repeated refusal to cooperate with the investigation thus far.

Trump responded to Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-Calif.) suggestion on “Face the Nation” a day earlier in which she said the president could “come right before the committee and talk … or he could do it in writing.”

“Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!” Trump tweeted.

View the November 18 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.