The testimony of State Department official George Kent and acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor confirmed the elements of the Ukraine scandal that have led to impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, specifically that the president and his associates, especially Rudy Giuliani and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, sought to instigate and publicize a phony “investigation” of Joe Biden by withholding military aid from Ukraine.
None of the chaff thrown up by the Republicans during those hearings effectively contradicted the narrative outlining this abuse of power. Sooner or later, as the hearings continue, the majority of Americans will understand fully what Trump did and why his misconduct was so dangerous.
The Republicans will continue to object that the testimony given by Taylor and Kent, and the witnesses who follow, is only “hearsay.” Trump himself whines that the whistleblower’s complaint, approved by his own inspector general, is “second- and third-hand.”
View the complete November 14 article by Joe Conason on the National Memo website here.
William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, on Wednesday said that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told a member of his staff in July that
William B. Taylor Jr. laid out in visceral terms the potentially life-or-death stakes of what he saw as an illegitimate scheme to pressure Kiev for political help by suspending American security aid.