So I got up this morning and flipped on the teevee to see today’s hearings. And lo, there on the screen was Devin Nunes, blabbering about Barisma. I turned off the teevee.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, are testifying right now.
Williams’s testimony was being trashed by Donald Trump late last week.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump attacked Jennifer Williams, a national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence, calling her a “Never Trumper” just two days before Williams is set to testify before lawmakers in the ongoing impeachment inquiry. …
…The frenetic tweet came a day after lawmakers released a transcript from a closed-door hearing with Williams, who took notes while listening to the president’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president. She described the president’s insistence that Ukraine conduct investigations for the United States as “unusual and inappropriate” and told investigators that she found “specific references to be—to be more specific to the president in nature, to his personal political agenda, as opposed to a broader…foreign policy objective of the United States.”
The tweet:
Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH transcripts of the presidential calls, & see 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 17, 2019
She doesn’t have to read the transcript, moron; she was in on the original phone call. She has her own notes.
I take it from the various live updates on various sites that Republicans are going all out to trash Lt. Col. Vindman as a “Never Trumper” whose loyalties are divided between the U.S. and Ukraine. This seems not to be going well for the GOP.
Vindman relays the story of how and why he received a purple heart. Asked by @jahimes if he is a “Never Trumper” like Trump said he was in a tweet, Vindman says he would describe himself as “Never Partisan.” pic.twitter.com/4V3FoZlxWM
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) November 19, 2019
There also was this moment:
Lt. Col. Vindman corrects Nunes for refusing to acknowledge his military rank. pic.twitter.com/U0JVgmK4ba
— John Aravosis?? (@aravosis) November 19, 2019
The game isn’t just to question Vindman’s motives. It’s also to further the underlying idea that Vindman — and, indeed, all the diplomats and professionals who have testified about this plot — have been fundamentally driven by a dispute with Trump over policy, which is indeed ultimately set by the president.
That lie, in turn, is designed to mask the ugly, throbbing truth at the core of this whole affair, which most Republicans refuse to concede in public: Trump was solely driven by corrupt self-interest.
The afternoon witnesses will be Kurt D. Volker and Timothy Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert for the National Security Council. Morrison is the guy who advised White House counsel to keep the July 25 phone records out of public view, but he says he never said the records should be on a top secret server. Volker, of course, resigned from a position at U.S. special representative to Ukraine, whatever that means, in September and appears to have been in the middle of the mess. But these witnesses are expected to be friendlier to the GOP theory of the alleged crime, which is that the only reason anybody does anything is amoral, partisan self-interest, which is only wrong when Democrats do it.
Gordon Sondland will appear Wednesday morning. This should be good. The committee will also hear from Laura Cooper and David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, later in the day.
Thursday’s witnesses will be Fiona Hill and David Holmes, the guy who heard Sondland talk to Trump in th Kiev restaurant.
Trump is that guy on Cops standing shirtless in his driveway when the police pull up shouting WHATEVER THAT $@&^* TELLS YOU SHE'S LYING.
When the Republicans in the Senate fail to remove Trump, at least they will be shown to be utter fools in the history books. They'll warrant a chapter in any psych/poli sci book as a textbook case of authoritarian followers. "It Couldn't Happen Here"? Oh yes it can.
Some amazing people: Vindman is so patriotic and proud and fairly able to rebut the R's nonsense, making them look like fools.
Gordon "Bozo the Clown" Sondland should be amusing. Would you want to buy a used car from this guy?
I used to hate Maureen Dowd, but she's actually a great wordsmith, and has been writing some great Sunday columns: Republicans, the Real Chickens of Kiev
How is it that foreign, corrupt interests could manipulate our government?”
That doesn't seem like such a hard question to answer. The short answer is Donald Trump. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Can corruption put on incorruption?
If people had looked at Trump's character from the beginning instead of listening to his bullshit we wouldn't be in this situation today. My hope is that America is just going through a refining process and we will emerge on the other side of the ordeal called Trump with a clearer understanding of the values and ideals that have brought us through difficult times before.
It is inspiring to see men and women of courage and character come forth and speak truth to power in spite of the attacks against them. There's a tendency to lavish praise on anybody who's served in the military credit and thank them for giving us our freedoms, but the reality is that the freedoms we enjoy are secured by the courage of all people who stand in the face of great personal risk to do what's required for love of country and defense of freedom.
I was moved to see Ambassador Yovanovitch receive applause at the conclusion of her testimony. It was an acknowledgement of her courage and a testament to her character. It gives me both faith and hope to see these witnesses testify in whatever degree they can and remain unbowed in the face of Trump's tweets.
Trump is destined for the dung heap of history. His story has already been written. 'Bag of Shit.'
Rep. Val Demmings got Morrison for criticising vindman and then doing the same thing, going past his superior to the lawyers. He wouldn't say he told them to hide the call but it was obvious . rep. swallwell got him for pretending he found nothing inappropriate but he himself did not promote the President's policy of investigations (because he knew it was wrong).
Watching the hearings is like watching Apocalypse Now. The further up the river you go the weirder things get and the layers of façade drop away. No longer are we in a world of conspiracy theories and cover stories, we are in a world laid bare of deceit and corruption. The closer we get to Marlon Brando the more clear things become. An officer gone rouge, commanding troops aligned with nothing and no one. The difference is that in Apocalypse Now is that Col. Kurtz (played by Brando) was in it for the horror. In his own war for the love of the pure horror of it. Up this river we find people in it for the pure power, Aligned with nothing except the desire to wield power without responsibility or noble purpose.
I'll take, World Famous Perjurers, for one million, Alex.
Today is Sondland's day in the hot seat. We'll see if he comes clean and tosses Trump and Giuliani under the bus. Sondland says he's been flying since he was 8 years old. Today he's going to answer the age old question,What kind of bird doesn't fly?
A. A jail bird.
Wow, Sondland threw both Trump and Giuliani under the bus in less than a minute. Pompeo got tossed along with them.
Sondland is not as hopeless as I thought. Some people have the gift of crawling through sh$t and smelling like a rose. He might be one of them.