What We Learned From The 1st Week Of Impeachment Hearings – By Domenico Montanaro (NPR) / Nov 16 2019
The first week of Trump impeachment inquiry hearings is in the books.
If you were paying attention to the thousands of pages of closed-door testimonies, you would recognize some of the details that emerged.
But there were some new and important wrinkles from the public hearings with acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor; George Kent, a top State Department official with oversight of Ukraine affairs; and Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who described a plot to oust her led by President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Here are seven takeaways from this historic and potentially consequential week:
1. It’s clear impeachment is shaping up to be a partisan affair
The two sides are pretty dug in. Nothing that got said in the public hearings seemed to move anyone. In fact, one of the more surprising developments might have been the stridency of New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s defense in support of Trump.
“[N]othing in that room today, and nothing in that room earlier this week, nothing rises to the level of impeachable offenses,” Stefanik contended after Yovanovitch’s hearing Friday, dismissing a question about the president’s tweet criticizing Yovanovitch. “This is wishful political thinking by the Democrats.”
Stefanik and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the archconservative Freedom Caucus, emerged as the president’s staunchest and clearest defenders during the two days of testimony. What made Stefanik’s role so eye-opening is that Stefanik has frequently criticized Trump as a candidate and as president.
Continue to article: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/16/779967058/what-we-learned-from-the-1st-week-of-impeachment-hearings
Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent and top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor are sworn in prior to testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.
Pool/Getty Images
