Trump news: President asked about Ukraine 'investigations', impeachment hearings told as Democrats reject effort to force whistleblower testimony
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Your support makes all the difference.The House impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump is beginning its first public hearings with Bill Taylor, acting US ambassador to Ukraine, and State Department official George Kent. Both witnesses delivered joint-testimony to Congress as the president derides the process as a “partisan sham”.
Mr Trump has meanwhile reportedly been threatening to fire his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney over his recent blunders. He also previously considered axing Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the US intelligence community, over his handling of the whistle-blower complaint about his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, as senior Republicans insist they will not be watching the hearings and Mr Trump hosts his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Wednesday, progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for the resignation of senior Trump aide Stephen Miller over racist emails he sent to the right-wing news site Breitbart, in which he advocated white nationalist ideologies.
Following a meeting between the two leaders, Mr Trump repeated to reporters at a press conference that the day's public impeachment hearings are a "witch hunt" and a "joke".
"I haven't watched, I haven't watched for one minute because I've been with the president which is much more important as far as I'm concerned," Mr Trump said.
But the leaders were at odds following their controversial summit, to which five Senators were invited, discussing Turkey's cease-fire against Kurdish forces in Syria, as well as a two-day $100b trade deal and Turkey's acquisition of Russian anti-aircraft weapons.
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Utah Republican Chris Stewart asks both impeachment witnesses whether corruption in Ukraine is "endemic".
William Taylor responds: "I would say that there is corruption in every country, including ours."
Two quick notes from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg, who is sitting in on the impeachment hearings:
"Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) just smeared President Obama with a ridiculous lie by suggesting that a hot-mic quote about “more flexibility after the election” was about allowing Russia to invade Ukraine. Obama was speaking of “more flexibility” to negotiate an arms control deal, the “New START” treaty."
"Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) just asked if presidential candidates should be immune from investigation, but this is the exact thing Republicans claimed during the Mueller probe when they attacked the FBI for investigating whether the Trump 2016 campaign “colluded” with Russia’s efforts to interfere in the election."
Illinois Democrat Mike Quigley discusses the fact that both impeachment witnesses were directed not to appear. George Kent says that he was under "legal obligation" to appear once he was issued a subpoena. William Taylor also says he "obeyed a legal subpoena" in delivering evidence to House investigators on Wednesday.
California Democrat Eric Swalwell is repeating a video from a press briefing with White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney telling reporters "we do this all the time" while speaking of an apparent quid pro quo with Ukraine.
William Taylor says that is not in fact something the US does with its allies. He also says it's "wrong" to participate in these acts, saying it was being done "for no good policy reason".
Here are both responses from William Taylor and George Kent about whether they are "Never-Trumpers" -
Mr Kent: "I am a career nonprofessional who serves whatever president is duly elected ... I've done that for 27 years."
Mr Taylor: "No sir."
Here's Donald Trump's full remarks from the White House on the impeachment hearings, according to pool reports:
“I’m too buy to watch it. It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax, I’m too busy to watch it. So, I’m sure I’ll get a report. There’s nothing — I have not been briefed. There’s nothing there. I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers, they took some guys off television. You know. I’m not surprised to see it, because Schiff can’t do his own questions.”
This is an interesting perspective - Texas Republican Will Hurd may have exposed that Donald Trump's White House had no problem sending security assistance to Ukraine before Joe Biden was set to run for president against him in 2020:
Texas Republican John Ratcliffe is continuing his line of apparent attacks against Marie Yovanovitch, asking the impeachment witnesses why the former ambassador to Ukraine was a witness to the impeachment inquiry as well.
George Kent declined to answer and shot the question back to him by suggesting he ask his Democratic colleagues the question instead.
Texas Republican John Ratcliffe asks Adam Schiff when House Republicans will get to learn more about the whistleblower. The House chairmen continues the hearing by allowing Washington Democrat Denny Heck to begin his five minutes.
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