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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Here is part of Adam Schiff's opening statement, which he wrote himself and is currently reading aloud:
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff is describing the impeachment as a "solemn process" and appears to be delivering a sober account of what happened that led to Congress launching an inquiry into Donald Trump.
The California Democrat is laying out the events surrounding Donald Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine in a chronological and methodical way, citing White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney's own comments to media effectively admitting the White House does this sort of thing "all the time".
Mr Schiff adds the White House meeting the Trump administration dangled in front of Ukraine officials "still has not happened".
A major takeaway from Adam Schiff's opening statement:
"This is what we believe the testimony will show — both as to the President's conduct and as to his obstruction of Congress. The issue that we confront is the one posed by the President's Acting Chief of Staff when he challenged Americans to "get over it." If we find that the President of the United States abused his power and invited foreign interference in our elections, or if he sought to condition, coerce, extort, or bribe an ally into conducting investigations to aid his reelection campaign and did so by withholding official acts — a White House meeting or hundreds of millions of dollars of needed military aid — must we simply "get over it?" Is that what Americans should now expect from their president? If this is not impeachable conduct, what is? Does the oath of office itself -- requiring that our laws be faithfully executed, that our president defend a constitution that balances the powers of its branches, setting ambition against ambition so that we become no monarchy -- still have meaning?"
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff concludes in his opening remarks:
"These are the questions we must ask and answer. Without rancor if we can, without delay regardless, and without party favor or prejudice if we are true to our responsibilities. Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of a country America was to become, "A Republic," he answered, "if you can keep it." The fundamental issue raised by the impeachment inquiry into Donald J. Trump is: Can we, keep it?"
California Republican Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, has now begun his opening remarks.
He's referring to the process as a "carefully orchestrated media smear campaign," and describing the closed-door investigative proceedings as "secret depositions".
Andrew Feinberg writes: "As [Devin] Nunes talks about the “cult-like atmosphere” of the SCIF depositions, Jackie Speier, who was shot multiple times by cult members in Jonestown, Guyana, shakes her head."
Devin Nunes is claiming the Democrats colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election, "cooperated in Ukrainian election meddling" and defended Joe Biden's son for working on a Ukrainian energy firm as the former vice president served in the White House.
Devin Nunes is asking whether Hunter Biden's position on the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma impacted any of the decision-making at the White House under the previous administration.
He is now greeting the two impeachment witnesses and saying they have "been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel" to the Russia investigation led by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Adam Schiff is now introducing the key impeachment witnesses, "both of whom are appearing under subpoena".
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