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 the first page of Ambassador William Taylor's opening statements:
William Taylor's entire opening remarks can be read in full below:
"I am not here to take one side or the other, or to advocate for any particular outcome of these proceedings," William Taylor says.
A notable takeaway from Ambassador William Taylor's opening remarks:
"As the Committee is aware, I wrote that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be 'crazy.' I believed that then and I believe it now."
Ambassador William Taylor says career diplomat Marie Yovanovitch has been "poorly treated" by officials within the Trump administration. He said he was "concerned about the role of Rudy Giuliani" in the president's dealings with Ukraine.
William Taylor said there "appeared to be two channels" in dealing with US-Ukraine policy: "One regular, and one irregular," he added.
The "irregular, informal channel" was "unaccountable to Congress" and included Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney and Rudy Giuliani, according to Mr Taylor.
William Taylor has revealed Donald Trump was keen to learn about an update on the investigations a day after his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:
William Taylor says in his opening remarks:
"I encountered an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policymaking with respect to Ukraine, unaccountable to Congress. A channel that included" Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney, and "as I subsequently learned, Mr. Giuliani."
Donald Trump has retweeted this video from the White House as William Taylor delivers his opening remarks:
This from Andrew Feinberg, who is sitting in the room where the impeachment proceedings are being held:
Democrats for the most part are listening intently, Jim Jordan still rocking back forth in his chair, looks bored. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) keep talking to each other.
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