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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William Taylor explains the need for US military aid in Ukraine during his opening remarks:
"Even as we sit here today, the Russians are attacking Ukrainian soldiers in their own country and have been for the last 4 years. I saw this on the front line last week. The day I was there, a Ukrainian soldier was killed and 4 were wounded."
From Andrew Feinberg, in the hearing:
Even members of Congress can’t keep from feeling the history here. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-New Jersey) just went to the front of the room to take a picture.
This bit of evidence from William Taylor's opening remarks appears to be some of the most significant revelations from the first public hearings thus far.
If confirmed, it would indicate that Donald Trump was acutely interested in Ukraine launching investigations into the Bidens:
William Taylor is describing in detail his reactions to requests for investigations from the White House:
"A formal U.S. request to the Ukrainians to conduct an investigation based on violations of their own law struck me as improper, and I recommended to Ambassador Volker that we 'stay clear.'"
A notable different in how Fox News and MSNBC are covering today's historic impeachment hearings:
William Taylor directly cites Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, for eroding career diplomats' efforts towards US-Ukraine relations:
"The odd push to make President Zelenskyy publicly commit to investigations of Burisma and alleged interference in the 2016 election showed how the official foreign policy of the United States was undercut by the irregular efforts led by Mr. Giuliani."
William Taylor says "Ukraine is important to the security of the United States" and is "struggling to join Europe" as it is "repeatedly attacked by Russia".
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan left the room. He had spent most of the hearing thus far repeatedly rocking back and forth.
Adam Schiff is asking more questions to William Taylor about Donald Trump's phone call with Ambassador Gordon Sondland the day after the president spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky.
William Taylor is explaining why "more Ukrainians would die" if the US does not continue providing military assistance to the country, as Russia continues its attacks.
He says that any delay in the military assistance may have caused possible danger for Ukrainians on the frontlines.
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