The first public impeachment hearing was a clear win for the Democrats with US diplomats William Taylor and George Kent delivering credible, detailed and damaging testimony about Donald Trump’s push for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Republicans also managed to fire a few good shots, pointing out that the evidence against the president is still based largely on second and third hand accounts rather than from President Trump himself.
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But it was the composed and chronological testimony from the top US diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor that had the most impact.
Taylor’s day by day account outlined a shadowy irregular channel of US diplomacy in Ukraine headed by President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and including diplomats Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker.
Taylor described in detail how this group worked at odds with official embassy channels and of how they worked to inform Ukraine officials that US military aid was contingent upon a public investigation into the Bidens.
This was, said Taylor, “a rancorous story about whistleblowers, Mr Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption, and interference in elections. In this story Ukraine is merely an object”.
Taylor surprised the committee by revealing new of information which ties the president more closely with the push for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Taylor reported that his staffer had overheard a phone call between President Trump and Sondland the day after President Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukraine president.
The aide heard the president ask about “the investigations” and after the call, when the aide asked about what President Trump thought of Ukraine, Sondland allegedly replied “President President Trump cares more about the investigation of Biden”.
If accurate, the claim shows how President Trump was personally involved in the push for an investigation into the Bidens and undermines his claim that he cared mostly about the issue of corruption in the Ukraine.
The most effective Republican rebuttal was by committee member Jim Jordan who pointed out that despite Taylor and Kent’s testimony, the case against the president is based largely on hearsay.
"They're trying to stop me, because I'm fighting for you. And I'll never let that happen." — President @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/ch0N1SWShe
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 13, 2019
“We’ve got six people having four conversations in one sentence and you told me this is where you got your ‘clear understanding’,” Jordan asked of Taylor. “I’ve seen church prayer chains that are easier to understand than this back and forth.’
In the end, the first day of public hearings gave the Democrats what they wanted - credible and sober evidence delivered on national television about President Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine into helping him politically.
Although President Trump tweeted “Never Trumpers” about the two witnesses, it is difficult for Republicans to paint either Taylor or Kent as partisan civil servants.
Taylor is a West Point graduate who won awards of valour as an infantryman in Vietnam and who has served as a senior diplomat under both Republican and Democrat administrations for decades. Kent has worked as a diplomat for 27 years for three Republican and two Democrats presidents.
NEVER TRUMPERS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
Even so, the committee’s ranking Republican Devin Nunes sarcastically congratulated both Taylor and Kent for “passing the Democrat’s Star Chamber auditions”.
Nunes described the hearings as a “televised theatrical performance staged by the Democrats” but of course that is the aim of these hearings. The Democrats need witnesses to tell the story of what transpired in order to persuade Americans that President Trump deserves to be impeached.
Republicans will base their defence on attacking the process of the inquiry while portraying witnesses as biased, or their evidence unreliable.
This will be the pattern for the weeks of testimony that lie ahead. It will be a bumpy, partisan ride leading a divided Washington closer towards an almost certain outcome - a vote along party lines in the house to impeach America’s 45th president, only to see him acquitted in the Senate.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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