Today saw Ambassador William Taylor's testimony before the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. In a written statement, Taylor made it clear that Trump, Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, and others explicitly tied the withholding of $400 million of U.S. military aid to Ukraine to a demand that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference.
Taylor's performance was devastating not only to Trump, but to Sondland, who had attempted to deny in his own House testimony that he was aware that Trump was specifically targeting Biden. Taylor is said to have kept extensive notes on his interactions with Trump's team as the scheme unfolded, notes that clearly demonstrate both that Trump withheld military aid as a means of securing a Biden "investigation" and that Trump subordinates conveyed those demands to Ukrainian officials. Taylor also emphasized that the withholding of aid had happened even though Ukraine was "fighting the Russians and counted on not only the training and weapons, but also the assurance of U.S. support."
It was a high crime, by any credible definition, and one that now implicates multiple members of the White House and Trump’s Cabinet.
In other impeachment inquiry news:
• House Democrats have released a "fact sheet" outlining the Ukraine scandal and Donald Trump's actions, providing a rough draft of what eventual articles of impeachment may look like.
• The Washington Post reported today that Trump was prodded to take a "hostile view" of Ukraine in calls with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Hungarian white nationalist Victor Orban.
• But a May 1, 2019 New York Times story credulously promoting conspiracy theories on Joe and Hunter Biden shows the scheme was well underway days before those calls.
• In a morning tweet, a pouting and still-racist Donald Trump complained that the impeachment inquiry was "a lynching," without "due process or any legal rights." His outburst was widely condemned, though Sen. Lindsey Graham was quick to pipe up to support him.
• There still appear to be political pundits in the world who believe Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might somehow still feel shame about reversing long-held public stances on things like the impeachment of a president if doing so would benefit his party and support Trump. Those pundits are wrong.
• A new CNN poll finds that 50% of Americans now support removing Donald Trump from office through impeachment.