It’s the first day of impeachment hearings with two sets of witnesses, for a total of four in the day, and the House Intelligence Committee is back for round two. The afternoon hearings feature witnesses Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a National Security Council Europe and Russia expert.
Volker resigned in September after his name showed up in the whistleblower’s complaint and texts with Rudy Giuliani. The full set of texts involving Volker and other members of Trump’s diplomatic team showed how extensive the effort to pressure Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election was, with Volker texting gems like “Hi, Mr Mayor! Had a good chat with Yermak last night. He was pleased with your phone call. Mentioned Z making a statement. Can we all get on the phone to make sure I advise Z correctly as to what he should be saying? We want to make sure we get this done right. Thanks!”
Morrison insisted to House investigators that he didn’t hear anything illegal on the Trump-Zelensky phone call, but he did worry that if it leaked, there would be “adverse ramifications.” Morrison was repeatedly looped in on the pressure campaign against Ukraine.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 9:45:00 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
It’s quite possible to believe that Volker’s motivation in seeking the announcement of investigations into what he admits were “conspiracy theories” were different than those of Trump, Giuliani, and Sondland. But it’s damn near impossible to believe he didn’t know exactly what he was asking of Zelensky.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 9:58:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Nunes begins his questioning by talking about TV ratings. And that snide remark is pretty much all he has to say … which perfectly encapsulates the GOP position.
The good thing here is that Nunes says TV ratings are bad. So they’re almost certainly great.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 10:03:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Castor trying to make the case that Volker didn’t know why the aid was being held up … which may be true. Except that Congress had already cleared the aid. And the Pentagon already cleared the assistance on both reform and corruption points on May 23.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 10:39:48 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Castor finally gets around to waking up long enough to attack Vindman and get Morrison to step in to attack Vindman.
Note that Morrison didn’t give a lengthy background report as part of his intro — the answer is that Morrison was a GOP congressional aide. The reason Vindman was concerned that Morrison wasn’t involving him in many issues, is likely because Morrison didn’t understand those issues.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 11:07:11 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Goldman pulls Volker directly into “investigating things that happened in the past.” Because it continues to be exceedingly clear that Volker knew exactly what he was asking about—investigations into two conspiracy theories—no matter what he says, he was neck deep in these requests.