On Wednesday, Gordon Sondland, the current U.S. ambassador to the EU, provided an absolutely bombshell opening statement in his testimony to the House impeachment panel. Among the explosive new information he provided was a statement that he’d spoken directly to Vice President Mike Pence about Donald Trump’s marching orders in Ukraine. From Sondland’s opening statement:
There was a September 1 meeting with President Zelensky in Warsaw. Unfortunately, President Trump’s attendance at the Warsaw meeting was cancelled due to Hurricane Dorian. Vice President Pence attended instead. I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations. I recall mentioning that before the Zelensky meeting.
During the actual meeting, President Zelensky raised the issue of security assistance directly with Vice President Pence. The Vice President said he would speak to President Trump about it.
In fact, when questioned by House counsel Daniel Goldman, Ambassador Sondland went further, making it clear that Pence knew exactly what the investigation was about, even if the Bidens weren’t specifically mentioned.
Goldman: “He didn’t say, Gordon, what are you talking about?"
Sondland: “He did not."
Goldman: “He didn’t say, What investigations?"
Sondland: “He did not."
According to Sondland, Pence was fully briefed on it all. For its part, the vice president’s office wasted little time issuing a statement calling Gordon Sondland a liar,
If it is true that they were never alone, perhaps it is time to get the other people in the room under oath as well. And it is one thing for the Mike Pence’s office to release this statement, having the benefit of not being under oath itself. It’s another to make this kind of statement under oath, with the weight of the full consequences on the vice president’s staff.
At the end of the day, all these people deserve each other and what’s coming to them. As we hear that Mike Pompeo is looking for an exit so he can run back to Kansas for a U.S. Senate run, the rats are now fleeing at an unprecedented rate. And make no mistake about it, Donald Trump will burn every single one of them to preserve himself.
