President Trump tore into House Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry Wednesday
during a press conference with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
decrying the hearsay-laden "witch hunt" and saying he hadn't watched
that day's public hearing "for one minute."
"This is a sham, and
shouldn't be allowed -- it was a situation that as caused by people who
couldn't have allowed it to happen. I want to find out who's the
whistleblower," the president said, claiming that the whistleblower
behind the impeachment inquiry has made provably inaccurate statements.
"I'm
going to be releasing, I think on Thursday, [another] transcript, which
actually was the first of the two [phone calls with Ukraine's leader],"
he said.
The White House has already released a transcript
of Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president, in which the two
discussed past U.S. "support" for Ukraine, as well as Ukraine's issues
with corruption. On the call, Trump asked Ukraine to investigate reports
that Ukraine was involved in 2016 election interference. The president
also mentioned Joe Biden's push to have Ukraine's chief prosecutor
fired, and suggested the country look into the matter.
Asked at
the press conference about acting ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor's
testimony about an alleged July 26 phone call between the president
and U.S. envoy to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Trump said: "I
know nothing about that -- first time I've heard it."
Taylor testified, for
the first time, that the president was overheard by a member of his
staff on July 26 asking Sondland about “the investigations,” to which
Sondland responded that “the Ukrainians were ready to move forward.”
Taylor said that following Sondland’s call with Trump, the member of his
staff asked what Trump thought about Ukraine.
“Ambassador
Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the
investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for,” Taylor said,
revealing new information from his prior testimony last month. “At the
time I gave my deposition on October 22, I was not aware of this
information. I am including it for completeness.”
At
the press conference, the president pointed to Sondland's written
testimony: "The one thing I've seen that Sondland said, he did speak to
me for a brief moment, he did speak to me for a brief moment -- [he
testified previously that] I said, no 'quid pro quo,' under any
circumstances. And that's true. In any event, it's more second-hand
information. ... The only thing, and I guess Sondland has stayed with
his testimony, that there was no quid-pro-quo, pure and simple."
Trump
added that witnesses summoned by Democrats during the impeachment
hearings had produced "all third-hand information" and unreliable
hearsay. "This statement that I made, the whole call that I made with
the president of Ukraine, was a perfect one. ... I'd much rather focus
on peace in the Middle East."
Despite a BBC report that Erdogan
had recently thrown a letter from Trump in the trash, Erdogan began the
news conference by telling reporters Trump was a "good friend." Trump
reciprocated, calling the autocrat a "great president" and claiming that
Turkey had a "great relationship with the Kurds."
Erdogan announced
that between six months to two years from now, Turkey could repatriate
about one million refugees into a safe zone established in northern
Syria. Outside the White House, dozens of Kurds and their supporters
waved Kurdish and American flags in protest.
The
press conference came after the two leaders met in the White House, and
followed a meeting with five Republican senators, including Ted Cruz of
Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. (After Trump urged his
Erdogan to call on “a friendly reporter from Turkey," Graham reportedly turned to an ABC News reporter to
remark, “There aren’t any others left.” The president joked afterward
that the Turkish reporter Erdogan called on appeared to work for the
Turkish government.)
Trump and Erdogan in the Oval Office. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
In a statement late Wednesday, Graham vowed that
the United States "cannot and will not abandon our Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) allies," and added: "I realize Turkey has legitimate
national security concerns regarding certain Kurdish elements of the
U.S.-led counter-ISIS coalition, but Turkey’s incursion into Syria has
been incredibly disruptive. I believe it is possible to deal with
Turkey’s national security concerns by creating a Safe Zone, but Turkey
cannot do it through force of arms.
“As to Turkey’s purchase of
the S-400 Russian missile system: it is almost a universally held
position in Congress that the S-400 is incompatible with the F-35
fighter," Graham continued. "Turkey’s activation of the Russian S-400
will require the U.S. to keep Turkey from the F-35 program and issue
sanctions. I’m hopeful we can find a way forward with the S-400 where
Turkey’s national security needs can be met without compromising the
F-35 program."
Erdogan and Trump had a difficult agenda for their
talks, which included Turkey's decision to buy a Russian air defense
system despite Ankara's membership in NATO and its incursion into
neighboring Syria to attack Kurdish forces that have fought with the
U.S. against the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
Despite those
disputes, Trump said the two countries were poised to agree to increase
U.S. goods and services trade with Turkey, which totaled about $24
billion in 2017.
Trump defended his decision to invite Erdogan
despite Turkey’s widely denounced advance into Syria. He said that he
and Turkey’s president have been “very good friends” for a long time and
understand each other’s country.
“We’re
going to be expanding,” Trump said. “We think we can bring trade up
very quickly to about $100 billion between our countries.”
The
president was "pleased" that Turkey was increasing spending on its own
defense, and noted that other NATO allies have been lagging behind.
"I
know that the ceasefire, while complicated, is moving forward -- and
moving forward at a very rapid clip," Trump said, later adding
that Turkey's acquisition of advanced Russian military equipment
presents "serious challenges."
Demonstrators hold Kurdistan flags in front of the White House as
thy protest Erdogan's visit Wednesday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Republican lawmakers have pressed Erdogan about why
Turkey bought the S-400 Russian air defense missile system. The U.S. and
fellow NATO nations say the S-400 would aid Russian intelligence and
compromise a U.S.-led fighter jet program.
The U.S. has since
kicked Erdogan out of a multinational program producing components of
America's high-tech F-35 fighter jet. In response, Erdogan attended an
air show this summer in Moscow and expressed interest in buying the
latest Russian Su-35 fighter jets.
"We have a lot of trade with
Turkey, but it could be many times higher ... We intend to bring it up
to about $100 billion, which would be about four times what it is now,"
Trump said.
Trump also said Turkey has been helping the U.S. "a lot" in fighting ISIS.
Meanwhile,
in the Senate, two Democrats introduced legislation denouncing Turkey's
targeting of journalists, political opponents, dissidents, minorities
and others. They said the Turkish government has imprisoned more than
80,000 Turkish citizens, closed more than 1,500 nongovernmental
organizations on terrorism-related grounds and dismissed or suspended
more than 130,000 civil servants from their jobs.
In October,
Trump moved U.S. forces out of the way of invading Turkish troops, a
decision that critics said amounted to abandoning America's Kurdish
allies, but that Trump defended as an important end to an otherwise
"endless" military engagement in the Middle East.
Trump
administration officials have said Trump told Turkey not to invade
Syria. But when Erdogan insisted, they say, Trump decided to move 28
Green Berets operating on the Turkey-Syria border so they wouldn't be
caught in a crossfire between Turkish-backed forces and the Kurds.
"I think a tremendous amount of progress is being made," Trump said. Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
All eyes were on moderate House Democrats in swing districts Wednesday night, after the first day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump
wrapped up with no major revelations -- but also highlighted weaknesses
in Democrats' key witnesses, who relied primarily on second-hand
information and never once interacted with the president.
At one point in Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., even appeared to embrace hearsay testimony, claiming
that "hearsay can be much better evidence than direct" and that
"countless people have been convicted on hearsay because the courts have
routinely allowed and created, needed exceptions to hearsay." It was
unclear which of those limited exceptions would apply to Wednesday's
testimony -- and whether Quigley's argument would persuade critical
swing-vote Democrats.
The House is now comprised of 431 members,
meaning Democrats need 217 yeas to impeach Trump. There are currently
233 Democrats, so Democrats can only lose 16 of their own and still
impeach the president. 31 House Democrats represent more moderate
districts that Trump carried in 2016.
Freshman Rep. Elissa
Slotkin, D-Mich. -- who flipped a GOP district in 2018 that Trump won by
7 points in 2016 -- told Fox News that she was tentatively weighing all
the evidence.
"My constituents expect me to make an objective
decision," Slotkin said as the hearings concluded, "not one based on an
hour of testimony."
Slotkin went on to acknowledge that launching an impeachment inquiry was a "politically tough thing to do."
"I'm
not waking up in the morning looking for some golden poll," Slotkin
said, insisting that she would analyze all testimony carefully in the
coming days.
Reports have emerged that,
should Trump be impeached by a majority vote in the House, Senate
Republicans might strategically hold a lengthy trial to "scramble" the
2020 Democratic presidential primary -- including by requiring several
of the contenders to remain in Washington to handle the trial. Trump is
all but certain to be acquitted by the GOP-controlled Senate in the
event of impeachment, given that a two-thirds vote is required in the
Senate to remove the president.
As the public hearing wrapped up
on Wednesday, the panel voted 13-9, along party lines, to table a
Republican motion to subpoena the whistleblower -- signaling that not
many minds had been swayed.
A
GOP source close to the House Intelligence Committee told Fox News late
Wednesday that Republicans have full confidence in counsel Steve
Castor, and he will continue to lead the questioning in the next round
of public impeachment hearings. GOP members were pleased with his
questioning today, the source said.
The day offered one previously
undisclosed allegation. Career diplomat William Taylor, the charge
d’affaires in Kiev, offered testimony, for the first time, that the
president was overheard by a member of his staff on July 26 asking EU
Ambassador Gordon Sondland about “the investigations,” to which Sondland
supposedly responded that “the Ukrainians were ready to move forward.”
Taylor said that following Sondland’s call with Trump, the member of his
staff asked what Trump thought about Ukraine.
“Ambassador
Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the
investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for,” Taylor said,
revealing new information from his prior testimony last month. “At the
time I gave my deposition on October 22, I was not aware of this
information. I am including it for completeness.”
But, Republicans
pointed out that Taylor's testimony was unverifiable hearsay, several
layers deep -- and that Sondland has previously testified that Trump
explicitly told him there were "no quid pro quo’s of any kind" with
Ukraine, including one in which military aid would be conditioned on any
politically motivated investigations.
"'Ambassador Taylor recalls
that Mr. [Tim] Morrison told Ambassador Taylor that I told Mr. Morrison
that I had conveyed this message to Mr. [Andriy] Yermak on September 1,
2019, in connection with Vice President Pence’s visit to Warsaw and a
meeting with President [Volodymyr] Zelensky,'" Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan
said, incredulously reading a statement from Sondland.
"We’ve got
six people having four conversations in one sentence, and you just told
me this is where you got your 'clear understanding,'" Jordan continued,
as Taylor appeared to laugh. "Ambassador, you weren't on the call, were
you? You've never talked to Chief of Staff [Mick] Mulvaney? You've never
met the president. ... And you're their star witness?"
Even CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin noted that Democrats had a "problem," in
that their key witnesses Wednesday had never directly interacted with
Trump. "And, that's a problem if you're going to impeach the president,"
Toobin said.
Jordan also reminded viewers that President Obama
had declined to provide lethal aid to Ukraine, even after Russia's
invasion. Trump, on the other hand, eventually provided Javelin
missiles. And, Ukraine's president has said he felt no pressure, improper or otherwise, from the Trump administration to engage in any investigations.
Trump,
for his part, said he was too busy to watch on Wednesday and denied
having such a phone call. "First I've heard of it," he said when asked.
At a news conference with Turkey's leader, Trump vowed to release another transcript of an earlier call with Ukraine on Thursday. He called Democrats' efforts a hopeless "witch hunt."
The
president pointed to Sondland's written testimony: "The one thing I've
seen that Sondland said, he did speak to me for a brief moment, he did
speak to me for a brief moment -- [he testified previously that] I said,
no 'quid pro quo,' under any circumstances, and that's true. In any
event, it's more second-hand information. ... The only thing, and I
guess Sondland has stayed with his testimony, that there was no
quid-pro-quo, pure and simple."
Media observers questioned whether
the proceedings ultimately would sway any opinions, or make things any
easier for moderate Democrats. ABC News' George Stephanopoulos mused
on-air, "part of me is wondering, what do facts matter anymore in these
debates?"
Meanwhile, Christian Jacobs, 50, sat in a beach bar in
St. Petersburg, wearing a fedora and reluctantly watching the drama on
television, as The Associated Press put it.
"I
did not want this," Jacobs, a Democrat, said, glancing at the TV and
vaping. He said he had been leaning closer toward impeachment.
"I'm so afraid, left to his own devices, what else he may do," Jacobs said of Trump.
"I did not want this." — Christian Jacobs, 50, wearing fedora and sipping marijuana vape pen
Anthony
Harris, cutting hair in Savannah, Georgia, had the hearing on in his
shop, but he said, "It's gotten to the point now where people are even
tired of listening."
Lawmakers largely signaled that the hours of
partisan back-and-forth did not appear to leave a singular moment etched
in the public consciousness the way the Watergate proceedings or former
President Clinton's impeachment did.
"No real surprises, no bombshells," said committee member Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah.
Taylor and Kent had defied White House instructions not to appear. Both received subpoenas.
They
were among a dozen current and former officials who already testified
behind closed doors. Wednesday was the start of days of public hearings
expected to stretch into next week.
All day, the diplomats
testified about how an ambassador was fired, the new Ukraine government
was confused and they discovered an "irregular channel" -- a shadow U.S.
foreign policy orchestrated by the president's personal lawyer Rudy
Giuliani which raised alarms in diplomatic and national-security
circles.
For their part, Republican lawmakers observed that the president -- not unelected career bureaucrats -- dictated foreign policy.
At its core, the inquiry has stemmed from Trump’s July 25 phone call when he asked Zelensky for "a favor."
The White House already has released a transcript of
the call, in which the two discussed past U.S. "support" for Ukraine,
as well as Ukraine's issues with corruption. On the call, Trump asked
Kiev to investigate reports that Ukraine was involved in 2016 election interference.
Later
on, the president also mentioned former Vice President Joe Biden's push
to have Ukraine's chief prosecutor fired, and suggested the country
look into the matter.
The call came a day after former Special
Counsel Robert Mueller's widely derided appearance on Capitol Hill
appeared to leave Democrats' hopes for impeachment dashed. Fox News' Chad Pergram, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Rep. Paul Gosar,
R-Ariz., slammed his former colleague Katie Hill who had criticized his
cryptic Epstein tweets, telling her she taught the country a new word:
"throuple."
Hill criticized Gosar over a series of tweets that
spelled out "Epstein didn't kill himself." The saying has been appearing
in memes and on social media. Hill blasted him for "tweeting out real
conspiracy theories."
"No like this actually happened. Real
members of Congress tweeting out real conspiracy theories. In an
acrostic no less," Hill tweeted.
Gosar fired back, "You’re
surprised by me? You single-handedly taught an entire country a new
word. #throuple," Gosar reacted. "And wth is up with that tattoo?
Relax."
"Throuple," which is a term to describe a three-person
relationship, was the arrangement Hill reportedly had with her estranged
husband and a female campaign staffer. Hill accused her estranged
husband of leaking the nude photos as "revenge porn" amid their messy
divorce. Hill's attorneys also vehemently denied allegations made in
a DailyMail story that one of the nude photos shows a “Nazi-era Iron
Cross” tattoo.
Gosar drew some attention to his Twitter account on
Wednesday with a series of tweets he wrote in reaction to the
ongoing testimony of U.S. diplomat Bill Taylor and State Department
official George Kent as the first witnesses in a public impeachment
hearing of President Trump, sharing videos and articles that memorialized the event.
"Evidence
of a link between foreign aid and political investigations simply does
not exist. The longer this circus continues the clearer it becomes that
@realDonaldTrump has done absolutely nothing wrong," Gosar wrote on his
official Twitter account.
Before that, "President @realDonaldTrump
voluntarily chose to release the transcript of his phone call which
clearly shows he did nothing wrong. This impeachment circus is a total
sham, and Adam Schiff is the clown at the center of it all."
And,
before that, "Schiff’s star witness is crumbling under pressure. He
wasn’t listening to the phone call and he has never even met President
Trump."
However, the Daily Wire and
others took notice that as readers scrolled down Gosar's profile, the
first letters of each tweet spelled, "Epstein didn't kill himself."
The "Epstein didn't kill himself" meme has spread like wildfire after the death of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The New York City medical examiner determined he had taken his own
life, but vocal skeptics have suggested otherwise during random
blurt-outs on television and other signs.
In a statement to Fox
News, Gosar stressed that his tweets were all "substantive" but appeared
to have some more fun in the process.
"All of the tweets pertained to testimony from today’s hearing.
Rest assured, they are substantive.
Every one of them.
All of them.
5 were brilliant.
1 was ok.”
In other words, "Area 51."
Hill
resigned from Congress earlier this month after she was accused of
having multiple inappropriate relationships with subordinates, including
a congressional staffer that prompted an investigation from the House
Ethics Committee.
Donald Trump Jr. reacted to the first day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry against his father on Wednesday saying, ‘‘I’ve never seen anything more ridiculous.”
The first day of public hearings wrapped up with no major revelations -- but he said it also highlighted weaknesses in Democrats' key witnesses, who relied primarily on second-hand information.
Speaking on “Hannity” on Wednesday night, Trump was quick to point that out.
"You
see exactly what America voted against in 2016, career government
bureaucrats doing their thing,” the executive vice president of the
Trump Organization said.
“Everything was hearsay, ‘I heard it from
a friend, who heard it from a friend, how heard it from a friend.’ I’m
saying, ‘this is a joke.’”
At one point in Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., even appeared to embrace hearsay testimony, claiming
that "hearsay can be much better evidence than direct" and that
"countless people have been convicted on hearsay because the courts have
routinely allowed and created, needed exceptions to hearsay." It was
unclear which of those limited exceptions would apply to Wednesday's
testimony -- and whether Quigley's argument would persuade critical
swing-vote Democrats.
Trump commented on Quigley’s statements
telling Sean Hannity, “Then I heard the Democrats, and this is when you
realize how bad or, frankly, nonexistent their case is, ‘well hearsay is
often times much better than regular evidence.’ I’m saying, ‘did that
guy say that with a straight face?’”
Trump then compared Quigley’s comments to “the telephone game we learned about in Kindergarten.”
“So
it’s better to have heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend
who heard it from a friend than to have heard it with your own ears? I
mean that’s the level of insanity that you’re seeing from these
bureaucrats who’ve taken an anti-Trump position,” he said.
Earlier
Wednesday Trump Jr. also tweeted about Quigley’s comments writing, “Can
you believe this insanity? “Heresay [sic] can be much better evidence
than DIRECT EVIDENCE” according to Democrat Mike Quigley. Are you
fricken kidding me? 3rd and 4th party info better than hearing it
yourself?”
On "Hannity" Trump said, “When Republicans start questioning, [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam Schiff
changes the rules, changes the goal posts, pretends they can’t even ask
that question anymore. It’s never ending. It’s a comedy at this point.”
The House is now comprised of 431 members, meaning Democrats need 217 yeas to impeach Trump.
There are currently 233 Democrats, so Democrats can only lose 16 of
their own and still impeach the president. 31 House Democrats represent
more moderate districts that Trump carried in 2016.
Trump
Jr. told Hannity on Wednesday that the left “is not looking to govern,
they’re not looking to do anything, they are looking to try to resist.
Because they know they can’t beat Trump in the polls, they’re going to
try to impeach and it’s not going to work in the long run and the
American people see through it. They are sick of this garbage.” Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The closed doors of the Trump impeachment investigation are swinging wide open.
When
the gavel strikes at the start of the House hearing Wednesday morning,
America and the rest of the world will have the chance to see and hear
for themselves for the first time about President Donald Trump’s actions
toward Ukraine and consider whether they are, in fact, impeachable
offenses.
It’s a remarkable moment, even for a White House full of them.
All on TV, committee leaders will set the stage,
then comes the main feature: Two seasoned diplomats, William Taylor,
the graying former infantry officer now charge d’affaires in Ukraine,
and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary in Washington, telling
the striking, if sometimes complicated story of a president allegedly
using foreign policy for personal and political gain ahead of the 2020
election.
So
far, the narrative is splitting Americans, mostly along the same lines
as Trump’s unusual presidency. The Constitution sets a dramatic, but
vague, bar for impeachment, and there’s no consensus yet that Trump’s
actions at the heart of the inquiry meet the threshold of “high crimes
and misdemeanors.”
Whether
Wednesday’s proceedings begin to end a presidency or help secure
Trump’s position, it’s certain that his chaotic term has finally arrived
at a place he cannot control and a force, the constitutional system of
checks and balances, that he cannot ignore.
The
country has been here just three times before, and never against the
backdrop of social media and real-time commentary, including from the
president himself.
“These
hearings will address subjects of profound consequence for the Nation
and the functioning of our government under the Constitution,” said
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the chairman of the
Intelligence Committee leading the inquiry, in a memo to lawmakers.
Schiff
called it a “solemn undertaking,” and counseled colleagues to “approach
these proceedings with the seriousness of purpose and love of country
that they demand.”
“Total impeachment scam,” tweeted the president, as he does virtually every day.
Impeachments
are rare, historians say, because they amount to nothing short of the
nullification of an election. Starting down this road poses risks for
both Democrats and Republicans as proceedings push into the 2020
campaign.
Unlike
the Watergate hearings and Richard Nixon, there is not yet a “cancer on
the presidency” moment galvanizing public opinion. Nor is there the
national shrug, as happened when Bill Clinton’s impeachment ultimately
didn’t result in his removal from office. It’s perhaps most like the
partisanship-infused impeachment of Andrew Johnson after the Civil War.
Trump
calls the whole thing a “witch hunt,” a retort that echoes Nixon’s own
defense. Republicans say Democrats have been trying to get rid of this
president since he first took office, starting with former special
counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference to help
Trump in the 2016 election.
Democratic
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was initially reluctant to launch a formal
impeachment inquiry. As Democrats took control of the House in January,
Pelosi said impeachment would be “too divisive” for the country. Trump,
she said, was simply “not worth it.”
After
Mueller’s appearance on Capitol Hill in July for the end of the Russia
probe, the door to impeachment proceedings seemed closed.
But the next day Trump got on the phone.
For
the past month, witness after witness has testified under oath about
his July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr
Zelenskiy, and the alarms it set off in U.S. diplomatic and national
security circles.
In
a secure room in the Capitol basement, current and former officials
have been telling lawmakers what they know. They’ve said an earlier
Trump call in April congratulating Zelenskiy on his election victory
seemed fine. The former U.S. reality TV host and the young Ukrainian
comedian hit it off.
But in the July call, things turned.
An
anonymous whistleblower first alerted officials to the phone call. “I
have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that
the President of the United States is using the power of his office to
solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 election,” the
person wrote in August to the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
Democrats fought for the letter to be released to them as required.
“I am deeply concerned,” the whistleblower wrote.
Trump
insisted the call was “perfect.” The White House released a rough
transcript. Pelosi, given the nod from her most centrist freshman
lawmakers, opened the inquiry.
“The president has his opportunity to prove his innocence,” she told Noticias Telemundo on Tuesday.
Defying
White House orders not to appear, witnesses have testified that Trump’s
acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was withholding U.S. military aid
to the budding democracy until the new Ukraine government conducted
investigations Trump wanted into Democrats in the 2016 election and his
potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.
It
was all part of what Taylor, the long-serving top diplomat in Ukraine,
called the “irregular” foreign policy being led by Trump’s personal
attorney, Rudy Giuliani, outside of traditional channels.
Taylor
said it was “crazy” that the Trump administration was withholding U.S.
military assistance to the East European ally over the political
investigations, with Russian forces on Ukraine’s border on watch for a
moment of weakness.
Kent,
the bowtie-wearing State Department official, told investigators there
were three things Trump wanted of Ukraine: “Investigations, Biden,
Clinton.”
On
Friday, the public is scheduled to hear from Marie Yovanovitch, the
former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who told investigators she was warned
to “watch my back” as Trump undercut and then recalled her.
Eight more witnesses will testify in public hearings next week.
“What
this affords is the opportunity for the cream of our diplomatic corps
to tell the American people a clear and consistent story of what the
president did,” said Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., a member of the
Intelligence panel.
“It takes a lot of courage to do what they are doing,” he said, “and they are probably just going to be abused for it.”
Republicans,
led on the panel by Rep. Devin Nunes, a longtime Trump ally from
California, will argue that none of those witnesses has first-hand
knowledge of the president’s actions. They will say Ukraine never felt
pressured and the aid money eventually flowed, in September.
Yet Republicans are struggling to form a unified defense of Trump. Instead they often fall back on criticism of the process.
Some
Republicans align with Trump’s view, which is outside of mainstream
intelligence findings, that Ukraine was involved in 2016 U.S. election
interference. They want to hear from Hunter Biden, who served on the
board of a gas company in Ukraine, Burisma, while his father was the
vice president. And they are trying to bring forward the still-anonymous
whistleblower, whose identity Democrats have vowed to protect.
The
framers of the Constitution provided few details about how the
impeachment proceedings should be run, leaving much for Congress to
decide. Democrats say the White House’s refusal to provide witnesses or
produce documents is obstruction and itself impeachable.
Hearings
are expected to continue and will shift, likely by Thanksgiving, to the
Judiciary Committee to consider actual articles of impeachment.
The House, which is controlled by Democrats, is expected to vote by Christmas.
That would launch a trial in the Senate, where Republicans have the majority, in the new year.
___
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.
President Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner and other White House officials are planning to set up web cameras to livestream construction along the border wall, according to a report.
Kushner
first offered the proposal during a July meeting, pitching the idea as a
way to confront criticism that Trump has not followed through on his
signature 2016 campaign promise, The Washington Post reported, citing
unnamed officials
U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers and senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection
officials have told Kushner they’re opposed to the initiative because
certain construction contractors do not want their proprietary
techniques shown to competitors, the sources told the Post.
Trump
reportedly asked Kushner to reinvent messaging and communication about
the border wall project after the government shutdown last year. The
current website for the CBP shows information about construction along
the border, but a new site, currently being designing by Trump
administration’s chief digital officer Ory Rinat, will reportedly
incorporate the live camera feeds, allowing the public to visibly track
the wall’s progress.
Under the Trump administration, 81 miles of
border wall, most of which was built as "replacement" barrier to
reinforce older fencing, has been completed. The new barriers built of
steel bollards stand anywhere from 18 to 30 feet tall.
An
additional 155 miles of border fencing is currently under construction.
And 273 miles are under “preconstruction,” according to the most recent
CBP data. The Trump administration aims to build a total of 400 to 500
miles of border wall to complete the project. The project has been
facing delays as officials work to acquire privately held land in Texas
along the U.S.-Mexico border. It has cost taxpayers $10 million to date,
the Post reported.
In an 8-0 vote Tuesday night, the city council of Tacoma, Wash., approved new taxes on the sales of firearms and ammunition.
When
the taxes take effect July 1, 2020, gun buyers will pay a $25 tax on
each purchase, plus 2 cents per round on ammunition of .22 caliber or
less, and 5 cents per round on all other types of ammunition, the News
Tribune of Tacoma reported.
The
new levies are expected to raise about $300,000 annually, with the
money designated for violence-prevention programs, the report said.
Tacoma's new taxes call for a $25 charge on firearms purchases and
2 cents to 5 cents for each round of ammunition. Gun parts and
accessories are excluded, according to a report. (Getty Images)
But Second Amendment advocates
questioned the council’s action, saying it amounted to punishing
law-abiding gun owners for the actions of a relatively small number of
criminals.
They proposed instead more vigorous enforcement of existing laws, the News Tribune reported.
“Everyday
firearms protect life,” Jane Milhans, a local certified firearm
instructor, told the council during the public-comment portion of the
meeting. “It’s our personal protection.”
Manufacturers and retailers also expressed opposition to the plan.
“This
type of regressive tax really impacts our ability to be competitive,”
CEO Scott Dover of Tacoma-based manufacturer Aero Precision said during
public comment. The company employs more than 400 people, the report
said.
“This type of regressive tax really impacts our ability to be competitive.” — Scott Dover, CEO of gun manufacturer Aero Precision
Last month, retail store manager Bruce Smith told Seattle's KOMO-TV that Tacoma's new taxes would drive businesses out of town.
“The
owner of this company has already said if they pass the ordinance we
will not be here when it starts," Smith told the station. "So as of
January 1, this store will go away. It will be gone by then.”
Council
member Catherine Uska described the city’s tax plan as a model that
other communities could use in addressing gun violence.
“It gives a signal to other municipalities that it’s something that they can do,” Ushka said, according to the News Tribune.
Council
member Keith Blocker had language added to the ordinance that city
officials would convene a panel of school officials, gun advocates and
other members of the community to review the effects of the new taxes
and determine if the council “should consider repealing” the levies at
some point.
Council members decided to exclude gun parts and
accessories from being taxed, as a way to lessen the burden on
businesses, the newspaper reported.
In
a pillared House chamber at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, in the shadow of
the 2020 presidential and congressional elections, House Democrats are
set to host the first public hearing involving the potential impeachment of a president since November 19, 1998 -- and, they insist, they aren't happy about it.
"It’s
a sad day," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, told Fox News on
Tuesday. "A calm day. A prayerful day." For his part, House Intelligence
Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called the hearings a "solemn
undertaking" in a letter to colleagues.
Behind the scenes, House
Democrats were predicting a "phenomenal week," Fox News is told. At the
same time, Republicans have been preparing a methodical and vigorous
cross-examination of Democrats' witnesses, whose accounts of President
Trump's alleged wrongdoing have been based largely on hearsay and
intuition.
Capitol Hill security officials told Fox News they're
not anticipating the kinds of organized protests that rocked the Supreme
Court confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh last year, but sources
on both sides of the aisle have cautioned that the day will be
unpredictable. The proceedings are to be held in the cavernous House
Ways and Means Committee hearing room at the Longworth House Office
Building.
With
the bang of a gavel, Schiff will open the impeachment hearings
Wednesday into Trump's alleged pressure on Ukraine to investigate 2020
presidential candidate Joe Biden's dealings in the country. The former
vice president, a Democrat, has boasted about pressuring Ukraine to fire
its top prosecutor, as his son Hunter Biden held a lucrative role board of a Ukrainian natural gas company despite having little relevant expertise.
The Capitol on Tuesday as the House is set to begin public
impeachment inquiry hearings as lawmakers debate whether to remove
President Trump from office. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A whistleblower's complaint about Trump's July 25
telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ignited the
impeachment investigation. During the hearing Wednesday, a key exchange
during that 30-minute call, which has been outlined in a Sept. 24 transcript released by the White House, could take center stage. Zelensky has said he felt no pressure during the call.
"I
would like you to do us a favor though," Trump said at one point in the
call, after a mention of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine
apparently was not aware that the U.S. was withholding new military aid
until August, approximately two weeks before the U.S. ultimately
released the aid and well after Trump's phone call with Zelensky.
On
the call, Trump then asked Zelensky to investigate reports that Ukraine
had some involvement in 2016 election interference. Later on in the
conversation, amid a discussion of deep-seated Ukrainian corruption,
Trump mentioned Biden's push to have Ukraine's prosecutor fired, and
suggested the country look into the matter.
Republicans have
pointed out that the U.S. also delayed military aid assistance for
Lebanon and Armenia. The GOP is expected to say the European Union was
not doing its fair share to help root out corruption in Ukraine.
“The Russia invasion of Crimea had more to do with Europe than with the U.S.,” one Republican source told Fox News.
Trump
has said the call was "perfect" and contained no "quid pro quo," or
this for that. Democrats, meanwhile, have said it showed Trump using his
office to pressure a foreign government to help him politically.
Big
questions loomed, including how strongly administration officials
connected Trump's apparent desire for a probe to the question of whether
to provide military aid to Ukraine -- and whether such a probe would
have been inappropriate. At its heart, the GOP argument was that the
impeachment effort was unfair and sparked because "unelected and
anonymous bureaucrats disagreed" with Trump's decisions on Ukraine.
Shortly
after Schiff's gavel, he and ranking Republican Devin Nunes, R-Calif.,
are to begin the questioning. They get 45 minutes each, or can designate
staff attorneys to do so.
Members of the panel will then get five minutes each to ask questions, alternating between Republicans and Democrats.
For
the Democrats, expect to hear from Daniel Goldman and Daniel Noble,
both counsels for the Intelligence Committee. Fox News is told on the
GOP side, Steve Castor, whom Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan brought over from the
Oversight Committee, will be the counsel to pose questions for the
minority.
Republicans recently placed Jordan on the Intelligence
Committee. Though Nunes is the senior Republican, the congressman from
Ohio could act as an especially fierce attacker of the witnesses'
credibility and the Democrats' case for impeachment.
Goldman and
Castor asked the bulk of the questions of witnesses during weeks of
closed-door depositions with current and former administration officials
and diplomats.
"You're going to see a prosecutorial approach,"
said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor who worked with Goldman to
successfully prosecute a Genovese family boss and two mob hit men for
racketeering, two murders and an attempted murder. "You will see
somebody who knows every detail of every piece of evidence and will
bring it to bear in his questioning. You'll see someone who knows how to
get right to the point."
Democrats chose Ambassador Bill Taylor and career Foreign Service officer George Kent
to kick off the public hearings. "They both were witness to the full
storyline of the president’s misconduct," a Democratic aide told Fox
News.
The two likely will describe a parallel foreign policy
toward Ukraine led by Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and other
White House officials.
"I discovered a weird combination of encouraging, confusing and ultimately alarming circumstances," Taylor testified in
an Oct. 22 statement. Taylor, a West Point graduate and Vietnam War
veteran who has served under every presidential administration,
Republican and Democrat, since 1985, also worked for then-Sen. Bill
Bradley, D-N.J.
Demonstrators marching on Pennsylvania Avenue protesting against
climate policies and President Trump, in Washington last week. (AP
Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Taylor said it was "crazy" that the Trump
administration may have been withholding U.S. military assistance to the
Eastern European ally over the political investigations, with Russian
forces on Ukraine's border on watch for a moment of weakness.
Fox
News is told the Democrats' game plan has been to let the witnesses
"tell their story" on Wednesday. "We need to facilitate and stay out of
the way," one Democrat involved in the questioning said.
Democrats
also told Fox News that Taylor had "the best view of the scheme. He is a
habitual note-taker. He is your worst nightmare. Very prepared."
One
source told Fox News the most important line in all of the previously
released transcripts so far may have come from Taylor: "Irregular policy
channels were running contrary to longstanding goals of U.S. policy,"
Taylor said in his testimony.
But, Republicans have countered that
it's the role of the president -- not unelected career bureaucrats --
to set U.S. foreign policy.
The hearing room where the House is to begin public impeachment
inquiry hearings Wednesday, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
And, Taylor wasn’t on the phone call between Trump
and Zelensky. Fox News is told Republicans will cross-examine Taylor
repeatedly over his lack of "first-hand knowledge" about the call.
"Hearsay
puts a lot of people in jail," one Democratic source told Fox News.
"Eyewitness testimony can be tough. Cops will tell you that. Taylor's
deducing all of this."
Republicans, meanwhile, are expected to ask Taylor how and why he thought there was a "linkage" and "who told you that."
Kent,
a career foreign service officer, testified on Oct. 15 there were three
words Trump wanted to hear from the Ukraine president: "Investigations,
Biden and Clinton."
He also told the investigators about the "campaign" of smears against former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch that he said Giuliani waged, leading to her being recalled from the position.
In this Nov. 19, 1998 file photo, House Judiciary Committee
Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., presided over the committee's impeachment
hearing for President Clinton. (AP Photo/Joe Marquette, File)
Yovanovitch is set to testify Friday. She previously testified on Oct. 11 that she was told people were "looking to hurt" her.
Fox News reported last week
that Yovanovitch, a key witness for Democrats, communicated via her
personal email account with a Democratic congressional staffer
concerning a "quite delicate" and "time-sensitive" matter -- just two
days after the whistleblower complaint that kickstarted the inquiry was
filed, and a month before the complaint became public.
Emails obtained by Fox News appeared to contradict Yovanovitch's deposition on Capitol Hill last
month, in which she told U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., about an email
she received Aug. 14 from the staffer, Laura Carey -- but suggested
under oath that she never responded to it.
Zeldin
told Fox News: "I specifically asked her whether the Democratic staffer
was responded to by Yovanovitch or the State Department. It is greatly
concerning that Ambassador Yovanovitch didn't answer my question as
honestly as she should have, especially while under oath."
FILE - In this Aug. 3, 1973, file photo, the Senate Watergate
Committee hearings continue on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP
Photo/File)
Republicans have privately acknowledged to Fox News
that they might have a problem. "How do you counteract Kent and Taylor
when you don’t have a witness to counter them?" one Republican source
asked.
Schiff has approved just three of nine witnesses sought by
the GOP. They were envoy Kurt Volker, State Department official David
Hale and National Security Council aide Timothy Morrison.
Last
week, Schiff rejected a request by Republicans to have the Ukraine phone
call whistleblower testify, saying that their testimony was "redundant
and unnecessary." The GOP witness list, obtained by Fox News this past
Saturday, also included Hunter Biden.
Late Tuesday, Schiff
announced that open hearings will again be held next week from Nov.
19-21. In addition to Volker, Hale and Morrison, the new witness list
included Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Pence; Alexander
Vindman, the director for European affairs at the National Security
Council; U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland; Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian
Affairs Laura Cooper; and former National Security Council
official Fiona Hill.
White
House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, for his part, said Tuesday
he no longer plans to sue over the impeachment proceedings and will
instead follow Trump's directions and decline to cooperate.
Aside
from witnesses, there will also be exhibits -- lots and lots of
exhibits. Democrats, at least, are expected to display excerpts from
transcripts, text messages, relevant news articles and social media
posts.
The Democrats reportedly have been wary of Republicans
trying "stunts" and being argumentative in an effort to distract from
the case against the president.
The Dec. 20, 1998 editions of newspapers from Massachusetts and
Rhode Island with headlines of President Clinton's impeachment. (AP
Photo/Peter Lennihan, File)
"By Act II, I suspect the Dancing Bears will enter
the room," one Democratic source said. But, GOP sources downplayed the
idea of guerilla tactics during the hearing.
Schiff, in a memo and
open letter to colleagues on the eve of Wednesday's
proceedings, outlined some of the rules -- including that members not
assigned to the Intelligence Committee were not permitted to make
statements or question witnesses, but were allowed to sit in the
audience.
"It is important to underscore that the House’s
impeachment inquiry, and the committee, will not serve as venues for any
member to further the same sham investigations into the Bidens or into
debunked conspiracies about 2016 U.S. election interference that
President Trump pressed Ukraine to undertake for his personal political
benefit," Schiff wrote.
The goal is to end the hearing by 4:30 p.m.
It's
only the fourth time in American history that Congress has launched
impeachment proceedings against a sitting president. Two of those —
against Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton 130 years later—
resulted in their impeachments, or formal charges approved by the House.
Both
were acquitted by the Senate, which requires a two-thirds vote to
remove a sitting president under the Constitution. The House impeaches
by a majority vote.
Former President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before the House could vote to impeach him.
During
Watergate, the Senate held televised hearings that served to turn
public opinion against Nixon. The most sensational moments -- including
the testimony of White House counsel John Dean and Sen. Howard Baker's
famous question, "What did the president know and when did he know it?"
-- occurred not during House impeachment hearings but during special
Watergate hearings in the Senate.
Pelosi initially was reluctant
to launch a formal impeachment inquiry. As Democrats took control of the
House in January, she said impeachment would be "too divisive" for the
country. Trump, she said, was simply "not worth it."
After
former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s widely panned appearance on
Capitol Hill in July for the end of the Russia probe, the door to
impeachment proceedings seemed closed.
But, the next day, Trump got on the phone with Ukraine's leader. Fox News' Mike Emanuel, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump and Erdogan in the Oval Office. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Demonstrators hold Kurdistan flags in front of the White House as
thy protest Erdogan's visit Wednesday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
