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Diplomat's Ukraine testimony 'incredibly damaging' to Trump, says House Democrat – live I was told Trump wanted quid pro quo deal, Ukraine ambassador reportedly testifies – live
(about 3 hours later)
Representative Stephen Lynch, a Democratic member of the House oversight committee, said that Bill Taylor took “extensive notes” about his communications while serving as acting US ambassador to Ukraine. A Washington Post reporter summarized the opening statement of Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, in this way:
Amb. Taylor “indicated that he kept extensive notes on all of his correspondence,” Rep. Stephen Lynch says of testimony, without discussing details. “He’s a meticulous public servant.” Shorter Bill Taylor: President Trump insisted, over and over there was not a "quid pro quo." But there was a quid. Followed by a pro. And then, finally, a quo.
A number of Democrats sitting in on Taylor’s closed-door appearance said that the longtime diplomat was the most important witness to testify in the impeachment inquiry yet. According to the opening statement of Bill Taylor, Gordon Sondland said that “everything,” including the release of military aid to Ukraine, was tied to the country’s president publicly announcing investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 election.
Lots of Dems, like Lieu, say Taylor’s testimony was explosive. Rep. Espaillat said this was the most important witness so far. Unanimity among Ds on this point so far. Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, said to the House committees investigating impeachment: “Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelenskyy was dependent on a public announcement of investigations – in fact, Ambassador Sondland said, ‘everything’ was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance.
Here’s where the day stands so far: “He said that President Trump wanted President Zelenskyy ‘in a public box’ by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.”
Bill Taylor is testifying behind closed doors in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump. The acting US ambassador to Ukraine said in a text last month that he thought it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.” Bill Taylor said in his opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment that he was preparing to resign in August over the delaying of military aid to Ukraine.
Trump was lambasted by many Democrats (and a much smaller number of Republicans) for comparing the impeachment probe to a “lynching.” The acting US ambassador to Ukraine said that he had a conversation on August 22 with Tim Morrison of the National Security Council. Morrison indicated during the phone call that Trump was opposed to authorizing any military aid to Ukraine.
A new poll found that half of Americans support impeaching Trump and removing him from office, marking a 13-point increase since late April. Taylor said: “As I had told Secretary [Mike] Pompeo in May, if the policy of strong support for Ukraine were to change, I would have to resign. Based on my call with Mr. Morrison, I was preparing to do so.”
The blog will have plenty more coming up, so stay tuned. In his opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment, Bill Taylor said he was told by an official at the National Security Council that Trump had insisted the Ukrainian president himself publicly announce a probe into Joe Biden and his son.
Another Democratic member of the House foreign affairs committee, Andy Levin of Michigan, described Bill Taylor’s testimony as “very troubling.” The acting US ambassador to Ukraine said: “President Trump did insist that President Zelensky go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelensky should want to do this himself.”
Levin said of the acting US ambassador to Ukraine’s comments: “All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress – it’s not even noon, right – and this is my most disturbing day in Congress so far. Very troubling.” However, Taylor said that Trump had told Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU, he was not seeking a “quid pro quo,” even as military aid to Ukraine hung in the balance.
Meanwhile, one of Levin’s colleagues defended Taylor’s reputation against potential smears from Trump’s allies. At the risk of stating the obvious: if Trump demanded that the Ukrainian president make public announcements of investigations into Democrats before he would authorize the release of military aid, then his actions were the very definition of a quid pro quo.
Ambassador Bill Taylor is a graduate of West Point. He served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne. He is an American patriot. He understands duty, honor, country. https://t.co/aT4YV3ATeR Bill Taylor said in his opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment that he was concerned before accepting the role of acting US ambassador to Ukraine about Rudy Giuliani’s role in the country.
Meanwhile, representative Mark Meadows, a Republican member of the House oversight committee and a close ally of Trump’s, joked that Bill Taylor’s interview could go on for much longer. The longtime diplomat said: “I worried about what I had heard concerning the role of Rudolph Giuliani, who made several high-profile statements about Ukraine and U.S. policy toward the country.
Asked how much longer today’s Taylor deposition will go, @RepMarkMeadows tells us: “y’all have plans for the weekend?” “So during my meeting with Secretary [Mike] Pompeo on May 28, I made clear to him and the others present that if U.S. policy toward Ukraine changed, he would not want me posted there and I could not stay.”
The acting US ambassador to Ukraine started his testimony for House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry about three hours ago. After accepting the role, Taylor said he realized that Giuliani – along with Kurt Volker, Gordon Sondland and Rick Perry – controlled “an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making with respect to Ukraine.”
The opening statement from Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, to the three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry solicited “sighs and gasps,” according to a Politico reporter. Taylor said: “Although this irregular channel was well-connected in Washington, it operated mostly outside of official State Department channels.”
New: Per source in the room, Bill Taylor’s opening statement was 15 pages long and prompted “a lot of sighs and gasps.” The Washington Post has published a copy of Bill Taylor’s opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment.
The opening statements from Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU, were quickly leaked to the press, so it’s likely the same will occur with Taylor’s statement. In the 15-page statement, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine and longtime civil servant describes how he became “increasingly concerned” that the US-Ukraine relationship was being “fundamentally undermined” by withholding military aid for “domestic political reasons.”
A Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, condemned Trump’s use of the term “lynching” to describe House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Taylor added that he stood by his Sept. 9 text message to Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, in which he said it would be “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
“Lynching” brings back images of a terrible time in our nation’s history, and the President never should have made that comparison. It remains unknown whether the senior Trump administration official who is writing a book about being part of an internal “resistance” is still employed by the White House.
Collins’ tweet appears to be one of the most forceful criticisms yet from Republicans, as other GOP lawmakers have simply said that they did not “agree” with Trump’s usage of the term. This is certainly unprecedented, but one key question is unanswered: is this person STILL in the Administration? A White House official declined to comment on the news of the book, or to speculate on the identity of Anonymous. https://t.co/LUPRFkE785
Representative Ted Lieu, a Democratic member of the House foreign affairs committee, just emerged from the closed-door interview with Bill Taylor and said the acting US ambassador to Ukraine’s testimony was “incredibly damaging to the president.” According to CNN, the literary agency representing the author declined to comment on whether the person still worked in the administration.
LIEU just emerged and described Taylor’s testimony as “incredibly damaging to the president.” Wouldn’t provide specifics. He said questioning of the witness has begun. Here’s another piece of news that the president will surely hate: The anonymous author of a 2018 New York Times op-ed that described a “resistance” inside the government to help control Trump is now writing a book.
CNN reported earlier today that Taylor intended to use his testimony to fill in some of the gaps surrounding his 9 September text message, in which he said it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.” The Washington Post reports:
Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who has repeatedly criticized Trump in the past, denounced the president’s use of the term “lynching” to describe House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. The book, titled, ‘A WARNING,’ is being promoted as ‘an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency’ that expands upon the Times column, which ricocheted around the world and stoked the president’s rage because of its devastating portrayal of Trump in office.
Steele also chastised Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina senator echoed Trump’s use of the term and said the impeachment probe is “a lynching in every sense.” The column described Trump’s leadership style as ‘impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective,’ and noted that ‘his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.’ ...
@realDonaldTrump and @LindseyGrahamSC this is a lynching. Trump this is not happening to you and it’s pathetic that you act like you’re such a victim; but it did happen to 147 black people in your state Lindsey. “A lynching in every sense”? You should know better. pic.twitter.com/RQNQaOaLsd The forthcoming book will list the author as ‘Anonymous.’ Although the person does not reveal their identity in the book, they will discuss the reasons for their anonymity, according to people involved in the project.
However, Graham does not appear to be changing his stance at all, insisting that the inquiry is a “political lynching” and refusing to comment on the racist implications of Trump’s comment. Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, reportedly directly contradicted the testimony of Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU, in his opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment.
“If [the word] lynching bothers you, I’m sorry... it’s literally a political lynching,” Sen. Graham tells reporters. I asked him to reflect on the racial dynamics of the word and he sharply dismissed the question. Wow -- > Bill Taylor’s testimony totally contradicts Amb. Sondland’s claim that he recalls “no discussions” with anyone at the State Department or White House about Biden or his son. Taylor says Sondland heard about Biden directly from Trump:https://t.co/mkmJWgSbjz pic.twitter.com/7xXzBJAd5E
Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democratic member of the House intelligence committee, said in a tweet that Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU, asked Trump at one point: “What do you want from Ukraine?” Several House Democrats involved in the investigation are already calling for Sondland to be called back to testify and answer for the discrepancies between the two men’s accounts.
Reality check: The Ambassador called you and asked broadly, “what do you want from Ukraine?” With a guilty conscience, you repeated, “no quid pro quo.” Problem: He didn’t ask you if there was a quid pro quo. You just happened to know there was one. https://t.co/Tf9WWjS3JL Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch said there were “inconsistencies” in testimony and “factual assertions.” “I would be extremely surprised and dumbfounded if Chairman Schiff didn’t ask for him to come back,” Lynch told me, referring to Sondland. https://t.co/Si2gXP6neO
Sondland testified in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry last week and may have shared this detail with the investigating lawmakers behind closed doors, but the transcript of his appearance has not been publicly released. Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, said in his opening statement to the House committees investigating impeachment that he was told military aid to Ukraine was contingent upon public announcements of investigations into Democrats, according to the Washington Post.
After Bill Taylor said in a text message last month that he thought it was “crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Sondland replied: “Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind.” The Post reports:
However, reports later emerged that Sondland only sent his “no quid pro quo” message after speaking to Trump. Upon arriving in Kyiv last spring he became alarmed by secondary diplomatic channels involving U.S. officials that he called ‘weird,’ Taylor said, according to a copy of his lengthy opening statement obtained by The Washington Post.
The King Center, which honors the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, just tweeted out these facts about lynching after Trump used the term to describe the impeachment inquiry. Taylor walked lawmakers through a series of conversations he had with other U.S. diplomats who were trying to obtain what one called the ‘deliverable’ of Ukrainian help investigating Trump’s political rivals.
“More than 4400 African American men, women, and children were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950.” ~@MemPeaceJustice https://t.co/qGmK6VFwCw#LynchingMemorial #Lynching @realDonaldTrump @POTUS Taylor said he spoke to Ambassador Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union.
A White House spokesperson defended Trump’s use of the word “lynching” to describe the impeachment inquiry by arguing that the president was not making a historical comparison. ‘During that phone call, Amb. Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President [Volodymyr] Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,’ Taylor said in the statement.
.@hogangidley45 on lynching tweet: "the president has used many words, all types of language, to talk about the way the media has treated him" and "the president wasn't trying to compare himself to the horrific history in this country at all" Former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter had been a board member of Burisma, a large Ukrainian gas company.
This explanation seems highly questionable, given that the word “lynching” has almost exclusively been applied to the thousands of people (most of them African American) who were murdered in the late 19th and early 20th century. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, denied ever telling Trump that his Ukraine call was “perfect,” as the president has claimed. Asked whether Trump was lying, the Kentucky Republican replied: “You’d have to ask him.”
It seems virtually impossible that Trump is unaware of this history, particularly given that the Senate passed a bill last year to make lynching a hate crime. The president has not yet signed the legislation. A couple weeks ago, @realDonaldTrump said that @senatemajldr told him that his call w/President Zelensky was “perfect” and “innocent”. But when I asked McConnell about that just now, he said he never spoke to the President about it. So was Trump lying? “You’d have to ask him.”
notably, there was a unanimous Senate voice vote last year which defined lynching as part of a bill that would have officially made it a hate crime (which the president has not signed): https://t.co/o4bpXMWI44 pic.twitter.com/vAY0e43k9I McConnell also offered some muted criticism of Trump’s use of the word “lynching” to describe House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, calling it “an unfortunate choice of words.”
Bill Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine who is currently speaking to House members for Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump, was reportedly subpoenaed for his testimony. Senate Majority Leader McConnell on President Trump's comparison of the impeachment effort against him to "a lynching":“Given the history in our country, I would not compare this to a lynching. That was an unfortunate choice of words.” pic.twitter.com/3zEDZzwv9y
In light of an attempt by the State Dept to direct Ambassador Taylor not to appear for his scheduled deposition + efforts by the State Dept to also limit any testimony that does occur, the House Intel Cmte issued a subpoena to compel his testimony this morning per official
Other officials who have spoken to the three House committees leading the inquiry have similarly been subpoenaed – including Taylor’s predecessor, Maria Yovanovitch.
Senator Tim Scott, the only African American Republican serving in the Senate, offered this muted criticism of Trump’s use of the term “lynching” to describe the impeachment inquiry.
Sen TIM SCOTT on Pres Trump comparing the impeachment inquiry to a lynching: “There’s no question that the impeachment process is the closet thing to a political death row trial, so I get his absolute rejection of the process. I wouldn’t use the word lynching.”