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The Latest on the Trump Impeachment Inquiry: White House Official Testifies
The Trump Impeachment Inquiry: What Happened Today
(about 5 hours later)
Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, arrived Tuesday morning at the Capitol to testify to impeachment investigators about how he twice reported his concerns to a White House lawyer about how President Trump and his inner circle treated Ukraine.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, told impeachment investigators that he had listened to the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, and heard Mr. Trump request that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
He appeared in his midnight blue dress uniform, a bevy of medals pinned to his chest, for the closed-door session, where the colonel planned to deliver the latest in a series of damning accounts about the president’s dealings with Ukraine. His opening statement details his concerns about Mr. Trump’s request, during a July 25 telephone call, that Ukraine’s president launch investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family.
Colonel Vindman said the White House transcript of that call had left out Mr. Zelensky saying the word “Burisma” — the name of the Ukrainian energy company that Hunter Biden had worked for, and a focus of the investigation Mr. Trump wanted — as well as Mr. Trump saying there were recordings of Mr. Biden.
Even as Colonel Vindman arrived, Mr. Trump lashed out at the decorated Army combat veteran without naming him, accusing him on Twitter of being a longtime political opponent.
When Colonel Vindman offered corrections to the transcript, which was reconstructed from voice-recognition software and notes, those two suggestions were rejected. He testified that he did not know why some changes were made and others were not.
Mr. Trump has sought to undermine the credibility of impeachment witnesses by suggesting they are part of a deep state political conspiracy staging a coup, or have a political agenda against him. In his opening statement, Colonel Vindman described himself as just the opposite, saying he was a “patriot” who is determined to “advance and defend our country irrespective of party or politics.”
On Monday, House Democrats announced they planned to take a vote on procedures for a more public phase of the investigation. Today, they unveiled more specifics — including open hearings and a report — with a full vote scheduled for Thursday.
Colonel Vindman is a Ukrainian-American immigrant who received a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb. He is the first White House official, and the only witness so far who listened in on the July call to testify in the impeachment inquiry.
Colonel Vindman’s testimony is significant not just because he’s the first witness who listened in on the July 25 call, but also because of his background: He’s a refugee from Ukraine who fought in the Iraq War. I talked to my colleague Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who wrote today about Colonel Vindman.
The colonel was subpoenaed on Tuesday morning, as expected, after the White House directed him not to appear and sought to limit the scope of his testimony, according to an official involved in the inquiry who spoke on condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss it.
Sheryl, what makes Colonel Vindman’s story so astonishing?
A leading House Republican drew the line on Tuesday at personal attacks on Colonel Vindman, sharply distancing herself from a flood of criticism of the decorated Army officer from conservative commentators who have publicly questioned his patriotism.
When Alexander was three, his family fled Ukraine, then under the thumb of the Soviet Union, with almost nothing. His mother had died in Kiev. They had $750 and their suitcases. They sold their possessions while waiting for visas.
“We’re talking about decorated veterans who’ve served this nation, who’ve put their lives on the line, and it’s shameful to question their patriotism, their love of this nation, and we shouldn’t be involved in that process,” Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking Republican, told reporters, unprompted at a morning news conference.
They came here the way so many Americans have, looking for a better life. When they got to New York, their father worked multiple jobs while he was learning English. Alexander said in his testimony that his father instilled in him a love of the United States and a desire to integrate himself in this culture, to assimilate. He and his brother grew up and served in the military. There’s nothing more American than that.
Within hours after Colonel Vindman’s damaging account of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine became public on Tuesday night, the president’s allies in the conservative news media began disparaging him, with some suggesting that he was a spy loyal to his native Ukraine, not the United States.
You talked to a family friend of the Vindmans, who said, “When you talk about what good immigrants do, look at what these immigrants are doing for this country.”
The Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham said during her broadcast on Monday night that Colonel Vindman was working inside the White House, “apparently against the president’s interest,” noting that he spoke Ukrainian. John Yoo, who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office under George W. Bush, agreed with Ms. Ingraham that the situation was “astounding,” adding, “some people might call that espionage.”
Alexander grew up to be a productive citizen. By joining the Army, he expressed a love for his country, which took him in. And that is, in her view, what good immigrants do. He earned a Purple Heart in Iraq and is now working at the highest levels of the White House. And he is exposing wrongdoing as he sees it. He’s living up to the American ideals about truth and honor, about patriotism.
Brian Kilmeade, who hosts Fox & Friends, one of Mr. Trump’s favorite shows, said Tuesday morning of Colonel Vindman: “We also know he was born in the Soviet Union, emigrated with his family. Young. He tends to feel simpatico with the Ukraine.”
What can Colonel Vindman’s testimony say about the moment he — and we — are in?
Sean P. Duffy, a former Republican representative from Wisconsin and pro-Trump commentator, also questioned Colonel Vindman’s loyalties, saying Tuesday during an appearance on CNN: “It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense — I don’t know that he’s concerned about American policy.”
For Alexander, it’s sort of like coming full circle. His past and present have converged into this singular moment in American history, when the refugee from Ukraine is providing evidence about how an American president — his boss — pressured Ukraine, his birthplace, to smear his political rivals. There’s a remarkable symmetry to it.
“We all have an affinity to our homeland where we came from,” Mr. Duffy added.
It didn’t take long for conspiracies about Colonel Vindman to start bubbling up in conservative media. I emailed my colleague Michael Grynbaum, who wrote today about the reaction on the right, to find out more. Here’s what he told me:
Later on Twitter, Mr. Duffy appeared to walk back his remarks, praising Colonel Vindman’s service.
Even with no formal war room, the pro-Trump, anti-impeachment messaging machine works with impressive speed. Barely an hour after Colonel Vindman’s upcoming testimony was first reported last night, the Fox News host Laura Ingraham was suggesting that he may be compromised by his ethnic background. Her guest, a former lawyer in the Bush administration, said some people might call it espionage.
“Lt. Col. Vindman is an American war hero,” he wrote, adding, “My point is that Mr. Vindman is an unelected advisor, he gives ADVICE. President Trump sets the policy.”
From this exchange, a talking point emerged with a number of other conservative hosts and pundits — on Fox & Friends and CNN this morning, for example — who suggested without evidence that Colonel Vindman has a split loyalty to the United States and the country of his birth. By Tuesday afternoon, the idea had spread to many corners of the right-wing web, including to followers of the QAnon conspiracy. Rudy Giuliani tweeted out something similar this afternoon.
While Ms. Cheney rejected those suggestions, she continued to rail against the impeachment inquiry that has called Colonel Vindman to testify, saying it was illegitimate and unfair.
The Washington Post reported that impeachment investigators are looking to interview new witnesses who can corroborate details from other depositions. Among them: Robert Blair, a top aide to Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff; and Brian McCormack, the former chief of staff to Rick Perry, the energy secretary.
“The process is broken,” she said on Tuesday. “It’s tainted.”
My colleague Catie Edmondson reported that House Democrats heard an upbeat message at their weekly caucus meeting: Polling in the wake of the impeachment investigation showed a steady generic ballot for Democrats. Campaign officials also showed them new focus-group research that voters want a fact-finding investigation — not a process designed to arrive at a foregone conclusion.
House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled new rules for going public with their impeachment inquiry, directing the Intelligence Committee to convene open hearings and produce a written report to share the findings of its investigation into President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine.
There are three governor’s races and control of the Virginia legislature at stake in this off-year election, but it’s Kentucky where the most consequential campaign is taking place — and where the political impact of impeachment on the two parties is being put to the most visible test.
Under the proposed rules, which the House plans to bring up for a vote on Thursday, the report, along with transcripts of witness interviews being conducted behind closed doors and additional evidence collected by the Intelligence Committee, would promptly be shared with the Judiciary Committee, which would weigh the evidence and produce articles of impeachment to send to the full House.
Politico reports that Democrats have begun discussing whether Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union and a central figure in the Ukraine scandal, perjured himself in his interview with impeachment investigators a few weeks ago.
The draft resolution allows for new due process rights for President Trump and maps out exactly how Democrats plan to take public the confidential fact-finding process they launched late last month.
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“The evidence we have already collected paints the picture of a president who abused his power by using multiple levers of government to press a foreign country to interfere in the 2020 election,” four House committee leaders involved in the inquiry wrote in a statement. “Following in the footsteps of previous impeachment inquiries, the next phase will move from closed depositions to open hearings where the American people will learn firsthand about the president’s misconduct.”— Nicholas Fandos
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Even as they prepare to move their case into public view, Democrats at the helm of the impeachment inquiry continued on Tuesday to add names to the queue of administration officials they are calling for private depositions.
The most high-profile among them was Robert Blair, a top national security adviser to Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Mr. Blair listened in on the July phone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Mr. Mulvaney’s behalf, but did not raise concerns about what he heard at the time. Mr. Blair is also likely to have information about deliberations within the White House over the decision to suspend $391 million in security aid allocated for Ukraine.
Democrats have also requested testimony from Brian McCormack, the chief of staff to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Wells Griffith, an energy adviser at the White House, according to an official familiar with the matter. Mr. Perry played a significant role in the administration’s outreach to Ukraine. At least one impeachment witnesses has identified Mr. McCormack as having been intimately involved in many of the events under scrutiny.
It is not yet clear if any of the officials plan to comply with the requests, which were first reported by The Washington Post.— Nicholas Fandos
At their weekly caucus meeting on Tuesday, House Democrats heard a largely upbeat message regarding the shifting political field in the wake of the impeachment inquiry, along with a warning that voters will be watching to see that the inquiry is handled fairly.
Citing three different pollsters, officials with House Democrats’ campaign arm reported that recent polling shows a steady generic ballot for Democrats, with the party holding a 3-point lead in the most competitive House districts and an 8-point lead across all districts, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the discussion.
Democratic campaign officials also cited new focus-group research that showed that voters want to see the impeachment inquiry conducted as a fact-finding investigation — not a process designed to arrive at a foregone conclusion.
But the pollsters stressed that health care, the kitchen-table issue that catapulted many of the current Democratic freshmen to victory in 2018, remains voters’ top priority, and encouraged lawmakers to capitalize on that through a proposed bill to lower the cost of prescription drugs. That bill has been largely sidelined since the inquiry began.— Catie Edmondson
President Trump repeatedly pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate people and issues of political concern to Mr. Trump, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Here’s a timeline of events since January.
A C.I.A. officer who was once detailed to the White House filed a whistle-blower complaint on Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. Zelensky. Read the complaint.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in September that the House would open a formal impeachment proceeding in response to the whistle-blower’s complaint. Here’s how the impeachment process works and here’s why political influence in foreign policy matters.
House committees have issued subpoenas to the White House, the Defense Department, the budget office and other agencies for documents related to the impeachment investigation. Here’s the evidence that has been collected so far.
