Donald Trump reenacts conversation with Gordon Sondland after bombshell impeachment testimony
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The fifth day of public impeachment hearings has come and gone, with another pair of key witnesses delivering damning evidence against Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the president spent his time lashing out against the proceedings on Twitter, writing: “Never in my wildest dreams thought my name would in any way be associated with the ugly word, Impeachment!”
Mr Trump has had a more controversial week than usual, as his EU ambassador, Gordon Sondland, implicated the president in a quid pro quo with Ukraine during his own impeachment hearings - along with vice president Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. “Was there a ‘quid pro quo’?" Mr Sondland said in his opening statement. "As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes."
The president's critics have said the proceedings are exposing impeachable offences, including ex-White House ethics lawyer Richard W Painter, who said it was effectively “game over” for his administration. Mr Trump has attempted to undermine the inquiry, insisting that he barely knew his ambassador and wanted “NOTHING” from Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. As all that happened, the Democratic 2020 contenders took to the debate stage in Georgia to attack Mr Trump as "one of the most corrupt presidents" in US history.
During the Thursday testimony, Fiona Hill, a former White House adviser on Ukraine, and David Holmes, a top staffer at the US embassy in Ukraine, testified about the irregular channel of communication in which Mr Trump pushed for a domestic-ally oriented political investigation.
Ms Hill told investigators that she believed Republican arguments claiming that it was OK for Mr Trump to ask for an investigation into Ukraine's 2016 role played into Russian talking points, and that furtherance of that played into their hands.
Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal
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Mr Homes, meanwhile, told investigators that he was on the phone call that allegedly occurred 26 July, just a day after Mr Trump's call with Mr Zelensky. He said that he could hear the president speaking, even though he was not on spearker phone.
“I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get reelected. If we don’t impeach him, he will say he has been vindicated. He will say the Democrats had an overwhelming majority in the House and they didn’t take up impeachment. He will say that we have a constitutional duty to do it if it was there and we didn’t. He will say that he has been vindicated.“But here’s what I say. We are confronting a constitutional crisis as I speak to you. As I look the people of America in the eye, I’m telling you we have a constitutional crisis.
When the chief executive officer, the president of the United States, refuses to comply with subpoenas and says he will order others to do so, this creates a constitutional crisis.“But this isn’t the genesis of it. It started when the president said he would fire Mr. Comey for his failure, pardon me, as a result of his desire not to be investigated. And when he decided to do this — and he went on TV, on national TV at prime time — and indicated he was thinking about this Russia thing, that was the genesis of it.“We have a constitutional crisis. I regret that I am the canary in the coal mine. I regret that I was the person who had to first say that there was some obstruction taking place here. I regret that it has to be me, but it has to be somebody. I take my duties seriously. I love my country Mr. Mena and I want you to know this — we must impeach this president. If we don’t, it’s not the soul of the nation that will be at risk only.
It is the soul of the Congress that is at risk. Congress has a duty, a responsibility, an obligation, that only it can fulfill, no one else can. No other entity can. It is Congress that will have to act. If we put people above party, we’ll act properly. But if we allow a party to be above principle, we will not. If we allow political expediency to trump moral imperative, we will have created a shameful situation that this Congress will never live down. History won’t be kind to us. We must impeach him.”
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff is now delivering his closing statements by thanking Fiona Hill and David Holmes for having "stuck with the facts". He also slams Republicans for disparaging Ms Hill, who he notes "did not back down" in the face of their smears.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff to Fiona Hill and David Holmes: "You're not Democratic witnesses or Republican witnesses. You're nonpartisan witnesses. You have stuck to the facts and that's as it should be."
Adam Schiff also has a message for Fiona Hill as he continues to question why Republicans disparaged her expert testimony: "Dr. Hill, you were criticized several times by my colleagues for your opening statement. I'm glad you didn't back down from it. You're much more diplomatic than I am ... Anyone watching these proceedings ... would have the same impression that you evidently had."
Adam Schiff is slamming Republican talking points in his closing statements, decrying the minority party's attacks on key witnesses and saying their claims of "secret" closed-door hearings are just that - attacks, with no real basis in fact. The House Intelligence chairman notes that "at least" a hundred members had access to those hearings and the transcripts have been released as well.
Adam Schiff also slams Republicans for not speaking out about Donald Trump's controversial press conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin:
"We all remember that debacle in Helsinki when the president ... questioned his own intelligence agencies. I wish I heard just some of the righteous indignation we heard in the committee today when the president questioned that ... But of course, they were silent."
Adam Schiff concluded in his dramatic closing remarks:
"In my view, there is nothing more dangerous than an unethical president who believes they are above the law. And I would just say to people watching here at home and around the world, in the words of my great colleague, we are better than that. Adjourned."
In one of the lighter moments of today's hearing, Democrat Jackie Speier brought up a story from Fiona Hill's childhood that has been going viral today. When Dr Hill was 11 years old, her hair was set on fire while she was taking a test - and she put it out with her hands.
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