Day One of the Pelosi, Schiff and Lawfare effort to publicly construct support for the impeachment of President Trump ends. Within the questioning of State Department officials George Kent and Bill Taylor the value of adding Jim Jordan to the hearings became clear.
Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik and John Ratcliffe methodically deconstructed the false premise advanced by the impeachment crew. It became clear that both Kent and Taylor held no specific and direct knowledge of the substance behind the claims made by the democrats leading the effort. Here’s a few highlights starting with Jim Jordan:
Jordan pressed Taylor on how he came to have a “clear understanding” that the U.S. aid to Ukraine was dependent on opening an investigation into Trump’s political rivals. Jordan said there was no “linkage” and Ambassador Taylor said he came to his “clear conclusion” based on what other people said about what other people heard about conversations with other people.
Here’s the visual to help (tweet embed video):
A visual recap of the “clear understanding” of Ambassador Taylor’s knowledge of what happened. #ImpeachmentHearings
.@Jim_Jordan pic.twitter.com/5sZD2CozfL— Mad Liberals (@mad_liberals) November 13, 2019
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Next up John Ratcliffe: Rep. Ratcliffe reviewed multiple public statements made by Ukrainian President Zelensky that he was not pressured by the U.S. and had no knowledge of military aid being withheld from Ukraine.
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Then Elise Stefanik brings it home by outlining Burisma: Rep. Stefanik focused on both officials’ statements on the corruption in Ukraine and Burisma:
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.@EliseStefanik swinging the atomic common-sense hammer.
Burisma was a corruption problem.
Obama thought Burisma was a problem.
Mr. Kent thought Burisma was a problem.
Trump thought Burisma was a problem.Hence the anti-corruption request. pic.twitter.com/M9CPPGnPE7
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) November 13, 2019
…"I don't consider myself a star witness".
…"I do not have any first hand knowledge". pic.twitter.com/Xv40gMpQ3c— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) November 13, 2019
"A member of my staff told me about a phone conversation that he overheard" where President Trump did not seek our approval prior to talking with the President of Ukraine.
This cannot stand amid the international rules based order we have constructed for decades. Impeach! pic.twitter.com/kqyHy37Zkn
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) November 13, 2019
Oh My God.
President Trump may have selected people for the delegation that went to President Zelenskyy's inauguration!
Without, REPEAT, *WITHOUT* consulting with Mr Kent.
This. CANNOT. STAND.
IMPEACH ! pic.twitter.com/41KqgGiWGf
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) November 13, 2019