I am retired, and I am focused on what is happening in America. That means that I have the luxury of getting my information “raw,” straight from the Impeachment hearings, or straight from the debate stage. I don’t need the filters of news commentators, whether I like them or not. I can get it all, in real time.
In the Loop
That made Wednesday a really long day. The Impeachment Hearings began at nine, with Ambassador Gordon Sondland telling a compelling story of the “alternate” track of American diplomacy. As Sondland said, it doesn’t seem like an “alternate” when the President’s Chief of Staff, the Secretaries of State and Energy, the Ambassador to the European Union and the Special Envoy to Ukraine were “in the loop”.
And it doesn’t seem like an “alternate” either when the President of the United States himself said to Sondland and Volker, “talk to Rudy”. Sondland (and all of the others) either took their cues from the President’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, or at least acquiesced in his actions.
Gangsta Talk
No, the President never said to Sondland, “…you tell the Ukrainians that if they want their meetings and their money, they need to tell the world they’re investigating Biden and Crowd Strike”. Donald Trump doesn’t work that way. He never has. His last “personal attorney” Michael Cohen explained that to us in his testimony to the House Oversight Committee. He told us about Mr. Trump’s “code”. Mr. Cohen said that the President would never say, “give me that tie”. He would say, “I really like that tie, it would look good on me”. If you were around Mr. Trump, you knew what to do.
Sondland isn’t an experienced ambassador. And he isn’t experienced with testifying to House committees either. As Congressman Maloney dramatically pointed out, it took Sondland three times to get his testimony “right”. It was still replete with hundreds of “I don’t recall” statements, ones that still might come back to haunt him with the danger of perjury charges. But he is now on the record, putting his entire “alternate track” under the gun (and under the bus).
Repeating Something Doesn’t Make It True
Mulvaney, Pompeo, Perry, Volker, Sondland, and of course Giuliani: all knew that the President was asking for “a favor” in exchange of $400 million in US aid and a White House meeting. And the later testimony of Defense Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Laura Cooper debunked the argument that “the Ukrainians didn’t know”. Republican Congressmen, particularly Jim Jordan of Ohio, have been chanting this litany over and over; that there couldn’t be a “quid pro quo” since the Ukrainians didn’t know the money was held.
But this money was a matter of survival to the Ukrainians. They were following it closely, and after the Presidential phone call of July 25th, were immediately in contact with Cooper’s office, asking what the status of the money was, and as time went on, why it was being held up.
They heard the President of the United States ask for a “favor,” and they knew what he wanted. The “quid” was there, and they prepared the “quo” with a scheduled CNN interview. The Whistleblower’s Report and the House Committees disrupted the “deal,” and Trump tried to call it off, telling Sondland, “there is no quid pro quo”. He was right, the deal was over: he got caught.
The “bones” of the deal are now obvious. Jim Jordan and the gang will continue to rant and rave, but it seems to me the facts of the crime are there. The only questions left are: does this attempted bribery rise to the level of impeachment and removal, and do House and Senate Republicans have the political courage to act.
If the impeachment power means anything, it must mean this. So it comes down to Republican political courage. Don’t hold your breath.
Debates
So those were the “yesterday” hours. Then there were the “tomorrow” hours, the Democratic Debate. Two hours that weren’t dominated with the gangster actions of Donald Trump, but with ideas and hopes for the future. Everyone on that stage would be better than Trump, though Tulsi Gabbard should be disqualified for duplicating Trump’s foreign policy.
The arguments about health care are about process, not outcome. They all want every American to be covered: it just how we get there. And Democrats (really, Democrats) were talking about fiscal responsibility, about how they plan to pay for what they want to do. That’s shocking: in just a decade, the party of “tax and spend” is now the party of controlling the debt.
On the scorecard: Booker, Klobuchar and Harris had great nights. Booker’s closing argument citing John Lewis stirred the soul. Mayor Pete seemed to hold back, a man who for the first time has something to lose, and Warren and Sanders could be plugged in from any of the other debates – little has changed.
And Joe Biden is Joe Biden: take the older version or not.
Oh, and Andrew Yang, someone please win the election and make Andrew Yang the “future Czar” for the administration. His ideas are compelling, as are many of the others. Whoever wins the nomination; let’s use the rest of this “bench” to get things done.
Fiona Hill is taking her seat in front of the committee. Adam Schiff is telling us the story of today. The hearings are about to begin. History is in the room.
