At this point, could the impeachment hearings be any more pointless?
The entire case for impeachment against Trump rests on an alleged quid pro quo between him and Ukraine’s president – that Trump allegedly withheld military aid from Ukraine to demand that they investigate Hunter Biden and his father.
President Trump has obviously denied the allegations, but so has Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on numerous occasions.
So have the witnesses to the controversial call that started this mess.
Kurt Volker (the former special envoy to Ukraine), and former National Security Council official Tim Morrison, testified alongside one another on Tuesday. Volker said he had no knowledge of any efforts to urge Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, and Morrison said that he “wasn’t concerned” about the content of the call.
Democrats initially jumped the gun following a comment from US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, declaring it “GAME OVER” for Trump for the billionth time in the past three years. Sondland had commented “Was there a quid pro quo?…The answer is yes.”
He said that many top officials acted at the “express direction” of the president. “Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.” Sondland says this is a narrative that he “came to believe”
game over pic.twitter.com/DNEzQA7VhZ
— NeoN: Automataster (@neontaster) November 20, 2019
G A M E O V E R pic.twitter.com/nbsmqFNXKX
— NeoN: Automataster (@neontaster) November 20, 2019
Sondland’s bombshell turned out to be his mere opinion however when he contradicted it with later statements in his testimony. When asked “No one on this planet told you that President Trump was tying aid to investigations. Yes or no?,” he answered in the affirmative.
“So you really have no testimony today that ties President Trump to a scheme to withhold aid from Ukraine in exchange for these investigations,” he was asked as a followup. He answered “[None] Other than my own presumption.”
Sondland recalled that when he himself asked Trump what he wanted from Ukraine, he [Trump]replied “I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.”
Sondland admits Trump told him “I want no quid pro quo.” Also admits his opinion that there was quid pro quo is based on a “presumption” – and is directly contradicted by Volker and Morrison. Reasonable people having different conclusions isn’t compelling evidence to impeach. pic.twitter.com/aYaxH7O2xc
— John Ratcliffe (@RepRatcliffe) November 20, 2019
Ukraine’s foreign minister Vadym Prystaiko said of Sondland, “Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and certainly did not tell me, about a connection between the assistance and the investigations. I have never seen a direct relationship between investigations and security assistance. Yes, the investigations were mentioned, you know, in the conversation of the presidents. But there was no clear connection between these events.”
If anyone does come forward alleging a quid pro quo, that will only beg the question of why they’re the only one saying as much.
