Wednesday, seven weeks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the “official impeachment inquiry” into alleged misdeeds committed by President Trump, the Democrats leading that probe finally emerged from the bowels of the Capitol building to convene a hearing in the light of day. They made the odd choice to devote their first public hearing to a couple of Foggy Bottom diplomats, William Taylor and George Kent, from whom they have already taken testimony. Neither of these gentlemen have firsthand knowledge of the storied conversation during which Trump is supposed to have demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky open a political investigation in return for U.S. aid.
The most conspicuous feature of their testimony was that both Taylor and Kent were in a state of consternation concerning the supposedly sinister implications of the Trump–Zelensky call, about which they learned secondhand from a Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. The latter is one of the only witnesses who actually listened in on the fabled phone call, but his testimony to Adam Schiff’s select committee contains no explicit claim that Trump requested any quid pro quo arrangement, much less engaged in the kind of “extortion” and “bribery” that have now become staples of Democratic impeachment talking points. This is probably why Wednesday’s hearing featured Taylor and Kent rather than Vindman. ….
Read more at https://spectator.org/impeachment-inquiry-finally-sees-the-light-of-day/
