The Daily - The Latest: An Ideal Witness for the Democrats

Episode Date: November 14, 2019

On the first day of public hearings in the Trump impeachment inquiry, lawmakers questioned two diplomats, and laid out two competing narratives about the investigation. This is the first episode in our new series on the impeachment inquiry. For more information, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

It started with a whistleblower's complaint about President Trump's contact with a foreign leader. Tonight, allegations of a White House cover-up as details of a whistleblower's complaint are revealed. I had a perfect phone call with the president of Ukraine. Like, I mean, perfect. In that call, the president asked for an investigation of Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Today, I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. Now the burden is on the Democrats really to tell Americans the story of what happened and why it's impeachable.

Good morning, everyone. This is the first in a series of public hearings the committee will be holding as part of the House's impeachment inquiry. I'm Michael Barbaro. I'm in the Washington Bureau of the Times. It is day one of the public hearing phase of the impeachment inquiry. We just heard from the two witnesses who testified jointly. Both are senior diplomats, George Kent and William Taylor. And I'm going to grab Julie Davis, who is the congressional editor of The Times, and we're going to talk about what just happened.

Hi. Julie, what's the latest? So day one of the impeachment hearings begins with the top Republican and the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. If this is not impeachable conduct, what is? Laying out their competing narratives for this whole phase of the impeachment inquiry. The main performance, the Russia hoax, has ended and you've been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel. And honestly, going into the hearing, it seemed like Republicans had the

easier job. Democrats had to basically make an argument to the American people about why the president should be impeached for something they don't really even fully understand. And the Republicans were just there to poke holes and impugn motives. But then... Thank you, Ambassador Taylor. Bill Taylor and George Kent came out. And to be honest, Democrats could not have asked for a better witness than Bill Taylor.

Ukraine is a strategic partner of the United States. Right at the top, he basically lays out the importance of the American relationship with Ukraine. He says, Ukraine is on the front line in the conflict with a newly aggressive Russia. Even as we sit here today, the Russians are attacking Ukrainian soldiers in their own country and have been for the last four years. I saw this on the front line last week. The day I was there, a Ukrainian soldier was killed and four were wounded. The security that the Americans support in Ukraine, he says, is really crucial and he takes the committee through why that's the case. It demonstrates to Ukrainians and Russians that we are Ukraine's reliable strategic partner.

It is clearly in our national interest to deter further Russian aggression. And finally, as the committee is aware, I wrote that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be crazy. I believed that then, and I believe it now. And why is this a significant moment to you? Because his testimony is really the reason why Democrats wanted to have these public hearings in the first place. He is reminding people that the administration officials who have given their accounts are real people. They're not some sort of faceless bureaucrats. They're actual flesh and blood, and they know what they're talking about. They have expertise in their region, and they are just giving the facts as they know them.

Secondly, he really lays out the stakes of what's gone on here. He talks about it as a matter of life and death for Ukrainians and sort of answers that question that Democrats have been trying to answer for the public of why people should care about what the president did or didn't do with regard to Ukraine. Mr. Chairman, there are two Ukraine stories today. The first is the one we're discussing this morning that you have been hearing about for the past two weeks. The first is the one we're discussing this morning that you have been hearing about for the past two weeks. It's a rancorous story about whistleblowers, Mr. Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption and interference in elections. In this story, Ukraine is merely an object.

But there's another story. In this second story, Ukraine is the subject. This one is about young people. So what's next? So there's no hearing tomorrow. But also today, there was a new element that was kind of injected into all of this, which is sort of unexpected. Last Friday, a member of my staff told me of events that occurred on July 26th. We got introduced to a new character by Bill Taylor, and that's David Holmes. A member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone asking Ambassador Sondland about

the investigations. An aide of his, who he only recently learned, overheard a phone conversation between President Trump and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, in which Trump was directly asking about investigations that he wanted. And after the call... Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine. The aide asked Ambassador Sondland what the president thought of Ukraine and was told... Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for.

He's much more interested in investigations of the Bidens. At the time I gave my deposition on October 22nd, I was not aware of this information. I'm including it here for completeness. David Holmes is going to be deposed on Friday, we've learned, and that indicates that even though we thought the private fact-finding phase of this investigation was drawing to a close, they're actually still trying to dig for more facts. Okay. Thank you, Julie. That is the latest. We'll have full coverage of day one of the impeachment proceedings tomorrow on The Daily.