Following this morning’s opening statements from William Taylor and George Kent, the first open impeachment hearing continued with questioning from each party’s official counsel. After that, they proceeded with the typical Congressional process of giving each Representative five minutes to question the witnesses.
It was as exhausting as ever. As usual, that meant we got five minutes apiece from Republicans playing exclusively to an audience of one.
The Republicans are much more interested in persuading Trump of their loyalty than in persuading the public of Trump’s innocence.
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) November 13, 2019
Nearly all of the Republicans focused on a very small number of talking points: the whistleblower, “no quid pro quo,” and the fact that aid money for Ukraine was not held up, so therefore Trump couldn’t possibly have been attempting to leverage it in the first place.
A fun thing I’ve learned from Republicans is that I can *try* all the crimes I want, and as long as none of them is successful, or someone publicly tells people I’m trying them before I do them, I can’t be convicted of anything. There’s nothing wrong with trying to do crimes!
— Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) November 13, 2019
Now that Republicans have decided not finishing a crime makes you innocent, we all get an unlimited number of attempted murders.
— Kashana (@kashanacauley) November 13, 2019
Some attempted to bring the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign into the conversation for some major whataboutism but for the most part, they stuck to their limited script.
OMG. If you had any doubt as to how hard it is for the Republicans to legitimately cast doubt on any of this, please turn on the hearings now and see if you can make sense of anything they are trying to make Taylor say. I sure can’t. #impeachmenthearings
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) November 13, 2019
I can’t believe the Republicans think all this shit looks good to people.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 13, 2019
The Democrats are conducting an investigation. The Republicans are conducting publicity campaign to sell the virtues of corruption and the insignificance of the rule of law. If you choose the latter, you can get the fuck off my page.
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) November 13, 2019
There were a few Republicans, though, who really went above and beyond in what appeared to be an attempt to drive everyone watching to throw their TVs and computers out the nearest window.
New York’s Elise Stefanik focused a ridiculous amount of attention, often in the form of interruptions, on trying to get the identity of the whistleblower, something Rep. Schiff made clear was not going to happen and wasn’t relevant to today’s hearing anyway.
Schiff utterly shut down Stefanik by explaining the chair would not tolerate the outing of the whistleblower. Stefanik was stumped.
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) November 13, 2019
Devin Nunes began the day by calling Trump’s request for an investigation into the Bidens a “conspiracy theory.” His entire opening statement was not so much a defense of Trump, though, as it was mocking the Democrats. He accused them of “trying to obtain nude pictures of Trump from Russian pranksters,” “leaking a false story to CNN,” and called them “the last people on Earth with the credibility to hurl more preposterous accusations at their political opponents.” But, again, no real defense of Trump.
Devin Nunes isn’t sweating because he’s nervous and panicked while lying and dissembling on behalf of a man he knows is an idiot despot. He’s sweating because his own bodily fluids are trying to distance themselves from him.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) November 13, 2019
Devin Nunes is a useful reminder that the problem with our politics is not limited to Trump and won’t disappear when Trump is gone.
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) November 13, 2019
But hands down, the worst person to talk today was–as is so often the case!–Jim Jordan.
First, Jordan flat out told Taylor that the information he received about a Trump conversation was wrong–something he has absolutely no basis for saying.
Jim Jordan’s defense of Trump now rests on disbelieving one’s senses pic.twitter.com/AmZS1NkpqA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 13, 2019
He repeatedly brought up the whistleblower, demanding to be able to question them and also making false statements about Schiff’s relationship with them.
Jim Jordan made a splash in today’s impeachment hearing when he accused Adam Schiff of knowing the identity of the whistleblower.
“That’s a false statement,” Schiff said. “I do not know the identity of the whistleblower and I’m determined to make sure that identity is protected” pic.twitter.com/9ouVzV8HDw
— POLITICO (@politico) November 13, 2019
He also, weirdly, tried to paint Trump as an anti-corruption hero of sorts.
Jim Jordan is out here offering some historical fiction about Trump’s purported good faith concerns about corruption in Ukraine. (The word “corruption” never appears in the White House summary of the Trump-Zelensky phone call.) pic.twitter.com/PEcojWZ0bS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 13, 2019
Jordan is painting a stirring picture of vigorous anti-corruption crusader Donald Trump boldly aiding Ukraine to fight Russia
— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) November 13, 2019
And he did all of it with this energy:
lol Jim Jordan seems to be impersonating an auctioneer pic.twitter.com/QwucRvWufR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 13, 2019
REP. SCHIFF: We turn to the witness for ques—
JIM JORDAN: Point of order: At what point will we be able to beat the shit out of the whistleblower— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 13, 2019
Jim Jordan’s energy can be best described as “extremely angry former wrestling coach who definitely ignored sexual abuse”
— andi zeisler (@andizeisler) November 13, 2019
There were a few highlights among the Democrats. Jim Himes of Connecticut calmly but directly called out the Republicans’ approach to the entire issue of impeachment as being dishonest and distracting.
“Faced with very serious allegations of presidential misconduct, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t engage or defend that conduct. Rather, they spin theories about black ledgers and Steele dossiers,” he said.
.@jahimes calls out Republicans for their incessant deflections and conspiracy-mongering pic.twitter.com/RtkJVynuh3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 13, 2019
Eric Swalwell shut down the Trump/Republican argument that these two men and anyone else who testifies before Congress is a “Never Trumper.”
SWALWELL: “Mr. Kent, are you a Never Trumper?”
KENT: “I am a career nonprofessional who serves whatever president is duly elected … I’ve done that for 27 years.”
…
SWALWELL: “Amb. Taylor, are you a Never Trumper?
TAYLOR: “No sir.”— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 13, 2019
Republicans have also been complaining that they aren’t getting to bring in as many witnesses as the Democrats and they criticize Democrats for bringing in witnesses that have large amounts of secondhand knowledge of some of the incidents being discussed.
Republicans keep saying these witnesses have no direct knowledge, without acknowledging the White House has blocked those who have such knowledge from testifying.
Democrats have not made that point during their own time.— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 13, 2019
Swalwell was, I believe, the only–or at least the first–lawmaker to point out that the people Republicans should want to hear from are refusing to show up.
Swalwell refutes GOP talking point that Taylor and Kent have not spoken directly with Trump, noting Mulvaney and Bolton have so far refused to testify.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 13, 2019
Joaquin Castro also had a really strong line of questioning. His questions seemed to be for the benefit of the American people rather than an attempt to learn new information, but public perception is a huge part of this inquiry, so his time was well-used, for sure.
Rep. Joaquin Castro: “If this Congress clears President Trump, does it mean he can go ask another foreign country to investigate another presidential candidate, a member of Congress, a governor, a senator or any private American citizen doing business overseas?” #ImpeachmentPBS pic.twitter.com/s14S7bKZUb
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) November 13, 2019
Joaquin Castro doing a good job of explaining in calm plain language that this is attempted extortion.
— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) November 13, 2019
But the very best moment of the day came from Peter Welch, set up by Jordan’s refusal to stop talking about the whistleblower. Jordan said the Democrats won’t bring in “the guy who started it all.” To which Welch replied, “President Trump is welcome to take a seat right there.”
Jim Jordan set himself up for this one pic.twitter.com/2TuavyNuDK
— jordan (@JordanUhl) November 13, 2019
Rep. Peter Welch draws laughs: would be glad to have the person who started it all testify. Pres. Trump is welcome to take a seat right there.
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 13, 2019
It was nice to get a genuine laugh out of the nearly six hours of testimony and questioning. But I was genuinely surprised by how light Taylor and Kent stayed through the whole day. Through the nearly six hours of testimony and questioning, they stayed remarkably breezy.
Reaction from Kent and Taylor when asked if they need a break: pic.twitter.com/KkN43USKF8
— Peter Stevenson (@PeterWStevenson) November 13, 2019
Honestly, the bowtie really brightened up the room.
George Kent is wearing the same bow tie at today’s hearing and in his State Department headshot, leading me to believe that this is his favorite bow tie pic.twitter.com/XFgYhM62Yv
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) November 13, 2019
Also, a reminder of the importance of staying hydrated!
He’s almost drained that tall boy https://t.co/M1HqWpoiTq
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 13, 2019
Whew, what a day! So much happened that this is really only a tiny fraction of the big moments. Did I miss anything that stood out to you? Share in the comments!
(image: SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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