For whatever else you might say about Wednesday’s first public impeachment hearing, you have to admit that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made the right choice when he elevated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to the House Intelligence Committee. Jordan’s presence on the dais was an imposing one, and his refusal to swallow the absolute nonsense being shoveled out by the Democrats made him the star of the show. A show which has, for all intents and purposes, already devolved into a complete circus.
Jordan’s finest moment came in his questioning of Ukraine ambassador William Taylor, the man Democrats have positioned as their star witness. Taylor’s claim is that he was privy to conversations and whisperings that indicate that President Trump was planning to withhold aid from Ukraine until he got the investigations into 2016 and the Bidens that he’d requested. The only problem, of course, is that Taylor’s entire testimony is based on second- and third-hand hearsay.
Jordan said that it was instructive to note that, even though Taylor saw a “linkage” between the withheld aid and the investigation into the Bidens, Taylor himself met with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky three times during the period that the aid was frozen. At no time did either he or Zelensky mention the money.
“I can’t believe you are their star witness,” Jordan marveled. “You are their first witness. You are the guy.”
Jordan systematically walked through Taylor’s odd testimony.
“We know that from your deposition in those 55 days that aid is delayed, you met with President Zelensky three times,” Jordan said. “The first one was July 26th, the day after the famous call between President Trump and President Zelensky. Zelensky meets with you, Amb. Volker and Amb. Sondland and again, according to your deposition and your testimony, there was no linkage of security assistance dollars to investigating Burisma or the Bidens.
“Three meetings, face to face, with President Zelensky, no linkage,” Jordan continued. “Yet, in your deposition, you said this and you said it again the first hour, ‘my clear understanding was security assistance money would not come until President Zelensky committed to pursue the investigation,’ so I’m wondering, where did you get this clear understanding? And President Zelensky never made an announcement? This is what I can’t believe, and you are their star witness.”
And so it was that only halfway through the very first day of public impeachment hearings that the Democrats’ case against Trump began to unravel. At the end of the day, they can’t even prove the very weak case that they’ve brought against the president. The Ukrainians didn’t know the aid was withheld, much less why. And ultimately, the aid was released, making all of this an exercise in political vanity.
These hearings are not only a “low-rent sequel” to the Russia hoax, as Devin Nunes said, they are a pathetic replay of the Kavanaugh hearings from last winter. The Democratic Party has abandoned due process in favor of a partisan circus, and it is an embarrassment for both them and the nation at large.
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