This article was updated at 8 p.m. on Nov. 13.
WASHINGTON D.C. — In a public impeachment hearing bereft of breakout moments for either Democrats or Republicans, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., made the most of his five minutes of questioning, delivering both a rebuke of GOP talking points and a condemnation of President Donald Trump.
As the House Democrats’ investigation into the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine’s president moved from behind closed doors and into the public, Republicans, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tried to poke holes in the testimony of two key witnesses.
Jordan, a staunch defender of the president, said it is imperative the person who blew the whistle on the phone call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky be called to testify.
“Now there is one witness, one witness they won’t bring in front of us, that they won’t bring in front of the american people, and that’s the guy who started it all, the whistleblower,” Jordan said.
Welch responded that he would be happy to have the person who “started it all” take the stand.
“President Trump is welcome to take a seat right there,” Welch said to loud laughs from the audience. The quip quickly went viral on social media, even drawing the admiration of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, who tweeted “Don’t sleep on @PeterWelch !”
Don’t sleep on @PeterWelch!
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 13, 2019
He’s great ☺️⬇️ https://t.co/8Hz0zkaCNj
Starting two hours before the 10 a.m. hearing Wednesday, members of the media and the public — mostly supporters of impeachment — lined up outside the committee room in the Longworth office building on Capitol Hill.
William Taylor, the top U.S. envoy to Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Eastern Europe, entered the jam packed committee room promptly at 10, and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called the hearing to order, proclaiming the process will take place without “party favor and without prejudice.”
In Kent’s opening statement, he said it became clear to him in mid-August that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to “gin up politically motivated” investigations into Hunter Biden and the 2016 election were affecting State Department dealings with Ukraine.
Taylor concurred with Kent, saying the effort to make Zelensky publicly announce investigations into Hunter Biden and the 2016 election “showed how the official foreign policy of the United States was undercut by the irregular efforts led by Mr. Giuliani.”
The diplomats proceeded to give measured responses to questioning from both Republicans and Democrats as they told the American public what they had already recounted to the committee behind closed doors.
Taylor, a longtime diplomat who is currently in charge of the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, said it was his “clear understanding” that Trump had decided to withhold $400 million in military aid and a White House meeting unless opened investigations into the son of former Vice President Joe Biden — Hunter Biden — and alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election.
Taylor would not comment on whether this constitutes an impeachable offense, however, choosing to instead lay out the facts he was privy to.
“I’m not here to advocate any particular outcome. My understanding is only coming from people I talked to,” Taylor said.
Taylor did add new information about Trump’s thinking during the Ukraine pressure campaign. He revealed he was now aware of a phone call between Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, and Trump in which Sondland came away with the belief that the president was more interested in the investigation into Hunter Biden than into the 2016 election.
House Republicans were quick to defend Trump throughout the day-long proceedings. As the hearings began, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Taylor and Kent had won starring roles in the Democrats’ follow up to the Mueller investigation.
“You have been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel,” Nunes said.
But the most forceful defense of the president came from Jordan, who pushed Taylor on his belief that military aid was withheld to pressure Zelensky into giving a public announcement about his intent to investigate Hunter Biden, who served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company in Ukraine, from 2014-2019.
Jordan went on to criticize the Democrats for having two witnesses come before the American public who had never spoken to the president about the alleged abuse of power that took place.
“And you’re their star witnesses,” Jordan said of Taylor and Kent.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, described Trump’s actions as an attempt at coercion and asked his fellow House members what the difference was between trying to commit a crime and successfully breaking the law.
“Is attempted murder a crime? Is attempted robbery a crime? Is attempted extortion and bribery a crime,” Castro said.
After the hearings ended, Welch told the media that he didn’t think the Republicans’ attacks were substantive and noted they weren’t challenging the evidence.
“A lot of what they said I view as totally mischaracterizing,” Welch said.
During Welch’s questioning of Taylor and Kent, he said that Trump is welcome to attack the Bidens “fair and square” on the campaign trail, but asking a foreign government to assist him for personal political gain crosses the line.
Welch recalled asking former special counsel Robert Mueller, during his testimony before Congress in July, whether Trump’s behavior was setting a dangerous precedent for democracy, and he asked Taylor a similar question.
“Is there a new normal that you fear that a president, any president, can use congressionally approved foreign aid as a lever to get a personal advantage in something that is in his interest but not the public interest?” Welch said.
“That should not be the case, Mr. Welch,” Taylor responded.
