Day two of public hearings and if you're keeping score, the defendant is in trouble. How do we know? Because for someone who keeps insisting he's too busy to pay attention, Trump has tweeted hundreds of times about the the proceedings since they began. When it comes to Twitter, the man's a virtual case study in Tourette's Syndrome.
But it was one particular tweet Friday that may have proven to be more costly to Trump than all the others, and that's saying something, given how many times he's taken to Twitter over the last three years. It happened while former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was giving her testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee. For the few remaining souls who haven't read it, this it what it said,
Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors.
Legal scholars will undoubtedly argue as to wether or not this constitutes witness intimidation, or whether or not it would even meet the legal burden of proof in an actual trial - Yovanovitch testified that she certainly felt threatened by it. Since I'm not a lawyer, I wouldn't care to speculate either way, but one thing's for certain, shit-for-brains took the legs out from under his own party by sending that tweet. For most of the second half of the hearing, Republicans on the Committee bent over backwards to praise Yovanovitch. After she was finished testifying, she received a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. So much for the smear campaign.
After the hearing, Trump tweeted that he "has the right to speak." He also has the right to remain silent, as I'm sure any first-year law student would tell him and his own attorneys have tried in vain to convey to him.
But he can't remain silent. That's his problem, and it's also his undoing. If Trump were ever in an actual criminal trial, the prosecution wouldn't need to cross examine him. He'd confess to the crime after a minute of questioning by his own attorney.
"You didn't really murder that person, did you, Mr. President?"
"Well, yes, I did, and I have the absolute right to do so."
"A moment with my client, judge?"
"I don't need a moment, judge, I'm innocent. And even if I'm not, who cares?"
Now you know why they didn't let him go anywhere near Muller. Would you? Nixon had his tapes, Trump has his big mouth. I've heard of fearlessness, but this president takes the cake. Tony Soprano would never have been this obvious, or ballsy, for that matter.
What's amazing is that so far, in two days of testimony, we've heard from three people who have more class and integrity in their right pinky than Trump has in his whole body. The American public is finally getting an opportunity to see just how corrupt this administration is, and how depraved its leader is. William Taylor, George Kent and Marie Yovanovitch are career diplomats with no political axe to grind. All three have faithfully served their country for decades, and all three have, under oath, made a strong and compelling case that Trump extorted the president of a foreign government in an effort to obtain dirt on a political opponent to help him in the 2020 election. Their conduct, unlike this president's, is unimpeachable.
But if you thought this week was damaging to Trump, just wait until next week when David Holmes, Gordon Sondland, Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman are scheduled to testify. Holmes is the assistant to Bill Taylor who overheard Trump on the phone talking to Sondland about the phony investigations Trump wanted Ukraine to launch into the Bidens; Sondland has a lot of explaining to do about why he conveniently forgot about that phone call he had with Trump in his prior deposition; Hill is a former White House advisor who told members of the Committee behind closed doors about the concerns then National Security Advisor John Bolton had about what was happening in Ukraine; and Vindman was actually on the call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky.
Make sure you stock up on your popcorn, ladies and gents, because the next few days are going to be better than any movie you're likely to see this year. I was too young to remember the Watergate hearings. But from what I've been told, they couldn't hold a candle to what's taking place now. Compared to Trump, Nixon was Dwight fucking D. Eisenhower.
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