David Corn: Impeachment Day 3: Republicans Continue Their Attack on Reason and Reality

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/11/impeachment-day-3-republicans-continue-their-attack-on-reason-and-reality/


Impeachment Day 3: Republicans Continue Their Attack on Reason and Reality
Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman’s testimony was devastating. So GOP lawmakers resorted to spin and conspiracy theories.
David Corn

snip//

So it’s as clear as the sky is blue: Trump was muscling the Ukrainians to help him influence the 2020 election and to clear Moscow. The quasi-transcript of the July 25 call even shows Trump saying that if Zelensky wants more Javelin anti-tank weapons, he will have to do Trump the “favor” of kicking off these investigations. (And as Vindman said, considering the power disparity between the two men, this was not a polite request that could be turned down—it was a “demand.”) Yet when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the pro-Trump bulldog recently placed on the intelligence committee by the GOP leadership, had his chance to ask questions of Vindman and Williams, he seized his moment in the sun to declare the sky is green. Or purple. Or whatever. There is no evidence of “linkage,” he thundered. “The transcript shows no linkage…to an investigation.”

But that’s exactly what the transcript shows. You want Javelins? Then we have this favor for you to do—investigations. This is brazen linkage. And there’s now a mountain of testimony linking a White House meeting and the release of the security assistance to Ukraine opening the political investigations Trump craved. But…still…nevertheless, the Republicans on the committee won’t accept this basic reality.

Instead, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the committee, Jordan, and their party-mates have forged an alternative reality in which this controversy is no more than a “hoax” concocted by Democrats and the media and that the focus should be not on Trump’s action but on the whistleblower who initiated the Trump-Ukraine scandal and on the involvement of Hunter Biden in Burisma and the fact-free allegation that his dad took action to thwart an investigation of the firm.

snip//

The Rs have concocted a dark world in which Trump is an innocent victim. In their view, he was the target of foreign intervention in 2016, not the beneficiary; there was nothing to the Russia investigation. (Don’t mention the convictions of his campaign manager, his national security adviser, his longtime political adviser, and others.) And the Ukraine scandal—based on a suspect whistleblower (disregard all the testimony from known officials)—is merely another front in the unrelenting war the Democrats have been waging against Trump because, as Jordan yelled on Tuesday, “the Democrats have never accepted the will of the American people.”

snip//

These hearings are aimed at examining the specific case for impeachment based on a single and narrow episode of presidential malfeasance. But there are competing visions at play in the proceedings. On day three, Vindman’s view that duty compels the exposure of wrongdoing clashed with Nunes and company’s perspective that spin, conspiracy mongering, and politics can trump all. This has been—and will continue to be—a defining fight of the Trump era.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. yep. the memo of the call (the confession) makes it a slam dunk.

Also, kudos to David Corn for calling it "day three". Over and over in the news, I've seen this referred to as "week 2" or "2nd week" of the hearings.

[crickets]

2. K&R

[mr_lebowski]

3. I hope Vindman said something along the lines of 'seems none of you have seen a transcript ...

Because I listened to the actual call, and there WAS talk of an investigation. You keep referring to a transcript, but the publicly released document is NOT a transcript, it's just notes'

Yes?

Democrats should point out that NOBODY HAS SEEN AN ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT at every fucking opportunity, regardless.

Guessing they're not though. Just as the media has not (very often anyway).

Just letting the fuckers lie, over and over, calling it a transcript