While I assume most people likely caught news coverage about yesterday's testimony, here's some details about what happened if you watched the whole thing -- though with more attention to the morning session, since that was the one with Lt. Col. Alex Vindman who was on the phone call in question and is one of the more notable witnesses.
As a general overview, the overriding word to describe the morning session was "infuriating" for how Republicans -- the party of "patriotism" and "loving the military" actually trying to tarnish the Purple Heart recipient in uniform. On the good side, Vindman -- a 20-year veteran of the military and recipient of the Purple Heart -- was eloquent, soft-spoken and pointed. He gave a strong opening statement that became moving when he indirectly referred to attacks on him, and went into detail of his personal history and praise of his father’s courage coming to the U.S. for a better life and how two brothers also serving in the U.S. military. His detailed telling of the phone call was very effective. Jennifer Williams – who is Mike Pence’s aide and the other witness testifying – was low-key, explained she felt the call was unusual though wasn’t as concerned as Vindman, but she nonetheless was bothered enough that Republicans didn’t try to show her as a victory for their side – because she wasn’t. On the bad side, when Republicans got their chance to ask questions they were body-curdling ghastly. I believe that is the objective term. Just a few examples: The Republican lawyer Steve Castor took several minutes trying to undermine Lt. Col. Vindman's loyalty by bringing up how (it turns out...) Ukraine offered him the job to be their Defense Minister. Vindman's response was great. “I said no. I am American.” Still, this didn't stop Republicans on the Committee from periodically bringing up the outside offer. It's hard to know if disgraceful, reprehensible, sickening, shameful or pathetic is the best word to describe it. (Throughout the day, Trump and Republican pundits were also trying to ridicule Lt. Col. Vindman for wearing his uniform, despite the fact that he was acting in his official capacity. And despite that the GOP always tries to pretend how much they love the military. And despite that when Oliver North wore his uniform to testify during the Iran-Contra hearings, it helped make him a right-wing hero for decades.) Oh, and there was the exchange when Devin Nunes tried to undercut Vindman's authority by referring to him as "Mr. Vindman" before asking his question. After he finished, Vindman's first words were, "I'd like to be addressed as 'Lt. Col.', please." One of the worst questions and best responses came when Jim Jordan angrily (okay, that's a given...) brought up how Fiona Hill and Tim Morrison (who was to testify in the afternoon) both had “concerns” about Lt. Col. Vindman's judgement. However, Vindman was brilliantly prepared and pulled out the most-recent job evaluation of him by Fiona Hill and read from it: “Alex is a top 1 percent military officer and the best Army officer I have worked with in my 15 years of government service,” he read. “He is brilliant, unflappable, and exercises excellent judgment.” He said that Morrison was new to the job and they may have just had a “clash of cultures.” Jordan also tried to make suggestions that Vindman had leaked information. He kept noting he hadn’t. Despite this answer, this was clearly a big-deal question for Republicans since they kept addressing it all day. (I also kept waiting for Jordan to finally say he would be testifying at least in the Ohio State University case where witnesses have said he was aware of sexual abuse on the wrestling team by the team doctor but did nothing.) Another Republican, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) tried to make the point with visual aids that in the volumes of testimony, there has been no mention of the word “bribery” in either Vindman or Williams’ testimony or anyone’s, only by Nancy Pelosi and Democrats now. Eric Swalwell was next and had a brilliant comeback. He asked Vindman a hypothetical – if someone was sitting in a car, had been shot numerous time, was bleeding badly and told a policeman that he saw who shot him and identified the person who shot him, “Do you think a policeman would say, ‘I’m sorry, you didn’t say that the person was attempting involuntary manslaughter, I can’t take your testimony seriously and won’t investigate”? Vindman laughed, said his brother was the lawyer, he wasn’t, but no, that doesn’t seem how our justice system works. Another good exchange with a Democrat -- Q: Are you a Never Trumper? A: I am a Never Partisan. The best lighthearted moment came when Democrat Joaquin Castro (twin brother of presidential candidate Julian Castro) said to Vindman that it was a pleasure to ask questions to a fellow-identical twin. He said that he hoped Vindman's twin was nicer to you "and didn't make you grow a beard." (Something I've long-suspected he did to separate himself from being confused with a presidential candidate.) Vindman corrected Castro about the timing of his birth and noted that was a full nine-minutes older than his "little brother," and added, "and the wisdom shows." The afternoon session was between Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison. Both were names on the Republicans' wish list of witness to call. Bizarrely (though not really), the official "@GOP" Twitter account sent out a tweet during their testimony about how great these two Democratic witnesses were doing for Trump. It's hard to know, given the source, if this comment about the party's own witnesses was ignorant or intended to be deceptive. It's also bizarre since they weren't such great witnesses for Trump -- though he felt so, too, tweeting out, "A great day for Republicans, a great day for our Country!." And though neither of the witnesses said they thought there was anything illegal on the call, their testimony was anything but "great" for Trump. After all, Morrison (who had also been on The Call admitted that he went to legal counsel immediately after the call ended. And Ambassador Volker changed his previous testimony to say that he he had known at the time that the push for Ukraine to hold an investigation was actually about Burisma company and the Bidens, then he would have objected to one. He also praised Joe Biden profusely as a man of great honor and character who he's known for 25 years. Related to this was how good Eric Swalwell was – getting Tim Williams to say his job is to follow the president’s orders, but then admit he didn't follow-up on Trump's wanting an investigation and also hide away the call's transcript in a high-classified vault, which Swalwell noted showed that despite his words that the call was okay, showed that he knew there was something illegal about it. And despite Republicans trying to contend all day that this was solely about Ukraine's corruption, and that was the reason Trump wouldn't meet with their president, Swalwell also Volker to acknowledge that Trump happily meets with the leaders of highly corrupt nations all the time, like Russia, North Korea and just this week in the Oval Office, Turkey. And this doesn't even take into consideration the morning session with the two on-the-call first-hand witnesses saying how unusual and problematic the call was. And THIS was a great day to Trulmp! So, you can imagine how horrible the rest of the week's testimony has gone for him... How bad and disgraceful were Republicans in their questioning, but most-especially in their attempts to demean the honored military officer Lt. Col. Vindman? Right after the hearing ended, I posted the following tweet. It wasn’t anything that was particularly notable, but I was just SO pissed off. I wrote – "Note to @DevinNunes -- snarky sarcasm is not your strong suit. It takes a MUCH lighter touch. Stick with what you do best -- running to the White House with inside information and sucking up to Trump." That’s all. I didn’t give it much a thought. Normally after a tweet, maybe I’ll get 10-20 “Likes” and 10 “Retweets.” Sometimes more, sometimes less. As of this morning, it had 708 “Likes” and 132 “Retweets”!!! Honestly, it really isn’t all that special a comment, as you can see, I’ve had much, much better. But what’s obvious is that it clearly struck a chord with people… Sometimes, I guess things happen when you give the people what they want...
2 Comments
Douglass Abramson
11/21/2019 12:49:29 am
I find that anything Mr. Nunes says in public can be effectively undermined for anyone who isn't brain dead by pointing out that his latest bit of stupidity is coming from a man who is suing an imaginary cow over it's Twitter account. As for Jim Jordan...he's just an a**hole.
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Robert Elisberg
11/21/2019 07:54:49 am
Your first point is objective. Your second is subjective, albeit no less astutely observed.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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