Section: Reason.com (USA)
Lindsey Graham Reveals His Utter Hypocrisy on Impeachment
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–S.C.) says he will not be reading the impeachment transcripts as the House of Representatives takes action against President Donald Trump. “I’ve written the whole process off,” he told CBS News. “I think this is a bunch of B.S.” The Senate Judiciary Committee chair dismissed the news that...
Ambassador Changes Testimony, Admits Giving Quid Pro Quo Message to Ukraine
“Let me state clearly, inviting a foreign government to undertake investigations for the purpose of influencing an upcoming election would be wrong,” said Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, in his sworn deposition before congressional investigators on October 17. “Withholding foreign aid in order to pressure...
Impeachment Depositions Cast Light on a State Department Driven by Devotion to Trump
On Monday, House Democrats made public the first two transcripts from their closed-door impeachment inquiry hearings, shedding light on the rank partisanship besieging the State Department—driven by the desire not to cross President Donald Trump. Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, described an environment where she faced...
House Advances Impeachment Proceedings Against Trump
The House of Representatives voted Thursday to formally advance impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump amid allegations that he improperly leveraged his position to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the Democratic frontrunners in the 2020 election. The vote passed 232–196, with the tally mostly falling on...
Is William Taylor the John Dean of Ukrainegate?
I know that parallels between Watergate and the Ukraine scandal can sometimes stretch pretty thin; I am, for instance, still waiting for someone to step forward to play Alexander Butterfield’s “here-are-the-tapes-you-were-looking-for”** role. **And I’ll lay $50 that if the tape, or full transcript, of the July 25 phone...
Trump’s Cronies Meddling in Ukraine Undermined U.S. Goals, Says Ambassador Taylor
U.S. Ambassador William B. Taylor dishes further about Trump meddling in Ukraine. Taylor took the ambassadorship to the Ukraine job in May but by July was having serious doubts, according to his testimony yesterday before impeachment investigators in the U.S. House of Representatives. It had become clear to him that Trump allies were pursuing...
Mick Mulvaney Confirms, Then Denies That Trump Withheld Military Aid to Ukraine To Compel the Country to Investigate Democrats
On again, off again. Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney confirmed and then denied that President Donald Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine until that country agreed to investigate the possibility that Democrats colluded with Ukraine to interfere in the 2016 election. “Did he also mention to me in [the] past the corruption related to...
Does Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Take on His Chat With Trump Show the President ‘Did Absolutely Nothing Wrong’?
“There was no blackmail,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said today, referring to his July 25 telephone conversation with Donald Trump, the focus of allegations that the president committed an impeachable offense by trading military aid for a Ukrainian investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. “They...
Trump Brazenly Suggests Ukraine, China Should Do Opposition Research for His 2020 Campaign
L’état, c’est moi. A recurring theme throughout Donald Trump’s presidency has been his inability to distinguish between the interests of the country and the interests of Donald Trump. This has manifested itself in myriad ways, from the use of Trump hotels for official state business to Trump’s insistence that negative news...
Treason (!), Sedition, and Trump Derangement Syndrome
I understand that actually taking seriously what the President of the United States says and writes brings with it the risk of being accused, at least by the more vigorous of Trump’s defenders among our readers, of having succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome. (More about that below.) But he is, as his stoutest defenders continually...
