Impeachment hearings

Nov. 21, 2019

Disgusting the way some republicans, including Nunes, used the impeachment hearings to give speeches filled with lies, for the benefit of right-wing media to use as "coverage" of the hearings.

Nov. 20, 2019

Well, what do you know, testimony today came out that the Ukrainians knew about a holdup in U.S. aid earlier than has been told before.

Republicans keep saying Trump gave aid to Ukraine. It was actually Congress that authorized this aid, and Trump held it up until it public accusations that he was doing it so to get Ukraine to act against Biden's son. Also:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/15/trump-resisted-ukraine-sale-javelin-antitank-missile/

Trump Resisted Sale of Javelins to Ukraine
By Amy Mackinnon | November 15, 2019, 4:00 PM

As U.S. President Donald Trump’s congressional allies seek to defend him from a rapidly escalating impeachment inquiry, they have repeatedly pointed to the fact that it was Trump, not his predecessor President Barack Obama, who signed off on providing Ukraine with lethal weapons such as Javelin anti-tank missiles.

But current and former officials who were privy to the decision in December 2017 to provide the missiles to Ukraine told Foreign Policy that Trump had been reluctant to go ahead with the move and only did so when aides persuaded him that it could be good for U.S. business.

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Dishonest republican questioner at it again claims Obama only authorized "MRE (meals ready to eat) and blankets" to Ukraine. This is a flat out lie, as several other repeated statements by the republican questioners. Obama didn't give as much aid as I would have liked, but he did give military & security aid.

https://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2019/oct/25/matt-gaetz/matt-gaetz-says-obama-permanently-stopped-military/

Matt Gaetz misleads about Obama's record on Ukraine military aid
By Amy Sherman on Friday, October 25th, 2019 at 11:47 a.m.

At the time, Obama officials were debating whether to send lethal military equipment amid the conflict with Russia, particularly Javelin anti-tank missiles. Obama rejected a request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for lethal aid in 2014, though the White House approved a $53 million aid package that included vehicles, patrol boats, body armor and night-vision goggles, as well as humanitarian assistance.

U.S. officials were concerned that providing the Javelins to Ukraine would escalate their conflict with Russia. Key allies, including Germany, were not keen on sending weapons into the conflict zone, said Michael Kofman, an expert on Russia and senior research scientist at the CNA Corporation.

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Here the republicans go again, going on about the whistleblower, complaining in the same speech that he doesn't have firsthand knowledge of the Trump Ukraine phone call, and also complaining that the Democrats haven't called him to testify. Why do they want the whistleblower to testify when there are people with firsthand knowledge that can testify Of course, Trump is keeping some people with firsthand knowledge from testifying.


Nov. 19, 2019

At the end of the second day of the hearings, last week, a republican said that people were finding the hearings "boring" and that we should stop listening. So obvious that they are expecting damaging testimony in the future that they don't want people to hear.

Trump and his defenders keep harping on the whistleblower not having firsthand knowledge of Trump's communications with Ukraine's president, even though people with firsthand knowledge have come forward, or are being subpoenaed. And Trump is trying to keep those who do have firsthand knowledge from testifying. It is obvious they are trying to keep people from paying attention to those who do have firsthand knowledge and that they believe the firsthand knowledge is damaging to Trump.

Some republicans at the hearings claimed that Trump asked Ukraine's president to help him against a political rival of Trump before Ukraine knew that Congress had ordered military aid to their country. This would depend on the unlikely assumption that Ukraine does not keep an eye on what the U.S. government is doing in regards to their country, and that there was no one else friendly to Ukraine who would have been aware of this.