With a lot of reports and summaries on the beginning of open impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, it can be hard to know what to pay attention to. Therefore, I’ve compiled the key details that will help make the process more understandable.
To begin, Bill Taylor, the former United States Ambassador to Ukraine, testified in closed impeachment inquiries in front of Congress on Tuesday, October 22, according to the New York Times. His later-released testimony from the closed hearings shocked many as he went into explicit detail on how President Trump based relations on Ukraine’s willingness to investigate the Bidens. Taylor, a former government official and veteran, first became the ambassador to Ukraine in May of 2006 after being appointed by former President George W. Bush. In 2009, he was appointed Special Coordinator for Middle East Transition by President Barack Obama.
In 2015, he was named the executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace, and was later reappointed as Chargé d’affaires (interim ambassador) to Ukraine in June of 2019. In his opening statement obtained by the Times, Taylor stressed that, “My background and experience are nonpartisan and I have been honored to serve under every administration, Republican and Democratic, since 1985.” He then began to explain how he became increasingly worried as he believed that America’s relationship to the Ukraine was “being undermined by an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons.”
After dictating a chronological sequence of events that led to his concern, according to NPR, Taylor explained to the committee that on a video conference call he was told that “the Office of Management and Budget said there was a hold on security assistance to Ukraine but could not say why.” His testimony has rocked Capitol Hill as it pushed the legitimacy of the impeachment process forward. Later, it was announced by Representative Adam Schiff that Ambassador Taylor was set to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee in an open hearing on the impeachment inquiry on November 13th.
His and ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimonies shocked many in Congress. Marie Yovanovitch is an American diplomat that had been serving in Ukraine since 2016. Since 2014, she has held many different posts in the State Department, including Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan and U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. During her testimony, she shared details regarding how she felt directly targeted and threatened by the President, said the Times. She recounted that, “A person who saw me actually reading the transcript [between President Trump and President Zelensky] said that the color drained from my face. I think I even had a physical reaction. I think, you know, even now, words kind of fail me.”
So what does this mean moving forward? First and foremost, the information given by Taylor and Yovanovitch pokes many holes in United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony. Sondland’s importance is drawn from the fact that during his first testimony, he told Congress that there was no quid pro quo in regards to the investigations President Trump wanted Ukraine to conduct. Switching his position in a four-page sworn statement, he later admitted that he told Ukrainian officials that aid was tied up until the investigations took place. Along with the Taylor and Yovanovitch testimonies, this has allowed the Democrats to build a strong case for the impeachment of President Trump.
While there is a lot to unpack with the open impeachment hearings, it is important to look at the facts—analyze who is speaking and what their role is in the situation. While politics may seem like one big game, it’s easy to follow when you know who the players are. Overall, the American people need to understand that impeachment doesn’t mean President Trump would be completely outed if impeached, only sent to a trial conducted by the Senate. Even though there is a long way to go, these hearings are an incredible example of the checks and balances of our Constitution at work.