THE GOP’S CATCH 23
A surly Devin Nunes launched a heated if vague tirade defending President Trump.
Artwork by Chris Sears, chris.sears.art@gmail.com.
Devin “Numbnuts” Nunes got yesterday’s Impeachment Hearings going for the Republicans with a rambling, scattershot screed targeting the Democrats, the two witnesses, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and anyone else who dared even think of impeaching our president. Where was the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee going with his diatribe? What was the focus? His central point?
In time, one emerged: all the evidence against Donald J. Trump, “The Chosen One,” was hearsay (“second-, third-, or fourth-hand testimony,” according to Nunes). As such, we were not supposed to believe it. This theme was echoed by a parade of Republican congressman who brandished the word “hearsay” for the entire impeachment hearings. Show us some real proof, they dared. Where’s your direct evidence traceable to the president boss?
Wham! That’s when I realized that Trump and his sleazy band of hucksters were more resourceful than I had thought: they’d played their Catch 23 card! Meaning? Well, any “direct evidence” would have to come from close associates—Acting Chief of Staff “Mick” Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr, his Personal Attorney Rudy Giuliani, and a few other lickspittle members of his inner circle, who have refused to obey congressional subpoenas and thereby denied the investigators access to “direct evidence.” Moreover, the same pack of loyal Trumpers refused to turn over specific documents that might incriminate Trump…and themselves.
So what’s an impeacher to do? What will it take to convince timid Senate Republicans to vote “yes” on impeaching the president short of overwhelming proof of his guilt? An uphill climb, to be sure.
Yet, a spark of new hope did light yesterday’s hearing. Acting Ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor, Jr., Vietnam war hero and longtime distinguished public servant, shocked listeners when he amended his previous testimony to include what a subordinate, David Holmes, revealed to him last Friday. Holmes, a political counselor at our Kyiv embassy, told Taylor that he had dined with EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland on July 26, the day after the infamous call between our president and President Zelensky that triggered the impeachment hearings. From the Kyiv restaurant, Sondland used his cell phone to call President Trump and discuss the “investigations” the Ukrainians were supposed to carry out on the Bidens, which Holmes overheard. Wow!
Sondland, you may recall, was the Seattle millionaire in the hotel business who bought himself an ambassadorship with a million-dollar contribution to the Trump campaign. A bumpkin widely disliked by his peers, he had committed in Kyiv a big no-no—using an unsecured cell phone in one of most insecure sites in the world. You may also recall that Sondland had previously testified before the impeachment committee, then had to hurry back to change it to hopefully ward off a charge of perjury.
Now he will come back to answer more difficult questions from the committee next Wednesday. That is after David Holmes testifies in closed session tomorrow.
Caveat donator!
Late Bulletin: Now there is a second diner from the Kyiv dinner, an attorney by the name of Suriya Jayanti, with her story to tell.