There was yet another stunning impeachment hearing, with Fiona Hill and David Holmes laying out yet more evidence that Trump subordinated the national security of the United States to his own personal needs.
But that didn’t sway Will Hurd, who used his minutes at the end not to ask the question he has asked of many other witnesses, for a list of Ukrainians close to Volodymyr Zelensky with whom Rudy was interacting (Holmes had already made clear the list is much longer than the list Hurd had previously used to dismiss the inquiry).
Instead, he used his time to:
- Grossly misrepresent the totality of the inquiry to two words in Trump’s call
- Admit that this is a terrible precedent (one that Trump has already repeated with other countries)
- Affirm that Trump’s actions harmed national security
- Grossly misrepresent crystal clear messages to Ukraine, pretending they were unclear to the Ukrainians
- Call willful actions for personal benefit a “bungling” foreign policy
- Accuse Democrats (and nonpartisan witnesses) of undermining Ukraine for observing its reliance on us
- Falsely claim there were differences of opinion about the call: no witness expressed having no concern about it
- Call an investigation in which not a single witness was a partisan Democrat (just Tim Morrison, as a Congressional staffer, and Jennifer Williams, as a George W Bush campaign worker expressed any partisan affiliation) an extremely partisan process
- Completely ignore Trump’s violation of the Budget Impoundment Act to create his extortion, effectively blessing the usurpation of his own power as a Congressman
- Remain silent about the Administration’s refusal to cooperate at all in the inquiry, withholding every senior official’s testimony
Most cynically, though, Hurd blamed the focus on the President’s crimes for the distraction from Ukraine, not the President’s crimes itself. He blamed Democrats for the shift of focus, not the Administration’s refusal to respond to very simple, bipartisan requests about Ukraine, most notably on funding.
Then he suggested this investigation was rushed.
The delay is hurting Ukraine (and our own national security), but the inquiry has been rushed, said the former CIA officer.
And then, he laid out what he needed to assess whether this was really a crime: more testimony. Not from Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Mick Mulvaney, or John Eisenberg, all of whom can answer key questions that remain unanswered.
But from three people who should not testify:
- Rudy Giuliani (because he is being criminally investigated for this activity and it’d be insane for him to do so–which is probably why he refused Lindsey Graham’s request for testimony)
- Hunter Biden (because there has been no credible claim he did anything that Trump’s children aren’t currently doing)
- The whistleblower (because every other witness has corroborated the whistleblower’s complaint and the President has already been retaliating against him for a month)
In short, Hurd offered up these three impossible witnesses, knowing that neither Democrats nor Republicans would agree to the request, as his condition to consider the matter further.
Hurd admitted in his statement that this is a gravely serious duty under the Constitution. And, having admitted that seriousness, he asked for a Sparkle Pony — something he knew he would not get — to excuse his own cowardice for refusing to do anything about Trump’s abuse of office.