{"articles":[{"id":38098,"title":"Week 1 of Public Impeachment Hearings Is Over – Your Reps Want to Hear From You","html_content":"\n

by Countable's Trump Impeachment Coverage | 11.15.19

When it comes to public hearings, one of the criticisms often lobbed at members of Congress is that they’re just showboating. Well, if they are, you’re the audience. And they want to hear your thoughts about the first week of public impeachment hearings.

Missed something? Check out our Impeachment Coverage Action Center.

Main takeaway from each hearing:

Taylor discussed another phone call

William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat for Ukraine, testified Wednesday that a State Department staffer told him that he overheard Trump asking about \"investigations\" he wanted Kiev to pursue that might help him in the 2020 election. This call took place on July 26, a day after the now-infamous phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Vladomyr Zelensky.

\"The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone asking Ambassador [to the EU Gordon] Sondland about the investigations,\" Taylor said. When the staffer asked Sondland about Trump’s thoughts on Ukraine, \"Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for,\" Taylor testified.

Trump accused of ‘witness intimidation’\n

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told House investigators last month that she felt “threatened,” “concerned,” and uncomfortable after learning that Trump singled her out during a phone call with Zelensky. In his July 25 phone call with Zelensky, Trump criticized Yovanovitch as “bad news” and said she was “going to go through some things.”
Just as Yovanovitch testified on Friday that Trump’s words “sounded like a threat,” the president tweeted:

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) read the tweets in the hearing about 20 minutes after Trump posted them, adding that \"some of us here take witness intimidation very seriously.\"
Yovanovitch responded: \"It's very intimidating. ... I mean, I can't speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is trying to be intimidating.\"

GOP's response

During both hearings, Republican members of the committee railed against the process and the probe itself.

GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the ranking member on the committee, called Wednesday’s hearing a \"carefully orchestrated smear campaign\" against Trump.

\"This spectacle is doing great damage to our country. It is nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime.\"

And on Friday, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York used her five minutes to rail against Chairman Adam Schiff's refusal to allow the whistleblower to testify.

\"I keep can going but the chairman refused to allow us put these into the record as unanimous consent. It's important to prevent whistleblower from retaliation and firing and want to make sure whistleblowers are able to come forward but in this case the fact we are getting criticized by Chairman Adam Schiff for statements he made early on in the process shows the due duplicity and just the abuse of power that we are continuing to see.\"

What do you think?

The hearings are public for the benefit of the public—you. Now’s the time to tell your reps what you think of the impeachment probe and what you hope to see during next week’s hearings. Take action above, and share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

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Veteran, CSU and UC alum, retired from technology field. My Hispanic partner of 15 years and I left California forever in 2018 and settled down in rural Indiana (yeah, the middle of Trump country, but the trade-off for making my home here is in the peace and beauty of the land). LGBT friendly, I believe in the goodness of people even when it can’t be readily seen; I’m a common sense gun owner with two handguns in the house and a prayer that I never have to use either. Classing myself as a progressive liberal, my awakening and introduction to the America of today came while walking home from 2nd grade on November 22, 1963 as I watched traffic stopped, car radios on, and drivers, passengers and pedestrians crying in their cars and in the streets. I have voted in each and every election since I was able to vote. I fault our founders for a failure to specify that public service in an elected capacity should be a privilege rather than a career and I fault a partisan Supreme Court for bringing unlimited private funding into our elections. Through all of my parents’ differing political and other opinions, the one thing that stands out in my memory of growing up... 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Won’t listen to slogans, chanted mantras or generally any kind of marketing spin or “rebranding” crap. I firmly believe that everyone else is entitled to their erroneous opinions. Citizen vigilance and due diligence is price we must pay to live in a thriving, functional democracy.\nI fear that our citizens are too easily swayed by politician’s pablum about “babies”, “jobs” and now, in particular, perceived “enemies”. I fear that a citizenry focused on the “here-and-now” is easily tricked by short term benefits that have negative long-term consequences. I fear that our legislators are more concerned about buffing their constituents than looking out for the long-term welfare of our country- and are way too eager to provide those short-term benefits to the “here-and-now” crowd.\nI fear that honor is generally being sacrificed/replaced by expediency. 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