“I said to him. . . I think this is all going to blow up – and here we are.”
Fiona Hill and David Holmes put a cocktail stick into the fictional narratives promoted by the GOP and the White House. She reminds us that there was a domestic political errand (“whatever drug deal that Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up”) that was diverging from US national foreign policy.
I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life. My hearing is, and has been, great. Never have I been watching a person making a call, which was not on speakerphone, and been able to hear or understand a conversation. I’ve even tried, but to no avail. Try it live!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2019
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Trump claims it’s not possible to overhear cell phone conversation. So how could Holmes know about their mention of ASAP Rocky—which Sondland testified had jogged his memory about the call?
— Valtha Nerf (@valtha_nerf) November 21, 2019
Hill and Holmes testified there was no doubt that when Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other people referred to investigations of the energy company Burisma Holdings, what they really meant was Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on its board.
“It was very apparent to me that was what Rudy Giuliani intended, yes, intended to convey that Burisma was linked to the Bidens and he said this publicly, repeatedly,” Hill said.
Under questioning from Democratic counsel Dan Goldman, Holmes said he agreed that Burisma was “code” for the Bidens.
Two other key witnesses, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, both testified that they never made any such connection until after the rough transcript of Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president was made public.
Holmes explains how Ukrainians came to see Giuliani as a key player in Trump's Ukraine policy—and how Trump's decision to recall Yovanovitch confirmed that impression: pic.twitter.com/FQBUoscuSw
— The Moscow Project (@moscow_project) November 21, 2019
David Holmes’ photographically precise and eloquent testimony, six years to the day from Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, was devastating to our corrupt president from the perspective of anyone who cares about truth and decency.
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) November 21, 2019
How tough is Fiona Hill? When she was 11, a boy in her class set her pigtail on fire while she was taking a test. She put out the fire with her hands and finished the test. My profile of today's star impeachment witness: https://t.co/hFDSQmBm6R
— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) November 21, 2019
Here's why Fiona Hill is relevant to the impeachment inquiry https://t.co/oC6VyVdteL pic.twitter.com/2jq0ftAZHz
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 21, 2019
Dr. Fiona Hill chilled the blood of every complicit Republican with this devastating foreshadowing:
“Putin & Russian security services act like a Super PAC(!) They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize political opposition research & false narratives.”👇🏼pic.twitter.com/QL857fYPjp
— Fernand R. Amandi (@AmandiOnAir) November 21, 2019
For days, impeachment witnesses have sat quietly as Republicans have argued that President Trump's suspicions of Ukraine were legitimate. Not Fiona Hill, @russellberman writes: https://t.co/INENZcWXnp
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 21, 2019
Note that in her deposition Fiona Hill considered Sondland a walking counterintelligence nightmare — and she did not even know about Sondland on the phone in a Kyiv restaurant with Trump talking about investigating Biden
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) November 21, 2019
After today, POTUS is beyond legitimate rescue. The testimony by Fiona Hill and David Holmes ties down all loose ends and leaves Senators who have a shred of love for what America at its best represents no way to acquit the criminal in the Oval Office after the inevitable trial.
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) November 21, 2019
