The Dem debate is in the bag….now time to zero in on the testimony before the House hearings…..day 5 and witnesses will be….Fiona Hill and David Holmes……

The one thing we knew for certain was that the president to Tweet out an insult and cheer the thugs like Nunes and Jordan onward….but here is what happened yesterday…..

The impeachment hearings are back underway at Capitol Hill, and President Trump called Democrats participating in the proceeding “human scum.” In a morning tweet, Trump also wrote that “corrupt politician Adam Schiff’s lies are growing by the day,” and he urged Republicans to stay united in his defense. Soon, he added, the matter will be on “our turf,” referring to the Senate. Tuesday’s witnesses are Fiona Hill, a former White House adviser who worked at the National Security Council, and David Holmes, a staffer at the US embassy in Ukraine. Coverage:

• Hill: In her opening statement, Hill criticized Republicans for pushing the “fictional narrative” that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election, reports Politico. “These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes,” she said, asking GOP members to “not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.” Trump, too, has said Ukraine meddled in the election to benefit Hillary Clinton, notes the Washington Post, but Hill says it is not true. “The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions,” Hill says. “It is beyond dispute.” Read her statement in full here.
• Holmes: The embassy official in Kyiv said he was sure by the end of the August that Trump froze military aid to Ukraine to pressure the country to investigate Hunter Biden, reports the New York Times. “My clear impression was that the security assistance hold was likely intended by the president either as an expression of dissatisfaction with the Ukrainians who had not yet agreed to the Burisma/Biden investigation or as an effort to increase the pressure on them to do so.” He also told lawmakers he heard Trump and American diplomat Gordon Sondland talking about “the investigation” during a phone call, adding that he could hear Trump’s voice while sitting near Sondland in a restaurant. (Read about Sondland’s big-news testimony Wednesday.)
• Overhead call: Holmes also told lawmakers he heard Trump ask American diplomat Gordon Sondland whether Ukraine was going to do “the investigation” during a phone call. Sondland made the call while he and Holmes were sitting together at a restaurant in Kyiv. Holmes recounts that overhead phone call in this video via NBC News. Trump’s voice was “quite loud” and “quite distinctive,” allowing him to identify the president. Holmes also demonstrated how Sondland moved the phone away from his ear. (Read about Sondland’s big-news testimony Wednesday.)
• Trump skeptical: The president tweeted his doubts about Holmes’ ability to overhear that conversation. “I have been watching people making phone calls my entire life,” he wrote. “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!”
• Slam on Giuliani: When someone once wondered aloud why Rudy Giuliani was such a public presence in regard to Ukraine, Holmes recalls Sondland saying, “Dammit Rudy. Every time Rudy gets involved he goes and f—s everything up,” per CNN.
• Devin Nunes: The top Republican on the House panel conducting the hearing used his opening statement to celebrate the “merciful end” to the proceedings. “Whether the Democrats reap the political benefit they want from this impeachment remains to be seen,” said Nunes. “But the damage they have done to this country will be long-lasting.” Read his statement in full via US News & World Report.

I really do not see the need for further witnesses and testimony….the ones that have gone before have made the case for impeachment….and then Trump keeps helping the Committee make up their minds….for he cannot stop stomping on the toes of the attack dogs like Jimbo Baggins……who rambled on about everything but the subject of the hearing…..surely these people know how feckless, pathetic and disgusting they appear.

There will be more coming on this situation…..no doubt but for this week the deal is done.

The Independent Rep. Amash closes this post out……”Impeachment in the House is an indictment, said the Michigan congressman. “If this were an ordinary prosecution, there’s no grand jury in America that would not return an indictment on the facts and evidence presented in these hearings.”

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The Congressional Hearing resumed on the 3rd day of testimony by witnesses…..2 separate hearings so a full day of testimony…..

The hearings begin with the testimony of Lt. Col. Vindman……then on to Jennifer Williams……

• Both Vindman, a Ukraine expert with the NSC, and Jennifer Williams, a Mike Pence aide, reiterated to lawmakers that they were troubled by Trump’s July phone call with Ukraine’s leader, reports the AP. Both listened in on the call directly, and they stated similar concerns during their closed-door depositions. Vindman called it “improper” and Williams “unusual.” Trump had previously criticized them both as “Never Trumpers” out to get him.
• Trump on Vindman: “I don’t know Vindman at all,” said Trump. “I watched him for a little while this morning, and I think he—I’m going to let people make their own determination.” Trump took note of Vindman’s military attire. “I understand now he wears his uniform when he goes in,” Trump said. He also made a somewhat sarcastic reference to how Vindman corrected the GOP’s Devin Nunes for calling him “Mr. Vindman” instead of using his rank. “I understand someone had the misfortune of calling him mister,” said Trump.
• Trump on others: “These are names, like (William) Taylor, like (George) Kent with the bowtie, the wonderful bowtie. Maybe I’ll get one for myself one day,” Trump said, per the Washington Post. “All these people are talking about they heard a conversation of a conversation of another conversation that was had by the president. What is going on is a disgrace.”
• AM opening statements: Read the prepared remarks via CNN of the first two witnesses, Vindman, here, and Williams, here. The opening statement of Democrat Adam Schiff is here and that of his GOP counterpart, Nunes, is here.
• Vindman: He spoke of his family’s roots in fleeing the Soviet Union decades ago. “Dad,” he said in his opening statement, “my sitting here today, in the US Capitol talking to our elected officials is proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to the United States of America.” In his native land, speaking up about his concerns with a president’s phone call might have gotten him killed, he said. “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.”
• Williams: “I found the July 25th phone call unusual, because in contrast to other presidential calls I had observed, it involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter,” she said, referring to Trump’s conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.
• Nunes: He repeated a common refrain from the GOP: Where’s the whistleblower who started all this? “Now that the whistleblower has successfully kick-started impeachment, he has disappeared from the story,” Nunes said. “As if the Democrats put [him] in their own witness protection program.”
• Schiff: He denounced earlier attacks on witnesses from Trump and his supporters. “Ms. Williams, we all saw the president’s tweet about you on Sunday afternoon and the insults he hurled at Ambassador Yovanovitch last Friday,” he said. “You are here today, and the American people are grateful.” And to Vindman: “We have seen far more scurrilous attacks on your character, and watched as certain personalities on Fox have questioned your loyalty,” he said. “I note that you have shed blood for America, and we owe you an immense debt of gratitude.”
• In the afternoon: Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison, who has told the panel that he didn’t hear anything illegal in the Trump phone call, testified. Read Volker’s opening statement here and Morrison’s here.
• Volker: He said he should have realized Trump’s push for an investigation by Ukraine was connected to Joe Biden, who he said is an honorable man. If he had, Volker said, he’d have objected.
• Morrison: Democrat Eric Swalwell pushed on why Morrison wouldn’t have thought Trump’s July 25 phone call wasn’t improper, per the Post. “It was not a policy objective that I was aware of,” Morrison answered. Swalwell told him he believes Morrison didn’t ask Ukraine to investigate the Bidens because he knew it was an unlawful order.

So far all the attacks on the witnesses by the GOP, Willy the Weasel and Jimbo Baggins, have fallen short and look impotent and pathetic and desperate….plus I found it disgusting that these GOPers tried to attack a veteran…..attacked by spineless toads that did not serve and want to criticize anyone who did….

This process is proving just how much the GOP loathes the military regardless of what their silly campaign ads say.

Wednesday is another day….and a full day it will be….more hearings and the Dem Debate from Atlanta.

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