Impeachment Show: Third Day (More Buffoonery).

We’re on the third day of the impeachment hearings. It’s becoming like a Herman’s Hermits song: “Second verse, same as the first”.

In the morning session it was Colonel Alex Vindman and Jennifer Williams (who apparently was there as a wall flower considering she was asked few questions).

Devin Nunes opening statement was great as he excoriated the media:

The media, of course, are free to act as Democrat puppets, and they’re free to lurch from the Russia hoax to the Ukraine hoax at the direction of their puppet masters. But they cannot reasonably expect to do so without alienating half the country who voted for the President they’re trying to expel. Americans have learned to recognize fake news when they see it, and if the mainstream press won’t give it to them straight, they’ll go elsewhere to find it—which is exactly what the American people are doing.

Here are the main points from today’s hearing. I focus exclusively on the morning session since the afternoon was another carbon copy.

• Trump’s motivation on withholding aid to Ukraine until September is unknown. They supposedly were reviewing it to see if it was “consistent with administration policy”. Who does that Trump think he is????
• Williams was not sure of Trump’s thinking on the decision not to send VP Pence to Zelensky’s inauguration after saying he would. Oh my! Impeach!
• Vindman confirmed the transcript was correct.
• Vindman appears to be the source for the whistle blower. When that came up, Schiff quickly shut that down. Vindman‘s counsel said Schiff had set the rules for questions they didn’t have to answer! This sure seems to indicate Schiff knows who the WB is. Jim Jordan was all over it:I don’t see how this is outing the whistleblower. The witness has testified that he does not know who the whistleblower is. You have said, even though no one believes you, you have said you don’t know who the whistleblower is…
• Vindman thought Trump’s language in the phone call was inappropriate and improper. Based on what? I think these people forget we do have the transcript and we can read. Personally I think Trump is correct in saying it was a perfect call!
• Vindman went behind Trump’s back to “warn” Ukraine;“I offered two pieces of advice – to be particularly cautious with regards to Russia and its desire to provoke Ukraine and the second one was to stay out of U.S. domestic policy,” said Vindman, under questioning from Schiff.

  Schiff then corrected part of Vindman’s statement, “you mean politics?”

  “Politics, correction,” affirmed Vindman.

  WHOA hold the fort here. I thought the idea of Ukraine meddling in US politics was a conspiracy theory! I wonder if he told Zelensky to “cut it out”.

• Vindman has never had any contact with Trump. I am beginning to think that is a prerequisite to being a witness in this impeachment show.
• Neither could state any Ukrainian official being pressured to conduct an investigation. Of course we knew that since the aid went forth even when there was no investigation.
• Neither witness knew anything about Joe Biden’s threatening Ukraine to withhold aid if they investigated his son. For so-called experts they sure missed a big item. I don’t believe it for a second. Isn’t it amazing how the left actually does what they accuse others of doing.
• Vindman characterized Trump’s language on the call as demanding an investigation. So “I hope you can do us a favor” = demand. Got it. They are really reaching now. Of course they pretty much have no choice. They have nothing.
• Neither claim to be Never-Trumpers. Yes the Dems have asked that of every witness because of Trump’s tweets. Glad we’re getting such critical information.
• John Ratcliffe (R-TX) got both to admit that they have never categorized the phone call as bribery and then he reviewed the ever-changing narrative from QPQ to bribery (as I wrote about).“The word ‘bribery’ appears in these 3500 pages exactly 1 time. And ironically, it appears not in a description of President Trump’s alleged conduct. It appears in the description of Vice President Biden’s alleged conduct.”

  Brilliant!

Probably the funniest moment of the day;

WENSTRUP: You said you respect the chain of command. Did you go to your direct boss, Tim Morrison?

VINDMAN: No, I didn’t.

Followed up on by Jim Jordan:

JORDAN: Why didn’t you go directly to your superior with your concerns?

VINDMAN: It was a really busy week. Also the lawyer told me not to talk to anyone else.

JORDAN: And yet you talked to your brother, to George Kent, and a CIA person you won’t name.

Hilarious!

You may notice that again there are no concrete facts that indicate criminality on Trump’s part.

The Democrats overall strategy is telling. Basically it is that folks in the intelligent community like Vindman make US Foreign policy. This is what it all boils down to. Trump needs to be impeached because he dares to deviate from the conventional wisdom and exercise his authority as President. Without knowing it, the Democrats are making Trump’s point about the deep state perfectly.

And they are also covering for the Biden’s involvement in all this. I am also noticing they have spent a lot of time trying to knock down the idea that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, which we know they did (after all, why would Vindman warn them not to get involved unless there was past experience with it). That tells me there is something there that they want to try and discredit before it is exposed. What do they know that has them scared?

We have several more days of this buffoonery. Lovely. And there’s another Democrat debate tomorrow evening. Incredibly the candidates may look good in comparison to the clowns in the House of Representatives.

I’ll close with a statement from Jim Jordan: “They’ve got nothing. This is scary what these guys are putting the country through.”