In the Loop and Under the Bus

Sondland Sang: Yesterday’s impeachment inquiry hearing seemed endless but most of it was worth watching.  As usual Committee Chair Adam Schiff set the stage, providing his usual overview of the inquiry, peppering it with facts brought to light during the previous day’s testimony.  Ranking Member Devin Nunes spewed some of his usual nonsense, asserting that the inquiry was a waste of time, just phase two of the Russian hoax, part of the Democrats’ never ending effort to unseat dear leader Trump.  Nunes warmly greeted EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, an indication that he either hadn’t read Sondland’s opening remarks, a copy of which had been distributed to the committee early yesterday morning, or that he had read them and failed to grasp the import of what Sondland was about to say. Sondland then started speaking, reading from those remarks, the third revision of his earlier deposition.  He quickly dispelled any concerns that he was going to plead the Fifth by instead throwing Trump, VP Pence, Rudy Giuliani, Secretary of State Pompeo, Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney, former national security advisor John Bolton and Energy Secretary Perry under the bus.  Acknowledging that his memory isn’t perfect in part because, unlike all the professional diplomats, he isn’t a note taker, he said his recollections had been refreshed by the testimonies and depositions provided by the other witnesses, lawyer speak for he now remembers the things he previously conveniently “forgot.” He said that he and those other two Amigos, Perry and Kurt Volker, were not part of some subversive group, they were working out in the open under the direction of Trump who had told them to take marching orders from Rudy, who is still trying to drum up investigations even though he’s being investigated for almost everything he’s done lately.  Although Sondland still doesn’t have access to all of his State Department records, something that he attributed to the White House and State Department’s decision to keep them under wraps, he brought along a few emails and texts that, together with the recollections of his Trump phone calls including the one in the Kiev cafe, proved that he had been keeping all the relevant parties, most notably Mulvaney and Pompeo, “in the loop.”  He said that there had been a quid pro quo, Ukraine announcing investigations in exchange for a White House meeting between President Zelensky and Trump and military aid, but that at first he didn’t realize that what the Democrats are now calling a bribe extended to the military aid.  Eventually, putting “two and two together,” he figured out that the aid wasn’t going to be released until Trump got the “deliverables” he wanted – a public statement by Zelensky that he would investigate Burisma and that faux Democratic interference in the 2016 election.  As to Burisma, that minor Ukrainian gas company that continues to get far more attention than it deserves, like Volker before him, Sondland claimed that he didn’t know that Hunter Biden was one of its board members until late in the game because apparently he doesn’t know how to use Google so as a result he hadn’t realized that the direction to investigate Burisma was part of Trump’s effort to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden.  Sondland agreed that getting a foreign leader to investigate a political rival was the wrong thing to do. Lastly, because it wouldn’t be fair not to soil VP Pence too, Sondland also relayed that he tried to get Pence to address the aid hold up during a meeting with the Ukrainians in Warsaw but the best he managed to get from Trump’s tool was a nod.  Republicans spent a lot of time pulling apart Sondland’s testimony and to a certain extent they did ding its veneer. Sondland who appears to be a people pleaser, seemed to be trying to make everyone, Republican and Democrat alike, happy with what he had to say so at times he watered down the damning assertions that his lawyers had included in his opening remarks.  Nevertheless, his testimony caused Trump considerable damage and every time the Republicans and their lawyer complained about Sondland’s faulty memory they instead ended up highlighting that the White House was engaging in obstruction by refusing to release relevant documentation.  It didn’t take long for Trump to emerge on the White House lawn, he showed up reading from large print notes written with his usual Sharpie to say that there had been no quid pro quo and that anyway he didn’t know that guy Sondland very well.  That could be a problem for Sondland who was in such a hurry to get back to his posting in Brussels that he requested the committee keep toilet/lunch breaks short so he wouldn’t miss his flight.  His remaining days as Ambassador to the EU are likely numbered.   

Shifting Timeline:  After Sondland dashed to Dulles for what might be his last government funded flight to Brussels, Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia and David Hale, the third most senior person at the State Department testified.  During her opening remarks Cooper revealed that after reading her SCIF deposition, a member of her staff alerted her that he had received an inquiry about the military aid hold up from the Ukrainian Embassy on July 25 and that during the week of August 6, other members of her staff saw officials from the embassy who also raised the issue.  That’s notable because it means that the Ukrainians knew that their military aid was being held back during the time period that Zelensky was being pressured to publicly announce the Burisma/Biden and 2016 election interference investigations, a bigly problem for Trump because part of his defense has been that the Ukrainians didn’t know that their aid was in jeopardy. For his part Hale, who had been invited to testify at the request of the Republicans, defended former Ambassador Yovanovitch saying what happened to her was “wrong” and that he believed “that she should have been able to stay at post and continue to do the outstanding work.”  He also provided a robust statement of support for all the diplomats serving at the State Department, something that Secretary of State Pompeo, who three senior Republicans say is coming closer to resigning to run for Senate in Kansas if he can still pull that off, still hasn’t done. More testimony is on tap today.  Fiona Hill, the Russia expert who left the NSC this summer and who reported that John Bolton called Trump’s quid pro quo demand a “drug deal” and David Holmes, the Ukraine embassy mid-level diplomat who overheard Sondland’s Kiev café call with Trump will start talking at 9 ET following Schiff and Nunes’  opening remarks.    

Democratic Debates:  I have to admit that hearing-ed out I only caught snippets of last night’s debates, that said I did catch Joe Biden’s back and forth with Cory Booker over the legalization of pot and Biden’s gaffe when he said that he had the endorsement of the only African American woman Senator, something that stunned that other African American woman Senator Kamala Harris. Biden almost immediately corrected himself to say that he meant to say that he had the endorsement of the first African American Senator, Carol Moseley Braun, but since everyone loves to jump on his gaffes the damage was already done.  As to Biden’s pot comment, Booker, who had a relatively good night, asked him if he was stoned but to be clear, Biden isn’t completely out of touch, he wants marijuana possession decriminalized and wants people in jail for possession released immediately with their records expunged, he’s just not supportive of complete legalization, a position that actually polls well.  Amy Klobuchar managed to zing Mayor Pete while making a statement about equality saying “Of the women on the stage, do I think we would be standing on that stage if we had the experience he had? No, I don’t.” adding “Pete is qualified to be up on this stage, and I am honored to be standing next to him but what I said is true. Women are held to a higher standard. Otherwise we could play a game called name your favorite woman president, which we can’t do because it has all been men.”  One of those women on stage, Tulsi Gabbard, was the evening’s punching bag but it probably doesn’t matter, her support is kind of baked in with elements who like her playing the 2020 version of Jill Stein.  It’s not clear that any of the debate performances, good or bad, will impact any polls.  As to women, Republican star Nikki Haley has an email problem, while serving as UN Ambassador she sent a whole series of them from her personal email account because she couldn’t remember her official government password.    

Third Time’s the Charm?  Israel may be headed for still another election.  Neither Bibi Netanyahu nor Benny Gantz have been able to form a government since kingmaker Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the secular nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, is holding out for a unity government and at least so far won’t throw his group's weight behind either Netanyahu or Gantz unless their parties agree to work together.  Oy.