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Republican Rep. Jim Jordan was most beautifully brutal in his questioning of Democrats’ alleged ‘star witness’ during Wednesday’s impeachment hearing.
Jordan grilled Ukraine ambassador William Taylor over his claims that he understood President Trump to be holding up aid in an attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue a biden-related probe.
Taylor had previously asserted he had a clear understanding that the release of aid to Ukraine was linked to a request for investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, and Burisma Holdings.
Jordan brought up three meetings that Taylor had with Zelensky between the time the aid was delayed and eventually released, and Taylor confirmed that “there was not discussion of linkage” during any of them.
From Fox News:
“Now, with all due respect, Ambassador, your clear understanding was obviously wrong,” Jordan said, noting that Zelensky also never made any announcement of an investigation prior to Trump releasing the aid on Sept. 11, 2019.
Taylor then gave a further explanation of what his “clear understanding” was based on.
“As I testified, Mr. Jordan, this came from Ambassador [Gordon] Sondland,” Taylor said, recalling that Sondland told him that he said to Zelensky, “that while this was not a quid pro quo, if Mr. Zelensky did not clear things up in public, we would be at a stalemate.”
Taylor also referred to how Sondland “told me that it was a mistake to have told the Ukrainians that only the meeting with the president in the Oval Office was held up in order to get these investigations. No, it was not just the meeting, it was also the security assistance.”
Jordan, who was only recently added to the House Intelligence Committee that is holding the hearing, pointed to an addendum to Sondland’s closed-door testimony, in which he discussed how Taylor recalled that he mentioned a linkage between the investigation and the release of aid to Ukraine.
“Ambassador Taylor recalls that Mr. Morrison told Ambassador Taylor that I told Mr. Morrison that I had conveyed this message to Mr. Yermak on September 1, 2019, in connection with Vice President Pence’s visit to Warsaw and a meeting with President Zelensky,” Jordan read out loud from Sondland’s statement.
“We got six people having four conversations in one sentence, and you just told me this is where you got your clear understanding,” Jordan said. “And you’re their star witness.”
Observe:
Most satisfying indeed.
The Chicks on the Right have more in the clip below.
