There is absolutely no way that after the testimony by Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes Trump will not be impeached. If Ambassador Sondland massacred Trump’s alibi and call for innocence yesterday, Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes came back to finish the job.
Their testimony was so compelling and corroborated the whistle-blower’s account so clearly, that during questioning by Trump’s defenders, most chose to use their time to make statements rather than ask questions. The latter proposition proved too dangerous as Texas representative John Ratcliffe found out when he went on a tit-for-tat exchange with Mr. Holmes about the specifics of what Holmes had overheard Trump and Sondland discuss. Ratcliffe, thinking he could trick Holmes by asking him ultra specific questions, was left with his pants by his ankles in the exchange when the answer to his masterful question of “what changed, this is important” (in regards to why Sondland had placed the phone closer to his ear) left him speechless and confused.
But the danger was clear and present even to those that chose to use their time to make a statement and attempt to paint the witnesses as pawns in a chess game and with the responsibility of having a make a decision about impeachment. Representative Brad Wenstrup from Ohio used all of his time to talk about the importance of one America, his service to our nation, Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and the great responsibility laid before the witnesses to impeach Trump. Dr. Hill did not bat an eye as she asked for time to make a statement of her own, in which she used the very words by the congressman. In her response she reminded the committee that it was their responsibility, not that of the witnesses, to impeach or not, and that they were there as factual witnesses, without any party-ties.
After these type of exchanges, rather than continue questioning the witnesses to find out more information, the Trump defenders all utilized their time to make irrelevant statements. Statements like the Steele dossier, the DNC and Hunter Biden’s competence as a board member of Burisma, issues that were not in question in this inquiry, even if they were valid or useful in a different context. It was like watching kids that were attending the wrong class.
The closing statement by the Trump defenders, again without any questions directed to the witnesses, was an analogy about the matter being moved to the main band, the Senate, and how the intelligence committee had been the warm-up band of the show people had come to see.
Trump will be impeached, and the amount of evidence is strong enough to remove him, should the people of the US demand it from the Republican-controlled senate.
