WASHINGTON — Not satisfied with watching impeachment hearings on TV, Ann Norton, 80, hopped on a flight from New York to D.C. with two friends Tuesday, hoping to get a seat.
“I got here at 9 and looked at the line and didn’t think I would get in,” she said, describing the queue that stretched out of sight in the long hallway of the Longworth House Office Building.
After waiting two hours she did get into the Ways and Means Committee room to witness only the fourth time in the country’s history that the House has considered impeaching a sitting president.
“I’m concerned for this country and the world as a whole,” the self-described liberal said in explaining why she and her friends traveled from Northport, New York to hear Wednesday’s and Friday’s public hearings.
The partisan animosity over the impeachment inquiry was on stark display as the first day of public hearings that could lead to a House vote to impeach the president. That would trigger a Senate trial on whether to remove Trump from office.
From the opening statements to the questioning of two top U.S. diplomats members of the House Intelligence Committee took shots at each other, and the witnesses. Democrats conveyed a somber, serious tone while Republicans took an aggressive, sometimes sarcastic, stance.
“Welcome to year four, I think, of the ongoing impeachment of President Trump,” said Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, before questioning acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state over European and Eurasian affairs. “I am sorry that you have been drug into this.”
He suggested building an argument for impeachment around “one sentence, one phone call” won’t stand up to scrutiny.
“If your impeachment case is so weak that you have to lie and exaggerate about it to convince the American people that they need to remove this president, then you’ve got a problem,” Stewart said.
In his opening statement, committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the investigation into the president’s conduct also goes to larger issues of democracy and the ability of Congress check on executive power.
“If the president can simply refuse all oversight, particularly in the context of an impeachment proceeding, the balance of power between our two branches of government will be irrevocably altered,” Schiff said, referring to the White House refusals to comply with committee subpoenas.
“That is not what the Founders intended. And the prospects for further corruption and abuse of power, in this administration or another, will be exponentially increased.”
In his opening statement, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the top Republican on the committee, responded with a stinging rebuke. “What we will witness today is a televised theatrical performance staged by the Democrats.”
He sarcastically congratulated the two diplomats who would testify for “passing the Democrats’ Star Chamber auditions held for the past six weeks in the basement of the Capitol.”
“It seems you agreed, wittingly or unwittingly, to participate in a drama. But the main performance — the Russia hoax — has ended, and you’ve been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel.”
Taylor stressed in his opening remarks that he was not taking sides on impeachment. Kent explained in detail the critical role U.S. military aid and support plays in Ukraine’s ability to defend against Russian aggression as it struggles to establish itself as a young democracy.
Repeating what he had said in his closed-door deposition in October, Taylor said withholding that aid in exchange for help in a U.S. political campaign “would be crazy.”
“I believed that then, and I believe it now,” he said.
Toward the end of his testimony, Taylor revealed that he had learned just last week about Trump’s desire for Ukraine to investigate Biden from one of his staff who was at a restaurant with Ambassador Gordon Sondland when Trump called the ambassador’s cell phone. The staffer overheard Trump ask about “the investigations” the president had urged Ukraine to conduct the day before in a July 25 phone conversation with Zelenskiy.
After the call, the staffer asked Sondland what the president thought of Ukraine. “Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden,” Taylor said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump denied any knowledge of the phone call described by Taylor, according to the Washington Post.
“I know nothing about that,” Trump said during a White House news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “First time I’ve heard it. . . . I don’t recall, not at all, not even a little bit.”
The inquiry was sparked by a whistleblower complaint about the July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy for “a favor.” Trump wanted the Ukraine government to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election and the Biden’s family, all while withholding more than $400 million in military aid.
Schiff said those basic facts, detailed in a rough transcript of the call released by the White House, are uncontested. But Republicans retorted in their questioning that none of the quid pro quo that Kent and Taylor feared actually took place and that Zelenskiy has said he never felt pressured by Trump to investigate anything.
“For the millions of Americans viewing today, the two most important facts are the following: No. 1, Ukraine received the aid. No. 2, there was in fact no investigation into Biden,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York.
Republicans defended the president as simply withholding U.S. aid until he was satisfied Ukraine was addressing corruption.
Stewart noted that military aid to a foreign country must be certified before it’s released and asked the witnesses why they would be surprised that the U.S. withheld aid to Ukraine, which had a reputation for corruption.
Kent responded that the certification is done by the U.S. Department of Defense and that those conditions for aid to Ukraine had been met.
The GOP lawmakers renewed their demands that they hear in closed session from the whistleblower.
Democrats said the person’s identity must be protected but also agreed to consider the request again later.
As the hearing wrapped after six hours, dozens of reporters and photojournalists lined the halls as Kent and Taylor headed for the front doors of the building, ignoring questions as they passed by.
After spending most of the day in the hearing, Norton located her friends who had flown to D.C. with her in the crowded hallway. They said they were glad they had made the trip. They plan on attending Friday’s hearing where former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify.
But they’ll be getting line before the doors to the Longworth open at 7:30 a.m.
“No more leisurely breakfasts on Friday,” Norton said as she walked out the door.