An Impeachment, A Prelude To A Messy Senate Hearing, And The Lie Of The Year

you could have heard the news: President Donald Trump is the third president in history to be impeached. That’s big! Nevertheless that’s not all that went down this week.


To catch you up:


Nearly six months back, President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2016 election interference based on a conspiracy theory, and to dig up dirt on his potential political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden. This led to a whistleblower complaint about the call, plus a whole lot of disaster right after that, including a Democratic attempt at impeachment; private and public hearings from each person from Ambassador Bill Taylor, the best diplomat in Ukraine, to Fiona Hill, Trump’s top Russia advisor. We saw dogs; drag queens attended; Kim Kardashian and A$AP Rocky’s names making appearances; some very weird turkey pardons; some deadline promises that weren’t kept; and also a House Judiciary Committee vote.


So what happened this week?


Monday (December 16)


On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell outlining how he’d like the impeachment inquiry to go if it makes it to the Senate. And on Monday, he furthered that proposal by asking for four White Residence officials to testify about their involvement with the Ukraine scandal, according to CNN. Reminder: Trump previously blocked numerous officials from testifying, including White Home Chief of Employees Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Residence Democrats could have pursued them earlier this year; CNN announced they determined against it.


Soon following the vote last week in which the Residence Judiciary Committee passed the impeachment proceedings to the complete Residence, the committee published a 658-page report outlining its case for impeachment. You could read the full report here.


Representative Jeff Van Drew — a Democrat from New Jersey who does not support impeachment — formally reported that he’s going to switch his party affiliation to Republican. Nearly all of his Washington personnel resigned in the wake of his decision, according to the New York Times.


Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personalized attorney as well as a key official in this whole disaster, told the New Yorker that firing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was tied to other investigations at the time, further confirming other diplomats’ testimonies, CNN reported.


“I imagined that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way,” Giuliani instructed them New Yorker. “She was going to prepare the investigations challenging for everybody.”


Tuesday (December 17)


The day immediately after Sen. Schumer asked Sen. McConnell if the Senate could hear from White Home officials, Sen. McConnell mentioned no. “If Home Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, response The solution isn't for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,” he said.


Then Trump sent some sort of letter to Speaker of the Residence Rep. Nancy Pelosi. In six pages, he denounced the complete inquiry, called Pelosi “spiteful” and told her: “No intelligent person believes what you are saying.” You can read it here. In response, Pelosi told CNN that the letter was “really sick.”


Sources tell CNN that Bill Taylor – one of the best Ukranian diplomats who testified while in the hearings — will be leaving his Kiev post in January.


In related news, Politifact named its Lie of the Year for 2019. The winner? Donald Trump’s claim that the whistleblower got Ukraine call “almost fully wrong.” Because, again: They didn’t.


Wednesday (December 18)


The day arrived: Immediately after over six hours of debate, the Residence of Representatives voted to impeach Trump. On the initial article, for abuse of power, the vote was 230 to 197; the second vote on obstruction of Congress, was 229 to 198. (Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) voted “no” on obstruction of Congress and “yes” on abuse of power, thereby shifting a near-perfect reflect ever so slightly.)


there really are only a couple of other representatives who voted against most of them of their party: Two Democrats, Reps. Collin Peterson (MN) and Jeff Van Drew (NJ) voted “no” on impeachment; Independent Justin Amash (MI) voted “yes” on impeachment; and Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI) voted “present” which isn't a vote at all.


Thursday (December 19)


So, the Home of Representative voted to impeach Trump. Right now, it’s supposed to go to the Senate — nevertheless that may not happen immediately. Speaker Pelosi mentioned she wanted to be able to see how the Senate would performer name the inquiry before she sends the two articles to the chamber, according to the New York Times. This comes right after Sen. McConnell resisted Sen. Schumer’s recommended gameplan, so there’s a chance Pelosi is looking to give Democrats some sort of leverage.


“If [Pelosi] thinks her case is so vulnerable she doesn’t wish to send it over, throw me into that briar patch,” McConnell told reporters, according to the Washington Post.


Nevertheless perhaps holding things over other people’s heads shouldn’t be such a surprise to McConnell; he has happily turned his Senate into what Sen. Schumer called a “legislative graveyard,” given that hundreds of expenses that have passed the Home of Representatives have nevertheless to be called in the Senate for a vote. Among them are the reauthorization of the Violence Against Females Act, the Raise the Wage Act, and the Bipartisan Background Check Act of 2019.


Friday (December 20)


We won’t have an impeachment roundup next week for two reasons: The Residence and Senate are both on break, and I’ll be on break, also. Happy holidays, y’all! We’ll catch up in January.