First public hearing in the Trump impeachment inquiry

Our live coverage of the impeachment inquiry has ended for the day. Read up on the latest news below.

A White House official said top aides believe today’s hearing was a win for President Trump and told him so as he was in between meetings with Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan.

“So how do you think it went,” Trump asked.

“Great day. Big win,” aides told Trump, the official said.

But the official acknowledged Trump is not out of the woods just yet as the public hearings are just getting underway. 

One clear sign of that uncertainty was diplomat Bill Taylor’s testimony that an aide heard Trump talk about “investigations” with US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.

“The overheard phone call was new to every one,” the official said.

The official went on to say that the White House was pleasantly surprised by the performance turned in by GOP lawmakers during the hearing who argued repeatedly the quid pro quo never made it to fruition, as the aid to Ukraine was ultimately released.

The official conceded that Lt. Col Alexander Vindman’s testimony will be a key development during the hearings as he is seen as a solid witness for the Democrats. 

More about the aid and investigation: Trump reportedly held up $400 million in aid to Ukraine as leverage as the President pressed Ukraine to investigate domestic political rivals like former Vice President Joe Biden.

After not having a war room for weeks, apparently the White House Office of Legislative Affairs sent Capitol Hill Republicans so many emails today.

The legislative affair’s office sent sometimes six to seven emails an hour, according to a Republican source with knowledge of the emails.

GOP members were not happy and pushed back, the source said.

The first public impeachment hearing today lived up to the hype, and the daylong affair gave both parties plenty to chew on as the inquiry moves forward.

Here’s what we learned today and what it means for the next steps, as additional witnesses are slated for private interviews and public hearings in the coming days:

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has declined to open an investigation into the delay of Ukraine military assistance, according to a letter sent to senators. 

“We seek not to duplicate or interfere with the efforts of other oversight entities, even if there is not a criminal proceeding, before initiating our own investigation,” the inspector general’s office wrote.

Sen. Dick Durbin, along with six other Democratic senators, issued a statement, saying they are disappointed with the decision. The senators said they met with the inspector general’s office in October to discuss the issue.

“We are disappointed that the Defense Department Office of the Inspector General has declined to investigate the Defense Department’s delay of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding appropriated by Congress,” the senators said in their statement.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, one of two Democrats who voted against the House impeachment inquiry resolution, called diplomat Bill Taylor’s testimony today on Capitol Hill “hearsay.”

At the crux of Taylor’s testimony is a July 26 call in which President Trump spoke by phone with Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, about “the investigations” into the Bidens.

The call came one day after Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted a whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump solicited “interference” from a foreign country to help his 2020 presidential campaign.

This information on the July 26 call came from one of Taylor’s staffers who overheard Trump’s phone call with Sondland. 

“It’s hearsay,” Van Drew said this afternoon after Taylor’s testimony. “It’s really difficult dealing with this because it’s he said-she said.”

Van Drew suggested he would need to see evidence such as verifiable documents or an incriminating audio recording of the President to prove the allegations before getting on board with impeachment. 

“Frankly the aid did flow, so that really isn’t an issue at the end of the day,” he added. “The aid flowed, and everything resolved.”

What is this aid exactly?: The aid Van Drew is referring to is nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine that was reportedly held back as leverage as Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate domestic political rivals like former Vice President Joe Biden.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed today’s first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

“What has come forth has further, of course, given us the truth of what happened at the time,” she said.

Pelosi went on to say she was consumed with other legislative matters — prescription drugs, Dreamers, appropriations and the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement today — and caught a “few minutes” of the beginning of the hearing.

Rep. Francis Rooney, a Republican from Florida who has not ruled out supporting impeachment, said the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry would be stronger if they had someone who had direct communication with President Trump alleging wrongdoing.

Asked if Rooney thinks acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney should testify, Rooney said he should.

“I think everyone should come to testify,” he said.

Where Mulvaney fits in with the impeachment inquiry: Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone have engaged in a long-simmering feud over impeachment strategy, each blaming the other as ineffective in preventing Trump’s current predicament.

Last week, Mulvaney defied a congressional subpoena to appear in closed testimony. Investigators want to hear from him after multiple witnesses named him as a key orchestrator of the alleged Ukraine quid pro quo.

Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Intelligence Committee member, told reporters after today’s hearing that he was “pleasantly surprised how civil it ended up being.”

“I’ve been to other hearings where my colleagues on the other side kind of jump up and down and they make a circus out of some of these proceedings. So I was a little concerned, but I was pleasantly surprised with the tone and the tenor and dignity of the hearing,” the Illinois lawmaker said.

Earlier today: Diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent testified before the committee at the first public hearing in the impeachment probe. One of the biggest bombshells came from Taylor who discussed a July 26 phone call that happened one day after Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader. Taylor testified that his staff was told of the call, in which President Trump said he cared more about the “investigations of Biden” than Ukraine.

In today’s episode of “The Daily DC: Impeachment Watch” podcast, CNN Political Director David Chalian gives:

Chalian is joined today by CNN political analyst Molly Ball and Carrie Cordero, CNN’s legal and national security analyst.

Listen to the podcast here.

At a news conference with the Turkish president, President Trump was asked about new information revealed in today’s public testimony from diplomat Bill Taylor.

Taylor said that on July 26 — one day after Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted a whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump solicited “interference” from a foreign country to help his 2020 presidential campaign — Trump spoke by phone with Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, about “the investigations.”

Trump today denied any knowledge of this call.

Trump called it “more secondhand information.”

He added: “I don’t recall. Not at all. Not even a little bit.”

Rep. Adam Schiff called new information that diplomat Bill Taylor provided today “very important.”

Schiff said Taylor’s testimony — in which he said his aide overheard Trump telling an ambassador he wanted a Biden probe — is evidence that ties the scandal directly to the President, and not any Trump aides.

“This is very obviously very important because there is an effort apparently to by the President’s allies to throw Sondland under the bus, throw Mulvaney under the bus, throw anybody under the bus in an effort to protect the president. But what this call indicates as other testimony has likewise indicated is that instructions are coming from the President on down,” Schiff said.

He added that this witness who was on that call is “potentially very important,” noting that the committee scheduled a closed-door deposition with the staffer for Friday.

More context: David Holmes is the aide who heard the July 26 call between US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and President Trump, according to a source familiar with a scheduled deposition.

Taylor testified today that Sondland told an aide that Trump’s interest in Ukraine was the “investigations of Biden,” and he cared more about an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden than he did about Ukraine.

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff said today’s impeachment inquiry hearing showed President Trump “sought to advance his political and personal interest at the expense of the United States’ national security.”

Here’s how he put it:

“The portrait that I think their testimony paints is one of an irregular channel that ran from the president through Mick Mulvaney and Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Volker on down to Rudy Giuliani in which the President sought to advance his political and personal interest at the expense of the United States’ national security. And the President did that by pressing this vulnerable ally to get involved in the next presidential election in a way that the president thought would advance his reelection prospects.”

More on this: Taylor explained that Rudy Giuliani’s efforts led to an “irregular” policy channel was “running contrary to the goals of longstanding US policy.” Kent’s testimony also expressed alarm at Giuliani’s efforts — which he described last month as a “campaign of lies” — that led to the ouster of US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and then the push for investigations.

Following today’s first public hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan said, “I think it is a sad chapter for the country but a good day for the facts and the President of the United States.”

Another Republican on the intel committee, Rep. Elise Stefanik, called the hearing “an abject failure for the Democrats and for Adam Schiff.”

Asked about the White House blocking key witnesses from testifying — like acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton. Jordan said, “There is a court case. And I think December 10 they’ll rule. We’ll find out then.”

He added: “We’ll see what the court says on Bolton and Mulvaney.”

Today’s House Intelligence Committee hearing with diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent just wrapped. The hearing — which lasted nearly six hours — marked the first public testimony of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

If you’re just reading in now, here are the biggest takeaways:

The House Intel committee just reconvened briefly to vote on a motion brought up by Republican member Mike Conaway earlier today to subpoena the whistleblower to testify in the impeachment inquiry.

On a vote to table the motion, there were 13 ayes from Democrats and nine no votes from Republicans on the committee. The motion was tabled.

After the brief recess, the committee will vote on Republican Rep. Mike Conaway’s motion to subpoena whistleblower in a few minutes. 

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff closed today’s hearing — which marked the first public testimony in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump — by restating that he did not meet with the whistleblower.

What this is all about: The whistleblower at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry first contacted the staff of the House Intelligence Committee for guidance before sending the complaint to the Trump administration, according to a spokesman and a new report.

While the panel’s staff advised the whistleblower to contact the intelligence community inspector general and seek legal counsel, they did not receive the complaint in advance, wrote Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Schiff said.

Watch here:

Diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent just finished testifying in the first public hearing in the Trump impeachment inquiry.

The two men are now leaving the room, but lawmakers are staying behind to take up a motion from GOP Rep. Mike Conaway to subpoena the whistleblower to testify.

Both Bill Taylor and George Kent said there was “cause for concern” in Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine’s president — a conversation Trump has repeatedly called “perfect.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, first asked Kent: “You don’t believe the July 25 call was perfect. Do you?”

“Ambassador Taylor?” Krishnamoorthi asked.

“I agree,” Taylor said.

Asked what the cause for concern was, Taylor said, “The discussion of the previous ambassador was a cause for concern. ”

Some context: During the July 25 call, Trump disparaged Marie Yovanovitch, former US Ambassador to Ukraine. He called her “bad news” and said, “she’s going to go through some things.”

Rep. Val Demings asked the witnesses if President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was “promoting US national interests or policy in Ukraine.”

Diplomat Bill Taylor responded, “I don’t think so.” George Kent added, “No, he was not.”

Demings asked Kent what interests he believed Giuliani was promoting in Ukraine.

Taylor added: “I agree with Mr. Kent.” 

House Democrats believe that the testimony of Bill Taylor and George Kent today has been successful in laying the groundwork of their impeachment inquiry, setting the stage for the full timeline of events of how the aid and a meeting were withheld while the President sought investigations into his rivals.

The witnesses may not have direct knowledge of Trump’s thinking — as Republicans have pointed out — but they have plenty of firsthand knowledge about the events that occurred in the past few months that tie back to Trump’s demands.

Democrats also got new information about a call Trump had with Gordon Sondland, where he pushed the Ukraine investigations — and they’re likely to hear from the aide who heard the call directly on Friday.

Republicans have been making a big deal about Taylor being the star witness, and he is no doubt important, Democratic aides and lawmakers say. But Democrats see these witnesses as foundational, and the bigger ones are still to come — including Sondland, who will have a lot of clarifying to do about his conversations with Trump.

One aide acknowledged that the testimony on Ukraine is confusing, particularly for people who have not followed the story that closely. This isn’t as obvious of an issue as the Clinton impeachment — it’s a complicated foreign policy quid pro quo, and so if the hope was today would clarify everything to people at home, the aide said this may not have 100% hit the mark.

Following comments from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan that Congress will not get the chance to question “the guy who started it all. The whistleblower,” Democratic Rep. Peter Welch kicked off his time for questioning by addressing Jordan:

Watch here:

Diplomats George Kent and Bill Taylor said it’s harder for US officials overseas to do their jobs when American leaders ask foreign powers to investigate their political rivals.

Rep. Denny Heck, a Democrat from Washington, asked both Taylor and Kent the question.

“When American leaders ask foreign governments to investigate their potential rivals, doesn’t that make it harder for us to advocate on behalf of those democratic values?” he asked.

Here’s how Kent responded: “I believe it makes it more difficult for our diplomatic representatives overseas to carry out those policy goals, yes.”

Heck then asked Taylor if he agreed with Kent.

“I would,” Taylor said. “Our credibility is based on a respect for the United States, and if we damage that respect, then it hurts our credibility and makes it more difficult for us to do our jobs.”

Watch here:

Top diplomat Bill Taylor characterized claims that the US aid to Ukraine was necessary because the Russians would “likely take advantage” of the situation.

Taylor’s answer was prompted by a question from Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, regarding President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Joaquin Castro: “When President Trump got President Zelensky on the phone on July 25, he was talking to a desperate man. Wasn’t he? President Zelensky was desperate to protect his country and make sure he had foreign assistance from the United States. Is that right?”

Bill Taylor: “President Zelensky is very interested in U.S. support. Both assistance and political support, yes, sir.” 

Castro: “What would have happened if the aid had gotten cut off, ambassador? What would have happened to President Zelensky’s career and what would have happened to the Ukraine?” 

Taylor: “The assistance, if the assistance had been cut off, he would have been much weaker in his negotiations with the Russians. He would have been much weaker on the battlefield.”

Castro: “The Russians may have taken it as an invitation to actually take military action against Ukraine. Is that right?” 

Taylor: “The Russians always look for inabilities and they know that the United States has supported Ukraine. If the Russians determine or suspect that support is lessened or not there, they will likely take advantage.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro used his opportunity to question the witnesses to point out that President Trump attempted to get Ukraine to open an investigation into the Bidens.

“So we have a President who, the other side has claimed or defended the President saying that the aid went through, that there was never any investigation,” Castro said.

He added that Trump “attempted to get those things done” in his dealings with the Ukrainian president, then he asked the witnesses, “Is attempted murder a crime?”

Diplomat Bill Taylor responded, “Attempted murder is a crime.”

Castro then asked, “Is attempted robbery a crime?”

“Neither of us is a lawyer, but I think that’s right,” Taylor responded.

Finally, Castro asked, “Is attempted extortion and bribery a crime?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Taylor said.

Watch here:

Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, asked diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent about President Trump’s repeated claim that they are “never Trumpers.”

“Just about an hour before the two of you sat down to testify the President tweeted multiple times about this hearing and he put in all caps “NEVER TRUMPERS.” Mr. Kent, are you a ‘never Trumper?’” Swalwell asked.

Kent quickly responded, saying that he is a career diplomat “who serves whatever president is duly-elected and carries out the foreign policies of that president in the United States, and I’ve done that for 27 years for three Republican presidents and two Democrat presidents.”

Taylor was also asked if he was a “never Trumper,” in which he simply replied, “No, sir.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell asked US diplomat Bill Taylor about White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s assertion that everyone needs to “get over” the fact that there’s political influence in foreign policy.

Swalwell quoted an October news conference where Mulvaney said: “If you read the news reports and you believe them, what McKinley said yesterday, well, McKinley said yesterday he was really upset with the political influence in foreign policy. That was one of the reasons he was so upset about this. And I have news for everybody. Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy.”

“Ambassador Taylor, should we get over it?” he asked.

Here’s how Taylor responded:

“If we’re talking about political influence meaning attempts to get information that is solely useful for political campaigns — if that’s what we’re talking about, we should not get used to that.

Watch here:

Asked about text messages in which he described the withholding of Ukraine aid as “crazy,” Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell asked diplomat Bill Taylor, “Can we also agree that it’s just wrong?” 

“Yes,” Taylor responded.

Swalwell asked him why he believed that withholding aid is wrong.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is “not watching“ the House impeachment hearing today, because “we’ll get to it soon enough.”

McConnell also said it’s really “up to the Senate” to decide how long an impeachment trial should go.

“People will have to conclude they’re learning something,” he said. “At some point we’ll get to an end.”

In today’s testimony, Republicans are repeatedly going after the witnesses for not hearing from President Trump himself that he wanted Ukraine to launch investigations into his political rivals in exchange for releasing US aid.

But the White House has sought to prevent those closer to Trump from appearing.

In their messaging around the testimony, Republicans have said diplomats George Kent and Bill Taylor lack firsthand knowledge of the President’s actions or motives.

The White House has sought to amplify that message on Twitter: “Don’t rely on second, third, and fourth-hand accounts,” reads a message from the official White House account.

The press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, wrote, “Dems star witnesses can’t provide any first hand knowledge of any wrongdoing by @POTUS. Their own testimony contradicts the Dems false quid pro quo narrative. These are essentially two bureaucrats with a foreign policy gripe.”

Yet those with closer knowledge of Trump’s actions — including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton — have both declined to appear before the committees, citing a White House directive.

The White House has said the administration won’t cooperate with the investigation. Other administration officials, under subpoena, have defied the White House’s instructions.

A Trump legal team source said Trump has not been damaged thus far during the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry.  

The source criticized the process as more theater than a serious proceeding. 

“This is not impeachment. This is theater and not very good theater,” the source said, echoing some of the White House critiques that the hearing has been “boring.” 

“So far this is a policy dispute. Not an impeachment inquiry,” the source added.

This legal team source praised Steve Castor, the GOP counsel handling the Republican side of questioning near the start of the hearing. The source described Castor as “effective.”

Every member of the House Intelligence Committee gets five minutes to ask today’s witnesses — diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent — questions.

So far 11 of the 22 members have gone. That means another 11 are still left.

Members are allowed to give their time to another member, if they’d like. So far, some Republicans have yielded their time to Rep. John Ratcliffe.

Some Democrats have given time to House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff.

There is mixed White House reaction to the Republicans’ attorney, Steve Castor, in today’s hearing.

While some aides say he did a good job establishing key Republican focal points, others say it shows why the administration had wanted a lawyer of the President’s choosing to represent him.

One official questioned why he didn’t focus more in his questions about the witnesses’ lack of direct contact with the President, and another source conceded he started off slow.

Overall, White House officials were pleased that Castor raised questions about Hunter Biden and made a point of focusing on Kent raising concerns about the perception of conflict of interest with Joe Biden’s role in Ukraine while his son was on the board of Burisma. Aides were also pleased Castor made the case for why Burisma, in particular, is worth investigating. 

However, the witnesses have made clear in their testimony they understood the President wanted Biden investigated, not just specifically Burisma.

It’s unclear what President Trump thinks: He was already meeting with the Turkish President when Steve Castor began his cross-examination.

Earlier today, after the committee’s lawyer Dan Goldman’s cross examination, Trump said, “I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers, they took some guys off television.”

Diplomat George Kent was asked about his experience working with former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Democratic Rep. Andre Carson asked Kent if Yovanovitch was “working hard to combat corruption in Ukraine.”

Kent said that Yovanovitch was “dedicated” to help Ukrainians “overcome the legacy of corruption” in the country.

Carson followed up: Now, some in Ukraine probably disliked her efforts to help Ukraine root out corruption. Is that correct? 

The comment generated laughter in the room and a smirk from Carson who paused and responded, “fair enough.”

Watch here:

GOP counsel Steve Castor just invoked the ongoing Justice Department investigation being helmed by US Attorney John Durham into the early days of the Russia probe as a reason why President Trump’s request in a phone call with the Ukrainian leader around the 2016 election could be legitimate. 

Ukraine does factor into the Durham probe, though it does not appear to be a top point of investigation for the Justice Department. 

A number of Ukrainians who are not members of that country’s government have “volunteered information” to Durham, which he is evaluating, a Justice Department spokeswoman said in September. 

Attorney General Bill Barr, who tapped Durham to lead the probe earlier this year, has not communicated with Ukraine, the spokeswoman said. That is a different approach than what the AG has taken with other countries of interest to the Durham probe. 

Barr himself has traveled twice to Italy to meet with intelligence officials there about the probe, and he held meetings with senior officials in the UK on the subject on a trip to London over the summer. 

After acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appeared to connect the Durham probe and the delay of military aide to Ukraine at a news conference last month, Justice officials were confused and angry, a person familiar with the matter said.  

“If the White House was withholding aid in regards to the cooperation of any investigation at the Department of Justice, that is news to us,” a senior DOJ official said.

President Trump may not be watching today’s hearing, his press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed. But Trump’s Twitter account is actively retweeting on impeachment.

Trump has tweeted and retweeted 30 times on impeachment so far today.

Trump is scheduled to be in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Republicans in the Oval Office.

Grisham is certainly watching. She just sent her fifth tweet of the day on impeachment, once again questioning today’s witnesses.

A GOP lawmaker who was involved in the closed-door depositions said in a text message after Rep. Jim Jordan’s questioning of diplomat Bill Taylor: “That’s exactly why we put him on the committee.”

His point, he said, is that Jordan was able to zero in on a central element of the House GOP Trump defense – that nothing was first-hand as it pertained to what President Trump wanted or was asking for with Ukraine.

Asked if that meant he believed GOP counsel Steve Castor wasn’t effective, the lawmaker responded: “Let’s just say we would’ve been better off giving Jordan 45 minutes. I’ll leave it at that.”

Asked if, given the defense, he was concerned about what US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland – who is alleged to have significant first-hand knowledge of the President’s thinking and directives – would say given Taylor’s new testimony today, the lawmaker demurred. “We’ll deal with that next week. One day at a time.”

Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Republican from Texas, listed a slew of media sources quoting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying he felt no pressure from the US in his defense of President Trump.

“The Ukrainian president sitting in front of the world press and repeatedly, consistently over and over again, interview after interview, said he had no knowledge of military aid being withheld, meaning no quid pro quo, no pressure, no demands, no threats, no blackmail, nothing corrupt and unlike the first 45 minutes that we’ve heard from the Democrats today that’s not second-hand information. It’s not hearsay, it’s not what someone overheard what Sondland say, that was his direct testimony,” Ratcliffe said.

He then went to asked Bill Taylor, a diplomat in Ukraine, if he had any evidence that Zelensky was lying.

Taylor responded, saying he had “no doubt” in what the Ukrainian leader said.

Remember: Zelensky told international media that “nobody” pushed him in September during a meeting with President Trump. Trump was sitting next to Zelensky as he made the comments. Later, after consulting with a translator, the Ukraine leader: “I’m sorry but I don’t want to be involved (in) democratic open elections of USA.”

Watch here:

Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, and GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe, talked over each other after the Republican congressman asked, “Where is the impeachable offense?”

Ratcliffe — who was asking questions after Rep. Mike Conaway yielded his time over — asked:

“In this impeachment hearing today where we impeach presidents for treason, bribery or other high crimes where is the impeachable offense in that call? Are either of you here today to assert there was an impeachable offense in that call. Shout it out. Anyone?”

Taylor began to answer: “Mr. Ratcliffe, if I may respond let me reiterate that I’m not here…” 

Ratcliffe said he only had one minute left to ask questions, and kept talking. The two men then both tried to keep speaking.

They eventually suspended the clock so Taylor could answer.

“I would like to say I’m not here to do anything having to do with — decide about impeachment,” he said. “That is not what either of us are here for. This is your job.” 

Watch the moment:

State Department official George Kent just refuted a key Trump talking point.

Kent agreed with Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, who said that Trump’s efforts to secure an investigation into Biden was not a “thoughtful and well-calibrated anti-corruption program.” This built on what Kent told lawmakers in his closed-door deposition last month, when he said asking Ukraine to investigate Biden “is not anti-corruption.”

From the beginning, Trump has argued that his requests to Ukraine were part of a good-faith effort to root out corruption in a notoriously crooked post-Soviet country. But those arguments have never added up, because Trump’s supposed “anti-corruption” campaign was only focused on one person – Biden, a leading opponent in the 2020 campaign – and Trump never brought up “corruption” in past public meetings with Ukrainian leaders.

The debate over whether Trump was targeting a political rival or genuinely trying to end corruption is critical to the impeachment inquiry. Democrats could draft articles of impeachment saying that Trump abuses his powers for political purposes. Republicans could argue that Trump was promoting legitimate US anti-corruption policy in Ukraine. But those GOP arguments have been undercut by Kent and other key witnesses in the inquiry.

Prior to asking the witnesses any questions, Democratic Rep. Jim Himes said, “One of the things I find startling about these proceedings is that, faced with very serious allegations of presidential misconduct, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t engage or defend that conduct.”

Himes went on to say that, instead, Republicans “spin theories about black ledgers and Steel dossiers and the startling revelation that Ukrainians might have been upset when a presidential candidate suggested that perhaps he would let the Russians keep Crimea.”

Himes said Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, in his opening statement, “most disgustingly attacked the extraordinary men and women of the state department and the FBI.”

Watch more:

There are 20 House Intelligence Committee members who still get to ask questions.

So far, only Chair Adam Schiff and ranking member Devin Nunes — who gave his time to Rep. Jim Jordan — have completed their questions.

Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut, is asking questions now. Here are the 19 others who will ask questions:

Democratic members:

GOP members:

A sheet of paper was just handed to Bill Taylor, a top diplomat in Ukraine who is testifying now.

Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio who was questioning Taylor, explained the paper was taken from Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony.

A CNN reporter asked President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani outside his New York City apartment today if he’s concerned that some Republicans may blame him for seeking investigations from Ukraine, saying it was all his doing and not the President.

Giuliani laughed and said he’s not worried at all. He said there is no reason to be worried — that they can blame him if they want, but eventually the truth will come out.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Giuliani said.

He added: “I was asked to look into an alternative explanation in November 2018, and I investigated and found evidence. If they just wait and are patient for all the facts to come out, they will see what the truth is.”

It’s clear what GOP lawyer Steve Castor was trying to do during his first appearance at the highly anticipated public impeachment hearing. But US diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent weren’t willing to follow Castor’s lead.

While questioning Kent, Castor teased out some of the concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Castor asked leading questions about Hunter Biden’s apparent lack of credentials for the role, with little experience in the energy sector. Kent didn’t take the bait; he replied that he hasn’t seen Biden’s resumé. 

Castor moved to Taylor and pressed the US diplomat on whether Trump was right to question whether Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election, and whether Trump should be upset by reports about Ukrainian officials opposing his candidacy.

Taylor hesitated, seemingly a bit perplexed by the strange question. But he gave a careful response, noting that Trump mentioned during the 2016 campaign that he might let Russia keep Crimea, and that this “sentiment is amazingly inflammatory to all Ukrainians.” The implication was that if Ukrainians in fact opposed Trump, there was a good reason.

The Republicans’ 45-minute round of questioning, lead by House lawyer Steve Castor, is over.

What happens now: Every member of the House Intelligence Committee will get five minutes to question diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent.

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff just started his five minutes.

Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the committee, asserted several times during his questioning of Bill Taylor that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 election to help Hillary Clinton.

“Now they accuse President Trump of malfeasance in Ukraine when they themselves are culpable,” Nunes said. “The Democrats cooperated in Ukrainian election meddling.”

These allegations have been in the ether for years, and CNN reported about them in 2017. These discredited claims have been promoted by Trump and his Republican allies in Congress.

But multiple witnesses, including George Kent and Fiona Hill, previously told lawmakers that Ukraine didn’t meddle in the US election. In fact, it was the Russian government who got involved in the election by hacking and leaking Democratic emails to help Trump win.

“My knowledge is that there is no factual basis,” Kent told the committee.

Rep. Devin Nunes claimed that President Trump’s willingness to provide Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine was “a very strong message that Americans are willing to provide more than blankets. This was the Obama administration’s approach.”

Facts First: Nunes was correct that Obama, unlike Trump, refused to provide Javelins and other lethal military assistance to Ukraine — but Obama provided far more than “blankets.” The Obama administration also sent drones, armored Humvees, counter-mortar radars, night vision devices and medical supplies.

Trump has made versions of Nunes’ “blankets” claim on previous occasions. You can read a fact check of Trump’s comments here.

Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, said Rudy Giuliani’s conversations with Ukrainian officials, while an “irregular” way of conducting diplomacy, was not “as outlandish as it could be.”

“I want to turn to the discussion of the irregular channel you described,” Republican questioner Steve Castor said. “In fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, it’s not as outlandish as it could be, is that correct?”

Watch more:

Rep. Devin Nunes claimed twice that Alexandra Chalupa, a former staffer for the Democratic National Committee, “worked with officials at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, DC, to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign, which she passed onto the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign.”

Fact First: Chalupa denied the allegations in a 2017 statement to CNN.

“During the 2016 US election, I was a part-time consultant for the DNC running an ethnic engagement program,” Chalupa told CNN. “I was not an opposition researcher for the DNC, and the DNC never asked me to go to the Ukrainian Embassy to collect information.

Multiple representatives from the Clinton campaign and the DNC have denied the charges, as has the Ukrainian embassy. “I ran the opposition press program for the Clinton campaign and I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” said Zac Petkanas, a former Clinton staffer.

Republicans, though, have seized on the fact that Chalupa did meet with representatives from the Ukrainian Embassy during the election, meetings that Chalupa says were about an “Immigrant Heritage Month women’s networking event” she helped organize in June.   

The man asking the questions for the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee House lawyer Steve Castor.

Earlier today, during the Democrats’ round of questioning, another House lawyer, Daniel Goldman, asked most of the questions.

About Castor: Castor is a veteran of the House Oversight Committee, serving under five Republicans since 2005.

In that time, Castor has been a key player on a number of investigations, including into the Justice Department’s botched gun trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious, the IRS targeting of conservative organizations, the Trump White House overriding security clearance denials and other high-profile probes. Castor’s skill set was deemed so valuable that he was added to the Intelligence Committee so that he could participate in the impeachment hearings.

He was “almost the sole survivor” of Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s “purge” of staffers formerly under Rep. Darrell Issa due to his expertise and experience, according to Issa.

“Everyone said that he was just too good a lawyer not to have,” Issa told CNN. Castor continued to rise under his next two bosses, Reps. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio.

President Trump’s allies are seizing on the amount of talk about American foreign policy toward Ukraine in the first part of the hearing.

One campaign source said aides will begin to highlight that there is “lots of policy gripes from people who work for the man we elected to lead US foreign policy.”

In the weeks leading up to the hearing, this was one defense White House officials had pushed as well: that ultimately what the whistleblower had flagged wasn’t a legal breach but a policy approach with which he or she disagreed.

One overarching theme of the reaction from Trump aides and allies so far: downplaying the interest level in these proceedings and characterizing them as “boring.”

Multiple defenders of the President, including press secretary Stephanie Grisham, have dismissed the hearing this way and we can expect to see Trump’s team use the amount of foreign policy discussion in the hearing as a way to underscore that argument.

GOP Oversight Committee Chief Counsel Steve Castor asked diplomats George Kent and Bill Taylor if either was involved in the “preparation” for the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Both replied that they were not.

Castor followed up on why they weren’t involved since they are “two of the key officials with responsibility for Ukrainian policy.”

Kent responded: “Sir, we work for the Department of State in an embassy overseas. Preparation for a presidential phone call, that responsibility lies with the staff of the National Security Council.”

He added: “My understanding having never worked at the National Security Council is that National Security staff write a memo to the president and none of us see that outside of the National Security staff.”

Castor followed up and asked Kent is Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — an NSC staffer who was on that call — reached out to him prior to the call. Kent said that he was “given notification the day before on July 24.” 

“And to the extent I had any role, it was to reach out to the embassy, give them the heads-up and ask them to ensure that the secure communications link in the office of the Ukraine was functional so the call could be patched through to the White House situation room,” Kent said. 

Watch:

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff interrupted during Republican questioning time — and one GOP congressman objected.

After Steve Castor, the chief investigative counsel for the House Oversight panel and the GOP’s questioner, asked Bill Taylor a question, Schiff cut in:

“I just want to be clear, ambassador, if you’re able to verify the things that counsel has asked you in the prerequisite of the question, that’s fine. Otherwise in questions from the majority or the minority that assumes facts not in evidence before you, you should be cautioned about that,” he said.

That’s when Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Republican from Texas, jumped in.

Under the rules of this hearing, Democrats first got 45 minutes to question the witnesses. Now, the Republicans have 45 minutes.

David Holmes is the aide who heard the July 26 call between US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and President Trump, according to a source familiar with a scheduled deposition.

Holmes, who is scheduled to testify behind closed-doors on Friday, is top diplomat Bill Taylor’s aide. Taylor testified earlier today that his aide could hear Trump asking Sondland about the investigations during the call.

Sondland “told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward,” Taylor said.

More context: Taylor revealed in his opening statement he’d learned additional information, testifying that his staff was told the President cared more about the “investigations of Biden” than Ukraine.

A White House official is reacting to diplomat Bill Taylor’s new information about Ambassador Gordon Sondland telling an aide the President cared more about the Biden investigation than Ukraine.

The official said the alleged overheard snippet made no mention of quid pro quo and said it would make sense the President would reiterate the same points he made on the call with the Ukrainian leader a day earlier.

In terms of Sondland’s recap to the aide of what Trump said, the official said that’s purely ambassador’s characterization. The official repeated a White House talking point that Taylor is reporting “hearsay of hearsay.”

Heading into today’s hearings, Republicans argued the facts weren’t there to impeach President Trump. As the hearings got underway, they adopted a new talking point: The hearings are just dull.

The President’s son Eric echoed her: “This is horribly boring…” he wrote on Twitter. “#Snoozefest.”

Whether the hearing proves boring to the American people remains to be seen. Some Democrats have privately expressed concerns the sheer volume of information — key players, dates and allegations — could prove confusing to the public.

Trump himself told reporters in the Oval Office he’d been too busy to watch the proceedings as they began earlier in the day.

“I did not watch it. I’m too busy to watch it,” he said. “It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax. I’m too busy to watch it. So I’m sure I’ll get a report.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in a closed-door caucus meeting this morning, said President Trump “must be held accountable” and called the impeachment inquiry a “serious event in our country,” according to a Democratic aide.

“What a prayerful day for all of us – for our country. When we take the oath of office, we promise to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. In doing so, we – each and every one of us – becomes a custodian of the Constitution. A custodian of the Constitution,” she said.

 She said Trump “has said ‘Article II says I can do whatever I want.’”

“And so, for him: he must be held accountable, he is not above the law – no president is – and we have a responsibility to make sure that that is the message, not only for today, but for the ages,” she said.  

She added: “This is a very serious event in our country. We wish it could have been avoided. None of us came here to impeach a president.”

President Trump reiterated that he has not been watching the first public hearing in the House impeachment inquiry, telling reporters he was “too busy” to watch.

“No I didn’t. I did not watch it. I’m too busy to watch it. It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax. I’m too busy to watch it. So I’m sure I’ll get a report,” the President said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He said he had “not been briefed,” but there is “nothing there.”

Despite not having watched the hearing, Trump characterized the House Intelligence Committee lawyers questioning witnesses as “television lawyers.”

“I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers, they took some guys off television. I’m not surprised to see it because Schiff can’t undo his own questions,” he said.

They just returned from a short recess. It’s now Republicans’ turn to ask questions.

Joe Biden has not watched the first day of public impeachment hearings, according to a campaign spokesperson. Instead, the former Vice President is meeting with workers and union leaders today.

The spokesperson added that this is consistent with what Biden has said about impeachment in the past, including remarks he made in Delaware and Reno.

Remember: The impeachment investigation centers around allegations that President Trump threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine on the condition that the Ukrainian government announce investigations into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either of the Bidens.

Bill Taylor, one of the top diplomats testifying today, said he was told that “everything was dependent, including security assistance” on Ukraine’s announcement of an investigation into the Bidens.

Rep. Mark Meadows was just asked about Bill Taylor’s new information about his staffer overhearing a phone call between Trump and Sondland discussing Ukrainian investigations.

He cast doubt on it as “an overheard phone call that was relayed months later that may not have indicated what was in the phone call.”

“At the end of the day, we all know that the President has been very concerned about the 2016 elections and the investigation into that and that’s consistent,” he said.

The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, told Congress about a July 26 phone call — a conversation that happened one day after Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s leader.

Taylor revealed in his opening statement he’d learned additional information, testifying that his staff was told the President cared more about the “investigations of Biden” than Ukraine.

About the call: Taylor testified that an aide told him of a phone conversation Trump had with US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on July 26, one day after Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Taylor’s aide, who was accompanying Sondland to meetings in Kiev with Ukrainian officials, could hear Trump asking Sondland about the investigations, Taylor testified. Sondland “told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward,” Taylor said.

Rep. Mark Meadows, one of Trump’s closest allies, is telling reporters on Capitol Hill that he doesn’t think today’s testimony will have any impact on public opinion.

Top US diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent are testifying publicly today.

Meadows also criticized today’s hearings on three counts:

CNN’s Dana Bash noted that the key takeaway from the first part of today’s hearing is that Bill Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine, thought President Trump was undermining US foreign policy for his own political purposes.

“He is a career diplomat who made very, very clear in his testimony that he is looking out  for American foreign policy and the notion of propping up democracies that need help from the US, particularly those who are getting run over by Russia. And that he was running around with his hair on fire because he thought the President of the United States was undermining that, and not just undermining that, but doing it for his own political purposes. That is by far the key takeaway from somebody who is a very credible witness,” Bash said.

Taylor, she said, worked for presidents in both parties since Ronald Reagan.

The House Intelligence Committee just wrapped up the Democrats’ 45-minute long questioning session.

They’re taking a quick break, and when they come back, the Republicans will get 45 minutes.

Republican lawmakers will have the opportunity to ask questions when they return from the short break.

House Intel Majority Counsel asked diplomat George Kent: “To your knowledge, is there any factual basis to support the allegation that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election?” 

“To my knowledge, there is no factual basis, no,” Kent said.

Following up, Goldman asked Kent who did interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.

Watch the exchange:

If you’re watching the hearing live, you may not know the man asking most of the questions.

He’s not a US congressman — he’s House staff lawyer Daniel Goldman.

Goldman, Democrats’ questioner, is a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York who joined the committee in March and led the questioning in the closed-door depositions.

The Republicans have a lawyer to ask questions, too: That’s Steve Castor, the chief investigative counsel for the House Oversight panel who has been detailed over to the House Intelligence Committee.

Bill Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine, said Ukraine didn’t owe anything to President Trump.

“They owed appreciation for the support, and they were getting support and they appreciated that, but there was nothing owed to President Trump on that,” he said.

Taylor went on to say Trump “had a feeling of having been wronged by the Ukrainians.”

“And so this was something that he thought they owed him to fix that wrong,” he said.

The diplomat said he understood the wrong to be investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company.

Watch:

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham has now reacted to the start of the first public hearing in the House impeachment inquiry, calling it a “sham,” “boring,” and a “colossal waste” of time and money in a tweet.

As she previously told CNN, President Trump is “working right now.” Trump’s account has retweeted several times since the hearing began at 10 a.m. Trump is expected to welcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House momentarily.

The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, today described how his staff was told that President Trump “cares more about the investigations of Biden.”

Taylor testified that an aide told him of a phone conversation Trump had with US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on July 26 — one day after Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Taylor’s aide, who was accompanying Sondland to meetings in Kiev with Ukrainian officials, could hear Trump asking Sondland about the investigations, Taylor testified. Sondland “told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward,” Taylor said.

Taylor testified that his aide later asked Sondland what Trump thought of Ukraine.

Majority counsel for the House Intelligence Committee Daniel Goldman asked Bill Taylor, top US diplomat in Ukraine, about what he understood when Ambassador Gordon Sondland described a “stalemate” between US and Ukraine during his public hearing on Wednesday.

According to Taylor, “Ambassador Sondland said that if President Zelensky did not clear things up in public, we would be at a stalemate. He began that again by repeating this is not a quid pro quo.

“What I understand for that meaning, the meaning of stalemate, was that security assistance would not come.”

Daniel Goldman, House Intel Majority Counsel, asked diplomat Bill Taylor, “What did you understand that to mean, to put Zelensky in a public box?”

Taylor responded:

Asked by Goldman why it needed to be in public as opposed to a private confirmation, Taylor said he had “no further information on that.” 

More context: In his opening statement, Taylor said Sondland said on a September 1 call that “everything was dependent, including security assistance” on a public announcement by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of investigations of Burisma and the alleged interference of the 2016 election.

Sondland added, according to Taylor, that President Trump wanted Zelensky “in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.”

Watch:

Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, was just asked to elaborate on his comments that he was “alarmed” when he learned about the link between the military aid and the investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden. 

“You said previously that you were alarmed to learn this. Why were you alarmed?” Taylor was asked.

Here’s how he answered:

“It’s one thing to try to leverage a meeting in the White House. It’s another thing, I thought, to leverage security assistance — security assistance to a country at war, dependent on both the security assistance and the demonstration of support. It was much more alarming, the White House meeting was one thing, security assistance was much more alarming.”

The House Intelligence Committee has scheduled two more closed-door depositions, including with an aide to the top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor.

The committee has scheduled a deposition for David Holmes, the Taylor aide, on Friday` and Mark Sandy, an official at the Office of Management and Budget, on Saturday.

In his public testimony today, Taylor testified that an aide told him about a July 26 call phone conversation he overheard between Ambassador Gordon Sondland and President Trump in which Trump asked Sondland about the investigations, and Sondland said Ukraine was ready to move forward. It’s not immediately clear if Holmes is the aide Taylor referenced.

Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, was asked to read his own text messages, which were presented on a screen in the hearing room. Some of those messages are damaging to Trump, and it could help Democrats get some “made-for-TV” moments from today’s hearing if Taylor reads them aloud.  

The US diplomat read his texts out loud and answered questions about what they meant. In one message, he said it was “crazy” to withhold US military assistance for political purposes. 

Remember: This is a stark contrast to the last high-profile hearing about an investigation into Trump – the Mueller hearing in July.

Special counsel Robert Mueller repeatedly refused to read passages from his 448-page report, depriving Democrats of strong sound bites they could use against Trump. 

Asked to explain what he meant in a September 9 text to EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker when he said that withholding Ukraine aid was “crazy” Taylor said:

“I meant that…because of the importance of security assistance, that we had just described and had a conversation with the Chairman, because that was so important that security was so important for Ukraine as well as our own national interests.”

Taylor continued:

“To withhold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense. It was counterproductive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was ill logical. It could not be explained. It was crazy.” 

Watch:

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff asked Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, how military assistance and support for Ukraine affects US national security.

“How is it important to American national security that we provide for a robust defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty?” He asked.

Here’s how Taylor responded:

“We have a national security policy, a national defense policy, that identifies Russia and China as adversaries. The Russians are violating all of the rules, treaties, understandings, that they committed to that actually kept the peace in Europe for nearly 70 years. That rule of law — that order that kept the peace in Europe and allowed for prosperity as well as peace in Europe was violated by the Russians and if we don’t push back on that on those violations, then that will continue.”

“And that, Mr. Chairman, affects us. It affects the world that we live in, that our children will grow up in, and our grandchildren,” he added.

Watch:

At the start of the questioning session of diplomat Bill Taylor, chairman Adam Schiff asked Taylor about new information that was just disclosed about a July 26 phone call between EU ambassador Gordon Sondland and one of Taylor’s staff members.

“And what your staff member could overhear was President Trump asking Ambassador Sondland about quote “the investigations,” Is that right?” Schiff asked Taylor.

“That’s correct,” Taylor responded.

Taylor said during his opening statement that he came to understand that the term “investigations” used by the Trump administration meant matters relating to the 2016 elections and to the investigations of Burisma and the Bidens.

Schiff asked Taylor: “So your staff overhears the President asking about the investigations, meaning Burisma and the Bidens in 2016. And Ambassador Sondland told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward? 

“He did,” Taylor responded.

Referencing Taylor’s opening statement, Schiff asked the diplomat, “And I think you said that after the call when your staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought of Ukraine, his response was that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, is that right? 

“And Burisma, yes, sir,” Taylor said. 

Watch the questioning:

Bill Taylor, one of two diplomats testifying today in the first public hearings of the impeachment investigation, just finished his detailed and lengthy opening remarks.

He is now responding to a question from Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

You can see why Democrats wanted to highlight diplomat Bill Taylor in the first impeachment hearing.

He went through an almost hour-by-hour chronology of what he clearly believes is President Trump’s misconduct in relations with Ukraine.

He’s detailed. He comes across as non-partisan and serious and presents a compelling and legally robust case based on his own thorough personal notes.

Taylor also appeared to link the President deeper than ever before into an alleged conspiracy to use military aid to coerce Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter with some significant new testimony.

And yet, by definition, Taylor’s account lacks a little in theatrics. It matches the gravity of an impeachment hearing. But it may not deliver the instant hit Democrats want with millions of viewers watching on TV. His testimony was tough to follow for anyone who hasn’t been up to speed on this scandal or US-Ukraine relations.

Democratic lawmakers and counsel will have to boil down his testimony into more digestible soundbites with sharp, strategic questions.

Other witnesses who are slated to testify in the House’s impeachment inquiry are keeping a close eye on the first public hearings today, multiple people say.

And at least one of them one of them is watching as they work: Two people say Alex Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council who is scheduled to go before lawmakers next week, is at his desk inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this morning. 

He’s keeping an eye on the television. 

The cameras are focused on the witnesses and committee members who are speaking. But off camera, a number of House members, who aren’t on the House Intelligence Committee, are also sitting in the room to watch the hearing.

Here’s who’s watching the hearing in the room:

Diplomat Bill Taylor says EU ambassador Gordon Sondland said on a September 1 call that “everything was dependent, including security assistance” on a public announcement by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of investigations of Burisma and the alleged interference of the 2016 election.

Sondland added, according to Taylor, that President Trump wanted Zelensky “in a public box by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.”

Taylor said he responded to Sondland that “President Trump should have more respect for another head of state.”

Top diplomat Bill Taylor told lawmakers that there are “two Ukraine stories today.”

“The first is the one we are discussing this morning and that you have been hearing for the past two weeks. It is a rancorous story about whistleblowers, Mr. Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption and interference in elections. In this story Ukraine is merely an object,” Taylor said.

Taylor continued: “But there is another Ukraine story—a positive, bipartisan one. In this second story, Ukraine is the subject.”

He went on to talk about how the young nation is “struggling to break free of its past, hopeful that their new government will finally usher in a new Ukraine, proud of its independence from Russia, eager to join Western institutions and enjoy a more secure and prosperous life.”

“This story describes a nation developing an inclusive, democratic nationalism, not unlike what we in America, in our best moments, feel about our diverse country—less concerned about what language we speak, what religion if any we practice, where our parents and grandparents came from; more concerned about building a new country,” Taylor said. 

Watch the moment:

Republicans are expected to go after Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, for saying he would quit over withholding aid to Ukraine, according to a source close to the White House who has been in touch with members on the Hill.

They plan to ask him, essentially, if he believed there was a quid pro quo, why didn’t he quit?

Some background: Taylor mentioned, during his opening statement today, that he texted Ambassador Gordon Sondland saying he would quit if US security assistance didn’t go through to Ukraine and gave an interview announcing investigations that played into US domestic politics (we have seen those texts, which Volker gave to Congress).

Taylor also said he told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that “he would not want me posted there” and he “could not stay” if US policy towards Ukraine changed, and that was why he was surprised when he was told Trump did not want to provide any security assistance at all to Ukraine. 

In his opening statement, top diplomat Bill Taylor described an August 22 call with Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on President Trump’s National Security Council.

Taylor said Morrison told him during that call that “the President doesn’t want to provide any assistance at all” to Ukraine.

Watch more:

In his opening statement, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes said that Democrats had tried “to obtain nude pictures of Trump from Russian pranksters who pretended to be Ukrainian officials.”

Facts First: This is misleading. While committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff did take a 2017 call from Russian pranksters who posed as a Ukrainian government official and purported to know of “compromising” nude photos taken of Trump during a visit to Moscow in 2013, Schiff emphasized to the pranksters that he would work with the FBI, not on his own, to receive any related evidence the pranksters could provide.

The pranksters claimed to have recordings of Russians discussing the supposed compromising material. Schiff said he would welcome an opportunity to obtain copies of the recordings (not the photos themselves) – and emphasized that he would work with law enforcement to do so.“We will try to work with the FBI to figure out, along with your staff, how we can obtain copies,” Schiff said of the recordings, as The Atlantic reported. 

Schiff continued moments later: “I’ll be in touch with the FBI about this.”A Schiff spokesman told The Atlantic: “Before agreeing to take the call, and immediately following it, the committee informed appropriate law-enforcement and security personnel of the conversation, and of our belief that it was probably bogus.”

A source close to the Trump campaign says the campaign is “locked and loaded.”

They are clipping videos, pushing out research, comparing today’s testimonies with previous statements, and serving as the clearing house for content.

The source, along with White House officials, says look for Republicans to hit diplomat Bill Taylor on his previous testimony, stating he’d quit over withholding aid to Ukraine. This raises the question: If he believed there was quid pro quo, why didn’t he quit?

White House officials say they believe they’re playing offense and claim they are calm, confident and ready for what’s to come during the hearing.

One source says while the White House expects the testimony to “not be great” for President Trump, it won’t be a “clean shot” for the Democrats because the witnesses can’t directly tie their claims to the President based on their previous testimony. The White House is also quick to point out the witnesses weren’t on the July call with President Volodymyr Zelensky and didn’t ever talk directly to Trump about Ukraine.

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, used his opening statement to accuse Democrats of “violating their own guidelines” by redacting the name of Alexandra Chalupa from the transcripts released by the Intelligence committee over the last two weeks.

Nunes said Chalupa was “a contractor for the Democratic National Committee who worked with Ukrainian officials to provide dump on the campaign which he provided to the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.”

While Chalupa denied the allegations in a statement to CNN in 2017, they have been used for years by White House and other pro-Trump Republicans to deflect from allegations against the President.

“During the 2016 US election, I was a part time consultant for the DNC running an ethnic engagement program,” Chalupa said in a lengthy statement to CNN. “I was not an opposition researcher for the DNC, and the DNC never asked me to go to the Ukrainian Embassy to collect information.”

Chalupa, who is Ukrainian American, went on to say that she was concerned when the Trump campaign named Paul Manafort the campaign chairman in 2016, given Manafort’s political consulting work for Victor Yanukovych, a former Ukrainian President with close ties to Moscow. Manafort, a longtime Republican operative, was hired by Trump in March 2016.

 Chalupa said, at the time, she “flagged for the DNC the significance of his hire based on information in the public domain.”

Republicans, though, have seized on the fact that she did meet with representatives from the Ukrainian Embassy during the election, meetings that Chalupa says were about an “Immigrant Heritage Month women’s networking event” she helped organize in June with Melanne Verveer, a Ukrainian-American and former US Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues at the State Department under Hillary Clinton.

In his opening statement, diplomat Bill Taylor said that during a July 18 conference call, a staff person from the Office of Management and Budget said there was a hold on aid for Ukraine but “could not say why.”

He added: “Towards the end of an otherwise normal meeting, a voice on the call — the person was off screen — said that she was from OMB and her boss instructed her not to approve any additional spending on security systems for Ukraine until further notice.”

Taylor said he and others “sat in astonishment” after hearing this directive.

“Ukrainians were fighting Russians and counted on not only the training and weapons but also the assurance of U.S. Support. All that the OMB staff person said was that the directive had come from the president to the chief of staff to OMB,” Taylor said.

Watch below:

In their opening statements, both of the career diplomats testifying today explained the importance of Ukraine to American foreign policy, characterizing the country as a bulwark against Russia.

Here’s how they put it:

Why this matters: The point appeared to underscore the diplomats’ concern at President Trump’s approach to the country. They describe worry when US military aid was delayed, since that aid helped combat Russian aggression in the region.

And they expressed concern at the informal diplomatic channel spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani, which they feared could undermine US support for Ukraine.

The Washington faultline that defines the Trump era was on show in the early moments of the hearing.

The top Republican on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, painted career diplomats George Kent and Bill Taylor of being part of a “politicized bureaucracy” that had caused immense damage to Americans’ faith in government – echoing the Trump narrative that is so attractive to the President’s base.

Here’s what this means: Nunes is effectively arguing that a diplomat must do whatever Trump says – that there is no difference between a President’s interests and the national interest. This is the fundamental question at the core of an impeachment charge that Trump abused his power in Ukraine for political gain.

Kent laid out a vision of US interests that contradicts Trump’s “America First” approach that sees allies as freeloaders and economic foes.

This war between Trump and the “elite” establishment is the underlying political theme of his presidency. And it will rage throughout these impeachment hearings.

In his opening statement, diplomat Bill Taylor said, “I worried about what I had heard concerning the role of Rudy Guiliani, who had made several controversial statements about Ukraine and US Policy towards the country.” 

Moments earlier, diplomat Georg Kent said in his opening statement that starting in 2018 he became “increasingly aware” of an effort by Rudy Giuliani and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to “smear” Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Watch:

There are two important things to know about what diplomat George Kent said regarding former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and his work on the board for a Ukrainian energy company named Burisma.

First: He said that when he learned in 2015 about Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board, he raised concerns with other State Department officials.

“I raised my concern that Hunter Biden’s status as board member could create the perception of a conflict of interest,” Kent said.

In a press interview, Hunter Biden acknowledged that it showed “poor judgement” to join the board while his father was involved in US policy toward Ukraine, but he said it was not an “ethical lapse” because he never mixed personal business with government policy.

Second: Kent refuted a key conspiracy theory peddled by Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani, and many Republican lawmakers who are participating in the questioning.

“Let me be clear; however, I did not witness any efforts by any U.S. official to shield Burisma from scrutiny,” Kent said.

Trump and his GOP allies have accused Joe Biden of pressuring the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor because he was investigating Burisma. Most of these allegations have been discredited and there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden. 

 Watch:

In his opening statement, Rep. Devin Nunes suggested that officials who were alarmed by President Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine were typically basing their concerns off “second-hand, third-hand, and even fourth-hand rumors and innuendo.”

Facts First: Various witnesses who have testified in the impeachment inquiry have had firsthand knowledge of various components of the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine.

For example, witnesses Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Tim Morrison of the White House’s National Security Council both listened to Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; so did witness Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence.

The former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, testified about what she had been directly told about why Trump was abruptly removing her from her post.

Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, testified about his own comments to Ukrainian officials about how US military aid would not “likely” be issued until Ukraine declared that it was conducting an investigation related to Joe Biden. (Sondland described this proposed declaration as an “anti-corruption statement.”)

Among other firsthand testimony, Trump’s current top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified about his own concerns about the role Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was playing in relations with Ukraine.

In his opening statement, diplomat Bill Taylor said, “As the committee is aware, I wrote that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be crazy.” 

“I believed that then and I believe it now,” Taylor said.

Watch Taylor explain:

In his opening statement, Rep. Devin Nunes said “the whistleblower was acknowledged to have a bias against President Trump and his attorney touted a coup against the President and called for his impeachment just weeks after the election.”

Facts First: This is true. Here’s some context:

In a memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, the intelligence community inspector general did note the whistleblower had “some indicia of an arguable political bias.” However, the ICIG determined the whistleblower’s complaint was credible nonetheless.

In his comments about the whistleblower’s attorney, Nunes is referring to a tweet Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys, made in 2017. The tweets said a “coup has started” and “impeachment will follow ultimately.” Both Fox News and the President have pointed to these tweets as evidence of Zaid’s bias and partisan leanings. Zaid has a long history of working with parties on both sides of the aisle. He issued a statement about the tweets, clarifying that “the coup comment referred to those working inside the Administration who were already, just a week into office, standing up to him to enforce recognized rules of law.”

In his opening statement, Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, detailed new information about the July 25 call — which he said he learned just last week.

He said Ambassador Gordon Sondland called Trump and “told him of his meetings in Kyiv.”

“Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for,” he said.

Here’s what he said, according to his prepared testimony:

Last Friday, a member of my staff told me of events that occurred on July 26. While Ambassador Volker and I visited the front, this member of my staff accompanied Ambassador Sondland. Ambassador Sondland met with Mr. Yermak.
Following that meeting, in the presence of my staff at a restaurant, Ambassador Sondland called President Trump and told him of his meetings in Kyiv. The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone, asking Ambassador Sondland about “the investigations.” Ambassador Sondland told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward.
Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for. At the time I gave my deposition on October 22, I was not aware of this information. I am including it here for completeness. As the Committee knows, I reported this information through counsel to the State Department’s Legal Adviser, as well as to counsel for both the Majority and the Minority on the Committee. It is my understanding that the Committee is following up on this matter. 

Thirty minutes into the first public hearing in the ongoing impeachment investigation, the Trump campaign has sent its first fundraising email to supporters, saying that Trump wants “to raise 3 million dollars in the next 24 hours.”

As Jeremy Diamond reported Tuesday, the Trump campaign plans to actively fundraise in the coming days as the impeachment inquiry enters a new phase, a senior Trump campaign official said, hoping the public proceedings, calls for impeachment and high-octane coverage will provide the same fundraising boon of other impeachment developments.

As the Trump campaign has previously highlighted, they raised $15 million in online donations in the three days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally announced the impeachment inquiry and $3 million when the House voted on party lines to establish the inquiry’s rules. The Trump campaign is expecting more of the same in the coming days.

In his opening statement, diplomat George Kent said that “over the course of 2018 and 2019” he became “increasingly aware” of an effort by Rudy Giuliani and his associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to “smear” Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

See more:

At the weekly Democratic caucus presser, House Democratic caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries said, “We’re going to follow the facts; we’re going to apply the law; we’re going to be guided by the Constitution. We’re going to present the truth to the American people and we’ll see where that leads.”

Jeffries reiterated what other House Democratic leaders have said that there is no set timeline for when the inquiry will conclude.

“We’ve said from the very beginning of this process that no predetermination has been made. Once chairman Schiff and the Intel committee conclude their work which may be next week, it may be in late November, it may be in early December, we don’t have a timeline that anyone has put on their work because we’re simply going to be guided by the truth.”

Jeffries insisted that House Democrats are still focused on “kitchen table, pocketbook issues” impacting every day Americans beyond the impeachment inquiry, but argued that the House has “a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an out of control executive branch.”

On the public hearings starting, Jeffries said, “Today is a very serious day. It’s a solemn day. It’s a sober day.”

“We didn’t come to Congress to impeach this President or any President. We came to Congress to get things done on behalf of every day Americans,” he added. “Duty requires that we pursue this inquiry because no one is above the law.”

In his opening statement, diplomat George Kent mentioned the “corrupt, pro-Russian leadership” that ran Ukraine until the 2014 revolution. He spoke about former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia, where he is living today.

President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked for Yanukovych for 10 years, helping bring him to power and advising his Russia-friendly administration.

Manafort is now serving a seven and a half-year prison sentence for stashing $60 milloin in Ukraine income in overseas accounts, evading taxes, and lying to banks.

Republicans began today’s public hearing much like they began closed-door depositions — sniping with Democrats over procedure and the identity of the whistleblower.

After House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and the ranking Republican Devin Nunes delivered opening statements, Republicans interjected to inquire about the rules of the proceedings and to ask whether the intelligence whistleblower would be requested to appear for a closed interview.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, began by asking whether Schiff would prevent certain questions during the hearing, as he has in the closed depositions. And Two other Republicans then chimed in:

Schiff said that was a lie, and that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is.

The episode lasted several minutes, and reflected Republicans intent on questioning the process of the impeachment proceedings.

Ahead of the hearings, Democrats strategized ways to handle Republican interruptions, people familiar with the planning said.

George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state, is giving his opening statement. He said American attacks on fellow Americans working in Ukraine.

“It was unexpected, and most unfortunate, to watch some Americans— including those who allied themselves with corrupt Ukrainians in pursuit of private agendas — launch attacks on dedicated public servants advancing US interests in Ukraine.”

George Kent, deputy assistant Secretary of State, described how “some Americans” launched attacks on “dedicated public servants advancing US interests in Ukraine” in his opening remarks before lawmakers this morning.

“As I stated in my closed-door deposition last month, you don’t step into the public arena of international diplomacy in active pursuit of principled US interests without expecting vigorous pushback, including personal attacks. Such attacks came from Russians, their proxies, and corrupt Ukrainians,” said Kent, who is now the top policy official for Eurasia.

He continued:

“That tells me that our efforts were hitting their mark. It was unexpected, and most unfortunate, to watch some Americans — including those who allied themselves with corrupt Ukrainians in pursuit of private agendas — launch attacks on dedicated public servants advancing U.S. interests in Ukraine. In my opinion, those attacks undermined US and Ukrainian national interests and damaged our critical bilateral relationship.”

Watch more:

Republican Rep. Mike Conaway just called for the whistleblower to be subpoenaed to be interviewed in the inquiry.

“I seek to make a motion we actually subpoena the whistleblower for a closed-door secret deposition, so the questions appropriately asked the whistleblower by our side and your side may be asked,” Conaway said, addressing Chairman Adam Schiff. 

He added: “I would prefer rather than it be your single decision, that you the committee speak to that.”

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan followed up on Conoway’s request and accused Chairman Schiff of being the “only member” who knows the whistleblower’s identity. Schiff called this a “false statement.”

See the moment:

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says President Trump is in the Oval Office in meetings this morning and is “not watching” today’s impeachment hearing.

“He’s in the Oval in meetings,” she said. “Not watching. He’s working.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, asked House Intelligence Committee when the witnesses that the Republicans requested will be called.

“Mr. Chairman, when can we anticipate a response to our November 9th letter requesting certain individual witnesses to be called?” she asked.

The Republicans had requested a number of witnesses, including the whistleblower and Hunter Biden.

“The gentlewoman should be aware three of the witnesses the minority called are scheduled for next week,” Schiff said.

Stefanik said those are Democratic witnesses.

Watch the moment:

As the first public impeachment inquiry hearing kicks off, there’s still a long line of people waiting to get in.

Many are are on their phones, watching the proceedings — but some forgot headphones, so House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff’s voice is bouncing along the corridor outside the hearing room, too.

Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Democrats in his opening remarks today, accusing them of orchestrating a smear campaign against President Trump.

He said Democrats went after Trump following the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and now Ukraine.

“We’re supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations, but any one familiar with the Democrat’s scorched Earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign,” he said.

Nunes continued: “For example, after vowing publicly that impeachment requires bipartisan support, Democrats are pushing impeachment forward without the backing of a single Republican.”

Watch:

GOP Rep. Devin Nunes addressed the first two witnesses — diplomats George Kent and Bill Taylor — who are about to testify in a public impeachment hearing:

Watch more:

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, insisted Congress must get answers to three questions before they hold impeachment inquiry hearings.

He added that the Democrats “are determined to avoid asking” these questions.

The questions Nunes wants answered:

Watch below:

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is giving an opening statement before questioning starts in the first public impeachment hearing.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, stuck to the script in his opening statement, using direct quotes from key Trump officials who are involved in the Ukraine controversy. 

For example, he quoted key excerpts from President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This is a very different approach than what he did at the last public hearing about the Ukraine scandal, in late September, when he presented a dramatized version Trump’s infamous call with Zelensky. He exaggerated Trump’s actions, which gave Trump an opening to attack him. Trump has said that Schiff’s actions were treasonous or even impeachable, even though there is no procedure for members of Congress to be impeached. 

It shows that Schiff may have learned a valuable lesson – that there is no room for error as these impeachment hearings enter their new public phase.

Watch Schiff’s full opening statement:

After detailing the allegations against President Trump, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff bluntly asked:

You can read his full opening statement here.

Texas Republican Jodey Arrington, who isn’t on the House Intelligence Committee, stopped by the hearing room to take a photo and film a short video with staff, presumably for social media.

He hit Democrats for focusing on impeachment and reiterated GOP talking points about how Congress should turn to other legislative priorities.

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff confronted the Republican talking point that aid to Ukraine was eventually released.

“Some have argued in the President’s defense that the aid was ultimately released. That is true. But only after Congress began an investigation; only after the President’s lawyers learned of a whistleblower complaint; and only after Members of Congress began asking uncomfortable questions about quid pro quos,” he said.

“A scheme to condition official acts or taxpayer funding to obtain a personal political benefit does not become less odious because it is discovered before it is fully consummated. In fact, the security assistance had been delayed so long, it would take another act of Congress to ensure that it would still go out,” Schiff added.

Watch more:

In his opening statement, House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff heavily criticized the conduct of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

“Beginning in January of this year, the President’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, pressed Ukrainian authorities to investigate Burisma, the country’s largest natural gas producer, and the Bidens, since Vice President Joe Biden was seen as a strong potential challenger to Trump,” Schiff said.

He added: “Giuliani also promoted a debunked conspiracy that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that hacked the 2016 election. The nation’s intelligence agencies have stated unequivocally that it was Russia, not Ukraine, that interfered in our election. But Giuliani believed this conspiracy theory, referred to as “Crowdstrike,” shorthand for the company that discovered the Russian hack, would aid his client’s reelection.”

Schiff said that Giuliani “conducted a smear campaign against the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.”

Watch the moment:

In his opening statement, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said there “are still missing pieces” in the House impeachment inquiry, adding that the White House is telling some officials to ignore subpoenas.

“Although we have learned a great deal about these events in the last several weeks, there are still missing pieces. The President has instructed the State Department and other agencies to ignore Congressional subpoenas for documents. He has instructed witnesses to defy subpoenas and refuse to appear. And he has suggested that those who do expose wrongdoing should be treated like traitors and spies,” he said.

He continued: “These actions will force Congress to consider, as it did with President Nixon, whether Trump’s obstruction of the constitutional duties of Congress constitute additional grounds for impeachment.”

Watch below:

The White House held a call with surrogates this morning to go over points they should make on television before the first hearing got underway, per a person on the call. 

Just a moment after House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff began speaking, Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Republican from Texas, interrupted him to clarify rules of the hearing.

“Have you made the decision yet as to how many 45-minute rounds you will allow yourself and the ranking member?” he asked.

Schiff said he had not.

Watch:

Chairman Adam Schiff is now delivering his opening statement, marking a moment in history.

“With that now I recognize myself to give an opening statement in the impeachment inquiry intoDonald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States.”

George Kent and Bill Taylor have arrived for their public testimony.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff gaveled in today’s hearing at 10:06 a.m. ET. It was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET.

The first two impeachment inquiry witnesses — diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent — will testify together publicly during this hearing.

Ahead of today’s impeachment inquiry, George Conway, husband of top White House aide Kellyanne Conway, on MSNBC said Trump was “using the power of the presidency, its most unchecked area, foreign affairs, to advance his own personal interests as opposed to the country’s.” 

“His duty as President was to stop what Russia was doing to the United States. He did not give a hoot about that. And that’s — that to my mind was also an impeachable offense.”

He added that he’s “horrified and “appalled” with Republicans.

President Trump’s re-election campaign launched fresh anti-impeachment ads on Facebook on Wednesday morning.

“The Impeachment Scam hearings begin today!” one of the ads read and calls on Rep. Adam Schiff to resign.

The ads include a video message from Trump attacking Schiff.

Here’s what that ad looks like:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, just arrived in the hearing room.

Earlier today, cameras and lights were set up in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill. The room is the largest in the House.

Republicans involved in today’s hearing are signaling they are unlikely to engage in the partisan theatrics that have been the staple of past hearings, worried that doing so would shift focus away from their defense of President Trump.

While the GOP lawmakers and aides said yesterday that they weren’t ruling out raising objections to disrupt the highly anticipated proceedings, they were indicating privately and publicly they didn’t want to resort to the kind of antics and process arguments that have so far overshadowed their arguments.

Asked today if they would raise procedural objections to drag out the proceedings, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said:

However: Republicans are still planning to bash House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff over his handling of the proceedings. But Republicans made clear that a hearing beset by procedural or dilatory tactics wasn’t a central component of any hearing strategy.

“Clearly we’ve got a series of questions we’d like to get on the record from both witnesses,” Rep. Mike Conaway, a Republican on the Intelligence panel, told CNN.

While the process argument dominated Republican public comments for weeks, such as when scores of GOP lawmakers barged into the closed proceedings, the public phase has led to a pointed – and some members say natural – shift.

While aides said there would likely be pointed complaints raised about the process up to this point – and that if Democrats took the hearing in a direction Republicans weren’t prepared for, things could shift – there was no central strategy to try and shut down or bottle up the hearings.

“We know everyone’s watching and we think we’re on the right side of the case on the substance,” one senior GOP aide said. “Why would we want to get in the way of that?”

George Kent, a deputy assistant Secretary of State, and Bill Taylor, a former ambassador and the top US diplomat in Ukraine, are testifying today in front of the House Intelligence Committee.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just spoke to members about impeachment behind closed doors, per two sources. Her message was much the same as she has said publicly, calling it a “very serious day for our country” and saying House is honoring its responsibility as “custodians of the Constitution.”

She did not discuss the timeframe for the proceedings.

The White House strategy going into the impeachment inquiry public hearing today is to monitor and respond in real time — and President Trump is already tweeting this morning.

Before the hearing kicks off, President Trump tweeted talking points from Fox News critical of the Democrats’ process. He’s also claimed, again, that those testifying are “NEVER TRUMPERS!” and implored his followers to “READ THE TRANSCRIPT!” 

Remember: President Trump has repeatedly claimed the whistleblower lied and has told the American people to “read the transcript.” The White House has not released a word-for-word readout of the July call — it has only released a rough log. Additionally, the overwhelming majority of allegations in the complaint have been corroborated by official government documents, Trump’s public statements, and news reporting. 

Trump has previously claimed Bill Taylor is a “Never Trumper.” There’s no evidence that this is true.

The House Intelligence Committee issued subpoenas this morning to Ambassador Bill Taylor and State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent prior to the public hearing, according to an official working on the impeachment inquiry.

Kent and Taylor were also received subpoenas for their closed-door depositions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to reporters on her way into the Democratic caucus meeting this morning. She said members of Congress are “custodians of the Constitution.”

“We’re very prayerful — it’s awful — we’re actually sad today that our country has come to a place where the President doesn’t understand that Article II does not say that he can do whatever he wants, that he is not above the law, and that he will be held accountable.”

Asked if she will watch the hearing live, Pelosi told CNN: “I have a full schedule, but I will watch some of it.”

Carl Bernstein, a Watergate journalist and a CNN political analyst, shared some wisdom ahead of today’s impeachment inquiry hearing.

“No one knows what is going to happen in the coming weeks or months, except likely impeachment by the House, because of the Democratic majority,” he told CNN’s Brian Stelter.

He also mentioned what could come after the impeachment inquiry — that is, a possible impeachment trial in the Senate.

Stelter asked Bernstein to share what we should all keep in mind today and in the weeks ahead.

He started by saying this: Speculation about what might happen “is not the commodity we in news should be looking for right now. Rather, this is a time for more reporting, especially new avenues opened from the Ukraine facts now known to us. There’s a lot to pursue, both substance and individuals we ought to be talking to — many of the latter apparently out of reach of the impeachment inquiry because of various privileges claimed by the White House and other lawyers.” 

The impeachment inquiry hearing with diplomats Bill Taylor and George Kent is set to begin at 10 a.m. ET today.

CNN will be inside the room all day. You can follow live updates here.

Our senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju is already on the Hill:

The underpaid and overworked lawyers on Capitol Hill will have their turn in the spotlight on today.

Daniel Goldman and Steve Castor will publicly question key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump. 

Some background: For more than a month, Goldman and Castor led the questioning of witnesses in the private impeachment proceedings, gathering information into whether Trump abused his power in pressuring Ukraine to launch two politically beneficial probes, while using a coveted White House meeting and nearly $400 million in military aid as leverage. 

The first open hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump kicks off in less than two hours.

The House Intelligence Committee will hear from Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent.

Taylor currently serves as the Chargé D’affaires for the US State Department in Ukraine. Kent serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau at the US Department of State.

 Here’s the schedule we’re expecting:

Less than an hour before the public phase of the House impeachment inquiry begins, Vice President Mike Pence is getting out of town, continuing a pattern of staying on the road and above the fray.

Here’s what his day looks like: Pence is expected to be wheels-up, heading for California at 9:25 a.m. ET. He’s traveling on a two-day West Coast swing with second lady Karen Pence.

Pence will attend a pair of closed press fundraisers today in Huntington Beach and Monterey and will stay overnight in the Bay Area. Tomorrow, Pence will tour and deliver remarks at NASA’s Ames Research Center, returning to Washington in the evening.

Remember: The challenge for Pence throughout the impeachment inquiry, as it’s always been in the administration, is balancing the need to appear loyal to Trump with staying clear of the President’s countless controversies.

The plan to protect him, according to sources close to the vice president, has been to get him on the road. Pence has traveled frequently in the weeks since the House launched its investigation, from touting the administration’s US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement to meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

Pence, who is expected have access to cable television aboard Air Force Two, will be in the air as hearings on Capitol Hill kick off, and is expected to land at 2:35 p.m. ET — well after Erdogan’s visit gets underway. 

Cameras and lights are set up in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill ahead of this morning’s impeachment hearing — the first that will be public.

The room is the largest in the House — it’s so big that for two years it held the entire House of Representatives.

The hearing is set to kick off at 10 a.m. ET.

The underpaid and overworked lawyers on Capitol Hill will have their turn in the spotlight on Wednesday, as Daniel Goldman and Steve Castor emerge from their temporary home in the basement of the Capitol to publicly question for the first time key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

For over a month, Goldman and Castor led the questioning of witnesses in the private impeachment proceedings, gathering information into whether Trump abused his power in pressuring Ukraine to launch two politically beneficial probes, while using a coveted White House meeting and nearly $400 million in military aid as leverage.

Read more on this story here.

Today’s hearing won’t be the first time George Kent, deputy assistant Secretary of State, and Bill Taylor, the charge d’affaires at the US Embassy in Kiev, come face-to-face with lawmakers.

The diplomats met with the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry behind closed doors last month.

Here’s what they told lawmakers:

About Taylor’s testimony: His testimony was among the most significant so far in the investigation. His opening statement alone was considered an explosive document, in which Taylor corroborated many of the claims made by the intelligence community’s whistleblower, whose complaint and subsequent inspector general’s report prompted the inquiry. Taylor also provided witness testimony to the events around the temporary withholding of US military aid to Ukraine and the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

About Kent’s testimony: He told lawmakers that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had a “campaign of lies” against the former Ukraine ambassador Yovanovitch, according to a transcript of his comments released last week. Kent’s deposition provided new insight into how Volker and Sondland worked with Giuliani on Ukraine, as well as the reactions inside the State Department to Giuliani’s efforts that Kent and others say ran counter to US foreign policy.

The Republican staff on the three panels involved in the impeachment investigation have drafted a detailed memo, circulated to GOP members of all three committees and obtained by CNN, outlining their defense of President Trump.

Using witness testimony from the closed-door depositions, as well as public reporting, the memo attempts to undercut several key arguments made by Democrats outlining the alleged culpability of Trump in his actions toward Ukraine, particularly in his decision to place a hold on US security assistance to the country in exchange for investigations into his political rival.

The memo marks the most centralized and detailed effort to lay out the Republican counter-argument to impeachment that has been crafted and will serve as the baseline for members to utilize in their defense of Trump as the impeachment probe moves into public hearings today.

The four central defenses, which are detailed over the course of the memo, are as follows:

US diplomat Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent will testify together today in the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

An official working on the impeachment inquiry shared a schedule for today’s hearing with CNN:

All times are approximate and will depend on any procedural matters.

Following opening statements, questions will begin: Chairman Adam Schiff and ranking member Devin Nunes (or their designated committee employees) will get up to 45 minutes each, at the discretion of the chairman. They are the only two authorized to ask questions during this round.

Additional extended questioning rounds, at the discretion of the chairman, can be added.

Following this extended questioning, there will be 5-minute rounds of questioning alternating between Republican and Democratic members.

The hearing is expected to conclude between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET, when the witnesses are dismissed by the chairman.

Here are the latest developments in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.