Impeachment Hearing UPDATE Blog: Fiona Hill and David Holmes Edition

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019, during the first public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump’s efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool Photo via AP)

The impeachment hearing with Fiona Hill and David Holmes is underway. Holmes has been more recently relevant, as he claims to have overheard a phone call between Sondland and trump discussing investigations.

I’m going to do something a bit different today. Instead of ongoing, live coverage, I’m going to pull back a bit and do a blog with 30 to 45 minute updates with the latest clips and news from today’s impeachment hearing.

There’s already been a few moments that warrant discussion. I’m gonna post those as the first update in just a moment. Be sure to check back at this post throughout the day for ongoing updates.

UPDATE:

This is freaking nonsense.

https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1197494644097142784

It’s a proven fact, via multiple mainstream sources, that Ukraine interfered in 2016 publicly and behind the scenes colluding with the DNC. Hill is gaslighting by pretending it’s simply Russian propaganda to admit that.

Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election (against @realDonaldTrump) is FAR from a fictional narrative.

Here's the @politico headline from January 11, 2017 on this issue ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SBrT7FO8Ic

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 21, 2019

Meanwhile, more of this same irrelevant crap is being spewed. The President sets foreign policy. Period.

Here we go again with the Deep State bureaucracy whining that the elected President of the United States undermined "their" foreign policy https://t.co/cVF6s9pNxJ

— John Hayward (@Doc_0) November 21, 2019

UPDATE:

Nunes’ opening statement was pretty good. Here’s the text.

Rep. Devin Nunes
Opening Statement for Hill and Holmes Hearing on Impeachment
November 21, 2019

Throughout these bizarre hearings, the Democrats have struggled to make the case that President Trump committed some impeachable offense on his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. The offense itself changes depending on the day, ranging from a quid pro quo, to extortion, to bribery, to obstruction of justice, then back to quid pro quo.

It’s clear why the Democrats have been forced onto this carousel of accusations:

President Trump had good reason to be wary of Ukrainian election meddling against his campaign and of widespread corruption in that country.

President Zelensky, who didn’t even know aid to Ukraine had been paused at the time of the call, has repeatedly said there was nothing wrong with the conversation.

The aid was resumed without the Ukrainians taking the actions they were supposedly being coerced into doing.

Aid to Ukraine under President Trump has been much more robust than it was under President Obama, thanks to the provision of Javelin anti-tank weapons.

As numerous witnesses have testified, temporary holds on foreign aid occur fairly frequently for many different reasons. So how do we have an impeachable offense here when there’s no actual misdeed and no one even claiming to be a victim?

The Democrats have tried to solve this dilemma with a simple slogan: “He got caught!” President Trump, we are to believe, was just about to do something wrong, and getting caught was the only reason he backed down from whatever nefarious thought-crime the Democrats are accusing him of almost committing.

I once again urge Americans to consider the credibility of the Democrats on this committee who are now hurling these charges. For the last three years, it’s not President Trump who got caught, it’s the Democrats who got caught.

They got caught falsely claiming they had more than circumstantial evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians to hack the 2016 elections.

They got caught orchestrating this entire farce with the Whistleblower and lying about their secret meetings with him.

They got caught defending the false allegations of the Steele dossier, which was paid for by the Democrats.

They got caught breaking their promise that impeachment would only go forward with bipartisan support because of how damaging it is to the American people.

They got caught running a sham impeachment process featuring secret depositions, hidden transcripts, and an unending flood of Democrat leaks.

They got caught trying to obtain nude photos of President Trump from Russian pranksters pretending to be Ukrainians.

And they got caught covering up for Alexandra Chalupa—a Democratic National Committee operative who colluded with Ukrainian officials to smear the Trump campaign—by improperly redacting her name from deposition transcripts and refusing to let Americans hear her testimony as a witness in these proceedings.

That is the Democrats’ pitiful legacy in recent years: They. Got. Caught.

Meanwhile, their supposed star witness testified that he was guessing that President Trump was tying Ukrainian aid to investigations despite no one telling him that was true, and the President himself explicitly telling him the opposite—that he wanted nothing from Ukraine.

Ladies and gentlemen, unless the Democrats once again scramble their kangaroo court rules, today’s hearing marks the merciful end of this spectacle in the Impeachment Committee, formerly known as the Intelligence Committee.

Whether the Democrats reap the political benefit they want from this impeachment remains to be seen. But the damage they have done to this country will be long-lasting.

With this wrenching attempt to overthrow the President, they have pitted Americans against one another and poisoned the minds of fanatics who actually believe the entire galaxy of bizarre accusations they have leveled against the President since the day the American people elected him.

I sincerely hope the Democrats end this affair as quickly as possible so our nation can begin to heal the many wounds it has inflicted on us. The people’s faith in government, and their belief that their vote counts for something, has been shaken.

From the Russia hoax to this shoddy Ukrainian sequel, the Democrats got caught. Let’s hope they finally learn a lesson, give their conspiracy theories a rest, and focus on governing for a change.

UPDATE:

This clown is a legend in his own mind. It’s a window into the kind of people that make up these bureaucracies.

He's been talking for nearly half an hour about a 5 minute phone call.

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 21, 2019

UPDATE:

Holy crap, Devin Nunes just went right at Fiona Hill for accusing Republicans of not accepting Russian meddling and saying that Ukraine didn’t meddle. I didn’t expect that, but he was obviously prepared having seen her opening statement prior.

WATCH: Devin Nunes destroys Fiona Hill's bizarre false claim about Republicans denying Russian meddling in the 2016 election. pic.twitter.com/nRkD80GtYS

— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) November 21, 2019

UPDATE:

Hill is giving it to both sides it seems. She pushes back on the Democrat conspiracy theory that the Russians “wanted” Donald Trump or care who wins. She then lays out how the Russians want to hang a cloud over any President and that the continued to push to say Trump is illegitimate plays into their hands.

Fiona Hill subtly rebuked Schiff in his first question. She emphasized that Russia spreads its bet and its campaign was not to install an agent in the WH, but to discredit whoever was going to win the election in 2016, dividing the American people.

— Eli Lake (@EliLake) November 21, 2019

On the other hand, Hill is playing coy about the Steele dossier, no doubt because she once worked with the British “spy.”

Sure, it's possible that there is Russian disinformation in the dossier. But the dossier itself is not a Russian disinfo operation. It's a Hillary Clinton/DNC/Obama IC operation.

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 21, 2019

Meanwhile, the Holmes character is a legend in his own mind.

He's been talking for nearly half an hour about a 5 minute phone call.

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 21, 2019

How did Holmes know the Ukrainians were “under pressure?” Who told him that or was that just his opinion?

— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) November 21, 2019

Nicole Wallace loves him though.

.@NicolleDWallace calls impeachment witness David Holmes "straight out of what Aaron Sorkin would write in a screenplay about the good guys trying to rescue America from Russian influence." pic.twitter.com/meZnFU31BN

— Andrew Kugle (@AndrewJKugle) November 21, 2019

Schiff has now called for a lengthy recess to “go vote.” The problem? There are no votes scheduled. This is just another excuse for him to run to the cameras before the minority can begin their questioning.

We are in recess so we can go vote. But no votes have actually been called. Is it too cynical to believe this break is just so Chairman Schiff can go set his narrative to the media prior to minority cross examination?

— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) November 21, 2019

I’ll pick back up with the updates once the hearing resumes.

UPDATE:

They are going again and I’m back from lunch. Here’s some of the latest highlights.

Fiona Hill is lying. She says she didn’t know what Sondland was doing and she was angry that she was out of the loop. She also says that Sondland was working on domestic issues in Ukraine. Both can’t be true. #ImpeachmentHoax

— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) November 21, 2019

It's interesting that Fiona Hill said in her deposition that she thinks Steele dossier is product of Russian disinformation, but she's not calling out Democrats like Schiff for Steele's theories.

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 21, 2019

The reason for that is clear. Hill doesn’t want to admit the roles that Americans and Steele played in putting together that dumpster fire document. So she pawns it off as “Russian misinformation” that everyone just got duped by.

False equivalence since it's well known that Ukrainian officials did more than just write an op-ed. https://t.co/7JdVCuLwtF

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 21, 2019

Hill still trying to desperately to not admit there was Ukrainian interference in 2016, and yes, it went well beyond an op-ed (although that was pretty bad).

And Jim Jordan questioning along with Schiff interrupting.

Schiff Show pic.twitter.com/jPUiBIcT68

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 21, 2019

Meanwhile, Holmes continues to pretend he overheard a conversation in which he only heard one specific part that’s damaging to Trump while not hearing any of the rest.

Ratcliffe is asking Holmes why he couldn't hear the part of the Trump/Sondland call that had to do with ASAP Rocky. Holmes has amnesia now and is stuttering and stammering when earlier his memory was so clear he knew the layout of the tables and doors in the restaurant. Busted.

— Shem Horne (@Shem_Infinite) November 21, 2019

UPDATE:

Ratcliffe exposes Holmes. This dude is not credible.

David Holmes perfectly represents the smug, elitist, unaccountable bureaucrat who believes he's both morally & intellectually superior to anyone he's encountered. Ratcliffe, in just a few minutes, completely detonated his credibility & badly exposed him.https://t.co/pxA7U0UvuH

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 21, 2019

UPDATE:

This is ludicrous. Criticizing George Soros is not anti-Semitic.

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1197623818929496064

And we are at the end. Schiff almost cries for some reason.