Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:32 pm
With a series of questions to Alexander Vindman, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) nailed Donald Trump.
Here was the exchange:
Schiff: Colonel Vindman, you were asked by the minority counsel about the president’s words in the July 25th call, and whether the president’s words were ambiguous. Was there any ambiguity about the president’s use of the word Biden?
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Vindman: There was not.
Schiff: It was pretty clear that the president wanted zelensky to commit to investigating the Bidens, was it not?
Vindman: That is correct.
Schiff: That is one of the favors that you thought should be properly characterized as a demand?
Vindman: That is correct.
Schiff: And there’s no ambiguity about that?
Vindman: In my mind, there was not.
Schiff: It’s also true, is it not, that these two investigations that the president asked Zelensky for into 2016 and into the Bidens were precisely the two investigations that Rudy Giuliani was calling for publicly, were they not?
Vindman: That is correct.
Schiff: So when people suggest, well, maybe Rudy Giuliani was acting on his own and maybe he was a freelancer or whatever, the president referred to exactly the same two investigations Rudy Giuliani was out pushing on his behalf, is that correct?
Vindman: That is correct.
Video:
Adam Schiff is putting on a clinic as #Vindman testifies that there no ambiguity in Trump's demand that Zelinsky investigate Biden. #Vindmantestimony pic.twitter.com/fKbG8cIi8B
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) November 19, 2019
Schiff’s line of questions, and how he was able to get clear and compelling answers from Vindman that helped to tell the story of the case against Trump illustrated the difference between having a former prosecutor like Adam Schiff doing the questioning and bumbling clowns like Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes.
Republicans are outmatched. They can’t defend Trump. They can’t turn the hearings into a circus, so they are powerless as Chairman Schiff skillfully extracts the evidence of Trump’s guilt.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
