What Went Down In Maguire’s Whistleblower Testimony

Like Castro, I thought Heck did a good job of taking process concerns (when/how the complaint should have been reported) and making them seem more broadly significant. His framing seemed to be — if these allegations are true, they’re a huge deal, and Maguire didn’t take them seriously. Maguire pushed back, saying they did refer to the FBI. But overall it was a clearer and more heated back-and-forth than many of the other questions about process.

I think Heck did a good job trying to move the goalposts back from “no quid pro quo, so everything’s above board” to “it’s wrong to ask a foreign power for political help.”

Rep. Denny Heck is establishing how both the director of the FBI and the head of the FEC have said that it is unacceptable for foreign powers to interfere in U.S. elections.