What Went Down In The Fifth Democratic Debate

Given the blockbuster testimony, the topic of impeachment was bound to come up tonight. Today was a marathon day of impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill. And the second round of witnesses — which didn’t get going until late in the afternoon — was largely dwarfed by testimony from European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland, who drew a direct link between Trump and the effort to pressure Ukraine to open investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

On that note, there was one big new revelation from the second hearing that’s worth noting. Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, said she learned from her staff that the Ukrainians were inquiring about a hold on security aid as early as July 25, the day of Trump’s now-infamous call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. That’s important because one Republican defense has been that there couldn’t have been a quid pro quo involving the aid and investigations because the Ukrainians didn’t know the aid had been held until it was publicly reported in late August. That argument has now been effectively demolished.

One thing I’ve been noticing throughout these debates is that Gabbard always wears white. That was a big thing for Clinton during the 2016 election at key points in the campaign — white was the color of the suffragette movement — and given the Gabbard/Clinton back-and-forth, it strikes me as … interesting. Not that Clinton owns the color white.

I prepared for this debate by downing two shots of espresso and listening to Whitney. Let’s do this!