What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

I’m seeing people repeating the “unelected bureaucrats think they’re in charge” framing used on Twitter (with usual caveats about how the world is not Twitter, of course). This is compatible with the charge that the impeachment inquiry is an effort to overturn election results. And it may work with Trump’s staunchest supporters, who seem to have a strong personal identification with the president. To go back to something Micah said earlier, this seems like a strategy aimed at the Republican base and unlikely to succeed for anyone else. But the counterarguments to these charges draw on more abstract concepts: the rule of law, the idea that the government is not the president and the national interest exists separately from the president. These ideas may resonate, but they’re not quite the same kind of claim.

Some background on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: He wasn’t a politician until being elected president earlier this year. Instead, he was a comedian and an actor on a hugely popular Ukrainian TV show … In which he played an average Joe who was elected president.

Kent is speaking to why Zelensky so badly wanted a White House meeting. He was a new politician and an Oval Office meeting would have been a big deal for him at home, potentially even boosting his ability to negotiate with Putin.