What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

They have painted a picture in which Trump is, indeed, involved in pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Skeptics will counter that this is so far hearsay. In that sense, it will be important how trustworthy viewers these witnesses as. To that point, however, the witnesses have gone well out of their way to try to establish themselves as trustworthy.

So how should someone following along at home, make sense of Taylor and Kent’s testimony so far? What overall picture do you think they have painted in terms of efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to open investigations into the Bidens? Do we have a better sense how intimately Trump was involved?

There is a long and complicated backstory behind Trump’s animosity toward Ukraine, but it appears to stem in part from an unproven conspiracy theory that Ukrainian law enforcement officials had tried to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign by releasing information about Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, that eventually forced him to step down. If you’re interested, here’s some background on the origins of that theory.