What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

I think Taylor (Kent has mostly been on the sidelines…) has done a good job laying out a detailed timeline of the Ukraine negotiations so that it’s all in one place. That could help people who are just tuning into this whole thing now. The new tidbit of information, about overhearing Trump on the phone, also does a fair bit to implicate the president. But we haven’t really heard from Republicans yet, which I think will be important for how public opinion responds.

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?