What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

Castor’s questioning isn’t really effective right now in my book. Taylor seems confused by his questions, in part because Castor hasn’t really laid out a universe of facts/context for Taylor to explain where he, Castor, is coming from. Castor largely seems to be asking Taylor “do you agree” to questions that are sort of akin to “Wasn’t it fair for Trump to think that some in the Ukrainian establishment was out to get him?”

Someone somewhere in the ether made a good point recently about the point of conspiracy theories: They aren’t always meant to make people believe in them, but rather to make it feel like the real truth and facts of the matter are impossible to know. Republicans’ questions about Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election brought that to mind.

It seems a little like this line of questioning presupposes knowledge of conspiracy theories that neither the mainstream public nor this witness are probably super familiar with. It looks like Taylor is having a similar response to these questions as someone who doesn’t watch Fox News.