What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

Castor is trying to suggest that Trump had reasons to be skeptical of Ukraine. I suppose that is true — from Trump’s point of view. Ukraine officials did investigate Manafort, who is a close Trump ally. But the real question is really not, “Did Trump have concerns about Ukraine?” but rather, “Did he have legitimate concerns about Ukraine?” Ukraine’s role in highlighting Manafort’s crimes perhaps sounds bad to Trump but not really to anyone else.

The other thing that Castor seems to be doing is taking advantage of a very, very literal reading of Zelensky’s comments — stripping out the context that Ukraine is incredibly dependent on U.S. aid, and thus a Ukrainian president would have lots of reasons to present a happy and cooperating face to U.S. officials.

This line of questioning has been hard to follow, as Taylor’s answers aren’t as clear. But I think what Castor is trying to underscore is that Taylor and Kent only have secondhand and thirdhand knowledge of much of this and they’re not able to speak to Trump’s mindset regarding Ukraine and the allegations of election interference.