What Went Down On Day 1 Of The Impeachment Hearings

Plus, Clare, the Republican staff investigator has generally taken an aggressive and even accusatory stance toward these witnesses. That style that might underline that Republicans see this as nothing but partisan, but it could backfire too, if Republicans just look like they are not playing ball.

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.