What Went Down On Day 3 Of The Trump Impeachment Hearings

Rep. Krishnamoorthi did an interview with ABC News Live ahead of today’s hearing. He said the “bulk” of the committee’s impeachment witnesses will testify this week, suggesting additional hearings beyond Thursday will be limited and based in part on whether new names come up in this week’s hearings.

“I didn’t know of a David Holmes until last week when Ambassador Taylor brought him up in his testimony. So to the extent that new characters emerge from this week’s testimony, I think we’ll obviously I have to question them and then go go from there,” Krishnamoorthi told me. “But we’re going to be talking to the bulk of [witnesses], you know, this week.”

Vindman is basically saying that the readouts of these foreign leaders’ calls are political tools. The staff put “corruption” in the readout to emphasize that issue, but Trump seems to have very much not brought up that issue.

I know we started the day talking about this, but I keep thinking about the optics of Vindman sitting there. For anyone with family members who serve in uniform, the visual of him testifying is so powerful. Officers of that rank, who have given decades of their life, are conditioned not to talk politics and not to talk out of the chain of command. I think a lot of Americans will view his participation — and the fact that he reported what he heard — as signs that he must have really, deeply felt that something was wrong.