Good Tuesday morning, I'm Jake Sherman, and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

Stay tuned after the show for a message from pharma.

Every major investigation has its breakout witness, someone who helps bury the target or changes the course of the investigation.

Democrats think they might have that in Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who will testify today.

Vindman, a Ukrainian-born two-decade veteran of the U.S. Army with a Purple Heart from Iraq,

will testify today that he believed Donald Trump undermined U.S. national security

when he appealed to Ukraine's president to investigate his political rivals.

That's from Andrew D. Sedario and Kyle Cheney summarizing Vidman's opening statement.

I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen,

and I was worried about the implication for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine.

That's Vindaman in his opening statement.

This will dominate the headlines today, and people will be staked out outside of the room

all day waiting for Vindman.

If passed as precedent, this will go many, many hours.

Democrats' new play, the House Democrats will vote on a resolution this week that will grant

investigators' authority to sidestep traditional time limits on questioning witnesses

and public hearings and spell out specifics of the due process

rights Democrats intend to provide Trump and his legal team once the probe moves into the public domain.

That's from Sarah Ferris, Heather Kagle, and Kyle Cheney. Make no mistake, this resolution will be

positioned as a proxy vote for impeachment. Republicans say, well, they will not vote for this

and instead will hang this vote around every Democrat's neck. A vote for this, they will not vote for this and instead will hang this vote

around every Democrat's neck. A vote for this, they tell us, will be viewed as a vote

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