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The Daily

The ‘Most Damning’ Impeachment Testimony Yet

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2019

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry are calling testimony from the acting envoy to Ukraine the “most damning” yet, implicating President Trump himself in a quid pro quo over military aid to the country. William B. Taylor Jr., a career diplomat who has served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, prepared a 15-page opening statement for investigators on Tuesday. He described his testimony as “a rancorous story about whistle-blowers, Mr. Giuliani, side channels, quid pro quos, corruption and interference in elections.” In his statement, Mr. Taylor documented two divergent channels of United States policymaking in Ukraine, “one regular and one highly irregular.” He said Mr. Trump had used the shadow channel to make America’s relationship with Ukraine — including a $391 million aid package — conditional on its government’s willingness to investigate one of his political rivals, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and his family. The question of a quid pro quo for the military aid has been pursued by House Democrats since the beginning of the impeachment inquiry. In Mr. Taylor, investigators have a former ambassador testifying under oath that the allegations are true. Guest: Nicholas Fandos, who covers Congress for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background coverage: Here are six key takeaways from Mr. Taylor’s opening statement to impeachment investigators.This is the evidence collected and requested in the impeachment inquiry so far.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is The Daily.

0:10.2

Today, the Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry are calling Tuesday's testimony

0:16.9

the most damning yet, implicating President Trump himself in a quid pro quo over military aid to

0:25.7

Ukraine. It's Wednesday, October 23rd.

0:36.0

Is that her time to help you?

0:37.2

Hi there, I'm trying to reach Nick Fando's from the New York Times.

0:39.9

Oh yeah, I just saw him go into booth one. Hold on a second. Let me, uh, transfer you over.

0:46.0

Hey, this is Nick. Hey, it's Michael.

0:48.4

Hi, Michael. How are you?

0:49.7

I'm great. How are you?

0:51.6

Long time no talk. Yeah, it's been a full 72 hours.

1:01.8

Nick Fando covers Congress for the Times.

1:05.4

Nick, where did we leave off with you last week?

1:08.4

So remember, last week we heard testimony from a string of American diplomats, both career diplomats

1:15.0

and political appointees working for Donald Trump.

1:18.1

And what they described day after day in testimony was essentially the traditional American foreign

1:25.2

policy apparatus getting sideline or bush decide by President Trump's personal lawyer and a

1:32.8

cadre of political appointees who were close around him. And we're setting the agenda for the

1:39.4

country's policy toward Ukraine.

1:41.2

Right. And the names that kept coming up again and again were Rudy Giuliani and Gordon

1:49.6

Saunland. That's right. And by Thursday we heard from Saunland himself who you'll remember is the

1:56.8

ambassador to the European Union. He's a former Trump political donor. Saunland after

...

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