The Ukraine story is a Russia story

Impeachment, Explained

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2019

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We talk about this as a Ukraine story. But it's also a Russia story. The leverage Trump had on Ukraine came from Russia's invasion of Crimea and continuing support for insurgents in Ukraine. The leverage Trump had on his own government came from the strategic threat posed by Russian aggression. And Trump’s willingness to use military aid to Ukraine as political leverage came from his odd lack of concern about Ukraine falling to Russia. In this episode, I talk with Evelyn Farkas, the Pentagon’s former point person on Russia and Ukraine, about the Russia-Ukraine crisis Trump exploited. It’s a conversation that changes how I understood this story. It’ll change how you understand it, too. I also talked with Vox’s Alex Ward about Ukraine envoy Bill Taylor’s testimony, former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker’s argument that “abuse of power is not a crime,” and the GOP’s fury over the House Democrats’ process. And, at the end, a thought on why it’s Mitch McConnell, not Donald Trump, who poses the core threat to our constitutional structure. References: Read Bill Taylor's opening testimony "High Crimes and Misdemeanors," explained Credits: Producer and Editor - Jeff Geld Researcher - Roge Karma Engineers - Malachi Broadus & Chris Shurtleff Theme music composed by Jon Natchez Special thanks to Liz Nelson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from Krakan.
0:03.0	Krypto is like the financial system, but different.
0:07.0	It doesn't care where you come from, what you look like, your credit score,
0:11.0	or your outrageous food delivery habits.
0:13.7	crypto is finance for everyone everywhere all the time.
0:18.4	Krakhan, see what crypto can be.
0:21.3	Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest.
0:25.0	This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.
0:31.3	The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.
0:43.8	I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.
0:48.8	The President must be held accountable.
0:51.0	No one is above the law.
0:53.0	I'm Mr. Kline. This is
1:02.0	I'm Mr. Klein. This is impeachment explained.
1:09.0	This was the week that the reality of impeachment became undeniable, that it no longer became plausible
1:15.8	for Republicans or Democrats to believe that President Trump did not do what he is
1:20.4	alleged and frankly what he has admitted to doing. This was a week that Bill Taylor, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine
1:26.5	and then the charge to affairs, Free Crane under Donald Trump, testified. His statement leaked,
1:31.2	will put a link to that in show notes.
1:33.2	If you have not read it, it is important reading is one of the central documents in this entire thing.
1:37.4	It is quite well written.
1:38.8	He lays out everything he saw, everything that happened. And what he shows is that the story is largely
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