Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ambassador Sondland, he presumes

I haven't spent much time on the impeachment hearings because it's the same thing every day:

  1. Witness implicates Trump in something nefarious in opening statement
  2. Republicans ask questions that reveal nothing nefarious actually happened
  3. Newscasts show opening statement
  4. Lather, rinse, repeat
But for the record, Gordon Sondland, actually spoke to Trump, unlike most of the other witnesses who didn't actually witness anything. And if you read the headlines, you see he says there was the dreaded quid pro quo. But if you read further, you find out, well. . . .

"Is that your testimony today, Ambassador Sondland, that you have evidence that Donald Trump tied the investigations to the aid? Because I don't think you're saying that." Rep. [Mike] Turner asked.

"I said repeatedly [...] I was presuming," Sondland noted.

After some more grilling, Congressman Turner asked again, "Is it correct, nobody else on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying this aid to the investigations? Because if your answer is yes, then the chairman's wrong and the headline on CNN is wrong. No one this planet told you that President Trump was tying aid to investigations, yes or no?"

"Yes," Sondland replied.

"So, you've really have no testimony today that ties President Trump to a scheme to withhold aid from Ukraine in exchange for these investigations?" Turner asked.

"Other than my own presumption," Sondland said. 
"Which is nothing," Turner responded.
Presumption. Hey, being presumptuous isn't a bad thing, so long as it's in the service of whatever agenda the odious Adam Schiff is currently pursuing. And yet we're likely to have Trump impeached over this crap show, unless the focus group data says otherwise. We can stipulate until the cows come home that Trump is someone many people find distasteful. But that doesn't mean he's done anything wrong.

2 comments:

John said...

The new legal standards call for a presumption of guilt, at least until accepted as innocent by a jury of Democrats who can no longer sit still in the jury box and need to use the toilets in the unisex powder room.

3john2 said...

Hmmm...sidewalks are unisex...I think I'm beginning to understand.