Fiona Hill opening statement. Wow. 
More from Fiona Hill's blistering opening statement: "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary, and that Ukraine—not Russia—attacked us in 2016."
More Fiona Hill: "President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a Super PAC. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives."
here's the background you need on the Ukraine interference angle if you're still catching up
news.yahoo.com/impeachment-wi…
news.yahoo.com/impeachment-wi…
A former top national security adviser to President Trump is set to tell Republicans in the House impeachment inquiry Thursday morning to stop advancing a “fictional narrative” that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections rather than Russia. news.yahoo.com/fiona-hill-tru…
Nunes, in opening statement, says Democrats are accusing Trump of a "thought crime" because the aid was released and no investigation of Biden was announced.
Nunes is accusing Democrats of "conspiracy theories" and of constructing an alternative universe moments before a former Trump adviser & foreign policy expert rebukes him & GOP for promoting a "false narrative" pushed by Putin that undermines the U.S. news.yahoo.com/fiona-hill-tru…
This Holmes opener is way more detailed into the background in Ukraine than I expected. 12 pages in all. we are finishing #3 right now
Holmes notes that Stefanik is among the members of Congress he has taken to see Ukrainian military training exercises. Stefanik looks up, nods, smiles.
At the mention of Sondland telling Trump "you can tell the Kardashians you tried" to get rapper A$sap Rocky out of jail, Swalwell just shakes his head
Temperature rising in Longworth hearing room
the expressions on faces of Republican members of Intel committee right now are fascinating
Nunes has left the hearing
Nunes back
Holmes and Hill are back in their chairs, but there are no members here in the committee hearing room. Holmes and Hill sit for a few minutes while photogs snap away, and then staff usher them out. Members not ready
Ok, now we're back after a 2-hour break
Read @ajdukakis on Fiona Hill's credentials -- her considerable expertise on Russia and Eastern Europe is on display in the hearing and it's evident from the respect the committee is showing, including the Republicans abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-na…
@ajdukakis Hill says she recommended Perry be part of the delegation to Ukraine for Zelensky inauguration. Small point but Perry world will be glad to hear it
@ajdukakis Hill demolished idea that she questioned Vindman's judgment in any general way
@ajdukakis Hill was "surprised" Morrison made comment @ Vindman's judgment. When Morrison took over for her at NSC they went thru org chart & discussed strengths/weaknesses of all personnel. She told him if Vindman left military she didn't think he had "antennae" for a more political job
@ajdukakis This Jordan recitation seems like a waste of time, if his intention is to use 5 minutes to ask questions. But he's not speaking to this room. He's reciting a litany of things that can be played on a loop on right-wing media
@ajdukakis Holmes just said "I only heard Sondland's side of the conversation" referring to the 2nd half of Sondland's call w Trump after he had already heard Trump asking about investigations. Good chance that single clip will be isolated & cut w/o context to mislead by bad actors
@ajdukakis Is Turner sure he wants to grapple with Hill? We'll see
@ajdukakis Turns out he just wants to yell at her and doens't ask a question
@ajdukakis Now Wenstrup is taking issue with Hill's criticism, but it's not clear he will let her respond either.
@ajdukakis I have not seen Republicans so obviously trying to avoid letting a witness respond to them as they have w Hill. Wenstrup talked for all 5 minutes, Hill asked to respond, and Wenstrup tried to keep her from responding. "I yielded back! I did not ask a question!" he said.
@ajdukakis And then Hill surprised Wenstrup & responded to his criticism by thanking him for his "eloquent" and "moving" description of his own service, & acknowledged that individual Ukrainians did interfere, bolstering her earlier point that it was not an organized effort
@ajdukakis Stefanik says it "reeks of political desperation" for Democrats to say Republicans are denying Russian meddling in 2016. But it was Fiona Hill who said this news.yahoo.com/fiona-hill-tru…
@ajdukakis Conaway just winked at someone in audience after that exchange with Schiff
@ajdukakis Wonder how many young people out there watching Fiona Hill, Bill Taylor, Alex Vindman are thinking they’d like to go into foreign service/diplomacy
@ajdukakis Schiff says Trump's "no quid pro quo" is "the “'I’m not a crook defense.’"
"You say it, and I guess that’s the end of it," he says.
"This is beyond anything Nixon did," Schiff says.
"You say it, and I guess that’s the end of it," he says.
"This is beyond anything Nixon did," Schiff says.
@ajdukakis Watched Jim Jordan talk to press after and was struck at the lack of argument he put up against fact pattern, after days of trying to poke different holes in the basic storyline
@ajdukakis This column is a corrective to a decades-long mistake by most Americans: “Everybody who runs for office wants to be seen as an outsider and condemns the insiders. That is, until weeks like this one when we realize how much we need them.” nytimes.com/2019/11/14/opi…
@ajdukakis @LongGamePodcast “In reality, institutions are the only vehicles for legislative change. That’s because they are the way to wield power safely. They have rules and structures and norms precisely because power is so dangerous when it is wielded by a lone strongman or by a mob.“
@ajdukakis @LongGamePodcast This @nytdavidbrooks column is indispensable. It explains very well one of my enduring impressions of the impeachment hearings: why Hill, Taylor, Yovanovitch, Vindman, Kent, Cooper were so impressive.
nytimes.com/2019/11/14/opi…
nytimes.com/2019/11/14/opi…
@ajdukakis @LongGamePodcast @nytdavidbrooks And Brooks also devotes much of this column to what will be one of the most important books of the next year and of our time: “A Time to Build” by Yuval Levin. It’s a manual for how to combat despair & nihilism amazon.com/Time-Build-Com…
@ajdukakis @LongGamePodcast @nytdavidbrooks Enduring image of the Fiona Hill hearing: a Republican congressman waving his arms & protesting that she should not be able to response to his criticisms, only to have her compliment him news.yahoo.com/fiona-hill-tru…
