President Trump lashed out anew Wednesday at “terrible” Democrats following damaging testimony from a key diplomat in the Ukraine controversy and ahead of the arrival on Capitol Hill of another witness in the accelerating impeachment inquiry.
William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, testified Tuesday that Trump wanted military aid to Ukraine linked to the country’s willingness to investigate the 2016 election and former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
On Wednesday, Laura Cooper, the Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy, is expected to testify behind closed doors about the mechanics of the aid and the fallout from the White House’s decision to withhold it for several months over the summer.
Meanwhile, a new poll released Wednesday finds that 59 percent of registered voters think Trump has acted in his personal interests in his dealings with Ukraine rather than the national interest.
●Trump made Ukraine aid contingent on public pledge to investigate Bidens and 2016 election, U.S. envoy says he was told.
●New testimony undercuts Trump’s claim of no quid pro quo on Ukraine. How will Washington respond?
●Prosecutors flagged possible ties between Ukrainian gas tycoon and associates of Trump personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.
8:45 a.m.: Giuliani associates due in court on campaign finance violation charges
Two indicted associates of Giuliani are due to appear in federal court Wednesday to enter expected not guilty pleas to charges they violated campaign finance law and conspired to use foreign money to buy political influence.
Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas — two Soviet-born emigres who hired the president’s lawyer and then helped him investigate Biden — are charged in a case that has also led federal investigators to scrutinize Giuliani’s interactions with the pair.
Fruman and Parnas were charged in an indictment earlier this month with conspiracy and with making false statements to the Federal Election Commission about political donations.
Two of their co-defendants, David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin, pleaded not guilty last week in Manhattan federal court.
— Renae Merle and Devlin Barrett
8 a.m.: Pentagon official to testify about withheld aid to Ukraine
The Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy is scheduled to testify Wednesday in the House impeachment inquiry, raising the possibility of fresh revelations one day after a key diplomat undercut Trump’s denial of a quid pro quo involving military aid.
Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense, will appear in a closed-door session on Capitol Hill, where she is expected to answer questions about the mechanics of U.S. security assistance for Ukraine and the fallout from the White House’s decision to withhold it for several months over the summer.
A career bureaucrat who has served in the Pentagon since 2001, Cooper is unlikely to have had many interactions with the president or his inner circle, but she would have played a role in overseeing much of the roughly $391 million in aid at issue in the probe.
Cooper is likely to have firsthand knowledge of an assessment described by Taylor and conducted by the Pentagon that gauged the effectiveness of U.S. aid to Ukraine after it was put on hold. The effort led to a recommendation that the aid be reinstated.
Cooper is also expected to detail interagency meetings in which senior officials discussed the need for aid and the best ways to convince Trump to resume it. The White House released the funds in September under bipartisan pressure from lawmakers.
— Elise Viebeck
7:30 a.m.: Trump lashes out again at ‘terrible’ Democrats
Trump lashed out at Democrats in a spate of tweets and retweets that stretched past midnight, with many focusing on the fact that Democrats are conducting depositions during the impeachment inquiry behind closed doors.
“The Witch Hunt continues!” Trump said in one tweet in which he shared House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) accusing Democrats of “using shady backroom tactics completely out of the public eye.”
“The Democrats Scam goes on and on! They Do Nothing!” Trump said in another tweet in which he shared Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.) complaining that the “impeachment process is literally being conducted in the basement of the Capitol, behind closed doors” and calling it “a mockery.”
In a tweet of his own, Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) characterized Trump’s missives as “rage-tweeting at midnight.”
Trump returned to Twitter shortly before dawn on Wednesday, picking up where he left off.
“It never ends. The Do Nothing Dems are terrible!” he said in one tweet.
In another, he asked, “Where is the Whistleblower?” and asserted, “The Do Nothing Dems case is DEAD!”
Trump then retweeted an assessement by former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker: “This #impeachment is not a constitutional process but an unprecedented #Democrat attack on a #Republican @POTUS”
Democratic leaders have likened this stage of the impeachment inquiry to grand jury proceedings and have said they are conducting depositions behind closed doors so that witnesses are less likely to be aware of one another’s testimony.
Both Democrats and Republicans and their staff have participated in the questioning.
Democrats have said it may no longer be necessary for the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the inquiry to testify given firsthand witnesses who are corroborating what he relayed.
7:25 a.m.: Swalwell says Trump is getting ‘a fairer trial than he deserves’
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that Congress would give Trump “a fairer trial than he deserves.”
During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Swalwell vouched for the credibility of Taylor after having witnessed his testimony on Tuesday.
“He had unimpeachable credibility and a detailed recall of the events that had happened,” Swalwell said.
He was then asked if what he heard amounts to an impeachable offense.
“We’re going to give the president a fairer trial than he deserves,” Swalwell said. “If this was Donald Trump justice, he’d be impeached by now. In America, even people who confess to crimes get a fair process.”
7:20 a.m.: Trump presides over a coarsening of American politics
Trump unleashed a gusher of foul language, referring to himself as a “son of a bitch,” claiming that Biden was a good vice president only because “he understood how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass,” and saying “hell” 18 times — and that was all in a single campaign rally.
At another rally the following night, Trump denigrated Biden’s son Hunter for his struggles with substance abuse and called him a “loser,” while also declaring that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “hates the United States of America.”
And just this week, Trump declared that the House impeachment inquiry was a “lynching” — equating his political troubles with the systematic murders of African Americans by racist white mobs.
Trump, who long ago busted traditional standards for civil discourse and presidential behavior, has taken his harsh rhetoric and divisive tactics to a new level since impeachment proceedings began a month ago — and he appears to be pulling a significant part of the country along with him.
— Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker
6 a.m.: Majority says Trump pursued personal interests, not national interests, in Ukraine
A solid majority of registered voters believe Trump was pursuing his own personal interest in his dealings with Ukraine rather than the national interest, according to a new poll that also showed growing support for the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry.
In the Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, 59 percent say Trump was pursuing his own personal interest, while 33 percent say he was pursuing the national interest.
In the poll, 55 percent voiced support for the impeachment inquiry, the highest level recorded in Quinnipiac surveys. Forty-three percent oppose the inquiry.
The poll showed 48 percent support impeaching Trump and removing him from office, while 46 percent are opposed.
In other national polls conducted this month, support for removing Trump from office has ranged from 43 percent to 52 percent.
In the Quinnipiac poll, Trump’s job approval rating dipped below 40 percent for the first time since the impeachment inquiry began.
Thirty eight percent say they approve of the job he is doing, while 58 percent disapprove.
5 a.m.: Pence attributes damaging testimony to ‘the swamp’
Vice President Pence blamed testimony damaging to Trump on “the swamp” during an interview broadcast Tuesday night on Fox News.
His appearance followed a day of damaging testimony by Taylor, the latest in a succession of diplomatic officials who have appeared on Capitol Hill in defiance of orders from the leadership of the State Department.
“What can be done about that?” asked host Laura Ingraham, who bemoaned “this permanent resistance trying to undo the results of an election.”
“We have some extraordinary men and women in our diplomatic corps who know their work and who are strong and are out fighting for America’s interest,” Pence said. “But there’s no question that when President Trump said we’re going to drain the swamp, that an awful lot of the swamp has been caught up in the State Department bureaucracy, and we’re just — we’re just going to keep fighting it. And we’re going to fight it with the truth.”
Pence went on to argue that Trump’s July call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky included “no quid pro quo” between military aid and investigating the Bidens.