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During his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Nov. 13, Ambassador William Taylor described our diplomatic relations with Ukraine in terms of two channels. The first emanates from the Department of State and is managed by diplomats and staffers under the oversight of the ambassador and secretary of state.

The second, as described by Taylor, Russia expert Fiona Hill, Ambassador Gordon Sondland and other witnesses, was a highly irregular channel operated by an ad hoc team comprised of Ambassadors Sondland and Kurt Volker and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, all under the guidance of President Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

But, asked Stephen Castor, the lawyer charged with questioning the witnesses on behalf of the Republicans, In fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, its not as outlandish as it could be. Is that correct?

Well, yes, the irregular channel could have been more outlandish. Volker, Sondland and Perry, The Three Amigos, might have actually attended embassy dinners dressed in black mariachi outfits and sombreros.

Instead, all The Three Amigos did was jeopardize the fledgling, reform-minded government of an important ally, undermine that nations effort to defend itself from an aggressive adversary and strengthen the hand of international bad actor Russia, all in an effort to gain a domestic political advantage for Trump.

Certainly any outlandish scheme can be more outlandish. But the peculiar weakness of this argument exemplifies the transparency of the defense that the Republicans gamely mounted during more than 30 hours of testimony.

Mostly the Republicans made the same arguments over and over. The Democrats, they asserted, began their campaign to impeach Trump even before his inauguration; some testimony was taken in closed-door sessions; the military aid eventually reached the Ukrainians so there cant have been anything fishy going on; Chairman Adam Schiff isnt being fair; wheres the whistleblower?; and so on.

All of these claims are either irrelevant or highly disputable. Nevertheless, they were stubbornly repeated virtually every time the Republicans had the stage.As the hearings wore on, Republicans tried to pick away at the case against the president by attacking the witnesses themselves.

Without evidence they impugned the loyalty of foreign-born Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

Without evidence, Republicans suggested that David Holmes, the political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine who overheard the awkward phone conversation between Sondland and Trump, had mishandled sensitive information.

If the Republicans had better arguments they wouldnt have to rely on flimsy ones such as these, nor would they have to repeat them constantly.

Did Trump withhold a White House meeting and military aid from Ukraine, at a time when it desperately needed both, in exchange for help with his re-election? The evidence against Trump is overwhelming.

What now? Impeachment in the House seems inevitable; so does acquittal in the Senate. But what our nation needs more than anything right now is a few good Republicans willing to place principle over party.

I had a fleeting hope for Rep. Will Hurd, a soft-spoken, moderate Republican from Texas who had the courage to serve as an undercover C.I.A. officer in Afghanistan, as well as to stand up to Trump on his border wall and other issues. Alas, on the last day of testimony he hewed close to the party line.

But its not too late for Hurd and other Republicans to weigh carefully the competing interests of their own political futures versus the acknowledgement of the truth and the primacy of the rule of law in our country.

Courage is contagious. The public integrity of only a few Republicans could change the arc of this sorry episode back toward the stringent accountability required by the Constitution of those in public office.

John M. Crisp is a syndicated columnist.

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What the country needs is a few good Republicans - Boston Herald

The core question this impeachment process is raising isnt What did Donald Trump do? The hearings have filled in important details and added confirming witnesses, but the story is largely the one weve known since the White House released the call record.

Instead, the core question the hearings are raising is: What will Republicans accept and defend? The answer, at least judging by the arguments of Reps. Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan, is chilling.

On this weeks episode of Impeachment, Explained, Andrew Prokop joins me to analyze the first, and perhaps only, week of public impeachment inquiry. Then, Thomas Mann, co-author of Its Even Worse Than It Looks joins me to discuss how the Republican Party became the institution on display in this process.

Ive heard from listeners who enjoy this podcast, but wish it could be more balanced. I wish it could be more balanced, too. But to pretend that an imbalanced system is balanced is a poisonous form of bias. This episode is about seeing whats right in front of our eyes, and taking seriously what it means for our future.

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Author of Its Even Worse Than It Looks on the GOP and Trump impeachment inquiry - Vox.com

Activist groups are sending mobile billboard trucks to follow a handful of House Republicans home for Thanksgiving with a message: Defend democracy.

Progressive groups MoveOn and Need to Impeach commissioned the billboard trucks to visit eight districts across seven states from Monday through Wednesday. The eight targeted Republicans include either retiring members, members who have split from President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump puts Kushner in charge of overseeing border wall construction: report Trump 2020 national spokesperson gives birth to daughter New McCarthy ad praising Trump includes Russian stock footage MORE in the past, or vulnerable members in more moderate districts.

The billboards, which comes as Congress concludes its second week of public hearings on impeachment, demand that these members of Congress stop covering for Donald Trumps abuses of power, in which he pressured a foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election to advance his own political interests, undermined state and local elections, interfered with national security, and got caught trying to cover it all up, the groups said in a joint announcement.

A truck targeting Rep. Elise StefanikElise Marie StefanikBillboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving The Hill's Morning Report Bloomberg is in; independents sour on impeachment Rising GOP star thrust into spotlight with Trump defense MORE (R-N.Y.), who emerged as a staunch Trump defender during the public impeachment hearings, kicked off its tour of the upstate New York district Monday in Glenn Falls.

56% of Americans believe Donald Trump should be impeached. Were in @RepStefaniks district to demand she listen to the American people and #ImpeachAndRemove Trump! pic.twitter.com/bkn5CTc1uL

An image shared with The Hill by the groups shows a truck with Stefanik and Trumps faces, side by side. It reads Donald Trump Committed bribery. ... Tell Rep. Stefanik: Defend democracy. Impeach Trump. The group also launched an ad calling on Stefanik to honor her oath and defend our Constitution.

The other trucks are the same, swapping out the member's name and image next toTrumps with the shared message.

Other targeted Republicans are Reps. Brian FitzpatrickBrian K. FitzpatrickBillboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving Mark Ruffalo brings fight against 'forever chemicals' to Capitol Hill Hillicon Valley: Critics press feds to block Google, Fitbit deal | Twitter takes down Hamas, Hezbollah-linked accounts | TikTok looks to join online anti-terrorism effort | Apple pledges .5B to affordable housing MORE (Pa.), Scott PerryScott Gordon PerryBillboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving Yovanovitch impeachment testimony gives burst of momentum to Democrats House Republicans prepare for public impeachment proceedings with mock hearing MORE (Pa.), Mark AmodeiMark Eugene AmodeiBillboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving Trump's defenders are running out of options Avoiding the snake in the grass: Let's not allow impeachment to divide us MORE (Nev.), Francis RooneyLaurence (Francis) Francis RooneyBillboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving How House Republicans have stayed unified on impeachment Bipartisan Senate climate caucus grows by six members MORE (Fla.), Will HurdWilliam Ballard HurdDavis: Congressman Will Hurd, If not now, when? Billboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving Democrats set to open new chapter in impeachment MORE (Texas) and Chip RoyCharles (Chip) Eugene RoyBillboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving Senate approves stopgap bill to prevent shutdown Senate scraps plan to force second stopgap vote ahead of shutdown MORE (Texas).

Stefanik, first elected in 2014, represents a district Trump carried by 13.7 points. She was praised by Trump and Republican leaders for her performance during the impeachment hearings, but since then her Democratic opponent Tedra Cobb boasted bringing in more than $1 million in campaign donations.

Hurd has announced he will not be seeking reelection. His vacated seat in Texas and Perrys seat in Pennsylvania represent two districts that The Cook Political Report ranks as a toss up in 2020. Fitzpatrick and Roys races are ranked lean Republican.

Rooney has also announced he is not seeking reelection.

Amodei was reported to be the first Republican to back impeachment in September, but he later clarified and said he supports the oversight process but that did not mean he backed impeachment.

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Billboards calling on House Republicans to 'do their job' follow members home for Thanksgiving | TheHill - The Hill

Trumps own statements and policies are the strongest argument that his vision aligns with that of white nationalists. One wonders how, precisely, someone like Charlie Kirk could have answered a question posed by Fuentes in his channel: Why does the president prefer immigrants from Norway vs. Haiti?

While the litany of Trumps acts cozying up to and encouraging a once-fringe white nationalist element is long, its worth considering the architect of the immigration policies that establishment Republicans like Dan Crenshaw champion. An ongoing series of articles by the Southern Poverty Law Centers Michael E. Hayden, drawing on some 900 e-mails sent by Trump's senior policy adviser Stephen Miller to former Breitbart editor Katie McHugh, have laid out precisely the ideological affiliations of the administrations immigration czar. From championing the Confederate flag to repeatedly linking to openly white nationalist sites like VDARE and American Renaissance, Miller stridently embraced the tenets of white supremacy; and like the Fuentes faction, he also advocated a complete cessation of legal immigration of any kind. There should be no immigration for several years. Not just cut the number down from the current 1 million green cards per year. For assimilation purposes, he wrote to McHugh.

Millers e-mails show a familiarity withand advocacy ofthe great replacement conspiracy theory, which posits a plot by elites to replace the white population of America and Europe with nonwhite immigrants. Miller stops short of embracing a crucial tenet of great replacement theory embraced by most of the white nationalist right: that this replacement is being orchestrated by Jews. (That precise theorem is what motivated the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter to murder eleven Jews almost exactly a year ago.) Perhaps this is because Miller is Jewish, a fact that the White House has belabored in its increasingly mendacious defenses of the staffer, going so far as to accuse the Southern Poverty Law Center of an anti-Semitic campaign.

But it is impossible to advocate for white nationalism, as Miller has throughout his career in politics, without simultaneously elevating anti-Semitism. For most white nationalists, anti-Semitism is a non-negotiable raison dtre for the movement, the unified field theory that ties a bigoted worldview together. In their minds, nonwhite people are too ignorant and barbaric to organize the kind of demographic coup the great replacement theory lays out; instead, they assert again and again, it has been orchestrated by cunning Jews, pulling the marionette strings of mass migration and advocating for interracial marriage. The sites, forums, and chats that advocate for an end to legal immigrationand that push the false theory that demographic change amounts to white genocideare places that praise Hitler and traffic in the ugliest of anti-Semitic sentiments. This is why an administration awash in anti-immigrant sentiment, slashing rights for asylees and refugees, governed during the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the deadliest pogrom in American history. It is not a coincidence. It never was.

None of the Republican figures so quick to disavow Fuentes did the same for Miller; indeed, there has been a profound, impenetrable closing of the ranks around him on the right. The chief difference at play is that Miller advocates from the White House for the end of legal immigration, while the insurgent faction does so on messaging apps, and while lined up in the audience section at events, like plebes. Its difficult to avoid the conclusion that the differences are not primarily ideological; principally, they are about an aversion to heckling.

The sudden, awkward repudiation of white nationalism by conservative ideologues subjected to its unruly minions may be comical, but it is a small part of the story of a national plague. Begrimed in the filth of racist invective and nativist sentiment, which groups like TPUSA have eagerly whipped up in their own right with a constant stream of culture-war content, the Republican establishment finds itself unable to ward off the forces they have unleashed. Its akin to someone who starves a dog intentionally; lets it terrorize a neighborhood, maiming and wounding all who come close to it; and then reacts in horror and surprise when at last the wretched cur turns on them.

There are tens of thousands of children who have been separated from their families by Stephen Millers policies; there are dozens of dead, murdered in an El Paso Walmart and a Pittsburgh synagogue and a Charlottesville street and by inadequate medical care in migration facilities. Through these years, as ethnic minorities and Jews and feminists and trans people and gay people have sounded out the alarm bells, the mainstream GOP laughed. They turned a profit on triggering the libs; they called opposition to the tide of rising white nationalism Trump Derangement Syndrome. Only when the hound turned on them, its jaws red and insatiable, did they at last begin to cry out in alarm about the danger the rest of us have known for years.

Talia Lavin is a writer based in Brooklyn. Her first book, Culture Warlords, is forthcoming in 2020 from Hachette Books.

What do you do when you hear that Mike Tyson is opening a weed resort in the middle of the California desert? You go investigate.

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Why White Nationalists Are Turning on Trump Republicans - GQ

Again, this is unseemly but not unusual. Eric Cantor did not become the vice chairman of investment bank Moelis & Company because of his proficiency in giving sage investment advice. Chris Dodd was not named the chairman of the Motion Picture Academy of America because of his facility with filmic mise-en-scne. Billy Tauzin did not become the head of PhRMA because he had innovative ideas on how to run effective double-blind clinical trials. These well-connected politicians received these well-compensated sinecures because they possessed the very same skills that Hunter Biden brought to Burisma and nothing more. The vast majority of House members currently waving their arms and frantically shouting, How, oh how, did Hunter Biden manage this feat? How did this happen? fully plan to feather their nests in the exact same way once their careers in electoral politics are over. Its hard to imagine how deeply Hunter Bidens situation can be interrogated before everyone runs headlong into the underlying hypocrisy.

Beyond these This Town matters, theres a more pressing reason why a prolonged exploration of Hunter Biden is not likely to bear fruit: The presidents interest in Burisma has always been a con. Aside from exposing the fact that Hunter had successfully joined the ranks of everyone else playing an angle with their connections to power and influence, at the core of the controversy is only a mad gambit, hatched by the president and his cronies, to bring the likeliest Democratic presidential nominee low. Trumps defenders have attempted to paint the president as being uniquely interested in fighting foreign corruption, but hes always lacked a sincere interest in such pursuits. In fact, any cursory examination of Trumps records will reveal a deep and abiding interest in enabling such corruption, and numerous actions taken to further that interest, both in Ukraine and elsewhere.

There was never going to be a sincere investigation of Hunter Bidens activities. Trump was never going to seek regular status reports from Ukrainian officials or report findings to the relevant authorities. Trumps Biden exploit was to extort Volodymyr Zelenskiy into going on camerathe so-called public boxto announce an investigation, and then rely on the media to whip themselves into a rabid froth over the matter, exploiting the same crisis of adult newsroom supervision that led to the overwrought coverage of Hillary Clintons emails. Were it not for the whistleblower, we might today be living in this alternate reality. Instead, the whistleblower put paid to the extortion of Zelenskiy and ended anything that resembled a sincere interest in rooting out foreign corruption on the part of the president. Theres nothing else to get to the bottom ofwhat lies at the bottom is an aborted scam. This is literally the only thing that further inquiry will discover.

Which isnt to say that the staging of such an inquiry wont be perilous for Hunter Biden or the Democrats. The younger Biden has led something of a troubled life and would likely fare poorly under the kliegs of a congressional inquiry. And the medias aforementioned crisis of supervisory constancy creates the searing potential for a prolonged shitshow, where even a dedication to debunking dark insinuations might only perpetuate them.

As The Washington Posts Greg Sargent notes, the trajectory of Republican defenses of Trumpand the strategy they seem to be bent on should there be an impeachment trial in the Senatelooks to be one in which Republicans will attempt to accomplish some of the very same goals (smearing Joe Biden) that drove the whole corrupt scheme all along. Instead of Zelenskiy being shoved in the public box, it will be Republican electeds serving in that role.

Despite the fact that any further pressing into the Hunter Biden matter is at best going to reveal little more than the way Washington works, and at worst further bolster the case against Trump by putting yet another spotlight on the original con, there can be little doubt that Republicans are up for it. Back in September 2015, thenHouse Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy enthused about his partys efforts to subject that cycles Democratic front-runner to sustained investigation. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee, McCarthy said. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Trumps defenders will, similarly, gleefully implicate themselves in the furtherance of Trumps scam. The only real question remaining is whether the media will do a better job telling the truth throughout these upcoming fugazi hearings than they did during the Benghazi hearings.

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Republicans Prepare to Give Hunter Biden the Benghazi Treatment - The New Republic