Eric Swalwell might have been a bust as far as being a 2020 contender for President of the United States. As a member of the House of Representatives serving on the intelligence committee, which is heading up the impeachment inquiry, he has been an all-star.
In today’s hearings, GOP representative Elise Stefanik painstakingly tried to build a more plausible defense for Donald J. Trump than had been offered by most, even Trump, previously.
While questioning Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Stefanik made a point of emphasizing delivering military aid to Ukraine requires ensuring that the country is working to root out corruption.
“You testified that you understood that Congress had passed, under the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative, a legal obligation to certify that corruption is being addressed?” she asked Vindman.
“That is correct,” he replied.
“So for the public listening, we are not just talking about President Trump focusing on anti-corruption in Ukraine,” she said. “But it is so critical, so important that when hard-earned taxpayer dollars are given to foreign nations that, by law, overwhelmingly bipartisan support requires anti-corruption in Ukraine in order to get U.S. taxpayer-funded aid.”
After Stefanik finished her questioning, Eric Swalwell asked Vindman one simple question that directly undermined Stefanik’s argument.
“Isn’t it true that the Department of Defense had certified that the anti-corruption requirements of Ukraine had been met when the hold was put on by the president?” Swalwell asked.
“That is correct,” he replied.
With that, another defense of Trump went up in smoke.
Perhaps that is why new polling shows a majority of Americans now believe Trump should be removed from office. Furthermore, only 25 percent of Americans still hold the notion that Trump did nothing wrong.
Check out the full video below provided by CNN:
The impeachment hearings will continue through the end of this week.
Featured image via screen capture from youtube.com
