It's been a crazy work week for me.
Could someone summarize how things went? The good, the bad, the ugly? I don't even know where to begin.
It went very well for Democrats and very bad for Republicans.....and the nation. People will spin what they want, but if you were paying attention it was incredibly obvious Trump is guilty.
Republicans had two witnesses which they tried to pretend were called by Democrats. One of them changed their story before testifying. There was a lot of finger pointing by the Republican operatives (it was all Giuliani, it was all Sondland, etc) but Sondland came with receipts. He showed clear communication between him and lots of high level officials like Pompeo and others. "Everybody was in the loop" was the big line from Sondland as was "was there quid pro quo? Yes."
Republicans stopped arguing about the White House meeting being held back for the investigations and instead focused on a lack of evidence that the aid was held up for investigations. It was dumb. Not as dumb as when they tried to argue that Trump didn't order Sondland to take orders from Giuliani because he said "talk to Giuliani" and not "go talk to Giuliani" - yes, that's how fucking bad the arguments were. Also, very important, Trump was more interested in an announcement of investigations than actually knowing an investigation was started.
Watch the Hill and Holmes testimony. It goes through things much better and they actively refute bullshit talking points and educate the committee at multiple times. If there's only one thing you try to watch from this week, it should be that because Hill summarizes everything from her perspective very well and Holmes does something similar. For instance, when asked why he didn't report hearing Trump on a cell phone call to Sondland and how he learned Trump cared more about the bullshit investigations than Ukraine, he explained there was no need. The conclusion he reached was clearly reached by everybody else. Him hearing it from Trump's mouth was only relevant in the context of a House inquiry and provided no new information to his boss or coworkers.
....there was a lot this week honestly. Sondland and Volker tried claiming they didn't realize investigations into Burisma meant investigations into the Biden's but Hill and Holmes called that nonsense. It was basically them trying to excuse their behavior - it wasn't an actual defense of Trump.