Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted from her position, is scheduled to testify Friday, Nov. 15, in a public hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. The hearing comes the same week that two other diplomats-- George Kent and William Taylor, testified that they believed Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, tried to dig up dirt on former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Kent testified that Giuliani also orchestrated a smear campaign against Yovanovitch in an attempt to force her out. The impeachment probe has entered a new, public phase and centers on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine—particularly a July phone call in which he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate the Bidens. Watch Yovanovitch’s full testimony here.
Tag: Ukraine
📺 November 13, 2019 – PBS NewsHour full episode | PBS NewsHour
Wednesday on the NewsHour, a historic day in Washington with the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, featuring witnesses William Taylor and George Kent. Plus: Reaction to the diplomats' testimonies from House members as well as legal and foreign policy experts, and why Turkish President Erdogan was welcomed at the White House despite U.S.-Turkey tensions over Syria.
The impeachment hearings begin.
I love how so many Republicans are saying there’s no there there or the one from Georgia here who says, “We’ve learned nothing new today.” Of course he hadn’t because he saw it all in the past several weeks. This still doesn’t mean that nothing untoward has happened. The double standard they’re all holding is just crazy. It’s as if throwing Trump overboard means they’d lose everything, when, in fact, the system is specifically built to continue on with the Vice President or some other leader in his place.
👓 Broadcast, cable news networks to preempt regular programming for Trump impeachment coverage | The Hill
ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS on Wednesday will preempt their regularly scheduled programming for live coverage of the House Intelligence Committee's open impeachment hearings of President Trump.
👓 Lt. Colonel Vindman Fired | Daily Kos
What bugs me even more than the firing of Vindman for just doing his job, protecting the national security of the U.S., is the continued gaslighting, saying that the firing was not retaliation, but just a routine personnel move.
This is so patently a lie, that one would think O’Brien would be ashamed to let it out of his mouth.
But you check your integrity at the door to stay in the employ of the Orange Mousseolini.
More likely he was retasked, but still a retaliatory move…
👓 Trump's Allies Have Been Attacking The Person They Say Is The Whistleblower Since 2017 | BuzzFeed News
He's been accused of being “pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia.”
🎧 Spy vs. Spy | On the Media | WNYC Studios
A pattern of assassinations baffled Ukrainian authorities. Then an assassin came forward.
New York Times reporter Michael Schwirtz set out to investigate a series of assassinations in Ukraine with low expectations. Reporting on a homicide as a member of the foreign press is daunting enough to begin with. His assignment was formidable beacuse many of the murders were linked to Russia — a government hostile to the media at best and notorious for murdering foreign journalists at worst.
But when Schwirtz approached alleged Russian assassin Oleg Smorodinov to question him about a murder, the accused provided an unexpected bit of testimony: a confession. And on top of that, Smorodinov disclosed the specific role the Kremlin played in ordering and directing his crime.
Schwirtz published his findings in a New York Times feature last week. Bob spoke with Schwirtz about spies, state-facilitated assassination and the experience of following a true story that reads like a Russian mystery novel.
🎧 The Daily: A Russian Assassin Tells His Story | New York Times
He was given a list of six people, each with the code name of a flower. One day, he got a text message: “The rose has to be picked today.”