The White House has released a very uneventful transcript as a very eventful hearing begins.
Pretty much exactly as the House Intelligence Committee began its second public impeachment hearing, this one with former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, the White House published a rough transcript of an April call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. There's not much substance in the congratulatory call, making it appear more like an attempt to distract from one of the most consequential impeachment testimonies yet.
Trump has spent the past week claiming he'd release a memo of a second call with Zelensky that actually took place before his apparently "perfect" July call — the one in which he implied there'd be consequences if Zelensky didn't issue an investigation into the Bidens. But when he did that on Friday, it became even more unclear what Trump is trying to prove. The call is a simple congratulations from Trump to Zelensky in which they discuss possible visits to each others' countries — and in which Trump, contrary to what he previously claimed, does not offer to help Zelensky root out corruption.
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Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) unexplainably read off that pizzazzless call as his opening statement before Yovanovitch spoke, somehow not tripping up when Trump mentioned Ukraine's "representation" at his Miss Universe pageants and failing to recognize Yovanovitch was even there.
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