Diplomat William Taylor Testifies in Impeachment Inquiry
Tom Williams / Congressional Quarterly via ZUMA
We ran the numbers: There are 875 news articles covering this topic. 85% (741) are left leaning, 13% (117) center, 2% (17) right leaning.
On Tuesday, top US diplomat William Taylor testified before Congress that President Trump’s decision to withhold aid from Ukraine was directly tied to Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate Joe Biden. Articles from the left, right, and center, all report that this new evidence strengthens the case for Trump’s impeachment.
A left-leaning New York Times article lists six key takeaways from Taylor’s testimony. The first and most significant is that Taylor described “an explicit quid pro quo,” saying that he was told by US Ambassador to the Ukraine Gordon Sondland that Ukraine’s military aid was conditional on an investigation of Biden. Other important points include that the White House had two tracks of Ukraine foreign policy (official and unofficial) and that the delay in American military aid could cause the deaths of Ukranians.
A left-leaning article from the right-leaning Fox News also reported Taylor’s assertion of a quid pro quo and recounted much of the testimony contained in his opening statement to Congress. However, the article also describes Taylor’s claims as “colorful.” According to the article, “Republicans, however, have countered that military aid to Ukraine was released in September, and that there has been no evidence Ukrainians were aware that the aid was being withheld as part of any implicit quid pro quo.”
A centrist NPR article focuses on Taylor’s descriptions of the White House’s two parallel tracks for Ukranian foreign policy. Taylor testified that he became increasingly concerned about the informal, irregular channels of communication surrounding Trump’s Ukraine policy. The article reports that Democrats who heard Taylor’s full testimony called it “disturbing,” and said that it corroborates the existing narrative of a quid pro quo.
From the left
6 key revelations of Taylor’s opening statement to impeachment investigators
New York Times