Testimonies Held on Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry on Monday
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We ran the numbers: There are 1729 news articles covering this topic. 50% (873) are left leaning, 40% (697) center, 9% (159) right leaning.
On Monday, the House committees conducted closed-door testimonies as part of Trump’s ongoing impeachment inquiry. While left-leaning articles highlight findings from released transcripts of the testimonies, right-leaning articles report that four White House witnesses defied subpoenas by not showing up to their depositions.
A left-leaning article by The New York Times identifies key conclusions from the testimonies on Monday of Marie L. Yovanovitch, former United States ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, former top advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Yovanovitch’s testimony revealed that the president’s private lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, attempted to interfere with State Department decisions, and that Giuliani and a Ukrainian ally were targeting to remove Yovanovitch from her position. Meanwhile, McKinley told investigators that he resigned because he felt the president was using the State Department for political gain and that the Department prevented people from speaking out through internal bullying.
A centrist article by NPR highlights that Yovanovitch was told by Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs that he was aware of Giuliani’s campaign to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. He also warned Yovanovitch to watch her back. Another centrist article by NPR reports that four top White House officials did not show up to the testimony on Monday. Amongst these officials was John Eisenberg, the top lawyer at the National Security Council, who was advised by Trump and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to stay away from the deposition.
A right-leaning article by Fox News focuses on the four White House witnesses who refused to show up for their scheduled depositions, stating that Trump has limited cooperation from officials with the inquiry as part of his opposition to the way the Democrats have conducted the inquiry. The article reports that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that the lack of cooperation reveals that the testimony would have been “incriminating” against President Trump.