Top Diplomats Testify in First Public Hearings of Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
We ran the numbers: There are 5060 news articles covering this topic. 42% (2109) are left leaning, 35% (1751) center, 24% (1200) right leaning.
On Wednesday, top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. and top State Department official George Kent testified in the first public hearing of Trump’s impeachment inquiry.
The Washington Post published a left-leaning article highlighting the major takeaways from Taylor and Kent’s testimonies. In Taylor’s testimony, he claimed that after his October 22 deposition, he found out that a member of his staff heard Trump asking U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about “the investigations” into Joe Biden and his son. Meanwhile, in Kent’s testimony, he dismissed the conspiracy theory prompted by Trump and Giuliani, who claimed that it was Ukraine, and not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election.
A centrist article by NPR features direct quotes from the testimonies, including a statement from lead Republican on the committee Devin Nunes, who claimed the impeachment inquiry is just part of a long-running plan from Democrats to get rid of Trump. “But the main performance, the Russia hoax, has ended, and you've been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel.” The article also reports that Taylor was actually brought in by the Trump administration and that he prefaced his testimony with, “I am not here to take one side or the other or to advocate for any particular outcome of these proceedings. My sole purpose is to provide facts as I know them about the incidents in question, as well as my views about the strategic importance of Ukraine to the United States.”
A right-leaning article by Fox News focuses on the White House’s reaction to the impeachment inquiry. Trump released a video declaring, "They're trying to stop me because I'm fighting for you. And I'll never let that happen." Furthermore, the White House argued that Taylor offered “hearsay of hearsay,” in addition to accusing House Democrats of basing “this entire sham on what amounts to a game of telephone.”
From the left
3 early takeaways from Bill Taylor’s and George Kent’s impeachment testimony
Washington Post