Out of the SCIF and into the light

We’ve got people skipping interviews, transcripts getting released, and public hearings on the horizon. This is OnPolitics. 

As the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump stretches into eternity its second month, transcripts from the closed door testimonies started becoming public this week. And maybe none was more important than that of Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland. In an amendment to his previous testimony, Sondland added that he did in fact link military aid for Ukraine to a public statement from the country’s leadership committing to investigations. Some people might call that a quid pro quo.

While transcripts pulled back the curtain on what has been going on in the SCIF, House Democrats were still calling witnesses to testify this week. But Energy Secretary Rick Perry didn’t show up. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton didn’t show up. And all eyes started to turn to … 

Next. Week.

Public hearings are happening, people. Put on a pot of coffee.

The first hearings will begin Wednesday, with Ambassador William Taylor, who you might remember told congressional investigators that a White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. as well as security aid, would be conditioned on investigations into Democrats. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent will also testify Wednesday. In a transcript of his testimony released Thursday, Kent detailed efforts by associates of the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and then-Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, to undermine Marie Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch was ambassador to Ukraine at the time, before being recalled, and she’s scheduled to testify in a public hearing a week from today. 

Got all that? Good job. There’s a lot going on. 

This week in Election 2019

Kentucky looks like it elected a new governor, Democrat Andy Beshear. But Republican Gov. Matt Bevin hasn’t conceded and instead wants a recanvass, citing unspecified voting “irregularities.” Elsewhere in Kentucky, GOP candidates swept statewide races, and the commonwealth elected Daniel Cameron as attorney general. Cameron is the first African American to ever win a race for the office and the first Republican to do so in over 70 years.

Democrats had reason to celebrate, too. Of course plenty were celebrating the Beshear news. But in a concrete victory, Democrats took control of both chambers of the Virginia statehouse. That leaves them in the driver’s seat to pass progressive legislation and also the power to redraw both congressional and state legislative districts.