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U.S. diplomat Bill Taylor, who called Trump's Ukraine policy 'crazy,' testifies in impeachment inquiry

Oct. 22, 2019, 9:34 AM EDT
By Rebecca Shabad and Alex Moe

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified Tuesday behind closed doors as part of House Democrats' ongoing impeachment investigation.

According to an official working on the investigation, Taylor was issued a subpoena Tuesday morning by the House Intelligence Committee to compel his deposition in light of Trump administration efforts to block or limit his appearance.

Members of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees were expected to question him about text messages between him and two other American diplomats about the Trump administration's policy toward Ukraine.

As part of text messages between Taylor, U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, and the now-former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, Taylor expressed concern about why U.S. military assistance for Ukraine was held up by the White House.

"As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Taylor texted Sondland on Sept. 9, according to text messages provided to Congress by Volker and released by the committees involved in the inquiry.

Democrats have pointed to the text exchange, a critical piece of the impeachment investigation, as part of burgeoning body of proof that there was a quid pro quo involved between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump held up the military aid in exchange for Ukraine agreeing to conduct probes that would be politically advantageous to Trump.

Taylor came out of retirement in June to serve as chargé d'affaires in Kyiv after Marie Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from her post as ambassador to Ukraine in the spring.

Yovanovitch, Sondland and Volker are among the key witnesses who have already testified in the impeachment inquiry. The White House has vowed not to cooperate with what it called an invalid investigation, with the House exercising its subpoena powers in response.

Yovanovitch, a career diplomat, told impeachment investigators in a deposition that lasted more than 9 hours that Trump had personally pressured the State Department to remove her, even though a top department official assured her that she had "done nothing wrong."

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Donald Trump falls for Nancy Pelosi's trap

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 9:07 AM ET, Fri May 24, 2019

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump keeps taking Nancy Pelosi's bait.
The House speaker has spent the last two days provoking Trump, questioning his self-confidence, condescendingly confiding that she prays for him and suggesting a "family intervention."
The President's wild, improvised response Thursday suggests that so far, the speaker is winning the hugely consequential clash between Washington's top two political forces.
It's not often that Trump, the man who dismembered the most talented Republican primary field in years in 2016, seems to be struggling for traction in a face-to-face political fight.

But Pelosi is turning Trump's own arsenal against him, using the politics of mockery and provocation to leave him for once, off balance and forced to respond to a more nimble rival.
And Trump's increasingly livid reactions are helping Pelosi out of a delicate political spot.
This week opened with the Beltway narrative that she was under growing pressure from a Democratic caucus impatient with her reluctance to open an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Now, his attacks and several helpful court wins as Democrats seek Trump's financial records are unifying her coalition and even validating her warning Trump wants impeachment to brand her party as extreme and overreaching.

The Trump versus Pelosi show is turning into an intriguing daily political game. But the consequences are hardly trivial: After the 2020 election it's likely that only one of the rivals will be left standing.

In his second eruption against Pelosi in as many days on Thursday, Trump showed just how much she's got under his skin.
He called the highest-ranking woman in the history of American politics "a mess" and "crazy." In another wild rant, he questioned whether she was smart enough to read a bill -- even though the speaker has proven herself a fully cogent and keen legislator.
"I have been watching her for a long period of time. She's not the same person. She's lost it," Trump claimed to reporters, in an off-script diversion from a White House event to highlight new measures to help US farmers suffering from his China trade war.

Also on Thursday, a manipulated video of Pelosi was shared on social media to spread a false claim that she was slurring her words after a meeting with Trump. Later that night, a Fox Business Network show featured another edited clip of Pelosi and panelists went on to speculate about her health. Trump later tweeted the segment from the show.

Pelosi is operating off a playbook specifically designed for Trump as she hits him where it hurts most, targeting his ego, his courage, his manliness and his sensitivity over his fortune.
She wondered whether his rejection of an infrastructure deal could be chalked up to "a lack of confidence on his part."

Pelosi went after Trump's tough guy image, speculating that his obsession with an extremely long border wall was "like a manhood thing for him, as if manhood could ever be associated with him." And she has mocked Trump's inherited wealth: Federal employees can't "just ask their father for more money," she said, during the government shutdown earlier this year.

The President's counter-attack came a day after he walked out of a meeting with Pelosi and other congressional Democrats, after she accused him or orchestrating a "cover up."

Trump has now suspended all cooperation with House Democrats until they fold their multiple investigations of his campaign, presidency and financial affairs.
Aides told CNN that Trump was especially angry at the speaker's comment that he had a "tantrum" and media perceptions that his temper ran out of control in their meeting on Wednesday.